[@alux] 15 Wealth Building Habits That Quietly Make People Rich

Link: https://youtu.be/VF07FCbNpD8

Duration: 32 min

Short Summary

This Alux episode, featuring wealth manager Todd Rusman, presents 15 core financial habits that distinguish self-made millionaires from average earners, emphasizing that 88% of wealthy individuals read 20-30 books yearly and 65% had three or more income streams before their first million. The episode contrasts wealth-building strategies—where the rich invest 80-90% of income and use debt to acquire appreciating assets—against common pitfalls like lifestyle inflation, with supporting data showing 85% of actively managed funds underperform the S&P 500 over 15 years and Warren Buffett accumulated over 99% of his $154 billion fortune after age 60.

Key Quotes

1. "Wealth is not an event. It's a habit repeated so many times, it becomes invisible." (00:00:12)
2. "The only thing that moves you forward is the work that moves you forward. Everything else is theater." (00:00:55)
3. "Amateurs focus on income. Professionals focus on the gap. The gap between what comes in and what goes out. Invested consistently is the actual engine of wealth, not the salary number, not the investment return. No, the gap." (00:00:37)
4. "You are not paid for effort. You are paid for value. And value comes from skills." (00:00:50)
5. "Debt is modern-day slavery. Somebody else is entitled to the fruits of your labor until every cent is repaid." (00:00:12)

Detailed Summary

Core Wealth-Building Principles

• Asset-First Mindset: Wealthy individuals earn income to acquire assets (property, stocks, businesses, intellectual property, employees), then spend only what those assets produce—never touching the principal, which keeps the "wealth machine" running indefinitely. A portfolio generating $40,000 annually in dividends allows spending without depleting the core wealth.
• Wealthy Use Debt Strategically: The rich borrow to acquire income-generating assets, while the poor use debt to consume depreciating items like cars and holidays. A striking example: 60% of Coachella attendees used Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) to afford $599 tickets they couldn't afford outright.
• Skill Scarcity Drives Earnings: Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the top 10% of earners make roughly 5.5 times more than the bottom 10%, primarily due to skill scarcity. The same copywriting skill can command $50 for a sales page versus $25,000 depending on client revenue level and conversion needs.

Reading and Learning Habits

• 88% of self-made millionaires read 20-30 books per year, while the average CEO reads 50+ books annually.
• High-net-worth individuals spend $50,000-$100,000 per year on personal development, with reported returns on coaching of 5.7 to 7.8 times the initial cost.
• Top executive coaches charge $300 to $5,000+ per session, with high-net-worth individuals commonly maintaining 2-3 coaches each costing $20,000+ per year.

Investment Behavior and Market Truths

• Over any 15-year period, 85% of actively managed investment funds underperform a simple S&P 500 index fund.
• Hartford runs analysis found that dividends reinvested (rather than withdrawn) accounted for 85% of total cumulative return of the S&P 500 since 1960.
• Compound interest doesn't meaningfully kick in until year 7-8, but most people exit their positions at year 2.
• $500/month investment comparison: At 10% annual return over 30 years = $1.13 million; same amount in a savings account at 0.5% = only $27,000.
• Investment rates by wealth level: Rich invest 80-90% of yearly income; upper middle class invests 60%+; most people invest 0-10%.

Warren Buffett and Compound Growth Case Study

• Warren Buffett's net worth at age 60 was roughly $3.8 billion; at age 95 it exceeded $154 billion—over 99% of his wealth was built after age 60.
• Tom Corley's research on 233 millionaires found that wealthy people track their net worth position obsessively.
• The episode emphasizes that wealth is built by being "directionally correct," not by having all answers before making decisions—indecision is positioned as the most expensive decision.

Income Streams and Diversification

• 65% of self-made millionaires had at least three income streams before reaching their first million.
• The wealthy play both offense (increasing income through skills, businesses, investments) and defense (tax strategy, controlled lifestyle) simultaneously, focusing on the gap between income and expenses.
• Tax strategy difference: Average person pays taxes on what they earn, while wealthy employ accountants to pay taxes on what remains after investments, reinvestments, and expenses—allowing compounding over decades.

Health and Longevity Connection

• A 13-year study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association tracking 1.4 million Americans found that people in the top 1% of income lived 14.6 years longer than those in the bottom 1%.
• 76% of multi-millionaires exercise at least 4 days a week versus only 23% of the low-income group.
• Recommendation: Allocate $30/month to personal development; investing in health reportedly adds 14 years to lifespan.

The 15 Financial Habits Recap (from most to least important)

1. Decide and stay decided
2. Invest in yourself (personal development)
3. Track net worth monthly
4. Think in decades
5. Reinvest before rewarding yourself
6. Invest consistently
7. Build second income stream before you need it
8. Live below your income
9. Use debt as a tool for assets
10. Build skills the market pays a premium for
11. Don't spend the income, spend the interest
12. Play offense and defense simultaneously
13. Surround yourself with people ahead of you
14. Be curious with purpose
15. Progress first, busy work second

Key Philosophy

• Jim Rohn's principle: "You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with" (confirmed by Harvard researchers).
• Over 90% of wealth comes as a byproduct of how you move through life, not from how much you grind; wealthiest people build wealth from relationships created 20 years ago.
• The episode features Todd Rusman, described as an elite wealth manager for some of America's wealthiest families who mentors Alux app members.

Full Transcript

Show transcript

Most people will never know why they
didn't get rich. They'll blame the
economy, the government, luck, or other
rich people for keeping them down. But
around you, there are people quietly
building wealth because they know and do
something that you don't. Wealth is not
an event. It's a habit repeated so many
times, it becomes invisible. By the end
of this video, you'll know exactly what
those habits are, so you no longer
default to the excuses. Here are 15
wealth-b buildinging habits that quietly
make people rich. Welcome to Alux, the
place where future billionaires come to
get inspired. Number 15, they make
progress first, busy work second, other
people last. There is a brutal hierarchy
that wealthy people follow every single
day. Most people invert it without even
realizing. You wake up, you wing it, and
at the end of the day, you wonder why
you made no actual progress. The only
thing that moves you forward is the work
that moves you forward. Everything else
is theater. Out of everything you know
you have to do, some things are easy or
urgent work and some things qualify as
important work. Your life gets better
when you do the important work first.
Every wealthy person knows this and has
used it to build wealth. The thing that
if completed makes the day worth it
before anyone else gets a piece of them.
They win the day as quickly as they can.
So anything else they do counts as a
bonus. With the valuable part done, you
can then move on to bills, taxes,
meetings, chores, whatever. Then
everyone else, time with your partner,
helping your friend, taking your mom to
the store. Because here's the truth
nobody tells you. If you don't
aggressively claim that first slot in
your own progress, busy work will sneak
in and it'll steal it. And if there's no
busy work, somebody else will fill your
calendar with theirs. You can't escape
work, so might as well do the kind where
you never have to worry about money
again. And that same discipline applies
to where your attention goes when you're
not working. Number 14, they are curious
with purpose. Most people consume to
escape. Wealthy people consume to grow.
That single difference applied across a
decade becomes one of the largest gaps
in this entire video. Watch how a
successful person enters a conversation.
They ask questions. They listen. They
walk away richer. The wealthy don't
volunteer information they don't have
to. They don't perform their knowledge
in rooms where it doesn't help anyone.
They ask, "How does that work?" More
times in a single dinner than the
average person does in a month. 88% of
self-made millionaires still read 20 to
30 books per year. The average CEO reads
50 plus books per year. How many books
did you read in the last 12 months?
Maybe that's why there's a gap between
you and them. When they read, it's books
that change how they think. Strategy,
business, or biographies of people
who've built things. When they listen,
it's to people who know things they
don't. When they're online, they
monetize it more than they consume it.
Because you're supposed to get rich off
the internet, not others getting rich
off of you. Curiosity without direction
is entertainment. Curiosity with purpose
is compounding intelligence which allows
them to make better decisions than
everyone else. The compound effect over
10 years is almost impossible to
overstate. And that same compounding
effect shows up in the people you allow
into your inner circle. Number 13, they
surround themselves with people who are
ahead of them. You'll become the average
of the five people you spend the most
time with. Jim Ran said it decades ago
and Harvard researchers confirmed it.
The people around you are either raising
your ceiling or confirming your current
floor. Not everyone you start with has
the same appetite for wealth as you do.
They don't have the same discipline and
they're not comfortable making the same
sacrifices you will. Do not sacrifice
your future just to shelter others from
the realization that they could have
been more. Most people stay in circles
where ambition doesn't make anyone
uncomfortable. When the financial
conversation stays safely vague, where
being the most successful person in the
room feels like a win. You can stay
friends with them, but if they're not
going where you're going, you have to
leave them behind. The wealthy seek out
rooms where they're the least
experienced person there. Not to
perform, to absorb standards they
wouldn't set for themselves just yet.
When you see how others move, your brain
expands, but you have to see it
yourself. When you see someone earn $100
million per year, making a few million
is no longer something ridiculous. Find
the room where you are the least
impressive person in there. Walk in,
shut up, and listen. Your network is not
just your net worth. It's the ceiling
you've silently agreed to accept. What
the network teaches you eventually is
that wealth isn't built one way. It's
built two ways at the same time. Number
12, they play offense and defense
simultaneously and they take chips off
the table. Most people think about
wealth as one-dimensional. Earn more,
spend less. Pick one. The wealthy do
both always. Amateurs focus on income.
Professionals focus on the gap. The gap
between what comes in and what goes out.
Invested consistently is the actual
engine of wealth, not the salary number,
not the investment return. No, the gap.
On the income side, skills, businesses,
investments, multiple streams, all
pushing earnings up. Every business
problem you have can be solved by
bringing in more money. On the outgoing
side, tax strategy, controlled
lifestyle, eliminated waste, all keeping
costs down. The tax piece alone
separates more wealth than almost
anything else. The average person pays
taxes on what they earn. The wealthy
employ accountants to pay taxes on
what's left after investments,
reinvestments, and expenses. Every
dollar not lost to tax is a dollar
compounding for the next 30 years. They
treat wealth like a video game. They
take chips off the table. Every time
they hit a major revenue milestone, they
remove a portion of the winnings, park
it in something safe, and never touch it
again. Made an extra 20 grand that sets
up your kid with a trust fund 18 years
down the line. Business brought in 1
million in profit. All of it goes
straight into something boring and
untouchable, like a property that sends
you money every month. The point is to
make sure you're never poorer than you
were at your highest moment. Most people
lose their wealth not because they
couldn't earn it, but because they kept
all of their chips on the table forever.
One bad bet, one downturn, one bad
decision and they're back to zero. Don't
be one of them. DCA in, DCA out. That's
defense at the highest level. Now, the
next habit is what makes that defense
sustainable. Number 11. They don't spend
income, they spend the interest.
Now, this is the single most important
principle on this entire list and almost
nobody operates by it. Your job is to
earn money so you can buy assets. The
assets earn money so you can spend it.
That's how you get and stay rich
forever. But most people get this
completely backwards. They earn income,
they spend the income, they have nothing
left to deploy. The income arrives, gets
consumed, disappears, and the cycle
repeats next month for the rest of their
working life. The wealthy treat their
income as fuel. For the majority of
people, it'll be your primary wealth-b
buildinging vehicle. So, use it to build
wealth, not to artificially inflate a
lifestyle. Your income is not supposed
to be fun money. Income exists to be
converted into things that produce more
income. Property, stocks, businesses,
intellectual property, employees,
anything that generates cash flow
without requiring more of their time.
then and only then do they spend. But
they don't spend the income. They spend
what the assets produce. If your
portfolio generates $40,000 a year in
dividends, you can spend 40 grand a year
and never touch the principal. The
machine keeps running forever. If you
spend the income from your job, you stop
the machine before it ever starts.
People earning $60,000 a year drop 10K
on an international holiday and then
complain about how everything is
expensive. The sacrifice is not taking
the trips, investing everything, and
still working overtime. You eat
right now so you can eat whatever you
want later on. This is why the wealthy
seem to have so much money. The job, the
business, the active income, all of it
goes back into the machine. Earn to
acquire. spend what the acquisition
produces. It's a different kind of
relationship with money entirely. Some
of you are in an abusive relationship
where even if you wanted to, you
wouldn't be able to invest anything
because you failed at being able to move
down expenses and increase your income.
If you stick with it, eventually your
income gets high enough for you to
convert into assets, which is what
number 10 is all about. They build
skills the market pays a premium for.
Then they find people willing to pay.
Now here's the brutal truth about
income. You are not paid for effort. You
are paid for value. And value comes from
skills. Two people, same city, same
hours. One earns five times more. Not
because they're luckier, because they
built something the market doesn't have
enough of. A specific rare high demand
capability. sales, software development,
financial analysis, high stakes
negotiation, the ability to find and
keep great people, marketing that
actually converts. Bureau of Labor
Statistics data, consistent across
decades, says the top 10% of earners
make roughly 5.5 times more than the
bottom 10%. The primary differentiator
is skill scarcity. But here's what
almost nobody tells you. There are
levels to every skill and there are
levels to who you sell that skill to. A
copywriter charging 50 bucks for a sales
page is doing the same work as a
copywriter charging 25,000.
The skill might be similar. The audience
is not. The promise and expertise is
not. One is selling to firsttime
entrepreneurs. The other is selling to
people who already have a million-doll
product and need 1% better conversion.
The first one doesn't know how to move
conversions by 1% yet. The wealthy
figure out two things in parallel. They
get genuinely better at the craft and
they move up market into rooms where the
same craft commands 10 times the price.
Most people try to sell to other broke
people because they speak the same
language. You don't need a different
skill. You need a better version of
yours sold to somebody else who can pay
for it. Your most recessionp proof asset
is the one between your ears. Sold to
the right audience. If you want a
structured way to actually build these
habits, the Alux app has coaching tracks
built specifically around them. 15
minutes a day, daily sessions. Go to
alux.com/app
right now and try it free for 7 days.
When you're ready, scan that QR code on
screen for 25% off your yearly
membership. Her members say the app paid
for itself in the first week, so I don't
know, maybe you should put it to the
test.
>> Number nine, they use debt as a tool,
not a crutch. Now, there are two
completely different relationships with
debt. One builds wealth, one quietly
destroys it. Poor people borrow to
consume. Rich people borrow to acquire.
When a wealthy person takes on debt,
it's almost always to purchase something
that generates more than it costs. A
property, a business, an investment that
produces yield. You use other people's
money to make yourself richer. That's
how significant wealth gets built faster
than savings alone could ever allow for.
When most people take on debt, it's for
a car that loses 20% the day they drive
it off the lot. A holiday they wanted to
post about a wardrobe or an iPhone
upgrade. Things that depreciate
immediately and generate nothing. Last
year, 60% of Coachella attendees used
buy now pay later services to attend the
festival. CLA, Afterpay, a firm
splitting up a $599 ticket into four
payments because they couldn't afford it
outright, but wanted the photos. Let
that sink in. These are people taking
out micro loans to attend a music
festival. Over 60% of buy now pay later
borrowers are running multiple active
loans simultaneously. Clara for the
ticket, a firm for the outfit, Afterpay
for the matcha latte. This is not a
financial decision. This is a costume.
In 2023, the average American credit
card rate hit 22.8%,
a historic high. The average card holder
carried $6,51
in debt. That's $1,482
per year in interest on stuff already
consumed. Debt is modern-day slavery.
Somebody else is entitled to the fruits
of your labor until every cent is
repaid. Do not confuse what you think
it's worth with how much money it'll
make you. If it doesn't make you money
or pay for the debt plus interest by
itself, don't do it. You might think
Bchella is worth it, but Justin's using
your interest to buy more multif family
properties with his billionaire wife.
Number eight, they live below what they
could justify. Now, this one breaks
people's brains because from the
outside, it looks like deprivation, but
it's the most sophisticated financial
move on this list. The wealthy are
masters at not spending money they're
allowed to spend. Three independent
studies found that most American
multi-millionaires live in ordinary
homes, drive unremarkable cars, and
actively avoid the status spending their
peers assume is mandatory at their
income level. Not because they can't
afford it. No, because they understand
what money does if it compounds instead.
52% of Americans say they would spend
more if they earned more. According to a
2024 Cleaver real estate survey, not
invest more, they would spend more. That
is lifestyle inflation, the silent
killer of financial progress that feels
exactly like a reward while it's
happening. The person earning $200,000
and spending $190,000
is in a way worse position 10 years from
now than the person earning 100,000 and
spending 65,000.
The gap is everything. Okay? Looking
wealthy and being wealthy are almost
never the same thing. Choose which one
you actually want. That gap multiplied
across several sources of income is what
really creates financial freedom.
Number seven, they build the second
income stream before they need it. Most
people plan to diversify their income
one day when things settle down, when
there's more time, when the main job
isn't so demanding, but that day is
never coming. The wealthy build the
second stream while the first one still
works. Everyone else waits until the
first one stops. A researcher found that
65% of self-made millionaires had at
least three income streams before
reaching their first million. Not after,
before. Rental income, dividends, a side
business, royalties, consulting fees, an
online product. The form doesn't really
matter at the start. The existence does.
And here's the logic most people miss.
The second stream doesn't need to be
significant. It just needs to exist
because once you've built one income
source outside of the main paycheck, you
understand the mechanism. The third
comes faster. The fourth even faster
still. That little additional income
keeps the light on. The other one pays
for the family holiday in case the
primary one breaks. You're in a much
better position to take another one
seriously and develop it. That's how you
don't go broke. The people around you
who seem financially untouchable are not
lucky. They built redundancy into their
financial life long before anyone forced
them to. One income stream is not a
financial plan. It is a single point of
failure waiting to be tested. Once you
have those streams, the question becomes
how to deploy them, which is where most
people make the most expensive mistake
of their financial lives. Number six,
they invest consistently, not perfectly.
The average person waits for the right
time to invest. The wealthy just invest,
then they wait. Over any 15-year period,
85% of actively managed investment funds
run by professionals with Bloomberg
terminals, PhDs, and full research teams
underperform a simple S&P 500 index
fund. as you're handpicking stocks while
watching this. The expert majority
cannot beat the average. This is not a
flaw in the system. This is the system.
$500 a month at 10% annual return over
30 years becomes $1.13 million. The same
$500 sitting in a savings account at
0.5% becomes $27,000.
That cap is not intelligence, not
timing, not skill. It is one decision
made consistently for 30 years without
interruption. We don't spend money we
don't see. And we have this unique
ability to stretch our lifestyle to what
is available to us. So if you automate
the investment first, your lifestyle
will only stretch as far as your
remaining budget allows. Did you even
know there's an option to set
reoccurring payments to your investment
account every time your paycheck hits?
It's like you're paying your future
first and then yourself. You want to
have your mind blown? Rich people invest
between 80 to 90% of their yearly
income. Middle class families that will
enter the upper middle class or of the
rich class invest 60% or more of their
income. Everybody else does zero or less
than 10%. If you don't participate in
the market, you don't get the rewards.
Every 6 years, on average, the market
doubles whatever money you invested. You
start in your early 20s and by the time
you're ready to start a family, you can
afford to buy a place in cash or at
least put down a solid down payment. But
putting the money in is only half the
discipline. What you do when the returns
start arriving is the other half. And
that's number five. They reinvest before
they reward themselves. Because it's no
secret that people like to treat
themselves, right, immediately and
automatically. A raise becomes a better
apartment. A bonus becomes a holiday. A
good month becomes a renovation or
whatever Tik Tok got you romanticizing
this month. It feels earned. It feels
right. But as the great poet Biggie put
it, mo money, no problems. Especially if
you spent it. Who knew that if you spent
your money, you end up with things and
no money? Every time you spend money,
you make Uncle Warren cry a little bit
because you stopped compounding
unnecessarily. And here's what that
means in money terms. The wealthy run
one rule before all others. Reinvest
first, reward later, every time.
Hartford runs analyzed S&P 500 returns
since 1960. Dividends when reinvested
rather than withdrawn accounted for 85%
of the total cumulative return of the
index over the entire period. 85%.
Not from better picks, not from taking
money out when the temptation to spend
it was highest. No, the moment you pull
money out of the compounding machine is
the moment the machine stops growing.
Leave it for longer than feels
comfortable. That discomfort has a name.
It's called compounding and it is
working. The reason it works is the same
reason most people never see it work.
the timeline.
Number four, they think in decades, not
months. Ask yourself, what decision
would my 70-year-old self be grateful
that I made today? The wealthy plan in
decades because they know the rules of
the games are stacked for you when you
do. Patience with compounding is a
superpower regular people don't have,
and they pay a price for it. Wealth
barely moves for the first 5 years. Then
it starts to move slowly in the next 10,
then it runs. Time will pass either way.
You might as well use it to make
yourself filthy rich. Warren Buffett's
net worth at 60 was roughly $3.8
billion. At 95, it was over 154 billion.
Over 99% of his wealth was built after
he turned 60. not from better
investments in his 60s, no, from
compounding that started in his teens,
left completely alone. When you choose
the present, you don't realize just how
big of a chunk of the future you just
sacrificed. As a rule of thumb, compound
interest doesn't really kick in until
year seven or eight. Most people exit
their positions at year two. Cultivate
the habit of patience and longer time
horizons, and you're on the path to
wealth. You just have to wait for it to
arrive. The greatest competitive
advantage available to anyone is simply
being willing to wait longer than
everyone else. But you can only wait if
you know the score. Which brings us to a
habit almost nobody runs. Number three,
they know their net worth to the dollar
every single month. You ask most people
what they're worth and they'll tell you
what they earn. But that's not the same
thing. Not even close. Your salary is
what someone pays you. Your net worth is
what you've actually kept. Net worth is
everything you own minus everything you
owe. Assets minus liabilities. That
number updated every single month allows
you to keep score. You can earn well,
feel fine, and have a negative net worth
because of what you owe. It happens
constantly. doctors, lawyers, high
earners who look successful and are
quietly drowning in structured debt. Tom
Corley's research on 233 millionaires
say wealthy people track their position
obsessively. They know the number and
they watch it move. Some of you have
never calculated your net worth, so you
don't even know how you compare to other
people. Go to alux.com/nw
and do it right now. It's free. We don't
ask you for your email or anything like
that and it'll compare your net worth
with your peers from the same country
and age group. Once you know your net
worth, you can do your best to improve
it. You can't grow what you don't
measure. And most people are running a
race they refuse to check the score on.
That number reflects the value you've
created in the world. And the most
valuable asset in that calculation isn't
even on the spreadsheet. Which leads us
to number two. They invest relentlessly
in themselves. An investment in yourself
pays the best dividends. You are your
most valuable asset. Everything else is
just what the asset produces. The
wealthy invest in themselves the way
that most people invest in stocks
constantly across multiple categories
without questioning whether it's worth
it. They have a dedicated budget for all
of it. their body, their mind, their
relationships, their skills, their
environment. They pay for information
and access consistently. Now, here's the
breakdown on key investment behaviors of
the wealthy. The 3710% rule. Many
successful individuals invest 3% of
their income for maintenance, books,
courses, stuff like that. 7% for
stepping up coaches, workshops, and the
like. 10% when taking big leaps such as
changing careers. The average high- netw
worth individual spends between 50,000
to $100,000 per year on personal
development. They do it because they get
a massive return. When questioned, the
average high- netw worth individual say
the return on coaching is 5.7 to 7.8
times the initial cost. So, to put
things into perspective, top executive
coaches often charge between 300 to
$5,000 plus per session. It's not
uncommon to have two to three coaches
helping you to excel at different things
in your life, each one costing 20 grand
or more per year. Yet, most people think
a $20 book or a subscription to the Alux
app is expensive. Do you see the
disconnect here? Even if you're just
starting out, you should allocate 30
bucks a month to personal development
and watch your life compound. 76% of
multi-millionaires exercise at least 4
days a week versus 23% of the lowincome
group. They spend on their teeth, their
sleep, their relationships, their
environment. Investing in your health
adds 14 years to your lifespan.
According to a 13-year study published
in the Journal of the American Medical
Association that tracked over 1.4
million Americans across income levels,
people in the top 1% of income lived an
average of 14.6 years longer than those
in the bottom 1%. 14.6 extra years of
compounding, of living, of seeing the
world. Do the math on what that does to
a portfolio and to an individual. These
are not separate habits. They're one
habit applied to different domains
because that extra edge leads to
disproportional outcomes. You are the
operating system. So upgrade that
operating system relentlessly.
All of it compounds. None of it is
optional. Remember, your life is cheap
because you think investing in yourself
is expensive. And every habit on this
list, including this one, becomes
available to you the moment you make the
most important decision of your
financial life.
Number one, they decided and they never
undecided.
Every single habit on this list is
available to everyone watching this
video. You don't need permission,
capital, or a better childhood. You just
need to pick something and stick with
it. Turns out most plans are good plans
if you don't freaking change it to
something else halfway through. What if
we told you there's a way for you to
feel confident in your decisions and
stop second-guessing yourself? Would
that be life-changing? Let's see if we
can install this function right now.
Okay. Every good decision you make
creates evidence. It's called proof of
ability. And the more you have it, the
more easy decisions get and the more
confident you become. Confidence isn't a
feeling you wait for. No, it is a
byproduct of a track record that you
built. The thing is, most decisions are
reversible anyway if they don't work out
the way you want them to. But you have
to make the decision. And more
importantly, see how it plays out fully
before you back away. You don't really
have much to lose anyway. This old life
will be right here waiting for you to
fall back on if things don't work out.
But what if they do? The biggest mistake
is thinking you need to have all the
answers before you make a decision when
in reality, wealth is built by being
directionally correct. You might not get
it right immediately, but every decision
gets you closer and closer. And before
you know it, your reality catches up
with your goals and your dreams. That's
why indecision is the most expensive
decision you can make. Staying where you
are is costing you what you could be. So
be honest with yourself. How many of
these habits do you actually deploy in
your life? Here's a recap so you can
check. 15. Make progress first, busy
work second, other people last. 14. Be
curious with purpose. 13. Surround
yourself with people ahead of you. 12.
Play offense and defense and take the
chips off the table at every milestone.
11. Don't spend the income, spend the
interest.
10, build skills the market pays a
premium for, then raise the price. Nine,
use debt as a tool, not a crutch. Eight,
live below the income you could justify.
Seven, build the second income stream
before you need it. Six, invest
consistently, not perfectly.
Five, reinvest before you reward
yourself. Four, think in decades, not
months. Three, track your net worth
every single month. Two, invest
relentlessly in yourself. And one,
decide and stay decided. And of course,
we saved a bonus for those of you who
watch these videos until the very, very
end. And today's bonus, the highest
lifelong returns come from a very
different source. Now, Todd Rusman is an
elite wealth manager for some of the
wealthiest families in America. He's
also one of our mentors and agreed to
coach the members of the Alux app on
what exactly he does behind private
doors. One of the things he sees over
and over again is the wealthiest people
don't get rich from investments, but
from relationships they built 20 years
ago. Chance encounters lead to
relationships that lead to building a
network that allows you to invest
together, to open doors you didn't know
were there in the first place. It's not
obvious in the moment, but if over 90%
of your wealth will come as a byproduct
of how you move through life, not from
how much you grind, well, it might be
time to focus on building relationships
outside of your current circle. Todd
will live coach our app members and give
them the playbook he uses for his
clients. You're not going to get
opportunities like this very often,
okay? A yearly subscription to the Alux
app gets you access to experts like
Todd, a private network of high- netw
worth individuals and proprietary
coaching sessions. If you tried the app
a few years back, you might want to give
it another go, okay? It's had a lot of
improvement. It costs $1.99 a year, but
if you're coming back to the app, scan
this QR code and we'll match our
original price of $99 a year from when
we launched exclusively for this month.
And if you're one of the true aluxers,
write the word insider in the comments
and we will see you inside the app.