The Top 7 Money Making Hacks For 2025 That Are PROVEN To Work! Do Not Buy A House! Do This Instead!
This episode compiles the most impactful advice on money, personal finance, and investing. It simplifies wealth creation strategies, including automated investing, tax optimization, and understanding leverage, to help listeners achieve financial freedom.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
Simplified Investing for Beginners
The Power of Compound Interest Explained
Leveraging Your Skills for Maximum Income
Understanding and Utilizing Financial Leverage
Strategic Deal Making for Wealth Creation
The Tax Games Played by the Wealthy
Morgan Housel's Simple Investment Strategy
Endurance and Patience in Investing
Why Buying a House is Not Always a Good Investment
Understanding Blockchain Technology and Crypto Investing
Practical Steps to Invest in Cryptocurrency
Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle
The Importance of Sacrificing for Financial Freedom
Avoiding the Trap of Wanting to Look Rich
Shifting from Emotional to Logical Financial Decisions
8 Key Concepts
Target Date Fund
A single investment fund chosen based on your projected retirement year. It automatically diversifies investments and adjusts its asset allocation to become more conservative as you get older, without requiring active management from the investor.
Investment Fund
A basket of many stocks and potentially bonds, offering automatic diversification. Instead of buying individual stocks, an investor buys shares in a fund, which then owns hundreds of underlying companies, simplifying the investment process.
Leverage (Financial/Business)
The difference between what you put in and what you get out. High leverage means a small input yields a large output, while low leverage means a large input yields a small output. Types include labor, media, capital, and technology.
Qualified Small Business (QSB) Stock / 1202
A U.S. tax loophole where if you invest in a business worth less than $50 million and hold the stock for over five years, the first $10 million (or 10 times the basis) of profit from its sale is tax-free.
Dollar Cost Averaging
An investment strategy where you buy the same dollar amount of investments every single month, consistently, regardless of market fluctuations. This method helps average out the purchase price over time and removes emotional decision-making.
Index Fund
A type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) that holds a diversified portfolio of stocks designed to mimic the performance of a specific market index, such as the S&P 500. It allows investors to own a broad slice of the global economy or capitalism.
Blockchain
A public, distributed database that acts as a 'source of truth' for transactions and contracts. It is maintained and verified by all interacting computers on the network, eliminating the need for a central authority like a bank or government.
Financial Danger Zone
A critical financial state defined by not having at least $2,000 saved for emergencies and carrying credit card debt. Being in this zone necessitates drastic changes to spending and earning habits.
14 Questions Answered
The simplest way to start investing is to get a target date fund from a low-cost brokerage firm, which automatically diversifies your investments and adjusts them over time based on your retirement year.
Many investing apps are designed to gamify trading, which can lead to losses. It's generally better to use a desktop platform and check your investments infrequently (every 3-6 months) to avoid emotional trading.
Historical research over 100 years shows that stock market returns, particularly from diversified funds, tend to be around 7-8% annually after inflation. Using a compound interest calculator to project these returns over decades reveals significant wealth accumulation.
The biggest debt people pay is ignorance, meaning the financial cost of not knowing how to make more money or manage their finances effectively.
List your core skills and then identify industries or problems where those skills can provide the most valuable solutions, focusing on sectors with high profit margins and large-scale problems, rather than low-margin businesses.
Codie Sanchez recommends her book 'Main Street Millionaire' as a starting point, which provides essential knowledge for deal-making, followed by resources on contrarianthinking.com for deeper learning and community engagement.
Wealthy individuals often buy stocks, never sell them, and instead borrow against their appreciated value, paying interest from current income, to avoid capital gains taxes. They also leverage state arbitrage by moving to states with no income tax and utilize loopholes like Qualified Small Business (QSB) stock exemptions.
The key is endurance: earning average returns for an above-average period of time. Consistently dollar-cost averaging into index funds over decades, without selling, will put you ahead of most professional investors.
Buying a house should primarily be a lifestyle decision, not a financial investment. Historically, housing prices adjusted for inflation have been flat, and many people get into financial trouble by buying when they should be renting, solely for perceived investment gains.
The blockchain is a public, distributed database that acts as a 'source of truth' for digital transactions and contracts. It works by having all interacting computers on the network verify and maintain the database, removing the need for central authorities like banks or governments.
You can invest in crypto by opening an account with major crypto providers like Coinbase, Kraken, or Gemini, or even through some digital banks or PayPal. Once you own crypto, you can move it to a 'ledger device' (a small USB stick) for self-custody, protected by a seed phrase.
To break the cycle, you must first stop all non-essential spending, sell unused possessions, downgrade living situations, and use the time saved (e.g., from watching TV) to learn, work, and earn more money. This prioritizes making yourself rich before others.
You are in the financial danger zone if you do not have $2,000 saved for an emergency and you have credit card debt. This situation requires drastic financial changes to avoid long-term financial hardship.
People often make emotional financial decisions when they are experiencing a relatively miserable life, loneliness, or a lack of 'dopamine hits.' This can lead to reckless spending, gambling, or falling for get-rich-quick schemes in pursuit of immediate gratification or to 'look rich'.
28 Actionable Insights
1. Prioritize Investment Endurance
Focus on investment endurance—sustaining average returns over a very long period—rather than chasing the highest possible short-term returns. This long-term commitment, often for decades, is the true secret to significant wealth accumulation.
2. Automate Financial Transfers
Set up an automated financial system where your paycheck flows from checking to savings (including sub-accounts for specific goals) and then to investments, with credit card bills automatically paid off monthly. This structured automation prevents manual effort and ensures financial discipline.
3. Invest in Target Date Funds
Start investing simply by choosing a single target date fund based on your planned retirement year, as it automatically diversifies and adjusts its conservatism as you age. This simplifies investing by requiring only regular money contributions.
4. Master Deal Structuring
Cultivate deal-making as a core skill, as it is one of the most valuable for wealth creation. Learning to structure deals, such as taking a percentage of upside or equity, can lead to disproportionately higher returns.
5. Maximize Leverage for Output
Understand and apply different types of leverage (labor, media, capital, technology) to maximize output for minimal input. Continuously seek opportunities to stack and amplify leverage in your endeavors to accelerate progress.
6. Map Skills to High-Value Problems
Use a whiteboard with a smart friend to list your unique skills on one side and potential high-money applications on the other. Focus on sectors, business sizes, and profitability where your skills can solve the biggest, most valuable problems.
7. Optimize Legal Tax Strategies
Actively seek and implement legal tax strategies to minimize your tax burden, viewing it as an obligation for wealth building. This includes understanding and leveraging tax codes and loopholes.
8. Transition from Earner to Owner
Shift your financial focus from being solely a high earner to becoming a super owner by investing your income into assets. Owners benefit from lower tax rates and greater wealth accumulation over time.
9. Borrow Against Assets, Don’t Sell
Instead of selling appreciated assets like stocks and incurring capital gains tax, borrow money against them. This allows your investments to continue growing while providing liquidity.
10. Conquer Mindset Before Strategy
Recognize that a strong, disciplined mindset is foundational to wealth creation, even more so than specific investment strategies. Until you conquer emotional spending and the desire for instant gratification, financial strategies will be ineffective.
11. Stop Spending to Escape Debt
If you’re in the financial danger zone (no emergency savings, credit card debt), immediately stop all non-essential spending like restaurants and vacations. This is the first critical step to “seal the holes” and prevent further financial sinking.
12. Reallocate Wasted Time
Eliminate time-wasting activities like excessive TV watching (e.g., Netflix) to reclaim hours each day. Reinvest this time into learning, working, or finding ways to earn extra income to improve your financial situation.
13. Sell Unused Possessions
Actively sell unused or unaffordable possessions, such as TVs or cars, and consider downgrading your living situation. This generates immediate cash and reduces ongoing expenses, helping you escape debt faster.
14. Prioritize Wealth Over Gratification
Make the difficult choice to prioritize building wealth now, even if it means sacrificing immediate gratification like social outings or luxury items. This short-term hardship can lead to long-term financial freedom and a more enjoyable life later.
15. Avoid “Looking Rich” Debt
Resist the urge to go into debt to “look rich” through vacations, cars, or other material possessions. This fear of appearing broke is a primary driver of sustained poverty, as it diverts resources from actual wealth building.
16. Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Be wary of get-rich-quick schemes, as they prey on emotional desires for instant wealth. A disciplined mindset is crucial to resist these temptations and stick to proven, long-term wealth-building strategies.
17. View Investments as Wealth
Understand that investment accounts are for long-term wealth accumulation, not for drawing money from like a checking account. Mentally separate these funds to prevent premature withdrawals.
18. Invest 5-10% of Income
Aim to automatically invest 5-10% of your take-home pay each month. Even if you think you can’t afford it, a review of your spending will likely reveal areas where this amount can be found.
19. Increase Investments with Raises
As your income increases, adjust your automatic investment contributions upwards. This simple tweak can significantly accelerate wealth accumulation without requiring much additional effort.
20. Prioritize Safe, Stable Returns
Resist the temptation to “juice” returns by investing in high-risk ventures for higher percentages. Instead, aim for safe, stable, and conservative returns (e.g., 7%) to ensure long-term wealth preservation and growth.
21. Dollar-Cost Average Index Funds
Consistently invest a fixed dollar amount into index funds every month, regardless of market conditions. This dollar-cost averaging strategy, often done automatically through 401ks, builds wealth steadily over time.
22. Hold Investments Indefinitely
For long-term wealth growth and tax efficiency, aim to hold your investments indefinitely rather than selling them. You are only taxed on capital gains when you sell, allowing assets to compound tax-deferred.
23. Check Investments Infrequently
Limit checking your investment accounts to every three to six months, logging in on a desktop rather than a mobile app. Avoid constantly tweaking or fiddling with your investments, as this often leads to poor outcomes.
24. Avoid Gamified Trading Apps
Steer clear of investment apps that gamify the experience and encourage frequent trading, as traders typically lose money. Instead, treat investing as a boring, automatic, long-term process.
25. Choose Low-Cost Brokerage
Select a low-cost brokerage firm like Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity to minimize fees and maximize your investment returns. Avoid apps that gamify investing, as they encourage frequent, often losing, trading.
26. Buy House for Lifestyle, Not Profit
Purchase a house primarily for lifestyle reasons, such as stability for your family, rather than as a financial investment. Historically, housing prices adjusted for inflation have been flat, making it a poor primary wealth-building strategy.
27. Invest in Fractionalized Crypto
Consider investing in fractionalized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum as a way to participate in a global, rapidly growing technology. This allows anyone to invest a small percentage of their wealth, bypassing traditional financial gatekeepers.
28. Self-Custody Crypto with Ledger
Once comfortable with crypto, move your assets to a self-custody hardware wallet (like a Ledger device) to secure your funds. This ensures that your crypto is solely yours, protected by a seed phrase stored offline, and immune to bank freezes or government seizure.
9 Key Quotes
The most expensive thing that all of us are paying for is the information that we don't know.
Alex Hormozi
Investors treat investing like watching paint dry. That's how sexy it is.
Ramit Sethi
If you're a prisoner of war, you have an obligation to escape. If you're trying to build wealth, you have an obligation to pay as little tax as possible.
Scott Galloway
You don't want to be a super earner. You want to earn enough money to invest so you can become a super owner.
Scott Galloway
Your ability to do well over the next one year or five years is going to have no role whatsoever on your lifetime ability to generate wealth. All that's going to matter is not what are the best returns you can earn. All that matters is what are the returns that you can sustain for the longest period of time. All that matters is your endurance.
Morgan Housel
99% of Warren Buffett's net worth was accumulated after his 60th birthday.
Morgan Housel
If you have endurance in your investing and you can keep it going for years or decades, you don't need to be a genius stock picker.
Morgan Housel
This is the only globally homogenous asset on earth. It's the same in Nigeria as it is in Brazil, as it is in London, as it is in Silicon Valley, as it is in India, as it is in Papua New Guinea. And everybody is on an equal footing.
Raoul Pal
Wanting to look rich will make you go broke.
Jaspreet Singh
4 Protocols
Ramit Sethi's Investment Setup for Beginners
Ramit Sethi- Get a target date fund based on your projected retirement year (e.g., Vanguard 2065, Fidelity 2065, Schwab 2065).
- Open an account with a low-cost brokerage firm (e.g., Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity).
- Set up an automatic transfer to put money into the fund every single month (e.g., 5-10% of your take-home pay).
- Check your investment account only every three to six months, logging in on a desktop (not an app), and avoid tweaking anything, allowing the investments to 'cook' for decades.
Ramit Sethi's Automated Account Structure
Ramit Sethi- Your paycheck goes into your checking account.
- Money is automatically transferred from your checking account to a savings account (or sub-savings accounts for specific goals like vacation, car, down payment).
- Money is automatically transferred to your investment account.
- Your credit card bill is automatically paid off every single month.
Codie Sanchez's 'Unfair Bet' Strategy for Maximizing Income
Codie Sanchez- Get a whiteboard, a pen, and a smart friend.
- On one side of the whiteboard, list all your core skills (e.g., social media, networking, charisma, data-driven strategy).
- On the other side, list ways to apply these skills to get the most money humanly possible, considering the size of the problem you'd be solving and the value of the solution.
- Focus on sectors, business sizes, and profitability of businesses that can pay the most (e.g., biotech, finance, companies with high margins and large revenue).
- Consider structuring deals to include a percentage of the upside you drive above and beyond a set goal, or equity/options in the company, rather than just a fixed salary.
Jaspreet Singh's Strategy to Exit the Financial Danger Zone
Jaspreet Singh- Stop all non-essential spending immediately (no restaurants, vacations, Netflix, etc.).
- Reallocate the time saved (e.g., from watching 2+ hours of TV daily) to learning, working, and making extra money.
- Sell unused possessions (e.g., TV, car) or downgrade living situations (e.g., sell an unaffordable house, move to a smaller place).
- Actively work to earn more money.