Biggest Money Myths (Debunked)

Not everything you've heard about money is true. Actually, most of the mainstream narrative around money has been disproven by modern developed society time and time again. Watch this video until the end, and you'll be smarter than all your friends who regurgitate the same old outdated ideas someone said to them a long time ago, and they made it their entire personality. Here are 15 money myths debunked. Welcome to Alux.

Number one: rich people are all crooks and evil. Overwhelmingly false! This is one of those remnants of the past—the past of slavery, where only the rich could afford to own slaves, or you got rich using slave labor. In today's world, doctors, lawyers, software engineers are all well-off—not Forbes 500-rich, but well-off. The most common profession that builds wealth is entrepreneurship. You have an idea, you create paying jobs for people, and build a business out of it. If your idea solves a problem that people are willing to pay for, you get rich. People wrongly assume that in order to get rich, you trick other people into giving you money—an absolutely absurd idea. The marketplace decides whose idea and execution is valuable.

You could either trade your money in exchange for someone's effort, expertise and network—who's going to build you the house you want—or you're free to do it yourself. Once you change your perception about how easy wealth is generated by providing value for others, your entire worldview changes. Plus, you cannot become something you hate. If you hate the rich, you'll never be able to build wealth because you'll always be blinded by the hatred instead of looking and learning what's actually happening.

Number two: you get rich by saving your money. False! This is another one of those things that poor people borrowed from rich but never without the proper context. The truth is, you don't get rich by saving your money. Saving money allows you to stay rich once you've already gotten there. Now, we'll say this again but differently so it sinks in: saving money allows you to maintain your current level of wealth; it does not move you up. This idea might be a massive wake-up call to most of you. The mainstream believes in this idea of wealth as an outcome of accumulation, and it couldn't be further from the truth. You get rich by earning money while you're not working. This doesn't happen through savings—only through investments.

An investment is something that generates nonstop income for you without the need of your input—be it time, money, or energy. The money that you save in your piggy bank, bank account, etc., that's not an investment. Cash is actually a depreciating asset, meaning it's losing value while you keep it under the mattress. One hundred thousand dollars three years ago is not the same as one hundred thousand dollars today, when everything is at least 50 percent more expensive.

Number three: the more money you have, the happier you'll be. Partially true, there is a threshold of happiness. Today, it's around the one hundred thousand dollar per year in earnings mark. So, poor people are correct when they say that money will make them happier because most of the reasons for unhappiness in their lives revolve around money problems. Money can fix money problems. Money can increase comfort; money can take away the stress of everything money-related. But the truth is, money doesn't actually make you happy, but it removes some barriers; it removes some of the unhappiness you have in life.

Once money can no longer solve your issues, you're faced with a different set of problems. There's actually a money trap that most people aren't aware of. There's a point where making more money is actually causing you more unhappiness. Yeah, you heard that right. The basis for it is the law of diminishing returns. So, let's say you got a box of infinite chocolates in front of you. The first chocolate tasted great; the second one, also great but a little bit less than the first. Fifty pieces of chocolate later, and you're already full and tired of eating chocolate. So, what happens if you keep going? Well, ten more, and you start to feel sick. Another ten, and your body starts to reject it. Another ten, and you might need to go to the hospital. Keep eating, and you'll eventually die.

Believe it or not, it's the same with money. Actively earning money and climbing the financial ladder is incredibly stressful. You're constantly putting out fires, solving problems, and dealing with issues that are keeping you up at night. The more you climb, the magnitude of these problems increases. At this point, you're probably wondering, "So Alex, what is the sweet spot? Where do you stop trying to earn money?" Honestly, that answer differs from one person to another—from race, geography, upbringing, and so forth. From a ballpark perspective, 15 to 25 million dollars should be more than enough for you and your family to never have to worry about money again. From 25 and up, money no longer contributes to your happiness index. Remember this as you climb.

Number four: if you want to get rich, you need a big salary. The biggest lie modern society has told is that in order to be rich, you need a high-paying job. Absolute bollocks! This is because people confuse professional status with wealth. A high-level lawyer or doctor is respected in society; they've garnered esteem from their fellow citizens because normal people need their specialized services in dire times. So, this artificially inflates their perceived worth—the same way a bottle of water is more valuable in the desert than at a supermarket. But what you don't see is that behind the scenes, the cost of living that identity is also going up. The lawyer lives in a city center in an overpriced apartment, drives an overpriced car, and pays too much for their suits and ties. Just think of memberships to country clubs, charity dinners; you get the point.

The true cost of being a successful lawyer goes up proportionally with the income of the lawyer. It's the same with most professions. Where the saying goes, "Dress for the job you want," if you want to be rich, it's not the salary you should be monitoring. Most ultra-wealthy individuals have no salaries at all; instead, they have ownership in a business. Instead of working for a top law firm, they own a top law firm. The richest doctors in the world, they don't practice medicine; instead, they started pharmaceutical companies or owned their own clinics. If you want to get rich, own something that increases in value over time.

Number five: with high risk always comes a higher reward. The myth that entrepreneurs are risk-takers—not really! High risk probabilistically returns a negative outcome; this is why nine out of ten businesses fail. The job of an entrepreneur isn't to be risky all the time; it's actually the opposite. As an entrepreneur, your job is to minimize risk as much as possible. Proof of ability mitigates risk. Going for a swim is risky or less risky depending on how well you can swim. There's always a risk involved when you're in a pool, but that risk is not distributed equally amongst the populace. In life, we always fall back to the level of our preparation. Risk is an attribute of the unknown, which more often than not arises as a lack of preparation.

You get rich by taking big amounts of risk with low amounts of money. You stay rich by taking low amounts of risk with large amounts of money. High risk implies risking everything every single time, and the problem with this strategy is you need to get lucky one hundred percent of the time. Now, you might get lucky the first three or four times, but if you're constantly betting everything every single time, it only takes one event to wipe everything away. It's the same with cheating on your partner, thinking you'll never get caught. You do it once, you get away with it, thinking you're some kind of mastermind genius, so you do it again and again until you slip up once, and now you’re in a messy divorce, seeing your kids on the weekend. High risk is almost never worth it.

Number six: you need to be rich to invest. Partially false! You can invest at all levels of income. A share in Disney is one hundred dollars; a share in Coca-Cola is sixty dollars; Wells Fargo thirty-eight. When people think of investments, they think of factories, apartment buildings, or digging for emeralds in the Congo. When in reality, investing is a habit that makes you richer. A portion of your income should go toward investments, and these investments will grow in time and alleviate the potential pain in your life. Your only job is to increase your income and, as a result, the amount you're able to invest.

The reality is, it's hard to invest a good portion of your income when you have urgencies that require immediate attention. It's hard to invest when the car is making expensive noises and you're behind on your rent. The root cause here is of income versus expenses. If this is you, you're either not earning enough, or you can't afford to live in the geography you're in right now; sometimes, it's both.

Number seven: it takes money to make money. False! Sure, it's easier to make money when you have some money, but it's not a mandatory requirement. Any healthy person can at any point choose to trade their time for money. Now, how much money you're going to get for your time depends on the level of your expertise and the existing demand for what you can offer. The better you are at what you do, the more you can charge for your services. The fewer people offering the same services as you, the more clients you'll have. Differentiation and competition—the more time you're willing to trade, the more money you'll have.

Let's take two barbers with the same level of expertise and the same prices. One works four hours a day and is able to serve three clients, and one works twelve hours a day and is able to service nine clients. In only three years, the second barber has earned as much money as the first barber will earn in a total of nine years. These are two people with the same specialization, the same clientele, one out-earning the other by a massive margin. When you zoom out, and it didn't cost any more money to create this gap. Any fool can make money if they have enough of it. The real value lies in being able to make money when you have none.

Number eight: getting money with your tax return is a good thing. False! Tax season and preparation are upon us, and it's always shocking when we see people happy they're getting money back from their tax return. Not only does this show how bad at math some of y'all are, but it's money that you could have been using yourself, which you lent to the government at zero interest. You are under no obligation to pay more taxes than you are legally required to, and taxes are part of the wealth growth process—something that's actually pretty basic to learn. Take a moment to think about the people who complain about not understanding how taxes work, and then consider what their net worth is.

On the other hand, every rich person out there will tell you exactly what's happening with them from a financial perspective, quarter by quarter.

Number nine: more money, more problems. False! Money on its own doesn't bring any additional problems you didn't have before; it actually solves most of your previous problems if we're being honest. A truer statement would be "more money, new problems," because although the volume of problems you'll be dealing with roughly remains the same or is slightly lower, the nature of the problems changes. And at the very extremes, the magnitude of the problems differs. Being broke is hard, and it comes with its own set of problems. Trust us, being rich is also hard, and it comes with a different set of problems. But you need to choose your heart. Because we grew up broke, we actually embrace the new kind of problems we have now.

We would much rather figure out which bank to move forward with than the existential dread we had at the beginning. We would much rather figure out ways to inspire our employees than not knowing where the next payment will come from. Embrace the problems you have right now in life because someone else would definitely want to trade places with you.

Number ten: retirement is the gift for working hard your entire life. False! What's the point of retirement when you can no longer taste food, run up a hill, or be spontaneous with your life? In most cases, the company you work for has monetized your body for over forty years now—your best years. And here you are at 65, white hair, overweight, you get tired sitting up, and you can barely see both near and far. That's the reward? That's the "go ahead and enjoy your life?" Are these the golden years? Really?

So here's what we're going to do for you right now: we will forever change your reality and the way you think about retirement. Are you ready? Retirement is not an age; it's a number. Repeat that, Alex: retirement is not an age, it is a number. Once you hit your number, then you can retire, and you can hit your number at 30, 40, 50, 60, or 70. The number doesn't care about your age; it's just a number. How many people in the world do you think even know about the existence of the number? Out of those, very few, how many of them do you think have taken the time to ever figure out what their number is? And no, it's not 10, 50, or 100 billion dollars. The number is 2x what your lifestyle costs, generated by your investments. How quickly you get there is totally up to you.

If your lifestyle costs sixty thousand dollars a year, this means food, gas, clothes, subscriptions, etc. Add it all up, and that's five thousand dollars a month, on average. That means your number is ten thousand dollars a month from passive income. If your lifestyle costs one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year, your number is twenty thousand dollars a month. If your lifestyle costs two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, you might want to look into why it's costing you that much, but still, your number is forty thousand dollars a month from passive income sources. Now we're not saying it's easy to get to your number, but it's not really as hard as you think it is if you put all of your focus, energy, and drive into it. There are multiple paths one can take to get there, and anyone who takes their time can actually learn how to get there.

A couple of months ago, we released a course on the Alux app called Principles of Building Wealth that walks you specifically through this. Go to alux.com/app right now, and you can purchase the pack for 24.99 for lifetime access. But since you're in Alux, there is a way to get even more value for cheaper. If you get yourself a 14.99 monthly subscription, you've got access to all of the Alux packs while your subscription remains active. It should take you a few days to go through the wealth pack, and then you've got enough time to sample the rest. Forty-four percent of the people using the app report that they've already achieved their primary goal, and another forty-one say they're closer than ever before. This app works, people! It does what it's meant to do, which is cutting down the distance between where you are and where you need to be. It works for so many people, so why don't you try it out and see if it works for you? Go to alux.com/app right now and download it.

Number eleven: money doesn't grow on trees. Factually true, metaphorically false! Money doesn't grow on trees unless you plant the right seeds. Also, now that you think about it, money actually does grow on trees if you sell the fruit of the tree. Ask anybody who's really invested in agriculture. Just because money doesn't grow on your trees, no need to lump everyone together. Trees require a good seed, great soil; they require attention, sun, water, nutrients, protection from rodents and predators, the occasional trimming of some branches, and even if you do everything right, it will still take you several years before it bears fruit. Growing a tree is actually quite hard. Do you see where we're going with this? You might want to reevaluate your reality; plant some seeds and just see what happens.

Number twelve: the best things in life are free. Partially true! When people say this cheesy quote, they think of how love is free, how being healthy when you're young is free. But add in the magic ingredient called time to any of the examples and you'll see the outcome of the experiment begin to shift. A loving family might be free, but what if one of them required medical attention that could keep them around for years and you can't afford it? It's hard to be lovable when you no longer love yourself because you see yourself as a failure, unable to provide for your family. If you can get the best things in life for free, well good for you; enjoy it before life starts putting a price on it.

Number thirteen: cash is king. No longer true! Cash used to be king, and it was king for a long time, but then it got kind of abusive, and people began to walk away. Take a moment to think about it—what's a king without the power invested in the crown by the people? Cash no longer holds value; they're printing money like crazy, robbing you of the worth it once had. Every time you hear them print more money, just know they're taking away more of your value and giving it to themselves.

Number fourteen: time is money. Mostly false! Time is time; money is money. Just because sometimes you choose to trade one for the other, it doesn't mean they're the same or interchangeable. If we offered you one million dollars but you couldn't wake up tomorrow, would you take it? Of course not! So waking up tomorrow is worth over one million dollars to you. Yet, people don't act like it, do they?

Number fifteen: you can't take it with you when you die. It might not matter to you, but it does matter to the people you love. We spend our lives in the pursuit of minimizing misery in all its forms. If you are fortunate enough to do well in your life, you might not be able to take it with you, but you can leave it to your grandkids so your memory lives on. How amazing would it be for your great-grandkids to play around in a forest that you planted—to run across a field, a piece of land that you purchased and left it for all future generations to enjoy?

If there is an afterlife, wouldn't it make you happy knowing that you are a source of happiness, health, and wealth for those who come after you? Wealth, be it material or intellectual, is our species's way of immortality—or at least an attempt at it. Just look at the pyramids; see all the breakthroughs in science or art? Puts life into perspective, doesn't it?

What about you, Alex? What do you think? What are some of the money myths that people throw around you that you know are actually fake? We're sure you've got at least a couple of family members with interesting perspectives on this one, so let us know in the comments.

And as for those of you watching our videos until the very end, we've got a special bonus reserved. Money is no longer national. The world is changing. Without the US at the table, for most of our lives, we've lived in an economic system where one could rely on their government to maintain stability. But the last five years have shown us just how fragile the entire system is—from COVID to inflation to the almost collapse of the US banking system that was once again saved by printing even more money.

In the last few weeks, something radical has happened. Something that didn't even make it into the mainstream media in order to not cause panic. China has quietly secured deals with almost all major geopolitical players to drop their dollar reserves and use the Chinese Yuan as a reserve currency. You'll be hearing about the BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—the leading emerging countries in the world with booming economies. They're all working together to create a more stable economic environment because internally, countries no longer trust the US to provide a stable currency.

The US has been in a continuous decline for the past few decades; production has been moved to China. Culture is shifting with the rise of TikTok as the leading culture-defining platform. The US squeezed all of the value it could out of its currency until other countries had enough, and they moved away from it. And by the way, China’s already convinced 41 countries to use the Yuan as the preferred currency of trade. Most notably, the US no longer has exclusivity when it comes to oil; both Iran and Saudi Arabia are selling their oil with Yuan as the reserve currency.

In our lifetime, we'll see a rebalancing of the global superpowers. Every ultra-high net worth individual we spoke to recently has shared the same concerns and the same strategy of diversification. They are moving funds from the US into the Middle East and Europe—think Dubai and Switzerland. For the first time, the average individual will need to consider if they want to keep all of their wealth in a single currency. The US has been such a dominant force that they never experienced what it means to have access shut off for them or to have to wait in line to have a say at the table—and it's already begun.

Aluxer, build wealth, diversify it, and become a citizen of the world before you get caught up in the crossfire. If you plan on becoming a citizen of the world with international wealth, write "world" in the comments; let's see how many of you are serious about this. Thanks for spending some time with us today, Alux. We're so glad you did. If you found value in today's video, please give us a like, hit that bell icon to never miss an upload, and hey, don't forget to subscribe!