My Response To Jubilee | Do All Millionaires Think The Same

What's up guys? It's Graham here.

So you may have just recently seen the Jubilee has posted the video with the title "Do All Millionaires Think the Same?" It's part of their spectrum series where they pick a small group of people, say a statement, and then find out where everyone stands in the scale of "I strongly agree" to "I strongly disagree." I would say the entire series is really enlightening. It helps break stereotypes, and it brings about a much deeper discussion about the topics we're all secretly curious about.

But wait a second! No, if you look really closely, like right here—wait a second, there I am! Although I got to say, even though the video they posted was incredible and I'm so unbelievably honored to have been a part of the series, unfortunately, the reality is that they can only include so much footage within a condensed YouTube video, and a lot of what I said did not end up making the final cut.

So I wanted to make this video as my response to what Jubilee posted, and that way I could clarify my thoughts, share why I agreed or disagreed with certain statements, and give you the responses that you may have been wondering about.

So without further ado, make sure to smash the like button for YouTube's algorithm! For every like this video gets, one millennial is going to get a single piece of avocado toast, so make sure to do your part and give a millennial that avocado toast they so desperately need.

And with that said, let's start the video.

Okay, so first we have the prompt, "I am self-made," to which I answered strongly agree. You know, to a certain extent, I do think that a large component of what I've worked towards has been from my own initiative. Statistically, if you looked at me when I was 17 years old, I really didn't have much of a chance of being successful. I was a terrible student; I had really bad grades. I did not get into college. I came from two divorced parents who both worked really hard just to make ends meet, and here I was without any clear path to make money. I had to find a way to figure it out on my own.

Not to mention, for the first four years of my career, I had pretty much no social life whatsoever. I was working 12 to 14 hours a day, taking as much work as I could, putting everything I possibly could into my own business. I knew that's what I needed to do if I one day wanted to build up a name for myself.

But, of course, that's not to discredit the fact that I also had a lot going for me as well. Like, even though I wasn't necessarily book smart, I did have a natural interest towards business and making money, and that worked tremendously well. My favorite! I was also raised by two really caring and supportive parents who were always very encouraging of anything I wanted to pursue and were always there for me emotionally if I ever needed it.

Even though I don't believe that was the sole reason why today I do believe that that definitely gave me a stable foundation from which I could expand from. I've also been very fortunate to have met many people throughout my entire journey that have helped me out tremendously as I have them. So I absolutely would not be able to be here today if it were not for my friends, my family, my clients, or anyone else who put their trust in me. This also literally includes you watching this YouTube channel right now. Yes, I'm talking to you right now. Yes! Don’t look around, I'm talking to you!

Without your support, this channel would not be what it is today. But overall, coming from that to the end result where I'm at today, and all the connections I was able to make, was, in my opinion, really grown from a strong sense of self-belief that I could do it no matter what the obstacle is, and I could push through.

Coming from a family where being a multi-millionaire is far from the norm by any stretch of the imagination, I do feel self-made.

Next, we were questioned with the prompt, "I know what it's like to be poor," and even though a question like this is extremely subjective and we all have our thoughts about what we consider to be poor, I went and stood in the "I agree" category when it comes to this.

Here's the thing, and I just want to make this very clear: I have never grown up in an environment where I did not have food on the table. I never grew up homeless, and I never grew up without having access to clean running water and electricity. Although I do remember very vividly what it was like throughout my teenage years where money became extremely tight. Like, there was a time where my parents were paycheck to paycheck, struggling with debt, without any idea of how to keep the lights on without resorting to credit cards.

Those memories made a very strong impression on me and really formed the entire foundation from which I view money and to never take it for granted. So objectively, no, I was never poor in the sense that I wasn't sure where my next meal was coming from or not sure where I was going to be sleeping that night, or ever being homeless, or never having access to electricity or running water or anything like this.

But I do know the feeling of not having enough to go around and seeing my parents extremely stressed about how they were going to be paying the bills and having to diligently watch every single dollar in order to make it last as long as it possibly could.

Okay, so now we get to a doozy of a question that I was not expecting at the time they asked this, and that was, "I should pay more in taxes," to which I said I disagreed.

Here's the thing: as someone who is self-employed, you end up falling into this weird category of being both the employer and the employee all in one. Because of that, you're then obligated to pay taxes as if you were both at the same time. This is otherwise what's known as the self-employment tax that ends up putting me in a really unique predicament because, even though I've set up my business through an S corporation, I still end up paying more than 50% of my top income towards taxes. That means for every $1 that I make, I get to keep less than half of it.

Now, to a certain extent, it does become a little too motivating to continue pushing forward at full speed knowing that at the end of the day I'm working twice as hard for half the reward. However, I also think the entire tax system is broken. It's so unbelievably complicated, and there are so many gray areas that are just open to interpretation.

Anyway, I would say the biggest flaw for me in the tax system is that, coming from someone who's self-employed, in a way, you are penalized for not spending money. See, the way it works is that as a business, you spend money first and then you are taxed. What's left over; as a person, though, you are taxed first and then get to spend what's left over.

This highly incentivizes me as a business to go out and spend as much money as they possibly can so that that way I would pay less in taxes. Like, for example, I could go buy a brand new $400,000 Rolls Royce Cullinan on December 31st and be able to write off the entire cost of the car against my income, saving me about $200,000 in taxes. Or I can go on this extravagant wild business shopping spree and travel first-class to anywhere that I'm gonna be doing business, and all of that just becomes a write-off against my taxes.

However, if I want to be smart about it, if I don't want to go and spend my money on ridiculous things and instead I choose to diligently save it, well, now that just means I have to pay more in taxes because I had fewer write-offs.

Now, sure, some people might say that spending money as a business helps circulate it back into the economy, and there’s absolutely truth to that. But in my situation, I invest nearly everything I make, so the money is going back into the economy. It's going back into businesses; it's going back into real estate; it's hiring people to work on the real estate; it's going into higher property tax bases, and everything just flows back into the economy in one way or another.

However, I'm not naive, and I realize how fortunate I am to even be in this predicament in the first place, and this is really the epitome of a first-world concern. I wish I paid less in taxes. But anyway, I hope that clarifies and helps sum up my answer.

Really at the end of the day, if I had more control over where my tax money was going or where it was applied or who it helps, I would probably be way less resistant to the idea of paying. Like, I would love to see some of this money going towards clean energy or underprivileged schools or at least is going to fixing the potholes outside my house. You would think!

But anyway, after that, we get the prompt, "I've spent an absurd amount of money on something just because I can." Unfortunately, my answer to this got cut out because I answered, "Yes, I have spent a certain amount of money on something because I could."

Once, when I was 19 years old, I spent nearly all of my commission from selling a house as a real estate agent on a chrome orange Lotus Elise. It was my dream car at the time, and when I was younger, that was the only thing I ever wanted.

To me, getting the car was really just a moment where I felt like I had finally made it. That was the moment where it completely clicked that I could have this thought or idea in my head, and if I worked really hard, I could put that thought or idea into a reality. Getting that car really just gave me so much encouragement and motivation that if I could do this, I could literally do anything.

Seriously, to go from being 15 years old and wanting a Lotus Elise more than anything, without any means or plan to go and get one, to then go and buying one outright in cash four years later was such an incredible boost of motivation that just spiraled into everything else. But guess what? If you thought that car ended up costing me money, well, think again!

I ended up selling the car two years later for pretty much the same price I paid for it, so in a way the car ended up becoming pretty much a free car for me to own. Then in 2014, I went and did the same thing. I really missed my Lotus Elise, so I just went and bought a 2008 Lotus Exige S 240. I owned that car for five years. I made review videos on it, and I had it in the background of so many of my YouTube videos.

I also ended up meeting some of my best friends by going to car meets in that car, and then just recently, I ended up selling it for, again, pretty much the same price I paid for it. So again, another Lotus for me was pretty much another free car to own.

And lastly, I have this watch that I'm wearing here that was about $20,000. This is something that held a lot of sentimental value for me because when my grandpa passed away, I ended up finding his 1969 Zenith El Primero. Once I found that watch, I got it serviced, and then almost every single day after that, I would end up wearing the watch.

By pure chance, years later, I happened to be on Google at the very same day that the 50th anniversary edition of the exact same watch went on sale. So I put down a deposit within one hour of me seeing that online, and sure enough, 24 hours after that, all of these watches were sold out.

To me, this was not a purchase of being like a status symbol or anything like that. And let's be real: most people don't even know that Zenith even makes watches, but it's something for me where I feel like I'm carrying on my grandpa's legacy of having a Zenith El Primero, and me being able to go and buy the same watch 50 years later really means a lot to me.

This is really something to me that I could be passing down to my children and then to their children after that. Then maybe every 50 years or so, my future children just end up buying the new hundredth editions of the El Primero.

So if my future children are ever watching this, just please listen very closely and never forget to smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm! You always got to do that.

But anyway, those are the big things that I've spent money on just because I could. Although I've got to say, oddly enough, everything that I've spent money on like that has not ended up costing me that much money. Like, both of the Lotuses that I bought actually ended up making me money when you consider the extra business I got as a real estate agent.

Also, watches like this end up holding their value really well, so even though I've gone and spent money on stuff like this, it doesn't necessarily need to be expensive.

Next, we got another very thought-provoking statement and that was, "Inequality is one of humanity's biggest problems." With this, I agreed with the statement, and I felt like this is worth explaining more. Here's the thing: we live in a society where the rich get richer, and the more wealth you have, the more options you have at your disposal to grow that wealth.

For example, we've seen one of the strongest bull markets in our entire history over the last 10 years, and the ones who are able to take advantage of that were the ones that had disposable income to go and invest in the markets. However, on the other hand, the person who's paycheck to paycheck, who was barely scraping by, who could barely put food on the table with no money leftover whatsoever, is not going to benefit whatsoever from the stock market rising in price.

Another example: take the Fed's decision to lower interest rates like what we're seeing right now. This just means that money becomes cheaper to borrow, and people are then encouraged to go out and spend more, which means more money goes into our economy that helps boost prices.

But here's the thing: even though low interest rates should theoretically help everybody, they tend to help the people the most that already have the disposable income to begin with, to borrow at really cheap rates to then go and invest with and see the benefits of rising asset values.

So really from that, the rich get richer. The entire system is designed to first help the people who are doing really, really well because they have the money left over to invest. And even though it's a very complicated situation with no clear answer, I really think it's important to do what we can right now to place an emphasis on financial education.

Teach people how to increase their income, to live below their means, and get invested in the markets as soon as possible so we can all have our own piece of the pie. This is why I've chosen to play such a big focus on sharing everything I know about financial literacy, and really hoping it can make this as relatable as possible to as many people as possible.

Finances don't need to be intimidating or confusing, and the more people that get to know it, the better they could divide their paycheck, the more money that they can make, and the more options that will give them in terms of what they decide to do.

It's absolutely not a perfect solution to income inequality by any means, and it's a very big issue to cover, but at least we could take it upon ourselves to focus on what we can control, and financial literacy is one of those.

And now we have another prompt: "My privilege has allowed me to be rich." This is something that I somewhat agreed with because there were things that I was born into that I had no control over, and I would be an idiot to acknowledge that that did not work in my favor.

Like being born in a first-world country gave me an advantage. Being able to grow up in a culturally diverse city like Los Angeles gave me a very wide perspective on life. I was also born into a family that was really supportive and nurturing of what I wanted to do, and that absolutely gave me the confidence to go and pursue that.

Now, I don't want to feel guilty or made to feel ashamed of some of the advantages that I've had in life, but I have done my best to acknowledge that every single one of us has our own individual strengths that we could choose to play to, and mine just happened to be this strong fixation towards financial independence and business, a strong belief in myself, and a family and support system that really believed in me.

But I don't want to say it was privilege that's allowed me to be rich because I feel like that almost dismisses and discredits all the work that goes in and all the sacrifice that goes on behind the scenes in order to become successful. That includes taking a lot of risks, not having any time to hang out with my friends, working 24/7, putting everything I have into a career that I'm not sure what might happen with, not being able to relax almost every night for years just because I got home so late, and not giving into lifestyle inflation.

I constantly took the self-initiative to grow and learn as a person, and from that, I believe, sure, I have had a lot of things that just have ended up working in my favor, but I wouldn't say that privilege is what's allowed me to be rich. Like, I've seen and grown up with other people who have had way more opportunities than I have, who have had all the connections in the world, what ended up getting the best grades in school, and otherwise just destined for success.

And they ended up letting it all slip through the cracks for nothing and have just completely wasted it. I just really stand behind the belief that no matter where you are in life, no matter where you're starting from, no matter what your situation is, things can get better. You can dig yourself out, and you can make a name for yourself and build your wealth if you stick with it long term.

Then after that, we receive the prompt, "People judge me because I am rich." Immediately, I walked over to the disagree category. Maybe it's just because I live in Los Angeles, where everybody just seems absurdly rich, but I had never once felt judged for how much money I make.

A part of that might have to do with the fact that I have not changed my lifestyle, and I don't live extravagantly at all despite how much money I make. So on a surface level, not much has changed.

Now, Austin pointed out that on social media, things are all very out in the open, and people are very quick to judge what they see, but my thought is that social media is something that you curate and that you control, and you portray how you want others to see you. So if you're going and posting pictures of yourself in a penthouse apartment standing on $100,000, then that's the image that you're telling other people to hold you to.

The same applies when you step out of your house and sit down in your chrome gold Lamborghini. The reality, though, is that people will find a way to judge you for anything. They're going to be judging you based off the car you drive, the clothes you wear, your hairstyle, how tall you are, how short you aren't. It doesn't stop.

But my own personal style that people judge me on is the fact that I'm not that flashy, and I enjoy saving way more than I enjoy spending. I think because of that, I've experienced a lot less judgement.

Although I will say, now that I'm thinking about it, is that the only judgment I sometimes get is when people expect me to spend money just because I could afford it. Like, some people might not be able to comprehend that I don't want to spend $8 valet-ing my car, so instead, what I'm going to do is park across the street for free and then walk over, even though I could afford the $8.

It's almost like sometimes I'm expected to spend more on things than I don't need to spend money on just because I can. But for me, it's really just a matter of spending money where it counts and not being stupid.

Now, I think the question that everyone wants an answer to is, "Money can buy happiness." Now, when I was watching the Jubilee video, I thought for sure they would be including my answer to this because I was the only one who stood in the "I slightly disagree" category, but for some reason my response was not included in that, so I will include it here.

I'll be the first to say that money is not a reason why people are happy, and happiness really is, at its core, a frame of mind. Even though money does give us the ability to pursue our dreams and live life to its fullest, it doesn't guarantee us enjoyment of those experiences.

Money just really has the odd ability to exaggerate our current state of mind for better or for worse. Like, if you're a pessimistic, miserable person without money, then chances are you're going to be just as miserable and pessimistic with money. And if you're a happy, optimistic person without money, then chances are money will only intensify those feelings.

But money itself is never the reason for someone's happiness. And in a way, it could actually end up making things worse, like so many of us are taught to think, "When this happens, then I will be happy," as if happiness is always at this single point of destination in the future when something else happens.

Or perhaps we go through our entire lives just thinking, "When I have this amount of money in my bank account, then I'm gonna be happy." But I'll tell you what ends up happening: is that our minds get so wired into the thinking, "When this happens, then I won't be happy," that we never really stop and realize that right now is the point where we should be enjoying ourselves, not in the future.

From that, we never really live in the present moment and truly appreciate how great this time is right now.

Well, I guess at least the good news with all of this is that you don't need to be a multi-millionaire to feel just as happy as one. And I got to say too, despite how much money I make, I am no happier than pretty much anyone else. I still have bad days; I still have times where I wake up. I am completely unmotivated. I am too hard on myself; I am too in my head; I'm too anxious about something, and no, going and looking at my bank account doesn't make me feel any better about that.

But at least by seeing the positives in a situation and appreciating what you have and by doing something that you find purposeful, you'll be the most likely to be happy. But money itself really is not going to be that reason. And happiness really does come from within, especially if you hit the like button!

So those are my answers, and I really hope that clears up any confusion about my thoughts from the video. Questions like these are extremely thought-provoking, and it definitely leads us down a path of deeper discussion about our obligations as people and how we continually improve our entire society with the resources that we have.

Like I said, there was a lot filmed for that video that could not be included because of time constraints. Obviously, I wish they were able to include more of my responses in the video, but I also get it that maybe my answers were not as hyped up and energetic as they would have hoped.

I'm very careful about what I say; I really only speak if I feel like I have something to add to the conversation. And if people want to go and argue about gold Lamborghinis, I let them.

But anyway, thank you so much for going and watching the Jubilee video and then going and watching this one as well. If you have any other questions for me, just feel free to comment them down below so I could read them, and then what I'll do is I'll just go and do my best to respond to as many of the comments as I can.

So anyway, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it! As always, if you have not already destroyed the like button yet, make sure to destroy it. Subscribe, hit the notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram—I post there pretty much daily.

So if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there. As on my second channel, the Graham Stephan Show, I post there every single day I'm not posting here. So if you want to see a brand new video from me every single day, make sure to add yourself to that.

And lastly, if you guys want two free stocks, use the link down below in the description and WeBull is going to be giving you 2 free stocks when you deposit $100 on the platform, and one of those stocks can be valued up to $1,400.

So again, if you want a chance to get two free stocks, use that link down below and let me know which two free stocks you get. Thank you so much for watching, and until next time!