How To Get Rich In The 2023 Bull Market

What's up, Graham? It's guys here, and according to a recent survey, you need 2.2 million dollars to be considered wealthy. Although even though that might sound unobtainable, the truth is 2.2 million dollars is a lot closer than what you probably think. And no, that's not because the latest Mega Millions jackpot is more than half a billion dollars, even though somebody has to win, right?

Anyway, given the fact that our economy is quickly beginning to turn back around, let's talk about precisely what you could do to take advantage of this next bull market. Exactly how you could accumulate 2.2 million dollars step by step, and how you could make something like this last the rest of your life without ever worrying about money ever again.

On this episode of... you can now make your wedding moment unforgettable at McDonald's for 230 dollars, which is actually not that bad of a deal. Although before we start, we got to thank our sponsor, the like button or subscribe button, because there is no sponsor, and hitting the like button or subscribing helps the channel tremendously. Thank you for doing that! Here's a picture, sure, of a frog. So thanks so much, and now let's begin.

Alright, so to start, we got to talk about the average income it takes to feel wealthy. If you guessed 483,000 a year, you'd be correct. According to Bankrate, that is the amount of money it takes to be rich and achieve financial freedom, with a staggering 233,000 dollars being the average amount needed just to feel secure or comfortable with finances. This is backed up by the fact that three in five Americans feel financially insecure because of inflation, the economy, and rising interest rates. Those making between 80 to 100 thousand dollars a year are reportedly the ones feeling the biggest pinch.

Now, even though obtaining significant wealth while earning under a hundred thousand dollars a year is absolutely doable, here's a part of the survey that I found the most surprising. That's the fact that the more money you make, the more money you need to feel financially secure. For instance, if you earn up to eighty thousand dollars, you'll need to make two hundred and eight thousand dollars a year. If you make a hundred thousand dollars, you would need to make 341 thousand dollars a year, which gets me to the point of the video where I just have to call it BS.

Now, before we go into that, I just gotta say, if we look at this objectively, yes, 2.2 million dollars is a lot of money, especially when the median net worth of the average US family is 120,000. Like for context, 2.2 million dollars is enough invested to earn an income between 55 to 90,000 a year without ever having to work, step foot in an office, or deal with an overbearing boss.

Although when it comes to feeling rich and actually getting rich, here's something that most people don't consider and why this number could actually be a lot less than you would expect. The first is cost of living. For example, it's no surprise that living in a state like New York is going to be significantly more expensive than living in a state like Mississippi. In New York, 2.2 million dollars is really the equivalent of one million 892 thousand dollars in terms of what you could buy with your money, whereas in Mississippi, 2.2 million dollars is equivalent to 2 million five hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars. That is a spread of six hundred thousand dollars depending on where you live.

The same also applies when you compare the cost of housing. Like in Los Angeles, the average price per square foot is seven hundred and fifteen dollars, but if you go to Little Rock, Arkansas, that goes all the way down to a hundred and thirty-seven dollars, which is eighty percent less expensive. This really goes to show you that depending on where you live, money takes on a completely different meaning, and spending 500,000 on a house can either get you something like this or something like this.

This is also backed up by another study by Charles Schwab, which found that in Denver, Colorado, 2.3 million dollars is the amount needed to feel wealthy, but if you move to San Francisco, that amount skyrockets to five and a half million.

Now, second, it's also important to consider not just how much money you have but also how long that money is going to last. And here's where things get interesting. Like I mentioned earlier, 2.2 million dollars is likely enough to generate an income between 55 to 90,000 a year, depending on where it's invested, without you ever having to worry about running out. This works in what's called the four percent rule, which as you would expect suggests that you could spend four percent of your portfolio every single year on an annual basis.

Needless to say, that is an incredible income. In fact, that's basically enough to earn what the average American makes in a year without having to work and at a lower tax bracket than actually earning a wage. I would call that quite a success! However, earning between 55 to 90 thousand dollars a year doesn't quite cut it when it comes to feeling rich, at least according to the surveys.

For instance, a study from YouGov found that people felt someone earning ninety thousand dollars a year was neither rich nor poor, and earning a hundred thousand dollars a year became the crossing point where 56 percent of people surveyed felt that that would make them rich. On top of that, this also applies to net worth. Like the investment bank UBS found that only 28 of people with one to five million dollars in assets consider themselves wealthy.

Even when you ask people with more than five million dollars, only three in five thought that they were wealthy. So in terms of what this means and how you would be able to one day be able to invest enough to make 2.2 million dollars, here is step by step exactly what you need to know.

Alright, so to start, in terms of feeling rich, the truth is we always compare our incomes to those who are doing better than us. For example, almost half of the people earning thirty to forty-nine thousand dollars a year felt that making a hundred to five hundred thousand dollars a year would make them rich. But if you ask people who are making over a hundred thousand dollars a year what income they would need to feel rich, nearly half of those people felt like they would need to make more than 500,000 a year to consider themselves rich.

One definition from The Wall Street Journal even went so far as to say that rich is going to be double what you already make. This definition is set to address the subjectivity of wealth, which is that it's something to be pursued, not possessed, and that every individual's benchmark for wealth increases as they begin making more money. This is all thanks to what's called the “hedonic treadmill.”

This is a phenomenon where no matter what happens in your life, eventually your baseline happiness is going to reset to whatever you consider to be normal. This means that as you begin making more money, your expectations start to rise right alongside with it, resulting in the bar being set higher and higher and higher. Really, no matter what you do.

Separate from that, it was also found that once you begin making more money, you also tend to associate with other people who make a similar income. So all of a sudden, if you're making two hundred thousand dollars a year, you move into an area where everyone else is making two hundred thousand dollars a year, your friends are making two hundred thousand dollars a year, and then you don't feel as wealthy as you once did.

In fact, you'll probably feel normal—maybe the exact same as you felt when you were making 150,000 or a hundred thousand or even fifty thousand dollars a year. This isn't just my opinion either; more studies out there show that even once you hit millionaire status, you then need seven million dollars to feel wealthy, and that was back in 2011. So we could only imagine what number that would be today.

Anyway, here's what I'm getting at: feeling rich is not about hitting a certain dollar amount or achieving a certain net worth. Even though you might get a temporary boost from hitting a certain milestone, eventually your expectations will reset until you hit the next goal and the next goal beyond that.

But for purposes of this video, as far as reaching that 2.2 million dollar amount, since yes, that would be enough to comfortably quit your job almost anywhere in the United States, here is how you could do it. At the core, all of this really just comes down to a simple numbers game, and that would be how much money can you invest, how much can your investments make you, and how long could you wait. It's as simple as that.

For example, if you could invest a thousand dollars a month, generate an eight percent return after inflation, and do that consistently for 34 years, congratulations! There you go, and you have your 2.2 million dollar net worth. By investing two thousand dollars a month, assuming the exact same parameters, that 2.2 million dollars would take you 26 years to reach. And at three thousand dollars a month, you could get there in 21 years.

Of course, I get it, investing an extra thousand dollars a month is easier said than done. But just consider that the average American is wasting eighteen thousand dollars a year in non-essential purchases. Only 32 percent of Americans are saving money in a 401k. Almost one-third of the food you buy goes to waste, and categories like dining out, alcohol, and credit card interest are the highest ticket items that could most easily be cut back.

Now, I'm not saying this is automatically going to result in an extra two thousand dollars a month. Although once you begin itemizing your expenses, saving the difference, taking advantage of retirement accounts, and working to increase your income over time, it's definitely doable. Then from there, it's just a waiting game until your investments begin doing the heavy lifting for you.

Combine that then with increasing your education or skills over time, taking on a side hustle, or even renting out a spare bedroom, and pretty soon that extra thousand dollars a month is going to be a lot more achievable.

Now, even though yes, 20 to 35 years sounds like a long time—and it is—if you're my average viewer of 24 years old, essentially that means that before the age of 60, you'd be sitting on a multi-million dollar retirement nest egg that allows you to do whatever you want later in life if you have the patience to start today.

Now, in terms of actually being wealthy, look, I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but realistically, 2.2 million dollars on its own is unlikely to get you there. Instead, it seems as though there are some things that money can't buy, with 62 percent saying that true wealth comes from healthier relationships with loved ones. No joke, out of a thousand Americans that were surveyed, things like fulfilling experiences with family and friends, good health, and career flexibility are valued above income or networks.

In a way, true wealth, in my experience, is really just about having time. After all, the way I see it is that somebody making a hundred thousand dollars a year passively is way wealthier than the person making 500,000 dollars a year but having to work 90 hours a week to get there. Now, sure, the first option might not make as much money, but when you consider time and flexibility, the first person has a lot more choice.

I just think at the end of the day, feeling rich is a state of mind that's not characterized by numbers or income, but instead the appreciation and gratitude to enjoy what you have, with, by the way, the time to actually enjoy it. This very much goes with the saying that wherever you go, there you are.

More than likely, I think that if you feel rich at seventy-five thousand dollars a year, you're definitely going to feel rich at 250,000. But if you feel poor at 250,000, you'll probably still feel poor at 500,000. And again, let's not kid ourselves here, 2.2 million dollars is a lot of money for anybody to comfortably retire, pretty much anywhere in the United States or world for that matter, and never have to worry about working another day if they really don't want to.

But in terms of thinking how much you would need to feel wealthy, I would say that true wealth comes from being able to step back, enjoy things, and see the bigger picture. Because sometimes, just having food on the table and a roof over your head is going to make you rich compared to someone else who has neither.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. As always, feel free to add me on Snapchat and Instagram, and don't forget that you could get some free stocks with all the way up to a few thousand dollars when you make a deposit using the link down below in the description. I got a paid affiliate link down there if you guys want to be a part of it. Enjoy it; it takes you a few minutes. Let me know what stocks you get!

Thank you so much for watching, and until next time!