Why I don't spend money.

What's up you guys? It's Graham here. So, for those of you that have watched the channel for a while, or for those of you that know me in person, you know that I'm pretty frugal. Honestly, that might even be pretty generous to say—how about extremely thrifty? Or maybe we can just call it financially conservative, or even better than that, how about excessively economical? That sounds pretty nice.

But whatever we want to call it, I basically avoid spending money. I keep my basic expenses at $1,500 per month, and I try to save a hundred percent of my income by only living off the extra cash flow my rental properties generate. And it doesn't matter how much money I make every month; I still refuse to pay the extra $1.00 at Subway to put avocado on the sandwich because, to me, that just seems like a waste of money. I still wait for happy hour to start just so I can get the half-price dinner if I go out to eat. I still buy the generic food brands at supermarkets because the name brand is $2.00 more, and it's basically the same thing with just different packaging, so I never really understood that.

For me, I don't spend a single dime of it. There are no designer clothes, there are no mansions, there is no $200,000 car, there is no avocado toast, and there is no private jet. In fact, I've actually never flown first class before in my entire life, and I'll show you how adopting a few of these fiscally prudent practices could really benefit you in the long run, especially if one day you want to live off your investments or make enough to smash that like button if you haven't done that already.

Now, for me, part of my fiscally efficient psychology began with my upbringing and just the way I was raised. Neither of my parents had any extra money lying around to spend, and my mom was very much paycheck to paycheck. Without going into too much personal detail, there were absolutely times where money was so tight that if an unexpected hundred-dollar charge came up, that meant that a checking account would be overdrawn. I remembered those times so vividly.

So, when I got a part-time job in high school, I really started to see the value of money and just how hard it was to keep, if that makes sense. We got a special guest here—Gizmo! This is Gizmo. Say hello to Gizmo in the comments here. Gizmo's just gonna sleep on my lap. I was making pretty decent money for a high schooler too—like I was doing a hundred, maybe two hundred dollars a week working after school and weekends doing photography for a reef aquarium wholesaler.

But when I really started adding things up, I was blown away by just how much things cost. Like, groceries—$100 gone. Or car insurance—$150 gone. Or phone bill—$80 gone. Going out to dinner—$40 gone. Buying a new pair of shoes—$100 gone. And I think to myself, "Wait a second. If I just went out to dinner and that dinner was $40, that would cost me two hours of my time just to pay for dinner." I was blown away. I was thinking, "How do people pay for this? How do people afford stuff like this?"

Like, I would see people driving hundred-thousand-dollar cars, and I would think to myself that this would take me ten years of saving $200 a week just to be able to buy that. Or I would drive by a two-million-dollar house and think to myself, "Why do these people do to be able to afford something like that?" Like, even if I saved $1,000 a week, it would take me 40 years of doing that to be able to buy a two-million-dollar house.

Honestly, at 16 years old, I just kind of figured to myself, "You know what? How do I ever afford something like this? And how do all of these people do it?" I remember a customer coming in at work who had a ten-thousand-dollar Rolex on, and I was blown away that someone would ever spend ten thousand dollars on a watch. From my perspective, that was like a year if I saved everything I made, and this dude just spent that on a watch. Like, I just wanted to know how does somebody do that?

By the way, Gizmo says hit the like button! But I'll tell you, when I got my real estate license, I would drive 45 minutes every single morning just to get to Beverly Hills because I knew I wanted to work in the most expensive area I could. And I'll tell you, once you start doing that and surrounding yourself in that sort of environment, all of a sudden that affluent lifestyle just becomes very, very normal. It becomes normal for someone just to go and buy a five-million-dollar house cash without even thinking about it.

It becomes normal to see people driving around Bentleys everywhere like it's a Honda Civic. For me, it was almost a little bit like the Wizard of Oz when you finally see what's behind the curtain because I didn't grow up around any of this stuff. To go from that to then seeing someone spend fifty-five thousand dollars at Saks Fifth Avenue on a shopping session in an afternoon is just ludicrous. It was really like this entirely new world that just opened up for me.

Like, you hear about these people, you read stories about people like this, and you might see movies on people doing this, but you never actually see it firsthand. I won't spend too long on this, but just seeing that these people were out there and they existed and seeing that they weren't anything special, and that they weren't more talented than you or that they didn't work harder than I worked, and seeing that they weren't anything special and they were really just normal people who happened to have a lot of money really made me believe and think to myself, "Wait a second! If they can do it, why can't I do it too? If they can have all of this, what's to stop me from doing all of this too?"

And ten years later, here I am in my garage alone on a Friday talking to a camera. Life is great! But for real, I still have the exact same psychology today as when I was 15 years old. Having a hundred dollars in my bank account meant that I had a lot of money. And I'm sure as Tony Robbins would say, that became my own anchor and meaning of money. In a way, having that type of mentality imprinted in my mind at such an impressionable age was really both a blessing and a curse.

Like, on the one hand, I definitely overcompensated from that mentality through extreme frugality. Like, I can make a lot of money and then not spend any of it but then worry why my electric bill's $15 more this month than it was last month. Or also why I would rather park a few blocks away if that means I can get free parking than park closer and pay an extra $2.00; that just seems wasteful to me.

I get how ridiculous that sounds—that's the way my mind works. But I really believe it's because of that mentality that I haven't gotten jaded about money or what it's really worth, or what it's really valued at. Also, just how much an extra twenty dollars means to someone who's living paycheck to paycheck. So, for me, I never take it for granted, and I also really try never to be wasteful with money.

It's because of that that I've pretty much adopted this mentality that I live by, and it's just this: I only earn what my money makes me. It doesn't matter how much money I make every month. I only care about how much that money will make me indefinitely if I go and invest it. And that is the money that I consider earning because to me, that $100,000 basically just means three hundred dollars extra per month for the rest of my life without ever touching the principal.

When you really start to see that, a hundred thousand dollars to me really only equates to three hundred dollars extra per month. Now, you get to start to see why I'm not like ballin' with luxuries every weekend. Like, I can maybe increase my lifestyle by three hundred dollars a month, but when you really put that into perspective, three hundred dollars a month isn't like a huge lifestyle increase. It doesn't mean that I'm going out like doing crazy stuff all the time.

You know, three hundred dollars a month is great, but it's not like over-the-top luxury lifestyle living, Gucci flexing, all that. No, no! Call me pessimistic, or maybe I have just a very realistic approach with all of this, but I'm not naive to think that this type of income is going to be lasting forever. And don't get me wrong; I would love for this to last forever, and I have no intention of ever stopping anytime soon.

One day, I would love to be at the same level as like a Gary Vee or Grant Cardone or Dave Ramsey. I just realized that things change over time, and nothing lasts indefinitely. It would be unrealistic to assume that things just get better and better, better and better every single year. I would love for that to be the case, but you know I'm not expecting that to happen, especially here on social media.

It seems like everyone has a bit of a shelf life, maybe three to seven years or so—it's just a normal cycle of things. While I definitely plan to have as much longevity as I possibly can, I realize that just as quickly as things go up, they can absolutely come down. I just believe it's the smart thing to do to prepare for stuff like this because life does happen, and things do happen that are outside of your control.

I think a good term for this is cautiously optimistic—let's stick with that! And here's the thing: at the end of the day, money is really just about giving you options. It's about having the option to pursue what you enjoy the most. It's about having the option to go and sleep in if you want to do that. If that's going and spending $4,000 at the Gucci store, then you know what? You do you! And if that makes you happy, then I support it.

But from my experience, the real enjoyment doesn't come from buying things; it's from having the option to buy things if you want to. And I have a feeling you'll find that once you get to the level where you can reasonably afford anything you want, the desire to own those things just kind of goes away. All of a sudden, it just doesn't seem as impressive to buy those things as it once did when you didn't have the money.

Deep stuff here! I did not intend to go down this rabbit hole, but that has been the truth and reality for me. So, what do I spend money on then if I am so economically and fiscally efficiently frugal? Well, besides real estate and index funds, which is basically where 99.9% of my money goes, I spend money on things that I feel add value and enjoyment to my life.

Like, I've got a really good deal in Las Vegas for all-you-can-eat sushi during the lunch hour for like $21! If you guys want the best sushi place in the world for all-you-can-eat, I'll throw up a screenshot right here. Like most all-you-can-eat sushi places rip you off; they put like a huge piece of rice with a little piece of fish on top. This place does the opposite—they put a huge piece of fish with just a little bit of rice.

So, like, that's the stuff that I splurge on. That's my idea of splurging—$21 all-you-can-eat sushi! Or another one—I found a really good deal before 4:30 p.m. for a massage in Hollywood, and I will treat myself to this anytime I feel like I'm stressed out or just want to relax for a little bit. Or another example is my Lotus Exige S 240. I bought this car five years ago, and this was my dream car as a teenager.

I met my best friends through taking this car to car meets and going on car forums and going on drives and everything else like this. This car, for me, has given me so much more than just owning a car. But beyond that, I really don't need to spend money to make me happy. And honestly, I get happy from just the simplest things—like sleeping in in the morning, or being able to binge-watch Survivor, or being able to do some light gardening work when it's warm out here, which is basically every day here in Los Angeles.

I love just hanging out with my friends, shooting this, and talking about random topics of absolutely nothing. I love having the creativity to go and make these YouTube videos and put my own thoughts out there and express myself. Like, these little things that don't cost money at all are the things that I really enjoy the most.

Of course, maybe I'll splurge the odd thousand here and there if it's a justified business expense, and I think it might actually help me with branding and stuff like that. But beyond that, I mean none of that really makes me happy. And for a lot of the people who think about travel—like, do I travel, and does that make me happy? I have so much fun traveling, but all that is free through credit card points and rewards and all that good stuff.

So anyway, that's the reason why I am so frugal and why I don't spend money. I just don't feel the need to spend money, and I feel like it doesn't really add to my enjoyment or happiness in anything. And in terms of lifestyle, I mean it doesn't really matter how much money I make—it's just how much money that money makes me. And that's what I consider what I earn, if that whole sentence made sense.

I don't know if it did, but anyway, for everyone watching, I guess the main takeaway here is that money's main purpose is really just to give you security and to give you the option to pursue the things that you find the most enjoyable. And most importantly, when you do go and make money, be smart with it. Don't sit there with your Shopify store earning $20,000 a month and just think that you're set for life indefinitely.

Don't expect that you've hit this lottery with your social media marketing agency and expect those clients to be with you for the next 40 or 50 years. The same thing goes with actors, musicians, social media influencers, businesses, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Most people and brands just find themselves doing exceptionally well for a few years, and then things slow down, and people move on, and that is that.

At least from what I've seen, only a fraction of 1% of all of those really stand the test of time and are around for like 20, 30, or 40 years. That's why I really believe it's so important to save while you can, invest while you can, and really value that money to make sure it works for you. And then in terms of actually making money, I recommend that you do what I did, which is surround yourself with the people who are making the type of income that you want to one day make.

I wouldn't have been able to do any of this if I didn't see that other people were doing it themselves and then believing that someone like me could actually go and make that happen. And that's where you start getting into the whole psychology aspect of making money, and I will save that for another video. I recommend that you guys look up Tony Robbins and limiting beliefs on YouTube if you want to learn more about this.

So anyway, that's the answer to the title of the video—why I am so monetarily frugal, why I am so cheap. That's the answer. So, with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it. If you guys have not smashed the like button yet, make sure to smash the like button, smash the subscribe button, smash the notification bell so YouTube notifies you anytime I post a video. Add me on Instagram—I post pretty much daily. So if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there. Thank you again for watching, and until next time!