Harsh truths preventing people from getting rich

3 harsh realities keeping people from achieving financial freedom 

Everyone makes excuses about why they can’t reach their goals. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that it is typically the same three scenarios preventing people from building live-changing wealth. 

Last week, I felt compelled to outline them. These statements might sound harsh, but I think mulling them over can be a necessary wake-up call. 

1. You think you are too busy to get rich

When I was 30 years old, I was on a plane three days a week for my job while raising my daughter. I was working 60-hour weeks (if you don’t include the air travel in that time,) and my family was living paycheck to paycheck. Additionally, at the start of my journey, I had chosen a real estate market that I was unfamiliar with and had yet to see a substantial return. 

I understand what it's like to feel too busy—I’ve been there before.

But in reality, to do it the right way, it takes about 20 minutes a day. These are 20 minutes we all have, the key is to ensure that you are consistent. 

Create a buy box for your potential investment. Learn and monitor that specific market every single day—that way you will know when you are looking at a good deal instantly. This may take some patience, but it doesn’t have to take a ton of time.

2. You have too many options to get wealthy

When I talk to millionaires about their journeys, there’s always one common, yet underrated, trait among them. Basically all the millionaires I know got there by being elite at just one thing. 

They earned their capital in one specific area and then went on to diversify, but they got there doing one thing they were elite in. If you are trying three or four things at once, then you have no focus, and you can’t gain the expertise and knowledge needed to separate yourself from the rest. 

3. Your friends are keeping you poor

Last week, Chad “Coach” Carson and I discussed all of these reality checks in more depth. Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow of them all is the fact that your friends may be what’s holding you back from financial freedom. 

For decades I’ve heard the saying “You are the average of your five friends.” At first, I never really understood it—but after helping people achieve wealth for over a decade it is hard to ignore. 

I see people who want to change their lives and they are willing to do the work and focus, but they do not have the support of their friends. Their friends aren’t willing to make the same level of sacrifice it takes to achieve financial freedom. 

The way I see it, there are 4 seasons of life:

Season 1: Someone else takes care of you, you're growing up and preparing to be in the real world. 

Season 2: You are grinding and selling hours. You are putting the work in to earn that financial freedom. You are working hard to buy assets to hold, and you are making sacrifices. It’s important to realize in this season that your job is not your prison, your W2 holds the key to your financial future. 

Season 3: You have options and choices. You are reaping the benefits of the sacrifices you made and the work you accomplished in Season 2. 

Season 4: You’re paying someone else to take care of you—you go out of this world how you came in. 

The whole goal of Seasons 2 and 3 is to make Season 2 as short as possible and Season 3 as fun as possible. 

If you do not grind during Season 2, it will last a long time, The system wants you to stay here for 40 to 50 years, and some of your friends will stay for that long. But you don’t have to if you are willing to put the work in.

You need to be in groups that are heading in the same direction. That’s the value of the One Rental at a Time community—being supported when you make mistakes and learning from others' mistakes is essential. 

Join the One Rental at a Time Skool Community

Just a few weeks after our launch, the One Rental at a Time community on Skool is already more than 100 members strong.

We’re creating more opportunities for you to interact with those who have achieved financial freedom through real estate investing. 

Being surrounded by people at all stages of their real estate investing journey is crucial to your success, and joining us on Skool is an easy way to do just that.

It is only $20 to gain access to my monthly (or more) live streams as well as various millionaires answering your questions in real-time and connecting with people who can help you. 

Learn more about how I am organizing the ORAAT Skool community content and calendar.

ResiClub chart of the week

Last week, ResiClub’s Lance Lambert wrote about how the U.S. existing home sales recession (not prices) hit so hard that we are back to 1978 levels, despite us being a much bigger country. Moreover, Goldman Sachs predicts the recovery of existing home sales could be a slog. 

Housing affordability has tanked, causing many potential buyers and sellers to pull back from the market. 

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate in April 1978: 4.09 million U.S. existing home sales 

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate in April 2024: 4.14 million U.S. existing home sales 

Number of the week: 2/6

We know we could be headed for a recession—but that does not mean we are heading for a housing crisis. Crash bros are trapped in 2008, a time when a recession and a housing crisis happened at the same time—and they are insisting that another crisis awaits.

But 2008 isn’t the only recession we’ve had. In fact, when you look at history, only two of the last six recessions resulted in home prices falling. 

On the One Rental at a Time site, I provide access to a free spreadsheet that shows key data points, including median home prices for the past 54 years. I’d advise people not to just take a housing doomers’ word without first looking at the numbers themselves. 

Here’s a review of where home prices went during our last six recessions:

1980: +6.1%

1981: +3.5%

1991: -1.9%

2001: +6.6%

2008: -19.7%

2020: +6.0%

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