I told this storyin my book. Roughly six months before I broke the income barrier I needed to pave the path to quitting my full-time job, I was dead broke. A weekend of buying my kid a few fish and going to Chik Fil aput my account in the negative.

Even though my side hustles were bringing in money, I had bills up the you know what. Dont care if its politically incorrect. For me, as a man, it felt horrible to feel like I couldnt take care of my family.

Throughout the process of building my career from having to live with my pregnant partners parents to having$10,000 months on auto-pilot, I always knew one thing for certain:

I wasnt going to spend the rest of my life being broke.

Id die first. Literally, I knew in my heart I would die before giving up.

I didnt want to live out the statistics you often see:

I dont look down on people for not having money. In many ways, their lot in life isnt their fault at all.

Society is set up for you to fail. Without question, the gameisrigged. Sometimes I think people dont think I agree with them on that. I do.

You have toescapethis fate, make no mistake about it.

Lets take a look at some of the signs you have a fighting chance to do so.

Complaining about your current position in life is worthless. Have a spine and do something about it instead. Robert Kiyosaki

Nobodylikesbeing broke.

But in order to do the work it takes to become financially flexible, you have tohatebeing broke.

The only people who hate being broke but dont find their way out are the truly destitute. Middle-class people? They just dont want it bad enough. They dont hate the stress of living paycheck to paycheck enough to do anything about it.

I cant tell you how many times Ive projected out a future where I didnt have money and it scared me on a visceral level. Honestly, I was more afraid of being broke than I was inspired to make money.

Why? Because being broke isstressful.

Id have fights with my partner about money, stress about situations like the story I started the post with, and I just observed people who were struggling to get by and I couldnt fathom living the rest of my life like that.

You almost have to have a sense that being broke is beneath you, even though, of course, theres nothing wrong with being broke.

I remember working as a manager at a video store for $10/hr. Id go get tacos and Taco Johns. The sign on the door said hiring$11/hr. I put in all this work to make less than someone making god damned tacos. Nope. Not me. Not forever.

I used to listen to the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, on repeat when I had to put on the signs for the featured movies out in the parking lot. Plotting. Patient. One day, I wouldnt be broke.

Now? Im not rich, but Im no longer broke. And it was worth all the work.

Let everyone else be content. You? Get pissed.Use that frustration to your advantageso you dont quit.

Earn with your mind, not your time. Naval Ravikant

Even if you have a job right now (which is the smart thing to do while you build your side hustle), you know that its impossible to have real financial flexibility and wealth with a job alone.

Youre putting your energy into something you can scale, something with leverage, something that can provide income for you without your direct work:

Having a sole source of income will leave you in a perpetual loop of middle class living at best.

See, its not just the risk,yes risk, of having a sole source of income thats the problem, but also thecounterproductive culturemost wage earners ascribe to:

Its a nasty trap.

If you want wealth, flexibility, whatever you call it, you need your money or effort to go to workfor youat some point.

But how do you put in the work required to build these asset vehicles?

Simple.

The thing about wealth pursuits? Theyre slow. Super slow.

Not only that, but you make little to no money in the beginning.

I talk about this all the time on myYouTube channel. I should just rename it exponential growth.

All the great things in life compound:

Warren Buffet didnt become a billionaireuntil he was in his60s. Those last 30 years or so of compounding took him to insane wealth.

Getting compounding to work is psychologically difficult:

I dont have the exact number, but five years is my educated guess.

If you tinkered around with some form of business, freelancing, or investing for five years without quitting, something good will happen.

Youre Humble Enough to be a Student of Life

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve. Charlie Munger

Ironically, broke people seem to be the most certain of everything. I recently watched an interview with Munger. What stood out most? Every time he wasnt certain or near certain of an answer, he immediately defaulted to saying I dont know.

Wealthy people are often much more intellectually humble than middle-class people. They have coaches, mentors, advisers, teams. They constantly soak in new information and never think they have everything figured out.

Watch this interview withDiddy and Ray Dalio.

Diddy, who has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, asks Dalio, his mentor, advice with a sincere level of humility. Diddy doesnt have to listen to anybody and he could blow money until the day he dies, yet he treats knowledge with a level of respect most content with what they have types cant fathom.

The only thing between most people and more money is knowledge.

Theres no grand conspiracy keeping you broke. Its definitely not the fault of billionaires. If you dont have money, its because you dont understand money. If you dont understand money, then learn how to understand it. Simple.

Just this week Ive started to devour information about:

Im going to eventually move all of this knowledge into my circle of competence.

I dont know much about any of the above, but Ill learn. Just like I learned to make money on the internet with no prior experience and become a professional writer with no writing degree.

How? I read hundreds of books, watched thousands of hours of video, and practiced every day for five years.

Back to the point of time commitment. Spending a decade learning this stuff isnt a problem for me. Why? Because I like to learn and I know that learningcompounds.

If youre willing to learn books, podcasts, courses, YouTube videos you can figure all of this out.

Free education is abundant, all over the Internet. Its thedesire to learnthatsscarce. Naval Ravikant

I dont understand how people who own smartphones with access to YouTube say they have no access to resources. B.S. YouTube is a goldmine most people use it wrong.

At some point, you just have to admit youre being lazy andstop.

In the information age, there are no excuses.

Wake up! No one is going to save you. No one is going to take care of your family or your retirement. And no one is going to make things work out for you. The only way to do so is to utilize every moment of every day at 10X levels. Grant Cardone

If youre good at math, you just know you need a lot of money. Yes, need.

You need millions of dollars to retire on time and successfully. Add in your kids and their financial future, the ability to have amazing experiences like travel, and the time to enjoy your life without needing to work all the time, and youll understand that making money is the only logical option.

Just look around and the way people live. The stress. You need more money than you have right now. More importantly, you need more flexibility and income-earning assets than you have right now.

If youre young like me (30), dont waste any more of your time. I can only imagine what it would feel like to be middle-aged or old with no money saved.

With a modest salary of $50,000 over a full work-life of say, 50 years (2272),you will have made $2,500,000. To make all of that money and end up with little to none of it seems soul-crushingly sad and insane, but it happens. Thinking about it makes me sick.

See, its these people who claim to not care about money who care about it the most. They fuck up the math. They keep up with the Joneses their whole lives and level up their lifestyle as their income increases, piling up debt along the way.

Be smart.

Look at the math it takes to be successful and create a plan. Earn more money and keep your living expenses low. Thats the recipe. Im greedy, but I drive a $2,500 car and live in a $1,300 two-bedroom while people who make less than me drive BMWs and have giant homes.

Ive done the math. Im fine to appear broke for this decade to be wealthy by the next one.

As Marshawn Lynch, who famously spent none of his NFL contract money and lived only off endorsements, said:

Take care of yo chicken.

Let the content people stay blind to financial literacy. Wait them out. Theyll see soon enough.

Stay humble, grind, reinvest in yourself.

Itll all work out.

Ayodeji is the author ofReal Help: An Honest Guide to Self-Improvement. Want a free copy of my first book?Get it here.

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5 signs you're going to make (a lot) more money in the future - Ladders