The Only Way to Become Wealthy Is Ownership | Masterminds Open Floor | Masterminds Podcast EP88

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For the very first time, Masterminds went live. We put Richie in a room with about 50 people for the first ever Masterminds Open Floor, and what followed was one of the most practical money masterclasses we have ever recorded. This is Part 1 of 3.

In this episode of the Masterminds Podcast, Richie Mensah teaches a live audience the single most important truth about building wealth: the only way to become wealthy is through ownership. He breaks down the real difference between assets and liabilities, walks through the five levels of investing from knowledge all the way to speculative bets, explains what financial freedom actually means, and then takes the room through a live breakdown of why buying a house to live in could be one of the worst financial decisions you make. The episode closes with an open floor where the audience asks their real questions on stocks, index funds, cars, business partnerships, and structuring your talent. Come with a pen.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why ownership, not entrepreneurship, is the true path to wealth
• The real definition of an asset and a liability, and why purpose matters more than the item
• The five levels of investing: knowledge, a peace of mind fund, safe investments, business, and speculative bets
• Why your financial standing is a direct reflection of your financial knowledge
• What financial freedom actually means and how to calculate your own number
• The live maths on why buying a house to live in can cost you millions in lost growth
• The difference between index funds and individual stocks, explained simply
• Why you should never take a loan to buy a liability
• How to structure your talent across a whole industry instead of chasing one lane

Chapters

00:00 – Intro
 01:23 – The Only Way to Become Wealthy Is Ownership
 03:11 – Assets vs Liabilities: It's About Purpose
 05:43 – The Two Workers: A Story of Ownership Over Time
 11:37 – Investing Is Simply the Pursuit of Assets
 12:25 – Level 1: Invest in Knowledge First
 14:32 – Level 2: Build a Peace of Mind Fund
 18:21 – Level 3: Safe Investments
 20:12 – Level 4: Business, Risk and Reward
 28:05 – Level 5: Speculative Investments
 30:28 – What Financial Freedom Actually Means
 35:09 – Open Floor: Index Funds vs Stocks
 40:14 – The Land That Became a Liability
 43:16 – Breaking Down the House Myth With Live Maths
 51:17 – Who Should Actually Own Houses
 01:00:28 – One Money Principle for a 20 Year Old
 01:12:11 – Never Take a Loan to Buy a Liability
 01:22:11 – Contracts, Partnerships and Backing the Person
 01:27:43 – Scaling Up: Systems and the Right People
 01:33:39 – Structure Your Talent Across the Whole Industry

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

The only way to become wealthy is through ownership. You can't get to a destination without setting it. I know investing sounds like a very complex thing, and you need to buy stocks, and you need to follow the trade market, and you need to follow this, and you know, and cryptocurrency sounds okay. Please, let's simplify it. Investing is buying assets.

SPEAKER_08 0:22

There was this land somewhere in I decided to be a project on it.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_08 0:28

So instead of growing the business, maybe getting another branch, I decided to put all the money into the group.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Most people buy stock because the company is big. No, the point in buying stock is because the company will grow. I want to teach you guys the things that we are not taught about. Before we jump into the conversation, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting and deciding to watch this episode. But now I have a favor subscribe to the channel. Subscribing to the channel helps me and the entire mastermind team to continue bringing you wonderful conversations and episodes that bring you closer to being the mastermind you deserve to be. So join the community. I mean, you can go into the conspiracies on the fact that we are not taught these things because they don't want everybody to be rich. Because if everybody is rich, then the rich are not truly rich. But put that aside. You decide what you do for your life. In fact, as I'm coming to give you guys these lessons, some will use it, some won't use it. Somebody's in the comments insulting me right now that it won't work is fine. If it won't work, don't do it so that others will do it. Okay. The first thing that I want everybody in the room and everybody watching this to understand is that the only way, and I say this, I can beat my chest and say it. The only way to become wealthy is through ownership. You cannot build wealth without ownership. There are two levels in life: there's surviving and there's thriving. Now, when you are surviving, you need to make money, right? Because we make money to survive. But when you want to thrive in life, you need money to be made for you. Or else you are in a consistent trap of running around endlessly. Do you guys think I could have retired if I still need to make money constantly? Can I be sitting here doing this for free and talking plenty if I needed to be making money constantly? I can sit here because as I'm sitting here, I am making money. My bank account is increasing. Just as I'm sitting here, I don't need to do anything physically for that one. And that is because of ownership. Now let me explain that so you guys don't get it wrong. One mistake people make when they are sharing this message, and for people when they are hearing this, is they think that means you need to own your own business. You need to become an entrepreneur. No, that's not what it means. It means you need to own assets. Who understands what an asset is? Now, there are the two definitions of assets. There's the financial definition, the one that you learn when you go to school, book mood definition. And there's the real one in life. So let me come to the real one in life because this is not school. Robert Kiwasaki says this perfectly in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, when he talks about the difference between an asset and a liability. An asset is anything that brings in money. Anything that has positive cash flow is an asset. And anything that takes away money is a liability. So anything that has negative cash flow is a liability. So now let me explain it so you understand. So an asset is not about what you own, it's about the purpose of what you own. For instance, if I go and buy an expensive phone and I'm using it to watch TikTok and Instagram, it's a liability. If I buy the same phone and I'm using it to shoot content, to post on Instagram and TikTok, which is paying me monthly, it's an asset. Do you understand the difference? If I buy a house and I live in it, it's a liability. Because I have to pay property taxes, I have to do renovation, I have to paint. All these things are taking money from me. So it's a liability. If I build apartments and I rent it out, it's an asset. Do you understand the difference? When you understand, this is the first thing that you need to understand to be able to build financial wealth for yourself. It's the first thing you need to understand to build wealth for yourself. The difference between assets and liabilities. So when I say that the only way to build wealth is through ownership, I am talking about ownership of assets. So you have two people working in the same company, right? They all started when they were 18. Their salary was 800 CDs, 800 CDs. One of them, when they get the 800, they spend all the money. The other one, they put aside 300 CDs every month and live on the 500. Four years later, now they are both making 1500 CDs. That one is still spending the whole 15. And this one is now spending 900 and saving 600. In the fifth year, this one is still broke, living paycheck to paycheck. This one is still working in the same business, but now they buy a motorbike and give somebody to do dispatch. They've not left their job, they've not started a company, they've given you do dispatch, and every end of the month, pay me for it. In 10 years' time, this one is still living paycheck to paycheck, and the other one now has 40 motorbikes, 40 people doing dispatch for them, and they are building wealth. By the time these two people retire, one is surviving on pension, and the other is traveling the world because money is coming in all the time. Do you understand the difference? So, your goal in this life is sorry, should be ownership. How do you own assets that are bringing money to you constantly? And it all starts when you fully understand what an asset is. I know, I don't know if you guys have heard the argument on housing. Have you guys heard the argument on whether it's good to buy a house or it's bad to buy a house? I'm one of the people who would tell you that it's bad to buy a house if your goal is to live in the house. Because if your goal is to live in the house, then it's a liability. It is taking money from you that could have been bringing money back to you. Because if you were going to buy a house for 500,000 CDs and you put that 500,000 CDs in your achievement and you let that money pay you monthly, the amount of money that you will make within 10 years is times six of how the house will appreciate in those 10 years. But if your plan is to buy multiple houses and rent them out so that now you have the houses as physical assets for in case life goes bad and you need to sell something, so your physical assets are there, and you also have the rent that is coming in from your plenty tenants, then buying a house is a good idea. You understand the two different scenarios. So you don't look at an asset based on do I own it or not, but it's what purpose is this servant in my life, and you evaluate everything in your life like that. If you are going to pay for charge or Claude subscription, and you are going to use it to ask Char GPT and Claude, what should I make for dinner? It's a liability. But if you are going to use it to work on your business plan and to strategize for how to scale up your business, or even if you are an employee and you are going to use it to how to uh how do I get a raise at work, like what are you using it for? That is what determines if it's an asset or a liability. The moment you start making this clear definition between everything in your life, let me even go deeper. Even the human beings in your life are either assets or liabilities. Some people are helping you bring money, some people not direct to, but just the conversation you have with them can inspire you to go and make money, and some people are bringing you liabilities. Hey, Charlie, go club, go buy a zoo every day. Let's go and buy this expensive food. Oh, Charlie, you don't know the spend crowd, they're always making you throw money away. That person now becomes a liability. You know, one thing that um men with intelligent parents have been taught is that one of the most important decisions a man can make is the woman that he ends up with. Because the woman you end up with is either an asset or a liability. You know, one of the most beautiful things about women is that women multiply, right? So if you find a woman who is going to help you multiply your wealth, hey, your wealth will grow. But if you find a woman that's going to help you multiply your debts, that one too, your debts will grow. You need to evaluate every single person in your life, every single opportunity in your life. Let's say I'm coming to Mastermind's open floor. Is this going to be an asset or a liability? The time I'm going to spend here, am I going to learn something that will improve my life and make money for me? Or am I going to waste my time and lose money? To become good with ownership, you need to understand investment. Because all investment is, let me explain investment in the simplest way possible. Investment is the pursuit of assets. That's all. I know investing sounds like a very complex thing, and you need to buy stocks, and you need to follow the trade market, and you need to follow this, and you know, and cryptocurrency sounds so please. Let's simplify it. Investing is buying assets. So I want to walk you guys through what your investment journey should look like. The first and most important thing that everybody should invest in in this world. The most important thing, and the first, if you don't invest in this, don't invest in anything else in this world is knowledge. Because guess what? Your financial standing, wherever you are with your finances, is equal to your financial knowledge. It's as simple as that. If your financial knowledge is up to 10,000 CDs, the highest money that you will see is 10,000 CDs. That's why, you see, when they say somebody is a millionaire, it's not the amount of money in their bank. It means they have a millionaire mind. Because one thing you guys have to understand about money is you know money is not real, right? You know money is a concept we made up. We made it up. People sat in a room and said, guys, guys, guys, guys, let's come up with something to just pay each other. Came up with money. So money is not tangible, which means money is an idea. So if you don't have money, you are not lacking money, you are lacking ideas. You don't know how to make money. If your knowledge of money right now is 10,000 CDs and I dash you 1 million CDs, in six months you'll be back at 10,000. Because you don't know how to make a million. You see that thing that business people do when you finish a meeting, then they are going outside to see your car. Do you know why they do it? It's a very bad practice, by the way. But do you know why people do that? Do you know why people judge you based on what you are wearing, the car you drive, where you live? They want to see how much money you understand. Because if your your level of money is understanding 100,000, then I cannot give you my 1 million project. You will mess it up because you don't know how to make a million. So the first thing you have to invest in is knowledge. Grow your mind to become the financially um the financial experts that you want to be in the future. If you want to become a millionaire, grow your mind to the mind of a millionaire. After you start to invest in knowledge, the second thing that you need to now work on. Yesterday I was just having a discussion with somebody on this. You cannot build wealth while you are surviving. Please. It is true. When you don't know where your next meal is coming from, when you don't know if by end of month you will still be living in your house because your landlord is kicking you out, you cannot build wealth. Nobody can come and have a conversation with you about some big money move and you have anything sensible to offer. So after you learn the financial knowledge, because bear in mind, now you have the knowledge, but you are still broko. Your mind is there, but it's left with the pocket. The next thing you need to invest in is something called a peace of mind fund. Your peace of mind fund is basically putting aside enough money to last you everybody and how long they choose. I say from three to six months. So if you calculate how much you spend in a month, maybe you spend 2,000 cities every month, you spend 3,000 cities every month, 10,000, 100,000 to each his own. Multiply that by six and make that your target. Put that in an investment that has express withdrawals. Put it somewhere that if you need money urgently, you can have access to. Because there are a lot of people that are walking around that look like they are doing well, but they are one emergency away from being broke. Recently, I had a health scare, and when I went to the hospital, I said, hey, the amount of money I just spent, you know, if I didn't have an emergency fund, because I didn't expect that to happen. And it happens to all of us. Anyone who thinks they are never going to have any major disaster happen to them in their life, please, you are delusional. At some point in time in your life, something will happen. Your house will flood, you will have a health scare, you will lose your job, your industry will collapse. Sometimes it's not your fault. Your whole industry has collapsed. Your boss was doing embezzlement. So the company you've been working for for 10 years, it's collapsed. Then you are sitting there six months, you don't have a new job. So before you look at how am I going to build wealth, build a peace of mind fund. And let me tell you the secret: you move different. When you know that you can survive for the next six months, whatever happens to you, your swag changes. You don't, you are not desperate. You don't just listen to anybody. Hey, Charlie, let's go and try this money movie. No, no, no, I'm cool. Because you know you are confident in your status. You know if anything goes wrong, you can handle it. A lot of us have severe anxiety. Because as you are walking in life, you know that if the wind blows you the wrong way, Yahwa. Most of us know that if you get a sprain on your leg, yawa, because you cannot afford to go to the hospital. You also can't afford to sit at home with a sprain and lose your job. So you need to take this very seriously. Put aside a peace of mind fund. Now, so we are going in the steps. So now you have financial knowledge, you have your peace of mind fund, so you are more confident. Now, the next step, because you are still new to the investment game, the next step is to do what I call safe investments. So safe investments are investments where at least your contribution is guaranteed. So these are things like treasury bills, um, buying index funds, some of achieved platforms like Digisafe, buying things that you know that no matter what, your core contribution is safe. Because you are still new to the game. It's not a time to be taking risks with that your small world that you started building up. Make sure the investment is a safe investment. By this time, you have enough financial knowledge to do your research, to ask the right questions, to determine that it's safe. Don't look for any big interest rates. I can double your money for you in two months, bro. They can't. Go with the safe investment for that level. So by this time, you'll realize you and Casa in life, you feel good because now you know you understand money, you know you have enough money for whatever happens in life, and then you know you have investments that are also growing naturally. And then you come to the fourth stage of investment, which is business. Now, when I say business, there are two ways of investing in business. One way is to start your own business, and the second way is to invest in other people's businesses. Now, here's the thing about business. Business is one of the most scalable ways of making money. If a safe investment can make you between 10 to 15 percent, sometimes a business can make you 300% interest, sometimes 500%. But with everything that has great reward, it also comes with what? Great risk. The problem with business investment is that you can also lose everything. That's why I said with a safe investment, you know that your contribution is safe. So let's say um you buy Digisave from Achieve, and the time you are buying it is 15%. So you are excited. And then after two years, it's dropped. It's dropped to 11%. That's sad that it's dropped from 15% to 11%. But guess what? It's still an interest. So that's fine. But when you start a business and you say, I'm going to open a I'm going to open 10 saloons. So you take your money and open 10 saloons. All 10 saloons can fail. And you lose all your money. Or all 10 saloons will succeed, and you open 10 more and 10 more, and you become very, very wealthy. The reason I put this at forth is running a business is a very difficult thing, and it comes with a lot of knowledge. And you need to have built up yourself to. Get to this level of knowledge. And I know you will think then the easier way is to invest in other people's businesses. But the truth is, when you don't understand business, you cannot understand which business to invest in. Because you can't tell which business is going to do well and which business is going to fail. I talk about this a lot. One of the biggest mistakes I made was I opened a bar and lounge, a restaurant. And I opened it in the mall. Beautiful idea. In fact, it's the more people who reached out to me because we're doing events at the mall and we're bringing crowd. So I was like, oh yeah, Richie, you bring crowd. So open something here. So opened cockpit's bar and lounge. And we're bringing people there all the time. And everybody outside was watching and saying, Hey, Richie, dear. Everything he does succeeds. So see the way cockpit is making money. Hey, Richie, hey Richie, but we were not succeeding. Everyone's biggest aim is to build wealth. Now, anyone who knows what they are about will tell you the one true way to build wealth is to have a system that gains that wealth over time. Now, most people are suffering to what system or what tool can they use? How do they get to invest easily? How do they get to invest over time? Small amounts, compound interest, and build their wealth. Well, that tool is achieved by Petra. Download Achieve by Petra now and let's build wealth together. Because the overheads of running the business was more than how much we were making. So the business looked shiny on the outside, but was failing on the inside. But I didn't know this. I didn't understand the business. So somebody who understands business knows the right questions to ask. When I was going into that business, I asked the wrong questions. I asked questions about how to bring people, I asked questions about the kind of revenue that can come. Well, like I always say this at that time, because I did this in 2018, when we started, we're making about 100,000 a month. Is that bad? 100,000 a month? It's it's great, right? Yeah, but we're also spending between 80 to 90,000 a month. You understand? And we opened August. So that's the season that does well. Now, when we got to January, it dropped from the hundred thousand a month to 30,000 and we spent 50,000 that month. Next month we made 40,000 and we spent 80,000. I said, hey, hold on. What are we doing here? I asked the wrong questions because I didn't know enough about business at that time. The mistake I had made was thinking that because I have run my business in my industry successfully for a long time, I understand another business perfectly. So even if it's other people's businesses that you are going to invest in, you need to understand the key parts of business. And learning money comes with that. Being able to, like when you are doing safe investments like buying index funds and all, then you will be able to see, okay, these businesses did well, this stock dropped quickly. So if now I'm going to buy personal stocks, because maybe investment people go deeper into these kinds of things. But the difference between buying index funds and buying stocks is when you buy index funds, you've given the money to experts who understand the investing terrain and they choose the companies. So for instance, there's an index fund called SP 500, which is the top 500 companies in the world. And then they put your investment in there. So it guarantees that you will make a profit. Because even if one of the companies fails, another one will succeed and you will keep making interest. Buying stock is choosing that I want to buy stock in only this one company because I think this company will succeed. And that is riskier because you can go into negative. I remember I went to buy some stock from Brazil because I saw that Warren Buffett had bought some. The way that stock made me losses for like six months, I said, I quickly said, Hey, it's okay. Warren Buffett has enough wealth to wait for 10 years. I cannot wait. Give me my money back. So that's the difference. So even in investing in other people's businesses, you must have grown to a level to understand. So before investing in that stock that Warren Buffett invested in, I should have done my research on the business. I didn't. I just followed blindly. Warren Buffett has done his investigation in it. He probably knows that they are going to make losses for the next three years. But in five, six, seven years, they are going to bring in massive profits. And he knows his money and he knows he can wait. Me, that's the money I'm putting in. No, I'll need it in January. I cannot wait. So that fourth level needs to come with you being grown in the game enough. Now you have enough wealth cushing you, and you have enough knowledge to now go into businesses. Then the fifth and last type of investment, and I'm saving this for last because yes, these investments work, but they rarely work, is what I call speculative investments. Now, these are the things that are very, very risky. Cryptocurrency, gambling, um day trading in stocks. There are different types of investments that are very, very risky. They can bring you immense wealth, and you can also lose all your money. I have a friend who got into cryptocurrency. He used his own money, he put like thousand or two thousand in the cryptocurrency, and he tripled it in the first two days. So he was like, So now he went to take 40,000 from his father's account, went to borrow money from friends, took people's money, and went to put it in cryptocurrency and lost everything. It's not easy. So it's not to say that cryptocurrency is not a wealth-making machine. It is. There are so many people who have built massive wealth from cryptocurrency, but it's speculative. So what you do is at this time you are very secure in life and you put a fraction of your wealth in there. I know very rich people who are doing uh bets every week, they are doing heavy bets every week. Do you know why? Because the money they are using to do the bets doesn't touch them. But then boys, boys, that you know that this is the money that you are going to use to pay your rent. Then you say El Classico, you understand? You have to be you have to be at a very comfortable stage in life before you start a speculative investment. And when you do that, always remember it needs to be a fraction of your money that even if you lose it, it doesn't matter. Okay, so these are the five different levels of investment. So the last thing I want to teach in wealth, and then I'll hand it over to you guys, is there's a term that floats around on the internet, but most people don't understand what it means. And that term is financial freedom because that is the goal. Please, who wants to be financially free? So I want to explain to you guys what financial freedom is. Financial freedom is the day that the inflow from your assets exceeds your expenditure. Do you understand that? The day how much you are making from your assets, not from what you are physically doing, or from your assets. The day how much you are making from your assets passes how much you are spending on the regular, you are financially free. So this is what I mean. Maybe in a month, I spent 5,000 CDs. I've been saving, I've been investing, I've bought treasury bills here, I've done Digisave here, I've uh bought two dispatches, I've you know built a small condo. And right now, after doing this for 10 years, every month all these things are paying me 7,000 CDs, but I am only spending 5,000 CDs. That means if I don't work today or for the rest of my life, I am fine. Do you understand? So the best definition I've ever heard for wealth is they say wealth is how long you can continue to live at your current standing if you never worked again. For some people, it's five days, for some people, it's two years. Financial freedom means that if you never worked again in your life, you will never lack. So the way to get there goes back to the beginning and then back to investment on making sure you have enough assets, you are building enough assets that are paying you. So maybe you've built four businesses, but you are not running it. You build a business, then you hire a very competent manager, you've bought plenty of investments, then all these are paying you. So now you have the option to work, you are free. Nobody has put a chain around your neck telling you to come and do something. Anything you do is because you want to do it. So for everybody, you have to understand that. You see, you can't get to a destination without setting it. When you sit in an Uber, when you audit an Uber, what's the first thing you do? Set a destination. So you have to set your financial freedom number. You have to audit your life. How much do you want to spend in a month? Is it 5,000? Is it 10,000? Is it 100,000? Everybody and their lifestyle. You know, somebody is cool with sitting by the beach, you know, feeling the breeze on their face, drinking coconuts, and this person will spend 3,000 CDs a month and they are cool. Somebody wants to live in luxury hotels and you know buy bacon bags and everything. Whichever you choose is fine. That amount is your number. So if you are spending 7,000 every month, then you have to build assets that make more than 7,000 for you every month and you are financially free. So the first thing to do is audit your life, audit your spending. How much do you spend every month? How much would you like to spend every month? Then that becomes your number. So then you spend the rest of your life building assets to pay you that amount so that now you are paying yourself to live. Does that make sense? Okay. My my second lecture over. I know finance, you guys will have plenty of questions. So who wants to go first? One of the biggest lessons I've learned in life and in business is that not everything deserves access to you. Your attention is valuable, your focus is valuable. And in this world full of noise and distraction, the ability to control your world is your true power. Lynx Reverb was designed for premium sound, complete silence, and amazing clarity. So head to any Compu Ghana shop or to our website, linkselectronics.com, down in the description, and grab yourself a headset now. Lynx Reverb, now that's clarity.

SPEAKER_08 35:30

Thank you. So as a layman, I would want you to explain to me what is index funds and then stocks, and which one do you think we should go for? Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Okay, I think I explained this earlier, but let me go through it again. So index funds is basically when investment companies that have the know-how choose a group of funds, a group of stocks and put together. So when you are buying an index fund, you are not choosing the companies that you are investing in. So let's say um Digisafe has something called global tech. So what global tech means is that Achieve is going to sit down and look at the best tech companies in the world and invest your money into those companies. So you are trusting the expertise of the company that you are going to to choose the right companies for you. That's index fans. The reason most people like this is because, let's be honest, most of us don't have the financial knowledge, and most of us don't have the time to be tracking and seeing have Tesla stops gone up or come down and all that. So it is safer for that person who wakes up every day, goes to work, and is analyzing stocks to choose the best stocks, and then you buy that. So there are different types of index funds that different investment companies offer. And then buying stocks directly is you choosing that I want to buy own stocks, I want to own shares in MTN, I want to own shares in Casapreco. So when we are talking about the stock market, for what people need to understand is it's basically owning a part of the company. When a company succeeds to a level, they do what we call an IPO, which means they are floating shares to the public. So now anybody in the public can become a part owner. So as I'm sitting here, I am a proud part owner in MTN and Casapreco. Even though I own 0.0000000001% of the company, me too, my name is there, Sam. If they call for boat, okay, don't call me, but you know, I can I can pretend. So buying stocks is you choosing the companies that you believe will grow so that you buy. Now, buying stocks is riskier, but with greater risk, greater reward. I want to explain, even though you didn't ask this, let me explain this thing in buying stocks so people understand. Most people buy stocks because the company is big. No, the point in buying stocks is because the company will grow. So let's say if you hear that last year, this company, oh, this their stocks did very well, blah blah blah blah blah. So you are coming in at that point, it does not guarantee that this year is going to grow. Maybe they'll stay the same. So you put your 20 CDs into Cochoko company, and the next year it makes the same revenue. Your 20 CDs stays the same. But you can also buy stocks in a very small company and something will go right for them, and your money will multiply by 10. Or you can buy stocks in a company and you understand why you are losing. Sometimes people don't get it. Why am I investing in Netflix? Netflix is a big company. I'm watching Netflix every day. But when I go and check the stock exchange, I've lost money. Because maybe last year Netflix made 400 million dollars. I'm just giving examples. And this year, Netflix made 300 million dollars. That's still a lot of money, but they've dropped by 25%. So your money will drop by 25%. So buying stocks is about understanding which companies are going to grow, and that is why index funds help because the financial experts are monitoring to see which companies are going to grow. Did I explain it for you?

SPEAKER_08 39:51

Thank you. And one more thing. Okay, this is just um a mistake that I made in business, and I would like to share. So talking about housing, so I'd buying a house and then um as an asset or liability. So I started this um CZ business, and the first month I was really making about three thousand. The second month I made about six thousand. So I was really excited. There was this land somewhere, and oh Charlie. So instead of growing the business, maybe getting another branch, I decided to put all the money into the building.

SPEAKER_09 40:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 40:40

So the first month, money went, we started foundational, second month, third month, and for some reason the business took a nose dive. Yeah, which it will, yeah, and the money is not there for me to restart again or to even put it back into the business. Yeah, so now the house is stuck, the business is stuck.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:04

But as someone who has uh a growth mindset, I didn't give up and I've started again. So come on. Clap for him, clap for him.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

That's a very valid and real story that's happening to a lot of people. And the advice I can give you guys based on that story is the first thing you need to do when you make money is invest in where you made the money from. It's it's very important. It's it's very key that okay, so I've opened the TZ place, I'm making 3,000, making 4,000. How do I invest so that now I make 5,000, 6,000? Or should I open another place so that now I'm making 3,000, 3,000 in two different places? You have to keep investing in what's brought you the money before you start taking it out into other things. Because, like I've been trying to explain, the whole goal is to buy assets. And at that time, I'm sure you thought owning a land is an asset, but you realize it can be liability. Thank you for the real life story. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 42:12

I have a question. My name is Joshua. You said something about um the you had some money that you could invest in a certain uh portfolio, as against um buying a property. I don't know, it's uh a little different from what we've always heard because um the according to the percentage you get from when you invest in maybe um some portfolios, especially in banks, it's uh really very not so large compared to the appreciation you get when you buy a property over the time. So I don't know. I think uh there's a little bit of uh different knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

I know it's not easy. You see, this house thing, whenever I'm talking about it, I feel bad because so many of us have been educated with opposite advice for so long. Now, when I'm sharing it, it's like I'm I'm breaking your existence, I'm breaking the reality because I know most people, your goal in life is to own a house. That's been the goal from childhood, right? I'll work hard, own my own house, my children will inherit my house. Let me take a few minutes to go into this house thing well. Maybe I can help you guys. I want you to ask yourself what are the reasons for owning a house? The first reason we are given is if you own your own house, you don't pay rent, so you are saving money, right? We've all been told that. Okay. The second reason is that your house is an asset because it's going to appreciate. That's the second reason. The third reason is your house is legacy. It's something you are going to leave for your children, right? I think these are the three most popular reasons. Okay. Let's do some quick maths. I'll use Achimota because I live in Achimota. So a basic house in Achimota, a three-bedroom house in Achimota is about $120,000. $120,000 is currently $1.4 million. $1.4 million. Okay. This is a basic three-bedroom house in Achimota. Now, renting a basic three-bedroom house in Achimota is about 4,000 CDs. Okay. What? Monthly. So 4,000 CDs for the year times 12 is 48,000. Okay. So we had 1.4 million for the house divided by 48,000. It's 30. So the difference between buying a house in a chimata and renting a house in Achimota is 30 years. Do you understand that? Yes. So now I want to get to that. So let's say I've hit 1.5 million. Right. And my first thought is, oh, well, finally I've made it in life. So I'm going to buy a house. And I spent 1.4 million buying that house. I've locked my 1.4 million and that is it. So then that will come to the second point on the appreciation. We'll get there. Now let's look at if I say that, oh, I'm only 42. Maybe when I'm 50, I don't want to live in a chumata anymore. Maybe I want to go to Tesano. So instead, I'm going to rent the house for 10 years. That becomes the 48,000 times 10, which is 480,000. So if you take this out of the 1.4 million, 1.440, you now have 960,000 remaining. Do you understand? So you have 960,000 remaining and a place to stay for the next 10 years. Your rent is not going to increase because you've paid for 10 years. Now I'm going to pull up an investment calculator. Everybody should get an investment calculator. In fact, download my new app, Obra. There's an investment calculator in it. If I put 960,000 CDs in Achieve Digital Safe, and Achieve Digital Safe is a very safe investment. It doesn't come with any big returns. It's, I think it's currently like 13% or so. So and I put it in for 13%. Let's not even do the 30 years that the money is going to take you to make it. Let's just do 20 years. If I put this 960,000 in achieve digital save and I don't put any money in for the next 20 years, after 20 years, my 960,000 has grown to 12.7 million CDs. Do you see the difference? So now when I got my 1.5 million, I rented a house for 10 years, put my money in an investment, in a safe investment. And in the 20 years that I was waiting for the house to appreciate, I have made 12.7 million CDs cash. Does this sound like a bad deal? Now let me come to the next thing. Now they tell you that the house is going to appreciate, right? Okay. When you are renting a place, who pays property taxes? Your landlord. When you are renting a place, who paints the outside of your house? If your wall is broken, who comes to fix it? Okay. When you own a place, who pays property taxes? Who paints the place all the time? Who fixes all the damage? If the place is flooded, who is going to do it? Who needs to pay insurance on the house? So the reason the house is appreciating is because you are consistently spending on it. So it is becoming a liability. Now the thing about appreciation is you cannot even predict how it's going to appreciate. Because the people who bought land in East Lagon and became very rich because East Lagon became a wealthy place did not know at the time that they were buying it. In the same way, I know a lot of people who rush to go and buy land at some place because this is the next big estate, and then it never actualized. And your land, your the value of your house goes down. So when it comes to appreciation, it is not a fact that is going to appreciate. Now let me come to the third factor of I am leaving it for my children. Please, I want to know that house that your father owns, do you want to live there? Do you guys remember when we were younger? Terrazzo. If you go to a house and they have terrazzo, it means they were rich. Right now, if you go to a house and they have terrazzo, what do you think? So the truth of the matter is that house that you are building right now, that you are hoping your children will want to live in in 40, 50 years. Do you understand the cares you are cursing your children that they will not have achieved enough in life to build a better version? Don't you think it is better that this 12.7 million, you give this 12.7 million to your child. Imagine that when I hit this 1.5, same time I gave birth, and I invest that money for 20 years, and when my child is turning 21, their birthday present is 8 million, then I keep the 4 million for myself. Isn't that a better gift than get this old house that I built that you don't want to live in? The truth of the matter is when it comes to this house thing, we have been fed a lie. And I don't want to go too deep into all the lies that we've been fed. But most of the time, when information is being given to you, you have to ask who is given that information and why they are giving it to you. The reason owning a house became a popular thing was the banks sold houses to sell mortgages because they make a lot of money from mortgage. So when more people want to own houses and they need to take mortgages, the banks make more money. So it makes sense to convince everybody to own a house. But the only people who should be owning houses, there are two categories of people who should be looking to own houses. The first category is people in real estate. So you are owning the houses to make money. The second category is people who have so much money, it doesn't touch them. Because a liability is only a liability because unisika. That is the truth. Every day that your jet is parked there, no, you are paying for your jet to be parked. Crazy amount of money. Do you know that they service private jets? So you have to fly your jets empty to another country for them to serve. Same way I'll take my car to mechanic. No, no, fly jet and service it and fly it back. All this doesn't make sense to me. Do you know why? I don't have that money, so it's a liability to me. So right now, owning a house for somebody who has just made two million CDs is a liability. But when you have plenty money, the big men you know who own plenty houses. Do you know why they own the houses and they call it assets? It is a physical asset. What they are doing is they are securing their money because they know that I have unlimited wealth. I have 50 million cities sitting in the bank, not doing anything. Instead of sitting in the bank, let me buy 10 houses. The good thing with these 10 houses is that it is physical, it is something I can always hold. Something if later in life I'm very, very desperate, something I can sell. And it's not going to affect my standard of living. So owning houses is a wealthy man's game. It's not a game for the person who is building wealth. So if you are on your way to build wealth, owning a house is not for you. When you get there and you know you are wealthy, you have plenty of houses. I watched Kenny Day Japan talking on Connected Minds podcast, and he said at the point he owned over 200 houses. That's because he has enough money. And even he said that buying a house is a bad idea. The man who owns over 200 houses, it's a security, it's like buying insurance. And I'm going to teach you another wealthy man's game that we are not allowed to play because we don't have that level of wealth. I know Ritu. Give me time. When I reach, you hear my tone change when I'm giving this advice. A wealthy man's game that they also play is that okay, I want to do investment, I want to start a new farming business. I'm coming to do rice farming. And I need 5 million CDs to start my rice farming. But the rice farming is risky, kakra. So I don't want to just put all my cash in there. So instead, I'll go and buy a house for 10 million because I have the money. What am I doing with it? I'll buy a house for 10 million. Then after buying the house for 10 million, I'll go to the bank and tell the bank, give me a loan with my house as collateral of 5 million. Then I will use that 5 million to open my rice farm. So what I've done is that I have secured my money because even if the farm doesn't go well, my house is still there and it wasn't my personal money that I spent. So I can have time to make back the money to pay off the bank. If it goes well, now I have my house, I have my farm, and I've paid off the debts with the bank with the revenue from the farm. So when you reach that level of wealth, then you can play that kind of game. But my up-and-coming people that you've hit some big money, I beg you, it's not time yet. Invest it like the story that he told you. Invest it in where you can make money. Then when the money is too much, you can now look at buying liabilities that don't affect you in any way. Okay. I hope I explained it well. You're not convinced, but that's fine.

SPEAKER_05 56:12

And I'm not done houses, but I do the uh investments. Uh I have a my portfolio, I have the companies I choose, are not don't index investments. I think I'm yeah, because I know SA SP 500 and both I just think that they're too complex, but now you the complexity the way it is. I checked the appreciation the the ones I bought in January. In January and then the appreciation and the ones we bought sometimes after the uh what they call the AGM. So that's those uh some of the factors I'm checking.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

But with the house, were you expecting the house appreciation in in seven months?

SPEAKER_05 57:01

Oh no, no, no. I've I've always noticed known that houses many times uh with very deliberate efforts, once you own one and you do residual income, you do it for residual income, maybe when you say residual, you mean renting?

SPEAKER_00 57:17

No, but that's what I said earlier. If you are owning houses for real estate purposes, as in you are buying a house to rent it out and make money, that is still an investment. But if you are buying a house to sleep in, do you get the difference? So somebody gets money, like let's say your story, I'm doing my business on the side, now I've made a lot of money, then I build apartments and I'm very smart with it. So I find a small plot of land, then I build eight apartments, story building, and I'm renting it out to eight people. Every month, eight people are paying me rent. That is an investment. That is different from I've made money, then I go and buy a house to sleep in because I'm trying to swerve rent.

SPEAKER_05 58:00

Okay, now it's clear.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

Okay. But one thing I should let you guys know it is perfectly fine if some of the things that I'm saying don't sit well with you, and it's not something you can practice. Because everything you believe, you have believed it over time. And the information I am giving you is things I have been able to learn over time. So it is fine if the first time you hear this information, you can't just switch your belief like that. Do your own research, experience more in life. Maybe you meet me 10 years later and say, Hey Richie, now I understand what you are saying, or maybe to I was wrong, and then I'll come and say, Bro, the house was up.

SPEAKER_03 58:43

Okay, so um, I don't have a question, but I want to add something to what you said earlier on. Um Robert Kiwisaki, um, pertaining with his book, Richard For that. And then um, I want to add something. You've been mentioning one thing information, information. Information is what based on the book I read as well. Yeah, so um adding to this, um I'm happy we are all here networking. I mean, definitely we'll network after this. So, all I want to I mean tell people is that information is worth and then they have to mean make good use of information, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:22

Nice one. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Any more questions?

SPEAKER_07 59:29

Okay, all right. I have a funny question. Yes, yeah, funny question. Yeah, so should I laugh before or after? Yeah, you can laugh before after. So, if you had to teach a 20-year-old in Ghana just one money principle that will change their next 10 years, what would it be and why? A 20-year-old. And the question, the reason this question is coming out here is you know, most youth in Ghana presently that is now making money, when it comes to renting, they will choose it's like a man's reader question. What advice would you give to them in terms of going for a rent? Maybe is it going to be a comfortable one, luxurious and comfortable one that will not help you invest more, or um, how would I say uncomfortable one that will help you adjust and invest more?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

You've answered the question. No, okay. The advice the advice I'll give to a 20-year-old. The first thing is pay your future self first, and the second thing is live below your means. It's as simple as that. Look, anybody in this world can be wealthy. I learned this in my 30s, and I was so upset I didn't learn it when I was 20. When I learned the fact that if you invest 20 CDs a day with an investment between 13 to 15 percent, you will become a millionaire in 20 years. Guaranteed. 20 CDs a day. I'm sure everybody here can find 20 CDs. I'm sure when you are buying Wachay, you can drop that extra meat. When you can, instead of taking Uber, you can walk. Everybody can say that if I look at my day to day, I will find 20 CDs. 20 CDs a day comes to 600 a month. If you can't have 600 a month, start with 300. It start with 100. Anybody who can invest, like do you hear the small amount for 20 years in a basic investment around 12 to 15 percent will become a millionaire in 20 years. So when you are young, your first goal should be to invest everything that you can into your future self. Whatever money you make, I have a simple rule, and it's I mean, this rule is quite popular: the 50, 30, 20 rule. Some people even turn it around so that they can invest more, but life they have to survive. 50% to your needs, 30% to your wants, because if you are not happy in life, too, you'll collapse, and 20% to your future self. But the important part is pay your future self first. So that means if you make 1,000 CDs, put 200 in an investment. Don't get the thousand CDs and I'm going to buy food, I'm going to buy clothes when I finish. No, no, no. As soon as you get a thousand CDs, put the 200 away and know that you only got 800 CDs. If you're able to do this consistently for 20 years, you will become a millionaire. This is without starting a business, this is without doing speculative investments, this is without doing any big things, just this basic trick. But most of us can't do this because of the second advice, because we can't live below our means. Somebody needs to take Uber every day. When Trotro day, when you can walk. Look at me. At my age, I wake up and walk one hour every morning because I have to. If you have the luck, the luxury of walking right now, walk. You are doing two things. You are keeping yourself healthy for the future and also saving Uber money. We want to rent, you know, you live by yourself, but you know, I need a second bedroom for my closet so I can store my clothes, and you know, I need my own kitchen. And I want, you know, yeah, I need my my honey tiles. And bro, live below your means. Because life is very, very long. So if you don't make the right decisions, you won't enjoy life when you grow. And the problem is that in your 20s, like up until 20, is only education. In your 20s and 30s, that is when you have the energy to work hard. So at this time, you should be living way below your means to be able to build wealth so that when you pass 40, you will enjoy life. That's why they say life begins at 40. It's not about health, it's not about anything, it's about the fact that if you target 40, you've given yourself enough time to build real wealth and then you can enjoy. But if in your 20s and 30s you are living above your means, then by the time you get to 40, you'll be struggling. Okay. Okay, it's right here.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:45

Thank you for the advice. Please, I would like to know if you can suggest maybe a company where investments can boom for youth or upcoming youth. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

Okay. So I always talk about Achieved by Petra. My reason for talking about Achieved by Petra, I actually want to explain this relationship for you guys to understand. When I started the Masterminds podcast and I was talking about finance and everything, then there came a day that I was coming to talk about investment. And I was like, well, I've been using Achieve by Petra for like five years. So let me go and talk to them so that they come on board on the project. Because what Achieved by Petra has been able to do that has really helped me and I know will help other people. Is the first thing is they make investment easy. Because you can invest as low as 10 CDs. So it's not you have to wait till I have 20,000. No, if it's 10 CDs you make today, put it in your investment. That's the first thing. The second thing, too, is because it's digital, it is very easy to invest. You know, those days are when I need to invest, I have to get up and go to the bank and go and fill forms. Do all those kind of things now. It's digital. So if somebody sends me money in my mumbo now, I can transfer. If there's money in my accounts, some big payday has come comes to my account, I can transfer into achieve straight ahead. And the third thing I enjoy about Achieve by Petra, especially their digi safe, is the fact that it has express withdrawals. Especially because we know for young people, the fact that you are putting money away does not mean life will not happen. Like how I spoke about a peace of mind fund. Something will happen. And one thing I've appreciated about Achieve is something can happen to me at 2 a.m. And I am rushing to the hospital. And I can transfer money from Achieve into my Momo to pay my hospital bill. So that express withdrawal is a very, very strong thing for me, Pa. So it's one platform I would recommend.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

My name is Abraham. And um Father Abraham. Yes, please. Before I say anything, I just want to take um the time out to appreciate you for what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:12

I know I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:14

You you leave what you preach, and it's very important. When I came in, the first thing I said was organization. The setup, processes, and everything is so great. The water, and thank you for the water and the drink, by the way.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:28

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:29

Thank you. Thank you. There's more coming down. That's right. Right. So uh mine is just a little contribution that I want to give. Um, when it comes to finance, um, the mindset still plays in there. You ought to be able to visualize. Yeah, and I just had an epiphany sitting down here. I remember I told a friend of mine that that I took to lengths um wanting to meet you and um trying to do music and stuff like that. But unfortunately, I couldn't. When I got there, you weren't around.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:04

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

So I told that friend one day that I had a dream and I was in a room with Richie, and we're having a discussion discussion, and he was teaching, lecturing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:15

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:15

Um it's about a month ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:18

You've manifested into my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:20

Um I was shocked. So as I was here, I'm like, ah, this is the dream I had. Like Richie was talking to us in the room. How did that happen? You know, so thank you very much for the dedication you put to the work that you're doing. I know sometimes when you're reading on your own, it sounds like who is chasing me? I know, but we are here chasing you. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

Thanks a lot for when it comes to the money, your mindset, you have to have a superior mindset. Some people, I understand where you have to live beyond your mean uh below your means and all those things. At some point, you have to grow out of that. At some point, what will make you not make a financial decision should not be the lack of money. It has to be the quality of mindset. Do I need what I'm buying? If I don't need it, then I'm not buying because I want to satisfy my ego or to prove to somebody else that I am who I am. I'm just buying because I need it, it's gonna add some value to my life. So every expenditure you make, evaluate it. What value does it bring to your life? Is it just bringing some accolades to you, or is it actually addressing a need in your life? So basically, that's what I want to add to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:30

Clare for him, clear for him. That's very positive advice, and and to add to that, everybody go and read a book called Psychology of Money. Yes, it will help you with making money decisions when you understand the reason most of us make money decisions because, like you're saying, a lot of decisions we make out of ego. So, thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:02

All right, thank you very much. Uh, my brother has already given the accolades to Richie, and um, I've been watching it for a period of months, and achieved by Petra has been like a life-saving account for me. I started somewhere last year, and that's what I used to pay my best rent. So it has been an amazing platform, but um, this thing has been baffling my mind for a period of time. So enriched that for that um there's a saying that anything that takes money out of your pocket is a liability, but anything that makes money into your pocket is an asset. I've been thinking about this. You see, this transport systems here in Ghana is quite stressful. I know some people can testify, those without cars, when you are going to work and there's no cars, the stress and everything, over price is so high. Thinking of getting a car, right? Yeah, and when I hear some of my colleagues talking the office with this uh maintenance with the accords and the hundreds and the hundreds and the rest, it's it's capital intensive. So I've been thinking about this. Do I need to go like do I need to like get a car or probably maybe seek or go to the bank for a loan and pay it in a period of time? And I also sit down when I look at the interest rates on top of those things, it's mind-boggling. So I'm thinking that oh, why don't I just do my normal trust key? Then maybe if should in case there's a big project that I get, maybe I can get the car out of it, I can use that. And um, maybe the next question will come because there are a lot of questions that I really want to ask you. Even though I'm also into music and I'm managing an artist and looking at the stress people go through, my god, it's when you look at the spreadsheet, I don't write when you look at the spreadsheet and the amount of money is gonna take out of your account, even though there are a lot of investors investing in that business, it's also something altogether. So maybe one way or the other, maybe I'll seek for um broadly advice on how to also let me take the the car and the liability one first.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:03

First of all, let me give you this advice before you go and make a mistake. Never, ever, ever take a loan to buy a liability, never take a loan to buy a liability. It is okay to take a loan to buy an asset, especially if your asset is going to bring in more revenue than the loan interest that you are paying. But never take a loan to buy a liability because now what's going to happen is now every month you have to pay off the loan, and then you have to pay off the extra costs that are going to come from the liability. Now, about buying a car, a car is a liability. That doesn't mean you shouldn't buy a car, but it just means don't buy a car if you are not ready. I have this policy don't buy anything that you cannot buy three times. Because if you can't buy it three times, it means you can't afford it. So I'll give you an example. We did an event. When we did the event, I went to park my car there. Where I parked my car, it was dark. So some boys decided to steal my wiper. And if you've seen a Ben's wiper before, it has an original wiper. So it's very difficult to take off. So, first of all, the wiper is expensive. Secondly, because it's difficult to take off, they cracked my windscreen while taking it off. In three days' time, the small crack had now reached half of the windscreen. So, out of nowhere, I had to spend like 5,000 CDs because I parked my car in a dark place. Are you ready for that? So, this is like out of nowhere, nothing has happened. I didn't crash, nothing. So, when you are buying a liability, you have to make sure you have enough funds to afford all the extra costs that come with it. Like I gave you the example of the private jets. I know a lot of big men in Ghana who can afford private jets. Plenty. In fact, if we're listening to men in Ghana who can afford private jets, they will fill this room and even extra. But they can't afford the extra costs after. And not too long after, he parked the Range Rover. He parked the Range Rover, it was a gift, too. But now when his tie got burst, and like the tie was damaged, and he had to buy a new tie, that's when he learned that Range Rover tie price. Do you understand? So he realized even though it was a gift, he couldn't afford that lifestyle. For for those who let me tell you guys this unfortunate story. You guys remember Kwame Yujin was gifted uh a range, right? By the way, it's not him I was talking about. Do you know that the range that Kwame Yujin was gifted? He had to pay gift tax on it. Yes, there's such a thing as gift tax. That was my first time of learning about gift tax. So right now, when somebody comes to give me a gift, I'm like, hey, hold on. And the gift tax is a big percentage of the cost of that item. I won't mention the amount we paid, but it was a lot of money. The amount we paid for gift tax for that car can buy another car. So anytime you are going to buy a liability, make sure. So if Kwame Yujin did not have enough money, this would have become a big embarrassment. Like this won't be me telling the story. This will be you seeing him being arrested because he's failing to pay his tax. So anytime that you are taking a liability into your life, whether you are buying it or it's a gift to you, make sure you can afford it. And don't let anybody pressure you in life. I bought my first car. My first car I bought was a Corolla. I bought this Corolla at the height of links. The time that links were guy. I bought a very basic Corolla. Now I said it was a company car, it wasn't my car. After that, the next car I bought was a very cool Volvo B. Remember, they used to laugh at me, but I drove my Volvo cool. I drove it out for a long time. Then I bought a Chevy Cruise. All these times I'm telling you, you guys knew me as big man. I would drive my Chevy Cruise into my normal meeting and go and take my big money. But I drove it for a long time. I only sold the Chevy because it was giving me electrical problems. So you have to understand that. Always live, and even me, right? That I thought I did well with my car purchases because my car purchases were always below what I could afford. I watched other people's lives and realize I could have done better. The time I bought Corolla, I should have bought a scooter. Because nobody is pressuring you in this life. And guess what? I just turned 40 a few months ago and I feel alive. I am active. I have so much life to live. I'm going to travel the world. I'm going to do amazing things. So, what was I rushing for? What are you rushing for? If you own a car right now versus you own a car in five years, what will it change? We give ourselves unnecessary pressure. Bro, walk. Take throttle. It is stressful to walk. Like I said earlier, life is suffering. When you are working, you will suffer. When you take throttle, you will suffer. When you own a car, you will suffer. So choose your suffering.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:11

So growing up, I made a lot of financial bad mistakes. I mean, I started making money at the age of I think 16, 17.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:19

So, yes, because give me a loan. So, yes, I used to give people a loan for collateral and all those things. So, yes, you can see me. But I'm no longer doing that anymore because a whole lot of things took out like a lot of money was taken out of my pockets. So we didn't all we didn't get this knowledge when we're growing up with financial discipline. I mean, making the right financial um choices and all those things. So I had to learn the hard way. So this is an advice I'm also giving to um everybody here. So I had to learn it a hard way. I went through like serious mental stress for like a period of months, and that was when I had an awakening. That's when I was drawn to God more, and I realized that I need to read a lot of books. So I read Psychology of Money, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I read Um Joy's Business to Success. And I'm still reading, I'm still widening my scope. Currently, I'm reading Um How to Win Friends and Influence People. That's what I'm actually reading now. And I realized one thing a man of God said, as Apostle Joshua Selman said, he said something that wisdom is the ability to use knowledge to profit you. So when you have knowledge about something or you have wisdom about something, you use the wisdom to use the knowledge to profit you. So watching your podcast, I think in the podcast I watch here in Ghana is you and the others, like some people I watch, and it has been a great inspiration for myself. I watch Derek Abbaite um Connected Minds. I watch you and um also I watch Diary of a CEO that's the um the Reagan as well. Um Reagan, I used to, but uh it's like I want people like that have actually lived the life, and you are one of them, like you've actually set the pace over here. And I had to let I sent so quickly, I sent the link to my girlfriend. My girlfriend is here, and I told her to come back to to come and at least um also get any like financial, like I mean, training and everything, because we didn't get the opportunity to learn yeah, all these things because I'm coming from like a home that's very tough, so I need to have learn it a hard way. Me being the firstborn, it's a lot of responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:31

So please clap for him, clap for him. But I don't want you to feel bad about the fact that you didn't get the financial knowledge because guess what? None of us did, and I learned the hard way that it's intentional that we didn't have the financial knowledge, so all the things I'm teaching you guys, I had to physically try hard to learn it. The number of financial courses I have paid for, you would be amazed. I have paid for so many financial courses to be able to get this knowledge that I have because I came to see what we were taught in school and what our elders taught us, it's not it's not the real situation. Do you get me? So, first of all, clap for yourself for the fact that you want to continue growing. And see, the money journey, it never ends. You you need to understand it and keep growing day by day and always appreciate where you've come from, where you are, and where you are going. It's good you made mistakes because the fastest way to learn is from those mistakes. So now you are wiser, you are stronger, and you make even better decisions going forward. Congrats, girlfriend.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:48

Okay, thank you. Um, since we are talking about finances and uh fundamental producer of finances is business. Um I want to ask at what point do you do things on paper with the person you are going to do business with? At what point?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:12

Day one. The truth is, everything in life needs to be guided by something. Business is guided by a contract, so you always need to sign a contract. You can change the contract later, you can amend it, you can renegotiate a contract, but you always need to start with a contract. And the good thing about a contract is um we have verbal contract and we have written contract. What some people don't understand about written contract is it's not necessarily a legal document that has signed by a witness and everything. An email is a legal contract. So if you send me an email right now to say, Richie, as discussed in our on the phone conversation, we are going to start a business, you own 50%, I own 50%. Do you uh agree to this? Blah blah blah, and I email back and say, confirmed that's a contract. Do you get it? So you need to make sure things are formalized because it is a formal thing that you are doing, no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:24

My next question What are the things you pay attention to before you go into agreement with anyone?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:32

So a wise man once taught me that he doesn't invest in business ideas, he invests in businessmen. And what he meant by that is that anybody can have an idea. In fact, if I ask all of you here for a business idea, I'm sure it will be a 10-hour session with plenty ideas. It's actually not about the idea, it's about the man or woman doing the business. Can they execute it? So the things I look for are does a person have the discipline? Do they have the tenacity? Are they bold? Are they um can they take the pain to keep going? Are they innovative enough? Do they know how to solve problems? Those things are more important to me than the business idea. And as somebody who has started a lot of businesses, succeeded at a few, and failed at many. Contrary to what you guys think, where people think Richie has succeeded at everything he's done. If you know my failures that you don't know about um one thing I have learned the hard way is that every business idea will evolve, so it's never the idea. Um, how many of you know? I may get it wrong with the exact examples, but I think Nokia started out as a T-roll company. LG started out, all these companies that you know, all these big, big companies, they didn't start out with what you know them for now. Amazon was a bookstore, Netflix just wanted to sell anything online, so they were renting DVDs. So a business idea is worthless because when you start the business, your idea will change. But the question is the person can they see the idea through, and can they tell when it's time to change? Because I don't know how Nokia went from T-rol to mobile phones. So, does the person know when it's time to change, when it's time to evolve? Can they see trends? Can they see what is working? That is more important than the idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:51

Thank you. Let me answer my last question.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:55

How do you deal with the conflicts and the misunderstandings with the business partners?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:01

Very good question. You make a good businessman, also should I invest in the best way to deal with conflict is to be honest as fast as possible and as respectfully as possible. Most of the time, conflict becomes a big deal because we avoid it. Somebody is doing something you don't like, you don't tell them. It's built up, built up, built up. By the time you are telling them, it's such a big problem that you cannot work together anymore. Be honest as fast as possible, but as respectfully as possible. And most of the time, conflict resolution only happens when your aim is to resolve it. If you do something I don't like and I want you to stop, but our relationship continues, then there's a way I will tell you. But if I'm just telling you to fight, there's a way I'll tell you. So if I come and I say, I don't appreciate it when you delay with your payments because it affects my output and this and that and that and that, that approach is likely to lead to a resolution. But if I come and you cry every day, then you will also get defensive. Next thing you see, we don't work together anymore. So be honest as fast as possible, but respectfully as possible.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:34

As a business owner, right? Um, how do you combine two or more businesses together? Do you have to be um a master of one of them before you can move to the next one, or you can work on all of them together because you know you have the know-how to do all of them?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:57

Good question. So the answer to That question is about scaling up. So, scaling up is a very beautiful skill that anyone who wants to become great in life needs to learn. And the way to scale up is by building systems that can operate when you are not overseeing every single detail. So the first thing is that you look for a system that works. And then you look for the right people to be in that system. And then you train them, train the system so that things can operate without you. So that is one thing that a lot of people fail at when they are trying to, even not aside aside opening different businesses, even opening different branches. You are a hairdresser, your saloon is doing well at Kwashiman. Now you want to open a new one at Mataiko. But you can't be at both places. You need to train people to also do the hair at Mataiko. And that means you have to have a system. You have to know that, okay, so when somebody comes, receive them with water first, sit them down, then wash their hair. Do this, do that, do that. Create a system, make it a trainable thing, and pass it along. And competent people is very important. Let me go back to one of my business failures, cockpit. Oh, cockpit's dear. Cockpit suffers with me, pal. One of my biggest mistakes with cockpits was I never found somebody to run cockpits with me. So I have to run links and then go and run it. Whenever I leave it to a manager or somebody there, then things are going down. So after that, every time I start a business, I always make sure from day one, there's at least one person who can operate on my level who is as interested in the project. So that if my eyes leave the ball, for those who know me well, you know that I own Tigon with Baba. And the reason I can decide not to pay attention to Tigon for three months is because Baba is there. If Lynx is having a crisis and my manufacturer is giving me problems and I need to go and solve that, I know I can go and handle it because Baba will take care of Tygon. But if not, that means I can never do that. So invest in systems and then the right people as partners.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:33

Okay, so I know most Ghanaians have issues. Um I mean married Ghanaian couples have issues disclosing their um financial accounts or balance with their spouse. So in this case, um I want to ask what's the best way to build a financial plan together as a couple here in Ghana? Because I know most of us are growing, and things are changing here in Ghana. People are more like open-minded, and people would want to also invest and set a legacy for their family. So, what's the best way um to have a financial plan with your spouse?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:08

I mean, I'm not a relationship expert here, but if you cannot share your finances with your partner, trust me, you have bigger problems than finances. Because your partner is exactly that. They are a partner, it's a life partner. They are your partner in everything you do in life. And one of the most important things, one of the most important parts of your life is your finances. So if you can't share that, then what are you sharing? You can share bodily fluids, but you can't share your finances, then you have you have bigger problems. I personally feel that a couple is supposed to grow financially. But like I said, a life partner, I don't mean you go and get girlfriend this week, no, then you are showing her your bank balance. But once you know that I and this person are good to go for life, you should be able to have money discussions together, grow together. And most of the time, the problems that we have in our relationships come from the fact that we are not sharing. So your lady is there asking you to buy her this expensive watch and buy her this breaking bag and everything. And she doesn't know that account is empty, and you two are posing hard guys. So I'll get it for you, I'll get it for you. Six months later, then you look like, oh, you'll be John Boy. But if she knew, and she knew that we are building towards this, we have investments, we have this, we have that, we are building towards a life, we are going to open a trust fund for our children, we are doing this, we are doing that. She may even be the one who will now tell you that you are overspending on me. You understand? So it's always best to share with your partner.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:57

Okay, thank you. So I I produce music, and I've been doing this for 12 years now, and it seems to me that I'm now waking up to the reality that I need to put structures around my gift. My question to you is at what point in your music career did you realize that this is not play? I need to actually structure things so that I am kind of protected from all sorts of things going on in the music industry, and I can successfully run or do what I have to do in terms of selling my gift to the world. How at what point did he did it come to you that you need to do these things?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:49

I mean, you like my answer, but media, I started with structure. I started with a structure. You see how I said you need to start with contracts. I started with contracts, I started with my own company, I started with a record label structure, I built everything with a system that I could scale. Sometimes we say we are not making money, but it's the thing is, do you understand how to make money? And this is advice I would give. It's not about the music industry, it's about every industry. In every industry, there are so many different things that you can do and so many different ways of making money. So you don't need to study just a part of the industry, you need to study the whole industry. For instance, if I talk about farming right now, what everybody thinks about is the farmer, right? But there's the person who sells the seeds. There's the person selling the fertilizer, there are people who are selling just land for farming. There are people who own machines that farmers use. The farmers don't own it themselves. There are people who come and work on the farm and go. There are people who go and sell the farm products. There are people who are going to actually convert those products into products that we will purchase. They are marketers, distributors. So you can be in the farming industry without being a farmer. Or you can be a farmer and still be in four different parts of the industry and be making money. So maybe you own a farm, but your farm is not making you as much money as the seeds you are selling to other farmers. So the fact that you are in music, most people, and this happens a lot in the arts, music, acting, comedy, all these kinds of things. Everybody wants to be a guy, they want to shine. I want to be the musician. Then when they are not making money, they don't understand. Maybe you can be a producer, maybe you can be a manager, maybe you can be a songwriter, maybe you can be a publisher, maybe you can be a distributor, maybe there are so many other things that you can do still with your talent that will make money while you build. The reason Lynx was able to keep growing, because you all know how expensive the music industry is. Links kept growing because I was a producer. As fast, even though I was a singer, I was making money as a producer. And after making money as a producer, producing for other artists, I started making money as a producer, producing commercials for big companies. So when we were going a long period that artists are hitting, but there's no money coming in. I will be funding their career with the money from Gino, the money from MTN, the money from Vodafone. Do you get me? So I didn't just think I'm a musician, therefore, the only way I can make money is to sing. So whatever industry you are in, think systematically, think strategically. Think and see what unique abilities do you have. We all know Headless YouTuber, right? You know he was a musician. Cooler. And he realized he's a very funny guy, he's very vocal, he started content creation. Now look, he just bought a new car. So you have to look at what special skills do you have that you can use to advance your life? Don't just look at the end result and especially look at this person has made it. Sarkotia is big, so I want to be like Sarkozy. You are not Sarkozy, you are special in your way. What special skill do you have that you can use to keep yourself going through the pain until you get to where you want to be? Okay. Thank you for watching this episode. Now, the Mastermind's dream is about building a community of people who have the right mindset and are ready to take their success into their own hands. So do me this wonderful favor, subscribe and share with anybody out there who you believe you want to see have the right mindset to succeed so that together we can all become the masterminds we deserve to be.