August 7, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode of Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, John challenges the myth that wealth must be built young—and proves that your 50s can be your financial prime. Drawing from personal experience, hard data, and powerful stories, John outlines how most millionaires actually reach that milestone in midlife through consistency, mindset, and smart investing. He shares practical strategies for building wealth starting at any age, from the power of compound interest and homeownership to leveraging your time and talent. Whether you're 25 or 55, this episode will reframe your perspective, fire up your purpose, and help you reclaim control of your financial future.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
this is John O'Brien and this is Money and Wealth
on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio. Is it true
(00:23):
that some millionaires make it there by fifty? Is it
true that fifty is not too late? No, that's not true.
It's a lie. The reality is actually most millionaires become
that way in their fifties. It is very much true
(00:48):
that fifty is very young, and because of wellness, fifty
is really the new forty. And I'm going to get
into the facts of the matter in a moment. There's
a lot of people running around really sort of anxiety
written feeling like they're running out of time. They're like
twenty six, I can't tell you, maybe I talked to it.
(01:08):
They just feel like they're an absolute failure at twenty five,
twenty six, twenty eight, thirty two, Like, no, you take
care of yourself. You know you're going to live with this.
I mean because of artificial intelligence and what it's going
to do. I mean that plus wellness is going to
extend I believe your life. I think cancer is going
(01:30):
to be solved by artificial intelligence and human interact engagement
within ten years. I'm CoA chair of the AI Ethics
Council with Sam Autman and who I believe is the
Steve jobs As generation, and I believe a lot of
innovations are coming. But that's a different podcast episode. Let
me stay focused on this. I'm going to tell you
(01:52):
how to get rich. Sorry, rich is a contract building wealth.
You're doing your sleep. I'm gonna show you how to
build wealth, which is your path to becoming a millionaire
because it's hard to do it on a paycheck. You
don't find many folks who are sustainably millionaires doing it
just with cash, okay, because cash flow, it flows, It
(02:14):
flows in and it flows out with the same Actually,
I believe it flows out with the greater velocity that
it flows in. If that's all you got is cash,
then at some point you will be broke because if
your outfloat exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be
your downfall. So let's first talk about I'm I'm gonna
break some myths. I'm gonna break some eggs, and I'm
(02:35):
gonna give you some building blocks. Pull out your pen,
pull out your piece of paper, pull out your iPad,
pull out your iPhone, pull out your notes, fill out
your digital your digital app that you use, pull out
your artificial intelligence tool that you use, whatever it is
or you're using to take notes. It's time to mark
(02:59):
it all down. So number one, can you become a
millionaire by sixty years of age ish investing a couple
hundred dollars a month? Absolutely yes, The answer is absolutely yes.
(03:21):
So if you in scenario A, you take three hundred
dollars your age twenty five in this example, So tell
all your tell all your your friends at twenty five
ish to listen to this podcast. Open a institutional investment account.
I'm not talking about all this flaky stuff. I'm not
talking about investing in get rich Quick scheme. They want
(03:44):
to cover all that stuff also in a minute. I'm
talking about stable like you know, you want to call
it boring investments, things that we that are staples, that
are best in class, flights to quality, things that you
use talk about. I'm talking about insitutional companies you know,
who invest in things that you use every day in
(04:04):
Companies that you respect are going to be around unless
the world ends, will be around. Arguably your entire lifetime.
So you're going to open an account, right, and operation
can help direct you about where to open an account.
You'll make the decision. You're going to put in three
hundred dollars a month. You're going to get an annual
(04:25):
return on an S and P five hundred, which is
the historical average of ten percent. Okay, you're going to
have a thirty five year time horizon because you're going
to live in this example to sixty sixty five years
of age. By the way, if you live in a
five undred creditorred neighborhood, talking about the power of credit scores,
you live in a five undred credit score neighborhood, you
(04:46):
live to sixty one years of age on average. It's
a twenty year delta, twenty year difference. Right, If you
live in a seven A credit core neighborhood, you live
twenty years longer. Go to the Hope Financial Wellness Index
right and type in your zip code and I will
tell you how you're living. And it's fifteen minutes apart,
(05:07):
twenty year delta on life expectancy difference. And it's not
just the credit scorer, it's the trending indicators underneath it. Hope,
well being, believe, faith, confidence, joy, optimism. I can't tell
tell you that being positive is going to make you succeed.
I guarantee that being negative is going to make you fail.
(05:28):
So mindset matters. So all poverty other than sustenance poverty
roof over your head, reasonable health care, basic well being,
fooling the table, all other forms of poverty are mindset.
Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't,
(05:48):
you're absolutely right. So if you have the mindset of
long term and you believe in your future. You got
your credit score up. You're living below your means, right,
you're investing two hundred dollars a month, which you spent on,
by the way, going to a restaurant or Starbucks or whatever.
I don't I like Starbucks, am I'm picking on Starbucks,
(06:10):
by the way. But if you know whatever you spend
three hundred dollars a month on, you do that over
thirty five years, from age twenty five to eight sixty,
you'll be worth just from that alone one point one
million dollars. Scenario be two hundred dollars a month, two
hundred dollars a month starting at age twenty five, ten
percent interest. Thirty five years is the term. You be
(06:31):
worth about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars right that
plus home ownership, you're still a millionaire, probably much more
than that with homeownership. So time plus consistency equals wealth.
It's not about how much you've It's not how about
how much you have or how fast you start. Is
(06:52):
how long you give it to grow. Okay, So I
want you to change your mindset so you can change
your life. In one year, you're going to earn a
little interest. By year twenty, you're earning interest on the interest.
(07:14):
I hope you got that money makes more money on
money than money can ever make on labor. That's the
last big shift after the industrial revolution and the technology evolution,
you really had. I believe a financial revolution where people
on Wall Street realize that they can make more money
(07:34):
on money than they can make on investing in labor
or machinery or whatever. And I think the only thing
that things out strip that it's going to be technology
tied to artificial intelligence. But that's another conversation for another day.
So you're going to join this group. This is where
the main street is going to follow Wall Street. So
(07:55):
over time. Your money is making money on money. That's
why real estate is so powerful, because you got your
compounding the money you put into it, and you're using
the power of mortgage leverage a conservative mortgage, conservative debt
levels at good interest rates and good terms, but you're
using the compound the leveraging effect. That you've put ten
(08:17):
to twenty percent of your money into that property, and
the mortgage companies put eighty ninety percent of their money
into it. You've got a great rincher's rate, great terms.
You're going to give the power of compounding over time,
and you're going to your ten or twenty percent. It's
going to benefit of the lift of the whole dollar,
the whole hundred percent, and you're going to build wealth
over time. It's interest on interest is money on money.
(08:41):
But I'm going to do a whole series just on
home ownership. Thank you Janics Brian Howroyd for encouraging me
to do that. You don't need to You don't need
to be rich to get rich. Okay, this is my
mother's story. You just need to be consistent. Right when
he the Smith was consistent ten dollars a day. There's
two coffees or lunch money. Right, put that in the
(09:04):
market and buy sixty. You could be a millionaire without
ever getting a raise. All right, So that is the
second way I've told you how to become a millionaire.
I do a whole piece on how to be a
millionaire in five years. Go back and watch that podcast
and watch those videos. Now. Is it true that millionaires
(09:30):
mostly happen occur develop in their fifties. Yes, most millionaires
don't hit the millionaire mark into their fifties because wealth
creation is typically the result of time, discipline, and compounding,
(09:52):
not sudden windfalls. So wealth builds slowly over time. Compound
interests works best with time. Those who started investing in
their twenties and thirties don't usually see millionaire results until
decades later. It often takes twenty to thirty years of
steady investing, home ownership, business building. That's, by the way,
(10:16):
this is my story, right. I'm fifty nine, and I
really hit my stride somewhere between fifty and fifty three
fifty four, and then things just took off like a rocket, right,
And so what I've been building slowly just compounded over time.
(10:36):
But I'm convinced that all that was based on what
I did for a couple of decades before that. I
gave up going to hanging out in the party at
the parties and the clubs and doing you know, smoking
hookah or smoking reef for what you know, smoking weed
or getting drunk or you know, chasing girls whatever it
(10:56):
is my friends were doing. I'm like, no, that's good.
I'm focused right, because I did not have inheritance, right,
my mom and dad were working people. I did not
want to do anything illegal, right, That was not the
way I flow. I just figured if I use if
what I had was my time, I want to I
want to let anybody abuse my time. You can abuse
maybe one time my money. I want to allow you
(11:18):
to abuse my time. I'm ruthless about my time. And
so I decided to invest anything I had was my time,
and I was going to do it in a way
that compounded based on my time, my talent. Really, I
was a private equity firm and I was the sole
product of that private equity firm. I invested in me.
It was a bet, but the best bet you can
(11:38):
may make its on yourself. So it takes twenty to
thirty years of steady investing home ownership, business building. To
cross a million dollar threshold, I've done it multiple, multiple,
multiple times over now because again it's it's now you know,
money makes more money on money than money can make
on labor. That's what I said earlier. So what is it?
(12:00):
What's what's the story that it's easier to make ten
thousand dollars on one hundred thousand dollars than it is
to make a thousand on ten thousand dollars. It is
easier to make a million on one hundred million, right
than it is to make one hundred thousand on a million.
It just these keeps compounding. Now once you get to
(12:22):
once you get over a million, and again, steady as
you go, you're consistent. You know, now you're making big leaps, right,
and then you get to to twenty million, and then
fifty million, huge leaps, right. And once you get to
one hundred millionaire level. Once you get to billionaire level,
I mean literally, unless you screw it up, you just
(12:43):
shoveling cash and you can do this like certainly, I
mean even millionaire. A millionaire mark is a huge accomplishment
and it's something you can achieve in your lifetime. Fidelity
reports the average fo A one K millionaire. I just
met with a Fidelity of founding family last week. Actually
(13:07):
a very nice person. And Fidelite Investments is a company
that we partner with at Delta air Lines to provide
financial coaching and counseling at all one hundred thousand employees
at Delta, and they are a four to one K manager.
And Fidelity reports that the average four a one K millionaire,
meaning that it's just auto invested. Right, You're not doing
(13:27):
anything spectacular back, You're not doing anything other than putting
that money in every paycheck, period, set and release, going
about your business and never taking it out. Fidelity reports
the average four oh one K millionaire is fifty nine
years old. Hello, okay, okay, make this up. Coincidence is
God's way? Are remaining anonymous? That's and Andrew Young quote
(13:48):
the average for all one K millionaire. I'm not a
four a one K millionaire. I've been making I made
my money in real estate and in other areas and
traditional business, and I use my own talent, my own hustle. Right,
But I'm and I don't work for anybody else that
worked for me. I have a four to one K,
(14:09):
but it's modest. But even that's on modest from my
from my network. But even that's on auto investment. I
don't bother it. But the average person who really focuses
on their four one K to become a millionaire an
employee at W two employee, all right, I write checks,
I don't cash them, don't really cast them cash them
(14:30):
as a is a W two employee employee. I'm an employer, right,
Uh is fifty nine years of age when they hit
that millionaire mark. In your twenties and your thirties. Uh,
this is why early years are for learning, not earning.
Right in your twenties, in your thirties, you're paying off
your student loans, which is an investment in you. By
(14:51):
the way, you're gonna make more money. You have more
earning power by far, by more than double with a
The higher education of some sort versus a high school education,
particularly in this new world we're in, the nature of
higher education is going to change. I believe. I don't
believe that four year traditional degrees or six year or
(15:15):
whatever you know for advanced degrees. I don't believe that
that's the only path to education. I just believe you
need to get an education you can also trades by
the way, tradesmen tradeswomen. Then we need fifty thousand plumbers
a year. I think that number is right over the
top of my head. About the same for electricians. I
mean you cannot AI and electrician you cannot AI. Right,
(15:37):
a plumber, those pipes broke break, you need some help
right now, You're going to call somebody. You're paying whatever
they're going rate is. These people are making bank. They're
making good money, and if you invest that, you can
become a millionaire in the trades right, much quicker than
we're talking about in these examples I'm giving you here.
But once again you on average, all millionaires, including small
(16:02):
business millionaires, do it in their fifties. So in your
twenties and your thirties, you're paying off student loans, you're
figuring out your career path, you're making mistakes, moving cities,
(16:22):
switching jobs. Sound familiar. Wealth typically follows mastery and consistency,
which people often don't hit until their forties and their fifties. Right,
income tends to peak in their fifties. In your fifties,
for most professional salaries peak between forty five and sixty
(16:45):
years of age. More seniority, leadership roles, or business equity
happens later in life. Typically it's certainly all this, by
the way, is certainly the case for me. Wealth accumulation
accelerates when the income is higher. Expenses have stabilized, So
when you're younger, everything that goes out comes in is
going out, your party and you having fun. You're traveling
(17:07):
as you should. By the way. Number four, Home equity
and real assets appreciate over decades. Slow it down, let
the game come to you. Many many become millionaires, not
through cash, but through equity. This is my story. Primary residents, investment, property,
(17:28):
retirement accounts. These assets often take ten to twenty to
thirty years to mature in value. Number five lifestyle shifts
that enable savings in later years. Kids grow up, f
your childcare expenses, debt is reduced or paid off. Typically
lifestyle stabilizes. Right. This frees up more money to invest
(17:51):
in build networks, which means when by the time you
hit forty forty five year go now has become there
will be worth two million dollars or three million dollars. Well,
maybe maybe your kids have you know, because you had
kids early, maybe your kids have rolled out and they're
doing their own thing because you had them when you're twenty.
I'm not encouraging to have children early. By the way,
here's some bonus insights for you, the flash flash versus
(18:14):
the foundational myth. Right. People often assume the millionaires got
rich through you know, lottery or fame or whatever you know,
but that's not what the data shows. Only twenty percent
of millionaires inherited their wealth are got at some windfall somewhere.
Eighty percent of all millionaires are self made, just like me.
(18:39):
Slow and steady wins the race. Don't let Instagram fool you.
Real wealth is boring and it takes time. But if
you stay the chorus by your fifties, you can be
the first millionaire in your family tree. Now can I
get an a man on that? And that is the
new sexy. There are no ugly millionaires. There are no
(18:59):
ugly senti millionaires. There are no ugly billionaires. Right, everybody's
attractive when you're successful. Now you say, well, but John,
you know, once I get to my fifties, aren't my
best years behind me? No? No, you're going to live
to one hundred. If you're in this generation, in good health,
your best years are ahead of you because now you
(19:21):
have wisdom. You still have your good looks, you still
have your good health, You've got talent, skills, optionality. All
money is his freedom. Now you've got more freedom. Oh,
now it's time and to roll right. It's an old
joke that youth is wasted on the young. Right. So
you made mistakes, you screwed up, you tripped and fail
you over you thought things were more important they really were.
(19:43):
You're tripping out over things that weren't important, trying to
spending all your time to impress somebody you really don't
want to be, like, hello, can I get an a
man on that? By you get older, you're like, okay,
that's a bunch of drama. I'm good. So intelligence comes,
you know, at any time, comes through books, but wisdom
comes with time and experiences. So your wellness will absolutely contribute.
(20:09):
Right to the fifty really feeling like the new forty right,
And there's data to support this. In nineteen fifty, the
US life expectancy with sixty eight years of age. Today
it's seventy seven to eighty years of age. Again, it's
eighty one and seven hundred credit corre neighborhoods. That means
(20:29):
that at fifty year old today often has thirty to
forty years of life expectancy, especially with access to good
health care and lifestyle choices. Their wellness economy by itself
is a five trillion dollar economy plus including fitness, wellness,
mental health, nutrition, holistic care. And people over fifty are
(20:52):
the fastest growing demographic who are going to be using
more fitness and more wellness tech. I think Peloton, WHOOPI, hacking, etc.
So this is a business idea for you. By the way,
you've got the largest population ever over sixty five. You
have more people over sixty five than under age eighteen, right,
and these folks over sixty five tend to be affluent.
(21:15):
So that's maybe another podcast or another day. But I
want you to be encouraged by growing older gracefully and
positively and with a lot of positive expectation that you
can live a quality of life longer me and midlife
(21:37):
reinvention is the new normal. Career pivots at forty five
to sixty years of age are now expected, not rare, Okay,
Entrepreneurship rates are highest amongst people aged forty five to
sixty four. Think about the Coffin study. Coffin Foundation study.
Read that study that talks about that second acts are
(21:57):
being taken more seriously by people because people feel healthier
and more energized than generations before. Right, mental health and
mindset shifts. Greater focus on purpose, therapy, emotional wellbeing is
helping people to avoid burnout and chronic stress. Many people
(22:18):
feel more aligned, clear headed, and focused at fifty than
they ever did it thirty. I think I'm I Please,
don't hate me for saying this. I think I look
better now. I think I feel better now. I'm in
better I'm in better shape, I've got better energy, I've
got better purpose, I've got I'm calmer. Look, let me
(22:39):
just say it. Smart, it's a new sexy. Right, Smart
and mature, steady, sure is a new sexy. That's what
I'm talking about. Boring is a new sexy. Right. That's
a TDJ quote that you gave me the last one.
Boring is a new sexy. I did a podcast on that,
So here you go. I'm gonna give you some examples
of folks who knocked it out the part later in life.
(23:03):
So fifty is just the beginning. All right, health, well,
health and wisdom and winning is your second half act.
Most millionaires don't hit this milestone their twenties or thirties.
And again court in the Fidelity, this happens in your
mid fifties, not by winning the lottery, not by talking
about all this cash, got this dollar, I got this gag,
(23:24):
this bag, got this that All money is an exchange
of value. That's all it is. And if your outfloaks
has your inflow, then your overhead it will be your downfall.
And if you're a professional athlete, are you trying to
hook up with one, or you're a rapper or whatever,
you're a singer, all good, that's fantastic. But if you
burn out and run through your cash and your contract
(23:44):
is over in your late twenties or early thirties, which
is typically the case. And if what I just said
is true, which're going to live another sixty eighty years,
what are you going to do for the rest of
your life? Work at Starbucks, work at work at work
at Walmart, work at Petco. Right, that's not going to
go very well for your ego. So you need to
set your life up for the rest of your life.
(24:06):
But here's the good news. It's not too late. It's
not too late to reset, rebound, repurpose. So the myth
about early success is mostly wrong. Most of the folks that
I knew who are balling in their twenties are broke now.
(24:27):
They were flossing. They're balling. They were John, you should
hang out with us. They're all broken, most of them
asking me for a job. The twenties and thirties. As
I said earlier, but I'll say it again, it's worth repeating,
are often about learning about failure. So it's just an all.
Failure is an outcome to an experiment, that's all it is.
And it's about reinventions, about finding your purpose, finding your meaning,
(24:52):
becoming reasonably comfortable in your own skin. And then you
hustle for decades and and then you begin to harvest. Okay,
so the data shows that most millonaires become that way
in their mid fifties. But I'm not just talking about
money or wealth creation or investing in entrepreneurship in real estate,
(25:16):
although that's what I did. I'm going to also talk
to you about community millionaires, spiritual millionaires, social justice millionaires. Right,
people who've overinduxed on purpose, on purpose and on purpose
(25:37):
people talk about Nelson Mandela, and they're so proud as
I'm I of Nelson Mandela. I've got Nelson Mandela's prison
number right on my risk right now. I wear it
every day, Okay. And I think that my mentor and
bassor Andrew Young is a Nelson Mandela of this generation.
But Nelson Mandela people don't really think about this. He
was an angry black man. He was an attorney. He
(25:59):
was angry most of his thirties, in his forties about
the injustice in the world. He went into prison at
age forty seven, please hear me now, went in the
prison at forty seven, right, stayed there twenty seven long years.
He was not a global leader until age seventy. Everything
(26:21):
you think you know about Nelson Mandela, the world changing president,
the world changing iconic leader, he did after the age
of seventy. Even got remarried to the love of his life.
I think it was Grascia Michelle Right and lived an incredible,
extraordinary life that will literally live on forever in his legacy.
(26:45):
Colonel Sanders. He founded KFC, the Fried Chicken franchise. He
didn't do that until age sixty five. Started it at
a sixty five veruwayin Right, the famed designer. She started
designing dresses at age forty. Here's one for you. Sam Walton,
(27:11):
founder of Walmart, one of my partners. I'm CEO. I'm CEO.
I'm co founder with the CEO of Walmart. A financial
literacy for all Doug McMillan. I love the dude, and
I really admire the company. But that started with one
store and a big vision, and he started scaling his company.
He didn't start scaling Walmart until his mid fifties. Now
(27:37):
you hear my story, and I really have not. I mean,
I think my best years are ahead of me, but
I didn't really hit my stride. I've been building infrastructure
and building systems, building a management team, building a company,
building organization, making mistakes right, falling down, getting back up successes,
going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. I
(27:59):
take no for vitamins, building resiliency over the rounded, through it.
We're going to get to it. I mean, my twenties,
my teens, and my twenties, my thirties were mostly a blur.
I mean, I'm just running. I was just runn I've
been to one hundred countries didn't really enjoy most of them,
and I was just run. I was taking care of
(28:19):
business and I went there broke. When they're you know,
try t try traveling coach to Japan. I've done that right,
coach to Africa, in the middle seat, with your knees
in your in your chest. I've done all that. Whatever
experience is, I've had it. And that just gives you
(28:40):
a lot of comfort later in your life. And no
one can talk to you crazy. When one talk to
you out side of their mouth, try to tell you something.
That's why when you see me on comments on my
on social media, on Instagram, whatever, if I'm coming back
at somebody sharp, it's because I know what I'm talking
about and they don't right to argue with the food
cruiser a too right, And so I don't argue with people.
(29:03):
I just simply set them straight. And now, if I
don't know what I'm talking about, I don't say anything.
But if I know my facts, don't come at me sideways. Right.
Have you a me coming to me respectfully? You're not
gonna disrespect me on my own page. I mean I
was born at night, not last night. Right now, when
out of myself esteem, depends on someone else's acceptance of me.
But again, this comes with time. This level of sort
(29:24):
of personal comfort, being reasonably comfortable in your own skin, right,
just comes in time, comes with time. So again I
gained spiritual wealth. We're not human beings having a spiritual experience,
where spiritual beings having a human experience. That spiritual wealth
came with time. That wisdom, right, social wealth, community legacy wealth.
(29:48):
You know, the impact work that we're doing. You know,
Operation Hope is thirty three years old. I mean that's
older than some people listening to this podcast. So it
just takes time, you know. Quincy Jones says, it takes
twenty years to change a culture. Right, in the last
twenty years, I think we've made dumb sexy. We've dumbed
down and celebrated it in his time to make smart
(30:10):
sexy again. So real worth, real wealth, and real worth
equals more than money. So financial wealth with community wealth,
mental wealth, legacy wealth, social wealth enough for everybody. That's
(30:31):
what I'm doing here is sort of reinvesting in you.
This is these are really important things. The idea that
your fifties are when you're when your story is over
is ridiculous. That's when your network, your relationship, capital, your knowledge,
and your narrative all ALIVEE it's the right time. It's
(30:52):
a great rap. See if I get my brother Ta
to put me on one of his albums with Killer Mike.
So here's for the late bloomers. I want you to
understand that it was okay that you party through your
(31:14):
twenties and your thirties. You're not behind, You're just on time.
You're just beginning. The best builders of legacy often come
with scars and stories and seasoning. You cannot have a
rainbow without a storm first. Can I get an amen?
That's not just good theology, good philosophy, it's actually a
(31:37):
scientific fact. I want you to start with budgeting and saving.
Even if you're starting at forty five or fifty five,
it's not too late. I want you to go to
one of my whole financial coaches. We tell them I
sense you. They'll give you a starter scholarship from Operation
Hope to get you into one year of free financial
(31:58):
coaching and counseling. We're going to help you create a budget,
a lifestyle budget, an investment budget, and a flossing budget
if you want, certainly the lifestyle living budget. We're going
to help you realign your life, take it back control
of your life, master your credit, get your debt down,
stop spending money on silly stuff, or at least point
the silly stuff out to you, so that you can
(32:19):
decide for yourself whether in pressing somebody you don't know
what money you don't have about things that don't matter
is actually something you should be spending your time and
energy on. They're going to help you get your life
right and help you make some decisions and keep you
on tasks like a coach, like a private banker. You're
going to see your life skyrocket. I want you to
tell your friends and listen to this podcast. I want
(32:40):
you get your book Financial Literacy for All and open
it up and read it once, one chapter a week,
with your posse, with your crew. Don't do this alone.
Do it with your mouse, your smouse. Mouse. Don't maybe
if you're alone, do it with the mouse. Do it
with your spouse. Right, do it with your family. Do
it with your children. Do it with your sorority group,
your fraternity group, social group. Right, with your friends, your relatives,
(33:04):
your coworkers. Right, create a club, a silver rights club
and the suites to match the civil rights activity in
the streets. Be intentional about your success. I want you
to buy a house. I'm going to do this again,
a dedicated series on the process of owning a home.
So don't worry about that. I'm gonna walk you through
it because you shouldn't feel ashamed that you don't know
(33:26):
the steps. There's no shame in the game of not
knowing right, it's not asking questions. Quincy Jones again, great
quote from him that God gave you two ears in
one mouth, so you listen twice as much as you talk.
Be nosy, right. I want you to own a home.
Why Because the number one way you build wealth in
America is home ownership. Forty five forty four percent of
(33:51):
African Americans own a home, compared to seventy five percent
of our mainstream counterparts. Why they're doing it because it's
the easiest way to pass away the home own ownership.
And I just get things ridiculous to see these folks
on TV who own a home telling you not to
buy a home. I think it's crazy. So ignore that
noise and buy a house. The whole tax policy in
(34:12):
the US is centered around and focused on encouraging home ownership,
start a business, get that wheel done, open that investment
account today people to day, and don't say you can't
do it, because you certainly could go out of that
club or that restaurant, couldn't. You certainly can go out
(34:34):
to that party. By the way, you know, there used
to be rent parties back in the day. Back in
the forties and the fifties, Black folks did rent parties.
You'd go to one party. We revived this, by the way,
if you like, somebody would hold a party. They couldn't
they're having problem meeting their rent, and everybody was come
and pay ten dollars at the door, the equivalent today
of ten dollars at the door. And next month it'd
(34:56):
be a somebody else holding a party and they were
a little short on rent money or grocery money, whatever,
and then they pay that person ten dollars at the
door and everybody had fun. Everybody, you know, was great entertainment.
You're offset the costs of the party, but you also
help to endow this person to live a dignified life.
You can also do that, by the way, a little
bit more money, maybe one hundred bucks, and start a
(35:16):
business rotating pool. That allows this person to start a business.
And the next time you have an event and that
person is able to start a business, and and you know,
you don't own anything in that person's business, so that
makes it more complicated. So there shouldn't be any debts here.
You know, everybody gets a turn. If it's ten people
in this group or twenty the more people in the group.
(35:39):
Actually easier is to do this with real money. You
get thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred people in a group,
and then over the course and if everybody's contributing one
hundred dollars a week, or one hundred dollars every two weeks,
or one hundred dollars a month, then over the course
of time, right, it's twelve months in the year. So
if you're doing that once a month, they're going to
do twelve turns at a time. You have you know,
(36:01):
if you have fifty people in the group, that within
four years everybody gets a chance to start a business
or to become a homeowner. Okay, that's a whole different situation,
but you should not be coming back and saying where's
my money later? Right in that example that that's where
it gets messy, right, So buy a home, start a business,
(36:21):
get that will done, open that investment account with an institutional,
credible investment manager and buy it. Don't buy flaky stuff.
This is not the time for crypto. Hello, I'm not
being anti crypto. I'm saying I don't want you using
your rent money for silly stuff that may implode on you.
People who made money in crypto in part got lucky.
They just got lucky. You got unlucky or have lost
(36:43):
it all. So you take if you want to do
crypto or whatever, take two percent and then do that.
By the way, I think crypto, I think blockchain technology,
which is undercrypto, is brilliant. I just want you losing
your money. That's the only reason I want you to
be protected, right. I want you to build a financial
comeback plan with your name on it. So it's just
(37:07):
not too late to build way wealth after fifty. In fact,
that's the expectation, Mandela. Time means that your greatest chapter
just might be ahead of you. Late bloomers. Not only
can you not win, you're expected to win. You will win.
You know, it's hard to hit a moving target, and
(37:27):
it's really hard to lose when you're compounding that benefit
of consistency over time. So either you're a late bloomer,
you know you're right on time for becoming wealthy and
finding purpose in the middle course of your life. Reinvention
(37:48):
at midlife is the new normal. Okay. So I want
you to be encouraged. I want you to start the
movie of your life right now. I want you to
tell people you love all around you that they can
do it right. That whether you believe you can or
(38:10):
whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right that mindset matters.
Read my book Up from Nothing on Mindset. Read my
book The Memo, because it is what you don't know
that you don't know this killing you but you think
you know. Read Financial Literacy for All because it gives
you all the tools to master what I think is
(38:31):
the civil rights issue of this generation. Financial literacy. Read
how the Portkin said capitalism, so that you know what
an asset you and we really are. Read Love Leadership
because I want you to come at life as a
lover and as a leader who gives right Again. I
(38:51):
can't guarantee that being positive is going to make you
a success, but I absolutely guarantee you that being negative
is going to make you fail and you'll be miserable.
Doctor King one said that hate and evil cannot self
generate because it has within it the seeds of its
(39:12):
own demise. I want you to be positive. I want
you to see the glasses half full. I want you
to get up in the morning, no matter where you are,
no matter what age you are, and know that this
might be and just could be the best day, in
the best week, in the best year, in the best
era of your life. Remember, Mandela found the love of
(39:32):
his life after he got out of prison. And he
didn't change the world until after he got out of prison.
That means his seventies, in his eighties, we're killing it.
He was at the club, the Club of his best
life at eighty five. My mentor and bassor Andrew Young
(39:53):
is ninety three years young. You talk to him if
you have the opportunity of talking to man who was
on the He was on the balcony with doctor King,
the last living lieutenant for Doctor Martina King Jr. Helped
to build Atlanta as the only international city in the South,
brought the Olympics to it Atlanta, Georgia, you know, helped
to get Delta to go to Africa, and he's on
the board at Delta. Just so many accolades, over one hundred,
(40:16):
honorary doctor degrees, congressman, mayor, builder, civil rights leader, pastor,
so many lives within this life, so many lives. And
why is he still alive when all of his friends,
many of his friends have passed away. I believe because
he has sustained purpose. He's one of these millionaires of
(40:37):
spirit and soul and purpose. He's every week going to
give speeches. Every week, he's traveling somewhere every week. He's engaged,
just at our house a couple of days ago for
Shakesware's birthday. I mean, he's always engaging in life. He's
doing interviews, he's writing, and he's thinking, he's reflecting. He's
(40:58):
not just playing golf, retiring at sixty years of age
sixty five and going to play golf. Those friends of his,
many of them, most of them not nothing, no knock
against golf. If you want to play golf, go do it.
But they lost their purpose, they lost their way. There
was nothing to get up for in the morning. That
(41:19):
hell was bigger than themselves. Purpose is something is large
and more important yourself and a lot of those people
have passed on to glory. Bastard Young has lived a long,
glorious life continues to do so because he's more focused
on giving than getting a purpose larger and more important
than himself, and that extends his wellness, his well being,
his life, his legacy, his purpose. Part of that legacy
(41:42):
for him is in the mic with you right now,
because he helped to raise me and all forever be
in his debt. You can become a millionaire in your fifties.
I just gave you a small dose of that. This
is John O'Brien is Money and Wealth on the Black
Effect Network on iHeartRadio. You can change and retake your life.
(42:06):
It starts right now. Tell your friends to subscribe to
this podcast. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a
(42:29):
production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts
from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(44:03):
Dep
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
this is John O'Brien and this is Money and Wealth
on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio. Is it true
(00:23):
that some millionaires make it there by fifty? Is it
true that fifty is not too late? No, that's not true.
It's a lie. The reality is actually most millionaires become
that way in their fifties. It is very much true
(00:48):
that fifty is very young, and because of wellness, fifty
is really the new forty. And I'm going to get
into the facts of the matter in a moment. There's
a lot of people running around really sort of anxiety
written feeling like they're running out of time. They're like
twenty six, I can't tell you, maybe I talked to it.
(01:08):
They just feel like they're an absolute failure at twenty five,
twenty six, twenty eight, thirty two, Like, no, you take
care of yourself. You know you're going to live with this.
I mean because of artificial intelligence and what it's going
to do. I mean that plus wellness is going to
extend I believe your life. I think cancer is going
(01:30):
to be solved by artificial intelligence and human interact engagement
within ten years. I'm CoA chair of the AI Ethics
Council with Sam Autman and who I believe is the
Steve jobs As generation, and I believe a lot of
innovations are coming. But that's a different podcast episode. Let
me stay focused on this. I'm going to tell you
(01:52):
how to get rich. Sorry, rich is a contract building wealth.
You're doing your sleep. I'm gonna show you how to
build wealth, which is your path to becoming a millionaire
because it's hard to do it on a paycheck. You
don't find many folks who are sustainably millionaires doing it
just with cash, okay, because cash flow, it flows, It
(02:14):
flows in and it flows out with the same Actually,
I believe it flows out with the greater velocity that
it flows in. If that's all you got is cash,
then at some point you will be broke because if
your outfloat exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be
your downfall. So let's first talk about I'm I'm gonna
break some myths. I'm gonna break some eggs, and I'm
(02:35):
gonna give you some building blocks. Pull out your pen,
pull out your piece of paper, pull out your iPad,
pull out your iPhone, pull out your notes, fill out
your digital your digital app that you use, pull out
your artificial intelligence tool that you use, whatever it is
or you're using to take notes. It's time to mark
(02:59):
it all down. So number one, can you become a
millionaire by sixty years of age ish investing a couple
hundred dollars a month? Absolutely yes, The answer is absolutely yes.
(03:21):
So if you in scenario A, you take three hundred
dollars your age twenty five in this example, So tell
all your tell all your your friends at twenty five
ish to listen to this podcast. Open a institutional investment account.
I'm not talking about all this flaky stuff. I'm not
talking about investing in get rich Quick scheme. They want
(03:44):
to cover all that stuff also in a minute. I'm
talking about stable like you know, you want to call
it boring investments, things that we that are staples, that
are best in class, flights to quality, things that you
use talk about. I'm talking about insitutional companies you know,
who invest in things that you use every day in
(04:04):
Companies that you respect are going to be around unless
the world ends, will be around. Arguably your entire lifetime.
So you're going to open an account, right, and operation
can help direct you about where to open an account.
You'll make the decision. You're going to put in three
hundred dollars a month. You're going to get an annual
(04:25):
return on an S and P five hundred, which is
the historical average of ten percent. Okay, you're going to
have a thirty five year time horizon because you're going
to live in this example to sixty sixty five years
of age. By the way, if you live in a
five undred creditorred neighborhood, talking about the power of credit scores,
you live in a five undred credit score neighborhood, you
(04:46):
live to sixty one years of age on average. It's
a twenty year delta, twenty year difference. Right, If you
live in a seven A credit core neighborhood, you live
twenty years longer. Go to the Hope Financial Wellness Index
right and type in your zip code and I will
tell you how you're living. And it's fifteen minutes apart,
(05:07):
twenty year delta on life expectancy difference. And it's not
just the credit scorer, it's the trending indicators underneath it. Hope,
well being, believe, faith, confidence, joy, optimism. I can't tell
tell you that being positive is going to make you succeed.
I guarantee that being negative is going to make you fail.
(05:28):
So mindset matters. So all poverty other than sustenance poverty
roof over your head, reasonable health care, basic well being,
fooling the table, all other forms of poverty are mindset.
Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't,
(05:48):
you're absolutely right. So if you have the mindset of
long term and you believe in your future. You got
your credit score up. You're living below your means, right,
you're investing two hundred dollars a month, which you spent on,
by the way, going to a restaurant or Starbucks or whatever.
I don't I like Starbucks, am I'm picking on Starbucks,
(06:10):
by the way. But if you know whatever you spend
three hundred dollars a month on, you do that over
thirty five years, from age twenty five to eight sixty,
you'll be worth just from that alone one point one
million dollars. Scenario be two hundred dollars a month, two
hundred dollars a month starting at age twenty five, ten
percent interest. Thirty five years is the term. You be
(06:31):
worth about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars right that
plus home ownership, you're still a millionaire, probably much more
than that with homeownership. So time plus consistency equals wealth.
It's not about how much you've It's not how about
how much you have or how fast you start. Is
(06:52):
how long you give it to grow. Okay, So I
want you to change your mindset so you can change
your life. In one year, you're going to earn a
little interest. By year twenty, you're earning interest on the interest.
(07:14):
I hope you got that money makes more money on
money than money can ever make on labor. That's the
last big shift after the industrial revolution and the technology evolution,
you really had. I believe a financial revolution where people
on Wall Street realize that they can make more money
(07:34):
on money than they can make on investing in labor
or machinery or whatever. And I think the only thing
that things out strip that it's going to be technology
tied to artificial intelligence. But that's another conversation for another day.
So you're going to join this group. This is where
the main street is going to follow Wall Street. So
(07:55):
over time. Your money is making money on money. That's
why real estate is so powerful, because you got your
compounding the money you put into it, and you're using
the power of mortgage leverage a conservative mortgage, conservative debt
levels at good interest rates and good terms, but you're
using the compound the leveraging effect. That you've put ten
(08:17):
to twenty percent of your money into that property, and
the mortgage companies put eighty ninety percent of their money
into it. You've got a great rincher's rate, great terms.
You're going to give the power of compounding over time,
and you're going to your ten or twenty percent. It's
going to benefit of the lift of the whole dollar,
the whole hundred percent, and you're going to build wealth
over time. It's interest on interest is money on money.
(08:41):
But I'm going to do a whole series just on
home ownership. Thank you Janics Brian Howroyd for encouraging me
to do that. You don't need to You don't need
to be rich to get rich. Okay, this is my
mother's story. You just need to be consistent. Right when
he the Smith was consistent ten dollars a day. There's
two coffees or lunch money. Right, put that in the
(09:04):
market and buy sixty. You could be a millionaire without
ever getting a raise. All right, So that is the
second way I've told you how to become a millionaire.
I do a whole piece on how to be a
millionaire in five years. Go back and watch that podcast
and watch those videos. Now. Is it true that millionaires
(09:30):
mostly happen occur develop in their fifties. Yes, most millionaires
don't hit the millionaire mark into their fifties because wealth
creation is typically the result of time, discipline, and compounding,
(09:52):
not sudden windfalls. So wealth builds slowly over time. Compound
interests works best with time. Those who started investing in
their twenties and thirties don't usually see millionaire results until
decades later. It often takes twenty to thirty years of
steady investing, home ownership, business building. That's, by the way,
(10:16):
this is my story, right. I'm fifty nine, and I
really hit my stride somewhere between fifty and fifty three
fifty four, and then things just took off like a rocket, right,
And so what I've been building slowly just compounded over time.
(10:36):
But I'm convinced that all that was based on what
I did for a couple of decades before that. I
gave up going to hanging out in the party at
the parties and the clubs and doing you know, smoking
hookah or smoking reef for what you know, smoking weed
or getting drunk or you know, chasing girls whatever it
(10:56):
is my friends were doing. I'm like, no, that's good.
I'm focused right, because I did not have inheritance, right,
my mom and dad were working people. I did not
want to do anything illegal, right, That was not the
way I flow. I just figured if I use if
what I had was my time, I want to I
want to let anybody abuse my time. You can abuse
maybe one time my money. I want to allow you
(11:18):
to abuse my time. I'm ruthless about my time. And
so I decided to invest anything I had was my time,
and I was going to do it in a way
that compounded based on my time, my talent. Really, I
was a private equity firm and I was the sole
product of that private equity firm. I invested in me.
It was a bet, but the best bet you can
(11:38):
may make its on yourself. So it takes twenty to
thirty years of steady investing home ownership, business building. To
cross a million dollar threshold, I've done it multiple, multiple,
multiple times over now because again it's it's now you know,
money makes more money on money than money can make
on labor. That's what I said earlier. So what is it?
(12:00):
What's what's the story that it's easier to make ten
thousand dollars on one hundred thousand dollars than it is
to make a thousand on ten thousand dollars. It is
easier to make a million on one hundred million, right
than it is to make one hundred thousand on a million.
It just these keeps compounding. Now once you get to
(12:22):
once you get over a million, and again, steady as
you go, you're consistent. You know, now you're making big leaps, right,
and then you get to to twenty million, and then
fifty million, huge leaps, right. And once you get to
one hundred millionaire level. Once you get to billionaire level,
I mean literally, unless you screw it up, you just
(12:43):
shoveling cash and you can do this like certainly, I
mean even millionaire. A millionaire mark is a huge accomplishment
and it's something you can achieve in your lifetime. Fidelity
reports the average fo A one K millionaire. I just
met with a Fidelity of founding family last week. Actually
(13:07):
a very nice person. And Fidelite Investments is a company
that we partner with at Delta air Lines to provide
financial coaching and counseling at all one hundred thousand employees
at Delta, and they are a four to one K manager.
And Fidelity reports that the average four a one K millionaire,
meaning that it's just auto invested. Right, You're not doing
(13:27):
anything spectacular back, You're not doing anything other than putting
that money in every paycheck, period, set and release, going
about your business and never taking it out. Fidelity reports
the average four oh one K millionaire is fifty nine
years old. Hello, okay, okay, make this up. Coincidence is
God's way? Are remaining anonymous? That's and Andrew Young quote
(13:48):
the average for all one K millionaire. I'm not a
four a one K millionaire. I've been making I made
my money in real estate and in other areas and
traditional business, and I use my own talent, my own hustle. Right,
But I'm and I don't work for anybody else that
worked for me. I have a four to one K,
(14:09):
but it's modest. But even that's on modest from my
from my network. But even that's on auto investment. I
don't bother it. But the average person who really focuses
on their four one K to become a millionaire an
employee at W two employee, all right, I write checks,
I don't cash them, don't really cast them cash them
(14:30):
as a is a W two employee employee. I'm an employer, right,
Uh is fifty nine years of age when they hit
that millionaire mark. In your twenties and your thirties. Uh,
this is why early years are for learning, not earning.
Right in your twenties, in your thirties, you're paying off
your student loans, which is an investment in you. By
(14:51):
the way, you're gonna make more money. You have more
earning power by far, by more than double with a
The higher education of some sort versus a high school education,
particularly in this new world we're in, the nature of
higher education is going to change. I believe. I don't
believe that four year traditional degrees or six year or
(15:15):
whatever you know for advanced degrees. I don't believe that
that's the only path to education. I just believe you
need to get an education you can also trades by
the way, tradesmen tradeswomen. Then we need fifty thousand plumbers
a year. I think that number is right over the
top of my head. About the same for electricians. I
mean you cannot AI and electrician you cannot AI. Right,
(15:37):
a plumber, those pipes broke break, you need some help
right now, You're going to call somebody. You're paying whatever
they're going rate is. These people are making bank. They're
making good money, and if you invest that, you can
become a millionaire in the trades right, much quicker than
we're talking about in these examples I'm giving you here.
But once again you on average, all millionaires, including small
(16:02):
business millionaires, do it in their fifties. So in your
twenties and your thirties, you're paying off student loans, you're
figuring out your career path, you're making mistakes, moving cities,
(16:22):
switching jobs. Sound familiar. Wealth typically follows mastery and consistency,
which people often don't hit until their forties and their fifties. Right,
income tends to peak in their fifties. In your fifties,
for most professional salaries peak between forty five and sixty
(16:45):
years of age. More seniority, leadership roles, or business equity
happens later in life. Typically it's certainly all this, by
the way, is certainly the case for me. Wealth accumulation
accelerates when the income is higher. Expenses have stabilized, So
when you're younger, everything that goes out comes in is
going out, your party and you having fun. You're traveling
(17:07):
as you should. By the way. Number four, Home equity
and real assets appreciate over decades. Slow it down, let
the game come to you. Many many become millionaires, not
through cash, but through equity. This is my story. Primary residents, investment, property,
(17:28):
retirement accounts. These assets often take ten to twenty to
thirty years to mature in value. Number five lifestyle shifts
that enable savings in later years. Kids grow up, f
your childcare expenses, debt is reduced or paid off. Typically
lifestyle stabilizes. Right. This frees up more money to invest
(17:51):
in build networks, which means when by the time you
hit forty forty five year go now has become there
will be worth two million dollars or three million dollars. Well,
maybe maybe your kids have you know, because you had
kids early, maybe your kids have rolled out and they're
doing their own thing because you had them when you're twenty.
I'm not encouraging to have children early. By the way,
here's some bonus insights for you, the flash flash versus
(18:14):
the foundational myth. Right. People often assume the millionaires got
rich through you know, lottery or fame or whatever you know,
but that's not what the data shows. Only twenty percent
of millionaires inherited their wealth are got at some windfall somewhere.
Eighty percent of all millionaires are self made, just like me.
(18:39):
Slow and steady wins the race. Don't let Instagram fool you.
Real wealth is boring and it takes time. But if
you stay the chorus by your fifties, you can be
the first millionaire in your family tree. Now can I
get an a man on that? And that is the
new sexy. There are no ugly millionaires. There are no
(18:59):
ugly senti millionaires. There are no ugly billionaires. Right, everybody's
attractive when you're successful. Now you say, well, but John,
you know, once I get to my fifties, aren't my
best years behind me? No? No, you're going to live
to one hundred. If you're in this generation, in good health,
your best years are ahead of you because now you
(19:21):
have wisdom. You still have your good looks, you still
have your good health, You've got talent, skills, optionality. All
money is his freedom. Now you've got more freedom. Oh,
now it's time and to roll right. It's an old
joke that youth is wasted on the young. Right. So
you made mistakes, you screwed up, you tripped and fail
you over you thought things were more important they really were.
(19:43):
You're tripping out over things that weren't important, trying to
spending all your time to impress somebody you really don't
want to be, like, hello, can I get an a
man on that? By you get older, you're like, okay,
that's a bunch of drama. I'm good. So intelligence comes,
you know, at any time, comes through books, but wisdom
comes with time and experiences. So your wellness will absolutely contribute.
(20:09):
Right to the fifty really feeling like the new forty right,
And there's data to support this. In nineteen fifty, the
US life expectancy with sixty eight years of age. Today
it's seventy seven to eighty years of age. Again, it's
eighty one and seven hundred credit corre neighborhoods. That means
(20:29):
that at fifty year old today often has thirty to
forty years of life expectancy, especially with access to good
health care and lifestyle choices. Their wellness economy by itself
is a five trillion dollar economy plus including fitness, wellness,
mental health, nutrition, holistic care. And people over fifty are
(20:52):
the fastest growing demographic who are going to be using
more fitness and more wellness tech. I think Peloton, WHOOPI, hacking, etc.
So this is a business idea for you. By the way,
you've got the largest population ever over sixty five. You
have more people over sixty five than under age eighteen, right,
and these folks over sixty five tend to be affluent.
(21:15):
So that's maybe another podcast or another day. But I
want you to be encouraged by growing older gracefully and
positively and with a lot of positive expectation that you
can live a quality of life longer me and midlife
(21:37):
reinvention is the new normal. Career pivots at forty five
to sixty years of age are now expected, not rare, Okay,
Entrepreneurship rates are highest amongst people aged forty five to
sixty four. Think about the Coffin study. Coffin Foundation study.
Read that study that talks about that second acts are
(21:57):
being taken more seriously by people because people feel healthier
and more energized than generations before. Right, mental health and
mindset shifts. Greater focus on purpose, therapy, emotional wellbeing is
helping people to avoid burnout and chronic stress. Many people
(22:18):
feel more aligned, clear headed, and focused at fifty than
they ever did it thirty. I think I'm I Please,
don't hate me for saying this. I think I look
better now. I think I feel better now. I'm in
better I'm in better shape, I've got better energy, I've
got better purpose, I've got I'm calmer. Look, let me
(22:39):
just say it. Smart, it's a new sexy. Right, Smart
and mature, steady, sure is a new sexy. That's what
I'm talking about. Boring is a new sexy. Right. That's
a TDJ quote that you gave me the last one.
Boring is a new sexy. I did a podcast on that,
So here you go. I'm gonna give you some examples
of folks who knocked it out the part later in life.
(23:03):
So fifty is just the beginning. All right, health, well,
health and wisdom and winning is your second half act.
Most millionaires don't hit this milestone their twenties or thirties.
And again court in the Fidelity, this happens in your
mid fifties, not by winning the lottery, not by talking
about all this cash, got this dollar, I got this gag,
(23:24):
this bag, got this that All money is an exchange
of value. That's all it is. And if your outfloaks
has your inflow, then your overhead it will be your downfall.
And if you're a professional athlete, are you trying to
hook up with one, or you're a rapper or whatever,
you're a singer, all good, that's fantastic. But if you
burn out and run through your cash and your contract
(23:44):
is over in your late twenties or early thirties, which
is typically the case. And if what I just said
is true, which're going to live another sixty eighty years,
what are you going to do for the rest of
your life? Work at Starbucks, work at work at work
at Walmart, work at Petco. Right, that's not going to
go very well for your ego. So you need to
set your life up for the rest of your life.
(24:06):
But here's the good news. It's not too late. It's
not too late to reset, rebound, repurpose. So the myth
about early success is mostly wrong. Most of the folks that
I knew who are balling in their twenties are broke now.
(24:27):
They were flossing. They're balling. They were John, you should
hang out with us. They're all broken, most of them
asking me for a job. The twenties and thirties. As
I said earlier, but I'll say it again, it's worth repeating,
are often about learning about failure. So it's just an all.
Failure is an outcome to an experiment, that's all it is.
And it's about reinventions, about finding your purpose, finding your meaning,
(24:52):
becoming reasonably comfortable in your own skin. And then you
hustle for decades and and then you begin to harvest. Okay,
so the data shows that most millonaires become that way
in their mid fifties. But I'm not just talking about
money or wealth creation or investing in entrepreneurship in real estate,
(25:16):
although that's what I did. I'm going to also talk
to you about community millionaires, spiritual millionaires, social justice millionaires. Right,
people who've overinduxed on purpose, on purpose and on purpose
(25:37):
people talk about Nelson Mandela, and they're so proud as
I'm I of Nelson Mandela. I've got Nelson Mandela's prison
number right on my risk right now. I wear it
every day, Okay. And I think that my mentor and
bassor Andrew Young is a Nelson Mandela of this generation.
But Nelson Mandela people don't really think about this. He
was an angry black man. He was an attorney. He
(25:59):
was angry most of his thirties, in his forties about
the injustice in the world. He went into prison at
age forty seven, please hear me now, went in the
prison at forty seven, right, stayed there twenty seven long years.
He was not a global leader until age seventy. Everything
(26:21):
you think you know about Nelson Mandela, the world changing president,
the world changing iconic leader, he did after the age
of seventy. Even got remarried to the love of his life.
I think it was Grascia Michelle Right and lived an incredible,
extraordinary life that will literally live on forever in his legacy.
(26:45):
Colonel Sanders. He founded KFC, the Fried Chicken franchise. He
didn't do that until age sixty five. Started it at
a sixty five veruwayin Right, the famed designer. She started
designing dresses at age forty. Here's one for you. Sam Walton,
(27:11):
founder of Walmart, one of my partners. I'm CEO. I'm CEO.
I'm co founder with the CEO of Walmart. A financial
literacy for all Doug McMillan. I love the dude, and
I really admire the company. But that started with one
store and a big vision, and he started scaling his company.
He didn't start scaling Walmart until his mid fifties. Now
(27:37):
you hear my story, and I really have not. I mean,
I think my best years are ahead of me, but
I didn't really hit my stride. I've been building infrastructure
and building systems, building a management team, building a company,
building organization, making mistakes right, falling down, getting back up successes,
going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. I
(27:59):
take no for vitamins, building resiliency over the rounded, through it.
We're going to get to it. I mean, my twenties,
my teens, and my twenties, my thirties were mostly a blur.
I mean, I'm just running. I was just runn I've
been to one hundred countries didn't really enjoy most of them,
and I was just run. I was taking care of
(28:19):
business and I went there broke. When they're you know,
try t try traveling coach to Japan. I've done that right,
coach to Africa, in the middle seat, with your knees
in your in your chest. I've done all that. Whatever
experience is, I've had it. And that just gives you
(28:40):
a lot of comfort later in your life. And no
one can talk to you crazy. When one talk to
you out side of their mouth, try to tell you something.
That's why when you see me on comments on my
on social media, on Instagram, whatever, if I'm coming back
at somebody sharp, it's because I know what I'm talking
about and they don't right to argue with the food
cruiser a too right, And so I don't argue with people.
(29:03):
I just simply set them straight. And now, if I
don't know what I'm talking about, I don't say anything.
But if I know my facts, don't come at me sideways. Right.
Have you a me coming to me respectfully? You're not
gonna disrespect me on my own page. I mean I
was born at night, not last night. Right now, when
out of myself esteem, depends on someone else's acceptance of me.
But again, this comes with time. This level of sort
(29:24):
of personal comfort, being reasonably comfortable in your own skin, right,
just comes in time, comes with time. So again I
gained spiritual wealth. We're not human beings having a spiritual experience,
where spiritual beings having a human experience. That spiritual wealth
came with time. That wisdom, right, social wealth, community legacy wealth.
(29:48):
You know, the impact work that we're doing. You know,
Operation Hope is thirty three years old. I mean that's
older than some people listening to this podcast. So it
just takes time, you know. Quincy Jones says, it takes
twenty years to change a culture. Right, in the last
twenty years, I think we've made dumb sexy. We've dumbed
down and celebrated it in his time to make smart
(30:10):
sexy again. So real worth, real wealth, and real worth
equals more than money. So financial wealth with community wealth,
mental wealth, legacy wealth, social wealth enough for everybody. That's
(30:31):
what I'm doing here is sort of reinvesting in you.
This is these are really important things. The idea that
your fifties are when you're when your story is over
is ridiculous. That's when your network, your relationship, capital, your knowledge,
and your narrative all ALIVEE it's the right time. It's
(30:52):
a great rap. See if I get my brother Ta
to put me on one of his albums with Killer Mike.
So here's for the late bloomers. I want you to
understand that it was okay that you party through your
(31:14):
twenties and your thirties. You're not behind, You're just on time.
You're just beginning. The best builders of legacy often come
with scars and stories and seasoning. You cannot have a
rainbow without a storm first. Can I get an amen?
That's not just good theology, good philosophy, it's actually a
(31:37):
scientific fact. I want you to start with budgeting and saving.
Even if you're starting at forty five or fifty five,
it's not too late. I want you to go to
one of my whole financial coaches. We tell them I
sense you. They'll give you a starter scholarship from Operation
Hope to get you into one year of free financial
(31:58):
coaching and counseling. We're going to help you create a budget,
a lifestyle budget, an investment budget, and a flossing budget
if you want, certainly the lifestyle living budget. We're going
to help you realign your life, take it back control
of your life, master your credit, get your debt down,
stop spending money on silly stuff, or at least point
the silly stuff out to you, so that you can
(32:19):
decide for yourself whether in pressing somebody you don't know
what money you don't have about things that don't matter
is actually something you should be spending your time and
energy on. They're going to help you get your life
right and help you make some decisions and keep you
on tasks like a coach, like a private banker. You're
going to see your life skyrocket. I want you to
tell your friends and listen to this podcast. I want
(32:40):
you get your book Financial Literacy for All and open
it up and read it once, one chapter a week,
with your posse, with your crew. Don't do this alone.
Do it with your mouse, your smouse. Mouse. Don't maybe
if you're alone, do it with the mouse. Do it
with your spouse. Right, do it with your family. Do
it with your children. Do it with your sorority group,
your fraternity group, social group. Right, with your friends, your relatives,
(33:04):
your coworkers. Right, create a club, a silver rights club
and the suites to match the civil rights activity in
the streets. Be intentional about your success. I want you
to buy a house. I'm going to do this again,
a dedicated series on the process of owning a home.
So don't worry about that. I'm gonna walk you through
it because you shouldn't feel ashamed that you don't know
(33:26):
the steps. There's no shame in the game of not
knowing right, it's not asking questions. Quincy Jones again, great
quote from him that God gave you two ears in
one mouth, so you listen twice as much as you talk.
Be nosy, right. I want you to own a home.
Why Because the number one way you build wealth in
America is home ownership. Forty five forty four percent of
(33:51):
African Americans own a home, compared to seventy five percent
of our mainstream counterparts. Why they're doing it because it's
the easiest way to pass away the home own ownership.
And I just get things ridiculous to see these folks
on TV who own a home telling you not to
buy a home. I think it's crazy. So ignore that
noise and buy a house. The whole tax policy in
(34:12):
the US is centered around and focused on encouraging home ownership,
start a business, get that wheel done, open that investment
account today people to day, and don't say you can't
do it, because you certainly could go out of that
club or that restaurant, couldn't. You certainly can go out
(34:34):
to that party. By the way, you know, there used
to be rent parties back in the day. Back in
the forties and the fifties, Black folks did rent parties.
You'd go to one party. We revived this, by the way,
if you like, somebody would hold a party. They couldn't
they're having problem meeting their rent, and everybody was come
and pay ten dollars at the door, the equivalent today
of ten dollars at the door. And next month it'd
(34:56):
be a somebody else holding a party and they were
a little short on rent money or grocery money, whatever,
and then they pay that person ten dollars at the
door and everybody had fun. Everybody, you know, was great entertainment.
You're offset the costs of the party, but you also
help to endow this person to live a dignified life.
You can also do that, by the way, a little
bit more money, maybe one hundred bucks, and start a
(35:16):
business rotating pool. That allows this person to start a business.
And the next time you have an event and that
person is able to start a business, and and you know,
you don't own anything in that person's business, so that
makes it more complicated. So there shouldn't be any debts here.
You know, everybody gets a turn. If it's ten people
in this group or twenty the more people in the group.
(35:39):
Actually easier is to do this with real money. You
get thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred people in a group,
and then over the course and if everybody's contributing one
hundred dollars a week, or one hundred dollars every two weeks,
or one hundred dollars a month, then over the course
of time, right, it's twelve months in the year. So
if you're doing that once a month, they're going to
do twelve turns at a time. You have you know,
(36:01):
if you have fifty people in the group, that within
four years everybody gets a chance to start a business
or to become a homeowner. Okay, that's a whole different situation,
but you should not be coming back and saying where's
my money later? Right in that example that that's where
it gets messy, right, So buy a home, start a business,
(36:21):
get that will done, open that investment account with an institutional,
credible investment manager and buy it. Don't buy flaky stuff.
This is not the time for crypto. Hello, I'm not
being anti crypto. I'm saying I don't want you using
your rent money for silly stuff that may implode on you.
People who made money in crypto in part got lucky.
They just got lucky. You got unlucky or have lost
(36:43):
it all. So you take if you want to do
crypto or whatever, take two percent and then do that.
By the way, I think crypto, I think blockchain technology,
which is undercrypto, is brilliant. I just want you losing
your money. That's the only reason I want you to
be protected, right. I want you to build a financial
comeback plan with your name on it. So it's just
(37:07):
not too late to build way wealth after fifty. In fact,
that's the expectation, Mandela. Time means that your greatest chapter
just might be ahead of you. Late bloomers. Not only
can you not win, you're expected to win. You will win.
You know, it's hard to hit a moving target, and
(37:27):
it's really hard to lose when you're compounding that benefit
of consistency over time. So either you're a late bloomer,
you know you're right on time for becoming wealthy and
finding purpose in the middle course of your life. Reinvention
(37:48):
at midlife is the new normal. Okay. So I want
you to be encouraged. I want you to start the
movie of your life right now. I want you to
tell people you love all around you that they can
do it right. That whether you believe you can or
(38:10):
whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right that mindset matters.
Read my book Up from Nothing on Mindset. Read my
book The Memo, because it is what you don't know
that you don't know this killing you but you think
you know. Read Financial Literacy for All because it gives
you all the tools to master what I think is
(38:31):
the civil rights issue of this generation. Financial literacy. Read
how the Portkin said capitalism, so that you know what
an asset you and we really are. Read Love Leadership
because I want you to come at life as a
lover and as a leader who gives right Again. I
(38:51):
can't guarantee that being positive is going to make you
a success, but I absolutely guarantee you that being negative
is going to make you fail and you'll be miserable.
Doctor King one said that hate and evil cannot self
generate because it has within it the seeds of its
(39:12):
own demise. I want you to be positive. I want
you to see the glasses half full. I want you
to get up in the morning, no matter where you are,
no matter what age you are, and know that this
might be and just could be the best day, in
the best week, in the best year, in the best
era of your life. Remember, Mandela found the love of
(39:32):
his life after he got out of prison. And he
didn't change the world until after he got out of prison.
That means his seventies, in his eighties, we're killing it.
He was at the club, the Club of his best
life at eighty five. My mentor and bassor Andrew Young
(39:53):
is ninety three years young. You talk to him if
you have the opportunity of talking to man who was
on the He was on the balcony with doctor King,
the last living lieutenant for Doctor Martina King Jr. Helped
to build Atlanta as the only international city in the South,
brought the Olympics to it Atlanta, Georgia, you know, helped
to get Delta to go to Africa, and he's on
the board at Delta. Just so many accolades, over one hundred,
(40:16):
honorary doctor degrees, congressman, mayor, builder, civil rights leader, pastor,
so many lives within this life, so many lives. And
why is he still alive when all of his friends,
many of his friends have passed away. I believe because
he has sustained purpose. He's one of these millionaires of
(40:37):
spirit and soul and purpose. He's every week going to
give speeches. Every week, he's traveling somewhere every week. He's engaged,
just at our house a couple of days ago for
Shakesware's birthday. I mean, he's always engaging in life. He's
doing interviews, he's writing, and he's thinking, he's reflecting. He's
(40:58):
not just playing golf, retiring at sixty years of age
sixty five and going to play golf. Those friends of his,
many of them, most of them not nothing, no knock
against golf. If you want to play golf, go do it.
But they lost their purpose, they lost their way. There
was nothing to get up for in the morning. That
(41:19):
hell was bigger than themselves. Purpose is something is large
and more important yourself and a lot of those people
have passed on to glory. Bastard Young has lived a long,
glorious life continues to do so because he's more focused
on giving than getting a purpose larger and more important
than himself, and that extends his wellness, his well being,
his life, his legacy, his purpose. Part of that legacy
(41:42):
for him is in the mic with you right now,
because he helped to raise me and all forever be
in his debt. You can become a millionaire in your fifties.
I just gave you a small dose of that. This
is John O'Brien is Money and Wealth on the Black
Effect Network on iHeartRadio. You can change and retake your life.
(42:06):
It starts right now. Tell your friends to subscribe to
this podcast. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a
(42:29):
production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts
from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(44:03):
Dep
Host
John Hope Bryant
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