10 Things I Wish I Would've Known Much Sooner When It Comes To Money with Dr James Martin

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What if you could travel back in time and share financial wisdom with your younger self? While time travel remains out of reach, education offers a powerful alternative—pulling future knowledge into your present reality.

Having reflected deeply on my own financial journey, I've identified ten crucial money perspectives I wish I'd embraced earlier in life. These aren't just abstract theories but transformative mindset shifts that could dramatically accelerate your wealth creation.

The first revelation might surprise you: the greatest investment risk isn't investing at all. We've normalized spending without hesitation while approaching investing with excessive caution—a backwards approach when you consider that spending guarantees loss while investing at least offers potential returns. Similarly, understanding that "market declines are temporary while advances are permanent" provides crucial context for weathering financial storms. When you zoom out from sensationalized headlines about "crashes," the consistent upward trajectory of quality assets becomes undeniable.

Perhaps most liberating is recognizing money as a human invention—a social construct that allows us to question whether our financial beliefs truly serve us. This applies to how we view sales conversations (potential value exchanges rather than uncomfortable interactions), time-money relationships (building "money trees" for recurring income), and the misleading belief that hard work automatically equals financial success (strategy matters more than hours).

By developing high-leverage skills like business management, coding, and sales, you can create disproportionate returns on your time investment. And remember: your circle largely determines your success, so intentionally seek diverse perspectives from those achieving what you aspire to create.

Ready to transform your financial future? Start by questioning which of these money perspectives might be holding you back. Your future self will thank you.

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Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.

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Episode Transcript

Dr James (00:00):
We always wish we could go back in time and tell a
younger version of ourselvessome of the wisdom that we've
learned over the years.
How many times have we allheard ourselves say wish that I
knew this whenever I was younger?
And in a weird way, you canactually pull those experiences
forwards from the future, andit's called education.
That's basically what it is.
That's the whole point Readingbooks, listening to podcasts,

(00:21):
doing everything along thoselines but anyway, that is a
topic or a discussion foranother day.
I guess what I would like toshare today is the top 10
beliefs or perspectives that Ihad on money when maybe I was
about 25, that I just reallywish I could have altered.
And there'll be a lot of peopleout there who are younger than

(00:42):
that.
There'll be a lot of people outthere who are older than that.
It's fine, because you may knowsome of these lessons.
You may know all of them or youmay know none of them, but it's
always good to listen anyway,because this is the highlight
reel and really, if I would haveunderstood these things, I
really think that I would bemuch further in life than where
I currently am.
So let's go ahead and proceed.

(01:05):
Number one is the greatest riskwhen it comes to investing is
not investing.
Why does everybody think twicebefore investing, but think once
before spending?
Shouldn't it be the other wayaround?
Shouldn't it be think twicebefore spending and once before
investing?
Because at least whenever youinvest something, there's a
chance that it may come back toyou in terms of a return.
Not always, or at the veryleast you'll learn a lesson
which will be incrediblyvaluable to you later.
But how many people spend somuch of their capital on

(01:27):
frivolous things and holidaysand food and everything along
those lines?
They've spent it right.
There's no chance of it comingback, but that's normalized in
our society.
I don't get it.
Number two, when it comes to themarkets, the decline is
temporary, but the advance ispermanent.
And really what this pertainsto is when you look at long-term
data on the stock market let'ssay the S&P 500 or the MSCI or

(01:51):
even the FTSE every single timethat you have listened to the
news and heard about a crash,inverted commas.
Really, what they should say istemporary decline.
But that doesn't make the sameheadline, does it?
It's not nearly as entertaining.
It's not nearly going to get asmany viewers, is it?
So, on that note.
When you zoom out and look atthe long-term data on most big
assets not financial advice, ofcourse you can see that actually

(02:13):
they continue to tick up withtime and really, as long as you
know that and there's a lot ofdata then your asset selection
can become as simple asunderstanding which assets give
you the greatest returns andhave the most data to support
the fact that they havehistorical proof to demonstrate
those returns over a long periodof time.

(02:33):
Forget the volatility.
It becomes less pertinent atthat point, providing you don't
need the money anytime soon.
Again, don't rush off andinvest based on what I've just
said, definitely take financialadvice if you're uncertain.
However, the decline istemporary and the advance is
permanent.
It's definitely something totickle or pickle or get us

(02:54):
inspired to think about thisstuff.
Number three is not really asaying so much as a concept, and
that is the concept and fact,really more than anything else.
That money is just made up.
I mean, it's literally justprinted and created, and you
know I've got a whole load ofcontent that you can view and
listen to on the history ofmoney.
Where it actually came from thereally good video that I made

(03:16):
once upon a time.
It's on the denison investwebsite and it's called some
things you should know aboutmoney.
It's all about the history ofthe bank of England and how we
effectively got trained overlong periods of time to use fiat
money money that is justprinted and created arbitrarily.
It's a huge social construct.
And I mean when you know thatmoney is just created, it's just

(03:37):
printed arbitrarily in the Bankof England, then all of a
sudden you understand that.
How can anything that you thinkor believe about money be
anything but made up, or abelief that's given to you by
someone else, or a belief thatyou've created in your own head
at any stage?
And that's not to say it isn'tvalid.
If enough people thinksomething, then it has a
validity in its own way.

(03:57):
But here's what it is to say.
What it is to say is just howvalid is it?
Just how true is it?
And is it a little gray, do it?
Let's say, for example, wethink something is too much or
too little in terms of price.
Actually, that doesn't reallynecessarily mean anything.
If you ask the universe, youknow that's just what the
consensus in society is.
But just because everybodythinks something, does that mean

(04:18):
it's true?
I'm not saying that there'snothing that is valid out there
in terms of our beliefs andthoughts and concepts whenever
it comes to money.
I'm just saying there's alittle bit more give there than
what we'd immediately suspect.
The second, that we know thatmoney is made up.
Therefore, when we know that weknow that anything we think
about it is subjective andsomething subjective is
inherently not objective and notnecessarily factually true and

(04:42):
therefore there's tends to be alittle bit of give there
sometimes in our concepts andhow true or valid do we know
their concepts are for certainand can we change them to make
them facilitate more wealth andsuccess in our own lives?
That's all I'm calling intoquestion.
That's all.
Hopefully I'm not sayinganything too controversial there
.
Number four this is more alesson for business, I guess,

(05:06):
and something that I definitelyheld at lots of stages in my
life, and that's the notion thatwhen someone sells to me that
that is a bad thing or thatshould be avoided, or it makes
me feel uncomfortable.
But you know, having been onthe other side of the table a
lot of times in a lot ofconversations about potentially
collaborating with people andthere might be a, there's

(05:28):
potentially a money transactionthere, the number of times I
think to myself I'm like, wow,this thing could really, really
really help this person.
When we get the particulars outof the way.
Until I sat on the other sideof the table I never really
realized that actually sometimesthere are certain products out
there that really can changeyour life, and the money is the
thing that just facilitates it.
So a lot of people out there, Ifeel, get uncomfortable about

(05:49):
the whole sales process and thatcan be sat on both sides of the
table.
They dislike selling, thedislike being sold to.
But if you think and sometimespeople will even run away or
avoid those conversations butI'm like, no, hang on.
You know, I want to actuallyhear what this person has to say
, because sometimes they havethings that can completely
change my life.
If I give someone a thousandpounds and they make me ten
thousand or a hundred thousandpounds back because of something

(06:12):
that they do for me or help mewithin my business, or a new
skill that I learn, or aninvestment that they make that
they teach me, shouldn't I betrying to find those flipping
people and hunt them down myselflike, come on, that's some of
the greatest returns on moneythat you can potentially make,
but we never actually get toappreciate that until we just
eliminate that little belief inour head and hear these things

(06:33):
out.
It's crazy.
That is a really, really,really huge one, and I feel like
that is a really, really,really huge one, and I feel like
that is a big, limiting beliefthat a lot of people have.
Number five time equals money.
I feel like time can equalmoney, but it doesn't always
equal money.
I feel like if we hold thatbelief, we're always going to be
selling our time for money.
But remember, the whole pointof assets is that they can
generate us some recurringincome with time.

(06:55):
You know, I heard it uhdescribed once as we should
plant money trees.
We should spend a lot of ourtime trying to plant money trees
, and the thing about moneytrees is, maybe businesses,
maybe assets, whatever you haveto water them, you have to
nourish them, sometimes formonths, sometimes for years most
of the time is years, uh,whenever it comes to traditional
investing.
But you know what, when yougrow the money tree, the whole

(07:16):
point of the money tree is thatit can give you, it bears fruit
and you can begin to take somesort of residual income from it.
So time doesn't.
It can equal money, but itdoesn't always equal money.
And, like I say, if we holdthat belief subconsciously and
we just think that that's inessence what it is all of the
time, well then we'll always belooking for ways to exchange

(07:42):
your time for money.
But, like I say, there'scertain instances where that
doesn't apply.
Number six really cool lessonagain, not really a uh punchy
how can I say uh a punchyone-liner or punchy phrase.
It's more just a concept isthis one, and that is the
concept of high leverage skills.
That is the concept of that.
Not all skills are equalwhenever it comes to capitalism.
There's certain skills outthere that can allow you to

(08:03):
create a ton of leverage in yourlife and get a huge bang for
your buck in terms of time formoney, in terms of that exchange
, or reducing the time aspect ofthat as much as possible and
increasing the return.
Certain skills this will applyto I mean for me, some of and we
should, we should seek to learnthese skills because they can,

(08:23):
they can compliment what we doin a day-to-day basis.
So an example would be theskills of running a business,
massive, you know, being able tounderstand how to coordinate a
team and KPIs and everythingalong those lines.
That is a high leverage skill.
The more we can learn thatskill is, the better we become
at business and the more returnwe get on our time.
Another one is coding.
That's a classic example of one.
You make a machine, you make a,you make a software program

(08:46):
once and it serves you forever.
It just runs continuously,continuously, continuously.
Massive, massive, massive, uhleverage.
If you make loads of them, orloads of a quick succession of
them, you'll find that, uh, andthey are all successful.
You'll find that well, that isone of the best ways that you
can generate a lot of cash.
Look at all the richest peoplein the world, or certainly most
of them anyway.

(09:07):
A lot of them are techentrepreneurs.
It already gives you a big clueas to what those high leverage
skills are.
Another one would be sales.
I definitely think that that isup there as well, and I'm sure
there's a whole host of them too.
There's no definitive list, but, like I was saying, if

(09:28):
everybody can get a highleverage skill or improve it and
then use it to compliment theirskills that they do on a
day-to-day basis, I really thinkthat they'll welcome a lot more
wealth into their own life.
Number seven hard work equalsmoney.
Man, man, man, man, man, man,man.
That is a belief I held ontofor a long time.
And don't get me wrong, I thinkthat you need to focus and
concentrate on learning aboutmoney and equipping yourself

(09:48):
with certain skills andknowledge in order to become
wealthy with time.
But I think the whole hard workequals money concept, without
any nuance whatsoever, isactually slightly toxic, and
that's because it can lead youto where you live a life where
you're just constantly workingmaybe not ever necessarily being
that effective or productiveand hoping that money is going

(10:09):
to come your way and not reallyenjoying life so much as you
could be, and also not evenreally achieving your goal, if
your goal is to generate wealthbecause you're not doing things
in an efficient manner.
If hard work equaled money andthat was all there was to it
think about it the best paidpeople in the whole wide world
would be people who do hard,physical, manual labor every

(10:31):
single day.
Those are the people who aregoing to get paid the best.
If that was true, if that was,if that was the not only if it
was true, but if that wasobvious.
That was the only facet to it.
Obviously there's more to it,because we know that that isn't
true.
Therefore, we should reallylook to question that belief
when it applies and when itdoesn't.
Number eight is money equalsbad, money is evil and every

(10:57):
variation of that concept orconnotation because if we hold
that in our head and we getuncomfortable whenever it comes
to that, is one of the thatinstance.
What about if you give a poundto charity?
What about if you make tenthousand pounds and you give a
thousand pounds to charity?

(11:20):
Is it not good in that instance?
So, really, actually, there isa lot of things that money can
be used for that are good andthat do help society.
You know we have, we can haveall these beliefs about the
world, or we can just accept theworld the way that it is and
then use the tools that, uh, youknow, society has created over

(11:40):
the years and use these, theseconcepts and these, uh, the the
structure of the way societyoperates and functions.
We can either rally against itand get all up in arms, or we
can just accept it and let itwash over us, try to embrace it,
try to benefit from it, try tocreate something that does do
something good in the world,kind of work with it a little

(12:01):
bit and then, as we elevateourselves, try to change it.
Uh, from that higher vantagepoint that we've elevated
ourselves to uh, to uh, ratherthan just staying at ground
level, constantly spending allof our energy spinning our
wheels.
For me, if you want to change asystem, the best way to do it is
to just work around the outside, get to yourself, get yourself
to a position where you're on,you're on top, you have some

(12:23):
power, you have some control,and then try to change it rather
than try to change it fromwithin.
So much more effective.
So if you do actually thinkthat and you do really, really,
really disagree with capitalism,for me you kind of you should.
For me it's way more helpful toget yourself to kind of work
with it, at least in the shortterm, to get yourself to a
position where you can actuallyhave cause and effect on society

(12:43):
.
So, if you do actually thinkthat it might be easier just to
work with it and accept it, atleast at the beginning just my
thoughts, just my beliefs onthat one, but I'm sure other
people will hold other thoughtson that Number nine your circle
equals your success, absolutelymassive.
I really feel like it's soworthwhile to go out of your way

(13:03):
to find other people doingother things and learn from them
.
The number of things that I'vepicked up just from going out of
my way to meet new people whodo different things, even in
like random cafes.
Whenever I've been on holiday,I see people using software that
I use and I start to talk tothem about it and they they make
me see things in different ways.
You know they shift my beliefson it and for me that would

(13:24):
never happen unless you minglein different circles.
I could be better at it.
You know it's very easy to stayin your comfort zone and hang
around with the same crew andfriends that you've known ever
since day zero, and and youshould do that, you should
absolutely do that.
But I'm just saying that thereis so much to be gleaned and so
much to learn and so much toembrace and understand that we

(13:45):
don't even know what is outthere until we start walking in
other circles and talking toother people and having an open
mind.
Your circle equals your success.
It's another variation of thatwhole trope that gets thrown
around.
Your network is your net worth.
Number 10, the final one.
I heard this saying the otherday and I really, really, really
liked it because it's veryempowering and that saying goes

(14:08):
along the lines of heaven helpsthose who help themselves.