How to ACTUALLY Get Rich: Your 7-Step No B.S. Guide to Personal Finance

About this video

Clark presents a seven-step guide to personal finance framed as meeting Maslow’s safety needs, stressing this is not official financial advice. Step one is to get out of debt, especially credit card debt, which he says compounds at about 20.93%, roughly 21%, using either the snowball method (pay the lowest balance first, as Dave Ramsey teaches) or the avalanche method (pay the highest-interest debt first). Step two is that it is not about money made but money kept; he recommends tracking spending and cash flow with a spreadsheet, paper, or the Mint app he personally uses, because what gets measured gets managed. Step three is building a ‘war chest’ or emergency fund of three to six months of essential expenses, noting over 40% of Americans cannot cover a $400 emergency. Step four is increasing income, citing Ramit Sethi’s ‘I Will Teach You to Be Rich’ and ‘big wins’ like raises, better jobs, trades, and side hustles, since cutting has a cap but earning does not. Step five is automating savings and bill payments. Step six is using a 401(k) match and a Roth IRA first. Step seven is investing, favoring low-cost index funds over individual stocks, citing Warren Buffett, while warning against hype like Celsius and NFTs and recommending getting rich slow alongside any fast efforts. He recommends ‘The Psychology of Money’ and Sethi’s book.

Key takeaways

• Prioritize eliminating credit card debt first, using either the snowball method (smallest balance first) or the avalanche method (highest interest first)
• Focus on money kept rather than money made by budgeting and tracking spending and cash flow daily
• Build an emergency fund or war chest of three to six months of bare-bones essential expenses before investing
• Pursue big wins to increase income through raises, job changes, trades, and side hustles, and automate savings and payments
• After capturing a 401(k) match and funding a Roth IRA, favor diversified low-cost index funds and ignore hype investments

Episode details: published October 10, 2023 · 18:14 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Clark Kegley’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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