As a finance student and about-to-be college graduate, money is frequently on my mind. It’s a daily consideration, as well as a passionate interest of mine, so I’m always in search of a reliable source to expand my repertoire of finance knowledge. One of the YouTubers I like to follow is Tai Lopez. He puts out a weekly finance podcast on his YouTube channel imparting practical advice for responsibly making money, based on his experience going from having very little money to being a successful investor, author, and entrepreneur.
Unfortunately, there is no universal guide you can follow to master managing your money. I learn something new everyday. That is part of what makes finance and the economy so exciting, however. They’re always fluctuating and there is always room to learn more.
While Lopez has been accused by some of being a scammer for his financial tips to get rich, many people agree that he offers sound financial advice. There’s no guarantee you’ll become a millionaire from watching Lopez’s videos, but I’ve picked up some useful tips from him. A lot of his advice runs contrary to the way we’ve been trained to think about money, which I find interesting- there’s no golden rule for managing one’s finances, so it’s refreshing to hear some out-of-the-box tips.
In this particular video, Lopez breaks down his advice for making money into 10 simple rules, three of which he reviews in the video and the rest of which he shares in a live stream. First, he says, you should do the opposite of what others are doing with their money. This advice may sound a little convoluted, but essentially when others are pulling money out, you should be putting it in. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to every situation (such as investing in stocks), but Lopez gives the example of spending $120 on shoes versus on a book. Most people would put out that amount for a new pair of shoes that they don’t really need rather than spending it on a book containing sage, practical advice, which is a backwards way of thinking.
I won’t go over into too much detail here to allow you to watch the video for yourself and form your own opinions, but here are some more tidbits I found interesting. One piece of advice I find particularly noteworthy: Don’t invest in depreciating items. Most of your money should be investing in things that have the potential for appreciation over time, such as land, which becomes a little more valuable every day. His last piece of advice is to put yourself into win-win situations, which may be easier said than done, but is a basic goal every working person should have. You should love what you do and get compensated accordingly for it. According to Lopez, there will of course be inevitable lows in everyone’s life, but your objective should be to make at least 85% of your life a win-win scenario. Work hard at what you love doing to avoid going into debt and being broke.
As I mentioned before, if you type in “Tai Lopez” in your Google search bar, you’ll see that a lot of people accuse him of being a scammer, while many others defend his advice. It’s a pretty even split. There will always be people who turn around and accuse financial advice of being a get-rich-quick scheme, but whatever you think about Lopez, the guy clearly wants to share the financial knowledge he’s built up, and if you check out his YouTube channel, you can pick up some helpful finance tips.