10 Steps to Build Wealth and Keep It

The best time to buy Bitcoin was 16 years ago. The second best time is now.

Wealth comes in many forms, but it has one common thread.

Time.

It grows and compounds if you nurture it. In crypto, there is also the aspect of not losing it. I’ll touch on that at the end.

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The below list follows my own experience. It’s as real as it gets.

1. Invest early and hoard hard assets

The first time I bought Gold, it was around $1,600. Today it’s more than double that. The first time I bought Bitcoin it was around $700. Today it’s over $100,000. These are hard assets. Cannot be diluted. Cannot be printed from thin air. They are scarce, in demand, and hard to make.

Working a job or for a salary will never generate wealth like investments in hard assets. Gold and Bitcoin both qualify as hard assets. Whatever you do, start hoarding hard assets with any excess cash you have.

That may also include buying index funds like the S&P 500 or real estate in prime locations where demand will aways be high. Then let time do its work. You’ll be pleasantly surprised after 5, 10, 20 years.

If you never invest in hard assets, it will be near impossible to become rich and build wealth. When you think in decades, even $1,000 invested today will make a huge difference. Don’t delay, make a plan and act on it.

2. Build something that can scale

This can be anything and I already covered this topic before. Look at your skills today and what you enjoy doing. Then imagine 100,000 people can see you. If only 1% value your work, that’s 1,000 potential clients, followers, subscribers or patrons.

Put yourself out there. If you don’t you’ll never know what comes back and it may surprise you. Few dare to do it, but those that do, are usually rewarded. It takes time, but eventually, you will have your breakthrough.

I started with zero followers. No community to call my own. So I built something. Show up daily and do your best. People will notice. Once you make $1 online or any money as an entrepreneur the gates are wide open for more.

Starting is the most critical point. Few do it.

3. You can’t be richer than who you really are

Your level of wealth today mirrors the level of personal development you have attained at this present time.

That’s why if someone random wins $1 million in a lottery, he will likely lose that money within one year. The cause? His personal development was far below the requirements to properly manage such money.

Don’t expect others to do it for you. If you don’t invest in yourself. Nobody will. Knowledge is free today. You can literally learn anything if you are able to connect to the Internet. With AI, you can now have your own personal mentor.

There are no excuses.

You become better at what you do (see point 2), by doing it. Even if your skills are bad today, practicing will improve them over time. Just start. Time will take care of the rest. Sounds like buying Bitcoin.

4. Value yourself slightly higher than what you’re really worth

This is critical to maintain a positive feedback loop. By valuing yourself a bit higher than your current skill, you’ll always seek to improve and aim up.

For example, if you’re not building anything today, then decide that you are worth more and can build something. Just changing your mindset can have major consequences to your future self.

The actions of today will decide who you will become tomorrow.

5. There are forms of wealth that cannot be bought

Gold or Bitcoin can be bought. However, you cannot go to Amazon and buy a family or a place to call home. These forms of wealth cannot be quantified in money, nor can they be purchased anywhere.

Don’t lose sight of them when chasing material wealth.

They are just as important as holding Bitcoin. If you don’t build a family or cultivate meaningful relationships over time you may face a high cost later that can take the form of depression, a mid-life crisis or identity crisis.

Material wealth is usually worth little if you don’t have anyone meaningful to share it with. Above all, humans value experiences. It just happens that more money enables more experiences. However, some of the most meaningful experiences don’t require money.

6. Pursue what you are afraid of

If you’re afraid of buying Bitcoin, that’s probably a good sign you should do it. Fear usually protects you from new experiences. However, if you want to expand your personal development (see point 3), new experiences are critical.

These can be painful, pleasant, or neutral. If you stop labeling them and just treat them as new experiences adding to your personal growth, then you’ll quickly move on to the next stage.

As you repeat this cycle, success and failure will meet you again and again. The difference is that if you invest your excess energy into hard assets, every time you fall you’ll fall higher and raise quicker. Success will also find you faster, in higher quantity and quality.

7. Reprogram yourself

People are born and live in the same place for decades. They never changed their environment. While this may be fine in most cases, make sure your environment is not limiting your potential.

You will quickly spot this if your mindset is the one mentioned under point 4 (value yourself higher). As you advance in your personal development (see point 3), the limits holding you back will expose themselves naturally. Then you have to make a decision that can trigger point 6 (fear).

Will you break those limits or not? That could be your breakout towards wealth.

8. Don’t fall for the traps seeking to erode your wealth

A common example are altcoins. In crypto, there is only one hard asset and thousands of traps. Every time you spend money buying an altcoin, the opportunity cost of that is not buying Bitcoin.

Over 5 to 10 years, that simple decision has a tremendous cost for your wealth. The same goes when you buy a car instead of investing that money. Any consumption comes at the expense of investments.

Try to keep a healthy balance between consumption and investments and be mindful of lifestyle creep. If you’re not investing any of your cash flow, then correct that imbalance.

Once you accumulate enough wealth, make sure few people know about it. Do not brag, do not boast. Do not post about it on Instagram. That’s because it will attract the exact people you need to stay away from. That may include family members ready to sell you “investment” opportunities.

9. Never sell your hard assets

One of the cardinal sins in crypto is selling your Bitcoin for an altcoin. Anyone that did that and waited enough time paid the price. While altcoins can outperform Bitcoin at times for 6 to 12 months, that never happens if you count in years.

The second problem with selling hard assets is that there is nothing else better to buy. If you sell Bitcoin to buy Gold, you’re still holding a hard asset but with a different risk/reward profile.

Whatever you do, make sure you’re not selling your hard asset for an inferior asset class. If you decide to do that, calculate your risk and make sure it’s minimal, ideally under 5% of your total wealth. The reward should be asymmetric if you take such risks and should allow you to buy more Bitcoin later.

If you want to build wealth and keep it, hoard hard assets. Don’t sell them.

10. Expect to be targeted if you become successful

Any success will attract the opposite crowd in crypto and everywhere else. Last year, I was hacked and lost $50,000 after installing malware. My hot wallets were drained instantly. I got tricked by a simple scam.

Should have known better, but I never held any size in hot wallets until RAT Escape happened. The hackers came quickly when they saw the token pump. This is why, if you have any public presence, expect to be targeted.

Worse, even if you’re not a public figure, you will be targeted because Ledger, Coinbase, and others lost their customer data. Only yesterday, one of our members was socially engineered by scammers pretending to be from Ledger. They asked for his seed to “protect” him.

They knew his name, email, phone, and address. Enough data to pass as credible. As soon as the seed was shared, his wallets were drained. Please never share your seed, even if it is the police.

As soon as people know you are successful, the vultures will come. Protect your wealth at all costs and don't flaunt it, it will just paint you as a bigger target.

Which of the 10 points is your favorite and why? Reply in the comments and subscribe for my curated market alpha.

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