Is Cognitive Dissonance Keeping You Broke?

In the last video we covered how long it takes to actually become a millionaire. Building wealth will likely take more time than you want it to.
Nick Cage earned over $150 million dollars - he had money trouble. Johnny Depp - $650 million, thats over half a billion dollars, his advisors told him to slow down on the spending. Gary Busey, Jose Canseco, Toni Braxton, Dionne Warwick, Mike Tyson, Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson, Dennis Rodman ....every single one of them despite earning millions of dollars suffered money issues. If you fall into the trap of relying on material possessions to bring satisfaction, that's a bottomless pit. You will never make enough money to fill it.

Most millionaires who got there by working hard and investing smart are frugal. They live in a modest home and drive a modest car. Many people who live in the McMansions and drive exotics are one bad month away from losing it all and are often highly leveraged. Being overleveraged and always worrying if I can make a car payment or huge house payment is being a slave to money not using it to create freedom. Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world still spends about $3 every day for breakfast, and still lives in the first house he purchased for $31,000 in 1958. IKEA founder and billionaire Ingvar Kamprad who recently passed away was worth about $58 billion. He would use both sides of a piece of paper to save money, get his haircut in developing countries to save money, and even preferred budget hotels and flew coach when he travelled. Many millionaires, even billionaires, drive regular cars, shop for deals and spend conservatively. There was a book written on this phenomenon years ago called The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley Ph.D. that outlines this strategy adopted by many millionaires who got that way by being frugal. Let's look at cognitive dissonance.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Cognitive Dissonance is "the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change"

**The mindset of wealth creation and accumulation, is the opposite of spending money.** Pretty obvious right? but if you are like most people you are motivated by the thought of owning an exotic car, a yacht, or a mansion. and you define that desire by wanting to be rich. And you cant be blamed for that because social media makes people believe this is how all wealthy people actually live. But spending money is the exact opposite of becoming rich, the opposite of wealth accumulation. So I will ask you does it make sense you want to get rich by spending money? Isn't that crazy? Yet the vast majority of people have this mindset. I want to be rich, I want to spend all this money. You can see we have cognitive dissonance. Because of this many people the second they get their hands on money they start to spend. They would rather look rich, than be rich and that's why we see bankrupt ex-millionaires everywhere.

There is nothing wrong with owning a Lambo , if you have the money. But make real money first. Get to a point where it is not putting a strain on your finances today. Always ask this, how will future you feel about the decisions you make today. Is 60 year old you still going to be hustling because you lost everything on lambos, risky stonks, and shytecoins? Or will sacrifices you make today enable you to be completely free in the future. There a hundreds of ways to get you to millionaire status, to create that freedom, anyone today can start an online business for under $100, you can start a blog for free, and monetize it with ads, sponsorships, whatever.

You can buy completely functional drop shipping stores for $100, and learn to promote online. Yu can start a YouTube channel and promote the heck out of it. You can write a book, sell music, become a consultant, start any type of business, but you need to leave the masses with the unrealistic expectations, grand claims and nonsense, and be one of the few that create actual long term wealth and freedom.

Ever Wonder how long it takes to become a millionaire? https://youtu.be/ZDaVrwb5HWY
Need some entrepreneur motivation?

https://financebuzz.com/finance-nicolas-cage-buying-spree
http://www.fox5ny.com/news/fox-content-hub/johnny-debt-sorry-johnny-depp-has-spent-all-of-his-650-million-in-lifetime-earnings
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/how-do-life/201503/why-many-rich-people-are-frugal