Wealth Is Quiet. Rich Is Loud. Poor Is Flashy.
Loud money can have undesirable consequences.
While attending a work function a few years ago, I met an odd human.
The guy was a few levels higher than me on the corporate ladder. I wanted to chat with him to get a different perspective on our company. “What do you think about our biggest client’s latest move?” I asked.
What followed was 20-minutes of conversation torture.
Instead of talking about business, he went off on a huge tangent. He told me about the massive house he lived in that had the best home automation you’ve ever seen. He explained how the light would turn off for a movie and the blinds would suddenly shut. The automation saved him 30-seconds or so, but that wasn’t the point. He didn’t spend $100,000 on home automation to save 30 seconds — his time isn’t that precious.
The home automation is a status symbol. He paid all that money so he could brag to strangers like me at work functions and impress them.
Frankly, I didn’t give a shit about his oversized home automation. In two years it will be out of date and probably worth peanuts anyway. This man is the loud kind of rich.
There are three levels to money (courtesy of Wealth Director on Twitter).
Poor is flashy
You may have noticed this. Travel to poorer suburbs and the fashion labels people wear often get better not worse. You’re more likely to see Gucci or Prada in lower social-economic areas than, for example, Malibu beach. Why is that? Simple.
A poor way of looking at money is that it buys you stuff. When you derive meaning from stuff it deprives you of a meaning for your life. When your life is defined by stuff there is a temptation to flash it at others so they’ll validate the path you’ve chosen.
The challenge with flashy is it puts you in debt.
A guy I used to work with is the ultimate example. He lives in an area with a high crime rate. His townhouse is a dump. But he has a Porsche 911 and his wife has a Porsche 4WD. When he rolls up to the cafe to have coffee with you, he looks like he’s worth millions of dollars. Only I know his secret because I shared an Uber with him. He guards this secret with his life.
The problem gets deeper. Those two Porsches suck the life out of his paycheck. He’s up to his eyeballs in debt to pay for these cars and can’t see his 5-year-old son a lot because of it.
The problem gets even worse. Because he chases flashy, it’s hard work to remain flashy. He upgrades his cars about every eighteen months for the newest model. Right now he’s on the drug of Porsches. Pretty soon he’s going to try and become a Lambo owner.
So not only does a lot of his paycheck go to the bank, but he sells his cars when they’re still fairly new and gets far less money for them than he owes on the loan. Then he starts the process all over again with another car. Instead of compound interest, he’s discovered compound debt by trying to be flashy.
Wanting to look richer than you are is a disease. It keeps us in debt — enslaved.
Rich is loud
Old mate at the start is in this segment. Here’s where I get real with you.
Sometimes I am in this loud category.
I get excited about a good month in business and talk too loudly about how much money I’ve made. My intention is to show others how they can mimic parts of the strategy, but sometimes, it comes off as being financially rich and way too loud. No one’s perfect, right?
The trouble with having a decent amount of money and being loud is it pisses people off. Instead of people falling in love with the type of person you are and how you treat them, they silently get turned off by all your loudness, because it makes them feel incredible levels of envy.
If you make a lot of money it’s far better to use it for good than being loud about how much you made.
Drop $1000 silently on someone who needs a break. You’ll feel better than any amount of bragging.
Wealth is quiet
Some of the richest people I’ve met look incredibly poor. One wealthy startup investor I know famously drives a 1992 Ford station wagon and wears t-shirts with rips in them, that weren’t made by Target as a fashion statement. But that’s financial wealth. Real wealth isn’t about how much money you have to splurge on dumb stuff that makes climate change worse than it already is.
Quiet wealth is having your time back to do the work you enjoy.
You quietly invest some of your money in assets. You have a side hustle or two that eventually helps you live with less stress. You choose to own less stuff so you can have less debt. With less debt you have more choices. With more choices you can choose life, family, and things that give you true meaning.
A fellow content creator I know quit their job eighteen months ago to write. They said to me “Wealth is freedom of the mind.”
Translated: wealth is the freedom to think and say what you want without it affecting your ability to pay for your food and shelter. And you don’t need a private jet full of one-hundred-dollar bills to reach this level in life.
So next time you see a person in huge debt being flashy, think of them differently. Next time you see someone being loud about how rich they are, think about all the opportunities they’re missing by not letting who they’ve become be their people magnet.
Wealth built using silence allows you freedom of thought and the opportunity to do work you enjoy without giving a fuck about how much it pays. Don’t worry about smart money, dumb money, or loud money.
Aim for quiet wealth.
Quiet wealth is attached to work you enjoy, and that work genuinely improves the world. The rest is all debt and broken dreams.
