If you are in your 20s or 30s and still rely on a salary, read this.
If you are in your 20s or 30s, the system is designed to keep you addicted. Here is the detox plan I used to escape..
I am writing this from a cafe in Tokyo.
It is Thursday. Most people my age are sitting in a cubicle, answering emails they don’t care about, for a boss they don’t like.
I don’t say this to brag. I say this because ten years ago, I was on the exact same path as everyone else. I thought “success” meant a corner office, a nice house, and a supercar in the driveway. While I’m human and those things are still of interest to me, I was wrong.
Success is freedom to do what you want, when you want. I have created a stream of income with dividends, which allows me to own my time. I am projected to collect over $40,000 in passive income for 2026 and this is easily obtainable for you.
If you are in your 20s or 30s, you have a brief window to change your trajectory before the “system” locks you in for good.
Here are the 12 rules on money and success I wish I knew a decade ago.
1. Your salary is a drug.
A paycheck is the most addictive substance on earth. It is designed to be just enough to keep you coming back, but never enough to let you leave. The moment you start relying on it to fund your lifestyle, you are trapped.
Use your salary to buy assets, not liabilities. Your goal should be to make your dividends pay your rent, not your boss.
2. Looking Rich is the enemy of Being Rich.
Once you cross the $100K salary mark, it gets tempting to drive $80,000 leased SUVs or $100K electric cars. They make you look rich.
Assets that produce cash low actually makes you rich. There is a difference. One is a flashy car payment that keeps you working until you are 70.
The other is a portfolio of assets that pays you while you sleep. Stop trying to impress people who don’t care about you. You look like a jackass to people that know the actual blueprint for success.
IT’S A CAR. The dashboard is made of plastic no matter how high up the cost meter you go. Having a nice car that you gets driven to the office is a waste. Get real - your car should never be worth more than what you have in a brokerage account.
3. Your job title is not your identity.
“So, what do you do?” This is the first question people ask at parties.
We define ourselves by how we make money for someone else.
This is dangerous. If you lose your job tomorrow, do you lose your identity? Jobs are temporary. You are replaceable.
The company will post your position before your obituary is printed. Assets are forever.
Stop building your identity around a business card. Or else you’ll be one of those people begging for a job on LinkedIn after a layoff. When you have your own money, you aren’t obligated to kiss ass.
4. Outrage is a distraction.
This is an unpopular opinion but turn off the news. Unfollow the politicians.
They are in the business of selling attention, and your anger is their profit margin.
You shouldn’t give a fuck about these things when you’re trying to get RICH. Get rich first, then you can care and change the world as you see fit. You’ll be able to be the driver of change when you have money to do so.
While you are arguing on X/Instagram/Threads/TikTok about an election you can’t control, someone else is learning a skill, building a business, or buying an asset. Politics is a poverty trap.
The wealthy don’t get rich by watching CNN. They get rich by ignoring the noise and focusing on their own economy. The same as how you should be focusing on the betterment of yourself and your family. If it doesn’t improve your cash flow or your health, it is a waste of time.
5. Geography is a leverage tool.
Most people accept their local cost of living as a fact. It isn’t. If you earn in Dollars and spend in Yen (or Baht, or Pesos), you instantly triple your wealth. You don’t need $5 million to retire. You need $500,000 and a passport.
Working from another location for a few months, while earning USD online is an actual wealth hack for those of you that have the ability to travel.
6. You cannot save your way to wealth.
Your parents told you to save money. That advice worked in 1980 when banks paid 10% interest.
Today, inflation eats your cash faster than you can stack it. You can skip all the $5 lattes you want; you will never get rich just by being frugal.
You have to invest.
You have to put your money into assets that outpace inflation. Saving preserves wealth. Investing builds it. Between 2019 and 2023, I was able to put away $250K towards investments. That capital has now doubled without my direct effort.
7. Save/Invest until it hurts.
Most people save 5% or 10% of their income. If you’re earning $80,000 a year and are only capable of saving $5,000 annually, that’s not enough.
At that rate, you will be working until you are 70. To escape the system, you need to be radical.
You need to save as close to 50% of your income. Yes, it hurts. Yes, you have to say “no” to things. You want to get rich right? I know it sounds stupid and impossible, but trust me. You will feel untouchable.
Stop fucking around and increase your 401K contribution as high as you can possibly afford. At least for 6 months - these shifts don’t have to be forever.
If someone closely observed your spending for the last year, would they believe you’re serious about getting rich?
If you save 50% of your income, for every year you work, you buy one year of freedom. You can cut your working life in half by sheer force. Don’t wait for a raise. Don’t wait for a lucky stock pick. Brute force your way to freedom.
8. Skills stack. Build an online business.
Success rarely comes from being the top 1% at one thing. It comes from being in the top 25% at two things. I wasn’t the best writer. I wasn’t the best investor. But I combined writing with investing. That combination built this newsletter. Stack your skills. Then use the income to stack your dividends.
Creating online products and paid subscriptions means that you can create a revenue stream that is disconnected from your time.
So while walking traveling, I am getting notifications that readers are upgrading to a paid subscription or bought an eBook. You create more value than you take and money will be transferred to you. It’s why I created the High Yield Database and The Yieldly Dashboard for paid subscribers.
9. Panic is a transfer of wealth.
When the market crashes, money doesn’t disappear. It moves from the impatient to the patient. Every time you see a “Market Crash” headline, re-read it as “Flash Sale.”
That is when millionaires are made. Every time the market crashes, I aggressively buy stocks.
Stop being afraid of losing money.
Ask yourself…Why aren’t you afraid of losing money when buying clothes, a new phone, or food? All of that money actually loses value and goes to zero.
Investing is a rigged game. The longer you invest, the more likely you are to see success. Furthermore, there are plenty of defensive investments out there that can preserve your capital during market crashes.
You can still get a shortcut on your investing journey with this starter guide. You can get the dividend starter bundle so that you can skip the mistakes that I made.
👉 Here is what’s included:
✅ The Dividend Blueprint (ebook)
A step-by-step guide showing how I structure my portfolio, grow monthly cash flow, and reinvest for long-term income.✅ Monthly Dividend Map
50+ hand-picked tickers that pay monthly so you can ladder your income all year long.✅ Dividend Tracker (Google Sheet)
The exact spreadsheet I use to track yield, forward income, reinvestment, and portfolio growth.✅ Dividend Growth Legends: 50+ Stocks
50 stocks that have an established history of dividend increases.✅ List of ETFs for Beginners To Start With
10. You will never “find” the time.
“I’ll start a business when things calm down.”
“I’ll learn to invest next year.”
No, you won’t. Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available. If you wait for “free time,” you will die waiting. You have to steal the time. I built my portfolio and my business in the margins. I still wake up at 5 AM and write or plan my next move.
I work every weekend.
I skip social events all the time.
Don’t want to do that? Think it’s dramatic? Fine - I get it. Just prepare to get outpaced by people like me that are outworking you.
The 9-to-5 pays your bills. The 5-to-9 builds your freedom. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice your Netflix time to build your dream life, you don’t actually want it. You just want to complain.
11. “Average” is a failing grade.
Society is designed to keep you in the middle.
Go to school.
Get a safe job.
Buy a house you can’t afford.
Watch Netflix.
Keep up with sports.
That is the script. If you follow it, you will have a mediocre life.
Comfort is the enemy of greatness.
If you want a life that looks different, your actions have to look different. You have to be willing to be misunderstood. You have to take risks that make your family uncomfortable. If you fit in, you are losing.
12. Cash flow is the only thing that matters.
Net worth is a vanity metric. So is your job title.
Being a “Senior Vice President” with a mortgage you can’t afford isn’t success; it’s high-functioning poverty. You can’t eat a job title. You can’t retire on “prestige.”
Your goal is to make as much money as legally possible.
Stop acting like money isn’t the goal. It is. It’s the reason you probably force yourself awake Monday - Friday.
You can be “worth” $2 million on paper because you own a house in San Francisco, but still be broke because you have no cash.
Cash flow is oxygen. Focus entirely on maximizing your income and converting it into monthly checks. That is the only metric that buys you freedom.
The Bottom Line
Escaping the rat race doesn’t require a lottery win or a rich uncle. It requires a complete rejection of the “average” life script.
To get a different result, you have to break the rules:
Stop valuing job titles and start valuing cash flow.
Stop spending money to look rich and start buying assets to become free.
Stop listening to the political noise and the “safe” advice that keeps you working until you are 70.
The math is simple: Spend less than you earn, invest the difference in cash-flowing assets, and repeat until your dividends cover your bills.
The system is designed to keep you seated in that cubicle forever. Don’t let it.
thank you, Cain!!
Thank you for this. Truly, I'm a W2'er breaking free this year. I started my journey a year ago. See you at the top!🫡