What's going on, everyone? It's Brandon Turner, host of the Better Life Podcast here with a special episode where I'm just going to be playing a YouTube video that I made for YouTube for the podcast.

Because I put a lot of time and effort into working on these YouTube videos, and I realize I never put them out as podcasts.

So here you go. It's going to be a little bit of shorter episode, but I hope you enjoy it.

This episode is brought to you by me.

I appreciate you all. Have a great day. Here are nine money rules. I wish I knew at 25, and this is coming from a 40-year-old multi-millionaire. So I still remember that look that my wife gave me when I was like 24 years old. I looked at her and said, honey, I don't know what to do. Like,

we are totally out of money. I mean, I didn't understand because I thought I was doing things right. We were both working hard. We didn't blow our money on like partying or on buying stupid stuff. And we were even starting to invest like in real estate. But every month, our bank account just dwindled until it was just gone. I felt like a failure. I felt confused. I felt desperate. I mean, I wanted so badly to be wealthy someday, but I felt that I was moving backwards. But that moment of realizing how broke I was, like that's what changed everything for me. That was the moment that was like the first time that I admitted something important. I didn't have a money problem. I had a money ignorance problem. Like, I wasn't stupid. I wasn't lazy. I just was ignorant. No one had ever taught me the stuff. Like, not school, not my parents, not college, not my job. Everything I thought I knew about money came from watching other broke people try their best. So I'm sitting there, broke, frustrated, and I made a decision that changed my life. I said, I'm going to learn how money actually works, and I'm going to master it. So I started reading and watching everything I could about money, about wealth, about investing, and about success. Now, fast forward to now, I'm 40 years old, I'm financially free, I run multiple businesses. I own over a billion dollars of real estate alongside a lot of partners I brought in.

And I've got millions in that worth. And I'm building this wealth intentionally. But here's the part that stings a little. It didn't have to take me this long. I didn't have to go through as much trauma had I known this stuff. Had somebody handed me the nine rules I'm about to give you when I was 24, or I would have reached financial freedom way faster, maybe half the time or less.

Now, these aren't cliches or Instagram advice.

These are real,

real. I'm about to give you when I was 24, I would have reached financial freedom way faster, maybe half the time or less. Now, these aren't cliches or Instagram advice. These are real rules that wealthy people live by. So let's get into it. Number one, build an emergency fund before you build a lifestyle. Look, everyone in their 20s thinks that the first step to financial freedom is I got to invest. I got to invest. The longer I'm investing,

the more I'll make. It's not the first thing. The first step is stability. Your emergency fund is not

about returns or growth. It's not even really about money. It is about safety. Like the psychological

and financial safety that allows you to make intelligent decisions without fear breathing down your

neck. So most people skip this part because they want the exciting part.

They want to go buy some crypto or some stocks or rental properties. They want to do the big stuff.

But the truth is, wealthy people understand this. An emergency fund is the foundation that keeps your

entire financial house upright. Without it, like a flat tire becomes a crisis. A medical bill becomes

a catastrophe. A job loss becomes a freefall.

An unexpected expense becomes credit card debt, which becomes financial cancer.

People without a proper emergency fund are always the ones that are like one unlucky moment

away from going backwards. And people who are constantly like recovery never get ahead.

Millionaires build wealth because small setbacks, they don't ruin them.

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