My friends, today I'm going to show you how to stop living paycheck to paycheck and escape this cycle where you're just stuck working a job you don't like, only because you don't have any other options that you're aware of. I used to live paycheck to paycheck, and it really sucks. So I'm going to outline 10 steps that have worked for me to get out of living paycheck to paycheck. In future videos, I'm going to go even deeper into this, into how I manifest my path to millionaire and where exactly that will happen. So if you've struggled with money, if you want financial freedom, you can show that to yourself by going through all of this. This was filmed live while I was just hanging out with my community, doing a presentation straight from the heart. Because I know this information, I can teach it. If you'd like to be a part of the community, chat, and get your questions answered, I would love for you to join the Jerry Banfield Family.
All right, let's get into it. Step one of the 10 steps to stop living paycheck to paycheck, which I'm grateful I'm out of. I have enough money in the bank where I don't need to make any money for at least a year. I can afford to just do my show in my studio and do whatever I want every day. And that's freedom. So first of all, it's necessary for me to qualify and say: look, I've got this, and that's how I can teach it.
Step One: Be Honest About Where You Are and Where You Want to Go
The very first step, the thing you can't do the rest of these steps without, is to be honest about where you are and where you want to go. Say, hey, I'm living paycheck to paycheck and I'm sick of it. Okay, that's half of it. The other half is then: where do you want to go? Do you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck? Yes. Well, what would that look like for you? Would it look like it does for me, where you can do work you really love, where you don't just have to show up for a job and work? What would that look like for you exactly? Be honest and really get deep down and say, look, this is what it is, this is where I'm at. But you don't need to spend too much time on it. Just be honest: okay, I'm frustrated with my money.
I'll give you an example. I was born in 1984. It's 2022 as I'm teaching this, which is 38 years later. I have been in debt since I was 18 years old, when I went to college. Right now, my wife and I have a net worth of about zero, which means we've got about as much debt as assets, our house versus our debt. All of our debt is at a low interest rate. I am aiming to go to a place where I have no more debt, and where I have a net worth of a million dollars and am a millionaire. So right now, my wife and I have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank. We're not living paycheck to paycheck. If we both make no money, we have enough cash to pay our bills for at least six months, maybe a year. So I'm not living paycheck to paycheck. However, I want to be a millionaire, and that's where I want to go. So this is me doing step one. I'm going to do this right along with you.
Step Two: Take Full Responsibility for Where You Are
Now, this is an extreme example, and it's an extremely easy one for me. It's easy because I'm almost eight and a half years sober in Alcoholics Anonymous, which has produced a lot of drastic changes in my life. These steps are loosely related to the steps in AA. So this is very easy for me to do. Yes, I take absolute full responsibility for where I am now. I have completely created the situation I am in now. And I invite you to honestly answer: do you take full responsibility for where you are now? You need to say yes on this one to proceed. Because if you don't take responsibility for where you are now, that means it's somebody else's fault. And if it's somebody else's fault, your fate is in their hands. If you take full responsibility for where you are now, then your future is also your responsibility, which means now you can determine where you want to go.
So I take absolute responsibility for where I'm at now. In fact, I'm grateful. I love where I'm at now, because it gives me a powerful teaching platform. If I was already a millionaire right now, I couldn't make as good of a teaching video. For example, if I had just won the lottery and had never been in debt and my finances had always been easy, I wouldn't be able to teach you this as effectively as I can, because I've been through it for 20 years myself. So if you take responsibility, you say: look, where I'm at is exactly where I've put myself based on my choices. There were other choices that were possible. I chose these. This is where I'm at today. And the good news is, you are powerful. You can now make changes to where you want to go.
Step Three: Are You Willing to Do Anything?
Each of these steps is in a very clear order. The third step is: are you willing to do anything that helps yourself and all others enjoy the peace of financial freedom? So you've been honest about it: I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck, I don't want to do this anymore, I want financial freedom, and I did this to myself. Okay, then, are you willing to do anything that helps yourself and all others enjoy the peace of financial freedom?
I've worded it this way because of what I've noticed. A lot of people are able to say, okay, yeah, I don't like where I'm at, I'd like to go somewhere else, and sure, I see what I did to get here. But this is where a lot of people get stuck, in all kinds of things in life. Are you willing to do anything that helps yourself and others enjoy the peace of financial freedom? The way I've worded this means you're not going to hurt other people. You're not going to enjoy financial freedom just by stealing from others, or misleading others, or getting others to give up their financial freedom so that you can have yours. You're going to do something that collectively helps others. And the key is, are you willing to do anything?
I know people who've made drastic changes in their finances and in their lives, and this willingness to do whatever it takes is key. Because if you're living paycheck to paycheck, you can't keep doing the same stuff and thinking the same way you've been thinking and expect to transition yourself out of paycheck to paycheck and into being a millionaire. You need new ways of thinking primarily, and then you can make true adjustments. So the key to this is that you are about to take some action and make some changes, which you won't do if you don't take responsibility and you're not honest about where you are and where you want to go. But if you're ready to do this, we'll proceed to the next step.
Step Four: Write Down the Story of Your Life and Your Money
This is the fourth step of escaping paycheck to paycheck: write down a story of your life, focusing on the ups and downs of your money. Now, you might not see where this one is directly related to the last three, and it's very similar to the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The key thing here is that you want to take a look at the big picture, the picture of your life. I've done this in a lot of different formats, like for Alcoholics Anonymous, and writing the steps out and writing them down is very helpful. You can also talk it out. I'm going to do this verbally. I suggest you write it down, because that is easier if you're not in the habit of doing this, but you can also just talk it out.
So I'm going to tell you a story of my life, focusing on the ups and downs of my money, very quickly. My mother worked hard for the money; she went into the military and made lots of money. My father controlled the money and saved the money, but did not invest. And I grew up with the mindset that you just work hard, make smart choices, and keep saving up, and everything will go great for you. I was never raised on, or talked to about, the value of investing and thinking about money as kind of a collective thing that we're all participating in. These are ideas I learned by reading a lot of books.
My Own History With Money
I went to college because that's what my parents said I should do. I borrowed student loans, as little as possible, but without working I went into debt at 18 years old, and over the next 10 years or so of my life I just stayed in debt. I lived paycheck to paycheck. Anything good that happened, for example if I got a raise at work, if I got something that I wanted to do, I just stayed in debt. Unexpected money that came in, I blew it. I'd blow it.
I remember I got a much better paying police job. In 2008 I got a big pay raise, and I developed a new habit of going to the strip clubs to even it all out. This is why looking at your history with money will help you see where you've come from and get an idea of what you've learned, be accountable, and figure out where you want to go.
So after I quit being a police officer, I moved home with my parents, and then I went to graduate school and met my wife. I continued to live paycheck to paycheck, except when I lived with my parents, because then I was living on their paychecks, which was really helpful. I was able to ask for money, because I could ask for a few bucks over a couple of weeks. When I was able to get out of my apartment, that's when I really escaped. I really escaped paycheck to paycheck by moving in with my parents, because now I had freedom. Now I didn't need to make any money to live with my parents. That's where I escaped paycheck to paycheck.
And that's where this goes back to the question: are you willing to do anything that helps yourself and others? Moving off my parents was my exit from paycheck to paycheck, and this might be a very easy way for you to get out of it too, to move in with somebody else who would appreciate having you in the house, where you could add value to their life and they've already got money set up. This could be a partner, parents, children. Now, I'm not saying that's what everybody needs to do. That's what I did. I escaped paycheck to paycheck by moving in with my parents, then shortly after I went to graduate school, I found a wife who could pay the bills, and again I'm teaming up and working with somebody else as I moved in with my wife.
Books, Business, And My Biggest Earning Years
Since I was out of the paycheck to paycheck world, and I never ever want to go back to it, I started reading all these books and learning about money, like Rich Dad Poor Dad, The 4-Hour Workweek, and tons of books about money, learning new ways to think about money. Eventually I just basically wasted a lot of my money, but since my wife could pay the bills, I started an online business. And since my wife could pay the bills, any good thing that came my way financially, I would kind of waste it on trying to get some bigger plan or bigger success.
Shortly after that, I had some of my biggest earning years ever, making as much as $250,000 profit in one year, and lots of years with over $100,000 in profit, plus much more in revenue and then expenses. Then in 2019, I had a year where, mentally first, I went into this place. Despite having years of six figure incomes and financial success online, I first went into a place of feeling broke myself, and then I manifested that outwardly. I borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and make my most ambitious scheme ever, guaranteed to kick me into being a millionaire. It failed, and I was left in the worst financial situation of my life. My wife bailed me out and demanded that I either declare bankruptcy or drastically cut my expenses, effectively the same as bankruptcy, to get my money back in order. Then the U.S. government helped bail us both out with all the disaster loans, and since then I have been feeling very financially abundant again. Our finances have got back to zero net worth.
And that is the story of my life in a simple, quick, five minute story. I suggest you go through and write the same kind of story for your life. You'll notice patterns. For example, no matter how much money I've made, I've found ways to piss it away and not maintain my wealth over time. I've often depended on other people financially instead of addressing my own issues, and I like to play the big shot of look how great I am and how much money I'm making.
Write Where You Want To Go Next
Now, the key next step is to write the rest of your life story as you want it to be. So here's where I want to go from here, and this is a bit different from the steps, and this is key for any aspect of your life. We're often way too good at looking at where we've been, but we don't put enough time into where we want to go.
Here's where I want to go: I want to be a millionaire. I want my finances to be a very stable part of my life. I want to knock out the debt that my wife and I have. And I want to give, I want to do work I love in the process. I don't want to be hustling. I don't want to be taking money from other people, pitching some crypto, pumping and dumping some crypto just so I can make money. I don't want to be grinding and hustling and competing with other people. I don't want to be missing out on the rest of my life. I want to just show up and do this every day and become a millionaire. And we're going to go into much, much more detail about that, because this needs an entire video on its own.
So I would suggest you put more effort into looking at the rest of your life story than you do into actually telling it. And I've already done this, because I know what's coming and it's convenient.
Share The Story And Break The Silence Around Money
Share the story with others while noticing patterns and getting motivated to change. This is something that a lot of people struggle with, because we've been programmed not to talk about money. Money is gross. Money is nasty. Money is evil. And it's kind of like sex, you just need it sometimes, and other times you just aren't going to have it and you can complain then, and sometimes you are going to have it and you can enjoy it while it lasts. No. We've been programmed to take these topics, like money, sex, and health, and keep them very private in our lives, and that allows us to be exploited and to feel separate.
If you want to feel connected, if you want to feel abundant, if you want to understand and learn and grow, in my experience the best way is through communication with others. This is how employers can pay employees different wages, because the employees don't know what everybody else in their company is making. Think about this. Let me say something to see if it triggers you: that women, at least according to some statistic I've seen, and I don't even know if this is true or not, but it's often quoted, make significantly less money than men for the same work. Does that get you a little triggered? Well, here's a very simple solution. If everybody would just talk about exactly how much money they were making, that would very easily disappear without any more effort.
When you get a man who comes into a company and says, I'm not taking less than $80,000 for this job, the employer says, okay, you can have $80,000. The man's a bit more pushy, aggressive, masculine in that sense. A woman comes in more agreeable, aware that she wants to help out and have a job, and an employer offers $60,000. She says, okay, that sounds reasonable, and takes the job. And then you've got the man and the woman working right next to each other, and the man's getting $20,000 more, and the only reason is because they didn't talk about it. If the man and the woman had talked, if she said, hey, I'm making $60,000, you're making $80,000? Why did they pay you $80,000? Well, because I said I wasn't working here if they didn't pay me $80,000. Well, I'm going to go tell them I'm not working here if they don't pay me $80,000 too. You see, communication fixes almost every single problem we have. So you can see now, if you can see a little bit, that our society programs you not to talk about money so that you can be exploited. That's why you've been raised not to talk about money, because people who do talk about money can work together and exploit the people who don't.
So share this story with others, because when you share your financial history with somebody else, you're going to get some feedback on it, and they may share their financial story with you. Share it with anybody who you think will do this. One of the most powerful things I've found is being part of a group where people are honest about money, work, and where they want to go, which is exactly why I built my community, and you're welcome to join the Jerry Banfield Family and have those conversations with me and others who are doing the same work.
Adjust Your Life To Match Where You Want To Be
The steps I gave you before are kind of foundational. Now this is where the real work comes in. After you've shared your story, adjust your lifestyle, spending, work, and community to match where you want to be with your finances. This is where the real change comes in. Everything else we've done has essentially been to prepare you to do this and what follows.
Because it's unreasonable to expect that you should hang out with people who are broke and don't talk about money except to complain. That you should spend every bit of extra money you get as soon as you get it, because that's what people around you do. And that you should just work a job you hate and then reward yourself by pissing all the money away that you made, while the people around you think the same thing. It's unreasonable to expect that you're going to really get out of paycheck to paycheck by hanging out with the same people you've been hanging out with, thinking the same way you've been thinking, living the same way you've been living. This is where you really make change.
The people around you set your financial baseline
Almost everybody I'm closely connected with makes either close to $100,000 or more than $100,000 a year. Family members, friends, the people I'm close with in my life, the average income is probably over $100,000. Almost everybody I hang out with on a regular basis earns well, and even the ones who don't earn over $100,000 feel financially secure. My children feel financially secure. They're not worried about money. They're not doing a job they hate. They're not blowing the money they have on candy. All right, maybe they do. When I give them $20, they do blow it on candy, but they're living well. They're financially secure. They're financially free. If they really want something, they get it. And even the people I'm connected with who make much less money than I do always have enough to do whatever they want to. If they want to take a trip, they take the trip. And if they fall a little short on money, the people around them pitch in and it's covered.
It doesn't matter whether they're single, married, partnered, whether they have kids or don't have kids, old, young, everything in between. I know all kinds of different people, and the ones I hang out with consistently feel financially secure, enjoy financial freedom, and usually make a good salary. Now, it's easy for me to be in this kind of state of mind when these are the people I hang out with. But if you feel broke and the people around you feel broke and all of you live that way, it's a completely different picture. When I was a police officer, most of the people I hung out with lived how I lived. You blew your money at the strip club or on alcohol. There were police officers I lived with who didn't do that, but I didn't hang out with them that much. A lot of my friends actually did better with their finances than I did. I was often one of the lower operators.
In my experience, if you really want to make true change, you need to find somebody who's got what you want, learn from them, and let go of the people, places, and jobs that don't match your ideal. Someone in the chat named Lisa said money is the only real stronghold men have left, because as women we don't respect a man anymore, and men really don't do their role either. I've got a video coming on that. Two videos after this, we're going to really go into it.
Adjust your trajectory, then maintain it
So here's what you're going to do. Adjust your lifestyle, spending, work, and community to match where you want to be with your finances. That's the big change step. And then from there, it's maintenance. Stay educated, accountable, and vigilant about the choices you're making each day. Almost all of the change, and this is a huge piece of work, lives in that single step. This is exactly why you need to share your story, get feedback from other people, and ask for advice. You don't have to make a huge change. Literally one little change, one change, can put you on a different trajectory. If you want to walk through your own situation with people who are doing this alongside you, the best way to work with me on it today is to join my community, the Jerry Banfield Family, where we share our stories and give each other feedback.
The next thing is to stay educated, accountable, and vigilant about the choices you're making each day. If you adjust your trajectory, maybe in the moment you can't immediately move. Maybe you're not in a good position to make drastic changes. But if you just start thinking in a different direction, then continue reading books, talking to people, and watching what you're doing with your money. Notice when, after something good happens financially, the temptation comes up to piss it away at the strip club, buying people a night at the bar, or upgrading your car. These are the things our society has programmed us to do. Oh, you got a better job? Good, now you can sell that little house you've got, move into a bigger house, buy a nicer car, and you'll be right back to where you were financially before. This is the maintenance step, and this is where I'm at. Continue to always educate yourself and be accountable. I just went through, in the last couple of days, another big layer of this myself. If you start to realize, hmm, I'm getting off the ideal path I'd like to be on, then it's a lot more work right there.
The real transformation is a new way of seeing money
The true transformation that comes when you're able to reach financial freedom is a different way of looking at money. When you really go through this whole process, the real goal is to get a new way of looking at money. Not seeing money as the root of all evil, this gross, nasty thing that you just need, kind of like the way people are taught to see sex, or the way people see this body as a gross, nasty thing they have to use to get through this existence. Instead, you come to see money as a labor and resource system we are collectively creating, where the goal is for each of us to have what we need and what we want. Ultimately, this whole money and finance thing is something the human consciousness collectively is deciding to use, and each individual has an input.
Think about it with your body. If there's a bunch of cells in your body that crave sugar, that will come into your mind as a craving for sugar. But not necessarily every cell in your body really wants sugar. There's just a loud group of cells that really want some sugar, and that manifests as a craving. Each cell in your body has an impact on the whole, the thoughts and everything else that happens. And each of us is just a cell in the body of humanity. The way each of us approaches money is how money then manifests at the collective level in terms of our systems, our governments, companies, jobs, and all of that.
Once you see that money is just a neutral way of managing resources, it's not good or bad inherently, it's how we choose to use it. We have the possibility of using money in a way that makes sure everybody's got their needs met, and money collectively can allow us to do things like build huge hotels, like the Gaylord Palms that I just stayed at. You don't very easily build something like a massive multi-million-dollar hotel using a bartering system. There are too many people involved in it. So one of the values of making changes in your own finances is getting to participate in making a larger-scale change in the human consciousness when it comes to money. Someone named Michael said if he became a billionaire he'd have a tiny house with just enough for him, that he feels there's a ceiling and that owning a house or mansion so big that your power bill is over a thousand dollars is unnecessary. Well, that's the thing. Once we start to see money as a labor and resource system, we start to have this desire to make sure others are taken care of, which leads to the last step in this process.
Share your success and help others
Share your success and help others. The beauty of transforming your own financial life the way I have, escaping paycheck to paycheck, is that I can share that experience now because I've been through it. I'm committed to helping others. I have so much that if I see someone homeless or standing there with a cardboard sign, I'll give them $20. When I go out to eat, I'll give a $20 or $30 tip if it's a bigger bill, or a 30% tip on something smaller. I'll give a big tip because I've got lots to give away. And even though I have the intention to become a millionaire myself, here's a true test: if you really want to see how you're doing with your money, do you have enough to give someone else who has a greater need than you do today? Do you have enough money to give somebody who's homeless $20? That's wealth to me. Even if that was the only $20 you had, if you've got a house and somebody else doesn't, here's $20, take it.
Even at the depths of my worst financial spot, when I was on the edge of bankruptcy, I was still giving money to people who were homeless whenever I would see them. Now, it can be more challenging online, which is why, if I'm not seeing you in person and we don't have a significant connection, then I share education. Watch one of my videos. The transformation that can happen from watching one of my videos or listening to this as a podcast is so much more than me giving you $20. But if I'm just seeing you on the street for a minute, $20 is all I've got. The guy on the corner with the cardboard sign is probably not going to go watch my videos, so you can have a $20 because I can help out in that way and that's manageable. If you want the full picture of how I think about all of this, I've gathered these lessons together in my Crypto Reviews playlist.
This is what I'm doing. This is what has worked for me to escape paycheck to paycheck, and I'm working this same process to become a millionaire now. Next I'll share my millionaire master plan, which will be the next video I upload. If you want to walk through this alongside me and a group of people all doing the same work, come be part of it, and I'll see you in the next one.