How To Use The 2025 Recession To Get Rich

Summary

In this video, Graham Stephan offers practical advice on navigating the 2025 recession to build wealth and escape financial struggles. He presents unconventional, step-by-step strategies for improving credit scores, gaining diversified work experience, and embracing scalable careers that are not limited by time. Stephan emphasizes practicing caution with financial advice, advocating creating multiple income streams, and being vigilant about lifestyle inflation. His insights include credit building, investing early, and utilizing income to grow wealth rather than increasing expenses, all geared towards achieving financial independence and success during economically uncertain times.

Highlights

• Only take financial advice from people whose success you'd want to replicate. 🙌
• Credit scores are crucial; treat them like a real-life cheat code to better finances. 🎮
• Explore different careers to find what you truly love and excel at. 🔍
• Focus on scalable jobs or businesses that don't limit income to hours worked. 🚀
• Utilize side hustles to buffer financial security and gain extra income. 👨‍💻
• Avoid lifestyle inflation; invest the difference from raises instead. 📉💸
• Create new opportunities by taking calculated risks and seizing new chances. 🎲

Key Takeaways

• Be a contrarian: Go against the grain and embrace unique wealth-building strategies. 🤔
• Focus on building a strong credit score: It's the key to many financial opportunities. 💳
• Gain work experience: Try various jobs to learn new skills and discover what fits you. 🧑‍💼
• Create multiple income streams: Diversification is crucial for financial security. 💰
• Beware of lifestyle inflation: Keep expenses steady even as your earnings increase. 🚫💰
• Invest early: The magic of compound interest is real, so start investing now. 📈
• Stay passionate and consistent: Love what you do and be persistent in your efforts. ❤️🏋️‍♂️

Overview

Graham Stephan opens with a snapshot of challenging economic realities, but quickly shifts focus to possible solutions for overcoming these financial hurdles. He argues against mainstream financial wisdom and proposes actionable steps to seize the potential upsides of an economic downturn. Stephan believes that by embracing smart financial practices, people can break free from financial constraints even during recessions.

Central to Stephan's strategy is improving financial literacy and personal finance management. He discusses the importance of credit scores and the benefits of pursuing diverse work experiences. Stephan underscores the value of carving out multiple income streams and highlights the dangers of lifestyle inflation. He also encourages young viewers to start investing early to capitalize on the power of compound interest.

Furthermore, Stephan speaks to the need for passion and perseverance, viewing these as keys to long-term financial success. By choosing work that aligns with one's strengths and maintaining consistency, he believes individuals can navigate the recession's challenges effectively. Stephan's guide is a motivational roadmap for anyone looking to thrive financially, irrespective of economic conditions.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Financial Landscape Overview The introduction highlights grim financial statistics facing Americans, such as low savings rates and historic lows in first-time home buying due to high market prices. Many Gen Z individuals are working multiple jobs, and credit card and household debt has reached record highs. However, a solution is promised to help individuals escape this cycle and build wealth from scratch.
• 02:00 - 05:00: Importance of Credit Score This chapter discusses the importance of a credit score and offers unconventional advice for financial success. Instead of following the typical guidance of simply working hard, saving a certain percentage, and driving used cars, the chapter provides unique recommendations. These strategies, which have been beneficial to the speaker, aim to help individuals stand out financially and gain advantages over others by utilizing what they already possess effectively.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Building Wealth through Work Experience The chapter emphasizes that regardless of one's background, income, or education level, there are strategies to build wealth through work experience. It highlights the importance of being cautious about whose advice you take, particularly pointing out that many individuals offering financial advice may not be financially successful themselves. Additionally, there is an underlying critique of common misconceptions such as dismissing the importance of credit scores or the necessity of college education. The chapter appears to advocate for a more informed and critical approach to personal finance and career decisions.
• 08:00 - 12:00: The Importance of Scalable Income The chapter emphasizes the importance of scalable income in building substantial wealth. It addresses common misconceptions and fears associated with starting a business, such as the belief that it's too risky or that success is rare. Despite these beliefs, usually held by well-meaning individuals, the chapter stresses the need to be a contrarian—someone who goes against the norm—to achieve significant financial success.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Diversifying Income Sources The chapter discusses the importance of selectively listening to advice, particularly from those who have achieved what one aspires to accomplish. It emphasizes not taking advice from people whose lives you wouldn't want to replicate. By filtering advice this way, one can better focus on achieving their own goals. Furthermore, the chapter touches upon the importance of building wealth and highlights maintaining a good credit score as a simple step towards facilitating this objective.
• 18:00 - 23:00: Avoiding Lifestyle Inflation and Investing Wisely The chapter 'Avoiding Lifestyle Inflation and Investing Wisely' begins by emphasizing the importance of a credit score in personal finance. It highlights how critical a good credit score is for obtaining mortgages, renting apartments, securing competitive interest rates, getting small business loans, and even passing job applications. The narrative suggests that instead of ignoring the credit score, one should use it strategically as a 'real life cheat code' to enhance financial opportunities. The chapter then proposes a step-by-step guide on how to effectively build or improve credit scores, specifically starting with those who have no credit history.
• 23:00 - 28:00: Maximizing Compound Interest This chapter discusses strategies for maximizing compound interest through smart financial practices. It suggests starting by applying for a Discover It secured card, making small regular purchases, and paying off the balance every month to build credit. Following this, signing up for free credit monitoring services like Credit Karma or myfico.com is advised to track credit score improvements. These steps help build credit over time, leading to better financial opportunities.
• 28:00 - 29:30: Life Hacks for Financial Success The chapter "Life Hacks for Financial Success" provides practical advice on improving one's credit score through strategic credit card usage. It suggests applying for multiple credit cards, such as the Bank of America Cash Rewards Card, Wells Fargo Active Cash Card, or Chase Freedom Card, to build a history of on-time payments. By using the credit cards for small expenses and paying them off in full each month, you can steadily enhance your credit score. After consistently managing two credit cards for a year, it's recommended to apply for a charge card like the American Express Gold, which carries an annual fee but offers worthwhile rewards that may offset the cost.
• 29:30 - 30:00: Closing Remarks The chapter discusses the process of building a strong credit score, highlighting that it can be improved without limits and significantly increasing one's financial benefits. By consistently working on one's credit, typically for 18 to 24 months, an individual can achieve a credit score of 720 to 780. This score bracket ensures access to the lowest interest rates when applying for loans. This strategy is described as an efficient method that requires minimal monthly effort. The chapter emphasizes the advantages of this approach as a way to enhance financial standing by simply following straightforward advice, potentially from a short 15-minute YouTube video.

How To Use The 2025 Recession To Get Rich Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 what's up you guys it's Graham here and let's just get some of the bad news out of the way first as of now the typical American saves just 3.8% of their income firsttime home buyers have fallen to a historic low as they're priced out of the market nearly half of all gen Z is forced to work multiple jobs and if that wasn't bad enough credit card and household debt has just hit an all-time high fortunately though it doesn't have to be this way and there is a solution for those who want to escape the hamster wheel and quickly build wealth even if you're starting out with nothing and
• 00:30 - 01:00 better yet it's not the generic cookie cutter advice of work hard save at least 10% of your income drive a used car and no matter what hit the like button if you haven't done that already even though chances are that's still probably a lot better than what most people are doing anyway in terms of getting ahead of 99.9% of people starting today and actually making a sizable Financial difference starting from what you already have these are my best recommendations that have worked really well for me that anyone could follow
• 01:00 - 01:30 regardless of your background income or education all for the price by the way of subscribing if you haven't done that already so thanks so much and also big thank you to helium mobile for sponsoring this video but more on that later all right now before we go into the step-by-step details I just want to say this be careful who you listen to I just noticed there's a lot of people out there who are totally broke but they love to give their opinion on what you should be doing at any chance they could get these are the people who tell you that you should live it up when you're young that credit scores don't matter that you should go to college to get a
• 01:30 - 02:00 job to be successful or that starting a business is too risky and a lot of people fail so chances are it's not worth trying now don't get the wrong idea because usually the people that say these things typically believe it themselves and a lot of the times they have great intentions unless of course they have deep-seated insecurities and don't want anyone else to do better than them but the fact Still Remains if you want to build substantial wealth you have to go against the grain you have to be a contrarian you have to do what most people are not willing to do and that
• 02:00 - 02:30 also means only listening to the people who are where you want to be in fact I heard a saying out there that is incredibly true don't take advice from someone who you wouldn't want to trade places with and that is insanely important in determining who to filter out this is going to help narrow your focus down only to the people who are doing what you want to do and chances are that is the advice that you should follow second since the goal here is to build wealth we need to talk about actually making money and one of the easiest things you could do to help you with that is to have a good credit score
• 02:30 - 03:00 the fact is like it or not your credit score rules all things personal finance like it could dictate whether or not you get approved for a mortgage could rent an apartment get a competitive interest rate get approved for a small business loan or even pass a job application this is why you could either choose to ignore it and pretend it doesn't matter or use it as a real life cheat code to immediately start making a lot more money and if you want to guide on exactly how you could do this here is my stepbystep recommendation first if you have no credit history whatsoever go and
• 03:00 - 03:30 apply for something free like a Discover It secured card all you need to do is get in the habit of putting a few small charges on the card every single month and then pay it off in full by the time it's due that's it now second right after doing that go and sign up for a free credit monitoring website including Credit Karma myfico.com or experian.com this one's going to help you monitor your credit history and over time you could watch your score go up again for free now third after 6 months of doing
• 03:30 - 04:00 this go and apply for another free credit card like the Bank of America Cash awards card the Wells Fargo active cash card or the Chase Freedom Card this is because the more ontime payments you have the faster your score is going to go up so now that you have two credit cards you're going to put again small expenses on the card paay it off in full by the time it's due and repeat fourth after 12 months of doing this go and apply for your first charge card like the American Express gold this one does have an annual fee but it comes with so many Rewards that could easily pay for
• 04:00 - 04:30 itself and because this doesn't technically have a limit it's going to help push your score up even higher and finally fifth after about 18 to 24 months of doing this you should have a credit score anywhere between 720 to 780 which will get you the lowest interest rates any time you go and apply for a loan or leverage your money building your credit like this shouldn't take you any more than just a few minutes of work a month and this is the ultimate cheat Cod to eventually making a lot more money all for just watching a 15minute YouTube video now third even though
• 04:30 - 05:00 building your credit could certainly help you grow wealth it's not enough on its own to actually make money that's why if you want to set yourself up for the financial FasTrack of a lifetime it's extremely important to get as much work experience as possible from everything that I've seen it is always worth it to take a calculated risk try new careers be as busy as possible and then just see what sticks the reality is every job you try is going to give you a new skill set that you can then leverage into the next position and the more you try the faster you're going to realize
• 05:00 - 05:30 what you like what you don't like what you're good at what you're bad at and as a result of that I promise you're going to make a lot more money now in terms of what you could specifically do because I know everybody likes a step-by-step guide this is what's worked really well for me first decide what you think your dream career is whatever it is just pick that then second start working towards it immediately if this requires a special license certification some sort of job training then work towards it if it's something that people do on their own like a lot of entrepreneurs find
• 05:30 - 06:00 someone who's doing what you want to do and see if you could work for them work for free if you have to just a game The Experience that's going to pay off later down the line then third after you've been trying it if you realize that you don't like it it's not for you it's not what you expected no worries at all just start over again and repeat the process until you find something you really enjoy honestly you shouldn't even be thinking about making money at this point because I promise the experiences that you get are going to pay you 10 times more in the future especially if
• 06:00 - 06:30 you end up following these next few steps although before we go into that I got to say sometimes when it comes to investing Building Wealth and optimizing personal finances the small details end up making a big difference long term like just take a look at your cell phone bill when it comes to this the average person is spending $144 a month which is absolutely ridiculous like with just a few minutes of research you could quickly find other options that give you the exact same coverage for a fraction of the price or in the case of our sponsor here I mobile
• 06:30 - 07:00 $0 a month as in it's going to cost you absolutely nothing they're able to do this by giving you a free plan that offers 3 GB of data 100 minutes of voice and 300 texts with no credit card required I like this because it's able to give me a no cost second line that I could add on to my existing phone through an eim and then anytime I'm in a location without good cell phone service I could switch on over to it as a backup or if you find yourself needing more coverage than the free plan offers they have other options including an unlimited plan for just $30 a month all
• 07:00 - 07:30 with no contracts you could even enjoy Nationwide 5G coverage which is the exact same that other companies offer and as a bonus for sharing your anonymized location data which helps them put Community coverage where it's needed the most you'll get rewarded with Cloud points which could be redeemed as a gift card or through trying new restaurants shopping streaming shows and travel so if you want to try it out again even it just as a backup for additional cell phone coverage for free you could sign up with the link Down Below in the description and by entering the code gram again there's no downside
• 07:30 - 08:00 to having another option or even just eliminate your entire cell phone bill altogether the link is down below thank you so much and now let's get back to the video all right now in terms of getting ahead if you want to make a lot of money as in more than $500,000 a year you're probably going to have to pick a business that's scalable like let's be real if you want to focus on massive wealth chances are you're not going to get there through a traditional job unless of course that job pays you an exorbitant amount of money or you get really good at call options and only fans and that's why instead you're going
• 08:00 - 08:30 to have to pick a career that's not dependent on how many hours you work if you choose to ignore the rest of the video and just focus on one thing Let It Be this because it's really important anytime you work a job that pays you a set amount you're going to Plateau rather quickly because you'll soon find that there's so many hours in a day that you could work and once you reach that point you're pretty much capped out and done however by working any job that pays you based on results assuming you get results your income is going to Skyrocket because all of a sudden the hours work don't make a difference for
• 08:30 - 09:00 me I did this through working as a real estate agent it didn't matter if I worked 200 hours or 2 hours if I didn't sell the house I wasn't getting paid so it was really up to me to utilize my time effectively and create a schedule that could maximize the amount of money I could make and the results that I could get personally when it comes to this I tend to think that sales is one of the most underrated careers out there it's usually a stepping stone to a much higher income the skills you will learn could be transferred to just about anything else and that could provide the income need needed for some of the other
• 09:00 - 09:30 things we'll soon talk about of course if you're not into sales or you want something that's a bit more stable totally understandable but do just consider that those who switch companies end up receiving on average 30% more money than those that don't so see if there might be a better fit for you to work somewhere else and then leverage those skills to eventually make a lot more money best of all pretty much everything you'd want to know is already on YouTube right now for free and learning how to be self-sufficient enough to find those answers is going to help you tremendous ly longterm although
• 09:30 - 10:00 in terms of what you could do with all of that extra money that's soon about to come in that brings me to The Next Step creating multiple sources of income believe it or not this step is so important that the IRS actually published their research on high income tax returns to study the distribution of economic well-being or in other words why some people are richer than others and what they found is that the more income sources a person had the more money they usually made now if you're curious which income streams are the most common the larger just usually comes from a typical job this is where
• 10:00 - 10:30 almost everyone starts off and it's the equivalent of working a 9 to-5 job running your own business or working on commission from there this funds everything else that we're about to talk about like number two dividend income this one is pretty much the easiest second source of income that anybody would be able to do by buying into a stock a Reit an index fund an ETF or anything else that pays you a distribution on a regular basis third we also have another one that's very close related and that would be capital gains
• 10:30 - 11:00 this one is often claimed as the way that rich people avoid taxes but in all reality the simplest reason is that capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income so instead of paying 37% maybe you pay as low as 0 to 20% saving you a lot of money on taxes fourth once you start earning a lot of money you could also Branch into rental income now even though this one is significantly harder today than it was when I first got started there is still some opportunity in buying properties
• 11:00 - 11:30 fixing them up and then renting them out yes it is a lot of work but with a steady income good credit score knowledge of the specific area and the willingness to put in a lot of time UPF front it can be profitable and then finally six the last income Source usually comes from a second job or a side hustle I tend to believe that this is one of the most underutilized ways of making more money out there that people just don't take advantage of especially when the average person is spending 2 and 1 half hours a day on social media St imagine what you could do at that
• 11:30 - 12:00 time if you actually applied it towards something productive I just think working any type of side business that could be completely detached from your main source of income is not only a good thing to do but it also diversifies you just in case something happens with your primary job and you need something to fall back on beyond that though no matter how much money you make if you actually want to build substantial wealth you have to avoid what's called lifestyle inflation this is what happens when you're making $40,000 a year saving a little money on the side no complaint but then you get a raise to $60,000 a
• 12:00 - 12:30 year and all of a sudden you get a slightly nicer car maybe you go to eat a little bit more often nothing major just small differences to reward yourself but then a year or two later you get a raise to $150,000 a year and all of a sudden your current apartment isn't cutting it so you get a house and all of a sudden your car isn't just as nice as a G wagon so you go and buy a G wagon because that's what other people making six figures are driving you get where I'm going with this I've seen so many situations where people are saving the same amount of
• 12:30 - 13:00 money making $200,000 a year as the person who is making $50,000 a year even though the other person's making four times more and this is incredibly common in fact over half of people making $100,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck and a third of people making $200,000 a year can't save any money so without going through their expenses line by line my guess is that lifestyle inflation's to blame personally I found that the only way to overcome this is that if you make more money keep your
• 13:00 - 13:30 expenses the exact same and invest the difference immediately so that way if you're making $440,000 and you get a raise to $60,000 nothing changes except now you have an extra $220,000 to invest this is not the time to spend the difference or reward yourself for working hard this is the time to get your money invested so that that way your money works for you and not the other way around or I guess you could just do what I do work so much that you don't have any time to spend the money okay in all seriousness here's how I think about it if there's something I want to buy I think to myself how much
• 13:30 - 14:00 do I have to have invested to be able to pay for the thing so for example if I want to spend $100 a week eating out I know that I have to have $130,000 invested to be able to pay for it that way whatever I buy is sustainable and I'm never going to run out of money I promise that by doing this you're going to build a very strong financial Foundation as early as possible and that also brings me to my last Point studies show that it's usually best to invest immediately I know this is all super basic stuff on YouTube these days but this concept of
• 14:00 - 14:30 compound interest really changed my entire life as a teenager like just consider this $1 invested at 20 years old at a 7% return is going to be worth $21 at the age of 65 however if you wait and invest that very same dollar at the age of 30 instead of 20 it's only going to be worth $10.68 during that same time frame like in this example every $5 Starbucks that you splurge on could be worth $105 in future money those $100 shoes you wear
• 14:30 - 15:00 twice that could be worth $2,100 so why waste it now in terms of a basic stepbystep guide of what to do I would be starting off right now with a Roth IRA this is a retirement account that you could invest up to $7,000 a year into and then all of your profit is completely tax-free after the age of 59 and A2 for anybody who's young and just starting out this is especially good for a few reasons number one you're probably not earning a lot of money these days so you're already in a low tax bracket and you'll have more money left over to
• 15:00 - 15:30 invest two you're young so you have a lot of time for compound interest to do its thing and three practically every brokerage these days offers a Roth IRA and it'll take you just a few minutes to sign up like just to show you how great this is if you sign up for one of these at 18 years old and you contribute $77,000 a year at an average of an 8% return by the time you're 65 years old you're going to have almost $4 million available to you completely taxfree that is your entire retirement just from this
• 15:30 - 16:00 one thing done from a Roth IRA and from that amount you would be able to spend over $150,000 every single year for the rest of your life enjoy and lastly if you want to dramatically speed up the process of getting ahead here's a few quick life hacks number one be obsessive the truth is if you don't love what you do you're going to get burned out you're going to let things slide and someone else who is into that thing is going to run laps around you so if you could start with passion you're going to have a huge competitive Advantage second play
• 16:00 - 16:30 to your strength I truly believe that all of us are naturally gifted with one thing that you have an unfair advantage over so if you could find it lean into that third act on opportunity from what I've noticed everything massive really just comes down to a few good decisions at the right place and the right time so if something comes up and you see a fair opportunity go and take it fourth this one for some reason is really overlooked show up early I'm shocked at how simple this is but so few people show up on
• 16:30 - 17:00 time that when you do show up on time it's a rarity fifth here's a big one don't complain this one accomplishes nothing it's wasted energy and instead you should always reframe everything as a positive like if a client shows up late well that's a good opportunity to practice patience if a deal gets cancelled well that's an opportunity to prevent that from happening in the future and when you could shift your entire perspective you'll just constantly get better and finally six you have to stay consistent just like you can't expect to go to the gym for a
• 17:00 - 17:30 week and get jacked you can't expect to make these sort of changes and see any sort of difference in the next few weeks or months most likely it's going to take years and years of which you have to remain dedicated now of course there's going to be a lot more Nuance than I could possibly put in a video like this without making it 3 hours long but I promise if you just stick with this long term you're going to see a massive difference in terms of your accomplishments how much money you make and whether or not you hit the like button And subscribe if you haven't done
• 17:30 - 18:00 that already so with that said thank you so much for watching feel free to comment down below because I will do my best to read and respond to as many of you as I can really appreciate it helps me out a ton thank you so much and until next time