Get in the Game
This is where your money finally starts working for you.
Hi! I’m Chris, and I’m here to share the money lessons, real estate insights, and life strategies I wish someone had shared with me 25 years ago. The formula for building financial wealth is simple: earn more, spend less, and invest the rest. Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered earning more and spending less. This week, we close it out with the step that actually builds wealth: invest the rest.
One Stock. All of It.
I was 14 years old and had a problem most teenagers don’t think about.
I had been saving for months doing chores, mowing lawns, anything anyone would pay me to do, and I finally had enough to buy my first stock. But back then, placing a trade cost $125. Buy or sell, it didn’t matter. That changes everything when you don’t have much money. I knew I’d lose a significant chunk of my savings just getting in the game, so I couldn’t afford to be careless. I had to be smart.
I started reading financial statements and company reports, whatever I could get my hands on. I eventually found a small computer chip company with a compelling story. Something about it felt right, so I put everything I had into it. I still remember picking up the phone and dialing the 800 number to place the trade. I was nervous. This was every dollar I had saved, riding on a single decision I made at 14. After the trade, I checked the stock price every single day. No internet back then, so I would flip through the financial section of the newspaper looking for the ticker symbol, or sit in front of CNBC and wait for it to scroll across the bottom of the screen. A lot of nervous energy is spent on something you can answer in two seconds today.
Then one day, the stock jumped. I had no idea why. I found out later that the company was being acquired, and the buyout sent the price through the roof. My investment had grown significantly, without me doing a single thing.
I remember sitting there thinking: my money just made money without me working for it. I was hooked. And I haven’t stopped investing since.
The Gap Is Where Your Future Lives
When you consistently spend less than you earn, you create a gap. That gap represents discipline and control. It’s proof that you’re not living paycheck to paycheck—that you’ve built margin in your life. But what matters most is what you do with that margin.
For many people, the gap just sits. It lives in a checking or savings account, and that feels good. To a degree, it is smart. Life is unpredictable, and an emergency fund is essential. You need three to six months of essential expenses set aside as a cushion, a buffer against the unexpected. But that money has a specific job: defense. Wealth is built on offense.
Once that cushion is in place, your extra money needs a new assignment. It should no longer sit still. It should begin to move and to grow.
Money Grows in Stages
One of the most useful ways to think about investing is to understand that money evolves over time. In the first stage, you work for money. Everyone starts here. You trade your time and skills for income. It is necessary, and it is where you build your foundation. In the second stage, your money begins to work with you. You start saving and investing. Your dollars earn alongside you. You are still the primary engine, but now you have help. In the third stage, your money works without you. Your investments produce income whether you are actively working or not. Your money works while you sleep.
Most people never reach that third stage. Not because it is out of reach, but because they never stay consistent long enough to get there.
The force that drives this progression is compounding. It does not show up immediately, and it is not exciting at first. But over time, it becomes one of the most powerful forces in your financial life. Someone who starts investing in their 20s will often end up with significantly more wealth than someone who waits until their 40s, even if the second person invests far more money in total. Not because they are smarter. Because they started earlier. Time matters more than timing.
Get Off the Sidelines
You hear a lot about the disappearing middle class, about a society splitting into the rich and the poor. The better question is not whether it’s happening, but where will you will land? Because when people talk about rich versus poor in financial terms, they are usually not talking about income. They are talking about net worth. There are plenty of people with high incomes who have very little wealth, and plenty of people with modest incomes who have built something meaningful over time. The difference is rarely math. It is behavior.
Look at the last decade. Real estate climbed. The stock market grew. Who benefited? The people who were in the game. If you are not invested, you are not participating in the upside happening all around you.
The best time to start was ten years ago.
The next best time is today.
What Should You Invest In?
This is where people stall. They think they need the perfect strategy before they begin. They do not. They just need to start.
For most people looking to build wealth, a broad, low-cost index fund is the simplest and most effective place to begin. You are not betting on one company. You are participating in the overall growth of the economy. Over long periods, that growth has been consistent and powerful. There will be ups and downs. The people who get hurt are those who sell during downturns. The people who build wealth are the ones who stay in and often buy more when prices are low.
I also invest heavily in real estate, and that is where I have built most of my own wealth. You do not have to choose one or the other. The goal is not perfection. It is participation.
One distinction worth making: investing is not gambling. Gambling is short-term and emotional. Investing is long-term and disciplined. In the short term, markets feel unpredictable. In the long term, they have consistently rewarded patience. When you invest consistently over time, you are not playing against the house. You are becoming the house.
Always Invest in Yourself
There is one more investment that cannot be overlooked, and it is the one with the highest return I have ever received: yourself. Books, health, learning, and growth have paid dividends far beyond their cost. When you improve your mindset, energy, and judgment, everything else expands with them. Your earning potential increases. Your decisions improve. Your ability to stay consistent strengthens. You become a better investor by becoming a better version of yourself.
Your Turn + Start Bold
Where are you in this process? Are you still focused on earning more? Working on spending less? Or have you started investing the gap between the two? Take one step this week, even a small one. Set up an automatic investment. Open an account if you do not have one. Spend an hour reading about index funds. Do not overcomplicate it. Action creates momentum, and momentum is what gets this started.
And I am curious about something. Drop one word in the comments that describes your relationship with investing right now. Excited. Confused. Overwhelmed. Late. Ready. Just one word. I read every single one.
Why We Build Wealth
We build financial wealth not for status or scorekeeping, but to use it as a tool to fuel the areas of life that matter most. Family. Health. Growth. Generosity. Joy. That is what it means to build BOLD Wealth, a life that is rich in money and meaning.
New to BOLD Wealth?
Here’s a simple Blueprint to BOLD Wealth that explains the philosophy, the core frameworks, and how money fits into a life that actually feels rich.
A Favor
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I’m with Carlos - and trusting. Even in market swings, trusting in the long game.
patient