The Money Moves Nobody Taught Us (But We Need to Know)

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Hey everyone,

I've been thinking a lot about something lately—how most of us learned absolutely nothing about building real wealth growing up. We got taught calculus and Shakespeare, but nobody sat us down and explained the actual game we're playing with our money.

I just had a conversation that honestly shook me up a bit. Not in a bad way—more like that feeling when someone finally explains something you've been confused about for years, and suddenly it all clicks.

Here's what I'm learning: We're playing the money game completely wrong.

There's this Texas saying I'd never heard before: "Big hat, no cattle."

Picture a Texas Ranger with that massive six-gallon hat everyone can see from a mile away. Looks wealthy, right? But turn around and check the ranch—there's nothing there. No assets. Just the appearance of wealth.

That's most of us. We're out here buying things that look good but don't actually build anything. And I get it—when you finally start making decent money after years of eating ramen and stressing over rent, you want to enjoy it. But here's the thing: there's a massive difference between assets and liabilities, and most of what we're buying? It's liabilities.

An asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes money out.

That new car? Liability. The moment you drive it off the lot, it's losing value. Does that make it "bad"? No—it's a lifestyle choice. But we need to stop calling it an investment or pretending it's building our wealth.

Real assets? That's stocks that pay dividends. Real estate that generates rent. A business that brings in revenue while you sleep. Things that work for you.

Here's something I wish someone had told me years ago: The purpose of money is to go out and replicate itself.

When you save, your money sits there. When you invest, your money goes to work. It multiplies. It brings home more money than it looks like it.

Think about it—every dollar you earn comes from you working. But what if those dollars could go out and work for you? That's literally what investing is. You're sending your money on a mission to create more money.

And right now? We're in the middle of the biggest wealth transfer in human history.

We're in what some people call the "sixth wave of disruption"—and this one's moving faster than anything in human history. AI is rewriting entire industries. Companies that seemed unstoppable are collapsing. New players are emerging overnight.

This sounds scary, but here's the wild part: times of massive disruption are exactly when generational wealth gets created.

When markets crash, when things get chaotic, when everyone's panicking—that's when wealth transfers from people who don't understand what's happening to people who do. From "weak hands" (as investors call them) to prepared investors.

I'm not saying this to be harsh. I'm saying it because it's true, and we need to know the rules of the game we're playing.

For the longest time, I thought the stock market was this complicated thing only finance bros understood. But it's actually pretty simple.

When you buy a stock, you're buying a piece of a company. When that company does well, you do well. That's it.

Microsoft makes money? You make money. Apple releases a hit product? Your shares go up.

The trick is figuring out which companies are worth betting on. And here's what I'm learning: you want to invest in the disruptors. The companies that are changing how we live, work, and think.

Amazon started as a book seller and people thought it was crazy. Nvidia was just a gaming chip company. Shopify was this random Canadian startup. Now? Those early investors made life-changing money.

But here's the key—you can't just buy something and panic-sell when it drops 10%. The real money comes from buying quality companies and leaving them alone for years. Not months. Not even a couple years. Decades.

Someone I know put $6,500 into a company over a few years. Just buying a bit here and there when they could. That money is now worth $81,000. They didn't do anything fancy. They just bought a great company and left it alone.

Here's something that hit me hard: it's not just about what you invest in—it's about what currency you're investing in.

A lot of us still have ties to countries with unstable currencies. Nigeria, where my family's from, has seen the Naira lose massive value. If you made money in Nigeria and bring it back to the US or Canada, you're taking a huge hit.

But if you invest in US dollars? Even with the conversion fees going in, you're investing in a stronger currency. When you eventually bring that money back, you get a double win—the investment grew AND the currency is stronger.

This is the kind of thing nobody teaches us, but it matters so much.

We're at this weird moment. A lot of us are finally making decent money—$45k to $110k range—but we're also dealing with student loans, insane rent, and the constant feeling that we're behind.

The good news? We're in the best possible position to build wealth.

We're young enough that time is on our side. We (mostly) don't have kids yet, mortgages, or major responsibilities. If we can be smart right now—invest 30%, 50%, even 80% of what we make—we can set ourselves up to be work-optional by our 40s.

But only if we understand the game. Only if we stop confusing lifestyle purchases with assets. Only if we start putting our money to work instead of just spending it.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this: Will you participate in wealth creation, or just watch it happen around you?

Nobody's going to hand us financial freedom. We have to take it. And the first step is understanding what money actually is—not just something to spend, but something to deploy strategically.

I'm still figuring this out myself. Still learning. Still making mistakes (hopefully smaller ones). But I'm in the game now, and that's what matters.

Are you?

—Alex (Tradethetimes)