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S-U-I-T-E H-O-P dot com. It's more than just a ticket. Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less. My name is Joshua.

I am your host and today we kick off part one of a five-part series called You Don't Have to Be Smart to Become Financially Independent, But You Can't Be Stupid. Again, you don't have to be smart to become financially independent, but you can't be stupid. As I unfold this series for you, you're going to hear me approach it using many, many examples from what I call the common man lifestyle.

I don't want you to come away from my show thinking that you have to get a PhD in financial planning in order to make good financial decisions. You don't. You probably already know everything that you need to know to become financially independent. I don't want you to come away from my show thinking that in order for you to become financially independent, you have to go back to school and earn an advanced degree unless you want to.

I don't want you thinking that you have to live in a bus unless you want to. I don't want you thinking that you have to create the world's next great company that goes international and do your IPO and that's when you're going to make your fortune unless you have such an opportunity.

These things are your decisions, but you don't have to do any of that stuff. You don't actually have to be very smart to become financially independent, but you can't be stupid. Today, I'm going to talk about your income and talk to you about how you can build an income and what kind of income you have to earn in order to become financially independent.

I'm organizing this five-part series around my framework of wealth, which is my own intellectual property. It's a five-part, 10-word outline that I use to organize financial information. Everything that I know about finance can be organized into this framework. Every piece of advice I've ever given about finance fits into this framework.

I created it. It's been now taken across the internet, which is to be expected, but I created it and it's just something I want you to take and I hope that you find it useful. These five parts are very simply this. One, increase income. Two, decrease expenses. Three, invest wisely.

Four, avoid catastrophe. And five, optimize lifestyle. But in today's show and in this series of shows, I'm not going to be using extreme examples. I'm not going to be very radical because I don't want you to think that you have to be pretty hardcore radical in order to get good results.

You don't. You just can't be stupid. Let's talk about income. In order to build financial independence in a reasonable amount of time, you need to have a strong income. Now, I don't quite know how to define strong income. Obviously, that's subjective. Your strong income will vary depending on where you live and what you do.

But let me give you a couple of thoughts. First, a strong income would mean at least a median wage level of earning. In the United States of America, median household income is currently about $55,000 per year. So you should be earning at least about $55,000 per year. If you're not there, this is a huge area of opportunity for you.

Now, moving on from there, I think any person who is focused and diligent can earn six figures, $100,000. Now, obviously, $100,000 doesn't buy today what $100,000 bought 30 years ago, but $100,000 still buys quite a bit. And you can buy a lot with $100,000. Here's what's cool about these wages.

You don't have to be particularly smart to earn $100,000 per year in the United States of America, but you can't be stupid. You also can't be lazy. In this series, as I said, I'm going to give you many common man examples. I'm going to give you blue collar examples instead of white collar examples of income.

I'm going to give you ordinary suburban expense levels instead of weird radical levels of expenses. But if you'll just simply focus on working hard and earning an income, you'll put yourself in a situation where you can have the income levels that you need to build financial independence. I have known people in every single industry, in every blue, major blue collar industry who are in $100,000 a year and started with no education, no experience.

I've known people who started, I had a client one time, a client of mine who started working at McDonald's as an entry level worker at McDonald's and worked his way through the McDonald's university process to become a middle manager for a significant local franchise group, earning about $140,000 per year.

And he did it in a couple of decades. I've known a friend of mine, started off at 16 years old while he was in high school, apprenticing in the electrical trades. He apprenticed as a helper, as an electrician. Then when he got out of high school, he went to work as an electrician.

He studied. Today, he earns in excess of six figures working for as an electrician. And in his case, he transitioned to working for a large electrical company. And so in addition to a very strong salary, he has all kinds of cushy benefits, which are frequently not offered in the household electric construction, electric industry.

I've known people who started in farming with nothing and built up a six figure income. I've known people who did it in all kinds of situations. And so if they can do it, you can do it too. But you have to be hardworking and diligent. If you just simply look at how the common man earns his money, he earns it in an hourly wage.

And frequently he's entitled to overtime. Now, when you start running the numbers, if you'll work 50, 60, 70 hours a week, much of the time you'll earn a lot of money, even if your hourly rate is not particularly high. Let's say that your hourly rate is $35 an hour, which would be 30 to $35 an hour would be a very normal income for somebody who is a skilled tradesman.

30 to $35, let's drop it down, $30 an hour, $30 an hour times 60 hours a week. And let's say that you do that 50 weeks per year, that's $90,000 per year of income. You can take yourself from entry level, which entry level in today's world is probably about 14, 15 bucks an hour.

You can take yourself from entry level and double that in a few years, five years. And if you'll put in 60 hours a week, regularly, week after week, you'll put yourself in the situation of earning a six figure income. Now, let's say that you're a common man, you have simple, ordinary skills, but you're willing to work hard.

If you're willing to go into one of the trades or one of the opportunities where you can earn a higher level of income due to a dangerous job, due to adverse work conditions, you can earn way more. Go and work on an oil rig out in the middle of the ocean.

Go and volunteer as a mercenary, working for a contractor, a defense contractor, and ship out overseas and do a tour there. Go and take a job working on a fishing boat. These types of jobs that are incredibly demanding and incredibly difficult can also be very profitable. So if you'll just simply focus on earning a significant amount of money, you'll have the foundation that you need.

Now, you don't need to make any radical career change. Here's what you can do. Look at your job and look one level above you, two levels above you, and try to figure out what did those people do? What skills did they develop in order to advance to that level of earning?

If you work on a factory floor, then look at the manager and ask yourself, what did that manager do? Here's my recommendation. Go and ask that manager what they did to be prepared for that next level. I worked with a guy one time who was, he worked for one of these uniform companies that takes uniforms in and processes uniforms, et cetera.

He started on the factory floor, but he didn't stay there. He started washing uniforms and then doing the delivery routes. And then he moved into the management program and he moved his way up. This is the normal way of advancement. And it doesn't take much for you to get into it.

You have to be hardworking, diligent, reasonably conscientious, and reasonably capable. I know so many business owners who own blue collar businesses. The biggest challenge they find finding people who are capable of making that jump from employee to manager. But if you'll make that jump from employee to manager and give it a few years, most businesses will pay you six figures for that.

So recognize that you need to earn a strong income. If you don't have a strong income, it's very hard for you to save enough money in order to become financially independent. But you don't have to be super smart to earn a strong income. A modest level of work ethic is sufficient.

A modest level of conscientious behavior is sufficient. A modest level of interest in your career is sufficient. Why do I say modest? Well perhaps in some industries you have very competitive work environments. If you're an attorney and you're trying to make partner, a modest level of effort is probably not going to be sufficient.

But if you're working in the oil chain shop and you were going to become a certified mechanic, modest level of work ethic is sufficient. You can go ahead and make that jump with modest changes. Because frequently the challenge that the business owner faces is how to actually get an employee to show up.

Show up on time. Show up not drunk. You don't have to be a superstar. Just a little bit above average will do. You don't have to be smart to be financially independent, but you can't be stupid. So my question in closing, in your career and in your income, are you being stupid?

Are you doing something that is stupid? If so, stop and apply yourself to the opportunities that you have. Don't worry about shipping out across the country. Just explore the opportunities that are in front of you. If you want a little bit more, explore a little bit harder. If you want to double your income, explore around a little bit.

In every place I've been, every town I've been in, I've always found that if you'll just start asking people, all of a sudden people will start telling you about the people they know who are earning a lot of money. Here's my suggestion. When people are telling you about people they know who are earning a lot of money, pay attention because they're probably people who are similar to you and they're probably doing something that you can do too.

But that's up to you. Thank you for listening. You've honored me with your time and attention, and I'm grateful for that. And I hope that I've effectively served you today with some ideas and strategies and tactics and techniques and tools that will help move you towards your goals. Before you go, three simple requests.

One, if there's an idea that's been helpful to you in today's show, make a plan to take action on it. Listening does lead to learning, but learning in and of itself doesn't automatically lead to a life change. It's action that leads to a life change. So take action. Two, take something that was helpful to you in today's show and share it with somebody that you care about.

I'm depending on you to be a co-laborer with me in helping me to propagate the message that I'm seeking to share. That helps the person that you are engaging with, and it also helps you because teaching others is one of the most effective ways for you to learn and for you to cement your learning.

Three, if there's an idea that's been specifically helpful to you, and if you're gaining financial benefit from Radical Personal Finance, I'd be grateful if you'd consider paying me for this work voluntarily. Come by radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron and you can sign up there to support the show at whatever level you feel is right for you.

This is a voluntary support. That's my Patreon page. You can support me with a dollar a month, $5 a month, $10 a month, any number that seems right to you. But if you're gaining financial benefit from this show, and if it's achieving financial results in your life, I'd be grateful for your financial support at radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron.

Sweet Hop is an online marketplace curating the best in premium seating at stadiums, arenas, and all over the world. Visit sweethop.com today to book your premium tickets to your favorite teams, artists, and all the must-see live events to Sweet Hop Around LA. It's more than just a ticket.