Anton Kreil – Build and Own Your Own Infrastructure

Summary

The transcript discusses building personal financial infrastructure by avoiding liabilities and focusing on saving and asset accumulation. It emphasizes the importance of creating passive income and maintaining a lifestyle free of debts like credit cards, loans, and mortgages. The speaker critiques traditional systems like pensions, insurance, and credit scoring, arguing that they don't benefit individuals long-term. Instead, they encourage a self-reliant approach to wealth, highlighting the need to become wealthy enough to self-insure and secure financial independence. Success, they argue, comes from sticking to this strategy over time.

Takeaways

• 💼 Building your own infrastructure is crucial for financial independence and wealth creation.
• 💰 To build wealth, you must avoid liabilities and save, focusing on asset accumulation instead.
• 🏠 You may need to live below your means, such as renting or sharing a space, to achieve financial freedom.
• 🚫 Avoid common liabilities like mortgages, credit cards, and loans that can slow down asset building.
• 📊 The traditional pension system has failed, as many people cannot retire with sufficient income.
• 💡 Instead of relying on external systems, build your own pension by growing your assets and saving.
• 🚑 Insurance is another infrastructure that may not serve your best interests, as policies often don’t pay out.
• 🧑‍💻 The credit score system rewards taking on debt, which contradicts the goal of financial independence.
• 💸 Focus on generating passive income and cash flow to build wealth, as this will make financial growth exponential over time.
• 🏆 Success takes time, but by sticking to a strategy of asset-building and avoiding liabilities, it becomes easier and more rewarding.

Q & A

What is the key to building your own infrastructure according to the speaker?

The key to building your own infrastructure is saving, having no liabilities, and gradually building your asset base. This involves living well within your means and avoiding financial liabilities such as mortgages, loans, and credit cards.

Why does the speaker emphasize having no liabilities during the asset-building phase?

The speaker emphasizes having no liabilities because taking on debt such as mortgages, loans, or credit cards can hinder the process of building assets. By avoiding liabilities, you can focus on saving and growing your wealth.

How does the speaker view working for a salary versus building your own business?

The speaker believes that building your own business is a better path to success because it offers more control over your income and growth. While it's possible to save and build assets while working for a company, it is more difficult due to external constraints.

What does the speaker suggest regarding pride and lifestyle during the asset-building phase?

The speaker suggests dropping your pride and being willing to make sacrifices, such as renting or sharing an apartment for an extended period, in order to save money and build assets. This may require living below your means.

Why does the speaker believe that the pensions infrastructure in the Western world has failed?

The speaker argues that the pensions infrastructure has failed because many people who contributed to pensions throughout their working lives are not able to retire comfortably. The average pension value is often insufficient to maintain current living standards beyond a single year.

What is the speaker's solution to the pension problem?

The speaker suggests building your own pension by creating personal wealth and assets rather than relying on traditional pension systems. This approach ensures you have control over your retirement income.

What criticism does the speaker have regarding the insurance industry?

The speaker criticizes the insurance industry, describing it as designed to benefit companies more than individuals. Insurance companies use models to ensure they pay out as little as possible, with only a small percentage of claims being paid annually.

What alternative does the speaker offer to traditional insurance policies?

The speaker suggests becoming wealthy as an alternative to relying on insurance. Instead of paying premiums for insurance that may not pay out, wealth allows you to cover potential accidents or medical expenses directly.

Why does the speaker view credit reports as absurd?

The speaker views credit reports as absurd because they reward individuals for taking on more debt. Higher credit scores allow for larger liabilities, which the speaker sees as counterproductive to building wealth and financial independence.

What is the ultimate goal in building your own infrastructure according to the speaker?

The ultimate goal in building your own infrastructure is to generate passive income and cash flow, allowing you to make money even while you sleep. Over time, this wealth-building process becomes easier and leads to financial independence.

Outlines

00:00

🚖 Building Personal Infrastructure While Avoiding Liabilities

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of building one's own infrastructure, particularly focusing on financial independence. To achieve this, one must avoid liabilities such as mortgages, overdrafts, and credit cards, and instead, focus on saving and building an asset base. The speaker discusses the necessity of living within one’s means, even if it means renting or sharing an apartment for years. They advise starting small in business ventures and growing gradually. The goal is to go from zero liabilities to owning assets, creating personal infrastructure that will eventually support a self-sustained future, including one's pension.

05:01

💰 The Failure of Pensions and the Need for Personal Wealth

This paragraph highlights the failure of the pension infrastructure in the Western world, noting that many people cannot retire comfortably. The speaker argues that the pension system has not provided adequate financial security for retirees. They suggest that individuals should build their own pension by becoming wealthy and not rely on external pension schemes. The speaker criticizes the Western pension model, citing that people can only live at their current standard for about a year post-retirement. They recommend insourcing one’s pension by creating personal wealth and ensuring financial independence during retirement.

📊 Insurance: A Rigged System Benefiting the Industry

The speaker criticizes the insurance industry, describing it as a system designed to benefit companies more than individuals. Insurance policies, whether for cars, homes, or health, are seen as methods for companies to collect premiums while rarely paying out claims. Only a small percentage of policies result in payouts, meaning most people pay for coverage they may never use. Instead of relying on insurance, the speaker advocates for building personal wealth to cover potential future expenses, such as medical emergencies, without needing to depend on uncertain insurance payouts.

💳 The Absurdity of the Credit Score System

The speaker discusses the absurd nature of credit scores, arguing that the system rewards individuals for taking on more debt. Higher credit scores lead to more borrowing capacity, encouraging people to take on larger liabilities, which contradicts the goal of financial independence. The speaker advises avoiding debt and liabilities, focusing instead on building assets. They stress that true success comes from generating passive income and cash flow, allowing wealth to grow exponentially over time. The speaker emphasizes that this is the key to financial freedom, enabling individuals to operate outside traditional systems like credit scores.

Keywords

💡Infrastructure

In the context of the video, 'infrastructure' refers to the foundational elements necessary for financial independence and stability. Building one's own infrastructure involves creating a financial system that generates wealth and security over time, such as through asset ownership, saving, and avoiding liabilities. The speaker emphasizes the importance of setting up personal infrastructure instead of relying on external systems like pensions or insurance.

💡Assets

Assets are resources that have economic value, and in this context, they refer to investments or properties that generate income or appreciate over time. The speaker advises building an asset base as a crucial step in achieving financial freedom. Examples include starting small businesses or investments that can grow steadily without accumulating liabilities.

💡Liabilities

Liabilities are financial obligations or debts, such as mortgages, loans, or credit card debt. The speaker argues that to build personal wealth and infrastructure, one should avoid liabilities, as they detract from one's ability to save and invest. Instead, living modestly and within one's means is encouraged until assets can be accumulated.

💡Pension

A pension is a regular payment made to individuals during retirement, typically from a retirement savings plan. The video critiques the current pensions infrastructure in Western countries, suggesting that it has failed to provide adequate retirement income. Instead, the speaker advocates building one’s own pension through personal wealth and asset creation, rather than relying on an external pension system.

💡Passive Income

Passive income refers to earnings generated with minimal effort or direct involvement, such as rental income or investments. The speaker highlights the importance of creating passive income streams to build financial stability over time. Generating passive income, especially as one accumulates more assets, is seen as key to financial independence and is framed as a goal for long-term wealth building.

💡Credit Reports

Credit reports assess an individual's creditworthiness based on their borrowing and repayment history. The speaker criticizes the credit system for rewarding individuals with higher scores the more they borrow, which can lead to larger liabilities. This is presented as contrary to the principles of building wealth, where one should avoid taking on unnecessary debt.

💡Saving

Saving is the act of setting aside money rather than spending it, and it plays a crucial role in the video’s advice on building financial infrastructure. The speaker stresses that during the early stages of financial growth, saving is essential to accumulate funds to invest in assets, and it should be prioritized over taking on liabilities.

💡Insurance

Insurance is a financial product designed to protect against potential risks or losses, such as health or car accidents. The video suggests that insurance policies are often not beneficial to individuals, as companies structure them to avoid paying out claims. Instead, the speaker advises building personal wealth as a form of 'self-insurance,' providing financial security against life's uncertainties.

💡Wealth Building

Wealth building refers to the process of creating financial abundance through the accumulation of assets, saving, and generating income over time. In the video, wealth building is presented as a systematic process that involves understanding the functions of money, avoiding liabilities, and prioritizing long-term financial stability through strategic investments.

💡Financial Independence

Financial independence is the state of having enough wealth to cover living expenses without relying on external income sources, such as employment. The speaker emphasizes that financial independence can be achieved by building one's own infrastructure—primarily through asset accumulation, passive income, and avoiding debt—allowing individuals to sustain themselves without relying on external systems like pensions or insurance.

Highlights

The key to building your own infrastructure is saving and avoiding liabilities while building an asset base.

It's crucial to live within your means, especially in the early stages of building wealth.

Starting a business can be done without a large initial investment, and there are many ways to make a million dollars.

The pension infrastructure in the Western world has failed, leaving many unable to retire properly.

You should focus on building your own pension system rather than relying on traditional pension plans.

Insurance companies are designed to avoid payouts, making self-insurance through wealth-building a smarter long-term strategy.

Credit scores reward borrowing, which leads to larger liabilities—a counterproductive approach to wealth building.

To succeed, one must reject conventional wisdom about borrowing and debt and focus on building assets with no liabilities.

The system encourages borrowing, but true financial freedom comes from owning assets and avoiding debt.

Financial independence is achieved by understanding money and how the system works, not just by accumulating wealth.

Building passive income and cash flow should be the goal, allowing you to make money while you sleep.

It becomes progressively easier to build wealth over time, though it is challenging at first.

The saying 'it takes 20 years to become an overnight success' holds true when building your own infrastructure.

Having no liabilities and generating passive income are key steps to building sustainable wealth.

The ultimate goal is to own and control your financial future by building assets and avoiding traditional financial traps.

Transcripts

how do you die how do you build your own

infrastructure

okay well listen we're gonna get yeah

we're gonna get in a cab now and head

back up to the hotel before we go to

before we go to the airport if we jump

in the cab now I'll show you how to

build your own infrastructure okay

so this infrastructure issue how does it

work

so building your own infrastructure ahem

okay well this period we talked about

earlier between essentially going from

zero to owning assets that periods we

talked about so having no liabilities

during that period what you've actually

got to do and it might sound obvious but

what you actually have to do is safe and

you have to build your asset base

because during that period it's gonna be

very very easy for you for example to go

and take a job somewhere

get a salary every month and then start

signing up for liabilities based on that

salary so the best way to do things is

actually build up your business so work

for yourself build up a business it can

still be done if you're working for a

business or a corporation but it's more

difficult you've just got to live well

within your means and you've got to have

no liabilities so liabilities like we

talked about earlier with mortgages

overdraft facilities

credit cards taking loans to buy cars

stuff like this you got have no

liabilities you are safe and you know

even if you have to rent for example or

share an apartment for 10 or 15 years

you've got to be prepared to do that and

you've got to drop your pride you know

setting up businesses if that's the

choice you're going to make there's a

million ways to make a million dollars

you know you can start off small and you

don't have to have hundreds of thousands

of pounds hundreds of thousands of

dollars to start businesses off most

small businesses you can start off with

nothing so if that's something that you

want to do you know that's the way you

have

you have to start small and built and

built this asset base

so during that entire period going from

0 up to owning assets it's saving and

having no liabilities and in its

entirety what you're trying to do is

essentially build your own

infrastructure so you're building your

own pension now if you look at the way

the pensions industry works in the

Western world so if you look at the

United States United Kingdom Europe

what's become really apparent in the

last five to ten years is that the

generation previously who started on the

pensions infrastructure in the 70s and

over the throughout the 80s and 90s and

noughties those people are not able to

retire properly so if they can't do that

it means the pensions question or the

pensions solution has not been met

because the whole point of a pension is

that it provides you income in

retirement and these people can't retire

so pensions infrastructure has failed in

the Western world so whether that's the

fault of the system or the fault of the

people themselves it's probably a

mixture of the two but essentially the

stats are across the US Europe United

Kingdom

the annual national average salary in

each of those regions is basically

equivalent to what an average person's

pension value is when they retire which

means if everybody retired today in the

Western world it would mean that they'd

only be able to live in their current

living standards for one year and this

is why everybody downgrades their

lifestyle when they retire or rely on

their children to pay for their

retirement that's not something you want

to be doing you know if you want to be

wealthy you want to be building your own

pension not outsourcing it but in

sourcing your pension so learning how to

do things properly so the pensions

infrastructure has failed another

another infrastructure you know that you

have to be very very careful of is

insurance you know insurance is a

classic example where it's essentially a

fair pitch you know insurance companies

create policies you know this can be on

anything can be on home insurance car

insurance health insurance it doesn't

matter because at the end of the day

it's just thought numbers to the

insurance company they create the

policies you pay a premium for it and

they literally hire people like

actuarial mathematicians to build models

to insure that they never pay out so or

if they pay out it's a tiny percentage

of overall

policies so insurance claims for example

in the car industry the home insurance

market medical insurance these types of

policies the percentage that get paid

out on per year

I mean it's so small I mean we're

looking at like two to four percent of

policies per year so you know the best

way to create your own insurance and

it's again pretty obvious is to build

your own infrastructure so you become

wealthy so imagine in you know why do

you take in an insurance policy to say

for accidents or health insurance

because one day you might have an

accident and people live in fear that

one day they will and then they have all

these medical expenses that they have to

pay so let's say for example in 15 25

years you're going to have an accidents

where you walk into the road the road

and you get hit by a car and you're

gonna be in hospital for a month well

the only real way to reassure yourself

against that is to actually just become

wealthy you could so if you spend all

that time knowing that that could be the

case it's lazy to go and pay for a

premium that might not for a policy that

may never actually pay out so insurance

is another infrastructure as well as

pensions that isn't necessarily built

for your own benefit and the other one

is the whole private debt Mokey's which

we keep going back to so just think

about for example credit reports and the

credit reports companies just think how

absurd this is you get scored on your

ability to borrow and the higher your

score the more you can borrow so the so

the more but the higher you score and

the more compliance you are when it

comes to liabilities the bigger

liabilities you can take on that's your

reward it's complete insanity it's

absurd and if you want to start off on

the road to success and build your asset

base and build your own infrastructure

these are all things that you have to

avoid you have to literally do the

opposite of what everybody tells you to

do

so going back to this point

understanding the function of money

respecting it having or being

indifferent towards building money and

becoming wealthy but wanting to do it

because you understand how the system

works and you don't necessarily want to

operate within it you want to own it

this is the way you have to go you have

to build your asset but you have to

build your asset base and in that period

as your building have no liabilities and

it's difficult to begin with but it gets

easier over time because the key to this

when you're building assets is actually

to generate passive income and cash flow

you want to be making money while you

sleep and it becomes exponential so it

starts off difficult but it becomes

progressively easier over the years and

what's the old saying it takes 20 years

to become an overnight success but

you've just got to stick at it so build

your infrastructure yourself build your

own infrastructure it's the only way to

go

[Music]