Everyone can build real wealth, but most never do. They stay stuck chasing income, status, and lifestyle upgrades, while their balance sheet stays flat. Why do so few people make the leap? 👇
The shift from paycheck-driven wealth to portfolio-driven wealth isn’t complicated. You invest, and then let time and compounding do their thing. But most people never get there. Not because they can’t…but because of how they think.
Mindset Trap #1: Income = Identity. From a young age, we’re taught to equate success with earning power. “How much do you make?” “What do you do?” “Are you moving up?” We obsess over the income statement, but real freedom lives on the balance sheet.
Mindset Trap #2: Lifestyle Creep. As income rises, so does spending. New car. Nicer home. Better vacations. More dinners out. More frictionless indulgence. We tell ourselves we’re “rewarding our hard work.” What we’re really doing is burning the fuel needed to build lasting wealth.
The system reinforces this. We’re nudged toward debt-based consumption, not ownership. Fiat incentives push high time preference. Spending is easy. Saving is boring. And investing feels risky. So we keep working. Earning. Consuming.
The result is a shiny lifestyle, stagnant net worth, with no exit plan. Even high earners feel trapped. Because without assets, the treadmill never stops.
The people who escape this trap think differently. They treat investing like rent they owe to their future self. They measure success by net worth, not salary. And they live below their means, on purpose, to feed that engine.
Saving in bitcoin supercharges that mindset shift. Bitcoin punishes lifestyle creep. It rewards conviction and time. It forces you to delay gratification. That’s what builds real wealth.
If you want financial freedom, stop chasing status and inflating your lifestyle, and start building your balance sheet. Work for ownership, not approval.
This idea comes from FIRE BTC #36: “Make Your Job Your Side Gig”. If you’re serious about building wealth using bitcoin, this newsletter is for you.
Read + subscribe here: https://firebtc.substack.com/p/making-your-job-your-side-gig