S4 • EP 2 You're Not Behind. You Have Money Dysmorphia
GWP Podcast · 2026-04-09 · 41 min
Substance score
27 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
What our scoring noted
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
Insight Density
The episode introduces a handful of real concepts - phantom wealth (illiquid assets that register as security but can't be accessed), a 'measurement vacuum filled by social comparison' - but most of the runtime is repetitive throat-clearing and product pitch. The ideas that exist are not developed beyond surface level.
The anxiety is not irrational. It's the predictable output of a measurement vacuum filled by social comparison.
When wealth is illiquid, it doesn't feel real, right? And when it doesn't feel real, your brain registers it as. Your brain doesn't register it as security
Originality
The 'money dysmorphia' framing is mildly fresh, but the core arguments - social media makes you compare upward, wealth is concentrated at the top, your apps don't talk to each other - are thoroughly recycled personal finance talking points with no contrarian or first-principles angle.
You're consuming a highlight reel that has been optimized to keep you engaged by making you feel slightly inadequate.
Above average wealth requires above average thinking.
Guest Caliber
This is a solo monologue episode with no guest whatsoever. The host cites a Bloomberg background as his lone practitioner credential, but the episode is primarily a content-marketing vehicle for the host's own product, limiting its credibility as expert insight.
I worked at Bloomberg and, and I see the kind of sophisticated tools these guys are using in order to make these financial decisions.
here's what building GWP has taught me, okay? The problem isn't that young adults are bad with money.
Specificity & Evidence
The episode includes real Federal Reserve data points and a plausible survey citation, and the Maya case study is commendably concrete (age, salary, account balances). However, attribution is loose ('Credit Commerce' is cited but unclear), and many claims - such as Zuckerberg's exact share of millennial wealth - are stated without sourcing.
that number has gone from $16,000 in 2019 to $39,000 in 2022
Maya is 28 years old, and she makes $67,000 a year, and she's maxing out her Roth IRA, and she has $11,000 in her emergency fund
Conversational Craft
There is no conversation - this is a solo monologue with heavy repetition and no push-back possible. The episode repeatedly loops the same points and pivots almost every section back to the GWP product pitch, functioning more as a branded content advertisement than a substantive discussion.
I got you. I got you. We're going to address these things on this episode today.
Don't feel inadequate. Don't feel like you're not doing enough. Don't think how much you're saving.
Conversation analysis
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the verbal tics along the way.
Filler words
Episode notes
43% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials feel financially behind - even as Federal Reserve data shows young adults are wealthier than any previous generation at their age. In this episode, we break down exactly why this disconnect happens, what 'money dysmorphia' and 'phantom wealth' actually mean for your financial decisions, and how to stop measuring your financial progress against a broken benchmark. Plus: the GWP Wealth Score - a 0-to-850 score that gives you the number most young adults are missing. If you want to get your GWP score early, join the newsletter here: Disclaimer: The content provided in this episode is for educational purposes only. It is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial or investment advice. Any strategies, tips, or information shared in this episode are solely for the purpose of general knowledge and discussion. Listeners are encouraged to consult with qualified financial professionals and conduct their own research before making any financial decisions. The hosts and guests do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of the information presented.
Full transcript
41 minTranscribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: You're aiming for this target which continues to move, and you have no control over this target because this person continues to move that target every single time you log on. You're just not getting there. You would realize that hundred dollars if it was in your high yield savings account, that would have been a better investment. That would have been a better financial move to make. But who was ever going to tell you to make that move? And that is why we build stake to. All right, welcome to this new episode of gwp. This is episode two of season four. I'm super excited to bring you this new episode. And if you you haven't listened to episode one of season four, I encourage you to tune in and listen on that episode. I tell you why I had to stop the podcast. I tell you some of my new life transitions. I tell you about my career transition also, and many, many things that were building with GWP going Wealth Platform and also Grow with Papa podcast, which I think it's really exciting and I'm super excited to have you guys on this journey. And so on this episode today, I actually want to talk to you guys about why most young adults feel like they're behind. Why most young adults are doing all the right things, quote, unquote, the right things, and they still feel like they're behind. Why is that? You're investing. You're saving. You're putting money aside from your paycheck. You're not spending everything. You're using that spreadsheet to manage your money. You're using that new financial app to manage your money, but you still feel like you're behind. Why is that happening now? The median millennial net worth has quadrupled in the last five years, which means the median millennial net worth has grown quadrupled in the last five years. This is according to Federal Reserve data. And that number has gone from $16,000 in 2019 to $39,000 in 2022. And that number keeps climbing. Right? Millennial wealth as a group has hit $15 trillion in 2024. $15 trillion in 2024. Millennial wealth. Millennial wealth as a group. And so if you're a millennial, you're probably asking yourself, well, if m. It's a group, and I'm part of this group, and their wealth has hit 15 trillion. Why do I still feel like I'm behind? I'm asking myself the same thing. Why do I still feel like I'm behind? And you should probably be asking yourself the same thing. So why does nobody feel that way, why does nobody feel like their wealth has grown or quadrupled in these numbers that I've mentioned to you? In fact, 43% of Gen Z and 40, 41% of millennials say they feel financially behind, even when the data says otherwise. That's what we're going to be digging into on this episode today. So welcome to Grow with Papa. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm super excited for this episode. So there are a couple of reasons why I think millennials and young adults and Gen Z, we feel like we're behind. And in this episode, we're going to dive into some of those reasons. Let's dive into the first one. So the first one is called money dysmorphia. So money dysmorphia is not a clinical condition, but it's actually a structural experience that people go through with their money. So money dysmorphia, to be explained, is what happens when your perception of your financial situation becomes systematically disconnected from the reality. So this is not because you're, you know, irrational and you don't make better decisions, but it's because the inputs you're using to measure yourself are distorted. In fact, Credit Commerce surveyed tens of thousands of Americans, and They found that 29% overall reported experiencing this money dysmorphia. But for Gen Z and Millennials, that number actually jumps to 43 and 41%, respectively. Which is. It's a big jump, right? It's a big jump from 29% from those thousands of Americans they interviewed to 43 and 41% between Gen Z and millennials. And that is who this episode is for. That is who I want to talk to about why they feel like they're behind. And here's the part that should stop you in your tracks and think, right? 95% of the people who experienced it say they're actively hurting, right? This money dysmorphia is active, actively hurting their financial decisions. This money dysmorphia is not helping them to be able to, what, build wealth. And so if you think about it, if you think about this whole, you know, dysmorphia, the inputs that you're using to kind of measure how your, your money is growing cannot be the same input somebody else is using. And in fact, if you're not using the right inputs, you're always going to feel like you're behind. And in some of these statistics, and when I was doing some of the research, I found out that someone like Mark Zuckerberg owns at least 1.4% of that 15 trillion in the millennial wealth that's grown, that 15 trillion out of that 1.4% belongs to that top 10%. And so if you're a millennial and you're measuring yourself with such inputs, of course you're always going to feel like you're behind, right? The way you perceive your financial position isn't going to align, uh, with what the headlines are saying, right? Because people are making money and expanding their wealth while yours is shrinking, while you don't, you don't feel this growth. When you're hearing about these, you know, quadruple and, you know, 16,000 to 39,000 and people's money is growing this way, and you look at your bank account and it's not, it's not reflected. You feel like, man, what am I doing wrong? What could I be doing right? And that's the first thing that comes to mind. Why most young adults feel like they're behind is this money dysmorphia. Right? And I encourage you to look into, uh, if this is affecting you in any way. Anytime you read in the headlines of, you know, millennial wealth is growing, you know, M, millennials are doing well and Gen Z is expanding and so on. And the headlines are two ways, right? There are some that are negative. It talks about how, you know, we're so behind because of certain things, which I'll talk about in the episode. But you want to be careful that you're not using not the right inputs, right? You don't want to be disconnected from the reality and M, so you're kind of not building according to your own abilities. You're looking at someone else's abilities, which is not realistic. And so you become disconnected from the reality. And that's one of the reasons why, why young adults feel like they're behind because they're disconnected from the reality. If you're looking at it, Mark Zuckerberg, and you're looking at yourself, of course that's not a good comparison. And you're using the wrong inputs to see where you are. That's number one. Before we go any further, I need to be clear about something also. And this is, this is probably number two. Some of what makes young adults feel behind is real. It's real stuff. There are significant headwinds that prevents and makes young adults feel like they're behind. Number one, the cost of groceries is gone up significantly. I mean, you're buying groceries every single day. And you go to, you go to these supermarkets and you're like, wow, this is becoming more expensive. Look at avocado, for example, right? Some days you go to the store and it's surprising how the price of Avocado goes from a dollar to sometimes 299, right? And that, that makes a big difference. Insurance, the cost of insurance is skyrocketed, right? If you've paid or renewed your insurance recently, you know, the cost of insurance has gone up. Rent. Rent is more than 40% of most people's income. That's gone up. Child care. Most young adults and millennials are just starting their families. And to factor in childcare, amongst other things that are going up, you can only imagine some of the real. These are what I'm mentioning. Uh, are these headwinds, right, that we face trying to forge forward as young adults and building wealth and building a future for ourselves. The cost of transportation has gone up. You know, I live in San Francisco, you. And I feel like the cost of the BART or the Muni is always going up almost every other few quarters, right? It's always going up. I mean, it has an upward trajectory. So these have risen. These factors that I've mentioned, you know, the groceries, the insurance, the rents, the transportation, the childcare, these have risen faster than wages for a lot of people. And student loan debt is also real. The average young adult or millennial is coming out of college with this baggage behind them or this ceiling of student loan debt which they have to carry with them while they're trying to build wealth. The housing market has also locked out a generation of, you know, we're basically a generation of renters who we, you know, we watch home equity build wealth for owners that we cannot afford to become. The wealth inequality inside the millennial generation is actually the largest of any generation on record. The top 10% saw their wealth jump more than 140%. The top 10%, which I talk about, right? Some of these wealth jumps that I'm talking about 1.4% of that 16 trillion in millennial wealth that we're seeing belongs to a single person. Mark Zuckerberg. The top 10% saw the wealth jump 140%. The bottom half barely moved. The bottom half didn't see any of this. And that's what I'm saying. You're hearing about the, the data that I'm putting out there that I'm mentioning to you. You're hearing 16,000 as the median. You're hearing 39,000. And you're looking at, you're like, I'm, um, I'm still far from the median. I'm still far from the average. I'm not even there yet. I'm not even in the middle of this, you know, distribution that we're talking about, which is if you're a young adult and you're trying to build wealth at this point, you know, hearing this can make you feel a little inadequate. But don't worry, I got you. I got you. We're going to address these things on this episode today. Don't feel inadequate. Don't feel like you're not doing enough. Don't think how much you're saving. And the $200 you're putting aside from your $85,000 salary or $100,000 salary is not making a difference. I got you. We're gonna talk about it. You know, I know the average doesn't apply equally. And if you're in the bottom half, your experience is real and your frustration is legitimate. I sympathize with you. I'm, um, with you. I'm experiencing some of these things myself. Okay. As someone who is trying to build a company from scratch right now, where I essentially don't have any employer, I'm, um, building this company from scratch. I feel the headwinds way more just starting my family have to think about, you know, transportation cost. Insurance is becoming more expensive. And when you're starting your family, you can afford to have not a full coverage on your car. You better have full coverage. Everything has to be covered. Insurance is how you pass on risk. And at this time where we have all these pressures, it is reckless to take on any of this risk. You're better off passing 100% of this risk to an insurance company so that, God forbid, if something happens, you. You don't dent your savings in order to cover some of this. Liquidity is your best friend right now. And if you could do yourself a favor, pass on any risk you can, such as insurance and all those kind of risk. Right. So that you don't have to come out of your pocket, God forbid, if some of this stuff happens. And so this is the. This is the reality of what young adults are dealing with and why young adults feel like they're behind. This is one of them. Okay? Now, again, these frustrations are legitimate. They're real. I sympathize with you, but let's keep going. The next thing that makes young adults feel like they're behind is this phenomenon called phantom wealth. And also, there's a measuring problem that we're going to talk about. So here's what's really happening. For a lot of people who are objectively doing well but don't feel like it, the wealth is there, right? But it's invincible. The wealth is there, but it's invincible. They can see it, they can feel it, they can live it, they can enjoy it. So researchers and financial journalists call this phantom wealth wealth, the idea that the wealth is there, but you can feel it, you can live it, and you can do anything with it. Think of it this way. It's the equity that is locked in your home that you can actually spend. You can't spend the equity. It's locked in your home. You've spent, you know, 80% of your net worth is locked up in the equity of your home. It's the $40,000 in your 401k that you can touch for 30 years, years without a penalty, right? So the wealth is there. You're hearing the statistic. You know, the average American can't come up with $400 in emergency, but the wealth is there. When you look at your 401k, you got that $40,000 in there, but you can't touch it for another 30 years. And again, you're doing all the right things by putting money aside. But what we're talking about is why young adults feel like they're behind and is this concept of phantom wealth. The wealth is there, but you can feel it, you can live it, you can enjoy it, you can do anything with it. Because that $40,000 in your 401k is locked up, uh, for 30 years before you can actually touch it without a penalty. So the retirement account balance, that looks impressive but doesn't fill your gas tank, that's phantom wealth. Or it doesn't help you decide whether to take that career risk. You can't leave that toxic job because that $30,000, that could have been your Runway, that could have, uh, you know, covered you for the next few months while you get out of that toxic job to find a new one is locked up. And you can't touch it without a penalty. So that's that concept of that phantom wealth. The money is there, but you cannot do anything with it. When wealth is illiquid, it doesn't feel real, right? And when it doesn't feel real, your brain registers it as. Your brain doesn't register it as security, right? It's not security because it doesn't feel real. Your 401k that you've been saving doesn't feel real. You're maxing your 401k every single year. You're Doing the right things. But you can't touch that money till the next 30 years, 40 years. So it doesn't feel real and your brain doesn't register it as security. And here's the layer underneath that, right? You have no score. And this is where I want to talk about the measurement problem. You have no score. Think about your credit score for a second. You know that number, okay, it's 720, it's 680, it's 800. You don't have to guess it, right? You can just log on to one of these financial apps and you can see your credit score. And it's a number that aggregates the complex set of behaviors into something you can track, you can improve, right? You don't have to guess it, and you can act on it. So now ask yourself, what is your wealth score? Not your net worth, your wealth score, a number that factors in your savings rate, your asset diversification, your debt structure, your income trajectory, your risk exposure. Right. Your. The risk that you're taking with the money that you're making, what is that risk exposure looking like? Where are you exposed? There's war going on in Iran right now with the US And Israel. Is your, is your wealth exposed to any of that? Is your wealth exposed to the shocks of the oil and commodities market? You need to be able to know where your risk exposure is. This is the level of insight that institutional portfolio managers, people who are managing billions and dollars of wealth know. Do you think Mark Zuckerberg, who, who has 1.4% of that 16 trillion of millennial wealth that I mentioned, does not know where his risk exposures are? Of course he does know. Of course he's aware of that. Do you think Mark Zuckerberg doesn't know the income, his income trajectory? I mean, you should be running your wealth like a business. You should know what your income trajectory is. You should know how much you're projected to make by the end of this year. That's the level of institutional insight, intelligence that you should have. If you're looking to build wealth at the level that we're looking to build. Your readiness to work with an advisor, you know, the ideas that you have right now and the way you're going about building your wealth, the frameworks that you're using right now isn't going to make you wealthy. Let's just be real is it's not, you know, you're using these five to six financial apps to manage your money, and you expect to be able to become a millionaire and a Billionaire and make all of, you know, these wealth decisions. You want to be wealthy, maybe you don't want to be a millionaire billionaire, but you want to be wealthy, which means you want to be able to live on your own time, do what you want when you want, not be on someone else's time and be an employee. And you know, you know someone dictating your life for you, but you're not moving like someone that should, should be enjoying these, these freedoms. Right? You're not using the tools, you're not tapping in. How would you know when you're ready to work with a financial advisor, for example, an advisor can get you from point A to point B, because the tools that you're using then what got you here isn't going to get you there. Right? And so we need to change our framework. We need to shift our thinking, and the tools that we use needs to be improved. Most people have no idea. And when you have no idea, your brain fills the gap with anxiety, okay? Your brain fills those gaps in your mind with anxiety. When you have no idea where your risk exposures are, when you have no idea what your wealth score is, your inputs become made up. You're measuring against something you don't know. You're measuring against somebody else who maybe their parents left them, um, an inheritance, and your parents didn't leave you an inheritance. But you, here you are measuring your trajectory against someone else's. You don't have the same inputs, and so you have this measuring problem that is also one thing that makes young adults feel like they're behind. So the next thing that I want to also talk to you about is the social media layer. Uh, speaking of, you know, kind of measuring against someone else's inputs. Right. Look, I want to be transparent with you about something. I don't regularly post my financial failings. I post the things that I'm proud of, the milestones, the wins. And so does every person you follow. Okay, I hate to break it to you, but that's the fact. Every person you follow isn't posting order failings. You know, they're not posting the times that they failed, the times that they did something incredibly wrong that they're not proud of. No, they're posting those milestones, those wins, and the influencer, uh, who makes you feel like you're behind. They're showing you their best days. You're comparing that to your worst Tuesday afternoon. And social media algorithms is designed to surface the most aspirational content. The most aspirational content, which means the wealthiest, the Most successful, the most impressive. That is what social media algorithms designed to show us. And you're not consuming the representative sample of reality. It's not. It's not the sample of reality that you're consuming. You're consuming someone's best vacation highlights. You're consuming a highlight reel that has been optimized to keep you engaged by making you feel slightly inadequate. And that feeling of inadequate is also driving your financial decisions and making you feel like you're behind. That feeling of inadequacy is making you feel like all the decisions that you've been making that's helped you to save, save up that emergency fund, all those decisions that you've been making that helped you to save up to buy the new car that you wanted, you still feel like you're inadequate. Meanwhile, you're doing really, really well. You're doing great. You're making some great financial decisions. You're reading the right books, you're using the right frameworks, you're asking the right questions, you're hanging out in the right friend groups. But you feel inadequate because that influencer that you follow just built their own house. That influencer, uh, that you follow just built their third house. And you're wondering, when are you going to get the house with your $30,000 locked in your 401k that you can't touch to the next 30 years? The social media layer is holding you back. It's one of the things that makes young adults feel like they're behind. It's one of the things that makes you not go after the purpose that God has put you on this earth to accomplish. Rather, you're following someone, forgetting how special and wonderfully you've been made to go after things that you've been put on this. On this earth to accomplish. And guess what? The longer you keep chasing these things, you're absolutely going to accomplish nothing. And you will leave this world having not accomplished your purpose. The reason why God put you on this hurt this earth will not be accomplished. You would have spent your life chasing an influencer's lifestyle and you would never accomplish it. You know why? I'll tell you why. Because it's a goal post. And the goal post keeps moving. And guess what? You're not the one setting that goal post. Someone set that goal post. And so you're aiming for this target which continues to move. And you have no control over this target because this person continues to move that target every single time you log on and see the last vacation and see the last dinner and See, you're just not getting there. And these are one of the reasons why young adults feel like they're behind, even when they're making all the right decisions. Now, there's a neuroscience principle behind this. Humans adapt quickly to new baselines, including financial ones. So the race that felt incredible 18 months ago now feels like normal. So you're measuring yourself against a, uh, moving reference class, the best version of the people around you. You're measuring yourself against the best version of the people around you, man. Imagine how difficult that is. You're measuring yourself against the best version of the people around you. And no one is perfect. It's just people. People are not showing you their flaws. They're not being transparent with the things they post. You're measuring yourself against someone else's milestone. Do you know how long it took them to get there? You have no idea. You're measuring yourself against someone else's wins. Have you seen their losses, man? If you saw their losses, you will call yourself a winner, and so does everyone else that, uh, you follow. You're following these people and you're watching their highlight reels and. And you're comparing that to your life and thinking, man, I'm so behind. But that is not the case. That is not the case. Your life is being filtered through social media, and it's filtered again through an algorithm. And the gap becomes a perpetual regeneration of this target that continues to move. Not because you're falling or you're failing, not because you're failing, but because the measurement system you're using is broken. Your measurement system you're using is broken. And we need to fix that. We need to fix that. The measurement system you're using is broken. And so you continuously feel like you're behind. You continuously feel like you're inadequate. Now, here's what I've, you know, here's what I've learned building gwp. Here's what building GWP has taught me, okay? The problem isn't that young adults are bad with money. No, that's not the problem. The problem is that they have no unified picture of their money. They have no personal score to measure progress against. So your scoring system is broken. You have no unified score. You have no unified way of looking at your money. And so you always feel inadequate. You have $100 in your Venmo. You feel $100 richer. But if you were to log in into your High Yield Savings Account, you would realize that $100, if it was in your High Yield Savings Account, that would have been a better investment, that would have been a better financial move to make. But who was ever going to tell you to make that move? Who was ever going to tell you to move that $250 from your cash app that your friend paid you from that one dinner and move it into your High Yield Savings account? By the time you do it, it's too late. So you're using these five or six separate apps that each show one piece of the puzzle. And the puzzle is your Venmo, your cash app, your High Yield Savings account, you know, your 401k. Your money is fragmented in all these five to six different applications. Your Robinhood shows your portfolio and then you're using some budgeting app which shows you your budget. Your 401k provider also shows you your retirement. And then you have this High Yield Savings Account, which is somewhere else. None of these tools are talking to each other. They're not communicating. And none of them give you a number. That means this is where you stand, this is your trajectory, this is what you should focus on next. None of them are doing that. None of them are doing that. Your measuring system is broken. None of them are doing that. They're not communicating with each other. You don't have that unified view. Now think of, uh, an institutional portfolio manager. Again, I keep saying institutional portfolio manager because I worked at Bloomberg and, and I see the kind of sophisticated tools these guys are using in order to make these financial decisions. Of course they're gonna be making a lot of money. Of course they're gonna not be stressed about money. Of course they're gonna feel comfortable with when markets swing 10% up, 10% down, and so on. They have these tools, right? They have this unified view. They have, uh, a measuring score. Their measuring system is not broken. There's a way for them to measure and have a grasp of their money, but you don't. And that is why we built the GWP World Score, a, ah, 0 to 850 score that works like a credit score, but for your actual wealth building progress. It factors in your savings rate, your asset diversification, your debt structure, and your advance advisor readiness. Not to judge you, but to orient you, but to optimize you, right? Instead of waking up and wondering if you're behind, you have a number, you know where you stand, you know what to work on. That's a shift from anxiety to taking agency. You have a number, you know where you stand. You're not comparing yourself to, to that social media influencer because you have a number. And you know where you stand. It works just like a credit score, but it measures the actual wealth building progress that you're making. If we don't measure if we're building wealth or not, we're never going to be able to know if we're building wealth. And for me right now, building wealth is one of the most important things for me because I want to build wealth to be able to pass it on to, to my son and the next generation. And so I need a number, I need a way to be able to measure if I'm building wealth or not. I need to know where I stand. I need to know something that tells me what to work on. Now I quite remember when I started building my financial future, when I took this thing serious and said, you know, I need to take my finances serious. My credit was taken. Terrible. It was terrible, man. I had to get, uh, a secured card from Wells Fargo. I had to put $200 down just to be able to build my credit. That's how bad it was. And man, it started from the four hundreds. It was so bad. But it's much better now. But I knew what to work on. I learned and realized these are the components of credit. This moves this, you know, if I, if I paid this year that this is going to move up, if I utilize this, this is going to move up, or if I can get a new credit card, this is going to help my utilization rate and so on. I started to learn these things and that's kind of what I'm applying here with this new GWP World score. Okay. Which again, we're looking to be able to factor what is our savings rate with the amount of money that is coming in, how much we're making, how much are we saving? What is that rate? Is it 28%? What is the benchmark? The people in my cohort, what are they saving? What's their savings rate? That's a, uh, better way to measure if you're behind or not. Instead of measuring with that social media influencer who keeps moving the goal post because you're measuring with this person's highlights. What is my asset diversification? What does it look like? This is what the GWP World score can help you do. What is your asset diversification looking like? The crypto account that you open that's sitting somewhere else, what does that exposure look like? Are you well diversified? Are you not, Are you over allocated in one specific asset class? Maybe you're too allocated in the crypto world. And one shock to the crypto World is can set you back or the equities, the stocks that you're holding. Are there some overlaps? Right. What is the beta looking like? Because if the market moves 1% and your portfolio moves a ton with the market, you're probably not well diversified. Right. Your exposure might be a little crazy. You might want to take a look at that. What is your debt structure? What does your debt structure look like? Because as we talk about being locked out of, you know, home ownership and some of these things that help us to be able to build wealth, we need to be using tools. We need to get smarter. Times have changed. Times have changed. We need new tools. And that is why we built the GWP wealth score. Right? So you can know where you stand, you can know what to work on. You're not gonna be moving from a point of anxiety anymore. Okay? So, uh, let's take a scenario right now. So let's call this person Maya. Maya sends me a message, right? That perfectly captures how the GWP World Score would work. So Maya is 28 years old, and she makes $67,000 a year, and she's maxing out her Roth IRA, and she has $11,000 in her emergency fund. Great job, Maya. You're doing great. And she's contributing 6% of her 401k to get the employer match. Fantastic. She's taking advantage of that. By most objectives and standards, she's doing very, very well. Yet she told me she felt like I'm drowning. She said, I feel like I'm drowning. Everyone I follow on Instagram seems to be buying houses, going on vacations, and investing in real estate. I'm doing everything right, and I still feel like I'm losing. Lord, let's help Maya. Uh, so Maya, uh, is not behind. Maya is actually. She has money dysmorphia, which I mentioned in the beginning of the episode. Right. She's disconnected from the reality of where she is and where she thinks she needs to be because her measuring system is broken. And it's being compounded by the fact that she has no integrated picture of her financial progress. She has no idea she's checking five different apps, but has no single number that tells her, you're at a 7, 10. And here is what you need to work on next. Right. The anxiety is not irrational. It's the predictable output of a measurement vacuum filled by social comparison. Because she has no actual system to measure with, she is using social media as her measuring stick. That is something most of us are suffering from. Right. What? Maya, uh, Needs isn't motivation. She needs a score. She needs the GWP wealth score to be able to figure out if she is building wealth, if she's moving the right levers. So here is your one move this week. Write down the answer to this question. You ready? What does financial success actually look like for you? Not for the person you follow on Instagram, No. Not for your parents. Not for your generic financial. For your generic retirement calculator, no. But for you, what does financial success actually look like for you? What does it feel like? What does it give you? Um, what does your life look like when you've achieved it? When you've achieved that financial success, what does your life look like? Because until you define your own target, until you define your own target, you will always be measuring yourself against someone else's. That's the definition of a losing game. And you didn't even choose to play the game. It's just when you log on to Instagram because your scoring system is broken, automatically, you're measuring against someone else, something else. That is tough. That is tough. So that's the one thing that I want you to do now, starting next episode, I'm going to run a segment called the GWP Score Corner, where I break down one component of the GWP wealth score and explain exactly how it's calculated, why it matters, and why you can do this, uh, and what you can do this week to improve it. Okay? Think of it as getting to look behind the curtain of how institutional wealth managers actually evaluate financial health. Right? And this is being translated into a language that you can actually act on. So today, I just want to tell you the scores exist. And, man, we've put in a lot of work to, to come up with these scores. These. It's. If you think about it, these scores is so difficult to be able to come up with a score like this. But, you know, we've worked so hard to make sure it is, uh, a score that works, that captures exactly where you are financially. It's able to capture that financial health where you actually are. So it's not a, uh, vanity score. Right? It's real. You can actually look at this score and be able to feel like you're making progress. Okay, so to wrap this up, we've talked about why young adults feel like they're behind. I hope this episode is helpful for you. I hope you start to think about that broken men measuring system that you have. Think of how the GWP World score can help you to be able to avoid measuring yourself against some of these milestones that people post on social media that you're comparing yourself to. And also remember the real factors that are headwinds for us as young adults, millennials and Gen Z building wealth that we have to deal with. But you know, above average wealth requires above average thinking. That's the one thing I want you to take away from today's episode. Above average wealth requires above average thinking. So thank you for tuning in to this episode. I really appreciate you guys sticking with GWP and I can't wait for you guys to learn more about the GWP Work World score and use it to build your wealth. We've talked so much about building wealth and now it's time for us to measure what we're building. You can't measure what you can see and if we can't measure wealth we're not going to be able to see where we're going. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Peace. Sam.
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