It’s Begun: You Have 5 Years Left To Get Rich

What's up, Graham? It's Guys here. And I hate to say it, but if you haven't already started building wealth, these next five years might be your last chance. I know that sounds ridiculous, I thought so too, until I started to notice a fundamental shift in the way wealth is being created. After all, artificial intelligence is doing a lot more than just changing jobs. It's quietly concentrating wealth into fewer and fewer hands. Like for the first time ever, a small number of people can now do the work of entire teams. Some researchers estimate that a huge portion of entry-level white-collar work is already at risk. And as this trend continues, the traditional paths of getting ahead, like jobs, investing, and real estate, won't just disappear, they're going to get a lot more expensive and much more difficult to access. That's why we absolutely have to break down exactly what's happening, why the next five years could represent the last realistic window for the average person to get ahead, and finally what you could do starting today to avoid getting left behind. Because if you wait to react, you're not just going to be late, you're going to be completely priced out. Although before we start, speaking of artificial intelligence, one metric that YouTube uses to determine whether or not a video is good is if you hit the like button or subscribe. That helps the channel tremendously, it recommends the video to a lot more people, and as a thank you for doing that, here's a picture of one of my fish. So thanks so much, and also a big thank you to Gemini for sponsoring this video, but more on that later. Alright, now in terms of where to begin, let's start here with the AI reset. For those unaware, here's the general premise. Some economists argue that the moment artificial intelligence renders human labor economically valueless, the only source of capital left is going to be ownership. And depending on who you ask, we may only have a short time left before AI could pretty much do whatever you want it to. Like imagine there's no need for cars or drivers, robots build whatever you could want, accountants and doctors and lawyers are taken over by a program that works at a hundred times the speed, and eventually this continues until we're all unemployed. Now if that sounds far-fetched or inconceivable, it's already happening. The rules of how people build wealth are already changing extremely quickly, and the easy way of going to college, getting a good job, and buying a house is getting more and more difficult each and every day relative to the advantages that AI gives to capital and top performers. This is why we are now at a critical point where AI no longer replaces wealth, it amplifies it. So if you own stocks, real estate, or a business, AI becomes leverage. But if you rely on wages, then AI becomes competition. Simply put, we are moving into an economy where productivity no longer guarantees prosperity, where working hard doesn't necessarily get you further, and where the biggest returns are going towards those who already have ownership and not those who rely on wages, promotions, and waiting for affordability to come back. So the real question isn't, will AI take jobs? It's how you could build something meaningful before it does. And in terms of what to expect, we need to break down the economic shift. Here's the thing. Experts believe that four forces will begin to take over the next few years. And it all begins with number one, AI becomes winner-take-most. The reality is, AI is going to let a smaller number of people or companies produce way more output with fewer people. For example, Meta recently said that an individual employee can now have the output equivalent of 20. On top of that, the CEO of Anthropic predicts that AI could displace half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, potentially creating a very low-wage underclass of workers. And even Microsoft found that many high-educated white-collar roles rank among the most vulnerable to AI. Not to mention, if you want to hear something crazy, Bill Gates expects that within the next 10 years, humans will not be needed for most things. This means instead of a large group of people collectively benefiting from increased output, ownership and wealth could begin to concentrate even more so that the top 1% owns significantly more than the other 99%. Or in this scenario, we'd see a much more pronounced K-shaped economy where those who have assets see enormous gains, while those who sell their labor see lower wages and more competition. This leads us to number two, wealth is becoming privatized. Just consider this. Throughout the United States, the number of public companies has dramatically dropped. This suggests that a large portion of early stage growth now happens behind the scenes with venture capital, private equity or pre-IPO. And then by the time it actually becomes buyable by the average person, they're already trading evaluations above $100 billion or even a trillion dollars, which is no longer the 100x opportunity it used to be. On top of that, number three, housing is increasingly expensive. What used to be a consistent wealth builder for middle-class America is now priced at its worst affordability ever on record, meaning a lot of people no longer have access to the same opportunities that earlier generations had, making it so that if you're not ahead now, it becomes even harder to get ahead in the future, leading to fourth, the AI expansion. Look, I'm not going to read off the charts here because I think this one is better off coming from me. I tend to believe that over the next few years, there's going to be a huge deviation between those who know and use AI and those who don't. If you embrace it, if you could increase your output by two to five times, you're going to see way more job opportunity, way higher income and way more investable cash. If you put it off, if you don't think you're affected by it, trust me, at some point you're going to be replaced by someone who does. This makes me think that now is the best time to get ahead of the curve before it's too late. And while everyone is just scrolling on TikTok, you have the power to harness and use some of the biggest advancements in history before it's too late. And you could use this to build substantial wealth. So in terms of what you could do about this and how you could actually benefit through the next few years, here's what you came for, because there is huge opportunity out there if you know where to look. Although before we go into that, there's something this entire conversation keeps coming back to, and that's ownership. If AI is accelerating everything, then the systems you use to actually build ownership matter more than ever. And that's where something like Bitcoin comes into the equation. Some of the biggest banks in the world have started to acknowledge that digital assets aren't going away, and they're beginning to recommend that some people add a small exposure to their portfolio to the tune of 1 to 4%. Obviously, I'm not saying to go and YOLO everything you have into crypto, but it is the idea that a small allocation over a long period of time could improve performance because you're spreading out your bets. That's why I do everything I can to invest a consistent amount on a regular basis. And one of the ways I do that is with our sponsor, the Gemini Credit Card. With this, instead of earning traditional credit card rewards, I get to earn Bitcoin back on every single purchase from money that I'd be spending anyway. Or in this case, I'm able to get up to 4% back on transportation, 3% on dining, 2% on groceries, and 1% on everything else with no annual fee. This just gives me a little extra exposure without timing the market or buying it myself. Plus, if Bitcoin isn't your thing, you could also select from more than 50 different cryptocurrencies that you could switch to at any time. Not to mention, you could also get this in six unique stainless steel colors. You could do black, silver, rose gold, Bitcoin orange, XRP, or the brand new Solana edition. You could also feel free to check out the description for more information on rates and fees and see if you're eligible with no impact to your credit score. Without exaggeration, now that the market's cooled off a little bit, I've been using this card way more because I feel like I'm able to get a lot more for my spending than when the market was at its peak, if that makes sense. It's basically a better bang for the buck from my perspective. So if you would like to instantly earn Bitcoin or select from dozens of other cryptocurrencies, feel free to head to Gemini.com slash Graham or click the link down below in the description to get started today. Again, Gemini.com slash Graham with the link down below. Thank you so much. And now let's get back to the video. All right. So in terms of how to use this economic reset to your advantage, it's really important to understand what won't work. And that's what brings us to the great decoupling. See, as a bit of a background, wages and productivity have not matched up ever since the 1980s. And if you want specifics, worker productivity in the U.S. rose about 81 percent, while average hourly compensation rose only about 30 percent. So where did the extra growth go? Well, pretty much corporate profits, stock ownership and higher managerial pay. Essentially, those at the very top captured the vast majority of income and productivity gains for the simple reason that a lot of the jobs could be easily outsourced. This suggests that in the near future, the traditional path of trading labor for money is becoming a lot less viable. And if I could essentially handle everything, employers will have less incentive to hire and train humans starting at the bottom and then making its way to the top. However, this also means that I will dramatically lower the barrier to entry for those who know what to expect. And this is where you could build some serious wealth. Theoretically, all of this advancement means that a solo entrepreneur or a small group of people could leverage artificial intelligence to create what would normally take dozens or even hundreds of people and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for practically free. That's why some people are warning that this window of opportunity might not be available for that much longer. For instance, if AI continues to drop the cost of labor to the point where anything is possible, competition is going to come swarming in. And from that point onwards, it's going to be another winner takes all scenario. Some people will say this sounds like every tech panic in history, and we'll cover that shortly. But in terms of what you could do today to get ahead and what this means for the rest of the economy, here's what you came for. Look, the reality is this isn't all bad news. And there are quite a few people out there who believe that we could actually be entering the AI golden age. Like as scary as it sounds that AI could literally wipe out entire industries. The reality is history shows us that new technologies actually wind up creating more jobs than the ones they replaced. Like take a look at farming in the early 1900s, 40% of the U.S. worked in agriculture. Then came tractors and fertilizers. The result? Well, today only 2% work in agriculture at the same time that food is cheaper and more abundant and millions of more jobs were created in manufacturing, logistics, processing and retail. Or take a look at cars. Even though the automobile eliminated the need for blacksmiths, carriages and horse breeders, it gave way to mechanics, dealerships, highways, insurance, tourism and personal injury attorneys. That's why so far, every new technology has created more jobs than they've destroyed. But the question with AI isn't, are there going to be new jobs? It's who's going to capture the upside when this happens and why five years specifically? Well, AI adoption is happening faster than any major technology shift we've ever seen. And once it becomes standard within companies, the early mover advantage that you have right now is going to completely disappear. So in terms of what you could do about this today, here's what I recommend. First, learn new skills. Here's the reality. It's estimated that half of all workers will need significant reskilling by the end of this decade to stay relevant. In addition to that, learn how to use AI to increase your own productivity. Even a basic level understanding is going to have such a huge compounding effect on the rest of your career. And at this point, literally everything you could ever need to know is already free online instantaneously in just a few clicks. Second, diversify your income. I personally believe that micro-entrepreneurship is going to skyrocket by 2030. And that's the idea that you could have a solo entrepreneur who's working from home around their own schedule, who could make a consistent income doing something within a very niche market. The purpose of that is just to lead to third, convert income to ownership. Look, throughout every past disruption, workers who invested and created ownership pulled ahead. Those who stayed wage only fell behind. This means it's worth it to diversify across index funds, stocks, and real estate, have equity in a business, take ownership in something that you control yourself, or invest in precious metals if the price makes sense. Ideally, AI should be for the purpose of boosting income for the sake of investing more, not necessarily to get more done. But at the same token, at number four, you should also always reduce unnecessary expenses. Throughout history, the people who had the most problems were those with high fixed expenses, high debt, and no margin of error whatsoever. That's why if you're a few paychecks from everything falling apart, it's worthwhile to cut everything you don't need, track your expenses, save a three to six month emergency fund, and just have something to fall back on just in case. From there, finally fifth, practice deep focus. Surprisingly, this is the first time I've ever mentioned focus being a priority, but these days it just seems like a bit of a rarity. I hate to say it, but if you have the ability to sit in a room, undistracted for four hours without your phone, you're probably ahead of a 99.9% of people out there. Combine that with showing up on time, being attentive and constantly learning. And all of a sudden it's easy to get ahead of practically everyone else on the planet. However, I will admit this still isn't the entire picture and in terms of what else you need to be able to make all of this work, here's what you have to keep in mind. So far, in terms of why right now is one of the most unique times ever in history, Peter Diamandis makes the argument that the economics of scarcity are flipping to the economics of abundance. AI and humanoid robots can produce nearly anything we need goods, services, healthcare, education at costs approaching zero. Therefore, his argument and proposition for the future is simple. When AI cuts the cost of producing something by 30%, that value creation could either flow entirely to shareholders or be partially recaptured for society. This means there's a reality where AI could produce so much abundance that prices collapse, your money goes and buys infinite resources and labor, and the baseline human existence is elevated without any additional work whatsoever. Like even the poorest family today has access to luxuries that the richest people 500 years ago could have only dreamed of. And Elon agrees with this. He says so long as the output of goods and services exceeds the money supply, which it will with AI robotics at scale, everything will be fine. That's why I don't actually think this ends in doom or some sci-fi collapse where nobody works and everything falls apart. Instead, to me, the more realistic outcome is this AI increases productivity, but redistributes exactly who's able to capture it. Or in other words, prices could come down, productivity might explode, and the standard of living could increase. But ownership is going to matter more than ever. And that's where this entire conversation comes full circle. The way I see it, five years to get rich isn't a countdown for failure. It's a head start. It's a window where skills could compound, income could skyrocket, and being early is so much better than being perfect. Eventually this transition is going to stabilize, AI is going to be everywhere, and the early adopters will disappear. But we're not quite there yet. That's why my belief is that AI doesn't get rid of opportunity. It just raises the cost of waiting and not hitting the like button and subscribing if you haven't done that already. So with that said, thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to check out our sponsor, Gemini, down below in the description to sign up today. Thank you so much, and until next time.