Being The First To Break Generational Money Patterns
I used to think you needed $100,000 to start investing.
I watched people buy brand new cars while drowning in debt and everyone thought they were rich.
The people giving financial advice were the same ones who couldn't pay their bills.
That's when I realized everything I'd been taught about money was backwards.
Growing up, I watched the people around me get buried in debt and stay stuck in the “paycheck to paycheck” trap.
Financially struggling seemed like the normal way of life.
Money was spent as soon as it was earned because of a deep fear it would disappear.
Ironically, that very impulse made it disappear faster. But It’s hard to see that when you’re stuck in financial survival mode.
Success meant buying stuff, not owning things that paid you
If you used debt to buy designer clothes or go on fancy vacations, you were seen as financially successful.
Breaking The Old Patterns
Most of the people around me saw the stock market as mostly a scam or something you needed to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit from.
Learning was seen as a waste of time.
The people who had “made it out” were written off as scammers or getting lucky.
I’d hear people say they couldn’t save money but then they’d be out on a cruise the next month.
Money itself was seen as something that was scarce and the root of all problems.
As I grew up, I saw the cost of making financial decisions that held people back.
I knew if I followed the same blueprint as many around me did, I’d end up stuck in the same financial cycle with some nice stuff but no real freedom.
So I decided to take another path.
My First Experience Making Money
I got my first job at 16 working at Wendy’s back in 2012.
I remember making $7.90 per hour.
The job sucked but it was nice to have my own money that I could control for once.
Having to earn every dollar I spent changed how I saw spending it.
I didn't see buying a new shirt as $35, I saw it in terms of how I was earning money.
So at that time, a shirt wasn't $35... It was 4.4 hours of my time.
I valued the money I had because I valued the time I was spending to earn it.
I saw it as if I’m exchanging my time for money, I better make sure I’m spending that money on stuff that is worth the time I spent to make it.
The Internet Became My Mentor
Luckily for me, I also grew up with the internet at my fingertips.
That was a huge advantage my parents never had.
When they wanted financial advice, they had to rely on what their parents told them, what coworkers said, or whatever the bank pitched them.
If I had a question, I could type it into Google, watch a video, or read an article to learn.
So I took advantage of that and learned from people like Dave Ramsey, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Robert Kiyosaki (before he started selling fear instead of education).
The more I learned, the better I got with money.
I knew I wanted to start my own business but being T1D with no family business experience, I knew I needed a job first to build resources and learn skills.
So I kept working and became the first in my family to go to college, graduating from W.P. Carey School of Business.
W.P. Carey didn’t teach me much about money or how to invest in the stock market.
But it did teach me how to learn and study in a more effective way.
And I didn’t stop learning after I left college, I just kept learning on my own with online courses, books, and youtube videos.
The “Pressure of Being First”
When you don’t come from a wealthy family, you’re up against a lot.
You don’t start with a support network.
The people around you doubt what you’re doing.
Old money beliefs creep in and cause self-doubt.
You’ll have to leave environments that hold you back.
And figure out stuff no one ever taught you.
But that’s exactly what makes the journey worth it.
Because when you break through, you’re not just building wealth, you’re building a new blueprint for everyone who comes after you.
You’re proving to yourself what is possible in life when you stay focused and do it anyways even when the odds are stacked against you.
You then become the symbol of hope others in your family can look up to for a better route when they’re ready.
No, it’s not easy.
But I’ve learned nothing worth going after in life is easy.
When you first learn how to build wealth, your instinct will likely be to share it with everyone you know: family, friends, anyone who will listen.
Some people will lean in and listen. But many won’t.
Because the truth is, everyone starts their financial journey when they’re ready.
As much as you’ll want to, you can’t force someone to change how they think about money.
You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to teach someone who isn’t ready to learn (trust me, I’ve learned this from experience with family and people on social media running The Market Hustle).
Some people will start expecting you to save them and magically fix their money problems or support the whole family when you're doing better.
That's a lot to put on one person and you'll need to set firm boundaries on what you can and can't do.
The worst part? The people you love might not understand what you gave up to get in a better position.
The truth is, you can’t save everyone.
But you can lead by example.
You can show what’s possible and when people are ready to learn, you’ll be there to help them take their first step.
That’s exactly what happened with my cousin recently.
He reached out asking about retirement accounts, telling me how his current job didn’t offer a 401k.
I told him about Roth IRA accounts and how he could open one on his own.
He then said he thought he had to physically walk into a bank to set one up and was surprised when I showed him how easy it was.
We got his Roth IRA account set up in about 10 minutes all from his phone.
That one simple interaction gave him access to a wealth building tool that will change the entire trajectory of his financial future.
Key Takeaways For First Generation Wealth Builders
Here are a few insights that have helped me on this journey:
1. Reframe money as your tool.
You probably grew up hearing that money was scarce or even that it was the root of all evil. But the wealthiest people see money as a tool to build the life they want.
When you start seeing money as something you can direct and control, you'll start using it for things that give you more choices: education, investing, and learning new skills.
Money itself isn’t the end goal. Money is simply the tool that gets you to wherever you want to go.
2. Start with small consistent wins.
The biggest trap for first-generation wealth builders is trying to change everything overnight. That’s a fast path to burnout.
Instead, focus on simple wins that build momentum.
For my cousin, it was realizing he could open a Roth IRA from his phone in ten minutes.
For you, it might be setting up automatic investments so you’re consistently building wealth in the background.
3. Don’t try to force everyone around you to learn.
As you grow in your own financial journey, you’ll want to share it with the people around you and that's admirable.
But not everyone will be ready to listen or act right away. Don’t let that discourage you.
I’ve found that people will come around when they’re ready.
Your job is to keep learning, openly share why you're making these choices, and be there to help when someone you love is ready to start their wealth building journey.
4. Get organized and build your system.
The best way to help others break the cycle is to lead by example.
When you build a system that helps you manage money and invest consistently, you not only gain more control over your own life, you also show others what’s possible.
That’s how you become the blueprint your family never had.
Breaking the Cycle Starts With You
Being the first in your family to build wealth is hard as hell.
It means unlearning old money beliefs, staying consistent when others doubt you, and building a system no one ever showed you how to build.
If you’ve been waiting for the roadmap you never got from your family, your school, or even financial advisors… Money Mastery was built for you.
Inside, I’ll walk you step-by-step through creating your financial system (from automating investments to stacking assets) so you can break the cycle once and for all and lead your family into a better future.
