The Six Levels of Wealth – And How You Can Move Up

On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey are joined by Nick Maggiulli. Nick is the chief operating officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management and founder of the financial blog Of Dollars and Data. His new book, The Wealth Ladder, comes out next week. 

Nick kicks off the show by discussing The Wealth Ladder, including the six different levels of wealth and why income is a more crucial factor to building wealth than behavior. He also talks about jobs that will be a safe haven once artificial intelligence ("AI") becomes more prevalent, the mistakes people make when buying income-producing assets, the importance of diversification, and why he prefers to invest in index funds. (0:40)

Next, Nick goes in depth on the spending mistakes people make that prevent them from moving up to a higher wealth level. He touches on diversification again, using Elon Musk versus Bill Gates as an example. Plus, he covers the different strategies for different wealth levels, why it's important to still focus on the nonfinancial things in life, statistical data for whether money can buy happiness, and the significance of money being a quantifiable thing. (17:27)

Finally, Nick discusses the things that financially successful people may be overlooking, why the strategy for success may vary on a case-by-case basis, and the different levels of spending freedom. He says that level two allows freedom in the grocery store, level three allows freedom at restaurants, and level four allows freedom for traveling. And he shares a handy formula for people to use when it comes to nonessential spending. (35:15)