What To Do *After* You Become a Millionaire

Summary

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Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: Earn Your Leisure

Episode: What To Do After You Become a Millionaire
Hosts: Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings
Date: November 12, 2025

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Main Theme

This episode delves into the crucial, often overlooked question: What should you do after becoming a millionaire? The hosts and guest advisors offer candid, practical advice on maintaining and growing your wealth after crossing the seven-figure mark. They challenge common assumptions, warn against “lifestyle creep,” and break down why respect for money, asset allocation, and strategic planning are essential even—and especially—after your first million.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Immediate Steps After Hitting Millionaire Status

• Don’t Make Large Purchases (02:31)

  • “Don’t make any large purchases. Stay in the same place you’ve been in, including a house.”
    — Financial Advisor 2 (02:54)

• Your Primary Home is NOT an Asset (03:08)
  Real estate, unless multifamily (i.e., bringing in rent), is a liability at first—due to taxes, upkeep, and opportunity cost of capital tied up.

  “Your primary home, unless it’s a multi family home, it’s not going to be a asset for you in the moment… it’s going to be a liability for you in the moment.”
  — Financial Advisor 2 (03:08)

• Avoid Lifestyle Creep and Flamboyant Spending (04:30–05:30)
  Emphasis on not succumbing to pressure to buy luxury homes or cars after the first windfall.

  “Some of the trappings of success is the real estate, large real estate play… luxury car, BS car… because you feel like you have enough money when that’s going to go down in value…”
  — Financial Advisor 2 (04:30)

2. Respecting Money & Why the Mindset Matters

• Aliko Dangote Story (05:30–06:40)
  Even the richest are vigilant about every dollar; it’s about respect, not just capability.

  “If you’re worth $30 billion, what’s an extra $10 gonna do? But it’s a mindset… Extremely rich people’ll look over every line item, everything. Some entertainers and athletes… will just say, it’s an additional $5,000 here and there. That type of mindset will lead you broke.”
  — Financial Advisor 2 (06:00)

3. Doubling Down: Growing Beyond Your First Million

• Focus on Retaining Wealth (06:56–07:38)

  • Don’t ask “How much can I spend?” Instead: “How do I double this? How much of it do I actually keep?”

  “At first, made a million, how do I make two? Not how much can I spend, how do I double this, and what time frame can I double this in?”
  — Financial Advisor 1 (07:12)

• Live Below Your Means
  Share of income allocated to home should be minimal (ideally ~10% or less).

  "I made a million dollars, and my mortgage was $3,000. I'm less than almost like 1% of that income.”
  — Financial Advisor 1 (07:28)

4. Always Have a Strategic Plan

• Planning & Discipline (12:14–13:00)
  • “Always having that plan and being disciplined, but also being super vigilant with money… Learn from [others’ mistakes] and figure out how not to make those mistakes.” — Financial Advisor 1 (12:58)

5. Concrete Wealth-Building Principles

• Avoid Lifestyle Creep Until 11 (13:19–14:53)

  • Maintain frugality until you reach $11 million (a suggested financial “deep end”).
  • Invest in things that improve your “happiness index”, not simply in net worth metrics.
  • Seek to be fully debt-free—offer differing wisdom from the “bad vs. good debt” maxim.
  • Choose assets with extremely low risk of losing value.

  "No lifestyle creep until you get to your first 11. One is good, your nose is above financial water. No lifestyle creep until you get... And that's the thing I live by."
  — Financial Advisor 3 (13:22)

  "There's no better feeling than owing nobody. No institutions, no banks, no people, nothing."
  — Financial Advisor 3 (14:45)

6. What NOT to Buy As a New Millionaire

• Jewelry and Cars (15:02–16:53)

  • Both are generally depreciating assets, and with the rise of lab-created diamonds, traditional jewelry’s resale value is dropping rapidly.

  “Diamonds are in shambles. Right when all time low decent... Why would I pay for something that I could actually manufacture? ... Diamonds is dead.”
  — Financial Advisor 2 (15:28, 16:12)

  • Luxury watches similarly are often sold for less, despite current hype.

  “[With] every watch company, diamond company, luxury experience … you have to be careful. And I know it may not look fun but most of the people posting on the gram… they are asset light. Liquid light. Be careful.”
  — Financial Advisor 3 (16:53)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Respecting Money:
  “You gotta respect money.”
  — Financial Advisor 2 (05:26)

• On the Trap of Lifestyle Creep:
  “No lifestyle creep until you get to your first 11. One is good, your nose is above financial water.”
  — Financial Advisor 3 (13:22)

• On Risk and “Happiness Index”:
  “Invest in things that increase your happiness index... Now there’s a level of emptiness because now you realize, I just got to the first level of the mountain. It’s a lot more to climb up.”
  — Financial Advisor 3 (13:24)

• On Doubling Wealth:
  “How do we double this? Not how much can I spend, how do I double this?”
  — Financial Advisor 1 (07:12)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:31: How to think after hitting $1M: Avoid big splurges
• 03:08: Why buying a personal home isn’t always smart (unless multifamily)
• 05:30–06:40: The “Dangote mindset”—why attention to small amounts matters
• 07:12: Building wealth by focusing on keeping and doubling, not spending
• 13:19–14:53: The “no lifestyle creep” rule and happiness after wealth
• 15:02–16:53: Why not to buy jewelry, watches, or cars; real talk on depreciation

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Takeaways and Action Steps

• Pause and Plan: After becoming a millionaire, resist temptation; don’t make large purchases or inflate your lifestyle.
• Stay Liquid: Make investments to grow your wealth but maintain access to cash and avoid tying up money in illiquid assets.
• Keep Growing Wealth: The first milestone is only the start—focus on doubling and retaining wealth, not spending for appearances.
• Be Strategic With Assets: Invest in real estate that pays (i.e., multi-family or rental), avoid depreciating liabilities, and vet all investment risks.
• Beware of Trends & Appearances: Expensive jewelry, watches, and cars rarely add to net worth and often result in financial setbacks.
• Mindset Matters Most: Whether you have $1 million or $30 billion, the key is ongoing discipline, respect for money, and never letting up on the principles that helped you build wealth in the first place.

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This summary delivers the Earn Your Leisure episode’s actionable wisdom and memorable moments—distilled for anyone serious about lasting success after their first million.

Transcript

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[Financial Advisor 2]

So for people, okay, on their financial journey and they hit they finally they become a millionaire. Okay, what should they do next? Like what's next after you become a millionaire? I'll give some advice. Don't make any large purchases.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Including sort of. Say it again.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Don'T make any large purchases.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Yep, stay in the same place you've.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Been in, including a house.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Rashad, they're gonna say that you're Anti homist. I'm not gonna let this. No, no, but tell them why that's important.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Because your primary home, unless it's a multi family home, it's not going to be a asset for you in the moment over the course of time, but it's going to be a liability for you in the moment. So you're still trying to collect as many assets as possible to grow your wealth. You don't want to, you don't want to take two steps back after you made three steps forward. So you make a million dollars and you have a million dollars and then you spend 700, 600,000 on a house that's going to cost you an additional 8,000amonth. That's going to cost you an additional 30, 000 a year in taxes, furniture and landscaping, right back to where you started, a couple hundred thousand. And like Meek Mill said, that ain't real money, that's bail money. No disrespect, but that law one, one bad situation and now you back to rock bottom. So it's about, it's about playing a long game. Real estate for sure is a good investment. Over the course of time it has always gone up in value, but you, it can, it can hurt you as well. So if you're going to buy real estate, we talked about the multi family play or about, you know, as far as having, you know, places that other people live in and now you're a landlord and you're collecting rent while your asset appreciates and you might want to continue to actually rent a place because if you actually doing business out that place or structured property with your cpa, you can write that off as a tax write off, but you're still keeping large sums of money. You have access to it. You never want to tie your money up until you, you can, until you can properly afford it. Then when you get to a point it doesn't matter, then it's like it doesn't even matter. But until then, when you first become a millionaire, some of the trappings of success is the real estate, large real estate play. It's luxury car, BS car done the wrong way, right? As far as putting $200,000 down or buying a car to $250,000 outright in cash because you feel like you have enough money when that's going to go down in value and then by the time you sell it, you're going to get 50, $75,000 back out of there and you just lost $150,000 for no reason. Avoiding lifestyle Creep. Yeah, that's been a little important. And just continue to invest. Continue to invest in smart investments and to really, really value and respect the money. You gotta respect money. I'll tell this story. I told this story on M2N, and they was telling us about Aliko Dangote and Aliko Dangote, the richest black person in the world, Nigerian tycoon. And they were saying, like, you know, he was kind of like, he had a situation where he was like, buying something that was pretty minuscule in the grand scheme of things. A bagel or something like that. But he was just, you know, kind of going over the bill with the waitress just to make sure that, you know, he was getting charged for the right thing. And some people might look at it like, well, if you worth $30 billion, what's, what's the extra $10 gonna do? But it's a mindset, and it's a mindset of entertainers that, so you, on one hand, you got extremely rich people that'll look over every line item, everything, everything. Then you have other people, like some entertainers or some athletes that will just say, I. It's an additional $5,000 here and there. I, I, I, I'm not too stressed about it. I'm getting paid 50,000. If I can't, if I can't get the, the Phantom to pick me up, I'm not gonna go to the show. That type of mindset will lead you broke because you're not valuing the money, because you have money coming in. So you're not looking at it from a standpoint of it doesn't really mean anything to you until it does.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah, I think that's all spot on. I think living below your means is something I'm doing it for. I mean, I'm gonna talk personal standpoint. It was like, at first, made a million, how do I make two?

[Financial Advisor 3]

Right?

[Financial Advisor 1]

Like, how do we double this? How can I double this? Not how much can I spend, how much, how do I double this? And what time frame can I double this in? The next thing was like, all right, we made a million. How much of it do we actually keep? Right? Because that's the other part. Let me figure out how I can make these tax incentives to actually keep a majority if I can. And then it was, all right, let's live below your means, and so make the million. Look at, especially in real estate, having a home. Like, I had a home, and I'm looking at, all right, my income is going up. Do I get the home right away? No, man. Like, we waited five years before we bought the home, right? I'm still living in the home that I started to show in, right? And so I'm, when I started doing the calculations, I'm like, I remember watching somebody break down, like, how much your monthly disposable income to go should go to your living? And it was like, oh, 30. I'm like, nah, I gotta have it at 10, you know what I mean? So I made a million dollars and my mortgage was 3,000. I'm less than almost like 1% of that income. I'm like, okay, perfect. I don't need to have a home. How can we get cars? But we can do it in a strategic way that makes sense that it can be a tax write off. So now we do that. Now it's just a clear road to saying, all right, I've knocked down all those barriers. How do we get to.

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Right? Do we what do we have to invest in? What moves do we have to make? How can we strategically align ourselves in partnerships that can get us there? And so once you get to the two, it's like, all right, well how do we get the four? It was the same idea that I had when I was working saying all right, this is what I need to stop working. All right, this is what I need to do to stop working. Let's have my wife stop working. And so always having that plan and being disciplined like you said, respecting money, being disciplined with money, but also being super vigilant with money. Like you watch this like in the world we live in, right? Especially in in this world and definitely during that pandemic era, you see it coming. You're being mindful of how money is being respected, how it's being spent, how it's being abused. And you're also watching people no longer have it. And so like that becomes like the catalyst to say, all right, now we got to be even more stranger with it. Because like this, that's a telltale sign. That sign wasn't put into your life for you to just ignore it, take heed to it, learn from it, and figure out how not to make those mistakes.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Great question from this brother, and I appreciate you asking it. Number one, what I was told, no lifestyle creep until you get to your first 11. One is good. Your nose is above financial water. No lifestyle creep until you get. And that's the thing that I live by. And even after you get to 11, you can argue to minimize lifestyle creeping. Number two, invest in things that increase your happiness index. The thing that people don't tell you, like after you hit these monumental numbers, the high of hitting them goes away relatively fast. The person who you became on that journey is more important. And I used to hear that like, just give me the millionaire and and. But you'll hit this goal. And now there's a level of emptiness because now you realize, I just got to the first level of the mountain. It's a lot more to climb up. Third, be debt free. I know a lot of people going to tell you some debt is good and there's no better feeling than owing nobody. No institutions, no banks, no people, nothing. Being free and clear is the way to go. And then lastly, you have to put your money into assets that have zero probability of going to0. If 10 years ago I told you bonds were not a good investment, you would have thought I was an absolute cycle. Here we are, half decade of bonds being underwater. So look for the investments that won't go to zero. And that would give you a great return on investment that will allow you to sleep well. That's why when I tell you guys, if you're asking me every week about a particular company, is it overweighted, you are investing either at the wrong price or the stock's too volatile. And if you do those five or six things in combination, you'll be great. NBA. Okay, but no lifestyle creep till you get to your first 11.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah, I mean, just don't do anything stupid too, because sometimes that's, that is a golden rule. Invest your money. No in stocks long term. Like you said, good companies avoid large purchases. Don't buy. Jury that's another thing that you think you might be doing something that's intelligent like a house but watch is not going up in value 9 times out of 10 that's that they told to.

[Financial Advisor 3]

You.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Diamonds are in shambles. Right when all time low decent Bob these countries brought the beers at a moment when diamonds are about to be worthless.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Huh?

[Financial Advisor 1]

All time low. I just I crazy you said that. I just looked at a chart of the value of diamonds. They're at an all time low.

[Financial Advisor 2]

No, they're all time low because lap dime I was talking we on Eric Jewel he said and he was, he was, I'm asking him about and he's like yeah, not lab diamonds. He's showing me lab diamonds. He's like yeah, look at slap the diamond. Like you know they do the diamond test.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Diamond tester. Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Diamond test on a lap diamond comes back as a regular as a real diamond. So why would I pay for something that I could actually manufacture? And it's the real thing. It's not even.

[Financial Advisor 3]

It doesn't even.

[Financial Advisor 2]

It passed the test. Diamonds is dead. And like I said it's crazy.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 2]

It's an extremely unfortunate situation because like they just. One of my guys shout out to Alvin, he actually sent me that yesterday and they was like man this, this is dope. Like I'm saying like we finally we got one as far as on on Africa because in Angola and Botswana teamed up and they, they formed a partnership to. To buy through the beers I think and I'm like yeah it's just interesting that that was the timing of it because diamond's at an all time low and it's probably not gonna be worth the same thing.

[Financial Advisor 1]

So.

[Financial Advisor 2]

So it's the reason why they sold the company for sure.

[Financial Advisor 3]

It was that they were the liquidity to get out. And I keep saying that when you get money every company on earth finds a way to rob you legally. Meaning every watch company, diamond company luxury experience. Everyone has a 70,000, 80,200 that like just every watch company. Jacob has his resurgence. Right. There's some watches going for 900000 that are worth a hundred thousand. You have to be careful. And I know it may not look fun but most of the people who are posting on the gram for the gram, they're not happy. They, they are asset light. Liquid light. Be careful.

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[Financial Advisor 1]

Ah.

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