9 Steps For How To Build Sustainable Wealth

How to build sustainable wealth.

You build sustainable wealth by first getting a job. Then, once you have at least some money coming in, you need to learn one or more high-income skills so that you can get yourself up to 6-figure levels. Then, you leverage that money to start building assets (businesses or investments that earn you money while you sleep). Keep building assets until your income outperforms your cost of living, and you’ll officially be creating sustainable wealth.  

---

Over the course of the past two years, I’ve done a lot of work in an attempt to understand how to build sustainable wealth in my life, so that I can achieve financial freedom as an alpha mentality man. 

I’m not necessarily an ‘expert’ at this (yet). In the words of Gary Vaynerchuk, I’m more of an ‘enthusiast’ who ‘executes on this journey on a daily basis.’

My goal and mission in life is to become a ripped, attractive, successful, powerful alpha millionaire leader with an amazing dating life and tribe. 

With that being said, I’ve been hard at work on this business of building wealth, getting money, and setting myself up for financial freedom. 

I’ve learned many times over that when you rely on someone else, especially one other entity like a boss, a job, or even one freelance project client for your income, you put yourself into an incredibly vulnerable and dangerous position. 

You put yourself into a position of scarcity. 

So in this blog post, I’m going to give you the real shit about building alpha mentality wealth. 

I’m going to tell you how I’m building sustainable wealth in my own life, as a wealth-building enthusiast, and how I’m setting myself up for not only getting real money in the future, but also reaching that ‘millionaire’ status within the next 5 years using a 9 step plan that I’ve put together by studying incredibly successful men and women who’ve already walked that path and accomplished those goals. 

Keep in mind, I’m still a man on the journey. 

I can’t rightfully claim that I’ve already completed all of these steps. 

However, at this point in my life, I’m actively working on step number 8. 

In fact, I’m already part of the way done with that part of the process, which means that I already have assets in motion that are earning me cash every single month. 

For me, it’s just a process of continuing to build these assets—to get me to that point where I tip over that ‘six figure’ mark and then snowball it to become a legitimate millionaire. 

So that’s where I am on the journey. And thus far, this format that I’m about to share with you for how to build sustainable wealth has proven to be incredibly promising and successful. 

And I 100% believe that this is one of the most legitimate methods for building alpha mentality wealth.

So let’s jump into it.

---

Note: If you’re interested in the content matter of this post, then you’ll definitely be interested in our master guide to becoming truly alpha. Make sure to check that out to get a full rundown of the entire process, from beginning to end, along with a full list of resources and other guides.

---

9 Steps For How To Build Sustainable Wealth

1. Manage Your Spending And Live Affordably

A lot of people miss this step. 

They don’t treat their current financial resources with responsibility, and they don’t manage their spending. 

When it comes to fitness, they always say that you can’t outwork a bad diet. 

Well, the same is true when it comes to money. 

You can’t out-earn bad spending habits. 

So even if you don’t have that much money coming in, it’s incredibly important to tighten up your grip on your finances and start making every dollar count. 

Make a detailed budget and stick to it religiously. 

This discipline will also help you to learn the skills you’ll need to develop to actually succeed in a bigger way with your money once you start getting real money. 

Also, cut the flashy shit. 

No buying fancy cars, trying to live in fancy houses, performing expensive renovations on your living space, or taking vacations when you don’t have the money to do it. 

If you’re not waking up in the morning with assets in motion that are earning you real money while you sleep, then step number one on your financial alpha journey is to get yourself to that point as fast as possible.

(Note: If you want to learn more about this alpha-mentality business, download my free ebook:  An Introduction To The Alpha Mentality: The Evolutionary Key To Succeeding At Dating, Relationships, Business, Fitness, And Everything Else That Matters. It’ll explain everything you need to know to get a basic understanding of what this means.)

What If You Have A BUNCH Of Debt?

Now, with all that being said, when I started this process, I didn’t have a bunch of crazy debt already in place. 

Having a bunch of crazy debt changes the game a little bit.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Dave Ramsey’s program for getting out of debt and becoming financially free. 

So, if you’re starting off with a bunch of crazy debt and you need to get out of it, I would recommend watching some of Dave Ramsey’s content on YouTube to help you get a better grip on how to actually get rid of your debt and begin the process of becoming debt free.

2. Get A Job

If you don’t already have a job, it’s time to get one today. 

Getting a job is relatively easy in the modern economic landscape, especially in the Western world. 

No, most unskilled jobs don’t pay very much. 

However, having a little bit of money coming in is always better than having zero money coming in. 

You need something to work with. 

At the very least, you need enough money to pay your bills while you grind and hustle to build something better.

So get your resume in order and get yourself a job.

3. Build Up Some Savings And Start Minding Your Business

Whenever you start to get money coming in, don’t spend it on stupid shit. 

Instead, start trying to build yourself up a little bit of savings as a safety net, and then start really throwing yourself into steps 4 and 5 (which we’re going to talk about in a moment). 

While you’re doing this, mind your business by meeting your financial responsibilities. 

Instead of eating out, going to theme parks, and spending a bunch of money on fun stuff, spend your money paying your bills and managing the expenses you already have. 

It’s crucial to live responsibly during these early stages of the wealth-building process.

You can buy fun stuff later, after you’ve got assets earning you money while you sleep.

For now, you need to make every dollar count as you race toward the finish line of financial freedom. 

4. Start Your Wealth-Building Process Where You Are

A lot of people rule out the idea of building a business or creating assets for themselves because they don’t have any startup capital. 

For example, I once talked to a guy who basically said this:

“My dream is to start a five star restaurant—but I can’t get a loan for that much money, and I don’t have that much capital to spend. So it’s really impossible for me to build a business.”

But this is total bullshit. 

The truth of the matter is that you can always start where you are, and work your way up from the bottom.

This is one of the amazing things about living in a ‘mostly’ capitalist society.

For me, when I started my own business journey, I had zero startup capital. 

So I actually got my start with a cheap WordPress blog, which cost me about $10 a month in web hosting to start up, and $20 a year for a domain. 

Then, I just started publishing blog posts. 

Sure, this takes a lot of time, and it’s a lot of work. 

But it helped me to get started in the game with very little capital—and eventually, you can build up your blog to be a sustainable asset—as long as you stick with it and you keep working on optimizing and publishing content. 

And guess what? 

If you don’t have $10 a month to spend on expenses for a blog, you can instead use Anchor.FM to set up a podcast, or you can start a YouTube channel—all for free. 

If you do research on YouTube about how to monetize a podcast or YouTube channel, you’ll find more than enough information on how to build a sustainable business using nothing but the phone in your pocket. 

I’ve literally recorded hundreds of podcast episodes using only my phone. 

So there’s just no excuse to not start building something. 

In today’s technological age, there’s more opportunity than there’s ever been. 

So start where you are, and figure this shit out so you can get started building a business and an asset for yourself.

5. Start Developing One Or More High Income Skills

In this day and age, you really need a high-income skill to help set yourself up for a better run toward financial freedom. 

Trust me—you set yourself up to make a lot more progress when you can earn $50 per hour as opposed to $10 per hour. 

Very early in my life, I gained some experience as a carpenter. 

And this helped me to get jobs that were pretty decent right out of high school. 

However, over time, I developed freelance writing, content writing, and copywriting as high-income skills that I could leverage to earn even more. 

I learned how to do this using only free content online, mostly on YouTube. 

I ended up earning about twice as much writing as I would have made being a construction worker.

Plus, I was able to do it from anywhere—using just my laptop and a Wi-Fi connection. 

With that being said, the world is full of opportunities to learn high-income skills. 

Plus, with YouTube and the podcast world at your disposal to help you learn new skills, you can literally give yourself an entire education by just watching 20 to 25 hours of YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, or by reading a bunch of blog posts. 

Personally, I feel like the value on YouTube is worth more bang for your buck when you’re learning high-value skills—so I’d start with that. 

For example—if you want to learn how to be a professional copywriter, just type “how to make money as a copywriter” into YouTube, and watch the first 30 videos that pop up. 

You’ll be amazed at how much knowledge you’ll gain from this time investment. 

If you’re not sure what high income skill you should learn, then type “what are the best high income skills to learn from home” into your internet browser. 

Pick one out, do some research to double-check that it’s in-demand, and then start learning it. 

Don’t be picky. 

Beggars can’t be choosers.

Pick something that you think you’d be good at, and try it. 

You can always pivot later on—but if you don’t build a high-income, high-value skill, you’re going to really start to cripple yourself by keeping your earning potential at a lower point. 

Specializing In A Field Can Also Increase Your Income

Another thing to talk about in the same category is specializing in your chosen area or field. 

For example, as a freelance writer, I can command a much higher rate per hour for my work than I would be able to command if I were doing some kind of unskilled labor. 

However, once I specialized in the dating and relationships niche in my writing career, that’s when I started making a premium level income for my writing skills. 

When I started specializing in dating and relationships (and I also actually specialize in health and wellness), it meant that I was narrowing the focus of my work, getting really good at those topics, learning to create higher-than-average value when writing about those topics in particular, and then commanding a higher rate for the work I was doing in those niches. 

When you specialize and niche-down to become a master at one specific thing, this can really help you to increase your income—especially if you choose to master a niche that there’s at least a relatively high demand for.

It’s all about being specialized and having skills and/ or knowledge that are valuable to other people, that other people want, need, and are willing to pay for. 

What About College?

I didn’t go to college, so I can’t necessarily speak on this.

There are some professions that you need to go to college for.

But I don’t believe that you have to go to college to become financially free.

Also, college loans can be a real bitch to get rid of… and sometimes, they do more harm than good!

But it’s all about what you want to do with your life, and about making an actual, actionable plan that you can deploy and succeed with.

6. Start Making A Plan For Building ‘Assets’ 

My definition of the word ‘asset’ is simply this: a business or investment that you set up to earn you money while you sleep. 

See, as long as you’re stuck in the ‘working by the hour’ model for income, your income is always going to be capped—and you’re never going to be able to scale effectively. 

And this could really keep you from consistently earning six figures, and could definitely keep you from being able to reach that millionaire status. 

So start today by making a plan to create some assets for yourself. 

For example:

• You could start a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel, and eventually monetize it. 
• You could invest in the stock market to make a return on your investment.
• You could build a business and hire other people to run that business for you.  
• You could buy an investment property and rent it out for extra income. 
• You could write and publish ebooks on Amazon, and turn those ebooks into audiobooks and publish them on Audible.

These are all basic ideas for how you can start building assets for yourself today. 

But here’s the thing—you must build assets if you want to build true, consistent, long-term alpha mentality millionaire-level wealth. 

So if you don’t have assets in motion, the next best thing to do is to make a plan for how you’re going to build your first asset. Then, just get to work on it!

For me, this all came down to my blog (joshuasigafus.com), which you’re reading right now. 

I started building this blog and made a plan to monetize it—and guess what?

Today, this blog earns me a certain amount of money every month. 

And that number continues to grow every year. 

Yes, I still publish blog posts on my blog, but I’m not working any harder on my blog than I was when I started it.

For the same amount of work every month, the amount of income I make for it continues to increase and scale upward every year. 

I also have plans for literally half a dozen other assets that I’m getting ready to deploy in the next couple of years as well. 

Every time I create an asset for myself, that residual income will just increase over time. 

If you stick with it, at some point, the money you make from your assets will outweigh the money it requires to sustain your life. 

And guess what? When you reach this point, you’ve literally reached the point of financial freedom. 

Building Wealth Starts By Delivering Value

It’s also important to understand that ‘getting money’ is best accomplished by having a real discussion with yourself about how you’re going to provide real value to people in the real world.

For example – when I started this blog, my goal wasn’t to just ‘milk potential clients for cash.’

The goal of this blog is to create a community of ripped, attractive, successful, powerful alpha millionaire leaders with amazing dating lives and relationships.

This is a high-value goal that’ll help other people. It’ll also help to make the world a better place, improve lives, and possibly even help people to change their destinies in positive ways forever.

Always seek to create value first, and the money part will follow.

7. Leverage One Or More Of These Resources To Start Getting Real Money

When learning how to build sustainable wealth for yourself, the first target to reach with your money is that six-figure mark. 

In other words, earning $100,000 a year. I call this ‘getting real money.’ 

Once you get to that point, you’ll reach the level where, in most places in the western world, you can at least live a comfortable, sustained existence. 

Then, if you continue to live affordably, you can leverage some of that extra income to build even more assets for yourself. 

8. Start Snowballing Your Assets To Set Yourself Up For Financial Freedom

You’re going to want to keep making plans for assets and executing on your plans to build those assets. 

Don’t grow despondent and stop growing!

You can focus on your strengths with this. Building assets is a very creative endeavor. 

There are literally almost limitless ways to it. 

So figure out some ways that could work especially well for you, and get to work on a plan.

Then, leverage the money you’re earning to start building even more of those things. 

At first, it may feel bad to be using all of your money to build assets instead of doing fun stuff. 

But listen, you need to set yourself up for financial security in the future. 

There’s just no other way to slice it. 

If we don’t build financial independence and freedom for ourselves, we’re never going to achieve it. 

Point blank, period.

9. Continue The Process To Build Even More Long-Term Sustainable Wealth For Yourself

Once you learn how to properly build and deploy assets, and once you have some real money coming in from the assets you’ve already built, you’ll be set up and in a position to hire people to help do some of this work for you in setting up new stuff.

And then, you can continue to build and deploy assets without needing to directly spend as much time and energy doing it yourself. 

In other words… you can build a machine to build more machines for you.

When you reach this point, you’ll really be able to snowball your efforts—as long as you do it right and you stay smart. 

You gotta keep your head in the game. You’ve got to stay involved in your financial and business life. 

As alpha men and women, we must be constantly focused on the business of getting our money in this life. 

Money is the currency of value in the modern world. 

A lot of people don’t like to have to deal with it, but it’s true. 

Being able to create financial wealth in this world is the modern-day equivalent of being a successful hunter-gatherer in the primitive world. 

As men and women who want to be alphas in life, we must see to this business with relentless determination, and be successful at all costs. 

Books To Help You With The Process Of Building Sustainable Wealth In Life

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this post has helped you to understand my thoughts about the journey of learning how to build sustainable wealth. 

I also hope that you understand the importance of taking this journey seriously. 

Whoever controls the flow of resources in your life will ultimately have power over your life. 

So the more of this that you control, the better. 

Go with grace, my friends—and never give up your power. 

Until next time…

This is Joshua K. Sigafus, signing off.