Why do Millionaires ACTUALLY drive Toyotas?

So it’s almost become like a reverse sort of flex that entrepreneurs, financial gurus, and whatnot. Like myself on social media, we started to do the reverse flex where it’s cooler to not have fancy things, to buck the trends and say, I don’t need that fancy car, that fancy watch, and embrace minimalism instead and frugality. And you hear about this, I think there’s a lot of people that are. That talk about this now where it’s like, I drive a Toyota, I drive a Honda, I have a Seiko watch. I don’t know if that’s a good watch for a bad watch, but, like, they don’t care about the material things as much, and they’re more concerned with getting their money’s worth and frugality, making, you know, good, wise money decisions, rather than the incessant status signaling flexing that you see all over social media, typically from the young dudes who are showing their rented lamborghinis and their jets and, like, their fancy watch, all that shit that is trying to status signal, right? So it’s almost like this turning of the pendulum, people starting to rebel against that, and almost like, I’m gonna be the anti status guy. And it’s. And it’s funny because I’m seeing it more and more, and I love seeing people embrace the frugal life and recognizing that, like, you don’t need to have these great fancy things and whatnot. But the other day, I saw this tweet from this gentleman who.

It cracked me up. He said, I have never actually met a millionaire who drives a Toyota Corolla. And so his point here is that people are lying, but the people who are part of that kind of frugality movement and saying, like, you don’t need these fancy things that people are saying, like, I drive this 25 year old beat up truck. Like he says, I’ve never actually met any of these people. And so calls into question whether or not they actually exist. Well, I will tell you from firsthand experience that they exist. And I know that they exist because as I read that message, I cracked up. Because for the past couple of months, I have been driving a Toyota Corolla.

My girlfriend, she took my Toyota Prius to Colorado. She’s been out there for a couple months, and I’ve been stuck with her car, which is a Toyota Corolla. Now, Toyota Corolla is not a bad car. This one’s from, like, 2009. So it’s a little bit older, it’s a little bit dated. But, I mean, even my Prius isn’t exactly, like, I bought that for $15,000 in 2015. So, like, you buy. You buy good quality things that don’t break down, and they just keep running.

Like, that’s. That’s what I’m about. That’s the game that I’m all about. So when I saw that message, that tweet saying, I’ve never actually met anybody that drives, you know, these things, it cracked me up because I’m like, well, I’m living proof that people do do that. But further than that, I’ve met so many old school gangsters that have built these incredible businesses that just kind of. They fly entirely under the radar. They’re not on social media. They’re these older gentlemen, like, the guys that we’re buying the portfolios from at Invictus capital, we’ve acquired, you know, nearly $100 million of assets in the last few years from two gentlemen who you would never be able to pick them out of a lineup as, like, rich, wealthy dudes.

They’re driving trucks and, like, they’re dressing like casual civilians. You would. You would never peg them. There’s nothing about them that’s ostentatious. And you go, yep, they’re trying to status signal. They’re like the anti flex of that. But the point here that I wanted to share is that whether or not you buy nice things or not, that’s not the point. It really isn’t.

Because if you have the money and you can afford the nice things, by all means, spend the money, go buy the. And that’s something that it took me a really long time to wrap my own head around, because the problem is, in the beginning, like, I spent the majority of my life, I spent more of my life poor than I have, moderately wealthy. Right? So I’ve ingrained these financial habits, these money. We’ll say money motor, muscle memories that are hard to break. I’m still very cheap, and I make money. I like to invest money, but I don’t like to spend the money very much. It doesn’t give me as much joy. It gives me a lot of anxiety, in fact.

And so that’s something that I’ve had to unlearn. Like, I’ve had kind of a negative experience with making money and what to do with it. And you might, you know, it’s a good problem to have. I’m not complaining about it. But the point is, if you want nice things and you can afford those nice things, and that’s what money is for. That’s to enable you to live the life that you want on your terms. The problem, though, is when we’re buying things that we don’t care about to impress people who don’t matter. And I see this so much.

It’s such, it’s the keeping up with the Joneses and buying that nice car because you’re trying to keep up appearances because you think that’s what others expect of you. When the reality is, like, the reason that I drive Toyotas is because I don’t really care about fancy cars. Last month, Jamie and I, we went and tour, like, went and test drove a bunch of cars because I was like, well, maybe I should get a nice car. And then after the experience, I was like, I don’t care. I don’t care about this. Like, the idea of buying a nice thing just because it’s nice, that doesn’t actually bring me any joy just to, like, chuck a box. Like, it just brings me no, no satisfaction. And that’s the important thing here, is that you’re spending your money in alignment with what it is that actually moves you towards your goals in life.

If that’s spending money on, you know, experiences and making memories, going on trips with families and friends and doing cool, adventure, epic things, do that if you want. If you’re the type of person who likes fancy watches, they feel you’re a watch aficionado, you love cars and you’re really into them that bring you joy, then by all means, do that, too. Like, just be aware that what you’re doing and why you’re doing it is in alignment with what, what it is that you’re trying to achieve. And a lot of times we get so easily sucked into the consumption trap, into the status game, trying to keep up with everybody else, keep up those appearances when we’re just filling our lives with more and more things that we don’t actually want to impress people we don’t actually care about. So just be aware of that as you’re going along in your journey and you’re starting to succeed in your business and starting to generate cash and you’re starting to make some money, and now you have a new problem which is like, what do I do with this? That can be its own little conundrum, own little problem to be solved. You’ve solved the money game. Now what? Now what do you do? So I hope you get there. I hope this podcast is helping you along that journey.

If there’s any way I can contribute to your, your journey, let me know. Shoot me an email, shoot me a DM. I’d love to learn about what you’re working on, see if there’s any way I can help. The beyond the apex group is probably if you’re a five or six entrepreneur figure entrepreneur. Probably the best way that you can quit quickly. Scale to seven and eight figures and beyond to get real time week by week coaching hand holding systems and processes trainings for every points of friction that you’re going to hit along the journey. So go check that out. Beyond theapex.com and that’s going to do it for me, guys and gals.

We’ll see you in the next episode. But until then, stay hyper focused, my friends.