“Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.”
“Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.”
– Robert Kiyosaki
A number of years ago, I walked away from being a Wall Street financial advisor.
Why did I do that?
I saw behind the curtain, like in the Wizard of Oz.
The truth is that Wall Street is dependent on you.
They make their money because of you.
If you don’t invest, they don’t get paid.
There is a huge misalignment of interest there.
A lot of investors don’t realize that Wall Street takes fees, even if you lose money.
When you lost 50% of your portfolio in the 2008 financial crisis, they still got paid.
That’s wild.
Today, we’re going to dive into why Wall Street is not helping your investments.
They’re actually trapping you.
Let’s get into it!
1. How Wall Street is Designed to Keep You Dependent
Wall Street is designed to keep you dependent.
Financial advisors aligned with Wall Street like Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch will charge you 2% to manage your investments.
They’ll also charge additional fees to put you in specific funds.
And, get this, there are even more hidden fees on top of that.
They don’t have to tell you about the fees that are there, either!
That seems completely unethical to me.
I don’t know how this is legal.
In his book, MONEY Master the Game, Tony Robbins says they’ll tell you the fee is 1.2% when it’s actually 3.2%.
If you have a money person and you’re in funds like this, you’re paying all of those fees.
That’s 2% to have an advisor and 3.2% to be in the fund (5.2% total fees!!)
In the stock market, returns are only around 6% to 9% per year.
That’s not even counting the volatility.
The advisors and the funds themselves are taking most of your growth in fees.
Wall Street, then, basically becomes a glorified bank account.
If you do need someone to help you save via Wall Street, go ahead!
But just know that it’s a very expensive way to go about it.
2. What I Discovered About True Wealth
$1,000 a month invested at 8% over 30 years is about $1.4 million.
But if you have the fees we talked about earlier, you’re losing $463,000 of that.
That’s a substantial amount.
Even in this lower-end projection, you need to pay attention to those numbers.
You can’t achieve true wealth with a strategy like that.
People become wealthy through tangible assets.
There used to be a time where people avoided stocks like the plague.
After the stock market crash in 1929, the markets didn’t recover until around 1954.1
During that time, stocks were flat because they were seen as very risky.
People started buying real assets, aka tangible things.
They bought things like real estate, businesses, and physical metals.
We can learn a thing or two from them.
Physical assets will do much better over time.
And I’m not talking about REITs.
I’m not talking about putting money in a diversified Wall Street product.
I’m talking about actual ownership.
You can also passively invest so you can be an equity owner of that asset.
3. Steps to Take Control of Your Financial Future
How do you take control of your finances?
The biggest thing is to invest in yourself.
Specifically, you should invest in your education.
If you can invest in your own education, you’re going to see dividends.
Diversification is also important.
It’s important to not have all of your assets in one deal.
Diversifying your portfolio is also proven to reduce volatility without sacrificing expected returns.2
I know someone who has a rule not to put 10% of their net worth into a deal.
Now, this advice depends on your net worth.
It also depends on if you want a more active or passive role in the investment.
I’m pretty heavily diversified and while being focused in multifamily.
We eventually started branching out into oil and gas.
We’ve also done private businesses that have very high cash flow.
I have personal investments in physical metals.
Your portfolio, though, will be unique to you.
Do you research and see which alternative assets will be a good fit.
Now I want to hear from you!
What are things you’re looking at in the alternative space?
Let us know in the comments.
Before you leave, make sure to check out our special report about inflation investing. It shares the best choices to invest during an inflationary environment.
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Disclaimer: I am not your investment advisor. This is for educational purposes only. I am not giving specific advice on what you can do. I am simply giving my opinions.
Works Cited
1. “Dow Jones – DJIA – 100 Year Historical Chart.” MacroTrends. Accessed April 14, 2025. https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart.
2. Nicholas Reinholtz, Philip M. Fernbach and B. D. Langhe. “Do People Understand the Benefit of Diversification?.” Financial Literacy eJournal (2016). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2719144.
