LEVELS of INVESTMENTS

The bottom 50% of Americans hold zero investable assets. This is what makes them poor. The next 40% above them in living standards only own 12% of the stock market.

This is what makes them some level of the middle class. The top 10% own 88% of all the stocks. This is what makes them rich.

The more investments you have and the higher the quality of those investments, the more you'll move up in society from an economic perspective. And the truth is, no matter where you start from, you can start building. In this video, we're showing you all the levels of investment so you not only know where on the scale you are right now, but what the next level above you looks like.

Welcome to alux. com, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. Now, starting off at level one,0 to invest per month.

You're broke. Now, this is the situation that most of the population finds itself in. Sports bets, hype coins, lottery tickets, anything that promises quick money with low effort sounds good right now.

You're not thinking long term because long-term feels too far away. And you just want something to work. Your phone is filled with Tik Toks of people flipping $20 into thousands.

So, you think, "Maybe I could do that, too. " But deep down, you know, you're just guessing. You feel stuck, maybe even ashamed.

But you also feel that spark, that hope that maybe you'll figure it out before it's too late. Right now, your biggest investment isn't financial. It is mental.

Your job is to stop leaking money and start learning. Investing in knowledge is the only real option here. Not because it's trendy, because if you don't change how you think, you'll stay stuck here forever.

Level two, $100 a month. I dabble. Now, this is the first time you feel like you're actually doing something smart with your money.

You've stopped blowing everything you earn. And now, at the end of the month, you have a little left over. Not much, but enough to matter.

You download a micro investing app. You set up an automatic $25 a week into some ETF you heard about on YouTube. You don't fully understand it, but it feels like progress.

You check the app way too often. It goes up by $3 and you feel like Warren Buffett. It drops by $6 and you wonder if you've made a huge mistake.

You buy a fractional share of Spotify and tell your friends you're investing now. They nod like they get it, but deep down none of you really do. Your money's not working hard yet, but you are.

You're learning how to hold on to it, how to wait, how to not touch it. This stage isn't about getting rich. It's about proving to yourself that you can stick to something.

You start listening to podcasts. You Google terms like compound interest and dividends. You're not a financial expert, but you're not clueless anymore either.

You still feel far from where you want to be, but you can finally believe that you'll get there. And that belief is more valuable than anything you've bought so far. At this level, you're actually 1,000 times richer than the broke ones.

because unlike them, you at least know how the mechanism for investment works. Level three, $1,000 a month, junior. Now, this level is where you finally feel like a real investor.

Okay? You've moved past saving. You're not just putting money away, you're putting it to work.

At just $1,000 a month, you can see this on a graph. How time turns consistency into seven figures. You've got a Roth IRA set up, maybe some ETFs through Vanguard, and you've automated your investments so it happens every month without you thinking.

You're not trying to time the market anymore. You've read about dollar cost averaging, and for once, it makes sense. You start talking about compound interest like it's magic, and low-key, it kind of is.

You stop jumping on every hot stock tip or crypto pump because truthfully, you've been burned enough to know better. Now, you'd rather watch your portfolio grow quietly than blow up chasing trends. You've built a spreadsheet, probably more than one.

You track your net worth. You've got tabs for retirement, for real estate dreams, even a rough timeline for when you want to be financially free. You still check your balance more often than you should.

But when it dips, you don't panic anymore. You see it as an opportunity. While your friends are still buying stuff, you are buying time.

At this stage, you finally feel like you've broken through. You're no longer guessing. You're actually building something.

You're doing it slowly, patiently, and deliberately. And yet, for the first time, you don't feel like you're left behind. Level four, $10,000 a month around 100k a year.

The investor. Welcome to level four, my friend, where your investing starts creating identity and influence, not just returns. You now have enough to put down 20% on a $400,000 property and start building your real estate portfolio.

You can run numbers on rentals in Lisp and Cape Town or Bali, not as a fantasy, but as a part of your plan. You can qualify for a mortgage and understand how to use other people's money to grow faster. You've got an Angelist account set up and you've backed a few startups with $5 to $10,000 checks.

Maybe you funded a friend's product launch. Maybe you own a tiny slice of a sauce company that hasn't made money yet, but it could. This is the level where you stop waiting for opportunity and you start creating it.

You've built some confidence. You've taken some risks. Now the timing feels right and you're ready to build something of your own.

But what's your next step? And this is the kind of question we get all the time. And that's what inspired us to create the start a business in 30 days challenge inside the Alux app.

You can join other aluxers who are also on their way to starting their own business. And the app has the blueprint and resources you need to get your idea off the ground. We've paid top experts to guide you through the most important steps.

Terry Rice walks you through idea validation. Claudia Miklaus shows you how to build a brand that attracts real clients. And Michael E.

Gerber gives you the tools to make your business scalable from the beginning. If you've ever said, "I'm ready. I just need a road map.

Well, this is it. Okay. And to make it even easier to start, we're dropping the premium membership from $29 a month to $19 for the month of April.

That's $35 off and more than enough time to finish the challenge. Just download the Alux app and scan that QR code on screen to join. Now, $10,000 a month is great, but with or without it, your next move should always be to build something that lasts.

Getting rich quickly is no longer the core goal. Okay? Now you want to build something steady, smart, and scalable.

Of course, returns still matter, but they're only a part of the bigger picture, and the other parts of that picture are ownership, influence, and control. At level four, you don't just have capital. You've got leverage.

At level five, well, that's $100,000 to invest per month, or around $1 million a year, every year. You are a pro. This is the first time that investing feels pretty calm.

You're not chasing anything anymore. You're structuring. You've already got real estate that pays you monthly.

Now you're looking for a second or third property. Maybe a boutique hotel in Portugal or a development project in Costa Rica. You're not just buying for appreciation here.

You want income, cash flow, and tax advantages. You've joined a VC syndicate or two. The minimums aren't scary anymore.

50k into a preede round doesn't shake you like it used to. You sit on calls with fund managers. You read pitch decks without getting overwhelmed.

And sometimes you pass not because you're scared, but because you finally can say no. You've got a private wealth adviser, maybe through Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan, who helps you to protect the machine you've built. You don't just invest in assets anymore.

You invest around them. trusts, insurance, holding companies, offshore structures. Your investments now pay you back.

Monthly distributions, quarterly profit shares, dividends. You track income, not just net worth. Cash flow has become your compass.

The fear of losing it all is mostly gone. Because even if you do lose on something big, you'll be fine. At this level, risk is a tool, not a threat.

You no longer get excited by double your money returns. You get excited when something is safe, boring, and pays forever. When you travel, you stay in places you used to save on Pinterest.

You fly business class when it makes sense. Not because you're trying to flex, but because you're done being uncomfortable. And when people ask you how you did it, you don't brag.

You talk about time, patience, and not doing dumb stuff with good money. Because now you know the hardest part is not getting rich, it's protecting what you've already built. Level six, $1 million a month, the business.

So at this level, you don't manage money directly. Instead, you manage the system around it. Your wealth lives in companies, trusts, and structures designed to protect it, not just grow it.

You've set up a family office or you're working with one that handles everything. investments, estate planning, insurance layers, tax optimization, even concierish services. You don't buy properties anymore.

You buy buildings. Think apartment blocks, logistics hubs, commercial spaces. You've got equity in a chain of medical clinics, a renewable energy fund, and a private debt platform that earns you 10% annual returns from people who'll never know your name.

Your wealth is protected behind layers. trusts in Singapore, a holding company in Luxembourg, asset managers in Zurich, lawyers in New York. Your name appears on almost nothing, but your fingerprints are everywhere.

At this level, cash flow matters less than asset flow. You care about how much money moves, how it's sheltered, and how it continues through generations without getting eaten by tax or divorce. You don't chase investments because they come to you.

And when they do, they're packaged, presented, risk modeled, and legally structured. You've probably been sued more than once, and you've won, mostly because the system you built is stronger than any claim someone can throw at it. You've got a full-time staff that you trust with your security, your children, and your calendar.

Your phone barely rings because everything you need to know is in the weekly brief your chief of staff prepared after filtering 48 hours of movement across your holdings. When you buy public shares, it's through a fund that you set up with its own charter and voting rights. And you don't even live in one place anymore.

You live where it makes strategic sense, somewhere taxefficient, a place that fulfills your family's needs and yet is still close enough to the flow of money. This is the point where money doesn't change the way you live, but it changes how much control you have over your future. People think you care about status, but you gave that up like three levels ago.

What you really care about is sovereignty. You don't want anyone to have the ability to tell you where you can live, how you can move, or what you can own. You've made enough for all of that to be on your own terms.

Level seven, $10 million per month. The corporation. Now, this is the level where you stop participating in markets and start shaping them.

You don't buy stocks, you buy companies, or at the very least board seats. You were in on the deal before the public even knew it existed. PreIPO shares through a trust.

Convertible notes in stealth mode startups. You don't need to ask for access anymore because you're on the list by default. Your name or the name of the entity you operate through is on filings most people never read.

You're co-invested alongside sovereign wealth funds. You've bought an entire housing block with Blackstone. You're in private meetings discussing water rights, crossborder tax shields, and how to move $50 million without touching a bank.

Your bank, by the way, doesn't pitch you products. It follows instructions from your legal team. You own land in different jurisdictions and hold multiple passports because you've learned that some passports protect capital better than others.

And sure, that passport might cost between $7 and $40 million, which is the cost of Singapore's different global investor programs, but it's worth it to you. You are now in a position to win no matter what happens. The market goes up, you win.

The market goes down, well, you're buying what others are forced to sell. This is the level where you can make moves that are structurally untouchable. Like when Peter Teal used his Roth IRA to hold preIPO shares of Facebook and turned $2,000 into billions completely tax-free.

This kind of move is not luck, okay? It is planning, structure, and timing. And while the world watches billionaires on magazine covers, you've stopped caring.

You're not trying to be seen. And then there's level eight, generational control, the fund. At this level, you're not concerned with your money buying you freedom.

You want to use it to buy the world that your children and legacy will inherit. You've already secured your lifestyle, your family's lifestyle, and probably your grandchildrens, too. Now, every decision is about what stays after you're gone.

You don't just invest in businesses, you own them outright. Entire companies sit under your holding structures. Think Warren Buffett who owns everything from railroads to insurance through Berkshire Hathaway or Bernard Arno who controls LVMH through a chain of trusts and subsidiaries that protect both the brand and the legacy.

You don't look at quarterly earnings. You look at systems that outlive you. And you can now understand why Warren Buffett has donated $62 billion and counting and why Bill and Melinda Gates are on that list, too.

Things like education funds, medical research grants, climate tech accelerators, even media platforms that shape how future generations think. You fund scholarships in your name. You build foundations your family will run, donate to museums, and also quietly buy the land that they're built on.

You understand the most valuable assets don't always show up on balance sheets because ownership of attention, trust, and infrastructure takes time and relationship building. Your wealth is embedded in the economy itself. Where the money goes matters just as much as how much comes back.

At this stage, you care about insulation. Your assets are protected, private, and positioned for transfer. Your estate planning is airtight.

Your succession plans are set. You don't ask, "What do I get out of this? " You ask, "What does this make possible 30 years from now?

" And since you stuck with us until the end, Alexa, here's your bonus. The illusion of investing. Because not everyone who says they're investing is actually facing forward.

Some are just spending money with a fancy label on it. They call it investing, but it's really just gambling dressed up. Chasing coins, flipping NFTts, dumping cash into things they don't understand just to feel like they're in the game.

Others invest money they don't even have and use credit cards, loans, or buy now pay later schemes. They tell themselves it's smart because someone on the internet said it was. But what they're really doing is buying stress, not freedom.

And it can happen to anyone. Sam Bankmanfreed built FTX into one of the biggest names in crypto by pretending to invest wisely when in reality he was moving customer money around to cover risky bets and bad trades. On the surface he looked like the future of finance but underneath he was gambling with other people's money and he lost.

These are the people who confuse activity with progress. They look busy but they're stuck at this level. Investing doesn't build wealth, it hides the fact that there isn't any to begin with.

And the longer they keep calling it growth, the deeper they sink. So, if you're going to invest, aluxer, ask yourself, is this building something real or just helping me feel better for a while? But if you're not ready for that just yet, that's okay.

Don't worry. We've got some more levels of videos that you'll love. Check out levels of debt and levels of income.

They're going to help you get a well-rounded, jam-packed education on wealth building for free. We'll see you back here next time, Alexir. Until then, take care.