Illustration of financial stress with empty wallet
Something that people from around the world understands. An insistent fear of what horror the days may bring — that just gets louder as the days pass. You get paid, feel slightly relieved for a while, and poof—disappears. Rent, bills, groceries, and debt payments eat it up, and you’re left with almost nothing. For many, you are on a financial treadmill where you will grind and grind only to find yourself in the same position every month. This is the quiet terror of the paycheck-to-paycheck merry-go-round.
You may believe that your issue is the amount of your salary. If only I made more, you say to yourself. But what if that’s a lie? The prison you never knew you hadWhat if your income is not the prison, but the invisible financial programming you follow every time you make a decision?
On a recent powerful episode of a leading podcast with Indonesia’s own mega-host Deddy Corbuzier, financial expert Theo Derick explored just this topic to see how we could break down this issue. That counterintuitive and sensible argument was made that doesn’t have anything to do with luck or hoping for a big promotion. It is a playbook for anyone who is living anywhere on the planet to take back power over their money and create a life free of financial stress, even if you are earning a below-average salary.
Now, let’s unpack this incredible blueprint one step at a time.
Stage 1: The Diagnosis — Why It Seems Like You Are Forever Stuck
You need to know how it works so you can avoid the trap, before you can escape the trap! Following the principles Theo Derick described, most people are imprisoned by a sequence of mental barriers and invisible patterns.
Lifestyle Inflation: The Silent Trap
Image visualising lifestyle inflation and the shopping habits
Now, think back to your most recent raise. Whether your expenses grew to simply match your new income or whether your savings actually grew? This is lifestyle inflation. The coffee shop stops popping up as much, the subscription services stack up, and the gadgets upgrade.
You are hustling to make more Create yourself a higher personal cost of living. This keeps you stuck, having the same kind of angsty financial experience you would have re: income. You cannot win at this game simply by beating somebody else at earning, but only by changing the rules. If you’d like a deeper understanding of how psychology influences these behaviours, check out books like The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel, which can help highlight some of the mindset changes needed to break this pattern. If you are ready to rewire your subconscious beliefs around money, the hidden potential to attract that success is going to activate through the Wealth Activator Code program.
Shame of Delay : The “I’ll Start Tomorrow” Syndrome
IMAGINARY SITUATION ONE: I will save for retirement when I get a raise.
“Who cares about $50 bucks a month, anyway?”
“I have no time to plan a budget right now.”
This is the excuses you make to stay broke. Money is not the single greatest asset in creating wealth; time is. Every single day that you wait, you are losing out on the almighty power of compounding, where your money starts to work to create itself. To “wait for the right time” means you are losing your most precious commodity with great effort. The Money Wave and the like, use neuroscience to dismantle and stimulate the neural pathways in your brain so that you can have access to the paths that lead you to wealth!
Do You Need to Be Rich to Invest: The Real Myth #1
In the conversation between Deddy Corbuzier and Theo Derick, as a shattering proof of breaking the myth that investment is only for the haves or the rich people. Technology has democratized finance. You can be rolling for the price of a few coffees a week these days! It has been streamlined from capital to the mental hurdle of getting started. To do nothing is to choose for inflation to quietly eat away at the value of your money that you worked so hard to save every year. If you want more in-depth guidance on how to differentiate between your assets and liabilities and make money no matter what your income level is, check out this myth-busting book on money: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. The Billionaire Brain Wave audio program can also help to re-program your mind for wealth.
The New Debt Cycle: What Your “Buy Now, Pay Later” Mortgages from Your Future
Accumulation of debts due to credit use.
Never before has instant gratification come so easily. Pay later services seem to be an innocent boon but is deadly. But whenever you fund depreciating assets—items like your stereo, your garb, or your holiday—you are literally promoting your future paycheck for what you crave today. You mandated to work 1 day later to pay for what you consumed yesterday getting painfully entrenched deeper into debt and anxiety. For more actionable tips on getting out of debt, see our guide on how to manage debt effectively.
Stage 2: The Foundation – Building Your Financial Fortress
After understanding the foe, you can erect your defenses. It’s not for riches – it’s for financial indestructibility, as Theo Derick describes this stage.
Step 1: The (Financial) Audit — May Contain Triggers
For the next 30 days, Keep a record of every dollar, euro, or pound you spend. Jot down notes or a very simple app Everything is tracked, from a stick of gum, to a large invoice. Spend without judgement, and then at the end of the month divide into these categories:
Survival (Needs): Shelter, utilities, basic transportation, some groceries
Wants: Going out to eat, entertainment, subscriptions, shopping, hobbies (Lifestyle)
Paying off Debt: Loans, credit cards, financing.
This exercise will put your commitment to the test. It exposes the gap between where you believe your money goes and where it truly goes. And that clarity is the very first step to control. For tracking purposes, a shiny new Budget Planner Expense Tracker Notebook will do the trick, or even a Budget Planner (undated, go at your own pace) Notebook (digital download) is the way to go to keep your expenses and goals aligned in a neat and tidy manner.
Step 2: The Emergency Fund — Your Best Defense Against Life
Piggy bank — icon of saving money for emergencies
But then one fateful day, your car breaks down, or you face an unexpected medical bill. For most, it means new debt. An Emergency Fund changes the equation. It is a fund you only dip into for real emergencies.
Tip #1: Target 3–6 months of necessary living expenses
How to Get Started: Open a different savings account, preferably one without an easy access debit card too. Schedule an automatic transfer — even $20 or $50 — every payday. It’s not the amount, it’s the consistency. This is the edge of life between the calamities of life and you.
An A6 Money Saving Organizer Binder is a fun and tactile way to help you keep track of, and see your money saving progress towards this goal (perfect for any saving challenge and to keep an eye on your fund).
Step 3: The Debt Demolishing Strategy
High-interest debt is a financial parasite — it needs a host to survive. Attacking it relentlessly is non-negotiable. Select one of two reliable methods:
The Snowball Method (Psychological Win) List your debts from smallest to largest balance. Pay just enough to keep every bill out of collections, but all available cash goes to smallest debt. You behold it you feel a great deal of accomplishment, once it gone. You then put that whole payment total on the next smallest debt. It’s a snowball effect from there.
If you rather use The Avalanche Method (Mathematical Win): List your debs from the highest interest rate. Put all excess money toward the highest-rate debt first. From a mathematical perspective, this allows you to save the most over time.
Pick whichever method excites you the most to do. You do need to have a concise, directed plan that will help you to pay off your debts. For more detailed plan of action, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey offers strategies that fit hand-in-glove with the strategies mentioned here. For a full budgeting and debt payoff toolkit — eBooks + videos — check out The Financial Freedom Playbook 2.0.
Step 4 — The “Pay Yourself First” System That Actually Works
The problem with traditional budgeting, it is actually a broken budgeting concept since it tells you to save what you have left over. Theo Derick’s philosophy is to do the opposite, which is far more powerful.
Automatically move a predetermined percentage (say 10-15%) of every paycheck to your savings and investment accounts the moment you are paid, without even having to pay a single bill. Consider it your most important “bill.” You should then use the rest of your money to live off of. This changes the game because you’re already designing your future, not reacting because you have no other option. If you like the sound of automating your finances, I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi shows you exactly how to put the system in place with minimal effort.
Stage 3: The Growth Engine – This is where the saver becomes the investor
A graph of the progressive plant of vests.
So much so, that now you actually have something to plant the seeds of wealth into. It is what you do with your money to work for you while you sleep → investing!
The Non-Expert Guide to Your Initial Investment Vehicles, Your First Couple of Investment Vehicles
No need to be a wall street expert. In most countries, simple, diversified, and low-cost options are available:
Low-Risk (e.g. Money Market Funds): Very safe, best for your emergency fund or things you need to do in the very short term.
Medium-Risk (i.e. Bond Funds / Fixed Income) : Baskets of government or corporate loans It is safer than stocks with better stability.
High-Risk (Example: Equity Index Funds / ETFs): Collections of stocks reflecting a large market index (ex: S&P 500). Those have traditionally provided the best long-term returns.
If you want to learn more about this, check our article on investing for beginners to understand better these options. If you want to transition with courses on stocks, real estate, and personal finance, try out the Freedom Pack bundle.
The Miracle of Consistency (A Global Thing)
Now let us see what happens when you regularly invest a small amount, say $100 of your currency / month, in an account that gives an average annual return of 7%.
| After… | You’ve Invested | Your Account Could Be Worth* |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Years | $6,000 | ~$7,150 |
| 10 Years | $12,000 | ~$17,400 |
| 20 Years | $24,000 | ~$52,000 |
| 30 Years | $36,000 | ~$120,500 |
These are hypothetical examples to illustrate compounding and are not guaranteed future results.
As you can see, the growth really takes off after a while. The earnings from your investments begin to dwarf your actual contributions. If it means waiting for another month to put this into practice then your missing out on the magic. Die with Zero by Bill Perkins: To offset this increased focus on growth with a life well lived in the present, Perkins provides a contrarian approach to living a rich life without over-saving.
Stage 4: The Accelerator – Breaking Your Income Ceiling
Youth learning new skills through online tools
Managing money superbly is only half in the war, however. If you want to really speed up your progress, then you need to expand your capacityto generate income.
Your best ever investment is yourself. Invest some of your time, some of your budget, into developing new skills from the bottom, handsome skills. Workshops, courses, and certifications have never been more available to us through online classes, professional certifications, books, etc. Acquire skills that could result in getting you promoted or, better still, get you money on the side—copywriting, graphic design, coding, digital marketing, manual labour. This extra income can be channeled straight into your investments, accelerating your financial growth. If you are now prepared to explore side hustles, make sure to take a look at our write-up on the best way to construct a facet hustle for recommendations and steps to have started. For a guaranteed way to create a $100/day online business, check out Build a Business That Makes You $100/Day.
Conclusion: True Success Begins Within
Escaping the void is not to give up your pursuit of success. It is about rephrasing your definition of success. It is more so realise that the biggest win is not creating something external and rebuilding a loving relationship with the only person that will never leave you — yourself.
Slow Down Enough Not To Run Away From Yourself! Slow down, let the whisper of your conscience resonate, and begin to honor those tiny pledges. Because a success that never feels empty is the ability to love yourself and have inner peace, in the end, always. To find out more about men’s mental health in pressure cooker situations, check out our related Navigating Men’s Mental Health in a High-Pressure World piece.
Now we want to hear back from you. Which of this article resonated with you? Let us know how you navigate the demands of “hustle culture” in the comments. To find out how to find a work-life balance, read our guide to Achieving Real Work-Life Balance Without Sacrificing Your Ambition.
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