Chances are high you should be embarrassed.
At least according to motivational speaker and social media influencer Grant Cardone, who recently said that earning $400,000 a year would “embarrass” him as a husband, a father, and a human being. He went on to say, “How do you make sense of $35,000 a month? You guys haven’t done the math. You have not done the math because you cannot live on 400 grand a year.”
Seriously?
But he didn’t stop there. Cardone doubled down on TikTok, saying: “If you’re a millionaire, you’re broke dude. What’s a millionaire? Nothing. I don’t want to offend anybody.”
Sure. No offense, buddy.
Based on IRS statistics, $400,000 a year puts you in the top 1.8% of earners. Meaning that 98% of the country does live on less… much less.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average annual earnings for full-time workers is $54,960. Even U.S. News & World Report’s list of best-paying jobs in 2024 – anesthesiologists, obstetricians, and oral surgeons – earn a median average of “only” $239,000 per year.
So, according to Cardone’s math, pretty much all Americans, including those in top medical fields, should be REALLY embarrassed.
That makes me angry.
I came from humble beginnings, so I know full well what it’s like to live on below-average income. My mom was a single mother trying to raise my sister and me on a teacher’s salary, which was tough in the 70s and is probably even tougher in 2024. My jeans had patches, our car was always breaking down, and one Thanksgiving we had meatballs because we couldn’t afford a turkey.
With runaway inflation, high interest rates, and the cost of homes rising out of reach for many, I know many Americans are in the same boat today. The average American is just trying to pay the bills, put food on the table, take an occasional vacation, and somehow save for retirement.
It’s not easy, and they shouldn’t be embarrassed. For Cardone to say that they should be isn’t helping anyone.
So what can you do? It takes work, discipline, and time, but you can achieve financial freedom.
Breaking Free
Thinking back to my childhood made me reflect on the path to improvement. My mom did go for higher paying jobs, which helped a little. But there was something else that really paved the way to more freedom.
Saving… and savvy investing.
The formula is simple to understand but takes work:
- Get together some money. You don’t need much to start, but the key is to start!
- Invest in assets that grow your principal.
- Feed that growth into more investments.
- Rinse and repeat.
The discouraging thing is that some people don’t really want you to succeed. The elite can stay at the top by having the working class support them, so they prefer you not break free from the cycle – that cycle of working tirelessly for $55,000 a year while supporting a family and barely having anything leftover.
That’s where investing comes in, particularly if you know how to level the playing field and not fall victim to Wall Street’s ploys.
The key to that is data and the quantitative analysis of that data. Like my Quantum Edge system, which has been shown to beat the market 7-to-1 through years of use and independent back testing.
Breaking Down the Data
Huge banks now run technology 24/7/365. These firms invested billions of dollars creating systems that give them critical market information first. And they have the analytical firepower to act on that information in a fraction of a second – before most people can even turn a computer on.
Wall Street uses this edge to win out against individual investors. That means you’re already at a massive disadvantage trying to break the cycle before you buy your first stock.
It’s legal, but it’s wrong. It’s one reason I left the Wall Street game – not only to use this same firepower for myself but also make it available to individual investors. To level the playing field. To find folks a similar edge with data analytics, supercomputers, and proven analysis.
My Quantum Edge system analyzes 6,000 stocks and 1.3 million data points every day. Then it boils that all down to one simple number.
The Quantum Score.
A lot goes into a company’s Quantum Score, but they can be lumped into three main categories:
- Fundamentals: The company’s financial health, sales and profits, growth rate, valuation, and more.
- Technicals: The stock’s price movements and trading characteristics.
- Big Money flows: What the biggest investors are doing with their massive amounts of money.
I know I’ve talked about Super Micro Computer (SMCI) a few times recently,but it’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the kind of stock that can impact your financial wellbeing.
SMCI shot up 25% today after word came out late Friday that it would join the prestigious S&P 500 index as of March 13. It has quadrupled in the six months since we added it to our Quantum Edge Pro portfolio.
And here’s where it gets really cool: That 25% move today is actually an 80% move on our cost basis.
The data and analysis pointed us to the opportunity.
Source: TradeSmith Finance and MAPsignals.com
SMCI’s Quantum Score of 86.2 is a little higher than I typically like when choosing a new stock to invest in – and will probably move higher when my system does its latest data run overnight. Stocks with a score between 70 and 85 are in my optimal buy zone. When you get closer to 100 (a perfect score), odds are high that some sort of pullback is on the way.
And that’s why we took big but partial profits in SMCI while letting remaining shares ride.
I fully expect us to buy again when the time is right. The fundamentals and technicals are both strong, and the company is taking off because of its high-end servers used in artificial intelligence applications.
While I wouldn’t recommend this as a buy right now, I’m keeping my eye on a pullback to position my Quantum Edge Pro subscribers for even bigger profits down the road.
The other crucial part to my system is monitoring which stocks Big Money is buying. My system sniffs out where those big money flows are quietly going, and those are the stocks you want to own. You can see the huge number of unusual buy signals (green bars) that helped SMCI surge higher.
Source: MAPsignals.com
When we use an A.I. powered quantitative system for picking the best stocks that investors are buying up, the odds of big returns go way up. And that’s how you break free of the cycle – investing in stocks that outperform.
If you’re ready to break free of the cycle and want to meet or beat Wall Street at its own game, click here to learn more about putting the power of quant analysis on your side.
You should never be embarrassed by your salary, whether it’s $40,000 or $40 million. It’s not fair to suggest otherwise. Either way, there is a path to financial freedom.
Talk soon,
Jason Bodner
Editor, Jason Bodner’s Power Trends
