Introduction
Money touches every part of life—your freedom, your stress level, your opportunities, and even your relationships. Yet, as Brad Wehner highlights in his book “10 Things Nobody Told Me About Money,” most people grow up learning math, grammar, and history, but never learn how money is earned, multiplied, protected, or lost.
The result?
Millions of adults enter life financially blind, repeating money habits that keep them stressed and stuck.
This step-by-step guide translates Brad Wehner’s core lessons into practical actions you can use today—even if you don’t earn a big salary and even if you made mistakes in the past.
Whether you’re just beginning your financial journey, trying to escape debt, or building wealth, these steps will help you create real, long-term financial freedom.
✅ Step 1 — Understand That Money Is a Tool, Not a Miracle
Most people see money emotionally:
- Something hard to get
- Something stressful to manage
- Something that disappears too fast
Wehner challenges this mindset.
Money is simply a tool—like a hammer.
A hammer can build a house or break it.
Money can build a future or destroy it.
✅ What this means for you:
- Stop saying “money is the problem.”
- Start asking, “How can I use money smarter?”
✅ Practical Action:
Make a short list:
- What has money helped you achieve?
- What problems came from mismanaging it?
- What goals could money help you reach?
This mindset shift is the foundation of every financial decision.
✅ Step 2 — Nobody Gets Rich by Accident
Brad Wehner emphasizes a truth most people ignore:
Wealth is built, not lucked into.
Rich people:
- learn about money
- invest
- control spending
- create income streams
Poor and middle-class people:
- focus only on earning a salary
- rely on one job
- spend everything
✅ What this means for you:
If you want a different financial life, you must plan for it.
✅ Practical Action:
Write your financial goals clearly:
✔ Become debt-free
✔ Build emergency savings
✔ Start investing
✔ Own a business
✔ Buy property
Clarity creates direction.
✅ Step 3 — Earning Money Is Good, But Keeping Money Is Better
Many people believe:
- “If I earn more, my financial problems will disappear.”
Wrong.
People with higher salaries often end up broke—because they spend more.
Wehner explains:
Wealth comes from the gap between income and spending, not income alone.
✅ What this means for you:
If you spend everything, you will stay broke—even if you earn double.
✅ Practical Action:
Track your money for 30 days:
- Write every expense
- Identify waste
- Cut unnecessary purchases
You don’t need to suffer or live cheaply.
You just need to spend with intention.
✅ Step 4 — Your Salary Will Never Make You Rich
Brad Wehner’s most uncomfortable lesson is simple:
A salary gives stability, not freedom.
Salaries are:
- capped
- limited by time
- taxed heavily
- controlled by someone else
Wealthy people focus on assets, not salaries.
✅ Types of assets:
✅ Real estate
✅ Investments
✅ Online businesses
✅ Digital products
✅ Stocks
✅ Royalties
Assets grow while you sleep.
Salaries stop when you stop working.
✅ Practical Action:
Ask yourself:
- What skill or talent could I turn into a small business?
- Can I sell something online?
- Could I invest a small amount monthly?
Start with something tiny.
Small assets become big assets with time.
✅ Step 5 — Debt Is Not Just a Payment… It Is a Prison
Schools don’t teach this, but Brad Wehner does:
Bad debt steals your future.
Debt keeps your income locked in the past.
Before you earn a dollar for yourself…
you pay your debt, your bank, your interests.
✅ What this means:
You can’t build wealth while paying for old mistakes.
✅ Practical Action:
List your debts from smallest to largest. Start paying the smallest one aggressively. Each time you eliminate one:
- Your confidence rises
- Your monthly income increases
This is the Snowball Method—psychologically powerful, financially effective.
✅ Step 6 — Saving Money Is Not Enough; Your Money Must Grow
Saving money is smart. But saving only is dangerous.
Why?
- Inflation rises
- Banks pay tiny interest
- Your money loses value every year
Wehner teaches that building wealth requires investing, not just saving.
✅ Types of investments beginners can start:
✅ Index funds
✅ Dividend stocks
✅ Automated investing apps
✅ Real-estate crowdfunding
✅ Retirement accounts
You don’t need to be rich.
You don’t need to be an expert.
You just need to start early.
✅ Practical Action:
Start investing a tiny monthly amount: $10, $20, $50, or $100.
Time multiplies money.
The earlier you begin, the easier the journey.
✅ Step 7 — If You Don’t Control Your Emotions, You Will Never Control Money
Wehner explains that emotions are the biggest enemy of wealth:
- Impulse shopping
- Trying to impress others
- Fear of investing
- Stress spending
- Shame about debt
Money is logical.
Humans are emotional.
✅ Practical Action:
Before making a purchase, ask:
✔ Do I need this?
✔ Will it matter in 30 days?
✔ Is this helping my financial goals or delaying them?
Emotion causes poverty.
Discipline creates freedom.
✅ Step 8 — The People Around You Affect Your Bank Account
One of Wehner’s strongest lessons:
Your financial mindset is shaped by the people you talk to.
If everyone around you:
- complains about money
- hates working
- spends without thinking
… you will learn their habits.
But if your circle:
- saves
- invests
- builds businesses
- reads
- learns
… you will rise with them.
✅ Practical Action:
Ask yourself:
- Who influences my spending habits?
- Who makes me waste money?
- Who encourages me to grow?
If you can’t find financially wise people, read their books, watch their videos, listen to their podcasts.
Proximity builds success—even digitally.
✅ Step 9 — Financial Education Matters More Than Your Job
School teaches:
- Algebra
- Poetry
- Grammar
…but never: - Taxes
- Investing
- Compound interest
- Credit scores
- Building assets
Brad Wehner argues that:
The world is built to profit from financially uneducated people.
Those who don’t understand money:
- overpay for everything
- fall into debt
- buy liabilities instead of assets
✅ Practical Action:
Learn about money weekly:
📌 A financial book
📌 A podcast
📌 A YouTube finance channel
📌 Online courses
📌 Economic news explained simply
Knowledge compounds just like money.
✅ Step 10 — Freedom Is the Real Goal, Not Luxury
Wehner repeats a truth society ignores:
Most people buy things to look rich, not to be rich.
- New phones
- Expensive brands
- Trendy cars
- Status items
These are financial traps.
Real wealth is:
- waking up without money stress
- having choices
- owning your time
- being prepared for emergencies
- sleeping without debt
✅ Practical Action:
Create a list titled: “Luxury I will enjoy later, not now.” Then create another list titled: “Freedoms I will earn first.”
Choose freedom over image. Comfort over showing off.
✅ Step 11 — Protect Your Money or Someone Else Will Take It
Earning money is step one. Keeping money is step two. Protecting money is step three.
Wehner explains that financial threats come from:
✔ financial scams
✔ predatory loans
✔ subscriptions you forget
✔ unnecessary bank fees
✔ lifestyle inflation
✅ Practical Action:
- Review your subscriptions monthly
- Avoid borrowing for non-essentials
- Never invest in something you don’t understand
- Question every offer that sounds “too good”
Guard your money like a soldier guards a fortress.
✅ Step 12 — Wealth Takes Time, and Patience Is a Superpower
Many people fail financially because they expect fast results.
They want:
- Fast investments
- Fast profits
- Fast success
When money doesn’t grow quickly, they quit.
Wehner teaches:
Wealth rewards the patient.
✅ Practical Action:
Create a long-term wealth plan:
- Eliminate bad debt
- Build emergency savings
- Invest consistently for 20–30 years
- Grow income through skills or business
- Protect wealth and avoid emotional spending
Time will do the rest.
✅ Step 13 — Your Money Should Work Harder Than You Do
The wealthy do not become rich because they work more hours. They become rich because their money works 24/7.
How?
- Investments
- Real estate
- Online businesses
- Dividend stocks
- Digital products
- Royalties
Even while you sleep or travel, assets grow.
✅ Practical Action:
Choose one passive income idea to start within 30 days:
✅ Sell a digital product
✅ Create a small online service
✅ Start a YouTube channel
✅ Publish print-on-demand designs
✅ Buy shares or index funds
Small streams eventually become rivers.
✅ Step 14 — Your Financial Life Is Your Responsibility
If life is expensive… If your salary is low… If school didn’t prepare you…
It is not your fault.
But it is your responsibility.
Wehner emphasizes:
- No one is coming to save you
- No government will fix your money
- No job will make you wealthy
You must take control.
✅ Practical Action:
Write this sentence somewhere visible: “My money is my responsibility.”
It will change your life more than you think.
✅ Step 15 — Teach Your Children What School Never Taught You
The cycle ends when you change it.
If you teach your children:
- to save
- to invest
- to build income
- to control emotions
- to avoid debt
…they will never repeat your financial struggles.
You don’t need to be rich to teach them.
You only need knowledge.
✅ Final Step — Start Today, Not “One Day”
The biggest financial mistake in the world is waiting:
- “When I earn more, I’ll start.”
- “When life gets easier, I’ll save.”
- “When I’m older, I’ll invest.”
Time will pass anyway.
Start small.
But start now.
✅ Final Words
Brad Wehner’s lessons are not magical formulas or get-rich-quick tricks.
They are truths that schools, governments, and society never teach.
If you follow these steps:
✔ learn
✔ invest
✔ avoid debt
✔ control spending
✔ build assets
✔ protect wealth
✔ stay patient
…your financial life will change permanently.
Freedom is not a dream.
It is a formula.