TikTok’s John Liang Shares the Best Way To Accelerate Building Wealth

John Liang is a real estate investor and “points millionaire” who aims to teach his followers all of life’s personal finance cheat codes. Known on TikTok as @johnsfinancetips, he has gained 1.9 million followers and over 23 million likes on the platform.

Recognized by GOBankingRates as one of Money’s Most Influential, here he shares the “secret” to investing, why everyone should have side income coming in and why saving isn’t a good enough strategy for long-term wealth.

What’s the one piece of money advice you wish everyone would follow and why?

The “secret” to investing is that there is no secret — the most successful investors are the ones with the most “boring” portfolios. A low-cost, broad-based market index fund is one of the surest ways to long-term wealth gain. Just buy and hold, and let time do the rest. There are countless studies that show us that the professional fund managers on Wall Street fail to consistently (meaning greater than 50% of the time) beat their benchmark market index. Think about that — people get paid millions a year, but they can’t even beat the market, so then why should retail investors even try? They shouldn’t. Just be the market.

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What’s the most important thing to do to build wealth?

You need to find opportunities to supplement your income. A 10% return is great; however, if that 10% return is on a $100 cost basis, that isn’t nearly as impactful as if you had $1,000 or $10,000. Of course, that won’t happen overnight, but if you’re just waiting for your yearly inflation-adjusted raise or hoping for a 10X on a miracle company, that just won’t do it. Find ways to generate additional income to truly accelerate your ability to build wealth.

What’s the biggest mistake people make when it comes to money?

Not investing it. You won’t be able to save your way to retirement or wealth — it simply won’t happen. The purchasing power of your dollar in the bank is slowly eroded away by inflation year over year. The earlier you can start investing, the better off your future self will be. You don’t need to put in big dollars, but just the habit of consistent investing will pay dividends in your wealth-building journey.

Jaime Catmull contributed to the reporting for this article.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: TikTok’s John Liang Shares the Best Way To Accelerate Building Wealth