Generational wealth comes from three things: what you buy, what you do with it and what happens to it when you die, and it only lasts if your children learn to earn and keep it too. The video opens with sobering numbers. It says only 1 in 100 people are well-off financially by 65, around 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation and around 90% of families lose all wealth by the third.
Its answer is a 15 part plan covering assets to own, tax and legal structures, and how to raise the next generation. Treat the figures as the video’s claims and speak to a qualified adviser before acting on any of it.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 ways at a glance
- Buy land (0:45)
- Buy cash-flowing property (1:57)
- Build an evergreen business (3:03)
- Buy the S&P 500 (4:53)
- Buy. Borrow. Die. (7:00)
- Buy and hold Bitcoin (9:28)
- Buy and hold gold, silver and gemstones (12:04)
- Buy and hold art or other things people would pay for (13:43)
- Never stop earning and minimise taxes (15:38)
- You perpetually compound wealth and knowledge (17:28)
- Marry well (19:51)
- Mentor your kids to take over the business or build bigger than you did (21:15)
- Set up a trust (22:36)
- Let children withdraw no more than 4% a year from the trust (23:38)
- Write a will (24:36)
- Bonus: on children and wealth
1. Buy land
The video first separates personal wealth from family wealth. $100,000 in your bank account is personal wealth: you can spend it on a coffee, and it can be depleted. Family wealth is mostly illiquid, hard to turn back into cash, so you are less likely to blow through it on petty spending.
Land is called the ultimate store of value. There is a fixed amount on Earth, population keeps growing and demand for space keeps rising. Buy land and have your children hold onto it. The video promises a way to raise cash against it later without selling.
2. Buy cash-flowing property
Apartment rentals, commercial property and hotels are the video’s golden gods of cash flow. As in Monopoly, you buy, you hold, you wait and you cash in. As long as you don’t sell and there is demand, the property keeps putting food on the table.
Its simplest recipe: over your life, buy at least two rental properties, then teach your kids the same rule. Barring dramatic events like an uninsured rare illness, in two generations the family starts building a portfolio of passive income. People will always need homes, shops and nice hotels.
3. Build an evergreen business
An evergreen business has made money in the past, makes money now and will make money long after you’re gone. You might be doing well on TikTok, but your grandkids won’t eat off your videos.
The hosts reels off brands that carry a family name, including Boeing, Hilton, Ferrari, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Chanel, Disney, Marriott and Rolls-Royce. The family became the brand and the business. The only requirement is to take it seriously and keep innovating. Ask what your last name would sound like as a brand, and what business your children could carry on for you.
4. Buy the S&P 500
You are unlikely to know what the next Apple or the next Bitcoin will be. The script calls the index the ultimate passive investment vehicle: it bundles the best-performing 500 US companies, and when one does poorly it is replaced with another.
Its numbers: $100,000 invested in 2009 would be over $850,000 today, 8.5X in 15 years, and since inception the index has returned an average of 6% per year. It also claims Warren Buffett hasn’t beaten the index in over a decade. The hosts say they aren’t sponsored by any provider and favour a long-established brokerage over trendy apps that may not exist in decades.
5. Buy. Borrow. Die.
It calls this the secret. Step one is to buy things that hold and appreciate in value. Step two is the golden nugget: when you need money, never sell an asset, borrow against it. A loan against land or an apartment avoids selling, and the video says you don’t pay taxes on borrowed money. As long as you don’t waste the loan, you can buy more income-producing assets, repay to build credit and borrow more.
Step three is death. The state wants its cut through inheritance tax, which the video puts at 40% in the UK, though allowances exempt up to the first million pounds depending on circumstances, and between 17 and 40% in the US depending on where you live and how rich you are.
The aim is to follow tax rules by law while minimising their impact on your long-term plan.
6. Buy and hold Bitcoin
Roughly every 20 years, a technological revolution arrives, and people with the guts to bet on it often reap disproportionate rewards. It isn’t saying to sell your house and go all in. If you’re doing okay, why not buy one Bitcoin for your kid? Worst case, you lose a little money. Best case, in its view, one Bitcoin makes you or your child a millionaire in less than a decade.
Its reasoning is that inflation, wars and devalued currencies create demand for a scarce, portable, digital store of value. It notes about 58.9 million millionaires worldwide at the end of 2024 against only 21 million Bitcoin, so each would get around 0.355 if shared evenly. It calls Bitcoin an asymmetric risk worth taking, while admitting it can’t say for certain Bitcoin will be the answer.
7. Buy and hold gold, silver and gemstones
The hosts say they are not fans, finding precious metals and jewels antiquated and low tech, but they still have a role. Jewellery is portable wealth, which is why families passed down heirlooms and why people pawned a piece in an emergency instead of going into debt.
The hosts’ doubt is that gold may not stay rare as humanity becomes spacefaring, pointing to news about a gold-rich asteroid. Supply and demand apply: if gold becomes abundant its value could collapse, as the pearl industry in the Emirates did when Japan developed pearl farming.
8. Buy and hold art or other things people would pay for
There is value in desire and collectibles, and even intangible value. Elvis’s guitar is worth more than an identical model because people value it higher. Art is described as one of the last unregulated markets.
For multi-generational wealth, look at things still desired decades from now. The script says art has stood the test of time while sneakers and random NFT collections may be worthless in future, and that art has outperformed that index over 20 years. It cites a survey in which 83% of multi-millionaire respondents own art or would like to, and suggests thinking about allocating 5 to 10% of a portfolio.
9. Never stop earning and minimise taxes
The first half covered what to acquire. This half covers what you must do. However much your investments pay, never stop earning. You don’t need a miserable job, but humans derive purpose from work, and neither you nor your children should stop. A person who can’t earn for themselves can’t hold onto wealth.
To hold on to it, learn the language of money or hire a good accountant as translator. This part suggests incorporating, deducting expenses as business expenses, making your children part of the company and paying them for their ideas. The goal is to be 100% legal, since you’re under no obligation to pay more tax than legally required.
10. You perpetually compound wealth and knowledge
The two go hand in hand: first you learn, then you remove the L. The more you know, the more mental connections you make, which raises returns in everything, not only money. That is why the video says rich people read so much.
To build generational wealth you need the power of compounding, and the quote it leans on is that compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world: he who understands it earns it, he who doesn’t pays it. Move earnings into other ventures to keep a wealth-growing circle going, and never stop compounding either wealth or knowledge.
11. Marry well
Who you marry is one of the biggest variables. Divorce without a prenup slices your wealth in half, and who your kids marry matters almost as much. With two children and one divorce, most of the share is gone.
That is why arranged marriages were once the norm: wealthy families formed financial alliances. As societies grow richer, families shrink, so an only child who marries an only child inherits from both sides. The advice is to get a prenup if you have the slightest doubt, and for children, to lock wealth in a trust that pays them regularly instead of giving access to everything.
12. Mentor your kids to take over the business or build bigger than you did
It says only 30% of family businesses pass to a second generation. Many kids don’t want to live in a parent’s shadow, which is why most new millionaires are first-generation millionaires, people who wanted it badly enough to alter their fate.
Its brutal line: if your kids don’t start off better than you did, you failed somewhere as a parent. Food and a roof are the bare minimum. You are their teacher and mentor, and if you do the job well your own path inspires them. It all comes down to values.
13. Set up a trust
Trusts are legal entities meant to lock wealth and release it to the rightful owner under set conditions, and rich people use them all the time. They make sure children don’t blow through your hard work.
They can be taxed at substantially lower rates, pass on only after your death, or release portions when conditions are met, such as your child graduating, earning a first million or having a first child. A trust is a separate legal entity that lives on after you die, so the video calls it a smart way to cut inheritance tax.
14. Let children withdraw no more than 4% a year from the trust
The script calls this a hidden rule of the rich. If wealth grows 6 to 10% a year, only withdraw half of the earnings. On $1 million at 10%, that’s $100,000 of additional income, of which you take $40,000 and let $60,000 compound.
The one rule: withdraw less than you earn and let the rest compound. Keep working and growing the principal. The rich don’t spend their earned income, they spend the interest on it.
15. Write a will
Life has a 100% kill rate so far, so a multi-generation plan needs a will. By the time you die at 85, your children will be in their 50s or 60s with their lives figured out, so the inheritance is really for your grandchildren.
Your legacy depends on how well you instil values in your children so their children don’t ruin it. A will makes the flow of money clear, and the more detailed it is, the less likely it is to be challenged. You can do far more good if you don’t have to worry about putting food on the table.
Bonus: on children and wealth
The script’s ideal is kids with enough money to do anything but not so much that they do nothing. The hosts say they have been around obnoxious third-generation trust fund kids. A parent’s job is to open doors, and walking through them should be the child’s own choice and effort. Break that rule and you raise unhappy children living in your shadow.
If you are serious, mentor your grandchildren too. This part says the super rich hold retreats with children and grandchildren so everyone shares the family strategy, and claims the richest family in Florence in 1450 is still the richest there 600 years later. It adds that a Japanese company has a 300-year plan, while the average person barely plans until next Wednesday.
Build for the grandchildren
The thread through all 15 points is time. Assets that hold value, structures that survive you and children who can earn without you are what stop a fortune from fading by the third generation.
Start with the item you can act on this year and write down who you want to benefit in 20 years.
FAQ
What is generational wealth?
It separates personal wealth, which you can spend or deplete, from family wealth, which is mostly illiquid assets such as land, property and businesses that are passed down.
What does buy, borrow, die mean?
You buy appreciating assets, borrow against them instead of selling when you need money, and plan how they pass on at death. It says borrowed money isn’t taxed and flags inheritance tax as the final hurdle.
Why do most wealthy families lose their money?
The script claims around 70% lose it by the second generation and around 90% by the third. It points to children who can’t earn, poor planning, divorce without a prenup and heirs not taught the values behind the wealth.
What is the 4% rule in the video?
If wealth grows 6 to 10% a year, withdraw only about half of the earnings so the rest compounds. The rule is to withdraw less than you earn.
Why set up a trust?
A trust holds wealth and releases it under conditions, can be taxed at lower rates and lives on after you die, which the video says helps cut inheritance tax and stops children spending everything.
Who is a will really for?
This part argues it is mostly for your grandchildren, since your children will be in their 50s or 60s with established lives by the time you die at around 85.
Keep reading
- 15 Ways To Safeguard Sudden Wealth
- 10 Ways to Autopilot Wealth Creation (The Truth)
- 15 Ways the Royal Family Makes Money
