No More Money Stress

Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world's number one English teacher, A.J. Hogue, where A.J. 's more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all, without the boring textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills. Here's A.J.

with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly. I'm A.J. Hogue, the author of Effortless English, Learn to Speak English Like a Native and the Father of the Effortless English System.

that teaches you, that trains you to speak powerfully, to speak fluently. Good pronunciation. Think in English. when you train with my VIP program, train, commit, don't quit, to my VIP program, go over to EffortlessEnglishClub.com.

That's my website. EffortlessEnglishClub.com. It's simple. Join my VIP program. Commit. Really make a commitment. Commit and don't quit. And you will get the same results.

The same results that many, many, many others have and are getting. Commit at EffortlessEnglishClub.com Okay, it is late night here in Osaka, Japan. Talking to you.

I have a sleeping baby I'm holding right now. So I will be talking a little more calmly and quietly than usual. I don't want to wake up the baby. I don't want to wake up my wife.

I don't want to wake up the neighbors. So more of a calm chat. A little calm, relaxed talk today. Continue with the topic of usury. Usury. It's an important topic because this topic connects to many other topics that we have already talked about many times.

This topic connects to financial freedom. It's an important part of financial freedom, in fact. Very important. To be free from usury. So, so, so important if you want to be truly financially free, financially independent.

Connects to business. If you want to start a business, we've talked about starting a business, doing your own business. Also very, very important. Connects to the topic of simplicity that we have discussed many times.

Living a more simple life. connects indeed to spirituality, to God, to tradition, to all those old books we talk about, how there's so much wisdom and knowledge in those old books.

Usury connects to all of these topics. I'm going to read some quotes. Let me see. I have one, two, three, four, five. I have six quotes. Six quotes from very different people, very different sources, but all agreeing.

The first quote is from Aristotle. Aristotle, of course, the great Greek philosopher. One of the greats, right? Plato, Aristotle. Okay, here's what Aristotle said.

Money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. That's Aristotle. Of course, many of these are translations, of course, into English.

So money was intended to be used in exchange. What he's saying is that the purpose of money, the right and true purpose of money, is for trade. You buy something, you sell something. That's the purpose of money.

It's the right and the true and the good use of money. And that's totally fine, but it's not meant to increase at interest, right? 3% interest, 5% interest, 15% interest, 20% interest, whatever, right? Loans, debt, usury.

Remember, that's the meaning of usury. The meaning of usury is to charge interest on a loan or a debt. To charge interest. So he's saying that charging interest is unnatural, it's unhealthy, it goes against the intended, meaning the true purpose of money.

All right, next, jumping ahead in history, Thomas Jefferson, my favorite American. Founding Father. We call them the Founding Fathers. These are the men who led the American Revolution.

George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and many others. Thomas Jefferson is my favorite. Here's what he said about banks. Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

So he's saying banks are more dangerous to our freedom than armies, right? Than guns. Banks are more dangerous. And he was talking about, of course, he was talking about all Americans, but it's true for all the world.

Next, Dharma Pravartika Acharya, a teacher of Sanatana Dharma, he says very directly, Usury must immediately be declared a crime. Declared means said strongly.

Make a law. He's saying it should be legal. He's talking about a Dharma nation. This is a nation that follows natural law. So he has a book. It's from his book, Dharma Nation, in fact.

And in that book, he's describing his idea for a good government, good nation that follows natural law, Dharma. And part of that, he says, is that usury must be outlawed. It must be a crime to charge interest on loans. Usury must immediately be declared a crime to

Interesting. Next, this is a quote. This is a translation in English. I don't know how good the translation is, but supposedly it's from the Quran, Islam.

Remain conscious of God and give up all outstanding gains from usury. So, remain conscious of God, of course. But give up means salvation. Let go of, stop doing, give away.

All gains, right? All profit from usury. Basically saying, stop doing usury. Next, a quote from the Bible. The Christian Bible, you shall not lend your money at interest, nor give your food for profit.

That's very direct. Right? Very clear meaning. You shall not lend your money at interest. In other words, no usury. Interesting. Gautama Buddha. Next.

Our last one, Buddha. And what is wrong livelihood? Livelihood means how you make a living, a job, a career, a business. What is wrong livelihood, bad livelihood?

Scheming, hinting, lying, and charging interest. So scheming, hinting, lying basically means trying to cheat people and charging interest, which is another way of cheating people.

It's quite interesting, isn't it? We have a philosopher, we have an American patriot, and then we have four different religions. And they're all saying exactly the same thing.

You know, again, maybe we should think about this. A lot of modern people, especially business people, economists, educated people, We'll say, oh, no, usury, oh, we have to have it, right? They think, oh, no, it's all over the world.

This is the economy. Without usury, we can't have an economy. Oh, it's a modern economy. Well, it's a lie. But lots of people can't see through this for a few reasons.

Reason number one, education, because you're taught this in school, right, that this is good economics, banks and charging usury interest, that it's so important. There's definitely a lot of programming about that in education in younger ages and especially when you get to higher levels like in university.

Second thing is, it's common. People have this... Unfortunately, most people are like sheep. Bah! Right? And they just follow what everyone else is doing.

So if something is common, they think that it must also be good. Which, of course, is ridiculous. There are many common things that are popular... that are super common, that are in fact unhealthy, that are bad, that are foolish, and that are even evil.

So is usury common? Of course. Every bank charges interest, credit cards, loans of all kinds. I mean, it's everywhere all around the world. Modern economy is running on this kind of economic system.

It doesn't mean it's good. And when you have, you know, think about this, some of the greatest minds, the greatest philosophers, the greatest religious teachers ever in all of human history, all saying exactly the same thing. And when they all agree on something like this, and, you know, it's very clear, they're not... just saying it halfway or a little bit, it's very strong and very clear.

Aristotle, Thomas Jefferson, Dharmapravartika, the Koran and Bible and Buddha. And I could find many, many, many more from these same sources and other sources too.

But when we find these great thinkers, these people, these incredible ancient, old, powerful traditions, these wise, wise, wise sources, we should not just, oh, it's normal. We should think about it. You should think about it.

Don't just immediately say, oh, no, no, no, it's fine. I don't want to think about it. Oh, no, no, no, usury is okay. Maybe there is a problem. When you have all these kind of people and many others agreeing that not only is usury bad, but it is in fact evil.

That there is something evil about it. So evil that we should never do it. So evil we should never allow it in our country. In our societies. At all. Well...

You don't have to agree with all of these quotes I just said, but I think you should at least think more deeply about it. Too many people, you know, if something is normal, something is common and popular, they don't want to hear any criticism. They immediately just want to ignore it. But maybe we've forgotten something important.

And I think, of course, that we have. A quick note again about my VIP program. Again, I'm getting more comments and people asking me how to support the podcast. A lot of people enjoying the podcast.

I've been doing the podcast, the Effortless English Show, doing it much more now. And as you can see, I'm doing more topics. I decided, I don't know when was it, I'll have to look back, but maybe it's been kind of gradual, but certainly in the last year, maybe the last year or two, but definitely the last year.

Yeah, maybe two years. I just decided that I was going to just talk about anything that I cared about. Not just limit my topics to just education or English or, you know, those kind of topics that I would just, you know, I will speak in clear English so that you can use my podcast always to learn English and practice your listening. But I thought, you know, number one, it's more interesting for you to listen to all of these different topics.

And number two, it's more interesting and real for me. You know, you're getting to hear my deeper ideas about all parts of life, not just teaching English.

And honestly, too, I get bored talking only about English teaching. I was getting bored about it, you know? There's only so much I can say about that topic.

I feel like I have, with my book especially, and in all my videos I've done in the past, and all my audios I've done in the past, that I have talked about the topic of English learning, I don't have a lot of new ideas about that.

anymore you know i think we have a good system a really good system the vip program is a great training system and i've got my other courses too and even my business english course is coming back soon in the next couple months we'll have that back again too so i've got i've got all these great courses the vip program is green training system

I'm happy to answer questions about English learning still for new people. But overall, get my book. Let's talk about more topics. Plus, this helps your English because when we talk about topics like this, you learn more vocabulary and you practice more vocabulary.

Because that's how we get more vocab. is by doing more and more different kinds of topics. So now you're, you know, we're using the word usury, and we're talking about this word a lot, and that's great.

But anyway, people ask, I guess people are enjoying this. A lot of you are enjoying this, which is great because I'm enjoying it more too. That's why I'm doing more shows now, because I'm enjoying it. Because I feel like I'm really sharing with you my ideas that are more deep.

You know, how I really feel about things. In all different kinds of life. And maybe sometimes I'm wrong, and hopefully most times I'm right. But I'm always trying to be honest and open with you.

And real. Real, not fake. So, because of this, I think, a lot of people have been asking me, how can... How can they, how can you support the show, support the podcast?

People have asked for some kind of little membership, really just to kind of, almost like donating, really, just to support the show, just some small amount each month, just a fairly cheap kind of membership, like under $10 or less, something like that.

So I'm thinking about it. I might do that. I might do it. Most of the podcasts in the show will still be free, but it's just more that you can help support the show.

I will use the income, the money from supporters of the show. I'll use it probably to create a website for the show, so I don't need to only use YouTube.

Because the truth is, I think, eventually, Facebook and YouTube, and probably even Twitter, are going to block me or ban me. It will happen eventually. They're doing it so much now.

They're crazy, left-wing, Marxist, social justice warrior, evil, etc. And they're trying to get rid of everybody they disagree with. They hate homeschooling. They hate families.

They hate God. They hate truth. And they will eventually get rid of everybody who likes those things and who speaks honestly about those things. Now, right now, I'm kind of small, you know.

Right now, those websites are focused on more political people, especially in the United States, but not only. Europe, too, and South America, too. Um...

But once I get rid of all those political people, you know, eventually they'll get down to me. So I kind of know eventually I'll be off YouTube. So eventually I will need to have a website for this show.

So you can watch the videos directly on my website. I can host my own videos, which is expensive, unfortunately. I can host my own audios that you could download. Also very expensive, though.

So for that, your support would be great. So I think I will make a kind of... Some kind of... I don't know what to call it. Supporter membership. Show membership.

And then I'll think of some benefits. They'll just be small little benefits. It'll be a small amount of money. Small little benefits. Maybe a few extra shows I'll do for just the members.

Something like that. But mostly it's a way for you to support truth. And we've got to do this. I do this myself now. Some of my favorite creators. Political people mostly.

But not only... Some religious people, too. They're gone from YouTube now. They were kicked off of YouTube. They were definitely kicked off of Twitter.

And so I'm paying each month a couple different websites. They're comedians. There's one guy who's kind of a writer or philosopher. And I just pay a small amount each month to them.

They have programs. And just to support them. I just want to support good people who are telling the truth. We have to do this because Silicon Valley is trying to silence truth.

Anyway, I'll let you know about that. But meanwhile, now my VIP program has huge benefits. It's a training program. It's designed for you to speak powerfully and fluently and to train you in this month by month, month by month, month by month with lessons.

And we've had so, so, so, so many people, so many people in the VIP program who have been successful, who speak and write so well, very well. And they're so confident. And that's what you can see, how relaxed and natural their English is.

It's that natural confidence that is, I think, one of the greatest, maybe the best benefit of the VIP program. Indeed, all of Effortless English. and all the Effortless English programs.

So you can commit to that. Go to EffortlessEnglishClub.com and that's the best way for you to... help yourself with English. And that also does support.

It supports Effortless English. It supports me. It helps me feed myself and my family. Most importantly, it helps me keep the websites going. It helps me have these projects where I can keep doing this.

And so that's also a great way to support. It's just to join the VIP program. It's like an extra thing. Let's get back to usury, shall we? Usury. I want to talk about one specific example of the evil of usury.

This is just one example. There are many. But this is an example that I know very well. It's the student loan system in the United States. Now, this is...

I know in some countries this isn't an issue, but in the United States we have a student loan system. Here's how it works. Number one. Huge propaganda in schools, parents, media, about university, about college, where they tell everybody, you must go to college, you must go to college.

If you don't go to college, meaning university, Americans, we... Usually we just say college. Americans, we do. I've noticed British people tend to say uni or university.

But Americans, the common word is college. It's the same thing. So college, oh, you must go to college, right? And it's all this propaganda about it that...

You must, must, must, must, must go to college. And that if you don't, you will become poor. That if you don't, you will never get a good job and you'll be poor and have a terrible life. This is the propaganda.

That college is the key to success. College is the key to money. College is the key to a good job. It's a lie. It's a lie. Now, I don't know. Maybe it was true when my parents were young.

It was more true back in the 1950s. But it is absolutely not true now, and it has not been true for a long time. So this is a lie. For example, I can give you just one simple example of why this is a lie.

You could go to a trade school or just get a job. and learn it, get experience. But you go to trade school and you can learn, I always use the example plumbing.

I like plumbing because it's low status, right? A lot of people think it's low status, you know, you're cleaning toilets, you're fixing toilets and sinks, so it doesn't seem like it's a cool job.

But you can learn how to do plumbing in a short time. It's the education at a technical school or just on the job. You could get a job and learn from another plumber. You can also do that.

But either way, you learn how to do it. You maybe make money as an assistant plumber, you know, help just on the job. Or you go to a technical school and it's very inexpensive. It's not expensive.

Then you get out and plumbers make good, good, good money. They make very good money in the United States. They do very well. Some of them start their own businesses.

They also have to learn some business skills. which you can do just by reading books and learning by yourself. And then they create their own plumbing businesses. They hire lots of plumbers.

They have this big business. And they become very, very rich, and they don't go to college. And plumbing is just one example. There are many examples like this.

Also business entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs should not go to college. Just start your business business. So anyway, this is the lie that you... Oh, you must go to college.

So then, what... Number two. Because they create this huge demand, it's too big because everybody does not need to go to college. Some people, yes, it has its uses, especially in the past, in certain areas, certain fields.

Certainly, it's useful and a good choice. But... not telling everybody they must go to college and that the only way to get a good job is to go to college. If you don't go to college, you'll never make any money.

You'll be poor. Those are all lies. But because of this, so many people go to college who don't need to and who should not. And because you have so many people trying to go,

the cost goes up, right? The colleges charge more money. It's a basic supply and demand. You have this huge, huge, huge, huge unnatural demand, foolish demand for college.

And so they charge more and more and more and more and more. That's one reason college in the United States costs so much. The other reason are student loans, which we're going to talk about now.

So here's the problem. You have most people trying to go to college or they think they should go to college. They want to go to college. But number two, the cost is super, super high.

It's very expensive. So most people, most students, you know, who are 18 years old, they don't have any money. How can they pay $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 per year or more?

They can't. No way. They don't have any money. They can't do it. And often their families can't do it. Their families have to pay rent or house loans and all these other expenses, and they don't have that money also.

So what happens? Easy loans. Step number three. Easy loans. There's a whole industry of usury. The usurers, these are people who make money from interest.

The usurers offer easy loans. Big easy loans. Hey, don't worry, young man, young woman. It's okay. You don't need to have that money. Here. Here. We'll just give it to you.

Loans. Easy loans. No problem. Here you go. $10,000 every year. Here. Take it. Here's some more money for buying books. Here's some money so you can pay for your food at school.

So there's this huge industry of usury for student loans targeting the young people. Well, that's all great. That's great. So lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people go to college.

But then what happens? They graduate and then the hard reality happens. This is when they learn the hard truth of And indeed the evil of usury. Because when they graduate, they are now slaves.

Financial slaves. Debt slaves. Slaves to usury. Because now they have this huge debt to pay. $20,000. $30,000. $40,000. I have a cousin... She went to vet school, veterinarian school, you know, like animal doctor.

So she had to do eight years of school. She owes over $200,000. $200,000 she owes with interest. Remember, usury, it's interest. So here's how usury works.

Usury means if you owe $40,000... but they're charging interest 5%, 8% or more. Actually, you will have to pay two times more than that or three times as much. Depends how long you have to pay.

Depends on the interest. So maybe you say, I only owe $30,000. But in fact, you will pay $60,000 to get rid of that loan or more. I mean, so my poor cousin, she owes $200,000 with interest.

Even though it's a good profession, animal doctor, veterinarian, but still her monthly payments are so big, she can't really pay very much on them. So she will be paying for that loan, those loans and that interest for most of her life until she's middle-aged.

Until she's my age, 50. And she'll pay two times or three times or more that amount to the users. And all these young people, all these young people graduating with these huge debts, just think about that. They graduate from college and immediately they owe huge amounts of money.

I mean, that's slavery. We call it indentured servitude is what it used to be called, the old system. Debt slavery. So they have no freedom. They can't just go relax and travel around a little bit.

They can't just go work, you know, just take it easy and read and think about what they want to do with life. They have immediate, huge financial pressure, stress, because, oh my God, I have to pay this loan. I have to pay this loan. Every month, the payment.

Every month, that loan payment. So they have a huge pressure to find a job immediately. Super pressure, right? And, you know, it's not so easy to find a job, especially your first job.

It takes a while. And, as most people know, for most young people, your first job does not pay much. I don't care what you are. Usually, first jobs don't pay so much.

So they get out. They're under... huge stress to immediately find a job they're in their first job not making much money which is normal but and and you know it's it would be okay but now they have this extra debt payment you know if without the usury without the loan okay they have a job it doesn't pay much but you know they could survive They could live okay, not so much stress.

But with that extra payment, the loan payment every month, now they have this huge financial stress on top of them all the time. Immediately, as soon as they graduate, as soon as they become an independent adult, truly, they are already slaves to debt.

And many of them are so stressed out. And the sad thing is, many of them get very low-paying jobs because many get out and realize, oh my God, it was a lie.

They can't find a job that pays a lot. They have this huge debt. They have this big payment every month. And they're making very little money. They're working at Starbucks making coffee.

They're working as a security guard. That's what I did. They're working that kind of job. They didn't need to go to college. At age 18, they should have just gotten a job at Starbucks for a while.

Maybe not forever, but you don't need a college degree to make coffee or to be a security guard. It's crazy. Hi, baby John. You agree with me? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. But instead, they go to college. A lot of them really have no idea. They're clueless. They get a degree in some foolish topic like journalism. That was me.

or women's studies, even worse, or history, or anything like that. And they get out, and now they have this huge debt payment, and they get jobs that pay almost nothing, very little, and it's stress, and financial stress, and financial slavery, immediately. They start their adult life, their young life, immediately as debt slaves. That's the purpose of usury.

that's the whole purpose of the student loan thing because now these people aren't free they're not going to cause problems they're easily controlled now they're already slaves oh and by the way we have a system of bankruptcy in the United States

Bankruptcy is when your debts are too high. You can't pay them. You can go to a court and say, I can't pay these loans, and they'll say, okay, and they'll cancel them.

There's some penalties. It's not so easy, but you can do it, but not student loans. Student loans you cannot do legally. The student loans are forever.

You can never, ever, ever escape them. This is a system that enslaves young people with debt that crushes them later. It is evil. Usury is a slavery system.

Going all the way back, you know, 2,000 years ago or more, they understood that I can't remember the exact dates for Aristotle, but over 2,000 years ago. 2,300 years ago, 500 years ago, something like that.

So it's an old, old, old system of slavery. Slavery. Slavery for the borrowers, the people who get the loans, who have to pay that interest, which just grows and grows and grows unnaturally. This is why it's evil, because it just grows, grows, grows, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, forever.

And it gets bigger and bigger, we say exponentially, not gradually. It means each month it gets even bigger, even bigger, even bigger. It grows more, more, more, more, more. And if it's big enough, it becomes impossible to pay back.

or at least it becomes very, very, very difficult to pay back. It's a system of control, a system of slavery. This is why it's evil. This is why the Quran speaks against it again and again in the Quran, in Sanatana Dharma, in the Bible, the Buddha, Thomas Jefferson, Madison, another one of the founding fathers, Aristotle,

on and on and on, they all understood what it really was and what it really is. So here's the thing. Don't get loans. Okay, here's the practical advice for you.

Any age, I don't care how old you are, young or old, doesn't matter. Do not borrow money at interest. That means credit cards. That means house. That means car.

That means student loans. It means anything. Now, Islam has something called Islamic banks, where they actually have banks that do not have usury. But everywhere else, it's usury, usury, usury.

So, you know, it's fine, I guess, to have a bank account, right? Basic bank account, but don't get loans from the bank. And credit card. You can have a credit card if you want, but don't never, never, never, never pay interest.

What does this mean? It means every month for your credit card, pay the whole balance. Then you never pay interest, no usury. And this is what I do. Sometimes I have to use credit cards for paying for certain things, but I pay the 100% balance every single month.

So I never, never, never pay interest. See, they sold us. They used our desire. They used our greed. They used our laziness. They used our impatience against us.

Right? Because they tell us, oh, you don't need to wait. You don't need to wait three years to save money for a car. Here, we'll give you a loan. Just get it right now.

You don't need to buy an old, super cheap car that's ugly for $1,000. No, no, no, no, no, no. Here, we'll give you a loan. Buy a new car. Buy a new car for $20,000 for a new car?

I don't know. I've never bought a new car. And the same with houses, right? Don't save 10 years. Don't work and work and save 10 years or 12 years living in a tiny place, saving, saving, saving, and then buy a house or buy land and build your own house.

Nah, that takes too long. It's too difficult. No, no, no, no. Here's a bank loan. Here, just we'll give it to you. But there's a price. The price is your freedom.

A lot of people ask about financial freedom. You know, I've talked about this topic many times. Well, this is like the first step. I mean, this is the most basic step, okay?

Yes, it's great. You know, make money. Yes, live simply. All of these things. But, you know, the first thing is you should get rid of all debt. Okay, you'll never be financially free if you owe money, if you're paying interest, if you're a slave to the users.

So this is like the very first thing. It's the very first thing I did. I cut my expenses. I live simply. And the first thing I did is I paid all my debt as fast as I could.

And even that first step was such relief when it was paid off, when it was paid, when it was gone. I was not totally financially free yet. I still had to do other things after that. But I was more free.

and it was such a man it's such a feeling of relief like i owe no money to nobody no loans none it was a great feeling and since then until now i will i have no debt and i never will i'd rather live in a car than get a loan i'd rather camp in the mountains than get a loan

So this is a very, very, very basic step. You should follow these great thinkers that I, you know, all these quotes I mentioned. And, you know, the other thing about it is it's good to wait, okay? Because how do they get you?

How do they enslave you? How do they hook you? You know, what's the bait, right? How do they get all these students to become debt slaves? Okay, yes, a lot of propaganda.

I feel sorry for the students because there's so much propaganda coming from their parents, coming from the media, coming from all the teachers in the school, coming from everybody. And they really believe this stuff.

But the second thing is, it's our greed and our laziness that they use, right? Like, I don't want to wait. I don't want to wait and save. I don't want to live more cheaply now when I can get alone.

It's just, right, it's easy, right? It's easy. This is how they get us, tempt us. You don't need to wait. You don't need to have a cheap car. You don't have to do this.

You don't have to take a long time saving. No, no, no, just get alone now. They use our greed and our laziness against us. See, we always have a choice.

We can still say no. And that's the great power we have. This is the great power we have. This is why living simply is so powerful. You discover your power again to say no, to choose your life.

Forget what everyone else thinks. Again, like a car. If you live somewhere where you need a car, and everybody has driving new cars, go buy a car for $500.

You can do it. I've done it. You can do it. Just do it. Pay cash. No loans. It doesn't matter if it's ugly and cheap and crappy, okay? Just as long as it works, you know, you might have to shop around and it might take time.

You might not need to, you know, find something that's really ugly, but the engine's good. That's the key thing with a car. The engine's good. You can do it.

You can find some, especially now, there are lots of old cars that actually still run fairly well. And it's the same with housing, okay? Instead of, oh no, I must live in a nice place now.

Well, if you have a lot of money, sure, live in a nice place if you want to. But if you don't, stop trying to live too high. Go the opposite direction. Live cheaper.

Live in a tiny one-bedroom place with a shared bathroom and no kitchen. And that's what my wife and I did when we got married. And we're living in San Francisco.

There's one room. There's a square. A square room. There was no kitchen. We had a little hot plate, right? A little thing we bought where we could cook a little bit.

And we had no bathroom in our apartment. It was a shared bathroom at the end of the hall, so to go to bathroom, to take a shower, we had to go down, you know, like a dorm, you know, like we had to go down outside our apartment and walk down the hall, and then use the kind of shared public bathroom.

But it was super, super... and we did not have a lot of money. And also, I wanted to live simply. I wanted to only work part-time. I did not want to work full-time.

And so, we lived there. And it was okay. You know what? We cleaned it and we got some second-hand furniture and we made it comfortable for us. And it was okay.

It was okay. It was actually in a very convenient part of the city. It was right downtown. It was in a convenient area. It wasn't a dangerous area. But it was very, very, very cheap.

And because of that, I could start my business. I could only work part-time. And still, we could live and pay rent. Then I had all that extra time. Because of that extra time, I started Effortless English.

And guess what happened then? Six months later... I quit my job because Effortless English was successful very fast. And we were making a lot more money.

A lot more money. So what did we do? Did we immediately go and move? Did we immediately move to an expensive, nice, super nice kind of luxury apartment?

We did not. We stayed in that same cheap one bedroom, not bedroom, one room apartment with no bathroom. For years, for several more years, even though we were making a lot of money, a lot of money.

Why didn't we move? Number one, safety, because I was not sure. I thought, well, next year maybe the business goes down, so I don't want to go to someplace expensive. This gives us more security, more safety.

But number two, so we could save. Save, save, save. Instead of immediately spending all the extra money and going to an expensive luxury apartment and buying a nice expensive car and all that other stuff. No, we stayed in the same cheap little place for many more years.

And then we had all that extra money. We traveled some. We did enjoy it a little bit. We used a little bit of that extra money to enjoy, of course. It was nice.

We went to some Tony Robbins seminars. We traveled and had some nice trips. But mostly we saved, saved, saved huge amounts of money, a large amount of money. We saved, saved, saved.

We just kept, we continued to live very, very cheaply and simply and saved, saved, saved, saved, saved. And even today, even today, what, 12 years later, Everettless English now, you know, has done well for 12 years. Even today, we live in not one room apartment, but here in Japan, we live in a... Actually, we're paying the same amount of rent.

I just realized that. Yeah. Our rent in here, in Osaka, is the same as it was in San Francisco. Still... The same cheap rent we're paying. Now, Japan's a little cheaper than San Francisco, so our apartment's a little bit bigger.

We do have a bathroom. So we have a little more luxury. But it's still very simple. Very simple. I mean, we could go get a luxury, a big luxury apartment, but I don't want to.

Not yet. I don't want to do... Well, I don't want... Not at all. Because of this, for 12 years, we have been saving money. And yes, we do enjoy it some, but moderately, carefully, we enjoy it.

But mostly, it's given us so much freedom now. We just have no financial stress because of this. The second thing is, now, we can build a house. We're thinking about building a house now.

We're going to build it ourselves. I want to build it because it's much cheaper, and I think it's something more human to build your own house. So I'm thinking eventually because of the children now, I don't want the children to grow up in a city.

So we're thinking of in the countryside, have some land and build our own house. But no loans. We're not going to get a loan from a bank to do that. We're just going to pay for it.

Why? Because we waited 12 years. We saved and saved and saved for 12 years. Now we can just pay for that with no loans, no usury. Because we were patient.

Because we learned how to enjoy simple living. Most people don't want to wait. As soon as their business is successful, they start spending money like crazy. As soon as they get a new job with more pay, they immediately start spending more money.

As soon as they want a house, they go get a loan. They can't wait five years. They can't wait ten years. As soon as the new iPhone comes, they want it.

They don't want the old, you know, the old cheapest, you know, flip phone that's not even a smartphone. You know? But I'm telling you, the whole point of this, you can do what you want, of course. It's your choice.

But the reason I'm... sharing this, the reason Buddha and Muhammad and Dharma Pravartika and Aristotle and Thomas Jefferson and on and on, the reason they all talked about this too is because you will be happier.

You think, oh yeah, now, now, now, if I just spend now, get the loans, it seems like that will make you happier, but it won't. Freedom feels better. Freedom is happier than debt slavery, even if you have a bunch of stuff.

You'll be happier living in a smaller, simpler place, but you're free. None of that financial stress. You know, I'm telling you from my life experience, I'm being as honest as I can. You know, when I was young, the financial stress, the money stress, I was constantly stressed about money.

Maybe you understand this. Maybe you have a lot of money stress. Or maybe in the past you did. Money can be a huge source of stress. Where you're just worrying about it and stressed about it and thinking about it all the time.

And it dominates... You're thinking in your life. It's like it's at the center of your life all the time. Money, money. And you're always thinking about it or worrying about it or trying to work more and more to get more.

And oh my God, I've got to find a way to get a better job to get more. And it's all this stress, stress, stress. And then something happens. You have to pay suddenly a lot of money.

Now you're super, super, super stressed. It's terrible. It is so nice to eliminate all of that stress. I mean, imagine that. That you never worry about money again.

You never stress about it. And money, instead of being in the middle of your life, is just to the side. Yeah, you know, you need some. You work to make some and you save and all that, but it's not the center.

Your family's the center or whatever it is you love is the center. I'm telling you, it feels so much better. It's so much more peaceful mentally, emotionally peaceful.

And that's why I share those stories about living in my car, for example. Because I want you to live in your car? No, of course not. I know. I know most people will not do that.

I don't suggest it, okay? Most people probably would not enjoy it like I did. But that's not the point. The point is I was happier in my car than I was in a bigger, nicer apartment, but...

stressed all the time. Right? When I was young and I was in a nicer apartment and a bigger apartment like just a normal apartment. But I was so super stressed about money all the time because I wasn't making a lot and I had expenses and I had debts.

It was terrible. Right? Even baby agrees. You can hear her. Okay, okay. And so when I was living in my car, why was it enjoyable? Well, number one, I did it in an intelligent way.

I actually fixed my car. I designed it so it would be comfortable. I didn't want to be unhappy doing it. So I had a nice little bed in my car. I had some little fans, electric fans in the car to keep me cool.

And a few other things. But the point is, the reason I loved it so much was I felt like I was suddenly... Free. You know, like I had this weight, this heaviness on top of me, which was money, worry, stress, money, stress.

And then I was living in my car. Suddenly no rent, right? I cut. That was my biggest expense at that time was my apartment. Gone. Suddenly I had extra money again.

Suddenly no more stress. I wasn't stressed about money for the first time in my adult life. Suddenly, I didn't have to work, work, work, work, work 40 hours a week just to pay my rent and food.

It was fantastic. I worked just part-time only, and it was just so relaxing. That's what I remember about it. It was just so relaxing. I felt free again, like I was when I was a child.

You know, I used to remember, like, I remember being a child and how free, like, I felt free when I was a child, right? Right? Maybe you did too, right? Most children.

You're free. You don't have any money, stress. Your time is free, especially before you go to school or during your holidays or the summer. Well, it felt like that again, but now as an adult, that lightness, that freedom, that

That's why it was happier. So do you need to live in a car? No. But what you should do is avoid usury. Usury is evil. Get out of debt. Get out of debt and then never, ever, ever do it again.

And number two, sacrifice if you need to. Live more cheaply. Learn to enjoy it, as I said in my last podcast. Don't think of it as something that is some kind of suffering, like you're hurting yourself.

Think of it as an adventure. Think of it as enjoyable. And then, not immediately, but as you become financially free, as the stress of money gets less and less, then the happiness, then you'll realize, oh my God, this is so much better.

This is better than having a new car. This is better than having the new phone. This is much better. Good luck to you. I just want you to be happy and free.

That's what I'm telling you. You can ignore me. If you think I'm crazy, fine. But I'm not. All right. Lots of love to you. Please free yourself. And please, usury is evil.

It's evil. It's evil. All right, join my VIP program. If you've got the money, join my VIP program. Train yourself. Train with me at EffortlessEnglishClub.com.

Join, commit, don't quit at EffortlessEnglishClub.com.