Why I thought millionaires lived in caves
Ditch the earn-more, spend-more trap
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Last month in Lisbon, halfway through our marathon training walk, my dad mentioned something that stopped me cold.
"Did you see the CBS data? Only 1.5% of Den Helder households are millionaires."
One point five percent.
Our hometown ranks 339th out of 342 Dutch cities.
And suddenly, everything made sense.
The only millionaire I knew was fictional
Growing up, the only millionaire I knew was Bruce Wayne.
Batman.
A comic book character.
When wealth is that rare, it becomes mythology.
Think about it:
In Den Helder, you could know 100 families and never meet a single millionaire.
In Bloemendaal? Every third neighbour has seven figures.
Same country.
Same language.
Same opportunities.
Completely different realities.
We don't learn about money. We inherit it.
Not the actual money (I wish).
The beliefs about it.
The habits around it.
The possibilities we can imagine.
On Thursday, I ran an investing workshop.
25 people. All earning good money.
All smart, successful professionals.
And every single one said the same thing:
"Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?"
But what if that's not the case?
What if someone did tell them? They just couldn't hear it.
Not because they weren't listening.
But because it contradicted an invisible script they'd been running since childhood.
Scripts like:
"Investing is gambling"
"That's for rich people"
"I need more money first"
"It's too complicated for me"
These aren't thoughts.
They're inheritances.
Hand-me-down beliefs from people who never had money either.
The €80,000 wake-up call
One sales leader I spoke with this week realised she'd been avoiding her pension for 12 years.
Not because she couldn't understand it. But because her parents lost money in 2008 and she'd inherited their fear.
That invisible script?
It cost her approximately €80,000 in employer contributions and growth.
Invisible scripts aren't free.
They're the most expensive beliefs you'll ever have.
But once you see them?
Once someone points them out?
They lose their power instantly.
My job is simple
I make the invisible visible.
To show you the script you're running. So you can finally see it's fiction.
Just like Batman.
That's what happened when I finally understood:
I wasn't "bad with money."
I just had bad programming.
From a place where wealth was invisible.
What's next?
I'm running another workshop in December. This one's specifically for corporate professionals.
In Thursday's workshop we had 25 people. There will be 30 spots in December.
Want first access when I open registration?
No obligation. Just early access to claim your spot.
Because if there's one thing I've learned:
The best time to see your invisible scripts was 10 years ago.
The second best time?
Before they cost you another €80,000.
That is it for this weekend. I skipped the gym on Thursday while finishing my slides. So I'm going to catch up with some weights.
To your financial freedom,
Sjoerd
P.S. In the investing workshop on Thursday, I shared an AI prompt that will help you build an investing plan based on my 10 investing principles.
If you'd like to have it, just send me a message on LinkedIn and I’ll send it your way.
Sjoerd Bak
Become a Millionaire Ltd
www.bamillionaire.com
