YouTube/ The Prof G Pod – Scott Galloway
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In 2024, Scott Galloway, a serial entrepreneur and NYU professor, interviewed Ramit Sethi, bestselling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, on his podcast, The Prof G Pod (1).
In their interview, the two experts set out to dispel common financial myths holding Americans back from realizing their wealth goals — and it didn’t take long for the surprises to start coming.
For example, when asked whether owning a home is essential for “being rich,” Sethi replied, “no, not necessarily.”
This statement alone shows how his unconventional advice for achieving wealth deviates from mainstream financial guidance and popular belief. In fact, nearly 40% of Americans believe real estate is the best long-term investment (2), yet Sethi, a self-proclaimed multimillionaire, doesn’t own a single home.
So, what gives?
This topic is just one of many Sethi addresses, so here are three tips that can be gleaned from his hour-long chat with fellow finance celeb Scott Galloway.
Buying a home is often seen as a quintessential piece of the American dream, but Sethi, who often faces backlash for his stance, remarks, “in America, real estate is religion — and if you dare to question it, you enrage millions of people.”
This is likely due to the fact that about 60% of American homeowners have a mortgage, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September 2025 (3). And yet, home prices are continuing to rise year over year (4), while mortgage rates are also projected to remain hovering above 6% at least until the end of 2026 (5) — and nobody wants to feel tethered to a debt that may not result in long-term asset growth.
If the numbers don’t add up for you, there are still ways to benefit from the U.S. real estate market that you can act on right now.
Read More: Approaching retirement with no savings? Don’t panic, you’re not alone. Here are 6 easy ways you can catch up (and fast)
If you are still keen to invest in real estate but not ready to jump into homeownership yet, there are platforms like Arrived that let you buy stakes in rental properties, earn dividends and skip the cumbersome responsibilities of property management. In other words, you earn all the rewards of owning a rental without needing to take on the role of landlord.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived’s easy-to-use platform offers SEC-qualified investments such as rental homes and vacation rentals for as little as $100. And their flexible investment options allow both accredited and non-accredited investors to benefit from this inflation-hedging asset class with ease.
You can get your start as the next real estate mogul right now by browsing vetted properties, then simply selecting a property and choosing the number of shares to buy. It’s that easy.
Then there are multifamily rentals, which are properties that contain more than one housing unit within the same building. For some, these can really take your investments to the next level.
If diversifying into multifamily rentals appeals to you, you could consider investing with Lightstone DIRECT, a new investing platform from the Lightstone Group, one of the largest private real estate companies in the country with over 25,000 multifamily units in its portfolio.
Since they eliminate intermediaries — brokers and crowdfunding middlemen — accredited investors with a minimum investment of $100,000 can gain direct access to institutional-quality multifamily opportunities. This streamlined model can help reduce fees while enhancing transparency and control.
And with Lightstone DIRECT, you invest in single-asset multifamily deals alongside Lightstone — a true partner — as Lightstone puts at least 20% of its own capital into every offering. All of Lightstone’s investment opportunities undergo a rigorous, multi-stage review before being approved by Lightstone’s Principals, including Founder David Lichtenstein.
How it works is simple: Just sign up with your email, and you can schedule a call with a capital formation expert to assess your investment opportunities. From here, all you have to do is verify your details to begin investing.
Founded in 1986, Lightstone has a proven track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns across market cycles with a 27.6% historical net IRR and 2.54x historical net equity multiple on realized investments since 2004. All told, Lightstone has $12 billion in assets under management — including in industrial and commercial real estate.
As such, even if multifamily rentals don’t appeal to you, Lightstone could still serve you well as an investment vehicle for other real estate verticals.
Get started today with Lightstone DIRECT and invest alongside experienced professionals with skin in the game.
Moving beyond real estate, Sethi has advice for your love life, too.
He says the biggest issue with couples is that they have “no shared vision.” Having one, though, is essential to financial success, as pursuing different goals, such as buying a house or funding an education for your children, will each carry their own distinct saving and investing strategies.
These strategies are influenced by two key factors: your time horizon (when you want to buy the house or when your kids will be old enough for university) and your risk tolerance (how comfortable you are with potential losses in favor of higher returns).
These are challenging questions to navigate alone, which is why a financial advisor can help crunch the numbers and build a plan that works for you.
But just like marriage, hiring an advisor can be a lifelong commitment, one that can make or break your financial goals. That’s why finding reliable advisors is crucial.
That’s where Advisor.com can come in. The platform that connects you with an expert near you for free.
In fact, Advisor.com does the heavy lifting for you, vetting advisors based on track record, client ratios and regulatory background. Plus, their network comprises fiduciaries, who are legally required to act in your best interests.
Just enter a few details about your finances and goals, and Advisor.coms AI-powered matching tool will connect you with a qualified expert best suited for your needs based on your unique financial goals and preferences.
And since finding the right advisor isn’t always easy, Advisor.com lets you set up a free initial consultation with no obligation to hire to see if they’re the right fit for you.
Once you’ve got the right financial advisor in your corner, then you can really start working toward the goals that are important to you.
But what is actually important?
Of course, a rich life isn’t just about things. It’s about nurturing relationships, fostering experiences and building connections.
While money can help facilitate plenty of these aspects, Sethi notes it’s crucial to consistently spend your wealth wisely — and prepare for those rainy days.
For example, he argues that buying a home can also come with the potential for unexpected hurdles, like needing a brand new roof or your partner losing their job, which are exactly the types of emergencies that can render mortgage payments untenable.
In those instances, you need to have liquidity, or the ability to access your assets.
Investing in the stock market is an excellent way to provide greater liquidity. Typically, it’s easier to sell investments than it is to sell a home.
Fortunately, Robinhood offers a simple and convenient way to invest in a wide variety of stocks, ETFs and options.
More importantly, its platform provides commission-free investing — meaning you won’t pay any extra fees to invest with Robinhood and can maximize your liquidity. It’s an easy and cost-effective way to add some of Buffett’s favorite stock picks to your portfolio.
New Robinhood customers can also get a free stock once they sign up and link their bank account to the app.
Finally, there is also a way to spend your money that prepares you for a wealthier future.
Acorns is an automated investing and saving platform that simplifies the process of setting aside those extra funds for a rainy day.With Acorns, you can automatically invest spare change from your everyday purchases into a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock.
It works like this: Each time you make a purchase on a credit or debit card, Acorns will round it up to the nearest dollar, and put the rest into a smart investment portfolio. That means you aren’t just making wise investing and saving decisions automatically — you’re making better purchasing decisions, too.
Start now, and make your purchases more productive with Acorns.
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
The Prof G Pod (1); Gallup (2); U.S. Census Bureau (3); U.S. Federal Housing (4); Mortgage Bankers Association (5).
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.