How The Rich Turn $1 Into Millions (Use These 3 Assets)

Building sustainable wealth requires more than just picking a single asset like Bitcoin, real estate, or index funds. Wealthy individuals use a layered investment strategy involving multiple assets in a deliberate sequence to multiply their wealth exponentially and achieve financial independence faster. This approach maximizes tax efficiency and leverages powerful financial tools such as whole life insurance, real estate, and Bitcoin.

In this article, we dive deep into how an integrated blend of whole life insurance policies, tax-efficient real estate investments, and Bitcoin can work together to build lasting wealth. We explore the concept of layering wealth-building assets in a strategic order, inspired by thought leaders like Robert Kiyosaki and contemporary Bitcoin advocates. This holistic strategy unlocks more capital to reinvest, protects against market volatility, and ensures you pay fewer taxes over time while growing your net worth.

BetterWealth specializes in teaching intentional living through effective wealth strategies, including this multi-asset layering approach. Learn more about whole life insurance and tax strategies in our detailed insights on how whole life insurance builds tax-free wealth.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

In this episode, you'll discover why the traditional debate about whether Bitcoin or real estate is a better investment misses the bigger picture. We reveal how the wealthy combine whole life insurance, real estate for tax efficiency, and Bitcoin to accelerate wealth growth far beyond passive asset holding alone. You’ll see concrete examples such as investing $100,000 into a whole life insurance policy compounding at 5%, borrowing against it at the same rate, and reinvesting those funds into real estate that generates millions in tax write-offs.

This layered strategy can grow your capital by 50% over 20 years, multiply tax savings from real estate deductions by thousands, and leverage those savings to buy Bitcoin—which can turn $150,000 into $15 million over five years at current growth trajectories. We also explain how you can borrow from your Bitcoin holdings to buy more real estate, potentially never paying tax again.

For more on using multiple assets efficiently, check out our blog on building wealth with infinite banking, real estate, and Bitcoin.

How Does Whole Life Insurance Build Tax-Free Wealth?

Whole life insurance grows cash value at a guaranteed rate, often around 4-6%, with some policies compounding even higher annually. This cash value accumulation is tax-deferred, meaning it grows without annual tax impact. You can borrow against this cash value at a low interest rate, effectively becoming your own bank while allowing the cash value to continue growing uninterrupted.

This setup is not a simple wash, even if you borrow at the same interest rate you earn. The key is the compounding nature of the cash value and the strategic reinvestment of borrowed funds into tax-efficient assets like real estate. The borrowed money doesn’t reduce your cash value but earns growth as if untouched.

For example, investing $100,000 into a whole life insurance policy compounding at 5% annually will grow to approximately $150,000 in 20 years. Borrowing this principal at 5% and reinvesting it amplifies the wealth-building effect—especially when layered with real estate tax benefits and Bitcoin’s growth potential.

Mentioned in This Episode

Here are the key individuals, companies, and concepts discussed throughout:

"The way that the wealthy build wealth is by using multiple assets in the proper order and sequence to multiply their wealth 300, 500 times faster." – Guest Expert

Key Takeaways with Guest Expert

Layer your wealth building by starting with a strong base asset like a whole life insurance policy that compounds at about 5% per year.
Borrow against your whole life cash value to reinvest in tax-efficient assets like real estate, which provides large tax write-offs that legally reduce your taxable income.
Real estate is not primarily bought for cash flow but for tax efficiency and leveraging debt to amplify write-offs multiple times your out-of-pocket spending.
Use tax savings from real estate to buy high-growth assets such as Bitcoin, which historically has shown up to 50% annual growth, turning modest amounts into millions over a few years.
Once Bitcoin investments grow significantly, borrow against them at 50% loan-to-value ratios to buy more real estate, continuing the cycle and potentially eliminating taxable events.
Follow the cash flow quadrant principles popularized by Robert Kiyosaki: aim to generate enough passive income from business and investments to achieve financial freedom.
Don’t get stuck choosing “the best asset.” Instead, build a diversified portfolio with an intentional sequence and layering for maximum compounding and tax efficiency.
Emerging financial products, like loans against Bitcoin mining equipment, offer new ways for wealthy investors to enhance tax strategies and leverage assets.

Resources

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

How does infinite banking with whole life insurance work?

Infinite banking uses whole life insurance policies to build cash value that grows tax-deferred at a steady rate, typically around 4-6%. You can borrow against this cash value while it continues to earn interest, effectively becoming your own bank and recapturing interest that would otherwise go to lenders. This creates a flexible, tax-efficient source of capital for reinvestment.

Why do wealthy investors buy real estate for tax efficiency rather than cash flow?

Wealthy investors purchase real estate mainly to access significant tax write-offs and leverage debt against their investments. Instead of focusing on steady rental income, they aim to reduce their taxable income by deducting costs and depreciation, often writing off multiples of their actual spending. This tax strategy preserves more capital for growth investments.

What is Robert Kiyosaki’s cash flow quadrant?

Robert Kiyosaki’s cash flow quadrant is a financial framework dividing income sources into four types: Employee, Self-Employed, Business Owner, and Investor. Financial freedom comes from transitioning income to the Business Owner and Investor quadrants, which generate passive cash flow and reduce tax burdens compared to working for a paycheck.

How do Bitcoin investments fit into a layered wealth strategy?

Bitcoin serves as a high-growth asset that complements traditional investments. By using tax savings from real estate and loans against whole life insurance, investors can accumulate Bitcoin, which can grow dramatically in value over 5 years. Once sizable Bitcoin holdings exist, they can be leveraged to buy additional real estate, fueling continued tax-efficient wealth building.

Can I borrow against Bitcoin mining equipment for tax benefits?

Some innovative financial products allow investors to take loans against Bitcoin mining equipment, increasing leverage and enhancing tax write-offs. This emerging strategy offers new ways to layer assets and amplify returns by combining the tax efficiency of mining investments with credit leverage.

Is this layering strategy suitable for everyone?

This approach suits value creators such as entrepreneurs and investors with six or seven-figure incomes who want intentional, tax-efficient wealth building. While asset preferences vary, the key is the strategic sequence: establish a base, implement tax-efficient real estate or similar leverage, then deploy capital to high-growth investments like Bitcoin.

How do I start building wealth using this layered method?

Begin by securing a properly structured whole life insurance policy as your foundational asset. Next, invest in real estate or other tax-efficient, leveraged assets to generate substantial write-offs. Finally, use the tax savings to invest in assets with high growth potential such as Bitcoin. Continuous reinvestment and leveraging multiply wealth effectively.

Is infinite banking better than a 401(k)?

Infinite banking offers tax-free access to money at any age without penalties and guarantees cash value growth with zero market risk. In contrast, 401(k)s have contribution limits, potential tax penalties for early withdrawals, and are subject to market volatility. Infinite banking enhances flexibility and control over your wealth.

Want My Team's Help?

If you feel stuck juggling complex wealth strategies or want to integrate whole life insurance, real estate, and Bitcoin into a tax-efficient plan, you’re not alone. Many high earners struggle to optimize tax savings while growing their assets and avoiding common pitfalls like Airbnb crashes or passive income traps.

Click the Big Yellow Button to Book a Call and let's explore what it would look like to keep, protect, grow, and transfer your wealth the BETTER way.

Connect with Caleb Guilliams

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Below is the full transcript.

Full Transcript

If I were to put $100,000 into a whole life insurance policy compounding to 5% a year, and then I borrow the money out at 5% a year. So I take that $100,000, I pull it out and I reinvest it. Reinvest it into what? What the wealthy do is they don't buy real estate for cash flow. They buy real estate tax efficiency. You've been talking about building wealth in layers and I would just love to hear you articulate that. And you know, because people come to you all over the place to learn how to build wealth and you're Although you're a big fan of Bitcoin and some other things, you also can look, you can take a step back and look holistically at the situation. Well, I'm mostly known for my work in Bitcoin. I got started making content around cryptocurrency. Now it's just Bitcoin, not crypto. But I started my career in real estate. So it's like I've been an investor through multiple markets, through multiple assets. And I'd say certainly I think that Bitcoin is the cheat code. Bitcoin is our single greatest weapon, not just to build wealth for ourselves, which it is. And we'll break that down. but to change the world in a massively positive way. So it's the cheat code for life for us individually and as a world. But also, whether you like Bitcoin or not, put that aside. Whether you like real estate, okay, whatever. There's this raging debate in the Bitcoin circles like real estate or Bitcoin, which one's better? Maybe you're a Dave Ramsey fan and you think you should just go into mutual funds and index funds. Like, okay, fine. Choose your weapon. But the way that the wealthy... build wealth and part of me building out this network is getting access to people like this to see these things is that it doesn't matter they're not they're not trying to choose the best they're using multiple things in a proper sequence and order to invest through layers to multiply their wealth 300 five times 500 times faster and so whether you like bitcoin or don't or whether you like index funds or don't or whether whether you like real estate or not that's not the point It's how do I use multiple assets, understanding what we're really doing with them, and using them in the proper order and sequence to build wealth. So let me give you an example of what I mean. So what most people think that rage in this debate between Bitcoin and real estate is, well, Bitcoin's better. No, real estate's better. Well, Bitcoin's better because it's going up faster. It's going up at 50% a year. Real estate's going up at 5% a year. Yeah, but real estate, we can get leverage because of debt and blah, blah, blah. What they don't realize is that And then there's all this talk about this Airbnb boom. All these people bought real estate and they're turning to Airbnbs, but Airbnb market's crashing and the home values are dropping in Austin 15%. All these people are upside down. They don't understand. You see, what the wealthy do is they don't buy real estate for cashflow. They buy real estate for tax efficiency. So I was telling you, I bought this ranch property out in Austin, Texas, two and a half million dollar property. That property is an Airbnb when I'm not there. I use it for events when I'm out there. But that got me millions of dollars of tax write-off. I didn't have to pay tax on millions of dollars because I bought that property. What do I care if it drops by 20 or 30 percent? I don't care. I got millions of dollars. And so people don't understand this. They look at it like that. And so what happens is like, I'm working with this hosted Bitcoin mining company right now. We're not selling hosted Bitcoin mining. We're selling tax efficiency. What if I can get double the Bitcoin in two and a half years and I get $100,000 a write-off at the same time? And so that's what I talk about with layers is like understanding it's not the asset that I'm buying. It's how does it fit into my picture and how do I use this in a portfolio that then allows me to multiply wealth? Let me just break this down. So I did a video on this. So like if I were to put $100,000 into a whole life insurance policy, compounding a 5% a year. And then I borrow the money out at 5% a year. Isn't that a wash? No, because one is compounding. The other one is getting paid down. So I take that $100,000, I pull it out, and I reinvest it. Reinvest it into what? Well, first of all, over 20 years, that's going to make me $50,000. That's like a 50% return on my capital. Then I take that $100,000, and now I go buy $500,000 worth of real estate, which potentially gets me, back to the napkin math, $400,000 of tax write-off. So I don't pay tax on 400 grand. That could be $150,000 based off of whatever an average salary. Now I have $150,000 I got to keep because I didn't pay that into taxes. Now I put that $150,000 into Bitcoin and in five years that's worth $15 million. And I didn't make a penny more. I didn't increase my income. I didn't work harder. I could have just put it into an index fund and it could have grown at 6% or 7%. But here I've turned it into $15 million, but it doesn't stop there. Now that $15 million, I can borrow against that, borrow 50% LTV. I borrow $7 million out, buy more real estate, and I probably never pay tax again. And so. That's what I'm talking about in layers. Do you have a framework when it comes to layering, or is it just one of those? It's like everyone's a little bit different. For example, you talk about tax efficiency. I know you're friends with Robert Kiyosaki. In his book, he's like, don't buy taxes just for taxes. Buy it for cash flow. What is your one thing that makes Robert so iconic is he has the cash flow quadrant. He has the you are financially free when you have enough passive cash flow coming in. So what is your framework for layers? Because it sounds great. I love whole life insurance. I know you do as well. you put money in that asset and leverage that to do real estate. Is there, is there like a one, two, three punch for someone listening or watching that, that you, that are like maybe first principles of like, do this, then do this, then do this. Yeah. shout out to Robert Kiyosaki. He was my mentor. I read his books for 25 years and he's become a friend. And it was really him that made me look deeper because, um, I got to know him maybe around 2020 or 2021. And, in 2021, California shut down. It was COVID pandemic. craziness. And so we left and I went to Puerto Rico with my family. And part of it was just because I wasn't going to live locked down. Part of it was like, I'm a surfer. I love the island, but also there's tax efficiency in Puerto Rico. Right. And I remember I was speaking at conferences. Robert was speaking at conferences and a couple, a couple of times, more than once, two or three times from stage, he called me out. It's cool. Guys like Mark Moss and Peter Schiff have to move to Puerto Rico to not pay taxes. He's like, I don't pay taxes. And he would call me out like multiple times from stage. Like, what an idiot this guy is. He had to move to get out of taxes. Don't they know that we just don't pay taxes? And so that made me go, like maybe I need to look at this a little bit more. And hanging out with him, having dinners with him, I'm like, let's break this down. Like, what are we doing here? What's the strategy? Whatever. So shout out to Robert Kiyosaki on that. The framework, I would say, I guess maybe I don't have a clearly defined framework as far as which assets go into which ones, because sort of like our mutual friend, Garrett Gunderson, It's like this investor DNA. So as I said, maybe you don't like Bitcoin. Cool. Like whatever. Don't get hung up on that. It's like Trump derangement syndrome. Some people can't see past that. Okay, let's put a different asset in there. So looking at different assets differently, but I think the order makes sense of one, set up that base layer. That's right. Two, I use real estate there because that's how we get rid of the taxes. Now there's other ways to do that, but like real estate is the easiest way to get that leverage because what what People that are like, maybe they're thinking like level two or level three on this, they think they buy things for tax write-offs. But I mean, I still have to give up the money. What wealthy do is I don't want to spend a dollar and write off a dollar. I want to spend a dollar and write off $5. I want to spend a dollar and write off $10. So then what allows me to do that? Well, typically it would be things that I can put leverage against. So real estate is one. I'm working on bringing a product to market where we can do loans against Bitcoin mining equipment and then I could also get that leveraged right off. Wealthy do other things with collectibles, fine art, things like that, land conservations, things like that. So there's other ways to get that. I mean Elon Musk did it with Tesla, you know, selling carbon credits or tax, you know, things like that. So there are other ways but what are the ways? It all starts with a question, right? So it's like, okay, I set my base layer so I always have it growing. Then... How do I get the tax efficiency? And I know that I want $3, $5, $10 of write-off for every dollar I spend. So what gives me those? Real estate is just the most accessible way for everybody to do that. Now I keep more money. What do I do with it next? Now you could put that in the S&P 500 if that's you. Maybe it's Tesla, Nvidia. For me, I think it's Bitcoin because I don't think there's any asset in the world that will outpace Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the cheat code. And so it certainly belongs in our portfolio. Most Bitcoiners would say just buy Bitcoin and don't do anything. And that's not a bad strategy. You can just buy Bitcoin and outperform every single Wall Street hedge fund. You can just beat everybody. Just buy Bitcoin. That's it. Just buy it. But because I want to get better at everything, why not make three to five hundred percent more and do it that way?