Aug. 27, 2025

Fiscally Fit: Where Money Meets Wellness

Fiscally Fit: Where Money Meets Wellness

Join Bonita & Financial Coach Paris Cluff as we explore the powerful connection between financial health & overall well-being. From reducing money-related stress to making intentional choices that support both your budget and your body, we uncover how aligning your finances with your values can lead to a more balanced life. Our guest shares practical tips for managing money without sacrificing mental or physical health. Tune in to learn how financial fitness is a key pillar of true wellness.

Ask Good Questions is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask Good Questions is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

Ask Good Questions Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ask-good-questions--6441735/support.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:02.480
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are

2
00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:04.120
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not

3
00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:07.080
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We

4
00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:10.199
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,

5
00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:12.560
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No

6
00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.880
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio

7
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.679
or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should

8
00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:20.960
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing

9
00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:22.600
W FOURCY Radio.

10
00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:33.960
Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,

11
00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.840
six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at

12
00:00:38.039 --> 00:00:41.640
w fourcy dot com. This week and every week, we

13
00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:45.119
will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,

14
00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:48.799
as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,

15
00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:54.000
let's join your hosts, Banita Bell Anderson as together we

16
00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:57.399
start with Asking Good Questions.

17
00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.040
Hey, Hello, good day to you, and thank you for

18
00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:09.439
joining the Ask Good Questions Podcast. We've got an amazing,

19
00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:16.879
amazing guest in an episode for you today. So with that,

20
00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:19.799
I want to we have so many things to talk about.

21
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.560
Let's get right into it. I'd like to welcome my

22
00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:28.000
guest Paris Kluff to the proverbial podcast stage.

23
00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:31.239
Well, thank you. I'm happy to be here. It's exciting

24
00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:33.719
to be able to share something that I and after

25
00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:35.920
talking with you, I think we're both very passionate about

26
00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:38.719
helping people understand how to manage their money more effectively

27
00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:42.159
so they can actually have a much better life.

28
00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:46.599
Yeah. Well, I think that I've always said, you know,

29
00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:50.319
if your finances are in good shape, usually that means

30
00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:52.359
that there's a lot less chaos and a lot of

31
00:01:52.599 --> 00:01:57.000
better things going on elsewhere in your life. So anyway,

32
00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.519
let me tell people a little bit about you first

33
00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:03.519
and then we can get into our discussion. So Paris,

34
00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:06.879
So I have to ask, because I was thinking, were

35
00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.000
your parents in Paris when you were born or something?

36
00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:11.400
Is that why your named Paris?

37
00:02:11.719 --> 00:02:15.319
No, that's a funny question, but I again, a great question,

38
00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:19.400
a good question, perfect for the podcast. So my parents

39
00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:22.400
enjoyed the story of Homer's iliad in the Odyssey, and

40
00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:24.719
many years ago there was a Hollywood movie that came

41
00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:28.599
out called Troy, and the Trojan War was depicted in

42
00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:31.439
that movie and the whole process of you know, it

43
00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.520
was a prince, Prince Paris who abducted Helen of Troy

44
00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:37.159
and took her back to it and started the Trojan War.

45
00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:40.719
And my mom and dad really enjoyed that story, and

46
00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:42.599
they had another name picked out for me, which was

47
00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:45.199
I think Spencer. And when I came out, my dad

48
00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:47.719
flipped a coin and the coin landed on Paris. So

49
00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:51.840
I'm glad I had. I'm glad that I got Paris

50
00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.719
because it's been a wonderful, wonderful name throughout my whole life.

51
00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.520
Well, it makes for a great story, yes, so well.

52
00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:04.120
Paris is a former financial advisor turned educator and coach.

53
00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.439
He believes that money has more to do with our

54
00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:11.879
habits and our behaviors and our beliefs than it does

55
00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:14.520
with math, and so that's why he's here because I

56
00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.560
was intrigued by his take on things. He's been in

57
00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:20.879
the industry almost twenty five years. He's been married for

58
00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:24.240
twenty eight years, has five kids and two sons in laws.

59
00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:30.599
His life experience includes losing everything in two thousand and eight,

60
00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:34.800
living on food stamps, and rebuilding to where he now

61
00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:38.280
has a path of six figure income and a passion

62
00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:42.639
for helping others to turn their income into wealth and

63
00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:48.159
build a massive bank account. So paris welcome. Is there

64
00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:50.479
anything you'd like to add or should we get into it?

65
00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:51.159
What do you think?

66
00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.240
No, thank you very much that that was a great introduction.

67
00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:58.039
I just want to my real claim to fame is

68
00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:00.479
that I am a husband and a fall and I

69
00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:02.599
love my kids and my family and this that's my

70
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.560
passion to go out there and you know, set up,

71
00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:07.919
set up yourself first and then help others do the same.

72
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:11.280
So, well, that's the most important thing, isn't it. Yes,

73
00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:18.240
everything else is secondary to godden family and uh, you know,

74
00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:23.120
because that's where good habits really, that family structure is

75
00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:24.399
where our good habits start.

76
00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:25.800
Yes. True.

77
00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:30.560
So we're going to talk about finances and health and wellness.

78
00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:33.920
So I'm just curious. Let's start with how do you

79
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.240
think financial stress affects our physical and mental health?

80
00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:40.800
Well, you know, one of the things that I found

81
00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:42.680
over the years and working with people is that and

82
00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.079
I'm sure you found the same thing, is that we

83
00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:48.439
get worried about what are what the bills are, we

84
00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.079
get worried about the debt that we have. We're stressed

85
00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:52.959
out about where are we going to get a phone

86
00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:57.000
call from the creditors and when you're in a constant

87
00:04:57.079 --> 00:04:59.560
state of worry, if you don't know how food's going

88
00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:03.319
to get on the table tomorrow, if you're constantly fighting

89
00:05:03.399 --> 00:05:07.000
and arguing and stressing out about money, you're going to

90
00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:10.120
have mental health. Your anxiety is going to be through

91
00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:14.439
the roof, your panic attacks are going to be more prevalent. Potentially,

92
00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:16.759
you're going to have all kinds of things that are

93
00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:20.759
going to be distracting you from your goal. And I,

94
00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:24.040
you know, I this is a real thing, and ADHD

95
00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:25.839
is one of the biggest things right now to talk

96
00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:28.439
to help people kind of be off on their you know,

97
00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.759
to be to stay focused on life. And when we

98
00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:34.480
have so many distractions already in the world, we have

99
00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:37.519
so much social media, so many other things to add

100
00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:40.839
to that. The stress of not knowing, man, if I

101
00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:44.639
had an emergency tomorrow, medical or otherwise, like would be

102
00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:47.279
able to handle it. And most Americans don't have I

103
00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:49.879
think the statistic is most Americans don't have four hundred

104
00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:52.920
dollars just to put towards an emergency that happens in

105
00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:59.120
their life. So the stress alone is a huge mental

106
00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:03.560
I think that's a huge cause of health issues.

107
00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:07.519
Yeah, well, what do you think some common signs are

108
00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:11.079
then that money anxiety is impacting your well being.

109
00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:14.480
I think one of the things is is I'm going

110
00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:17.839
to use the word delusion, because sometimes we are delusional

111
00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:21.399
and we think that everything's great and everything's going to

112
00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:24.920
stay great, and it just that's just not how the

113
00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:29.040
world works, the least in my experience. I shared with

114
00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:31.199
you shared earlier that I lost everything and lived on

115
00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.240
food stats for a little while. I was I was

116
00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:36.079
making great income. I was you know, I had just

117
00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:40.399
started my financial practice, and I was an advisor back then,

118
00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.759
and I was helping people with assets center management. I

119
00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:45.560
was doing you know, the retirement planning. I was doing

120
00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.399
a myriad of things in the financial industry. And so

121
00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:52.240
around two thousand and eight, I was headed for my

122
00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:55.600
best year. Like I was one hundred percent commission and

123
00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:57.720
I was on track to hit six figures that year.

124
00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.680
And you know, anybody who's commission only making six figures,

125
00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:03.560
that to me is impressive. I don't you know, just

126
00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.319
it's an impressive feat. And by the end of that

127
00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.600
two thousand and eight I realized I was not going

128
00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:12.360
to be even I was going to be lucky if

129
00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:15.199
I made another ten thousand dollars by in the last

130
00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:18.399
quarter because the way the economy was going, And so

131
00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:23.839
I spent a lot of time, quite frankly, believing so

132
00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:28.439
before that, I believed that everything was great, everything was

133
00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:30.879
always going to continue, that my income was just going

134
00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:32.360
to get bigger and better, and that I was going

135
00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:35.759
to always be blessed. And you know, sometimes God has

136
00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:39.639
a little different path for you, and I recognized after

137
00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:42.800
going through that significant trial of losing everything, like literally

138
00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:45.920
I could write a country music song about about what

139
00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:49.199
I went through, but that was it was also a

140
00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:51.639
blessing as well. It was just different, didn't I didn't

141
00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:54.560
formulate it as a blessing right away, But after I've

142
00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:56.879
gone through it, it's been a blessing in my life since.

143
00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:01.120
But I'll tell you that when I was I personally

144
00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:04.319
was a little bit delusional about everything great. And when

145
00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.879
I lost to everything, when I got the notification, all

146
00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.399
my clients were pulling their money out of because they

147
00:08:09.399 --> 00:08:11.959
needed to stay liquid because they were investing in real

148
00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:14.399
estate and the real estate market was just not going

149
00:08:14.439 --> 00:08:17.439
the right way. And so one after another, I just

150
00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:19.879
started losing all my clients. And when you lose assets

151
00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:22.360
under management, that means my income was going down and

152
00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:24.560
I didn't have the money, and so I spent a

153
00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:27.639
period of time where I was just like I literally

154
00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:30.600
remember being on the phone with a debt collector and

155
00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:33.240
him screaming and yelling at me all the different things

156
00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:35.480
that he's going to do to me or his company

157
00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:39.000
was going to do to me. And I just remember

158
00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:41.799
sitting on the couch one day and I thought, I've

159
00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:45.120
never been here before. I've always been blessed financially. I've

160
00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:47.200
always had what I needed. I've just never been in

161
00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:52.320
a place where I lost everything. My savings was drained. Thankfully,

162
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:55.159
I had, you know, several I had a couple tens

163
00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:57.320
of thousands of dollars in savings that helped me get

164
00:08:57.320 --> 00:08:59.600
through about four or five months. But after that, I

165
00:08:59.639 --> 00:08:59.919
was like.

166
00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:02.759
But then it's gone. I've been there too.

167
00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:05.759
Yeah, it's gone. And so my stress level was through

168
00:09:05.799 --> 00:09:10.200
the roof and I just remember there was like I

169
00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:12.320
just didn't know what to do, and I just realized

170
00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:15.200
that I was I had been delusional in my life,

171
00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.360
believing that everything was always going to be great and

172
00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:21.919
not planning. And there's wisdom in I believe there's wisdom

173
00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:25.799
in planning for the worst case scenario, but then also

174
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:30.840
being able to handle best case scenarios. It's never as

175
00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:32.840
bad as it seems. It's never as good as it seems.

176
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:35.279
The roller coaster ride of life goes up and it

177
00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:37.559
goes down, and so you just kind of kind of

178
00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:41.080
keep that steady, steady eddy pace. And that's what I've

179
00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:43.720
learned since. But boy, was it was I delusional when

180
00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:44.399
I first started.

181
00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:48.840
I when I first started my podcast, someone said, why

182
00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:52.240
are you doing health and wellness things? You're a financial advisor,

183
00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:57.519
and and I said, you know, health is the first wealth.

184
00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.240
That's one thing. And the the thing that I thought was,

185
00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:02.919
you can have all the money in the world, but

186
00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:07.279
if your health isn't good, it doesn't it doesn't matter.

187
00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:14.440
And so it seems like improving your finances and learning

188
00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:17.919
what is it that you're not doing that that you

189
00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:22.360
need to do to write the ship with your finances,

190
00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:27.279
How that can actually reduce chronic stress and health issues.

191
00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:31.320
Yeah, just in my practice as well. And one of

192
00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:34.279
the big other things is, you know, delusional is thinking

193
00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:38.159
everything's great. But as some of the offshoots of that

194
00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.120
are when the when the bill comes in the mail,

195
00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:43.600
you just set it aside because everything's great, or you

196
00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:46.080
never you don't open up your bills, you don't contact

197
00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:48.519
your do your research to see if you can get

198
00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:51.360
a better deal on your different insurance products, or you know,

199
00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.960
you don't do the homework necessary. And then there's the

200
00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.399
other thing is that you begin to quickly associate money

201
00:10:57.559 --> 00:11:00.960
with math and and there's a very high correlation. Don't

202
00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.279
get me wrong. You know you do need to have

203
00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.559
some math skills. But I think so many people are like,

204
00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:07.399
I'm bad at math, therefore I'm bad at money. Well,

205
00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:10.960
that doesn't know, that's not Don't do that to yourself.

206
00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:14.559
Don't become a self fulfilling prophecy. And so when people

207
00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:18.320
ignore the bills, they ignore the creditors, they ignore their

208
00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:21.759
credit scores, they ignore all of the things that can

209
00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:26.320
actually help them, that's another sign that somebody is overstressed

210
00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:31.600
and they're not in the right mindset. Because you know,

211
00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:33.799
if you can give yourself, if you can take a

212
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:36.240
deep breath and sit down and realize, hey, you know what,

213
00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:39.679
it's as easy as one, two, three, just get get

214
00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:41.600
in front of it, and once you're in front of it,

215
00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:43.759
you maintain it. It's like it's like doing yard work,

216
00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:46.120
or it's like losing weight at the gym. You know,

217
00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:50.200
the first time you walk into the gym, you're you're overweight.

218
00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:54.480
Potentially you're definitely not conditioned for all that weight, and

219
00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:57.679
you some especially as a guy, and the ladies may

220
00:11:57.759 --> 00:11:59.960
have a similar scenario, but especially as a guy, where

221
00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:02.279
oh man, I'm gonna go bench press three hundred pals

222
00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:04.200
my first day, you know, because we got to show

223
00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:06.960
how tough we are, and then we're so sore and

224
00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.240
so much pain for the next three we don't even

225
00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:12.200
we don't go back for three weeks. And that's kind

226
00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:14.480
of a similar thing with money, in my opinion, is

227
00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:17.639
like you're overweight, meaning you're in debt, you're eating not

228
00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:20.960
you're not eating properly, meaning you're you're The correlation there

229
00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.799
is you're spending more than you're making. Uh, you know,

230
00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:27.879
you're you're you're maybe you're you're stressed out and that

231
00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:30.759
means that you're maybe you are working diligently to go

232
00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.159
find this new opportunity because you found this new investment

233
00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:35.840
opportunity and you come home. From a guy's perspective, it

234
00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:37.720
was for me, it was like, honey, I just found

235
00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:39.559
this great new business we need to get in part,

236
00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:41.559
you know, and you're trying to catch up, and this

237
00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:43.639
whole idea of catching up because you feel like you're

238
00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:46.320
behind the eight ball now, you make bad decisions, you

239
00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:49.200
invest in speculative things that don't get you anywhere, and

240
00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:51.879
then the cycle just kind of spirals downward from there.

241
00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:55.320
So there's so many correlations between health and wealth. I

242
00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:56.600
agree with you one hundred percent on that.

243
00:12:57.240 --> 00:12:59.840
Well, one of the things that I've done a lot

244
00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:03.159
of of teaching around is the concept of looking good,

245
00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:07.600
and so what you were talking about was looking good

246
00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:11.120
in a lot of different ways when it comes to finances.

247
00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:15.000
So to counter that, what do you think are some

248
00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:19.120
good daily habits what you know? Because I always think

249
00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:22.080
it's always good to have like these big grand plans,

250
00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:26.360
but you've got to get down to individual action plans

251
00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:28.960
or nothing is going to happen. So what would you

252
00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.919
say would be some good daily habits that combine like

253
00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:38.840
financial awareness and with you know something. You know, if

254
00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:41.039
I say mindfulness, people might go, what does that have

255
00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:42.799
to do with anything? But I think it has a

256
00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:43.639
lot to do with it, So.

257
00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:47.960
Great talk to me about So I think some daily habits. Now,

258
00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.360
one of the things that I think is once you

259
00:13:49.399 --> 00:13:53.679
get started and you have some good habits developed, you

260
00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:56.799
don't necessarily have to visit them every single day to

261
00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.759
have them continue to grow and serve you. But in

262
00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:03.519
the beginning, especially to establish those habits. You know, there's

263
00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.200
an old saying that says, you know, a habit is

264
00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:09.919
formed after thirty days, and while that's kind it.

265
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.559
Was twenty one, but I think thirty is better.

266
00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:16.600
Well, what's interesting is the book Atomic Habits kind of

267
00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:18.639
goes into that and says, yes, while that is true

268
00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:22.559
that a time with the habit is very important, it's

269
00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:26.320
almost it's also more important actually to have repetition with

270
00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.559
the habits. So the more times you repeat the habit,

271
00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.159
even if it's not twenty days or thirty days or whatever,

272
00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:35.320
the day marker is the repetition. How many times you

273
00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:40.120
perform the same habit actually is a greater determination that

274
00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.559
you're going to continue it. And so in the beginning,

275
00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:44.080
I would say, the first thing you want to do

276
00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:47.720
is you want to learn how to track your income

277
00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.879
and your expenses. That is kind of the key thing

278
00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:54.320
because we sometimes I mean, I don't go to the

279
00:14:54.360 --> 00:14:56.679
store every day, but boy, am I tempted to click

280
00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:59.919
you know whatever on Amazon? You know, on a regular basis,

281
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.240
so keeping track of the money you're spending to me

282
00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:06.279
is critical. The next thing I track on a regular

283
00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:10.039
basis is I track my assets and my liabilities, and

284
00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:16.360
you know, but in business, it's cash flow statements, which

285
00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:18.720
is your income and your expenses, and it's your balance sheet,

286
00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:22.279
it's your assets and your liabilities, so really your net worth,

287
00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.039
and so to me, those are the things to track.

288
00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:28.120
Now those are really kind of fancy terms and maybe

289
00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:31.200
overwhelming to somebody who's brand new, But once you get

290
00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.919
to know how to create a cash flow statement, it's

291
00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:35.720
so easy to maintain it, and the same with a

292
00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:38.320
balance sheet, super easy to maintain it, and just a

293
00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:41.600
couple of minutes you can update it. And whether you

294
00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:44.080
update it every day or every week, I recommend in

295
00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:46.279
the first month, I have a thirty day challenge that

296
00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.240
I give to my clients that are maybe struggling a

297
00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:50.480
little bit more with these habits, I.

298
00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:53.480
Say, And I went through with Paris, I went and

299
00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:55.320
I reviewed that whole thing. It's excellent.

300
00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:58.960
Thank you, thank you, I'm glad you did. I was wondering,

301
00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:00.480
I was like, oh, I bet she's trying to douce

302
00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:03.600
a little homework there. So I've had some excellent feedback

303
00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:06.759
on that whole program and just people learning how to

304
00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:10.840
really track their expenses more efficiently. And then once you

305
00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.960
know what your habits are, meaning looking back over the

306
00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:16.480
last ninety days, one hundred and twenty days and really

307
00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:18.879
getting a good track, you know, a good idea of

308
00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:22.000
what your habits are, then you create an average, and

309
00:16:22.039 --> 00:16:25.519
then moving forward, you track your expenses moving forward, and

310
00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:28.480
you work diligently to stay within the average or reduce

311
00:16:28.519 --> 00:16:30.440
the average in certain categories so that you can free

312
00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:33.679
up your cash flow. The more positive cash flow you

313
00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:36.559
can create, the more you're going to have the ability

314
00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:40.600
to create wealth and be financially independent free.

315
00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:46.480
So there's that concept, you know, with a scarcity mindset

316
00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:50.919
or abundance mindset, how do you think you shift from

317
00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:54.080
a scarcity mindset I'm never going to have enough to

318
00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:58.759
a wellness based abundance mindset. What would you say to that.

319
00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:02.519
Well, let's I mean, let's go back to the gym analogy.

320
00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:04.680
You know, you get into the gym, you get in

321
00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:06.160
the gym, and if you go to the gym and

322
00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:11.759
everyone there is still fat and overweight. You're gonna be like,

323
00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.599
what is happening at this gym? Like I'm not there's

324
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:18.240
it doesn't work. But if you go to the gym

325
00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:21.720
and you see people in various stages of getting to

326
00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:23.839
their health, like you might see some people that are

327
00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:26.680
I don't know how overweight you might be, or if

328
00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:28.920
you're listening and you're kind of the analogy here, but like,

329
00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:30.960
let's just say you're completely brand new to the gym,

330
00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.640
you're overweight, You're unconditioned, and overweight doesn't necessarily mean that

331
00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.400
you're like super huge. It could just be for your

332
00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:40.000
body type. You know, your height and whatever, your BMI

333
00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:43.319
whatever index. And I believe in skinny fat, Like there's

334
00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:45.359
people that are skinny but they're just no muscle. So

335
00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:48.720
there's that too. So conditioning is important. And I think

336
00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.599
that when you when you see other people have success

337
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:54.759
that have similar situations to you, Like for example, I

338
00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:57.880
know people right now that are on food stamps, and

339
00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.119
they might say, well, this is just the way it is,

340
00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:01.359
is the way I'm going to be. I'm going to

341
00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:03.160
be on food stamps and poverty for the rest of

342
00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:06.880
my life. Well, I was on food stamps and I

343
00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.519
turned my card back into the social worker and they

344
00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:11.680
were like, what are you doing. I'm like, I'm giving

345
00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:13.920
you the card back. I don't need it anymore, and

346
00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:17.519
they're like, like the shock on their eyes was like

347
00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:24.400
nobody does that. You know. I to go from that

348
00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:28.759
to having a positive six figure income passive income, and

349
00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:31.599
a positive six figure liquid network, not including my house.

350
00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:34.000
With including my house, I'm well into the six figures,

351
00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:36.079
but I don't include my house because I want to.

352
00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:39.000
I want to be raw and authentic, like I built cash,

353
00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:41.720
you know, I have cash investments and things that are

354
00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:43.920
liquid that I can quickly turn to cash if I

355
00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:46.440
need to. And that's a huge to me. That's huge.

356
00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:49.079
And so I just want to show people what's possible

357
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:53.240
if you believe it, because if everybody around you is

358
00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:56.519
it has a poor mindset. They don't believe it's possible.

359
00:18:56.519 --> 00:18:59.039
For them, they're not going to get anywhere because it's

360
00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:00.880
they were just born to the wrong family, they were

361
00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:02.759
born in the wrong skin color, they were born in

362
00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:06.759
the wrong neighborhood, and that's I don't doubt that there

363
00:19:06.759 --> 00:19:09.440
are challenges. I one hundred percent I agree there are

364
00:19:09.559 --> 00:19:13.839
challenges that are real. However, if you believe that that's

365
00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.680
going to be your life forever, then you're you've done

366
00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:20.640
yourself a disservice. There are examples of people from every

367
00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:25.039
walk of life, every skin color, every disability, every everything,

368
00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:28.000
that have gone on to have great success. So my

369
00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:31.680
opinion is that the first step is awareness and then

370
00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:34.279
changing your perspective a little bit and getting to know

371
00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:38.279
what's possible, not just for you, but for people around you.

372
00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:43.720
Because I'm telling you that there's a psychological term monology,

373
00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:45.480
but I don't know how technical we want to get.

374
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.279
But in psychology there's something called the locus of control.

375
00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:52.279
People with an external locus of control believe that everything

376
00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:55.160
around them is what controls their life, like there's no

377
00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:57.559
they have nothing, very little they can do to change

378
00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:00.559
their environment because everything out there, the man, the government,

379
00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.599
that whatever, it's all happening to them, it's all happening

380
00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:05.839
to me. God just doesn't love me, you know what

381
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:07.880
A kind of a thing. And then there's those within

382
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:11.519
an internal locus of control. And internal locus of control

383
00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:14.079
means I have the power, I can run my own ship,

384
00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:16.000
I can do this, I can get up and I

385
00:20:16.039 --> 00:20:18.599
can go and I like to partner with God with

386
00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:20.640
that my own personal life. Like, I know I have

387
00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:23.039
capability and I can do things, but I like to

388
00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:24.920
partner with God and say, Okay, God, let's do this

389
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.240
together because then I usually, quite honestly, it magnifies what

390
00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:32.960
I do like a lot. And so I just recommend

391
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.599
that for folks. And so meant I think awareness and

392
00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:38.200
changing your perspective and getting around people that are having

393
00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.599
success where you want to have success, so you believe

394
00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:41.599
it's actually possible.

395
00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:45.960
Well, there's that concept that made me think of you

396
00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:49.519
are the sum of the five people that you hang

397
00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:54.400
out with. So you, I mean, so you're in a

398
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:58.039
terrible situation, go to the library and go get onto

399
00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:00.640
YouTube and look at YouTube videos of people that have

400
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:04.039
been successful. I mean, there's always a way. I don't

401
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:06.319
accept that there is absolutely no way that you can

402
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:09.960
change the situation. So I agree, all right, So what

403
00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:15.039
are you think let's change into How do you start

404
00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:17.920
changing this situation? What would you say would be the

405
00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:23.680
first steps to take if you are serious about getting

406
00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:24.559
out of debt.

407
00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:28.880
Well, there's a funny story that I think. I don't

408
00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:31.000
know if anybody's familiar with whoever's listening to this might

409
00:21:31.079 --> 00:21:32.519
be may or may not be familiar with a guy

410
00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:35.680
named Alex Hermosi. Alex Hermosi is a business guy. He's

411
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:38.920
a bootstrapper. He pulled himself up from living in his

412
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:41.880
car to he's I think he's headed towards billionaire. Frankly,

413
00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:44.960
he's worth hundreds of millions, so that's a perfect He

414
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:47.480
wears a tank top and a hat and long hair

415
00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:49.599
and a long beard. I mean, he's not the kind

416
00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:51.519
of guy that you'd normally think of as a as

417
00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:55.519
a multimillionaire hundreds of millions of dollars. And he was

418
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:57.440
on a podcast recently that I was listening to, and

419
00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:00.759
he said, you know, if you're at rock bottom, you

420
00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:04.960
should have no shame, like go knock doors if you

421
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:06.799
have to, like you're already at the bottom, Like you

422
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:10.480
can't get worse. Yeah, we don't have shame, don't have

423
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:14.079
any preconceived notions, and just get out there and work

424
00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:15.839
and go for it and do what you've got to do.

425
00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:18.640
And I think that's there's a lot of shame and

426
00:22:18.759 --> 00:22:21.240
guilt around money because we think we should have done better,

427
00:22:21.240 --> 00:22:23.039
we think we should be further along than we are.

428
00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:25.359
We think all these things, and it's like, and while

429
00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:27.920
that may be true, there's a reality to where you

430
00:22:27.960 --> 00:22:30.200
are that you could have done, should have done, and

431
00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:32.960
would have done better. But if you live your life

432
00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.519
and that could have, should have would a world you're

433
00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:36.799
going to be in. Ah oh, that's just no way

434
00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:42.400
to live. And so recognizing the problem is okay. Dwelling

435
00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:45.079
and maintaining and staying in the problem is not okay.

436
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.720
Finding there's always a solution, and I would say the

437
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:53.200
first step is just being honest with yourself. Do you

438
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.640
have a problem with your money? Are you? And here's

439
00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:59.960
how you know? Do you have more money coming in

440
00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:02.680
than what's going out? Well, if you don't know what

441
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:04.680
that is, that's the first step. You've got to figure

442
00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:06.640
out how much is coming in and how much is

443
00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:09.640
going out. If you have if there's a positive number,

444
00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:12.839
if you have more going out than coming in, just

445
00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:15.440
take a deep breath and realize that's the start. I

446
00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:17.240
need to cut my I need to either make more

447
00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:20.839
money or I need to cut my expenses, and probably

448
00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:23.519
both right there. Man.

449
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:25.880
So the next thing you make me think of is

450
00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:32.880
I've had people say, well, I can't do whatever it is,

451
00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:35.200
and I'm like no, no, no, you need to turn

452
00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:38.799
that around and say how can I? And no matter,

453
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.839
I don't care what it is, it's like, how can

454
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:45.519
I do this or do that? And so it would

455
00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:47.960
probably be just how can I take that first step?

456
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.079
So what would you say? Well, I was just going

457
00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:53.559
to say. One of the things I've told my kids

458
00:23:53.559 --> 00:23:56.359
my whole life is that in our family, we don't

459
00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.240
say the word I can't or the phrase I can't.

460
00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:03.680
We say I need help. And that's when you begin

461
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.440
when you realize that every major, multimillionaire, everyone who's at

462
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:10.359
any success in their life, almost everyone like I would

463
00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:14.200
say it's I don't. I hate using absolutes because you

464
00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:16.279
just never know that there's always that one person who

465
00:24:16.279 --> 00:24:18.839
did it right. But everybody that I know that has

466
00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:22.200
had major success in life did it with friends, family,

467
00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:26.119
and a team or mentors, some coach or something like that.

468
00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:28.440
Like the top football players in the world, the top

469
00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:30.960
baseball players in the world, the top fitness.

470
00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:33.519
They always talk about somebody else that helped them along

471
00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:33.759
the way.

472
00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:37.000
Yeah, mentors and coaches, And so you've got to take

473
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.680
a deep breath and realize, look, I'm not doing if

474
00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:42.000
you always do what you've always done, You'll always get

475
00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:43.880
what you've always got. And if you don't like what

476
00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:51.160
you're getting, change what you're doing. That you have to

477
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:52.359
somebody that's going to help you.

478
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.079
So what would you say, Okay, so we're going to start,

479
00:24:58.359 --> 00:25:01.400
if we had to start as a ground zero, what

480
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:04.599
would be a good system or a good habit that

481
00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:09.880
would help someone stay debt free? Because another little thing

482
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:12.960
that I see happening to people is like they'll say,

483
00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:16.720
every time I try to get ahead, this happens or

484
00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:21.119
that happens. So what systems or habits would you say

485
00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:26.759
would be should be in place to help people stay

486
00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:29.160
out of debt and move forward.

487
00:25:31.640 --> 00:25:34.440
Well, I think the first thing to do is get

488
00:25:34.440 --> 00:25:38.880
a mental shift, because you have to realize that once

489
00:25:38.920 --> 00:25:41.920
you spend a dollar, that's it. You can't spend it again.

490
00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:47.519
And so what I it's a really hard place to start,

491
00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:49.640
but you have to start with your mindset. If you

492
00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:53.359
know that something costs one hundred dollars, you've got to

493
00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:57.559
discipline yourself to not and you only have one hundred dollars,

494
00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:00.720
you can't spend one hundred and ten. If you only

495
00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:03.000
have one hundred dollars, you shouldn't be spending one hundred

496
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:04.599
and ten. Well, with credit cards, we can spend two

497
00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:07.960
hundred if we only have one hundred, or ten thousand

498
00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:09.599
if we only have one hundred. So you've got to

499
00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:12.880
realize that if I can't pay for it right now,

500
00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:16.759
I probably shouldn't buy it. And that's there's there's a

501
00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:19.279
huge mental shift in that. The next thing I would

502
00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:21.920
say is that you've got to build a positive cash flow,

503
00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:27.839
And that follows quickly after understanding that you're spending is

504
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:31.599
what's really killing you in finances, and you've got to

505
00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:34.519
discipline you're spending. Freedom is on the other side of

506
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:38.160
discipline in all areas of life, and especially financially. And

507
00:26:38.200 --> 00:26:40.119
so if you discipline your spending, you're going to have

508
00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:42.519
a positive cash flow. Now, if you have a positive

509
00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:44.839
cash flow, you might say, what now that I have

510
00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:46.519
Let's say let's say that I meet with you and

511
00:26:46.759 --> 00:26:49.359
we find an extra five hundred dollars a month in

512
00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:52.119
your budget, and you might be saying, with paris out,

513
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:54.319
can you find I do it all day long? I

514
00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:56.839
can find at least five hundred is probably conservative. I'll

515
00:26:56.839 --> 00:26:59.319
probably find more that you're wasting. In other dumb things,

516
00:26:59.319 --> 00:27:01.119
you know, things that you're spending money on. I'm not

517
00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:03.200
talking about eating rice and beans after meeting with me.

518
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:05.319
I'm talking about, like you, there's holes in your bank

519
00:27:05.319 --> 00:27:08.000
account that you need to patch up because there's money

520
00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:11.200
sifting through them like fast. And so when I sit

521
00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:13.279
down with somebody, I say, listen, now that you have

522
00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:15.599
a positive cash flow, what's the next thing you want

523
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:17.319
to do? Almost invariably they say, I want to get

524
00:27:17.319 --> 00:27:20.079
out of debt. I'm like, okay, that's a great point. However,

525
00:27:21.079 --> 00:27:24.359
if you don't build an emergency fund first, if you

526
00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:26.480
have an emergency, you're going to go right back into

527
00:27:26.519 --> 00:27:29.480
debt and even worse. So my first, my first thing

528
00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:33.079
right after. So it's let's help you shift your mindset,

529
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:35.559
like why are you in the situation you're in? Not

530
00:27:35.640 --> 00:27:38.680
from a judgmental place, but let's think about your habits,

531
00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.400
your behaviors, and your beliefs thus far, and let's figure

532
00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:43.880
out you know, when you see something that you absolutely

533
00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:45.680
have to have and you don't have the money for it,

534
00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:49.039
what causes you to still buy it even though you

535
00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:50.319
know you don't have the money for it. Why are

536
00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:53.599
you spending tomorrow's money today? And once we figure out

537
00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:55.920
kind of the go through that little process. Then it's

538
00:27:55.960 --> 00:27:58.759
finding a positive cash flow, and then it's the next

539
00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.279
thing is build a buffer. You've got to have a

540
00:28:01.319 --> 00:28:05.559
buffer between you and the emergency and Murphy and his laws.

541
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:08.319
How about that right? And that buffer is my first

542
00:28:08.359 --> 00:28:14.880
step because I actually don't buy things. My mantra is

543
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:21.079
spend yesterday's money today, not tomorrow's money. And that means

544
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.000
you have to save up. I save up for things

545
00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:24.920
before I buy them. And that's a mental shift, and

546
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:26.319
that's that's what keeps me.

547
00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:29.960
That's basically, yeah, you're making me think of you know,

548
00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:34.200
as I was rebuilding and rebuilding my life and starting

549
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:40.400
over midlife, man, it was if I had to dip

550
00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:46.319
into my emergency cash, I did that. But then the

551
00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:50.000
first thing I would do would be to rebuild that yes,

552
00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:51.240
before moving on.

553
00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:53.559
M yep.

554
00:28:54.519 --> 00:28:57.480
So just to finish up this whole thing about debt

555
00:28:57.559 --> 00:29:02.359
and everything. Do you think there's emotional or psychologue blocks

556
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:04.599
that keep people in debt?

557
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:08.279
Oh? Absolutely, because you know, for example, let's say that

558
00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:12.160
you grew up and a family that was constantly struggling

559
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:15.880
with money, and you always saw your friends getting the

560
00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:19.920
things they wanted but you never got what you wanted. Well,

561
00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:23.359
now that you're an adult and you're making money, you

562
00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:25.839
might have the delusion. And I'm going to use delusion

563
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:27.799
because I'm using strong language here. You might have the

564
00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:30.599
delusion that thinks I deserve these things because I didn't

565
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:32.680
get them when I was a kid, and now that

566
00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:35.559
I'm making money, I deserve to have them and I can.

567
00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:38.680
I will always be making money, that's the delusion. I

568
00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:40.799
will always be making good money, so I can afford

569
00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:42.680
to maintain it. I can stay on there. I can

570
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:45.480
get on the treadmill and I can run because I'm

571
00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:47.720
healthy now and I can run, and I can run

572
00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:49.920
for a long time. Well, the problem with that is

573
00:29:49.960 --> 00:29:52.559
the treadmill of debt doesn't stop, and if you need

574
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:54.359
a break or you need a rest, you don't get

575
00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:57.359
to stop. Like you still have to run. But people

576
00:29:57.400 --> 00:29:59.319
don't know that until about the twenty fifth mile and

577
00:29:59.319 --> 00:30:02.599
they're like, I a break, Sorry, no breaks, your dad.

578
00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:07.400
And so's that theme from a psychological need that started

579
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.559
as a child. And then on the opposite side of it,

580
00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:13.279
maybe you got everything you always wanted, and maybe you

581
00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:16.240
always wanted to have everything, and so because your parents

582
00:30:16.279 --> 00:30:18.599
were wealthy, and now your mom and dad are like,

583
00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:20.839
all right, you're an adult, now go do it yourself.

584
00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.160
And so you believe that you always can buy anything

585
00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:25.359
because that's what you had as a kid. Like we

586
00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:27.519
just bought whatever car we wanted, we bought, whatever house

587
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:29.440
we wanted, we bought. If we needed a treadmill, we

588
00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:32.160
bought it. If we needed supplements, if we needed a

589
00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:34.720
new whatever, a TV, we bought it. Because mom and

590
00:30:34.839 --> 00:30:38.200
dad were wealthy and had plenty. But you never gone,

591
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:40.240
You didn't build the wealth to be able to do that.

592
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:42.160
You just think that that came and that's part of

593
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:44.480
your life. And so on the other side, and I'm

594
00:30:44.519 --> 00:30:47.279
generalizing here too, Benita, right, Like there's a lot of individuals.

595
00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:49.920
No, well, that's why you have somebody that built a

596
00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:53.559
business and then they don't do the work to train

597
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:57.559
their family, and then and then the people that inherit

598
00:30:57.599 --> 00:30:58.759
that business destroy it.

599
00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:00.160
Yep, same thing.

600
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:01.960
It happened several times.

601
00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:04.799
And so people get as adults. They either get into

602
00:31:04.839 --> 00:31:07.160
debt because they just feel like they deserve it because

603
00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:08.960
they didn't get it when they were a kid, or

604
00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:11.400
they get into debt because they deserve it because that's

605
00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:13.960
how they were raised as a kid with being able

606
00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:16.799
to buy anything, anything and everything all the time, anytime

607
00:31:16.839 --> 00:31:18.799
they want it, and they always want design or clothes

608
00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:23.079
and that, and when mom and dads money is not around,

609
00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:25.960
they don't have it, but they still think they do

610
00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:28.799
and so they end up getting into debt for that

611
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:33.720
in that way.

612
00:31:31.799 --> 00:31:35.640
Well, what do you think? What do you think they're

613
00:31:35.640 --> 00:31:41.839
the most common financial habits that sabotage that long term success.

614
00:31:43.160 --> 00:31:45.319
And I can think, I mean, I'm looking at me

615
00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:51.319
because I know how after my you know, life changing

616
00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:54.880
divorce that I went through, I know how I sabotaged myself.

617
00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:58.440
But what do you think? How do what are the things?

618
00:31:58.440 --> 00:32:00.880
What do you think the habits are that's avatarge people.

619
00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:05.720
I think one of the major habits is, uh, they

620
00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:10.680
just they spend from almost as if it's like an addiction,

621
00:32:10.839 --> 00:32:13.599
like they just they spend. They just spend money. They

622
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:16.599
need more, they feel like they need. There's an old

623
00:32:16.599 --> 00:32:18.240
saying that's kind of fun. I think I think you

624
00:32:18.359 --> 00:32:22.079
recognize it. It's like I think it's Oh, I'm gonna

625
00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:23.759
I'm not going to say it correctly. I'm sorry you

626
00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:26.160
might have to look it up and put it. But

627
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:31.000
it's buy and buy, or don't you worry little want

628
00:32:31.079 --> 00:32:33.559
by and by you'll be a necessity or something like that.

629
00:32:33.960 --> 00:32:36.240
And so it's like, how many times do we we

630
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:39.240
want something nice and we see our friend has the

631
00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:42.000
new iPhone and we don't really need the new iPhone,

632
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:43.400
but our friend has it, and they're telling us all

633
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:45.119
about all the features and benefits, and then all of

634
00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:47.960
a sudden, we now need it, like we don't just

635
00:32:48.039 --> 00:32:49.759
want it, we need it, like we've got to have

636
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:52.559
those features and benefits. And so the habit of I

637
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:56.200
think that's another habit that's that's that's critical. Another habit

638
00:32:56.279 --> 00:32:58.960
is not it's actually an anti habit, if you will,

639
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:01.200
it's it's the habit of not tracking your money and

640
00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:05.559
not keeping it on top of your finances habit too,

641
00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:09.759
in my opinion, And so I believe that those are

642
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:12.400
some of the some big habits that I think people

643
00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:17.079
sabotage themselves. Another one is another habit, is the habit

644
00:33:17.119 --> 00:33:20.839
of procrastination. I think the best time to invest is

645
00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:22.880
twenty years ago, but the next best time is to

646
00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:29.319
So people procrastinate investing, saving, looking at their money, just

647
00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:34.160
getting started with their financial lives. They'll procrastinate so far

648
00:33:34.680 --> 00:33:36.519
that it's almost like the decision is made for them

649
00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:38.920
at some point because now they don't they just don't

650
00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:44.119
have the time. And so stop procrastination is a superpower

651
00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:46.880
if you use it correctly and procrastinate the right things,

652
00:33:47.240 --> 00:33:49.519
but it's a complete curse to your family if you

653
00:33:49.559 --> 00:33:51.480
are procrastinating the wrong way.

654
00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:57.119
What do you think Let's talk about coaches and like,

655
00:33:57.200 --> 00:33:59.440
you know, I call myself an investor coach. You're tell

656
00:33:59.640 --> 00:34:02.799
calling yourself an educator and a coach. What do you

657
00:34:02.839 --> 00:34:07.200
think the role of is accountability? You know, partners, coaches,

658
00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:14.159
maybe apps? How do you think that plays in changing habits?

659
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:18.079
So there was a study done in maybe I can

660
00:34:18.119 --> 00:34:20.239
find it really quickly, But there was a study done

661
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:25.719
that was that talked about the accountability. Let me see

662
00:34:25.719 --> 00:34:30.639
if I can find it really quickly. So there was

663
00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:34.280
a study by the FCA, which is the American Society

664
00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:37.199
of Training and Development that said that if you have

665
00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:39.559
an idea or a goal, you have a ten percent

666
00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:42.960
likelihood of completing it just by having the idea. If

667
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:46.559
you consciously decide that you'll do it, the goal goes

668
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:50.360
from ten percent to twenty five percent. If you actually

669
00:34:50.920 --> 00:34:53.599
do it, you actually embark on it, you have a

670
00:34:53.639 --> 00:34:57.239
forty percent chance of completing it. If you create a

671
00:34:57.280 --> 00:34:59.840
plan to accomplish the goal, you now have a f

672
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:03.079
fifty percent chance of accomplishing the goal. If you commit

673
00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:05.960
to somebody else that you're going to do it, you

674
00:35:05.960 --> 00:35:08.280
have a sixty five percent chance. And here's the kicker.

675
00:35:08.760 --> 00:35:12.400
If you have a specific accountability a partner where you

676
00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:14.960
meet with him on a regular basis, it goes from

677
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:18.400
sixty five percent to ninety five percent chance of accomplishing

678
00:35:18.440 --> 00:35:21.119
the goal. And that's because you have an accountability partner

679
00:35:21.119 --> 00:35:23.000
that you meet with regularly that helps you do that.

680
00:35:23.480 --> 00:35:26.159
And that's to me, that's the power or one of

681
00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:29.599
the powers secret powers of having a coach is do

682
00:35:29.639 --> 00:35:32.360
you have an accountability partner that gives you the I mean,

683
00:35:32.679 --> 00:35:35.119
to go from sixty five, which is pretty good, actually,

684
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:37.159
sixty five percent chance of hitting your goal is pretty good.

685
00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:39.079
But to go from sixty five to ninety five, like

686
00:35:39.159 --> 00:35:41.920
every other increment was like ten or fifteen percent, that

687
00:35:42.199 --> 00:35:47.679
accountability regular appointed appointments, account with accountability partner coach jump

688
00:35:47.800 --> 00:35:50.440
thirty percent. That's the biggest jump in the whole list

689
00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:54.159
of increases. And I think that's that's just powerful having

690
00:35:55.199 --> 00:35:57.760
So I did a video. I have a YouTube channel

691
00:35:57.800 --> 00:35:59.639
and I do a video. I did a video recently

692
00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:02.159
on the day diference between a financial advisor, a financial planner,

693
00:36:02.199 --> 00:36:05.679
and a financial coach. And a financial advisor is going

694
00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:09.360
to be somebody that has typically their commission only and

695
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:11.159
so they're going to want to sell you something to

696
00:36:11.199 --> 00:36:13.320
earn their living. And that's fine because we need to

697
00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:15.239
buy stuff. And that's totally cool as long as you

698
00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:18.639
know that a financial planner is going to develop a

699
00:36:18.679 --> 00:36:20.639
plan for you and then hand you the plans and

700
00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:24.199
say typically they'll say, good luck, here, here's the plane,

701
00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:26.519
here's where you are, here's where you're going. You know,

702
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:29.840
go find the best way to do it. Where a

703
00:36:29.960 --> 00:36:32.000
coach is going to say, okay, let's take what the

704
00:36:32.039 --> 00:36:35.199
financial planner gave you, or let's create our own financial plan,

705
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.079
because as a coach, I can help somebody find out

706
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:38.840
where they want to go, find out where they are,

707
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:41.360
look at the best route to get there, and then

708
00:36:41.400 --> 00:36:43.519
I can say look, as a coach, I will provide

709
00:36:43.559 --> 00:36:47.400
turn by turn directions, I will provide accountability, and I

710
00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:50.840
will help you along the way. I have an example

711
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:52.239
one of my clients. They came to me when they

712
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:54.559
first came to me, There, Paris, we keep getting into debt.

713
00:36:54.599 --> 00:36:56.039
We get into debt and then we get out of it,

714
00:36:56.079 --> 00:36:57.280
and then we get into debt and then we get

715
00:36:57.280 --> 00:36:58.840
out of it. And I'm like, how do I stop

716
00:36:58.840 --> 00:37:00.400
the cycle? I want to stay out of it, yet

717
00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:02.559
I want to get out and stay out. And then

718
00:37:02.599 --> 00:37:05.239
I said, perfect, let's go. And so in the first

719
00:37:05.320 --> 00:37:07.960
three months, we were able to pay off ninth Like,

720
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:11.159
we didn't change much of their like, we disciplined their spending,

721
00:37:11.480 --> 00:37:12.800
and we were able to get them out of debt

722
00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:15.840
by about nine thousand dollars. And because of some of

723
00:37:15.960 --> 00:37:17.639
the things I shared with them, we were actually able

724
00:37:17.639 --> 00:37:20.119
to increase their overall networth by twenty thousand dollars just

725
00:37:20.119 --> 00:37:23.320
in three or four months. And they had a setback.

726
00:37:23.639 --> 00:37:26.079
Their car broke down and they literally had to buy

727
00:37:26.119 --> 00:37:29.719
a car. And they're like, Paris, all this progress is

728
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:31.639
going to be lost because we have to buy a

729
00:37:31.639 --> 00:37:35.079
new car. Like not necessarily. There are strategies around how

730
00:37:35.079 --> 00:37:37.639
to do this, and so we did. We found a

731
00:37:37.639 --> 00:37:41.800
strategy that works, and they're actually their net worth did

732
00:37:41.840 --> 00:37:44.760
suffer some, but it still grew, it's the next month

733
00:37:44.760 --> 00:37:47.000
we retracted. It were like, let's just see, we were

734
00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:48.840
all kind of like biting our nails to see if

735
00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:51.559
their networth still went up, and it did. And so

736
00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:54.320
it's it's just really neat to be able to see

737
00:37:54.320 --> 00:37:56.559
those kinds of things happening. And that's what a coach

738
00:37:56.599 --> 00:37:59.480
can do, Like when an advisor, when if your car

739
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:01.639
breaks down and you don't know how to fit that

740
00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:05.039
into your budget with with your savings account goals and

741
00:38:05.079 --> 00:38:07.639
your investment goals and your income and you're getting out

742
00:38:07.639 --> 00:38:10.000
of debt goals. Like when you have something that hits

743
00:38:10.039 --> 00:38:13.400
you from out of left field, what do you do well?

744
00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:15.679
I mean, chat, GPT might be able to help, and

745
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:18.000
Google might be able to help. But what if you

746
00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:20.239
can call a guy. What if you have somebody's cell

747
00:38:20.239 --> 00:38:23.360
phone number, who's got twenty five years of experience, working

748
00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:27.320
with hundreds of people across who knows how many experiences,

749
00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:29.960
And I can just do my own my brain, my brain,

750
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:32.119
I teach people, I said, my brain is like Google.

751
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:34.639
It's a little slower, but my brain is like Google.

752
00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:37.039
If you put in a question, I'll and I know

753
00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:40.000
your situation. Yeah, I'll find you I'll find you two

754
00:38:40.119 --> 00:38:42.559
or three strategies that would work, and then I'll explain

755
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:45.760
those strategies, and then we'll implement whichever one you feel

756
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:48.320
the best about. And that's what a coach does. And

757
00:38:48.639 --> 00:38:51.119
a coach can be a financial advisor, and financial advisors

758
00:38:51.119 --> 00:38:53.079
can be coaches, and planners can be coaches and planners.

759
00:38:53.239 --> 00:38:55.920
You know, they all there are some there is some overlap,

760
00:38:56.360 --> 00:38:58.000
but I think really what a coach is going to

761
00:38:58.039 --> 00:39:00.480
help you do is implement. I have a friend who

762
00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:02.039
went to one of these planners, I think it was

763
00:39:02.079 --> 00:39:04.519
an American Express or one of these other ones. He spent

764
00:39:04.599 --> 00:39:06.760
like five or six hundred dollars, seven hundred eight something

765
00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:09.960
like that. He said, and he said, the guy sent

766
00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:11.599
gave me. After it was over, he gave me a

767
00:39:11.679 --> 00:39:15.239
leather bound, really nice grafts charts, a whole notebook and said, okay,

768
00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:17.440
have a great day, and I'm like thanks, you know,

769
00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:18.519
we wait to pay.

770
00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:18.840
You know.

771
00:39:19.159 --> 00:39:21.079
He was embarrassed because he didn't know what to do.

772
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:22.880
And he's like, Paris, I have no idea how to

773
00:39:22.920 --> 00:39:25.840
implement any of this stuff. And that's like, well, you

774
00:39:25.960 --> 00:39:27.760
just spent seven hundred dollars and you have no idea

775
00:39:27.800 --> 00:39:29.440
how to do anything about it. Like, that's what a

776
00:39:29.480 --> 00:39:31.719
coach will help you do. A coach will help you

777
00:39:31.800 --> 00:39:33.920
implement it. And I feel like coaching is a newer,

778
00:39:34.519 --> 00:39:36.039
newer part of financial planning and.

779
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:38.159
I agree.

780
00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:40.320
And because of that, not a lot of people know

781
00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:42.159
what we really do. Number one and number two, I

782
00:39:42.199 --> 00:39:44.000
think that not a lot of people actually realize that

783
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:46.920
they need a coach before they needed an advisor and

784
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:47.400
a planner.

785
00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:52.400
Yeah, well you make me think about, you know, my

786
00:39:52.559 --> 00:39:56.280
own experience. Just to kind of end up on the

787
00:39:56.320 --> 00:40:01.719
whole accountability and coaching, I have always I've hired different

788
00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:07.239
types of coaches throughout my life. Man, I have gone

789
00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:10.519
further and done more when I knew I had to

790
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:13.480
talk to somebody, I knew that I had to report

791
00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:16.480
to somebody. And there's something about us, you know, it's

792
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:19.440
that whole. Remember at the very beginning we were talking

793
00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:22.840
about looking good. Well, I didn't want to be embarrassed,

794
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:25.039
you know. When it was time for me to talk

795
00:40:25.079 --> 00:40:27.719
to that coach, I was like, oh, I better get

796
00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:31.679
this done. But it would move me forward just a

797
00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:32.960
little bit at a time.

798
00:40:33.480 --> 00:40:38.239
Yes, progress, Progress is more important than perfection and the

799
00:40:38.280 --> 00:40:40.760
direction in which you're headed is more important than the

800
00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:43.400
speed at which you're headed. Although it's all those things

801
00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:47.199
are still important, But give yourself some grace and realize that, hey,

802
00:40:47.559 --> 00:40:50.320
all of us are here on this planet trying to

803
00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:52.360
figure it out. I've got a little more experience in

804
00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:54.880
this area. You got a little more experience in that area.

805
00:40:55.039 --> 00:40:57.119
Let's get together and share our experience and hopefully we'll

806
00:40:57.119 --> 00:40:58.880
both be edified at the end of it.

807
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:04.039
Well, I always think, man, the time is going to go.

808
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:07.400
You know, it'll be fine, but it always goes really fast,

809
00:41:07.800 --> 00:41:12.159
it does. I want to end up with what small

810
00:41:12.360 --> 00:41:17.840
consistent changes can really can lead to big results over time.

811
00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:22.440
What would you say would be those small consistent changes

812
00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:23.239
that you could take.

813
00:41:24.760 --> 00:41:27.039
So a lot of times people get as I share.

814
00:41:27.079 --> 00:41:28.559
I think I shared a little bit earlier in the

815
00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:31.320
podcast about how sometimes people feel like they're behind the

816
00:41:31.320 --> 00:41:34.719
e ball, like, oh my gosh, I'm forty years old

817
00:41:34.800 --> 00:41:38.480
and I just got started investing I need and then

818
00:41:38.519 --> 00:41:40.880
they do the calculators, you know, to be able to

819
00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:42.519
have the amount of money that I need by the

820
00:41:42.519 --> 00:41:44.880
time I'm sixty five, I need to be putting away,

821
00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:47.559
you know, five thousand dollars a month, they're like, that's

822
00:41:47.559 --> 00:41:50.000
my whole thing. I can't you know what I mean? Yeah,

823
00:41:50.199 --> 00:41:52.079
And so they're like, forget it, forget the whole thing.

824
00:41:52.559 --> 00:41:55.639
And so to me, it's more about the habit than

825
00:41:55.679 --> 00:41:58.599
it is about the amount of money. So one thing

826
00:41:58.639 --> 00:42:01.039
I would say is for sure is that start with

827
00:42:01.079 --> 00:42:03.760
what you can, even if it's only a dollar a month,

828
00:42:04.199 --> 00:42:06.639
because the habit of saving is more important than the

829
00:42:06.679 --> 00:42:11.719
amount you're saving. After you have developed the habit, you can,

830
00:42:11.880 --> 00:42:15.039
you'll find that you'll see the results and you'll say,

831
00:42:15.079 --> 00:42:18.119
oh my gosh, I've I've got ten dollars here. That's

832
00:42:18.199 --> 00:42:19.679
kind of cool. It works, you know, And then you'll

833
00:42:19.679 --> 00:42:21.480
save ten dollars a month. Then you'll save two hundred.

834
00:42:21.519 --> 00:42:24.320
Then before you know, you're saving hundreds of dollars a month,

835
00:42:24.440 --> 00:42:27.079
and you're actually way further along than you ever thought

836
00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:30.599
you'd be. And so to me, it's those It really

837
00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:34.599
does boil down to the small things. And so and

838
00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:38.320
on the flip side of that is you have to

839
00:42:38.360 --> 00:42:42.280
be very careful with the small things in your finances

840
00:42:42.320 --> 00:42:45.159
because it's the small expenses. It's the ten dollars here

841
00:42:45.199 --> 00:42:47.480
and the twenty dollars there that it's going to add

842
00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:50.559
up to hundreds of dollars every month. I have a

843
00:42:50.599 --> 00:42:53.519
great story in that I share with people about that

844
00:42:53.559 --> 00:42:55.719
how I learned that. That thing, and you know, ten

845
00:42:55.800 --> 00:42:57.920
or fifteen dollars, twenty dollars here and there can add

846
00:42:57.960 --> 00:43:01.159
up to hundreds of dollars. And if you're not careful.

847
00:43:01.239 --> 00:43:04.719
So that's another really habit that I would do is

848
00:43:04.719 --> 00:43:07.719
I would be I would be diligent with where your

849
00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:12.039
money's going. And that's to me, that's huge. And then

850
00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:14.519
and then the third thing I would say is spend

851
00:43:14.599 --> 00:43:17.400
time to educate yourself, because as you educate yourself and

852
00:43:17.440 --> 00:43:21.719
become more financially literate, your confidence will increase. Right now,

853
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.760
some of the problems that you're having is because you

854
00:43:23.840 --> 00:43:26.400
don't know what you don't know. And if you just

855
00:43:26.519 --> 00:43:28.440
would learn a few things, you'd be like, oh, wait

856
00:43:28.440 --> 00:43:30.159
a minute, I could do that. You mean you mean

857
00:43:30.199 --> 00:43:33.239
I could do it this way and have a better result.

858
00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:35.280
Like most people think that there's only one way to

859
00:43:35.280 --> 00:43:38.480
get out of debt. I've got, like I know of personally,

860
00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:40.719
like eight or nine strategies that work to get out

861
00:43:40.719 --> 00:43:42.159
of debt. I don't use them all because some of

862
00:43:42.159 --> 00:43:45.519
them are really weird, But I've helped people with two

863
00:43:45.639 --> 00:43:47.360
or three or four, and we pick and choose, and

864
00:43:47.400 --> 00:43:49.960
we sometimes we implement and create our whole new strategy

865
00:43:50.039 --> 00:43:52.440
just because we pick them for pieces. So I think

866
00:43:52.440 --> 00:43:55.800
the small things about one, it doesn't matter how much

867
00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:59.519
you invest, it's the habit of investing and saving. Two,

868
00:43:59.679 --> 00:44:03.920
it's making sure that you're diligent with you with your expenses,

869
00:44:03.960 --> 00:44:06.639
because every ten dollars here and there can add up quickly.

870
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:11.039
And then three is education. Every day, take fifteen or

871
00:44:11.079 --> 00:44:14.000
twenty minutes and just learn something new, watch a YouTube video,

872
00:44:14.480 --> 00:44:16.760
get a book, read a book that you know that's

873
00:44:17.119 --> 00:44:19.199
and read one chapter a day or something like that.

874
00:44:19.320 --> 00:44:21.559
Just do something every day to become more financially literc

875
00:44:21.639 --> 00:44:24.280
is that will increase your confidence and you begin to

876
00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:26.079
know things that you don't know now that will help

877
00:44:26.119 --> 00:44:28.880
you and increase and everything will accelerate as you as

878
00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:29.719
you get that education.

879
00:44:31.639 --> 00:44:34.440
Well, and with that, we need to wrap this up,

880
00:44:35.639 --> 00:44:38.480
so I want to make sure that everyone realizes that

881
00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:44.000
on the podcast website there's the bonus downloads and information

882
00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:46.039
on how to get a hold of Paris will be there.

883
00:44:47.320 --> 00:44:50.400
And so I would love to just thank you so

884
00:44:50.480 --> 00:44:52.280
much for being here with us. This was such an

885
00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:56.239
important thing. Most people need to you know, maybe they're

886
00:44:56.239 --> 00:44:58.599
already on this road, but they need to rehear this

887
00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:03.039
in a different way, from a different perspective. And so

888
00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:05.599
thank you so much for joining us today on the

889
00:45:05.639 --> 00:45:07.280
Ask Good Questions podcast.

890
00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:09.639
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

891
00:45:09.719 --> 00:45:12.360
All right, thanks for being here.

892
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:19.360
Today's episode is over, but we did ask Good Questions again,

893
00:45:19.480 --> 00:45:23.159
didn't We don't miss out as we broadcast live every

894
00:45:23.159 --> 00:45:27.119
Wednesday six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio

895
00:45:27.280 --> 00:45:31.159
at W fourcy dot com. Joined Banina Bellen. We're saying

896
00:45:31.239 --> 00:45:35.960
next week for more conversations with experts on finances, retirement,

897
00:45:36.079 --> 00:45:40.599
behavioral finance issues, health and wellness and more. Until then,

898
00:45:41.079 --> 00:45:43.920
remember to ask good questions.