Train Your Money: How Purpose-Driven Finance Builds Lasting Wealth and Impact with Hillary Seiler

So teaching the fundamentals, just the baseline of your financial house, how do you build from the ground up? We're having to start that while they're coming into 6, 7, and 8 figures of money, which can be a very hard lesson to learn because the mistakes are usually larger, the tax burdens are significantly heavier, and then there's also a lot of emotional pressure. And most people forget that money is emotional first and foremost. We have a relationship with it. We think about it specific ways, and everyone does that differently. And when you come into money that quickly, there is a burden and expectation on you.

Some of the highest earners in the world still struggle with money decisions. Train Your Money explores why income alone doesn't create financial clarity and what it really takes to turn money into a tool for purpose and impact. Welcome to Streams to Impact, brought to you by Steve Talker Capital. I'm your host, Dr. Allen. You've built a meaningful career and achieved financial success. Yet many high professionals quietly discover that earning more money doesn't automatically create greater freedom. Income rises, responsibilities grow, and financial decisions can start to feel more complicated rather than clearer. But here's another way, a way to move from financial pressure and confusion towards strategic clarity where your money works intentionally in service of the life and impact that you want to create. Beyond the Paycheck is the Financial Clarity Compass, a private educational mini masterclass that I created to help high-achieving professionals rethink how wealth is built, protected, and aligned with their purpose. This experience is our gift to you, and you can claim it by going to www.go.steedtalker.com/beyond-paycheck. Just a brief disclaimer. All information shared on Streams to Impact is for educational purposes only. It is not to be construed as investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. All investments incur risk. You should not invest if you are not prepared to lose 100% of your investment, and you're always encouraged to consult your legal, accounting, tax advisors before making any decisions.

Why is it that some of the highest earners in the world still struggle with money decisions? Well, today's guest has spent years helping elite performers answer that exact question. Hillary Asiler is a financial strategist, founder, and the author of Train Your Money. Her work focuses on helping professionals move from financial confusion and pressure to strategic clarity, where money becomes a tool that supports mission Rather than creating stress. Hillary has coached high-performing individuals, including NFL and NBA athletes, professionals who may earn more in a single year than most people earn in a lifetime, yet still face complex financial decisions that require discipline, clarity, and a strong mindset. So in this conversation, we explore why income alone does not create financial confidence and how people can shift from reactive financial habits to intentional strategy and what it really means to train your money so it supports your purpose and your impact. So welcome, Hillary. We're really glad to have you with us today. So before you were coaching executive and professional athletes, what personal experiences first made you realize that money struggles are often less about numbers and more about mindset? And behavior?

I think it all started with my mom. She was very sick when I was 19, and we as a family unit had to deal with the repercussions of health issues compounded with financial issues, because usually the two go hand in hand. And I started realizing very quickly that I didn't know anything about money. And because I didn't know anything about money, I needed to learn it. And I started with the basics of just asking whomever I could, different questions about money. Because mind you, this was in 2006. Google was there, but it wasn't what it is today. And it really was word of mouth is how I was learning. And it just came down to me saying, hey, I have to figure this out and I've got to do it now. And a part of that was understanding how I thought about money and how I was using it, and then figuring out what all of the little nuances of credit and budgeting and banking Putting all of that together while my mom was sick, which lasted about 7 years, I ended up having to make some really tough decisions and learn some really hard lessons in that. And so that drove me to really value personal finance. Understanding how it works became part of my life's work. And then fast forward, it landed me in NFL locker rooms.

Wow.

Kind of a tough way to begin that. 19 is pretty young to have to take over care of your parent there. That must have been some really trying times.

It was not easy. No, I would, I would never wish that upon anybody.

Yeah. Well, you've worked with NFL and NBA players who may earn more in a single year than most of us earn in a lifetime. So why do you, why do even these highest earners Why do they still struggle with money?

It comes down to a few different factors, but what I'll start with is at the foundational level, education. Most of these young athletes are not given any kind of education on how our system works, what economics are, how taxes function. And so they're handed really large sums of money and then they're not taught how to handle it. And just like anything, if you have no exposure, how are you So we've— we as a society, there's a lot of judgment that we put upon professional athletes because so many of them have financial struggles. As a coach who works with them, the biggest piece I hear from these guys is, no one ever taught me that. I don't know anything about this. It could be any subject. It could be how to hire a financial advisor. It could be how to take out a credit card. It can be how to get an apartment. Most of them have never even done a background check. They don't understand what they're filling out in an apartment application. And so teaching the fundamentals, just the baseline of your financial house, how do you build from the ground up? We're having to start that while they're coming into 6, 7, and 8 figures of money, which can be a very hard lesson to learn because the mistakes are usually larger. The tax burdens are significantly heavier. And then there's also a lot of emotional pressure. And most people forget that money is emotional first and foremost. We have a relationship with it. We think about it specific ways, and everyone does that differently. And when you come into money that quickly, there is a burden and an expectation on you on how you're going to handle it and what you should be doing with it from family members and friends and mentors and insert name here. And so we see a lot of that. And I would say that's the primary reason guys go broke is lack of education and then the expectations without actually fully understanding the value of a dollar.

Well, we also see in a lot of situations people may have, well, at least some idea as to what they should be doing financially, and yet they still don't seem to follow through. Why is it that financial behaviors fail even when there is a base of knowledge there?

Yeah, even with a base of knowledge, it doesn't mean you're going to handle it properly. And some of that comes down to simple choices, what people choose to do with their money, how they choose to set their limits and boundaries, or if they don't set any at all, and, and what those lifestyles Look like this day and age? I will say probably in the last 5 years it's become much more prevalent. Uh, 5 years ago this wouldn't have even been a conversation. But in locker rooms specifically, if I'm talking about NFL athletes, prior to COVID there wasn't a ton of media on these guys in terms of what they were spending money on and how they were spending. There was chitter chatter about how they were going broke, but you weren't seeing it, physically seeing it. And because of the rise of social media, now we're seeing it. We're seeing what they spend their money on and what the press has to say about it. And, you know, what people are coming out of the woodwork saying. And I think a lot of the social pressure that is put onto the expectation of earning money at such a young age is actually causing them to make bad choices, not because they are ignorant and not because they are stupid, It is looking at what life is telling you, the boxes you need to check because you make this much money. And if you're not doing it, you succumb to social pressure. And I see that a lot as well, because you are talking about— we're not talking about grown adults who have had 30 years in the workforce and are coming into 6 or 7 figures and at their peak of their earning years. We're talking about 20 to 25-year-old men, frontal lobe not fully developed, scientific It takes till about 28 for men's frontal lobe to fully develop, which means they're acting from an emotional, illogical place with money, not a logical thought-out process. So they're making impulsive decisions and going, oh, I'm gonna do this right now. And they'll look back on it and say, oh, I shouldn't have done that. But because they are not in a place where they can actually manage those emotions or even have been taught how to manage not only the money itself, X's and O's of the dollar figures. But how do you make a good decision? How do you say no? When can you say yes? Those are things that are learned over time. And the majority of us don't earn the bulk of our money in our 20s. We're earning it later in life. These guys are— it's the first thing they're earning. And so of course they're going to want to take advantage of all the fun stuff because that is what life has told them the expectation is. So we're combating a lot of social expectations while we're also combating emotional expectations, compounded with the fact that they're just getting an emotional base with money and an educational base with it. So it's a lot of things all at one time for one individual to manage, and that's why we see a lot of bad decisions.

Well, yeah, I— given all of that, it really shouldn't be surprising. I mean, they They're these young men and they're suddenly placed in the limelight and under a telescope. And there are all of these expectations from that social environment. And then there's a lot of expectations in those locker rooms and all of this. have to keep up with their teammates and all kinds of pressures on them to do very stupid things with their money. So it's not really surprising that they end up doing that. I'm wondering, do you work with professional female athletes?

I do, but not at the highest level. I work with collegiate athletes, which I will consider professional at this point with NIL. I work with all of LSU Athletics and all of Boise State University Athletics, females and male athletes, every single sport for each university. And there is definitely a difference between sports in terms of how our athletes were raised, if they had any money knowledge, if they did not, depending on the sport. sport that they play. But I'm seeing the same statistical issues whether it's an 18-year-old guy or an 18-year-old girl. The girl might pause a little more than the guy, but you're still dealing with young people who've been brought up on social media. They've been brought up with— in a world where everything is so public and everything you do is under a microscope, like you had said. They are trying to hit the societal norms.

Sure.

Check the societal buckets, so to speak. And that is something that I don't really think we talk about a lot in the finance world. It's something I talk about a lot with my student athletes and with my professional athletes. That's where we start. We don't start with, okay, here's your budget, this is how much you're spending. It's okay, let's go back to the nuts and bolts of how you were raised, where you were raised, how do you think about money? What is a yes for you? What's a no for you? Can you set boundaries? Can you put limits on what you're going to do for yourself, or are you just going to free-for-all We have to have those conversations first. And it doesn't matter if you're an 18-year-old female or you are a 25-year-old male, they still come up with the same struggles and they still come up with the same financial foundations, which is really not much of anything. Occasionally, I'll get the one-off student athlete whose parents talked about finance around the dinner table and they're educated about how the system works. That is maybe 1 in 500, 1 in 1,000. It's not a very big number.

Well, you talk about building a money mindset that aligns with purpose, not just, not just profits, not just money. So what does that look like in practice for someone who wants their wealth to support a larger mission, which I think even those 18 to 25 I think most people have, have a desire to do something meaningful. I, you know, they, they may not set up their finances like they think that way, but I suspect that most people at their core don't want to be here just to be here. They want to be here for a purpose. And, and, uh, so how do you help them to develop that more? mindset and develop those practices that supports that?

It comes down to asking them what they value. I think a lot of the decisions that we make around money come down to our values. What do we think is important? What do we find important? And I don't think people stop to ask that question very often. We're usually, what are you going to spend your money on? Not, what do you think is of value? Very different things. And when we're talking about money mindset and anyone that I'm working with, whether it's a professional athlete, an employee at a manufacturing firm, a high-level executive, down to a person who's in an internship starting their first job, I don't start with what's your salary. I don't start with what's your title. They don't start with what's your budget. When we're talking about mindset and creating a lifestyle that works for you, because lifestyle is a term that is different for everyone. When we're talking about money mindset, that really is how do you want your money to support your lifestyle? That's money mindset. So if we're going to get to the core of that, we have to ask what the values are. And anytime I'm working with someone, what are the things that are important to you? What do you want to be able to do with your life? I get answers all over the map. Some people, I want to be able to travel, I want to open a dog rescue. I heard that one last week. I thought that was awesome. Like, my whole mission in life is save up enough to open a dog rescue. I was like, that's great. How are we— let's, let's make a plan. Let's get there. How are we going to do it? I have some people that are young that just say, I really want to start a business in XYZ, insert concept here. I don't know how to do that, or I don't know how to save the money to do that. So showing them how to take what they currently have to build the dream is where I bridge the gap. And money mindset isn't just do this, be Excellent. Every single day, put in the reps. It's much more about what that individual actually wants out of their financial life. And it isn't something that can be determined in one sitting. Someone can tell me what they're interested in, but it's going to evolve in different ways and it is going to manifest in different ways. So it becomes a lifelong conversation that builds whatever that financial freedom is for them. So even for me, financial freedom is not a number in a bank account. People always get surprised by that as a financial coach. And that— it's not— I mean, would it be great to have a certain number in a bank account? Sure. Is it my end goal? No, because it's not where my values are. That's not what my mindset with money is. And that's usually where I start with people. It's not about how much do you want to spend this month? It's what do you actually want out of your life? Walk me through that so we can get the math to math.

Yeah, and those are challenging conversations for, I think, anybody at any age in life. It doesn't matter what age you are. It's, you know, we can talk about values and we can talk about what we think our purpose is. In my experience, it never is what people initially think. Once you really start going deeper, you find out that there was much more there than even what they thought. Well, you use the phrase train your money. What is the first strategic shift that, that we need to make to move from reacting to money towards intentionally directing That's what Train Your Money is—

intentionality. We treat money like it's this thing that you deal with when you have to, not something that you're using as a tool to propel your life. And Train Your Money is about taking the steps that you would take every single day in a gym or any lifestyle thing that you do every day, even brushing your teeth. It's taking your money and actually doing the things every single day that will get you better, will get you to the next thing. That's what train your money is, and it looks different for everybody. For some people, it's like a gym routine, which I think is an easy analogy because most of us understand if you go to the gym 3 days a week and you work lower body, upper body, and do a full body day, your muscles will either hold steady where you are if you're not lifting too heavy, or they will grow. The same concept is with your money. If you are leaving it once a month Trying to tackle everything in one sitting and you get disgruntled and overwhelmed and frustrated. That's like going to the gym once a month and hoping for results. Never going to work. So train your money is about doing little things every day, every other day that improve your money habits. And it doesn't have to be huge. We're not talking sit down and do a budget every day. It might be, hey, today instead of stopping for 3 meals, I might stop for 2 and eat something that I have in the fridge. Uh, it could be something as simple as, hey, all my friends are going to happy hour tonight. I might not have the money to go do that. Why don't we all go play a board game at the house and everybody can pitch in on some food at the grocery store? And I'm using food as an example because for 18 to 40-year-olds, that is literally the topic they bring to me every time. It's always about food when it comes to budgeting. So being able to go out and eat, being able to go go to the grocery store. Everything actually comes down to transportation and food. At least that's what I've been experiencing for the last, I would say, 24 months. Those have been the two big— food is really the biggest one, but transportation. I can't afford to go out tonight because the Uber is $30 to get to the bar and $30 to get home, and then I'm spending $20 at the bar. All right, well, everybody carpool to someone's house and bring your own drinks, and you're gonna save $50. That doesn't sound like a lot in one sitting, but you compound those activities daily, that's training your money. That's making strategic decisions to improve your finances one little thing at a time. And it doesn't mean you can't do things, it just changes when and how you do them so that you can hit your actual goals. Put money in savings, build that dog shelter, start a business, start investing $100 a month at 25 years old. That was one of My recent intern's goals. He's like, I just want to put $100 a month in the stock market while I'm in this internship for the next year. It's only $1,200. And I showed him what that could do over the course of 40 years, and he was absolutely shocked. I said, yeah, $100 goes a long way if you're consistent and you do it every single month. And then at 26, hopefully we can increase that number. So when he had the vision for what it looked like and we were able to actually show him the math, he went, I can do this. So it's giving people goals that actually align with their values, because you're not going to reach a goal if you don't care about it. And then being able to set yourself up for that success, whether that's sometimes saying no, which is okay, or adjusting what you're doing to make sure your financial life is in good shape. So train your money can be utilized in a lot of different ways. It can also simply be sitting down and looking at your bank statement today because You haven't done it in a week or 2 weeks or a month, and you need to make sure there's no fraudulent activity. Everything balances properly. It's a very scary thing to do sometimes, but it's incredibly important that it's done.

Well, when, when someone truly develops financial clarity and confidence in their financial decisions, how does that expand their ability to lead, serve, and create meaningful impact? In the lives of others.

Finances are the leading cause of divorce, stress, mental health issues across the US. That is, I want to say that was done in the PwC survey in 2025. They looked into how financial stress impacts individuals in their lives, and it is the leading cause of many of the struggles that we see personally. You can't lead serve if you don't have clarity. You can't provide for your family in a healthy manner if you don't have financial clarity. So when we talk about how finances impact the individual at any level of their life, it is ingrained in everything that we do every single day. There isn't a day that goes by that you aren't going to think about your money in some capacity, whether it's, I don't have enough, oh my gosh, I saved this much, this is great, my retirement plan is XYZ, you will talk and hear about money every single moment of every day. That can present itself as an advertisement as well. Money is everywhere. And if you don't personally align your goals and clarify your values to your goals, you are never going to be able to overcome some of the bigger hurdles that life will provide. And I think some of the best leaders I have ever met, and this is across corporate landscapes, are not afraid to talk about the struggle of handling money. And money is a taboo topic. We— people don't want to hear, don't want to talk about it, don't want to share things because one, it can be very embarrassing, or you can feel embarrassed by it. It can be shameful. Uh, there's a lot of guilt that comes with money. There's so many things that cause it to be something that we just don't want to address. And if we don't bring some of that to the forefront hit it head-on and bring clarity to our individual goals, we can't help those around us. It's like dropping a pebble in a pond. The first ripple isn't very big, but as it ripples out, it gets bigger and bigger. And I think finances are the pebble, and the more people that we can educate with that pebble, the bigger and better our communities become. Less stress, less divorce rates, less mental health issues, or at least a reduction in mental health issues. It is such a massive thing in our lives that we always just put in the back of our mind because it's stressful. And my goal with Train Your Money is to reframe money to be something that isn't so scary. It's something that you can manage and handle if you take it a little bit at a time.

Yeah.

Well, in today's conversation, we're reminded that financial success is not simply about earning more. It's about developing clarity, discipline, and intention So that money becomes the tool that supports our purpose rather than a source of pressure and confusion. Hillary shared a powerful insight that applies to everyone, and that's whether you're a professional athlete, an executive, or a high-achieving professional building a meaningful career, income alone does not create financial confidence. Confidence comes from learning how to direct our money with intention and aligning it with the life and mission that we want to create. So if today's conversation resonated with you, Hillary invites you to explore her framework in her book, Train Your Money, and you can get a copy at trainyourmoney.com, where you'll also receive a free playbook. That walks you through the same framework she uses with NFL and NBA players to create clarity, control, and confident money decisions. And if this conversation sparked a deeper reflection about how your own wealth could work more intentionally in support of your life and impact, I invite you to claim Beyond the Paycheck: The Financial Clarity Compass. This private educational masterclass is our gift to you, and you can access it at www.go.stetucker.com/beyond-paycheck. So thank you for joining us on Streams to Impact. Until next time, remember, when money is directed with clarity and purpose, it becomes one of the most powerful tools You have to create impact in the world.

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