From Cricket to Cash: Byron Ovenstone's Masterclass in Financial Freedom & Life Pivots

All right, welcome back to the Infinite Gold Podcast. You've got your host Bree, myself Anthony, and we have the amazing Byron Ovenston. How are you, buddy?

I'm doing really well, sir. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. So Byron used to be a professional cricket player, which is amazing because I don't think I've ever met one before until now. And then he did that from the age of 13. Yes, you heard that correctly. He started at 13 years old and was getting contracts for that up until about 21, when during that timeframe, unfortunately, he had 2 back surgeries and back injuries. Started a consulting company, uh, or was working with consulting on banks and what have you, realized that he didn't like that side of the banking and financial industry, bounced around a few things, fitness, nutrition, and now he's back into finance for comprehensive financial planning. And instead of, you know, helping out the banks, he's helping out you guys and us. And I've even had my conversations with him, super knowledgeable, amazing guy. We met over at Operation Blacksite. This is going to be a phenomenal episode. You guys don't want to miss it.

Yeah.

Thanks again, Brian. Welcome to the show.

I appreciate you two having me. This is going to be fun.

Yeah, definitely. So we obviously met at Operation Blacksite, which if a lot of people don't know, it's awesome. It's out here in Southern California. Learn a lot of tactical stuff, a lot of business stuff. And you're kind of like a wealth of knowledge. You've owned businesses, you own a business, you're in financial planning. Fitness and nutrition very heavily in your life, um, sports. Within the sports, there's business. So talk to us about how the, the kind of intertwine— how does the fitness, nutrition, how does the business intertwine together? Because we talk a lot on our show with experts in those various fields, but we love talking to someone who's on both sides of it.

Yeah, I mean, I think the, the fundamentals and the disciplines carry across pretty much everything, right? So like, um, How I don't remember who said it, but how you do everything or how you do anything is how you do everything. Yeah, it very much translates across the board for everything. So when I landed my first sponsorship deal for sports, my dad was like, hey dude, this is real now. Like people are giving you free stuff and they're paying you to play sports. This is a job. Like now you show up. So at that point it was like you hit it, you hit, catch, or throw 1,000 cricket balls a day. You're non-negotiable. So from 13 years old, that was just ingrained. It's like the work instills the worth. Yeah. Okay, this is what we do now. So as I then progressed through cricket, that obviously that steps up like anything else. Then fractured my back twice in two places. That brought it to an abrupt halt. And it was like, well, now my entire identity and everything is sport. How do I transition? And it was like a 6 or 8 months, like, I don't know what I'm doing here, but we're going to figure it out. Went on to Google. And just typed in highest paying job in London because I was in London and it was like, well, financial consultants make a lot of money. So I was like, well, I know how to count, so I'm going to figure that out.

I love that.

Yes.

It was literally that simple. I fell into that by accident. Um, landed a couple of contracting gigs. It was like, oh man, I'm actually pretty good at this stuff. Like banks paid me an obscene amount of money to, to fix their problems. Um, And then it was just a case of, okay, well, if I want to be really good at that, how do I reverse engineer it? And what are the processes and the steps that I take? And then it was like, you got to get more degrees than a thermometer. So I got MBA in corporate finance, like more degrees than a thermometer, like I said. And then it just got to a point where I was like, there's got to be more to life than making a ton of money and being miserable. Like I literally despised the person looking back in the mirror.

That's so good.

And I went home for a weekend with my dad one day and he was like, hey dude, like, is this it? Is this as good as it gets for you? Like, who above you are you aspiring to be like? And when I really took a step back and I looked at it, I was like, there's not a single person in that entire ecosystem who I would trade places with. Wow. And then at the same time, I was listening to either Tom Bilyeu or someone along those lines. And he said something along the lines of like, hey, if Would the 7-year-old you be excited to grow up and turn into who you are today? And for me, that was a massive realization. Man, he would not be excited. He would hate everything about what you do now. Yeah, you've got a lot of money, but like, you hate the guy looking back. You hate your career. You don't even enjoy this game called life. Yeah. On paper, you're successful, but everything else is missing. So I came out to Malibu on a vacation. I was like, I need a 10-day, like, escape mechanism here. Yeah. Came out to Malibu, spent about day 5 or day 6 in Malibu. This feels like home. I like it around here. This is nice. I'm going to move. So I phoned my accountant and I was like, hey dude, I'm out. I'm selling everything. I'm leaving. I'm moving to California. He's like, no, you're not.

After 6 days.

Yeah. And then about 3 or 4 days later, flew back to the UK, got rid of everything, shut down everything, handed off everything. 10 days after that, I moved to the to California. And yeah, I did actually, Pedro and I had crossed paths at that time. And I told him what I was doing. And he's like, okay, dude, whatever. Like a few days later, he saw me. He's like, no shit, you did that. I was like, yeah. I said, I don't know, I'll figure it out. So him and I stayed in contact. We were shooting it back and forth. And he's like, you ever run a gym before? I said, no, but I like working out. I'm pretty good at it. He's like, you want to represent for me? I said, sure. So that was December 2019. Then obviously COVID hits and everything shut down. And at that point we just pivoted to online. So pivoted to online. We did Battle Ready for a while. That blew up. It was awesome. And then, yeah, you fast forward 20, no, 2024, we merged with another company. That was a mistake. We should never have done that. It was just too many big egos just like clashing. Couldn't find common ground. And I was like, this isn't for me anymore. I'm going to exit this and figure out what's next. And then fired up LinkedIn for the first time in about 5 or 6 years. And I saw an email about financial consultants and financial advising. And they were like, hey, would you do this? I said, sure. At the time I was prepping for a photo shoot. So I was literally like in my shorts, no shirt, barefoot, walking around the park in the sunshine. Yes. She called me and she's like, will you take an interview? I was like, wow, I got nothing better to do. So yeah. Yeah. I had my interview. They're like, yeah, you'd crush at this. I was like, I know, because I've already done it.

So yeah. Yes.

The confidence. Yeah. And then like, yeah, the rest is history. We've been sat in this seat now for nearly a year. In amongst that, we've done Operation Blackside, MDK projects, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But yeah, to summarize the, the, The skill sets that make you successful in sports or anything are all transferable.

Yeah.

And it's just a case of understanding how to like, like, I guess weaponize them in a way that makes sense for where you're headed. And then, yeah, like anything, it's just head down and grind.

Ooh, that's good right there.

The can-do mindset and pivot when you need to.

Yeah. And just like, I think everyone's just far too quick to take no for an answer. Um, versus for me, I'm like, okay, well, that's just one no closer to a yes.

Yes, that's good.

Like 300 interviews to land my first consulting gig. And I have to attribute a lot of my mindset to my dad because I remember coming home super pissed off and I was like, Dad, I've had like 100 in-person interviews. I put on a fucking suit and everything. And he's like, yeah, and so? I was like, I still haven't done it. He's like, so this is worth 100 nos to you. That's when you quit. Yeah.

Wow. That's so good.

You're like, to put it in perspective.

Those later and I landed my first consulting gig and that was for $150 a day and I thought I had made it. And then next minute it was like $500 a day, $950 a day, $1,500 a day. Because you just acquire more skill sets and you just become a student of the game.

Wow. You had to always be the student.

Yeah. So that was like my 30-second elevator pitch of how you crush anything, I guess.

Yeah, no, that's perfect. Normally we ask 3 golden nuggets at the end, but I'm asking you for a quick golden nugget. I think our viewers would really like to hear that, especially people who are brand new into the entrepreneur world or maybe that are trying to become a professional athlete. You said you got 300 nos. Do you remember how long that went on for, or roughly?

What was the entire time that I was studying for my BA in business. So one of the criteria was you had to have some kind of qualification.

Yeah.

I didn't have any. So I was like, okay, well, I need at least need a BA in something. So I did BA in general business. The first day I went into university, the guy's like, this is going to take you 4 years. And I was like, no, it's not. So I went to the dean's office and I was like, hey dude. Like, these guys are telling me this shit takes 4 years. I don't have that kind of time on my hands. So bearing in mind, at the time I was living in the UK, and because I was getting paid to play sport, like, every single time I got paid, I had no financial literacy because I knew I was getting paid next week. Oh, make $500 today, spend $500 tomorrow because next week I've got $500 coming back in. I was like, it's zero. So sleeping in my car at the time, I was eating maybe 5 to 8 meals a week. And it's like, I don't have 4 years of this in me.

Yeah.

So it's like, how do we, how do we fix this? What, what's up? And, um, he said, oh, you can do like a fast track thing of 18 months. So sign me up, whatever it takes. I'm here. So I had no summer breaks. I was at the university on the weekends and stuff, but it was, it was literally like a year and a half of just getting punched in the face with notice.

So. What's the golden nugget from that time that got you through 18 months of maybe eating 5 to 8 times a week, of not making any money, of getting so many nos to keep going and not go to McDonald's or go to somewhere else?

Um, I think I was always wired to win. So the fact that I wasn't winning was really just annoying.

I like that.

This is going to be such an impressive comeback story that it's like there's no alternative here. And again, like the first 6 months or so was just punched in the face and I went home bitching and complaining to my dad and he's like, so what?

Okay, that's so good.

You're fine. Just keep going. So that was it. It's just like, dude, if you want it badly enough, you're going to figure it out and you're going to do whatever it takes. Um, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. So every single time I got rejected, it was like, okay, what did I do wrong? How can I be better and show up next time?

That's so good.

You need a certificate in Excel. Okay. So then I just went on to online and I was like, where are these certificates? Where do I find these things?

Yeah.

It was like next time I showed up on my CV, there was a certificate in Excel.

Ooh, nice.

Macro coding. And it was pivot tables. It was all the stuff that they wanted a consultant to have. To the point where like my CV was so bulletproof, they just couldn't say no anymore.

Yes. That is so good right there. It's instead of just taking the no on the chin, you even followed up with the why, like, why is this a no? Like what's, what, what is wrong with me right now? Yeah. So instead of walking out the door and not knowing or just guessing, you literally walked out the door with, well, I know what I'm gonna fix for tomorrow.

Yeah, that's exactly.

Yeah. And then you just show up better the next day and like that whole like Kaizen mentality of 1% better. It's like, okay, I can do that. I can figure out to be 1% better tomorrow than I am today. And I'm just gonna do that. And then I fail again tomorrow and I'm 1% better the next day. And it's just like, you crunch repeat.

Oh, that's awesome.

Do it one milestone at a time. Talk about like taking your ath— your athlete's mindset. Of just like crushing things and carrying it on to all other things in life, such as your business.

And also, I had always played in age groups above me anyway, so I was just naturally bullied my whole life. Like, every single time it was just a no for me. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna have to prove that I'm that much better than everyone else. Yeah. And when I step onto the field, it's undeniable that I belong there. So when I started going through the interview process, it was exactly the same thing. Like, how do I just prove that this is an undeniable no-brainer? Like, they would be absolute idiots to hire anyone else.

Yes.

Because I just have too much track record and too much behind me to say no to. Mm-hmm.

That's perfect.

Insatiable. They're making you insatiable.

So you moved into the financial sphere of banking and helping out banks, and you realized you're like, this is no fun and I don't like this part. Eventually got into the fitness nutrition, and now your main goal is to serve the people and help us and get better with financials. And again, if you don't follow Byron on Instagram, you definitely want to follow him. He gives so much good advice about the finances, the financial world, what's going on, how to help you out. What is, um, the driving force for you on helping others in the financial sphere of things?

Well, I think a couple of things. It was one, like me being so terrible with money to start with that it was like, I don't want to— no one else should be in that position. Yeah. So that was like a huge driving factor. But then working in the banking system and understanding that that's a zero-sum game, like in order for them to win, you have to lose. And I was very good at making them win and you lose. So I got like a lot of karmic debts I'm trying to figure out and rectify from the back of that as well.

Yeah.

Stepping into fitness and nutrition and you get to a point where you're like, okay, I'm helping people live longer and a lot of them can't afford to do so because they don't have that financial literacy.

Okay.

So it's like, who was this massively glaring hole in the picture of what I was able to serve and help people with? To the point now where it's like I can pretty much do all of that. Like I can help you live longer through fitness and nutrition.

Yeah.

And in your mindset. And then I can help you build a bank account that actually represents the lifestyle you want to live. And it's just taking those same disciplines and the key processes that make any of those a reality and now just reshaping them and making them something that's applicable to finance. Because like most people, if the government raised your taxes 20%, you'd be pissed off, you'd kick, you'd scream. But you'd figure it out and you'd make it a reality.

Yeah.

Let's just self-impose a tax on yourself for like Anthony and Bree at 65. And then you take away 15 or 20% or 10%, whatever the number is that makes sense now. We put it across the different buckets and the different streams that make sense. And then it's like, okay, now you just keep running the play and you let compound interest and all that stuff do what it does best for you in the long run. And you get to 65 and you're all of a sudden like, oh man, I got $5 million. This is cool.

Yeah.

And it was $150 a month from 25 years old. And it's like those little bite-sized things. Like when I was in the fitness and nutrition space, the amount of people who are 400 pounds overweight and it's like, what do I have to do? It's like, dude, all you have to do is make one good food choice a day. That's all I'm talking about right now.

Baby steps.

Don't try and create the wheel. Don't try and do 500 things because it's overwhelming and it's too much. So let's do one little thing, get really, really good at that. Every day you're going to make the best choice you can with dinner. And then after 3 months, you've already lost 20 pounds because now that one choice is compounded. So, okay, now we're going to make you step a little more. And then we're going to add a little bit more water. And then we're going to add a little bit of this. It's the exact same process. Like, you don't become a professional athlete overnight. It's a decade of hitting 1,000 cricket balls a day. And it's like, okay, we're just gonna take little bite-sized pieces in a manageable space that makes sense to where it doesn't create overwhelming, like, stress.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's such good insight. And it kind of makes me think about like the kind of, I guess, influence the way, uh, fitness coaches just go drastically into like hardcore workouts and a hardcore diet when you You're, you're getting someone who's just getting started and has no idea what they're doing, or they're, they're starting from really bad habits of eating and not working out. And you wanna throw them into this full-ass routine and they've never even done any of those things in their life. You're setting 'em up for failure. And the way that you're like, you reverse engineered it and you applied your financing, uh, techniques to it and saying how you're doing a little bit of this, do one, one good thing a day to like start building them up.

I—

that's awesome. And I think more coaches should do that.

Yeah, because also like half the battle of fitness and nutrition is having you turn up again tomorrow. So if I want you to where you're so sore, you're so tired, and you have nothing left in the tank, then any wise, the average human's not capable of separating that and going, yeah, I'm not doing this again anyway. It's like, this is not for me. I'm done. And then they wash their hands of it and they're like, well, this is the life I live. I'm bound to be 400 pounds. It's like, no, no, you're not. You just made a lot of poor choices and we can't undo all of those poor choices overnight either. So let's just make like one good choice a day and you compound that over time. And it's like anything, compound interest is the seventh wonder of the world or whatever it's called.

Dude, now that's so good. The seventh wonder of the world, compound interest.

It's true. Um, so now that we're talking about obviously compound interest and finances, what's the biggest mistake that you're seeing when like people are coming to you and like, Byron, this is what I got for you. What is usually the biggest mistake that people are doing at that given time, right at the beginning?

Um, that's a really good question because it, it, it depends on each individual. More often than not, people are far too reliant on 401(k)s or Social Security because it's money that they never see really leaving their accounts. It automatically comes off their paycheck. So they're like, okay, well, this is, this will, this will be fine. But then they also don't understand the tax implications of like a 401(k) and how it's taxed on the way out. So yeah, you get $1,500 a month write-off right now, but later down the line, you're in a higher tax bracket because you're probably going to earn more money later in life as well. I'm not a huge fan of 401(k)s. I'm always about like meet the company match. Because if I had an investment and I was like, Anthony, you can, you can plug a bunch of money into this and whatever you put in, you're going to double it overnight. How much money do you want to give me? You'll say all of it. Like how much?

Yeah.

On the flip side of that, like once you breach that, that, that matching threshold, the taxable implications of those dollars is severe. And then to hand those money, those dollars down generationally is incredibly inefficient as well. So it's like, meet the company match of 5%, but then there's other things you can do because also those dollars are tied up until you're nearly 60. So somehow it's squirreled away and you don't get any access to them whatsoever versus a brokerage account. Yeah, it might not be the most efficient, but it's accessible at all times. So what More often than not, it's, it's more around like, what do people understand about the job descriptions of the dollars that they have? And what are they trying to achieve? Because otherwise everyone's just maxing out their 401k, getting the $23,000 a year write-off, which is awesome. But then they're illiquid today. And then they're getting smoked on taxes on the back end. And it's just like, we need to, we need to pay more attention to like taxing codes and job description of dollars, really.. And once we understand that, then it makes sense as to where we're distributing the dollars and how we're allocating that.

I am literally going to send this podcast episode to all of my coworkers because they don't listen to me. And I'm like, hey, now it's not coming from me, but maybe you should listen to this guy. This is why I only put 3% of my money into my 401(k). I was that mistake when I first got into the jail, when I was doing my time. I feel like half the people aren't going to get it, but, um, When I was doing my time, I was literally at like 15%, I want to say like this was, again, I love my dad, but not the most financially literate guy. He was a blue collar worker, but he's like, yeah, dump all your money into your 401k. You're going to work until you're 60 and you're going to get rid of that retirement. You're going to get that 401k. And I was like, okay, cool. I majored in finance. I'm like, okay, let me double check things. And literally for like probably the first 2 years, maybe even year and a half. That's what I was doing. I'm like, this just doesn't seem right. And I dove a little bit deeper and I'm like, this is not right at all. Okay. I'm just literally giving my own money away for me not to be able to touch it. And then I'm going to be destroyed at the very end because my goal is not to be making the same amount then. So if I'm making a lot more, that means I'm being taxed a heck of a lot more. Exactly. So yeah. So let's, let's dive into the idea of putting our money into our 401(k), but also putting in different spots. Like you mentioned stocks, so many people are afraid of the stock market, whether or not it's good times, bad times, people are scared no matter what. What is your philosophy on that?

I always approach things in like tranches, right? So it's like, when do I need access? When do I need those dollars accessible? And what would the job description be? So, okay, if I need the money in the next 3 to 5 years, probably not a good idea to put in the stock market because it's severely out of my control. And 5 years' time, I need those dollars and the stock market's down 40%, that's a bad time for Byron because now the $100,000 he thought he had is now $60,000 and I'm stressed. Yeah. So I always look at it through a lens of like, when do I need these dollars and what's the job description? And then I'll just allocate those dollars appropriately across the different risks. Because also everyone just sees the stock market as like Apple and Google, but there's like millions of options that you can kind of play from that perspective, whether you're doing like bonds or treasuries or whatever you want to do, like there's safer allocations as well. So I like the stock market. I dabble in the crypto space. I have a lot of alternative investments as well, but I also never ever put more than I'm prepared to see go to zero. So that's so good. $1,000 a month disposable, I'll distribute it across the different buckets for argument's sake. And then it's like, well, if that goes to zero, nothing changes in my lifestyle. So I'm not up watching CNBC or Yahoo Finance all day freaking out about what the market's doing because I don't care. Yeah, that's so good. I'm not touching for 10 to 15 years as a minimum. And if you're looking at the stock market in any probably 15 window 15-year period, it's always up. Always. As long as I was playing within that realm, I can't lose. The only time I lose is when I start getting greedy and I'm trying to make more money fast. Uh-huh. I'm like way overleveraged and I've done this, dude. I lost a quarter million in a day. I went, I played on margin and I got smoked in the UK and I was like, I'm never touching the stock market again. It was like, no, you're just an idiot, dude. You're just doing everything and you were greedy. So you got smoked and that's how this works.

Yeah.

Um, so for now it's like, okay, I just, I put it there and I forget it. And then once a month I check my stuff and I'm like, oh damn, that was nice. Oh, that wasn't so good, but it doesn't matter because I don't need those dollars today anyway. Um, and that would be the biggest thing. It's like not understanding that the stock market. Is many, many options. There's not just one thing you can do within it, but then also understanding like the tax implications of where you're putting your money and really giving each dollar like a job description. What is that dollar's purpose and how is it going to be returned to me and bring friends, hopefully?

Wow. I like the way that you like break that down, how you're, you're giving, uh, your chunk, your chunks of money, like an assignment. They have a job description, like what this money is being used for. I think that you breaking it down in that kind of language is really going to help our listeners. It certainly helped me because now I can look at money a little bit differently.

Yeah. Thank you for that.

A big topic, and it's what kind of brought me to you as well, is whole life policies. What are your thoughts on whole life policies? You've talked about, you know, kids and everybody having them. What's so good? What's so great about this thing?

So, I mean, Upside from the same tax implications is like a Roth, right? So taxable going, no tax on growth, no tax when you pull the money out. So it's a nice safe haven from that perspective. But then also, like, if it's, if it's good enough for like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, it's going to be good enough for Byron. So it's like they're on to something, right? If they probably pay attention, they're the wealthiest families in the world for a reason. But yeah, I mean, like my kids, Both my kids have whole life policies. I just upped my wife's permanent life insurance to a million, like, just the other day. Um, I've got permanent and term life insurance as well. Um, I like it from the standpoint of that you can structure it in a way that makes sense for you. So like, ours are all overfunded. So there's the cash value. I know you know this because you've got this as well. So you've got like the cash value sitting there that's completely out of the taxing system that you can borrow against from yourself. Repayment schedule is whatever you decide it to be. So there's no, like, stress of, oh, I've got a $100,000 loan from the bank and I have to pay it back in 10 years at 17% interest. Like, I determine my interest rate, I determine how I want to pay it back. And if for whatever reason I don't pay it back, it just comes off the bottom line of the death benefit that pays out. So it's like, for me, it's a nice little tax haven that's uncorrelated to the markets. So those dollars that are in there I don't have to stress about what the stock market does because I know I'm liquid on the other side. Yeah. So like, the stock market's up 40%, down 40%, doesn't matter because I've got those safe dollars that grow at 5.5% consistently. As long as the sun comes up tomorrow, it's locked in. And like, yeah, if World War III happens, I'm not worried about my whole life policy anyway, because we're throwing sticks and stones at each other and doing crazy stuff. It doesn't matter anyway.

I love that.

I have that same asset that has 3 to 5 years of cash. Yeah. The crisis that we've been in was 2008, which was a 3-year top to bottom to top again. Mm-hmm. So I can turn off all market correlated stuff. I just live on my permanent life insurance. Now I'm not selling a good asset at a loss. I'm not draining my retirement fund faster. So it just, it gives me additional options later on in life that I wouldn't have had without it. In a quote unquote safe vehicle that doesn't smoke me on taxes on the way out as well.

I love that. That's so good because especially like we can't control the market, we can't control World War II, III, IV, V, whatever. But if something were to happen, for you to have that nest egg for the 3 to 5 years where you don't have to freak out and sell all of your stock at a loss, sell your house at a loss, sell cars at a loss, sell everything at a loss, you can live off of that. Everything's going to go back up. We just discussed it with the stock market. It's going to plummet, it is going to go back up, it's going to go up a lot, and then it's going to drop. That's just what it does. So if you can ride those waves without destroying all of your gains that you had, that's huge. That's exactly big stuff right there.

Yeah. And that's the killer to most people's retirements is it's not so much that they have only $5 million to work with, but then they have $5 million in a stock market that's down. In the first 3 years, and now they have to sell good assets at a loss, draining their accounts even faster. And now all of a sudden they wake up and it's like, I'm 70 years old, I've got $2 million left because the stock market was on fire, and I have to somehow make this $2 million last me to 95.

Good luck. It's not happening. Good luck.

Yeah. Inflation, taxes, all of that stuff is going to smoke that $2 million. And then you see these 75-year-olds having to come out of retirement to try and figure it out and get back on their feet. Yeah, they didn't have those safer dollars on the sideline that could allow them to withstand that market correction. And I think that's where like a lot of financial advisors and financial planners fail their clientele. It's just that, that regard of having those safer dollars on the sideline to where I don't have to liquidate good stuff when I don't want to, and I can just live on this. And then also like if I need $250,000 a year to live in retirement, I can take $50,000 out of my permanent life insurance. I'll bring my taxable income down to $200,000. I just probably saved myself $70,000 in taxes a year.

That's so good. You're speaking his language. That's so good.

Like a kid in a candy store with the 5-pack of Pop-Tarts.

Yeah, it's true.

It's just so true.

I know.

That was our previous talk. It was like, he's like, this was one of my easiest conversations with someone because I came in there, had everything laid out that I already had, and I already knew what I wanted. Mine was just finding out who he was, which actually is a great question for you because I've been skeptical myself. What do you say in it? So it's going to be a hard question. What do you say to the person that goes, Byron, you're just trying to get my money? Like you're some financial planner. You just want me to join and buy some financial planning thingamajig. And this is mainly, you know, first responders, blue collar people. They're like, why am I going to go spend my money on that thingamajig?, so you can get 50% or whatever you get, like what, how do you break that down?

Um, that's a good question. And I don't know if I've got the right answer for that one just yet, because I've run into it a few times and sometimes I get by and sometimes I don't. Um, but like, like anything, if, if my car breaks, I take it to a mechanic. I don't try and fix it myself. I, I have, again, I have more degrees than a thermometer when it comes to financial planning and it's for a reason. Like if everyone could do this, like candidly, they should teach us at school and I should be unemployed right now. That's the ideal world that we're supposed to live in where we don't learn taxes and we learn about finance and then I become unemployed. But we don't have that. So it's like you need someone like me in your corner who sees around corners that you don't know exist and understands how this game is played and what retirement distributions look like. And all of that stuff. And it's like, even stupid stuff like, how do I optimize my pension? Most people just contribute to their pension and they're like, oh, I get to my pension days and they say, oh, all of a sudden I get smoked. I'm only allowed to draw 60% of my pension because of survivor benefits. It's like, well, you could have avoided all of that and you could have taken 100% of your pension if you'd just done a couple of little things in the buildup of that pension that you wouldn't have to now take that 30 or 40% hits on your pension and figure out how to survive. You just have to have one conversation with someone like me who could talk you around that situation. And yes, I'm going to get paid because I'm a professional in what I do. But I'm going to save you millions on the back end. Yeah.

It's your job. You're helping people.

Yeah. You take a couple hundred bucks hit now for a couple million in retirement, or you just figure it out on yourself.

And then you—

good luck. My taxes.

That's like, yeah, it's, it's, it's so true. Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I always, and my, my biggest thing is, cuz a lot of what we do is we make decent money, especially if we work overtime and we just get annihilated by Uncle Sam. Uh-huh. And literally like, I'm, I'm even telling one of my superiors, I hope he listens to this, that you need to talk to a financial guy and or go get your LLC. Like 18 years ago, because you keep sending— paid another $10,000 in taxes this past year on top of everything he was already paying. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I literally am a spitting image of what you need to do. And they don't even listen. So again, I'm going to shoot this over to them so they can all hear, but what would be a good tidbit for somebody who's like in my shoes that if I work too much overtime, next thing you know, I'm making $200,000 in California and you know where half that goes, what are some ideas? And again, anybody listening, seek a tax advisor, listen to that. But so off the record advice, what would some ideas be that they need to hear? So again, everybody, CPA, go, go talk to them. Yada, yada, yada.

There you go. Yeah. 'Cause every state's different as well. So it's like, there's, there's all kinds of ways one could impose. Yeah. Um, I mean, I don't know. It depends on how like business savvy they are, I guess.

Yeah.

Everybody's different. Yeah. If they're pretty, pretty well put together and they understand like having an LLC and 1099ing themselves or having an S-corp and W-2ing themselves, those kinds of things, you can play a lot in the role of like of the gray area within that. Um, but there's no like cut and paste that works for everyone, unfortunately.

Um, okay. They, they need to hit up people like yourself in order to find out what's best for them because there's no cookie cutter way for every single— yeah, for every single person.

Yeah. Yeah. Because like, so for me, for argument's sake, right, I have access to literally hundreds of thousands of things that we can do, but it's like, All of them make sense and none of them make sense at the same time if it's not applicable to what you're trying to do.

Yeah.

So I have to first kind of have a conversation with you, understand what are your goals, your dreams, your aspirations? Like, what are we shooting for here? Again, like, if you're a 400-pound dude and you want to see your abs, like, I need to know that you want to see your abs, and then we need to know where you are now, and then we plot the route between the two, and we ultimately get you there. Um, But yeah, it's, it, it's, I don't know. I don't wanna, I don't wanna say anything that would like be like, oh yeah, Byron said do this and now I'm screwed.

No, it's, it's one of those things where I basically, you need to speak with a financial planner, whether or not it's Byron, which we highly recommend, or somebody else. You need to speak with somebody and stop just going through the motions that your dad told you or your grandfather told you and you're just going through. Cuz what happened?

You don't have to do it old school.

Yeah, the old school ways does not work today. It really does not.

So pivot, people.

Yeah, you got it.

You got to find out what works. Exactly. And ultimately, like, being naive to this stuff just means Uncle Sam gets a bigger tip. And that's like tipping Uncle Sam. It's unnecessary. And he's very, very lackadaisical when it comes to our dollars. Yeah, much better served in my pocket because I know what to do with them and make them work for me and my family. Versus he's just going to split them on whatever he fancies. And it's like, that's not in my best interest. So I'm all about like walking that gray area of what's, what's allowed and navigating that appropriately to where I'm not going to pay him a penny more than he has to have. I love that. You can be my, again, my dad, he always used to say you can be penny wise and pound foolish. And I'm like, I would rather not be that. I would rather pay a CPA the $2,000 or whatever it is to run through my books and tell me exactly what I can write off, what I can't, where I can do these certain things and not. It's like, that's $2,000 well spent because he's going to find me $10,000 of write-offs at least.

I've said the exact same thing. They go and find the first responder guy that charges them $50 and that's their taxes. I'm like, bro, you're going to pay the $50 and you're going to get $50. Like, that's just, it is what it is. Like, you got to spend the money. And then I always recommend you find a tax advisor who is for your business or for your personal, like who find the expert in that field. Don't find an expert in some other field that doesn't know yours. Like you're not going to get the most out of it.

Yeah.

And that I find all the time. Like at this point I'm starting to collect like a Rolodex of CPAs. It's if you're in fitness and nutrition, I recommend these 3 guys.

Yeah.

Wholesaler, I recommend these 3 guys. And it's like, because they understand the nuances within those domains, and they understand what can and can't be done, versus your general jack of all trades, you know, it's like the basics.

Yeah, who graduated yesterday.

Right? They don't know enough to really, like, fight your corner for you properly and get you where you want to go.

Yeah.

So true.

That's good.

Yeah.

So the ending of our shows, we always give like a question to you and it's what are your 3 golden nuggets when it comes to life in general? So we don't have to pinpoint to anything in particular. Like we've talked about, you know, fitness, nutrition, health. We've talked about business, financial planning, but after all the years that you've been alive, what are 3 golden nuggets you think our listeners should know?

I think the first one would probably have to be that no is not necessarily final. Um, I like, I like that. I'm like, I, I don't believe we should have to take no because that's just one person's like understanding or one person's viewpoint or lens. It's like, that's not the rest of the 7 billion people on Earth's like viewpoint or lens that they would typically look through.

So I love, I love that. If you piggyback off that, check out the Disney article. I believe he was shut down by 300 or so different people and investors to start up Disneyland. Wow. And just so you know, if you look up what Disneyland just made last year, they're the biggest contributor to the GDP in the United States, I think, is Disneyland Resorts. I just looked that up, or it's one of them, I believe, and I'm like, so there you go, there's, there's that one.

Um, I guess the, the alternative is like just put a line in the sand or like have a stake in the ground of what you're shooting for. And then just be incredibly relentless until at least you get there. Because I think far too often we, we get like shiny object syndrome and you just bounce around a lot of stuff and you never really give anything a chance. It's like, I want to be this. And then you give everything you have, even if it's 90 days. Like, let's say you were like, dude, I want to get healthier. If you did everything in your power for 90 days straight and you didn't miss, you will see a result. That's inevitable. And it's the same thing across pretty much everything that you do. If you really just go all in and you hyperfocus and you don't get the shiny object and you're prepared to have the delayed gratification and all that stuff, the result's inevitable. Time just has to catch up.

I love that delayed gratification.

That's a big thing. Agreed. And it's, it's, it's not rocket science stuff. It's just no one gives enough time to anything anymore. It's the Instagram Reels and the TikTok and it's like the how to get rich in 5 seconds. It's like, it doesn't work. Yeah. So just give, give yourself an opportunity to win and you have to do that by giving yourself enough at-bats. Yeah. Um, the third one, I mean, I guess if I was to summarize everything, it's just like protect your rig. Like you only have one body, right? And if this thing breaks down, breaks down, everything else breaks down alongside it. So my, my thing is like, I'm up at 3 o'clock in the morning, I go to the gym, I work out, I, I eat right, I do the best that I can every single day. Not every day is a killer workout. I would be lying to you if I said that it was, because some days I just don't want to be there, but I do it anyway. And it's like, but I also am very cognizant of the fact that when my body broke down and my back fractured in two places, I was basically useless for like 3 or 4 months. And that's a big, big problem. And that's time you can never get back. So I always prioritize just making sure that like, I look after this thing first because I can't buy another one. I can wreck my truck on my drive home tonight and I just buy another one tomorrow. I have insurance on it, all that good stuff. But if I don't take care of this thing and my mindset specifically, if those two things evade me and escape me, like everything else goes really bad really, really quickly. So protect, protect this meat suit that you have. You can't trade it in for another one. Like, once it's done, it's done.

Yeah, that's so good. I love that. Well, awesome, Byron. Thanks again for joining us. Uh, if anybody has yet to follow him since the beginning of this, you need to jump into Instagram, follow Byron. He's got great financial advice. If you have any financial questions and you need someone to talk to, reach out to him. He's amazing. He— we, we're discussing things as we speak, so, um, definitely hit him up. All of his information is going to be tagged, um, in the show. It's going to be tagged on all the forms and the streaming stuff. So again, thank you for listening. Uh, don't forget to like, comment, share the show, all the good stuff.

Share the show, especially if you know somebody who needs to hear it.

So, Byron, thanks again, and we appreciate you.

Appreciate you for having me.