Becoming Your Own Banker: Empower Your Finances

You co own a company that has never failed to produce a divisible surplus since issuing participating dividend paying whole life contracts since 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression. What a great time to go. Hey, maybe we should start selling dividend paying participating whole life insurance contracts. This is a company that has never failed to produce a divisible surplus. I want to begin by sharing with you something that Nelson told us. He said that everything begins with the way that we think. And the fact of the matter is is that most people would rather die than think. And that's because people just stop thinking. And there's all this noise and this nonsense that's going on out there in the world right now. This is one of the best times to be alive. There are so many great things and good things going on out there in the world. But do you think that the media wants to pontificate that? No. They want to keep you in a state of anxiety, a state of fear, because that's what drives ratings, not all the good news stories. There's more money on planet Earth today than there has ever been in human history. So what does that mean for someone who is an entrepreneur? Does that spell opportunity? So you can be thinking in your own family? Where would you rather be? Scarcity or abundance? That's what we're going to be talking about. How to make sure that you're in abundance. If you haven't had an opportunity, please visit nelsonnashfilm.com or dayofnelson.com these are two great resources for you to get a deeper glimpse into the essence of just how remarkable Nelson was and the impact that he's had on so many. My parents did a really good job arguing about money. They didn't do a very good job at multiplying it or keeping it in the family because they didn't know how. Nobody showed them. And so we can prevent that from happening in families. The family banking system. The process of becoming your own banker. The infinite banking concept. Had my parents known about that, things may have turned out differently. What are some of the most stressful events that can happen in someone's life? Sickness, loss of your home. Disability. War. Mental health issues. You're going to experience a variety of challenges. The last thing you want to be challenged with during periods of devastating moments in your life is financial challenges. Nelson told us that Infinite Banking Concepts is not about addressing the yield of an investment. We hear that often when people are initially doing their research on the concept. One of the most frequently asked questions that we have is somehow related to, to comparing it to some other form of investment. Infinite Banking Concepts is a process, it's not a product. The dividend paying, participating whole life insurance contracts that we use are meant to be a tool to implement a process. And if you put the very best tool in the hands of an incompetent and that's the very best tool to get the job done, not only is that person not going to turn out any good work with the tool, but they're going to break the tool. And so when you're learning and on your journey of discovery about the process of becoming your own banker, remember this is not about addressing the yield of an investment. It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with where your money resides before you begin to control how you're going to finance the things that you need over the course of your lifetime, which can certainly include investments. Okay. On page three of Nelson's book, the whole idea is to recapture the interest that one is paying to banks and finance companies for the major items that we need during a lifetime, such as automobiles, major appliances, education, homes, investment opportunities, business equipment, etc. These are three vehicles that we have purchased through our family banking system. So the first one that you see here is a Ford Explorer. The second one is a Honda Odyssey. The third one is a Nissan Altima. And we've also just purchased a Sienna. All of those vehicles were purchased using our family banking system. Well, how did we do that? We had to get money inside of our dividend paying participating whole life insurance policies. Those policies immediately begin accumulating cash value. As a participating policy owner, you co own the insurance company. When you're dealing with a mutual company like Equitable, and as a co owner you have a loan provision so you can request a policy loan from the life insurance company. And when you do that, the insurance company asks you two questions. Would you like us to electronically deposit that into a checking account or would you like us to mail you a check? There's no income verification, there's no credit checks, there's no questions regarding what do you need the money for? When do you plan to repay it? So that puts you in a position of total and absolute control. Now for all of you who have been practicing this process for many years, you understand the advantage of total and absolute control. And do you know what happens to your total cash value.

When you request a policy loan? It goes up. Is there just a little bit of volatility going on out there in the world right now?

If you were to look on your personal balance sheet, the one asset that you can absolutely depend on increasing in value day in, day out, week in week out, is your participating dividend paying whole life insurance contracts. They cannot go backward. And what happened the moment that we drove these cars off the lot? What happened to the value of the cars? They went down. And so I'm kind of like an Uber driver, except I don't have to pick up anybody. I just get paid every day. My cash values keep going up and God forbid, if anything happened to me, am I leaving any indebtedness behind to my family? Do they still get to own the very items that were purchased utilizing policy loan proceeds? Here is a key, key teaching point to get across. You're not using your own money. All of your money is growing in the form of cash value. And cash value isn't real. The insurance company doesn't have 400,000 separate vaults with all the policy numbers on it. And they add cash into it every day. That is a contractual guarantee. The insurance. And you know the one thing about infinite Banking concepts that will always be boring?

It always works. That's $148,000. $148,000. If I did not have more than 148,000 of total cash value, could I have requested the loan from the insurance company? No. They would have said, well, you're requesting 148,000, but you don't have that much to borrow against. So the more capital you put in, the more capital you get out. It's ridiculously simple. There are so many people out there in the world who are trying to sensationalize infinite banking concepts. They're trying to sensationalize becoming your own banker because they're talking about the product first. Hey, you got to get your hands on this dividend paying participating whole life insurance policy. It's way better than stocks, bonds, mutual funds, crypto. It's way better than anything else out there. What? It's just a tool. It's a unilateral binding contract. Insurance company guarantees the money. The lien for the loan balance is on the death benefit of the insurance contracts, not on the cars.

The loans are not reported to TransUnion. They're not reported to Equifax. They're private. In this case, we're talking about Equitable because Equitable is our primary carrier. Equitable is a mutual company. They are responsible to the participating policy owners. Listen, hear me. You co own a company that has never failed to produce a divisible surplus.

Since issuing participating dividend paying whole life contracts since 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression. What a great time to go. Hey maybe we should start selling dividend paying participating whole life insurance contracts. This is a company that has never failed to produce a divisible surplus. So this is a picture of our kitchen and dining room. All of these appliances that you see were all purchased with policy loan proceeds. $45,000. We've repaid the policy loans with interest. Now we repay more interest than what Equitable calls for. So Equitable applies a simple interest calculation on a loan balance. We repay all of our policy loans at 10% interest. Equitable only calls for currently 6.2. So what do we do with that extra interest? We take that extra money and we put it into wherever our system will hold it. We buy paid up additions, we put that money into an accelerated deposit option. We get that money back into the company that we co own. Because isn't it true that your money must reside somewhere? And isn't it true that at present for anyone who's not fully implemented infinite banking, isn't it true that at present all of your money is flowing through the books of someone else's bank? Everybody wants the latest and greatest. How am I going to get that quick win? How am I going to multiply my money quickly? Fifteen years into this journey, our family, we no longer have to rely on a commercial bank for anything other than the convenience of debit. What a peaceful stress free way of life that is. Now Nelson also talked about education. So my son Jackson, our firstborn, he's 14 years young and we were able to take care of his education. With policy loan proceeds. We repay the policy loan balances with interest. Do we only pay what Equitable calls for? No. What rate do we repay at? Now why would we do that? Paid up additions. But the purpose is if we put more capital into our warehouse of wealth, do we have more advantage? But does Equitable also have more capital to multiply on our behalf? And if you are dealing with a company that has never failed to produce a divisible surplus, has never failed to declare dividends, how much of your capital do you not want residing there? Think about it. Remember, everything begins with the way that we think. Could it be this ridiculously simple? Could I store capital inside of a mutual life company that I co own? I didn't have to hire anybody, performance manage anybody, lead anybody. I didn't have to make operating decisions, develop strategy, decide where to put the money pool to work. I didn't have to make any of those decisions. All I have to do is pay premium. That's it. If I presented you with a business opportunity and I gave you all the characteristics that I just described and then I told you at the very end of it, you don't have to do anything that I just talked about, all you got to do is pay premium.

You would want to pay a little or a lot? A lot. Here's the way people think when they think about life insurance contracts. How soon can I stop paying the premium? The question you need to be programming into your brain is how long can I pay it for? Because the more capital you put in, the more you get out and the more capital that the company that you co own has to work with, the better it is for you and for everyone else who co owns that company. Nelson went on to say homes is another item that you're going to need to finance throughout your lifetime. This is a photograph of our family home. And then right next door, literally right next door to our family home, we were able to through the family banking system, my sister in law, my brother in law and their five children live right next door to us. We keep family close. Now a million and twenty five thousand of the total amount of capital required to make these properties happen came from policy loan proceeds. Isn't that good? These have been repaid with interest. Is that a little bit or a lot of interest? Do we want that coming back to our system or do we want that flowing into someone else's to enrich them? You want it coming back to your system.

The next is investment. I have an ownership interest in 11 different businesses, soon to be 12. Without Nelson, without the process of becoming your own banker, without the infinite banking concept, I wouldn't be saying that up here to all of you today. So one of our companies, Canada Prep and Ship and this, every single one of these labels that you see here is money. And this business was born through policy loan proceeds. Both Curt and John are participating policy owners. Both Kurt and John practice the process of becoming your own banker. So when we decided to get into business together, was there much ice to break? Not at all. And they understand the more capital we put in, the more capital we get out. Are you absolutely sure that you want to create a peaceful, stress free way of life financially? Are you absolutely certain that you want that? Okay, you need to be coachable. You need to be coachable because the one element that you have to face that's going to either be an obstacle or an advantage for you is the way that you think. And if your coach is Making recommendations and trying to help you be better. And you're leaning into that. Are you going to get better? But if you're bucking against that, are you going to get better? No. Your coach is responsible to you, not for you. Now, page 21 in Nelson's book, Nelson indicates that the very first principle that must be understood is that you finance everything that you buy. You either pay interest to someone else or you give up the interest you could have earned otherwise. The alternate use of money must always be reckoned with. Some call this lost opportunity cost. But it is amazing how many people give lip service to this fact, but they don't put it into practice in their own financial dealings. That's the equivalent of thinking that the law of gravity applies to everyone else but them. All that we do financially is accomplished by obeying the principles of the infinite banking concept. All that we do in our family.

All that we do our very best to coach and educate our clients to do, embrace the principles of the infinite banking concept and recognize that it's not an instant gratification. Anything human beings want, instant everything. You've got a problem, you want it solved yesterday just a little bit quicker, right? You want instant coffee, instant food. When you order from Canada Prep and ship on Amazon, you want the package delivered before you finish buying it. It's that instant gratification that we're looking for. Remember, no matter what's happening in the economy, no matter what's happening with inflation, no matter what's happening with interest rates or the real estate cycle, no matter what's happening with taxes or political turmoil, does the process of banking ever end? Does it ever stop? Because if it stopped, what would happen to the financial system? And are you going to need the use of money for the rest of your lifetime? And so it must reside somewhere. Agreed? What better place to have it reside than in your own warehouse of wealth? That's what you have to begin thinking about. How can I expand my warehouse of wealth? How can I gradually and incrementally get more capital flowing into my warehouse of wealth? Automobiles, major appliances, education, homes, investment opportunities, business equipment.

That's a lot of principle and interest, all from shopping at home. Now, what's going to happen is when our kids are old enough to really conceptualize infinite banking concepts in this process, and I'll explain to you what we do in our family and how we lead our family through that. Our children are going to have a meeting with our family attorney. Our attorney is going to sit down with our four children and say, hey, you Recognize what your mom and dad have put into place with the family banking system. Today we have 63 policies in our family banking system. Now, your parents wanted to have this meeting to give you a choice because they don't want to force you to embrace this process. They want you to catch it and they want you to really embrace it. So here are the choices that you have. If you decide to shop at home and you borrow the money from the family banking system and you repay the family banking system with 10% interest, and that interest rate is not subject to negotiation.

You'Re going to not only receive ownership of the policies that your parents have purchased on your lives, but you're also going to receive windfalls when your parents pass away. And those windfalls will be income tax free. And you will be reimbursed for everything that you've repaid into the family banking system. That's choice number one. Choice number two, if you choose to do business with someone else's bank, your parents will consider that to be a polite description of theft. And your parents don't do business with thieves. So if you choose to shop outside the home and do business with someone else's bank, your parents will assign ownership of the policies that they own on your lives to charitable organizations of their choosing. And you will receive no death benefit from any of the policies on your parents lives. Take all the time to decide which option is best for you.

And let us know that you acknowledge the understanding of those options. That's how serious we take this. Because remember, Nelson Nash said.

When you purchase a policy, all you have is a tool. When you decide to become your own banker, now you've got a business, you have a business that didn't exist before. So you need to decide, are you going to run this like a business? As you think about your family, you need to make that decision. Am I going to run this like a business? Nelson said to me, this was in Kelowna, him and I sitting down to lunch. And he just leaned over to me and I described to him because he was always curious, hey, how are things going? How are things coming along with your implementation of the process? So I explained to him what we were doing. And he said, jason, you have created perpetual motion in your family's financial world. We host annual family banking meetings. Nelson said, you've got to learn how to run a business. Does everybody remember the grocery store? If you've read Nelson's book, do you remember the grocery store example? He said, don't steal the peas. So he said, once you Understand the grocery store example. The rest of becoming your own banker is a piece of cake. Now on page 25, Nelson asks, would you have much of a grocery store business if you were the only customer? No. So you have to build the business so that not only your needs are met, but so the needs of other customers are met as well. And when you go to a grocery store and you want to make sure it's well stocked. So when we practice family banking and our family members are captive customers, when they come to the family banking system, they want to make sure it's well stocked with what? Money. If we're accessing policy loans and we're not repaying those policy loans, when family comes to the family banking system and there's no capital there, are we operating a good business? No. So whenever you want to access a policy loan, you have got to have a plan to repay it because you're operating a business and you've got to get more capital on the shelf so that there's more capital available for more captive customers. That's why we repay our policy loans at a greater rate than what Equitable calls for. This is a picture of one of our family banking meetings. We involve all of the children and you would be surprised how quickly children pick up on this process. They pick up on this process much faster than adults do because children have a much higher degree of neuroplasticity. That's why it's so advantageous to teach a young child a new language at such an early age. And so the kids get them involved early. The earlier the better. Every single person that you see in this photograph is insured. Sooner or later windfalls will come because everyone in this photograph someday is no longer going to be here, is going to graduate. And when that day comes, and that day will come, there will be a tax free windfall that comes back to the family banking system which replenishes the system. And if we can keep that system in the family and not only transfer money to the next generation, but transfer the knowledge of how to be good stewards of the family banking business.

Are we honoring Nelson Nash's first golden rule, which is to think long range, which is to think three generations past your own. This is what he meant by that. He didn't mean just purchasing policies on every person that you have a beneficial interest in. He meant creating a family banking system so that you can transfer the system of policies and the knowledge. This was one that we had on our first trip post Covid. We went to Cancun, we Had a family banking meeting there. Now take a wild guess how these vacations are paid for policy loan proceeds. Okay, so the low family banking system. So we began our journey in terms of a system, right? We got our first policy, Rebecca and I think in 2008. And then in terms of having a quantity of policies began in 2009. So in 2009, we had two policies. As of October 20th of this year, we have 63. There are 20 lives insured.

Total premium was 16,800 in 2009. It'll be $540,949 this year. Total death benefit was a half a million in 2009. It is $32,043,851 today. Loans $300. Our first policy loan. When Equitable actually permitted a policy loan less than $500. Our very first policy loan was for a car seat for our firstborn son, Jackson. We have 664,000 in policy loan balance today. That's both personal and business. Because we again have ownership interest in businesses that collectively do a lot of revenue. Multi 8 figures in revenue every year. Loan amounts available. We have 2,093,000 that we could access today. And we can utilize that capital for any purpose and we can repay it on our terms. And the lien is on the death benefit. And what is happening to the death benefit every year? It keeps going up. So if a life insured is aging closer to 100 and the total death benefit keeps rising, what happens to the pace at which the cash value grows? It gets faster. But what happens to the premium? Can it ever go up? Can it go down? Yeah, because you're in a position of control. Accelerated deposit option. So we maximize the engineering of these policies to give you the greatest control. Because that's what becoming your own banker is all about, Being in a position of total and absolute control. Loan repayments back to our family banking system were $330 in 2009. Now it's 40,000amonth coming back to the family. This does not include all of the borrowing from family members. I'm just talking about the immediate family, six people in our family. If we were to factor in all of our other family members who make repayments, this would be six figures a month. Windfalls, none. In 2009, we've had two death benefit proceeds. So this gentleman that you see here, Larry Mills, my late father in law, he passed away in September of 2020 after a very short battle with cancer. Shortly after he retired, I said, hey Dad, I want to get some life insurance on you. Because he kept asking, like, what exactly is it that you're doing? This is really, you know, really interesting. And I said, well, I'd like to purchase life insurance because there's definitely a need there. Because God forbid, if you passed away, Nona still needs to take care of the house and take care of, you know, all the obligations. Let's make sure that we put some insurance in place to take care of that. God forbid, if the unthinkable happened to you is all that I expect is to be reimbursed for the premiums that I paid. But while you're alive, I'm going to utilize the accumulating cash values as collateral so that we can expand the family banking system. And he said, well, I'm type 2 diabetic. I don't think I'm insurable. So we made application. We got him approved, and we got two policies. He was diagnosed with cancer many years later. We expected papa to live a very long time. He was diagnosed with cancer, and five weeks later, he was gone. And those death benefit proceeds showed up exactly when they were needed the most. We took care of nona. She'll never have another bad financial day in her life. It's not about the product. It's about the process. This is a picture of a tree stump. You look at the tree stump, what does Every ring represent?

1 year of uninterrupted growth. What happens each and every year in the policies? Another ring of what? Uninterrupted growth. And the circumference of the tree just keeps getting bigger. So each year that dividends are declared by the insurance company, what happens? They're declared on a bigger circumference. In 2012, this is one policy. $20,000 a year in premium, 20,000 a year.

The policy began growing. My twin daughters were born, one of which is here today. Charlotte. That's a picture of me holding my twin babies after they were born. In 2013, we received our first dividend. That dividend purchased, paid up additions. The policy grew. In 2014, we took a family vacation, received our second dividend purchase, paid up additions, family vacation paid for using policy loan proceeds. 2015, we purchased a car. Third dividend paid. Purchased, paid up additions. 2016, fourth dividend, more paid up additions. 2017, another car, another dividend, more paid up additions. 2018, another family vacation. Another dividend, more paid up additions. 2019, another family vacation. Seventh dividend, more paid up additions. 2020, an eighth dividend, paid up additions. 2021. Another car, another dividend more paid up additions. The dividends that get declared are declared on every ring of uninterrupted growth. So this is 20,000 in annual premium. Look at everything that we've been able to accomplish with just one policy. Just one. This is John punching a banker right in the face.

And so we're taking the financial energy away from outside lenders and we're redirecting that energy back to our own system. That's the outside lender, that's you. The more we do that, the more capacity we create. On page 15, Nelson said, it all reminds me of a phenomenon in physics. I want to take a pail of water to seaside and I want you to heat that water up to 210 degrees Fahrenheit. But as soon as that temperature gets to 212 degrees, you've created live steam. Now, what did live steam do to the industrial revolution? Did it change the way that our economy functions forever? So Nelson said the steam engine changed the world, but it doesn't happen until you get past 212 degrees. Lots of heat goes into the process up to the boiling point, but then the dramatic power comes on suddenly. Here's grading live steam. That same $20,000 policy. Now, back when that policy was created in 2012, we could only put in 5,000 of accelerated deposit option. 15,000 was the minimum premium required. Today that would be the complete inverse. The minimum would be 5. The accelerated deposit option would be 15. So today it's even better. But back then it was great. 2012, total premium deposited 2000-020222-00000 has gone into the policy. Starting death benefit was 721,000. Total death benefit is 1.114 million today, rising every year. Total cash value 4,500 in 2012, 220,948. And going up how often, regardless of what was happening with the pandemic or the economy or the political turmoil or anything, can that cash value not go up? It must. Every single day. Loan balance was nothing in 2012. It's 46,000 today. Loan amount available was 4,050. In 2012, it's 145,000 left as loan amount available today. 20,000 in premium in 2021 generated 28,843 increase in total cash value. What percentage of interest would I have to be paid from a commercial bank to put 20,000 into an account in 2021? And in 2022 I've got 28,843.

What percentage of interest would I have to be paid from a bank and pay no tax on it. So I want you to understand, this is the live steam that Nelson's talking about. The more capital you put in, the more capital you get out. What did I have here in 2012? I just had a pot of water at Seaside. I just started to heat it up. Do I have live steam in this policy now? Better believe I do. This policy is humming along at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. It's live steam. Every dollar that I put into this policy produces more than a dollar of accumulated cash value, which produces more than a dollar of loan amount available, which produces more capital for me to take advantage of high caliber opportunities to grow more capital. So this is Jen looking at her son Ethan, and he says, hey, one of our family members just texted me saying, I don't know if I'm going to repay that policy loan. Look at the look on Jen's face. And there's Anna Grace going, dad's going to be pissed off when he hears about this. But this is what we talk about. Nelson says on page 85, point number three. When you get paid for your work, you put all of it into someone else's bank and then you write checks from that account to buy the things you need in life so someone else's bank gets all your money. If you owned a banking system, wouldn't you want to run all of your business through your own bank? If this is so, then life insurance premiums paid each year should ultimately equal annual income. This can't be done immediately. It will take the average person about 20 years to reach this level. If this message is taught to succeeding generations, then a perpetual banking system can be achieved. Here's what most people misinterpret from this point. Nelson is not saying that equaling annual income means that all of your income should flow through a policy or a system that's only on your life. So if you're earning 1000-002000-00300,000 a year, it's not about creating a system that's going to accommodate 100, 200, 300,000 a year where all the insurance contracts are on your life. What do you have to diversify in lives insured so that you create a family banking system so that the windfalls that come are not just from one life that is insured. We teach kids about the Easter Bunny. We teach kids about the Tooth fairy. We teach kids about money.

Let's teach our children about this man, because this man is real. Caitlin, one of my twin daughters, she said her words, not mine. She said, my dad put life insurance in place for me, not on me. She has six policies in force. She's 10. She has a million $197,000 death benefit that's rising every year. She has 45,000 plus in total cash value rising every day. She will never see a commercial bank for any financing needs in her lifetime. She will never have to deal with lengthy, nosy credit applications. She'll never have to deal with bankers. This is my nephew Ethan. That was his signed copy of his first loan agreement.

He bought a car. Then he decided that he wanted to become a mechanic. And then he decided that he wanted to start selling the cars that he bought. This picture was taken last week where he had purchased a vehicle for 2,900 bucks. And he sold it for more than 4,000. And he brought over this stack of cash and he said, uncle, I'm putting this in the family banking system.

This is my son Jackson. Jackson has initiated and repaid a number of policy loans. He's 14. He. His first policy loan was accessed when he was 11. My twin daughters have yet to access their first policy loan, but they participate heavily in our annual family banking meetings. My oldest daughter, Anna Grace, same for her. There are so many advantages to this process, but I need you to remember one thing. If you haven't yet identified why you're practicing this process, you have an opportunity to do that. Once you identify the reasons why you're doing it. Don't ever lose sight of those reasons why. Because if you lose sight of your reasons why, all that you're going to remember is what you purchased from Ascendant, not why you're doing it. You've got to set this vision for your family. That's up to you. We'll coach you. We'll help you do this.

And I promise you that if you're thinking to yourself, I wish I would have known about this 10 years ago, you can't say that 10 years from now because you're here today.