Episode 259: The Money Principle with Co-Host Tonia Poe

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind. I am here this afternoon with my good friend Tanya Po. Hello, Tanya.

Hello.

Thanks for coming back. Tanya is one of our most popular guests of all time on our Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. And I wanted to get Tanya to come back and go through a couple of subjects that just kind of come up as related to, like, topics related to different areas of winning. And it's just really good to revisit these things from time to time so you can, it's like sharpening your knife because you have to deal with these things. You get confronted with them, what to do in this situation, and you can't remember everything all the time. So it's good to review them, freshen them up, and then possibly understand things and their applications in even bigger, wider areas so you can get more benefit from your knowledge. And one thing is about the principles of managing money. So, Tanya, you're ready to jump into money management?

Yes. Let's go.

Well, as far as a money principle, here's the point I want to make. You don't have to be from it doesn't matter that if you're a.

You.

Have a Ivy League education, average education, no education, doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter what your job is. You can use good financial ideas to navigate your life, or you can use bad financial ideas and you can actually even make a lot of money and still do a bad job of managing it by not having these kind of parameters set up inside of your head, like boundaries of this is amount of money I've got to spend. And see a lot of people go through life running their life like the federal government, they just print money until they get away with as long as they can get away with it. And then they run up all the credit cards and up the debt, then they go down. And what you want to do is you want to know where the limits are. You want to stay as long as you stay inside the limits, it's stress free. You know, you take, you can make stress or you can release stress for yourself, but it's nice to give yourself a margin for error. Life is unpredictable. You don't want to blow your whole plan because you're living on the Ragged edge. Yeah. And you like to be compounding towards financial independence. Financial independence individually or a lot of financial stability. If you're a company, you know, you want to be your own boss, you don't want to be jerked around. And so a lot of this has to do with the money ideas you use. And just because you've got a great education in other areas doesn't mean you got right. And, and also just because you know what to do, if you don't do it, that that information is not going to do you any good. So I just wanted to get the idea of doing, making good decisions with money and put that on the table.

Okay, let's do it.

Interested in what your take is? As I kind of went through some of those things and again, when we go about topics, these are going to be not hour and a half discussions. These are going to be like 8 to 10 minute type little snapshots of different subjects. So when we talk about money and money management and being a good steward, you know, that type of thing comes out of the Bible with the money that goes through your hands. This thing of paying yourself first is a concept we don't, most of us don't grow up with.

Yeah. And what I realized through paying myself first is I can have a conversation with people about, about it. You can, you know, start to see the, the fruit of your labor really matter because you can't measure, you know, how hard you're working with the things that you purchase. You can't measure how hard you're working with the, the liabilities that you accumulate. But when you have your assets growing and your, you can have a conversation with people about that. You know, look what I've done with my income. You know, it's just a choice and a decision. But so many people are not making that decision because they just are. We're not, you know, taught that way. And I just made a decision that I was, at 34 years old, I made a decision that I was going to learn about money and I was going to create some wealth for myself.

And the thing about, it's amazing how stupid the amount of this information is about money, you know, and how hard it is to get like basic information. But paying yourself first means that you're going to make sure that you put aside out of a paycheck that you get or revenue that you get, especially entrepreneurs, you know, you're always feeling like, okay, I'm behind the eight ball right now and I'm just barely making it. I, I'm going to Spend everything. But then down the road, you know, I'm going to have huge, you know, I'm not, I'm not even putting hundreds of dollars away now, but down the road I'm going to have an extra 10, 20, 30 grand a month to save. But that somehow that never comes. You got, at some point you got to start the discipline and the habit right from the beginning. Because tomorrow never seems to come on that.

Right.

Like, start with what?

You could start the habit, right, Definitely.

And that's what pay yourself first. But it's amazing the bad information out there and how ignorant you can be. I remember I thought I was being a great money manager when I first started out of college. I would save up money and then I would go buy furniture and pay cash for it. You know, I said, well, I didn't use a credit card. Yeah, but you spent all your money, dummy.

Right? You spend all your capital, you have.

You'Re back to zero. Like, I thought I was being a great money manager. But the thing is, you know, like even Tony Robbins, what we're talking about here is just a basic personal common sense. Stay between the boundaries, start disciplining yourself to take care of yourself, because tomorrow, you know, do it with what you've got. Now you've got to convince yourself, give yourself permission to go ahead and do that, put that money there. Because rather than putting it off to tomorrow. And the thing is that when, even with companies, you know, you see people, they don't get this. They don't do it in their personal life, and so they don't do it in their business life. They create problems for their company as well. And there's a lot of big companies that go bankrupt, folks, because they're not managed carefully. Remember Rick Williams was earlier CEO of the company, and I remember talking to him about his boys one time and they just made a trip up to Alaska and they're like 12, 13, 14 years old. And he said, yeah, I'm real proud of him. He said, I think they're gonna be savers. Of all the things that he could have talked about with those boys was they're going to be financially solid. And I thought as a financial guy in the company, it was interesting he was passing that on to his kids from an early day. It's one thing to learn to earn money as a kid, it's another thing to learn to save money is a kid, you know, and the quicker you can get that in your children, you can get that in yourself, the better you're going to be. Because it gives you a cushion against the calamities of life. Somehow when you got some money to cushion the blows in life, you don't panic quite as much. You're not as neurotic as when you're living on the ragged edge, are you? Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business that's accrued over $5 billion in assets under management and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellawinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

Exactly. No, not at all. And I have a 15 year old daughter and I've been probably since she was 10, I've been going over how money works and we'll go through that. And she gets an allowance about $250 a month. And that money, she has to use that money for, not for lunch or anything like that, that's her money, I'll still pay for lunch. But what she has to use that money for is anything that's coming up that she wants to buy. So if it's a Valentine's Day, if it's Mother's Day, Christmas, Father's Day, and then whatever little things that she might want through the month. So what she's had to learn is to save her money. And so she has a checking account and a savings account and I just got her a credit card with a little $500,500 limit on it. She just turned 15. And I told her this is for emergencies, this is not for you to charge this and then turn around and you have to pay it, pay it off with your money. This is for an emergency. And she joked and she says, well, would an emergency be that I get my money, my allowance on the 15th and today's the 10th and I want to get a pair of shoes and so I just use it and then put the money back when I get. No, that's not an emergency. So then we had to go over what emergency was. But I'm teaching her to be responsible with her money. You can purchase some things that you want, but let's first get things putting money away for you. And so I teach her that of the money that you get, there's a portion that will Never be spent. So whether I don't care if it's just $50, you put that up and you watch that grow. You say what you want to do things you want. But there's a portion of this money that should never, ever, ever be spent. It's for later on in life. And you know, at first it's hard when you have young ones trying to get them to put money away and not touch it. But she's got it now, so she's proud of what she's saving, you know, but you have to start early. And no one did that with me. My parents loved me to death, but they just didn't know. They can't tell me or teach me what they don't know. And I've taught them. You know, I'm 48 years old as of yesterday and you know, it's been 13 years. Thank you, thank you. It's been 13 years that I've been in finance. And in these 13 years my parents have learned so much. They're 71 and 73 years old. They've learned from me. And I think that's the goal. The goal is to make sure that you learn it, but then you also teach it. And you're never too old to learn about finance because that's just an area that has been neglected in so many areas. Yeah.

And the thing is like every area of your life, you win with a plan or a basic idea of how it's supposed to go. And you've got to have short term and long term goals. And the thing about money is that you have short term money and this is money that you'd use over a 90 day cycle. You got to have an emergency fund. A good guideline is three to six months of income in an emergency fund to take care of new tires for the car or all of a sudden roof on the house or something, or a tree falls over, whatever. You have these surprise expense, but then you have, you know, that's called the put and take money, the merch fund. But then you have the long term money which is the put and leave. And this is the money for the future. And you're not going to touch for any reason because that's your nest egg, that's your financial independence, that's your security and buffer against the world. Not going to get in there. And so if you win when you have a plan, it makes it easier for you when you understand that. Two, understand a thing like a budget. Now budget's not getting a spanking, it's not a Discipline. It's not a bad because you've been bad. A budget gives you an idea of staying in the line. You can afford, comfortably afford to spend this much money on this, this much money on that, and still get these other things going.

Right?

You look at a budget as. Which I never did. You know, I always thought a budget is from the devil, you know? You know what I'm saying? It's like a budget is a boss telling me what to do. A budget is something that you rebel against. No, a budget is your friend, right? A budget helps you know where the edge of the cliff is so you can move through life making decisions, spending money, buying things, doing things, and know that you're within the range of where you're not going to go overboard like the federal government does. We can't run up these $10 trillion deficits. We can't print money. But so many people live their life like the government does. They decide, hey, we need this. And then they go spend money and get it, you know, and so don't worry about paying it back. That's for somebody else or another administration. Well, we were elected for life to run our life, right? We're responsible. And so when you understand some of these concepts, you can kind of calm down on worry. The whole idea is when you don't have money, I mean, financial fears will crush anybody, won't they?

Yes, they will. And what's funny is, prior to me being in finance, I used to budget all the time, but I didn't budget for the right reasons. I budgeted because I didn't like not being able. Able to go spend money on things that I want to spend money on. So I would budget and I would budget really, really strategically. And then so I would have money left over to go shop for things I didn't need to go hang out with my friends. And so I would budget for that. Not budget to be able to put money away. I wasn't a saver, but I was always a budgeter. I could budget down to the. Dropped to the last T. So that that piece did help me when I got into finance because the budget part I already had, but now I just have to change the reason why I was budgeting to put money away for the future, not to have more to spend and blow. You know what I mean? And I think that people that do budget but don't save, they have to understand that, you know, you, you already have the habits of budgeting, but now you just have to change the concept, change the reason why you're doing it and part with that money. Sometimes it's very difficult to part with this extra $200 or part with that, you know, that's why I think it's very important to put yourself in a program where, hey, you know, put your money away, they take it out of your checking account, they put it away. As soon as it hits your account, they take it away. So you don't even have time to, to look at it and figure out what you're going to do with it. Just sit, set it that way to where it's automatically coming out. You get paid on this day, hey, what percentage do you want to come out to go directly to your savings account? And that helped me a lot, tremendously. And I think that helps a lot of people just learn how to put money away. Some people don't even know or understand how to do it. It seems so simple, Larry. But some people, they don't know how to do it. They only know how to put it into their life.

And when you do, you give yourself the privilege of taking advantage of what Albert Einstein or something, Warren Buffett or one of these geniuses said is the eighth wonder of the world or something, which is the magic of compound interest. And how that you put money aside and you get a chance to make interest on your money and then interest on the interest. And for those who don't know the rule of 72, you take the your interest, you're getting return on your money, you divide it into 72, and that tells you how many years it takes to double. So if you get even, if you're getting 6%, that money is going to double in 12 years. And over a career, even at 6% interest, it could double, double, double several times. The sooner you get that out and get it in one of those accounts. And so anyway, that we won't get into where to put the money, because that's advising. But you need to think about yourself and get some of that money that's going through your hands over to the side where it can start working for you rather than just be spent. Give yourself a much greater peace of mind and also make you a better decision maker at work. Any last word on money?

Just, you know, I was, I read a book one time that said that, you know, money is a concept made up in your mind. And I thought that was the craziest thing, the weirdest thing. But when you think about it, it's, it's true, because if you want more of it, there's a million ways to create a situation where you can go get it. It's just how bad do you want it? If you want a better life in the future, it's a matter of taking the right steps to secure that with the money. Put it up. Learn how to have your money work hard for you instead of we always being the ones to work hard for the money. The information is out there, Larry. It's just, you know, there's so many books, just not enough books being read on the top topics and on the subjects. We have to take initiative to change the direction of our families. I took a step and I took a vow that there would be another, never another broke pole in my family as long as I live and beyond. And this is due to the education that I started to receive at 34 years old, now being 48 and passing it on, getting with my child. So I just think that a decision needs to be made about, really a serious decision about what you want your legacy to look like. You only have certain amount of years on this earth and what are you going to do with them? You dictate literally, as long as your heavenly father keeps waking you up every day, you get to tell what your life is going to be like with the choices that you make. And I think people just need to choose to be more aware of their finances and, and get the information that they need to change their life.

Larry, excellent. Thank you, Tanya. It's just excellent insights on money, folks. Make it a priority to start moving to make yourself financially independent. Now, if you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works and in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.