YouTube video by Luis (Louis) Barajas advising viewers to evaluate their close personal relationships as part of building a strong financial foundation. He links proverbs about peers (e.g., "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with") to practical exercises: create a personal balance sheet (assets/liabilities), a budget/personal P&L (income/expenses/discretionary income), and a personal network statement listing people, their characteristics and whether they support your goals. He recommends auditing close relationships and replacing unsupportive influences.
Chapters
Welcome back. This is Luis Barajas, your financial life healer.
I'm going to share with you a quote that my grandparents told me, my.
Parents have told me, and now I tell my kids and when I was a teenager or in my early 20s.
I didn't want to listen to them. And it would be dime con quien andas yta de quen eres. Tell me who you're hanging out with. I'm going to tell you what, what kind of person you are. Other quotes that are kind of in similar vein are, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. The other one is you'll be the same person in five years as you are today, except for the people you meet and the books you read. So I will share with you that when it comes to building your financial foundation, one of the very first things that I have you do is, is write down your two most important financial statements, which is your personal balance sheet or your personal network statement, and make a list of all your assets and a list of all your liabilities. That's your personal balance sheet or your budget or personal profit and loss statement is make a list of all the income that you earn and all the expenses and how much money you have left over to invest or they call it your discretionary income. Well, I also like to have the clients that I work with is make a list of the people that they're hanging out with and list their characteristics. What are they earning? What kind of careers do they have? Are they people that are making you a better person? Right. It's really important because that's part of the financial foundation and the foundation for you as a person and you want to be hanging around people that helping you build your character and make you into a better person, that in the future, you know, you then inspire other people to become better as well.
So I've always said you're only as strong as your weakest link. Once you've taken a list of all the people that are you're hanging out with, you know, is there someone there that maybe shouldn't be as part of that day to day person that you're hanging out with, that's maybe not making your character stronger, maybe that's not maybe could be envious or jealous of you.
Or is not supporting you to help you reach your most important life goals?
All right, so take an inventory of those close personal relationships. See who's supporting you, who's not supporting you.
And maybe it's time to trade one.
Friend for another friend.
To make you a better person in the future. See you next time.
