Playing the Personal Finance Game (#FIREHOUR S4, E40)

I actually wanted to do a test today.

A test on what?

On, on the live streaming this.

Oh, into YouTube?

Yeah. Work listening. Good job. Good, good. Like, that's so good. That's really good.

What do you do? Like, I'm wondering, um, I know like we have some nurses sometimes that like will literally hide an AirPod in their ear and put their hair over it.

That's awesome. She works in an office at a warehouse. Oh man, that's so good.

Like, it must be loud there. Usually like there's like a lot of echoing and stuff. But, um, it just shows you like when there is a will, there is a way, right? Like, um, there's so many reasons or excuses, you know, we all have, or people have, to say that, you know, they can't do this, or they can't do this, or they can't do that, right?

Yeah.

Um, but if you really want to— I always say this, like, if you want to go somewhere you've never been before, you have to become someone you've never been before. Um, so, you know, good for you. Hopefully you don't work anything too dangerous in the warehouse. I know you work in the office part, but I know there's like heavy, sometimes heavy equipment and stuff.

Um, no, that's, that's really good though. It, it's like every chance that you get, like to work on yourself, to learn something, to get closer towards your goals and you're making that effort, like whether people like it or not, whether people say yes or no, like it doesn't matter. Like you're putting the effort in and you can listen to anything. You know, you can, everyone here like can choose to listen to anything, uh, but you decide to listen to or tune into this, you know, and this is like that, that shows you already, like for everyone here, you know, it shows you where your focus is going. Right. And, uh, there's a quote where focus goes, energy flows. So like, that's really, really good. She says, I only have to be in the warehouse first thing when I get here. Other than that, I stay in the office and do computer work. Nice. Okay, so welcome back to FIRE Hour. If you're new here, FIRE Hour is all about working on the best project you'll ever work on, which is you. And on today's episode, did you wanna cover personal finance?

I don't know.

Okay.

I think it's very much needed, but I just don't know if that's something people are interested in.

I think it's really helpful. Personal finance is one of the topics, actually, because, yeah, Krystal was just— we were talking about this, I think it was yesterday, and it's just something that, like, she's been expressing. And so this is— our hour is here for transformation, you know. Um, when it comes to like personal finance, like there's def— there's different levels to personal finance, obviously, but at the core of it, the foundation is literally like the 101, right? The basics. And literally like the basics, at least this is just my perspective on it. You can make a million dollars, you can make a thousand dollars, you can make whatever amount of money, but Warren Buffett, right? The, the billionaire. The person who obviously is crushing it at the highest levels possible in finance, like, you know, he has two rules, right? Rule number one is never lose money. Rule number two is never forget rule number one. And so to that extent, like, basic personal finance and education is really doing your best not to lose any money, right?

Yeah.

And then when you get to different levels where you're able to— when you have cash flow coming in and you have different types of resources you can allocated to. And there's even different types of levels of investments, right? If you're not an accredited investor, right, this is the higher levels. If you're not an accredited investor, you're actually closed off to certain opportunities that accredited investors have an opportunity to look at. Okay, so there's little— there's levels to this game when it comes to finance and investors and becoming, uh, just your investments and what you can do. And so Um, you know, everything that we discussed on today's episode is going to be obviously based on personal experience and not just theory and not just reading books like how you said before. And not only that, but it's also just information and ideas, ideas that you can translate and let your learning lead to action. And so, um, I believe that every single person here is an investor because you're actually investing into yourself. You're investing into the future outcomes, into your future desires, into the future life that you want to have. And the way that you're getting there is, you know, by taking these small steps and taking these small actions that lead into big results. And so it's the compound effect in action. And not only that, but these are also seeds that you're planting in the now, and they're sprouting along the way as you continue on your journey towards your destination. And that destination is that process of your life, right? It's your entire life. So, uh, you know, just whether wherever you are at in your life, your current situation, if you are just starting out, if you're already advanced, if you're an expert in all this, if you're already like, you know, you've achieved your financial success, whatever that is for you, every single person here can always improve and get better. It's just 1%. Like you're looking like become the person that is looking for that gold. You're digging for that gold. And when you find that gold, that is an unlock that helps you level up. If you think of your life as a video game as well, who here has played video games before, right? There's like, there's so many different games, but basically like you're a character and you're leveling up and every single thing that you do, every action that you take, that's getting you closer towards your end goal. Towards winning the game, you're actually leveling up on the way. And so that's exactly the same thing that you're doing here with personal development, with hopping on Fire Hour, with listening to an audiobook, with working on yourself. Every single thing is helping you level up. So if it, if we talk about personal finance, at every single level, there's obviously different skills that you can attain, different ideas and information and knowledge that you can gain. And then that will actually help you level up. And the whole goal of obviously all this information is to put it into action though, right? Is to let your learning lead to action. And the reason why is because not only is it, not only is this information helpful for you, okay? I'm gonna talk about 3 different types of people, uh, and it'll pertain to all of us. But not only is this information helpful for you, but it's also helpful for other people who don't know it yet., and you can be that bridge that guides them to that information. Okay, so the 3 types of people, and then I'll let you talk and share because I'm not going to talk about this.

You're doing so well.

So the 3 types of people, uh, that I'm going to talk about, and you can be one of these 3, and if you're already at the very end of it, then you could, you could probably relate to all these 3 different identities. But the first person is the person who's just starting out, right? They are finally receiving this information, whether it goes over their head or they get it right away, right? Whether you get it right away or it goes over your head, it doesn't matter. It's okay. But that's, that's person number 1, beginner, right? Person number 2 is you're able to actually use this information because you're at the level where you have the financial resources and you're able to allocate those properly. You're able to deploy your capital, your, your financial capital towards certain investments. And that, that investment can be books. That investment could be buying a business. That investment can be putting into your marketing dollars. That investment can be into whatever it is you want because you have the financial capital to allocate it. Okay? The third person is the person that is in the advanced stages where you're probably making— let's say that you have like at least $700,000 in cash, okay, in liquid cash, and you're able to deploy that at will if an opportunity just right on the spot shows itself. Okay, at $700,000— well, it's a, it's a million and above, but at $700,000 liquid, like regardless if you're accredited or not, you have enough info, you have enough cash, like finances, to actually— and this is obviously talking about like no debt, okay? But you have cash or good debt, okay? Or good debt, which we can talk about. But you're able to allocate this liquid cash at will, meaning that if today you find an opportunity or someone just hits you up from your phone— like, I got a text message yesterday, and this is from someone that I've known for since 2016, 2015, 2016. And he's crushing it right now. And so he just texted me yesterday, so I gotta get back to him today, but he's hitting him up for a reason. Okay. There's opportunity right there. Right. I don't know what it is, but all I do know is that there's opportunity because through your list, right through your phone, you have a bunch of different contacts and you have a networking, like this is your, one of your best networking devices right here is your phone. Okay. Your list. So, uh, with this guy, like he's working with multimillionaires. And he's working with celebrities and he's working with influencers and he's a good friend of mine. And so I just need to get back to him, but there's opportunity right there. If I had the income or if I had, if someone had the finances to deploy at will because of an opportunity like that, then boom, you already create change right away and you're, you're getting, you're actually unlocking exponential growth, meaning that from one action, Right? The one domino that you put down, how many does it push? How much does it unlock for you? Right? And that, that actually happens every single day. There's opportunities for the, like, person 1, person 2, and person 3 every day. But it's about who you know and about, and more importantly, who knows you. Okay? And that extends to personal branding, but it just depends on what opportunities are coming to you. Instead of you chasing the opportunities, the opportunities chase you. And that's about abundance and becoming that magnet to success. And so when it comes to your personal finance, right, the whole reason why I share that is because whether you're a person 1 who is just starting out, just getting this information, you can take this information to someone who is a person 3. You can take this information to someone who's a person 2, and you can actually add value to them. And in return, what person 3 and person 2 is going to look at Person 1 is this person is bringing me information. This person is bringing me value, gold, chances for change. This person's giving me opportunities. Who does this person know? Why is this person like just a beginner? Doesn't have their cash like set up yet. Doesn't have their finances all good. Uh, they're still working on themselves, yet they're bringing me information at a high level. This person, I could probably bet on them in the future. This person, let me just, let me just wait a few years. Let me see where they come. Let, let me see where they go, like in their life, because they're actively working on themselves. They're bringing me high-level information. Okay. I talk about the 3 types of, of capital. There's a lot more than that, but the 3 types of capital is your knowledge, is your finances, like your, your actual like cash. And then it's also your skills, right? And, and it's your relationships as well. And so like those 3 types of capital, you can always apply at any level. It doesn't matter. Level 1, level 2, level 3. So you can take this information as a level 1 person, as person 1, to 2 and 3, and they'll see the, they may see the value in you, right? Whether it's short-term or long-term, hopefully it's long-term. Everything that we do is long-term. So I hope that, that you embody that as well, right? Or adopt that mindset. So. You know, person 2, like you're in the do, like you actually have cash, you're in the do, you're able to take actions right away. And like you're looking for person 1, person 3 as well, right? Because there's different levels to the game. Person 3 may be looking for a person 1 and person 2, and it just depends on the type of investment, right? So there's so many different ways to look at this, but at the end of the day, whether you're a person 1, person 2, person 3, right? If you don't have your personal finance game like down, then remember what Warren Buffett said, like, never forget rule number 2, okay? Never forget rule number 2, which is never lose money. All right, so— or which is never forget rule number 1, which is never lose money. So that said, I'm gonna work on the stream, and then I'm gonna work on the live stream right now.

Okay. I thought you talked about it before a while ago.

Which one?

You talked about doing that before a while ago.

It was last week. I mean, yeah, it was a while.

No, you mentioned it a while ago.

Yeah, it was a while back, but, um, I didn't know that Zoom could— so this is something for everyone here. If you use Zoom to, uh, to do, uh, content and stuff like this, you can actually link your Zoom to YouTube and to all the, all these other platforms and you can actually livestream. So I think that's pretty cool. Okay, babe, do you want to— did you want to do like an overview of your perspective? This was just one perspective. Okay. Just to let everyone know.

Yeah. So I would say like before you even get into necessarily thinking about, you know, investments or investing, because it's not something that you should jump into right away if you're risking your livelihood. I always like, you know, for, for me, it's always about financial responsibility because at the end of the day, who do you have to take care of? Right? Like, is it just you yourself? If it's just you yourself, well, if you fail and you lose, like, what point are you at in life? Right? Like, you could always start over again. You can get another job. You can start another business. I don't know what your skill set is. Right? So If you're a single person and you have time ahead of you, like you're still young, you have energy to do it, right? Like if you're 70, definitely wouldn't recommend risky investments, right? Then you have to look at your level of risk. And so if you have kids or a partner, like the level of risk you can take is going to be much different. Than if you have yourself, right? Because you're responsible for other people and other lives, right? It's not just you. It's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, however many people you know you're responsible for. The level of risk you can take is going to be much different.

Sorry.

Can you guys hear that? It totally just echoed.

Sorry.

There's like a bit of a lag and an echo.

It was because that was the livestream on YouTube. You're actually live on YouTube right now.

So step one, I would always say to start with the basics, right? And it's so easy. Like, I know that there's a lot of terms out there and sometimes maybe what you see may be very difficult to comprehend because of all these words that you didn't know of before, right? For example, every time you go to a job or you go to a different industry or you're talking to someone that specializes in something, there are certain words that you haven't heard before because it's the vocabulary of that industry. So I always keep it very, very simple. Start with the basics, like what do you have coming in, right? And it can come from all sources that you have. Like, do you have a job? Do you have a business? Do you have interest income from the bank or stocks? You know, whatever it's What comes in, right, is a plus. It goes into your account. And then what goes out is your expenses, right? Like what, you know, what do you spend on? Where do you spend your money? And so it's very simple. What comes in and what goes out and what stays, right? What stays? And so that is how I learned personal finances. When I was young, I always watched my mom. She always talked to me about like where we're going and what we're doing and how much we have, how much we can spend, and how long it's going to last us, right? Um, and she taught us that because she didn't learn about these things until later on in life. And we were also at a pretty critical point where literally every penny mattered. So I don't know if you guys ever had the experience of going to the grocery store and getting checked out and then realizing you don't have enough to be able to cover what you have on that you know, that belt, right? And having to put things back and looking at it and having to put things back that actually were somewhat necessary. Right. And so that's how I grew up. And that's why I became how I became, because I didn't want to live like that anymore. And I was grateful and I was lucky to be able to have those experiences. They were obviously much rougher on my parents, right? Because I was just a child. But those lessons have always stuck with me. And I've always told myself, like, you know, a long time ago, like, when I make it and I honestly, I don't even feel like I've made it, to be honest. But I always said, you know, when I make it, when I make it, like, I'm going to share what I did because other people need to know this. They need to know about this. Like, these are things that they may not be taught. These are things that are kind of taboo to talk about in your friend circles or even with your own family. Right. But it's your family that's the one that's not supposed to teach you guys these types of things because as you're growing up as a child, who better than, you know, the people that love and care about you the most, right? But sometimes it's become so taboo in the society to talk about money and like you're almost shamed for talking about it or wanting more or having like a, a deep focus on it, right? Um, and so Start with the basics. What do you have going in? What do you have going out? And then what do you have left over, right? Like you cannot manage what you cannot— like you can't manage what you can't measure. So if you're not focusing on that, and I would start with every month, right? Like every month you have something coming in and you have something going out, like review your bank statements, your credit card statements, any cash that you pull out and you spend and like what categories are they going into, right? So after you have that, that's just basic. That's just like Step 1. Step 2 is like, now you're evaluating everything, right? What is wants versus needs? Like, what do you absolutely need to survive? And what is the wants, right? Like, it's something that's not necessary, but you just want it. So you just get it. Um, or it's entertainment. And I would evaluate that. And if you're in a situation where you could cut back on your wants, I would cut back on my wants, right? Like, I know that out there there's, you know, these financial gurus or what have you, or these finance people, and they're like, oh, you should allocate like 20 or 30% to your wants. And I'm like, I don't know about that because instead of, you know, putting 20 to 30% on your wants and your entertainment, if you're broke or you're in debt or you're struggling, like, do you think that's a good idea? Probably not. You know, I would put that 20 to 30% into paying off the highest interest rate credit cards that you do have in order to lower your debt. Or I would also put a percentage of that into like an investment or into a high-yield savings account that actually makes you money on your money because the effects of compound interest is so great and you just, you just have no idea like how much that sometimes $20 or $50 or $100 extra $100 a month just from parking your money there can help you with things that you need in an event of an emergency or what have you. So I mean, personal finance is not like an exciting topic. Like it's exciting to me because it's fun for me. Like I find it like a game, but it's so necessary, you know, and the more you avoid it, like the more it's going to bite you in the butt, you know, there are certain times where you just need to rip off the bandaid and evaluate what's happening in your life. And when you have more finances, like you have more options, honestly, you have more options and you have more freedom in life, right? Yeah. There were times where like I was, I was able to give my mom like $1,000, $1,500 like a month, like consistently for years. Right. And so it obviously takes a lot more than that, like to help a person retire if they're not living with you. But what is money to you? I would ask that, like, what do you want in life? And most of the time what you want, it probably ties back to your finances and the health of your finances. If you're like, I want more time with my kids, I want to be able to take more vacations without, you know, feeling like I have to come back and, you know, I'm in a new debt, you know. Um, a lot of things have to deal with finances. Like if you want more options and you want more freedom and you don't want to feel like, you know, the month comes up so quickly before you even have like all your ducks in a row. And then opportunities, like what opportunities do you have in front of you? Right? Like maybe you already have a full-time job. Well, you know, is getting another full-time job like really reasonable for you to do? Like depends like how many. How many responsibilities do you have when you have to go home? Like, are you single, right? Maybe if you're single, you can afford the extra time to be able to work more, right? And obviously, like, there's, there's things that you can do, there's skill sets that you can learn, and sales is one of the greatest skill sets you can learn. I'm very grateful that I kind of just fell into like a couple of small sales jobs when I was younger because it taught me how to interact with people and the psychology of people when they're making purchases, right? And when you have so much repetition and you really learn, you acquire a skill set. Sales is always needed anywhere and everywhere in every industry, okay? Like, if you're not selling, you're buying. Like, are you a seller or are you a buyer, right? So having a sales skill set will never hurt you because it gives you the opportunity to earn more than your— whatever your existing skill set is. Yeah. So yeah.

Okay, let's bring up, let's bring up the level. Let's go to the next level. Let's get into the next level. Okay. So obviously, like your ins, outs, and stays, like what money stays, right?

Yeah. And so, like, you know, every year you should be putting money away for retirement, right? But if you don't have that extra money, how can you put it away? And so I think every year right now you can put away what, up to $7,000 a year towards a Roth IRA, right? So are you set up for retirement? Have you been putting money away for retirement? What happens one day when you no longer can work, want to work, or you're like freaking 75, right? Did— have you been putting money away while you were younger, or at least, you know, every year while you were younger, while you could? Because Think about this. When you retire, do your expenses retire? No, they don't, right? You, you retire, so your income stops coming in. But does that mean you get to pause on your expenses to the level of what, you know, you were spending before? It doesn't, right? And so most people in the US, they're not prepared to retire, and it takes so much more than they think to be able to stop working and still continue to live a certain way, right? Some people, they retire and they have to move out to another state or they have to completely downgrade their lifestyle 180 degrees because they didn't prepare for it. Well, why didn't they prepare for it?

Like, you know, lack of education.

They weren't taught. There was a lack of education. Or even though people talked about it and the education was right there in front of their face, they couldn't receive it properly. Like it was just not important to them because maybe they're in survival mode or maybe they're like, yeah, once I pay off my debt, I'll like, you know, like I'll think about retirement or how can I even get to retirement? I can't even save, right? But you can save while still paying off your debt while still living. But again, it all starts with actually taking the time to evaluate your finances. What is coming in? What is going out? What is left over? Okay. And if you have nothing left over, like, it would be to your advantage to start looking at where your money is going, your needs versus your wants, right? If you are in that critical of a state, I'm sorry, completely throw out all your wants. It's not necessary. Yeah. Okay. Like going to the movies, eating $100 dinners, drinking at bars and running a tab of like you know, $50 to $80, that's a want, right? And if you're in debt and if you're barely managing, you're just kind of escaping, you know, cut out your wants and then evaluate your needs. Okay, so needs: housing, food, clothing at minimum, right? So you don't show up naked. But it's like, do you have to buy expensive clothes? Do you have to, you know, have a really, really nice place because it's nice and it's pretty? Maybe. Do you have to live by yourself? Do you have to live in the best area? Probably not, right? You can evaluate your needs and see, okay, here's my needs, here's what I absolutely need, right? But now how can I get it lower? How can I save more on the things that I, you know, that I do need. I absolutely need a roof and food. But now how can I save on those items? Right? Like, what can I do to be able to lessen those expenses? Because if there is a will, there is a way. But you actually have to rip off the Band-Aid and take a look. Right. And most of the time it's hard to take a look when you've been avoiding for so long the inevitable. Right. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, like, it's again, it might be boring for some people. I find that I find it extremely fun just because it's a game. It's a challenge, right? And if you remove your emotions from the challenge, it makes life a lot easier.

Yeah. Like, don't— it's not boring unless you, unless you make it boring. Okay. Like you can— like there's people out there who like do some boring stuff, but it's so fun to them because their perspective. Right. Like, I'm not going to share any stories, but I have a lot of stories about that. But when it comes to, like, personal finance, so it's like what Crystal said, it's about making it a game, right? And so I just want to ask a question, but let me just read real quick. Good.

So, okay, so Ange says me and P have a SEP IRA. It allows for larger contributions. We have made a lot over the years from that. It's our retirement. My son has a Roth IRA. Good for him. Good for you for doing that. There was a limit of $7,000 in order to open a Roth. You need to be working. So we employed Avery so he can have a head start. And yes, these are ways like to be able to avoid taxes, right? Like my dad, like when he got to a certain point after how many years of like bankruptcy and foreclosure, he got to a certain point where he was able to employ my, my brother, my brother and I, right? Like on paper. And so there was a max amount that we were allowed to, like, receive on paper. Like, we filed our own tax returns since we're like 14 for him to be able to reduce his taxes and for us to have like some type of income, right? And yes, and, and Goody says, and they let you backdate 2 years.

So many interesting rules.

So with a SEP IRA, you guys, if you don't know what a SEP IRA is, it's a self-employment plan, right? So some people are self-employed, so they might not get, you know, 401s from their employers. And some people, some employers, they don't offer retirement because they literally cannot afford to. So when they can't, like, it's up to you, right? Like, never depend on your employer or your spouse or the government or anyone to save you. Like, you need to save yourself, right? Um, and so a SEP IRA allows you to put more money away towards your retirement, certain percentage, um, whether you're single or married. If you're married, the percentage of how much you can put away goes higher, and it's in the 5 figures., okay, every year. And so what I did was I was putting away like 5 figures away every single year because I'm like, I don't need this money right now and I'm not trying to get taxed on it, right? So what happens is you put your SEP IRA away and you don't pay taxes on it until you retire, right? And so, um, up to 25% of your income, right? Of your income that year. So, so here's something that I learned that I don't know if you know, but I'm going to share with you. When you put money away for your SEP IRA, you are basically getting taxed later, right? And so you're getting taxed later, maybe in your 60s or 70s when you decide to retire and you can take the money out. However, do you know what tax rates are going to be when you're 60 or 70, right? Like maybe your tax rate might be 15 to 25 or 30% right now. Is it a possibility it might be 40 to 50% by the time you retire and start to take out that money? Right?

Like, is it a possibility? Like, it's up to everyone to decide, right?

Right. But we have no control over the government and how they increase or decrease taxes. So it's a little bit of a risk, right? Um, and so what I learned later on in life after I put all those funds aside was I'm like, oh my goodness, I don't have control over the government and the way they spend their money. Um, I wouldn't spend it that way personally, because I'd be like in so much debt, but I was just like, it's a possibility they will increase taxes. So although my money has been growing over the last 10 to 30 years, right? In the retirement account, by the time I start taking it out, even if I just take it out little by little month over month, just to like cover expenses and just have like a decent life, right? What is the tax rate going to be at that point? So what there is, is if you have a SEP IRA, there's also called a backdoor Roth. So usually you can only put away $7,000 a year into your Roth IRA. So what a Roth is, is that you pay taxes now and you put money into there tax-free, and then it grows and interest compounds on top of it. Tax-free. So maybe you put in $7,000 in a year, and maybe like 30 or 40 or 50 years from now, like, let's say it's like $100,000. It's not really— I don't know, you got to do, you got to do the numbers. There's financial calculators, but it's going to be a lot more than what you put in because of compound interest over the years, right? And now when you take the money out after it's grown that large over that much time, you are not taxed on that amount. Okay, so, um, So some of my steps, I've done the backdoor Roth because right now I'm young. I can afford to watch my budget or decrease my budget to basically do a backdoor Roth. And so now instead of that $7,000 a year, maybe you're at $25,000, $30,000, $50,000. You pay taxes on it if you can afford to, right? Um, and then now that $50,000 might grow into a million by the time you're like 70 or 80, and now you're taking that money out. Little by little, tax-free. So I am not a financial advisor, I am not a CPA. This is something that I wish I knew a long time ago so I could have flipped it many, many years ago, like when I first started putting money into my SEP IRA in my, in my early 20s. I wish I knew this. So, you know, there's a lot of things and a lot of, a lot of tricks and a lot of, like, you know, I wouldn't say it's a loophole because it's legal, but the more you educate yourself in these things, the more you're gonna see, like, how the works and how the wealthy stay wealthy and get wealthier and pass down generation, generational wealth, right? Um, so that's just one trick that I learned. Um, it's not really a trick, totally legal. Um, again, like, I am not a financial advisor, I am not a CPA, I am not licensed for any financial advice. So all of this is just things that I've personally learned over the years and like what I've done. What you choose to do, like, you talk to, you know, the professional about what your picture looks like, because I don't know your entire picture, your expenses, income, all of that, right? Like, but your personal finance person should be able to take a look and say, that's a good idea for you right now, or that's probably not a good idea for you right now because here's the financial goals you expressed to me you had, right?

Just consult with your tax or your, your financier, or, you know, I mean, not financier, but your, your financial professional, okay? Whoever that is for you. Like consult with them and do the research too.

Yeah, do the research yourself because sometimes your tax person, they might not know all the tax codes or be up to date. Right. And they might not have a plan for you. Right. If you're like, hey, like I'm going to make— I'm projecting X amount this year. Like, what should I put away? Like, how should I structure this? My goal is to A, buy a house or B, spend less taxes. Right. Have that open communication throughout out the year with them so they can plan accordingly because they may have 10, 20, 30, 100 clients, right? They're not going to be able to think about each client and what their financial needs are, but you as a person, that's your life, right? Like, speak up, ask questions, do your own research, and again, never, never, never rely on other people to save you. Like, you are here to save yourself, right? So you have to speak up and advocate for yourself.

Yeah. And then I want to add to that. And then I also want to ask you a question, but so this is what I learned from my mentor, um, Ty. And he said, because he's consulted with people who've managed billions of dollars and like, that's his personal, like, you know, people, right? So he told me this, he's, or he didn't tell me this. He said, he said the biggest advice that he got from someone who advises like for in like investments and stuff. Of, uh, in, in this type of category. I'm not going to make it specific. He said this, he said that the number one thing I can give you advice on, to Ty, was like, take everything that your advisor says with a grain of salt. And then, and then the reason why is because how many days out of the year— there's 365 days in a year— how many days out of the year does your advisor think about you? The answer is maybe one or two. When they're talking to you, right? And to Crystal's point, how many days of your life do you think about yourself? 365 days, okay? And so to her point is that you are going to care a lot more about your own life than someone else will, okay? And that's just, that's just for the most part a fact of life. And so with that information that you have now right, and that you've been aware of already, but I'm just reminding you, okay, is that when it comes to your fi— your personal finances, when it comes to your life, your decision that you make for your life, the only person that's really truly going to care about your life is you. Okay, it's you. And so with that being said, if someone at the billion-dollar mark is giving this advice, right, to someone who like— and they don't even have to give this advice, don't even have to be like, hey, How many days, like, out of the year does your advisor or consultant or whoever thinks about you, right? If, if you have someone very special in your life and they really truly care about you, like, yes, that, that's an anomaly, right? That is not common and that's amazing. But for a majority, and what I would just, in my perspective, my experience, I'll just share is that for the most part, that advice is true, is that you don't, like, don't Don't let other people, right? Don't, don't leave your life in the hands of other people. Okay. So to Crystal's point, it's about getting educated for yourself, right? It's about educating yourself. And that's actually the importance of this call, right? Is that regardless, because there's, because the question I want to ask you is about like the personal finance, but when it comes to like this, this call, whether it's boring or not, or it's fun or not, okay. It doesn't matter. Like this is information. And this is information that can actually change your life.

It's your livelihood.

If you apply it, um, because there's a lot of people that get this information, yet they're still in the same cycle, this low-level cycle that they can't get out of, even though they have the information. And that's because that's their own choosing. Okay. So it's about letting your learning lead to action, become a learning machine, take action. Okay. Take action. So That, that's one. Okay. Number two is, this is something I learned in 2015 from Tai, and he calls it the Three Bucket Money Mastery, right? And this was about finances. We, we created a, a program called the Accelerator Program, and there was three levels to this program. Level one was money, level two is entrepreneur, and level three is persuasion. Okay. And persuasion is marketing, influence, et cetera. And so the price points for these was level 1, Money, the Money program was $997. Level 2, the Entrepreneurship program was $5,000. It's about teaching someone how to become an entrepreneur and there's advanced entrepreneurship tactics in there for business strategy and business growth. And number 3, which was the highest level, was $10,000. And this was about marketing mastery, persuasion mastery, sales mastery, closing the deal mastery. Like high-level things that he would actually do in his businesses, um, at the time. And obviously he still does today. But I remember when we created that program and we were building it out because I was part of that, of that process, building up this process. And for me in 2015, like I didn't have that money. I was learning, right? I was learning. I was a student, but I was contributing what I could to this, like to this, these, this these programs. And so one thing I noticed in the 3 Bucket Money— in the money program level 1 was like literally talking about what she's talking about right now. Your ins, outs, what is left over, your wants versus your needs. And then there was something called the 3 Bucket Money Mastery, which I'll talk about just briefly right now. And I'm going to ask you a question, but Tai talked about like having 3 different buckets for your money. Like bucket number 1. I mean, this is— I can't remember the exact order of it, but, but there was 3 buckets. One was your Las Vegas bucket, one was your, like, your everyday, like, your expenses bucket, like your bills, and then the other one was your rainy day bucket. And what I've learned over time is that your rainy day bucket, like, there's no set rule with it. So most people say like 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, right? But the truth is, is that a rainy day bucket just depends on the amount of money that you need in order for you to sustain when there— when rainy day comes. And you don't know how long a rainy day is. That's the thing. A rainy day can be an entire year for someone. A rainy day can be 2 years, 3 years, 5 years. It could be that long. So it really depends on your situation when it comes to how much you actually need in your rainy day bucket. Okay? And you have to do the math for that. You have to do your, your numbers for that because I'm telling you right now, especially as employers, a rainy day bucket to me, like, I want to extend my rainy day bucket for at least 5 years. And here's why. It's because I, I don't want to worry. I don't want to worry when a rainy day comes and 5 years goes by and I'm like sinking. Okay. I don't want to deal with that. So as an employer, I want to extend that rainy day bucket to the lifespan of however long I can expand it, because why not? There's no rule, there's no set rule to do that. So why, why I'm going to break the rules and the common myths out there, the common things that people say, because I don't, I don't care. It's a limiting belief to me. If I can extend my rainy day bucket to expand an entire lifetime, right? Then why can't I? Why not? Obviously, like there's opportunity costs and there's, you know, this and that. However, like the rainy day bucket, the purpose of a rainy day bucket, what is the purpose? Is to cover yourself. And cover whatever it is when a rainy day comes. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, right, in no, in no order, but your, you know, like your cash flow, like your, your daily, your, your expenses. You got to cover your expenses every single day, week, month, year, whatever your expenses are. You must have that bucket full in order to just cover your expenses. It's that simple. Okay, number— and then the last one, which is the most important and most fun in my opinion, is your Las Vegas bucket. Okay, your Las Vegas bucket is whatever amount of income you're making, you're going to set a percentage and you're going to put it into that Las Vegas bucket. What does, what is, what does the Las Vegas bucket sound like?

It sounds like you go to Las Vegas and you blow your money.

It sounds like gambling.

So it sounds like that. Yeah, yeah.

So, okay, so anyways, with that being said, your Las Vegas bucket is your, your, like, your risk bucket. It's like your, your big like hedge bucket, like your investment bucket. Like I'm gonna throw money into it. I'm gonna throw this money into the slot machine. And obviously with educated financial guests, right? But cha-ching, that's right. Like you're gonna, you're gonna, you know, pull that slot machine and boom, cha-ching. Okay. It happens like that. And here's the thing, like in a loss, this is like something that a billionaire said, but you only have to get rich once, right? You got, you just gotta get rich once. Guess what? With your Las Vegas bucket, true or not true, and there's people out there in the world who's had, who's like, they've done like seed investments, they've done like investments in people, they've done investments in whatever, and right time, right? They were in their first market, right timing, right opportunity, right market, right environment, right everything. And boom, they made, they made so much from that investment, which was a risk. Risk, okay? And so your Las Vegas bucket is your risk bucket. It's like, hey, I don't know what's going to happen with this, but I am okay whether it goes or doesn't because that money is my Las Vegas money. It's like I'm going to Las Vegas and I'm gonna go to whatever game you want to play, and I'm just— this is the money I'm okay to lose, but if I win, then that's a bonus, right? It's the same thing. And now obviously you want it— that's just like the surface level of You want to be able to use your Las Vegas bucket and obviously like definitely take big risks with it, but risks that you can take and that you're also a little bit educated on, right? And here's the thing, this is, this is what I'm going to extend this Las Vegas bucket to. It's about your network. Okay. So this is the importance of networking and like getting in the right rooms and talking to the right people. Like for example, with the investments that she was talking about, different types of investment vehicles. If you had this information a year ago, 10 years ago, 5, whatever amount, however long ago, okay, and you're able to actually use the vehicles, okay, these investment vehicles, the financial vehicles, whatever they are, and you had the right information, now you can actually cut your learning curve. You can actually make more because the compound— because of the compound effect, because of time, right? And not only that, but you could also just get— you can, you can do more deals, right? There's so much more opportunity and leverage because time is money, right? Time is money. And especially when it comes to an investment like a seed investment that grows with time, you have to have as much time possible for it to grow, to exponentially grow. And if you, if you don't have this information, then you're already missing out. You're literally all— that's truth, it's fact. You're all— you're automatically missing out not because of FOMO, but because of lack of education, lack of information. So the importance of a mastermind and the importance of leveling up and networking with people at different levels in the, in the finance game is so crucial. Because if you're truly aware and truly conscious about how time compounds with different types of vehicles, now you'll understand the game. You'll understand that there's different levels to the game. And so With that being said, like, just to— let's go back to, like, you know, level 1 of this.

Well, here's a disclaimer because you're talking about investments, right?

I'm talking about ideas.

You have to also be very careful with the people that you're investing in or the investment in itself. Like, there are people out there, right? And it really sucks, but there are people out there that is just looking for someone that's new and doesn't understand what they don't understand. Oh yeah, you know what I mean? And so like, I've been scammed before.

Me too.

I have.

Sucks.

People are like, oh, meet this person and that person and they're like this and they're like that. And maybe they are, they really are, but they're always looking for that next person, right? And so when you do any type of investment, be careful on the people that sign off on them because maybe they're great, you know, they're great people, but they introduce you to bad people because they're bad at reading people, right? Or maybe they've invested with them a few times. It worked out great and then it didn't, right? There are people out there looking for ways to come up and it could be very detrimental to you and your family. So first things first, start with the basics, keep with the basics and continue to educate yourself before you kind of, you know, throw money away like that. And when you are making an investment, you have to realize, like, you have to ask yourself, Can I afford to lose this? Will it hurt me or will it hurt my family? Right? Ask those questions first. Like really ask yourself. And if the answer is yes, don't do it. Right? Sometimes things sound too good to be true. It probably is too good to be true. Right? So that's just like a little disclaimer. Like, you know, me being out there, like investing in people, investing in businesses over the last, I don't know, since I was probably in my early 20s. I've seen a lot, you know, and I know there's so many levels to it. Like there's so many more things that I haven't even seen. Like I've seen people get taken for 6 figures and they've worked so hard for that 6 figures. There are people out there. So like, you know, ask yourself, can you afford to lose this money?

Yeah. And so this is like, obviously like this is in the— so there's so many different like games that we can play and skills that we can like learn and actually recruit. But I'm gonna tell you something, right? High Status Networking. Okay. The reason why I created that is because it's about reading people. It's about networking and expanding your relationships. Part of expanding your relationships is reading people. If you don't know how to read people, no matter how much money you make, guess what? Like when people who don't have money meet with people who have money, and, and especially if this person has knowledge that you don't, what's gonna happen is you're gonna receive the knowledge and they're gonna receive your money.

Me.

Okay, so I want you to avoid that. And for everyone who is a high-level entrepreneur and who's actually playing this game, right, because at the higher levels you actually start to network with people, you actually start to mastermind, you actually start to get into talks and communi— like communication and networking with other people who actually can play this game, then you have to learn high-status networking. And the reason why, it's because I talk about all that stuff. I cover all How to read people, who to network with, who to connect with, who to avoid, all these different things. I'm telling you right now, like, if you're going to play this game, you're going to play at this level. There's sharks out there, right? There are sharks out there. You got to avoid them. You got, like, there's so many different levels to this game, okay? There's so many levels to this game. So when you get to those levels, like, you talk to me and guess what? Learn how is that networking, okay? It's like that. Yeah, I'm just— there's, there's a lot of people out there who you want to connect with and there's a lot of people who you don't want to connect with. Okay. So my question now to you, okay, let's bring it back to level 1. My question is when it comes to like, there's basically 2 things, right? So there's in, out, and what's left over. And that's your— there's your wants and needs. So my question is at the very basic levels of the foundation of personal finance, would you say that those are the only 2 things that they really need to know first?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, if you can't get that down, you cannot move on.

Boom. Okay, this right here, this is so important, okay? Because I'm gonna share why. You're level 1, this is just basic foundation, okay? Hear my words when I say this, okay? And hear her words. She said not to move on if you don't get past these 2 things. Do not move on, okay? Don't pass go and collect your $200. Right. And Monopoly, literally, like I'm telling you right now, like, this is so important. I did— like, when I first learned about personal finance, I made it so complicated. I was like, okay, I know my ins and outs, my what's left over. I know my wants versus needs. I cut it down. Here's my— that's how much I'm making. That's how much I'm going to have over every month. No, like, like I made it so complicated for myself because I didn't realize how simple it really was. And when I say how simple it really is, like your wants versus your needs, your ins and outs and what's left over. Like, this is as simple as it gets. Do not make it complicated.

It's, it's like elementary school math, right? Like plus, minus, what's remaining.

Yeah. Don't, don't— my point is, do not add more to this. Don't add more to it.

Make—

keep it simple, right? Simple scales fancy. Fails. I got fancy and I failed. Don't make my mistake. Avoid my pitfall that I'm sharing with you right now and just master the ins and outs in what's left over and then your wants and needs. Okay? Because I'm telling you right now, if you don't master this at this level, especially if you're in level 1, well, when you make $1 million, make $100,000, make whatever amount of money you want to make, and you don't have this mastered down, you will lose all that money most likely very quickly. Okay? Most likely because literally it's about self-control, discipline, education, and obviously mastery of the game. Okay, so your ins and outs and what's left over, let's just get that done. Write it down. Like, what we're going to do, because the reason why I ask you that question is because I want to confirm if this is just a basic foundational level so that way I can create an ebook on it. And then from there, like, it'll be on the website because it's going to help people. That's the whole point is just to help people. Okay. And obviously like with this video, like it'll pair really well with it because now it gives you context to this, the ebook, like the digital product, it's going to be free. And it's about like literally just get past level 1. Okay. Because for us, obviously we want to like do business with other people as well, but we want to do business with people, the right people. Right. And we can't do business with people who are not, don't understand the context don't understand like our alignment with us, don't understand the values, right? And all these other things. And another thing too, uh, especially for everyone who's high level right now, is like, don't forget about the hiring principles from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Okay? What they said was 3 things. When you hire someone, this is— and I extend this, I extended this to investments. Okay? I extended this to who I invest in, like, which is people and the things that I invest in as which is, you know, businesses and whatever, okay? And it— but it's all related to people. 3 things: you only invest in people who have intelligence, energy, and integrity. But here's the caveat: if they don't have the last one, if they don't have integrity, okay, then the other 2 don't matter, okay? Integrity is number 1. You only invest in people who have integrity. Why? It's because whether you make $1 million, $10 million, $100 million with that person, if they do not have integrity, they don't have integrity. Guess what? It's like what Ty says. He says like, um, a fence that— this is like from the Amish, an Amish saying. He says, I'm just repeating what he says. He says a fence that goes up fast falls down fast, right? And what that means is that you can make, like, you make money really quickly, but the thing is, is that if you made that money really quickly with the wrong people, it's gonna disappear really quickly. And the thing is, like, from my experience, it's true, okay? Like, it's so true. So you got to be very careful and very just observant and educate yourself and really level up your skill consistently to understand, like, who's actually trying to take advantage of you and who's not, who's actually, like, on an alignment with you and who's not, okay? It's so important, especially when you get to these higher level games, like, and, and the thing is too, like, $1,000 versus $10,000 versus $100,000 versus $1 million. It's all the same thing. Okay. It's just that the impact is greater depending on your situation. If you only have $1,000 and someone takes it from you, that is devastating. Does that make sense? So it just depends on where you're at. But again, it just really— it's all about understanding the basic foundation and, and what she said. Don't move on until you get this down. Because it's only going to help you and not hurt you in the long run. Okay. So yeah, that right there is— I'm going to put that together and then it'll be there.

And then I want to give like a budgeting percentage. Okay.

Oh yeah.

There are so many budgets out there, right? So now that, you know, plus minus, what do you have left? Right. Like evaluating it. For me personally, like this might not work for everyone. I was in a situation where I was young and I didn't have dependents. I lived with my mom and my brother, and I contributed to my mom, right? And my share of the bills. And so I did 50/50. And so what that means is that I took home $2,000 a month, right? And from that $2,000, I was like, okay, how can I save up to 50% of what I'm making, literally put it inside into a high-yield savings account or multiple CDs to be able to earn more interest than like a regular big bank will pay you and only spend 50%, right? And so I am very extreme, right? And not everyone is that extreme or can be that consistent or disciplined in the way, you know, other people do things, right? Like, people that are probably a lot more consistent, more disciplined, more extreme than me, and maybe they lived off of a lot less, right? For me, what worked for me was 50/50. I had $2,000 coming in every month. $1,000 I spent towards rent, towards food, towards utilities, cell phone bills, you know, gas in the car because I need a car to get to work and back, right? Your transportation. And the rest of the 50% I put into to different CDs, right? And I put into high-yield savings account and I let it sit there and I let the interest compound over time and I didn't look at it. It's like, to me, it was like, you know, this is emergency fund in the event that I have to use it, or it is also funds for me to be able to invest when the opportunity arises, because you never know when an opportunity is going to arise that you wish you had been saving $1,000 a year over the last 10 years or what have you, right? Like, you never know when that time is when you're given an opportunity and you're like, thank goodness I stayed so disciplined and consistent and I can take on that opportunity because it's a pretty safe opportunity for me, right? Um, and so that has really helped me get a lot further in life than most of the people in my circle is because while they were out buying BMWs and Mercedes or leasing these really nice cars or buying all the nice bags or, you know, going out and drinking, buying table service, all that stuff. I was like, I can't go out because I literally cannot afford to keep up with you every weekend. And it wasn't that I necessarily couldn't. It's just that my life goals were so much different than most of my surroundings. Right. I wanted to be able to 100% be able to take care of my mom. I wanted to be able to retire her early. I wanted to be able to, to be that cushion she could fall back on if she ever needed to. And so with that is a huge responsibility towards someone else that you care and you love about. And when you care and you love about someone, it's very easy to do things for them instead of just for yourself and what you want, right? Because you're not just thinking about yourself. And when you don't just think about yourself and your wants and your needs, you actually come into more. You come into more because your level of thinking, your level of care is much greater, you know. So like, I just, I just want to share this with you guys because I know that I wish someone had talked to me and coached me and mentored me. It was my parents. I was grateful and lucky to have them to do that. And once I got to a certain level, I moved on, right? Like I've done things that maybe they may have or not, or maybe they wouldn't have done, right? Because I was like, I'm young and I'm going to risk it. I don't have dependents right now. I'm going to risk while I can. Right. And obviously when I had kids, my levels of risk started changing. My level of like investment started changing. Right. So for me, what worked for me was 50/50. Where there is a will, there is a way. Maybe you can't do 50/50 right away. Maybe you might not ever be able to do 50/50 because you have dependents, you're old, older, where you live, whatever. But if you just shoot for a number, just any number, and you come closer to it than you did, than, than where you were now, like, you've still made an adjustment in life. Like, you've still done something that helped you get much further because you set a goal, even if it's what you deem to be impossible, right? You'll always figure out ways. Your brain will start to go to work for you, right? If you can't save and do that 50/50 plan, are you making enough? Is your skill set higher where you know you can go somewhere else? Or can you add more value to the current business or company that you're in to be able to make more, right? Is there something or some type of opportunity you have on the side that you can do that doesn't affect your normal schedule in the bits, like the nooks and crannies of your day, to learn a skill set, right? To be able to increase that, right? So there's, there's, when there is a will, there is a way. You just have to actually like think it through. Yeah.

Think it through and take action. Right. Take action, stay disciplined. And it's not, you know, it's not easy. Like it takes effort. It does take effort and it takes consistency. But the thing is, is that you're not by yourself. Like that's the beauty, like of the world that we live in right now. Okay. You're not by yourself. You have a community and not only that, but But again, it's about accountability as well, right? You don't— like, this is something I want to share too before we end the call. Like, don't disclose, like, unless you want to, but don't just— you don't need to disclose, like, the amount of money that you make to people. Like, you don't have to disclose that, right? It's not their business at all. It's no one else's business but yours. So now when it comes to, like, joining a mastermind, right? Let's say, for example, you have an accountability partner. Maybe you can disclose that if you want to because you're very specific and you're very intentional with the details that you're putting down and you're writing down. Like, you're like, you know what, this is— it's going to be in the ebook, in the workbook.

Okay.

It's literally just an exercise, but you write down your current situation in your personal finances, and that's for you and yourself alone. If you join a mastermind, like with your group of friends, whoever you actually trust, your family, if you want, like, you know, that circle goal, okay, then those, those people become your accountability partners and they help you stay disciplined on the journey if you don't, if you lack the, um, if you lack the discipline yourself. Okay, so that's the importance of partnering up with people like who actually like are on the same journey as you, right? Because there's no comparison. Like, uh, there's a lot of work to be done obviously, but there's, you want to be with people who are on the same level because they're going towards the same goal as you in a sense. Okay, so if you're in Level 1 and you want an accountability partner, like, find the people who are in Level 1 and who want to play this game with you where they're actually disciplined, they're willing to do the work, they're determined, they have a desired outcome in the future where they want to reach, and they need help. Like, they need just partners. They don't want to do it by themselves. Like, you, like, do that with your, your people that you trust, okay? Only. And keep it small. Don't make it big. Keep it small, right? 5 people and under. Okay, 5 people and under. And keep that small and see what happens over the next year. Like 2025, right? Maybe this can be one of your goals for 2025, but start today. Okay, start today. And when it comes to like this right here, like level 1, it's about just getting the foundation down. Like master that. In, out, what's left over, right? So your income, your expenses, and what's left over. And then from there it's about, you know, the wants versus needs and then your budgeting percentages. Okay. So those 3 things right there, if you have that down, right, let's say 2025, you have that down, you master it. Guess what? That's just one level. That's just one layer. That's just one thing that's about a part of you. Now the next thing is like, what about your, your skills, your sales, marketing, personal branding, social media skills, business skills? Like, that's another thing. All those skills pertain to making more money.

Or even a trade skill, like trade skills is going to be so needed in the upcoming years. It's, it's something that, you know, they have robots and stuff to be able to do certain things, right? Of course, that will come. There will come a time. But right now, like what we're seeing is going to be trade skills, right? Like, how good are you at doing that trade skill? Because it's still needed. Like they don't have robots to clean the windows or paint the house or like come inside your house and necessarily, you know, they do in other countries. In other countries. So we're here now. And so like that will come over time, but that's going to be a necessary skill set. You know, a lot of software people lost their jobs because what happened? It got taken over, right?

Yeah. I would suggest to, I mean, I'm not going to suggest anything. Just, you know yourself, you know your skills you want to learn and you, you know, like the investments that you want to make in the future. Right? And what I'm talking about is ideas. Investments is ideas, okay? So you're putting energy, money, time into certain ideas, right? You discern that, okay? You decide for yourself what you want to look at and what you want to put your energy into, your time and money into. And like, you read the landscape, get educated, like, yeah, like do your research, do your own research. Like everything we say, take with a grain of salt, right? Test it for yourself. Yeah, experiment for yourself. Learn it for yourself. We're not telling you what to do or when to do it or even why to do it. We're just sharing our perspective and what we've experienced and our ideas and what we do. Okay, so for you, yeah, it's what Angela says, apply yourself. Okay, apply yourself. That's it. All right. And pay yourself first. Yes, 100%. So with that said, okay, I hope this was helpful. I'll get the ebook set up. I already wrote it down. ChatGPT did it. Use ChatGPT.

Okay.

Work smarter, not harder. All right. This is, we're in the knowledge society now, right? We are in the information technology knowledge society, right? So work smarter, not harder. And look for the people who are working hard though at the same time. Like we gotta work both smart and hard. And if you can surround yourself with people and you can actually find people like that who are talented in that, guess what? The more the merrier. And the people who have integrity. All right. So yeah, every single day, like, you have a chance to change your life. And we hope that today on this— today's episode was one of those days where you can really truly change your life. So apply this information, let your learning lead to action, and dominate your path. Okay, make it happen. We got— you've got what it takes. You just got to give it all that you've got. All right, have an amazing day. Crush it. Dominate. Make it happen. We love you all, and we will see you on the episode.

Okay, see you guys. Love you all being on.

Peace out. Good job. Peace out.