Epic Real Estate Investing - 10 Money Traps that Are Keeping You from Financial Freedom | 694

Episode Date: June 25, 2019

Mercedes shares common mental money traps that are keeping you from financial freedom. Prepare your notebooks, a class is about to start!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I came to the Epic Intensive because, you know, I really wanted to get things started for my business. We're just getting started in real estate, and I knew this is where I needed to be surrounded by people that I know that are doing deals and that they can show me how to make things happen. What I liked best about the Epic Intensive was just all the little pieces of knowledge that will help grow our business and the input from all of the other people attending. Hey, rock star Matt here. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the show. I've got a really good one for you today. And if you're listening to this show, whether today is your first day or it's your first year

or maybe you're almost your 10th year. Like, can you believe somebody could be listening to this show for 10 years? I know I've been here for 10 years. I know some of you have been as well. And what that tells me is you're into real estate investing. You want to make some money in real estate. Maybe you're already making it. Maybe you're not making as much as you want and you want to make more.

And if you're really serious about it, about learning how to invest in real estate, the right way with regard to learning the lead machine building blocks to attract better leads, the language patterns, to get more sellers to accept your offers, and how to creatively finance your deals without using your money or credit. I mean, it's with those three things where the real money is made. Join me at the next Epic Intensive Lead Machine Workshop in Manhattan Beach, California, July 18th through the 20th, where we can work on all of this stuff together in person. Reserve your seat at Epicintensive.com. It's Manhattan Beach. California. It's the beach. It's right there in the city's name. It's the middle of summer.

Bring the family, make a vacation out of it. Go to epicintensive.com and let's make it happen. This is Terrio Media. So you want to be a real estate investor, but you don't want to do the work. If there were only a way where someone else could do it for you, now there is. Tune in here each and every Tuesday on the epic real estate investing show for Turnkey Tuesdays with your host, Mercedes-Torres. Hello and welcome, welcome to Turnkey Tuesdays. My name is Mercedes-Torres and I am the Turnkey Girl. I am also lucky enough to be partners in crime with Mr. Matt Terrio, the guy who created the epic real estate empire. This show is about real estate investing for busy people. So if this is your first time here, glad you made it, make yourself at home. And for my daily listeners that follow me regularly, welcome back, my friends.

So as many of you know, I am always on the hunt for tips and mostly input from people that I've been following throughout the years that has helped me through my financial freedom. and I specifically followed those that demonstrate financial freedom through real estate. So I'm always checking up on like Robert Kiyosaki and Warren Buffett, Gary Keller, that's the guy who created the millionaire real estate investor. I also like Grant Cardone. He's very in your face about financial freedom. And I actually appreciate that. And I stumbled across an article that he wrote on entrepreneur.com that talked about the mental money traps.

And every time I find something interesting, I like to share it with my listeners. But I pause because I really think about how many of us have fallen victim to money traps, for example, that have plagued us. and that have placed us in a financial slump, if you will. So on today's episode, I am going to share a list with you of 10 really important money traps that even I have had to overcome in my quest to financial freedom in hopes that I shed some light to help you, perhaps help you get out of your financial slut. if you will. And as I often share, sometimes my friends, it's just mindset. If you switch your mindset and change the way you look at finances or if you start to see a shift in the way you're

doing small things in your finances that make a difference, it really has the potential to be life-changing. I know, I know. It sounds cheesy sometimes, and I get it. But ladies and gentlemen, I truly speak from experience. I mean, I grew up poor. And when I say poor, I don't mean I went hungrier and I wasn't out on the streets. I wasn't homeless. But we did grow up paycheck to paycheck. And there was just enough food on the table for that meal. Sometimes I'd started school and I didn't get a new pair of shoes for the school year. My mother was at stay-at-home mom. My father was a welder. And while he ran his own business, he wasn't an entrepreneur. He didn't have that mindset. So he worked from job to job. And there were times where my parents weren't able to pay the rent.

And so I share this with you because I've made huge strides in my financial future. I have reached financial freedom, and I know that I have helped my family make a difference, but it took a lot of shifting the way I used to think before to new ways of thinking around money. And so it begins. I am going to share with you 10 really important mental traps that are keeping you broke. Now, most of us were brought up poor or middle class, and then continue the rest of our lives plagued by the thoughts, ideas, and actions of the poor and middle class. Now, if you were brought up, much like I was, by parents that had great intention, but few ways to create financial freedom, then there's a good chance you're

still trapped by mental money traps that continue to hold you prisoner. And I say that with all do respect. No one would deny that the wealthy think and operate differently regarding money. Wealth and finances, I will be the first to say, are the things that set us apart from remaining in a financial rut or leaping into the financial future that you truly see yourself. living. So here are common mental money traps that even I have been plagued with at some point in my life. So number one, I just want enough to be comfortable. How many times have you said that to yourself or how many times have you heard other people say that? I just want enough to be comfortable. At the core of the middle class is this idea that somehow

you're going to find a place of comfort, which becomes essentially a compromise for any possibility of financial freedom. Consider that a significant number of people save little money for retirement. This has caused masses of people to be unable to quit working at retirement age because they are, are without enough money to care for the selves during economic contradictions. Now, this contributes to why so many senior citizens have to work at McDonald's part-time or become the Walmart greeters. They don't have a choice. And it's often because they had the mindset of just having enough to feel comfortable. Number two, I need a need to make money. It's actually against the law to make money. That's the job of the government,

which over the last decade has been more and more willing to manufacture money in unjustified amounts. This idea that you need to make money to have it limits you to believing that you must trade time for money. Quit thinking about making money and think in terms of collecting money. This is where streams of income comes into play. I say it all the time. Making piles of cash from your job like my W-2 friends do or doing a fix and flip every now and then. It makes you piles of cash. could be every two weeks or maybe once a year when you do your flip. You were trading time for money. Instead, buying a rental and sitting on it or collecting rents, that's building wealth.

When you trade something of value with the public, you will in turn collect money in return. So put a roof over someone's head and have them pay you every month. This way you can begin to collect money residually, continually, without you having to do anything for it only but that one time. Number three, bigger isn't better. Wrong. Bigger is better and more is better. and more is glory.

Quit thinking little, my friends. You know, my mentor always says thought become things. If you think little, you will get little results. If you think big, you will get bigger results. If you think different, you will get different results. Now, the best companies in the world are big. Staying small takes a lot of energy. And I talk about the 10x rule. You go, go 10 times bigger and you will make a huge different. It's more fun and it gives you a better chance of succeeding. Now, over the last decade,

Matt and I have interviewed over 50 very successful entrepreneurs that run million dollars. companies to a hundred million dollar companies, and they started with nothing. Almost every one of them have shared that the biggest regret was not thinking bigger from the beginning. So ladies and gentlemen, I urge you, it takes baby steps to think a little bit bigger, but if you keep thinking small, you're going to remain small. Think bigger, just a little bit bigger to start with. But having dreams and having goals make all the difference in the world.

Number four, the common myth of more money, more problems. This is simply an idea that those without money use this saying to justify having less and being broke. Just an idea. If more people is more problems, then bring on the problems because I tried being broke, ladies and gentlemen, and that was just more of a problem in itself. Quit trying to make rich look ugly or arrogant or not a fit for you. It's not. The truth is, the more money you have, the more control and more choices that you have over every aspect of your life. And let me just give you an example. If you're sitting in first class, it doesn't mean that you won't have a drunk sitting next to you, but by buying your own jet like Grant Cardone, for example, allows you to control who gets on the jet.

But now you have to stop and hire two pilots to obviously maneuver the jet, a mechanic to fix the jet, and then you have to buy fuel to feed the airplane. So more money means new problems, not more problems, just a different set of challenges. So changing that mindset will change a lot for you. Number five, it takes money to make money. The reality is there are three quarters of all millionaires today that are first generation millionaires. Think about that. Three quarters of the millionaire today are first generation millionaires.

That means that ordinary people got rich because they had the courage to follow up on their ideas. The phrase it takes money to make money is completely incorrect. It takes money to make more money. While later in life, the rich used their money to create wealth in the beginning stages it only takes courage and persistence to create the money. You also have to have the idea. However, courage and persistence, it's what's going to help you create money.

This belief that you first need money makes you a victim and gives you no way out. I started, ladies and gentlemen, with no money, very little money. In fact, I was more in death than I had money. And Matt, at the age of 25, was broke. By the time he was 32, he had made a million and lost it all with a digital download. But at 35, he was back in the position where he was never broke again. Now, mind you, this is when we created Epic Real Estate and Epic Real Estate has launched to do amazing things. But ladies and gentlemen, it was courage and persistence because we had almost no money. Matt was flat out broke. I had very little money, no credit. And how many times have you heard your parents say money doesn't grow on trees? Well, that's number six. Money doesn't grow on trees. The person that commonly throws that phrase around is suggesting that money is

limited and scarce. Think about it. Money doesn't grow on trees. Limits your mindset, limits your opportunity to think beyond the tangible of grabbing money like an apple hanging from a tree. There is something near $134 trillion on this planet, most of which is merely represented by digits in a bank account or investment accounts of the sort. The only shortage of money on this planet is in the mind of those that don't have it. Remember, thoughts become things. Of course, money doesn't grow on. trees, that's a given, but money can grow when you learn how to grow it. Number seven, another day, another dollar.

The Job Force of America is trading time for money every single day. This drives me insane. I mean, is your time really worth $15 an hour? hour or $70 an hour. The reality is, no matter how much you get, you were still selling your time and you only have so much of it. The rich exchange dollars for time because they know time is more valuable than money. Unwilling to trade money, the average person believes that the only way to make more money is to work more hours. Big money requires thinking about money without these contradictions.

Think broad money. Think outside the box. Think the time is more valuable than money. Next, money is the root of all evil. I'm sure you've heard that before. money is the root of all evil. Actually, the saying is the love of money is the root of all evil. It has been passed down inaccurately and has really become misunderstood that money is somehow evil. Rich is right, not wrong, in my humble opinion. Actually, Bill Gates told a college class in a commend.

speech that he gave at an Ivy League school. And what he said is, if you're born poor, it's not your fault. If you stay poor, it is your fault. I think about this every day, my friends, because it truly applies to me. You know, I remember one time, I was a kid. I think I was about, I don't know, nine or 10 years old. And I've always been a big breakfast person. Every morning, I am big on breakfast. And when I was younger, I always had the same breakfast. I had two eggs over easy, two slices of sourdough bread with butter and one glass of milk for the longest time. Like since I was seven years old to like I was 13 years old. I had that every single morning. for breakfast. And my mom, who was a stay-at-home mom, made it every morning. By the time I came

out of my room and ready for bed, breakfast was on the breakfast table. And my mom had her one hobby was collecting coins. And I share this with you, which is very personal to me, because my mom was selfless, is still very selfless. Both of my parents actually are. And she loved her little coin collection. her coin collection wasn't exotic by any stretch of the imagination, but there were coins that she had collected throughout the years, whether she had traveled or they had been given to her, but most of them were old coins, coins, like from the late 1800s or the early 1900s, and she, like, would polish them. And one day in the evening before school, I specifically remember it was a Sunday evening, and I saw her pulling out her coin collection, because,

she was worried that there was no milk for my milk in the morning, for my breakfast the next morning. And she was looking for a coin that she can trade so she can buy a gallon of milk. And it was early evening on Sunday. It was like five o'clock. And I could see her pacing, like, which coin she was going to trade in so that she can buy milk for the next day for me. I specifically remember that defining moment of thinking, I never want to experience that again. Now, it didn't impact me. It impacted me at the moment, but it impacted me more as I got older because I realized that the one thing that was valuable, that was the only thing of wealth that she had,

she was willing to trade it just so I can have my glass of milk the next morning for breakfast. So I share this story with you because I didn't want to remain poor. I wanted to make a difference. Anyway, I share this with you because, you know, I grew up with, you know, money isn't everything or, you know, money is evil. And I grew up with it because that's what my parents would say to compensate for not having. And I believe it's more evil to not be able to provide for your family or to fund a church or to take a trip that you want to or to grow your business or to feed your dreams. So just so you know, there's nothing evil about wanting to make more money or wanting financial freedom for yourself. in my mind, it's okay to want more money. So in my mind, it's completely opposite. I don't believe money is evil. I don't believe wanting to make more of it is wrong. I just believe that if you change the basic way of how you were taught, you can absolutely change the potential of your financial freedom. Number nine, a penny saved is a penny earned. If you believe this, you will never have

financial freedom in my humble opinion. A penny saved is a penny saved. And if you spend your life thinking about pennies, you will never create financial freedom. Saving it is not bad, but the masses are forced and focused to save it and then do nothing with it. And they never advance their money. No one ever got rich from saving money. They just get old. And again, there's nothing wrong with it if you're saving your money to do something that will allow you to collect money for your financial future.

preferably residual income, passive income, if you will. So however it is that you choose to invest the money that you save, that's what you should focus on. Don't worry so much about saving the penny. Save the penny and then think about how that penny is going to make you more money for your future. Last, number 10, money can't buy you happiness. You know, I never met a rich person that was trying to get happy while they were trying to get rich. They have nothing to do with one another. In fact, my entire life, I have not been seeking happiness, so to speak. I personally have. I personally had, have been seeking a meaningful life where I am free to do the things that I want to do with the people I want to do them with. I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I'm a business partner. I'm a real estate investor.

And I like to help others with their financial freedom. Financial freedom is happiness because it allows me all the things that are important to me. I know happy and unhappy people as well, and I know people that are happy regardless of how much money they have. And I assure you, these people that I speak of like having the freedom to spend money without constantly having to worry about making more money. There is no way money can make you happy or unhappy. It's just money. The difference is what the money can do for you, what it can provide for you. I will say a penny for your thoughts is another common belief. This is the kind of damaging, freely thrown around idea that shows how little people value

their time and money. Now, Matt and I own four businesses, and they all started with ideas of which we strongly believed in and followed with our actions. For example, the guy that created Velcro or the founder of Starbucks, if you will, or Henry Ford for Pete's sakes, they all had ideas and they didn't trade them for pennies. They actually executed them. So quit thinking about pennies and quit deeming your ideas. especially when it comes to your financial freedom. How many of you think about ideas or think about doing something to earn extra money

or to potentially create some financial freedom for yourself and you quickly shut down the idea because you don't have the time or you think that you don't have enough money to start your venture. you know, whether it's an organic product or whether it's, you know, creating something extra, like passive income or buying your first rental, if you will, and then you instantly shut that idea down because you just, the idea might be too small or you think you don't have the money. The reality is, ladies and gentlemen, your possibilities are limited by your thoughts, actions and ideas. You know, I was at dinner the other night with my son and we were at Mexican dinner. My son loves Mexican food. We love our rice and beans and our carne asada tacos.

And I overheard the table behind me. They were talking just randomly about how rich people are so selfish. And I must say, to be honest, I have been selfish at times in my life. So I've been selfish because I don't want to depend on anyone for financial stability. I certainly don't want to depend anybody. I don't want to depend on anybody to seek financial freedom. So it does take a bit of selfishness and selfishness. self-esteem to prioritize taking care of yourself and your family in your quest of creating financial freedom. So don't become, you know, that person that you're worried about being

selfish to create financial freedom for yourself. But also, don't become that person where you have to depend on others when you get to your golden years. If you don't think enough about your own finances and how you're going to make drastic changes for your financial future, how are you ever going to make difficult decision and necessary decision for your spouse, your children, your communities, and your future? You have to get somewhat selfish with yourself until you have something to share, whether it's an opportunity or, money or wisdom. The fact is, if you're already rich or financially comfortable, you need to up your game to start thinking of a way to create that super wealthy for yourself to get you to the next level. If not, maybe it's time to change the way you think about money.

Any rich person can tell you anyone can get rich, and any wealthy person can tell you the same. So get rid of the mental money traps and get your friends and family associated on the same page of thinking differently about money. Remember, you are surrounded by limited thinking. 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. 76%. And if that's you, you can do something about it. And it all starts by changing your thoughts around money. And stop limiting your belief, my friends.

Stop limiting your beliefs. And really start embracing that you too have the potential to create financial breakthroughs in your world. It seems like a bunch of people have just the wrong mindset when it comes to money and making it and making streams of incomes for yourself. But my friends, it is not your fault. If you grew up with these thoughts, it's not your fault, but it's up to you to change them. One of the reasons I opted to create this podcast to share is because the average person was just like me. And they thought at one point, or they think, continue to think that creating streams of income for yourself was not possible.

I am here to say it's totally possible. Just think of the difference that you can make in your world by just changing that mindset and picking up, for example, one rental every single year, or at the very least, one rental every two years. That has the potential to contribute to making a difference in your financial future, not only for yourself, but for your family to leave a legacy for your future. Ladies and gentlemen, numbers do not lie. The thought process around those numbers and your finances truly have the potential to change your financial future. My friends, as I say every week, I hope this podcast got your wheels turning.

That's the whole reason I do the show is to get you to think about your finances, your financial future, and creating wealth for your self and your family. So feel free to reach out to me. Go to cashflow savvy.coms. That's two Vs in savvy or send me an email at Mercedes at epic real estate.com. I'd be happy to connect with you and help you figure out how to make a difference in your financial future. My friends, that's it for today. I will catch you on the next episode of Turnkey Tuesday where Cashflow Is king. Does your money work for you as hard as you do for it? If not, no worries.

You do not have a money problem. You merely have an idea problem. We're cashflow savvy.com, and we'd like to share a new idea with you around income real estate that can transform your financial future and accelerate its arrival. Go to cashflow savvy.com and download a free investors package. Cashflow savvy.com. You do not have a money problem.

Merely an idea problem. Cashflow Savvy.com. More ideas, less worries. Cashflow savvy.com. This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.