More Money Podcast - 238 From NFL Player to Financial Planner - Jedidiah Collins, CFP, Ex-NFLer & Author of Your Money Vehicle

Episode Date: April 29, 2020

Have you ever watched the show Ballers with Dwayne Johnson? I know, that doesn’t sound like the type of show I’d watch (I know nothing about sports!), but my husband was watching it one night and told me it was about an ex-NFL player who becomes a financial planner. Now that’s my kind of show! Well, cut to present day and I have basically a real-life “baller” on the podcast! Jedidiah Collins played for the NFL for seven seasons, and studied to become a CFP on the off-season. Post-NFL career, he now owns his own financial services company, does public speaking and is on a mission to educate others how to make their money work better for them. We get into what it was like playing for the NFL, earning those big game cheques, and how he was able to avoid being another sports star who ended their career with no savings in the bank. We also dive into his new workbook Your Money Vehicle that he developed to be an actionable guidebook for others to build their own financial plans and set themselves on the right path. For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/238 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the Momentum Podcast. This is episode 238. I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back to the show. Did you miss me? I took last week off because I just needed a break. I just needed a minute to just have a little bit more free time. So what's been going on with me, in case you're wondering, or maybe you don't care, skip past this, okay, that's fine, is, you know, the pandemic obviously affected my business a ton, and it was kind of scary for a little bit, and then I decided to kind of pivot, and obviously I'm not doing as much public speaking as I was, I'm doing some webinars, so that's good, but I pivoted, and so. And then I started taking on new financial counseling clients,

which I haven't since the summer. And that has been amazing. And so that has been keeping me very busy. And I just needed a little bit of a break from the podcast so I can kind of continue to shift things, get reorganized with my business so I can kind of create my own new normal. And I'm sure you probably are experiencing something similar no matter what situation you're in. You're probably creating a new normal as well. And sometimes it takes time to kind of, you know, adjust to. And so here we are, took a break, feel so much better, needed a little, little moment for myself. And now I'm super jazzed and excited and energized to be back with many more episodes of the podcast.

And for this episode, you're going to love it. I've got the very amazing Jedediah Collins, CFP. He is the founder of Rookie to Veteran and also the author of a new book out now called Your Money Vehicle. So his story is, and we kind of talk about this in the episode, but let me just tell you right now in case you don't know who Jedediah is. So after being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2008, he played seven seasons in the NFL while studying for the certification in financial planning in the off seasons. Not many stories. Do you know any NFL players also studying in their free time to become a CFP? This is why I needed him on the show. I needed to talk to him about, wow, that is a crazy story. And since then, he has now kind of shifted to empowering students and athletes and young professionals with the behaviors needed to

eliminate the gap between the potential of their goals and the success of their desire. And he's on a show to talk about his book and just how he went from NFL player to financial planner and some things that you really wish he knew, you know, when he got that big check playing in the NFL and all the things that he wants you to know from his interesting background. So I know you're going to love this episode. No sponsor for this particular episode. We'll have some coming up. So I do want to share, in case you don't know, number one, I am still taking on financial counseling clients, and I've been booking a ton. I've been loving it. I absolutely love it. So if you are interested to learn more, if you want to get in touch and see if it's right for you, all you have to do is go to my website, jessicamorehouse.com slash financial counseling.

And there will be a link there that you could book a free discovery call. We can chat, see if I can help you with your particular situation. But if you want something a little bit more self-directed, self-guided, I've got two amazing online courses that I've recently reduced the prices on. So I have my Fix Your Finances Masterclass that will help you build your own financial plan in six weeks or less or more. It's again at your own pace, so you can take as long or not as long as you like. There's information on my website. Just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash courses or jessicamorehouse.com slash fix your finances or the show notes for this episode, jessicamorehouse.com slash 238. And that is priced at $199 now. So I reduced the price because it was $299. And I also have my

investing foundations for Canadians online course. So if you're Canadian and want to learn more about investing, I've been getting so many questions about investing, obviously, because of what's going on with the market. If you want to learn more about how to get started, everything you need to know about investing so you can make an educated and confident decision about whatever you want to do, well, I go through all of that in my course, jessicamorehouse.com slash investingfoundations for that. And the price for that is $2.99 down from $3.99. And if you have any questions about my financial counseling or my courses, you can just email me. I'm very nice. I answer all my emails. Jessica at jessicamorehouse.com is my email. Get in touch with me or DM me on Instagram or DM me on Twitter or hit me up in any way that you want. Okay, that is it for me promoting myself. Thanks for listening to that.

Let's now get to the interview with Jedediah. Welcome to the Mo Money Podcast, Jedediah. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Very timely, I think, because you have this book coming out, and it's a great, I think, read. A good time to buckle down and get your stuff together. So I'm happy to have you on the show. Oh, Jess, this is an exciting opportunity to kind of be introduced to your audience. I appreciate that. And I am excited to announce the book is out. It is published. You can get it on Amazon.

And as you just mentioned, this time you look at it you, you look at it and you, you can see the challenges or you can see the opportunities. And personally, I'm challenging myself to sharpen my ax and see where and what I've been putting off that I should start doing. I honestly feel like that is the kind of best thing that you can do. I mean, it's, it's difficult. There's a lot of emotions going on and a lot of anxiety. But if you can focus some of that energy into something positive and kind of cut yourself a break,

because I know a lot of people are talking about, oh, I'm going to be so productive. Let's give ourselves a break. We're probably not going to be the most productive we've ever been because of the situation. But if you can put that energy into something positive, like improving your financial life and just becoming more more financially literate. I mean, then you'll come out of this and be like, Oh, wow, actually there's some good things that came out of it, luckily. And it's all about choices. So I'm, yeah, I'm, I'm totally on board. And, uh, but before we start talking about your book, the reason I really wanted your show was I was so fascinated by your background in that you were, uh, playing for the NFL and now you're a CFP.

Very two different worlds, but it kind of reminded me, I don't know if you've ever watched the show Ballers. Not that it's probably like your life at all. Oh, just like it. People call me The Rock all the time. The only reason I honestly got into that show is my husband started watching it. And I'm like, I'm not really into sports. So I'm like, I'll pass. He's like, Oh, it's actually about finance. I'm like, and so we like watch the whole series. So I wish they could have in the,

it's such an easy platform to just add in a few little nuggets of actual finance and they missed it. I know. I was always kind of waiting for something. And I feel like the only times that they really got into it was there was one like dream sequence where um the rock talked about annuities and like here we go we're learning about annuities right now you know apparently they got feedback that was like don't do that again oh no really i don't know it because that

was the you're right i remember very vividly that one scene and i was like hey this was good yeah people are learning about it no then it's a yeah i feel like the only thing yeah i they never really outwardly talked about it even still i was just like some of the characters like what did they actually do they were just getting clients they never actually helped them with anything so and so that's uh uh it's a it's an interesting parallel, because in some ways people have said, oh, well, you're trying to be the rock. And I jokingly say, well, no, the rock is actually trying to be me in that show. But it is a it is a very interesting time and place because professional sports athletics has been this dream scenario that, you know, you walk out onto a playground and you think what this vision is supposed to look like. And humbly over the last decade or so, we've come to realize very, very few get to experience being in the dream and even less get to experience

leaving their game with something to show for it. And so that is really where I was excited and kind of my transformation from player to advisor, now to educator. My journey began as most people with a check and with a lot of questions of, well, what was I supposed to do with this? Because now that first check is gone. So yeah, I was wondering, because you explain your story in the book, which I find so fascinating,

but, and I feel like there's, you know, a couple movies out there about, you know, athletes and money and stuff like that. But it, like you said, it starts with a check. I'm kind of surprised that there's no organization or the NFL doesn't provide any kind of guidance. Like they just don't care. They cut you a check. It's like, come to work, play the game, but we're not going to help you in terms of actually managing your money or give you any guidance. Cause it's like, these people are usually young and have no concept of how to properly, and maybe they've never also dealt with that much money in their lifetimes. So of course they're going to make mistakes. I mean, so you have to look at and the NFL is trying. They're getting better every year,

I would still say there's a big, big void and lack. But you are dealing with very young people. And the this is not only their first paycheck, this is more money than they've ever been around in their entire lives. And that's what was so shocking to me was I sat in the locker room and I looked around. I was a business major. I got my undergrad in accounting and I grew up in Orange County around people with a lot of money and I was still lost and left without answers. And so I looked at my teammates, my brothers, and I looked at it and just said, if I don't know anything to do, I know for a fact that you guys don't. And so where the NFL is trying is starting to do education

and more and more buy in there. And I applaud them for that. But where we really need to shift and what, you know, the origin of my book was, is we need action items, we need to not just be told what to go do, we need to be told how to go do it. And that is where I would love to, and I've started to work with more professional athletes around, hey, here is your first paycheck. Here's what to go do with it. And really building in from education to empowerment. I've come to realize education in and of itself will fail. We need the confidence to act.

And even starting in April, we're going to be doing an action challenge around financial literacy for April Financial Literacy Month. But as professional athletes, I don't blame us individually for not knowing this because, like you just mentioned, nobody taught us this. This is not a jock problem. You know, people want to point to, you know, 22-year-old kid from the inner city, blue, $10 million. It's like, well, you line up 10 or 100 frat guys and give them $10 million, and I'll show you how many end up with money at the end of the day as well. There is no schooling, no direction, and really no emotional understanding to how people deal with money. And I think one of the issues too is a lot of people always assume that they're not good with

money or they would be in a better financial situation if they had more money. But as you kind of explain it in your book, it's not about just getting that paycheck. Most of us don't. There's so many stories, not just with athletes, but of lottery winners who blow all their winnings because, again, they don't have the action items or the knowledge of how to make sure you don't lose that money. And I love testing people because a lot of people say, oh, no, no, no. If I had that money, I'd know what to do with it. And I say, OK, here you go.

And I hand them a piece of paper. I say, $50,000 check. What are you going to do with it? And the dumbfounded look over most people is humbling. And I say, well, imagine if there was another zero behind that and now play that game. And if you hadn't answered that question before that check came across the table, you certainly aren't going to start building out a strategy once it's in your hand. Because the vast majority of us are naturally spenders. The vast majority of us see money on a day-to-day basis. I made money, I go spend money. That is who we are, and that is not our fault. But it is on us to educate and empower ourselves to move out of that to become a saver and eventually become an

investor. Absolutely. So what shifted for you in terms of like you, like what did you spend your first check on? And then what happened to be like, I need to fix this. I don't want to blow the, you know, the rest of the checks coming in. So, you know, my first paycheck, I was undrafted. And so I got activated my rookie year and I got two got two game checks together for about $30,000. And I spent every dime of that, the vast majority of which went to an engagement ring. So it ended up being a cute story, and my wife and I are happily married after 10 years. But I woke up a night or two after that really in sweats and knots and just anxiety because I realized the physical toll football was going to have on my body, on my brain, on my being. And I saw that money come in and go out. And I said, well, I won't have anything to show for it.

I was never going to be the mega million dollar contract guy. I was a no name player. I realized I was never going to capture this NFL dream if I tried to do everything like other guys, or if I tried to just wing it as I could. I realized there was a language around money that it's not that I wasn't smart enough to understand. It's just that I'd never spoken. And so I did what so many millions of people have done. I went to Barnes & Noble, which for some younger listeners, Barnes & Noble was a bookstore. And bookstores are these things you walk into.

It's very complex. Talk to future people that have never left the house in a few years because we're still self-isolating. There used to be physical stores. I got a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And actually, my wife and I would sit in Barnes & Noble and read the books, which was very geeky and nerdy. But I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and it changed my life. It changed my mindset. And I was so appreciative of it. It pushed me to Dave Ramsey, to Susie Orman, to Warren Buffett, to even Jim Cramer, and a quest for knowledge. And it wasn't until a mentor said, hey, I can keep giving you fish. I was asking him questions all day long. He's like,

I can give you all the fish you want. But if you really want to understand this, you got to learn how to fish yourself, get the CFP. And that is where the origin story for writing this book started was reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, because I even left that book. And I said, that was phenomenal. It introduced me to a new mindset, but it still didn't tell me what to go do. I wanted to write a book that says, okay, you understood this chapter. Now go do this. Yeah. Do you find that's kind of the issue with a lot of other kind of either investing or personal finance books that it's a lot of like theory and concepts and you're like, oh, I'm super motivated, but wait, what do I do

though? I feel like a lot of personal finance books focus so much on investments and investments is the sexy engine that drives your vehicle and is obviously the most talked about part. But truly around investments, there's very little that you control. And so as a CFP, I started to realize we needed to focus on what we control. As a professional athlete, that is one of our core principles. And so I really find it interesting that people don't teach you about insurance or taxes or cash management or even different vehicles to use, you know, albeit cybersecurity. What are the lessons that you can actually control outside of, you know, hey, I'm going to find this hot stock in the market.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I felt like that too as well. I think a lot of people probably listening have similar experiences as you. They picked up one book and it kind of changed just the way they thought about money and looked at money. But it was a struggle to actually find answers. And I don't know why that is. Maybe people don't want to put specific advice in books. I don't know. But it took me a long time to really figure out how to. And honestly, what changed for me too was getting some traditional education in terms of financial planning, which isn't necessarily, I don't think it's something that everyone needs to do. You don't have to become a CFP to understand how to manage your money properly.

It does help. It does kind of answer a lot of questions. But yeah, like you said, there's a lot of great information out there, but a lot of questions still unanswered and a lot of action items that you have to kind of figure out yourself. So I'm kind of guessing that is why when I got your book in the mail, I'm like, oh, this is actually not what I thought the book would be. It's interesting because it's a book with information, but also a lot of kind of worksheets. So it is kind of more, it kind of reminded more of like a course book. It is absolutely intended to be a workbook. So the book is divided into 10 questions or 10 chapters, how I went out and I taught hundreds of personal finance workshops. I kind of facilitated it down to the first 10 questions on a financial journey. And again, my intention is to not make you a CFP

or to impress you that I'm a CFP. My intention is how can I get you to act? How can I get you to take that first step or that sixth step or that 15th step and continue to progress down this road on your journey? And so throughout the book, we absolutely have questions and answers. After the entire curriculum, there's a certification exam that you don't actually pass until you send in one action item you took for the test that you took out of the book. But there are also character scenarios that we tried to make somewhat relatable, but also have a storyline where the person making the most money isn't necessarily the person living the smartest or using their money correctly. And so that's what we've become very, very excited and proud of is this is a book I can hand to high schools, colleges, companies and say, you've been asking for a financial literacy curriculum for years.

Here you go. I can come in and teach this, sure, but really if the listener or the student is interested, they can take it in and on themselves and begin to build out their own plan. Yeah, or this is something you can hand off to teachers because I know, at least here in Canada, that's definitely something that lots of the different schools across the country are trying to implement is financial literacy education.

But it's difficult to kind of, you know, now make these teachers who maybe specialize in certain topics to be like, oh, now you have to teach money. And they don't have a background. Just because they're a teacher doesn't mean that they know automatically how to teach financial planning to a bunch of students. I'm glad you brought that up because that is one of the pushbacks I got originally was, well, teachers aren't going to be able to talk about this stuff because, you know, to be frank, a lot of teachers struggle financially because this is not a language they understand. And two, they are not confident in standing in front of a room full of their students and talking about a subject that they are not confident in. And so, yeah, I actually see this workbook transitioning more to a syllabus style. Here's how the teachers are going to teach it.

And what I love about it is it's all told through a story lens. So every teacher will be able to see and reinterpret the story and be able to communicate the lesson of the day. I love that. But yeah, I think that kind of goes back to the issue that none of us were taught this, but the teachers don't even know how to teach it. So there's some work to be done. We're giving it away for free to high schools during, you know, obviously during this tough, challenging distance period. So if you or any listeners say, I'm a high school teacher, I know high school teacher, Canada, US, wherever, I would be glad to send it to you.

Oh, that's amazing. That's awesome. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. I want to kind of go into some of the topics that you address in the book. I love that you've started off with why should I care about money? That is

a question that I get often. I think a lot of people especially have their own preconceived notions about money or they just have certain money issues where they're like, well, I've always been bad with money. Why should I care? I'm not an expert in this. They have all these excuses probably, you know, because people have maybe put that onto them. Why did you want to start your book with a chapter on like why everyone should care about money? Well, I've read the Simon Sinek book first off. I start with the why. And it's, you know, it's very telling and it's true. It's honest. You know, I, you have to answer that question yourself. And I give you some practicality reasons of why, but the end of chapter one is setting your own destination

and milestones in your journey. The beginning is why you need to care about money is because the first time in history, we are being forced to be in control of our own financial futures. Generations in the past have had certain systems, pensions and social security in particular, that your financial plan was go get a good job, stay in one place and retire and be taken care of from that company. And that system is gone. And I hate to be the alarmist here, unless you are a professor, a military service person or a public service person, the idea of you getting a pension is very, very limited. Over 90% have been removed. And they were removed because the company didn't want to bear the risk of your retirement or your

freedom years. They wanted to transfer that risk onto the individual. And so we are now sitting in the driver's seat of our money vehicles. And we have to be able to not only decide where it's going, but how we're going to get there. And so the beginning of the answer of why you need to care is because if you don't, nobody else will. Yeah. No, I remember that was like when I learned that. And I feel like I learned that after graduating university, because I didn't have any concept about personal finance at that time. I definitely didn't study business or money. And when I learned reading some other books being like, oh, FYI, there's going to be no pensions. There's no kind of safety net for you when it comes to retirement. If you want to retire, which you

obviously will have to do at some point in your life, it's on you. And I remember learning that. I'm sorry, what? No one told me this. It really kind of made me worried about my future. And I remember learning that. I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Like no one told me this. I was free. I, yeah, it really kind of made me, uh, worried about my future. And this was when I was like in my, you know, young twenties. Um, that was kind of what gave me some motivation to, you know, take control of my finance. Cause no one else was talking about it or caring about it. Um, but then I'm like, well guys, like, you know, we have to save up like a million dollars. If not more. If not more, most likely more by the time that we retire. So yeah, I think that's an important thing to remember.

It's like no one cares about your money besides you. So you need to care. Yeah. And there's a quote in football, and I'm sure everywhere, that says, to do something that has never been done before, you have to begin to do things that have never been done before, you have to begin to do things that have never been done before. And I look at money. We have you, me, our generations have to handle money in a different way that have never been done before. And so in that, we have to begin to

educate and empower ourselves like never before. And yes, I, again, if this is not a, what people have pushed back on me is, but, oh, well, this is perfect. I'm going to send this to the investment club or the finance club or the business school. I say, yes, that's great. They all need it, but do you know who else needs it? Every other student that is ever going to make money. Like, this is not a one major, you know, book or topic. This is, I don't care what you go into. If you're chasing your passion to be a dancer or a photographer, you still need to understand how to make money work for you. And to what one of the definitions I love to use is use money, U-S-E. I need you to understand money, strategize money, and be efficient with your

money. Yeah. And I feel like too, it's something that people need to remind themselves of. If you are earning money and you're spending money, so why are you not taking that extra time and energy to learn how to properly manage your money? Because again, it is your money. I think a lot of people just don't really take ownership that it's their money and their future. And it kind of depends on, everything depends on them. So often we have this, it's almost like getting the syllabus day one of class. It's like, man, this is overwhelming. It's easier to just push it to the side and be like, I don't know. I'll figure it out when I need to.

And in reality, this is a very transparent, simple steps. And you look at, well, I don't have enough to even begin a financial plan. And one of the second lessons in the book is your financial plan begins with the golden rule of money, which is just stop spending more than you make. That gives you a surplus. that gives you something left over. And with that, you now have choices and options. So the idea that I don't have enough or I can't start now is just a fallacy. And you just don't understand the many different areas around your plan that you can already start to impact.

Absolutely. What would you say to, because I feel like obviously lots of people listening to this show are already kind of keen. They already want to learn this stuff. What about the people, you know, I hear this from a lot of people like my partner or, you know, my spouse, they're just not interested. How do you, as someone try to convince someone else to care about their money or to hey we need to get into this if they're you know you're managing your finances together find that's a big struggle for people trying to convert their partner uh it absolutely is and you know typically in most relationships mine included one person is the driver of driving force in the money area and the other person

you know you you try to pull into as much as possible um one tactic i tried that does not work is hey imagine if i died how are you going to pay everything uh that was not a pleasant conversation so i don't recommend that one um but it is this understanding and this idea of, well, let's have a thought experiment. Where are we in 10 to 20 years? What is happening in our futures? And do you not care about the future of our relationship or the future of you as a person to have that kind of forward thinking plan? And it's again, it's the difference between, I like the analogy of checkers and chess. You play checkers move by move, kind of with your head down trying to get to the other side. And it's not until you see the same board, but with

totally different strategies, like a chess board, that you start to look up and say, hey, we can do this better, or we should be able to function together. And the conversation typically begins with, why do you care about money? What is it about money that makes a positive impact on your life? Because money is not meant for money's sake. Money is meant for peace of mind. Let's focus on those areas. Let's focus on what the vehicle is going to bring us and then we can back into how we're going to get there. So I think beginning with the destination and beginning with the end in mind is very vital when trying to discuss a plan with a partner. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's definitely what I've seen too,

is talking about your future goals. And I think everyone can kind of be like, yeah, we all have dreams and goals. So I think that's a great starting point for people. Absolutely. Now, you have a section about how do I start investing? That's also a, you know, there's money management. And then people sometimes are like, oh, but investing, I can't do that. That's just not something that I'm going to be good at because it does usually sound complex, complicated, and probably because there's been this narrative for so many decades that it's only for, you know, super smart, you know, day traders.

And it's not meant for everybody. And it can just feel like a really hard thing to grasp. What do you share in the book about investing? Because obviously, investing is also for everyone. We all need to invest in order to afford retirement. And the investor mindset is one that I hope I introduce a lot of people to how those style of relationships with money are just vastly different than the saver and spender mindsets. And one of the narratives like you mentioned has been, well, this isn't for everybody or you can't do this. You're not smart enough or understand it well enough. And that has been portrayed from the financials industry because that's how we make money. Traditionally, you need me as the broker or as the advisor. You need me to tell you what to do and to buy

the product I'm selling and to do all these things. I will introduce people to the term fiduciary. Fiduciary means they have a legal liability to put your interest first. And if you think, well, doesn't that hold true with everybody that deals with money? No, it absolutely does not. So there's a difference between fiduciary and suitability. I won't go too deep into that, but I have a beautiful story about going to a restaurant and ordering food. But this idea that we all need to begin investing and with technology and with the systems in place today, we are able to do so. And I don't need you to research stocks or companies or look at the day-to-day trading. I need you to simply designate your cash management system that's going to pay

yourself first. One of the best quotes in financial planning is, I made a dollar, I saved a dime. That means 10% of every check I make is going to future me. Then I need to check my risk factors, which is both my risk tolerance, what I can stomach. Let's say, God forbid, the market drops 30%. I don't know if anybody's ever seen that, but that happens. Is that going to totally derail your day, your week, your entire plan, because emotionally you can't withstand it? And then your risk capacity is actually what you can hold true to. Can my plan withstand a financial downturn? Will I need to get money out of the market? So those two risk measurements, what I can stomach and what I can withstand are very, very important as you begin investing. And that's just your personality type.

I think that's so, so important, especially right now, because I know a lot of people are either kind of revising their risk tolerance or like, oh, okay, maybe my portfolio isn't so great, or just their personal risk in that, oh, shoot, now I don't actually have enough cash, and I just lost my job because of what's going on, and now I have to withdraw from my investments, which is never a position you want to be in. So that is not investing. That is a planning mistake. I did not prepare my rainy day fund, my emergency fund, a vehicle that I think will forever be now known as the Corona fund. I didn't have my first cushion or buffer into my plan. That again, that is not investing. That is looking at what I do control in my plan. And that is a planning element and

something that I hope more and more people going forward will be educated and empowered around. But the third piece of investing and one I really love to introduce people to because everybody's first thing is, well, I don't know what to go buy. There is many companies. One, I have no affiliation to, but Jack Bogle changed the game. He was the founder of Vanguard. Vanguard has a fund that owns every publicly traded company in the world. And you ask that and you say, well, how does that even make sense? You mean the S&P 500, which is the 500 largest companies in America? Yes, they own each and every one of those. Oh, you mean the Russell 3000, which is the 3000 biggest publicly traded companies in America.

Yes, they own all of those too. But then they go outside of America to emerging markets, to developed countries, and they own thousands of companies out there as well. And you look at these what are called index funds. They are such an advantage to the individual investor. It removes the emotion, which Ben Graham has quoted saying is the chief problem and hurdle for the individual investor is your own emotions. It removes that from the sequence. I don't need you to tell me what gas stock price is going to do or are the airlines going to bounce back or should I go all in on Amazon? You go and you buy one fund at one of these major, major companies and you are well diversified and will take in part in the recovery

when the recovery comes. And so I challenge people to say, I don't need you to day trade. I don't need you to stock pick. All I need you to do is understand what an index fund is and go and begin your investment journey there. 100%. That's the thing. It's like index funds have been around for a while. They're a little less popular in Canada. What's more popular here is index ETFs. It's kind of weird. Yeah, it's like we have Vanguard here, but index funds, like index mutual funds never got super popular here. But index ETFs, that's what it is. But basically, they're the same kind of very similar products. Yes, they have a little bit different ways to trade and a little bit of taxation.

But the recommendation in the book is VTI, which is Vanguard's global index ETF. So it is an ETF. And they typically have a little bit less fees. And what's interesting too is, again, there's so much more advancements in these products, which is great. So now not only are there index funds or index ETFs available for people, first, you can use a robo-advisor who builds portfolios for you. In Canada, you can't directly go to Vanguard exactly, but you have to open up a discount brokerage account and then you can buy those Vanguard funds. But now they also have products, and I believe they have them in the States as well, where they are called asset allocation ETFs, where basically they kind of rebalance themselves.

So there's so many different options. But like you said, sometimes it takes time. You do have to kind of dedicate some time to research what your options are. It can seem overwhelming, but I feel like, especially if you listen to this podcast or read your book, the more you kind of absorb the language and research, it doesn't feel as scary, but it does take some time on your part. It's not, like for me, because you mentioned confidence at the beginning of the show, which I'm like, yes, that is a big element to getting better with money. You do have to build your confidence, and no matter what you're doing, whether you're studying personal finance or a new sport, it takes time and experience to build that confidence. And then eventually you have it and you know, it doesn't seem, nothing seems that scary anymore.

No. And confidence is, is such an interesting element. And that's, that's what the beauty of taking a step is, is the first one is always the hardest. You're right. It will take a little understanding in your plan and which one you're going to choose and you're going to question it and go back and forth on it two or three times. But simply making that first decision and taking that first step is taking you on a path and a journey in the right direction. And that is really what we need to start to see is so often, again, we get overwhelmed and just push off into the future. Right now is a time and a place where you can begin to take positive actions. And even if it's inch by inch, as long as you are being productive and your journey is headed in the right destination,

which is a destination you set by setting your own goals, then you can be proud of what you are doing and the way you are using money. Absolutely. And I feel like, you know, in this situation we're in, lots of uncertainty, lots of people losing their jobs. This, you know, I hear this a lot. And it's like, oh, you know, I'd love to learn more about this,

but I just lost my job. I'm like, this is the perfect time for you to actually take those first steps, like you mentioned. And, you know, just take those first steps like you mentioned. And just take a look at like, do you have a budget? And just taking those first steps. It's actually usually, I mean, for me, that's when I started kind of managing my money better was when I was broke and had a lot of time on my hands.

So it's how you kind of react and take action during those tough times, not the easy times. And that is when you have the time to seek out, like you mentioned, different investment funds available, but also different cash management apps or technology, different ways to compare your insurance policies, different ways to do your taxes. How can you build out your own? Again, technology is so amazing today that you can automate 80% of these choices and decisions for you and begin to build positive routines and habits that will lead to your financial success. So yeah, it is, you know, in a terrible way. I started a company in January around public speaking. And obviously, my company is not have anything on its books for the next six months or foreseeable future. And so I'm pivoting and trying to figure things out. But I also have this passion around financial empowerment that I say, if this

crisis is going to teach the world anything, it's going to be that, you know, money is not this noun thing that you just go and work for. It's a verb and it's something that you need to make work for you. And if we have that awakening from this, I think we will all be better prepared for the next one because there will always be a next one. Absolutely. Like people were calling this, they thought, oh, we've been overdue for a market correction or crash or a bear market for a long time. And so here we are. People knew this was going to happen. It happens pretty much, look at just history. It's pretty much every 10 years. But we have short memories, don't we? We do. But then again, I look at this market and as an investor, you look at two things. Number one is a strategy of how to dollar cost average

into the market to get lower share prices. But then number two, a system, and I'm not positive of up in Canada, but in America, we tax lost harvest, which takes market drops, and we capture the quote unquote loss. And so we don't have to pay future taxes. So those two elements show you again, where educating and understanding what's happening is in seeing things through a bigger picture. Investors don't look day to day. They look decade to decade. And if you have that lens, you can see not the good in this crisis, but the opportunities to better prepare your plan for the future. Absolutely. Well, I'm sure you're going to inspire a ton of people to grab a copy of your book and just get to work because they have no excuse now. You know, I hope so. It translates. If you are

interested in beginning your financial journey, I don't like to say if you want to become a capitalist, but if you are just interested in learning how to use money better, your money vehicle is intended for you. It's engaging in interesting stories along with the ability to begin your financial plan throughout the workbook. So by all means, go grab it. I mean, the ebook is very affordable. There we go. An ebook. There's no excuse. There's no excuse. Yeah. And that's also how we're giving them out to high schools is here's a link they can all go download or PDF. And so far we've given away over a thousand

to high school students in districts. So if you know people, by all means, we are in the giver mindset right now. There's no reason to be profiting or taking right now. If you have somebody, shoot me a social media message or an email and I'll respond. That's amazing.

That's awesome. So since we're at kind of the end of this interview, where can people find more information about you, more information about this book? And I know you have a lot of great resources as well. So yourmoneyvehicle.com forward slash go or just yourmoneyvehicle.com will introduce you to the book. My name is Jedediah Collins. My website's jedediahcollins.com. But I'm on social media, LinkedIn. I have a YouTube channel now. You have a TikTok, which I'm like, yes, I'm going to check that out. I do. TikTok is JedCollins45. That has been proven to be an interesting platform to jump on.

But Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, I'm on all of them. The funny thing about having a message is you have to go where the audience is, and I'm ready and willing to go out. And by all means, how I created this book, and I already have draft two of the next one ready, is through feedback. So questions, comments, and thoughts are fully welcomed. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being part of this show and sharing your story and sharing all of your information.

I really, really appreciate it. I could not be more grateful. Be safe and keep sharpening your axe and providing good, productive content like this. Thank you. And that was episode 238 of the Mominy Podcast with Jedediah Collins. Make sure to check him out at JedediahCollins.com and grab a copy of his brand new book out now online. You can buy it anywhere online.

It's called Your Money Vehicle. And hit him up on social media. He's on TikTok. He's on Facebook. He's on YouTube. He's on Twitter. I will link all of his social channels in the show notes. Hit him up on social media. He's on TikTok. He's on Facebook. He's on YouTube. He's on Twitter. I will link all of his social channels in the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 238.

You can go crazy and just follow him and see what Jed is up to because he's got a pretty cool story and a really interesting book that I know you'll want to check out. So I will be back on Friday with a new Money Minute episode. I know a lot of the things have been going on in the world in the news. And man, it's always like, okay, what's new this week? So I don't know what it'll be on. It may be kind of expanding in some of the announcements the Canadian government made last week. I'm sure there's going to be new announcements this week. I'm just kind of waiting in some of the announcements the government, the Canadian government made last week. I'm sure there's going to be new announcements this week. I'm just kind of waiting to see what's going to happen before I make that episode. So it is, you know, timely and trendy. So get ready for that. If you're not already in my Facebook group, get on in there. It's been actually a really great place for lots of people been sharing some really interesting

articles or just keeping everyone in the loop because there's so many changes going on. So you could get in there, facebook.com slash group slash money life balance. If you don't also know, I have a YouTube channel. I've been putting out a ton more videos as well as all of these podcast episodes. So you can find me, just Google Jessica Morehouse, quite honestly, on YouTube and you can find me pretty easily and subscribe and see what's going on on the YouTube. What else? What else do I have going on? So many things. Oh, I will say, speaking of YouTube, and you may already know if you're on my email list, jessicaborehouse.com slash subscribe is where you can get on my email list. But

last week I did put out a video on my YouTube channel that shared my new, brand new and free budget spreadsheet. So I have been sharing this free budget spreadsheet for years, probably like four plus years. And there's been lots of different iterations, and I've just updated it. So it includes a budget, includes a spending tracker, it includes a net worth tracker. It is basically identical to the one that I provide to my fixture finances students and my clients. It is for specifically if you're an employee, if you're an individual, or if you're in a couple partnership and you're both employees and you

have combined finances, this is the spreadsheet you can use. It's free to download. And I have a video on how to use it on my YouTube channel. So you can also just download it and find the video tutorial at jessicamorehouse.com slash budget. And I have, I'm working, I'm working on making a ton more budget spreadsheets as well for different situations and scenarios. So get ready to find out what, what's going on with those. And I think that might be it for the moment. So yeah, but I will be back Friday with another Money Minute episode. I will be back at least for the next month or two with more episodes. I'm not sure when I'm going to wrap up this season because typically I wrap it up June 3rd, 4th, the first week of June. We don't know what's going to happen right now. And by we, I mean me because I definitely have been getting

a lot more messages and people saying, oh, thank God for your podcast. So I want to be around because I think I am doing some good having these money conversations during this weird time right now. So I'm going to be around for a while. I mean, it's not like I'm going on a trip anywhere. I am going, I'm not going anywhere. Oh man. Anyone else like want a vacation from their life? Hi, Me too. Me too. Okay. That's it.

That's it. I'm going to let you go. I'm going to see you back here very soon. Got more podcast episodes coming up. Thanks for sticking around and supporting me and listening. I will see you in the next episode very, very soon.