THE ED MYLETT SHOW - How To Build Wealth In 2024

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

This is how you MASTER YOUR FINANCES in 2024! This week, we're tackling a topic that's on everyone's mind but often misunderstood: MONEY💰 This episode reveals my transformational money management... tactics, skills and mindset that will set you up for financial success and security. I'm going to guide you through EXACTLY what you need to know to get ahead in the money game including: saving, planning for retirement, managing debt, and MORE. This isn't just theory; I'm sharing lessons learned from my own experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly💯 There is so much MISINFORMATION out there about money and I’m here to set the record straight about making informed, strategic financial decisions that SERVE YOU! You’ll learn: How you are sabotaging your own financial success How to escape the trap of spending excessively Discover your FIN (financial independence number) Wealth building Tax Strategies The crucial steps to cultivate financial discipline and habits that align with your goals How to manage the balancing act between Debt and Saving How to make the most out of your Investments MONEY and how to get more of it How to instantly feel better about your money situation Remember, it's not just about making more money; it's about making money work for you! This episode is your stepping stone to not just manage but MASTER your finances, to create a life where money becomes a tool for freedom and joy, not a source of constant stress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey guys, so have you been feeling a little bit stuck or frustrated with your progress? I know that I hear that often from so many of you. And I wanted to tell you about something called growth day. Write this down. Growthday.com forward slash ed. My friend Brendan Brushard who here on the show from time to time has created the single best personal development app that has ever existed on the planet. And it's incredibly affordable.
Starting point is 00:00:23 And I am now contributing to that app on a regular basis. So I do Monday motivations in there. I do different trainings in there. Plus you get access to some of the best courses that have ever been built on business, entrepreneurship, success, time management, piece of mind, your physical body. It's an incredible place.
Starting point is 00:00:40 There's all kinds of tools in there, like journals and calendars, accountability tools as well. Brennan-Bruthshard has crushed this thing. So if you go to growthday.com forward slash ad, you can get some information there. Here's the other thing. I'm not going to be speaking a lot next year. It's going to be very difficult to go see me speak and a lot of you ask me about, hey, can I come see you speak? So here's what's cool. If you become a member of Growth Day, you actually get too tickus to come see me speak. So here's what's cool. If you become a member of growth day, you actually get two tickets to come see me speak in Los Angeles with a host of other speakers on the house. You're not to pay for it. So if you go to growth day.com forward slash ed, you can get all the information on growth day and become a member there. And if you become
Starting point is 00:01:17 a member, you get into one of these one day events that are in Los Angeles to see me speak Brennan Bouchard and usually two or three unbelievable influencers. I'm going to be doing six of those next year for Brendan and his team and for all of you. So if you want to get access to the best personal development app that has ever existed and as a bonus, go see me speak. I can't believe he's doing this. You can do it. You can get all the info one way or the other at growthday.com forward slash Ed.
Starting point is 00:01:55 This is the admiral. All right, welcome back to the show everybody today. We're going to talk about money. So many have been emailing and DMing the show saying, which you please Ed discuss budgeting and finances a little bit more saving, retirement and debt. So that's what we're going to cover today. We're going to talk about savings, retirement and debt. And it's something I'm very concerned about. It's very much on my heart. Before I get into some of the things I'm going to cover, let me just say I'm not coming to you on some soapbox, some guru or expert on a high horse, you know, thinking
Starting point is 00:02:25 I have everything figured out or that I'm perfect. I'm actually today coming to you. You're listening to somebody who understands, I've had cars repossessed, unfortunately. I know what it's like to be behind on your credit cards and have them taken from you. I know what it's like to have a house for closed on. I know what it's like to really consider bankruptcy. I've had my power turned off. I've had my mobile phone turned off before. This is not stuff I'm proud of. If I had the water turned off, man, you don't want that to happen. And most of that stuff was self-inflicted for mistakes that I made. And so I don't want you to make those mistakes. And I see so much terrible advice on podcasts from these gurus, social media, the different examples that are held out there
Starting point is 00:03:05 about what wealth looks like and what being rich looks like and what the right things are to do financially. And so we're gonna talk about some of those mistakes I've made and that I see being made in the world today. And it pains me. Let me give you some statistics first. If you make $80,000 a year, do you know about how much money you have to have saved
Starting point is 00:03:23 in order to retire just at the same standard of living? And when I say same standard of living, I'm not talking about now you're retired, you get to take extravagant vacations or anything like that. I mean, just to live the same as you live right now with your job. If you make $80,000 a year, how much money do you think you have to have saved?
Starting point is 00:03:39 Well, the data tells us you need about $2 million saved after taxes. So what that means is, a lot of you say, well, I've got money on my 401k. You do understand, you haven't paid your taxes yet when that money comes out of that 401k or that IRA. So after taxes, you need about $2 million saved. If you make $80,000 a year to provide the same standard of living, how do we know that? Well, at a $2 million amount of money, 4% interest on that would split off about $80,000 a year. You could live it about the same standard of living that you currently live at now. Are you on pace to do that?
Starting point is 00:04:12 Because let me tell you what the average American, the median American has saved in the median, $5,000. $5,000 is the median. There's a difference between the median and the average. The median is the person in the middle. The average is when you take all of the affluent people, wealthy people, and all the people and the average. The median is the person in the middle. The average is when you take all of the affluent people, wealthy people, and all the people that have nothing, the average savings is about $100,000. Currently, the median's 5 grand. That's a problem because when
Starting point is 00:04:37 you look at debt, the average American has $114,000 of consumer debt, $114,000 of consumer debt. 114,000, that doesn't count their home loan. That's college loans, car loans, credit card debt. Average person carries about $10,000 on a credit card average interest rate about 15%. Could you see there's a problem? We are in a consumer culture. We're in a culture that tells us to spend, spend, spend to keep up with people.
Starting point is 00:05:01 We've also got a lot of influences out there telling you to get rid of all of your money that you should just, every dollar you get, you should get rid of it, spend it somehow or invest it and stay broke so you stay hungry. Let me say something to you about that first of all. That's terrible advice. This idea that the only way you can stay driven and hungry is to remain broke or to get rid of all of your money is insane. If your motivation level is so low that you need to deplete all of your cash in order to stay hungry and
Starting point is 00:05:28 motivated, you don't need to check your bank account, you need to check your actual inspiration level. That's insane. And so the other thing that's in our culture today, and then I'm gonna give you some of the keys, is that we're trying to keep up with the Joneses. We're trying to impress people by buying really expensive things. Let me say something to you, I've been very fortunate. I've had, like I said, we're trying to impress people by buying really expensive things. Let me say something to you. I've been very fortunate.
Starting point is 00:05:46 I've had, you know, like I said, I've been, you're listening to somebody that has had their car repossessed, home foreclosed on, power turned off, water turned off. None of those are things that I'm very proud of, okay? But I've also been blessed to become very wealthy. I've been blessed to, you know, I've driven every car you could possibly ever have. I've owned them all basically most all of them. I've had six different jets, including a global express that I bought from Oracle.
Starting point is 00:06:07 I own my own island, right? I've owned multiple ocean front homes. My studio right now is in one of them. I've owned some of the homes in the nicest neighborhoods in the world. I've had all the material things you could possibly want. And let me tell you something, they're really nice to have, but you can't enjoy them if you're broke.
Starting point is 00:06:24 Living in a really nice house that you can't afford that you're sweating the payment on all the time is no way to live and trying to keep up with people to impress people who don't care by buying stuff you don't need is insane. And I see it happening. And so striving to impress people with material things, let me just say this to you up front, doesn't work, it doesn't impress them. And for the few that it does impress, those are the wrong types of people.
Starting point is 00:06:48 You want people to be impressed with the content of your character, with the way you live your life, the way you treat your family and other people. And if to get them to be impressed by you, you need a particular purse, or a particular jacket, or pair of shoes, those are people who's approval you don't want anyway. Yet we seek it, don't we?
Starting point is 00:07:05 To keep up with people. We're in a consumer culture, which is why consumer debt is so high, relative to savings. And so, and by the way, if you're a young person, listen, you go, well, I don't care about retirement. That's 30, 40 years away. First off, it's going to happen faster than you think. Let me ask you this, do you want to be in control of your life? Do you want to be able to call the shots and not have the world dictate shots to you?
Starting point is 00:07:24 Do you want to be able to help your parents or your siblings or your friends at any Do you want to be able to call the shots and not have the world dictate shots to you? Do you want to be able to help your parents or your siblings or your friends at any time you want to? Do you want to be able to take advantage of opportunities when they come along to be able to write a check at any time you want to buy something on discount that's an asset as opposed to a liability? So at any age you should be saving money. I figured this out by the time I was about 23,
Starting point is 00:07:42 I had made some money and like I said, I had a house, foreclose, a car repot, and I started to change the time I was about 23, I had made some money and like I said, I had a house for clothes, a car repot, and I started to change the way I viewed things. I found out most of these people I was impressing with these cars that I had, they weren't around once I didn't have them. They weren't impressed with me, they weren't impressed with the car.
Starting point is 00:07:56 And you know the other thing about nice stuff, it's out of style in like two or three years anyway. Right? Like the truth is, even a nice house you have, the stylistically in 10 or 12 years, it's dated. It just is. What I started to get addicted to was watching my savings account grow, watching my investments grow, watching my assets grow. I got more fired up every month, saving money,
Starting point is 00:08:18 stacking paper than I did with what I was buying to impress people. And then I'm going to give you the keys in a minute. I'm 52 years old. I'm worth hundreds of millions of dollars, I've made hundreds of millions of dollars, and I've only bought two new cars in my entire life. Because buying a new car is one of the dumbest things you could do. You should be either leasing your cars or buying them used. Let someone else pay all that depreciation. You let that thing drive off the car a lot.
Starting point is 00:08:42 Let them drive it for a year or two and then you buy that thing on a discount. It's still going to drop after you buy it, but not at the same rate as the dummy you buy the new car. So let's go through a few things here that can help you. Number one, by the way, that's that I gave you earlier. If you make $80,000 a year, you need $2 million. That's if you're retiring today. If you make $80,000 a year and you're retiring 30 years from now, if you factor in inflation, you'll need $5 million. So you have to start to ask yourself, are you on pace? Are you doing the things that will get you wealthy? And that's where I want to begin.
Starting point is 00:09:13 The first thing you have to do when it comes to money is get some goals and some outcomes. And this is for everybody who makes minimum wage all the way up to those of you that are making six or seven and even eight figures. You need to have financial outcomes, a financial focus. If you don't invest or save money when you're making very little, you will not invest or save money when you're making a lot. That's one of the great fallacies and lies about money is that people think, well, I'm on this limited amount of income. So once I make more, I'll save more. That's not what I see happen.
Starting point is 00:09:45 I see someone making $40,000 a year, living paycheck to paycheck. And then when they're making $70,000, now instead of driving a Honda, maybe they got a Lexus, instead of having a so-so apartment, they got a nice apartment. And then when they go from $70,000 to $100,000,
Starting point is 00:10:02 then they upgrade from the Lexus to the Mercedes, and they buy a house, and they deplete their savings by a house. And then when they go from 70,000 to 100,000, then they upgrade from the Lexus to the Mercedes and they buy a house and they deplete their savings by a house. And then when they go from 100, if they do to 150,000, they get rid of that house, they get a more expensive house. And then they got a second car and a second house. And they never get around to really accumulating any savings. In other words, they upgrade their lifestyle as they make more money. Smart people don't change their lifestyle
Starting point is 00:10:26 for a long, long time when they begin to make more money and they begin to build the habits and disciplines of a wealthy person when they're a broke person. I was saving money. See, here's how old I am. I was making minimum wage working McKinley home for boys, working it in orphanage that I worked at. And I was making minimum wage working McKinley home for boys, working at an orphanage that I worked at. And I was making minimum wage, which back then was $8 an hour, and I was still finding a way to save $50 a month in a savings, in a four savings. Because I wasn't going to Starbucks,
Starting point is 00:10:56 I didn't have cable TV, I eliminated basic things because I wanted to build a, and I started to get excited, wow, I've got $300 saved, I've got $1,500 saved, I've got $6,000 saved. As my friends were buying expensive cars, in fact, there's a great story I tell often that even when I started to make money,
Starting point is 00:11:12 I wanted to buy a Mercedes, I bought a fake one. I bought a kit car. I bought a Chrysler Labyrinth with a Mercedes body on it because I wanted to look like I was driving a Mercedes but I want to spend the money. That's a true story, by the way. I had a kit car. It was a L I was driving a Mercedes, but I want to spend the money. That's a true story, by the way. I had a kit car. It was a LeBaron with a Mercedes body on it because I was so addicted to saving and accumulating
Starting point is 00:11:30 money. So it's that time of year. Everybody's talking about forming new habits. You change your habits. You're going to change your life, right? Well, I'm sure you've started some new habits this year, but how are you going to track those habits? Have you ever wondered which habits matter more than the other ones? What are the high performers doing life? What are
Starting point is 00:11:47 the ultra successful do? You should track them daily, monthly, weekly. There's all these different things. And a lot of people know they need to improve their habits, but they don't know where to start. And that's why I think you're going to love growth day. You keep hearing me talk about growth day over and over again, because I'm such a believer in the tools and the environment and the system that growth day provides, and it's affordable, which is most important. Growth days, the number one personal development system in the world, help you track your habits, lead to long-term success and well-being.
Starting point is 00:12:18 You can score your life every day, week and month in there, plus you're part of a community of people that are achieving and changing their lives at the same time. You get target video training, you get live training from people like me in there, bread and bouchard, Trent Shelton, just to name a few courses from some of the top leaders that have ever existed in personal development and business all come as a part of the package. So you can even score your life in different categories on their finances, mission, relationships, mindset. And the reason I think people love growth day the most is that you can even score your life in different categories on their finances, mission, relationships, mindset. And the reason I think people love growth day the most is that you can finally understand
Starting point is 00:12:48 what matters and you can score your habits and actually create a real change in your life. And like I said, I feel like it's very affordable. What you measure, you can change. So hop into growth day.com forward slash ed today and start being serious about measuring and improving every area of your life. Listen, you deserve the know and you deserve to grow and win. So Monday motivation videos by me are in there every Monday. You get a free trial at growth day.com forward slash Ed.
Starting point is 00:13:18 Let me say that to you again. You can actually get a free trial right now at growth day.com forward slash Ed. Go check it out. Growth day is the place where I can help you stay on track and have your A game all year long. Growth day.com forward slash ed. So first things first, let me give you some keys. Number one is you need to decide what your outcomes are, what your goals are financially. Do you want to have financial freedom and independence? Right?
Starting point is 00:13:48 That's one level of wealth. Or do you want to be like stone-ass wealthy? Those are two totally different things. And for a lot of people, the answer is, I just like some financial peace and independence. I don't have to have Lamborghinis and jets and islands and all these other things, but I sure would like to live financially peacefully.
Starting point is 00:14:05 I'd like to someday not have to work. I'd like to pay off my house. I'd like to have a bunch of money saved. Whatever that is for you, I want some element. I don't want debt. Scriptures tell us, oh no man, nothing. I'd like some financial peace in my life. And the truth is, I think most people see
Starting point is 00:14:20 the wealthy thing on Instagram all the time and think that's what they want, but maybe it's not what you want. Maybe the truth is you just like more time. If you could just save enough money to pay all your bills and have your house taken care of and some basic stuff, maybe you'd like to take more time off. And if you're one of those people say, money's not that big of a deal to me. I get that.
Starting point is 00:14:38 And the truth of the matter is that's how I started out. It was not that big of a deal to me, but I knew the lack of money. Man, I knew that was a real big deal. I didn't want to be broke. I don't want to be stressed. I did not want to be in a position where I couldn't help my family if I needed to. So my first goals were not to be super wealthy. They already get financially independent.
Starting point is 00:14:57 The first step in doing that is you need to know your financial independence number, your fin number. Your fin number is the amount of money you need saved so that living off the interest on that money, you no longer need to work anymore. The next thing is this, you got to stop going into debt. You got to stop spending money to impress people. You got to stop it. You got to stop buying meals on credit.
Starting point is 00:15:18 Stay out of malls, frankly. I've been to a mall maybe five times in 15 years. You know what? Monitor and really be smart about your Amazon account. Don't have people shipping you stuff you don't need to your house. Take a look at all your subscriptions. Do you need all of them?
Starting point is 00:15:34 Do you need every single one of those subscriptions or could you eliminate some of those things if you're on a budget and start to put that money into savings? The next thing is to understand the distinction between three separate things. You need an emergency fund set up. An emergency fund is three to six months of your current expenses accessible at any given time. You need that money set aside. That's in case of
Starting point is 00:15:56 a job loss, car breaks down, somebody needs some help, emergency, quite frankly, life's just going to happen. So the first things first is you need three to six months of money set aside in an emergency fund. You should start to make that your goal and your ambition and start chipping away at doing that. If you're someone making a lot of money, right now, carve that amount out and put it to the side. The second thing that you need to do is you need to have savings.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Savings is just money that you're accumulating. Then, in case you needed, it's there. For a rainy day, You should have some savings. Anybody who tells you you shouldn't is wrong. Okay. You should have some measure of savings. And then the third thing is investing. That's money you're going to take that has some risk to it that you're going to try to
Starting point is 00:16:36 get rates of return on. I'm not going to tell you where to put that money today, but I can tell you that you need an emergency fund savings and that investments. The only advice I'll give you on you need an emergency fund, savings, and that investments. The only advice I'll give you on saving money, because I'm licensed, I can't recommend particular investments. What I will say to you is this, if you can't explain it to me, you shouldn't be putting your money in it. If you can't understand it and explain it back to me, it's not the place for you to be putting your money in. And if you don't have a financial professional in your life, you can explain things to you in a basic way so that you can understand them.
Starting point is 00:17:07 You have to ask yourself why they're confusing you. You have to ask yourself that, right? Sometimes people like to make things seem very sophisticated and complex so that you think you need them and that maybe potentially you make a bad decision. You ought to be able to explain to me why your money's in there and how it works and what it's doing and And anybody can do it.
Starting point is 00:17:26 Even somebody who doesn't want to know a lot about financial education doesn't matter. You should be able to do that. Okay, so that's number one. The next thing is as soon as you can afford it, make sure you have a competent tax person and CPA in your life. If you're someone making a lot of money, you really need a good tax person in your life. A professional, competent tax or CPA and you probably ought to be working with somebody who can help you with your money as well. Make sure you have a financial gain plan and
Starting point is 00:17:48 direct it and make sure you're running a budget. Now, in my budget recommendations, here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to take the first 30% of your money. If you can afford it, 30% of your money and give it to your tithing and to pay yourself first. If you can't do 30% if it's down to even 10%, carve something out that you're going to give away and carve something out because of the law of reciprocity and carve something out that you pay yourself first every month. Take it off the top. Don't pay yourself last because you're never going to get paid. If you make $3,000 a month, take $50 and pay yourself first. And now you make $29.50 a month. You say, yeah, that sounds good.
Starting point is 00:18:28 You're a rich guy. Listen, I spend every single dollar I do every month. I understand it. I've lived on minimum wage. And I'm telling you that even when I lived on minimum wage, I found a way to pay myself first. You need to get in control of your life. And the way you get in control of your life
Starting point is 00:18:42 is you first control your spending. You control your budgeting. You control your budgeting, you control your financial discipline. You begin to make this a massive priority in your life that you're going to become somebody who is financially in control. Because if you start to have it's of being financially in control. Eventually, you will be in control and you will call the shots in your life. So please, budget and begin to save your money. And don't invest in something you can't. Get clear on what you want. And if you're younger, start saving money now.
Starting point is 00:19:08 You'll build the habits of, well, trust me, I'm 52 years old. I started doing this in my early 20s, and I really believe that's why I'm wealthy. Stay with me on this. There's a bunch of people you see on social media that won't be rich someday, that look rich right now. I have more friends in my life, listen to me. those of you that are making a little bit of money that used to be rich
Starting point is 00:19:32 than that currently are. I've watched them go seasons of five or eight or 10 years where they were ballin. They were making real money. They were driving the nice car, the nice vacation. They bought this or that. And then bam, things changed. They got caught with their pants down financially. They had no money saved, no cash, dead up to their eyeballs. You're not. And so I have more friends that used to be rich
Starting point is 00:19:54 than currently are because they weren't in control of themselves. They didn't have delayed gratification. They had no financial discipline, no budget, no game plan, no goals, no outcome. It's now, when it comes to your investments, let me just say this to you. There's lots of places to save money. I can't recommend it.
Starting point is 00:20:10 I know kind of the cool thing right now and I've made a lot of money in real estate. That's a great place. Start flipping houses. That's one of the real-vogue things. That's great. Maybe that is what you should be doing, but you're one bad flip away from being broke too, which is why you still need cash saved. How about having a plan in your life where if it goes bad, you're still okay.
Starting point is 00:20:28 And I'm not talking about, I know you maybe you listen, you go, well, that's just a luxury I don't have. Of course you do. You can save some money. There are ways to do it. And if you're not making enough money, then you need to get a second job. Work a second job. I've had multiple jobs at any given time, many times.
Starting point is 00:20:44 When I was an entrepreneur, many times I had to go back and get a night job to support my entrepreneurial hustle. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. Being an entrepreneur is difficult. You entrepreneurs listen to this, and maybe you're going behind for, maybe you need to get a job two days a week or stocking shelves at night,
Starting point is 00:20:59 or I stocked shelves at a grocery store for two years while I was building my business because my business wasn't keeping my family afloat and I still had to save money. So some of you that are entrepreneurs, maybe it's a second job. Some of you that have a full time job, maybe it's starting a second business.
Starting point is 00:21:16 Maybe you need a second income stream. The truth is that in this day and age, with how crazy things cost and how out of control taxes are, you may need secondary income. So if you have a job, maybe it's starting a side hustle on the side, or a second job. If you're an entrepreneur,
Starting point is 00:21:33 maybe it's having a second job on the side that's part time to support your business. It's okay to work a lot. It's okay to have financial discipline. It's okay to go through a season of your life where you sacrifice lots of things, including time in order to get wealthy. But the hardest thing that I see,
Starting point is 00:21:52 the most heartbreaking thing are those people doing the grind, making the sacrifice, doing all the things to make money, and then they have no game plan, no financial discipline, and they watch all these idiots on Instagram, or social media go, man, I gotta have the car, I gotta have the house, I gotta have the nightclub,
Starting point is 00:22:08 I gotta have the steak. Man, sometimes even me when I show the things I have, I've got, you know, I'm lucky now, in this video I've got a stupid, expensive watch on, right? I didn't start buying expensive watches or cars until I could write checks for them, and not just write checks for them and not just write checks for them Not sweat the check where it didn't make a dent in my savings
Starting point is 00:22:35 You imagine saving up two hundred thousand dollars and dropping a hundred and thirty thousand on a stupid watch Now you got seventy grand. I didn't start writing checks for watches like that. I had millions of dollars saved and sometimes I think that's a bad example Because the truth of the matter is this this watch is great. And you know what, I barely ever look at it. I got a couple other ones, they're stupid. I've had a lot of nice cars. And you know what, the minute you drive by somebody, they're not impressed anymore. And if I am impressing them, it's probably the wrong person.
Starting point is 00:22:59 That's not to say part of getting wealthy isn't to have nice stuff. I get that, I like nice stuff. I become accustomed to it. But I didn't start partaking in it until I had earned it. And I had earned it with the work I did and all of the savings and investing I had done. And then if it's one percent of my money, okay, who cares? That's play money. But if it's 20, 30, 40 percent of your cash and you're spending it on stupid stuff like cars and clothes and steaks and wine that's dumb, right?
Starting point is 00:23:27 And trust me, I've had every car you could possibly almost think of. Lambos, Ferraris, Mercedes, Rolls Roy, whatever. I've had six jets. Like I said, the last jet I bought from Oracle, a global express jet, I've had all those things. They're amazing. They're not amazing if you have dead on them. They're not. They're not amazing if you have to worry about paying for them.
Starting point is 00:23:46 They're not amazing if they're a major chunk of your cash. They're not. Remember that. The average American has a hundred thousand dollars in consumer debt and five thousand dollars of savings. The average American needs two million dollars to retire and they got five grant. Is that sad or what? And so we need to budget, we need to save money.
Starting point is 00:24:08 Why is saving money matter, Ed? It gives you control. And whether we like it or not in this lifetime, we need to be able to protect our families and protect ourselves and make decisions. As an entrepreneur, one of the reasons you need to have financial discipline is that lack of financial discipline will cause you to make bad decisions as a business person.
Starting point is 00:24:29 You'll make decisions based on money or pressure because you haven't saved money. As a friend, let me say this to you. You just remember this. Your lack of financial discipline as an entrepreneur will eventually affect your business. It'll eventually affect your business. What's the number one mistake I see entrepreneurs do? They don't pay their taxes. They get behind on taxes.
Starting point is 00:24:48 They say, wow, I made $30,000 last month. No, you didn't. You made $30,000 if you were at $10,99, you're self-employed, you're $10,99, real estate agent, insurance agent, business owner. You made $30,000 last month before taxes. You probably made more like $18,000, but you're living like you made 30.
Starting point is 00:25:06 Those of you that are employees that have a job, it's your lack of discipline, save and money. It's your lack of having a game plan. It's running up debt that you don't need. And again, I'm not trying to be insensitive to anybody who doesn't have a lot of income coming in. I've lived that way. I lived in a single parent,
Starting point is 00:25:23 I lived in a family where my mother stayed home and raised our family, the most important job on the planet, and we had one income, which was my dad's. And I know what that can look like. I know when my, I remember one time when my dad lost his job and how absolutely destroyed our family wasn't worried about what was going to come when my dad was unemployed for a while. And thank God my dad had an emergency fund and we had money to live off for those months where he was finding work. And so this stuff matters. It has ramifications. Begin to educate yourself. Evaluate what you drive if you're on a budget. Do you need to drive that car? Or could you get something less expensive, reduce the payment,
Starting point is 00:26:00 or actually cash something out and do something with that savings. Avaluate what you subscribe to your subscriptions. Get serious and get focused and stop caring what people think about what your stuff is. I promise you, nobody cares that matters. Nobody does. And I want to say this to you about real estate. A lot of you ask me about real estate. I think that's a great place. I do not believe it's the only place though.
Starting point is 00:26:23 And so begin to educate yourself about the different places you could put money. But the most important thing is to begin to build the habits so that you become a long-term financial independent and maybe stone-ass wealthy. And for those of you that are making money, please don't be one of these people that was rich just for a little while or successful just for a little while. That you have this tremendous blessing of making some money. Maybe more than you've ever made for a little window of time. And you blew it on stuff. And you didn't save and accumulate and invest. Don't go into debt that you don't need to. Some debt is good debt. We all know this debt on liabilities is terrible. Debt on cars, debt on clothes, debt on food, debt on stuff you don't need.
Starting point is 00:27:06 That's terrible. Debt on assets, everyone says, well, that's great. Well, maybe, I mean, sometimes it's great. You still got to buy the right property at the right price. It's still got to be something you can afford and handle, right? Just because it's debt on an asset doesn't make it good debt. It just means it's definitely not stupid, right? I've had so many friends that were
Starting point is 00:27:26 doing pretty well for a while. And now they're not. And they're not because they're lack of savings created pressure in the bad times. And when the bad times came because they were under pressure unnecessarily, they should have had money saved and invested. But because they didn't, they made bad decisions under pressure. And ultimately, those decisions were made because of financial pressure and that financial pressure ruined their businesses. Had they just saved money in the good times they could have rode out the bad times. And so this is the same whether you have a business or a family, you've got a plan for winter. Listen to me, winter
Starting point is 00:28:04 comes in everyone's life. There's four seasons for a reason. There's summer, spring, winter, and fall. And that metaphorically is true in our lives. You're going to have a spring in your life, probably at some point where you've got some financial opportunities. And it's going to be sunny out in the summer. And then there's going to be a time where you start to have anxiety and things begin to change. The leaves of your life begin to change and you can feel it maybe not the way you want it to. What's just fall?
Starting point is 00:28:30 And ultimately, there's gonna be a winter. And all of our lives, there's a financial winter, there's a winter where we lose our job or our car breaks down or there's a disaster or a family need or our income and our business drops, or we just have massive expenses in a short window of time that we have to make. So that winter is going to come. Please prepare for winter, whether you don't make a lot of money or you do make a lot of money. I can tell you this, if you begin to develop the habits of budgeting and having an emergency fund and saving money and staying out of stupid debt, right? And investing after your savings, wherever you believe that that's appropriate. When you have those habits and you make good choices and you begin to live in some financial harmony and peace consistent with your values that
Starting point is 00:29:12 when winter comes, you can ride it out. I've had probably four or five winters since my mid-twenties and I've been able to ride them out and if I can be really candid with you because I had saved a lot of cash, I was able to make a lot of money during other people's winters when they had to sell their house or their business or their asset. I could buy them at a discount
Starting point is 00:29:35 because I had cash or I had investments. So I hope that helps you all very much. I care about this topic tremendously. I care about your family. I care about your wellbeing. And I care about your family. I care about your well-being. And I believe at any income level, you can have some measure of financial peace if you just build the habits. And it may be that if you're at that lower income level right now, and you're like, man, it's just such a grind. I understand I relate. I truly
Starting point is 00:29:58 do. But I can tell you, feel better about yourself. If you can save just a little something and you're like, man, I'm doing the right thing. I'm building the right habits. Man, it's not showing a lot now. And man, my friends think I'm silly to be saving $10 here, $8 there, $30 there, $50 there. But I know if I can serve eight, save $8 and 30 and 50 now, when my spring comes and I'm making a little bit more money, that's going to be 500 and 50,000 and someday maybe 500,000. And I'll be able to live my financial dreams or at least control and protect my family, like I'm supposed to do. I hope this helped you today.
Starting point is 00:30:34 If it did, share it with somebody who's young or old at any stage of their life, they begin to build these habits and hope you share our show as well. So fast is growing show in the world for a reason. And let me say this to you. If you want help on your personal development, you can go show as well. So, fast as growing show in the world for a reason. And let me say this to you. If you want help on your personal development, you can go to growthday.com. My friend at Brewer's Chart has got a great app. Growthday.com, forward slash ed,
Starting point is 00:30:52 you can get some information there. God bless you, max out your life, not your credit cards. The Edmond Miley Show.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.