Full Transcript for Breaking Grandma's Rule: The Money Talk That Could Change Your Life

so I went on my computer and made myself an Excel spreadsheet of everything that I spent my money on, Because that was the big thing is you got to write down pen to paper and write down every expense. 00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:52.203 Now can I ask you and you can say no, roughly how much were you making working on a steel plant? 00:02:52.203 --> 00:02:54.939 I was making $38,000 a year, $38,000. 00:02:54.939 --> 00:02:59.135 And what year was that roughly Late? 00:02:59.918 --> 00:03:00.579 90s. 00:03:05.993 --> 00:03:08.822 So $38,000 in the late 90s is not a bad salary. 00:03:08.822 --> 00:03:12.679 It's not flush with cash, but it's definitely solidly middle class. 00:03:12.679 --> 00:03:13.240 I was fine. 00:03:13.822 --> 00:03:14.222 I was fine. 00:03:14.222 --> 00:03:15.554 I had a little house. 00:03:15.554 --> 00:03:16.436 I had my first house. 00:03:16.436 --> 00:03:19.733 I mean, I was young, so first home. 00:03:19.733 --> 00:03:26.659 I had a degree in college already and I wasn't a dock worker. 00:03:26.659 --> 00:03:28.611 I was a management Gotcha. 00:03:28.611 --> 00:03:29.151 I wasn't a. 00:03:29.151 --> 00:03:30.274 You know, I wasn't a dock worker, or I was. 00:03:30.274 --> 00:03:30.894 I was a management Gotcha. 00:03:30.894 --> 00:03:36.501 You know the, the, the, the people on the floor were making you know around, you know eight to $10 an hour at the time. 00:03:36.661 --> 00:03:51.776 And that's probably about what a school teacher made back then, roughly, that's correct, and so so you started off with this plan and and his system evolved into this baby steps plan. 00:03:51.776 --> 00:03:54.241 But the first step is to save a thousand dollars, correct? 00:03:54.241 --> 00:03:57.978 And so you do that, and then you start working through the other steps. 00:03:57.978 --> 00:03:59.141 It's payoff. 00:03:59.141 --> 00:04:00.455 All debt was number two. 00:04:00.455 --> 00:04:01.675 How did that go for you? 00:04:02.413 --> 00:04:03.096 Well, can I back up? 00:04:03.096 --> 00:04:09.514 I'll tell you one quick thing is, is I I wasn't completely 100%. 00:04:09.514 --> 00:04:12.796 Is I wasn't completely 100%? 00:04:12.796 --> 00:04:27.206 I'd say sold on the idea at first, but when I did actually do, because there for a couple months I just kind of did the, I guess, like everybody you know, it's like my power bill is about you know 100 and something-ish, and so I never did. 00:04:27.206 --> 00:04:34.201 But then when I actually put the pen to paper like he stresses, stresses like, if you would just listen to what he says. 00:04:34.221 --> 00:04:34.824 Yeah, and actually did that. 00:04:34.824 --> 00:04:39.356 I actually gave myself a huge raise in pay because I was blowing money. 00:04:39.356 --> 00:04:46.660 You know, stop by the gas station get a coke, get some chips, you know right, you know, yeah, stop get a hamburger on the way home, you know. 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:49.407 And you don't realize how much that adds up. 00:04:49.407 --> 00:04:57.592 And, yeah, even on a modest salary, I believe when I did put the pen to paper, I gave myself about a five hundred dollar a month raise and pay. 00:04:57.592 --> 00:05:09.475 That's crazy, especially back then 38 grand and and and you're talking not doing without anything, just not not just wildly blowing money you know, and were you happier, was your life better or worse. 00:05:09.537 --> 00:05:12.655 No Right, it made no difference, absolutely not. 00:05:13.130 --> 00:05:30.416 If you look at the two metrics of length of life and quality of life, it makes no difference and you're saving 500 bucks a month Exactly, and then and then, after you get cause that's where you get, that's where you have to start because you gotta have good, you gotta have really good data going into this, because you know they say garbage in, garbage out, so and you can't, you got to do it. 00:05:30.416 --> 00:05:34.519 Now the one thing I will say is I did not do it like to the dollar. 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:39.143 I got a bunch of my power bills per se let's say it was electric power bill. 00:05:39.143 --> 00:05:46.408 Then what I would do is I looked and over the course of so many months it was about $110. 00:05:46.690 --> 00:05:47.253 Okay, so you weren't. 00:05:47.253 --> 00:05:50.590 You weren't shooting from the hip, but you didn't have a sniper rifle either. 00:05:50.590 --> 00:05:51.913 You were just kind of somewhere in between. 00:05:51.952 --> 00:05:52.495 Exactly. 00:05:52.495 --> 00:06:02.629 And so for every single bill, every single instance where money was leaving my hands, I had it almost identical to the bill. 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:06.674 But I wasn't doing it on a month to month basis, except for what I did was I did. 00:06:06.674 --> 00:06:19.960 A column of my bills was set on my sheet where I had what they run normally, and then another column I did, and they were all actual. 00:06:19.960 --> 00:06:26.721 So if I said my power bill is 110 and it came in at 108, then at the end you can self-tally it. 00:06:26.721 --> 00:06:30.717 You're a big nerd like me and know how to use Excel. 00:06:30.758 --> 00:06:34.980 Yeah, excel's great, by the way, so you can put a delta in there and it shows you the $2. 00:06:35.390 --> 00:06:38.760 I have all different lines, subtracting, adding, putting all this for me. 00:06:38.760 --> 00:06:43.321 And that way, when you get to the end, then you start seeing it. 00:06:43.321 --> 00:06:53.855 It'll tell you whether you're in deficit or in the positive, You're in the green or in the red, you know, and and based on that, you in the end of the month it can't be in the negative Gotcha. 00:06:53.855 --> 00:06:54.658 So you've, you've got to. 00:06:54.658 --> 00:06:58.792 Really, if you're, if you don't start out real smart, you're going to end up really dumb at the end of the month. 00:06:59.011 --> 00:07:05.216 Cause you're going to be broke Now I had lots of debt. 00:07:05.255 -->

00:07:06.977 I had college debt. 00:07:06.977 --> 00:07:09.740 I had random, stupid credit card debt. 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:10.519 You had credit card debt. 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:15.844 I had yeah, I put some of my college on my credit card, so I had thousands and thousands of dollars. 00:07:15.884 --> 00:07:16.825 And that's high interest? 00:07:17.004 --> 00:07:19.846 Oh, of course it's like loan sharks coming after me, you know. 00:07:23.330 --> 00:07:23.630 And you know. 00:07:23.630 --> 00:07:25.216 So I did a little bit of research on credit card debt. 00:07:25.216 --> 00:07:27.140 It's currently at like $1.3 trillion nationally. 00:07:27.140 --> 00:07:34.775 It's about 47% of people have credit card debt and on average it's about a seven grand bill. 00:07:34.775 --> 00:07:36.879 So credit card debt's a real issue in this world. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:41.256 And so how did you go about paying off the debt? 00:07:41.256 --> 00:07:52.638 Because a mathematician would say find the highest interest debt and pay that off first, which is called the debt avalanche, and then the debt snowball is different. 00:07:52.938 --> 00:08:05.254 It's find the debt that is the lowest dollar amount and pay that off first and you know, initially a smart person would say that's dumb, you should pay the highest interest rate off. 00:08:05.254 --> 00:08:16.851 But the people who understand how humans work realize that it's actually better to pay the lowest off first, because then you get some positive feedback and it makes you stick with the program right. 00:08:17.413 --> 00:08:21.172 So yeah, like you said, the very first step is get a thousand dollars for an emergency fund. 00:08:21.172 --> 00:08:25.874 That way, if something breaks, something cracks, something goes wrong, you can, you can pay for it. 00:08:25.874 --> 00:08:27.519 You don't have to stop, you can just continue on. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:32.578 You pay for it, you don't have to stop, you can just continue on, you pay for that, get whatever, because $1,000 will fix most any emergency. 00:08:32.578 --> 00:08:35.037 God forbid, you know something major. 00:08:35.037 --> 00:08:47.215 But if you're talking about, you know your X breaks, your fridge breaks, you know your car gets a flat tire, $1,000 is covered and then you fully fund that and you just keep on trucking with it. 00:08:47.215 --> 00:08:48.878 But yeah, then you start paying off of the debt. 00:08:48.878 --> 00:08:50.320 That's maybe step two, did you? 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.004 do the debt snowball where you pick the lowest dollar amount. 00:08:56.429 --> 00:08:58.130 So you listened to them and you stuck with the program. 00:08:58.130 --> 00:09:04.235 I did because I wanted to start with the highest debt dollar amount. 00:09:04.235 --> 00:09:06.356 But it would have taken me years and I think I would have lost some. 00:09:06.356 --> 00:09:08.759 But it would have taken me years and I think I would have lost some. 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:27.022 And so they've done research since this and proven that actually, picking the debt with just the lowest amount, the fastest one, you'll pay off, and you're making the minimal interest, the minimal payments on the other ones, correct, and you throw everything towards the lowest dollar amount, not the highest percentage that you're paying. 00:09:27.022 --> 00:09:28.545 As far as interest Right, and data has shown. 00:09:28.545 --> 00:09:45.220 As far as interest Right, and and data has shown that that works better Right and, so and and and, mathematically you're actually not that much worse off either if you did the other perfectly and it's just something it really does. 00:09:45.330 --> 00:09:47.378 It's so gratifying when you get to pay one off. 00:09:47.378 --> 00:09:57.362 Yeah, you know, you're, you're, you're in, you're still in debt, but you're in debt minus one, yeah, and you get this almost just this excitement of this works. 00:09:57.362 --> 00:09:58.654 I can do this, you know. 00:09:58.654 --> 00:10:04.942 And when you pay off that first debt and you start on the next debt, you have a little bit more money to throw at that second debt. 00:10:04.942 --> 00:10:13.840 So, even though that amount is larger now, you have more money to throw at that debt to to pay it off sooner. 00:10:13.961 --> 00:10:19.215 So you have some psychological momentum and some financial momentum, yeah, and so that's that's very helpful as well. 00:10:20.377 --> 00:10:31.211 And then I had some people I know who I went to high school with, who who did this and and it was it was just in a few years, but they paid off. 00:10:31.211 --> 00:10:47.942 It was something crazy and they had, I would say, two kind of normalist jobs, you know nothing, crazy, um, and I think they I think one of them, the guy, the husband, may have built a spec home or two in the summers, so he was doing some side gigs, but it was some. 00:10:47.942 --> 00:11:01.662 It was in the 200, like 200 and something thousand and I think they were both like uh, like solid jobs, like school teachers, but not crazy right and um, and a lot of people say and you know you're eating? 00:11:01.662 --> 00:11:02.624 He always says eat rice. 00:11:02.624 --> 00:11:05.277 And you know you're not spending much, you're not going out to eat. 00:11:05.277 --> 00:11:07.850 Your friends are criticizing you, saying you're weird. 00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:09.254 Did you experience any of that? 00:11:09.434 --> 00:11:10.375 no, I didn't. 00:11:10.375 --> 00:11:14.542 Okay, good, I um, uh, I I didn't. 00:11:14.542 --> 00:11:17.105 I've never been really that that big on. 00:11:17.105 --> 00:11:20.358 You know, by the time I'd started this too, I was a little bit. 00:11:20.358 --> 00:11:24.535 I wasn't, you know, in my teens or, uh, you know, in college anymore. 00:11:24.535 --> 00:11:36.735 So I was, I was older, when I old, but I wasn't still in that that, you know, go to the clubs, it clubs and blow body type

phase, so not that big of a party or drinker, that type of deal, so that wasn't a big thing. 00:11:36.735 --> 00:11:43.019 I never really went out to lavish restaurants that type of deal, always driven cars that run. 00:11:43.149 --> 00:11:55.550 So it wasn't a giant deviation from your norm for a norm and I think people think, oh, going down this path and actually kind of getting some more discipline in my life financially is going to be horrible. 00:11:55.550 --> 00:12:01.898 I'm not going to go out to, but I think people actually would probably look back on it and say that was kind of a cool time in life. 00:12:02.471 --> 00:12:10.516 I think so too, because you're I mean I'm actually I'm off next week and I'm taking a staycation because I want to. 00:12:10.516 --> 00:12:28.456 Yeah, I mean I could go somewhere and do something if I wanted to, but I need to, I need there's things I need to do at the house, yeah, so you know, that's just part of getting older, you know, and if you just kind of get that mindset to where you know this year we're taking two really nice staycations, you know to really nice staycations. 00:12:28.456 --> 00:12:39.127 You know, and do something for yourself or something for your house, something that you know that you need to do or want to do, then it makes it fun as well and at the same time, you're just banking that money. 00:12:39.247 --> 00:12:42.980 Instead of blowing money on a big, big, expensive vacation, instead of blowing money that you can put towards your debt. 00:12:44.412 --> 00:13:01.948 So you know he always has all these sayings you know, live what is it? 00:13:01.948 --> 00:13:05.655 Live like nobody else today so you can live like nobody else tomorrow. 00:13:05.655 --> 00:13:10.151 Be frugal right now and then you don't have to be later. 00:13:10.151 --> 00:13:20.147 And being frugal doesn't mean being boring, it doesn't mean the rice and beans sounds awful, and I didn't do that for sure I wasn't eating rice and beans. 00:13:20.147 --> 00:13:25.069 I wasn't eating caviar and lobster either, but all with a reason. 00:13:25.770 --> 00:13:38.886 You know the it's, and people may find this hard to believe it's it's actually hard to spend money on things that actually make your life better in the long run. 00:13:38.886 --> 00:13:57.014 And so if you had and this is like research there's, there's research, you know, on this If you had like two twin brothers and one of them broke their leg one day and the other one won the lottery the other day and the day before, you know on this If you had like two twin brothers and one of them broke their leg one day and the other one won the lottery the other day and the day before you know, they'd both say they're seven out of 10 happy. 00:13:57.014 --> 00:14:01.351 Two years later, they will both be seven out of 10 happy again. 00:14:01.752 --> 00:14:08.383 You know, it's, it's and it's because, or or the lottery stories you've heard that or their life's way worse. 00:14:08.383 --> 00:14:19.664 But you tend to just kind of go in the short term, right, if expectations are exceeded in a short-term scenario, then you're happy for the moment until you kind of re-equilibrate. 00:14:19.664 --> 00:14:27.436 Like, if you get a new car, it's fun for three months or six months and then it's just your car again, but you spend a bunch of money and for five years you have that note. 00:14:27.436 --> 00:14:31.492 Yeah, you know a bunch of money, and for five years you have that note. 00:14:31.492 --> 00:14:32.655 Yeah, you know um, and and actually um, kind of. 00:14:32.695 --> 00:14:48.999 The one of the things that's kind of the opposite is that I've in my mind is going on vacation, um, which I'm not a huge fan of vacation personally um, because it feels like you're just in my mind blowing money and you don't have anything tangible. 00:14:48.999 --> 00:15:01.218 But I actually think going on vacation, you are at least left with like some memories, right, and in a way that may even be worth more than buying a thing, right, you know that um. 00:15:01.218 --> 00:15:06.316 So even though it seems intangible, it kind of lasts longer it does, and and again. 00:15:06.356 --> 00:15:07.358 You know you don't have to. 00:15:07.839 --> 00:15:10.909 You know, travel halfway around the world for sure go to nashville, you know, go to kansas city, I mean you can have, you don't have to travel halfway around the world. 00:15:10.909 --> 00:15:14.878 For sure, go to Nashville, go to Kansas City, I mean you're going to have a good time. 00:15:16.592 --> 00:15:21.823 I've been to over half of the states in the US and I'd love to see the rest of them. 00:15:21.823 --> 00:15:24.638 Yeah, and that does not take a lot of money. 00:15:26.833 --> 00:15:30.476 So my kids, I've never taken them to Disney World, I've taken them to Silver Dollar City. 00:15:30.476 --> 00:15:31.976 They're 10 out of 10, happy. 00:15:31.976 --> 00:15:34.717 They're not going to get to 11. 00:15:34.717 --> 00:15:36.056 You know this is not right. 00:15:36.056 --> 00:15:37.455 This is not Spinal Tap. 00:15:37.455 --> 00:15:41.730 You know that's a reference to an amplifier in the movie. 00:15:41.730 --> 00:15:44.640 But I mean you know 10 out of 10, you're maximal happy. 00:15:45.431 --> 00:15:58.152 I'm not throwing shade at people who take their kids to, you know, disney World, but I mean to me it's it's just a bunch of extra money and like they're going to be happy with what they got. 00:15:58.152 --> 00:16:09.765 But I think you know kind of knowing that and knowing that when you, you can, if you want, you can keep spending money trying to chase this high and keep momentarily being happy, but it puts you in a bad position. 00:16:09.765 --> 00:16:21.284 You know, financially, and when you, when you realize that, you know kind of Eastern philosophy, that you know if you want to be happy, think about happy thoughts. 00:16:21.284 --> 00:16:22.408 You know it's, it's in

your brain, it's not. 00:16:22.428 --> 00:16:31.585 Yeah, you know, if you want to feel accomplished, you know, don't go buy a Rolex, just think about your accomplishments, right, and subvert it. 00:16:31.585 --> 00:16:43.958 But you just don't want to get into a position and sometimes you can't help it, but you don't want to get into a position where you're financially leveraged and you're kind of up against the wall Because there's no stress like financial stress. 00:16:43.958 --> 00:16:53.443 I mean, I've seen patients show up in the ER having panic attacks and you just don't want to live that way if you can avoid it and some people have bad breaks in life, no doubt about it. 00:16:53.443 --> 00:16:55.265 I mean I definitely acknowledge that. 00:16:55.265 --> 00:17:00.078 But you want to do everything you can to prepare yourself. 00:17:00.098 --> 00:17:06.432 So if you do have a bad break, you're at least secure in that capacity and I don't know about you, but when I see somebody, you know I'm talking about you. 00:17:06.432 --> 00:17:07.213 I don't know what you drive. 00:17:07.213 --> 00:17:17.422 I don't know what you drive, but when somebody passes me in the brand new super duper BMW XXX you know, whatever, there's zero envy for me. 00:17:17.422 --> 00:17:20.223 I look at that and the first thing I think is man, you're broke. 00:17:20.223 --> 00:17:22.786 You are more than likely you are broke. 00:17:22.786 --> 00:17:24.326 You're fixing to go to a house you can't afford. 00:17:32.769 --> 00:17:33.954 You're going to park your car in the garage of your house. 00:17:33.954 --> 00:17:34.355 You can't afford. 00:17:34.355 --> 00:17:36.724 It's a weird thing because you're, you're um, if you wanted to be, you can kind of cut out the middleman, right? 00:17:36.724 --> 00:17:37.709 If you wanted to think you're rich, you could. 00:17:37.709 --> 00:17:42.120 At least you can look at the money that you saved, or you can spend all that money. 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:49.514 Not be rich and let somebody else tell you you're rich right but or you could just subvert the process and look at your account and be like you know, know what. 00:17:49.514 --> 00:17:50.277 I've been disciplined. 00:17:50.277 --> 00:17:56.858 I can see in my account. 00:17:56.858 --> 00:18:03.352 There's money there, whether it's your retirement account or whatever, and people can spend their money on whatever they want. 00:18:03.352 --> 00:18:14.615 I don't want to pass judgment, necessarily, but you don't want to get on this hedonic treadmill where you keep buying something else, something else, something else yeah, keeping up with the Joneses. 00:18:14.615 --> 00:18:17.199 You don't have to be like oh man Walmart, what was him? 00:18:17.630 --> 00:18:17.911 Remember? 00:18:17.911 --> 00:18:19.154 He was known for driving this truck. 00:18:19.154 --> 00:18:19.856 Oh, sam Walton. 00:18:19.856 --> 00:18:20.659 Yeah, he barely drove. 00:18:20.659 --> 00:18:21.500 Yeah, an old Chevy truck. 00:18:23.717 --> 00:18:25.570 But there's something you kind of love about that story. 00:18:25.570 --> 00:18:28.221 You know Sam Walton, he's worth $80 billion. 00:18:28.221 --> 00:18:30.950 Story. 00:18:30.950 --> 00:18:36.563 You know sam walton, he's worth 80 billion and overall he's got a truck, an old chippy truck, and there's something that's kind of great about that and it's like the guy had some inner peace. 00:18:36.563 --> 00:18:42.961 You know um and so um, and so you stuck with the program I did. 00:18:43.102 --> 00:18:44.725 I have been, I'm still on the program. 00:18:44.725 --> 00:18:46.332 Yeah, it's. 00:18:46.332 --> 00:18:55.645 It's just basically just changed my, my way of thoughts, my thinking process, how I act and react towards money. 00:18:55.645 --> 00:19:04.158 Yeah, because once you get debt-free, there's no feeling like it and in fact you never will. 00:19:04.158 --> 00:19:09.702 It doesn't matter whether you make minimum wage or six figures. 00:19:09.702 --> 00:19:13.760 You'll never really know your income if you have all this debt. 00:19:13.760 --> 00:19:23.480 Yeah, because you have what you make minus what the government takes and allows you to keep, and then after that it's what all you've spent on your stuff. 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:30.403 Yeah, and minus that is what you've now got to live on until the next either two weeks or week or month or what have you. 00:19:30.403 --> 00:19:33.618 Yeah, and so you never really realize your income and you won't. 00:19:33.618 --> 00:19:37.374 You won't until you, until you get done paying for your things. 00:19:37.374 --> 00:19:39.257 Yeah, you know, and it's, it's. 00:19:39.517 --> 00:19:40.238 I always think. 00:19:40.238 --> 00:19:45.932 You know like, uh, you know your, your grandparents, you know like, was talking about. 00:19:45.932 --> 00:19:48.758 You know if you couldn't afford it, you don't buy it, you can't. 00:19:48.758 --> 00:19:54.460 You know there was no credit cards and if you went to the bank, it was, it was a handshake. 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:56.528 You know those type of days are gone. 00:19:56.929 --> 00:19:59.216 Yeah, and, and I think sometimes people work hard. 00:19:59.216 --> 00:20:03.092 You know, and, and you think, and you see, every social media has made this worse. 00:20:03.092 --> 00:20:10.762 You know, you see your neighbor with this fancy thing or that and you feel like, well, I deserve that, and it's, and it's like you. 00:20:10.762 --> 00:20:15.756 Your bank account will tell you if you deserve it, but it's not going to make you happier. 00:20:15.756 --> 00:20:17.060 It will not in the long run. 00:20:17.060 --> 00:20:20.514 Momentarily you'll be happy, but then in the long run you're going to be worse off for it. 00:20:20.514 --> 00:20:26.093 And and it's, and it's, um, and I do think you know we were social animals. 00:20:26.093 --> 00:20:31.401 We compare ourselves to each other for sure, and so and and we're all nobody's

perfect with that. 00:20:31.401 --> 00:20:32.262 I'm not, you're not. 00:20:32.262 --> 00:20:37.695 You know we all fall prey to that, but it is just good to know that there's. 00:20:37.695 --> 00:20:56.026 If you're looking for quality of life in the long run, think about your future self and and try to try to have the discipline and develop the habits of being happy without spending money, so you can have that financial security. 00:20:57.270 --> 00:21:08.043 I grew up and there's this guy I've known almost my whole life and he had a below average job as far as income. 00:21:08.043 --> 00:21:09.596 It was an honest living. 00:21:09.596 --> 00:21:10.778 He was a good person, but as far as income it was below the job. 00:21:10.778 --> 00:21:11.331 Okay, as far as income it was an honest living. 00:21:11.331 --> 00:21:11.586 He was a good person. 00:21:11.586 --> 00:21:14.894 But as far as income it was below the median. 00:21:14.894 --> 00:21:17.200 Um, but he didn't spend much. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:18.343 Um, he always had. 00:21:18.343 --> 00:21:23.442 If he bought a car it was used Um he'd work on it, um you don't have it for a long time. 00:21:23.442 --> 00:21:25.974 I could probably name every car this guy ever had, cause there's only a few. 00:21:27.557 --> 00:21:39.083 And he's in his 60s now and he's got a nice enough house, it's paid for, he's got two cars and he just lived a disciplined life. 00:21:39.250 --> 00:21:45.298 I mean, he just did not spend more than he had and he's doing fine for himself. 00:21:45.298 --> 00:21:48.330 And I guess what I'd tell young people is you know, it's super. 00:21:48.330 --> 00:21:51.901 I think for the young people out there now it's really tough for them. 00:21:51.901 --> 00:22:02.065 I mean the, the, the amount you know your rent payment is or your house payment is as a percentage of your income, is probably the worst it's been in 50 years due to the inflation, you know the last five years. 00:22:02.065 --> 00:22:13.320 But you, you can become financially independent, you can become wealthy, but there's no shortcut. 00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:27.205 It's boring and it's going to take a long time and it's hard to suffer what you think is suffering today by not kind of scratching that itch of buying the thing you got your eye on. 00:22:27.205 --> 00:22:40.460 But it won't make you happier and you are going to be 65 at some point and it's better to just try to have the discipline and develop good habits today and for your future self. 00:22:40.811 --> 00:22:41.633 I think the, the. 00:22:41.633 --> 00:22:46.834 I think it's changed a lot too from like when, you know, I was in my twenties. 00:22:46.834 --> 00:23:00.210 You know, early thirties, the, the, the peer pressure is quite different because wes, you know, early 30s, the peer pressure is quite different because we, like you know, I didn't come from the side of town that had money. 00:23:00.210 --> 00:23:04.063 So, you know, going to Europe was beyond. 00:23:04.289 --> 00:23:05.214 That was only for rich people. 00:23:05.214 --> 00:23:09.352 That's what you see on TV, yeah, so there was no, you know. 00:23:09.432 --> 00:23:16.478 Hey, you know, come over and look at my new $70,000 truck, or hey, we're just getting back from Ireland. 00:23:16.478 --> 00:23:18.299 There was none of that, so you didn't have to. 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:21.123 It was a lot easier to keep up with the Joneses. 00:23:21.123 --> 00:23:29.251 You had a car that ran, that looked halfway dead seat, and you kept it clean and you took care of it and that was pretty much. 00:23:29.251 --> 00:23:29.955 You want to keep it in my car. 00:23:29.955 --> 00:23:30.537 I just washed it. 00:23:30.537 --> 00:23:30.899 It's clean. 00:23:30.899 --> 00:23:31.662 It looks real nice. 00:23:31.662 --> 00:23:33.413 That was how you kept up with the chances. 00:23:33.413 --> 00:23:35.096 Yeah, you know your house was nice. 00:23:35.096 --> 00:23:35.839 You kept it clean. 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:36.500 It didn't stink. 00:23:36.500 --> 00:23:36.921 You know it was. 00:23:36.921 --> 00:23:46.557 You know you you. 00:23:46.597 --> 00:23:48.039 You kept pictures online. 00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:49.201 Yeah, you know. 00:23:49.201 --> 00:23:55.987 If people see you wearing the same outfit you know for three different events, then they act like something's wrong with you. 00:23:56.331 --> 00:24:00.294 And Facebook is like look at me, book, it's what it is, show and tell. 00:24:00.294 --> 00:24:03.514 Book it's it's, and there's positives and negatives, but I mean it's not. 00:24:11.510 --> 00:24:11.731 Yeah it's. 00:24:11.772 --> 00:24:12.755 It kind of cultivates some of this behavior. 00:24:12.755 --> 00:24:14.038 That's not good for you in the long run. 00:24:14.038 --> 00:24:17.429 You've got to be happy with yourself For sure, happy with yourself. 00:24:18.331 --> 00:24:18.836 That doesn't come easy. 00:24:18.876 --> 00:24:19.869 Right, you don't read a book and it happens. 00:24:19.869 --> 00:24:28.566 No, and just like about the whole Dave Ramsey plan, is that you didn't amount all this debt overnight. 00:24:28.566 --> 00:24:29.914 You're not going to pay it off overnight. 00:24:29.914 --> 00:24:31.853 It's like like a diet. 00:24:31.853 --> 00:24:33.417 You know it was fun putting the weight on. 00:24:33.417 --> 00:24:34.881 It's not fun taking it off. 00:24:35.471 --> 00:24:39.542 Paying the debt off it's not fun either and there's a lot of similarities, you know, with dieting too. 00:24:39.542 --> 00:25:01.491 Um, being kind of more like an engineer and like actually looking at the calories is the way to go, but not all of us, you know, turn into an artist where we're like, oh, I'm roughly about this and so yeah, for sure it's, but good things they take time and they take discipline and it's. 00:25:01.974 --> 00:25:06.549 I think it's hard to replace that feeling of having that financial freedom. 00:25:06.549 --> 00:25:10.034 I mean,

nothing you could buy would ever make you that happy or free. 00:25:10.735 --> 00:25:27.744 And I tell you for me personally, like as I was going through the steps, it was even just more motivation, it was more fun, it became fun, it became exciting, yeah, that I'm fixing to hit another milestone. 00:25:29.615 --> 00:25:37.287 A couple of yeah for sure, like most people will describe it as like no, that was a good time in my life, you know, going through that. 00:25:37.287 --> 00:25:51.209 A couple statistics here to throw out Worldwide to be the top 1% of earners worldwide, in America or not in America. 00:25:51.209 --> 00:25:57.715 Worldwide, you got to make $65,000 to be the first percentile worldwide. 00:25:57.715 --> 00:26:19.310 And so, just to put things into perspective, to be in the top 20% which different people will use different numbers, but the top 20% of considered upper class or at least upper middle class as a household, you make $160,000. 00:26:19.310 --> 00:26:48.605 Okay, which is a lot of money, but but I think a lot of people who fall into this category you know if you're a what's 160, I'm guessing is like a firefighter and a teacher with some years of experience in a nice district, roughly A lot of times, I think, because of all the stuff you see out there, people making that often probably don't feel like they're upper class. 00:26:49.007 --> 00:26:51.802 Right, you know what I mean, and some of it too, is perspective. 00:26:51.802 --> 00:26:53.421 We live in this metro area. 00:26:53.421 --> 00:26:54.799 This is all you see. 00:26:54.799 --> 00:27:02.894 I'm not from a metro area, I don't think you are either, and so my view of the world is a little bit broader maybe. 00:27:02.894 --> 00:27:11.084 But I mean, I think with inflation and just the comparison is, people in this demographic don't feel like they're upper class. 00:27:11.084 --> 00:27:18.412 People in this demographic don't feel like they're upper class and I think. 00:27:18.412 --> 00:27:22.273 But when you compare yourself to your friends and neighbors, you don't know what's going on there? 00:27:22.313 --> 00:27:25.906 I mean their whole lifestyle may be leveraged. 00:27:28.839 --> 00:27:31.965 What are some parting thoughts you have about all this Jared? 00:27:33.188 --> 00:27:35.203 Well, one of the things also is is I look at housing? 00:27:35.203 --> 00:27:35.493 Housing is so expensive. 00:27:35.493 --> 00:27:35.570 You know I grew Jared Um well, one. 00:27:35.570 --> 00:27:36.384 One of the things also is is I look at housing? 00:27:36.384 --> 00:27:37.946 Housing is so expensive. 00:27:37.946 --> 00:27:42.859 You know, I grew up in Birmingham, alabama, and you know you think it's kind of like way everywhere. 00:27:42.859 --> 00:27:55.602 But you know when and this was when I, when I was looking for a house, way back, way back when the average house was about $150,000 and you know there was no way I could afford that. 00:27:55.602 --> 00:27:56.505 So I bought a house. 00:27:56.654 --> 00:27:58.255 My first house was $78,500. 00:27:58.255 --> 00:28:00.623 And it needed a lot of work. 00:28:00.623 --> 00:28:03.104 And I'm not a carpenter, but I had to learn how to become one. 00:28:03.104 --> 00:28:15.840 I'm not a plumber or electrician, but you bet I learned how to be a plumber and electrician because I could not afford to pay these people to come in and fix my stuff, because they made way more than I did my average. 00:28:15.840 --> 00:28:21.170 I paid one plumber one time to come out and fix a leaky sink. 00:28:21.170 --> 00:28:28.683 When I bought my first house, I'd been there maybe a couple months and he worked for about 30 minutes and he took a week's pay from me. 00:28:28.683 --> 00:28:29.846 That's rough. 00:28:30.475 --> 00:28:34.782 I said right then, and there you know, I'm a plumber, I'm a plumber. 00:28:34.842 --> 00:28:38.247 I can learn it did not look like rocket science what he did back there. 00:28:38.247 --> 00:28:41.951 So if he can do it, I'm smart enough at least. 00:28:41.951 --> 00:28:51.788 I can at least get near it, you know, yeah, so I learned how to do a lot of things, and so even today I have a real hard time paying someone to do something that I can do. 00:28:51.788 --> 00:28:57.678 And a lot of people say, well, your time is worth something. 00:28:57.678 --> 00:29:00.442 It's really not Because you're investing in yourself or your property or what have you. 00:29:00.722 --> 00:29:03.628 And it's another skill, another experience to go through. 00:29:03.668 --> 00:29:10.891 It broadens your and I actually I hate to say it, but I kind of enjoy it. 00:29:10.891 --> 00:29:11.775 I don't when I'm doing it. 00:29:11.775 --> 00:29:18.259 You know I'm one of those guys that you know leave me in the basement and cover your ears because it might get colorful, you know, because it never goes, because I don't do it all the time. 00:29:18.183 --> 00:29:20.274 I'm not a professional plumber or something, so it never works out perfectly. 00:29:20.274 --> 00:29:21.842 But how much pride do you have when you finish it? 00:29:21.842 --> 00:29:22.497 When I finish it. 00:29:22.537 --> 00:29:25.403 I'm looking at it and I'm thinking that looks fantastic. 00:29:25.424 --> 00:29:26.326 Yeah, you found your chest. 00:29:26.326 --> 00:29:29.038 Even when I'm on the yard, I'm feeling good about myself, you know. 00:29:29.577 --> 00:29:35.105 But Just the housing has gotten to be so much that I hear. 00:29:35.105 --> 00:29:37.307 It pains me to hear. 00:29:37.307 --> 00:29:41.171 I just had a guy tell me this was just a couple months ago. 00:29:49.935 --> 00:29:51.239 He's probably mid-20s and he told me he and his wife. 00:29:51.278 --> 00:29:53.746 they just don't foresee in the future how they can buy a house and I didn't say anything. 00:29:53.746 --> 00:30:00.566 But I thought you're going to have to reevaluate what's important to you, because if I had that same mentality then I

would have never bought my first house. 00:30:00.967 --> 00:30:01.148 Yeah. 00:30:01.148 --> 00:30:04.495 So the median home price now I think it's about $350,000. 00:30:04.495 --> 00:30:06.916 And that's just median and then. 00:30:06.916 --> 00:30:12.805 But one thing is, the median home size is a lot bigger than it used to be too. 00:30:12.805 --> 00:30:24.542 I mean, just go drive down in South city or or in C, homes that were built in the fifties, um, or um, uh or earlier, and I mean there's, there's smaller 1200 square feet, you know type of deal. 00:30:24.542 --> 00:30:31.382 And so we're just kind of a custom to um live is what seems normal is to now live in a. 00:30:31.382 --> 00:30:34.647 I would say the average house is probably over 2,000 square feet. 00:30:34.647 --> 00:30:40.094 I could be wrong, but it's significantly larger than it was in 1990. 00:30:40.094 --> 00:30:46.435 And HOAs, yeah for sure. 00:30:46.455 --> 00:31:03.403 I mean, not only do you have to pay this exorbitant price for this house, because it's got this brick sign in the front that says something that people recognize you know the cove, or whatever it says, you know and it's like, oh, I live in the cove. 00:31:03.403 --> 00:31:14.600 Well, now that you live in the cove and you have this house, that's, you know, probably a little bit it was a little tight to get in, but now every month you've got this thing called HOAs that you've got to pay in. 00:31:14.600 --> 00:31:17.884 They're the people that it's like still living kind of at your parents' place. 00:31:17.884 --> 00:31:23.631 They tell you what color you can paint your house, if you can have a car outside or not, what time you need to go to bed. 00:31:23.691 --> 00:31:26.514 I mean, all these things, they don't feel free. 00:31:26.534 --> 00:31:35.968 Right, right, and so I find that, if you can do, this is still America. 00:31:35.968 --> 00:31:36.929 You can still do what you want. 00:31:36.929 --> 00:31:38.091 It depends. 00:31:38.091 --> 00:32:04.022 You've got to scale it back, though, because what you do is like that house I bought, I worked on it, worked on it I mean, I was doing all that I could do for that house, and when I sold it, I made a pretty nice little profit from it rolled it into another house, got in that house, did a whole lot of work on that house, you know, sold it, rolled it into another house, got in that house, did a whole lot of work on that house, sold it, rolled it into the third house, and you keep doing that until that's how you can get. 00:32:04.022 --> 00:32:09.837 You can still buy that, say, $100,000 house, but by the time you're in your third house, you're still. 00:32:09.837 --> 00:32:13.403 You're paying $100,000, but you're buying a $250,000 house. 00:32:13.403 --> 00:32:16.689 Yeah, because you just keep rolling that equity into the other homes. 00:32:16.909 --> 00:32:18.556 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:32:18.556 --> 00:32:22.825 For the young people out there, it's not going

to come quick. 00:32:22.825 --> 00:32:27.243 No, it's not fun and it's just brick by brick, step by step. 00:32:27.243 --> 00:32:28.566 But you might as well start today. 00:32:29.835 --> 00:32:31.797 And the Dave Ramsey plan is a way to get you there. 00:32:31.797 --> 00:32:35.701 I think faster Probably the best thing going out there. 00:32:35.701 --> 00:32:40.527 I think it's faster because you're going to come to this one way or the other. 00:32:40.527 --> 00:32:43.048 I think You're going to have a one day. 00:32:43.048 --> 00:32:48.565 You and your family is going to have a sit-down, yeah, and it's going to be like we've got to do something because what we're doing is not working. 00:32:48.914 --> 00:32:52.296 Yeah, the pesky shackles of reality always end up winning, don't they Right? 00:32:52.296 --> 00:32:53.395 Always end up winning, don't they Right. 00:32:53.395 --> 00:32:57.116 All right, jared Well hey, buddy, I appreciate you and it's always good talking to you. 00:32:57.116 --> 00:32:58.238 Thanks so much for your time. 00:32:59.278 --> 00:33:00.317 Can I leave you one last? 00:33:00.317 --> 00:33:01.139 Thing, yeah, please. 00:33:01.139 --> 00:33:10.061 Number 10 on the I think it's the 107th of the plan is what I think is the most exciting to look forward to. 00:33:10.061 --> 00:33:11.102 That's the one where you can give. 00:33:11.382 --> 00:33:20.104 Yeah, build wealth and give Right, and so you donate to things that you think are important Church, maybe the server you have. 00:33:20.163 --> 00:33:20.985 Give her a hundred bucks. 00:33:20.985 --> 00:33:24.526 Yeah, Haircut girl, she's telling you a sad story. 00:33:24.526 --> 00:33:26.186 A hundred bucks, you give her a hundred bucks. 00:33:26.186 --> 00:33:27.006 You're not out that much. 00:33:27.006 --> 00:33:29.326 Yeah, you just changed her week, her month. 00:33:30.407 --> 00:33:38.810 And the feeling you get from that is longer lasting than the feeling you're going to get from buying that new pair of shoes. 00:33:38.810 --> 00:33:47.993 And so if your goal is to optimize your length of life and quality of life, your return on investments typically better with giving. 00:33:48.753 --> 00:33:52.214 And by that point you're already to the last baby step, so everything's paid for. 00:33:52.214 --> 00:33:59.542 You've got your next day, you're pretty much should be set and you're making a positive difference in this world, and now you can go out and you can help others. 00:33:59.542 --> 00:34:01.996 Yeah, and that's the only thing it was. 00:34:01.996 --> 00:34:05.913 Just you know, once you get to the very end, it still continues. 00:34:05.913 --> 00:34:10.005 Yeah, because now you have a chance to change someone else's life and be positive. 00:34:10.706 --> 00:34:10.927 Yeah. 00:34:15.695 --> 00:34:17.043 And you sympathize with people who are kind of in the same position. 00:34:17.043 --> 00:34:17.547 You were a long time ago. 00:34:17.547 --> 00:34:18.231 We've all been

down the same road. 00:34:18.231 --> 00:34:18.614 You bet Most of us. 00:34:18.855 --> 00:34:21.159 Yeah, yeah, I mean for sure. 00:34:21.159 --> 00:34:30.927 Yeah, everybody's going to have tough times and we're all in this world together, right, and we got to try to take care of each other, but it really you got to take care of yourself too. 00:34:30.927 --> 00:34:32.838 Right to right, and you're you're. 00:34:32.838 --> 00:34:40.262 There's something called a Monte Carlo simulation and we use it for radiation calculations, but it's a Monte Carlo. 00:34:40.262 --> 00:34:41.583 Is that a roulette wheel? 00:34:41.583 --> 00:34:52.942 Okay, and so it started off doing multiple runs on a roulette wheel, so you just it would be like a thousand balls in a row and seeing what numbers it landed on, and that's called a run. 00:34:52.942 --> 00:34:56.077 And it became a mathematical way to simulate things. 00:34:56.538 --> 00:35:04.067 And if you looked at your life like a monte carlo simulation, like over the next 20 years, your life, there's there's a thousand different use that could exist. 00:35:04.067 --> 00:35:15.478 But if, if you're making moves today that are going to help, kind of any of those potential use, if you looked at your life like a simulation, a lot of things could happen. 00:35:15.478 --> 00:35:30.062 But you want to do things that kind of, have some respect for the future version of you, whatever that may be, and it could be anything and and I think you know, having the discipline to do that, finding meaning in your life and purpose. 00:35:30.062 --> 00:35:43.298 I mean people will keep working even if they're totally financially free, because they feel like they have obligations to charities and obligations to people or family or whatever, and they feel good about that, their legacy. 00:35:45.375 --> 00:36:00.015 I think in life it's good to have purpose, it's good to be on a mission, it's good to try to make a positive difference in this world and most people who what's the meaning of life, that's what it is Find things you think are important and try to make them better. 00:36:00.015 --> 00:36:01.940 Um and um. 00:36:01.940 --> 00:36:13.683 You know you'll get all kinds of philosophies, but I think if you put them into an AI and averaged them out, it would be something like that and it, it, I know it's, it's, it's gratifying for me to give it's. 00:36:13.683 --> 00:36:21.270 Probably the happiest moments of the year are when you're, you know somewhere and you have the opportunity to give a little bit Right. 00:36:21.551 --> 00:36:23.261 Yeah, Like you said, you got to help yourself first. 00:36:23.261 --> 00:36:26.850 It's like they say on the airplane you always put the oxygen on yourself. 00:36:26.990 --> 00:36:29.116 Yeah, save yourself, because if you, start putting it on others. 00:36:29.136 --> 00:36:30.679 You're of no good to anyone. 00:36:31.140 --> 00:36:35.627 And you know, another good kind of saying about life is nobody's coming to save you, Right. 00:36:35.627 --> 00:36:42.942 You've got to save yourself, exactly, and that's good news and bad news, because I don't want to be somebody else up to somebody else, but the bad news is I've got to do the work. 00:36:46.721 --> 00:36:51.373 And hard living, hard choices, I think, have escaped most people these days. 00:36:51.373 --> 00:36:58.215 Yeah, a lot of the youth that are coming up are not being told no, are not doing without. 00:36:58.215 --> 00:36:59.739 They don't understand doing without. 00:36:59.739 --> 00:37:03.556 Doing without is like a timeout for 10 minutes with their favorite game. 00:37:03.556 --> 00:37:06.463 You know not that I can't, we can't afford that game. 00:37:06.463 --> 00:37:10.340 Yeah, you can't have that game, we won't get that game yeah, it's a, it's a. 00:37:10.420 --> 00:37:12.645 Hard people, uh, create good time. 00:37:12.645 --> 00:37:13.960 You know, bad times create hard people. 00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:14.790 Hard people create good times. 00:37:14.790 --> 00:37:15.483 Good times create, create hard people. 00:37:15.483 --> 00:37:15.812 Hard people create good times. 00:37:15.812 --> 00:37:17.280 Good times create soft people. 00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:29.146 And it feels like we're in that phase of the cycle and you've got to develop self-discipline. 00:37:29.146 --> 00:37:32.519 In anything in life, we're not perfect. 00:37:32.519 --> 00:37:37.318 Forgive yourself for sure for Um, for your weaknesses and your past transgressions. 00:37:37.318 --> 00:37:37.980 We all have them. 00:37:37.980 --> 00:37:40.426 Just move forward and figure out. 00:37:40.426 --> 00:37:44.844 You know how can you have some respect for your future version of yourself? 00:37:44.844 --> 00:37:46.547 Exactly All right, buddy. 00:37:46.614 --> 00:37:48.900 Hey, good seeing you Good talking to you as well. 00:37:48.900 --> 00:37:49.582 It's always fun. 00:37:49.743 --> 00:37:52.538 Thanks, chris for for um for your work here today. 00:37:52.538 --> 00:37:53.801 And, Todd, as always, always. 00:37:53.801 --> 00:37:56.788 And Kelly, we appreciate everybody in the staff. 00:37:56.788 --> 00:37:58.600 That's all for today. 00:37:58.600 --> 00:38:01.397 Jared Barton, you're my man. 00:38:01.397 --> 00:38:02.998 All right, Thank you.