I had a whole thing mapped out for the month
of April. I had a lot of things on my plate and
I wound up having life happen. I wound up getting
pneumonia. And it set me back and it caused me
to think and it really just reinforced as an
entrepreneur that you need to have backup and
that you need to have plans and that you need
to have what I call financial defenses because
you do special needs financial advisory. I have
a brother -in -law who has autism. And so I understand
that, and I got involved with that early. And
I received a referral. There was a couple middle
class. They had a daughter who was born profoundly
disabled or other liable. And they came in. And
even though neither one of them had ever earned
more than $55 ,000 a year or 60, I think, each
one separately, they made the decision when they
first got married that they would live off one
salary. They literally invest the other. Whenever
they inherited money, they turned it around and
they invested. They lived in a very simple, very
modest home. Extraordinarily modest. Didn't drive
expensive cars. Didn't waste money on anything.
When their assets rolled over, it was shocking.
Okay, one person had tried another program and
she and her husband had gotten into quite a bit
of consumer debt. She borrowed money from her
family. and she was paying it back at an extremely
accelerated rate. Great, but I turned to her
and I said, do you have an emergency fund? And
she said, no, I'm paying off the debt first.
And I said, wait a second, what happens if either
one of you can't work? And she said, why would
that ever happen? I said, life happens. Life
happens, right? And she got very offended. Two,
three weeks after the shutdown started, she called
me up and Hey, family. This is a Throb Word journey.
Look, life's too short to just get by, and 2025
is the year to persist. We're here to grow, build,
and thrive. This podcast is all about powerful
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And as we always say, let's make thriving our
new normal. Monica, how are you doing? I'm good.
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be
here. Yes, I'm glad you're here because as we
were doing research on you, I was like, man,
she has so much knowledge that that we can really
absorb. And I'm really, I'm really excited to
find out the knowledge that you have. But before
we get in to the conversation, what's on your
mind and your heart that you would like to share
with people? Okay, so life happens. And we were
just discussing this before, but I had a whole
thing mapped out for the month of April. I had
a lot of things on my plate and I wound up having
life happen. I wound up getting pneumonia. And
it sent me back and it caused me to think. And
it really just reinforced as an entrepreneur
that you need to have backup and that you need
to have plans and that you need to have what
I call financial defenses. because without them,
you're much more likely to get knocked down.
It's so much easier to move forward from where
you are to where you want to be when you have
those guardrails up. So maybe you stumble, but
you don't fall. Or if you fall, you get up a
lot faster and you're not hurt. And there's a
lot of this going on. There's so much fear and
pain right now about the economy. And I really
want to help people refocus their minds and their
energies and their thought process. So that they
can navigate this. Yeah. I don't you know, I
really think that fear is just we're not built
for it. And we need to be able to use it and
conquer it. It's a tool. But I don't want people
living in fear. I've seen too much of this. And
that's part of what's motivating me as I move
forward. Nice. I was gonna ask you like, I think,
if you have the knowledge of something, can that
especially with finances and the economy? Can
that help dissipate some of the fear that people
are having? Absolutely does. Because it makes
you look at something with clarity and say, okay,
I understand what that is And even more I've
thought about it and I know how I'm going to
move forward through it So for me if I have a
plan even if it's tough and if it's hard It's
a heck of a lot easier to let go of the fear
than when I don't have a plan When I have a hard
time, it's when I don't know how I'm going to
move forward when I haven't planned for something
now, obviously You can't plan for everything
and you still have to move. And the only thing
for me that helps clear away anxiety or fear
is movement. So what I focus on with people is
shifting how they think, feel, and act with money.
And I take a very cognitive approach to it. You
can change those patterns if you change those
thoughts, become aware of them, shift them, reinforce
them. And I work with people on that. And then
here's the thing. It takes time, but as you get
that biofeedback loop of success, your feelings
about this shift and you're much more empowered
and you make better decisions. And even when
you make a mistake, you learn from it. So you've
done, you haven't lost. You're still winning
because you've learned and you move forward.
So you cannot go where your mind hasn't gone
before. What I want people to understand is they
can wrap their minds around what's going on.
Find their peace, learn the skills, and know
that no matter what happens, they're prepared
to move forward. Those guardrails. What inspires
you and your passion for financial education
and purpose -driven wealth that you talk about?
There's a lot of this. I realized my parents
got divorced when I was six and my mother had
pulled herself up from nothing. Her parents were
very badly hit during the depression. There wasn't
enough food in their house. They divided the
food and she got less food than her older brother.
Okay, very traditional household. And my mother
married well and she gave up everything in order
to have a family for which I'm grateful because
I'm a cure. But when she got divorced, all of
her financial fears came crashing down on all
of us. And it affected me. And I'll give you
a stupid example of it. Like when I start something
new, I wanna have a new pair of, I wanna have
a new outfit on, okay? I feel more confident
going forward with a new outfit. When my mother
was between second and third grade, she got a
job somehow. Shaker Heights, Ohio public school
system. Someone there paid her to help out cleaning
up textbooks, doing things around the school.
That's how she had money to pay for her school
clothes and shoes. So she got that first job
then. So for her, she felt more confident if
she was in a new outfit and I absorbed that.
And there are so many things about our relationship
with money that we absorb and we're not even
aware of it. So that's how that started. if that
makes sense. It does. And then as I moved, I
started off life in my professional life. I am
doing economic research. And let me be blunt,
I hated it. Okay. Okay. If I'm crunching numbers,
and they don't mean anything to anyone, and nobody's
going to do anything with it, why did I spend
eight to 10 hours of my day? Time I'll never
get back doing something that doesn't mean anything.
So round about 1997, I was pregnant with my first
child and my husband went to get life insurance
and got declined. And he had a health issue at
the time. And my father sent me down. My father
was a doctor. And he said, look, the men in his
family die early. So it was a challenge to turn
around and get a new policy, which we did, that
we could afford. It was one of those things that
really showed me the power of actually having
a financial advisor who actually cared enough
to think through to find a solution. And so I
saw that. And as I worked independent contractor
with different women businesses, I saw the power
of money and the power of choice. And I thought,
let me start down this path. And that's when
I went over to Merrill Lynch and became my own
advisor. Nice. Started on the advisory process.
Nice. And when you're talking more families,
that led me to the question that you talk about,
was it the two different families? You have the
surgeon and then the middle class couple. And
how did that impact you? And can you talk about
that story? Absolutely. So when I was almost
brand new, I got two referrals. One was a surgeon
who had had a stroke and he had been extraordinarily
well compensated. beautiful wife, beautiful four
children, stunningly gorgeous, beautiful people,
kind people, good people. But if it wasn't for
that long -term disability policy that he purchased
through work, he and his family would have had
a very serious problem, okay? That policy got
them through. And that's what it's designed to
do. But given his age at the time, He hadn't
really put it away. He had spent what he had
earned. He'd enjoyed every single moment of it.
Face it, med school is hard. Residency is hard.
They want the rewards. And I understand that.
Okay. It's very, very hard to defer gratification
and build up wealth when it's just so easy to
go out and buy. And at the same time, I also,
I do special needs financial advisory. I have
a brother -in -law who has autism. And so I understand
that. And I got involved with that early. And
I received a referral. There was a couple middle
-class. They had a daughter who was born profoundly
disabled or other liable. And they came in. And
even though neither one of them had ever earned
more than $55 ,000 a year or 60, I think, each
one separately, they made the decision when they
first got married that they would live off one
salary and literally invest the other. Whenever
they inherited money, they turned it around and
they invested. They lived in a very simple, very
modest home. Extraordinarily modest. Didn't drive
expensive cars. Didn't waste money on anything.
When their assets rolled over, it was shocking
how much they'd built. They built in in 25 years.
No, 30 years. 30 years. And they had millions.
And they went back to work voluntarily. They
didn't have to go back to work when their positions
ended in their 50s. They were okay. Yeah. So
you have to understand like at that point, I've
been told about the millionaire next door book.
At that point, it was about 10 years old. And
I pulled it, I bought it, and I looked at it,
and I realized this is real. This is the reality.
Wealth is very, very quiet. It whispers. It's
not flaunch, it doesn't flaunt. Celebrities may
flaunt, okay? But when you're building wealth,
most of those people literally don't want to
flaunt it. And so the other thing that people
need to understand, the doctor thought that his
income was wealth because he assumed naively
that there was nothing that was ever gonna stop
him from being able to earn that for the rest
of his life. 70 % of us will have a disability
event at some point between the ages of 18 and
66. So you have to think about that and think,
what does that mean for me? And then also you
have to think about the fact that those early
habits, if you maintain them, make growing wealth
that much easier. But what you have to do is
to take income, defer gratification, and then
turn around and use the system to build wealth
intelligently. So very funny, that middle class
income, that middle class couple knew the system,
knew their investments, knew what was going on,
had their estate planning done and reviewed every
five years. Literally, they were all squared
away. They had mastered the system. The other
couple did not. You talk about the deferrent
of gratification. I think that's in a mindset,
right? So how does a family that is the next
door family that could possibly be a millionaire,
how do they begin to look at their situation
and say, I could be that next door millionaire?
Okay, so what it is, is turning around and having
a shift. Seeing the money, not in terms of what
you can buy, but seeing it as a tool that you
can use to build. So when I look at things, I
look at my car and I see it as basically a washing
machine with wheels. I like that. Okay. And I'll
be honest, I bought the car that I have because
I needed something that was reliable. I'm basically
alone at this point in indoor Texas without extensive
family around. So I need something that's reliable.
Okay. But I look at it and I'm like, this is
not a showpiece. And then I also remember my
largest client when I first started, incredibly
generous man, incredibly compassionate man, entrepreneur.
And he made a choice, made a point of hiring
people that he believed in to give them a chance.
But what he did was he tested me. He had me meet
him at a Starbucks. He got there early. He saw
what car I was driving when I drove up. And he
watched how I behaved and how I acted towards
the staff at the Starbucks, the baristas. He
was looking to see who I was when I thought he
wasn't working, looking. Looking, yeah. When
I drove up, there were other people at the time
who were buying Mercedes Benz's and BMW's. In
the program at Merrill, brand new, trying to
project out what they were not. And they were
saying, oh, I'm just setting the stage. This
is who I will be. Yeah. And he looked at me.
This man had a seven -year -old Acura that he
gave to his son. bought himself a brand new Prius
at the time because he wanted to see if he could
get more than 42 or 43 miles per gallon. So he
called me one day at the office and I'm like,
okay, it's him. He's like, I just want you to
know I had 44 miles per gallon on this thing.
Now he didn't keep it very long. Anyways, when
he retired and moved on to Florida, I wound up
talking to him and his wife and he had bought
a very, very nice convertible. And his wife looked
at him and said, you don't need that. Within
a couple of months that was traded in for something
a lot more modest. They don't flash. They don't
flaunt. They don't care. Money is a tool is a
tool. Yeah. And when you wrap your head around
that and you learn how to use it in management,
like, are you afraid of your computer? We use
these tools all the time, right? You think about
all the tools you use for everything you do.
Are you afraid of them? No. Okay. So why are
we afraid of money? Why are we afraid of investments?
Why are we afraid of understanding our taxes?
Why are we afraid of risk? It's because we don't
learn it. We don't know it. Yeah. It's an education
thing. I think as I as I, you know, become more
understanding of the fiduciary world, right?
It gets less, less scary, I guess you could say.
Yeah. But I think for regular folk, it's a world
that people don't want to really travel in. It's
like, I go to work, get my income and take care
of the things I need to take care of. And then
just kind of do that over and over again. What's
the, is there a benefit in just the humdrum of
just kind of living your day? and income just
coming in and you just living your day or is
that just a detriment and people should get more
education on their finances because of maybe
retirement and things like that. Here's the problem
with all of that. The question you have to decide
is are you comfortable having your future in
the hands of somebody else? Okay, so if you're
not in charge of your finances, somebody else
will make those decisions for you. Okay. How
comfortable are you with that? Is that the way
you want to live? And there are some people who
are like that. Here's the thing. Where do you
go to get good information? Where do you go to
get good coaching? Where do you go to find good
advice? Okay. And it's very, very difficult.
I've seen good advisors at every firm. I've seen
other people that quite frankly, it's a bell
curve and I have to deal with that. Okay. That's
my industry. but there's a lot of fatigue because
people get abused and they try to go to people
they know like and supposedly trust and they
don't necessarily get what they need. The fact
of the matter is like you know you go into a
B &I or you go into a chamber, oh people hire
those they know like and trust. Well how do you
know that these people have money? Well they're
driving around in this and they look like they
have money and they say they have money and the
reality is on average the people who truly have
money Do not flaunt it. They're not the ones
saying look at me. I've got my beamer. Look at
me. I've got this I've got that No, they're usually
the ones driving the seven -year -old car that
they've taken care of Okay In the house that
is modest, but extremely well maintained totally
paid off Okay, who has rental real estate who
has all these different things, but they never
ever ever show it off. Yeah Yeah Okay. And it's
very difficult to find the good advice. And so
therefore people get fatigued and they just burn
out. And I understand that my whole program.
I realized back in about 2011. I ran a program
for my kids, middle school, and it was what I
called economic and financial reality. So before
we got into anything with investing, we were
just talking about money and concepts. And what
I realized through there. The industry estimates
that the financial illiteracy rate, people who
don't know how to manage the system and how to
work with this is somewhere between 70 to 80
percent. Yeah. Excuse me. Somewhere around 80
percent. And I watched that and I realized it
really is multi -generational. We're probably
about at the fifth generation of people who literally
live in a system, interact with the system, and
they don't understand it. Okay, so at this point,
it's nobody's fault and everybody's fault Yeah,
the question is what do you do? To go forward
if you don't like the idea of you know If you
don't have a plan and you don't have a path any
road may get you there But you may not like the
destination. So if that's not something you're
comfortable sitting with How do you find what
you need? And I remember I was at it was right
at the start of the It was right at the start
of the shutdown and I had several phone calls
that really, really, really shook me. And sometimes
they were people who had never managed their
money. They'd let it ride and all of a sudden
they're six months away from retirement and they
experienced a 40 % correction. Now it did rebound,
but they had never managed it. They had just
let it go. And then there were other people who
We're trying different programs like one of them
was trying another program. I'm sorry I'm I'm
running on a little bit, but it's okay Okay,
I'm one person who had tried another program
and she and her husband and gotten into quite
a bit of consumer debt She borrowed money from
her family and she was paying it back at an extremely
accelerated rate Great, but I turned her and
I said Do you have an emergency fund and she
said no I'm paying off the debt first and I said
wait a second. What happens if Either one of
you can't work." And she said, why would that
ever happen? I said, because life happens. Life
happens, right. And she got very offended. Two,
three weeks after the shutdown started, she called
me up and she'd been let go from her position.
And what the result was, it's like, look, I applaud
you for doing the debt and getting rid of the
debt. I applaud you for going through that process.
But if you don't at the same time fund that emergency
fund, if something happens, and you're not prepared,
you're going to go right back into debt and then
some. So it really is a question of actually
learning what you need to learn and managing
forward. So I'll give you an example of something.
If you can't afford to not work and you have
a job working for somebody else in particular,
the first thing you do is you buy long -term
disability insurance, okay? If the employer offers
it, it should be done. You need to pay the premiums
and there's a reason for this, okay? You need
to pay the premiums, not the employer. But the
second thing is, if you do a group policy for
pennies, okay, literally, I've seen people pay
less than a Starbucks drink. I've seen people
pay, mid -level people pay somewhere between,
you know, like 10, 20 bucks a month. Really?
In a group policy, in a properly structured group
policy. depending on how much they earn, even
if it's $100 a month. If that could replace your
income in the event you can't work due to illness,
think about what that would do for your family.
Here on the Thrival Journey, we talk a lot about
not just surviving, but thriving. And a big part
of that for me has been understanding my health
on a deeper level. That's why I partnered with
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I personally use and stand behind. This isn't
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Orion's Health to help people thrive and body,
mind, and spirit. Of course, of course, always,
always, always consult your physician before
starting any new supplement or health regimen.
Your body is unique and your health care provider
should always be part of the conversation. The
links are in the show notes. Now tap in and take
your next step toward thriving. Okay. And the
reason why you need to pay for it and not your
employer is because if you pay for it and you
need to use the policy proceeds, They come to
you without tax. They come to you after tax.
If your employer pays the policy premium, the
employer deducts that premium as a business expense,
you get the policy proceeds and it's taxable.
So instead of living on let's say two thirds
of your income, you're living on two thirds of
your income that's not tax. That right there
is Okay, first of all, that's very great knowledge
that people don't know about many people don't
know about and it's something that is part of
the financial education that people Should learn
or get to learn now when it comes to creating
this emergency fund and kind of Saving or having
something like that in place when you How do
you get both of those things done when you're
at a certain? Financial level. Okay. So the first
thing that I do with people Is I say, okay, we're
gonna take a deep breath Wherever you are you
are. Okay, there's no condemnation. I want you
you feel the pain and that's why you wind up
looking for help Okay, so there's no criticism.
Whatever happens happens. I've seen pretty much
all of it Okay, and everybody makes mistakes
and everybody falls. So let's just start with
that First thing that I wind up having people
do is I wind up having them take their personal
money, their personal account that they use to
pay bills. And I wind up linking it to eMoney,
which is our financial planning software. Okay.
It's owned by Fidelity. And what they do, what
it does is I don't want them to think about it,
but for the first, let's say six to eight weeks,
we're going to work on two things. One, building
up those financial defenses, looking at that
and being really proactive. And two, looking
at the mindset, understanding what risk is, understanding
it just communicates to you. Okay. And looking
at that and building out that mindset and learning
how to shift how you think and feel. So you shift
how you act. Once we get to that point where
we're done with that and the defenses are built,
we'll go in and it usually has about two months
worth of data and it'll show people exactly where
their money is going. By category. And a lot
of the banks have this on their system, too.
You can find this on the banks. But what I find
is that if I ask people to tell me how much they're
spending by category, they won't do it. They
don't want to look. They won't do it. It'll stop
the process down. It doesn't do them any good
to have me do an audit. What I will say is, what
percentage of your income do you think you're
spending on restaurants? What percentage of your
income are you spending on by category? And that
usually is very, very helpful for people because
they'll say whatever it is. And then we compare
that to what actually is. Yeah. It's important
to get the what's so about your finances. Correct.
And so you start to see it and then we start
working from there. So we wound up doing a debt
snowball where we walk people through what it's
going to take to resolve the debt. And at the
same time, and the fastest way to do it, I want
them to pay the least amount of money and they
learn that in part by focusing on that interest
rate. Why? Because I always want them to look
at the interest rate before they borrow. Yeah,
this is important. Okay. I want them to learn
to look at that because that tells them how other
people see the risk they're taking on. Okay.
Okay. And so we'll do that. And at the same time,
they have to also commit to funding an emergency
fund. Okay, emergency fund is cash. It's not
invested in a mutual fund is cash on hand and
I want it in a separate account One of the things
that I will teach people is that especially in
the beginning Every account this is a little
bit rigid. I'm gonna tell you that okay. Every
account has a goal one goal Every goal has a
time horizon two parts to it. The two parts are
until the goal and then in the goal Okay, so
what I mean by that is, let's say you're buying
a house and you need a down payment. The goal
is to have enough money to get to the down payment.
The time in goal, once you've paid the down payment,
you're done with it. However, retirement is how
long before retirement and then how long in retirement.
So that's two extremes. And then you have a risk
tolerance for it. And the risk tolerance determines
how and what you can invest in. Okay. So your
emergency fund has zero risk tolerance. That
is something you need in the event something
goes wrong yesterday. So it's cash. Now with
entrepreneurs, one of the things that I tell
people is you have to be rigid about the separation
between your personal money. and your business
money. And both of them need a financial plan.
Both of them need a debt resolution. Both of
them need an emergency fund. This is true. Okay.
Facts. Yeah, they are. And they're a little difficult
to wrap your head around. And I get it. I'm in
business too. Yeah. You did pick something. Yeah.
And I'll give you an example of something. The
first time I saw some of this stuff up close,
I was about 17 years old and my father's first
cousin Great guy, loved him to death. He was
a chemical engineer, chemist, chemical engineer.
He had some patents and he went into business
with somebody who was the business side and they
were equal partners. And back in the 70s when
they did this, they created a succession plan
and every couple of years they updated it. Well,
when I was 17, he had a heart attack. Okay, now.
He made it through and he was fine, but the succession
plan kicked in. They had a life insurance policy
with a disability rider on it. Nice. And within
30 days, he was bought out of his shares of the
company. Is that what he wanted? That was what
was set up in the succession plan. That's not
necessarily what I'm going to suggest that people
do. But what I'm saying is they were prepared
and most business owners are not. And if your
biggest asset is your business and something
happens to you, it's like sharks in the water
and you lose that biggest asset. So the smartest
thing you can do is schedule it in your calendar
once a year to review your succession plan. What
do you think the businesses work based on the
financials? Where are you? How would you sell
it? If something happened to you, what would
you do and how would you want it done? Because
if you want to sell a business, it takes two
years. And unless you are financially prepared
to keep the business running, you're going to
lose 80 to 90 % of the valuation of your business.
If you're going to be able to. These are great
knowledge nuggets, especially for entrepreneurs.
And speaking of that, like I have a question
about how can entrepreneurs become more aware
of their. emotional triggers around money. And
especially when it comes to if you get sick or
death or things like that. Yeah, that's one of
those things that I walk people through in the
program. But it's one of those things, you know,
my own getting sick last month caused me to stop
and think about what I was doing. And what I'd
like for people to do is to become a little bit
more proactive and think about, okay, how many
of you know people who aren't here anymore through
no fault of their own? I mean, I, you know, I
lost a 26 year old colleague to a motorcycle
accident a few years ago. Okay. I have a, I know
a young lady who's at, who was at Starbucks,
adored her. Energetic, vivacious, so determined,
had been adopted. And she's got a medical issue
that's going to stop her from working. She didn't
buy the disability insurance. She now has a huge
financial problem. Okay. So it really takes opening
up your eyes and saying, wow, this happened.
I'm no different. I know I'm special to me. I
know I'm special to the people around me, but
how would I cope with that? And here's the thing.
When you go into business for yourself, you're
taking on that risk. of going out there because
you want that reward and you want that control.
So look at it from this way, control those decisions
to the best of your ability. When you master
some of this stuff, you protect yourself and
you make it easier to move forward. Yeah, I see
that. Talking about moving forward. Okay. In
this, you alluded to it earlier in the conversation,
what we're going through now, what do you say
to people who had K's and that's kind of where
it's at right now. And people are looking at,
you know, what's happening in the stock market
and things like that. What's your advice to them
about their 4K and what's happening in the world
right now? Okay, so let's start off with something.
1K advisory is really very, very tough and the
government really restricts a lot of this because
it's where a lot of people have their money.
Yeah. Okay. So understand something. First off,
you always have four choices. You can leave it
alone. You can roll it over into a new account.
If you get a new job or open up a new business,
you could roll it over into another retirement
account that you choose or another business,
or you can take it out and cash it out. If you
do that, you're giving up the tax deferred space
and you're taking risks. But one of the things
that I look at is that we've had an unusual period
of time with the stock market. It's gone up a
lot. We haven't had the corrections we normally
would have. And to see this level of growth over
time has been fabulous for investors, but it
doesn't mean it's going to continue indefinitely.
Regardless of who's in office, regardless of
the situation, it's been atypical. So it's great
and it's wonderful, but let's hold back and think
what was the goal of the account? How much time
do you have until? You need the money. Okay.
Where are you in that process? What's going on
in your life? And most of the time I would look
at people and say, look, let's say you're 40
years old. Okay. If you don't need the money,
leave it alone. Okay. Leave it alone. You may
want to look at some of the investments inside
of it. Do they match what you want? Okay, but
let's take a look and see but generally I don't
like to see people cash out of retirement accounts
I really don't yeah Look at it this way. It's
something I say to people all the time Your return
your real return. Is that nominal return? Minus
your fees, whatever they are. Okay, you're always
paying some sort of fee some for yeah, you always
are minus inflation And inflation is a very real
thing and people don't understand that, okay?
And minus taxation. And the biggest chunk of
that upfront is taxation. Why would you do that
to yourself? When people take money from retirement
accounts, because they have to, because they're
retired and they're required to take it out and
they don't spend it all. Which is great and then
they turn around and they invest it in a taxable
account They're not going to grow as fast as
they would have even if they had been in the
same investments Because of the taxation issue
Yeah Okay, so You know, I I look at retirement
accounts and my basic premise is For most people
it stays where it is. I want you to really really
think long and hard before you move Yeah And
people don't necessarily really know, have this
kind of intellect in the financial realm. And
that's why they need people like you, right?
Well, unfortunately, advisors look at rollovers
and they look at retirement account money and
they say, wow, this is where most of the money
is, I want to bring that in. And so that's the
reason why the government is saying we have to
really document when we talk to people. You have
options. Let's look at the investments in your
401k. Your fees are going to be significantly
lower there than they are elsewhere If the investments
are good If you're comfortable with it Let's
talk about why you might move it or why you might
not now that there is one other thing that I
want to say I worked with a client who unfortunately
was dying and she she's since passed and she
like a lot of us had accounts all over the place.
So wherever she worked, she had a 401k. And what
she wanted to do was to clean all that up and
put it into a consolidated space to make life
easier for her family once she was no longer
with us. So I understand the desire to consolidate.
And that makes a lot of sense. If you find that
your financial life is in pieces, it's all over
the place, okay? Getting organized and putting
it together so that you can proactively management
manage it makes a lot of sense Yeah, yeah, but
there are options there Your current employer
if you're working for somebody else May allow
you to roll the money into there Okay, so one
of the things that I will do with people is I
will say, okay, and this is planning. This is
not the wealth Academy. I will there's a hard
line between the two. There's a difference here.
I will do for them a let's get reorganized and
I'll do a package to that. So if anybody wants
help with that, I'm happy to help and we just
sort of go in and in 30 days get it organized
get it consolidated where you want it so that
you know where everything is and you feel more
comfortable managing it. Nice, nice. I'm gonna
talk I want to talk about kind of a mindset for
entrepreneurs. And you talk about income and
and difference between income and wealth. Why
is income not the best indicator for financial
freedom? Okay, because there's lifestyle creep.
Yeah. Okay, it's so easy to say my income went
up. I'm gonna go out to eat one more time a week.
Yeah, it's so easy to not structure it. so that
even when the income goes up you're putting more
into the 401k or you're putting more into your
Roth IRA or if you're self -employed you're putting
more into your solo 401k. There's so many different
options and unfortunately I love it when I see
people's incomes increases but I want to see
that they're investing more. I want to see that
they're building more. I want to see what they're
building out. Taking the income and turning it
into something that pays you is the goal. Okay,
so that's part of it. And it's the mindset piece
of it's just so darn easy. Yeah. It's one of
those things. Jordan Peterson made a comment.
The inner peace comes from order. And for most
of us in the country, our financial lives are
disordered. So we don't know where things are.
And we're not really aware of what we're doing
on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. So let me
give you an example. I had a client who not only
had a job, but had a solo hustle that was making
a lot of money, tremendous amount of money. And
he got himself into financial trouble because
he wasn't watching what he did. And he knew himself.
And we talked about this because he made this
decision on his own. He knew himself. So what
he did was every morning when he got up, the
first thing he did was he logged onto his computer,
logged onto his bank account and looked at his
balances. And then he looked at what was programmed
to go out to pay a bill and made sure there was
enough money there. And by looking at it every
day, he stopped the unnecessary spending. That
was the technique he used. Well, it was an emergency
thing for him. Okay. Okay. I recommend that people
get a whiteboard calendar. This is for me. And
I have one outside of my bedroom door in the
hallway. And I have my business stuff and I have
my personal stuff and I see what's going on and
I can see the flow of my week and I love my month
Okay Some people want to do it electronically.
I'm visual. So the question is where is your
mind? Like what would work for you? Okay, and
it's really a question of monitoring what you
do So I will schedule every week an accountability
moment where I will sit down I will literally
create a little ritual. Okay. I used to walk
the dogs, come home, take a shower, sit down
with my Starbucks. That's my one bad habit. I
have one. Everybody has one. I have an emotional
attachment to that company. There's a lot of
reasons why, but I sit down with it. I log on
and I look at what's going on. And I want people
to do that, to set up a time where every week
no matter what, especially while they're in that
beginning process, they know exactly what's going
to happen. I tell people that are, I coach people
that are managing money for their elderly parents
to know when the bills go out and set it up to
go on automatic payment. And that way you can
check it midway through the week or midway through
the month, but you have one day in the month
where you take a look, let's say, you can schedule
it the 25th 26th of the month where you know
what needs to get paid and you know the account
where it's going to get paid from and you make
sure there's enough money in there so the money
stays in investment accounts or whatever accounts
but the one that pays the bills is that one account
where it's there yeah you can see what's going
on and that way it's not so overwhelming It's
good hearing you say that because you're a professional,
first of all. And second, I do some of those
things now. I remember, I mean, earlier in my
years, when I probably didn't care or I had to
learn, right? I had to learn about finances and
my financial obligations to not only myself,
but to other people and things. Now, like it's
a daily thing for me. Right. Because I have to
just have to know what's going on, especially
business, and also personal. But I like the idea
of keeping it more visual and having whiteboards
because I think I'm a whiteboard kind of guy.
Okay. To be able to see it. You and I are the
same generation. Yeah. My kids look at me like
I've sprouted horns. Right. They're like, what
is this? Not yours, not in front of your bedroom,
none of your business. Don't worry about it.
Right. Absolutely. Oh man, that's good. What
lessons do new entrepreneurs often learn the
hard way when it comes to money? Okay, the first
thing is that they need to have a financial plan
for it and that emergency fund for it. And most
of us bootstrap when we first get started. Right.
Okay, and I get that. I really do. The second
thing is have that fallback position. I really
want them to have that disability thing or that
fallback. Because without it, it could be devastating
for you and your family. Mm -hmm. Okay? Monitor
everything. And especially when you first get
started, it does make sense to check that balance
on a daily basis. Yeah. Because you never know.
Well, it helps you. Sometimes it helps you to
see there isn't enough and I need to earn more.
Sometimes that makes you a little bit crazy.
you have to figure out what works with your personality.
I'm absolutely convinced after all these years
that 90 % of success is right here between the
ears on top of the lower, you know, caveman brain,
the animal brain, the reptile brain, okay? And
it's those fear response, those emotional responses.
And I really truly believe that that's where
success lies. And so I know that sounds a little
negative, but the truth is most of the time we're
not even aware of what we're doing. So the first
thing is awareness. and then you start to shift.
But there are things that we know. Stanley from
The Millionaire Next Door was really the first
to drill down into this in great detail as to
how really, how financially successful people,
financially free people think in comparison to
the rest of us. Yeah. Did you read the book?
No, I have not read the book yet. Actually, I
have it on Audible. Okay. Haven't listened to
it yet. It is 30 years old now. I hate to admit
this. It is 30 years old and it's still relevant.
There's a book called The Millionaire Mindset
written by the same one, the same man. And the
reality is once you start to see it, you can't
unsee it. You'll see what happens. And when you
sort of think about what you think about money
and how you view it. Okay, so I'll give you an
example. And I hate to say this because I love
women, but I never want to hear A woman who isn't
in a public facing industry. Tell me that her
Louis Vuitton purse is an investment. You know
what? I'm okay. I'm gonna let that one. I'm let
you say that. Okay. And I get in trouble. But
here's the point. Okay. I understand there are
some people who really feel they need to project
success. And there are some industries where
that's required. But for most of us, that's not
true. Okay. And most of the people that I've
met who have built out that kind of success,
unless they've been in that industry, in those
industries, they don't need it. And you take
a look and you say to yourself, okay, like, and
I was told this when I was at Merrill Lynch when
I first started. Dress the way your prospective
clients dress. And I looked at her and I said,
you know, my prospective clients that are women,
buy clothing from, you know, shops. that are
a little bit old for me at the time. And she
looked at me and laughed. She said, you have
to wear something that looks like something they
would buy. You have to communicate with them
that you share their values. And it wasn't the
most expensive stuff. It wasn't the designer
stuff. But it wasn't stuff that, if that makes
sense. At that time, 20 years ago, it was Talbots.
Okay. Okay. Which is not something that... I
would think I would want to wear on a regular
basis. But a lot of the successful women who
were about 60, ages 60 plus, wore those clothes.
Did you end up doing it? A little bit, not much.
Not much. I found my own style and I find that
I have to have my own vibe. So, but you have
to communicate value. And the truth is that people
who are financially successful respect the money
they've earned. Yeah. And the fact of the matter
is one of the problems that people have when
they really, really earn money is that it's very
difficult for them to communicate those same
values to their children and their grandchildren.
So the joke is that it's not generational wealth
or long -term wealth or old money. until it's
made it past the third generation. We make things
too easy for our children and our grandchildren.
Okay. That's what I thought I heard. So I wanted
to say it again. I agree, especially I think
people say it started with the generation X.
No. You think before? Oh, absolutely. I think
this has been going on for a long time. Made
it too easy. So can that be corrected? Or is
it just kind of the way it is now? It absolutely
can be corrected. It's a question of looking
at people and saying, statistically, you're not
going to have as much as your grandparents. And
your children are going to struggle. So if that's
not the future you want, let's talk about what
you have. And the other piece is I worked with
one client who at one point was a single mom.
She pushed herself through a graduate school
and she made a lot of money, but she also invested
extraordinarily. aggressively across many different
industries. So she's been very successful and
she realizes when we were looking at her financial
plan as she's retired, she realizes she has a
lot of money. So she wants to contribute to her
grandchildren's education. But she made the decision
and I suspected it was going to go this way and
she didn't want to pay for it all. She wanted
to pay for the tuition. portion of the expense.
She wanted them to have skin in the game. Right.
Yeah. She wanted to take the edge off of it and
help, but she wasn't going to do for them. I
like that. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it too. I suspected
that was where she was going to go with it. And
I was thrilled that I was right that that was
where she was going. Yeah, I like that. You really
need to have some skin and skin in the game,
especially if you don't know the value of a dollar,
you know, I mean, it's To have that skin in the
game. It makes you work for Whatever it is that
that's happening and I think especially with
education. It's it's a it's a good way to go
The way I would frame it and this is how I frame
this with everybody is that we were created to
be free But freedom is just a synonym for responsible.
We choose how we respond Okay, and that flows
into that's the spiritual piece and it flows
into how we manage our bodies our minds, our
emotions, our relationships, and our money. Because
it's just a tool. The other piece that I will
walk people through is, and I heard this from
a trainer on iFit, and he was talking about it
physically. And it made so much sense to me because
one, we encounter the world initially physically.
And you start off with function. Everything has
to be functional. You go to health, but everything's
functional and working together. You then go
to fitness, which is defined as the ability to
handle the load. And then you go to performance.
And when you realize that that's a framework
that you can use for your money for anything.
Okay. So you have to be, you start off and you
say, what's going on in your money life. If you're
back in that functional stage, fine. Own it.
Feel the pain. and say, okay, I'm gonna move
forward. The only way to resolve the anxiety
is movement. You move over to health where you
get things working together. And I define financially
fit when you're able to handle the load of your
obligations and fund your goals. I like that.
Okay. And then performance is when you have that
wealth that's feeding you so that you don't have
to work. Work becomes optional at that point.
Yeah, I really like that. I want everybody to
get there. I'm working my way there. Let's talk
about myths. What are some of the biggest myths
about entrepreneurship and wealth? Boy, it starts
off with that income is wealth. It starts off
with I have complete control that I don't have
to do the planning that I have time. Okay, the
graveyards are full of people who thought they
had more time than they did. Okay. And then there's
also the problem. And it's really what I look
at and I say to people, most people who wind
up in my office or, you know, working with me
as a financial advisor, not the coach, have had
a financial relationship go bad. Okay. So what
I say to people is this is a professional. Instead
of hiring your buddy, you need to stop and think
who understands you, who respects you. and who
is able to meet your needs. But ultimately, no
one should care more about your financial condition
than you do. Right, yeah. Okay, so that's it.
The other thing that people do, and it's a problem,
is they use their corporate bank account to pay
personal expenses and they have money going both
ways. And that becomes a real issue. You need
to create a hard and fast wall. between the two.
Yeah, I think like I think, especially entrepreneurs
in the beginning, like you said, the building
the bootstraps, you know, bring yourself up from
the bootstraps and then trying to figure it out.
But I think that lesson right there is it's it's
imperative because I mean, you had so crossing
monies and things like that. It's it's it's a
horror. It is and you see it, you realize it,
you know, people make mistakes. But you have
to learn to pay the penalty for the mistake and
move on. Yeah. Yeah. And it may mean you may
have to close down an LLC and open up a new one.
It's a pain in the butt. It's expensive. But
when you feel the pain of the consequence, that
can inspire you to not do it again. Yeah. Just
don't do it again. All right. So I know that.
So first of all, thank you again, because I know
you're not. you know, all the way there with
everything because you're sick. So I'm going
to ask you a couple more questions. We're talking
about, you talked about tools, practical tools
and everything. What's one financial system or
habit that changed everything for you and your
clients? Oh boy. What I want people to do is
to get, first thing that I ask them to do is
to get, we get organized. Okay. We put things
into place so that we can see what they have
and they can see what they have. Whether we manage
it or it's managed elsewhere or it's split apart.
We want to see to make sure that it works together.
The second thing that I work with my clients
in a huge way is I want them to understand the
system they're in so that they can make decisions
from a place of strength. So what that means
frequently is let's stop and think, do you understand
what they're saying to you? Are they using real
language? Okay, does it make sense? And so I
work with them on that. Now on the planning side,
I love using the system to maximize people's
chances of success. So I will look for every
way possible to do things like Roth contributions,
backdoor Roth contributions. If people are employed
and they can afford it, I want them to do the
mega backdoor contributions. I want people to
use the system as it's built. to fund and fuel
their future. So for example, if they can afford
to pay the higher deductible and they have the
money to do it, I want them to put money into
the HSA. Why? Because that becomes extraordinarily
powerful. One, if you have a medical event that's
an emergency, you can use that to pay your deductible
and then use your long -term care, long -term
disability to pay for your living expenses while
you recover. and then all of a sudden the money
issue isn't what's first on your mind. Right.
Okay. But I work with people to really use the
system as much as possible. And with entrepreneurs,
I want them to put money into retirement. I don't
want them. I understand there's a push and pull
between the accountant. The accountant and the
advisor, if both are competent, should be working
together. Together. And so what that means is
the The accountant is going to want to lower
the income to lower the tax, but you also need
to save for the future. And a lot of entrepreneurs
don't put money away for retirement. And that
becomes a huge vulnerability. So you have that
push pull and ultimately the client has to decide
that they need to be able to pay tax at some
point so that in the future they don't have to
work. They want work to be optional. And then
the other piece is You have to understand the
retirement account and the retirement system
and all the different types of accounts, make
them work together. And then you have decisions.
Like if I have a solo entrepreneur and they're
in a business where they could get sued, or if
their biggest liability, for example, was somebody,
she realized her biggest liability would be the
car and having a major lawsuit. You need to really
look and see where the money is and then say,
well, maybe we need to mitigate for them. So
we work through that, we work through the whole
system. That's part of the reason why, for example,
if money's in a 401k and you have a lawsuit,
it can be almost near impossible to get into
that money and have somebody have to pay that
out. Think OJ Simpson. Nobody could touch his
retirement money. Yeah. Okay. So no, you're not
OJ Simpson. And I'm not saying that, but I'm
saying that You know, use the system legally
and lawfully to protect yourself. Yeah. Don't
do O .J. Simpson things, but you know, get the
idea. But the how he did with his finances, he
took care of himself. Right. And I don't think
he thought about that. I don't think he planned
that. But that was just a consequence of somebody
saying this is retirement money. This is pension
money. You can't touch it. Yeah. Yeah. That's
good. The law was written in such a way that
they didn't want a lawsuit to prevent somebody
who's 60 or 70 from being able to live. Okay.
So that's another reason why it's sort of a,
you know, you have to use the system and the
protections to make it work. I never want to
see people say, oh, I want things so consolidated
so that there's only one IRA. Well, if you've
been contributing money and then to an IRA, but
then you have this 401k money, you really shouldn't
be co -mingling it. You need to keep it separate.
Okay. So you can have a rollover, but label it
rollover. So it's Really, you have to learn to
manage the system. I want you to be proactive
and not afraid of it. And if you talk to somebody
who's not going to help you actually learn it,
you need to shift. Yeah. That's good. That's
good. Monica, I have many questions, but I'm
going to spare your voice. I'm sorry. I'm losing
it. Aren't I? No, no, you're fine. But I know
that you're dealing with something and I just
want to be gracious about. I appreciate that.
Thank you. What's going on with you? And maybe
we'll just do a part two with you. I love that.
Anytime you want me back, I'm happy to come.
That's cool. That's awesome. Well, we'll definitely
put that in the books to have you back because
what you're sharing is a lot of information that
is solid, first of all, and a lot of information
that people don't necessarily know or privy to.
And to have that kind of knowledge in someone's
arsenal can really save them one day from, you
know, whatever it may be that could, you know,
kind of just mess them up financially. But, you
know, using some of your advice could, you know,
really turn tables for for someone's life. And
so for you to share that is that's gold right
there. So thank you. How does how does someone
getting connected with you and trust with you
use your services, all that good stuff? Okay,
so I want to make a couple of offers. And here's
the thing. If you're an entrepreneur and for
your people and you just want to talk it through
I'm willing to give you a consultation No expectation
some people may want to participate in the Academy
Some people may need an advisor some people may
just need a half an hour an hour to just talk
something through So I'm willing to give your
people I'll send you a link and we can they can
log on to that and we'll schedule some time I'll
block out some time. That's just for them. And
then the second thing is I've noticed a lot of
people are struggling with goals. And I looked
at April 15th and I thought, while sick, okay,
this is an accountability day. How far are you
on your goals? Have you achieved what you intended
to achieve? And I used to run a goal group and
I'm gonna bring it back where I bring in some
of the psychology of actually achieving the goals
and how to work with yourself with tools, completely
pitch free. There's nothing else going on with
that. But if people would like to attend that,
they can attend that I will sell said, I'll give
you the link so that they can do that. Other
than that, they can reach out to me via email
at any time or they can log on to our websites.
So but I'll send you those links. All right,
perfect. That's perfect. And we'll have that
in the description. Good. Thank you so much for
being here and sharing what you shared even through
through the issues that you have with your health
and everything. So it's a pleasure to have you
here. And as we do weekly, we have a question
of the week. And our question of the week with
this is what's one small financial or mind shift
you've made or want to make this year to build
a stronger future for yourself? So leave those
in the comments and get to it. And as we always
say around this time, let's make thriving our
new normal. Again, thank you Monica. You're welcome.
And I apologize for my appearance, guys. I'm
sorry I came on like this. You look fine. Thank
you. I appreciate it. Before you go, I just want
to say thank you. Thank you for being a part
of the Thrabull journey. Every time you show
up here, you're choosing growth, clarity, and
the deeper work of becoming who you're meant
to be in this world. And if you're ready to reconnect
with what truly lights you up, I created something
powerful that can help you. It's called the Empowered
Path. Seven days to reclaim your purpose and
passion. It's a beautifully designed guided workbook
that walks you through a week of powerful prompts,
clarity building tools, and real mindset shifts.
Now you can get instant access to it today. It's
a small investment for a huge return. Your energy,
your clarity, your alignment. And if you want
to take it deeper, check this out. I'm offering
a limited number of free 30 -minute purpose coaching
sessions. No pressure, no pitch, just space for
you to reconnect with your direction, your gifts,
and what's next. So you can grab the guide and
book your session at the link in the show notes.
Let's not just go through the motions. Let's
really walk this path on purpose. I appreciate
you. And like we always say, let's make thriving
our new normal. And I'll talk to you soon.