The world of finance, it's confusing the people,
right? 78 % of us could be living paycheck to
paycheck. Most people think, I'll wait. I'll
wait on money. I'll wait till I'm older and wiser.
It's actually the opposite. You're actually in
your prime with money in your 20s. You start
your career with a power of 16. Our multiplying
power halves every 10 years. I have three steps
for making money freeze. I really want to know
what it means to you to live a good life, not
just a successful one. the place that I want
people to arrive with their money, which is fund
your purpose. So today we're diving into a conversation
that every entrepreneur needs to hear every person
probably needs to hear. So much of the advice
out there is about, you know, the hustle, the
grind, but we need to talk about how to serve
yourself and your life. And one of those things
is money and how that can serve you without draining.
your life, your mentality, and all that good
stuff. And so, we're gonna be talking to Scott,
and he's here, and I'm really excited to have
him here. But before we welcome him, there's
a question that I wanna ask you, the listener
and the watcher, before we get into this conversation.
Just have this question on your mind, which is,
you know, what's one money habit that you're
ready to change this week so you can thrive with
more purpose? Drop those answers in the comments
below. And give us your take your what your takeaway
and your spiel of that question. And I am now
like, like I said before, excited to have you
on the travel journey. Scott, welcome to the
podcast. Michael, thank you. So good to be here.
Appreciate it. Yes, absolutely. And you know,
finance, it's confusing the people, right? Oh,
yeah. But before we get there, We often ask questions
of our guests, you know, kind of an internal
intrinsic kind of question. And I really want
to know what it means to you to live a good life,
not just a successful successful one for you
personally. Yeah. Well, I like to talk about
kind of the goal, the place that I want people
to arrive with their money, which is fund your
purpose. I want people to get to that point of
funding their purpose. There's so many barriers
and distractions and pitfalls and snares and
traps that want to keep us from getting to that
point of funding our purpose. And I want to help
people get that freedom and that financial peace.
And to be healthy with their finances and balance
with their finances so that they can get to that
point of being free with their finances to not
only take care of their everyday needs and their
family, all their obligations, all their bills,
but beyond that, what's over and beyond that.
And that's funding your purpose. I believe we're
here on this planet for a reason. And having
that column of our life figured out the money
part where there's available funds to put towards
what our dreams are, what we feel like we're
here to do. That's what I want to get people
to. That's the goal. Yeah. Now, when you say
financial peace, are you saying P -I -E -C -E
or P -E -A -C -E? Yeah. P -E -A -C -E, to have
that place where you can sleep at night, where
you can feel like your life is aligned with your
finances, you're doing what you're supposed to
be doing. A lot of times we're mismatched. We
don't have that peace. We feel stress and pressure.
even guilt over finances, intimidation, there's
all sorts of feelings coming at us, because our
behavior, we may have been misbehaving the last
few years and so putting off getting getting
things in order. And so that's what I like to
help people with is, is give them a simple plan,
get them motivated to start behaving with their
money. And I know I needed that wake up call
myself. I think you're speaking to just most
of probably everybody that's listening to the
podcast that We don't really look at the understanding
financial literacy as it being financial literacy.
I think in high school or elementary or just
as growing up, we don't get that piece in schools.
Actually, I remember the only financial advice
that I got from school, I was born in 77, was
how to write a check. Yeah, how many people do
that anymore these days? And people are just
having the thing, right? I think under my bed,
I probably have like a stack of old checks or
something. But you know, when we talk about financial
literacy, people don't necessarily know that.
Well, they probably know it now, right? Like,
financial literacy, I need to have financial
literacy. Can you speak to the minds of people
that Want to get the understanding of financial
literacy and really know how to take that first
step. Yeah, absolutely Well for much of my life
I grew up in a family that didn't really talk
too much about finances In fact, my mom said
when I was growing up talking about money is
like talking about your underwear and What she
meant by that is it was a private topic. We don't
talk about that. Yeah, we're not going to boast
about our bank accounts. And that's certainly
what she was getting at, you know, the pride
factor. But if we don't talk about how to do
money, which is a totally different thing from
talking about how much you got or how much you
make, if we don't talk about how to operate with
money, we could be silently suffering. And that
is absolutely what's happening because there's
there's a few figures here. Seventy eight percent
of us could be living paycheck to paycheck. And
that is an enormous amount. Seventy seven percent
of us are in debt or somewhere around one hundred
thousand dollars each. on average. And then as
far as financial literacy goes, we are having
trouble passing a basic financial literacy test
in the United States. So all of these things
are pointing towards a low understanding of finances.
We're just not taught how to operate with it.
So in addition to the schools that you brought
up, I then look to the parents and many parents
don't feel equipped to be able to teach their
kids finances because if they are in this 70
some percent, you know, bucket that's struggling
with finances themselves, they don't feel like
they have what it takes to teach their kids.
They don't necessarily want their kids to. to
repeat the same mistakes that they did. And so
here you have the current generation that may
not want to pass it down. And then you have the
younger generation that has no idea where to
get that information. And so that's why I come
along. I studied to become a financial coach
after I decided, hey, I'm going to, I'm going
to get over this hump. I'm going to learn this
myself. Right. So many, many of us, that's our
only opportunity is to self -learn and to go
seek it out. Where do you go? I took a nine week
course that taught me the basics. And then after
that, this was unexpected. My wife called it
an obsession. I got so into money and understanding
it after I got over that initial hump, it wasn't
so bad. And when I realized that it wasn't as
bad as I thought it was, I just went for it.
Because I was like, this is great. This is easier
than I thought. And I started thinking in the
way that Money is at first it was it was a disconnect
i didn't understand it and then once i got it
i was like. let's keep going let's get let's
get this we make about 1 .5 transactions per
day for the rest of our lives and it's like we
need to know this stuff why aren't we learning
this earlier well we talked about it's just not
in schools and parents aren't equipped uh but
we owe it to ourselves and our families to go
out there and get that information to uh because
it's just such a huge part of our life we're
gonna work for 40 years and earn money and then
we're gonna retire for 10 to 30 years and spend
it. And so I spent three years writing this book,
Financial Epiphany, to put all the ideas in one
place and share it with others. Once I got my
act together, I wanted to help others get there
as well. Yeah, I've seen some of the things that
you've done. Well, what what's online, but I
will talk about that in a minute. But one of
the things that screams at me when you're when
you're sharing that Is generational and then
for me, I just speak for myself. I'm sure I'm
proxy for a lot of people is that you said you
don't have someone really sharing financial literacy
with you or understand the finances period from
parents that say Hey, you can't talk about money.
It's like talking about your draws. I mean, you
know what I mean? Like so breaking that cycle
is probably one of the biggest things that we
could do right now. Yes. Oh, yeah, you got it.
And without that, let's see, I'll tell you some
of the things that I heard. The furthest I heard
about finances was invest in your 401k. There's
free money, but it wasn't really anything beyond
that. And so when you have a statement about
that, You might take some action, but I acted
timidly because I didn't have any details. I
didn't have anything to measure this by. I didn't
know if I put in this much, what was going to
happen. And so when you don't understand something,
like you don't have a metric or quantification.
who's gonna go out and jump in with both feet
in a wholeheartedly you don't you act timidly
can you say oh this is a maybe maybe not saying
you know i'm kind of lukewarm about this and
i got a lot of messages like that where there
just wasn't that quantification and that's why
i hungered to quantify some rules of thumb i
worked on three rules of thumb that. As far as
I knew and learned those, I was going to be able
to do well with money for the rest of my life.
And then I wanted to make sure that it was so
simple that I could share those with others so
they could do the same. So it could be that simple
because, yeah, the generation to generation thing,
it's just there's a disconnect there. And I'd
love to see, I'd love to, part of what I'm doing
here is I'm trying to equip parents to do well
from the self and to teach the younger generation
and then also teach the younger generation themselves.
But let me tell you one thing. When you're in
your 20s, the last thing you're thinking about
is, I want to go all in on saving for retirement.
I mean, you've got your school, you've got your
classes. If you're thinking about money, you
might be thinking about your student loan. You're
thinking about your car, your first job, your
relationship. And after that, immediately, yeah,
you're thinking about marriage, your first house,
where am I going to live? Here's my first job,
you know, like, I gotta I gotta start getting
the corporate culture, whatever it might be.
There's so many things we're inundated in in
our 20s. And that's why I like the idea of being
a coach to someone then because it's like you
look at this person and you say, you've got this
amazing ability with money that you don't know
about. But I'm going to come in here and I will
tell you exactly what you need to know. Because
if you don't use this ability now. like an athlete,
missing out on being a quarterback or being a
pitcher, being this or that because they're so
skilled, they cannot see it, but you do. And
so that's why I like to come in and point that
out and say, bam, here are these three financial
epiphanies, these rules of thumb I'm going to
tell you about. And then that's when people will
say, I didn't know that. I had no idea. I'm going
to take action. I'm like an athlete that is now
connected with understanding my ability and my
skill. Let's get going on this. Yeah, I think
one of the best things that you could get in
life is a good coach. I mean, coming from the
world of sports myself is, you know, like I ran
track and field, that was a thing that paid for
my college and took me through past college.
But, you know, as much as I knew about the sport,
I still needed to have a different perspective.
And when I got a different perspective, it would
cut my time down. because there's some things
that I still didn't know. So a coach definitely
supports you in really giving you a different
perspective and elevating your mental acuity
in whatever it is that you're looking for. And
right now we're talking about financial understanding
and literacy and having a coach would be significant.
I see the difference. Yeah. Yeah. Good coach
or mentor sees what you can't see in yourself.
They see down the road your potential. They've
walked that road typically themselves. And so
to have someone pulling you rather than you staying
right where you're at is it's an amazing thing
to have to have someone like that. That's that's
pulling for you. Yeah. So you you have a little
history here and and you were in the field of
communication and design for 25 years. Are you
still in the Fortune 15 company or you? You got
it. Sure am. Yeah. I head up a video communications
department communicating to 300 ,000 plus employees
worldwide. And so I am constantly taking big
messages and distilling them down to just the
essence of what people need to hear. That's what
I'm doing day in and day out. That's my full
-time role. And so when I realized there was
this issue of communication, in finance, people
not getting the message we were just talking
about, I realized, okay, we don't need to inundate
people and overwhelm people with all of finance,
because that's causing analysis paralysis and
overwhelm. People are not acting, and they tend
to freeze when there's too many choices. And
because we just don't want to mess up from where
we're already at. And so Distilling a message
is my role. And I call myself an imposter because
I come into the world of finance, even though
I've been studying at 10 years now and did become
a licensed coach and spent three years writing
the book. But I come in from the side because
some people, when they're talking to me, they
say, you're just like me. You have a job just
like me, but you figured this out. Well, yes,
because once again, Communication is what I do
all day, every day. And when you come in sideways
looking at finances and you see there is a communication
issue here, don't tell everybody everything.
Just tell them just what they need to know to
start succeeding. And when they do, you teach
them the basics and they start succeeding and
looking at that over time. Then they get excited
about it and want to know more. We can become
more savvy with our finances down the road. But
what we need to do is get started because the
biggest factor in all of this is time. we need
to let things roll for a while. And when we see
those results that really does work, then you
start ramping it up. And that is exactly what
happened in my case. Yeah. So what inspired you
to bring that new worldview of money? Yeah. So
because I like to look at things creatively in
the communications field, once I got over the
hump with understanding money, I started to think
to myself, I was reading books, I mean, 2030
finance books, I was on blogs, websites, taking
classes, workshops, I was doing it all. Once
again, my wife says I get obsessed about things,
bam, got mad, I got really obsessed about that
word, dove right in, wanted to figure it out.
And so once I started learning it, I found myself
writing in the margins of the books. And the
joke is that I started writing so much in the
margins of the book, that it was about time to
write my own book and really What a book can
do, and I've been told, is that a book not only
is learning what someone else has put their heart
and soul into for years to get this word out,
so it's this compressed 200 pages MIT key, eight
hours to read the average nonfiction book, but
someone worked years on it. This is the best
of what they know and they're passing it out
to the public. And so you're learning. But the
other thing besides learning this person's compressed
best ideas is that it triggers your own. And
that's what happened is that it started triggering
my own. I started to ask myself, why don't people
teach it this way? Why don't people communicate
it that way? I like simple. I like unconventional.
And so everything triggered me again and again
and again while reading these books towards a
simple set of unconventional. answers. And that's
where those three rules of thumb that I call
financial epiphanies, they arose out of all that
study. Over several years, I started to put them
into practice. And once again, when that time
passed, I looked back and I said, this is working.
Because it's math. And math is very reliable.
You know, it doesn't change. It's math is math.
In that, you know, what is being added or multiplied
is going to you're always going to get the same
answer. And so when I realized that it was working
over time, That's when I really refined and distilled
these rules of thumb to get it so anybody could
understand it. And by writing a book, it forced
me to figure it out. The words, the branding,
the order, the names, all of this so that once
it's locked down and it's in this book for all
time to come. that this was a well thought out
tool and it wasn't just happenstance and a fleeting
thought. It was something that's time tested
among many people and myself. And I just, I'm
so excited about the results. I was like, I can't,
I can't stop that share this with everybody.
I want everybody to succeed. And the last thing
about that is even though I have a unique, simple
and unconventional approach to teaching money.
And there are others that are very straightforward.
There's some that you might feel like you're
talking to an accountant. There's some that are
very relational with money. And I'm creative
and unconventional and simple. And that's going
to be right for some people. It's going to be
exactly what they need to hear, like myself.
And when my message connects with others, it's
an amazing thing to see the lights turn on. Other
people, it might not be for them so much. So
I feel like there needs to be this pie of several
slices to teach money and people take the piece
that's right for them. So I'm just putting one
more piece out there to choose from. Yeah. Well,
I was watching the video and you made it really
simple. Was it the one with the magician or something?
Or that was that one. There was something that's
from there, but you used a Rubik's cube. to really
break it down and make it really simple. And
I think the essence of what I'm trying to create.
There's my visual to go with that. Yes. For people
that are just listening, he has a Rubik's Cube
and just kind of create context. You, in the
world of making things simple, right, you started
to understand, like, I think you were challenged
to understand how to make the Rubik's Cube match
all sides. You had an epiphany there. Can you
talk about that? Yeah, before the three rules
of thumb comes the simple framework. And what
I like to do is I like to take something we understand,
something we've seen before, something we get,
like a Rubik's Cube. It's one of the most proliferous
playthings in the world. And 4 % of the population
knows how to solve these things. There's 43 quintillion
possible combinations, which is Yeah, two sets
of zeros and commas beyond a trillion. And so
we know that you can't just figure this thing
out very easily. Most people wouldn't be able
to do that. But if you figure out a system, which
I didn't know before, I used to pick one of these
out of the toy shelf, fiddle with it, put it
back down a year later, pick another one up,
fiddle with it, put it back down, have no idea
what I was doing. Right. And then I learned a
simple framework. I learned someone taught online
that you solve the bottom. then the middle, then
the top. And I had no idea that that was the
order. And so my son challenged me to learn this
thing. And I knew I was either going to fail
him and he was gonna show me up and learn it
himself. Or I felt like another fear was that
I was going to not be able to help him. And then
we both would fail, but what ended up happening
was we both succeeded and we're able to figure
this thing out. So bottom metal than top is the
trick with the Rubik's cube. The parallel to
finances is just like there's those three steps
for the Rubik's cube. I have three steps for
making money freeze. And by that, I mean, there's
not, it doesn't have to be 43 quintillion ways
to do money. They can just be one. How do you
make money freeze? Cause it's like dancing around
us with all these uh roving variables like oh
you know when did I start and how much is it
earning and all these things what does it turn
into we have all these questions with money that
we we can't lock down and so i locked it down
for people i said let's just look at the most
common scenario all right the average person
starts the career at age 22 could be 21 could
be 23 let's lock it down we're going to lock
it down at 22 and the average length of a career,
40 years, and the average rate of return earned
on investments such as a 401k retirement account,
IRA retirement account, a brokerage account with
index funds, these really accessible ways of
investing. 7 .2 is the most amazing rate of return
because it's a fairly normal Rate of return,
meaning when you put $1 ,000 in, you're getting
this 7 .2 % back after a year, and then the next
year it compounds and you get another 7 .2 %
on top of all of that that you earned the prior
year. When that keeps on happening, money doubles.
Money doubles every 10 years. You put in $1 ,000
and if it's gaining that 7 .2%, 10 years later,
it's 2 ,000. It's doubling. What we got here
is this one, two, three steps, you know, start
at age 22 working, work for 40 years, earn a
7 .2 % rate of return. We froze money. So now
there's this series of three things that we can
understand after that. The first epiphany being
that money can double every 10 years. That is
one of the most simple concepts that we could
ever understand money with. Now we know, oh,
I never knew what was happening to my money if
I invested it. Well, if I get that 7 .2 % rate
of return, is money is doubling, which is super
simple doubling. Every 10 years, everybody's
favorite number is 10. It's the easiest number
to multiply, subtract, divide, and add by. Now
we have this simple rule of thumb we can use
for the rest of our lives. Money doubles every
10 years. I should put it in if it's going to
double in 10 years. I'm going to put this money
in. I know what's happening 10 years from now.
That is empowering. Yeah, it is. You know when
you were talking about that and this is the extreme
part of this conversation, which is I was thinking
about a graph that I seen the other day and it
was Warren Buffett and where he started like
I don't know $500 or 5 ,000 whatever it was and
they showed his graph, you know For how it accumulated
and grew over time But that's one of the things
that even as an employee or employer that you
can really take on to grow your money and if
we're talking about retirement, you want to do
that because when you're like 60 and 70 or whatever,
you need some money to allow your life to continue
to live when you're not, you know, working for
the money. Yeah, that's right. I love that you
referred to Warren Buffett is definitely one
of my favorites as far as showing what works
over the long run. He's also got some of the
most amazing sayings. One of the sayings that
I like from Warren Buffett is Don't bet against
America meaning invest because you're believing
in say when you invest in the S &P 500 you're
investing in the 500 top companies of the United
States and we work at those those companies and
those companies have the incentive to succeed
and to innovate and to do well and to earn a
profit and to get revenue and so I used to hear
that the stock market was gambling And that was
another thing that I heard growing up. And so
I needed to get over that and realized, oh, it's
actually the stock market does go up and down,
but it's believing in the businesses of America,
which I do believe in. And I work at one of those
big companies. And so that's definitely one of
the big points to get over with Warren Buffett.
The other thing is there's this curve. It's called
the exponential curve. It's a curve that starts
out with barely anything happening, meaning you're
putting money in and looks like nothing's happening.
But then it starts earning and earning and earning
and earning. And it starts getting steeper and
steeper and steeper meaning every year that passes
by it the same thing that you put in is is earning
you more and more and more and more and seen
that exponential graph. It works for some people
it does some people like me i see that i'm like
alright i can put money in and forty years later
it's gonna be that i'm taking action but let
me tell you that's. called being later minded.
And most people are not later minded, right?
We want it now. We are now minded. Yeah, we want
instant gratification. And so knowing that the
population mostly steers that way. That's why
with the second epiphany, I steered it that way.
I did have an aha moment. I was actually sitting
at the dining room table. I think my feet were
up on a chair. And I was just pondering, you
know, I just said, there's some people I know.
And I'm like, this whole money. Doubling every
10 years, that excites some people, but most
of them, it doesn't. So I was like, how am I
going to explain this? So this is what I did.
Instead of looking at money just doubling every
10 years, I looked at what happens throughout
your career, which is 40 years. So you extrapolate
on it. If you put in $1 ,000 and it doubles,
10 years later, it's 2000. Let's keep going.
10 years later, it's 4 ,000. 10 years later,
it's 8 000 doubling every 10 years and then finally
in your 60s when most people retire it's 16 000
now those numbers one two four eight sixteen
those numbers are numbers to remember they are
doubling numbers and when we got those in our
head it's called cognitive chunking when you
take these numbers and you just remember them
you don't have to know everything in between
what's happening But you tell yourself, every
10 years, this money is doubling. So if I put
in $1 ,000 when I start my career, it's $16 ,000
when I retire. That's starting to create an association
that wasn't there before. We now know the input,
and we know the output. OK, so now that describes
that curve. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 is just getting steep.
And that money is multiplying more and more as
it's doubling larger amounts as time passes.
But once again, that's later minded. So this
is what I did. I flipped that chart in my head
sitting at the dining room table. I flipped the
chart in my head and I said, what does that mean
now? If I flip this curve so it's steep now and
shallow later, what does that curve mean now?
And this is what it means. It means you have
a multiplying power. You have an ability right
now. This is no longer about money that's going
to grow later. This is about an ability you have
now that is actually going to diminish. And the
parallel, once again, to bring up athletics,
it's just like athletics. NFL football players,
they're at their peak around 26. Olympic ice
skaters and gymnasts, they're going to reach
their prime somewhere around their early 20s
as well. So many sports. We reach our prime in
our 20s. And we know in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s,
it's not going to be the same. This thing is
going to diminish. Right. So here's the deal.
Most people think, I'll wait. I'll wait on money.
I'll wait till I get promoted. I'll wait till
my paycheck's bigger. I'll wait till I'm older
and wiser. Isn't that when I'm supposed to get
good at money as well? I can put this off for
20 years. It's actually the opposite. And so
that's what I like to tell people is that we're
busting through this myth that money, you're
best with it in your 20s. Right when you start
your career, when you have an earned income,
that is when you should blast it into your retirement
account as much as you can. And you should be
preparing for that day, but we're not. So that's
why we need to coach people to tell them you're
actually in your prime with money in your 20s,
right when you start your job. Because now when
we flip that chart and we use those same numbers,
you have that power of 16, the multiplying power
of 16 when you start your career in your early
20s. 10 years later, it halves to the power of
eight. What? I just lost a multiplying power
of eight in my first 10 years. That's how it
works. And then the next 10 years, it drops from
eight to four, and then four to two and two to
hopefully one where you're retired in your 60s
and enjoying the fruits of your labor. But when
we do that, so the financial epiphany number
two is that we start our career with a power
of 16. We just put a number out there. We put
a number where nobody has applied a number before,
because we're daring to tell people this is about
what happens under the most common circumstances.
Remember, we made money freeze. And financial
epiphany number three is that our multiplying
power halves every 10 years. And that creates
a sense of urgency when you realize, well, I
start with 16, and then it goes to eight, four,
two. Like, I need to act now. And that's exactly
what we need to do with money. We need to act
now. Most people, when they're retired, they
say, I wish I could go back. I made a mistake.
I didn't save enough. I wish I could go back
and do this over again. They also say, I wish
I knew then what I know now. So why don't we
listen to the retired people? There's the retirement
crisis going on. We should listen to that. It's
called crisis for a reason. people are not retiring
with enough money and we've got a whole slew
of people that are following up with that too.
It's time to listen to what they're telling us.
It's a small voice. The big voice is buy, buy,
buy, advertise marketing. You need this now.
What's your Facebook and Instagram life? But
we need to listen to the quieter voice of the
retirees and say, they're telling us to say big
now. It's not a big voice because there might
be some shame in that. They're not announcing
it. Hey, I made a huge mistake. you should do
things differently. But we are being told that,
and the surveys and the polls are saying that.
So if you're in your 20s, you've got this awesome
multiplying power. If you're in your 30s, you
still got it. Power of eight is amazing. Let
me go all the way to the power of two. There's
some countries in the world where money doesn't
multiply at all. We live in a place of prosperity.
And Warren Buffett, back to him, he says, if
we're born here or moved here to the US, we've
won the Ovarian lottery. meaning we've been born
into prosperity. We've been born into a place
where money just gets on a train, moves, it gets
off and it's double, it's quadruple, it's multiplied.
We live in a place where that is happening, a
place of innovation and prosperity. And so I
tell people, even if you're in your 50s and you
get started saving and investing right now and
your money does double, that's amazing. It's
kind of like if someone was to work a week of
work, you get paid for that week, that's what
you signed up for. Now, if you work that same
week of work and your boss says you've been good,
I'm going to actually pay you double. I'm going
to pay you two weeks worth. Everybody would be
ecstatic. We'd be like, I'm going to celebrate.
It's steak dinner tonight. It's a vacation. Honey,
let me treat you to this. Let me treat you to
that. I just got paid two times what I was supposed
to get paid. And that's what it's like. I have
money double but here's the off the charts thing
when we have the power of 16 It's like working
that week of work and getting paid for four months
That is so insane and people don't get it until
I explain that Working a week and getting paid
for four months and working another week and
getting paid for four months That's the power
of 16. It's kind of like winning the lottery,
but we don't know that it exists We need to be
coached to understand that power when we're starting
our jobs. So that's the message Those are the
three epiphanies. And that's the that's the word
I'm spreading. That's powerful. What I get from
that is like a little bit of reverse engineering.
And what's powerful, too, is that when you're
younger, you have more more just abilities, strength
and, you know, the ability to just, you know,
to save your money and do all that good stuff
and still enjoy your life in the 20s. But what
I also get is that it's not taught. Yeah. And
that's the thing that really kind of throws people
off when they have to wait till they're 40 and
they're like, wait a minute, it's, is it too
late? And if it's not too late, uh, I don't know
what I'm doing. And so I think people get kind
of caught up in that, that world. And you may
have said this already, but can you speak to
the 40 year old, the 50 year old, but maybe listening
and watching and that have that, that kind of
thought. that's running through their brain.
Absolutely. Well, I'm right there with you because
I did not start studying finances, you know,
until and really getting it till mid life, mid
middle age, mid career. And so that's most people.
In fact, let's talk about why. Why do we wake
up then to finances? Well, there's there's certain
things coming. Yeah. Number one, maybe we have
kids and they're going to go to college soon
and we're asking ourselves. How are they going
to go to college? Like is somebody saving up
for this? Oh, that's that's my job. Maybe unless
I take a loan out. Another thing is we're starting
to think about retirement. We're like, oh, I'm
I've worked 20 years is 20 more to go. Let's
see how my retirement account is doing. Oh, there's
there's not as much in there as I wanted to be.
I better I better start doing something about
this. Another thing that's coming up around midlife
is we may have parents that are aging. Then we
talked about. most people not being upright with
their finances, our parents might need help with
money as well. Medical costs can be quite large
in retirement, maybe 150 to $200 ,000. That's
a pretty big medical bill over the years. And
we may start realizing that our own parents need
help. There's all sorts of other things that
will hit, but those are three really big things
that hit at midlife. So we start to wake up and
say, Well, I did say in my twenties, I start
figuring this out later in life. Okay, I did
get promoted. Okay, my paycheck is bigger with
all these other things saying, green light, learn
this stuff. Let me start learning. Where do I
go? Who do I trust? Now? I have more money. I'm
making more money. I don't know who to trust.
I don't know where to go. And we don't have that
default place to go. That is why I do like to
teach earlier. And that is why I wrote this book
to get a message out there. And that's just the
start. And so I love how you're educating your
audiences through podcasts, this and that. And
I listened to a bunch of online material to learn
as well and hear real stories. But yeah, so for
folks that are midlife and older, the multiplying
power, it's still there. Multiplying power four
in your early 40s. That's incredible. We just
talked about how even if you are multiplying
your money by two, That is an amazing, amazing
blessing that you put the money there and you're
not working for it. They say it's when your money's
working for you, right? That's what it's called.
And to have that money working for you is just
the most incredible opportunity ever. And we
need to be thankful for that because there's
other things we can do. We can ramp up our hours,
do work on the side, start a business, or even
work longer years. right, if we really feel like
we're behind. They also have the catch -up contributions
when you save in some of these tax advantage
vehicles, like the 401k and the IRA, and you
can put even more away at the time that younger
people cannot do. You have access to more tax
advantage funds that grow even more older in
life. So they kind of know that the government
that is the IRS allowed for that. So they kind
of know that a lot of people are waking up to
finances and so they gave us that advantage then.
But once again, Canada is a blessing that money
doubles and then do what you can. You have all
these levers and variables you can pull. But
here's the other thing I really like people to
recognize is that we have a purpose for ourselves
and hopefully our finances are going to help
us fund our purpose. But we also have a responsibility
to the younger generation. And so yeah, there's
that old saying of, hey, each generation should
be doing better than the previous one. That's
the old American saying. Is that going to continue
to be true? Not sure. But it's happening. I'm
fourth generation. My great grandparents were
the first ones here from Japan to get to the
US. But it's been true every generation, so all
four. have been doing better than one before.
Why? Because the previous generation taught them
at least something. And then, you know, out of
what I heard about money, guess what? My teenage
son, he's learning what I knew, like middle age,
he's learning it now. And he's 16. He's got multiple
times more than I did. And he's in the stock
market already. I taught him so he wouldn't be
afraid. I was afraid of the stock market all
the way up until middle age. I started teaching
him at age 11 or 12. So he just thinks it's normal.
And he's invested and stocks don't scare him.
And he sees it grow so he knows that money doubles.
In fact, his college savings plan, I showed him.
I showed him as it was happening. I said, hey,
we're going to take a look at this money growing.
And when you saw it double, which it did, he's
had enough money to go to a state school for,
since he's been nine years old, because we just
put it in early and doubled. And that's the thing.
Someone coaches us to say, I know it sounds strange,
but if you act robustly now and you set this
money aside, can you imagine what happens when
that doubles? You can now plan, you can now calculate
these things and say, okay, my kid's going to
go to school and that's how much it should cost.
I just need to save half 10 years later because
it should double well you can get even more aggressive
and say what if I save 10 years earlier than
that 20 years earlier then you save half of a
half because it's doubling and doubling again
and uh I didn't know this principle uh 20 years
ago so I didn't do that but that's what I'm telling
other people um so that they can get ahead of
things. And my son, certainly, it's passing it
down. He's going to be way more knowledgeable
and comfortable with money than I ever was. It's
all about teaching that younger generation because
we've missed the boat a little bit. I could have
done way better if I had started in my 20s, just
gung -ho. I didn't. So my money grew slower,
but I'm still very thankful for my dad's advice
to invest in that 401k. But my son, the next
generation, he's outdoing me already. at least
at that age. Him at 16 is probably me at, you
know, late 20s. That's what we can do for our
kids and grandkids. Well, you know, I had to
do some studying here. So one of the things was,
according to Education Data Initiative, the average
parent pays off their child's college loans in
their mid 40s. But you saved your son's college
by the time he was nine, like you said, right?
Which is a horrible story by itself. And I think
that people, we, as just as a nation, and I can't
talk about the world, but just as a nation, we
just need to really educate the next generation
after us. Like you said, the generation before
needs to really educate the generation that comes
after. And that's one of the things that we could
start solving now just by sharing the information,
taking your kid or your nephew or whoever it
is. our niece and showing them what's happening
with the money. Here's your college education.
Now, this is what I've done with it. Here's the
stock market. This is what we can do with it.
And don't make money be a scared item. As people
say, when they say scared money, don't make money
or something like that. Don't be fearful of the
money. And you talked about purpose and we're
talking about money being purpose. as a general,
how can people connect their financial goals
to their larger sense of purpose? Yeah. So let's
go back to the college idea where money can be
freed up if you save before rather than wait
till later, right? So the average amount borrowed
for college is about $40 ,000 and 60 % of students
are going to take out some sort of loan. The
money's not there as they're going in. So if
we're borrowing $40 ,000, To pay it off, somewhere
around where you said folks might be in their
40s or so, 10 plus years later after college,
that's about a $50 ,000 bill total if you add
all those interest payments on. So for a $40
,000 education, we're paying $50 ,000. But if
we go the other direction, that's to pay later,
the right to pay later. But if we were to save
20 years earlier, we're only putting away $10
,000 because 10 doubled into 20, 20 doubled into
40. So for something that's worth $40 ,000, most
of the folks are paying $50 ,000 for it. But
there's this opportunity to only pay $10 ,000.
So when you do that, only pay $10 ,000, only
pay $20 ,000, and it multiplies into what it
needs to to pay for it. There's all this kind
of quote unquote leftover money now. Let's say
you put in $10 ,000 and it paid for your kid's
college, grew into what it needed to. Now you
have compared to if you paid later, you have
$40 ,000 extra money that you got to keep and
do something with. Now let's put that towards
our purpose. And if we keep on doing that in
life, we keep on planting these trees that grow
and the money grows into what it needs to pay
for this and cover that cost. Now we're planting
a financial garden. Now we have these plants
that are growing into trees. And what's a tree
do? It can do so many good things. It can create
shade and comfort for somebody. It can create
fruit and sustenance for somebody. It can be
cut down and chopped into where to build a house
and shelter for somebody. And as you're growing
this financial garden, you start different accounts
potentially. Like there could be a retirement
account, a college savings account. Another account
I'm a big fan of is something like a custodial
account for your child. It's not college related.
It's just this fund with index funds and single
stocks that can grow separately apart from college.
But you can have all these separate accounts
that are simultaneously growing. And now, and
that's the money that's available because you
didn't go buy something and pay too much for
it and go into debt. Because when you're going
into debt, someone else is earning compound interest.
Someone else is taking your money and they're
doing the multiplying for themselves. You're
actually giving your power away to somebody else
when you're in debt, right? They're making more
money. But when you keep it and when you grow
it and when you multiply it, now hopefully there's
a surplus we want to build to put towards your
purpose. And so what might that purpose be? Well,
there's a ton of good causes out there. Nonprofits
actually are part of an organization called Created
to Create. And our specialty is filming videos
for nonprofit organizations. We just went to
my family. So my wife and son and I went to Sierra
Leone in West Africa with a medical team. And
we filmed a video of what they do. That video
is going to raise hopefully tens of thousands
or or $100 ,000 plus in funds to support this
organization to keep running so they can build
schools, churches, and clinics to help the people
in that impoverished area of the country. And
we would not be able to do something like that
and be as available for something like that if
it wasn't for the freedom that came from operating
with money the way we do. Maybe we could do it
later in life, but we're doing it now because
the money is there. been freed up and it has
multiplied to be able to start funding our purpose.
And I want to encourage other people to do the
same. When you realize you have a multiplying
power, you're less likely to spend. You're more
likely to say, well, I know what's happening
with the money now. If I put this thousand dollars
in, I know it's going to turn to $8 ,000 later.
Like I should go ahead and do that. Now I have
something to compare it to rather than going
for instant gratification. Yeah. You know, one
of the things that I was thinking when you said
that is that there's a lot of people that want
to live a philanthropic life. And this is one
of the ways that people can do it practically,
you know, and can really, that in turn, can really
help, you know, organizations that you give them
money to to grow and help that and it could,
I mean, I'm not saying it could be a kumbaya
kind of world, but you can really help sustain
the world with your nice deeds, with financial
support, with organizations that may need that,
and really support that world of philanthropy
and well -doing just in the world. And I know
people get fulfilled by that. Oh, absolutely.
If I can continue your story. Same organization,
Bridge of Hope. First time I went there, gone
to Sierra Leone twice. I went, I was invited
to the fundraising dinner. The video was going
to play there. And I was sat at a table near
the front. And I was like, oh, what? This seems
like a place of honor. What in the world am I
doing here at this table? And I was sat next
to this really tall guy, Ernie, with a cane.
And I thought, what would he and I have in common?
I have no idea. But I said, hey, Ernie, like,
who are you and why are you here? Come to find
out. He's the one that sent me to go. He's the
one that paid my way. He paid for my vaccinations.
He paid for my travel costs, the food and the
lodging. He paid for what I charged to do the
video. And I just realized it then I was so floored.
I was like, what in the world? This is like,
I feel like this is my uncle here and I'm just
meeting him for the first time. I practically
had a tear rolling down my face at the time.
So we watched the video. The video shows after
all these other things are shared during the
fundraising meal. He turns to me and he says,
Scott, that was the first time I've seen that
video. He said, my wife and I drove here today
with a number in mind that we were going to write
a check for, check. And he said, don't tell her,
but I just doubled it. And I was just like, the
amount, it was the most glee. Enjoy an elation
I had ever experienced in a human being I looked
over at him and I was like this guy is living
the high life he was able to just Not even tell
his wife double what he was gonna give he had
already sent me To another country across the
world and paid for everything including my hundred
hours of working on this thing altogether I didn't
know that I didn't know there was a sponsor.
It changed my life realizing that there are people
out there that They treated their finances in
such a way that they could have generosity to
that degree because that was generosity upon
generosity. He sent me and he just doubled his
gift that day to support this amazing organization.
I was so floored and I continue to tell people
about that because I'm like, wow, I don't know
if that's going to be me one day. I certainly
look at Ernie and say he's a role model. For
me, I want to be like that. I didn't even know
that was possible. That feeling. People, you
know, you don't remember what people said, but
you remember how they make you feel. And that
left such an impact on my heart that I continue
to just want to have that as my goal. I want
to be Ernie one day. That's the idea. That's
funding your purpose. That's funding your purpose.
That's what it's like. I felt that story and
that's really fulfilling as well. And just he
didn't know when whenever So, just to say like
you start at 20 and you just don't know when
you turn 50 and 60 and you're able to do that,
or whose life and or lives that you'll affect
and really cause a shift in their life. You just
never know. You just never know. And I do want
to bring like the mindset before we get to something
practical, which is, it says, studies show 90
% of money decisions are driven by emotions and
not logic. So how do you help people shift their
mindset from like fear? their confidence with
money. The main message we get about money is
to buy. We're the biggest marketed and advertised
to country in the world. $400 billion spent per
year. That's about $1 ,000 or more per head in
the US, even the babies. No one else can compete
with us on that. I don't know if that's something
to be proud about. Along with being advertised
and marketed to, the main message about money
is to spend and to buy and to acquire. So we
look all around and there's this idiom, keeping
up with the Joneses. That actually was an old
comic book, or an old comic strip, I should say.
And people opened up their newspaper and they
read this comic about this guy, Aloysius, who
looked like the Monopoly man, the monocle and
top hat and all that. Short guy. And he was constantly
trying to look like his actually wealthy neighbors,
which he was not. He was trying to to acquire
what they're acquiring and look how they were
looking and he was competing and comparing. And
so this idea of keeping up with the Joneses,
which is we look at our neighbors, we look at
our coworkers, we look at our family members,
those people in our circles, and we want to look
like them and have what they have and maybe even
beat them and one up them. And that's a race
that's not worth running because if we know that
most people are struggling with money, we're
actually putting out there a front. that it doesn't
have anything behind it. And so maybe they're
doing that in debt, getting that car. And I feel
like I got to have that car too. But I'm, I'm
actually extending myself and going into debt
to get the same thing. And it's this race where
we don't know what's happening under the hood.
And so that's the deal is we when we know the
statistics that most of us are struggling, and
most of us are putting up a false front and,
and racing a race that we shouldn't be only because
the retailers and the creditors and the banks
allow us to because they are profiting off of
all this. We have to choose to turn things around.
So all right, so to get more into kind of the
psychology of it all, we talked about keeping
up with the Joneses. Another psychological barrier
is earn more, spend more, and that's called lifestyle
inflation, right? So when you earn more and get
your raise, good advice is don't spend more.
actually go ahead and save that. Yeah, it's like
exercising this muscle where you are able to
divert new money, extra money, gift money, raise
money, whatever it may be, promotion money, towards
saving. Because you already were used to living
how you were used to. Yes, there is inflation.
But it's the idea that we funnel money into multiplying
just like we We said multiplying money it's amazingly
gratifying in fact i have the same is that instant
gratification last a day by financial wellness
is gratifying every day. And really when you
have money saved you feel good every day i did
the right thing it's growing i'm gonna be able
to find my purpose or already m is a gratification
when you go buy something. You gotta go buy something
else the next day to get that feeling again.
And then you buy another thing the next day to
get that feeling again. And the silly thing about
buying stuff, we're just like children when you
get a new toy, but you end up playing with the
box. It's like, we actually don't care about
what we bought a year later. It's like gathering
dust in a closet somewhere. So when you talk
about psychology, there's all these things, there's
this shame, guilt to get over. And probably the
most Welcoming idea to all of this is that we're
all doing it. We're all in this together. But
we all have a duty to ourselves to realize it
and turn it around. We're not supposed to go
all sitting on the edge of a cliff together just
because that's what everybody's doing. Because
we know a pandemic or a job loss or a health
issue can cause the edge of that cliff to crumble.
We don't want to be there just because everybody
else is doing it. We got to pull back, stand
on firm ground and tell ourselves, all right,
I'm going to turn this around. I'm not going
to spend like that anymore. I am going to save.
I am going to multiply these funds. My future
self depends on it. So there's a ton of psychological
barriers to work through. Paying off debt is
the biggest one. I recommend the debt snowball,
which is if you have multiple debts, pay off
the smallest one first. Maybe that's a credit
card. And now with the money you saved from there,
pay off your other credit card. That might have
been a little bit more money. And then, all right,
what's the next step? Is that a car loan? Well,
you just stopped paying on two credit cards.
You paid them off. Use all that new money to
pay off your car loan. And then you keep going
from there. Okay, the student loan. Let's take
care of that one. And finally, the big bad boy
taking care of the house and paying that one
off early as well. Debt is a risk. Debt is your
things. If you do not pay that debt off, they
can be repossessed. They can be foreclosed. They
can be taken back. And so I highly recommend
getting rid of your debt. Just get rid of it.
There's so much freedom and once again that term
financial peace by having things paid off. And
so that's also motivation to not get into new
debt. Live within your means and don't spend
more than what you make. But yeah, that's just
some of the list of some of the psychological
barriers to get through to make a difference
here and free up a pathway to multiply. That's
what I'm trying to coach everybody to do is let's
get past these barriers that we've been dealing
with. And then let's go full force on multiplying
because we got a life to live and a purpose to
live out. Yeah, totally agree. You said so much
within that. Give me one practical step that
someone can take right now to get to that next
level for their life. Yeah. I like to call it
the silver bullet when I tell people about the
financial epiphanies because it's one thing to
hear, oh, don't spend that. Oh, cut up your credit
card. You know, don't do this. Don't do that.
Don't do this. Don't do that. And a lot of times
because we're mismanaging our money statistically,
we don't want to hear that. We don't want to
hear don't do this. Don't do that. That's why
I come in like a coach and I tell people you
have this ability. So I tell people find your
multiplying power. OK, so let's say someone's
in their their early 40s. OK, that's the multiplying
power of eight, right? That's what we said. You
know 20 years after you start your career. So
you got the multiplying power of eight. So I
tell people just find out your multiplying power.
That's the takeaway. That's the starting point,
right? You just start with that. Now you know.
What your ability is and i like to say this is
you you have ownership over this this is an ability
this is not about multiplying some sort of objects
this money thing this is about what you can do
because as you multiply this money. You're gonna
choose not to spend it you choose to get rigorous
about getting out of debt and remember your funding
your purpose so this has so much meaning. Um,
behind it, that's the takeaway. That's the, uh,
that's the one thing I do is find out your multiplying
power and then, and then you can act on it. It's
like being told, here's your ability. Here's
your athletic ability. Scott, people need to
get in touch with you, man. How'd I do that?
Yeah. Yeah. The URL best place to go to is financial
epiphany .com on there. There's a link to the
book. There's I got some of the lessons up there.
Uh, Once this podcast is up, I'm going to put
a link on the speaking page. There's a free download
on some of the basics, such as how to get out
of debt, how much to save for retirement, how
to start your first IRA Roth IRA accounts, retirement
account. And then there's a contact page and
I check every email and respond to them. So if
you want to get in touch, that's an excellent
way. So financial epiphany .com. Perfect. It's
gotten me wrought so much just Clarity and like
you made it simple and just listening to you
made it so I talked I talked to or listened to
a lot of people that in the financial world and
they can sound very complicated and it kind of
turns you off a bit right and Just the way that
you shared yourself your knowledge and your expertise
like it's it's really easy to follow you It's
really easy to really digest and understand what
you have to give. And for my last question for
you is what's something on your heart and your
mind that you would love to share with someone
as your last words on this podcast? I want to
make sure I review with everybody. So the most
valuable thing is, you know, tell them what to
do. And then once again, you got to repeat it,
tell them what to do again. So I'm going to end
with that. And so to repeat the three financial
epiphanies, Under common circumstances of investing,
money can double every 10 years. You start your
career with a power of 16, the ability to multiply
money by 16 times. Financial epiphany number
three is our multiplying power halves every 10
years. That's it. Once we know those three things
and we're equipped, that's all I need to know
about money to do quite a bit of damage in a
good way and get to that place of funding your
purpose. So that's what I want to leave people
with. That's it. That's the most important thing
I could say. That's my message. Perfect. I love
the message. I love the fact that you had what
you had to share, because it's, it's a really
great perspective, fresh and wonderful to hear.
And I respect you for that. And I thank you for
that. And for all those listening and watching,
make sure that you know, if you really need to
get that fresh start, check Scott out at the
website. And I don't know, you do coaching via
internet. Yeah, coaching is I would say the book
right now is as my main product that's out there
as far as like actual coaching. I just I just
do it right now. I just talk to people. I just
do it like right now. You post this right now.
Coach and view this podcast right now. And I
coach people as they ask questions. And it's
just. That's the business model right now is
my passion project. I'm just out there to make
a difference. It's going to have more form and
structure down the road. But yeah, if someone
wants to talk, I'm going to talk to you. Let's
get our finances straight. Let's get the finances
straight and teach the next generation. Again,
Scott, thank you for being on the podcast. And
as we always say, let's make thriving our new
normal. We'll see you next week.