Personal Finance Mastery – Episode 1

Personal Finance Mastery Podcast Episode 1

Show Notes:

This is the first episode of the Personal Finance Mastery Show.  We go over a little about our life and our story, where we are coming from.

Books Mentioned:

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale

Think And Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

The Answer by John Assaraf

Transcription:

Adam:  This is Personal Finance Mastery episode one.

Announcer:  This is the Personal Finance Master Podcast where you’ll discover how to master your personal finances, build true wealth, and enjoy a more fulfilling and prosperous life. Learn to plan for your future and create your own wealth, away from the shackles of a job. Here are you hosts, on a mission to set you free and teach you the tools to creating true wealth.

Darla: Welcome to Personal Finance Mastery, the podcast that teaches you how to achieve financial freedom and design your ultimate life. I’m Darla.

Peter:  I’m Peter.

Adam:  And I’m Adam.

Peter: On today’s episode, our first podcast, we are going to go ahead and talk about what it is that motivated us to create Personal Finance in the first place, and a little bit of our story and where we’re coming from that brought us to this position that we’re at now in our lives.

I might as well start first and give you a little bit about my story. I grew up in a white-collar middle-class family.  I was raised to believe that the only path to success was:  go to college, get a job, work for 40 years, retire, and then enjoy life. Everything up to the moment of retirement is struggle and hard work. You do your time, you earn your retirement. That is the kind of mindset I grew up with. You don’t have any fun until you retire, which seems kind of oxymoronic.

Looking back, I can only finally enjoy my life and have fun at the point in my life when I am old, likely to be sick and tired, and not have the energy to go out and enjoy my life. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

I never knew anything about lifestyle design, or choosing how to live my life the way I want to live it. Everything was all about work. You get your college degree, you get a job, you work there for decades and decades and then you retire.

Now because this was my upbringing, I fell into what we call the ‘rat race’, which is a vicious cycle of work and debt to finance a lifestyle that I cannot afford, and then go back to work to pay off that debt. It is a cycle that repeats itself over and over and over again.

Now unfortunately when you are in the rat race, you are living paycheck to paycheck, just trying to survive. Your entire lifestyle and everything in your mindset is all about survival. You are in survival mode, bills are all you think about, and you go from there.

I finally reached a breaking point in my life when I became so far behind, so deeply-buried in the rat race that I was digging I hole that I saw no hope of ever getting out of. I saw no opportunity for advancement or growth and was so buried in debt that I actually had to file bankruptcy. After I filed bankruptcy, I found myself having to start all over, and since I was starting from scratch anyway, I decided I needed to do things differently. I realized that everything I had believed in my life that had led me to where I now was, obviously was wrong. It had led me to a very bad place and was a very troubling and disruptive time for me.

I had to change my mind-set. I decided to re-create myself both personally and financially. Up to that point, my finances and my personal life had both been in chaos – I was always trying to run away from responsibility and unhappiness. I drank, and spent money in grossly inappropriate ways.

When I decided to change my life I began by reading some very powerful books. Some of them were, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. These books really helped me see life differently and I learned some key points:  positive mindset and positive outlooks on life will lead you to more powerful result, period. I also learned that working the job for 40 years was not the way to success. It was only at best a path to mediocrity and that there was a different way to find happiness, joy and fulfillment. That is the path that I decided to take after my bankruptcy.

There is a powerful quote that encapsulates this that I heard a long time ago: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Living by this credo helped me start to turn my personal life around. I created positive goals, a positive mind outlook, and a positive self image.

I learned how to become an entrepreneur and began investing in stocks and in a variety of different companies. I remember some of my first trades, although I had no money, were through ShareBuilder, where you could, for $4 a trade buy fractional stocks. If you didn’t have enough money to buy a full share, they would buy the share and in essence loan you money so that you were on a sort of layaway plan. It was at least something I could do with nothing when I was starting from scratch. It seemed better to do that than to do nothing.

It’s crazy, I bought half a share of Sears. It was a $100 stock at the time and I had to wait a little before I could buy it, but that’s where it began. I then got into real estate, internet businesses and marketing on those ends. My financial life has really, fortunately, turned around a lot.

My personal life is now also different because I have applied my newly-learned business principles to the important personal aspects of my life. I am now happily married, I am stable and fulfilled. I am looking forward to the future. I get up every morning excited and looking at positive goals for my future.

That’s why I’m here and that’s why I’m part of Personal Finance Mastery. I’ve been at the bottom, I know what financial stress is like and I’ve felt the pain that goes with it. I also know all about the stresses of the rat race and how seductive a debt-financed lifestyle can be.

I’ve maxed out every credit card I ever had, I was drowning in debt and spending money just to spend money. I thought it was cool, but I now that perhaps this was a self-image problem. In order to be liked by other people I thought I had to spend money. So I know what that’s like, I’ve been there, and I’ve turned it around. I’ve changed my life for the better, and I want to help other people do that too – that is the motivation for becoming part of Personal Finance Mastery. So, I’m here to help and I’m here to show you that there is another way.

Darla:  My story is a little different. I actually got married very young, at the age of 20. I hadn’t even finished college yet and I was married to an abusive man for six years. He controlled all the money and I did not know how to invest, didn’t know what a 401K was and our lifestyle was such that the more money we made, the more money we spent. We racked up thousands and thousands of credit card debt. We were over $70,000 in debt in credit cards alone by the time our marriage began to deteriorate.

I was at a point where I had to leave my now ex-husband and go back and live with my parents for a few years because I did not even know how to take care of myself. I didn’t know how to budget and had no realistic financial expectations. I did not know what kind of car or apartment I could afford. Effectively, I knew nothing about money or finance.

Back in 2006 I drove 1,600 miles across the United States, back to my parents’ house, and I lived with them for about two-and-a-half years while I re-established myself and got back on my feet. During those years I learned how to invest, how to trade on the stock market. I invested in real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, commodities – pretty much any type of financial investment I could get my hands on. If it was out there, I dabbled in it.

One of the things I learned during this time was how much I love personal finance and managing money and investing. So I decided to go back to school and change careers and studied financial planning. I am currently studying to take the Certified Financial Planner examination.

Now, more than two-and-a-half years after leaving my ex-husband I am the owner of several rental properties. I amassed a lot of money in my 401K and in my trading account. So basically I am here to show my love and my passion for personal finance and to help people get out of debt and invest and manage money and every personal finance topic there is with your life.

Adam:  My story starts from when I was a young boy who always wanted to become an entrepreneur and have my own business. I wanted to be my own boss and actually started out thinking about different business ideas when I was very young. I can remember that at 10 years old I started work mowing lawns for people and stuffing envelopes and doing little tasks to make my own money.

I grew up in a white collar neighborhood and we had plenty of money when I was growing up. It was not given out freely. I was always taught  to work very hard for my money, that money is not something that is just given to you. I never had an allowance and worked to save money for the things I wanted.

I remember the time my mom gave me $5 for lunch, and it was supposed to last all week. But other than that, I was on my own financially.

So this idea of wanting to have my own business and to be financially free, be an entrepreneur, had always sparked an interest in my mind. When I got old enough I started babysitting to make money. I advertised in local newsletters and even put ads in the local newspaper to be an animal-sitter, animal walker – anything to make an extra dollar.

When I was old enough to get a regular W-2 job, I started out at McDonalds flipping burgers or working the cash register. At that point I realized that that was not for me. I knew it was just my first job, but I also knew that I wanted much more and I didn’t see how working for one single company forever, all the way up to retirement 40 years later was what I wanted. It seemed like a long, long ride.

Peter:  It seemed like an eternity, and I think that’s where both of our stories mesh. We were raised with a mindset of the 40-year working life. Work meant you got up, put on a suit and tie, went to some office and did something at a desk for 40 years. That’s what I was taught as I was growing up. But once I got into that work world, I realized that was not the way I wanted to live my life.

Adam:  Right.

Peter:  I think you have had the same realization.

Adam:  I was taught and it was expected that I would go to school, proceed immediately to college and then get a job in an office. But I knew that just was not for me. I wanted something else, and I think that at the point when we all met each other we started to change each other’s mindset. That’s when we read Robert Kiyosaki’s book, listed to Psycho0Cybernetics and The Strangest Secret and other similar books. They really open your mind to a whole new world, and you really cannot go backwards once you listen to those.

Peter:  The blinders are lifted, really. All of a sudden you see the reality of the situation, it’s a type of revelation.

Adam:  Yes, exactly. It’s too late to go back. So you either live with this knowledge and be miserable in your current situation or do something to change yourself, because you know that it is possible to change from within.

There was another book, a Burlington Book, The Answer was something that also changed my mind-set. But the compelling reason for me to get into Personal Finance Mastery was the ton of debt I was in. I was spending on credit cards, going on vacations, buying cars – I think I bought nine cars by the time I was 21. I just fell deeper and deeper into debt and finally learned all the things I had done wrong. I had never made a budget, had never even thought about it. I just spent, spent, spent. Then I’d look at my account and wonder how I spent $40,000 more than I made.

So looking at that and trying to pay off that debt and dig myself out of a big hole was a long journey. I really want other people to learn that there’s a better way, through budgeting and a bit of a lifestyle change you can have a better life if you just do a little bit of what we call forecasting.

Darla:  Financial forecasting.

Peter:  That’s right.

Darla:  That’s what I call it.

Peter:  A little budget truly makes a huge difference. Designing your own life to be able to fulfill your needs and your wants so you no longer struggle or worry about your finances and where you can go in life – that should be your goal. Those should not be stress-inducers. You should be able to take of yourself, your family and have a good time. That’s what I’m here for – to teach people about how to design their lifestyle, stay out of debt, create a budget – that’s what Personal Finance Mastery is truly all about.

Adam:  That’s an excellent point you put out – life should be enjoyed. Life should be an abundant, filled experience. While I know that money is a big part of everyone’s life, it is everywhere in our world and you need it to survive and pay for things and be comfortable with good shelter and food and clothes, money should not be the number one stressors in your life. It should not be a problem-causer. I think that by mastering your personal finances, learning how to budget, how to forecast for the future, how to make plans and goals, get rid of your debt, you will live a more exciting life. You will look forward to the future and always be on the lookout for appropriate alternate sources of income: investing, finding passive sources of income, businesses – there are all sorts of money-making activities and you can combine them with your active work to provide you the freedom to get out of survival state. That’s what I was in for the longest time, and when I was finally out of that state, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I had freedom, peace, financial comfort and security and could start looking at the future.

The world changes when you reach that point. Opportunities explode all over for you and potential is everywhere. Life becomes fulfilling, enjoyable and happy at that moment.

Peter:  Yes, that’s what it’s all about. We talk a lot about entrepreneurship and wanting to own our own business and investing. Truly you could be happy in your job if you loved it and just want a little extra income to create that financial freedom. That’s possible as well through vehicles of investing and various things that we teach.

Darla: For us it was necessary because we didn’t like our jobs.

Peter:  Right.

Adam:  Right. To say it simply, yes.

Darla:  It might have been different if each one of us had our own career that we were passionate about. I was fortunate to have found my passion in managing money and investing, and Adam and Peter have found their own passions. But we all have passions that are not through a W-2 job.

Anyone with a W-2 job, even if you love what you do, can still invest and make money so that you have a choice. Sometimes you may do the job that you absolutely love and are passionate about, but you may not like your work environment. You may think you can’t change your job or your work environment because you feel like you’re stuck. If you plan and prepare and take care of your finances and invest correctly, you will have other choices. You will be able to choose where you live, where you work, the way you handle your money and even how much of it you make. You will not have to rely on an employer for a job and will be able to create financial freedom for yourself.

Adam:  This has given you a little bit of an overview of our stories, where we’ve come from and what has brought us to create Personal Finance Mastery. We hope this has helped you understand us a little better.

Darla:  In our next episode we are actually going to talk about exactly how each one of us got out of debt. Now, I know Peter mentioned he went through bankruptcy. He’ll talk a little bit about what possessed him to finally make the decision to go through with bankruptcy.

I’ll talk about how I got out of the $70,000-plus consumer debt that my ex and I had racked up, and Adam will talk a little bit about how he also got out of debt. We’ll give you pointers and tips and tell you exactly how we did it and help you if debt elimination is part of your goals.

Adam:  As we go on doing more podcasts we’ll get more into detail about different subjects such as budgeting and debt management.

Darla:  Investing.

Adam:  You’ll hear more of our story in detail. Right now, we just wanted to give you a quick overview.

Peter:  We’ll give a quick ‘Cliff Notes’ version of our story and where we’re coming from. Our goal is to provide a couple of podcasts a month where we come together and talk about personal finance and designing your life, entrepreneurialism and earning extra income streams.

There may be times when, given that we have our own businesses and investments, you may hear from just one of us. At other times it may be all three of us and sometimes it might be two of us. However many of us speak with you in any given podcast, it will be with the commitment of doing our show on a steady basis.

Darla:  If you have any ideas, questions or topics you would like to learn about, please feel free to send us an email at ideas@personalfinancemastery.com.

Adam:  This wraps up today’s podcast. We look forward to ‘seeing’ you in podcast number two.

Darla:  Thanks for listening.

Adam:  I’m Adam.

Darla:  I’m Darla.

Peter:  I’m Peter.

Announcement:  Thanks for listening to the Personal Finance Mastery podcast. For more wealth-building tips and tools customized to fit your financial needs, go to personalfinancemastery.com.

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