SPEAKER_03 0:02

We're all guilty of spending that money before we get it. And then when we do get the money and we do spend it, then we want to look around and say, damn, why am I always broke? There's things about your mindset, there's things about your budgeting, there's things about your finances, there's things about your relationship with money in general that are not working in this equation, and that's why you continue to feel broke. But you have to self-snapshot, reflect what is it about the way I'm spending money and my relationship with money that's making me feel broke? Where's the leakage? And then patch that leak.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Today we're talking about feeling broke. And not the regular kind of broke that you know about. It's a weird kind of broke. The broke that confuses you. When you have money, you make money, you make decent money, but you don't know where it goes. You landed a good job, but you still feel like you're drowning week to week, paycheck to paycheck. It's like the minute your direct deposit hits, that bitch is already gone. When your girl wants to go to dinner and your friends invite you out to the bar to watch a game, it's time to break out that credit card just to get through the week. Why does that keep happening? Most guys beat themselves up. They start thinking, damn, it's gotta be me. Maybe I'm just lazy. Maybe I need to work harder. Maybe I need another stream of income. Maybe I need another side hustle. Here's the worst part. According to studies, most young men are too embarrassed to even talk about it with their friends and family. They're embarrassed that they're struggling financially. And this shame is real. Even though they make good money, they don't understand where their money is going. Let me make this clear. You're not lazy. The government isn't personally trying to ruin your life by raising egg prices or the gas prices or with insane mortgages and rents. You're just not paying attention to simple math. Rich, I know this is a hot button issue for you because this is something that we've discussed in the past, but it's not like investment advice. This is more like personal finance advice. Just digging yourself out of that hole of simple math and not understanding how to balance basic income. Your paycheck, what comes in and what goes out. Rich, what kind of experience do you have with this? And why does this subject and this topic, why did it hit home with you?

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yeah, man. Listen, if you have a job, bro, you're already ahead of the game. Like at least you have steady income coming in. And, you know, you could pay down bills, you could manage a lot of different responsibilities. The pain point for these guys here is they're getting money, but like you said, the money's evaporating. The minute that direct deposit hits, you know, Uncle Sam takes half, you end up with the other half, and then your bills, your fixed assets, take up the other half. And maybe if you're lucky, you end up with a couple hundred dollars for spending leisure. Yep. And shit, man, that's that's really relatable because for a long time I lived paycheck to paycheck just like these guys. And, you know, through some wise reframing, mental reframing, financial reframing, and proper budgeting, I was able to climb out of that paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, I like that in our pre-show meeting, Rich. You mentioned the psychology behind money and mental reframing. So you really I assume because of the two of us, you're the more financially responsible. I thought you were gonna get right into like math or basic uh 401k and and you know, you you jumped out the gate and was like, man, I've been there before. This is really a mental thing because these guys make decent money. It's not like they're down bad without a job. What is it about the like the mental part that you really wanted to attack in this episode?

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Bro, there's so many things about the way your relationship with money and the way you view money and budgeting and spending that's so pivotal to living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The biggest one that I could highlight that by far made the biggest impact in my life was just the comparison trap. Just always looking at what my friends were doing, what people on social media were doing, and feeling like, damn, they have that. Why don't I? Right? Or damn, I really like that house. I want to live in a house like that one day. And then you start to self-reflect on yourself and see that you don't have that yet, and you start to feel bad and it creates this resentment. You start to feel inadequate, you start to feel like you're not making enough income to have the things that you want. But bro, everybody's circumstances are different. And eliminating that comparison, I think, helps you in the long run because it helps you live within your means, right? You can't possibly make a regular wage and view a millionaire and be like, damn, I want that house. Great point. Like the comparison is is just too far out of reach. So, you know, if you are gonna compare yourself to anyone or any situation, at least have it be somebody in the same playing field as you so that it is attainable for you.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah, I think I think you brought up a good point. And one thing that I wanted to get to in this episode was you have to ask yourself, whose lifestyle am I trying to live? Is it the one that I can afford, or is it the one that I'm seeing on social media? Or is it the one that my close friend who's single with no girlfriend, no fiance, no wife, no family members who need help? I'm trying to keep up with this guy. So you're right, it's that lifestyle gap that you may be living in your reality and your budget is for your reality, but you're living for someone else's reality. And that right there is what's making you uncomfortable. And I love that you brought that up because it's less about plus and minuses, which we will get into in this episode. Rich and I will break down what is that freedom number for you? What is that number that makes you feel like your head and your shoulders are finally above water? I want to stick on that phrase, a freedom number, a number that really makes you feel less down on yourself and more positive about where your money is going and what you have free money to spend on. But let's go back to the psychology a little bit, Rich. There is that comparison. What do you think that comes from besides social media? Is it like close friends? Like what is it, car a new car? What have you seen?

SPEAKER_03 6:28

I mean, shit, bro. Society loves to present us life's luxuries, right? And get all these uh airline points so you can sit in a beautiful cafe on your way to travel, or you know what I mean, like go on this, go on this fancy vacation. And you told me this one day, and I thought it was such great advice, and I adopted it to my own life. You were like, Rich, you know, we're we're middle class, maybe a little bit above middle class. We're not millionaires yet, but life has a lot of luxuries, and you have to pick at least one luxury to invest your money in. If you try to have the apartment or the house, the luxury car, the luxury clothes, and try to present this facade of someone that has a lot of money and lives abundantly, but you don't have the income to back it up, bro, you're living in a false reality. That's a fact. So you were like, bro, out of those three, those three things, like pick one to double down on, and and you you're that guy. If you invest in your house or your home, like you are the guy that has the nice home, right? But wanting all three is very difficult if you don't have the means to pay for it all.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

We use this quote on another episode, and it's relevant now. You can have any one thing in this life, but you can't have everything. And even people that try to aspire to have everything, they have higher depression rates because monetary and physical material goods don't automatically lead to a higher happiness score. You just want to be above a line of comfort. That's all we really want. We want to solve our money problems. We want to solve that stress that comes with your kids not having enough food, not having enough clothes, without you feeling like a bum when you go outside. You want to have enough money to have some food in your pantry, you want to be able to go out on a dinner night or date night with your girl whenever is convenient, but it's not to live in excess. People that live in excess are not happy. So you have to identify what Jones is you want to keep up with. I'm not against living a life that makes me happy by buying some luxury goods or doing a few luxury things, but you have to tailor your life in a way that you're willing to give up five things to get one thing. So Rich and I are not like the super duper frugal finance channel that we're telling you to reuse your tea bags or to uh save your coffee pods so you can have another, you know, like we're not telling you you have to make everything at home. No, no, we're not those guys. This is not financial advice. This is Uncle Rich and Justin giving young men of the ages 32 and younger some advice. Bro, we've been there before. I know I've been there more recently than you, Rich, where I just recently got control of my money. And one of the biggest hacks that I was able to figure out was I had to look at my phone and on social media and my text messages and ask myself, which one of these Joneses I don't give a fuck about? And it made a lot of sense immediately. I don't want to go on vacation with this friend group. I don't care about fucking Peru. I never thought of going to Peru. I don't care about my friends who got nice cars. I've never been a car guy. So it allowed me to eliminate the Joneses to keep up with. And I there are certain things that I enjoy in life, and I keep those friends close, and I like showing off whatever I have to those friends. I love clothing, I love jewelry, I love fashion. I've kind of always been that way since I was younger. So I have this like identity that I'm wrapped up in as an adult. But you know what? It makes me happy, it makes me feel good about myself. But I don't concern myself with a lot of other things. And one that I cut off quickly, which is a huge, huge chunk of most people's annual expenses, is car payments. I didn't realize this until we started doing research on this episode, Rich. Besides rent, you need an actual fucking place to live and sleep. I think that one's a little tough to nip and tuck around if you're paying a good amount of rent or a mortgage, but the car payments are insane. People paying over $800 to $1,000 a month in car payments, but they make less than $50,000 a year. In what world does that math make sense? You pay $1,000 a year for a car, not including insurance, but you make $50,000. Last time I checked, there was only 12 months in a year. $12,000, not including taxes, not including insurance, not including any damages, any repairs in a car? Shit, you might as well fucking live in your car and kill your rent. Like, I don't I don't see how people let that lifestyle creep get that far ahead. And I personally know a lot of people that have beautiful cars, but I would never know how much they paid. But I assume that's where the bulk of their money goes.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Just I'm so glad you brought that up, bro, because I know people personally that I make at least four times more than they make, and they're riding around in Mercedes-Benz BMW in the latest Tesla. And that to me is the I think so. Let me let me back up for a second. Everyone in society is trying to find their place, right? Where do you fit in society? And sometimes in that pursuit of figuring out who you are, who what your identity is, you know, where you're fit, what's your flock, you end up in this terrible, terrible mind state where you feel the need to impress others, right? If I buy these things, I will be accepted by others or by this community or by this flock. And that trap, bro, of wanting to impress others, buying things, spending your money to impress others is such a fucking bullshit waste of time, bro, because it's gonna set you back so crazy. And I promise you, they'll look at the car, acknowledge you once, like, oh shit, that's Pedro with the fucking Tesla. And that's it. You did all that clout chasing for that one moment, and they're never gonna talk about it again. Meanwhile, you're stuck, like you said, with this $800 a month car payment.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Rich, I have a great story where I play the fool with the red nose and the curly red hair, which makes me the clown of the story. I went out with an artist manager one time to go shopping for the artist manager and the artist for the Grammys. It was Grammy Week. And I was going with them as I work in music, I'm a music marketing executive, and I have the luxury of building relationships with artists and artist managers. But these motherfuckers make millions of dollars in comparison to the thousand dollar era that I am. But I hang out with them anyway. I've always enjoyed being in the company of people that have more than me because it keeps me competitive, it keeps me aspirational. We go to Nordstrom's because we're trying to find some quick clothes. So I go with a stylist friend of mine, personal favor. He doesn't charge us. He's basically our shopper for the day. So he's buying an outfit for the manager and the artist. I'm just there chilling, doing my job, just making sure they look great when they get on the red carpet and when if they win, they get the award. The stylist starts gassing me up. I understand the car thing because I am like this when it comes to clothes, and I had this crazy reality check. I was trying to keep up pace with millionaires and a stylist who his job is to sell people shit so he can make commission. So everybody in that room was gaining something by making a transaction other than your boy. And like a fucking idiot, the adrenaline and the hype of the moment caught up with me. So we're looking at shoes and we're in the luxury goods section, and we're looking at Prada boots, Ortega Vanetta boots, all the fire boots you see on the runway for like a red carpet. Rich, I have no business buying $4,000 boots. I could make a pair of Tim's look incredible if we're being honest. But just because I was caught in that moment, and to your point, and I want our community to understand that we feel you. It was a long time ago. I was 38 when I make that mistake. It was literally like 12 months ago, and I'm still paying off these fucking boots. I wear them every day. I'm wearing them right now with this jersey. Bro, I fucking bought the boots partially for peer pressure, partially for trying to fit in, partially for not looking like a broke boy. Because I wanted these guys to feel good about me. And partially because my fucking friend, who I thought was my friend, he was just a salesman. Nah, he's my boy, but he was definitely being a salesman that day. He was like, yo, just these boots go crazy. You need to buy them. Rich, I swiped a pair of fucking Prada boots for $4,000, bro. Didn't even ask for the discount. Usually I'll be like, yo, what's the homie discount? No. Yeah, bro. I'm still paying them boots off today. Them boots, after fucking APR uh percentages on my credit card, have to cost me a price of a Toyota Camry, bro. So I am not above any of this conversation that we are gonna have today. I too fall victim to these things. But like you said earlier, Rich, this is not a justification. I do love fashion. I do love getting dressed. I am in a very consumer-facing, client-facing business. So I can justify that L because I don't have kids. I at the time I was living by myself. So my expenses were designed in a way that I could pay down that mistake immediately. I think the people we're talking to here are already having families. They live in small towns. They're not like living in coastal cities where they can make $200,000 a year. These are simple people living simple lives. So I kind of want to take a step back and read something that came from our community, which basically sparked this whole topic today. It's a young man, not gonna say his name, 27 years old. This is what he shared with us, Rich, and I want to hear your feedback. I'm a renter, I live with my girlfriend and her dog. I'm 27 years old. I have a degree, I'm paying my loans, I landed my dream job, and I hit, I finally hit the salary goal I dreamed of five years ago when I was 22. But why do I feel poorer now than I was back then? It almost feels like the finish line keeps moving, and it also feels like I'm running out of a track. I make good money, but why do I always feel broke? Inflation is really bad right now. Why would anyone want to have a kid or buy a home in this economy? That was the note that kind of sparked all of this. There's a lot of information there, and I actually do kind of feel bad for this guy because his mind is in a place where he's almost feels like quitting. Like, what is the point of living life if I'm always going to be living paycheck to paycheck?

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Yeah, listen, what I would tell that young man is we're all feeling it. We're all there, even from the guy who makes $100,000 to the guy that makes $200,000. Inflation is real, rent is real, interest rates are real. Bro, we're all feeling the same feeling, but this notion of like the goalpost keys moving. So I feel like quitting, it's like that's not an option, bro. Like you have a job, you have potentially a degree, right? If you got a good job, you have a girlfriend, you have a home, you have food, you have shelter, you have the basic necessities of the things you need. And oftentimes where the depression comes from just is not being able to have the things we want. There's a difference. There's things you need and things you want. And when you're not able to get the things you want, that's when you start to feel like, oh man, I'm broke. I I could never climb out of this, this uh, you know, financial trap that I feel like I'm in. So that's the mental reframing I would share with that young man.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

So of everything I read, the one thing that stood out to you was the feeling that he wanted to quit, that he's just like, it's this is pointless. I'm running out of track, meaning that like I'm running as fast as I want. I have the job that I thought would give me the money that would give me the life I wanted. But this was not in our pre-show, but I just thought about it. It is kind of crazy. I've suffered from this. I'm curious if you have, Rich. It's almost like the more money you make, the better you get at spending that more money. Like, if you look at a pay raise and a bonus and you think to yourself, like, damn, that extra $30,000, that extra $10,000 that I'm gonna get this year, income tax, you know, people that do get income tax, it's kind of interesting how poor we are at spending that extra money that we get and how quickly we can fill up the little bit of extra money we get with just bullshit lifestyle creep. And that's one thing that I think has probably happened to this guy because he said at 22 he dreamed of making a certain amount of money and having a certain job. And it's almost like he filled it immediately. And now he says he's running as fast as possible, but he's running out of track. What I took from that is that he feels like he's hit a ceiling. And the more money he made, the quicker he spent that money. So I think we got to get down to monthly expenses. That's kind of where this goes at. And if we're talking about somebody that's paying off loans, paying rent, has a car note, lives with his girl, how would you imagine his expenses are? And what is something that he's probably overlooking?

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Yeah, I mean, listen, two things. One, I think that there's probably a money leakage somewhere, right? Either he has a nice house or he has a nice car or he's just spending money going out to eat or has nice clothes. Like there's something about your spending that's if you make good money, it's leaking in your finances. And that's part of what is making you feel broke. The other part is just just we are guilty of this, and most people do this. We spend our money before we even have it. So you're already, if you're expecting an income tax check, if you're expecting a bonus in your mind, yeah, you already spent that money. You're like, I'm gonna go to Aruba for vacation, I'm going to Dominican Republic, I'm buying this outfit. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

And every time I look at myself in the mirror, I'm like, yo, I'm gonna look good with that watch on. Yeah, I can see it, I can see the money that I haven't gotten already spent on me. So it's an imaginary money on my imaginary watch, on my imaginary wrist, and I'm getting fake compliments from fake people, and the whole fucking circle of life when you try to flex is a fucking Ponzi scheme of fakeness.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

But we're all guilty of it. I am, yeah. We're all guilty of spending that money before we get it. And then when we do get the money and we do spend it, then we want to look around and say, damn, why am I always broke? There's things about your mindset, there's things about your budgeting, there's things about your finances, there's things about your relationship with money in general that are not working in this equation, and that's why you continue to feel broke. But you you have to, I oftentimes say this, you have to self-snapshot, reflect what is it about the way I'm spending money and my relationship with money that's making me feel broke? Where's the leakage?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

And then patch that leak. I love that you brought up leakage because that falls right into the subject that I wanted to get into with you, which is a phrase that comes up a lot if you listen to enough financial literacy, personal finance content. It's something called the lifestyle creep. For those that know what it is, feel free to fast forward this part. But when I learned that concept, it kind of fucked my mind up in a good way because I was thinking, oh shit, that does happen. Over time, you start to learn how to spend a little bit of extra money you have on things you don't need. And that is what we're talking about here, right, Richard? Like the leakage is these little things that you're not paying attention to, that they start accruing and accumulating over a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. And it becomes, if you look at your expenses at the end of the month, it's like, damn, I spent $800 a month on food deliveries and eating out. That $800 could go to your car payment, or that $800 could go to a savings account that will eventually allow you to buy your car out of your lease. So you're not giving up $800 a month when you plan on having a family. I don't want to make this too complicated because we're not a financial channel, but I want to stay on this point of lifestyle creep and leakage. You have a leaky bucket in your bowl of your future finances. And every time you take your little teaspoon of savings and throw it in that bowl, you don't realize you have a whole fucking cup worth of leakage in that bowl. And now you're spending more money, so more money's coming out of your savings. It's a crazy situation that's hard to get out of if you're not paying attention.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Yeah, bro. Listen, subscriptions for me have been the death of my finances, bro. I'm talking Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Paramount Plus, Grubhub, like all those subscriptions, they add up over time. Bro, there's only 24 hours in a day. You can only consume content for so long. For you to have every single subscription, it's like, bro, there's possible ways that you can reduce those expenses so that you're not paying for things month over month that you're not even consuming. And when it comes to Grubhub, bro, like I looked at my statements one month, Just. I'm not even kidding you. It was close to $700. And I looked at my girlfriend and I was like, I could have bought two months' worth of food with the $700. And it would have been home cooked meals, healthier, you know, no saturated fats. Like it would have been just better for us to buy this food than spending money on all these overages from Grubhub. So those are two things that I adjusted in my life that stopped the financial leakage for me.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Rich, a broke habit. We'll call them broke habits. We'll go back and forth. A broke habit that I had when I was younger. And when I say I was younger, this was like a year ago when I was younger. That once I downloaded Rocket Money and started paying attention to my expenses. By the way, Rocket Money, also another fucking monthly subscription, so you can pay attention to your other monthly subscriptions. But once I downloaded, this is an ad basically, I downloaded Rocket Money, I was able to like literally every day I made it my business to track every expense. I wake up in the morning, 5 a.m., I serve myself a cup of coffee, I sit down, and I literally get my iPad and just go through every transaction that I've made every day. And what I started finding was these crazy ass expenses for things that I haven't used or forgot that I was still paying for months ago, years ago. Rich, I had a PNC bank account from when I lived in Jersey from 10 years ago that was charging me $20 a month just to have the account. And then in that account, I was paying some insurance for some bullshit that I stopped using along, bro. I want when I did an audit on all the expenses that I no longer used, it was easily close to $800 to $1,000 a month. And then I added the gambling habit that I have, because I love to gamble on a good sporting event, car payment, insurance, paying someone to do my laundry, paying someone to clean my apartment, food deliveries, and the other fucking Grok, uh Chat GPT, Mid-Journey, all these AI accounts that I pay for monthly to have, I really believe I'm automating my life, but all I'm really doing is paying premiums to have all these subscriptions that keep me working more and more. So that right there, Rich, when I was able to reduce all of that and really get a good idea, okay, what's the cost of my time? Man, I could run the laundry while I, you know, clean up my house, and that will maybe take me an hour, two, two hours a week, and I can get easily $300 back. Car payment, car insurance. I started doubling the payment for my car note with putting money aside to eventually pay myself out of my lease. It took me three years to save the money to pay myself out of my lease, but I was able to double my car payment, put half of it in a savings account, and now I reduced my car payment. I don't have one anymore because I bought my car. So that's so I was able to take this really terrible habit that I had, and I was able to reverse it and try to consolidate that number of leakage in my month-to-month income versus my money going out. So the phrase is you can't fix what you don't face. And I think where that young man was at and where we were at a few years ago, is you're not facing the real issue. And the real issue is doing a little audit on where your money is going and trying to figure out, okay, how do I patch up the leak? And how have I allowed my lifestyle to catch up to how much money I make and what can I reduce from the lifestyle creep? So that is a good little math equation for anybody who had their pen and pencil out right there. That is how you get to your freedom number. Because if you could reduce $1,000 a month, now you can get into the next episode that we'll have, which is what would you do with an extra $1,000 a month to invest in your future? But I do want to take a step back. Lifestyle creep and leakage, it can get anybody. It gets the best of me still. And obviously, Rich, it does to you as well.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Yeah. And listen, part of why you might be feeling broke is the fact that you don't have that magic number. You don't have enough of a savings, enough of a cushion for you to feel like you can take a risk or you can purchase something that you want. Bro, to me, I've I've taken the magic number. I call it something a little different. I call it my peace of mind number, right? Like, what is the number that I need to have in my bank account to enjoy peace of mind? What does that mean? The peace of mind that I can go out and buy anything that I want, and it's there if I want it. The money is there in an account if I want that thing that I want, but I'm buying my peace of mind. If I have an emergency and we need to go to the ER and the surgery is $10,000, there's money in an account that I could tap into and buy that peace of mind. To me, bro, that is single-handedly one of the biggest mindset shifts that I've made, where I've told myself, let's always have that peace of mind number in an account somewhere for emergencies, right? Six-month emergency fund is what other people call it. But part of why you're feeling broke is because you possibly don't have this emergency fund because you're living paycheck to paycheck. And not having that cushion is what's contributing to this feeling of like, oh man, I'm always broke. I want to quit. What's the point? The goalpost keeps moving, and I feel like I can never catch up on my finances.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Rich, I love that breakdown that you just shared. That is most definitely going to be our clip from this because the way you said that was perfect. And I could tell it was true to you because you do have a family. You do have a wife, you do have a home. Imagine not having that money set aside, and there was a crisis, which I could imagine in your in your life, your living situation, it's probably a crisis, quote unquote, an emergency, probably once a month or once every two months, given that you have such young kids in your life.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Yeah. I listen, I have two children, and my biggest fear is something happening to them and me not having the finances to be able to resolve a crisis, like you just mentioned. And that to me will be too much of a negative impact on my personal mental health and make me feel inadequate. The fact that I'm a father of two children, my daughter or son knocked on wood, broke her leg, and needs a cast, and the insurance won't cover it, and I don't have enough funds to pay for this crisis. That to me, as a father and as a parent, bro, is completely unacceptable. So I've built my finances in a way where I do have that cushion where if an emergency were to arise, I could tap into this emergency fund and solve for a crisis.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Rich, I'm gonna walk down the biggest buckets of expenses for young men in 2026. And as I walk them down, I want our listeners and our viewers to really take a pen out and a piece of paper. Don't fucking type it. Write it. I'm you go do it old school. Get yourself a pen. Write this down. What is the rent payment? Rentslash mortgage. But most of the guys we're talking to, they're paying rent. What is the rent? What is the car? What is the food? In food, it's delivery services for food or actual food and going out. What is the flex? The flex is the stuff that you're spending a lot of money on that you know you shouldn't, but you're doing it to keep up with appearances, to keep up with the job, to keep up with your friends. So what do we got? We got the rent, we got the car, we got the food, we got the flex. And at the bottom of that, I want you to write in bright red the truth. Circle the truth. Whatever the truth is, is that that's what's bothering you. That's what has you feeling depressed. That's what has you a part of the 55% of young men that are ashamed to speak about their financial situation with family and loved ones. It's the truth. All those numbers together are adding up to the truth. We are not a financial channel. We are two dudes that have cracked our fucking head so many times doing it the wrong way, that we want to plead to young men here's a better way to do it. We're not saying this is the way you should do it. We're saying this the way this is the way we would do it if we were in your situation. And this is the way I did it, Rich. I was very, very bad with my finances till about four or five years ago. And I started gaining control. And that little math that I was able to do for our viewers, it opened up my eyes to where a lot of my money was going. And that shit helped me out so much because to your point, it gave me a calm. It made me feel better about my situation. It gave me control of my life. Most of the time, when you're living in a world that's paycheck to paycheck, any condition in your car called life is going to be a slippery road. And if you don't take care of the basics of the leakage in your finances or your lifestyle creep, it's going to turn your car into a very slippery situation where you're spiraling out of control. And when you're financially spiraling out of control, you can't even hold on to the steering wheel because now you're at the mercy of an emergency or anything happening in your life that could wipe you out. This episode is really for the person that wants to regain control of the road that is their life. And how do you do that? It's simple. Just go through your expenses and get to that number, that freedom number, or I forgot what you called it, Rich. But in that number is the truth. You have to start with the truth. And I know that's uncomfortable to our community, and we get a lot of backlash for being a little too strong with our guys, but you can't hide from the truth when it comes to money because it's a plus and minus thing. It's not that complicated.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

Just at 19 years old, I was that crash test dummy. I've I filed, listen, I filed for bankruptcy. I got my car repossessed. I was living way above my means. I was $35,000 in credit card debt, all from a relationship that didn't work out, from a car that I had no business financing, and from a lifestyle that I had no business living at 19 with no degree and a part-time job making minimum wage, living way above my means. So I share that to say to our audience, like, bro, we're speaking from a place of knowing. Like, we're just not two dudes rambling about personal finance and telling you guys, yo, this is important. You got to do these top five things. Nah, bro. I filed for bankruptcy. Justin just got good with his money a couple years ago. We're not too far removed from not being good with our finances and rebuilding ourselves to a place where, you know, we're fortunately knock on wood doing well for ourselves and we're able to spend some of the extra money we have on building this platform. But we're speaking from a place of knowing. So learn from our failures so you don't have to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

I mean, you know, this was a tough one, Rich, because as I was writing notes and reading these stories, I related to all of them. It's in it, it's funny. It's in the failures resume on my failures resume. I'm still paying off college loans. I just finished paying off my college loans. We should fucking pop a bottle for that because I now can take that money that I was paying monthly and put it into a business that we're putting together or put it into my future kids 401k or money that I'll have for retirement. This is not the episode for that. That's a little higher level finance. This is really about understanding how cash flow works. Money in, money out. You're not broke. You're just cash flow trapped. You're trying to fill up a 50-gallon pool with a small cup. The small cup is the amount of money you make. The pool is what your lifestyle, what you're trying to pay for. You're never gonna fill the pool given the way your cash is flowing in and the way your cash is flowing out. A lot of financial channels make this shit complicated. It's not that complicated. So Rich and I are just trying to, you know, let you know. I know the gas prices are high, I know egg prices are high, we all live in the same economy, but hear me out. A dozen of eggs shouldn't fucking break the bank if you can manage your money better. It's just to me a cope. And I don't want to go down the negative road, but we have to touch on it very briefly, Rich. A lot of the social chatter, you've said this on previous episodes. Sometimes when people are going through things, they just like to write in forum boards just so they can feel like they exist and they can feel like they're a part of something. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's how our channel was created. We saw how many people were complaining about and living in hell with all these subjects that fall into young men issues that they're trying to face. But there has to be a moment of accountability. You get what I'm saying? Like, yeah, you can't fix what you don't face. And accountability comes with understanding that maybe I have to make some adjustments.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

Yeah, a hundred percent, bro. And I think when you start to self-reflect and think to yourself, damn, I gotta make some adjustments, like something's not working. That thought, bro, I think brings urgency. That urgency brings upon some type of action. And unfortunately, just and this is gonna fucking piss me off that we're gonna get into this, but we have to get into it. That urgency brings upon side hustles and passive income trap and signing up for courses and trying to do real estate and trying to day trading, gambling, day trading, crypto, gambling, like get rich quick, get it fast so you cannot feel broke. The one that pisses me off the most is the passive income one because like that term is so overly used and abused. It's like make money while you go to sleep. If you just sign up for my thousand dollar course, and um, you know, you're you'll be on your merry way to passive income that will make you rich over time, and then you can retire at 65. Like, bro, shut the fuck up. Urgency is good, but the urgency, to your point, is taking action on the leakage and not trying to solve for bringing in more income in a way that's not ideal, right? Because you want to get it fast. Man, I'm just burning up thinking about it because I hate these people that exploit the people who want more money. It's it's it's an exploit at the end of the day. Oh, these people want more money and they don't have it. Think about it, just I want more money, I don't have it, but I'm going to pay you $100 a month so you can give me the cheat code on how to get more money. But this is my last hundred dollars that I have to spare, and I'm giving it to you for you to teach me how to get more money.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Rich, I want to sell our viewers something. What if I told you you can get abs in five minutes and make $10,000 a day while you sleep? I know that we are being facetious when we say that, and we are like, we're being ironic when we say it, but how good does that sound when you hear it? I almost tricked myself right now because I could see myself in the monitor. I was like, damn, I want to get abs in four minutes and I want to get rich while I'm sleeping. Tell me more, man in the mirror. This is the problem with the world that we are currently a part of, Rich. There's a lot of grifting that goes on in our world where they take advantage and their pariah towards young men who are in very vulnerable situations. But you have to know enough to know that passive income only makes sense once you have a certain amount of money. And that certain amount of money is so ridiculous for you to just park that money into a 401k or park that money into the SP 500, set it and forget it, and make $100,000 a year, that is a fucking crackpike dream. It's not going to happen unless you have so much money that the money you make on residual income is enough to float your lifestyle. Now we're not saying passive income is not a real thing. We're not that dumb. Obviously, Rich and I have investments. Rich and I put our money into these vehicles so we can make some money on the side, but it's not going to be enough that you don't have to go out and fucking work. You don't have to go out and create more money. You don't have to go out and learn a skill so you can make more money because what you were making last year wasn't enough for your new family. This idea of passive income is a pipe dream. And anybody that's on pursuit to the passive income, and I do a fucking five days uh I'm on vacation, two days I work, it's a lie. And if you show me anybody that's doing that, they're only doing it for a small window. There's no way you can be living like that for years on end without making a million dollars a year to invest into those vehicles. So we could nip that one in the bud, Rich. That one is one YouTube video I watched, I was like, oh, this is a fucking scam. The next one that really pisses me off, and you told me a story about a friend of yours, which we won't bring it back up because I know it's personal. But this is for the solo entrepreneur. This is for the guy that doesn't have $10 in his savings account, but somehow he's gonna build an empire of a business. If you don't know how to save money or balance your fucking $3,000 a week paycheck, how are you gonna start your own business? You don't even understand the basic principles of making money. You're trying to cheat code the system by following a YouTube guru that taught you a quick way to make $10,000 a month, but you don't understand the basics of finances. In order to be good at business, you have to know that one plus one equals two and simple math: money in, money out. You can't manage your own money, but you want to have a $2 million startup. I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. The math doesn't math. Conquer your personal finances first and then move on to starting a business. Or do both of them simultaneously. But you can't tell me your life is upside down, but you're starting a business. I don't believe you. You need more people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

And just listen, I love that, bro. Think about everything we've spoken about. Like, this all goes back to the mindset shift. It's like you have a leakage in finances, you're trying to keep up with the Joneses, you know, overspending on things that you shouldn't be spending on. You're trying to find side hustles to supplement your income. You're like doing all of these things except fixing the root problem, which is your relationship with money and how you view money and living in reality. Like you said, this take your salary money, write it down on a piece of paper, your yearly salary, and do the division of the fixed assets. What is everything that I spend money on that takes money out of this gross income, right? Whatever's left over, that's what you actually make. That's what you can actually spend on. So if that number is just a thousand dollars, why are you trying to drive a BMW? MW or Mercedes-Benz or a Cybertruck. Like, so then you could end up with $100 and now you can't even take a Shorty to go out to eat. You could take her on a nice ride in the Cybertruck.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Yeah. Now you got to go to Chick-fil-A. You got to go to Chick-fil-A. You eat in Chick-fil-A in the Cybertru.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Oh, you told me there's the uh the Cheesecake Factory story where the sh where the Shorty felt offended that the homie took him to the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, yeah, you gotta do it. By the way, there's nothing there's nothing wrong with eating Cheesecake.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Bro, I love Cheesecake Factory. We that was that was one of our older episodes about are dating apps dead, which we I think we found out they are. Rich, there's something this made me think of. The same excuses and the same deflections I hear from young men who are not able to manage their personal finances, even though they make good money. That's the criteria. I do know there are people out there struggling. I'm not necessarily speaking to them. But if you make good money and you can't manage your personal finances, there are a lot of the complain, blame, and quit that I see in fitness for young men. It's literally two sides of the same coin. It's being mesmerized and being seduced into this idea that there's a shortcut, there's an easier way. Or I can trick people into believing that I'm healthy. I can trick people into believing that my finances are okay. But the reason why those two things correlate so well is because just like health, your finances all come out in the results. So you can tell me, listen, I'm on this English muffin diet where you got to eat an English muffin two times a day in order to get strong. I'll believe you as long as you can show me the results. And I think the same goes for finances. You're telling me about these crypto plays, these gambling plays, parlay of the day. Trust me, I'm not above it. I live in those worlds of gambling and making quick money. But I don't believe these things are gonna change my life. It makes me really sad to see a young man trying to convince me that day trading and moving crypto into meme stocks, it's all a house of cards. You may get rich in a short window, but you can't do it forever because the house always wins. And I think that is something that we have to talk about, Rich. It's this idea of being seduced by the shortcut, this idea of being seduced by the easy win. There are no easy wins. There are no shortcuts. There's just doing the right thing day over day, and eventually it compounds in the future, but not today. And I think that really fucks a lot of people up because they want to get rich now. They want to get fit now, they want everything now.

SPEAKER_03 46:40

Yeah, and listen, that just gave me a thought. Like, part of the reason why these guys are taking that shortcut is because they're trying to live in a false reality. I'm of the mindset, bro, and and I I I really do believe this in my core, that as long as you stay true to yourself and what's real to you, and what's real with your skill sets and your abilities and the knowledge that you possess and everything that is you, your identity, your core being as a person, as long as you operate that 100% and you give 100% of yourself to everything that you're working on, well, the world, the universe has a natural way of reciprocating that back to you, right? So it, you know, if if you're someone in real estate and you fucking dedicate 12 hours a day to real estate, eventually you're gonna get put in rooms where other real estate dudes are making investments and maybe you can contribute to one investment that could ultimately end up paying 10x, you know, whatever you put in. But this idea of like, nah, bro, I'm going to take this shortcut and sign up for this dude who does crypto day trading because he makes 100x and he guarantees you 100x within 30 days, bro. You're falling for the social media matrix, you're falling for the get rich quick scheme. And when you do fall for these things, when you're trying to get it rich quick, I feel like that pulls you further out of the identity of who you are. And you're just trying to live in the in the shadows or accelerate your growth to be like some sort of crypto millionaire, right? Where like that's not you, right? You you're probably doing something completely different. But I think knowing who you are, bro, is so pivotal because it will allow you to not be distracted by all these get money fast schemes and you know, these ultimately these like Ponzi schemes that exist in the world today.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

If someone is charging you money to teach you how to get rich, chances are they're getting rich off of you. That's how they're getting rich. Just real quick, hit your Gemini or hit your Grok or hit your fucking GPT and type in the Ponzi scheme. The original Mr. Ponzi. This guy, Rich, early US, like when it was first like still South versus uh North, was notorious for moving from city to city, state to state, running the original Ponzi scheme. Basically taking money from someone and telling them, by tomorrow, I'm gonna double your money. And then they take your money, they ask your neighbor for money, and essentially they take your neighbor's money and give it to you. And they keep running up the ladder until they run out of people to ask, and then they flee into a new city or state where they have no identity. That's where the original Ponzi scheme comes from. This dude ran up like a $20 million scheme back in the day when millions of dollars weren't even real. He only served like two years in prison for running these plays. It's so easy to sell somebody the shortcut and get away with it. This has been around since the beginning of time. So Rich and I are not wagging the finger at you. We are only at the mercy of what we really, really want and desire. So if you think Mr. Fucking Ponzi back in the 20s was finessing people, you gotta see what these young guys are doing now. And by the way, Rich, I'm not an authority in this space because I never really got into day trading and the crypto world, even though I do have some small investments in these plays. I actually lean on you because I'm pretty sure you've probably seen what this content looks like. And what is it that they're promising them? And what is it impossible about this promise?

SPEAKER_03 50:38

Yeah, like you said, these folks are getting rich off of you, right? So they're trying to educate you, or in some instances, miseducate you on different plays, right? It's hope, though, right? They're giving you hope. Yes, they're selling you hope. But think about it, right? If this person is making a hundred investments and 80 fail and 20 pan out, they're taking screenshots of all the 20 that panned out, and that's what they're serving you. Look at the proof. These are my 20 wins. This could be you. If you just sign up for my course, that's $100 a month, you know, and and that's the trap. And, you know, if we're if we're sharing a little bit of actionable advice, just I think the advice that I would give is leverage the skills that you already possess and maximize on that skill. It wasn't until I doubled down in the IT field and then cybersecurity niche that I was able to break high six-figure salary. It wasn't until I obtained all of these certifications proving that I knew that I was a master in my skill set that I was able to break through and get a high net worth, you know, level job. And the same goes for you, right? Like you broke through a lot of different things in the industry you work in, and I'm sure you could touch on this, where like it separated you from the pack. Yeah. And it's just like, nah, this dude, there's there's something special about the way this dude views e-commerce, views culture, fashion, music, user retention, etc., that makes him special in this field of music marketing. And you make what you make.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

So yeah, listen, Rich, I would say, like, just to simplify it, because I'm thinking about my younger cousins and I'm thinking about family members that are hitting that wall financially, but they do work hard. Sure. And I love that you brought up skills. I almost want you to say it because it's your quote. I'm just borrowing it. What's the number one thing you should learn as a young man? Learn how to learn, right? Is that what you always say? Like, learn how to learn. What does that mean when you say that?

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Learn how to learn, bro, because once that is such a cheat code in life, when you learn how to learn, that is going to build up your knowledge, your intelligence, your knowing. That turns into wisdom, turns into maturity. And that alone, bro, can propel you to gain more wealth in your life. Whether that be learning through audio, listening to us on Apple Podcasts, right? Or you're a visual learner and you like to watch YouTube videos, which were also on YouTube, selfish plug, you know, or or you're a doer, right? You're a reader. You like to pick up a book and actually take notes while you read, whatever it may be for you, but learn how to learn because that is going to 10x your skill set, you know, and you could leverage that to make more money over time. Uh oh. You hit them with the 10x. Don't you got to sell them a course now? Is that how that works? See, that see, that was free. See? I just gave you the cheat code. You could 10x yourself and it was free.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Yeah. I was like, wait, is Rich trying to seduce me into buying a fucking course on how to 10x my life? No, I gave you the sauce for free, bro. I'm happy that we're in this little world of accountability, but with actionable advice because I have a neighbor to the point you just made. I want to paint the picture. So most of the men that feel broke, but they make decent money all suffer from the same four things. It's lifestyle creep, which is maybe you're spending a little too much on luxuries that you didn't have before you made the money. It's usually uh how much you pay in housing. So whether it's rent or mortgage or whatever your living situation is, it's a car, right? We have identified that the car is a big thing. And then one thing which you brought up, which I love that you brought it up because it's so obvious, it's how much you get paid, your current job, what the money coming in versus the money going out. And what I find is there's a bit of a sunk cost fallacy to a lot of these categories in the sense that five years ago you might have gotten yourself into that lease, and now you just keep renewing the lease. Five years ago, you picked a girl that has a girl as a girlfriend that you you've made it turn into your fiance, but she has very extravagant life preferences. She likes to spend money. Every Valentine's Day, Christmas, her birthday, hump day, flag day, you're spoiling her with a nice little gift and she gets you one back. Your friends, they're getting a little older. So you used to go to dinner together, now you travel to different countries together. The rent on your apartment has increased in price year over year because you know, people who own a property, they gotta adjust for inflation. So we checked off the boxes, right? Car getting more expensive, rent mortgage, getting more expensive, lifestyle, getting more expensive. Your friends and your significant other getting more expensive. You know what's not changing in that whole thing? How much money they're making. Yeah, and the sunk cost comes in right here, Rich. The sunk cost is man, but I already got my degree. Why do I have to learn more? Damn, but you know, like, why does the rent have to keep going up in my apartment? And it's this idea that the way your lifestyle is currently, you can't take a step back from it. You can't move into a smaller apartment. You can't go buy a beater so you can catch up on your finances and trade in your Tesla. You can't break up with your girlfriend because financially it just doesn't make sense for you and she has unrealistic expectations. That's the sunk cost. It's because you put so much time and energy into these things that you've always wanted and now you have, then you can't reduce your lifestyle. It takes a lot of pride to walk all the way up a side of a mountain thinking that you were gonna get to the top. And right before you get to the top, you realize, oh, I have to walk back down and take another trail. And that is the 200-level course of this episode, which is the feeling of, damn, I make good money, but I feel broke. It's because you you've hiked too far up a mountain that you can't afford. You either have to come down or learn a new skill so you can make more money. But you can't keep going at the pace you're going because it's causing friction in your life, it's causing tension in your life. So I want to talk about that, Rich, because I think a lot of ego goes into the fact that people will not reduce their current lifestyle because that's just who they are. They're trapping their identity.

SPEAKER_03 57:16

Yeah, I love that. And you know what? I could share a personal story just because sometimes you go back to this phrase of I make good money. But what is make good money? That's like exclusive to you as an individual. When I graduated college, I landed a job at a commercial lending bank. And I thought I was making good money. I got raises, I got bonuses. I was like, oh, this is fantastic. I stayed there seven years, and I was this guy, Jess. I was the guy saying, damn, I make good money, I get bonuses every year, but I still feel broke. Bro, you know what happened after seven years? I I gave the job an ultimatum. Either I make this number or I leave. They came back under that number. Two months later, I had an offer for another job. When I left that job, just I doubled my salary with just one jump. Wow. And then I was like, oh shit, now I'm making good money. You know what I'm saying? So, like, sometimes we we get stuck on this idea of like, I make good money, but good money is relative to you and your circumstances and your situation. But do your research, bro, because what you think might be good money today might not be good money tomorrow. And sometimes these guys often stay at a job six, seven, eight years, ten years, and they feel, damn, I make good money, but I can't get out of this uh feeling broke feeling. It's like, bro, you've been at the same job for over 10 years. Statistically, it is proven that if you go from job to job every, I think, two or three years, you can increase your salary minimum 15% by just making that one move. The people who stay at a job longer over time, they're not getting a 15% raise year over year. They're getting five, maybe six. But you with one jump, you can make anywhere from 15 to 20 to 25 salary increase just by moving to a new job. So I like to share that piece of advice just because I feel like I make good money as relative to you and your own personal life.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

Rich, I have a quote that I pulled from our community forum board that is exact to what you're saying. The quote is listen, I'm just tired of being told to hustle in my nine to five. I don't want another side hustle. I don't want to have to take on another job. And I definitely don't think I have to update my skill set for this company that doesn't care about me. All I hear is what I need to do. But what I really need is a world where one full-time job pays for my full-time life. What is your response to that? Because I feel like that's right in line with what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

My response to that is you're handicapping yourself by not wanting to invest in you, bro. You have to invest in you. It's never about the job. The job is a proxy to solve problems in your life. You know what I mean? The job pays for the lifestyle, the job pays for the bills, the job pays for everything. But saying I'm not going to invest in myself or increase my skill set because this job doesn't care about me, it's like, bro, no, everybody's telling me what I need, but what I need is a world where one full-time job can actually pay for my full-time life. I promise you it can because it pays for Justin's job. Justin's job pays for his lifestyle and more, and so does mine.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

This demonizing the nine to five, this is like a thing I see now more than ever. People demonizing the thing that pays for all their bills, which is confusing to me. It's like, look, I get it. Every job is not desirable. That's why it's called a job. You got to get up and work for someone else's vision. Listen, we're hit to the game. But demonizing the nine to five is crazy. When you could be putting your best foot forward and putting yourself in a position for a promotion, putting yourself in a position for a bonus, putting yourself in a position for, hey, it's not working out here, but I would love to give you a referral in your next job. This fucking energy is crazy. I I need a world that's gonna pay for my no, no, this is not your company. You don't get to decide that.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:25

Let me share a little bit of piece of advice here because I think I know exactly what's happening with this individual. This person is going to work every day and he's clocking in and clocking out and doing a job when what you really should be doing is putting your skills on display every single day. Every day, your skill set, your personality, your character, your abilities to contribute to something to the greater good of the company is on display. That's what you should be working on. How can I increase my skill set so that when I go to work, I can prove my value every single day. Bro, I learned this a long time ago, and I'm so glad I learned it. And, you know, I hope to share it with some of our viewers who are a little bit younger, but do dream of making a job in the 200k range and above. It's like, understand that 200k job comes with 200k expectations. You are expected to perform at a very high level. You're expected to speak to the CEO, CFO, the board of directors, give presentations, do public speaking, and highlight your value to the company. That's the only reason why you're getting paid that much. Think about it. Yeah. So having that ability to show your worth at your job is the mental mind shift, right? Versus, oh, I'm just doing my job, clocking out and going back home and I don't give a fuck anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

It's like, bro, yo, listen, I've heard this a million times in my life. I still hear it to this day. Bro, I don't give a fuck. I don't need this job. So, so what the fuck are you doing here? Are you a hostage? Like, is somebody holding a gun to the back of your head? Like, I don't get it. This idea that you can act as if you don't need it, but you show up every day. Obviously, your employer knows you need it because you wouldn't show up. You would go somewhere else and get your money. So that to me is something that I wanted to address, Rich, because there is like this idea that money is just given rather than money is earned. And this is the same type of person that is like, oh, I'm about to start my own company. It's like you should have empathy for your employer because when you run your own company and you own your own company, you too will maybe have employees and you beg of them that if I trade you $2,000 a week, I'm going to get $2,000 at a minimum in terms of work performance. And I'm hoping to get a little bit more. Now I know that we're not supposed to have empathy for the evil corporation, but when you really think about it, the better you understand the circumstances of a situation, the better you understand how money flows, especially if you want to be a small business owner, it's good to understand the opposition when you're in a debate because it allows you to know everything about the situation that you're in. It allows you to understand, like Rich said, what is it that my direct report or the CEO of this company is looking for from me? Now, if you understand what his responsibilities are, what his goals are, what the pressure that he wakes up to every day in the morning, it would allow you to understand, oh, okay, cool. If I did, if I got this right, I'm making his life easier. And then maybe one day, when you decide to become a solo entrepreneur and you're making millions of dollars, just like your favorite YouTuber who's selling you a course, you're going to need to hire out staff, even if it's automated staff, even if it's international staff. You have to have that empathy with the economy that is the workplace. And if you just show up to work every day and you're on bullshit where you're just like, bro, I don't need this fucking job. They need to pay me enough that I can go and live my life. It's like need. That word need is where you got it fucked up. You have to earn that. That's what a job is. You're only as good as the value you bring to the company. And I don't mean to sound like a company man. I've worked for many corporations. I'm just saying this is how this shit works. If you don't understand it, then you're very, very misunderstood. And Rich, before we get off of this, I don't know if you have a response to that. I do have one more thing I wanted to mention.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:37

Yeah, no, my only response is you want to increase your net worth, but you don't want to put in the work that it takes to increase that net worth, right? Like well said, you have to contribute to your skill set so that your employer can see the value in you. And the more value you bring to an organization, the more compensation you get. It's not complicated science, bro. And we did a whole episode on corporate politics and how. To navigate, like go listen to that one for sure. All those complexities, right? Because you're gonna need those skill sets to get more money and sort of move up the corporate ladder.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

Rich, this was definitely a 101 episode for our earners, guys that are making decent money, but lifestyle creep and um, you know, leakage in terms of where their money is going is something they just got to do a better job at monitoring. I feel like to summarize this portion of the episode is that this is a high energy, an intelligent, a go-getter, or at least at some point in their lives, they they went and got the skill, they got them more money. But they're just they're just just a few oversights on the money in versus the money out. And once you kind of get control of that, you'll see your head and shoulders will be above water and you'll be able to float some of that extra money that you're made that you you're saving yourself. And this is 200 level, but I do want to put it here as a teaser for maybe a future episode, which is the next course level up of getting money and saving money, which was investing your money. We we didn't mention it on purpose. We're not dumb. Rich is one of the most investment savvy guys I know. I just recently started getting a handle on my portfolio to start building for my future. But I wanted to share one really small fact, Rich, and I really want to hear from you on this because this is more your domain. When I was over at Universal Music Group, uh I was in my uh mid to late 20s, and one of my mentors laughed at me because I bought a gold chain. It wasn't this gold chain because I bought it again because I'm an idiot, but it was, I bought myself a gold chain. I was so proud of myself. I was wearing it out of my shirt the whole day at work. And this dude really loved me. Like he had a uh a strong relationship with me. He was one of the first people to give me an opportunity in music. And he asked me, he was like, Look, I'm not, I'm not really looking to be in your pockets, but out of curiosity, how much that chain costs? And I told him. And he said, Look, I love that you have the chain, but the next time you make a purchase that big, come talk to me. Like, I would love to help you manage your money because I I think you're smart, but I think you're gonna you're gonna have to get better at managing your money because I see you're always wearing all the money that you make, which is fine. You're young, you're trying to impress women, you're trying to impress your peers. I'm in a vanity business. He wasn't mad at me, but he did share this one little nugget that Rich, no lie, it was a $500,000, half a million dollar piece of information he gave me. And luckily, he grabbed my laptop and helped me fix my savings account. And to this day, I still thank him. We barely speak, but I still thank him because it was a $500,000 edit he made in my life that changed my life forever. And the way he got my attention is the same way I'm gonna get our listeners' attention. He said to me, Justin, do you know I know a financial trick that will turn one dollar into $20 in 25 to 30 years? And I was like, wait, one dollar into 25? He's like, Yeah, it's like a secret. Nobody knows about it, but since I'm your guy, I'm your I'm your OG, I got you. And then he just broke out a notepad and started writing it. So he did one dollar, twenty dollars. And then he did five dollars. He was like, How much is that? I was like, a hundred. And then he did five hundred dollars, and I was like, damn, that's ten grand. You're telling me if I could put five hundred dollars away today in 30 years, I can have 10 grand. He was like, Yeah, for sure. Guaranteed. I was like, tell me more. He opened up my laptop, he went into my 401k at my work account and was like, look, you have a company match here. They're literally gonna give you free money. Max this out and don't ever look at it again. I promise you, Rich. I was so ignorant of money that I let him do it on my laptop and thank God I hit save. And I never noticed the money was coming out of my paycheck when I was getting paid a little bit of money back in the day. When I got to Sony, where I'm at currently, I opened my fucking account because I had to move it from one company to the other. I couldn't believe how much money I had in my fucking account. Bro, I literally called this man and was like, yo, I haven't spoken to you in years, but you might have given me the best piece of advice, financial advice I've ever gotten in my life. Thank you, bro. And he was like, yo, I'm happy you called me because I do remember that day. But here's a little bit more advice. And he gave me a little bit more financial advice and non-financial financial advice, but I know you can break that down into more like concrete words, but that was crazy to me that I didn't know that piece of information. And I think it's a great segue out of this episode because if you get control of your finances, you can have a little extra money to do this with your money.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:48

Yeah, listen, I I love that story, and and that's the fundamentals, bro. It's like when when you get a job, you need to be analyzing the benefits. The only benefits are not just the salary, right? There's insurance, there's health insurance, there's FSA accounts, HSA accounts, 401k. Like, understand what those things are. And if a company does do a one-to-one match, max that out, bro, because that is free money. And I love that you received that piece of advice. And what I would share with with our you know, listeners is like fortunately, just you had an OG that was able to teach you the game. So if you have OGs around you, bro, be all ears because if you're feeling broke and you have people around you that are wiser with money than you are, chances are these folks might have something to teach you.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

Yeah, shut the fuck up and listen. For real, I'm dead ass serious. I promise you, I would have never done that with my money.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

And I didn't even notice that it was coming out of my paycheck. That's how small the amount was. But do you know, like, I mean, we don't have to get into a financial course, but I do want a young man. I'm thinking about my nephew who's listening to this and is like the the top of his fucking brain might have exploded because he's like, wait, wait, is that like a real thing? He said the word free money that doesn't feel legal. Why is that, Rich? It's just compounding, it's just putting money away for today for tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:12

Yeah, that's part of the benefits of working in a corporation that's doing well and are able to offer that to their employees, you know, as part of their retirement package. And, you know, that's what we're victim to just when we're talking about personal finances and being so young, being in your mid-20s, sometimes even late 20s, is sometimes we're really not thinking that far out. We're not thinking at 65, 66, like you know, a whole bunch of people died during COVID, right? And there were some young guys that were part of that crew. So fortunately, sometimes we don't think that far out, and we just want the money now, and we want to spend it now so we could have all the things that we want, not the things that we need.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:56

Yeah, couldn't have said it any better, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:59

There we have it, man. Failures podcast. Another one in the books. Like we always say, man, subscribe to the YouTube, listen to us on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Peace.