Dollars and Nonsense

In this episode, we will discuss the power of using your imagination with your money. And we will deep dive on outside the box thinking that almost always produces better results than doing what everyone else is doing.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get show notes and resources here:

https://livingwealth.com/e37/

This is a topic that rings true for us and our podcast. You see, there are reasons why like outside the box: Typically, things inside the box don't always produce success. And using the average strategies and tactics will end up netting you status quo finances.

As the tagline of the show states, if you follow the heard you will be slaughtered. The average person goes along with what the crowd is doing without question. And they don't put much thought into it. They relinquish their control to an idea that it will all work out in the end. It has to; everyone else is doing it, after all.

We challenge those beliefs and arm you with the knowledge to question conventional wisdom today.

Financial Outside The Box Thinking Topics Covered:

• Rethinking and questioning 401K's
• How and why 401K's became so prevalent
• The long-term outcome of 'going with the flow' without questioning the destination
• A case story for teaching kids about money and generating passive income at the same time
• Rethinking and questioning the 529 plan
• When leveraging a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) makes sense and doesn't

Episode Takeaways:

"There are reasons why like outside the box: Typically, things inside the box don't always produce success."

"Most of us do a 401K, not because we necessarily believe in it, but because everybody else is doing it. Instead, start asking the question, "Why are you actually putting money into a 401K?""

"I've heard people verbatim say this: "We thought we were doing everything right." It turns out it wasn't enough or some extenuating circumstances took it away from their retirement."

"You have to realize when you put your money even in a 529 program it limits you on what you're able to use it for, and it also can hinder even your kids and their financial aid in going to school"

"Don't be afraid just because nobody else is doing that, that you're wrong. Think outside the box and question the status quo."

"There can be times when it makes sense to use other people's money, whether it's a HELOC or other ways. A lot of people are so locked into trying to get to where they don't owe anybody anything, which is a good goal, but you may be letting the nickel hide the dime."

~ Get show notes and resources here:

https://livingwealth.com/e37/

In this episode, we discuss the effects of hyperinflation on Infinite Banking policies. We also dive into the rise of cryptocurrencies and how you can remain flexible to navigate the issues that are on the horizon.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e36/

Hyperinflation, in a nutshell, is when a country's currency becomes devalued. And people lose trust in the money, consequently.

We've seen hyperinflation in the US to a certain extent back in the 1980's. But we've never experienced anything like what took place in Zimbabwe here in the US.

Some other countries, like Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic, experienced hyperinflation to extreme levels. These are instances where the peoples of those countries were forced to carry around millions of dollars to fill up their cars with gas, sometimes trillions of dollars to do anything. So this is an almost foreign to us.

The problem starts when a government decides to print more money. That's the number one cause of inflation: the increase in money supply. Just like anything in the world, when supply goes up, typically the price goes down. The same thing happens with money.

When the money supply goes up, the value of the dollar becomes less; especially when other countries start to stop accepting the money. Then it can go out of control. This is when hyperinflation is experienced: Rapid inflation.

This inability of governments to 'help themselves' can be said to be one of the contributing factors of the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies.

The big question here is this: What impact does all this have on IBC policies?

We answer all this and more in this episode.

Hyperinflation, Cryptocurrencies, and Infinite Banking Topics Discussed

• What is inflation
• What causes hyperinflation
• When governments and central banks lose the trust of the people they serve
• The rise of cryptocurrencies
• Crypto cryptocurrency confusion
• The impact of inflation and hyperinflation on IBC policies
• Is IBC as an investment or a bank
• Why we need to keep money in motion
• Giving money lots of jobs to make it work for you

Episode Takeaways:

"Hyperinflation is when inflation hyperinflation happens rapidly."

"Many of us think, "We're in a hyperinflation state," yet we honestly don't know what it is. I would say we're totally headed there, absolutely, 100%."

"The world is seeing that the governments entrusted with controlling the money supply is a dumb idea. So, that's why the cryptocurrencies are a thing."

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e36/

In this episode, Ray Poteet is back to share the Infinite Banking History with us. Ray's also going to be telling us exactly what he has done over the past 17-years with Infinite Banking. And he'll open up about the wealth that's been created by following the principles taught through these concepts.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e35/

Infinite Banking History Topics Discussed:

• Where did IBC (Infinite Banking Concept) come from
• When Ray first got introduced to IBC
• The time Ray became very upset with the insurance industry
• The time Ray met author R. Nelson Nash
• When the light really went off for Ray
• The seemingly impossible ways he's leveraged IBC
• Using IBC to keep money in motion

Episode Takeaways:

"As I read the book I became very, very upset. Not upset with the book, but upset with my industry. Why had it had not shared Infinite Banking with me?"

" We went through twenty-six cars in twenty-five years... if I had the ability to use my policies on all of those cars, I would have $323,000 that I didn't have now."

"all of a sudden I thought, "Well this would work for a vacation. This would work for an addition to the house, this would work for new furniture. If I had known this.""

"one thing I've noticed at my age is a lot of people are concerned about running out of money. I can tell you I do not have that fear today."

"Not that it's unhealthy to be a penny pincher but it really turns off the stimulation and kills your dreaming if you're worried about money all the time. You're not as productive or as creative."

"your money's not locked up and you're thinking differently."

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e35/

In this episode, we have special guest Ray Poteet. He shares lessons on the importance of grandparents in the lives of their grandchildren. And we discuss how grandparents can their grandchildren grow with understanding about money how money works.

Ray Poteet helped his grandchildren by what he's done with them and for them, especially financially. As many of you know, he's the founder of Living Wealth a mentor to the hosts of the show.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e34

Being a grandparent and now a great-grandparent, teaching other grandparents what he's learned is a passion of Ray's. So this is a special episode and topic to him.

Speaking about money is often a taboo subject in most homes. But as Ray says,

We teach them how to drive. We teach them how to run on a computer. [...] but we don't teach them about money.

Yet, it took money to buy a car. It took money to buy a cell phone. It took money to go out to eat. It took money to take them to Disneyland. The item that we needed to do all those things we forget to talk to them about.

So let's get to talk about money and other wisdom grandparents can share in this episode.\

Grandparents on Money Topics Discussed:

• The case for getting a parenting mentor
• Getting a grandparenting mentor
• Where to 'park' wealth to be of benefit to future generations
• Learning to actually talk about money
• At what age a policy can and should be started for a child
• Leveraging Infinite Banking Concepts to build a legacy
• The true destroyer of wealth and one way to guard against it
• The advantage of the grandparent's long view of time
• Changing money mindsets

Episode Takeaways:

It takes money to do most of the things we do every day in life. Yet, we forget to ever talk about money with our children and grandchildren.

As a grandparent and great-grandparent, teaching about money is the greatest joy I have right now. And I have the tool to be able to teach them.

I was so used to storing money. I was very fearful of not having enough. Now I'm more concerned if money is sitting and not moving rather than an amount of money.

Teach them motion of money instead of money sitting. Teach them replenishing and recapturing instead of just spending money.

The word God says knowledge is power. It also says in Hosea, "My people perish for lack of knowledge.

In this episode, we will discuss the three best money resolutions. These are simple changes can make for the new year that will actually make a difference in your life.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e33

We have just kicked off the new year. And everyone is trying to figure out what type of resolutions and goals they're going to set for themselves.

I'm going to ask you this: Have you personally ever actually followed through with it a New Years resolution? Most likely the answer is no or not many. The intention is to follow through, and you do good for the first couple days, maybe even the first couple weeks. But then 'life gets in the way'.

So we've come up with a few things that we think can really help people and are fairly simple to change. These are money resolutions they could actually achieve.

Normally with a resolution, it's something you have to give up. Think of these as more of a call to action. They are money resolutions that can help you and your family. And they create a sense of accomplishment versus a sense of failure.

Simple 2018 Money Resolutions Topics Discussed:

• Building emergency funds and rainy day funds
• Aligning what you do and what you believe
• Using money to accomplish what you want
• Setting an investment priority
• Following your passion to make investment decisions
• Being intentional with your charity
• Turning complaints into action
• Building a tribe of support with like-minded people

Episode Takeaways:

Even though they probably would rather do something else. They're not loving their 401K.

Don't just stuff money into your 401K because you have been doing it. But instead, make a sophisticated decision.

Stop doing things you don't want to do with your money just because you always did it that way. Do something you're passionate about with money.

Start giving intentionally, not just going through the motions and almost checking it off the list.

Words don't mean a lot. So stop talking about problems and start doing something about them.

There is hope. That's the biggest thing: You can have hope and nobody can take that hope away unless you surrender it.

Surround yourself with people that want to accomplish financial freedom alongside you.

In this episode, we take a close look at Dave Ramsey's advice on finance. We discuss who it's good for, who it's not good for, some things that he says that is great advice, and other things that some would say would be poor advice.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e32/

A lot of us know who Dave Ramsey is. He is on 500 radio stations across the US.

Some of what Ramsey shares is good and some we would call poor advice. So you need to start asking yourself this question, "Does this make sense?"

The best thing is that he helps people that do not know how to control their spending or to live within their means. And he does teach a disciplined approach to actually budget and live within your means. His advice and strategies are great if you're struggling to get a system in place that gives you the ability to start saving.

The Best and Worst Dave Ramsey's Advice Topics Discussed:

• Who the advice is good for
• Who the advice is bad for
• The wisdom of having an emergency fund
• Budgeting and living within your means
• The advanced topics Ramsey leaves out
• How you're drawn into the stories and miss asking the hard questions
• When "buying term and investing the difference" isn't the right decision to make
• The different kinds of whole-life insurance policies and their annual growth rates
• The whole truth about mutual funds generating a 12% rate of return
• Doing the math on mutual funds for retirement
• The hidden fees not accounted for eating up wealth
• How whole life stacks up against mutual funds
• The differences between good debt and bad debt
• What the wealthy high-level financial players like Robert Kiyosaki do
• When Dave Ramsey doesn't follow his own logic and math with home mortgages

In this episode, we question the notion that you save money using tax-deferred programs. Typically, this is sold through funding your IRA or your 401K. We'll also clarify what we believe a real tax-savings is.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Show notes and resources from this episode can be found here: https://livingwealth.com/e31 We hear a lot from our clients come this time of the year saying, "Hey, I normally fund my IRA or my 401K because my tax bill is so high. The common thought is that you will save money on taxes by funding them. But we have a beef with this. It doesn't actually save money on taxes. It's a smoking mirrors type of thing. What people don't really understand is that on these deferred programs you're not actually saving any money on taxes. They're not called the tax savings programs. However, they are called tax-deferred programs. We discuss in more detail in this episode... ~ The Tax-Saving Hoax of Tax-Deferred Programs Topics Discussed: ~ * Doing the math * Tax-savings vs. tax-deferred * The long-term outlook on tax rates * IRAs and 401Ks * The impact of inflation * Opportunity costs * Leveraging whole life insurance policies Episode Takeaways: "When you put money into the tax-deferred program, you truly are eroding your wealth due to the time and inflation." "Every time you put money where you can't touch it, you're automatically guaranteeing the dollars that come back are weaker." "looking to reduce, not defer, but reduce taxes is to think how you can serve people and start a business."

In this episode, we discuss the fundamentals of ensuring a better financial future. We'll dive seeing the reality of your financial situation. And you'll learn how it's easy to achieve your goals when you have a solid understanding of where you're at right now.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting: https://livingwealth.com/e30 Today's episode is exciting for us to do because it relates very much to something we do every day with people. We try to help people get more comfortable with talking about money and bring a clear reality to where they're at. From there we can show them that it really is possible to get out of any financial situation that you found yourself in. The first step is just finding out where you're at. This is what we mean by reality. So, we're going to talk about seeing this reality and how to build roadmaps that lead you to success. But first, we unravel why some people are afraid to talk about where they're at financially. And we'll uncover why they're afraid of money in the first place. Ensuring a Better Financial Future Topics Discussed:

• Overcoming the fear of looking at and talking about money
• Understanding where your dollars are going and why
• Overcoming the fear of asking for help with money
• Why do people avoid outside advice
• What a financial GPS is and how to use it to get financially unstuck
• Building a roadmap out of trouble

Episode Takeaways: "We know we're getting paid, we know we're paid good money, but it seems like even if we get a pay raise, that money's just gone instantly." "People get stuck with your own thoughts about money, and the problem is your own thoughts are what got you into the problem, to begin with." "The key to a financial GPS is we always need to know exactly where you're at in order for the GPS to mean anything and make sense." ~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting: https://livingwealth.com/e30

In this episode, we will discuss how to leave a better legacy. And we'll share some practical tips you can implement that will help you leave a large and generational legacy for your family.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e29/

Leaving a better legacy is a topic that's dear to our hearts because we deal mainly with the world of life insurance. In episode 29, we're going to talk about some practical steps, as well as some philosophical ones, I guess you could

Today, we're going to talk about some concrete steps. And we'll share some fundamental philosophies, so you can leave a better legacy that will last.

Leave a Better Legacy Topics Covered:

• Figuring out how much money is enough
• Getting rid of poverty mentalities
• The Bible's stance on inheritance
• Ridding yourself of the scarcity mentality
• Setting bigger long-term financial priorities
• Developing and passing down money wisdom
• What we can learn from two of the wealthiest American families that ever existed
• How saving 10% is a myth that could hurt you

Episode Takeaways:

There are two mentalities we scrimp and we save so that we don't really live life at all. And we pass that mentality down to our kids.

Biblically, it says in Proverbs that a good man, a righteous man, leaves an inheritance for his children's children.

We ought to try to leave as much good with [our kids] along with the money [...] instead of having this scarcity mindset.

With an [...] abundance mindset [...] if you start thinking about it that way, it will come to pass.

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e29/

In this episode, we'll discuss how you could easily make over $100,000 throughout your working lifetime by just changing where you hold your emergency money of all things.

~ Access our FREE Infinite Banking Beginner course here:

https://livingwealth.com/beatinflation

~ Get resources and transcripts from this episode by visiting:

https://livingwealth.com/e28/

Emergency funds are crucial to buttressing and protecting our financial life from unexpected catastrophes. But they're not always given the attention they should receive. And, when people do have them in place, they tend to actually lose money unknowingly.

We run into this a lot, where we're teaching people how to use a policy to be their own banker and make a lot more money. But for some reason, there's a mental block, which keeps them from seeing their policy as a bank. They still see a bank account as a bank and a policy as something different. Nothing makes that clearer than when people talk to us about their emergency fund and how they would never want to move that into a policy or something like that.

Today we're going to talk about emergency funds. How to use your policy as your emergency fund, how much more money you could be making with that, and really how a policy has all the characteristics that you would look for in a really great emergency fund.

Emergency Money Episode Topics:

• What is an emergency fund
• Why should everyone have one
• Penalties and taxes for using money from your Roth or 401K in an emergency
• Stepping outside the "bank box"
• The problem with putting emergency funds in a savings account
• How Life Insurance companies are more accountable and safer than banks

Episode Takeaways:

• It is the fund where you put extra money or cash in case you have an emergency, be it a medical emergency, be it the car breaking down, be it unexpected dental work -- anything unexpected.
• Emergency Fund: Liquid money that's easily accessible and it doesn't have any risk associated with it. It's not stuck somewhere.
• Over 30 years, you would miss out on over $130,000 if you left your emergency fund sitting in a checking or savings account compared to a policy.

• Even in the Depression, when thousands of banks went under, most insurance companies didn't go under.