Quick Note from April: Today’s podcast is Eric’s first solo episode (woohoo!) created in preparation for our “Fun with Finances” class happening Wednesday, March 25th @ 6pm Pacific. (If you miss the sign-up window, a recording will be inside the ARISE membership, and you can begin your free 60-day trial of ARISE here!) We hope you enjoy today’s episode!
You can click “play” above or skim the transcript here:
Hey there, it’s Eric Perry with LearnDoBecome, and I’m sitting here in our little recording area that April often uses. I’m recording my own kind of secret podcast — April doesn’t know I’m doing this, and I don’t generally do podcasts on my own. I don’t think I ever have. I usually join April on hers, so I hope this is valuable and worth listening to.
But I just wanted to come and share with you a few things that we’re doing over at LearnDoBecome, and especially in our ARISE community there. It’s an incredible place where we focus on six things that are really important to building a life of happiness, of peace and joy. In ARISE, we’ve just had a chance to get to know some of the most incredible people as ARISErs — just some incredible community members, fellow journeyers, and fellow ARISErs.
And one of the things I wanted to kind of focus on in this little recording is talking about some of the principles of financial planning, financial management, and getting to a place of financial independence. We’re actually doing a free class for anybody who’d like to come, just to give them an introduction to some of the things that we talk about in ARISE, particularly relating to finance. That class will be on Wednesday night, March 25th, at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and whatever time that is for your time zone. We’d love to have you join us. You’re welcome to sign up and just get the information — the link to the class — by going to LearnDoBecome.com/growth. It’ll just be an hour long.
We’re going to have a lot of fun. The focus is actually making your finances simple and fun, which are two words that typically don’t go with the F word we know as finances. But in ARISE, and in all the things I’ve done helping friends and family work on their finances, I’m a big believer in making it as simple and as fun as it possibly can be — helping each person manage their finances in a way where they can actually see and feel the progress they’re making, and just doing simple things consistently to get those kinds of results.
And I think it’s true in finance as it is in most areas of our lives — consistent effort over time, over a good amount of time, can produce an incredible result. And that consistent effort doesn’t have to be painful; it doesn’t have to be worrisome at all.
So on this call, we’re going to have a lot of fun talking about a number of principles. We’re going to talk about some of the psychology behind money — how we think about it, how we save it, how we invest it. Also, the psychology of spending it, using it for meaningful purposes, and being able to get excited about using it in ways to lift and bless people’s lives.
It’s actually been really exciting. Over the last five years we’ve been doing ARISE, we’ll focus on finances probably twice a year, sometimes three times, because it’s a pretty popular topic. And it’s amazing to watch the ARISErs’ progress and growth in the specific areas or ways they’re intending to make progress, and to hear their success stories. So we’ll share a few of those on the call that we do on Wednesday evening. And even if you’re not able to make it, I encourage you to sign up — we’ll be sending a short, limited-time replay for those who couldn’t make it.
We are going to have some fun giveaways for the people who are on the call with us. But I just wanted to touch on a few principles that we may touch on in that call, and if not, in other future calls or things we do in ARISE — just some principles that hopefully can get you excited about getting a better handle on your finances and not being stressed or worried about them.
One of the activities we are going to focus on for probably 15 or 20 minutes is helping each person on the call make and complete their own financial net worth statement. Now, most people are like, “Ah, I don’t want to do that. That doesn’t sound interesting or fun, or I don’t even know how to do it.” Or they’re just thinking, “I don’t want to see how bad things are.”
What I would say about your financial net worth statement is that it’s just a snapshot — a point in time. It’s like a scoreboard that tells you where things are. It’s not a comparison against anybody else; it’s just to show you where you’re at. And in 15 to 20 minutes, I promise, you’ll be able to — you can download a Google Sheet that I’ve got ready for everybody coming to the call. You literally just fill in the things that you have in your life: your assets. It could be your home, it could be your car, it could be other things — your investment accounts, your bank accounts, other things that are valuable in some way. You just list all those things out and then put a ballpark amount, just a rough guess at what they are. You can simply go back and put real values on those later.
Down below, we’ll list out any liabilities — debts, things that you owe — largely connected to those assets. It could be a mortgage on the house or a car loan. Maybe it’s a credit card bill or two or three, student loans, things like that. And then we’re going to show you how the sheet will automatically do the math to tell you what your financial net worth is, so you can see where you stand.
A lot of people are like, “Well, I don’t want to see that.” But if you don’t know where you are, you don’t know what needs to be done to make progress. And you also aren’t able to see the progress as you’re making it, which is actually really motivating.
So I encourage people to do an update of this little financial net worth statement about every three months. We’re coming up to the end of March — that’s actually the best time to do it, at the end of a quarter — and then we’ll do it again at the end of June, end of September, end of December. Just keep that cycle going. And I promise you, when you see this scoreboard, when you see this snapshot, and you see the progress you’re making, it’s going to motivate you to keep going. It’s also going to point out a few things, or motivate you to do a few things, that are going to help you get into a stronger financial position quarter by quarter.
So if you want to come on that call, we’re going to walk through and get that done in 15 to 20 minutes — no stress, no hassle. And you’ll be able to use that tool every three months to track that progress. I really encourage you to consider that. I promise we’ll make it fun — we’ll be cracking jokes and having a good time while we’re doing it. It’s really not hard at all. But literally, you’ll be able to see how you can start dropping down your liabilities and debts, while you watch your assets increase in value over time.
Another thing we’ll touch on is just watching your cash flow. I don’t want to use the B word and talk about doing a budget. Budgets are extremely helpful, but as I’ve talked with friends and family and others, I’ve encouraged them to take a month or two and just generally track where their money is going — just to see where it’s coming in from and where it’s going. And then once you’ve seen that for a couple of months, it’s actually not that hard to build a budget around that that works for you — one that allows you to spend in the categories that you value. Everybody’s priorities and values around money are going to be different, and that’s fine. Money is simply a tool to help us accomplish the things we value. But once you’ve seen where it comes and goes for a couple of months, you can build a very simple cash flow statement of income and outgo, and give each category a general target for where things should land.
And one of the principles we talk about often is that money is fungible — you can move it from place to place. It doesn’t have to stay in one category. If you decide one month you want to do a lot more eating out and entertainment, you might decide to cut back in another area that isn’t quite as important. It’s a really simple, helpful way to do it.
When we’re on this call, you’re actually going to hear me talk about some of the people in my life that I’ve really been encouraged by. One is my mom, who’s now 75 years old. I’ve been working with her on this kind of stuff for about six or seven years, encouraging her in the places where she wanted a little bit of extra help. She didn’t want to do a budget at first, but after a while — and I was never pushy or requiring her to do anything — after a few months she said, “Okay, I’ll kind of keep track of where things are going.” And then we built a budget from that a few months later, and it’s been incredible.
Over the last six years, she’ll send me a little handwritten sheet that she prints out each month — the same sheet, filled in with a little bit of detail around what she spent. I put it into a spreadsheet for her just to keep track, and she’s staying within the categories she’s set for herself. But it’s actually liberated her, where she can spend quite a bit of money in categories that she values, like gifts, experiences, and activities for others. That’s her love language.
So we’ll talk about how to build a budget — a cash flow of in and out — that really works for you, your life, your family, and your situation. It just opens up a world of opportunities. It’s even allowed her to have a little extra every month that she can set aside and continue investing, on top of what she’s already invested, as she moves toward retirement. She’s in a much better situation now than she ever dreamed of being, even ten years ago. It’s just been really encouraging to watch her.
Her name’s Peg, and a lot of the ARISErs just love Peg because they realize that at age 75, she got her serious start when she was probably in her mid-60s. And they’re like, “Wow, I’m actually younger than that, so maybe it’s not too late for me.” And that is one of the principles I just encourage you with as you’re listening to this and thinking about finances and your own financial independence: it is never too late. You can absolutely start today, make some adjustments, make some simple changes that will literally add up and compound into something far greater than you can even imagine right now.
You’ll also hear me talk a little bit about our 18-year-old son, who’s our youngest. He’s actually been very excited about finances since he was a boy. When he got his first job, he decided he was going to set aside a certain percentage of what he made and start putting it into the stock market — into an index fund, which means it’s spread across maybe the largest or fastest-growing companies in the United States, as a diversified approach. He’s just set aside money month by month for a few years now, and it’s incredible to watch the trajectory he’s on.
Maybe some of you have seen that infographic of how money compounds over time — especially if you put it in early and give it lots of time to grow, how that curve just almost moves straight up toward the later years of life. Wherever you are, if you start today and let money start to compound for you, it will surprise you. It really will surprise you how much it will be.
A number of people have referred to compounding interest or compounding growth as the eighth wonder of the world. We’ll talk a little more about what compounding really means, and even something called the Rule of 72 — where if you take the number 72 and divide it by the interest rate you’re getting, it will tell you how many years it takes for your money to double. So if you invest money at 6% interest, it’ll take 12 years (72 divided by 6). If you’re getting 12% interest, it’ll only take 6 years for your money to double. That Rule of 72 tells you how long it would take your money to double at a certain interest rate. Compounding at 6, 9, or 12%, you can figure out how many years your money will keep doubling, then doubling again, and doubling again.
Many of us have heard that story about grains of rice on a chessboard, or folding a paper in half again and again — you’re doubling it every time. The rice goes from one to two to four to eight, and by the time you get to the end of the chessboard, there’s no way you can even contain the amount of rice you have. Similarly, if you fold a piece of paper in half enough times, it would actually reach the moon. Compounding — when you keep doubling something — really is a wonder of the world.
We want to help you use some of your money to set aside and do that, while still enjoying a quality of life and being able to do things now and in the immediate future that also add to your joy, happiness, and enjoyment of that money.
I’m just going back over some of the things I’d made a note to mention. It’s been really fun to talk with people in ARISE and take some of their questions. We don’t give financial advice or specific financial direction or investing advice, but we talk about principles — especially from really important books we’ve read. I probably have about 20 books that I just love in the area of personal finance. We’ll actually be doing a giveaway during our call on Wednesday night — for those who are on the call, we’ll give away copies of a number of those books. And I actually have maybe even an extra special giveaway I’m debating doing (I haven’t decided — I still need to talk to April about it). But for those who are on the call Wednesday night, we’re excited to reward you in a number of ways for being there and for taking time with us.
The purpose, really, is to help people get a better handle on their finances and on these kinds of elements of life that contribute to being able to live the lives we want. Money isn’t the most important thing by any stretch of the imagination. But when you have enough monetary and temporal resources, you breathe a lot better. Your heart rate and blood pressure are better. You sleep better at night. You’re more peaceful. You know that you have a plan and the resources to take care of the things you need to take care of now, and also things that may arise that you can’t plan for or control. Having those resources available to you just gives you greater peace of mind. And I think it allows you to enjoy your life and your loved ones a lot more.
That really is my primary reason for wanting to talk with and help people with their finances — to figure out how they want to move in a better direction than maybe where they feel like they’re going, where it feels like all their dollars are going toward cost of living and paying down debt or paying interest on debt. We want to help people get out from under that.
Debt does have a place or two where it can be useful and helpful. But by and large, we try to avoid it and get rid of it as quickly as we can, because any money you’re paying in interest would be far better spent by getting out from under that debt — having the cash on hand, saving it up in advance to make those purchases without any debt or financing.
I was actually talking to a friend the other day about a car he had purchased — about a $40,000 car, new. As soon as he drove off the lot, the depreciation and lowering in value starts. It was worth quite a bit less, and though he’d been able to put some money down, the payment on it was about $670 plus insurance on top of that. I just asked him, “Wouldn’t it feel good to have a car that’s entirely paid off — no payments, lower insurance — where you have more cash free every month to do what you really want to do with it?” And he said, “Well, yeah, but how would I do that?”
So we actually got online and I said, “Look, if you’d be willing to consider that same model car, maybe six years older, still in great condition, low mileage, and consider selling the one you have — being able to take the time to find the right car, exactly the one you want, but a little older and used, in great condition, inspected and checked out…” It’s been interesting to watch that discussion progress. I’ve had a few other friends who’ve done that as well — gotten out from underneath a car payment and the higher insurance costs — and what they can do with that extra three, four, or five hundred dollars a month, either improving their quality of life or setting it aside and letting it grow through a conservative, reasonable investment. It’s incredible watching their progress already start to take off.
One of our special sessions in August of last year was helping people recognize that if you start now and are consistent, Dave Ramsey — a well-known personal finance author — has a book called Baby Steps Millionaires. It parallels the findings that Stanley and Danko made 25 or 30 years ago in a book called The Millionaire Next Door, saying that if people will live a moderate, modest, conservative life, set aside money every month, invest it, and let it grow, most people can become net worth millionaires — little by little, letting it grow through their investments, their home equity, and beyond. I’m here to tell you that’s absolutely possible for most people, especially those living inside the United States of America. We have a lot of opportunities available to us that many of us don’t take advantage of.
It was actually fascinating to hear from a number of ARISErs who messaged us confidentially after that session, letting us know that as they’ve been doing some of these things consistently — working with some of the principles from these experts and books we’ve recommended — how many of them have been able to move toward and cross over that milestone and beyond it.
So that really is my hope for everybody who’s working with us: to start today, to start getting a clear picture of what their financial situation is. Even as we talk about that financial net worth statement, a lot of people say, “I don’t know if I want to see it — I know it’s bad.” But how bad is it, really? It can’t be impossibly unrecoverable. And even if you’re at negative $20,000, negative $50,000, or negative $100,000, you can figure out where you’re at and start taking steps and making plans to move forward. So maybe in three months, you’re only at negative $50,000 instead of negative $75,000, or even better. And the coolest thing is when you cross over into the black and watch that number get more and more positive because of your consistent efforts.
I love seeing those transformation stories — people coming from being in debt, having this hole they’re in, and being able to work consistently to get out of that hole and then start building upward, creating the financial future and the lives that they want for themselves, for their family, and for their future.
So again, I know I’ve probably talked about a thousand principles here in a 20-minute recording, and I hope it hasn’t been too boring. But I am just really excited about this — if you can’t tell! I love watching people make progress, achieve goals, and hit milestones that are important to them. And I would love to invite you to come to this free class. We’ll be teaching it on Wednesday, March 25th, at 6 p.m. Pacific time. And again, if you can’t make it for whatever reason, still register. And if you would, share this link with friends, family, and others, and invite them to come have some fun with finances — making them fun and simple, getting a picture of where they are on their financial net worth, and learning a few principles that’ll give them motivation and desire to keep moving forward.
And the last thing I’ll bring up on the financial net worth — when we introduced this with our ARISErs back in January — is that your financial net worth is only a snapshot of your financial standing. It is not a complete measurement of what you are truly worth when you think about all the things that make you meaningful and valuable as a person: your relationships, your work, your abilities, skills, and talents. You have an infinite and inestimable worth. When we say “I know my financial net worth,” we also know there’s a real or true net worth beyond that. We’ll probably touch on that on the call as well — the financial side is just one measurement among many things that give you worth. But it does help to have more opportunities and possibilities when our finances are in a place of prosperity and independence, where we feel like we can really do for ourselves, for others, and give to others in ways that are meaningful to us.
So I will wrap up now. I’ll maybe hand this off to April and surprise her with it! I do hope that you can make it to that class — Wednesday, March 25th, 6 p.m. Pacific time. The link to register and get all the materials we’ll send out to you is LearnDoBecome.com/growth. Again, I’m Eric Perry, and I’m grateful you’ve taken the time to listen. I hope that we can be of service to you and help you in the future. Have a great rest of your day.
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