Do you care whether your taxes go up? Do you care if the cost of everything in your life increases? Have you read the stimulus bill? We didn’t learn from the first round and this time is worse.

****Check out my website www.everything.money if you want to get a copy of our free Lifestyle Strategy Template and take control of the direction of your life!

Summary: So out of this entire mess, we are sacrificing the future of our lives and our childrens’ lives to inflation and out of all of all of this, pretend the number was just $190,000 to spend on COVID, then only approximately $66,100 is going directly to bailing out individuals, helping health care systems, funding the vaccine effort and funding agriculture to keep food on the tables. 

Here’s a summary of what is in it since I doubt I’ll get you to read the full 5,000 page report.

Line item #1 – The individual mandate is $1400 checks for individuals making less than $75,000 annually and phases out for people with higher incomes. Married couples can get up to $2800 if they have a combined income of less than $150,000. 

Problem: $1,400 is not the $2,000 that Biden and Harris promised. Also, it’s not enough period for people who have been laid off for months and still can’t return to work due to shutdowns. This is not about laziness. This is about the government banning people from working. We should be giving $10,000-$40,000 checks to individuals who are unemployed based on how many weeks they’ve been unemployed. 

Problem #2 – Why are we bailing out the millions of people who have been able to keep doing their jobs remotely? They aren’t hurting. This money should be re-routed to those who need it or not used at all. This is going to contribute to inflation as the economy rebounds.

Estimated Cost – This part ONLY takes up $422B of the entire $1.9T bill. That’s less than 23% of the entire bill!!! So what is the rest of the money for 

Line item #2 - Expand Child Tax Credit, Child Care Tax Credit, and Earned Income Tax Credit mostly for one year. The plan would raise the $2,000 Child Tax Credit to $3,000, set the credit at $3,600 for parents of children under age 6 and make parents of 17-year-olds eligible. It would also make the credit fully refundable, so low-income households would get the full benefit, no matter how little they earn, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Problem – None. This is actually a good idea and a TARGETED way to get relief to people who need it.

Estimated cost: $143 billion

 Line item #3 - Provide grants to multi-employer pension plans and change single-employer pension funding rules. 

Estimated cost: $58 billion

Line item #4 - Repeal rule allowing multinational corporations to calculate their interest expenses including foreign subsidiaries. 

Problem: As far as I can tell, this has no bearing on the outcome of COVID-19 and providing relief to those who need it and getting people vaccinated. Therefore, its pork and shouldn’t be included

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About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

This week's episode is hosted on the WHOA GNV podcast. We had a mastermind with everyone from professional wealth managers, complete noobs to trading, people who barely knew what crypto was and a recent full-time day trader!

It was a fascinating conversation that covered everything from the Wall Street Bets and GME/AMC debacle with Robin Hood, how to invest in crypto (if at all), what good investing looks like and ultimately, how to make money!

Be sure to check it out and smash the like button Youtube!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sdtdB59Fqs
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/whoa-gnv-podcast/id1381002391?mt=2&i=1000410719480
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/whoagnv/
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/whoa-gnv-podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3vZ0Bg4FJmdx3VPKg4ehMf?si=2ET-VhjXRtqIDUTp_Dau7w

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

COVID-19 has impacted almost every single industry and job in the world. Most for the worst. Few for the better. But everyone has had to adapt or die. 

Quote – “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

THE BAD

How many people were impacted negatively?

42% of Americans said their level of financial security was the same or worse since the pandemic began. 

That is with stimulus checks, payments on mortgages and loans being suspended for certain periods of time, bailouts for businesses to keep people hired and more. Despite ALL that, almost half of people in America are the same or worse. 

The top areas where Americans have cut back have been on dining out (64%), entertainment (61%), clothes and apparel (55%), and travel (52%). While this has helped many Americans save, the significant cutbacks have destroyed these industries and the jobs associated.

Unemployment spiked to 14% in April 2020, and since then 63% have been living paycheck to paycheck.

1/3 of Americans have opened up a new credit card since the pandemic 

Since COVID-19 hit, more than ¼ of Americans have accumulated $10,000 or more in debt.

47% say they ran out of their emergency savings funds. 

82% of people said if they were hit with a surprise $500 expense, they could not afford it! That’s up from about 55% pre-COVID.

THE GOOD

63% of people have started to save more and cut back on discretionary spending.

Considering we set records in 2019 for an average car payment of $554/mo for a new vehicle and $391/mo for a used car, this is very good to see. 32% of Americans have said controlling their spending is their top goal for 2021. Let’s hope it sticks.

For those who have 401ks or investment accounts, the stock market main funds returned anywhere from 9.7% on the Dow Jones to 45% on the NASDAQ. It was a great year for tech and other industries.

Also, homeowners should notice that their property values have gone up since there is a record shortage of homes for sale and a huge demand since interest rates are so low. 

THE UGLY

Things will continue to get worse and more disparate until the coronavirus cases slow. 

Government shutdowns will continue to be sporadic and do significant damage to small businesses if shutdowns continue.

Certain industries such as movie theaters and cruise lines may take years to recover if they do not pivot and adapt quickly to new health standards.

Small businesses in all industries will be forced to adapt to more digital and contactless ways to do business in order to survive the next few years. This is hard to do on a small staff. 

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About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

Are you already slacking on those new year's resolutions? When was the last time you picked up a book that wasn't required reading from school or your job? What are you doing to separate yourself from the others at  your job or in your field to make even more money?

Reading and self-education is one of the few ways to truly get ahead and if you aren't sure where to start, I'm going to give you four books that will help you make/keep more money. 

There are a lot of good books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and How To Win Friends and Influence People and all that. But I've picked some more obscure reads that you might not have heard of before like Essentialism, The Richest Man in Babylon, Who Moved My Cheese, and The Automatic Millionaire. 

These books offer different perspectives that I think are crucial if you want to lock down your financial foundation, free up your time and really work towards the things that are important to you. 

Take my advice and the advice of these books and use it to prioritize, take back your time, quit things that don't matter and start making serious progress on the things that are most important to you!

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

This has to be one of my most requested topics! Where do I start investing? 

That question is going to be different based on so many factors like how old you are, the amount of risk you are willing to take, how much are you hoping to earn, and how quickly?

We will go through four questions that should help you decide what the best investment strategy is for your money whether its $1000 or $10,000.

You have to remember to think beyond real estate and the stock market. There are other investments such as credit card debt, high interest loans, and increasing  your skills by investing in you that should always be considered as well!

So if you've got some money burning in your pocket and you want to take the next step on your financial journey, then let's get started!

***Get my free Lifestyle Strategy Playbook at www.everything.money so you can build a plan to get the life you want.***

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

Have you heard about what has happened on Wall Street and Big Tech this week around GameStop and AMC stocks? Robin Hood is in big trouble for their role in contributing to blatant market manipulation. It was a WILD week that all came down to one thing.

Revolution.

As the news took over, people started bashing Robin Hood and calling out hedge funds and the billionaires behind them for the simple reason that they got beat at their own game. It was a true David and Goliath scenario.

The amazing thing about it all was that people would not sell! Celebrities and business owners like Dave Portnoy and Elon Musk joined in the action. It was downright criminal and a blatant attempt at the rich trying to wrongfully take back what they lost.

All this from a bunch of people collaborating on an internet forum. It was incredible. Give it a listen and share the episode if you know someone who would enjoy it!

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

You can now download my Lifestyle Strategy template for free at www.everything.money

Start with Challenge Question: It’s an age old saying. Money can’t buy happiness. But can it? Like, actual true happiness?

I guess the question is not so much “can money buy happiness” as it is “what do you consider happiness”? 

Quote – “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.” – Clare Boothe Luce

Quote – “Anyone who tells you money can’t buy happiness never had any.” – Samuel L Jackson

For the purposes of this conversation, we are going to define happiness as being able to meet your basic needs, enjoying life experiences and having social ties.  

Going off of my boy Maslow, our basic needs mostly can be pretty much be purchased. So money checks the box there. 

What about enjoying life experiences? A jet ski is a helluva experience. That cost money. Hiking in the park and enjoying nature is free…minus the mosquito repellant. So overall, that’s free. Disney. Money. Stargazing or beach going (if you’re close to one). Free. Watching movies. A little money. Laughing about your favorite movie with friends. Free.

So it goes both ways there.

So, it is possible to have money buy elements of happiness, but its not necessary. However, it is difficult to say that without basic needs like shelter met, that happiness can be found. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it has to be safe and reliable. That usually takes a form of money. So I’d give the point to money on this one.

Study

In a study done with over 450,000 Americans in 2010, they seemed to correlate a magical number of income where emotional well-being (defined as spending time with people they like, avoiding pain and disease and enjoying leisure) was $75,000. 

Adjust for inflation and that’s about $89,000/household. 

This is about the average income where the trend of well-being seems to taper off. The study isn’t sure why but they give a few reasons. But I think I have an idea that they kind of danced around but didn’t hit. LIFESTYLE CREEP.

 $89k for a household is just enough to keep everyone comfortable, have a nice house, maybe a vacation or two a year if you watch your spending. But its not enough to significantly upgrade your lifestyle and take on debt that can weigh you down and cause stress.

41% of Divorced Gen Xers say they did it because of financial issues and dating experts say that money is the number conflict driver in relationships.

 1/3 of couples say they have lied to their partner about debt.

Why is this? Because talking about money isn’t talking about money. It’s a discussion around values, goals, and priorities because that is what we use money towards! 

 The more shallow a relationship, the less these things get discussed and can become problematic in moving a relationship forward if those things digress too much.

 Now having money means that there is more to be blown and not having enough means that stress can increase. So it’s really more about wealth than it is having money.

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

Start with Challenge Question: Do setting goals make a difference in your everyday life? Is there such a thing as a bad goal?

If you planned a roadtrip, but never set a destination, doesn’t that sound kind of ridiculous

Goals give you a purpose and direction. 

Quote – The problem with not having a goal is that you can spend your whole life running up and down the field and never score.

Fact #1 – People who WRITE DOWN goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. That’s it. You just have to write it down. 

 It’s good to have goals in multiple aspects of your life such as: career, education, financial, family, hobbies, fitness and fun!

How to make a SMART goal:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T – Time-bound

 Okay Goal: "Read 3 books"
 Better Goal: "Read 3 books by September 30th"
 Great Goal: "Read 3 books on operating a startup and personal finance by September 30th"
 Perfect Goal: "Read (Book 1 Title), (Book 2 Title) and (Book 3 Title) by September 30th"

Fact #2 – Having someone hold you accountable increases your chances of success to meet a goal by 95%!

If you are married, don’t have your spouse be your only accountability partner. Have close friends or other family members be sure to hold you accountable as well. 

Set goals over time and work backwards. Start with 3-5 year goals. Then 1 year. Then 6 months. Then 1 month. Then 1 week.

Fact #3 – Setting regular goals gets you comfortable with failure and builds up your grit. You won’t be scared to try things that are new or difficult because the fear of failure will be significantly lessened.

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

 Question – Do you need a four year degree to make a decent living? 

 Point #1 – Is the quote by Musk.

 Quote – “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve.” – Elon Musk

Point #2 – A college degree has a direct correlation to value in fields like engineering, accounting and nursing. But increasingly, a degree holds no correlation to the field of work graduates go into. So here are 5 jobs that pay very well and don’t require a degree!

Job 1 – Web Developer

-       There are three kinds of web developer. Front end (the part of the site people see), back end (the infrastructure and behind the scenes stuff) and full-stack developer (can do both front and back end). 

-       They can easily earn $60,000 and a full stack developer can get a six figure salary. 

-       Design exciting websites, work with graphics, and test new features

-       Monitor web traffic and learn to understand customer buying trends

-       Work from anywhere there’s a good internet connection

-       Glassdoor reports the average salary for a front-end or backend developer is around $74,000 but this varies heavily due to experience and can be much higher.

-       A full stack developer can make an average of $95,000 and be much higher based on experience.

Job 2 – Executive Chef

-       Love food? Try being an executive chef! You have to know more than just cooking. You need to be able to manage people and a kitchen as well. 

-       Creating exciting new dishes and entrees 

-       Hire and train staff

-       Follow all food and safety regulations

-       According to Payscale, the average pay is $61,400 

Job 3 – Claim adjusters and examiners

-       Investigate the circumstances of insurance claims

-       Review police reports of incidents

-       Compile evidence from multiple sources 

-       Claims adjusters on average earn around $50,000 but get perks like company cars and bonuses that total over $60,000 in total compensation

Job 4 – Electrical power line installers and repairers (lineman)

-       Installation, repair and maintenance of overhead and underground electrical power lines and auxillary equipment

-       Working on everything from power plants to customer’s homes

-       Jobs in every city with utility, energy or telecom companies

-       Get to work outside, high up and little desk time

-       The average lineman can make $65,000-$74,000 depending on the type of company they work for

Job 5 – Diagnostic medical sonographers

-       Not just about babies, but important for heart and cardiovascular system to detect blockages of arteries, veins and heart (life saving information for many)

-       Only two years for an associate degree and an expected increase of demand for this position by 19% over the next 10 years

-       Jobs in hospitals, doctor offices, medical labs and outpatient centers. There’s also new markets for tr

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Website: lifebuilder.co | LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/stephencourson] | YouTube: [youtube.com/@stephencourson]

About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.

If you want to build a Lifestyle Strategy so you can earn more money and have more time to spend on the things that are important to you, then download my free Lifestyle Strategy Playbook at www.everything.money. 

Join me for a personal discussion on what the lack of gratitude did to me in 2020 despite having some of the most amazing moments of my life happen in 2020.

In this episode, I discuss why practicing gratitude is so important and why it was so difficult in 2020 for so many. Having reasons to complain is not a reason to not practice gratitude. And practicing gratitude doesn't mean you can't complain.

It has been a difficult time for me over the past year yet some of the best things ever happened to me in 2020. So how do we balance that? And what does that have to do with money?

A LOT. 

Whether or not we have enough money all depends on how much money we need and how much money we need all depends on what we need money for. 

Gratitude is scientifically (and just obviously) proven to reduce the things we think are important but really aren't. 

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About Lifebuilder
The Lifebuilder Podcast helps ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders gain clarity, eliminate distractions, and achieve their goals faster. Each episode gives practical strategies for personal growth, productivity, and building a meaningful life. If you want clear direction, better focus, and proven frameworks to win at life and work, this show gives you the tools to get unstuck and move forward.