Wise Money Tools

Wise Money Tools

By Dan ThompsonBusinessInvesting
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Wise Money Tools episodes

  • Episode #5 - The 4 Stages in Life
    As we progress in life there are different stages that most of us go through. Many of us have gone through all four stages, some of you are getting started and others are right in the middle of it. They go something like this: Struggling Surviving Arriving Thriving Struggling – this is the fun one, right? Haha If you've ever had to go through this stage then you know how difficult it can be. It's the time in life where you lose sleep at night wondering how you're going to pay the bills. My wife and I had the privilege of going through the struggling years. We didn't have parents who were very interested in helping us out and making it easy for us. My parents weren't in a position to help even if they wanted to. My first job was as an assistant manager at a new restaurant. The good thing was they let us eat there, any time, and all we wanted. As I wrote in my book, this was a horrible way to run a restaurant and the owners did not understand money. Neither did I at the time, but it was one of my first lessons in life about business and money. Then I became a financial advisor. The problem is I was in a new city, without a circle of influence, and no one really to talk to. Doing business is tough if you don't have someone to talk to. The sad thing about the struggling stage is that debt seems to accompanying the struggle, and in fact might be a big reason for it. When I see, young couples borrowing for everything it literally turns my stomach and my heart aches for them. What really gets me is if I see someone going into the "fast cash" places. Talk about getting yourself in a no-win situation. It's about as close to legalized theft as it gets. Interest rates in the 30-150% range. The problem with struggling is that if you don't have some discipline and dig yourself out of the hole, is that those years can get even worse, and they can last much longer. I remember how easy it was to get into the mess. As an assistant manager, with very little pay, I could not see a way we could buy anything without using debt. Back in 1984, the big technology was a VCR – video cassette recorder. What was even better, is if you had a portable VCR. This way you could plug in this monstrous Video camera and walk around videoing things. My Dad had won a video camera. So, he would let me use it. We just had our first child and of course you want to record memories. Anyway, the cost of a portable VCE was $1300. Can you imagine! 1300 bucks for this beastly piece of equipment with a battery pack that might last 20 minutes. It took me nearly 2 months to make $1300 dollars. I had no business even looking at one. No one counseled with me and I had no understanding of money, so it was easy for the salesman to talk me into 35 bucks a month for the next 20 years….haha, actually it was only supposed to take 48 months to pay it off. Now folks, who would buy a VCR that takes 48 months to pay off? Sounds silly, right? But did you know that there are millions of people who buy flat screen TV's, phones, theatre projectors and all kind of technology using payments. It's still as common today as it always has been. And who's doing the buying – those that are in the struggling stage. Getting out of this stage will give you so much more peace of mind – but it's going to take some discipline. You can do it, dig in, save some money, snowball your debt and get out of the struggling stage. Okay, not that we are all sufficiently depressed thinking about that stage in our lives – let's move on to the next stage. This is the surviving stage. Now surviving is that time of life where you have a job. Maybe it's your first career job out of college. You have enough income to at least keep your head above water. The problem with so many your families is that they went into debt for school. As soon as you get a job the payments begin. There is no way out of them. My first recommendation would be to avoid school debt like the plague. We'll talk about some ways in another podcast or video, but be cautious and do all you can to keep your school debt as low as possible. So, you're surviving. You still can't save much if any, debt is looming over your head each month, but at least you sleep better know you have the income to pay your monthly bills. You also have to be careful here. Any kind of a setback can put your right back into struggling again. A lay-off at works, and injury where you can't work, getting into further debt because you just gotta have that car or a thousand other things. The best way out of the struggling stage is to make yourself a valuable and irreplaceable employee. There is a saying that says something like, you can work yourself into a better job. If you are an irreplaceable employee, you'll always have a job and other jobs will open up as well as opportunity for advancement. Sadly, way too many just do what they have to do to keep their job. Never do any more than what's necessary and are never noticeable and are easily replaceable. That's not going to take you to the next stage! Do all you can to be so valuable that management has to give you more money to keep you around. When you learn, grow, and become the best of the best in whatever it is your career choice is, you'll soon be arriving! Arriving is a great time of life! This is where you are becoming the leader, the go to guy or gal, the person in charge, the person other look to. Your pay increases, you can save money, invest, and now have your money work for you. It's a time where you get to enjoy life, some vacations, and some fun stuff. If you are wise, you'll put away money to be used for opportunities, maybe your own business, maybe an investment opportunity. When you are arriving, your progress is unlimited, you can take a direction in life that gets you where your dreams have been taking you. Arriving is a lot of fun, the peace of mind that financially you're doing great, you have choices, and along with that comes opportunities. The final stage is where we all want to be – it's called Thriving. Now you're clicking on all cylinders, you've defined your path, your objectives in life and you are flying down that path at 90 miles an hour. You are an example and someone people like to be around and want to be like. You are making a difference. A difference in your career, a different in your family, a different of friends and associates who are around you. It's okay to go through the 4 stages. Most of us will or are in the thick of one of the stages right now. There is something to learn and take with you from one stage to the other. I remember hearing a quote many years ago, it's said, Joy in the journey. I know, there are times where you wonder how you can have joy in the struggling stage in life, but often times its at that state where we have kids. I remember the joy of those kids coming into our lives, those were some wonderful times and memories, so even when it's tough, financially speaking that is, there are other events to give us some joy along the way. There is a song that kind of gets to me when I hear the lyrics. It's going to date me a bit. It was by Neil Sedaka, The song was, I miss the hungry years. To tell you the truth, when it came out I didn't appreciate the words, nor understand their significance, as I was a punk teenager at the time. But later, after I'd been through a few of the stages, I heard the song, and suddenly I understood the words and I could relate. The message of the song is during those "hungry years" you're setting goals and dreaming of your future and planning your life and excited about where you're going to be someday. You are struggling, but also excited to take on the world. Then when at some point in life you arrive. Years later, believe it or not, you can miss those years where every day was a challenge where you pulled together as a family. Where the only other person who could understand the struggle, was your spouse. So, you relied on each other and pulled each other up during the down days, sometimes you wondered if life would ever get better. Then it does, and as life progresses, it's true, you can actually miss the hungry years. So, enjoy every stage, but know this, you can and will be at the thriving stage if you set your mind to it and work hard. They say, "the harder I work, the luckier I get." Make your own luck! Then at the very first chance that you have to become a saver and an investor, take advantage of it. Build that wealth tree! Compounding your money is what Einstein calls the eighth wonder of the world. It truly seems to be magical the way it works, but you've got to save and give it time. The longer you can grow and compound the better off you'll be and the longer you will be thriving. Well, that's about it for this video – maybe that song took a few of you back and sparked a few memories. Those who don't quite have the memories yet, you will, that's the circle of life. Those are the four stages – Struggling Surviving Arriving Thriving Where are you? How do you get to the next stage? Are you thriving, but worried about the economy taking you back? That is a legitimate concern. Last thing you want to do is go backwards, right? Don't let that happen there comes a time where protecting your pile of money is critical especially if you don't have time to wait for another recovery. As always, if you have any questions – feel free to reach out and I'll answer them as quick as I can. Oh, and by the way, I've had to change the email address for your questions. Although I love your questions and answer most of them myself, and will continue to do so, there are times where it's overwhelming and I need a bit of help – so please, send your questions, keep them coming, but send them to [email protected] Oh, and if you are inclined to do a strategy session with me personally – where we can talk about your situation and how to make it better - you are welcome to request that in your email as well. Take care!
    20 min
  • Episode #4 - Teaching a college kid about investing
    Benjamin Franklin provides us with an actual rather than a hypothetical case. When Franklin died in 1790, he left a gift of $5,000 to each of his two favorite cities, Boston and Philadelphia. He stipulated that the money was to be invested and could be paid out at two specific dates, the first 100 years and the second 200 years after the date of the gift. After 100 years, each city was allowed to withdraw $500,000 for public works projects. After 200 years, in 1991, they received the balance—which had compounded to approximately $20 million for each city. Franklin's example teaches all of us, in a dramatic way, the power of compounding. As Franklin, himself liked to describe the benefits of compounding, "Money makes money. And the money that money makes, makes money" So how long do you let your money compound? Is it saved one or two years and then spent? Have you ever calculated the value of your money 10, 20, 30 years out? So, the other day in an effort to keep my kids informed – you see – I have this fear that the shoemaker's kids will have no shoes. You know the money guy's kids don't understand money. I wonder sometimes if with all my education, videos, podcasts out there if they listen – so every once in a while, I want to make sure they have the proverbial shoes. Anyway, my daughter just saw a good friend of her get a brand-new car. Now we all need cars and although it's the biggest waste of money, we like to get as new as we can afford, right? Afford may be the wrong word – but let's not go there today. She found out the car cost $20,000. Not a lot of bells and whistles but it was brand new. Our daughter on the other hand had to settle for a little older car with a few miles on it for less than half that cost. I wanted her to see what that really meant in her lifetime. I mean, at 21, still in college most of these kids don't understand how to balance a check book let alone the power of compounding. What do they learn in college? Oh I guess that's another subject So, I asked her about her car. Do you have any idea what that car cost us? She said, like $10,000. And I said, well a little less than that, but let's use that figure of 10k. I said, so you think the car cost us $10,000 right. Let's see…. Have you ever heard of a mathematical formula called the Time Value of Money? She said, no – so there you go, I was worried that the shoemaker's kids had no shoes, and I guess I was right. Argh – I gotta make sure my kids watch my videos and listen to my podcasts! So, my next questions, crossing my fingers, hoping she'd get this one right…. Have you ever heard of compounding interest? She said, yeah, sure Dad I've heard of that. I thought, YES, I did something right! Then she quickly busted my bubble. I've heard of it, but I don't really know what it means – POP – well there goes financial advisor of the year…. Okay my dear, let's just see what happens to money if we can leave it along. I went to a TVM calculator on the internet. These are all over the place and if you haven't played around with one, you really should. Compounding is amazing! What we first did is plugged into the calculator the PV or Present Value of the money. In this case we were using 10,000 dollars. I then had to coach her on the next question because I was certain she had no idea what the answer would be. I asked, what rate of return do you think we could get on this money year after year. As suspected she had no idea. So, I said, let's be really conservative and assume we don't want to lose this money and so let's use 5%. She agreed. Then I said, you are 21. Let's suppose we could let this money grow until you are 65 and ready to retire with your husband, okay? That means we can let the money grow and compound for 44 years. So, we inputted 44 years in the periods box. Then I said, before the drum roll, give me a guess as to what you think $10,000 could grow to at 5% over 44 years. She didn't have even an educated guess, but took a stab at it and shyly said $20,000 as if that was going to be an extraordinarily high number. I said, okay, good guess, well, let's see….drum roll please…. Then I hit the FV – future value button and out came the answer - $85,571 bucks! Her eyes got wide, and I said, you see, that car didn't just cost $10,000 it really cost us $85,000 I future real money, had we been able to leave the money alone and compounding. Now, I said, what if during your let's suppose interest rates went up and down but overall, they averaged 7%. What would that look like? Turns out to be over 196,000 dollars! So now I want you to look at the car – do you think that car is worth $196,000 dollars? Going one step further I said, now your friend just got a $20,000 car. Do you know what that is worth when she is 65? It's over $392,000 bucks! Now again, we all need cars. But if you had $20,000 to spend on a car, but only spent $10,000 and invested the rest – you could be 196,000 richer down the road. The point is friends, is that compounding is almost like magic, it's pulling dollars out of a hat instead of rabbits. It's free, it too never sleeps as it works for you 24-7 365 and never takes a break. Then I said, what if you could buy the car AND still keep your money compounding? What she said, how do you do that? I said, well that will have to wait for another lesson because we are out of time on this podcast. Be sure to tune in and learn how to continually compound – and use your money too. In the meantime, if you have any question – shoot me an email at [email protected] Take care!
    16 min
  • Episode #3 - The Wealth Tree
    Everyone has a wealth tree, large or small, it's there. Knowing how to cultivate and grow your wealth tree can make a big difference in your finances and investing. Understanding the different types of assets, and where they fit into your wealth tree, is critical in keeping your wealth tree strong and immovable.
    18 min
  • Episode #2 - A little bit about Dan Thompson
    This is Dan Thompson and welcome to our Wise Money Tools podcast, it's great to have you with us. I'm really looking forward to doing these podcasts. We have a lot of good stuff planned and I think you're going to get a lot from them and hopefully enjoy them in the process. I've been doing videos for many years, and I think these podcasts is going to be a lot of fun, and extremely informative for you. We have already started off with a bang and thank all those who subscribed and left a review for us, and if you have a second, we'd sure appreciate all the positive reviews. I thought I'd take a minute and give you bit of background about me so you can get sense of what this podcast is all about. I've been a financial advisor for 32, going on 33 years. What I want to do is share with you some of the things I've learned over these past 3 decades, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I want the podcast to be a resource where we talk about a wide variety of topics. We'll talk about all sorts of ideas, strategies, what works, what doesn't work, maybe some shortcuts, and for sure things to keep you out of financial trouble. In this episode, I thought it would be good to lay the ground work, and talk about the mission or goal of these podcasts. One our last episode I shared with you our Wise Money Tools 6 core beliefs that will bring the best chance of financial success to you. So, let me tell you a bit about myself and how I got into this business in the first place. I grew up in Modesto, California, which is in the San Joaquin valley. Lots of grapes and almonds. Back when I was a young buck, Modesto was a great place to grow up. It was safe, we could go all over town and never feel like we were in the wrong side of town. I loved the long hot summers and spent a lot of time at the lake waterskiing with my friends. Throughout my teenage years, I was a laborer. I worked for a construction company and a landscape company. Two of my best friend's dads owned the businesses, so I got to work alongside them each day. I worked more with my friend Scott and his Dad's landscaping business. If digging trenches, putting in sprinklers, putting in sod and plants seems like hard work – we hardly noticed, it was actually kind of fun. Mostly because you're with your best friend, working hard, then playing hard. I pretty much worked for minimum wage, maybe .25 cents or .50 cents more depending on the job. Back then that was a whopping 2.50 per hour. I think my best year I got up to 4 bucks an hour. I remember if I wanted to go to the movies, it cost me an hour's work, and as hard as I worked, the movie better be a good one. Modesto gets really hot in the summer, so we'd get up early and start at 5:00 am when it was still dark, then we'd be done by 2:00 in the afternoon before it got too hot, and off to the lake we'd go. We'd ski until dark, get back home, cook up some burgers, about fall asleep as the sun went down, and then do it all again the next day. My parents weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination. At best, they were just above the poverty level, maybe the lowest of the middle class. I didn't notice too much I guess, I just thought it was life. What I did know is my dad was a hard worker, but there was no way he could buy things for me. If I wanted new basketball shoes, a waterski, or snow skis, or even some new clothes, that was all on me. There wasn't any money to help me out, so I had to learn at a young age, like 12 years old, to save if I wanted something or make do with what I had. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm actually grateful that I leaned to work at a young age. Even though my dad wasn't in the wealthy class, he was part of a church and community where he had some wealthy friends. When I was about 16 my Dad went with a very wealthy friend of his, named Dave, to the Bay Area, which was about an hour's drive – well depending on traffic. My dad invited me to ride along. I pretty much just sat there and listened to them laugh and talk. They started talking about money and Dave was saying that one thing that always worked for him was to live on a lot less money than he made. Seemed reasonable, right? He went on to say, "if I make $30,000 in a month, and can live on $1500, I get to save or invest the difference." I remember thinking, wow, $30,000 in one month! Now remember if I worked 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, I'd make about 500 bucks in a month. This guy made $30,000. That might as well be a million to me. They then talked about how he invested in real estate and the stock market. Then I thought, well if a guy like Dave calls a stockbroker to invest his money, then that broker must be even smarter than Dave. It's in that backseat at 16 years old that I was determined to be a stockbroker. Years later, I didn't quite hit the floor of the NY Stock Exchange, but I landed with a financial planning firm, where I was able to buy and sell stocks as part of my job. My mom died of cancer in 1985, she was only 46 years old. At the time, my wife and I had one young son and we thought it would be nice to be near at least one set of grandparents, so we moved to where my wife was born and raised, Boise, ID. I wasn't sure a California grown kid could adapt to Idaho, but I thought I'd give it go and see how we liked it. I was really concerned about giving up waterskiing. I was relieved to know that Boise has some hot summers too and our waterski season goes from March to October, and in some years, I put on the dry suit and can go even ski to Thanksgiving. I don't want to say too much, but Boise is a great place to live with all kinds of things to do. But we're trying to keep it a secret even though they estimate about 4000 people a month move in from out of state, mostly from you know where…. that's right…California. We've been here ever since and I don't have a day where I regret moving here, it's been a great place to raise a family and stay busy in all kinds of activities and my wife loves the four seasons. I picked up one other interest that is fast becoming my favorite thing to do, and that's to ride snow bikes. What you do is you convert a dirt bike to a snow bike by putting on a snowmobile like track on the back and a ski on the front and man, you can go ride up and down the mountains, through the trees, going just about anywhere you want to go. It is amazing what you can do and how much fun they are, so now I look forward to the winters. Okay enough about Idaho – suffice it to say, we love it here. Well, back to the point of the story. All I wanted to do in life was, work with money, investments, and help people make money on their money. Now let's fast forward. After many years implementing and going down the financial planning and the wall street way of doing things, I came to the realization that a lot of what I was being taught to do - really doesn't work. You've heard that Wall Street is a rigged system or a giant casino, and that can be true for sure. It's also full of brokers and advisors who for some reason can't get out of the box. Most of them are entrenched in Wall Street education, and never took a step back and looked at the process objectively. It became frustrating to me to watch year after year advisors and firms doing the same things over and over again, and no one seemed to see that we were all on a treadmill at best. You know, I've been fortunate enough to work with some very wealthy families, medical professionals, and business owners over the past 32 years. It became very obvious that no one I knew actually became rich or wealthy because they worked with a financial planner. Now let me clarify that statement. Most, if not all, made their money elsewhere, then worked with a financial advisor to invest their money. It made me think way back in the day when I heard my Dad's friend Dave say essentially the same thing. He made his money in areas outside of Wall Street, then would invest some of that money into stocks and real estate. I've often said, there's no such thing as a mutual fund millionaire. What I mean by that is that people don't get wealthy by buying mutual funds. There are millionaires who buy mutual funds, but they didn't build their wealth, solely because they bought mutual funds. I'm sad to report that the financial advisors out there, who do things the wall street way do very little to build upon the wealth one has already acquired. This is what was hard for me to watch and I knew there had to be a better way. It's these "better ways" that we're going to talk about on this podcast. Things such as, how do you create wealth, how do you continue to build wealth, how do you protect wealth, how do you pass it along, why Wall Street and most financial advisors often times do very little to improve upon your situation, and why you should take a more active role in your finances and investments? Just to name a few - there are so many others, and we're going to break them down step by step in these podcasts. I want to empower you to take more control of your financial future and the best way to do that is with knowledge. We like to say - Knowledge, Wisdom, Power at Wise Money Tools. As you gain knowledge, you'll have the wisdom to make good decisions, and when you make good decisions, it gives you power over your money, and when you have the power, you control the ship. Should be exciting! So that's my story. Here we are, almost 33 years later, with tons of experience and I've literally talked to thousands of people over the years, and I'm ready to pass on as much as I can to you. I want you to make very few, if any, mistakes and again control your financial destiny! Remember you can download our core beliefs at our website, wisemoneytools.com Get a copy and see if they can help you with your path towards financial freedom. Our first conversation and the topic of our next few podcasts is going to revolve around the wealth tree. It's a concept that me and my boys came up with years ago and have been teaching to others. I think it will help bring perspective to this whole financial planning stuff. I want to make it easy, the easier it is, the more you understand, the better chance of you taking the lead when it comes to your financial decisions. So, stay on board and let's see how your wealth tree is doing. Once again, thanks for joining us and as a reminder, these podcasts are for your education and entertainment only and should not be taken as investment advice. If you have any questions, send them to [email protected] and I'll do my best to answer them just as quick as I can. We may use your questions on a future podcast as well. And if you have topic you'd like to hear discussed let us know that too. Make sure you subscribe and don't miss an episode! Go have yourself a great week, take care!
    21 min
  • Episode #1 - Our 5 Core Beliefs

    Hi everyone, this is Dan Thompson, and I'm really excited to get these things rolling! So, I want to welcome you to our podcast. I've been asked for a few years when we'd finally get a podcast going and now's the time. As many of you know we have a lot of videos out there, but a podcast can be a little less formal, we'll have some guests, and I think it will be great. I'm excited to share with you, tons of stuff over these many podcasts about money, investing, saving, retiring, business, and just about anything else related to improving your financial lives. I started with the idea that so many people live in what I call the financial abyss. The unknown, and not sure what they can do about it. It's a lonely place full of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. I mean, let me start with just a few questions that so many people struggle with. It's not an exhaustive list of questions by any means, but it's a good start. Let's see how you do. How much money should you save for retirement? This seems like a biggie in so many people's minds – and for good reason, the number may be much larger than you thought, and can be a bit overwhelming. Do you know how long will your money last? At what age is it gone? What rate of return can you expect from the various investments you have? Oh, this will be a fun podcast, truly eye opening, particularly when it comes to mutual funds. How will my family survive without me? Where should I invest my safe money? How do I determine what should be safe money and risk money? How much risk do I really have to take? This is probably one of the most aggravating, frustrating, bunch of garbage put out by Wall Street and financial advisors. They say you have to take greater risk to get a higher reward, it's the old risk verses reward theory, and I mean theory. We're going to turn that upside down and show you why this theory is all wrong! How will taxes affect my future pile of money? I'm sure you know the impact of taxes, but do you know how to avoid them? Is there anywhere you can invest that's tax-free? How much do you pay in fees each year to have your money managed? Are the fees reasonable or am are you paying too much? This is another financial killer if you're not careful. Does your money manager regularly beat the market? How can you take advantage of an opportunity that comes along? Where can you access cash? Finally, how can I learn to manage my own money and control my financial future? This is what wise money tools, our videos, and this podcast is all about. We want to empower you and give you the knowledge and confidence to steer your own financial ship! So, those are just some of the questions we'll be discussing. If you are wondering if you have the right answer, well you are in the right place. – it's going to be fun! As part of our first episode, I wanted to go over our core beliefs – our governing rules – so to speak. Its these core beliefs that drive us, that distinguish us from other advisors, that keep us focused on the prize. These beliefs take us out of the box that way too advisors are stuck in, and pushes us to find strategies, and ideas, and concepts that really work. So, let me hit them really quick and I mean quick. There is no way we can go to deep into each one…. Will dive into them one by one in future episodes and talk about the impact these core beliefs have on families and businesses. Core belief #1: We believe that YOU can make the best financial decisions as to where you invest your money. NO ONE, let me say that again, NO ONE cares more about your money that you do. Yet so many people will take more time reading about places to see and visit during a week-long family vacation than learning how to prepare for retirement. Along those same lines they will take months to prepare and plan for their week-long vacation than to plan for their 30-year retirement. Seems a bit backwards wouldn't you say? Let's stop that madness, we're going to do this by being your education source that will help you with all your financial decisions. Once you learn the principals, understand investments, know what works and doesn't work, you'll be able to steer that financial ship of yours and nothing will feel better or give you greater peace of mind. Core Belief #2: You are never too young or too old to learn and make changes. No excuses here, there is no age where you can't learn something. I don't care if you have one foot in the grave and the other one on a banana peel, you can still improve and learn something to better your financial situation. The younger you are, the sooner you learn, the better life you're going have. Young and old encompasses both ends of the spectrum, so the rest of us in the middle at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years old, we are still able to learn, make changes, and take control. So, weather you are 9 or 90, knowledge is still power. No excuses – you can do this! Core Belief #3: We believe your investments should match your objectives I know that sounds so basic and like duh – but you'd be surprised how many times advisors do the wrong thing for the wrong reason. The truth is everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to saving and investing. The three variables to always look at are: Risk Time Frame Income Potential We'll talk more about each one, what they mean, how to apply them to your situation as we go along. My main concern it makes sure that your investments match up with your risk, your time frame, and when or if you'll need income from your investments. Core Belief #4: Debt and Wealth are enemies of one another! I probably don't have to say too much about this core belief, but if there was one common theme that keeps so many people from acquiring wealth it would be debt. It has been estimated that the average household pays out 34% of all their income towards debt repayment. So, if you are making 100,000 a year, that means 34,000 simply passes through your hands and builds the wealth of someone else, usually the banks, right? Do you know what kind of pressure that puts on your investments? What I mean is that if you saved 10% of your income or in this example $10,000. In order for that 10,000 to offset the 34,000 you are letting slip through your hands, that 10,000 needs to get a 340% rate of return. We'll spend some time talking about all kinds of debt. Good debt Bad Debt School Debt Business Debt Credit Cards And how you can finance yourself, your family, and your business. This is going to be really good stuff – so make sure you don't miss an episode. Core Belief #5: We look for opportunities We call this Wealth Squared – it would look like a Capital W with a 2, or a squared number, next to it. What it means is having 1 dollar working in two different places. Wealth squared! This is pretty unique and exciting, so I'm anxious to share this with you soon. If you look at any one who's found financial success more often than not that person was presented with an opportunity. That might have been to own or invest in a business. It might have been to invest when others were running away. It might have been seizing an opportunity in one of many markets when they go on sale. It could have been by climbing the corporate ladder and earing exceptional income as you take on additional leadership roles. There are so many ways…. The point is, most wealth is built by opportunities that come along. Often times the only way to take advantage of these opportunities is to have cash, money, capital, a means where you can invest. It's at these times where you can buy 10 dollar bills for 5 dollars. When those times come along, we want to be ready. Okay, so those are our core beliefs and everything we do and talk about revolves around them We also like to clone other successful investors – I like Warren Buffet's two rules for investing. Have you heard them? Rule #1 is don't lose money Rule # 2 is don't forget rule #1. I couldn't agree more. This rule of not losing money should be first and foremost to all of us. When we look at places to save or invest our money – if we lose money it makes it all that much harder to climb that mountain. It sets us back, it takes years to eventually, if ever, get it back. What you might find is that you don't have to take risk to build wealth. If we can invest with the Buffet rules, we are going to win the game. Buffet invests in what is referred to as "value investing." The wonderful perk of value investing is that it can be applied to most anything you might want to invest in such as real estate Real Estate Stocks A business I mean we can use the same principals used by value investors for our own money even if you don't buy stocks. Sadly, before I understood the Buffet rules, I lost money, and I'll tell you about those experiences as we go along. To this day it still makes me sick….. This might have happened to you as well….not very fun is it? I like to ask people this question: Would it be better to invent an entirely new way of investing, or clone what great investors such as Buffet, have already proven to work? You know they say that you can always tell who the pioneers are. They are the ones with arrows in their back. Meaning, those that blaze the path have all the scars and the arrows to show for it. Those of us who can follow an already blazed path have a much easier path to follow, without all the arrows. Buffet's style and philosophy is out there for anyone to learn and understand and again, in so many different areas of investing. We can actually clone the best investor in the world! How nice is that? So, we'll be looking closely at how he does what he does, and why he does what he does, and maybe we can learn a thing or two. Alright so there you go - those are our core beliefs. Let me repeat them again quickly. Core Belief #1: YOU will make the best financial decisions as to where you invest your money Core Belief #2: You are never too young or too old to learn and make changes Core Belief #3: Your investments should match your objectives Core Belief #4: Debt and wealth are enemies of one another Core Belief #5: We look for opportunities to build wealth I want you to have a copy of these core beliefs for easy reference. You can get a PDF of list by going to our show notes at www.wisemoneytools.com and click on podcasts, episode #1 Download these core beliefs and stick them on your fridge and begin to be empowered to take control of our financial future. With each podcast and video, it's my objective to build a process of wealth using these core beliefs. Well that's it for this podcast, it's great to have you on board. I enjoyed it, I hope you did too. One thing we are trying to do is involve our audience as much as possible as well. How? We have two ways – By you sending in your questions. I'll try to answer them as quick as I can, but in addition, if it's a question we think many people would like to hear the answer too, we'll try to answer it on a future podcast. The second way is if you have a topic for an episode, we'd love to hear it and we'll try to make it a topic for a podcast. Send questions to [email protected] Now, don't forget to go to our show notes at the wisemoneytools.com website and get your free download of our core beliefs and see if they won't help you achieve your financial dreams too. Also, subscribe and leave us a review, and stay tuned for each podcast. We want to empower you to make wise decisions for yourself – and steer your financial ship to the destination of your choice. Okay, thanks again for joining us and until next time, take care and be wise!

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