Good Financial Cents TV

Today I am bringing you the challenge of finding a mentor, getting coaching, or any other way of learning from others that gives you a leg up in building wealth. What’s going on Y’All? Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! I love giving you information, but if you notice at the end of my Wealth Hack Wednesday’s I like to drop a challenge. Today I am going to start with a challenge.

Investing in your 20s is the best...I repeat...BEST thing you can do to set yourself up for success. When I was 20 years old, I was broke. I didn't know anything about investing, I didn’t know what a mutual fund was, I didn’t know how to invest in the stock market, I barely had $100 to my name. By the end of my 20’s I had paid off all of my debt, I was investing in a 401K, I had maxed out my Roth IRA, I was on top of the investment world. I had it all figured out. How did I do this? I found the 7 rules to investing in your 20s. Most people assumed that since I was a finance major I should know about investing. The truth is they didn’t teach you that in college. When I started my career, I didn’t know how to invest. But I got real world experience and knowledge when I started my career as a financial advisor. I started investing with as little as $25/month. I should have started with more, but I felt good with what I was doing. Those first mutual fund investments taught me how to get started in my 20s. So let’s take a look at those 7 Rules: ➡️ 1. Just freaking start [2:40] - It doesn’t matter where you start investing - just START somewhere. ➡️ 2. Respect compounding interest [5:28] - Many people do not understand or appreciate the power of compounding interest. Let’s look at an example at 20 yrs. old investing $300/month with 8% return - you will have a one million dollars by the time you are 60.

Rich Dad Poor Dad has impacted thousands of people with me included. When my buddy Travis read the book he was impacted in a much deeper way. After reading the book he was determined to become a real estate investor. Even though he had ZERO money, ZERO experience, and ZERO mentorship, he didn't let that stopped him and didn't quit until he acquired his first rental property. Since then he has acquired several more properties and with each one becomes more confident in the process. His latest property should net him over $200k in profits. Learn more about Travis' story and enjoy this behind the scenes look at some of his best real estate investments. Travis: There are always deals, whether the market is up or down - you can still find good deals. You will run out of cash doing real estate but you can start partnering and working with other people. You goal is a quick turn around to cash flow - whether you are rehabbing and selling or doing repairs and renting. I try to complete remodels within 30 days. Once you start a remodel, you can run into issues you were not expecting. This can make staying on budget difficult, so it is always best to allow your self a margin to cover these surprises.Owning assets is definitely a major component in building wealth. With real estate I am able to rent some properties for ongoing monthly income and also rehab and sell houses to create cash flow for my company. When you are investing in real estate one of the hardest things can be actually finding properties that will allow you to make a profit. When I first started I was approved for a small mortgage, but I have grown that amount through the years. The biggest thing with real estate is to not give in too soon. You have to stick with it to find the right properties, find the cash flow to make it happen, and then keep building on that. It takes time to build up a real estate investment business. You have to be prepared for the ups and downs.

Today I want to talk about how to become an expert in your field. How to use your knowledge to build wealth and potentially create passive income. At 24 I was fresh out of college and ready to take on the world. I had just completed a two-week intensive training on learning how to become a financial advisor. I was preparing for my first client meeting and I was scared but confident. I can remember thinking that I was really going to mess things up. And I did. I bombed. I started to question whether I should have become a financial advisor, if I had made the right decision. Those people did not become clients, but I learned so much from that first meeting. It taught me how to teach what I knew. I had the knowledge, I just didn’t know how to deliver that knowledge to others. I know many of you have an interest in becoming an expert in your field, but you feel like you don’t have the knowledge or the experience to do so. I want to challenge that belief.

What’s up everybody? Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! I don’t know if this is hacking your wealth, but it is all about building relationships, which can grow your wealth if you do it right.

There was a time in my life where I had over $30k in student loan and credit card debt. I used to use my ATM receipts to balance my checking account. I would get in stupid arguments about money with my girlfriend, now my wife. I can remember one argument where I wanted to buy a new TV using a zero percent credit card. She lost it. That was a pivotal moment and I had to make some tough decisions. Was I going to continue down this path of financial destruction? This path where I didn’t understand personal finance. Was I going to change and be better? Start learning the principles of how interest works, how to invest, how financial tools work? I am thankful that I made the right decision. I committed to understanding the basics. The basics are what you need to build wealth. I came across a study done by CNBC on basic money skills. Only 3% of Americans could answer the 6 basic money questions. I want you to take this quiz with me. Many of you may feel that you don’t need to know this stuff or that it is too hard to understand. ❌ The truth is, it’s not hard and you need to understand it if you want to change where you are right now. If you are ready, get pencil and paper and let’s take this quiz: ➡️ 1. Is a 401K a Tax Credit for retirement? True or False ➡️ 2. Which of the following best describes APY? A. Adjusted prices for inflationB. Annual rate charge for borrowing or earned by an investmentC. Annual rate of return accounting for compounding interestD. Annualized principle payment amountsE. Annuity payout per yearF. Automated payment ➡️ 3. Your income does not impact your credit score? True or False? ➡️ 4. What does a CD offered by a bank stand for? A. Capital defermentB. Certificate of depositC. Collateral defaultD. Collateralized discountE. Commodity dividendF. Credit dividend ➡️ 5. What is the difference between a checking account and a savings account? (Select all that apply) A. Only savings accounts earn interestB. A savings account can’t be used for automatic bill payC. Only checking accounts have overdraft feesD. You can only transfer money from checking accounts to savingsE. Checking accounts are designed for regular useF. Savings accounts are designed for investing long term ➡️ 6. What are the three major credit bureaus (this applies to U.S. only) A. Capital One; Bank of America; JP MorganB. Deloitte; KPMG; Ernst & YoungC. Fannie Mae; Freddie Mac; Sallie MaeD. FICO; Moody’s; FitchE. Transunion; Equifax; and ExperianF. Visa; Mastercard; and American Express Those are the six money questions that only 3% of Americans got all questions right. This will help to show you what you need to work on. Where to invest your time. Do you need to read more, open investment accounts, or going into your bank and asking questions? Let me know in the comments how you did. How many did you get correct? ✔️ Take this quiz, share it with your friends and see how they do and help to empower them. Let’s see how many of these questions you got correct.

Chris Greenwood has had an amazing career as a musician with his band Manafest. But jamming out on stage as a Christian rock star isn't enough for this high achieving entrepreneur. In addition to selling a ton of records he has built an amazing online business. So amazing he currently makes $50k+ PER MONTH from all of his digital products. Here's his story. We have to start with the fact that Chris was a musician first, then became an online entrepreneur. Chris: I actually started as a network engineer before I even started my music career. Doing the 9-5 and driving an hour each way to work. I am still doing music full time, but I kind of got tired of constantly traveling. My streams had gotten big enough where I didn’t have to tour. Then I learned how to market my music online. This led to me creating courses to teach other musicians how to do the same. I started using Facebook ads and YouTube ads to sell my music with upsells on posters, T Shirts and other merchandise. When I would travel I would check out local thrift stores and look at books. I found a book called The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard for $0.50. This book taught me that I could teach what I know and get paid for it. This led to many more books that taught me all about marketing and selling my products. Jeff: Once I get ideas and start implementing I am looking for immediate success. But what usually happens is crickets. It takes time. But when you do get that first check no matter how small it is still exciting. So at what point did you feel like ‘oh wow, this is real?” Chris: I learned a lot from a lot of different sources, books, podcasts, etc. It did take some time to start implementing things. I remember creating my course and putting it up on Udemy. I didn’t make a lot of money in the beginning, but I was selling my course and making money. It took off from there. My wife is an artist and she teaches others artists how to sell and market their art. She also started with courses on Udemy and Skillshare. Her name is Melanie Greenwood and you can find here here: https://visioncity.biz/home18695682 We have so much more freedom now which allows us to spend time with our daughter. It’s not always easy, you have to work for it, but it is so worth it to push through. Jeff: What was the evolution of the things you offered and the ways that you were able to monetize the online business. Chris: When I took my course off of Udemy and started hosting on on my own platform, then I increased my prices and my value. Then I started getting around people that were doing similar things. I hired them to help me get to where they were. Get into that coaching program or mastermind. Shorten your learning journey. You will get there faster and avoid some of the mistakes. You can find Chris here: https://www.manafest.com/gohttps://smartmusicbusiness.teachable.com/  

Today we are going to talk about the best investment to build wealth and get you on your way to earning a six figure income. One of the most common questions I get is “Jeff what is the best investment for me, what is going to make me the largest return on my investment?” Most people are expecting me to give them a hot stock tip! When I tell them the best investment, in my opinion, I get a really strange look. Because this investment takes work. It takes some hustle, grit, and some personal investment. It puts you in a position where you may fail. So let’s find out what this invest is right now……. One of my favorite authors, Chris Guillebeau wrote this book Side Hustle - From Idea to Income in 27 Days. The side hustle is the best investment you can make. Why? It’s no surprise that less than 40% of Americans have $1,000 in their savings. We all know how much minimum wage is right now, we are just not making a lot of money. So how do we increase our income? We do that by starting a side hustle. That is how you get that income insurance or protection. In the book Chris refers to the side hustle as ‘it is more than just another stream of income, it’s the new job security.” Of all the things you can invest your money into, why would you chose a side hustle over stocks or mutual funds? It’s the benefits. Some of the benefits of starting a side hustle: low cost, minimum experience, you don’t need an MBA, no employees, no advanced skills. So what DO you need? You need an idea, time, and determination (grit). Starting a side hustle doesn’t bring in money overnight. You have to stick with it. You have to have the determination to push through the obstacles to get where you want to be. When I talk about a side hustle, I am not talking about UBER or a part time job. I am not talking about trading TIME for MONEY. Instead, we are building an asset that will potentially deliver passive income in the future. This is something where YOU are in charge. You are controlling how you want to do it, how hard you want to work at it, and when you want to do it. So you may be thinking ‘I have no ideas, what can I do” You have to take some time to think about some of the things that you can do. Take the time to sit down and brainstorm. If you are still having trouble check out Chris’s book or his Podcast - Side Hustle School. He interviews so many people that have started a side hustle and are making $500 to $1,000’s of dollars a month. Just to show you that no idea is too crazy, I pulled some from the book: One guy in the UK makes $700/month writing fish tank reviews, another is making a killing making saddles for pet chickens, another sold 75,000 unit of a homemade Gin kit. These people are making bank on a passion that they are interested in. These are just a few ideas to show you the possibilities. But what if you want to make six figures? Well I have some examples for that too! Jeff Jones was the drummer in a popular Christian band. He created a side hustle selling custom drumsticks. He started this side hustle with $600. He expanded to custom bats, coolbats.com. Evan Burse has been a cartoonist for as long as he can remember. This led to him getting a job with Marvel. He started a YouTube channel - the cartoon block - teaching people how to draw. This led to a membership site - Cartoon Block Academy - that has grown to a full-time gig. Chris Greenwood is a musician with a band Manifest. He learned how to use online marketing to sell his music. Now he teaches others, to the tune of a multiple six figure income. Holly Johnson, Clubthrifty.com, is a fellow blogger that started a side hustle of freelance writing. Now she makes over 6 figures a year writing articles, blog posts, and her course Earn More Writing. Michelle has a blog, Making Sense of Cents, and started writing on the side. Now it is her full time gig making $100-$150K/month. So, how do you get started? Take one of your ideas and make $100. Figure out a way to make $100 from this side hustle idea. I want you to know how it feels to implement it and make money from it (without scamming anyone). If you can push past that, you will be blown away. So what is your side hustle idea? If you are brave enough, share how much you made and how long it took you to make that first $100.

What’s going on Y’All? Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! We are going to talk about your morning routine and how to implement some daily planning strategies to help you get a jump on building wealth. You see my videos and you know I talk about my 5am routine and Rich Habits (one of those is waking up early). ⏰ This had a tremendous impact in my wealth building process. One thing that gets overlooked when you talk about the 5am routine is the night before.

Let me ask you a question….. If you lost your job today, how would you pay the bills? How would you take care of your family? How would you generate income to take care of living the life that you need to live. Having multiple streams of income is having income insurance or income protection. It allows you some flexibility if you lose your job, you still have some income coming in to relieve some of the stress. When we talk about hacking your wealth and wealth building, what is the importance of having multiple streams of income? On average millionaires will have 7 streams of income. If most millionaires and wealthy people have multiple sources of income. Why don’t you?

There is no question that the best investment you can make in yourself is reading books. There is nothing that compares with the ROI of reading and taking action on what that book provides. You’ve heard me talk about how wealthy people read books. It's not just me saying this, I wanted to bring on a few people to share results they have achieved by reading. If you stay until the end I will share the book that has helped me make over a million dollars. Gee Nontreah. [4:31] In the summer of 2017 I picked up a book called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. The author talks about taking little steps and actions. I did not have an emergency fund at that time, but by using tips in this book, within 4-5 months my emergency fund held $1,000. The tips in the book also allowed me to pay70% of my credit card debt. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1iiWwey0mEF9X77M5qylPg Eric Rosenberg. [7:19] My favorite book that has changed how I make money is The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I used to have a typical 8-6 job, this book taught me that you don’t have to run your career the way other people expect. Following points in this book, I rebuilt my career, side hustled hard and then took my side hustle full time. I am now making up to 10,000 every month. That is not my biggest month, by far. Joseph Hogue [9:08] In 2014 I had just started my own websites. I wasn’t making as much money as I had hoped. I was frustrated and would have given up if it weren’t for the book Write. Publish. Repeat. By Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. This book helped me see how to fit self-publishing into my blog. This created a new income stream through self-publishing. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbKdotYtcY9SxoU8CYAXdvg Roger Whitney [10:53] The book that led to significant growth in my business is Linchpin by Seth Godin. I was really challenged to ‘take it to the next level.’ I started a Podcast, grew my business over 50%, wrote a book, and made friends all over the world. https://www.youtube.com/user/retirementanswerman Nick True [13:24] The book I have chosen in Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. I implemented the system I learned from this book 5 months ago and have an additional $8,000 in my personal account and $2,000 in a business profit account. Building a profitable business is a slow process, this book has changed the game for me. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfRqvJFJ6LLQ62lKmOUXATw Chris Mamula [16:19] The book that gave me the biggest return was The Simple Part to Wealth by J. L. Collins. Prior to finding that book, I was intimidated by investing and was getting horrible advice from others. Within a year or reading I saved $8,000 in investment fees and $8,000 in taxes. That is 1,000 times return in just one year. Bob Lotich [17:44] I am forever indebted to Tim Ferris and The 4 Hour Workweek. I didn’t apply everything from the book, but if you take one thing and apply that you can make a huge difference. I took this to heart and took a year off last year! It started with small steps like a week off, then a month off. https://www.youtube.com/user/ChristianPFdotcom Jordan Harbinger [18:48] One book that I really liked was Friend of a Friend by David Burkus. David talks about opportunistic network maintenance. He recommends using social channels to connect with friends when they have important life events like a new child, etc. When we see their posts, reach out to them through text, call, or in-person. This has created a ton of opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGLcx_fFZ3GlLXO5anHSm9w David Pere [20:06] For me Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss was life changing. This has changed the way I handle negotiations. Immediately after reading this book I saved over $3,000 negotiating the repair on an apartment complex I was buying. I hope you enjoyed learning about these books and the amazing results these people have seen. My book is Crush it by Gary Vaynerchuk. I read this book when I had just started my blog and social media. Watching Gary and reading this book has helped me use available tools to get my message out there. It pushed me to take it to the next level. I know that I am not the only one and neither are the people you’ve seen on this video. What was the one book you read that inspired you to take action? 

What’s going on Y’all? Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! Today I just want to share a conversation I was having with a buddy of mine. We were talking about creating courses and coaching/consulting. How do you go from having this knowledge, experience, and this desire to help people and turn it into a business. I think a lot of people get stuck here. I was talking to Noah Kagan. If you don’t know him, he has a site called Ok Dork, also the CEO of AppSumo, and employee #30 at Facebook. Just a really crazy kooky guy. I remember when I was wanting to create my course for financial advisors and I was kind of stuck. I had the information but didn’t know how to deliver it in a way that people would get results from it, let alone buy it.

You think you’ve got it all figured out. You read the title of this video #1 Wealth Killer and you think you know exactly what this video will be about. Plus I’m at Starbucks ordering …..a Latte. For those that don’t know New York Times best seller David Bach talked about the Latte Factor in his bestseller The Automatic Millionaire. What the Latte Factor is, he would look at people’s spending, and identify things we spent money on each day. The basic deal is that you could take that money that you spend on little things each day and invest it instead. But, that is not the #1 Wealth Killer. I’m not gonna argue with David Bach, there is no question that we waste money on so many stupid things. Things like lattes, eating out, Uber rides, the lists goes on and on. But there is one thing, one payment that trumps ALL of this. This is not a little expense, it is a huge expense that so many of us are doing. I’m even going to go as far as to say - It is your fault.

Many people think that making a million dollars is impossible. That it can never be obtained. There was a time when I couldn’t imagine making 1 million dollars. My mind couldn’t even go there. When I started making 6 figures and started talking to people that were making 7 figures PLUS. I started thinking, what does that look like? Can I actually make a million dollars? I did some soul searching and realized I needed to make some changes in the way my business we set up. I realized there were 7 stupid things I was doing that prevented me from becoming a millionaire. You have to realize that the things that I was doing that was stupid, are the same things that were getting me results. The same things that got me to 6 figures. But to get to the next level, doing the same things was not going to work.

What’s up everybody? Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! I just had lunch with a guy that I have known for a while, I will share who he is later on. During this lunch meeting, he said something that really took me back to my beginning days as a business owner. As someone that wanted to start something, but didn’t know what I wanted to start or how I was going to do it.

You’re going to laugh when I tell you this. As a financial advisor I have made some pretty fat checks but it does not compare to the day that I made my first $100 online.

Today we are talking about setting goals. I am a certified ‘goal getter’.

What’s up everybody? I’m back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday!

Today I am going to share 6 ‘rich people’ habits that I’ve adopted in my life and how my life has changed. I have seen exponential growth in my life and my business by changing a few small but impactful habits. Before I share these 6 habits I want to give you a little context as to where I was in my life and career. To give you an idea of why I needed to make some changes. So, I have been a financial planner for over 16 years. When I hit 5-6 years in my career and had reached a 6 figure income things were good. But, I felt like something was missing.

Do you know what I love? I love when people tell me that they are TOO busy. They just have too much going on to care about their finances. There is just enough time in the day to get their finaces in order. I don’t buy it. We are all busy. We all have responsibilities and things we have to take care of. One of those things is our financial life. Only 39% of Americans have enough savings to cover a $1,000 emergency. It doesn’t take a lot of time to get your finances back on track. In fact today I am going to share with you four 15-minute fixes that you can do to get your finances in order today. This probably doesn’t come as a shock that many of us struggle with credit card debt. But even worse, one of the things that is often overlooked is something that you can check in less than 15 minutes. This is item No. 1. ➡️ 1. Credit Report/Credit Score [1:36] - You are probably wondering why does that matter? 1 out of every 5 people have an error on their report. ➡️ 2. Start an Emergency Fund [4:07] - Life is going to happen. You are going to need some money tucked away in savings to be able to take care of things that may pop up.

What’s up Y’All, back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! I was recording a few videos and wanted to share something really quick. So what is Wealth hack Wednesday today? We will be talking about a conversation I had with a buddy of mine. He is super successful, a tech CEO making mega millions with his company. Instead of going on vacation, he did a staycation. With all that money why? Well because sometimes it is good to just stay home. He unplugged from all social media, etc. during this time. But one thing that he did was to setup an autoresponder with GMail to handle his incoming email. What makes this a big deal was what he had in his email. He said ‘any email that you sent to me over the next 7-8 days will be automatically deleted.’

So if you are watching my channel, most likely you have some interest in building wealth. You want to become wealthy. One of the most common ways you hear for building and growing wealth is the stock market. A lot of people are nervous about the stock market right now. We are at near record highs and a lot of people are predicting that another economic collapse is just around the corner. We also have another housing bubble that could pop at any time. It can be hard to pick the right stocks. It is reported that the average lifespan of a stock is 7 years. If it is here today, it could be gone within 7 years. It is also reported that the top 4% of all companies account for all of the wealth creation in the market. If you want to make money in the market you have a 4% chance of picking a stock that will make you money. So if you want to grow your money and you want to avoid the stock market, how can you do it?

What’s going on YouTube….I am getting ready to pick up a buddy of mine and we are going to meet up with another buddy. I have so much stuff packed for 2-½ days LOL….so do you ever wonder what other entrepreneurs do when they get together? Today is a fun day because I am here with 4 of my buddies, we are all entrepreneurs, We have some jet skis, some knee boards, all of the fun things. So you are going to see what it looks like when guys get together and have a good time on a houseboat, are you ready?

What’s up everybody? I’m back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! So when you think of wealthy people, I mean the people that have amassed massive amounts of wealth, it’s not a surprise when I say they do things a little different. They march to a different drum than you and I do.

There comes a point in your life where you have to be an adult, you have to be a grown up. There is no more sleeping in, there is no more skipping, there is no more staying out late on Wednesday night just because you want to.

So you’ve probably been told before that you have to become an expert before you can market yourself. Before you can build a platform. Before you can sell a product. What if I told you that is not true? If you don’t believe me, I have an example from someone that is not an expert and has built a 6- almost 7-figure business. You are getting ready to meet a friend of mine, Joseph Michael Nicoletti, he is known as the Scrivener Coach. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2LSQ5MDdOZu0xMSkFc1xNw Check out his YouTube channel here: I’ve known him for quite some time. I’ve meet his wife and his family. We are in a mastermind group together where we get to meet up often. The one thing about him that really blew me away - he has several products geared towards writing. Joe’s not a writer. He’s never written or published a book. Today Joe is going to share more about his story and how he made $10,000 in ONE HOUR - so Joe, share your story... Yes - we were just having this conversation in the car about things that hold you back in business, and things that have held me back. The one thing that comes up all the time is feeling like an imposter. I was experimenting with a lot of things and I came across Scrivener, which is a tool for writers. Here I am a C grade student in English, have never written a book, but I had a thought. Could I create a course around Scrivener? I had fears because I’ve never written a book. The thing is no one asked how many books I had written. What it comes down to is that people just want to know that you know a little more than them. Once we realize this, it takes so much pressure off our shoulders as creators or teachers. You don’t have to be the foremost expert, you just have to know a little more. So, Joe when you came up with this idea, you still had a 9-5 job right? How did you find out about Scrivener and how did you decide that you wanted to create a course? I started a number of different blogs. So I started using Scrivener to organize all my blog content. It’s like when you buy a car and then you start seeing it everywhere. It was like that with Scrivener. I was using it, and I started seeing people writing articles about it. I noticed Michael Hyatt was using it and the comments he was getting from people were “I wished I knew how to use Scrivener, I wished I could learn it, etc. I noticed most of the content out there wasn’t solving a crunchy problem. Think about ‘What’s painful for people that you think you can solve?” I saw this with Scrivener, there was a need for people to learn how to use it. Did you create the entire course before you sold it? I made a little bit, then I reached out to folks one-on-one. I used their feedback to complete the course. So, how much is Scrivener? How much was your course, and how much is your course now? The Scrivener program is priced at around $40-$45, it is priced very affordably. So, at first I was afraid to charge any amount of money for my course. I put a price of $37 on my course but I created a 100% coupon and offered for free in exchange for feedback. The feedback was great.. I got rid of the coupon and started charging $37. Then I added more and more value to the course. Today we have several packages you can buy, the highest being $297. We launched 4-5 years ago and now have over 25,000 students with pages of testimonials about how it has become a game changer for them. So what was the moment where you felt like, I have something here? It was like the moment when the course sales brought in more than I made in my corporate day job over six months. I did a webinar where I shared some information about Scrivener. I then offered that if my audience wanted to learn more they could pick up my course. Within an hour of the webinar we made over $10,000. If you want to connect with Joe you can find him here: @Scrivenercoach on Twitterhttp://learnscrivenerfast.com/ (to learn more about the program)

It’s Saturday morning and my two oldest boys are trying out for their baseball team. It is July, but they are getting ready for fall ball in August. ⚾

Hey Y’All, what’s going on? I am here in Puerto Rico, I am meeting with my business partners and with a new business partner! I recorded the beginning of this video on a different camera that I left at the beach yesterday. So you will not be getting all that recap now. I’ll share more about this later, but I wanted to give you a little intro about what is going on. I’m in the car now with my business partner Jason Patterson, on the way to our meeting with a new business partner. Jason and I met online through Jeff Root (Rooftin.com), then he came to my house, we shook hands and the deal was done. That was back in 2015. We are also with Danny Walker and Giles Canter on our way to meet with a new partner. It was great to be able to meet up with our new partner and introduce myself and my journey to get to this point. We just wrapped up our meeting, we had a lot of good conversation and finished up some paperwork. Now we are heading back to the hotel.

What’s up Y’All, Welcome to another Wealth Hack Wednesday! If you haven’t noticed, I am not at home, I am in Puerto Rico. If you are wondering why, you can watch another video, which I will link in my show notes. I am here because I with a business partner and meeting with another future business partner. That is what I want to talk about today, how do you hack your wealth? How do you grow your wealth? If you have a business, if you are an entrepreneur, if you are looking for exponential growth - one of the easiest ways is to form a partnership. Partnerships can be amazing! They can also bite you. Let me give you an idea of what a good partnership looks like and what a bad partnership looks like. Partnerships can be so valuable when it comes to growing a business. When it comes to your business, your niche, and your expertise, you only know so much. You only know what you know. With a partner, a strategic partner, they can bring on expertise and experience that you don’t have. Finding the right strategic partner can grow your business exponentially. This is what I found in my online business partner. This is a guy that knew things about SEO and monetization that I didn’t know. Another thing he brought to the table was the ability to manage team members. When it comes to management, well, that is not my thing. It doesn’t freak me out, it is just boring to me. I want to be the idea guy That is what excites me! Having a partner allows me to work in the space that I love and that I dominate. There are a few things that define a good partnership. First let me tell you about a bad partnership. I had my financial planning practice and I was going to start my own independent insurance brokerage firm. A guy that I knew had insurance expertise and knowledge of running his own independent brokerage. So I decided to join forces with him. Let’s just say it didn’t quite work out the way I wanted. With any new business or partnership, there is a certain process that I go through to check criteria. One of the things I considered was ‘Is this going to waste my time and distract me from other potential business opportunities? That was a point that I lingered on for the longest time. I think deep down I knew that this would be a time drain. Even worse, I trusted the guy and knew he was hungry for success. After a year, he just disappeared. He didn’t return my calls, ignored my messages, etc. Now, if it was a substantial amount of money I would have went after him, but I felt taking it further would be more of a loss. I just wrote it off and moved on. That is an example of a bad partnership. The partnership with my online business was phenomenal! The way that it is structured allows both of us to operate in our spaces where we can flourish. It allows me to be the visionary while he builds the management team and focuses on the SEO and monetization. It has led us where we are today. It has allowed us to form another strategic partnership. But first we asked ourselves: Can we continue running the business the way that we want without any outside distraction? With this new partnership, that is exactly what we are able to do. With the failed partnership that didn’t work out, that was the one criteria that I knew was going to be a distraction. We have done our due diligence. At the end of the day, we can continue running the business the way that we want without any distraction. We can continue our lifestyles the way they are now. Being able to spend time with our families and not have to put in a lot of additional hours. With this partnership we can continue our lives the way we have been, but it also allows us to open some doors that we didn’t have access to before. We can get that by joining forces with this strategic partner. I am 100% confident that we will be able to do that with this partnership. Before you enter into a partnership, think about some of these things. Think of it like a marriage. Be careful. A partnership is no different than a marriage. Who you partner with is no different that who you are sharing your bed with. If you sign on the dotted line too soon, you have to figure out a way to get out of it, similar to a divorce. It can end badly and you don’t want that. I hope you enjoyed this Wealth Hack Wednesday, stay tuned for next week's hack!

What’s going on Y’All? One of the things about me is that I have been a workout fanatic for a long time. This goes back pre-deployment to Iraq, even pre-military. Basically, when I was in college I started working out. When I was in high school I was a twig, I was 16 and 140 lbs. I don’t know how I played football in High School without getting pummeled. The motivation behind working out was my father having a heart attack at the age of 67. I don’t remember ever seeing my father in great shape. When we came to Nashville, we were in a rental that was smaller than we were used to and there was an adjustment period with us and the kids. I found myself just not working out the way I needed to. I gained weight (which wasn’t a bad thing) but I saw my fitness decrease rapidly. You probably saw this in the Murph video when I talked about it taking me longer than ever to complete the workout.

Is it really a shocking statement to say that 1 out of every 3 people blow their inheritance? I’ve seen this happen - someone inherits money and it is gone within 3 months to a year. All of the money is gone! It doesn’t matter if it is $25K or $1 million. Somehow these people find a way to blow it. I got a subscriber question from someone that inherited a chunk of money and they want to make sure that they don’t blow it or lose all the money. I wanted to be sure to answer their question but I also wanted to make a video for you. I wanted to share the information so that if you find yourself in this situation, you will be prepared to be able to put that money to work. Not only do ⅓ of people blow their inheritance, but it’s not just average people. Statistics show that with wealthy people, OVER 70% of the wealth transfer doesn’t make it past the second generation. Let’s find out what this reader had to ask: “My spouse and I will be Inheriting about $750,000 to $80,000. The payoff balance of our mortgage is estimated at about $180,000 at 3.5% APR for 30 years. Would it be worthwhile to allocate some of the money we are inheriting to pay off the mortgage loan? ” I told you this was a fat inheritance ¾’s of a million dollars! The only inheritance I ever received was about $8,000 from my grandmother. I used most of that to pay off student loan debt, and some for saving and investing. I can see how tempting it can be to go out and buy things when you get a chunk of money. A new house, new car, new clothes, new computers, etc.

If you want to see my butt get kicked...you are in for a special treat today. I am doing a workout that I do every single Memorial Day. This workout is named Murph, it is named after Lt. Michael Murphy who is a Navy Seal that was killed in action. I didn’t know anything about crossfit until I deployed back in 2005. If you’ve heard of Crossfit, you’ve heard that it has blown up, but back then it was fairly new. There were only 2-3 guys that I knew in Iraq doing it. A buddy of mine introduced me to it. But while we were deployed we started doing these ‘hero’ workouts. They are all named after military personnel, first responders, those that sacrificed their life for the greater good. So I was still in Iraq when the Murph workout came out, I was already doing crossfit so I felt like I had to do it. The funny thing about this workout, is that it is the first workout that ever made me puke.

The one thing about me you might not know yet, but you’re getting ready to find out... I am a bit of a shoe junkie!

Do you remember what you were doing at 17 years old?

Good Morning Y’all. Just got back from my title boxing and got my butt kicked again.

I’ve been a part of a few crazy things in my life, but nothing crazier than what just happened last weekend. All it involved was a baseball game, one baseball, a little boy and one fanatic Cubs fan. The rest is National headline history. So what happened? Let me break it down for you. Me and my family are big Cardinal fans. They play every year at Wrigley field. For the past two years the Cardinals have played the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Last year I took my oldest son to watch. This year they played again on his birthday, so we wanted to go back. I also wanted to take my middle son and my wife. So we made a nice trip of it. Before the game the boys got some autographs and snagged some balls. ⚾ They were pretty set before the game even started. Sitting directly next to me at the game were a grandma and grandpa with their grandson, they were all decked out in the Cubs gear and were having a blast. I think the 2nd inning of the game a foul ball was hit and the grandson was able to get a ball with some help from surrounding fans. ⚾ An inning or two after that, a foul ball was hit to the tarp and the first base coach grabbed the ball and walked over and tossed it to the little boy that was next to me. I think he was 3-4. He didn’t catch the ball and it went under the seat. The man behind him grabbed the ball and gave it to his wife or girlfriend sitting next to him. Now, all of us sitting around them saw this and no one said anything because we all knew the little boy had just gotten a ball the inning before. ☺️ Now, the game ends, the Cubs win, we leave and catch a ride back to the hotel. My wife was on Facebook and shared a video clip that her mother had shared. Apparently when that coach tossed the ball into the stands the video cameras were recording this and the commentators were talking about how a fan was getting ready to get a souvenir. Then they showed the clip of the guy getting the ball ‘away’ from the kid with the headline, ‘Don’t be this guy.’

Let’s see if this sounds familiar….you have some money sitting in a savings account and it is probably making next to nothing. If you are not really sure what to do, you have several options.

What’s going on everybody, back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! I just wrapped up another boxing class. This has become my jam this summer, just hitting that heavy bag.

Here’s the thing, I love doing YouTube videos, I love putting out content and I love when people take action on some of the advice that I offer. But do you know what I LOVE THE MOST? The comments! Not the simple “Thank you for the video” - the comments from the haters-Those are the ones that I love. I have been blogging for a while and I am used to these comments now, but I remember in the beginning how much they bothered me. But now, it is just so much fun just proving them wrong. So haters, have fun with this one!!

So imagine getting an email where someone is offering you $150,000 cash.

What’s going on everybody? Today is going to be a fun day, I have my oldest with me and we are going to go see if we can do some retail arbitrage. This is where you go to places like Target or Walmart and buy things on clearance and then try to flip it on Amazon or eBay. We have been wanting to do this for a while, but we’ve been busy with baseball and other things. We are both pumped, because if we make some money we can buy some stuff for Fortnite and other fun things like that!

What’s going on Y'all, I’m back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! Today I want to talk about what it means to be busy vs. what it means to be efficient and getting things done. This is something I struggled with early in my career. As a financial advisor starting out, I had to do everything. I had to meet with clients, do all my marketing, even making copies. Granted, in the beginning my branch manager didn’t think I was going to make it so I didn’t get the support staff that I needed.

Today we are going to talk about a *special* type of account. It is the type of account that you have to have if your goal is to become wealthy. I want to answer some questions like - what is this account - what makes it so attractive - and why or how are wealthy people taking advantage of it. With those that are familiar with how to build wealth, you often hear they invest in real estate, they are entrepreneurs, they are investing into companies, private equity…..you hear all these different ways that they are building wealth. And all of these are true. But the one thing you have to realize is it is not just what they are buying, but how they are buying it. You always hear that the rich always take advantage of all the loopholes and tax breaks, and there is some truth to that, but these are not secret things. These are all things that are public information. I share all of this because this is what led me to opening the type of account that I opened. It is a self-directed 401K Plan. Now you can have a self-directed 401K or a self-directed IRA. We will talk about that a little more. All of this became popular back when Mitt Romney was running for office. When it became public that his personal IRA was worth over $102 Million. This was phenomenal - you know there are limits to how much you can put into an IRA annually. Right now that number is $5,500. So with these limits in place, how do you grow an IRA to that magnitude?

What’s going on everybody? Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday and for this one I am bringing you to one of my favorite rooms in the house.. my work out room.

How did I go from making $19,676.41 to making over 6 figures per year? What were the Four Key Mindset Shifts that I had to make to allow this to happen? So I was going through some old files and I came across my 2004 tax return. This was significant because this was the first tax return I filed after my first year of becoming a financial advisor. ⚡ What a flashback! Just remembering where I was in my life and career at that time. I didn’t come from money and I didn’t have any friends or family that was making over six figures, so i just didn’t associate with those types of people. And that type of mindset. I didn’t know if it was something that I could ever accomplish, I don’t even think this was on my radar as a possibility.

I get asked quite frequently “How do you decide what you are going to record for YouTube? How do you come up with your ideas?”

Hey everyone, I am here in Pigeon Forge, TN at my son's baseball tournament. We are here at the Ripken Experience which is an amazing complex with amazing fields. If you haven’t gathered this yet, the Ripken Experience is named after the Ripken family, but most notably Cal Ripken, Jr. Cal Ripken is arguably one of the greatest shortstops to ever play the game. But what he is most known for is the amount of consecutive baseball games he played in a row. He played 2,632 games in a row. Which is unprecedented. It is a record that people say will never be broken. What we can learn from that is how do you play 2,632 games in a row or how do you work 2,632 games in a row? How do you dedicate so much of your effort that nothing stops you from doing what you were meant or called to do? That is what Cal Ripken did. But here’s the thing, growing up he was known as a power pitcher - he never even played shortstop. In his first season in the minor leagues, he committed a league high of 33 errors playing shortstop. So, many questioned his ability to move from pitching to playing shortstop. So what did he do? He worked at it. He stayed extra, he showed up early. He made a commitment to himself that no one was going to outwork him. So what do we take from this? When you hear about successful business people - these are the ones that dedicate their time, their energy, their life to a goal that they have set for themselves.

What’s going on ya’ll? I’m sitting at my son’s baseball practice and working on our core family values. As I’m doing this, since I’m a quick start and I get big ideas all the time, for some reason I started thinking about a client meeting I had 8-9 years ago. He was the son of a good client. He was about my age at the time, maybe 3 years older. All I knew about him was that he lived out of state, was married with kids, and made good money. My clients, his parents, were excited to refer him to me. He and his wife came in and I got to learn more about their situation. Both he and his wife worked for the same company and each of them were making around $250k a year. So combined they were making about a half a million dollars a year.

Back with another Wealth Hack Wednesday! Today I want to talk about the importance of building a professional team around you. Especially if you have any desire for building wealth.

What’s going on everybody. I wanted to share a reader question that I received:

Don't get ripped off by these shady investments that are basically scams in disguise. I've seen too many people financially wounded from buying this crap.