5 Proven Ideas to Create Wealth With Entrepreneurship and Unconventional Thinking
EPISODE 222
"The Millionaire Fastlane" by MJ DeMarco is a book about creating wealth through entrepreneurship and unconventional thinking. The book presents a different perspective on wealth creation than the traditional approach of saving, investing, and working for decades to build wealth. Instead, DeMarco presents the idea of creating value for others and building scalable systems that can generate significant wealth quickly.
Become a member here
DeMarco argues that traditional financial advice, such as working hard, saving, and investing, is a slow and unreliable path to wealth. He believes the real key to wealth creation is creating value for others and solving their problems. He also emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship, taking risks, and leveraging technology to create scalable businesses.
Buy the Book at Amazon
Get the summary from Blinkist
The book is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the traditional approach to wealth creation and why it doesn't work for most people. The second part presents DeMarco's philosophy of creating value and building scalable businesses. The third part provides practical advice on implementing the principles presented in the book and creating wealth.
Overall, "The Millionaire Fastlane" challenges conventional wisdom on wealth creation and offers a refreshing perspective on entrepreneurship and financial success. It encourages readers to think differently and take action to achieve their financial goals.
INTRO
Dave Ramsey introduces the 7 Baby Steps within the Total Money Makeover, by focusing on steps 1 and 2
Save and Snowball (3m27)
MINDSET
Swedish Investor helps us accept that we need to be realistic with our finances
No More Denial (2m19)
WHERE TO START
Dave and Jess from the Ramsey Show talk through the need for patience and resilience
How to stay motivated (4m25)
Dave breaks down a caller’s situation, and how money is a tool
Get rid of the debt (3m41)
OUTRO
Dave closes the show with a call to action: take ownership of your money decisions, and the value of KISS
The secrets of the rich (3m40)
Buy Total Money Makeover from Amazon
Buy Summary of Total Money Makeover from Blinkist
Transcript
ms222
[00:00:00] Mike Parsons: Hello and welcome to the Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 222. I'm your co-host, Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by Mr. Mark Pearson. Freeland. Good
[00:00:12] Mark Pearson Freeland: morning, mark. Hey, good morning Mike and good morning listeners and subscribers. Boy, do we have an action-packed episode number 222. Mike, I'm loving that alliteration, I'm loving this this trio of twos.
[00:00:26] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think what a perfect bookend we have for this current series that we're doing on mar money, but also the build that we can do based on that. First series on financial wellbeing that we did a few months ago as well. I think today we've got a bit of an action packed episode, don't we? We do.
[00:00:43] Mike Parsons: I think 2 22 just sounds fast,
[00:00:46] Mark Pearson Freeland: doesn't it, mark?
[00:00:47] Mark Pearson Freeland: Oh, it does sound fast. You're right. Moving at 222 kilometers, miles, maybe just millionaires, who knows? Is. MJ DeMarco and the Millionaire Fast Lane. MJ DeMarco is an entrepreneur, author. He's actually a well renowned, get rich, slow anti guru as he puts it on his website, which I quite liked. Mike, a get rich, slow anti guru who I think is gonna have a lot of.
[00:01:15] Mark Pearson Freeland: New insights as well as a lot of practical tips with regards to how we think about money, but also how we go out and try to achieve it. And I think the builds that MJ is gonna put forward to us today are, additional elements that we can apply as we've already. Delved into the work of Morgan Houser, the Psychology of Money, as well as last week with Dave Ramsey's the Total Money Makeover.
[00:01:40] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think as a package, what we're finding is the Millionaire Fast Lane is helping us crack that code to wealth, isn't it?
[00:01:48] Mike Parsons: I think he brings dj mj DeMarco, he really brings a new level. I think go, if you were to zoom out a little bit, Dave Ramsey was all about live within your means.
[00:02:02] Mike Parsons: Get on top of your finances, knowing what you're spending and earning, and that's a great foundation. Morgan Houser was like, okay, now you've saved a bit of money. You need to go and invest that. And he was helping us understand the psychology of the markets. The psychology of investing. I think the great thing for our listeners is that mj DeMarco takes it to another level.
[00:02:22] Mike Parsons: He says, you can get rich. Slowly, but you can also do it fast as well. And this takes a really big step, something that is very close to our hearts. It really takes us towards entrepreneurship. So what we have ahead of us in this show is with NJ DeMarco is really the opportunity to look comprehensively at wealth management and in particular, We don't just want our money to work for us.
[00:02:50] Mike Parsons: We need to create new value in the world if we do want to acquire wealth. And remember, for us at the Moonshots Podcast, wealth is the opportunity to enjoy freedom. It's the opportunity to have options and it creates an environment where we can truly live the life that we dream. We can be the very best version of ourselves.
[00:03:12] Mike Parsons: We are so not about the bling. So you might hear the millionaire fast line and go, what's happened to Mark and Mike? Yeah. Have they got onto some influencer scheme and they're gonna sell us some crappy pyramid marketing opportunity Uhuh. What we're gonna talk about is what I believe is the greatest challenge, and on the other side's, the grace opportunity to create value through for others through entrepreneurship.
[00:03:37] Mike Parsons: I think it's super exciting that we are gonna get a roadmap, a playbook, the mindsets, the rituals, the habits that it takes to create value, to build a business, and to create really dramatic. Wealth. Wealth that is generational wealth that affords you to live the life that you wanna live. So Mark, let's bust apart this whole get rich slow.
[00:03:59] Mike Parsons: Let's actually see is there something real in getting rich quick and what does it take to do? So why don't you launch us in with a clip mark. Let's see what this whole get rich quick thing is
[00:04:10] Mark Pearson Freeland: about. Look, let's hear from the author. Mj, DeMarco himself all through of the Millionaire Fast Lane. Let's calm down and make sure our listeners know that we are not trying to tell all of our listeners and subscribers that they can get rich quick overnight six pack abs as well, like me and Mike instead.
[00:04:27] Mark Pearson Freeland: Let's take a step back and let's set the scene. Let's hear from MJ himself. Break down the idea of get rich quick, as well as the concept of asymmetric returns. Funny how people
[00:04:38] MJ Demarco: love to curse the phrase. Get rich quick as if it does not exist. But the fact is it does exist and there is one concept responsible for it occurring.
[00:04:51] MJ Demarco: And if you remove your cultural blinders for a second and stop listening to these morons, Who say that wealth is a product of stop drinking coffee, you would understand that it does exist as well. Now, what does not exist is get rich easy, and that is where often people are led astray. So the big key to a get rich quick type of event is actually a process.
[00:05:19] MJ Demarco: A process that often takes several years and behind that process, Is a concept I call asymmetric returns. If you look at any billionaire under 40 or a multimillionaire under 30, eight or nine figures in net worth, you're going to find asymmetric returns. Asymmetric returns is making a small investment, a thousand bucks, 5,000, 10,000 into a business venture.
[00:05:50] MJ Demarco: That has scaling power. In other words, it has a compound yield that exceeds mainstream expectations, which we all know is 8%, 10%, 12%, but in this case, the business venture returns 10000%, 20000%, even a hundred thousand percent. In other words, I started this business with $5,000 and now three years later, it is worth 25 million.
[00:06:22] MJ Demarco: Get rich quick exists because asymmetric returns exist. And this concept of asymmetric returns has been the cornerstone of my philosophy for over 10 plus years. It is the fast lane sense based strategy. So the question you want to ask yourself is the business that you're in or potentially going to be in?
[00:06:48] MJ Demarco: Does it have the potential for asymmetric returns? If it does not? It might be something you want to reconsider.
[00:06:58] Mike Parsons: Asymmetric returns, mark. I think when we study, what does he mean? What the hell is DJ is m I keep wanting to call him dj. DeMarco. It's got a better ring than mj Anyway. Mj DeMarco, what's he really talking about here?
[00:07:16] Mike Parsons: So I believe what he is talking about is these. Asymmetrical exponential returns come from not just working. You know this, that saying, working for the man. Then there's also this idea of what he's not talking about is essentially going freelance, going as a one man thing, just doing your job. So you like to self-employed.
[00:07:45] Mike Parsons: He's talking about doing something. That has the capacity to scale, to earn money. And this is, I believe this is the key about what he's talking about, earn money while you are asleep. Because the crossing this threshold is really important. To give you an idea, I recently renovated my house and there are all these Smart, talented tradespeople and they have their own plumbing, electrical business and they work for themselves.
[00:08:16] Mike Parsons: Maybe they have one like assistant person who's helping out, but their problem if you're a trades person is that as soon as they are not turning up on the work site to build to plum to do the electricity, they're not earning any money. So effectively, whilst they might fill or enjoy some benefits because they're working for themselves, and sure you can feel proud and you can have your own little business and be doing things and you get some satisfaction there, there is a level above this.
[00:08:53] Mike Parsons: For example, if I was an electrician and I created a new circuit, In my work, and then that got retailed and distributed when every time that circuit was sold that can earn money while I'm asleep. That means that there is a scalable distributable thing, a widget that can be sold while I'm asleep. So when we get into this getting rich quick, If we have made the step to work for ourselves and we're not working for somebody else, which of course has huge limitations, cuz you're invariably have no, or just a little bit of stock in the company.
[00:09:38] Mike Parsons: So let's say you have your own small business, you're only working for yourself and you're only earning money Monday to Friday, nine to five. There is a limit. And it is certainly not asymmetrical because it's directly related to you turning up and working. So what's the classic thing that we see, mark?
[00:09:54] Mike Parsons: When small business owners get sick? The business doesn't earn any money,
[00:09:57] Mark Pearson Freeland: does it? It solos right down, right? Because, and I think to build on some of the areas that you are exploring there, Mike, and I think we're gonna run into a lot of these. Mindsets, these concepts and insights throughout the rest of our show with MJ DeMarco, is that in order to try and follow this level of asymmetric returns this concept of maybe get rich quick as well as you say, earning money while you sleep, what you need to put into practice is a number of Concepts or approaches that I think we've started to really uncover across our series on financial health as well as money, which is all about, thinking long term maybe diversifying the areas that you are interested in or the experience that you might have with regards to money your.
[00:10:45] Mark Pearson Freeland: Want to try and expand and consider where else you might be able to either lean in towards, like you say, with the business case study that you just provided with the trades, that's something that they want to consider. What are those long-term diversifications that they could do, but also it's taking ownership, it's paying attention, it's taking control of the areas that you can.
[00:11:06] Mark Pearson Freeland: Take control of, particularly with regards to your finances and working on them, isn't it? It's making sure that you understand those bare bones essentials and that foundation that you can then go out and build upon in order to get rich. We're both, we're hearing two things really.
[00:11:21] Mark Pearson Freeland: One, get rich quick, but also get rich slow. Yeah. It's somewhere in the middle.
[00:11:26] Mike Parsons: Yeah so let's. Let's try and frame it. I think there is a model that we should be aware of. All right let's imagine that we're all sitting together with our members and we're talking about what are the options to wealth.
[00:11:41] Mike Parsons: You can work for somebody else that's the slowest, and you could definitely like, spend. Less than you earn and start saving your money, good step. Then you could go and invest in really sound things such as property. And long-term, as we heard from Morgan Housel, long-term stocks, cuz they, over time they always increase in value.
[00:12:10] Mike Parsons: It's the problem is everybody buys at the highs and sells at the lows. So if you just buy a good company and hold for a long time, you're bound to win. But there is this third dimension that MJ DeMarco is making us aware of, which is you can become an entrepreneur. Now I think it's important to say not.
[00:12:30] Mike Parsons: These options aren't for everyone, and entrepreneurship not necessarily is for everyone because I do believe it's incredibly challenging. In fact, what I loved about what MJ DeMarco said is, you can get rich quick, but she can never get rich easy. Yes. And the easiness reduces the closer you get to entrepreneurship.
[00:12:50] Mike Parsons: But you know what, mark? The rewards on the other side are the biggest. That's for sure. You only need to look at Bill Gates. Bezos Musk. What did they all share? Entrepreneurs who built and created value for customers solved huge problems, and that is beyond any Any welfare we could imagine.
[00:13:09] Mike Parsons: Now, whilst that is extreme, I think what's important here is that if you have a vision of living a life where you travel lot, maybe you have a holiday home and enjoy the good things, that's perfectly fine, but you are gonna be trending towards not just investing. Not just like buying property, but you're gonna have to go build a business.
[00:13:33] Mike Parsons: You're gonna have to go be an entrepreneur because if you have that appetite, you need to go in that direction. I think that's the next build. Once you know that option's there. If you are happy to live in a small apartment, 90 minutes from the city. And work three or four days a week and enjoy a really relaxed lifestyle.
[00:13:55] Mike Parsons: Super minimal, don't own a lot of things, zero debt, but you don't have exorbitant tastes. That is just as good. Yeah. But if you want to pursue adventure travels, if you want to go places, do things. Drive fast cars, it doesn't really matter. The point for me is that you must accept that there's no easy path.
[00:14:18] Mike Parsons: You have to put in the work, and I think this is perhaps one of the greatest aha moments, is to go, oh, to calibrate what's the dream? The vision I have of my life. And we talked a lot about designing your life on this show. Once you've got that North star, you need to work backwards and say, how am I going to save?
[00:14:39] Mike Parsons: I think a critical question would be based starting point, Mike, how much do I need to save every month to achieve my goals in 10 years? Yeah, that is a killer question, isn't it?
[00:14:49] Mark Pearson Freeland: It really isn't it? And that's certainly where we were leaning towards with Morgan Hausel and the psychology of money, creating those goals in order to find that independence.
[00:15:00] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think where Dave Ramsey then. Took us on the journey was maybe you had to stay motivated how to build that foundation. But you are right. When it comes to DeMarco, we're now getting into the point, the pointy end of the stick, so to speak. Yeah. Now you've made that decision. Yes, maybe you've got those goals in mind.
[00:15:16] Mark Pearson Freeland: How are you actually gonna go out and create that business? How are you gonna go out and be that entrepreneur in order to put in the effort and maybe get rich at the end of the
[00:15:25] Mike Parsons: day? Just to also share an insight that I have having started businesses is that the money is nice, but man, the profound sense of wellbeing you have from creating a business that serves its customers.
[00:15:43] Mike Parsons: Delights its customers enjoying the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment is so powerful. To know that you are helping 5, 10, 50, a hundred people, thousands. It doesn't matter. The to know that something you've built is really making a difference. To me that's where the scale of your legacy and your impact is truly felt.
[00:16:10] Mike Parsons: And what's so beautiful Mark, is that you can build a cust a company that serves its customers, but you can equal, equally, take care of your employees too. And that, I think that is a true sense of wellbeing that many entrepreneurs experience knowing the difference they've made to all of the stakeholders.
[00:16:29] Mike Parsons: And at the heart of it, mark. Oh, there's a big secret. There is a huge secret to getting this done. I, I think about it as a sort of a value secret, but when we talk about value, the important thing to remember is we have members who are creating value for us. In fact, we're like in an exchange, we're doing this show and the Moonshots Master series.
[00:16:54] Mike Parsons: Particularly for our members, and I think it's only appropriate that before we reveal the value secret to all of our listeners, that we tip the hat to our members and subscribers.
[00:17:05] Mark Pearson Freeland: That's right, Mike. Joining us on that Moonshot's Family Bus are like-minded individuals who just en enjoy learning out loud and finding insights in frameworks, authors, entrepreneurs, and books.
[00:17:20] Mark Pearson Freeland: So please welcome without further ado. Bob, John Terry, Ken Dimar, Marja and Con Rodrigo, Lisa, Sid, Mr. Bja, Paul Berg, cowman, David, Joe, crystal, Ivo, Christian, and Samuel, all of whom Mike have been with us for well over 12 months now. So these are our lifers. The individuals who deserve not just one, but maybe two extra bits of kudos for today.
[00:17:47] Mark Pearson Freeland: But also hot on those heels is Barbara, Andre, Eric, Chris, Deborah Lase, Steven Craig, Daniel, Andrew, Ravi, eVet, Karen Row, pj and Niko, Ola, Ingram, Dirk and Emily, Harry, Karthik, Vanatta, and Marco, Roger, Steph Ga, Anna Raw Nilan, Eric and Diana Wade, Amanda, Christoff, and Denise, and our brand new members, Theresa and Bolan.
[00:18:15] Mark Pearson Freeland: Who joined us on Spotify as well. So we are really expanding our memberships across all of our different platforms, particularly orientated around our master series, which Mike is just growing month or month. I really enjoyed our most recent series as well, which all of our members can get access to on designing your life.
[00:18:35] Mike Parsons: Yeah, so a big tip of the hat to our annual members. Thank you, who've been with us for over 12 months. We really do appreciate you and just like we. Respect, appreciate, and I was super grateful to Theresa and to our, one of our new Spotify subscribers, cuz the thing is you can head into Spotify and subscribe to the Moonshots Master series there as well.
[00:18:59] Mike Parsons: So we have Uhk. And I hope you respect the fact that we are definitely trying our best to pronounce this exotic name this very cool name. So big tip of the hat to you. We appreciate your support. And we really look forward to hearing feedback from all of our members. Tell us what you want us to focus on.
[00:19:22] Mike Parsons: What books you'd love us to cover. We get tons and tons of tips and suggestions, but we're really looking to our members to push us forward and talking about pushing forward. Mark, I think I. We talked about the value secret. I think it's time to reveal it. Let's go into a world where we really think like an entrepreneur, and let's master what what good old MJ DeMarco calls the language of complaints.
[00:19:48] Mike Parsons: So if you're on the fence
[00:19:50] MJ Demarco: and you're saying to yourself, I wanna start a business. I wanna start a company, I just can't find that opportunity, or I just can't expose that need in the marketplace, where do I find them? The answer is really shocking. You find that opportunity in our language.
[00:20:07] MJ Demarco: The language of opportunity is always exposed in language, specifically the language of complaints. Disgruntlement dis. Sesh bitching and moaning. So the next time you find yourself saying, or you hear somebody else saying, I'm sick and tired of blank. That's a potential vine idea. Great example. I was looking into the background, the story of the Netflix founder, and he said he started Netflix because he was sick and tired of paying late fees from Blockbuster.
[00:20:42] MJ Demarco: That was the birth of the idea. He was. Sick and tired. So again, our language exposes these opportunities and it's covertly hidden within there. Just before I did this video, I went on to twitter.com specifically for the intent to find a fast lane business. So I went to the search box and I typed in I hate, and immediately page after page came up of people tweeting.
[00:21:13] MJ Demarco: I hate. Blank, and it took me five seconds to find a fast lane business. A woman tweeted, I hate packing. Obviously she was moving her house or moving her apartment, and she was packing it up. I hate packing. So immediately I thought to myself, this is a potential fast lane opportunity. Why? Let me tell you here in Phoenix, I'm not aware of any companies that spec.
[00:21:42] MJ Demarco: Specifically pack your house up there are moving companies. Yes, moving companies here are a dime a dozen and they'll come and pack you, but they also wanna move you too. However, I'm not aware of any companies and the fact that I'm not aware is also the opportunity of any companies that specifically will pack you.
[00:22:02] MJ Demarco: Maybe they have a crew of five or six people, they come over with the boxes, they come over with a packing tape and wham, within two hours your whole house is packed. This is a great idea to look into, to potential fast lane idea if it works in the Phoenix area as profitable. Perhaps it could be franchised around the country or around the world.
[00:22:26] MJ Demarco: You have a need there. I hate packing and you know what? I hate packing. I would hire this company. Yes. So that tells me this is a potential opportunity that could be exposed into a millionaire making idea, and it took me five seconds to find it. So to wrap this up, if you're on the fence and you're looking to start this business, look no further than the language of disgruntlement, the language of complaints, and I guarantee you, you will find opportunity.
[00:23:01] MJ Demarco: Go on to yelp.com, find out what. People are complaining about with specific companies you can attack that go to Twitter, type in I hate type in this sucks. See what people are bitching about. That's where the opportunities are.
[00:23:16] Mark Pearson Freeland: Mike, this is a pretty substantial clip actually coming from Mr. Mj DeMarco because it touches on so many.
[00:23:25] Mark Pearson Freeland: Passions I suppose that we've uncovered during the Moonshot Show. Oh,
[00:23:29] Mike Parsons: mark, it is total Richard Branson. He walks around looking for problems and writes 'em into his notebook.
[00:23:34] Mark Pearson Freeland: And also he's reminding me of Tony Fidel who was telling us the story about his son, who, he gets told to go and look in the letter box to see if they've got any posts, and he says why can't it just.
[00:23:44] Mark Pearson Freeland: Tell it for me. And this idea of identifying as MJ put it, disgruntlement hates frustrations. It's such a fantastic. Level setter, isn't it? To put into practice that, a checks your product as you've already got it. Yes. For example, if you and I are pitching out a product, we wanna make sure that actually it has a fit for those customers.
[00:24:07] Mark Pearson Freeland: And we're not just, living behind a closed door and we're only thinking in our own minds. This idea of getting customer feedback, I think we'll probably touch upon later as well. But just that this identification.
[00:24:18] Mike Parsons: And not wishful thinking
[00:24:19] Mark Pearson Freeland: Mark, e, exactly. Exactly. Not the, that blind.
[00:24:23] Mark Pearson Freeland: Having those blinders on, thinking that your idea is the best thing since sliced bread.
[00:24:27] Mike Parsons: Yeah, because we hear those stories of family and friends who start a company and it all goes wrong, and invariably there's a lack of testing demand before you build
[00:24:39] Mark Pearson Freeland: it. Yeah. And a lot of money, but also more importantly, a lot of time and effort goes into those, doesn't it?
[00:24:47] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. And the secret that MJ has just revealed is very practical. Hopping onto Twitter, typing in, aye, hey, I'm frustrated with, and uncovering those little insights. What a practical, but also very easy first step in any business' journey.
[00:25:04] Mike Parsons: Yes. Yeah. So you can totally test demand before you actually build the solution.
[00:25:09] Mike Parsons: Obviously, if you see the problem yourself, that's one of the most powerful routes that you're like, I keep having this problem. So Mike let's have some fun and do this for a second. I was doing some experimenting. And the I hate thing on Google. It gets a lot of songs and stuff like that, but I've got like a variation just to inspire our listeners and members, which is how do I fix?
[00:25:33] Mike Parsons: And then what you do is you go to Google, you type in, how do I fix? And you see the common thing that people are trying to fix. And here's what I've got. I, and I have no idea if this is personalized to me but let's see. How do I fix my posture? So that seems to be a very popular thing. How do I fix my email?
[00:25:51] Mike Parsons: Not working? How do I fix my credit score? Hello business there. How do I fix no a signal. Now this is really interesting. How do I fix ingrown toenail? Like, why is that? How do I fix my relationship, my, my sleep schedule, and so on? Isn't that Interestingness just starting to reveal what people are actually going to, to the internet to try and fix.
[00:26:18] Mike Parsons: And it's a suggestion of what they might be working on. So how do I fix, how do I solve? These are just prompts, but obviously the, this is such a powerful way to start. If you look at. Great entrepreneurs like Richard Branson or really evidence-based experts like Eric Reese and the Lean Startup, everyone is about solving the right problems.
[00:26:44] Mike Parsons: Do that, and you've got a great business on your hand. I think this is really powerful advice to get started, and I really think that if you have this itch, to go and create, This kind of wealth. If you have this itch to create value in the world, it's a great place to start. But I think we need to frame this option relative.
[00:27:04] Mike Parsons: This is very much the fast lane option, isn't it? My, I think we need to put this a bit in context.
[00:27:10] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think you're right, Mike. So let's, before we dive any deeper into these different approaches, these different practices, these different habits, let's actually take a step back and let's go back to our author, MJ DeMarco, who's now gonna break down for us the three different lanes that he has in mind within his book, the Millionaire Fast Lane, and we're gonna hear from Fighting Me Bureaucracy Break down those three Financial Pass.
[00:27:32] Mark Pearson Freeland: From the book,
[00:27:33] FightMediocrity: there are really three financial paths. The sidewalk, the slow lane, and the fast lane. The sidewalk is basically your average person living from paycheck to paycheck. No matter how much he earns, he'll match it with how much he spends. Sidewalks can actually have a huge income. Let's say someone like a professional athlete.
[00:27:53] FightMediocrity: The problem with being a sidewalker, however, is having no financial intelligence or responsibility whatsoever. So if something goes wrong, if you lose your job, if you aren't needed anymore, you're basically screwed. This is why you'll see even professional athletes who made millions at one point be completely broke.
[00:28:11] FightMediocrity: Now, Don't take the sidewalk, then you have the slow lane. This is basically your standard. Go to school, get a decent job, save 10%. Invest it in the stock market. Hope it grows at 7% interest annually. And when you're 65, that is if you aren't dead and can still walk, you can be a millionaire. Yay. So why does the slow lane suck?
[00:28:33] FightMediocrity: Because I don't want to drive around in my favorite car when I'm 65. I want to do it while I'm still young. It's also like selling your soul for 40 years so that when you're in a wheelchair, you can finally start having fun. Not that different from what people do on a weekly basis. Actually sell Monday through Friday for two days at the end of the week and do that over and over again.
[00:28:55] FightMediocrity: With that said, I actually think that sadly this is the best strategy for most people. Why? Because most people aren't capable of meeting the demands of the fast lane and the slow lane is definitely better than the sidewalk. More on this later. Now, let's talk about the fast lane. The whole idea of the fast lane is this, the more value you give to the world, the richer you will become.
[00:29:18] FightMediocrity: And I absolutely hated hearing those kinds of quotes and things when I was young. It sounds so esoteric. How do I get rich if I give? It makes no sense. The reason it made no sense was because of how the principal was explained to me. I thought, okay, let's say I go outside right now and hand my money out.
[00:29:35] FightMediocrity: How will that make me rich? And it won't. I was right, but had it been explained to me I wouldn't be so confused. So if you went outside right now with a thousand dollars and gave 10 people a hundred dollars each, that would actually be one of the lowest forms of giving possible. The person will take that 100, engage in mindless consumerism, and basically end up in exactly the same situation as when he started.
[00:29:58] FightMediocrity: What would be a higher form of giving? If you went into your kitchen right now and created a pill that could cure cancer, that would be one of the biggest things you could give to the world. That would be a higher form of giving. And yes, you would absolutely be rich. Assuming you weren't completely naive and knew how to protect your invention.
[00:30:15] FightMediocrity: The general rule is this, the more value you provide to more people, the better you will do. Sounds great, right? So why do I say that the slow lane is actually a good strategy for most people? Because realistically speaking, most people have not developed themselves where they can give something of true value to the world,
[00:30:34] Mike Parsons: true value to the world.
[00:30:37] Mike Parsons: I think the interesting thing that we heard here, I think the lanes are pretty clear. I think the catch. That I certainly became aware of with the slow lane is that you are working for the man deferring. Like all the fruits of your hard work until you're at an age where you're like, I'm old and I can't really enjoy it.
[00:31:03] Mike Parsons: So what I remember very vividly is reading Tim Ferris's for our work week and being, he talked about why would you defer life? Why would you basically be trapped until your sixties having sacrificed family, friends, and health to work for the man to work for somebody else, to be entrapped is what it felt like to me.
[00:31:27] Mike Parsons: And then go, oh, finally I have some cash I can enjoy life. Hey, family, friends, health ain't so great and I'm making it a little dramatic, but I think we need to be aware of this trade off because I think a lot of people that I know who are in their thirties and forties are realizing they chose the slow lane and they're like, Oh my gosh, I've got two kids.
[00:31:58] Mike Parsons: I've got a mortgage. I've gotta work for a long time. Even to get on top of life, let alone really enjoy freedom in life. And that thing is when you are only creating wealth, slowly means that you are looking at, I gotta work all my thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties just to have enough to retire. And I think a lot of people only realize this when they do the math in their late thirties, early forties, and they're like, oh gosh.
[00:32:31] Mike Parsons: It's gonna take ages before I have enough wealth that would create a monthly or yearly income equal to that of a job. Yeah. So they're like, oh my gosh. Like they do this math where they're like, I need to be worth three or 4 million in order to have enough to retire and live comfortably. But I'm way off that, and I'm in my late thirties, early forties, so this means 20 more years.
[00:32:57] Mike Parsons: And I think that's the catch. The slow lane. If you are ready for that, prepared for that's okay. But I think a lot of people were expecting fast lane results in the slow lane, and I think that's what catches us out. Yeah.
[00:33:10] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think you're totally right. When you've got that habit that we were hearing, And as well as working pattern or let's say mindset towards your finances as we were just hearing from that clip specifically to mj.
[00:33:22] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think you're right. This idea of working for the man, so to speak, saving diligently, that is what a lot of classic books, a lot of classic ways of managing a finances would already orientate themselves around. But I think you're totally right. What, what's coming through in the frameworks, the books that we've really uncovered on this show is that your mindset towards your finances needs to be different.
[00:33:48] Mark Pearson Freeland: You don't need to hunker down and almost ignore your finances. And I think that's perhaps somewhat what I see within this slow lane. Let's call it roadmap, the idea of saving diligently, but you just put it to one side and you leave it. You leave it. Maybe you don't take it out, invest it, you don't put it into, maybe property or shares.
[00:34:10] Mark Pearson Freeland: You just leave it as it is and almost forget about it to a certain extent. What I remember hearing from Dave Ramsey was take much more of a proactive step. Oh, your finance, make your made of work. Make your money work.
[00:34:24] Mike Parsons: Make work. Particularly putting it in your money in a bank account and not putting it in some sort of asset that yields a return.
[00:34:32] Mike Parsons: That's like super risky business. That's the slow lane.
[00:34:35] Mark Pearson Freeland: Correct. That's exactly what I'm thinking. I think the slow lane definitely represents, and I think similar to what we are hearing from fight mediocrity, he calls out that's where he thinks that a lot of people probably are.
[00:34:46] Mark Pearson Freeland: And I think that's probably true. Yeah. A lot of us, including myself, will spend a lot of time, and I'm talking years of our lives and our careers putting. Your finances as a second or third priority? Yes, it's something important. Yes, but it's not ever gonna be something that you will take a look at perhaps every day, prioritize and so on.
[00:35:08] Mark Pearson Freeland: And I think that's the thing that we are learning about this fast lane approach, isn't it? Take more control, work hard, put time into it. Yeah.
[00:35:16] Mike Parsons: Because if you if you wake up too late, it's a terrible aha moment, right? So I've certainly had one or two instances where you see people getting to that retirement age and not having sufficient wealth and health to actually enjoy it.
[00:35:37] Mike Parsons: It's that classic thing like half of America gets to retirement age with no net worth, no money in pay, no, no assets. That is such a huge challenge when you're in your sixties and seventies. That is I don't wish that upon anyone. Hey, I. You lived a good life. Like sure you, you've deserved the opportunity to kick back.
[00:35:57] Mike Parsons: So the key thing here is if you appreciate compound interest, which has been both a financial concept, but also the compound effect from Darren Hardy, is that good habits such as good savings, Such as good investing, such as creating value through entrepreneurship. Do it consistently year after year, and you will create wealth, freedom, and opportunity.
[00:36:20] Mike Parsons: And what I believe is you, on top of that, you'll also feel hugely satisfied and fulfilled in the work that you're doing. Not only because you're rewarded, because in order to be an entrepreneur, you must be helping and serving others. You must be solving their problems, otherwise they're not gonna pay for your
[00:36:35] Mark Pearson Freeland: product or service.
[00:36:36] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, exactly. And that's where I interpret this idea of value. The true value that an individual can bring to the world. I'm hearing that, speaking back to that fir, the second clip that we heard today with the language of complaints. Yes. Understanding what customers frustrations are, as well as the story that you gave Mike with regards to the individuals that you work with the.
[00:36:58] Mark Pearson Freeland: Happiness or the passion that you are putting into that is then being reiterated within that true value. So in the eyes of businesses, partners and so on. That's the stuff that, that makes a difference, doesn't it? It totally does. And ultimately if it ladders towards good money management wealth increasing and so on, obviously that's even better.
[00:37:17] Mark Pearson Freeland: But I think what's interesting is when we can make these connections, like you've just said with Darren Hardy, both habits that are physical, behavioral, as well as then applying them towards our finances. Once again, we're seeing this relation between, a conceptual idea as well as a physical.
[00:37:34] Mark Pearson Freeland: Result that happens to your money. Yes.
[00:37:37] Mike Parsons: So it probably has all of you wondering now, okay, I'm buying this legitimate. It's not gonna be easy, but there is a fast way to accrue wealth and to live your best life. And the good news is we now have a clip from the Swedish investor who's gonna reveal to us the five fast lane commandments from mj DeMarco.
[00:37:59] Mark Pearson Freeland: Okay.
[00:38:00] Swedish Investor: So we've established that to reach financial freedom fast, you need to quit your job and start a business, but not any type of business. This is not a do what you love or be your own boss advice. No. A business should fulfill as many as possible of the five fast lane commandments to be worthy of pursuing the commandment of control.
[00:38:27] Swedish Investor: If you're not in control of your business, someone else is. For instance, hitchhiking, a content distribution platform to distribute your educational videos violates this commandment. Another example, there are lots of businesses that earn good money from Google's AdSense program, but you know what? The company which brings in the great box is Google itself.
[00:38:52] Swedish Investor: Ouch. Anyways here's an ad for you. The commandment of entry.
[00:38:59] Swedish Investor: If the road you are choosing is crowded with other people, you can count on being stuck in a traffic jam, you'd like some kind of barrier of entry to your business. A certain knowledge that people must possess to participate. Large sums of money required for investments, contacts that you need to have, et cetera.
[00:39:21] Swedish Investor: The commandment of need, doing what you love is a flawed strategy. People do not care about what you love. People care about having their problems solved. Selfish motives doing what you love is a free ticket to the road with a traffic jam. Again, because if you love it, chances are that everyone else loves doing it too.
[00:39:46] Swedish Investor: It's quite simple. Really offer the world more value and you'll become rich, affect millions, and you'll make millions The commandment of time. Somewhere down the line, you must be able to detach yourself from your own business. You must create a business system that can survive without any input from yourself.
[00:40:09] Swedish Investor: We want passive income, otherwise you've just created yourself a job in disguise. Money is not king. Time is the commandment of scale. Mj DeMarco talks about something he calls the Law of Affection, and this is so important in my opinion, that I'd like to make it into its own takeaway.
[00:40:33] Mark Pearson Freeland: Mike, the five stages, the five fast lane commandments getting broken down for us there, straight out of MJ demarcos book, the Millionaire Fast Lane.
[00:40:43] Mark Pearson Freeland: We're hearing this is actually quite an interesting little acronym, sense, C E N T S. So control entry needs scale time and then scale. It's quite a nice little breakdown, but the one that I'm specifically attracted to there, I think is actually within this idea of time. Because it's speaking back to that first clip that we heard this idea around, get rich quick, this idea of how much time, but also more importantly, maybe effort that goes into becoming rich.
[00:41:12] Mark Pearson Freeland: A lot of people think it's gonna be high yield, but low effort. But actually I think it's the other way around, doesn't it? You got, you're so right. Strapping.
[00:41:22] Mike Parsons: I think we, we see too much propaganda for it's easy to make money. Just watch my YouTube video and I'll show you how The reality is, Sophie, so few people achieve their wealth quickly.
[00:41:38] Mike Parsons: If it was as easy as watching a YouTube clip, then there would just be so many more people that we would know who have done and gone and acquired it, because frankly who wouldn't do it if it was easy and quick. I think the reality here is, There's some really big insights. Know those lanes we talked about?
[00:41:56] Mike Parsons: I think that one, and being aware of the trade-offs that come with each of those. Yeah. Know that it's never gonna be easy, but you can accelerate it if you choose entrepreneurship. But you don't have to, you just need to know. If you take the slow lane, just be careful of the sacrifices, be mindful of the sacrifices.
[00:42:14] Mike Parsons: And I think here what we are seeing is a great format. We love a great framework, don't we, mate? Oh,
[00:42:19] Mark Pearson Freeland: we do. We love
[00:42:20] Mike Parsons: frameworks. And this one's really good, I think when I look at it, and of course we're gonna have it in the show notes, so make sure you head to Moonshots AO and check it out. And Really, grab the book, study this because this is a very powerful entrepreneurship model.
[00:42:36] Mike Parsons: You can also use some of the work from Darren Hardy and many others if you wanna study this. We've actually done master series on entrepreneurship, and we've done many different series on it. I think here, time control, scale entry, and need. It's really important to study all of these. Don't guess use frameworks like this.
[00:42:55] Mike Parsons: It is a clear model to follow. So if you have the mindset that you want to maximize your freedom, you need to look at entrepreneurship. If you want to have a growth mindset, you will be totally well suited to the learning and being resilient to be an entrepreneur. And you can use. This model to go and crack the right business.
[00:43:16] Mike Parsons: But Mark, this is not, and mj DeMarco, he ain't done. We got one more clip Mark. Why don't you set it up for us, because we've got one last big idea to take home with us from MJ DeMarco and his book The Millionaire Fast Lane.
[00:43:32] Mark Pearson Freeland: Just one more clip, Mike, and that's it. We are learning out loud with MJ demarcos, so closing the show and helping us really appreciate, understand, but also put into practice some of this advice that we've heard from him.
[00:43:46] Mark Pearson Freeland: Today is a clip that breaks down the 1 5 10 strategy. What
[00:43:52] MJ Demarco: if I could tell you that in a few years from now, your life could be 10000% better? From dead broke and struggling in a one bedroom apartment to a multimillionaire who has everything including free time. The fact is most people fail to succeed because they fail to plan their life.
[00:44:11] MJ Demarco: If you wanna radically change your life, you have to make a plan. You have to give your life a roadmap or a G P S system. For my entire life, I've been using what I call the one five ten strategy. And let me tell you, it works beautifully and it is responsible for the awesome life I lead today. And yes, I still use this to this day.
[00:44:35] MJ Demarco: It works like this. Get a journal or several pieces of paper, do not use a digital device, and then on one page, write 10 years and then envision how your life would look in 10 years from now if everything went as well as it could envision it as a best case scenario. Where would you live? What would you drive?
[00:44:56] MJ Demarco: What would you be doing? What's your net worth? Where would you vacation? What would your daily day look like? Write everything down and be specific. Clip photos if you need to. So for example, let's say in 10 years you see yourself with a $20 million net worth because you just sold your company for $15 million.
[00:45:16] MJ Demarco: You live somewhere sunny in a house on the ocean, you have an awesome spouse. You are perfectly debt free. You are doing what you wanna do without constraints of money. Now at this point, your 10 year vision might seem a bit like a fantasy, but trust me, it isn't. Now get another piece of paper or turn the page and write five years underneath that, write what your life would need to look like to be halfway to your tenure vision.
[00:45:45] MJ Demarco: So if you just sold your company for 15 million in year 10, at year five, you probably have a business that is doing several million dollars in revenue and several hundred thousand dollars in profit. Maybe you have a million dollars saved on the spouse front. Maybe you've been in a relationship with somebody awesome for several years.
[00:46:05] MJ Demarco: Write down your halfway point in what it should look like. Then turn the page or get another piece of paper and write one year. What would your life need to look like one year from now to be 20, maybe 25% closer to that five year vision? If you have a business that does several million in revenue at year five, then at year one, maybe you just have a business that is profitable.
[00:46:31] MJ Demarco: You have the foundation laid for scale with an awesome product, autocracy. Maybe you've paid off your first credit card. Maybe you've been on 20 dates in pursuit of your soulmate. Maybe you've become proficient in some computer language and built yourself a high leverage skill. Write it all down one year from today, what it should look like now, once you have all this mapped out, congratulations, you now heavy roadmap for your life, but more importantly, you now created a decision framework for action.
[00:47:03] MJ Demarco: From this point on, after you create your 1 5 10 strategy, you now have a framework that tells you the right decisions to make and not make you know exactly what choices you should and should not be making. If any decision advances you toward the one year vision, it's the right decision because it moves you toward the five and the 10.
[00:47:26] MJ Demarco: Any decision or action that does not move you closer to the one year vision? No. Then it's an action fake, a detour from your dream life. Of course, I'm not suggesting you can't go to the movies or to a baseball game, but in general, the 1 5 10 plan acts like a decision compass for moving the needle on
[00:47:43] Mike Parsons: your life.
[00:47:44] Mike Parsons: Wow. The compass for moving the needle on your life. Mark, what's crazy about this is like classic working backwards, right? Which we've studied a lot in our thinking models and mental models. We even had the book from Amazon who also think above, think in the future and work their way backwards. Now we can do it for our own life, and I'm a huge fan of this.
[00:48:07] Mike Parsons: I think of the life that I wanna live this year, next year and beyond, and I actively work towards it. If something contributes to me living like the perfect life, the life that I would die for, then I can totally judge something today based on that criteria. How does this contribute to my goal?
[00:48:29] Mike Parsons: Isn't this crazy that we're seeing models that work in the enterprise for Amazon can also work for you in your personal wealth
[00:48:36] Mark Pearson Freeland: management? I look, I think this is. I'm jumping the gun a little bit, Mike. I know you're gonna ask me later, which was my standout clip, but actually I think I'm gonna call it now, interestingly enough, listeners and subscribers, because I think this 1 5 10 strategy helps break down the barrier to entry.
[00:48:55] Mark Pearson Freeland: That often comes with putting in practice and putting in place a long-term strategy. So sometimes in, myself included, I'll be looking at my situation and think, oh, I wonder where I'll be. In six months time, let alone three years and so on. What I love about and obviously that I don't want that to be the case for too long, but whenever I have found myself in those situations where I want to consider whether what I'm doing is in train with my ultimate goal, maybe I am living beyond my means.
[00:49:29] Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe I have made. Or maybe I need to make a question about maybe a vacation that we're putting in place or moving house, whatever it might be, or making a substantial purchase. This strategy, I think helps an individual like myself, not only. Choose which decision is right from the that decision tree.
[00:49:49] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think this could be a nice way of cross-referencing with some second order thinking and understanding the outputs of each decision that you're gonna make, but specifically orientated around where you want to get to. Yep. And whether it is in line with the behavior as well as the strategies that you've got in place to reach those.
[00:50:07] Mark Pearson Freeland: Ultimate goals. And for me, the hardest thing that comes with trying to know where to start when you are creating an outcome or creating a long-term goal, potentially where you wanna live, how much money you want to be have a net worth, is putting that into practice. And what I really is mjs.
[00:50:27] Mark Pearson Freeland: Like you say, working backwards approach. Yes. Because it's ha it makes so much sense to me. What are you gonna be in 10 years? You probably want to be around the 50% mark in, in half that time. Yes. I'm bringing it down, obviously into one year. I think, Mike this is a pretty undeniable process to take part in, isn't it?
[00:50:46] Mike Parsons: It is. I'll tell you why it's so powerful is that if you set your goal for five or 10 years, okay. And you say, I wanna live a life like this. And then you say what's that gonna take financially? What would we need to be saving in order to hit that goal in 10 years? And then you ask yourself, am I saving that amount today?
[00:51:08] Mike Parsons: And all of a sudden you go, oh I'm actually a fair bit off. Then you are able to course correct and say, okay. We're gonna reduce going out for dinner one night a week. We're only gonna or order Uber Eats once a week, et cetera, et cetera. The this empowerment to make choices today for a deferred future is really important because what we've talked about here is too many people wake up.
[00:51:34] Mike Parsons: Too late. This technique helps you go, oh my gosh, I can take full control right now by changing how I spend, save, invest money, or perhaps even get closer towards the fast lane. If the Delta's huge, you might say, I better go create something, cuz there ain't no way I'm getting there on the yes slow lane,
[00:51:53] Mark Pearson Freeland: yeah, that's exactly right. Some of us might be thinking that we're in different lanes. Yes. That's another truth, isn't it? Yeah. By putting into practice this little framework, I think you can quite quickly realize, Ooh, I'm a little bit of a way off from that target. Yes. I'm a little bit of a way away and I need to.
[00:52:10] Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe think about an extra revenue stream. Maybe it's cutting down those expenses like you just suggested. Exactly. Maybe it's something else.
[00:52:19] Mike Parsons: So there you have it, mark. You stole my fund. You've already given me the favorite one, and I'm gonna jump all in on the 1 5 10 strategy from MJ DeMarco.
[00:52:29] Mike Parsons: And I want to say a huge thanks to you Mark, and to our members and[00:00:00] Mike Parsons: Hello and welcome to the Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 221. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by Mark Pearson. Freeland. Good morning, Mer. Good
[00:00:13] Mark Pearson Freeland: morning, Mike. Good morning listeners and good morning members. I can't wait to announce and get into our brand new episode in this brand new series on money
[00:00:25] Mike Parsons: we are so deep in.
[00:00:26] Mike Parsons: The money is like reign and dollars and dollar bills all around me here. Mark we had the chance to go last week very deep into the psychology, the motivations, the story behind the money, and today we're taking a big turn. We are really going in a different direction. I am super keen to jump into today's show,
[00:00:45] Mark Pearson Freeland: mark, aren't you?
[00:00:47] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, I certainly am. And to set the scene even more, I think we're gonna be not only littering ourselves with a reign of money and cash, but also of insights and lessons from some of these big thinkers, some of these big moonshots individuals. Last week, kicking off the series, we had Morgan Housel's, the Psychology of Money.
[00:01:06] Mark Pearson Freeland: There was a lot of practical tips, a lot of essential breakdowns to help us. Honest with ourselves. But this week, Mike, we're going one level deeper, perhaps with a man who's even more enthusiastic than you and I on the Moonshot Show. And that's Mr. Dave Ramsey, who wrote a fantastic book called The Total Money Makeover.
[00:01:26] Mark Pearson Freeland: And this is a pretty substantial best selling book. Mike, not only does Dave Ramsey have a substantial YouTube studio and following where he answers live questions for customers and individuals around the world who are concerned about their finances. Just to say, this book has also a New York Times bestseller that's also helped out millions of people develop their money habits into things that they can adopt and maintain every day.
[00:01:52] Mark Pearson Freeland: So I think he's a pretty good voice in the space of money management, wouldn't you say?
[00:01:57] Mike Parsons: I would say so. I think he's like the Yoko willing of finance, cuz he's gonna give us a good kick up their ass. Yeah. Hold us through account. He's gonna make sure that we are doing the hard work because I think.
[00:02:10] Mike Parsons: We've got so much to learn from him. He was bankrupt and now he is a seriously wealthy guy, and he did that through hard work and discipline and he's decoded that for us all to learn from. And he is. He is a guy from Tennessee who tells it as it is Mark. So for you, me, and all of our members and listeners, we get the chance to get the truth and perhaps the hard facts about accountability and what it takes to build wealth.
[00:02:39] Mike Parsons: Now, what I love about his notion very much alike, we see in other money and wealth gurus is it's not about fast cars and big houses. It's about financial independence. It's about the freedom as an individual. It's about being able to be the best version of yourself. And he. Talks about the purpose to acquire money is to be generous with it, with family and friends.
[00:03:05] Mike Parsons: So I love this take on money. I love all of the practical tips and I like the ask kicking, we're about to get from Dave Ramsey. So where should we kick off this adventure mark as we go back to school to learn how to manage our money?
[00:03:22] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think, look, we've gotta listen to the professor, the class teacher, and the leader, the headmaster himself.
[00:03:29] Mark Pearson Freeland: Let's kick off with Dave Ramsey setting the scene for us as we dive into this book of his and the C Key seven Baby steps that he calls out within Total Monkey make makeover by focusing on the first two, which are safe and
[00:03:43] Mike Parsons: snowball.
[00:03:44] Dave Ramsey: 30 years ago when I started teaching this stuff, I was first teaching people how to get outta debt live on a budget.
[00:03:51] Dave Ramsey: Be generous. Live on less than you make. So you have a plan, you avoid debt, you save money for emergencies and later for investing. And all of those principles work. But people kept saying, which one do I do first? And so I started laying out you should do this first and that first you should have an emergency fund before you start your 401k.
[00:04:10] Dave Ramsey: And then I figured out it is easier to have an emergency fund if you don't have any payments. And so you need to get out of debt first because of course I learned my lesson the hard way going bankrupt and getting out of debt and learning how important it was to be debt free as a proc, as a part of building wealth.
[00:04:26] Dave Ramsey: So all of that started to formulate after a few years of teaching in various settings. And what became Financial Peace University, it used to be called Life After Debt and it started becoming what we now call the baby steps. And the interesting thing is that now the baby steps have gone into the Total Money Makeover book, which has sold almost 10 million copies, and they have become the proven plan, the shortest distance between where you are now and wealth where you are.
[00:04:59] Dave Ramsey: If you'll live like no one else later, you can live and give no one else. What is the shortest distance? A And we need a path to run on because the way you eat an elephant, it's overwhelming. Do I do my 401k with the match or my kids' college? Or do I have an emergency fund or do I pay on this 18% credit card debt?
[00:05:22] Dave Ramsey: Or, and nothing gets done. You get paralysis of the analysis. You get frozen. Absolutely. And this step these baby steps have worked for me. They've worked for millions. And it's really simple. If you do it, they work. And it all starts with baby step one, having this foundation saving $1,000 for a starter emergency fund.
[00:05:38] Dave Ramsey: This is just a small buffer between you and life before we start tackling the debt. Exactly. And if you have a thousand dollars already, great. Just set that aside. That's your baby. Step one. Any money you have, that's not retirement. Anything you can sell that is not retirement, you're gonna liquidate. If it's not retirement, you got some stock over here that grandpa left you.
[00:05:58] Dave Ramsey: You got a gold bar under your bed. I don't know what it is, but you got any money that's above a thousand dollars. Maybe you got $10,000 in savings account. That's $9,000 you've got that you don't need past baby. Step one. We're gonna put it all on baby. Step two. And baby step two is the famous one. That's the debt snowball where you list your debts.
[00:06:16] Dave Ramsey: Smallest to largest. You pay minimum payments on everything but the little one and you attack the little one with a vengeance. Side note, baby. Step one should not take you more than 30 days. Maximum. You need to work extra. Sell some stuff. Have a garage sale. Put the kids on Craiglist. Whatever you gotta do here, let's get it done.
[00:06:33] Dave Ramsey: A, and you know we're gonna get busted into this. Get a thousand bucks quick baby. Step two. You should be debt free. But your house now you may have to sell a stupid boat. You may have taken an extra job, but most people that have followed the Total Money makeover, baby Steps in Financial Peace University.
[00:06:50] Dave Ramsey: Our debt free inside of two years. Yeah. And that's with doing it with some gazelle intensity, like you talk about in Financial Peace University. And once you pay off all that debt, now you freed up all those payments. You have that income back. Think about what it'd be like to have no payments, but a house payment.
[00:07:04] Mike Parsons: Wow. Or breathing easy. Breathing easy. Mark. Oh my gosh. Is this not what we all strive for? Living and giving Is this not really the life we should be living? The truth is though, what Dave touched upon there is the paralysis. And I think we should spend some time on that one. This paralysis mark. I've seen it in myself, family and friends.
[00:07:28] Mike Parsons: It's when you know you are spending more than you got. When you're like, I can't really afford this. Yet we go ahead with the transaction. Credit. How easy is credit to get at the moment, mark? It's so easy, isn't it?
[00:07:42] Mark Pearson Freeland: I'd say it must be easier than it's ever been. Not only are.
[00:07:47] Mark Pearson Freeland: They're challenger products and services and players within the market who are offering, a very easy to access credit, but also the traditional institutes and the trusted banks and so on that we have, it's become far easier, I think a across my lifetime. It's easier now than ever before.
[00:08:06] Mark Pearson Freeland: And I think the problem with that is, as you've just said, and as I think we're gonna mention, it becomes too tempting to get into the the funnel, of debt the whirlwind of buying things that you don't necessarily need. And also it removes the ability to actually think about the purchases that you're making when you've got access to arguably anything.
[00:08:28] Mark Pearson Freeland: That's right. What consideration do you really put, is that something that's really gonna help me? Yes. Is this something that my family needs? Yes. Or is it just
[00:08:34] Mike Parsons: something disposable? And the trouble we get into when there are products literally called buy now and pay later, is that not code for you can afford this, but you can have it now.
[00:08:47] Mike Parsons: And we're so naive to think that there's not a catch attached to that. And I think it is so easy to make a few of those steps and find yourself in that paralysis. Like I got a bunch of different debts, I got credit lines here, there, everywhere. Carhouse, credit card, you name it. And I think this paralysis is where we need to begin our work.
[00:09:15] Mike Parsons: Like holding ourselves. To account standing in front of the financial mirror and saying, am I really living within my means? And one of the things is, he mentions this idea, we all wanna strive for living and giving. And something that we Mark, have talked about a lot is that the acquisition of wealth is a means to having freedom and choice in your life.
[00:09:43] Mike Parsons: So if you want choices, if you wanna be free to pursue the things that are calling you, whether it's knitting, painting, running marathons, or working in a FinTech startup, if you wanna pursue those dreams, you need to. That capacity to make those choices. Cuz the worst thing is when you do not have the capacity to actually follow the path that you wanna follow in life.
[00:10:12] Mike Parsons: And I think that paralysis of not taking the action, not doing the hard work. Now, there's this great saying if you have easy choices, if you make the easy choices, you're gonna have a hard life. If you're prepared to take the hard choices, you're actually gonna have an easier life.
[00:10:29] Mike Parsons: And I think this is so true with money, and I'll tell you what, mark this paralysis is something that if we can help our members and our listeners really conquer to start. This snowball effect to start saving, to start reducing some of those debts, they'll be on the way, not only to some financial independence, but they will then give themselves to live the life that they really dream of to actually pursue the very best version of your themselves.
[00:11:01] Mike Parsons: I believe that the hard work of living a fulfilling life starts with not hitting the snooze. Button eating right and spending less than you earn. What do you think, mark? Yeah,
[00:11:13] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think you're totally right. And I, we're really gonna get into some of those habits and some of those key steps to get ourselves into that way of thinking.
[00:11:21] Mark Pearson Freeland: But I think you're right, Mike. We've gotta pay account to those individuals who, like us, have such a glowing desire to keep on learning, to keep on holding ourselves accountable, to not find ourselves in that analysis paralysis, or maybe get ourselves into holes that we don't necessarily wanna get out of.
[00:11:40] Mark Pearson Freeland: And that's through, continual learning. So let's take a moment to really celebrate those individuals who are joining you and I and the moonshots family every week. Who are learning out loud with us include Bob, John, Terry Maral in Ken Dimar, Marja, and Connor, Lisa, Sid, Mr. Bonura and Paul Berg and Kalman.
[00:11:59] Mark Pearson Freeland: David, Joe Crystal, Ivo, and Christian, Sam, Barbara, Andre, and Eric, Chris and Deborah Lase. Steve Craig, Daniel, Andrew, Ravi eVet, Karen Ralo, PJ Ni, Ola Ingram, and Emily. Harry Karthik and Vanatta, mark, jet Roger, Steph Gaia, Anna Raw, Nien. James, Eric, Diana Wade, Anna Manda. This list, Mike, again, I'm gonna have to stop putting on a bit of a Tennessee accent soon.
[00:12:30] Mark Pearson Freeland: Channeling my inner Dave Ramsey. Cause there's just so many members, listeners, active subscribers who are holding us accountable, Mike as well, to go out and make the best version of our product that we can. So thank you very much for all joining us and supporting the Moonshot Show.
[00:12:47] Mike Parsons: And a big shout out for Christian who just had his moonshot's anniversary mark, so he must be feeling rather special.
[00:12:54] Mike Parsons: I hope he's celebrating in style as we get into all matters of money. And to this street shooting Tennessee. Dave Ramsey, who is an absolute heavyweight of the money management wealth creation universe. He's got his fantastic baby steps, which you've already heard about, which we're gonna cover a lot in this show.
[00:13:14] Mike Parsons: But at this moment, I believe, mark, we need to just make sure we exercise the demons here, that we truly get ready to take extreme ownership. We need to make Yoko willing, proud, not only of what we do in the gym, but also how we manage our money. So let's listen to one of our favorite YouTube channels, Swedish investor.
[00:13:35] Mike Parsons: He's gonna do a breakdown of Dave Ramsey's thinking on no more denial.
[00:13:40] Swedish Investor: If you drop a frog in hot water, he will jump out. However, if you drop him in room temperature water, he will swim around and he will be cheerful and gradually you turn up the temperature, he will fail to notice the change and eventually he will be lured to his death.
[00:13:57] Swedish Investor: How do people lose their physical fitness and how do they lose their financial fitness? The answer is gradually. There are many similarities between a great physical health and a great financial one. There are no quick and easy solutions that will make you lose 40 pounds in a week or become a millionaire overnight, no matter how much the late night infomercials want you to believe that you are where you are, both financially and physically because of a series of decisions that you made in the past.
[00:14:27] Swedish Investor: The first part of anyone's money makeover is accepting that there is a problem, and this is where the similarities between your physical health and your financial one can differ. If you're out of physical shape, it's difficult to be in denial, heavy breathing and massive sweating When taking the stairs well out of shape.
[00:14:46] Swedish Investor: Had to buy a whole new wardrobe this year. Adding one more X before the ELs to all your outfits out of shape. People will notice and you will with money. It's more difficult. You can easily fool everyone else and possibly even yourself into thinking that you are in a good financial shape. Just drive around in a luxury car and live in an upper class neighborhood.
[00:15:07] Swedish Investor: Almost anyone can manage to do this if the use enough debt, but reality will catch up sooner or later, and reality will hurt. Would you be able to keep up your current lifestyle for at least three months if you were fired from your job tomorrow without using credit? Of course. If not, you're financially out of shape.
[00:15:29] Swedish Investor: Do you have more debts than you have assets out of financial shape? It's time to face reality and to make some changes around here. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. A motto that Ramsey repeats throughout the book is this, if you live like no one else later, you can live like no one else. I wouldn't walk across hot cold because I think it's fun.
[00:15:51] Swedish Investor: But if I know that the rewards on the other side are great enough, I'd say bring out the call. Dammit.
[00:15:58] Mark Pearson Freeland: I th I love this phrase from Ramsey living like no one else. We're gonna run into that a few times as well on, on the rest of the show, Mike. But actually, I just wanna focus on something that Swedish investors, Bringing to life there that I think is really valuable for us.
[00:16:11] Mark Pearson Freeland: And this is the idea of losing control gradually. And another word for that is unconsciously. Yeah. It's very easy to slip into habits or behaviors or even mindsets that allow us to give ourselves permission to, let's say, fall outta shape or lose our temper, or in this case, lose complete control over our finances.
[00:16:33] Mark Pearson Freeland: Because some of the time we'll be living lives, which our finances take care of themselves. Oh, I set up an account many years ago, money just goes in there and I pull it out when needed. As Swedish investors calling out in towards the end of that clip, the idea of living without any income for three months, that's gonna be a challenge that I think a lot of us have not necessarily considered before, because.
[00:16:58] Mark Pearson Freeland: I suppose taking it for granted, assuming that the status quo is as good as it can get when actually a big call out that Ramsey has throughout his entire book is the fact that if you take control, if you become like the David Goggins or the Yoko Wilx and just take extreme ownership, you can make it so much better.
[00:17:19] Mark Pearson Freeland: You can accept and be aware of the fact that it's, perhaps below average, maybe as Swedish investor puts it, you are in poor financial health and then you start to realize, okay, maybe I should start to change this day over and day out. But it's something that you need to wake up to, don't.
[00:17:39] Mike Parsons: Yeah. So assume that you wake up, what would be the one thing you would do, mark, if you wanted to avoid being in denial about your finances? Like what do you change? What's a habit you would immediately wanna start if you wanted to avoid denial and take accountability for your finances? I think
[00:18:01] Mark Pearson Freeland: the first step is to similarly to, I think some of the lessons that we've learned on other moonshots actually, is to lay it out.
[00:18:11] Mark Pearson Freeland: Lay it out on paper, lay it out on a spreadsheet. Understand in fact, I did this exercise just a couple of days ago, my wife and I, making some financial decisions about where to live and over the next six or so months with a change of location due to jobs and so on. So what we realized was, okay, let's take a, let's take account of where we are right now.
[00:18:34] Mark Pearson Freeland: Where we'll be in six months based on two different decisions. One of which is the path that we're already on. Where does that take us? Secondly, and this is a classic bit, of second order thinking. Maybe if we were to instead think. Of this route, this path, and these steps within that journey, how might our finances be affected?
[00:18:53] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. What else are we going to need to account for? I think that's a good demonstration, and maybe it's just the first step. It's pretty basic. Taking a look at your finances in extrinsic detail and forecasting where they might be in the future. Perhaps not to the extent of, okay, what happens if I die?
[00:19:11] Mark Pearson Freeland: Or what happens if this unplanned event happens? The car gets set on fire. It's much more basic. I think, at this foundational level, but if you can extrapolate and take a look at where your finances are and how they might stack up over the course of, say, six months, both positive as well as negative perhaps, I think that's a key step in coming to terms with that financial foundation you have, and start to really question the idea of bearing your head in the sand and whether you've got any denial taking place.
[00:19:40] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah.
[00:19:41] Mike Parsons: So let's call that step, like making a budget, making a plan. I think the perfect companion to that is check your bank balance every single day. For me, like it's the same as if you want to lose weight, weigh yourself every day. Bill Gates, we learn in the show we did on Bill Gates, he's you get what you measure, right?
[00:20:06] Mike Parsons: I believe that the single best habit you can have once you've said, okay, what is our budget? How do we spend money? Is to then track your spending, like it's going out of fashion. Like you have to be all over that. So set yourself a reminder to check your bank balances, your credit card balances, to give yourself that moment of, hang on.
[00:20:32] Mike Parsons: What's that transaction? I don't what was that for? And then, when you see your bank account drop and you're like, huh, why did that drop so much? The thing is, the paralysis that we often have, or the lack of accountabilities is a lot of people don't check their bank balance every day, right?
[00:20:49] Mike Parsons: A lot of people are like, towards the end of the month, I go, I just gotta make sure that I have enough in there before my next paycheck, right? Yeah. Imagine if you're tracking it every day, pretty soon you're gonna start to see your spending habits pretty soon. If you've done that budgeting step, you're gonna go actually we need to, we're not gonna get takeout.
[00:21:08] Mike Parsons: We're gonna, we're gonna cook tonight because we have been spending a bit too much this week. It is so easy to make the adjustment in the day or the week rather than the nasty surprise. Classic thing. The tax man comes and says, you owe a lot more tax. Classic thing, you have a health event. And you need to pay all these extra unforeseen health costs and everyone's yep, don't have the money.
[00:21:31] Mike Parsons: Don't have the rainy day fund. Check the balance. Absolutely. Do not be in denial. Don't run away from the bank balance. Get after it. For me, it's all about attack. Know those dollars and cents in pretty soon. What's on the other side of that mark is you actually start making the goals that you said, like the really long-term goals you mentioned.
[00:21:54] Mike Parsons: You can start to say what sort of amount of money do we want to save each year? And then if we were to save that each year for 10 years, How much money would we have? Would we put that in our 401k or our pension or our superannuation fund? Depending where you are in the world, do you invest it in the property or paying down the mortgage, like whatever you choose to do.
[00:22:17] Mike Parsons: Because then on the other side of it is once you see your capacity to save and generate wealth, you can actually start to go, okay, what sort of life do I have as a vision in the next 10, 20, or 30 years? And then you can start making critical decisions on where you live, your job. You can start to live the life you've always dreamt about, but it only happens if you look at the bank balance every single day.
[00:22:45] Mike Parsons: There's my firm belief on how we can be the ultimate Dave Rams. Check that bank balance every single day.
[00:22:53] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think the only build I can have on that mic is similarly to where productivity game was making a reference to sports and fitness. I think it's a lot easier to do prehab rather than rehab. I e if you can be ahead of the curve, if you know where your finances are and you know the potential output or situation you'll be in.
[00:23:16] Mark Pearson Freeland: If you do go out for yet another dinner this week, it's a lot harder to build back up a fortress balance sheet or a savings account, yes. Than it is to spend it. So I think the denial piece for us coming from Dave, is really, let's not live in a bubble here. Let's not assume that we have untapped finances.
[00:23:35] Mark Pearson Freeland: Let's hold ourselves accountable and realize, do we really need to spend another 50, a hundred dollars on this? Let's leave it in, because more often than not, when you do give yourself the ability to think and to question, let's say a purchase or a transaction or a saving or an investment, a lot of the time if you reflect on it you'll end up making.
[00:23:57] Mark Pearson Freeland: The better decision than making it right in the heat of the moment. Yes. And I think going back to this idea of untapped credit as well as the ability to just do whatever we want and then not really care or be too considerate over where our financial situation actually is, it's a lot harder to then come back to it and make it back up.
[00:24:16] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. Yeah.
[00:24:17] Mike Parsons: Yeah. So I think, what's quite interesting here is we've framed like the opportunity to let compound interest do its magic. We've talked about don't defer responsibility for your finances, which are two really big ideas and practices, not only from Dave Ramsey, but it's been very consistent on all the shows we've done on wealth.
[00:24:38] Mike Parsons: And it is crazy Mac to think the parallels between financial wellness and physical wellness. Eat well, eat less, get up early, exercise. It is. The analogy is so crazy and just like it can be super hard to say, Hey, I'm gonna go for a run on a rainy day. It can be hard to stay motivated to save that money because you think to yourself, oh, I'm going without, poor me, but don't worry.
[00:25:06] Mike Parsons: Dave Ramsey and his cohost, Jess, have some thoughts for us. And you're
[00:25:11] Dave Ramsey: walking around in a culture strutting around you've got some money. You got no money. Shut up. You're broke. Quit acting like you're something. You're broke. And this putting on the crap has gotta stop. And Jade, you've been hearing this thing in baby step two, where people are struggling with motivation.
[00:25:29] Jess: Yeah. I get it all the time, Dave. They go in my e in my dms direct message. Even in our financial Peace university class, I get the same question, which is, Jade you guys did this for seven and a half to eight years. How do you stay motivated? And at first, Dave, I would give like the nice answer.
[00:25:45] Jess: You gotta connect to your why and all of this. And I really got to thinking about it and I was talking to Sam about it. And the more people ask me, it frustrates me because there's gotta be no other option. Y y'all don't
[00:25:55] Dave Ramsey: get Jade frustrated, okay, there's
[00:25:57] Jess: got, that's a bad idea.
[00:25:58] Jess: When Sam and I were getting out of debt, there was no option to not do it. It's a must. I have to, my life will never be what I need it to be, what it should be, what God wants it to be if I don't do this. So this idea that maybe I'll do it and maybe I won't, that cannot exist.
[00:26:16] Dave Ramsey: It's not an intellectual exercise.
[00:26:17] Dave Ramsey: It's not an exercise. You've gotta, it's an emotional, visceral
[00:26:21] Jess: decision. Yes. I must. It's gotta and nobody can do that for you. You listen to this show or you come to a live event and we'll light that match for you, but you've gotta stoke your own flame. My buddy Lucas did a talk about this.
[00:26:35] Jess: He said you could be a spark or you can be a flame and you can tell the difference by when the wind blows. If you're a spark, the wind blows immediately. You go out just like that. But if you're a flame, when the wind blows, you get bigger, you get more aggressive, you get larger and more fierce.
[00:26:52] Jess: And if you're talking to me and you're asking me how can I stay more motivated, I'm sorry to tell you, you're a spark. You're just a little fluttering spark, and you've got to do what it takes. She just
[00:27:02] Dave Ramsey: called you people names, she called you a little spark. You're just a little spark,
[00:27:06] Jess: A wimpy spark.
[00:27:06] Jess: And the moment the wind blows, man, the minute you have to dip into your emergency fund, the minute something happens, you're ready to go. I don't know if I want to do it. I don't know if it's worth it.
[00:27:14] Dave Ramsey: I've tried that remsey stuff. It doesn't work.
[00:27:16] Jess: What do you mean? What do you mean you don't know if it's worth it to you?
[00:27:20] Jess: Do you wanna change your life or
[00:27:22] Mike Parsons: not?
[00:27:24] Mark Pearson Freeland: Mike? We are getting into some pretty essential truths here. This is where I think Dave Ramsey's book, as well as his co-hosts, can really bring to light this mindset and potentially this behavior or habit shift that we should all go through with regards to our finances.
[00:27:41] Mark Pearson Freeland: And that's as, as Jess was calling out, there is no option. You must do it. There's nobody else you can lean back on or rely on. It is not something that necessarily will sort itself out. Instead, if you want. Let's say financial freedom, or maybe it's just financial control. You want to feel a little bit more ownership of your finances.
[00:28:02] Mark Pearson Freeland: You wanna know what's coming in and what's going out. And when you've just gotta do it, you've gotta get involved. You've gotta choose to be essentially like a Goggins would call us out unstoppable. You don't fall into the fight or flight behavior. You don't turn away from that adversity or those, that discomfort, oh, I don't really know what my finances are doing.
[00:28:23] Mark Pearson Freeland: I'm gonna have to take a look at them. But they might not be as much as I want there to be. That's a little bit uncomfortable. That's gonna make me feel a little bit exposed. What I think Dave Ramsey does a great job of here. Saying to us yeah, but if you don't find out, nobody else will. And even if somebody else does, they're not gonna necessarily prioritize to help you out of it.
[00:28:45] Mark Pearson Freeland: It's something that you've gotta take control of yourself. This is a pretty key behavior shift, isn't it?
[00:28:52] Mike Parsons: Look, I think it's so interesting that the motivation is not a choice. And I guess the question and the exercise you do is like, how do you give yourself that pep talk when you are like, oof, I'm going without beans and rice every night.
[00:29:13] Mike Parsons: No Uber Eats and here's where I go.
[00:29:17] Mike Parsons: I think we often perceive the trade-offs as being really huge. Oh, poor me, I must go without, but what I find interesting with a lot of con consumables and things that we spend our money on is actually you can live well and easily within your means. For example, where you choose to buy your clothes.
[00:29:45] Mike Parsons: I think this is a huge lever that we have, how we choose the frequency by which we go out and eat. So we set a cap for my wife and I, and we say we will have either a dinner date or a breakfast date once a week. And together with our son, we'll ha order takeout once a week. That is the limit. We do not go past that.
[00:30:10] Mike Parsons: And if we do, we go without the following week. Those are simple things that that we do. Choose where you buy your clothes, choose how you spend your money on food. Food is a huge one. And if you get into things like meal planning, not only can you save a lot of money, actually, it's so empowering when you can actually be in control of your food and actually, instead of always having lunch out at work, if you are making your lunch and taking it to work, you have 100, 100% control of the ingredients.
[00:30:45] Mike Parsons: I e you can live actually healthier and for less. So that's a win-win. But all of those things become easier, I believe, when we think about how we want to live. And I do not want to be somebody who, like a lot of people, Who get to retirement age and face a financial crisis that they have not accumulated enough wealth.
[00:31:16] Mike Parsons: They can only live if it's even gonna be there. Mark, when you and I get to retirement, some sort of pension fund, if you look at all the suggestions, it's gonna be minimal to nothing. So if we are not taking care of ourselves, who else will? And I try and it's a bit dark and gloomy to get into these sorts of topics, but it is a kind of reality of life that you need to take care of yourself and there is enormous benefit.
[00:31:47] Mike Parsons: Pride and fulfillment that you can have to know that you built your wealth by yourself to look after you. And it gets even better when you might be able to help others that haven't been as fortunate as you. Whilst we're all young and preppy and running around doing our thing, ask yourself about how you want your legacy.
[00:32:08] Mike Parsons: Ask yourself if you've got family and friends, and particularly family that haven't managed their money, look at the compromises that they have to make in their older age, their access to services. Maybe they need to move way out of the the city in order to go to a more affordable cost of living location, but then they're like 3, 4, 5, 6 hours away from family.
[00:32:31] Mike Parsons: That doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me. So I don't wanna be in that situation, and that's where I, that's where I source my discipline and resilience from. How do you. Mark in the world of temptation or in a world of people paralyzed and not making the spreadsheets like you did just recently, how do you get yours?
[00:32:53] Mike Parsons: Keep yourself in the game. How do you not hit that snooze button on wealth management?
[00:32:58] I
[00:32:59] Mark Pearson Freeland: think it comes down to prioritization, and I think that speaks a little bit to where you were just going, Mike, with regards to controlling lunches, controlling your ability to go out and have another dinner out and so on.
[00:33:15] Mark Pearson Freeland: It just comes down to what I, and more broadly, I suppose my team, so to speak. So my, my family situation, my wife and I, what we want to try and prioritize, for example, if. Have our eyes set on let's say an annual big purchase, maybe that's something substantial like a white good, a new fridge, a new washing machine.
[00:33:37] Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe it's something even more expensive than that. Maybe it's a car. Maybe you're getting to that point where you can actually go out to the bank and get a mortgage going, buy a house. I think it comes down to what you and I, this speaks to your idea of legacy Mike as well. What you regard as a priority that you and your immediate others, I suppose your family are going to want to lean in towards and rely on.
[00:34:02] Mark Pearson Freeland: Because suddenly when you compare the short-term gain, oh, you know what, I really fancy that bite of lunch. Maybe an extra bit of sushi today. I'll push the boat out. Sometimes spending 10 up to maybe even $20 for a lunch every day adds up. And once you essentially do that math, once you start to realize, okay The budget of spending on sushi every month is starting to become a little bit outta control compared to the additional priorities that I wanna try and accomplish.
[00:34:35] Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe it's flying back to see family. Maybe it's just buying something new for a wedding, a nice new sous, whatever it might be. It just comes down to, I think, prioritization. And that, for me, helps when I am looking at something in a shop or whether I'm online and maybe it's just a medium purchase.
[00:34:54] Mark Pearson Freeland: I'll question does this. Really matter. Is this helping me get to the point that I'm looking for? Yes. Is this contributing towards a wardrobe of clothes that will last? Is this contributing to a house full of furniture that will be here for the next 10 years Or is this something a little bit more disposable?
[00:35:13] Mark Pearson Freeland: Is it something a little bit more cheap or maybe a little bit more subject to going in and out of fashion? I think that's when you apply this level of, I dunno, extra consideration. And when you wanna do the hard work rather than that paralysis of not really knowing Yes, what decision to make. If you can compare what you are considering versus that long-term idea.
[00:35:37] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. That long-term goal, perhaps it's legacy. I think that really helps, doesn't it?
[00:35:42] Mike Parsons: It does. So I think, we've got some long-term techniques thinking about the life you want to live in. Maybe you dream of living by the beach. Then that can be a really good motor. I'm gonna forgo the sushi box, right?
[00:35:57] Mike Parsons: And I'm gonna bring rice and beans to work because I want a beach house. Like another thing that I mentioned in the previous show is my wife and I have this really fun technique where anything I see on Amazon, I just put it in the cart and she's the only one that pulls the trigger. So she'll review it and we will often discuss.
[00:36:17] Mike Parsons: So things will sit in there for days, sometimes weeks. And there's nothing better than deferring the decision to purchase a good, nothing better. And it's amazing. Like even when I find myself trying to justify it, I might actually, no, I don't need it. But it is just like creating those sorts of tools.
[00:36:35] Mike Parsons: Check your bank balance every day, don't buy too quickly, defer, discuss the purchases. The the, there are these simple habits and. The funny thing is, mark, I want to come back to the short-term benefit. It feels there is nothing better when you are working out to say, I'm gonna run 5K today, or seven K or 10 K today, and you do it.
[00:37:00] Mike Parsons: There's nothing better than saying, I'm gonna eat really healthy and clean and lean today. And you do it. And here's the thing. At the end of the month when you go, wow, we actually spent even less than we budgeted the wellbeing, the inner confidence, the pride, the what? Just the good vibes that this creates, knowing that you actually have the capacity of self-control in a world of temptation.
[00:37:29] Mike Parsons: Mark, in a world of temptation, It's a pretty good vibe,
[00:37:34] Mark Pearson Freeland: isn't it? It isn't it? I think the deferring purchase has become a lot more tricky nowadays, similarly to what we were talking about at the beginning of the show. Yeah. This attraction to credit. Fundamentally, the attraction to debt has got us to a point where it's very easy to not defer i e you want those new sneaker.
[00:37:56] Mark Pearson Freeland: Let's go out and buy them. And I think that's a real shift change that's happened particularly recently, may maybe it was my a a product of covid. We were all we felt like we didn't have too much choice and too much freedom. Perhaps this is a bit of a hangover for that, but I think you're right.
[00:38:12] Mark Pearson Freeland: When it comes to really holding ourselves accountable, you can't fall into that pattern because when you do fall into that pattern, what you're doing is shortening your ability to make those finances last. Yes. Into the future. Yes. Into those important life deciding
[00:38:27] Mike Parsons: factors. Yeah. And like in ourselves, if we understand that we can be paralyzed when we just, or avoiding that, that accountability, if that's the enemy on the in inside I think.
[00:38:43] Mike Parsons: Dave's got a clear point of view of what the enemy on the outside is, and it is a nasty thing called debt.
[00:38:51] Dave Ramsey: I just went from part-time to full-time at my job. My income's almost doubled. We only have around $24,000 in a line of credit and leased car. Every question you get usually revolves around someone having multiples of our debt.
[00:39:04] Dave Ramsey: So the question is the advice for someone drowning in debt the same as those who are just wading through it? Yes. The advice is the same. All debt is standing between you and becoming wealthy. Your most powerful wealth building tool is your income, and when you give some of it or a bunch of it to someone else, you don't have it anymore.
[00:39:33] Dave Ramsey: That's a mathematical fact. When you pay car payments on a stupid fleeced car and you have a $24,000 line of credit buying crap you couldn't afford, and you pay payments on that stuff, you don't have the money anymore. If you had that money, you could have used it for investing and for generosity and so yeah, you get very intense.
[00:40:01] Dave Ramsey: The good news is that you can get out of debt quicker. You didn't mention your income in your email request for an answer, but you can get out of debt quicker probably because you don't have the multiples of debt that a lot of people do. Lady, earlier this hour, $225,000 in debt, you probably have more like $50,000 in debt depending on the price of this feast automobile, but the point is get rid of the debt cuz without any payments.
[00:40:32] Dave Ramsey: What you have is. Money and then that gives you options. Now, money is not the end of the world, but not having money sometimes is. Money's what you feed your kids with. Money's what you pay the light bill with and keep the heat and the cool on money's what you keep a roof over. Your family with money is how you help other people.
[00:40:56] Dave Ramsey: Generally speaking, it's hard to feed hungry kids if you're poor. And so this is that. This is what money's for. It's just a tool. It's not got any existential. There's no existential beauty to it. It's only for what it's good for. It's a tool. It's I have a car. What's the car for? Getting to work, taking my family on a vacation, going to see grandma's house.
[00:41:26] Dave Ramsey: This is what your car's. Your car has not got, it doesn't change your life. It's what the car does that changes your life. Instead of walking or riding an oxcart, you have a car. That's all money is, it's just a tool. So the point is, yeah, Barb, let's get rid of the debt, because then you have more money and it's not, again, it's not a spiritual problem to have more money, spiritual problems when you worship it.
[00:41:54] Dave Ramsey: So get after it, kiddo. Get your mess cleaned up and listen. You're in a real dangerous position. Every question you get usually revolves around someone having multiples of death. So the question is the advice for someone drowning in death the same as it is for those waiting out honey, don't wait out.
[00:42:11] Dave Ramsey: Your language reveals that you are not nearly concerned about this enough. I want you to get more angry about this. They're taking your money.
[00:42:23] Mark Pearson Freeland: Mike, I think again, Dave is hitting us with some hard truths here, and there's two particular pieces that, that I'd love to dive into a little bit. The first of which is, I suppose setting the scene and the function that I think Dave's calling out, that money actually has, rather than it being, let's say a a thing that we are all destined to chase.
[00:42:47] Mark Pearson Freeland: It isn't something romantic. It isn't something that we should feel jealous of or have ego over or desire what we don't necessarily have. I think what Dave is doing a really nice job of, which is setting that foundational understanding of what finance and wealth and money actually is. It's just a tool.
[00:43:08] Mark Pearson Freeland: It isn't something that we should compare to other people. It isn't something that we need to feel necessarily. Desire to become tens of millions of e of millionaires and so on. Instead, it's just a method that we can utilize in our lives to get where we wanna be. I think that's a really nice, very quick, very simple breakdown that Dave does for us there, which then builds onto this second point that I think is really coming through in that clip.
[00:43:36] Mark Pearson Freeland: And that's the idea of money being available once you remove the reliance on third parties. I e if my car is leased if I've got a loan from, say app, I bought a brand new, maybe Apple, Mac and or MacBook, and I've got it on lease I'm paying it off over time, over credit. Over my credit card. All of those things are relying on a third party on somebody else who is outside of my immediate circle When I'm doing that. What it means is I'm always gonna have a little bit less control because a certain percentage of the monthly income I'm gonna have will disappear. It won't necessarily disappear from site I'll, if I have good control over my finances or good budget, I check my bank balance every day.
[00:44:22] Mark Pearson Freeland: I'm gonna know where it's going. But at the same time, it creates a bit of a gray area. When you think about your money and your net worth, because you have it in the back of your mind that there's still this outgoing coming out, and I think what Dave has really made the case for so far in the show and in the clips that we've heard, is this idea of removing yourself from that problem.
[00:44:44] Mark Pearson Freeland: If you remove the debt as much as you can, if you can consolidate, if you can create that little bit of. Breathing space and certainty that's around your finances, in your wealth, and in doing so, potentially remove some of those debts. You're gonna be in a more positive and possibly more enthusiastic situation.
[00:45:05] Mark Pearson Freeland: Because Mike I'm not sure about you, but there's certainly been times in my life when money anxieties and decisions that really have made me uncomfortable and argue with those I'm closest to comes down to money. And yeah, ordinarily it's not something that is necessarily a product of your behavior.
[00:45:24] Mark Pearson Freeland: It's just a product of maybe having less control. Is that something that you've run into
[00:45:29] Mike Parsons: before? Oh, listen, money is I like this. I totally have been in that situation and it's invariably because we talked about the avoidance or the lack of ownership. So you're just deferring, you've heard the, of the saying, kicking the can down the hill, like you're kicking it away, but it's always gonna come back and get, it's always gonna come and get you.
[00:45:50] Mike Parsons: And I think that's often the moment where we find ourselves arguing with those that are closest to us because we didn't take that ownership. But the thing is that we learnt from Dave there, that you pointed out is it is just simply at all. It's not the destination, it's the means freedom, choice are all on the other side of good money management, good wealth creation.
[00:46:16] Mike Parsons: That's the real point here. And it's not like a, a real, my. It's just like being fit and healthy is not a real mystery. You need to eat well, sleep well and work out and make sure that you don't eat too much, do that, and you are really on track. There's, whether you're into protein shakes or whatever, the reality is, you need to burn more calories than you take in.
[00:46:38] Mike Parsons: You need to have a balanced diet, good sleep, good range of exercise, of cardio and strength. And actually, that's the simple part. The hard part is not hitting the snooze button in the morning. Yeah, same thing. Same thing with finances. We all know that things add up and you should have less, you should be spending less than you earn, but it's when you are in that moment, when you expose yourself to the easy sushi lunch, to the fancy jacket, it's all those things, right?
[00:47:10] Mike Parsons: Those are the, that's actually the hard thing. And so it's not about the latest protein shake. And the same thing with. Millionaires is the secrets that they hold are not complex. They are not sophisticated vehicles. In fact, often those sophisticated financial instruments get you into a lot of trouble.
[00:47:37] Mike Parsons: Hello? Credit derivative swapping, leverage, all of that kind of stuff. No, the real thing is that there are not only mindsets, but behaviors that people who've accumulated wealth have. And so we get to listen now to Dave, explain to us what really are the secrets of the rich
[00:48:01] Dave Ramsey: somehow among some newly wealthy people, there's a, an ethos, this idea in the air that somehow building wealth must be complicated.
[00:48:11] Dave Ramsey: You must have some in the secrets of the rich lemme tell you what the secrets of the rich are. They're not a secret. They do what you've been doing. They invest in things they understand. If you don't understand it, don't put money in it. Don't put money in something because it sounds cool and some go that you think is cool is telling you to do it or has done it himself.
[00:48:42] Dave Ramsey: This is how people lose their money with Bernie Madoff. They got recommended by a friend to get in something cool that was an inside deal that no one knew about. It was a secret. He was sophisticated
[00:48:56] Mike Parsons: and everybody
[00:48:57] Dave Ramsey: doesn't know about it, and this is how the rich do it. It's all behind the curtain. It's just not.
[00:49:04] Dave Ramsey: I was with a guy the other day who is worth about 200 million. And you know what? He's invested his money in farmland. He's a rancher. It's what he knows. I said, you don't have any money. Mutual funds? Nope. Don't like that stuff. Don't understand it. Not putting money in it. That's not sophisticated.
[00:49:27] Dave Ramsey: Dave said, A guy who has a 10th of the net worth or a fourth, the net worth, or one mon, Jillian, the net worth that guy has, he's got $200 million. What you have is an opinion,
[00:49:37] Dave Ramsey: put money and stuff you understand and you're comfortable with. If that's all you ever do, you're gonna be fine. As far as the investing side, I have three investments. That's all I have, and I'm fairly knowledgeable about the investment world. I have three my. Paid for real estate with no mortgages and mutual funds.
[00:50:03] Dave Ramsey: I don't play single stocks. I don't screw around with gold. I don't mess with Bitcoin and I don't need your stock tip from your broke golfing buddy with an opinion. You missed out on getting in on this deal. Ramsey didn't miss a thing. I'll set my net worth down beside yours while you mouth off.
[00:50:25] Dave Ramsey: Didn't miss a thing you didn't either. Don't try to get, this is not time to get cool. Cool. Didn't get you here. Cool. Won't take you there. And don't try to follow these cool goobs around because I gotta tell you, man this crap. I see these things. Come to the seminar and learn how to do
[00:50:42] Mike Parsons: a fam, a limited family partnership with a
[00:50:45] Dave Ramsey: double back flip trust and I just made that up.
[00:50:47] Dave Ramsey: But it sounds, it's crap like that. And people get all tangled up in stuff and they lose their butts. Don't. Do it. Don't do it. So it's real simple. Sean, invest in things you understand? It's okay to use the KISS principle? I do. I use the keep it simple stupid principle. I keep mine very simple, very clean, and if I don't have the money, I can't buy it.
[00:51:16] Dave Ramsey: Wow. It's insightful, it's primitive. How do you get by on that? With a, with hundreds of millions of dollars of net worth. That's how I struggle through.
[00:51:25] Mark Pearson Freeland: Keep it simple, stupid. Mike, again, I think this is a great way of rounding out Some of the work of Dave Ramsey in, in, in his book, the Total Moneymaker It because he's calling it back and putting it in front of our eyes.
[00:51:40] Mark Pearson Freeland: Keep it simple. It can be super straightforward. It doesn't have to be an intimidating. Complicated mechanic in your life whereby you have to invest all your money repeatedly, log on every day, move your money around. Instead, you just keep a tab on it. You look at it, you may make sure to research any of the decisions that you are tr considering making when it comes to your finances.
[00:52:06] Mark Pearson Freeland: You're not one of those individuals, and I've been there before. When you fall into the temptation to follow or invest in something that seems like a get rich quick scheme, it's similar to six pack abs overnight and so on. We know that those all require more skin in the arena than perhaps they initially say.
[00:52:26] Mark Pearson Freeland: So again, Chris is just a very straightforward shooter here, isn't he? He's saying to us, take owner. Remind yourself of what you're doing. You're investing your hard earned money, the thing that your kids, the thing that your family could benefit from. If you're gonna throw it up into a an investment or a decision or a behavior that fundamentally you don't really get, put yourself in the shoes of those who are around you.
[00:52:53] Mark Pearson Freeland: Would your child, your son, appreciate you being so frivolous? Maybe shortsighted in doing it. I think there's a lesson that we can build on from Dave's work here, which is, not only holding yourself accountable and going down the very simple path, but attaching it into this idea of it, you have an impact.
[00:53:12] Mark Pearson Freeland: There will be an outcome to this. Hold yourself accountable to it, and then that'll help you make that decision. I think that's what's really speaking to me here, isn't it? Yeah.
[00:53:21] Mike Parsons: And divert your energy towards building. Like really strong resilience on your financial habits rather than trying to decode the latest financial instrument options mechanism crypto coin currency, funny business.
[00:53:41] Mike Parsons: You don't have to divert your energy to complex, pioneering new things. There are age old principles of compound interest. Understand what you are investing in and everything Dave Ramsey talked about in that last clip is a proxy of Warren Buffett's thinking and Charlie Munger's thinking that we've studied.
[00:53:59] Mike Parsons: They only invest in companies they understand, only put your money in places where you understand what is happening with it. The classic thing is folks that get a first year on their fixed mortgage rate and then it goes variable after. And so the first year is really good and then all of a sudden when they come off the fixed rate, it goes variable and they're like, oh my gosh, we're paying a lot more and we don't have the means to pay.
[00:54:25] Mike Parsons: That's a classic example of where you got yourself into an instrument or a vehicle that you didn't understand. So spend your effort in simple things, understanding them, mastering them. You don't have to be the next Wall Street Day trader. No, it's sound, sound principles of keeping. It's simple, which I think is relieving when you think about all the effort you have to do and put in and invest to live within your means.
[00:54:55] Mike Parsons: It's nice that it's not like trying to get some complex double master's degree in finance and economics. No, it's very sound principles,
[00:55:06] Mark Pearson Freeland: right? Yeah you're totally right there. I think what's a relief, I suppose you could say, Is the fact that any of us can do this. Yeah. The key lessons that Ramsey's really calling out as we reflect on this book, it's not necessarily a deep dive into, key behaviors in the stock market.
[00:55:28] Mark Pearson Freeland: It's not about focusing or investing in certain areas. Instead, what I think he's calling out to us here and inviting all of us to trial is just keeping it more straightforward. The basics of money management. Keep an eye on it. Don't overspend, keep a budget and don't get yourself into debt.
[00:55:46] Mark Pearson Freeland: Isn't it interesting how that is, he, we need somebody like Dave Ramsey to almost remind us. Yeah. He's
[00:55:54] Mike Parsons: like our drill sergeant, isn't he? Yes. He's we're like these ducks who are slowly getting distracted walking off and he's. Getting us back into line, right? Yeah. And that's
[00:56:03] Mark Pearson Freeland: how I feel digging into Dave Ramsey's work.
[00:56:06] Mark Pearson Freeland: It's, he's very focused and single-minded. And it works. If you can be that single-minded, you can stay the course, you can be disciplined, you can get rid of your debt. He's inviting us to then say, from that point on, you can build wealth. Yes, you can get closer to that ultimate goal of achieving or purchasing the things that you've always dreamed of.
[00:56:26] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes.
[00:56:28] Mike Parsons: There's some big there's some big takeouts learnings, enhancement tweaks I can make. But I first wanna ask you, Matt what changes? Now? You've had a good dose from Tennessee. What changes from my Pierce and Freeland?
[00:56:41] Mark Pearson Freeland: It's, it, this is a bit of a challenging one, Mike, because actually I really enjoyed.
[00:56:46] Mark Pearson Freeland: Initial steps and lessons we were learning with regards to the compounding effect to borrow Dar Darren Hardy's work with the saving and snowballing, those key baby steps that we were introduced to at the start of the show, I think spoke a lot to me. So really taking advantage of building a little bit of a let's call it a fortress balance sheet, paying off those debts in order to have that level foundation is the key behavior that I'm gonna continue striving for.
[00:57:13] Mark Pearson Freeland: What about you, wh which one's standing out for you?
[00:57:15] Mike Parsons: I just love it all. More than anything, I've just got a massive turbo boosto about financial accountability and it goes perfectly with what we learned from Morgan Houseman is, which was really like the thinking behind it. These. These seven baby steps, these are things you can do right now.
[00:57:32] Mike Parsons: You can literally press pause on this podcast and get busy building some wealth, which is fantastic. And I think what is so fantastic is at the end of all of this, he actually highlights that giving and generosity are at the top of the pyramid. That's the whole reason you want to do this, to take care of the people that mean the most to you.
[00:57:56] Mike Parsons: So that's what a prospect. Yeah. Mark, I wanna thank you for sharing your thoughts, your ideas here as we get to the bottom of managing our money. And I wanna say special thank you to our members and to our listeners too here on Show 221 where we studied the mastery of Dave Ramsey in his.
[00:58:16] Mike Parsons: The Total Money Makeover. And he gave us those little baby steps where we need to save and snowball. And in order to do that, you cannot deny your financial reality. You need to take extreme ownership. And as you go on the journey to building wealth, you need to be patient and resilient. Do this because you have no other choice.
[00:58:37] Mike Parsons: Because if you want to live your best life, you have to own it. Get rid of that debt and keep it simple. And you'll be on the way to giving yourself fulfillment, freedom options and choices in life. And I reckon that is a guaranteed path to being the best version of you. And that's what we're all about here on the Moonshots podcast.
[00:58:58] Mike Parsons: That's a wrap.