Financial Personalities with Gary Arblaster

[00:00:01] Welcome to Business Finance and Soul, my name is Shaun Enders and I'm a Curious Entrepreneur. I love exploring business, personal finance and consciousness. I'll jump around topics, offer my opinions and occasionally interviewing interesting people. Looking forward to going on this journey. Let's be curious together!

[00:00:21] And it's as soul today, I get to sit down with Gary Arblaster and talk about business strategy and financial personalities, which I'm really excited to jump into. Gary's lent his experience to countless individuals, businesses, and organizations facing financial leadership challenges.

[00:00:46] His process allows clients to discover the areas that hinder growth in performance, analyze the answers found within the weeds of discovery, and then adjust their approach that enables them to spark the fuel for growth. Gary, welcome to the show!

[00:01:01] Shaun, Shaun, thank you so much for having me on here. Really excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you and I want to... There's so much to cover today, but I really want to start with financial personalities

[00:01:13] because I think this is a big one. We've all got a financial personality and I was hoping we could just start with what is a financial personality? Well, you got to really just go back to the basics of understanding that

[00:01:26] how we make decisions. We make decisions in two ways. This way is to fulfill an internet and the last one is to protect us from the things we fear most. And then you just have to ask that question, why is that?

[00:01:39] Or how is that? And the answer is we all make those decisions based on how we are wired. And when you move it into the financial world and we tend to forget that is that our financial ecosystem, if he will, starts with what's internal

[00:01:56] and it derives into this wonderful, wonderful ecosystem that actually eventually gives us our outcomes. It's interesting, you know, you mentioned like the way we see our financial or experience, our financial personalities is from within. Do you think that this is something...

[00:02:14] And I've had some good conversations recently surrounding this, but do you think this is something inherent that we have somewhere and then we're things get disrupted or built upon in our childhood? Or do you think that we kind of come out fresh and, you know,

[00:02:30] we just immediately pick up through our culture skate. You know, the way we see life, the way we see money, whether or not we're empowered or we're fearful with handling our own finances.

[00:02:43] Where do you think this stems from? Well, I mean, we all are born with an identity internally and you know, that is our personality. So if you've raised kids and I've raised three of them, I have a 29 year old and set a 24 year old twins.

[00:02:57] So when they were little, I'd sit back and watch them. And my oldest would take his cars and he would line him up, perfectly in an order. And if one was out of shape, he would really get upset and you try to get back in shape.

[00:03:09] My one twin son would take the same car and smash him together and throw them across the roof. You know what I mean? And my daughter, my daughter, her personality has been from day one. This empathetic, caring, loving, come sit beside me, nuzzle up, watch a movie.

[00:03:26] At night, go to bed, give me a kiss. She's the first one to run across the roof to do so. So we all are born with some sort of personality identity. Where it goes from there does have a lot to do with environment.

[00:03:41] You know, your thought process is those types of things. It actually kind of formulates what that ultimate decision making mindset if you will, you use in your playing. But it does stem from how you are internally wired. And what people who need to understand is,

[00:03:58] your personality's not wrong. It's not right. It's just different from the person sitting beside you. And my goal, my goal as a spokesman for doing this and adding value to others is for you to embrace and be okay to embrace who you are and how you're wired.

[00:04:15] That's interesting. I see it. I have two kids. And same thing, you know, they're almost 11 and 14 and both very different. I was talking to a parent the other night and I said, you know, you get the kids that you need, not the parents,

[00:04:31] not the kids you want, right? You know, so. That's great. Yeah. It's really good. I mean, they, I've grown so much just through the way that we interact and the challenges and different personalities that they exude on a daily basis.

[00:04:51] I wanted to talk a little bit about financial acumen and financial personalities as adults. But first I want to start with just really financial education and financial IQ with in kids. What age do you think having raised now kids that have become adults?

[00:05:12] What did should parents be introducing financial strategies to their kids at what age should we actually be learning and paying attention? Well, it's funny. My wife was extremely involved with our kids in the,

[00:05:28] well, throughout their entire lives, but really in the early stages of the teaching of adding a lot of times she would use nickels, dimes and quarters as a means to teach that that

[00:05:38] math skill if you will. But in doing this, she also is adding the value of understanding and appreciating the value found in our money system. I personally believe, and I'm not here to, to, you know, beat on our education system,

[00:05:52] but it just seems like our education system is not taking the, the, the education of finance to the level needs to to the point of or we could function properly in society. We are getting lazy and I'm not saying just the education system, even as parents,

[00:06:09] and I'm going to raise my hand here right now and say even as a 30 year advisor in the financial world, when my kids got to 20 and 25 years old, you know, I'm sitting or saying to myself, I messed up. I didn't teach them what I know.

[00:06:25] I'm out here to teach everybody else and I kind of took for granted that they kind of absorbed what dad was doing by watching, and it's not the case. So, you know, we, we underestimate

[00:06:36] we underestimate the power of teaching our kids at an early age because we feel that they don't understand. And that's that imprint stage in the early stages of life that really just latches on to them and they really can absorb and learn, you know, the details of money.

[00:06:52] So, so you know, it's going to be different from everybody, but I don't think you need to wait till their high school students before you start teaching about kids or about money. It's at the elementary ages.

[00:07:03] Yeah, and, you know, to be fair, you may not remember it. I'll give you a fresh set of examples of what happens when you perhaps you did try to, to give them a little knowledge here and there

[00:07:14] and I'm sure they got a lot, but last night we're at dinner and I'm trying to talk about the gap in the game, you know, to, uh, to both my kids. Now I son, he'll play

[00:07:26] Kate, right? Like he goes along with it because he's like, all right, dad is role. And my daughter kind of digs in her heels and so it didn't really go over so well and I know the message didn't even really, it got sidetracked and I'm like, why don't

[00:07:41] even try? Why don't even try? But get grind, keep drawing. Just a huge filling up that's I'm like, I'm in the, I'm in the bunker taking grenades. It's okay. I'll keep showing

[00:07:53] up. But I think that, you know, one of the things that I was really impressed with your experience is the work that you do on college campuses and that space, I think highlights and gives us some insight into, you know, where future generations are headed and the financial

[00:08:18] IQ of young people that are going to be joined in the workforce is going to eventually can be consuming and spending and saving hopefully. What do you notice seen on college campuses right now when you show up and engage? Automation is killing us. And what I

[00:08:40] mean to that is, you know, I think there's the average number of financial apps on phones as anywhere from 2 to 3. And we still find ourselves 60 to 70% of Americans live in paycheck to paycheck. So that just what tells me it's not, it's not the product, it's not

[00:09:00] the service that is missing here in the quotation of making you financially successful. It's, it's you. It's your accountability. It's you understanding and taking an act of role in your finances. So what I see on college campuses is a lot that they go to the phone

[00:09:19] to do all their transacting because of the simplicity of it because of the immediate gratification of it because the instance of it in the moment it happens rather than taking the time to sit down and take an act of role and say, okay, I make $20,000 a year

[00:09:39] and I can only spend 15 of it. And what does that look like? You know what I mean? So so I believe automation and technologies is an amazing, amazing tool but there are some things that it's making us lazy in some areas of our lives.

[00:09:55] Yeah, I think that what's interesting and we've talked about financial education and the role of the parent in this is extremely necessary because of the fact that there aren't solid high school classes that are universally taught. There might be some French high

[00:10:14] schools out there doing it implementing it and that's really cool but what I've seen volunteering for many years with junior achievement is going out to not just elementary schools and I love J.A. by the way, I'm a big fan of junior achievement and specifically

[00:10:33] their engagement into this topic but elementary schools all the way up to high school. What I was amazed at is going on to into a fluent communities and volunteering for weeks at a

[00:10:47] school. So I was going to go in and you teach a six week course and how many kids when I had them raise their hand didn't even understand credit cards, didn't understand they were starting to get solicited

[00:10:59] the ones that turned 18, they just arrived in their mail. They don't understand fully even student loans in the impact. And so you really have a system where if the parents aren't

[00:11:15] engaged and jumping in, they're already playing catch up. Right? They're already playing catch up by the time they're able to start working and earning a paycheck. They probably already in debt and already in a space of where their view

[00:11:33] is being made. They're a sense of optimism is diminished because they feel like, well, I have it worse than my parents added or things like this, these stories that aren't true by the way as far as opportunities

[00:11:46] and we can get to that but someone has to take accountability here and say, hey, it's our job to teach the kids about this and that's why I appreciate what you're doing is getting out there and really spreading the message.

[00:12:00] Well, I appreciate that and I got to story about the credit card thing. So there was a family that the daughter they gave her a credit card once she went to college and she used the credit card

[00:12:11] and the dad started getting these statements in the mail of non payment. And you know, picked up a phone called the daughter says, hey, what's going on? You're not making your credit card payment. She goes on anyway talking about

[00:12:23] because the plastic that you use to buy your gas and food, you've got to repay that. She was I didn't know that and here's the thing is when he, you know, she would see him get credit cards and do the thing

[00:12:37] but they never shared the experience of paying the credit card. Yeah, and that's a simple little thing you can do with your kid to set up down and say, okay, I used this credit card to buy gas. This is where it is on the statement.

[00:12:51] Look what I paid for, but look what the interests are going to charge me because I used their money. And it's a simple little thing to do us, you know, a three minute education on money and they can be off running and do their thing.

[00:13:03] But it's a simple, just a simple little nibbles like you and I talked about a little bit ago, the simple little nibbles that's going to start to stick with them over time.

[00:13:12] But it doesn't hurt to sit back and make finances, the kids at an education with your kids on your own personal finance. We make this big secret about money. And I have a reason that I believe about it but anyway, we just, we just don't do it enough.

[00:13:29] Yeah, well, generationally, you know, we're still dealing with unraveling that taboo topic right of where it just, it was always old school

[00:13:41] school statements of hung around for a long time, which is money doesn't grow on trees. It's a scarcity mindset, you know, meaning there's not enough of it.

[00:13:49] And you know, I love my, my mom dearly, but one of the things I think that how she grew up was it was kind of a zero sum game if she won somebody else lost and, you know, you can't both be winning.

[00:14:04] It was like, that's where people will say things like money is the root of all evil. You know, like these statements that are sitting and sometimes they're in, you know, just this kind of unconscious.

[00:14:18] Loop, playing internally with us, which makes us kind of approach our behavior with money in all sorts of ways. But that was what we're untangling, you know, from the last hundred years is that a lot of times it was dad who kept the finances.

[00:14:36] Yeah. And my, and my roommate the money mom might have gotten, you know, in more and maybe a little bit more sophisticated or transparent household. Mom might have gotten a little bit more of a look, but the kids 100% were not going to know anything.

[00:14:53] Now we're getting to a point of where because there's more to working households women have, you know, caught up in terms of equality and pay, you know,

[00:15:03] there's more of that dual dialogue, if you will. And and that was the second chapter and now we're getting to that third chapter, which is the kids really should have some understanding of what are mom and dad going through both good or bad, you know,

[00:15:19] so they can learn from the entire workflow of the way money comes in to the way money goes out and what's done with it, what is it allocated towards that transparency is going to go a long ways.

[00:15:33] And I think in the next generation we're going to see you know, a lot of more open minds at a younger age.

[00:15:40] I think so and in an, and I'll bring this full circle. That's why this person audience assessment I believe is extremely important because we need to learn how to communicate to our kids in a manner that they actually hear us rather than dismiss us.

[00:15:54] And what I mean by that is John Maxwell says everybody communicates with very few people connect. And it's true because we talked to one another how we want to be communicated to.

[00:16:04] So go back to your original question about personalities and the age that they, you know, we see this while since they were born with this.

[00:16:13] That doesn't necessarily mean it's the same as my personality and my kids are not the same as me. My wife's not the same as me. When we actually understand personalities and understand how to recognize personalities, how to communicate with personalities.

[00:16:28] It's a game change or an avenue example for you. So I got a call from a mother and her son just got out of college making great money.

[00:16:36] He's at his mid 20s and the the mom and dad were constantly at battle with this son to create a budget. And it was just you know, they just sit back and watch him spend money after money and they said that we just can get through the him.

[00:16:51] So I started asking questions and I started trying to really dive into who he was in his personality.

[00:16:57] So based on why heard I said let me ask you something. I said was your son a class clown in high school. She goes, oh my gosh, she has plovable of law always in trouble getting in trouble.

[00:17:07] I said did he like the party in college? She said, yeah, I said what you're asking him to do he will always struggle with because here's the deal.

[00:17:17] You're asking him to put a budget together and in his mind that budget is going to keep him from having fun. So he will avoid that budget at all costs. I said, so if you want to give him an exciting experience and actually buy into this budget thing.

[00:17:36] Walk up and introduce him in adventure. Tellers are going to be surprised around every corner. Tellers are going to be a pot of gold at the end of the end of the experience.

[00:17:45] You'll probably buy into it. Then you drop the bucket that while this was actually what I'm calling a budget. But if you teach him how to budget fun. He's going to be more open to the other aspects of budget.

[00:17:57] And if they blew her mind, she was like I've never heard this before.

[00:18:01] And that's what I'm talking about with these personalities is there's it's so it's so I don't want to say too deep but it's deep enough that you can really change the dynamic of conversations in the approach on money.

[00:18:17] So I'm a believer in general on personality assessments and I love actually even breaking it down to kind of these sub categories in terms of behaviors and how they, how you have kind of natural tendencies to react in whichever space one of my friends.

[00:18:37] She gave us a assessment as a family. Myself, my wife and my daughter, our son was a little too young at that time to do it but our daughter, I believe, was 10 at the time.

[00:18:51] And was called the ultimate life tools, a ULT and basically it allowed us to understand that our daughter doesn't see the mess.

[00:19:02] The same way as we see a mess. So there's different types of personalities where you know when you walk into a room and you're like, you can see everything out of order and then some people are like they could have you know underwear hanging.

[00:19:15] You know and you're like, oh I didn't see it.

[00:19:19] So when I walk into a room instead of like, you know, beaten her up about it, she doesn't see the mess the way I see the mess we have just different personalities in that same space and to your point, you know.

[00:19:32] If you're going to get someone if you're going to create a carrot and you're going to create good financial behavior, you gotta know what you're starting with because yeah one size doesn't fit all you can't just brow beat things into people and have them see the world the same way.

[00:19:47] That you see the world and I know that you work with business professionals. So you're now, you know, you've got the collegiate aspect which is cool because those are like new budding, you know very moldable.

[00:20:02] You know humans but then you get the business professionals and we come with a lot of baggage we've been around, you know, a lot of habits. And believe sister. What do you start with, you know in that space do you try to?

[00:20:17] Now that you really clue into say I need to know your financial personality is this a mandatory when you're working with people.

[00:20:25] Either as groups or one on one to kind of understand what you're going with or is this a suggestion how do you see it and what do you do when you're working with business professionals and.

[00:20:34] You know getting them to a better mindset so you can get them to better profits.

[00:20:38] Well again, I'll go back to use it as I personally use it as a tool as well for myself so what that means is you know somebody's coming to me and wants to compensate me to work with them.

[00:20:49] And I've got to build and I have some why have some skin in the game to say look if we're going to do this you're going to do it my way so that we get the best results and I said I will collaborate with you along the way.

[00:20:59] So I give them the assessment just again so that I can understand them at a different level so that what I'm saying to them is meaningful and we actually connect.

[00:21:11] So you know, a lot of people a lot of people have taken the assessments and it seems to be kind of like the thing to do anymore there's so many out there.

[00:21:23] It's not the assessment it's the result and what you do with the results of the assessment that actually makes the difference.

[00:21:29] And, and that's that's my goal is to teach people how to utilize these results differently in their day to day and it takes time to learn it but once you learn it.

[00:21:39] It starts to just become automatic your your personal awareness of how you're acting the things you're saying what somebody else is doing is huge.

[00:21:49] And especially partnerships so part of this personality assessment we created an interactive guide that helps you learn how to communicate to one another about money. And it's huge and I'm going to go back to me, all right.

[00:22:04] So when I was first married I've been married 30 years when I was first married. I would be all making financial decisions like crazy you know we're doing this we're doing that we're doing this.

[00:22:15] My wife's what she would question me about the finances I would get very defensive and I I you that as her not trusting me.

[00:22:27] Yeah, I until I understand of her personality her personality is such that she all she was doing is asking for details see I wasn't giving her the details for very get comfortable to come alongside me so we could do this life together.

[00:22:41] So when it came to the money thing she's like okay I see what you're doing but why in a I was like oh you know trust me you know what's going on with us.

[00:22:49] But no it was completely like she needed to know the information so that she could start to be comfortable so that she walked right beside me along that journey. So so yeah there's really a lot to this.

[00:23:02] Yeah I think that trying to find out and especially a financial partner which is I believe probably the single biggest decision you'll ever make in your life is who you partner up with.

[00:23:16] You know whether or not you get married or not doesn't you know if you're going to share finances and that's your financial partner. You you've got to know. A had a communicate which.

[00:23:27] A lot of people are triggered pretty easily these days so it's like people are you know there's a lot of people that are you can quickly. Become a victim you know like are you attacking me.

[00:23:41] But you got to start with understanding each other right like you've got to you got to see you get to understand where you come in from like you said once you understood what your wife really wanted to know.

[00:23:51] It was easy you know you you weren't being attacked you weren't your motives weren't being questioned and.

[00:23:58] I'm such a big fan I'd like to beat this drum really if you haven't chosen a partner in life yet recognize the fact that this is the single biggest decision you'll ever make and.

[00:24:10] No you don't need to just date for two years and then immediately say where's my ring you could you know you want to. It's fine if you if you expect things but you want to have some financial education together you want to have that financial communication.

[00:24:25] The church that that married us required. The financial conversations with all the couples that we're going to get married and I thought it was a little I was growing it is brilliant. Well the crazy thing is you know if we're not careful.

[00:24:38] We'll select somebody who's like us and I'm talking business partnerships. Yeah well we'll we'll select people who are like us and that and that's not always the best thing either.

[00:24:49] Because there's going to be challenges there just because we're a light doesn't necessarily carry me that we're on the same page.

[00:24:54] HR people HR people tend to hire people they like well who do we like we like people we're like us you know means also now your organization becomes this. This one personality and so yeah there's so there's so much to what you just said is being important.

[00:25:10] Yeah this and it really everything every level of life because finance is so stitched into the fabric of our existence right whether or not you know you're you're spending or you're saving you're thinking about it.

[00:25:26] And if you run a business you know you're you're thinking about investing and you're thinking about your human capital and you're thinking about saving and all of these things that.

[00:25:42] So back to a lot of times the way you view money as a tool the more risk tolerance you have you know you probably have a greater opportunity for reward also failure but definitely for reward if you're investing in two things that can net you up.

[00:26:04] If you're fearful of money and money is is something that wasn't discussed it's hard to be a leader and a financial leader for sure and to be fearful of money.

[00:26:13] I am curious where did financial freedom where did that mentality come from for you when did you recognize it and did you have a model in your life that set you up nicely or did you learn.

[00:26:30] Kind of like myself or I saw my grandparents struggle and I went the other way. No I grew up in role Pennsylvania blue collar family my dad that was in the heavy equipment world.

[00:26:41] He was a heavy equipment operator so he was out of work more than it was in work sometimes just because of the whole economics of that during the 70s and 80s.

[00:26:50] So you know there were times that you know other people had to buy us Christmas gifts just to have gifts under the tree so.

[00:26:58] So I didn't grow up a fluent in any you know, run with the imagination in also there wasn't a lot of communication or conversation about college or what's next.

[00:27:09] You know we get out of high schools was we're going to get job so you know I jumped on that bandwagon and I went out of job and I was out of high school and I hated it.

[00:27:19] I mean I was miserable and by the time I's 23 years old at 15 different or time jobs and what they woke up I said I'm done you know I have an interest in being an entrepreneur.

[00:27:30] I have an interest in finance and I just jumped in with both feet so it was one of those things that you know I grew into it.

[00:27:38] I had to learn as well, you know I didn't have good financial habits back in the day just because I was you know I we didn't have money to save so there wasn't a lot of conversation about investing or anything like that.

[00:27:50] So it was one of those things that I grew into it and the more I learned and the more I studied the more I realized that you know there are certain spokes to this will need to be taken care of.

[00:28:00] And my business career took off really well I was one of the top salesman in the in the organization I was working with like was asked to do certain.

[00:28:11] I was teaching that different levels of training meetings across the country and it just did just took off from there so it was a learning process it was definitely a learning process for me.

[00:28:23] You you saw what happens when there isn't a lot to go around obviously that a lot times as a kid that that creates you know a fork in the road because it doesn't just you know it's kind of like having a parent that's a smoker you know.

[00:28:42] Some people just can't even stand the smell of it for the rest of their lives and others repeat the pattern and so there's always this fork in the road which way do you go right and when you come from scarcity.

[00:28:53] You know and you have nothing sometimes you don't value money so you just you know you go back into just okay fine I'm just going to yellow my whole life right and other people go the other way which is like hey.

[00:29:05] I understand the value of this dollar I want it to. To work for me and I'm going to put each dollar to work and you wrote the book you know making millions going broke. Really can you talk a little bit about what that book is I think.

[00:29:25] I think of a lot of people making a lot of money over their lifetime and. Some have a substantial amount to show for it some have nothing. You talk a little bit about what inspired that book and who you wrote it for.

[00:29:43] Yeah I was far to write it based on work with young people and again going back and learning that you know the the financial literacy of these young people is just not on the basics it's not there understanding.

[00:29:55] You know the difference between a 15 and 30 year mortgage and the impacts of that financially it has on you.

[00:29:59] Understanding that you know within a couple years on a 15 year mortgage your money going to principals actually more than this going to interest but if you go to a 30 year mortgage is like 16 years before you ever see more money going to principal than interest in just having the understanding of those basics.

[00:30:17] But I'm going to back up just to hear because there's an aspect of here that I just don't think. That we live in a culture or society anymore that allows us to dream big.

[00:30:29] I think sometimes our circumstances or certain circumstances, Honest input is in a box and our belief system is that we can't be better than our current situation.

[00:30:39] In my one of the messages that I loved to teach and preach on his look, if your dream is not big enough to scare you your dreams not big enough.

[00:30:48] And what I didn't share with you was that I found success really early in my career but in 1999 and 2000 I decided to switch investment firms.

[00:30:58] And I was doing really well as making well over six figures and it was one of those things though I worked for a proprietary company that owned my assets, the own mind clients.

[00:31:09] When I stepped away from them, I had to step away from my entire book of business and go to zero again. When I did that was 1999 and 2000 you recall what happened in 1999 and 2000? Yeah, I was living at Doc Hong.

[00:31:24] You got it and nobody wanted to invest everybody was running from the stock market and I literally lost everything in about 18 months. And I had to start this thing all over again. And again, in that moment I'll never forget a phone rang.

[00:31:40] I was waiting on somebody to call me back about investing money. And I'll never forget it was like yesterday. Phone rang picked up the phone and it was a creditor looking for a payment.

[00:31:50] Hang up the phone and I literally wiped my desk clear of all of its contents with one 12 swoop of my arm and I was devastated. My wife came in and she was going on and I said I can't do this anymore.

[00:32:01] And I remember that night sitting around the table looking at my kids and my wife across that table with tears on my eyes thinking, okay. I could sit here in boo boo. I could sit here and feel sorry for myself or I can change my circumstance.

[00:32:16] And I jumped on that horse again and I became successful and I became more successful out of that situation and where I am today. Then I have ever would have if I've never gone through it.

[00:32:28] So it's not the journey of success necessarily or I'm not, it's not the success end goal necessarily that makes you get the journey along the way.

[00:32:37] And so my message to these young people through this book is I really wanted to give them a tool that it's very basic and there's a lot of these books out there.

[00:32:47] But it's a style that, you know, I tell stories throughout the entire book about real life stories of individuals who experience the financial challenge that that chapter is talking about. And I try to use it as a springboard for people to make better decisions.

[00:33:03] Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing that by the way because I think it is important. I just recorded a podcast for you weeks ago title when the chips are down and really it's I think everybody hears the same right you know it's it's not.

[00:33:21] You know what happens when you get punches, you know what are you doing if you have an opportunity to down you know and how do you get back up.

[00:33:29] And you know and and ultimately it's easy to say these things, you know what do you do after you get knocked down.

[00:33:36] But to live it and we've all lived it in some way shape or form, you know sometimes it's bigger than others bankruptcies or you know losing something substantial for closures, repossessions things like this.

[00:33:51] But whatever that is that opportunity kind of harness and have some type of North Star. And this is why I'm you know the finance in our name is meant for personal finance so business finance as a soul is for personal finance.

[00:34:07] The reason I beat the drum so heavily on financial independence is to create empowerment, to create habits and a sense of freedom and the knowledge that you don't it's not about how much you may obviously it's better to make more so you have more options.

[00:34:25] You can create more opportunity faster but it starts with really how much you spend it starts with your you know financial acumen in terms of knowing where your dollars go.

[00:34:36] That's funny you say that so one of my major things that I preached to the kids and the college students is it's not the number of zeros in your paycheck is a number of zeros you keep out of your paycheck is important.

[00:34:46] And it always brings laughter to the stage but it's so true, it's so true and you know oftentimes we're again making those decisions based on emotion and you know I had a conversation last week.

[00:35:00] It just kid was trying to justify the 30 year mortgage I said look I still not considered arguing with you.

[00:35:07] I said the numbers are what they are. I said but I just want you to acknowledge that you're trying to buy a house you can't afford with based on a 30 year payment that's all after.

[00:35:15] And I said and I don't want to be a little you I said but your your 25 years old.

[00:35:21] Start and work your way into the house you want I said number what you're going to appreciate more because you had to work for it number two you're going to set your finances up on a completely different church to director.

[00:35:31] James said trajectory right out of the shoot because if you don't stay in that house on a 30 year mortgage. You know you're building equity at a much slower pace so if you decide to move in 10 years your equity base is going to be so small.

[00:35:45] So it's just it's just one of those things that you know it's it's it's trying to get them to understand that so that's why wrote the book book for.

[00:35:55] And it's just trying to be another voice of a different angle for folks to to buy into and listen to.

[00:36:01] That's cool and I and I love it because you're in the space of educating you know the next generation of of professionals and I think that misnomer you touched upon an earlier of like.

[00:36:13] So the opportunities aren't there or they're not as plenty full especially after the run in home ownership you know and home appreciation post COVID we saw it spike you know it's.

[00:36:30] And that coupled with low rates and now it's high rates and high expenditures in terms of you know.

[00:36:38] What homes cost it's it for people can look at the landscape and feel a bit disenfranchised like well okay well you know the older generations got all the riches and I'm left with this and you know the reality of it is there's always a ton of opportunity we just live in kind of a world right now where it feels you're so hyper connected.

[00:36:59] That you feel something that maybe isn't necessarily really real or you have higher expectations of what you should have at 23 or 24 years old you're like well I should have this and truth be told you know.

[00:37:12] It's one foot in front of the other a lot of building wealth is just the unsexy aspect of of one foot in front of the other and you look at these people that live in you know a 4000 or 5000 square foot place and they're you know 60 years old and you know like all they've taken everything chances are they started in a condo that they didn't love.

[00:37:38] At you know they even even way back when when everything was cheap I know quote unquote. I look at what my grandparents bought acreage for and I was like why wouldn't you bought the whole island you know like.

[00:37:49] It's a lot of course like it's a relative right like you have you have to you have to take into account inflation you have to take into account earnings at that time and you know.

[00:38:01] It was a lot of money for them back then and they's rempt insane and they sacrificed and they didn't have iPhones and they didn't have big screen TVs and they didn't have data plans and so everybody makes these sacrifice I think that.

[00:38:15] Yes, there things have gotten a little bit skewed but there is so much room for opportunity if you're willing to do the harder things where other people are not willing to do the harder things.

[00:38:25] That's it and you know again I'll go back to myself it took me six years to dig out and to the point out back on independent's row.

[00:38:35] That's a long time and if you say that when you're in the middle of it and you said boys is going to take me six years.

[00:38:40] In that moment this is like that's forever I give up I walk out you know I mean rather than just saying okay let's do this is put her head down go to work.

[00:38:49] And and and the crazy thing is you know sometimes opportunities are not good they're not for us we need to say no to them yeah and you know my kids you know they're in the process of you know learning.

[00:39:01] They all live on their own now and it's just those financial decisions and I share with them look just because the bank will give you the loan doesn't mean that you should take the loan and run one.

[00:39:10] And it's doing the work behind it and it's getting advice in bringing along the professionals if you need to to help you through the process.

[00:39:18] So this life is not meant to be taken by its by itself and you know driven by itself utilize that use it in your use it in your finances to get people to help you out.

[00:39:28] Can you talk a little bit about I know you know working with individuals and creating road maps for success but how do you work with. You know entrepreneurs business executives or business owners you know what what is it that how do you service that community.

[00:39:49] Yeah, so I have a financial mentorship program now this is not a program.

[00:39:56] Designed to help somebody fix their budget so this this is this is more the next level type things there's all kind of nice free resources out there for people that need that type of helps I'm not trying to say.

[00:40:08] I don't want to help that but this this is kind of a next level next level mentorship if you will and in that mentorship we actually learn to track dollar for dollar. Let talk about different investment strategies those types of things.

[00:40:22] And I also have partner with another gentleman and we actually come in and we we actually do what we call a financial deep dive in their organizations we will we will do two year analysis we will work together to help people who are kind of.

[00:40:37] Stubborn people who are kind of struggling with their their business kind of hit the pause but then we try to hone in on what might be that.

[00:40:43] That thing that needs the button push to turn everything back on again so there's a couple different levels if you will that people can utilize for our services but it really is just a new one is one on one type thing.

[00:40:57] What are most people struggling with in that space that they're actually making good money running a company.

[00:41:03] What do you find when you pull back the covers I think most individuals listening you know and where I find a lot of value you know when I'm hearing about things is just like what happens behind the scenes what's behind the doors you know what do you find.

[00:41:21] When you start pulling back the covers with more high net worth individuals. Well what I find out what it does even to be high net individuals what I find out is I don't have to ask you one question about your money to know who you are.

[00:41:37] And and what your financial personality is your money speaks volumes. And what I mean with that is most most businesses really don't understand the power of a piano and a ballad sheet. And that's that again is this financial one of one that doesn't necessarily get hit hard enough.

[00:41:58] And so what we do a lot of times we get that piano. If we go right to the bottom line and say oh I made x amount of dollars on an annual basis.

[00:42:07] I always also share with clients look you can make money and lose money at the same time and that lost dollar that you're missing is in the meat of the piano.

[00:42:16] And so it's one of those things that I don't think enough people are understanding truly what's in the details up their money. That could lead them to actually better profits better policies and procedures better processes if you will to make their business run differently.

[00:42:33] I was working with a young man here not long ago and I was working on a piano and I said how did unmarking me said tell me about marketing because what do you mean I said what you return on your dollar.

[00:42:45] Because while I'm not sure I know and I said exactly and I said you know you spend a hundred and some thousand dollars on the marketing budget what did you get out of it. And he wasn't sure now that that's not necessary say anything bad about him.

[00:43:00] He is mentality and his design is to go produce produce produce produce produce produce. But you know in those numbers is where the solutions are found. The other thing is the balance sheet people understand that a balance sheet actually is the indicator of the health of the organization.

[00:43:18] There are different ratios that I'll tell you look you're leverage way too much so don't even consider going to get another loan because you're on the verge based on your numbers up being to clearly upside down and in trouble pretty dark way.

[00:43:32] So I think you know if I were to answer that I think that there's just not a lot of knowledge on the materials and the information that are at your fingertips that need to be there.

[00:43:43] Especially in the economy that we're in right now, you know if this continues to be that the way it is over the next year or so.

[00:43:50] And you know we're looking at possibly having some hard times because this economy impacting the clients and the people who are doing business with us.

[00:44:00] The people walking through the door is buy and goods and services. So if you are not managed you're on personal business finances to handle an economic impact that's impacting your customers you're in trouble.

[00:44:12] Yeah, and I think you know there's so many lessons that you can take away from on a personal level from business strategy and business communication because I think personally you should have a family balance sheet.

[00:44:26] You should have your investment portfolio should understand the health of your assets. I think that you need to have a personal profit loss statement.

[00:44:36] You need to you need to know where your expenditures are, you know things add up super quick right you know Disney plus and Apple TV and Netflix and you see it about premiums and you know like you're like, well these are just little charges and next thing you know like money is just slipping out.

[00:44:55] And I know that people talk about like the latte effect or you know avocado toast and you know that's it's like it's not that those things are inherently bad or that those are expensive.

[00:45:05] It's just that compounded of where you're not aware it's more of a mindset rather than an actual I think people lose the analogy or metaphors that that are put out there it's really just not keeping an eye on what's important and having a strong understanding your financial engine.

[00:45:25] On where you're driving to and where where the lost powers coming from right you know like if if.

[00:45:35] If somebody's drilling holes in your tailpipe, you know it there you will start to notice we're you know a loss performance and you're going to want to know where to pinpoint that if you don't know what's going on, you know it leads to other problems and more damage down the road.

[00:45:54] I'm right there with you and I think that there's a lot of business owners there a lot of people are focused on you know just to. Collecting yeah like let me just go out there if you're in business let me get more clients let me get more revenue.

[00:46:06] But then you don't understand the ramifications and I do think you're right we're going to stay in probably an elevated interest rate environment for a little while. While the feds trying to tame inflation and get that under control.

[00:46:20] And what that means is if you're living on a borrowed lifestyle meaning like companies need debt to survive those are going to be the first ones.

[00:46:30] You know because they can't service the debt at a higher level same thing in a household if you're always needs to pull out that credit card for an extra 500 or 1000 dollars a month.

[00:46:41] Because you haven't changed your lifestyle and you you know you're going to feel that six to eight months down the road when things have compounded in your interest rate is. You know up in the healthy double digits it gets it's very difficult to stay afloat.

[00:46:56] No we're not paying attention to it and what we do is we pay attention to payments. What happens with your payment is your payment can stay the same and the amount of money going to interest and principal completely flip.

[00:47:07] And therefore you know yeah you might be making the same payment but the longevity of your loan or your credit card is just going to continue to go it can continue to go.

[00:47:17] It's it's an interesting time that we don't if we don't pay attention you know we can find ourselves quickly in a situation where we're in a bigger hole than we want to be.

[00:47:30] And you know you said about everybody should have a valid sheet everybody should have a P&L. But online as you have it whether it's written down or not it's there you if you know I'm your butt right under written down that's fine.

[00:47:43] You still have a budget you know and I call about personal financial ecosystem. It's just as vicious cycle that continues to go and what defines that financial ecosystem is number one there's a point in time when somebody handed you the keys to their flat your finances.

[00:47:58] When you left all your guardians parents who never handed you the keys to set here you go. So every decision that you've made from that point on to the day we are today had an impact of where your finances are today.

[00:48:11] And having an understanding of that instead of trying to find out and go and blame in people you know I understand things happen things have happened to me.

[00:48:19] But there still was a responsibility component of this that I owned and I took it was that you know what enough enough I'm done. And we really need to get to get to that point because we don't need to worry about the government.

[00:48:32] I'm working on a keynote right now that I'm delivering and it's called the i and finance and talks about personal responsibility.

[00:48:40] But I spent the first part of the first part of the the keynote talking about where we are right now economically with the national debt works going how much interest we pay.

[00:48:50] And I just kind of go through that and then I tell people how it actually can impact us it seems to be big and out of reach. But I go through the process actually what happens to us.

[00:49:01] And the number one thing that people do with that they want to go all those republicans are all those democrats. Well here's the deal people since the 1970s there's been exactly four democrats and four republicans in office.

[00:49:14] It has nothing to do with politics and we shouldn't be sitting and worrying about that sort of thing.

[00:49:20] We need to be just saying you know what I got to work at what I could control I can control my own spending I can control my own habits and dive in with both. Yeah, I love that actually personal accountability is is the I have a family member.

[00:49:37] I love them so I've been I'm going to leave them on a name but you know I go at it because they want to talk big picture in the erosion of a system.

[00:49:47] And I want to talk about my personal ability to influence and so like what I tell them is if you don't like that system go be part of it and change it. Yeah, but they don't like that answer you know like they found it out.

[00:49:59] I just want to explain. Yeah, it's just a mathematically change itself you know and and so I think that that's the same way is like oh my gosh this is happening or this is happening.

[00:50:11] You got to start with to your point Gary look in the mirror look at what you can affect your control levels in life. The personal finance side if you're not running a company you know.

[00:50:25] Where are you focusing your your attention and how are you educating your family and if you're running a business yeah how are you managing for tomorrow for a softer economy and you know how are you investing into the space of relevance to maintain you know that that R&D mindset to to maintain that space of where you're planning for tomorrow.

[00:50:48] It's a delicate dance it is that is and but you know that something that we all have to be prepared for when you run a company.

[00:50:55] Yeah, you can sit on the side line you can sit in the chair and watch the whole dance for dance you got to get out there and and dance and yeah absolutely somebody somebody's going to create your future for you whether you like it or not so it's like either you're part of it or someone else is.

[00:51:12] Well so so that's great I know Gary you actually are you know very active in public speaking engagement bringing on clients and I think you've also got a new ebook out that.

[00:51:31] I just want us to download that they can get in the show notes if you'll send that over to me and we'll get there where where can people find you where would you like. Audience engagement.

[00:51:43] I appreciate that so I am on like then you can reach out to me in the link in for sure. I mean you can go to my website our blaster consoling dot com you can reach out to me be email at gerry at our blaster consoling dot com.

[00:51:55] You know it's it's easy to it's easy to get touched me the the financial tip ebook is called 10 tips to gain a financial edge and the website for that is www dot financial tip ebook dot com. Perfect and out of the tips what do you think 10 tips.

[00:52:15] What's the most impactful that you'd like to leave. Oh well I'm not going to be here from it's known your personal.

[00:52:22] I've seen the impact of it and I'm not just saying that because I got a product I've seen it do amazing things when you actually take a moment to understand who you are and allow yourself to be. How you were designed.

[00:52:38] Yeah I appreciate you beating that drum I think that that's something that everyone needs to know just a baseline get the foundation. Listen to gerry you know it really understand who you are so you can find yourself in flow and have fun with this.

[00:52:54] I think that's the key some of us who actually have fun with personal finance even when the numbers don't look amazing I mean there's a time in my life where I'm looking at it I'm like negative net worth that's not.

[00:53:05] So you know I've been there and never in a million years could I see myself 20 years down the road but eventually life catches up with you.

[00:53:14] And if you've been doing the work and you know who you are and you have fun with things because you understand personal finance and how it stitches into your life.

[00:53:23] You're actually going to make a huge impact and believe it or not if you're not there yet you will become a millionaire.

[00:53:31] And you'll do it in a way that's fun and sustainable rather than a roller coaster and unsustainable so I appreciate everything that you're doing gerry within just the financial education community. God, appreciate it and I would say one more thing.

[00:53:48] I would encourage people not to run away from mentorship.

[00:53:53] I've been involved in hiring coaches my entire life having a mentor maybe you don't have to pay for them but at my level I pay for somebody who's been more successful in I am so I pay for a financial coach now.

[00:54:05] These relationships are I believe one of the key aspects of keeping you grounded and keeping you moving forward because let's face it there are days you wake up and you just want to be done. I'm exhausted and I'll feel like it.

[00:54:21] I just want to go and do my thing and forget about this thing. So I would really encourage folks look find somebody you trust you can mentor with.

[00:54:32] I've got the pay for pay for but I truly believe that's another aspect that's spoken the world is really going to help you get to the next level. Best huge.

[00:54:39] I mean there's not a there's not a high performing athlete on the planet that doesn't have a coach looking to take them to the next level.

[00:54:46] And they're you know I love you know here in Tony Robbins talking about you know some of his his private fees that he gets from. Some of the the wealthiest individuals on the planet that are still paying him.

[00:55:03] And when you don't have that type of money it's counter intuitive you kind of think well wait if you're a billionaire you don't you don't have to pay anybody figured it all out as just not the case I mean no it's not no billionaires have.

[00:55:16] Bigger all decks and access to more resources in conversations and private rooms and so they're consistently sharpening the knife and.

[00:55:26] And in order to get there yeah you've got to align yourself with the right professionals the right people so I'm right there with you appreciate you highlighting that and appreciate you taking the time with me. Sean has been fun.

[00:55:38] Thank you so much keep going with your doing as well. This is really helpful. Thanks Gary appreciate you. Until next time everybody. Stay curious and stay engaged on the personal finance side is huge and overtime you're going to notice some big changes. All right until next time.