Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we are discussing going full cross fit on
Speaker 1: your finances. That's right, Joel. We actually we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a confession to make. Recently, you and I we both
Speaker 1: have started working out a little bit there mon fashions,
Speaker 1: is that us? I don't remember that way? Remember shot
Speaker 1: in the Dark? U s h r H. I am
Speaker 1: oh Wendy my wife's genre music. I'm more in the
Speaker 1: blue grounds. But yes, I remember saying that in fifth
Speaker 1: grade or we have You and I. Neither of us
Speaker 1: are are yolked or anything like that. We're not like
Speaker 1: beast mode over here. But yes, we have been working
Speaker 1: out regularly, and we're both getting a little bit older,
Speaker 1: and with age comes maybe more of a focus on
Speaker 1: your health. It's not quite as easy as it used
Speaker 1: to be. And through the process of working and I
Speaker 1: think both of us have realized there are so many
Speaker 1: parallels between being healthy with your body, with your physical health,
Speaker 1: and being healthy when it comes to your finances with
Speaker 1: your money. And so we felt that we would be
Speaker 1: doing a disservice to you, our listener, if we didn't
Speaker 1: share some of these really with some of these true
Speaker 1: these some of these nuggets of wisdom that we think
Speaker 1: are applicable from the physical fitness world. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people wait to get their bodies in shape,
Speaker 1: tell you know, the middle of their lives, which is
Speaker 1: true for us, but a lot of people wait that
Speaker 1: long to get their money in order to and so
Speaker 1: getting started young. That is one of those things we're
Speaker 1: gonna talking about. But there are a lot of things
Speaker 1: just from the past few months. You and I've been
Speaker 1: really really getting this ramped up over the past few months,
Speaker 1: and we've learned some things and then we think applied
Speaker 1: to money. So we'll talk about that today. But before
Speaker 1: we get to that, Matt, I wanted to mention, I
Speaker 1: want to ask you whether or not I was frugal
Speaker 1: or cheap with a recent purchase. A recent date night
Speaker 1: I took my wife on. You know, we did not
Speaker 1: go to McDonald's. I know that's what you're thinking. No,
Speaker 1: but we we went to see a play at the
Speaker 1: Fox Theater downtown, which was which was lovely. But I
Speaker 1: bought the seats that were quote unquote limited view seats
Speaker 1: and so they were discounted another twenty bucks from the
Speaker 1: seats on either side, and here's so, yeah, we're in
Speaker 1: front of a post behind the post. No, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I knew the theater well enough to know that. I
Speaker 1: don't know why they were calling them limited view seats
Speaker 1: like they there was no post. There was no We
Speaker 1: were off to the side a little bit. But interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: we were in the middle of this row and the
Speaker 1: seats to the left into the right of us, none
Speaker 1: of them were considered limited view. That's just the seats
Speaker 1: where we were. And I'm like, the deal nothing there
Speaker 1: were there were great seats. I was like, it's shocked.
Speaker 1: So you truly didn't have a limited view, truly not
Speaker 1: a limited you know the answer that was achieved that
Speaker 1: was totally frugal. But I was, I guess you run
Speaker 1: the risk of it being potentially cheap. I was because
Speaker 1: I've seen a few shows at the Fox and I
Speaker 1: was like, there's still post down there, Like, unless I'm
Speaker 1: crazy and completely mistaken, may like change the architecture right
Speaker 1: and a post in there. But they got got rid
Speaker 1: of a post balcony. There used to be a post
Speaker 1: there and maybe no longer. Well I remember one time going,
Speaker 1: um okay, now We got seats one time up in
Speaker 1: the balcony, and I sat behind the post in the
Speaker 1: balcony and it's it's not fun. I'm talking specifically. I
Speaker 1: call them like, uh like date night seats or whatever.
Speaker 1: But there's this there's a couple of particular rows where
Speaker 1: it's just two chairs, two seats where you're sitting by
Speaker 1: yourself and so you kind of feel like a v
Speaker 1: I P. Where you're not sitting with the throngs of folks.
Speaker 1: But I am glad though that I worked out for
Speaker 1: You even saw Chicago, That's right. I enjoyed it. I've
Speaker 1: never never seen Chicago me neither. That was my first
Speaker 1: time and never never saw it on TV. No, I
Speaker 1: never saw the movie or anything, which those aren't really
Speaker 1: that great either. I feel like some of the ones
Speaker 1: that they make for TV end up like Cats. How
Speaker 1: terrible was that thing? I saw it? I never saw
Speaker 1: it either, But I've really gotten into the pres for it.
Speaker 1: Are you know, like with the Taylor Swift and Judy Dench,
Speaker 1: It's like it was scary. It was like terrifying, and
Speaker 1: people are like, yeah, she was she was in the Cats,
Speaker 1: the movie, the one made for TV. Okay, No, I
Speaker 1: didn't it. Yeah, and I didn't even know what existed.
Speaker 1: I don't think. So that's how that's all. Horribly it faired.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get more cultured, and part of that includes,
Speaker 1: you know, more art museums, more plays. So it was
Speaker 1: it was fun to get to do it, but you know,
Speaker 1: you want to do it on the cheap, and and
Speaker 1: if it if it meant an actual limited view sitting
Speaker 1: behind a post, no it would not have been worth
Speaker 1: a discount. But I guess I looked out and it
Speaker 1: was worth the dis kind of thing. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: you can always go after those. So I think I
Speaker 1: think our tickets were forty nine each, and so I
Speaker 1: think it was sixty nine for the people on either
Speaker 1: side of us. I didn't bring it up to them.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to rub it in. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move on it. Let's mention the beer we're having on
Speaker 1: this episode. This one is called october Fest. It's by
Speaker 1: Talisman Brewing. We had a beer by the same brewery
Speaker 1: on Monday's episode. We'll give our thoughts on this one
Speaker 1: at the end of the episode. That's right, But Matt,
Speaker 1: let's get into this one. We're going full CrossFit on
Speaker 1: people's finances today, We're going, I don't know, maybe, and
Speaker 1: you're doing the Richard Simmons workouts, right, is that sure?
Speaker 1: Into Well, so I am doing the CrossFit workout, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my best to not make this like
Speaker 1: U P s A to try to get everyone to
Speaker 1: do across because the joke is always how do you
Speaker 1: know someone's in across it? Because they'll tell you immediately,
Speaker 1: they'll let you know. And that being said, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's uh, the fact that I haven't brought it
Speaker 1: up for the past two I've done it for like
Speaker 1: two or three months now. Yeah, even we've both been
Speaker 1: doing it for about two and a half months now.
Speaker 1: So that's why we're like, we don't want to get
Speaker 1: too far into it. We want to kind of like
Speaker 1: see the lessons as they're evolving, but we also want
Speaker 1: to be far enough into it. Were like immediately and
Speaker 1: we're both like, oh my gosh, there are some incredible
Speaker 1: lessons to be learned from exercising, from staying healthy. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: it makes me think that like one unit, you just
Speaker 1: never know when inspiration is going to strike, and which
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like something a creative artist would say, right,
Speaker 1: and chain smoking artist would say, but it makes me
Speaker 1: think of a scene from the classic movie Back to
Speaker 1: the Future when Doc Brown he basically explains how does
Speaker 1: that he came up with the idea for the flex capacitor,
Speaker 1: And the reality is that no flex capacitor means no
Speaker 1: time machine. So this is like vitally important to time
Speaker 1: travel but also to the more than anything to the
Speaker 1: plot of the movie. But the way that he came
Speaker 1: about it was that he was standing on his toilet.
Speaker 1: Doc was standing on his toilet hanging a clock or
Speaker 1: something when he slips, hitting his head on the sink,
Speaker 1: and it was at that precise moment that he came
Speaker 1: up with the idea for the flux cost and doing
Speaker 1: something completely unrelated to his scientific pursuits, and that of
Speaker 1: course would alter his life and and also Marty McFly's
Speaker 1: life as well. If you've never seen the movie, well
Speaker 1: what are you doing with your life? But will link
Speaker 1: to a clip where this where where you get to
Speaker 1: see this in action. But it's a classic moment from
Speaker 1: a movie that embodies the idea that answers have a
Speaker 1: unique way of showing up when we least expect that,
Speaker 1: and we promised, by the way, this this podcast isn't
Speaker 1: going to start churning out fitness content. That's now we're
Speaker 1: going to do. But the correlations between fitness and finance
Speaker 1: are numerous. We felt like there are answers in this
Speaker 1: realm that apply to the realm that we typically talk
Speaker 1: about every single week. Matt and we just kind of
Speaker 1: felt like we had to share absolutely. Yeah, And by
Speaker 1: the way, Back to the Future, the original Back to
Speaker 1: the Future one such an amazing movie. Like I don't
Speaker 1: think there's any movie out there as a kid that
Speaker 1: I watch more than particular movies except for maybe like
Speaker 1: The Goonies, Like it was a toss up between one
Speaker 1: of those two films. Um, And so you might be wondering, like,
Speaker 1: how is it that Back to the Future has anything
Speaker 1: to do with personal finance? Well, you know, like in
Speaker 1: the same way that Genius came to to doc when
Speaker 1: het least expected it, we found that there are so
Speaker 1: many different money lessons that we both learned from working
Speaker 1: out from getting more fit. Who knew that there'd be
Speaker 1: so many of like additional benefits and externalities in the
Speaker 1: language of economists from exercising, But the fact is there
Speaker 1: are so many different ways that we learn. Some folks
Speaker 1: out there, they're able to sit down and devour a
Speaker 1: book in a single sitting, retain every bit of information
Speaker 1: that way. But then for others it might it might
Speaker 1: take them interacting with the ideas, right like, they might
Speaker 1: be more of the doer type. And so while we
Speaker 1: think this is going to be a valuable episode for
Speaker 1: everyone out there, it might be appreciated even more by
Speaker 1: the type of person who likes to get their sweat on, right,
Speaker 1: which it turns out, Joel, that's more of what you
Speaker 1: and I are doing these days. We're getting our sweat on,
Speaker 1: We're getting fit, trying to be that Richard Simmonds type
Speaker 1: for sure. And by the way, is there any more
Speaker 1: Is there any more identifiable person in the world of
Speaker 1: exercise and Richard Simmons is either him or Billy Blank.
Speaker 1: It's it's one of those two, right, It's got to
Speaker 1: be one of those two. I guess the tybo I
Speaker 1: couldn't name any I know there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: exercise Instagram gurus now, but influencers, nobody's gonna have the
Speaker 1: same reach of Richards. It's it's sort of I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the difference between media today and media back when
Speaker 1: we were kids, right, Like, you had the three four
Speaker 1: major networks, and whoever was on there, they got all
Speaker 1: the eyeballs. But that's not quite how it is today.
Speaker 1: And so even though there are a number of folks,
Speaker 1: we're still going to remember the classics, the O G
Speaker 1: fitness guys out there right right well, And I like
Speaker 1: how you said, like I think some people that people
Speaker 1: who work out might might get more from this episode.
Speaker 1: But hopefully some of our listeners who maybe haven't really
Speaker 1: gotten into working out yet, maybe they still have an
Speaker 1: impact on their desire to actually get out there and
Speaker 1: do some sweating themselves. And we've talked about on the
Speaker 1: show how time is even more important than money, Matt.
Speaker 1: Even though we talk about money, the most limited resources
Speaker 1: exactly cannot get any more of it, That's right, And
Speaker 1: you're realizing that and then living accordingly is crucial so
Speaker 1: that we aren't spending all of our waking hours trying
Speaker 1: to amass this one asset, right, and which is money,
Speaker 1: which is a tool that ultimately it provides diminishing returns,
Speaker 1: especially past a certain point. And the interesting thing is
Speaker 1: that if you're you're looking to increase your allotment of
Speaker 1: available time. The only thing that you can do is
Speaker 1: to exercise and to participate less risky behaviors. Yes, skydiving, yes,
Speaker 1: don't do right, Yes, things like that that will short
Speaker 1: in your life. So being being healthier and then he's
Speaker 1: not doing crazy stuff is certainly gonna help you live longer.
Speaker 1: But friend of the show, Nick ma Julie, who came
Speaker 1: on you know, I don't know a few months back,
Speaker 1: he wrote the book just Keep Buying Well. He wrote
Speaker 1: about this recently in his his blog, and he wrote
Speaker 1: back about the fact that health experts have shown that
Speaker 1: folks with proper cardiovascular fitness can add something like three
Speaker 1: to five years onto their lives, and not just that,
Speaker 1: but six to eight years of health span, which is
Speaker 1: basically the healthy life where you're physically capable of doing
Speaker 1: the things that you'd like to do, or you know,
Speaker 1: if you live quality years. Yeah, an unhealthy life you're
Speaker 1: going to you you might live on us is long,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna have more years where your body isn't
Speaker 1: able to line up with your mental capacity and you're
Speaker 1: not able to do things you actually like. And the
Speaker 1: best line from his piece, Matt was he he wrote,
Speaker 1: assuming you spent four hours a week exercising fifty weeks
Speaker 1: a year for fifty years, that would be ten thousand
Speaker 1: hours of lifetime exercise. That's barely over one year of time.
Speaker 1: But for that one year, you would likely get six
Speaker 1: to eight additional years of disability free health. And I
Speaker 1: think that's just an important thing to realize, Like what
Speaker 1: you're putting in to exercise, you're getting a whole lot
Speaker 1: more out on the back end. Well, and that's assuming
Speaker 1: that you're discounting the time that you're spending exercising as
Speaker 1: like you're basically just completely throwing it away, right, And
Speaker 1: I would argue that even even that time spent running
Speaker 1: or working out or rowing like you gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: rowing machine, Like that's time. Ay, well, that's time that
Speaker 1: you can spend like listening to an audiobook or podcast
Speaker 1: something like that. But if you, let's just say you're
Speaker 1: gonna go out for a run, you've got to be
Speaker 1: time that you're just completely unplugged right where where you're
Speaker 1: kind of reaping the mental health been of fits of
Speaker 1: just clearing your mind, the ability to process some thoughts.
Speaker 1: But for me, going into a gym it's been nice
Speaker 1: as well because there's there's community there, right, and so
Speaker 1: there's some friendships and contributing to a local business, like
Speaker 1: these are all things that also have intrinsic value. And
Speaker 1: so it's not like it's just you throwing away a
Speaker 1: full year, a full year of your life, do you
Speaker 1: guys like do chest bumplows? I don't know. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it's and we should mention by surprisingly like not Broie
Speaker 1: at all, which is like one of the great things
Speaker 1: about it. Well, you you're doing cross fit. I'm working
Speaker 1: at a home on mostly like a rowing machine and
Speaker 1: some free weights and then and then doing some additional biking,
Speaker 1: so like you can do it a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: My method is a little bit less expensive, but yours
Speaker 1: has a lot of other perks as well. So that's
Speaker 1: another thing. It's like different we can get into this lighter,
Speaker 1: but different strokes are different folks. It doesn't always have
Speaker 1: to look the same. Yeah. Well, and you kind of
Speaker 1: hinted at this at the beginning too, But the reality
Speaker 1: is like we haven't avoided exercise completely up until this point, right,
Speaker 1: Like we just haven't been super intentional about it. Like
Speaker 1: I would sign up for races occasionally, and that would
Speaker 1: spur me on to specifically run more often. But aside
Speaker 1: from that, there wasn't a whole lot that I was
Speaker 1: doing myself. And dude, you know, I don't think we're
Speaker 1: alone in the fact that we've waited this long to
Speaker 1: get started and to start thinking about our health. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of folks don't really get started thinking
Speaker 1: about this until they're, you know, as they're entering middle age.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we're in our like thirties and now you're gonna
Speaker 1: live forever and exactly, and you start to see some
Speaker 1: deterioration and you're like, wait a second, I actually need
Speaker 1: to be proactive exactly. Yeah, And it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: not that you can't make signific significant progress at this
Speaker 1: point in your life. It's just that I think it's
Speaker 1: more ideal to be doing at least something during those
Speaker 1: early years, whether you're talking about fitness or money, but
Speaker 1: they both have this in common. It's not ideal to
Speaker 1: wait until you're older, but it's still better late than never.
Speaker 1: I think what's really interesting about it as well is
Speaker 1: I almost feel like that money and like physical fitness,
Speaker 1: they are in an inverse relationship with each other. Because
Speaker 1: like you said, when you're younger, you don't really think
Speaker 1: about being fit. You're just fit typically like automatically, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you're just an average person, like think about
Speaker 1: kids nothing or maybe you're not like fit, but you're
Speaker 1: at least like if you're not not fit, you're you're
Speaker 1: fairly healthy exactly. And so I think when you're younger,
Speaker 1: you're thinking a little bit less about your fitness, maybe
Speaker 1: more about your money, because you typically don't have as
Speaker 1: much of your money. But then as you get older,
Speaker 1: assuming just maybe the average person, you tend to make
Speaker 1: more money, and because of that, you're able to invest
Speaker 1: that money. Uh, and that money is then able to
Speaker 1: work more for you on your behalf. And to a
Speaker 1: certain extent, I think it it does get a little
Speaker 1: bit easier with your personal finances as you get older.
Speaker 1: But again you see the inverse, and I think you
Speaker 1: you start to see your health decline a little bit.
Speaker 1: You can't move in the same way, you can't run
Speaker 1: as fast, you can't lift as much as you could
Speaker 1: when you're younger, And so I think that's just a
Speaker 1: it depends on what phase of life you're in, because
Speaker 1: I think these are all natural sort of outcomes. But regardless,
Speaker 1: what we're saying is that it is important to do
Speaker 1: something when you're younger, because it is important to basically
Speaker 1: like set forth some of these healthy habits that we
Speaker 1: think are going to pay dividends and both arenas of life. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: whether you're talking about fitness or you're talking about money,
Speaker 1: getting started early is a really important thing. But it's
Speaker 1: also important to note that neither of these things is
Speaker 1: rocket science. And I think the more you try to
Speaker 1: overthink and create the perfect workout routine, let's say, Matt,
Speaker 1: the more likely you are to not do it at all,
Speaker 1: You're likely to just not follow through. Studies actually show
Speaker 1: that the time of day that you exercise can have
Speaker 1: an impact on fat burning and strength building. And apparently
Speaker 1: I read this, you're reading this in Men's Health. Now,
Speaker 1: this is actually an article from the Washington Post. But
Speaker 1: but building, right, that's where I spend most of my
Speaker 1: time now. But morning workouts achieve better results for women,
Speaker 1: and then evening workouts achieve more results for men. And
Speaker 1: I saw that, but I was like, I don't really care,
Speaker 1: And why don't I really care? Because I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to optimize to that extent. The better goal for me
Speaker 1: is just to work out consistently, to do something whenever
Speaker 1: I can make it happen. And so if I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get like one percent better results in the evening, am
Speaker 1: I going to try to like revolve my whole life
Speaker 1: around evening workouts even though it's inconvenient to the rest
Speaker 1: of my lifestyle and my family. No way, It's it's
Speaker 1: it's possible to optimize things too much. And we would
Speaker 1: say the same thing is true with your money. It's
Speaker 1: possible to do that with with your workout regiment. It's
Speaker 1: also possible to do that with your finances. You might
Speaker 1: be overthinking things and you're allowing perfect to be the
Speaker 1: enemy of good when instead you simply need to spend
Speaker 1: less than you make and invest the difference. Like it's
Speaker 1: it's not rocket science to get more fit. It's not
Speaker 1: rocket science to get better with your money. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: And that being said, I think it is okay if
Speaker 1: you have an interest in all the details and and
Speaker 1: all the technical specs, and if you start if you're
Speaker 1: diving into like macros and like when it comes to diet,
Speaker 1: like there's all these different elements. I think that is okay,
Speaker 1: as long as you are not keeping those additional complexities
Speaker 1: from keeping you from taking any action at all. Right,
Speaker 1: And that's just in particular true true for folks who
Speaker 1: are just getting started, because if you're just getting started
Speaker 1: with your money, or you're just getting started with a
Speaker 1: fitness regiment, the more you overcomplicated, the less likely you
Speaker 1: are to continue on, right, And so the easier we
Speaker 1: can make that transition, I think, the more likely we
Speaker 1: are to kind of at a routine going. And that's
Speaker 1: exactly yeah. Well that being said, another lesson I think
Speaker 1: that we can glean from physical fitness is accountability. That
Speaker 1: it can go a long way. Obviously, the purest form
Speaker 1: of accountability is the one that you have with yourself,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's a personal commitment that you refuse
Speaker 1: to violate. But it is also going to be powerful
Speaker 1: to say our goals out loud, right, maybe to tell
Speaker 1: your closest friends in your family about your goals, because
Speaker 1: that can help you to commit or even like like
Speaker 1: posting publicly on social media, like that can be a
Speaker 1: type of commitment device, because nobody likes to fail in
Speaker 1: front of hundreds of their closest friends. Yeah, like you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily need a workout partner, for instance, although that
Speaker 1: can provide real help as well. Uh. And so like
Speaker 1: I say this because like, yes, self discipline is great,
Speaker 1: but if you're like me, maybe you have a little
Speaker 1: less self discipline than you'd like. And in that case,
Speaker 1: accountability it can be a massively helpful substitute for willpower
Speaker 1: at times when you feel yours failing. Back in the spring,
Speaker 1: we had Erica hung on Taylor made budgets, and one
Speaker 1: of the biggest takeaways I had from that conversation with
Speaker 1: her like she like she's a money coach basically, And
Speaker 1: one of the questions we had for her was like, Okay, so, Joel,
Speaker 1: you and I were best friends. We to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: we hold each other accountable. So if you have somebody
Speaker 1: in your life who can be that accountability partner, well,
Speaker 1: what's the difference between that and and actually having like
Speaker 1: a money coach. And what she said was that, like,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, she's not there to
Speaker 1: be their friend, She's there too for them to see results.
Speaker 1: And so this is an instance where we made the
Speaker 1: crossover from personal finances to physical fitness, and so for
Speaker 1: me it helped me to realize that for years I
Speaker 1: had been wanting to work out more. I wanted, I
Speaker 1: was wanting to get a little more healthy, but I
Speaker 1: had never done it. Uh. And so I realized it
Speaker 1: was going to take a device, specifically, it was gonna
Speaker 1: take me paying to go to a gym where in particular,
Speaker 1: where they had programming that was going to cause me
Speaker 1: to actually follow through on the actions that I said
Speaker 1: I wanted to take. The fact is I hadn't done
Speaker 1: it myself. And sometimes that skin in the game can
Speaker 1: be the perfect accountability paying to go to a jam.
Speaker 1: Although the that can be true, right, people can pay uh,
Speaker 1: and then they might sign a contract even to go
Speaker 1: to a gym, and and then they don't actually follow
Speaker 1: through and it's just wasted money. But if you're really
Speaker 1: cheap like me, you better believe that I am there
Speaker 1: every single day that I wanted, like that I'm planning
Speaker 1: to be there, like I have not missed a freaking day,
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna get my money's worth and be It's
Speaker 1: just I don't know, it's like this mental thing that's
Speaker 1: it's just clicked in my mind and I can't not
Speaker 1: do it. But when it comes to your money. I
Speaker 1: do think like you don't necessarily have to go straight
Speaker 1: to a money coach and pay somebody to do it.
Speaker 1: I think it can, although they can often be better
Speaker 1: than some sort of financial advisor. Absolutely absolutely like somebody
Speaker 1: who is more paying attention to you from like a
Speaker 1: psychological and behavioral standpoint as opposed to giving you technical
Speaker 1: investing advice something like that. But that being said, even
Speaker 1: having a friend who has some similar shared life goals
Speaker 1: or investing goals as you, I think can be a
Speaker 1: massive boom when it comes to your money, and you're
Speaker 1: probably thinking, well, how do I do that? Well, it
Speaker 1: starts by just talking about money more right, like like
Speaker 1: it's been a while since we've about this, but making
Speaker 1: the topic of personal finances of money less taboo within
Speaker 1: your your friends circle, like, start the conversation, and pretty soon,
Speaker 1: like your entire group can all be kicking butt together,
Speaker 1: making more money, spending less money, investing in a way
Speaker 1: that's gonna propel you, you know, into your future years
Speaker 1: with nothing to worry about doing it alongside other people.
Speaker 1: Having that accountability can help you make progress more quickly,
Speaker 1: both in your exercise endeavors and in your your personal
Speaker 1: finance schools, and we've got a lot more lessons actually
Speaker 1: that you and I that we have learned from working
Speaker 1: out consistently over these past few months. Really it's it's
Speaker 1: still we're still in the newbie phase. But we'll we'll
Speaker 1: give kind of our thoughts on what we've learned about
Speaker 1: exercise how that applies to personal finance. Well, we'll get
Speaker 1: to that right after this. Alright, we're back from the break,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about how Joel taking shirtless picks, how
Speaker 1: that has helped him to to stick with his workout
Speaker 1: because my wife wants them. Okay, but well we'll get
Speaker 1: to that in a little bit. But first, let's talk
Speaker 1: about your feelings, because if you listen to your emotions,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get anywhere obviously. Like emotions, they are
Speaker 1: a glorious part of being a human being, right, Like
Speaker 1: being overcome with joy when you see your your little
Speaker 1: baby take his or her first step like that is amazing. Emotions,
Speaker 1: I mean that they just play such a meaningful role
Speaker 1: in how we experience the world. But the anger I
Speaker 1: feel towards you right now, that, however, if we let
Speaker 1: those emotions take over the driver's seat, like we are
Speaker 1: going to be bound to make some bad choices that
Speaker 1: aren't in our best interest. Um. Like my my feelings
Speaker 1: that they're often pushing me towards the easier choices that
Speaker 1: might be the most satisfactory sure in the short term,
Speaker 1: but that are not going to be in my long
Speaker 1: term best interests. Eating the extra additional doughnut is short
Speaker 1: term best interest happy, Joel, but it's not long term
Speaker 1: best interest happy exactly. And when when it comes to
Speaker 1: my money, the easiest choice it's often gonna be just
Speaker 1: to give in to a knee jerk purchase. Right Like
Speaker 1: that ad pops up in Instagram and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that looks awesome. I want that. I do want the
Speaker 1: new pair of shorts in the mail two days from now, exactly.
Speaker 1: We're regularly tempted to spend more money than we should, um,
Speaker 1: but we need to stick with the plan that's going
Speaker 1: to provide us with long term financial security, and that
Speaker 1: means saving and investing when you just don't feel like it,
Speaker 1: like it is still important at that point in time,
Speaker 1: Like there there are many mornings when my alarm goes
Speaker 1: off at five and I think, you know what, I
Speaker 1: really just want to lie here in bed instead, I
Speaker 1: do not want to get up, especially as it gets colder,
Speaker 1: and because my bike in and so lately it hasn't
Speaker 1: been too bad. It's been it's been pretty chilly. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean in the dead o Winner, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a bit more. It's gonna take a little more discipline,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna have to remember that that I'm sticking
Speaker 1: to the plan. And I that being said, it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to completely discount emotions because I think
Speaker 1: emotions can be really valuable when it comes to basically
Speaker 1: like getting fed up with whatever it is that you're
Speaker 1: fed up with, right, and so in this case, like
Speaker 1: use your emotions to fuel you on to make the
Speaker 1: positive changes in your life. But then when the going
Speaker 1: gets tough, when the going gets rough or whatever, like,
Speaker 1: don't fall back on your emotions and think, oh what
Speaker 1: is me? Like, that's the point in which you need
Speaker 1: to stick to the plan. Yeah, well, sometimes I actually
Speaker 1: use those emotions to fuel me when I'm in the
Speaker 1: middle of a workout, Like I'll use like David Goggin's
Speaker 1: esque sort of language where I'm kind of like cursing
Speaker 1: myself and call myself bad names just to kind of
Speaker 1: keep me pushing on because I know, I know I
Speaker 1: can do more. Verbally abuse yourself. I do occasionally I do.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna it's true. It's true. And something else, Matt,
Speaker 1: that that we've at least I've learned from working out
Speaker 1: is that a multifaceted approach is best. And that's something
Speaker 1: across It does really well. They're kind of about making
Speaker 1: sure that your whole body is in shape, right, They're
Speaker 1: not just focusing on on one area. Yeah, we're not
Speaker 1: isolating our biceps and doing doing curls. It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: pick up this giant bag of or not bags, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're doing full body movements for sure. Exactly. And
Speaker 1: imagine if you made running you're only exercise or maybe
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm only gonna do hundred fifty push ups
Speaker 1: every single day. If you opted to go either one
Speaker 1: of those routes, it's not going to typically produce the
Speaker 1: best results. And with the first one, your cardio is
Speaker 1: gonna be legit. And if you opt for the second choice,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have strong chest and arms. But that combo
Speaker 1: of strengthen cardio, alternating between different types of workouts is
Speaker 1: a better idea for you when it comes to getting
Speaker 1: more fit overall. And on top of that, even if
Speaker 1: you start working out for forty five minutes five days
Speaker 1: a week, which is a lot, but if you still
Speaker 1: eat like crap, you're not gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: the results that you you might be dreaming of, that
Speaker 1: you might be hoping for. And the same is true
Speaker 1: with your money. Right. That's why we talk about earning, saving, investing,
Speaker 1: and spending. We want to talk about all the different
Speaker 1: facets of personal finances because if you focus too hard
Speaker 1: on just one of these elements, you might be able
Speaker 1: to make some progress, but doing them in tandem is
Speaker 1: where you're gonna see the most results happen. That's right, man,
Speaker 1: And okay, so our next lesson is to not follow
Speaker 1: the fact ads. You know, back in the pandemic, a
Speaker 1: lot of folks were buying Peloton bikes. Guess what, You
Speaker 1: don't need a Peloton bike to get fit to get healthy,
Speaker 1: but it's so nice and fancy the screen. You don't
Speaker 1: need the new Peloton rower rowing machine, which I'm sure
Speaker 1: you saw and rolled your eyes at that. And then
Speaker 1: on top of it, you're gonna pay something like forty
Speaker 1: dollars a month for the stupid subscription my water rower.
Speaker 1: It's just like me and that thing is I got
Speaker 1: it for four or fifty bucks on Craigslist and we're
Speaker 1: having a good time. Yeah, Like and so I mean
Speaker 1: I mentioned that because there's all sorts of things that
Speaker 1: pop up that are going to entice us to either
Speaker 1: join this little fat or to spend some money in
Speaker 1: an effort to get fit, Like, like, you don't need
Speaker 1: the newest diet you know that folks are talking about
Speaker 1: on social media to lose weight undering the carnivore and
Speaker 1: uh steaks only. Similarly, you don't need to invest in
Speaker 1: like crypto to grow your wealth. You don't need to
Speaker 1: get in on the ground floor of like the most
Speaker 1: hyped I p o. You don't need to invest in
Speaker 1: and fancy things like like art, whiskey, wine, like like
Speaker 1: precious metals, all these different things that they're ads. Basically,
Speaker 1: they're gonna come and they're gonna go, and so avoiding
Speaker 1: them in the world of personal finance is going to
Speaker 1: help you to stay focused and it's gonna help you
Speaker 1: to avoid some of the traps that that others are
Speaker 1: gonna fall into as opposed to focusing on the things
Speaker 1: that are going to actually propel them forward. Yeah, trying
Speaker 1: to find the nicest equipment or something like that, when
Speaker 1: really what you need it's like that's almost like a
Speaker 1: replacement for your own self discipline and for your own
Speaker 1: ability to show up every day, and but that's not
Speaker 1: actually what's going to move the needle in helping your
Speaker 1: body get fit. And it's also important to mention that
Speaker 1: progress isn't always smooth, Like it's not linear. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: might get injured in the in the course of workout
Speaker 1: mat you've already had what you you're always every day
Speaker 1: you're wrapping around like cold packs around your elbows because
Speaker 1: you have what was it called golfer's elbow? Is that
Speaker 1: what you got? Tennis elbow? Tennis elbow? Okay, they're they're
Speaker 1: different but similar. But yeah, those are the kind of
Speaker 1: things like they're gonna at times they've set you back.
Speaker 1: You've had to miss a workout day here or there,
Speaker 1: or a kid gets sick, or you get sick, and
Speaker 1: the reality is that your perfect workout routine, you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna hit it every single day for a whole year.
Speaker 1: Like there are going to be things that happen. Life
Speaker 1: is going to happen, and you're not going to progress
Speaker 1: like clockwork, and you've got to be able to adapt,
Speaker 1: not letting those inevitable bumps in the road derail your
Speaker 1: progress altogether. And it's the same is true with your money. Ryan.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind that your budget is not always going
Speaker 1: to be this thing of perfection where you hit every
Speaker 1: category perfectly every single month. You're gonna spend too much
Speaker 1: in a given category because life happens. You ended up
Speaker 1: going up to eat having drinks with a friend after
Speaker 1: after work, and that wasn't in your budget, so you
Speaker 1: gotta cut back somewhere else in order to kind of
Speaker 1: maintain balance. That's okay. This is also why we stress
Speaker 1: up the importance of building up an emergency fund, which
Speaker 1: allows you to financial flexibility to not derail your progress
Speaker 1: when unforeseen expenses pop up in your life. Making progress
Speaker 1: with your personal finances in building well, that takes self discipline,
Speaker 1: it takes staying after it. But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: there aren't going to be bulips along the way kind
Speaker 1: of inhibiting your progress even on that perpetual march upwards. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well so I mean you mentioned kind of getting in jured.
Speaker 1: I think another sort of mini lesson would be to
Speaker 1: to not push yourself too hard, because that's how I
Speaker 1: got injured basically. You know, like I go into the gym,
Speaker 1: I think I'm fairly I'm a fairly fit dude, try
Speaker 1: to impress everybody still think I'm twenty five years old basically,
Speaker 1: and I completely overload myself. Uh, not to mention, I've
Speaker 1: got terrible technique because I'm doing these like Olympic movements
Speaker 1: that I've never done before. Like literally my entire life,
Speaker 1: I've never done a movement like this, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I think I can show up and do
Speaker 1: what everybody else is doing. Well, guess what I can't. Uh,
Speaker 1: And that is how I got tendonitis in my elbow.
Speaker 1: And so I think the financial lesson here is to
Speaker 1: realize that, like you've got to be patient, you can't
Speaker 1: push yourself too hard, because if you're going after certain
Speaker 1: financial goals too hard, like if you're like paying off debt,
Speaker 1: or if you're going after financial independence with too much fervor,
Speaker 1: like you've got a chance in setting yourself back right,
Speaker 1: like not only will you not achieve be able to
Speaker 1: achieve it sooner, it might even take you longer. If
Speaker 1: that's where I am now, I'm in my elbows. I'm
Speaker 1: having to take it easy, make sure I've got my
Speaker 1: technique right. Like I'm having a watching upid videos to
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, that's how you do it. Okay, you
Speaker 1: could lift smarter, not harder kind of thing. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so when it comes to your finances, though, it's important
Speaker 1: to keep that in mind. They're going to be periods
Speaker 1: where you see some growth when it comes to your
Speaker 1: debt payoff or the you know, your net worth, but
Speaker 1: they're also going to be periods of time when things
Speaker 1: slow down a little bit, or even times when it
Speaker 1: feels like you're making backwards progress a little bit, where
Speaker 1: you're you're falling behind a little bit because you have
Speaker 1: pushed yourself too hard, and you want to also make
Speaker 1: sure you avoid that burnout. Yeah, Manton, And I think
Speaker 1: partly what you're saying here is that results take time,
Speaker 1: and you gotta be patient. Yeah. The more quickly you
Speaker 1: try to accelerate things, sometimes it has the opposite impact.
Speaker 1: Or sometimes we we just get overwhelmed because we can't
Speaker 1: keep up that pace. And most of us are going
Speaker 1: to achieve our fitness goals overnight. I know I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna achieve mind overnight. It's gonna take me quite a while,
Speaker 1: and I'll probably always be kind of refining that goal
Speaker 1: of where I want to be. And let's say you
Speaker 1: are the kind of person who is able to achieve
Speaker 1: their fitness goals in no time flat, you might need
Speaker 1: to aim a little hire, right, You might need to
Speaker 1: set your goals a little bit further on down the road.
Speaker 1: If it took you three weeks to get there, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe you should be setting a more
Speaker 1: ambitious goal. Yeah, and it's probably okay to have like
Speaker 1: different three week goals. That's probably a good way to
Speaker 1: do it, to take it up into small chunks. But
Speaker 1: if like you're like done, achieved now, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: back on the couch, like that's that's probably not great.
Speaker 1: But the studies show that it takes something like twelve
Speaker 1: training sessions to see any physical progress, and you're actually
Speaker 1: unlikely to see much of any real muscle building and
Speaker 1: close until closer to something like eight teen training sessions.
Speaker 1: That's like at least a month if you're taking days
Speaker 1: off and stuff like that. The realities. You might start
Speaker 1: feeling better before them, but your body is not gonna
Speaker 1: look much different after a couple of weeks of working out.
Speaker 1: It's likely going to take something like three months before
Speaker 1: you start seeing a real impact on your physique. And
Speaker 1: so we would say be patient, be prepared to work
Speaker 1: without seeing progress for a meaningful period of time. And
Speaker 1: that can be disheartening, mat because I'm the kind of
Speaker 1: guy who, like, I want to I want to get
Speaker 1: that exercise done, and I want to go look at
Speaker 1: myself in the mirror see if there's been any change,
Speaker 1: and well, there is a change, at least mentally, right,
Speaker 1: because you're all you're all like you got the pump, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the blood flow, and so for a second, but then
Speaker 1: I go back in there and like you go into
Speaker 1: the c Emily, she's like making coffee and you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: check me out. She's like, you look fine, but not
Speaker 1: much to write home about. But yeah, if you've been
Speaker 1: listening to our show for any length of time, you've
Speaker 1: heard us talk about the magic of compounding returns, and
Speaker 1: over time, the money you've invested has a snowball like
Speaker 1: effect growing on itself. But the thing is neither of
Speaker 1: these things, like your physical progress nor your wealth building
Speaker 1: progress becomes really noticeable until further down the road. It
Speaker 1: takes time. Yeah, you just have to be content knowing
Speaker 1: that you're doing the right things without seeing major progress,
Speaker 1: without seeing that progress in the mirror, without seeing that
Speaker 1: progress in your inside of your investment account for retirement,
Speaker 1: like where you know you're doing the right thing, but
Speaker 1: the results are going to show up further into the future. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think one of the ways that you
Speaker 1: can allow yourself, like, one way that you can keep
Speaker 1: yourself from being too impatient is by documenting your progress.
Speaker 1: I think that can help a lot. This is where
Speaker 1: those shirts yeah exactly. Uh, and so tracking and celebrating
Speaker 1: your achievements, I think that actually it begets more progress.
Speaker 1: You know, Like like a lot of folks out there,
Speaker 1: like they'll take those pictures of their their flabby body
Speaker 1: before the first workout, and then they take a picture
Speaker 1: like every month or so. It's kind of like taking
Speaker 1: pictures before you renovate a house. It's gonna help you
Speaker 1: to appreciate the finished product so much more. For a
Speaker 1: lot of folks, that's just them hopping on the scale.
Speaker 1: They've got like a certain goal weight that they're trying
Speaker 1: to achieve. And so when it comes to your money,
Speaker 1: this means tracking the progress that you're making towards your
Speaker 1: financial goals. So how much have you saved in uh,
Speaker 1: in those savings buckets, or you're sinking funds for your
Speaker 1: beach vacation next summer. Maybe maybe it means keeping track
Speaker 1: of your net worth as well, because I think over
Speaker 1: time that can be just a really encouraging data point
Speaker 1: to help you to see that, you know, what, I
Speaker 1: am making progress. But especially in a year like this one,
Speaker 1: you might you know, you might see it slump for
Speaker 1: a little bit, but on average, that number it should
Speaker 1: be going up into the right over time. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so we want you to document that progress because it
Speaker 1: can be a motivating tool that's going to push you
Speaker 1: towards continued progress. Whether that's using software like personal Capital
Speaker 1: to track your net worth or even uh yeah, like
Speaker 1: Mints that allows you to automatically track your expenses. Whatever
Speaker 1: tool it is that's going to work for you, that's
Speaker 1: what we want you to use. Yeah, And Mint's got
Speaker 1: a helpful network tracker as well, So either one that
Speaker 1: you use like find something or if you're just keeping
Speaker 1: it manually, that's fine, but or whatever it's going to
Speaker 1: take to help you kind of keep track of that number,
Speaker 1: because the reality is, Matt, let's say you didn't see
Speaker 1: my three year old for five years, and so right
Speaker 1: now you know him as a little three year old
Speaker 1: dude running around playing with trucks. But by the time
Speaker 1: he turns eight, he's gonna be a completely different, different kid.
Speaker 1: He's going to be grown up, he's going to be
Speaker 1: into completely different things. It's just amazing how when we're
Speaker 1: seeing somebody every day, we we forget where they started, right,
Speaker 1: And so the more you document that progress, you remember
Speaker 1: where you were five years ago, as opposed to just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like i've made some progress, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how much you context. He gives you the context
Speaker 1: by keeping track of the progress you've made, and it's
Speaker 1: really important, I think, to your motivation and helping you
Speaker 1: get a visceral understanding of just how much progress you've
Speaker 1: actually been able to make instead of just knowing that
Speaker 1: you've made some progress, you're like, no, no, here's how
Speaker 1: much progress I made and here's how I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: Because it can if you're not tracking well enough, and
Speaker 1: you're not thinking through the progress you've made, you can
Speaker 1: get discouraged. You're like, am I really how am I
Speaker 1: really doing? Okay, Like I feel like I'm making changes,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure if they're having the impact that
Speaker 1: I desire. But the more you can document when it
Speaker 1: comes to exercise, whether it's the like you said, the
Speaker 1: number on the scale or the shirtless pick in my case,
Speaker 1: either way or in the same in same By tracking
Speaker 1: your net worth and tracking your progress on goals that
Speaker 1: you're saving for, it can help you realize just how
Speaker 1: much progress you actually are making, and it makes you
Speaker 1: more in tune really with the progress that you're making.
Speaker 1: It makes you more thankful for what you've been able
Speaker 1: to achieve. Sure, And I mean the other thing too,
Speaker 1: is it doesn't take some fancy software like like I
Speaker 1: mentioned a few different options out there, because there's some
Speaker 1: of the more popular ones, but it could be as
Speaker 1: simple as you drawing up a bar graph on a
Speaker 1: sheet of notebook paper. Right. And if it's if you've
Speaker 1: got like a debt payoff goal, well, every time you
Speaker 1: pay off a thousand bucks, maybe that's you just coloring
Speaker 1: it in up to the next line. Right, and so
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be the super sophisticated, fancy fancy
Speaker 1: app or something like that where it's all integrated. It
Speaker 1: can literally just be you sitting down and coloring it
Speaker 1: in with a crayon. But we actually have several other
Speaker 1: lessons that we want to share with you that we've
Speaker 1: learned from going full cross it on our money, including
Speaker 1: at my gym, what a seven year old lady has
Speaker 1: in common with like a twenty five year old marine.
Speaker 1: Will get to that, plus several other lessons right after this.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, we are back. We're still talking about exercise.
Speaker 1: The lessons that we have learned from just I don't know,
Speaker 1: like two and a half to three months of exercising regularly,
Speaker 1: and neither of us, like you can tell a little
Speaker 1: bit I think in our physical physiques. But no one's
Speaker 1: going to be like overwhelmed by the muscle masks we
Speaker 1: put on or anything like that. Definitely is like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: she likes it. I'm not gonna get into that. I
Speaker 1: feel like folks are gonna want pictures of us now
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna happen. I'm not gonna happen. It's gonna
Speaker 1: take some Russian hacker breaking into my Google. My wife's
Speaker 1: she literally took pics of me last night. She's like,
Speaker 1: come on, line up, Like, okay, all right, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: But it's good. I want to document the progress. I
Speaker 1: want to be able to look back and be like,
Speaker 1: look at what a whip I was, just like a
Speaker 1: weakling I was. It's going to be encouraging after several
Speaker 1: more months. I mean, honestly, even now, I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: been able to see a result between where you started.
Speaker 1: Have the beginning of trap zoid muscles, Like, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: I've never had those before. Is that a trap as well?
Speaker 1: We don't. I knew they existed in like fiction, but
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I could actually have something. Well.
Speaker 1: But so we have learned lessons already, but we didn't
Speaker 1: want to like wait five years down the road because
Speaker 1: like we're actually kind of learning these lessons. We're in
Speaker 1: the middle of figuring some of this stuff out. So
Speaker 1: we thought it was a good idea to share those
Speaker 1: things with you now in the moment. Yeah, And one
Speaker 1: of the things I think we've learned is that it's important,
Speaker 1: at least that I've learned is to make it fun.
Speaker 1: Because when you can, when you can turn your workouts
Speaker 1: into a sort of game, we'd say you've unlocked kind
Speaker 1: of a cheat code that will keep you at it
Speaker 1: over the long haul. Makes me think of Matt like
Speaker 1: I have never been into running, Like running through a
Speaker 1: neighborhood sounds like the most boring thing possible to me.
Speaker 1: I know you like to do that sometimes, but for me,
Speaker 1: I think it's the worst. And but if but if
Speaker 1: I'm trail running, and if I'm on one of our
Speaker 1: our local National park trails in our backyard, then I
Speaker 1: have a completely different experience. I'm out in nature. I
Speaker 1: don't mind running for a couple of miles if if
Speaker 1: that's the case, or bike riding for instance, right like
Speaker 1: I think if it is a way to get around town,
Speaker 1: like I don't even always have to think about it
Speaker 1: as some sort of workout device, but I don't mind
Speaker 1: kind of going hard on the bike. But again, like
Speaker 1: running through the neighborhood just bores the mess out of me.
Speaker 1: And so for you, yeah, find something that you find enjoyable.
Speaker 1: And if you can find like joy in the doing
Speaker 1: of the working out, I think it can make a
Speaker 1: big difference. In your ability to sustain it. Well. Again,
Speaker 1: not to sound like someone who's chilling for cross fit
Speaker 1: for your local CrossFit gym, but that's one of the
Speaker 1: things I love so much about doing CrossFit is the programming.
Speaker 1: Like you go in there and I mean I go
Speaker 1: three times a week now and not once have I
Speaker 1: done the exact same workout ever. I mean there you're
Speaker 1: always like you're doing the same movements, but it's just
Speaker 1: different combinations of movements. They're doing them in different orders,
Speaker 1: different reps, different like max amounts. I'm still learning the terminology.
Speaker 1: But because that it is, it's novel. Every time you
Speaker 1: come in, they're they're able to keep it fresh. It
Speaker 1: truly it makes it fun and it keeps me interested,
Speaker 1: it keeps me engaged, and I literally want to continue
Speaker 1: to be there. I'm never bombed that I'm there, Like
Speaker 1: when I show up, I'm really unexcited to be there
Speaker 1: and to get my fitness on. But again, let's like
Speaker 1: translate this, what does this mean for your money? Well, like,
Speaker 1: this is why we did an episode about the gamification
Speaker 1: of money. This is uh a while ago actually back
Speaker 1: at it was EPISODEE. But creating smaller and and more achievable,
Speaker 1: bite sized goals that can help you to make progress
Speaker 1: more quickly. It can from a mental standpoint, I think
Speaker 1: it can allow you to feel like that you're making
Speaker 1: some of that forward progress. Uh. And so maybe that
Speaker 1: means instituting a no spend month, Like that's another way
Speaker 1: to gamify your ability to make progress, because by on line,
Speaker 1: if you're taking your personal finances too seriously, you know,
Speaker 1: like if you are up to your your eyeballs and
Speaker 1: spreadsheets and that's not something you like. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: something that I like, but for a lot of people
Speaker 1: that's what they think of as like the drudgery when
Speaker 1: it comes to, you know, being smarter with their money.
Speaker 1: If you're doing that and you find that you don't
Speaker 1: like it, will find ways to make handling your finances
Speaker 1: just more fun, uh and for it to feel like
Speaker 1: less of a burden to you. Yeah, I mean makes
Speaker 1: me think even to the beginning of the year, Matt,
Speaker 1: when we instituted to Sell Your Stuff Challenge. We challenge
Speaker 1: our listeners to download this PDF that we created and
Speaker 1: we said, can you sell fifty two things one thing
Speaker 1: a week for the entire year, and how much money
Speaker 1: can you make at the end of the day, can
Speaker 1: you declutter your house and also find more money that
Speaker 1: you didn't have? And I'm really curious to see there
Speaker 1: was also the end of the year, how many of
Speaker 1: our listeners followed through how much money they were able
Speaker 1: to make. But the truth is when you gamify it,
Speaker 1: when you turn it into some sort of challenge, you're
Speaker 1: more likely to rise up to that challenge as opposed
Speaker 1: to be like, I don't know, maybe I'll sell some
Speaker 1: stuff or have a yard sale or something like that.
Speaker 1: But if it's a challenge, it takes on like a
Speaker 1: new significance. And so I do think that's a really
Speaker 1: important way. It's a really it's a really great tool
Speaker 1: to help you make progress more quickly. I think it's
Speaker 1: important to note that you can do more than you
Speaker 1: think as well. I think, um the realities that are
Speaker 1: our minds often fail before our bodies do. When we're
Speaker 1: working out, it's it's not that our muscles can't handle
Speaker 1: going a little bit longer, going a little bit further,
Speaker 1: or lifting a little bit more. It's just that we
Speaker 1: impose artificial limitations on ourselves, which inhibits our ability to
Speaker 1: make progress. And I mentioned David Goggins earlier, who's just
Speaker 1: like really fascinating guy who was basically he was obese
Speaker 1: and he became a marine and now he's just a
Speaker 1: complete beast. He can do like four thousand push ups
Speaker 1: or something in today, which is insane, but he's just
Speaker 1: a true monster. And he would say that increasing your
Speaker 1: mental strength is key to being able to tap into
Speaker 1: those deeper reservoirs of physical strength that you have. And
Speaker 1: the same is true when it comes to our money.
Speaker 1: Because we are far less limited than we think we are.
Speaker 1: There are of course mental hurdles that we have to
Speaker 1: overcome in order to be able to make more progress.
Speaker 1: So whether it's income limitations why you think you can't
Speaker 1: surpass because of your level of education or where you
Speaker 1: live or something like that, or it might be thinking
Speaker 1: that you can't save and invest more because you just
Speaker 1: don't have enough money coming in. There are always ways
Speaker 1: to boost your income, there are always ways to cut expenses.
Speaker 1: It takes creativity and the realization that you have more
Speaker 1: of an ability to control your personal outcomes than you
Speaker 1: actually think. Nice. Yeah, okay, So another benefit of getting
Speaker 1: physically fit is that the confidence that you're going to
Speaker 1: gain and that area of life, and that one domain
Speaker 1: is going to extend to others as well. The longer
Speaker 1: that you've been regularly exercising, it's like it's going to
Speaker 1: build your confidence, and not just because your body is
Speaker 1: in better shape and you feel better, but because you've
Speaker 1: seen that you can stick to something difficult, right, Like
Speaker 1: you've got this greater level of self knowledge because of
Speaker 1: the hardship that you have imposed on yourself on purpose,
Speaker 1: and so that extends to other areas of life, giving you,
Speaker 1: i think, more confidence, like say at work or in
Speaker 1: your relationships. And so it started off as a just
Speaker 1: as simply as a desire maybe to get more physically fit,
Speaker 1: you'll find has just radiated outward and it's gonna have
Speaker 1: a positive impact. It's gonna improve some of these other
Speaker 1: areas of your life as well. And in this way,
Speaker 1: I feel that personal finances and physical fitness like they're
Speaker 1: very complementary, right, Like one basically begets the other. And
Speaker 1: we're not here to tell you that you should be
Speaker 1: getting physically fit, but based on what we've seen, we
Speaker 1: think that it can have a literal impact on your
Speaker 1: ability to not only make more money because you're rising
Speaker 1: to the occasion, you're taking on more responsibilities, you're working
Speaker 1: and thinking more creatively. But it can also give you
Speaker 1: the self discipline needed in order to tell yourself, no,
Speaker 1: I don't need those whatever you said shorts earlier, whatever,
Speaker 1: gadget that uh that flashes across your Instagram strength app
Speaker 1: as you're using it um And so this quite literally
Speaker 1: could be a way that you actually do see more
Speaker 1: money in your account because you happen to be more
Speaker 1: physically fit. And when that confidence is contagious, the confidence
Speaker 1: knowing that like, oh man, I can do this, I
Speaker 1: can I can hit some of these goals that I have,
Speaker 1: and I can change the look and feel of my body.
Speaker 1: And the same thing is true with your money, right Like,
Speaker 1: not only are the financial rewards real as you gain
Speaker 1: added levels of financial security and freedom, but other important
Speaker 1: aspects of your life are going to be possibly impacted
Speaker 1: to that confidence is going to build and it is
Speaker 1: going to radiate outwards too. So in both of those
Speaker 1: things that you kind of start to get your act
Speaker 1: together as you make progress, it's like you're gonna feel
Speaker 1: it in all aspects of your life, I think. And
Speaker 1: another important thing to note matter is that is that
Speaker 1: individual goals are entirely different, right, So somebody's fitness goal
Speaker 1: might be I want to like the rock, and that
Speaker 1: honestly sounds like a physically impossible goal for almost every
Speaker 1: single person. But other folks might say, Hey, I'm just
Speaker 1: training four a five K that I want to run
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving morning, which could be a great personal goal
Speaker 1: and a great first step. Whatever your goal is, though,
Speaker 1: it's a personal thing, and comparing our progress or our
Speaker 1: bodies to other people is just the opposite of helpful.
Speaker 1: We should be playing the comparison game with ourselves alone,
Speaker 1: and so are we making the progress we want to
Speaker 1: make based on the goals that we have set for ourselves.
Speaker 1: That is the question we should be asking, not is
Speaker 1: my body starting to look more like in certain name here?
Speaker 1: And so comparison, we would say, is the thief of joy,
Speaker 1: and we're liable to find ourselves chasing the wrong things
Speaker 1: if we're too focused on what everyone around us is
Speaker 1: up to. We really want to be playing that game
Speaker 1: where we're only comparing, paring against ourselves and our recent past. Like,
Speaker 1: am I better than I was yesterday? That's a much
Speaker 1: better question to ask than am I starting to look
Speaker 1: like the person that I see in the magazine. That's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so this is gonna be the last CrossFit soft
Speaker 1: sell that I've got for you. But this is again
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I love it is because folks
Speaker 1: show up like literally, so this is what I what
Speaker 1: I teased to earlier. But like there there's like this
Speaker 1: twenty five year old Air Force guy or marine guy
Speaker 1: and he's I mean, he's a beast. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: literally you've got like a seventy year old university professor
Speaker 1: and they're working out together. And guess what, they don't
Speaker 1: have the same goals, but they are participating in the
Speaker 1: same movements. They're they're they're quite literally doing the exact
Speaker 1: same workout. Granted, the weights different, but that's one of
Speaker 1: the great things about a cross fit is like you
Speaker 1: can scale it and so like basically it's the same workout,
Speaker 1: but it's a different level of intensity. But those folks
Speaker 1: are working alongside each other and again they're they're doing
Speaker 1: the same movements. And the same thing is true when
Speaker 1: it comes to our money, Like we are all earning money,
Speaker 1: we are all trying to spend our money in ways
Speaker 1: that brings us value. We're all trying to invest it
Speaker 1: in a way that's going to provide us the least
Speaker 1: amount of risk for the most amount of reward with
Speaker 1: the lowest feest possible. A lot of the methodology is
Speaker 1: exactly the same, but we all have different goals. And
Speaker 1: the truth is, by the way, with money, money is
Speaker 1: so much more hidden than even physical physique, and so
Speaker 1: oftentimes we associate spending or somebody's outward displays of opulent
Speaker 1: with how much money they have, when the reality is
Speaker 1: the opposite. Is true that the more the more public
Speaker 1: displays of wealth that someone pertakes in it might mean
Speaker 1: the less and typically it means the less money they
Speaker 1: actually have in the bank account, right or or maybe
Speaker 1: the more debt they're going into. So that's an important
Speaker 1: thing to realize, is that the more you compare yourselves
Speaker 1: to other people in the fitness realm, the more you're
Speaker 1: gonna be disappointed. But it's even more true, I would say,
Speaker 1: in the personal finance realm, if you're comparing yourself to
Speaker 1: someone else how they handle money and what they're doing
Speaker 1: with it, well, a lot of the best money moves
Speaker 1: are actually more hidden. You don't really see how much
Speaker 1: is in someone's investment account, how much is in someone's
Speaker 1: retirement account. What you see are how big of a
Speaker 1: house they have or how nice of a car they drive,
Speaker 1: and so those those are things that we're comparing ourselves to.
Speaker 1: To that we're comparing ourselves to the wrong things, and
Speaker 1: we're setting ourselves up for failure. Yeah, don't let your
Speaker 1: your money goals be determined by like how it is
Speaker 1: that others are living, because all those trappings of success
Speaker 1: are they're just distractions from your goals and whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you've identified as important. Uh, And if you
Speaker 1: haven't determined what your ultimate goals are, like, we would
Speaker 1: recommend that you you spend some time with a worksheet
Speaker 1: that we created. It's the Money Mission Statement, and we'll
Speaker 1: make sure to link to that in our show notes.
Speaker 1: But that can help identify you and basically kind of
Speaker 1: point you to your true north. Vijil. Another sort of
Speaker 1: lesson that we've learned from physical fitness and sort of
Speaker 1: how it crosses over to personal finances is that you've
Speaker 1: never quote unquote arrived right, and so like just because
Speaker 1: maybe you've had a good run of working out, you know,
Speaker 1: for let's say like four or five days a week,
Speaker 1: for the for even for a couple of years. Maybe
Speaker 1: your looking you're feeling good. That doesn't mean that you
Speaker 1: can then just rest on your laurels and backslide into
Speaker 1: not doing anything. Because if you start eating like crap
Speaker 1: and you just completely discontinue your workout regimen, you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose muscle, You're gonna lose your cardio, your endurance. Those results,
Speaker 1: they can be wiped away if you take a foot
Speaker 1: off the pedal, off of the gas. Uh And so Similarly,
Speaker 1: just because you've made significant progress with your money goals,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you can just ignore your finances completely.
Speaker 1: You know, your skill in your bank account, they can
Speaker 1: atrophy if you stop paying attention to them. Uh. Like,
Speaker 1: just because your income grows, that doesn't mean that the
Speaker 1: fundamentals of money management don't apply to you anymore. I
Speaker 1: feel like that can maybe be one of the biggest
Speaker 1: self owes as you really like seeing that your income,
Speaker 1: like your your salary has gone up significantly, and so
Speaker 1: you get sloppy in some of the other areas of life.
Speaker 1: Uh And when you do that, you're you can very
Speaker 1: easily see that maybe that increase of ten or twenty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to your salary. You can see that amount
Speaker 1: evaporate because guess what, you've gotten so much less discipline
Speaker 1: when it comes to your spending, and it turns out,
Speaker 1: oh man, I thought I was gonna be investing way
Speaker 1: more because I got a twenty dollar boost to my
Speaker 1: to my income and I only invested one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: more than I did last year. That's sad, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And I think it's we see more and more new
Speaker 1: stories about higher percentages of people making six figures who
Speaker 1: are living paycheck to paycheck, And the truth is that
Speaker 1: you should be able to make even more progress with
Speaker 1: your money the more come it's coming in. But a
Speaker 1: lot of people allow that to be the license for
Speaker 1: them to spend more because hey, now i've got more padding,
Speaker 1: I've got more more money coming in, so I don't
Speaker 1: have to be as dedicated to the fundamentals. But that's
Speaker 1: just not true. Like you've never arrived, You've got to
Speaker 1: can consistently being be paying attention to them. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean, like you mentioned earlier, Matt, being up to
Speaker 1: your eyeballs and Excel spreadsheets, but it does mean getting
Speaker 1: those fundamentals right making sure you are saving and investing
Speaker 1: a decent chunk of your income, having a solid margin
Speaker 1: no matter what your income is. And and the truth
Speaker 1: is everything compounds, right, your physical fitness does, and so
Speaker 1: do your dollars. As humans, we can learn lessons from
Speaker 1: all sorts of different places, and we think that if
Speaker 1: if how the money listeners that Matt and I, it's
Speaker 1: our goal to take a cross disciplinary approach, applying lessons
Speaker 1: that we've learned from one field of study to other
Speaker 1: areas that we're looking to succeed. And if we do that,
Speaker 1: if we're able to take lessons from different fields and
Speaker 1: different individuals in those fields, we think that it can
Speaker 1: have positive radomifications on our ability to grow and progress
Speaker 1: holistically as human beings and also specifically in the field
Speaker 1: of personal finance. And so that's kind of been our
Speaker 1: goal with this episode, is like, let's take some of
Speaker 1: the things we're learning as Matt and I are trying
Speaker 1: to trying to get stronger, trying to get more fit,
Speaker 1: dedicating more of our time and our resources to that endeavor. Well,
Speaker 1: we found a lot of parallels and and hopefully you
Speaker 1: found those parallels helpful. Yeah. So, yeah, so I'm hoping
Speaker 1: that this can be the uh, this can be the
Speaker 1: your back to the future moment, right like this can
Speaker 1: be the you hit in your head on the sink
Speaker 1: in the bathroom moment. Yeah, where hopefully it's this. This
Speaker 1: is like you realizing that, oh man, like you said, Joel,
Speaker 1: that we are capable of so much more. But sort
Speaker 1: of like we said earlier in the episode two, that
Speaker 1: personal finances and physical fitness there are a lot more
Speaker 1: complimentary than maybe you realize it in the past, and
Speaker 1: so maybe this means you kind of stepping it up
Speaker 1: in both of those areas, but both of those arenas
Speaker 1: in life, because I think one will fuel the other
Speaker 1: and you might see a lot more progress in both.
Speaker 1: But let's get back to the beer you and Agel
Speaker 1: we enjoyed uh an october Fest Lagger by Talisman Brewing Company. Andy,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for donating this beer to the show. Joe,
Speaker 1: what were your thoughts on this one? Man, this was
Speaker 1: a malt bomb. It was. It was in that almost
Speaker 1: like a light brown nail. Basically in my estimation, we
Speaker 1: again we're almost officially out of the logger boring into
Speaker 1: the category. It was. It definitely kind of had a
Speaker 1: little bit more going on in that vein. Well, I
Speaker 1: I like it. This a second October fus we've had
Speaker 1: in November, which is just an awkward thing to do,
Speaker 1: but we're doing in anyway. We don't care. Throw across
Speaker 1: in the wind, it doesn't matter. Yeah, but no, I
Speaker 1: thought I can drink an october Fest whenever you want.
Speaker 1: I thought it was good. I thought it was fun.
Speaker 1: It was a little less nuanced than the last October
Speaker 1: Fest we had and a little darker, but still still
Speaker 1: a good one. You're talking about the one with like
Speaker 1: all the spices and no, that was the Witch's Brewed
Speaker 1: Loud on Monday, but I'm talking about it wasn't technically
Speaker 1: an October Now. We had an October Fest, though, I
Speaker 1: think I think a week ago so and and that
Speaker 1: one was. I would say this one was way more,
Speaker 1: way more like dark bready, like like if if most
Speaker 1: of them are kind of malti and bready, this one
Speaker 1: it's the heel. It's you know, it's like all crust
Speaker 1: on one side, which honestly, I am a huge Do
Speaker 1: you eat the cross? Yeah, that's the best part, my kids,
Speaker 1: do you really? Oh? Yeah, Okay, I I've always loved
Speaker 1: the crust, especially when when my wife is making fresh
Speaker 1: made bread. I like cutting off that end piece, put
Speaker 1: a little butter on it. But even just like the
Speaker 1: regular interior slices, like I would always peel the uh
Speaker 1: I don't know. As a kid, I called it the scab,
Speaker 1: which is a less appetizing way. But you know that
Speaker 1: the dark part on top. I used to always love that,
Speaker 1: which obviously meant that I always love the end piece,
Speaker 1: or some folks call at the heel, but this beard
Speaker 1: very much reminded me of the heel, the end pieces
Speaker 1: of a loaf of bread where it was extra toast.
Speaker 1: He had some of that additional multiness going on, but
Speaker 1: definitely enjoyed it. And glad you and I got to
Speaker 1: enjoy one of these today. But for sure, all right, Matt,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode. Where can listeners
Speaker 1: go to find your Instagram influencer CrossFit page you're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about. Yeah, I don't have some secret personal fitness
Speaker 1: account or anything like that, although maybe I'll post them
Speaker 1: maybe one of these days on there. Occasionally, uh, look
Speaker 1: like CrossFit Inaction picks up there. Please do head over
Speaker 1: to a web site though, go to how do Money
Speaker 1: dot Com. There you'll find our show notes, and don't
Speaker 1: forget to check out our credit cards tool, how do
Speaker 1: Money dot Com Forward slash credit Cards, and that's where
Speaker 1: we've got those easy to use sliders that allow you
Speaker 1: to filter the different credit cards that are out there
Speaker 1: based on the different benefits that you're looking for. It's
Speaker 1: super easy to use. We highly recommend it for sure.
Speaker 1: All Right, Matt, that's gonna do it for this episode.
Speaker 1: Until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,