Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we are discussing becoming financially optimistic. Joel, I
Speaker 1: know that this is an episode that you are excited
Speaker 1: to talk about because you characterize yourself as this eternal optimist.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's in my Twitter profile. Actually, that's
Speaker 1: exactly where I recall recall it being. But yeah, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about financial optimism. We're going to discuss some
Speaker 1: of the different ways that being an optimist is beneficial
Speaker 1: to our lives, obviously financial, but other areas as well. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to talking about optimism here because
Speaker 1: I myself have a pretty strong bent towards optimism. But
Speaker 1: before we get to that, I wanted to mention an
Speaker 1: article I just saw recently, and basically it said that
Speaker 1: Americans spend more on their lunch than folks in Britain do.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that our lunches cost more
Speaker 1: when we go out to eat. For some reason, lunchtime
Speaker 1: fare is more expensive here than it is across the Pond.
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly why that is. They gave a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons in that article for why they think
Speaker 1: that's the case. But what do you think about that? Like,
Speaker 1: why do we spend so much on lunch here in
Speaker 1: this country? Yeah, man, really fascinating article. Further down in there,
Speaker 1: they were talking about how it's not because you know,
Speaker 1: like it's more expensive to make that lunch, to make
Speaker 1: that sandwich over in the UK, but basically it's just
Speaker 1: due to different market conditions, whether that be because we're
Speaker 1: used to tipping here in the States. Specifically, they're comparing
Speaker 1: those sandwiches in New York versus in London, and I
Speaker 1: guess New Yorkers are just used to tipping more and
Speaker 1: so they kind of factor that into the cost for
Speaker 1: a sandwich. But really, man, one of the most fascinating
Speaker 1: things that stood out to me was the fact that
Speaker 1: oftentimes restaurants will sometimes charge more at lunch than they
Speaker 1: do at dinner, and that's because of that business lunch
Speaker 1: time rush, just like an airline can charge more for
Speaker 1: business travelers. They're just not price conscious. But yeah, they're
Speaker 1: not price conscious. They know that no matter what, they're
Speaker 1: just gonna go ahead and get that lunch. And I'm
Speaker 1: just so happy that I'm not part of that crowd.
Speaker 1: I hate not having an option, right, like, if you
Speaker 1: know you have to go. But I guess if it's
Speaker 1: maybe on the company and somebody else is kind of
Speaker 1: footing the dime, I'm not going to be as concerned,
Speaker 1: I guess, but maybe I would be. Who knows. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we should treat our employer's money
Speaker 1: kind of as we do our own. But I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't have that mindset, and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people do spend more money just
Speaker 1: because it's a company credit card or something like that. Right.
Speaker 1: But the thing that it made me think reading that
Speaker 1: article was that whether you're a listener in Great Britain
Speaker 1: or whether you are a listener here in the United States,
Speaker 1: even if it's cheaper to get your lunch out in Britain,
Speaker 1: I would still say you should pack your lunch most
Speaker 1: of the time. If you can make it a habit
Speaker 1: to pack your lunch, bring it to work four out
Speaker 1: of five days a week. I pretty much do it
Speaker 1: five out of five. That there's the very rare occasion
Speaker 1: that I'll eat lunch out, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: I'm eating lunch at my desk. That is a huge
Speaker 1: money saver. I don't even think if you're used to
Speaker 1: eating out for lunch, maybe you haven't even thought about
Speaker 1: it as kind of one of those places that you
Speaker 1: can cut back in your budget. But it's actually gonna
Speaker 1: have a substantial effect if you think about how much
Speaker 1: money you're actually spending every day. And one thing in particular,
Speaker 1: my friend Len he writes an article every year. In fact,
Speaker 1: this year it's his eleventh edition of this. He analyzes
Speaker 1: the annual cost of ten popular brown bags sandwiches that
Speaker 1: you can take to work or pack for your kids.
Speaker 1: I love that he does that. He factors in the
Speaker 1: cost per serving, the change in price from from last
Speaker 1: year for the sandwiches and these ingredients, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of just a neat thing. Will post a link to
Speaker 1: it in the show notes. But basically, pack your lunch.
Speaker 1: Even if prices have gone up on the price of
Speaker 1: peanut butter and jelly, that's not that big of a
Speaker 1: deal really, when you're considering cutting back from buying your
Speaker 1: lunch every single day or most days, yeah, or I
Speaker 1: think what might even be a better option, man, is leftovers.
Speaker 1: I think leftovers are so underrated. It's a way that
Speaker 1: you can waste less food, save money. It's just a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes in the microwave or that toast raven.
Speaker 1: You get yourself a hot, delicious meal that you can
Speaker 1: relive all over again. I personally am a huge fan
Speaker 1: of leftovers. It's a good call, man, I like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: more leftovers, more bringing your lunch, less eating out. There
Speaker 1: are multiple different ways to avoid that expensive lunch option.
Speaker 1: Like on Friday's, for instance, there is a food truck.
Speaker 1: They bring a different food truck to our work every
Speaker 1: single Friday, very tempting. Literally, I've never done it, and
Speaker 1: if I wanted to, I think at some point I will.
Speaker 1: If it was a craft beard. Lunch trucks set your mouth,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get any work done the rest of the day,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. But like in particular, there's this one
Speaker 1: running around town that's like a main lobster truck, and
Speaker 1: next time that comes, I'm gonna drop the eighteen dollars
Speaker 1: for a lobster roll. I'm gonna do it. Yeah, oh yeah, no,
Speaker 1: eighteen dollars. Seriously, probably it's like legit, main, what's not
Speaker 1: going to be that much, dude, all right, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: I'm going to drop it on that because that sounds
Speaker 1: good to me. Lobster roll here in Atlanta. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: guess nine fifty what No way, if it's a jet Maine,
Speaker 1: lobster's gonna cost way more. Seriously, Yeah, man, I cannot
Speaker 1: afford to eat out for lunch. That is like the
Speaker 1: one time I'm going to do it. But I'll spend
Speaker 1: nine on a beer, but not on some lobster. I'm
Speaker 1: actually not a huge fan of lobster. I would much
Speaker 1: rather have a crab. To me, crab tastes way better
Speaker 1: than lobster. Crabs a little sweeter, Yeah, sweet and so good.
Speaker 1: I think I prefer lobster though. All right, but let's
Speaker 1: get onto the beer that we're having on the show today, Matt.
Speaker 1: We're drinking Caramel Machiatto stout by Old bust Head Brewing Company. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This beer was donated to us by my in laws
Speaker 1: while they're up in Virginia for a wedding. So thanks
Speaker 1: to them, and I'm looking forward to diving into how
Speaker 1: this beer tastes at the end of the show. Are right, buddy,
Speaker 1: me too, Now onto this subject at hand. Words, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're discussing optimism. Sorry I jumped the gun there. Well,
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite subjects. I think optimism is
Speaker 1: so beneficial to people and and most people have negative
Speaker 1: money scripts floating around in their head. Their their pessimism
Speaker 1: hurts their current view of money and and also their
Speaker 1: future of financial well being. Well, how can we combat that?
Speaker 1: I think the answer is financial optimism. When we're pessimistic
Speaker 1: about the current state of money affairs in our life,
Speaker 1: it leads us to in action. It freezes us up,
Speaker 1: we find it hard to change things, we stay put.
Speaker 1: It ends up creating a cycle that secures pessimism for
Speaker 1: the long term. So I think today on the show,
Speaker 1: we have to discuss this idea of optimism and how
Speaker 1: it can have massive ramifications on how we handle money
Speaker 1: in our lives. Yeah, man, and I can't help but
Speaker 1: to think of investing as the perfect example, right, Like
Speaker 1: you might think we don't have hardly any money to invest,
Speaker 1: and so you don't You think it's not going to
Speaker 1: make any difference at all if you start investing now,
Speaker 1: But man, it does make a difference, right, Like those
Speaker 1: small amounts add up over time, and then even beyond that,
Speaker 1: it has a lot to do with just the discipline
Speaker 1: of doing the deed. Right, like doing the dang thing
Speaker 1: and actually investing that money, no matter how small, that's
Speaker 1: gonna help move you forward. So you gotta look on
Speaker 1: the bright side of things and not be pessimistic about it.
Speaker 1: Completely agree, But aside from the financial implications, optimists overall
Speaker 1: tend to live longer lives than pessimists. Take that pessimist
Speaker 1: and you know, based on the way that you know
Speaker 1: you responded when you heard that sentence like that might
Speaker 1: actually tell you which way you tend to lean. I'm
Speaker 1: sure pestimists are probably like, no, they don't, that's yes,
Speaker 1: I don't believe that, whereas optimists are like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I always thought that that makes sense. And so if
Speaker 1: we live a life a bit more optimistically, it will
Speaker 1: lead to a longer and healthier life for us. So
Speaker 1: it's not even just about doing better with our money.
Speaker 1: The implications are much much larger. Yeah, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a lot about optimism as a whole today, but
Speaker 1: but also particularly the financial effects of optimism. Well, basically,
Speaker 1: I think the more optimistic we can be about our finances,
Speaker 1: the less taboo there is around money. You're more likely
Speaker 1: to look for help, to ask for help, optimists tend
Speaker 1: to make progress. They're getting things done, They're not necessarily
Speaker 1: striving for perfection. I think sometimes pessimism can stem out
Speaker 1: of this need for perfection and you're never gonna reach
Speaker 1: that status. Well, if I can't save ten in my
Speaker 1: four oh one, k, I'm not I'm not gonna save anything,
Speaker 1: And that's pessimism rearing a totally head. The optimist is
Speaker 1: able to say, you know what, I was able to
Speaker 1: get the ball rolling. I'm gonna take that as a win.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put that as a check mark in the
Speaker 1: column of I'm getting my finances together. Statistically, there is
Speaker 1: a direct correlation of our level of optimism and then
Speaker 1: the health of our finances. I think it's fascinating and
Speaker 1: this is all great news for the actual optimists. Your
Speaker 1: beaming right now, Yeah, but what if that's just not
Speaker 1: how you are wired. You might be asking yourself, like,
Speaker 1: how much control do I actually have over my optimism? Well,
Speaker 1: the answer is it's more than you think. Science shows
Speaker 1: that only about twenty of our optimism is biologically determined,
Speaker 1: is determined biogenetics. Seventy of it is up to us.
Speaker 1: So we actually have a lot of room to make
Speaker 1: changes in our life. So even if you have some
Speaker 1: of those natural or tendencies, you still have a lot
Speaker 1: of control over the level of optimism in your life. Optimism,
Speaker 1: in our opinion, will will lead us to try more things,
Speaker 1: to be more daring and more than anything, optimism forces
Speaker 1: us to focus away from the things that we can't control.
Speaker 1: It's easy to kind of fixate on those things, the
Speaker 1: things that we don't have any say over, But optimism says,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not going to think about those things.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to focus on the things that are
Speaker 1: actually in that locus of control that I can make
Speaker 1: changes to and have a positive effect on my life.
Speaker 1: Which makes me think obviously of Stephen Covey's book Seven
Speaker 1: Habits of Highly Effective People, where he talks about you
Speaker 1: have your circles of concern, and then within that circle
Speaker 1: of concern, you have your circle or sphere of influence.
Speaker 1: And the idea is that we are going to focus
Speaker 1: on the things that we have actual control over, that
Speaker 1: we can have influence over, and that we're not wasting
Speaker 1: our time and energy just spinning our tires trying to
Speaker 1: change the things that we can't control. You know, the
Speaker 1: trick is being able to identify the difference between the
Speaker 1: things that we're concerned about and the things that we
Speaker 1: have full control over. All right, Matt, we've got more
Speaker 1: to say about optimism. We've got some physical ways that
Speaker 1: we want to discuss that you can actually start to
Speaker 1: implement optimism into your life. But first we need to
Speaker 1: kind of change the way on mind works in regards
Speaker 1: to optimism, and we'll get into that right after the break.
Speaker 1: All right, Joe, we are back for the break, and
Speaker 1: let's talk about our brains. Like you mentioned, we need
Speaker 1: to mentally change our approach to our finances by working
Speaker 1: towards becoming more optimistic. If we are continually looking at
Speaker 1: things through the lens of what might just go wrong,
Speaker 1: then it'll have a negative effects on our ability to save,
Speaker 1: in our ability to invest for the future. So let's
Speaker 1: make sure we're taking steps to combats our mental roadblocks
Speaker 1: to financial optimism with these steps. Yeah, all right, let's
Speaker 1: get into it. So, first things first, if you want
Speaker 1: to become more optimistic, and what we're saying here is
Speaker 1: that that's something we should strive for, the first step
Speaker 1: towards becoming more optimistic is assessing the current reality on
Speaker 1: the ground. So what do you tend towards if you're
Speaker 1: a person that's kind of apt to pessimism. We just
Speaker 1: talked about of your optimism. Pessimism level is basically predetermined
Speaker 1: based on your biology. If you know that about yourself, well,
Speaker 1: knowing is key. If you see that as a struggle,
Speaker 1: well it's something that you can fight against, but you
Speaker 1: have to know that that's the case first and foremost
Speaker 1: before you can actually start to tackle the issue head on. So, Joe,
Speaker 1: that totally reminds me of an email that we received recently.
Speaker 1: He quoted G I Joe where he says that knowing
Speaker 1: is half the battle. Because that's totally a G I
Speaker 1: Joe quote, And I don't know if you remember that
Speaker 1: from the early nineties. I don't. I totally played with
Speaker 1: G I Joe's but I do not never watch G
Speaker 1: I Joe. No, I think I think I did some,
Speaker 1: but I definitely don't remember that quote from my gosh.
Speaker 1: That was like it was at the end or the beginning,
Speaker 1: I can't remember, but it was sort of like the
Speaker 1: little moral lesson where the soldiers are like they're walking
Speaker 1: along and two kids are fighting on the basketball court
Speaker 1: and they talk about like what you should do instead,
Speaker 1: and knowing is half the battle. You remember, maybe like
Speaker 1: ten years ago when the g I Joe re Dub
Speaker 1: videos came out. Those are pretty funny. That was really funny.
Speaker 1: But I mean I mentioned that because knowing is half
Speaker 1: the battle. Like knowing in this case is being aware.
Speaker 1: And in our culture, a lot of times we're often
Speaker 1: so rewarded for just doing and going going going right,
Speaker 1: like to just do things without really thinking about them,
Speaker 1: and taking that time to pause and to think about
Speaker 1: why we're doing things and having that self awareness I
Speaker 1: think is a really important step. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: have to agree with you and say I think that's
Speaker 1: great advice. Well, and I think too, there is generally
Speaker 1: just kind of a pessimistic tone around us. In the
Speaker 1: news and the things we read. There is often a
Speaker 1: chicken little the skuy is following sort of mentality. And
Speaker 1: not that there aren't issues, not that there aren't problems
Speaker 1: in the world that we live in, but when you
Speaker 1: step back and think about it and you read somebody
Speaker 1: like Stephen Pinker, and you see, wait a second, the
Speaker 1: world is actually overall getting a lot better, and human
Speaker 1: life is is flourishing, and for the most part, the
Speaker 1: the trajectory is is going in a solid direction despite
Speaker 1: all the difficulties that we face. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's easy to become pessimistic if we're living in the
Speaker 1: daily news cycle and we we have to kind of
Speaker 1: step back and assess the reality on the ground, and
Speaker 1: I think that helps us become more optimist. Yeah, what's
Speaker 1: at the center of that is just to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're not dwelling on the negative. Right. So, for example,
Speaker 1: when your budget just doesn't look, you know, quite as
Speaker 1: clean as you hope to would at the end of
Speaker 1: the month, don't beat yourself up about it. That can
Speaker 1: be maybe motivation instead to kick more. But next month,
Speaker 1: it can be hard to stay a beat when negative
Speaker 1: things happen. And we aren't saying just to deny reality, right,
Speaker 1: but having a plan to move forward when those unexpected
Speaker 1: expenses arise, especially mentally, that's just incredibly helpful. Yeah. Man.
Speaker 1: For example, if you look at some stats on what
Speaker 1: a person needs to save for their kid to go
Speaker 1: to college one jillion dollars, it seems like that it totally,
Speaker 1: totally does. There's been some rumblings about this in our
Speaker 1: Facebook group, people have questions about how much money do
Speaker 1: I actually need to be saving for my kids college?
Speaker 1: And we've talked about that way back in the day.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll talk more about plans in the future.
Speaker 1: But when you look at the stats and it's like,
Speaker 1: you need to save three thousand dollars for your kids
Speaker 1: college for each kid, by the way, right and right,
Speaker 1: and you've got four of them, so so basically you're screwed,
Speaker 1: and so we're your kids. Oh sweet daughter, have you
Speaker 1: ever thought about taking up plumbing because because plumbers are
Speaker 1: going to rule the world. Yeah, that's a side note,
Speaker 1: but yeah, basically, yeah, when you look at those numbers,
Speaker 1: it'll make your eyes glaze over because it's basically an
Speaker 1: impossibility for ninety eight percent of us to fully fund
Speaker 1: our kids college. But if you dwell on the negative,
Speaker 1: if you if you dwell on the fact that there's
Speaker 1: no way that we can fully fund college for our kids,
Speaker 1: there's no way you can fully fund college for four
Speaker 1: kids at that sort of rate, with those sort of projections,
Speaker 1: There's no way I can do that for three kids.
Speaker 1: And so the pessimistic take would be to say I'm
Speaker 1: not even get started like, there's no way, so I'm
Speaker 1: not going to tackle the problem. The optimistic side would say,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I can take a big chunk out
Speaker 1: of that. I'm pretty sure I can make progress and
Speaker 1: help my kid out in this endeavor, even though there
Speaker 1: is no silver bullet and I'm not going to solve
Speaker 1: the problem completely. And that's just kind of a mental shift,
Speaker 1: or basically, you have to decide not to dwell on
Speaker 1: the negative when you see absurd things like that, you
Speaker 1: know in print, Yeah, there's a lot of room within
Speaker 1: that gray area, right, It's not either a, oh, they're
Speaker 1: totally not going to go to college or be I'm
Speaker 1: going to be able to fully fund their college and
Speaker 1: they are. There's a lot of room there in between
Speaker 1: for either state schools, for local community colleges, for scholarships.
Speaker 1: And we just joked about this, but trade school like
Speaker 1: that's a real possibility for a lot of folks. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of amazing jobs out there where folks
Speaker 1: can learn a trade and make an incredible living by
Speaker 1: doing that. It makes me think too of kind of
Speaker 1: commercials that we're running years back for certain investment companies.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't even remember who but it was kind
Speaker 1: of that what's your retirement number? And you would see
Speaker 1: these numbers from people you know that that this company
Speaker 1: was saying, you need one point seven million dollars to retire,
Speaker 1: and there are all these just immense numbers floating around
Speaker 1: and for a lot of people, that's gonna put the
Speaker 1: kai bosh on you even considering saving for retirement, Like
Speaker 1: that's probably pretty disheartening for a lot of folks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, well, I'm never gonna get there, so
Speaker 1: I shouldn't even start. And and so I think certainly
Speaker 1: things we've see in the media, things we see in
Speaker 1: marketing can kind of lead us to a pessimistic point
Speaker 1: of view. But what we have to do is we
Speaker 1: have to turn that out in its head and we
Speaker 1: have to say, you know what, that's ridiculous and or
Speaker 1: is something that I can do. It's just gonna look
Speaker 1: a little different. And on the note of staying positive,
Speaker 1: right and not dwelling on the negative, it's also important
Speaker 1: that we learn from our mistakes. We're not defined by
Speaker 1: our past money mistakes. By letting those mistakes rule our
Speaker 1: financial life moving forward, that's just a recipe for failure. Optimists.
Speaker 1: Instead learn from those mistakes, and they tend to view
Speaker 1: those mistakes instead as fuel for you know, like that
Speaker 1: optimistic fire that will burn eternal. Yeah, completely, man. You
Speaker 1: can let a mistake ruin you, or you can let
Speaker 1: a mistake drive you towards accomplishing bigger things. Another really
Speaker 1: important thing we need to consider as we attempt to
Speaker 1: become more optimistic and therefore boosting our chances of financial
Speaker 1: success is controlling the inputs that we allow into our lives.
Speaker 1: We ultimately create our own realities. In so many ways,
Speaker 1: our attitudes can determine the opportunities that we get or
Speaker 1: don't get, and it can also determine how we view
Speaker 1: what happens to us. Do we have this like no pain,
Speaker 1: no gain mentality or are we daunted at every setback?
Speaker 1: And what are the things that we're letting influence our mood.
Speaker 1: If we spend a lot of time like we mentioned,
Speaker 1: watching the news, scouring social media, it's easy to become
Speaker 1: more pessimistic. It's easy to think that the world is
Speaker 1: going to hell in a handbasket, or we just don't
Speaker 1: have the things that we need, even though those things
Speaker 1: aren't needs. But we saw him on social media and
Speaker 1: we feel like they are now, and we feel like
Speaker 1: our life is lacking. So much of the pessimism that
Speaker 1: we experience comes from comparison. So cutting back on those
Speaker 1: negative inputs in a major way can provide a really
Speaker 1: helpful boost to our optimism levels. And Matt, that actually
Speaker 1: reminds me of this book I reading My Girls at Night,
Speaker 1: a Pete the Cat book. But this Pete the Cat
Speaker 1: Book is about Pete and these magic sunglasses, and Pete
Speaker 1: things that these magic sunglasses are are what's making his
Speaker 1: day better. The fact that you know, his friend gave
Speaker 1: me these sunglasses and it was like, okay, cool, now
Speaker 1: everything is better when I'm wearing these sunglasses. But then
Speaker 1: the sunglasses break and it takes somebody else telling Pete
Speaker 1: that it wasn't the sunglasses, man, it's the way he
Speaker 1: looks at the World's his outlook. It's his attitude. And
Speaker 1: I feel a little lame given like a children's book
Speaker 1: refere here, But man, it's so true, like it's made
Speaker 1: this big impact that my girls and I talked about
Speaker 1: it a lot. But it's not the sunglasses. It's it's
Speaker 1: really it's your outlook on the world and what happens
Speaker 1: to you. You can choose to view it in a
Speaker 1: pessimistic way, or you can choose to view it in
Speaker 1: an optimistic way. So, on this note of controlling our inputs,
Speaker 1: we've had awesome feedback from dozens of listeners via email,
Speaker 1: VR Facebook group about really cool ways that they have
Speaker 1: been able to take control of their finances and make
Speaker 1: a change. And so I feel like one thing that
Speaker 1: we can do is provide positive input for everyone out there.
Speaker 1: And so, Matt, let's here a couple of listeners success
Speaker 1: stories really quick. How do you feel about that? Yeah? Man?
Speaker 1: We got an email from Maggie and she is who
Speaker 1: sent us old Toffy for last week's episode. We talked
Speaker 1: about that beer and she said that I have an
Speaker 1: almost two year old and I worked full time for
Speaker 1: more than a year after he was born. It was
Speaker 1: nuts listening to how the money really helped me to
Speaker 1: see the lights and convince myself that working part time
Speaker 1: and taking a huge pay cut was actually possible. I
Speaker 1: now worked ten to five nine months the year and
Speaker 1: it's been great. I love my extra time with my son.
Speaker 1: Instead of leaving the house at five am before he
Speaker 1: even wakes up, we now go on early morning nature walks,
Speaker 1: we eat breakfast together, and we have a standing date
Speaker 1: to watch the trash and recycling get picked up on Thursdays.
Speaker 1: It's so awesome. We are living the life. Without how
Speaker 1: the money, I'd still be working forty hours a week
Speaker 1: year round, would be significantly less happy and would probably
Speaker 1: be in worse financial shape despite making more money. Man, Joel,
Speaker 1: what's an incredible story. I'm so glad that Maggie included
Speaker 1: that when she emailed us, And a big reason for
Speaker 1: that is because her optimism, her ideal life does not
Speaker 1: look like maybe what it would to a lot of
Speaker 1: other people. Write like a standing date to watch the
Speaker 1: trash truck pull up. That's so little boy stuff, which
Speaker 1: gets me excited about our little boys growing up. Exactly
Speaker 1: exactly like I hear that. I know the sort of
Speaker 1: feeling that she's referring to. And it's just these little
Speaker 1: small things in life that are not glamorous by any means.
Speaker 1: It's not at all a status and bowl, but it's
Speaker 1: something that means the world to her and that that
Speaker 1: means the world to her son, and in this case,
Speaker 1: that is all that matters. Yeah, it's not some all
Speaker 1: inclusive vacation. It's not some fancy steak dinner. It's those
Speaker 1: little things. And yeah, that gets me fired up. Hearing
Speaker 1: people that have been able to take control and make
Speaker 1: a positive impact on their finances. It makes me more
Speaker 1: optimistic about what I can do, which is why we're
Speaker 1: sharing these stories. So another one that I saw recently
Speaker 1: in our Facebook group was from listener Richard, and he said, well,
Speaker 1: how to money, family. I did it. A huge thank
Speaker 1: you to this community and my close friends and family
Speaker 1: for being as supportive as you are. In four months,
Speaker 1: I dropped this high interest credit card from a balance
Speaker 1: of to zero dollars, utilizing a variety of methods found
Speaker 1: in the podcast in the group, cutting costs, being mindful
Speaker 1: of spending habits, and I even transfer two thousand to
Speaker 1: a new zero percent card that's being paid off over
Speaker 1: the next year. For those of you still on your way,
Speaker 1: you can do it. So I love man. It's this
Speaker 1: virtuous cycle of building others up and letting them know
Speaker 1: that they can do it too, that they can make
Speaker 1: changes to their life. And I don't know how long
Speaker 1: Richard was sitting on that debt. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was years or if it was just months, but
Speaker 1: usually it takes it takes years to build up to
Speaker 1: that level of debt. But the fact that he tackled
Speaker 1: it in months, that he got rid of it, and
Speaker 1: encouraging others that they can follow suit. Man, those are
Speaker 1: the kind of positive inputs I want to put into
Speaker 1: my life because it motivates me to to work even
Speaker 1: harder and it reminds me of the truth that I
Speaker 1: do have this element of control over my life that
Speaker 1: sometimes we think we don't. So, yeah, big props to Richard,
Speaker 1: and thanks for sharing your story in the Facebook group. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're sharing those stories with you to act as
Speaker 1: an encouragement and hopefully that is a way that you
Speaker 1: are able to boost your optimism. Yeah. And if Richard
Speaker 1: can do it, trust me, anybody can do it. Okay,
Speaker 1: And so we're gonna talk more about some different ways
Speaker 1: that you can increase the amount of optimism that you
Speaker 1: have in your life. But first a quick break. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: then we're back and we're talking about optimism today. We
Speaker 1: just talked about a few ways you can kind of
Speaker 1: shift things up mentally in order to increase your level
Speaker 1: of optimism, which has a direct impact on your finances,
Speaker 1: but they are also just kind of some physical things
Speaker 1: that you can make happen that you can boost in
Speaker 1: order to do the same in order to increase that
Speaker 1: optimismal level. It might not come naturally to you, but
Speaker 1: there are some tangible things that you can implement in
Speaker 1: order to cultivate financial optimism in your life. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're going to talk about or right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think it's just so important man, that we
Speaker 1: are talking about the physical side of things, because we
Speaker 1: could just totally stay in our own heads and say,
Speaker 1: you've got to control your inputs, you need to think
Speaker 1: more positively, and you can beat yourself up over not
Speaker 1: thinking positively enough exactly, but that only gets you so far. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: we're holistic beings and we are influenced by the physical
Speaker 1: environment around us. We're influenced by the physical actions that
Speaker 1: we take. And so it's important, yeah, that we talk
Speaker 1: now about the physical side of things. And so let's
Speaker 1: talk quickly about goals. Right If you're not working towards
Speaker 1: something specific, it could be tough to be hopeful about
Speaker 1: your future. We want you to think about it. You
Speaker 1: need to set some achievable goals and then it's helpful
Speaker 1: if you actually write them down to constantly remind yourself
Speaker 1: of what it is that you're striving after. When you're
Speaker 1: just working without a purpose, that's drudgery. That's what feels
Speaker 1: like fruitless labor, and that is what we're trying to avoid.
Speaker 1: So speaking of those goals and continually reminding yourself of them.
Speaker 1: Matt I heard an interview recently with tight end Tony Gonzalez.
Speaker 1: He used to play for our Atlanta Falcons. He was
Speaker 1: literally the best tight end in all of football ever,
Speaker 1: Like there's no one, there's never been anyone better at
Speaker 1: the position. He'd the best. Yeah, he was fantastic. And
Speaker 1: what he would do, actually, I found this fascinating. Early
Speaker 1: in the week before a football game, he would write
Speaker 1: himself a letter and he would say exactly what he
Speaker 1: wanted out of that upcoming football game. That's pretty sweet.
Speaker 1: And he was like, I want two touchdowns, I want
Speaker 1: like twelve catches, blah blah blah. But he would he
Speaker 1: would write this in depth letter about what he was
Speaker 1: hoping for this next week's game, and he would read
Speaker 1: it every day that week before practice, and he gave
Speaker 1: a lot of credence to kind of putting that goal
Speaker 1: in front of him and seeing it every single day.
Speaker 1: It was this kind of a motional and physical response
Speaker 1: to increase his optimism level to thinking that he could
Speaker 1: even potentially achieve that goal. So, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: just thought that was really cool and super cool. Man.
Speaker 1: That's that's really awesome. Actually, it makes me want to
Speaker 1: write down everything and read everything back to myself, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the more we do write things down, and
Speaker 1: that's something honestly I'm not terribly good at and I
Speaker 1: want to get better at, because I do see that
Speaker 1: as a way of of helping boost my optimism level
Speaker 1: and helping me actually achieve the things that I that
Speaker 1: I set out to achieve. And part of setting those
Speaker 1: goals is to dedicate the actual time to thinking about
Speaker 1: your goals. It can be as straightforward as knocking out
Speaker 1: that small amount of credit card debt that's maybe been
Speaker 1: hanging around for forever, two larger things like your mission
Speaker 1: statement or even more ambitious pursuits. But give yourself the
Speaker 1: time to dream, even though it might be countercultural to
Speaker 1: sort of quote unquote waste that time, right Like we
Speaker 1: don't give ourselves enough time to be creative to to waste,
Speaker 1: to come up with creative solutions to problems that we're
Speaker 1: faced with, and a lot of times, you know, this
Speaker 1: goes back to my month earlier. But like we are
Speaker 1: just doing things without thinking about them, and when we
Speaker 1: actually give ourselves a little bit of time and some
Speaker 1: additional mental energy, I'm pretty sure everyone would see some
Speaker 1: massive benefits from that. Yeah, how come our best ideas
Speaker 1: come in the shower because typically it's the only time
Speaker 1: we give ourselves the space to let our brains wander.
Speaker 1: But there are other ways that we can implement that
Speaker 1: into our lives too. Another thing that we need to
Speaker 1: do is to plan it out. It's easier to be
Speaker 1: optimistic when you have a list of achievable, daily, weekly,
Speaker 1: and monthly items that are on a schedule. Having planned
Speaker 1: action items will act as a deadline that will get
Speaker 1: you crossing items off of that list, and that in
Speaker 1: and of itself boost level of optimism. For example, make
Speaker 1: it a goal to figure out one way to save
Speaker 1: money every month. You might feel so good that you
Speaker 1: try to make it a weekly habit. Shop your cell
Speaker 1: phone bill one month, then do the same for your insurance,
Speaker 1: then tweet at your internet provider to see if you
Speaker 1: can lessen your internet bill, Like if you can do
Speaker 1: one of those every month, every time you knock down
Speaker 1: one of those dominoes and increase you see your level
Speaker 1: of saving. You make a move to positively impact your finances,
Speaker 1: it's only going to help you in that next attempt, right,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna feel unstoppable pretty shortly because every time
Speaker 1: you put a goal down on paper, you're able to
Speaker 1: cross it off the list because you made it happen
Speaker 1: until Another way that you can be unstoppably optimistic is
Speaker 1: by charting your progress. It's hard not to feel optimistic
Speaker 1: when you can see your gains on paper. And sometimes
Speaker 1: that can be difficult to do with your finances. But
Speaker 1: maybe for you that's you know, your spreadsheets and Excel.
Speaker 1: But it can be as simple as a bar graph
Speaker 1: that you color in as you make progress, or even
Speaker 1: a gratitude journal is a great way to do this right.
Speaker 1: This allows you to track and be thankful for things
Speaker 1: that are non number related, just words. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be numbers, it can just be words that you're
Speaker 1: thankful for. Yeah. Another thing, Matt, that I think holds
Speaker 1: people back and we kind of briefly mentioned this early
Speaker 1: on with the g I. Joe quote is a lack
Speaker 1: of knowledge can can lead us towards pessimism. If we
Speaker 1: don't know the next action step, if we don't know
Speaker 1: how to tackle the rut we're in, then that can
Speaker 1: take our brains down kind of a dark, twisty path
Speaker 1: of pessimism. We've got this fear of taking the wrong step,
Speaker 1: and that can in some ways be oddly healthy if
Speaker 1: you don't have the proper knowledge. But for instance, like
Speaker 1: an episode one nineteen, we talked about the power of
Speaker 1: investing yourself. It's all about boosting your human capital. Keep
Speaker 1: listening to podcasts like How the Money, find other great
Speaker 1: podcasts out there that can help you boost your level
Speaker 1: of knowledge. Knowledge is kind of power right. Read books
Speaker 1: on personal finance. We interviewed a bunch of amazing people.
Speaker 1: Christie Shinn wrote this book Quit Like a Millionaire. Grant
Speaker 1: Sabatier wrote a book called Financial Freedom. A guy that
Speaker 1: we haven't interviewed yet but we will one of these days,
Speaker 1: Jail Collins, we will. We totally will. Simple Path to Wealth.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are all these great books out there.
Speaker 1: What will link to some of those in the show notes,
Speaker 1: but the smarter you can get, the more knowledgeable you
Speaker 1: can get, that drastically increases your levels of optimism. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not only does it increase your optimism, man, but this
Speaker 1: just straight up gives you more confidence as well. Another
Speaker 1: thing to do is to seek advice. You'll gain a
Speaker 1: certain amount of optimism just by talking about money with
Speaker 1: your friends and family. We talk about that all the time,
Speaker 1: like just knocking down that taboo talking about money. But
Speaker 1: an even better way to improve your outlook is by
Speaker 1: asking for advice from others who are crushing it financially,
Speaker 1: or even getting some financial counseling. But for ways that
Speaker 1: you can improve your financial knowledge by asking around. I
Speaker 1: feel like even just asking for advice, submitting a question
Speaker 1: for an ask htm episode, which you can easily do
Speaker 1: it how to money dot com slash ask. Even just
Speaker 1: submitting a question asking somebody something is this step towards optimism.
Speaker 1: It's saying, you know what, I believe that somebody has
Speaker 1: that knowledge out there that can benefit me. All I
Speaker 1: gotta do is ask. So I think it's just fascinating
Speaker 1: how how even asking the question is this step in
Speaker 1: the right direction towards increasing your optimism. And sometimes it's
Speaker 1: not even about the knowledge that you would receive, but
Speaker 1: it's just the fact that you are willing to accept
Speaker 1: new information right Like that you're open to learning and
Speaker 1: open to improving. Like that says a lot about an individual. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt. Another important step to increasing your optimism is
Speaker 1: to celebrate. Find ways to reinforce good financial behavior with rewards.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to cost a ton of money, or
Speaker 1: really any money at all, but but you can give
Speaker 1: yourself a tangible reward when you succeed or make progress.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes it can be drudgery as we're attempting
Speaker 1: to pay off debt, as we're trying to start saving
Speaker 1: for the future, and if we're not rewarding ourselves, it
Speaker 1: can be really easy to let pessimism overtake us and
Speaker 1: think that, well, this debt, it's never gonna go away,
Speaker 1: it's going to be an albatross around my neck for forever.
Speaker 1: But when you celebrate the small winds along the way,
Speaker 1: it removes some of that pessimistic vibe and it allows
Speaker 1: you to see the progress that you're actually making, which
Speaker 1: is a huge motivator as as you move forward. So
Speaker 1: I think celebrating wins is a great step to take
Speaker 1: towards becoming more optimistic. Man. That's so good for me
Speaker 1: to here personally, because a lot of times I know
Speaker 1: I can forego the celebration and instead just continue working
Speaker 1: on towards my next goal. Yeah, if you never enjoy
Speaker 1: the fruit of your labor, if you never celebrate the winds,
Speaker 1: whatever you're trying to accomplish, can instead of feeling like
Speaker 1: an awesome thing that you're tackling, you can feel like drudgery.
Speaker 1: But one of the last things that we do want
Speaker 1: to mention Joel, is that optimism alone can't save you. Right.
Speaker 1: There's a difference between a good case of solid optimism
Speaker 1: and having your head stuck in the sand about the
Speaker 1: realities around you. But even as you assess the current
Speaker 1: state that you're in, seeing the good that currently exists,
Speaker 1: and seeking to implement positive steps towards making beneficial change, well,
Speaker 1: that will have it a profound impact on you. If
Speaker 1: you say you can't, well guess what you won't. But
Speaker 1: if you think you can and you're willing to give
Speaker 1: it a try, if you're open to it, really cool
Speaker 1: things will start to happen. Yeah, man, In my mind,
Speaker 1: optimism kind of equals resilience. It's knowing that you have
Speaker 1: the power to make moves, however small, to improve your situation.
Speaker 1: And Matt, When I think about optimism like that, it
Speaker 1: actually kind of makes me think about this This young
Speaker 1: girl I know named Gracey, And when she was born,
Speaker 1: she was born with cancer that everybody said that she
Speaker 1: wasn't going to live very long. She wasn't gonna live
Speaker 1: past a year old, for sure, is what is what
Speaker 1: the doctor said. And and now she's she's in high school.
Speaker 1: She's basically lived this life of resilience where she's overcome
Speaker 1: obstacles that people said she never would And does she
Speaker 1: have struggles, Yeah, is her life difficult, of course. But
Speaker 1: when I see someone like Gracy, it just reminds me
Speaker 1: that there are so many things in this life that
Speaker 1: are achievable that people around us and that even our
Speaker 1: own brains are gonna tell us aren't possible. But if
Speaker 1: we will harness an optimistic spirit, if we will implement
Speaker 1: optimism into our brains and into our physical reality a
Speaker 1: little bit more in in in particular in regards to
Speaker 1: our finances, I really truly believe it has a massive
Speaker 1: impact on how quickly we can achieve the goals that
Speaker 1: we've set out and ultimately whether or not we're going
Speaker 1: to achieve them at all many times. So, yeah, optimism
Speaker 1: equals resilience, and you want to become more resilient. You
Speaker 1: want to become more optimistic, and that in and of
Speaker 1: itself is going to have major ramifications on on how
Speaker 1: your finances look. Nice, man, that's so good. Thanks for
Speaker 1: sharing that, dude. Yeah, Man, Gracie super inspirational makes me
Speaker 1: more optimistic about the things that that I can accomplish
Speaker 1: and and that the people around me can accomplish. It
Speaker 1: makes me want to be more optimistic for the folks
Speaker 1: that I come in contact with and the little listeners
Speaker 1: on this podcast, be optimistic about the things that we
Speaker 1: can achieve. Man. And also, I am thankful to be
Speaker 1: sitting here with you talking about finances, talking about money
Speaker 1: while drinking a delicious beer. On this episode, we had
Speaker 1: Caramel Machiatto stout and this is my old bust Head
Speaker 1: brewing company, donated to the show by my in laws
Speaker 1: Mono and Pop Joel. What were your thoughts on this beer? Man?
Speaker 1: This was totally a dessert stout, which is totally We
Speaker 1: had this like nice kind of sweetness, vanilla sweetness. It
Speaker 1: had like a little bit of an assaulted caramel vibe,
Speaker 1: which is my wife's like favorite flavor of ice cream.
Speaker 1: So she would totally dig his beer. She's probably gonna upset.
Speaker 1: She wasn't here tonight. So yeah, I thought it was
Speaker 1: really good for for me. Typically, I like stout sit
Speaker 1: a little more like coffee you roasted dark chocolate kind
Speaker 1: of notes. This one had more sweet notes, but super interesting,
Speaker 1: very unique, and it hit the nail on the head
Speaker 1: man for Kramel Machiatto Stount. I mean, I love it
Speaker 1: when what you see on the label is like, that
Speaker 1: is exactly what you're drinking. Yeah, yeah, perfectly reflects what
Speaker 1: you got inside the bottle. Yeah, it did say it
Speaker 1: was brewed with coffee, but you didn't get much of
Speaker 1: that sort of bitter roasted nous. More so you get
Speaker 1: that vanilla, like you said, and it almost had like
Speaker 1: a crembrole a sort of flavor to it. I'm with
Speaker 1: you and the fact that it was a dessert beer
Speaker 1: and I was reading on the bottle it said that
Speaker 1: it's refreshing in the summer and decadent in the winter,
Speaker 1: and I totally agree though about it being refreshing because
Speaker 1: it wasn't too thick and syrupy. A lot of times
Speaker 1: the stouts like this can get really overwhelming when it
Speaker 1: comes to their viscosity. But this was super easy to
Speaker 1: drink and it was very delicious. So I'm glad we
Speaker 1: got to share this one on the podcast. Dude, agreed,
Speaker 1: my friend. All Right, Matt, that's gonna do it for
Speaker 1: this episode. Hopefully, this was an encouraging episode. I know honestly,
Speaker 1: just having this conversation with you was encouraging to me.
Speaker 1: It makes me want to get after it a little
Speaker 1: bit more. It makes me want to be more optimistic
Speaker 1: in my dealings with those around me, because I think
Speaker 1: optimism can be contagious. Yeah. I couldn't agree more, dude,
Speaker 1: all right. Yeah, And so for show notes for this episode,
Speaker 1: you can find those pretty easily on our website at
Speaker 1: how to money dot com. And if you found this
Speaker 1: episode and our podcasts in general helpful and you enjoyed it,
Speaker 1: we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review
Speaker 1: wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts. Alright, buddy,
Speaker 1: Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out, Insane
Speaker 1: in the membrane