Speaker 1: And we're back with another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Dirk Durham and this week's guest is somebody I've
Speaker 1: got to know over the last few years and really
Speaker 1: enjoy his company. The first time I met this guy,
Speaker 1: he kept tagging me on Instagram with these ridiculous videos.
Speaker 1: There's these freaking weird redneck videos. He'd kept on tagging
Speaker 1: me and sending me in my dms. He was sliding
Speaker 1: into my DMS with these ridiculous damn redneck videos. I'm like,
Speaker 1: who the hell is this crazy bastard. He's like weird
Speaker 1: as can be. Like I thought, Man, this guy is
Speaker 1: redneck as they come. And then fast forward quite a
Speaker 1: while before I actually got to meet you and get
Speaker 1: to know you, and he's not quite as redneck as
Speaker 1: he seemed in his posts and his things he sent me. So,
Speaker 1: uh my good buddy, Jeff bid him, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you. It's good. Good to see you, Derek. I
Speaker 2: miss you, man. It's you know, it's been a minute
Speaker 2: since we've gotten some FaceTime in together. And you know,
Speaker 2: we we've traveled all across the country together. We've definitely
Speaker 2: had a few moments, if you will and so I
Speaker 2: missed some of those days, but it's good to see you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we we spent like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: six or seven weekends in a row for like four
Speaker 1: years together. We went to these elkshamp elk shaped camps,
Speaker 1: and I got to teach folks how to call elk
Speaker 1: and and how to hunt elk and and Jeff he
Speaker 1: put in his two cents there too, But he also
Speaker 1: tried to tell people how to be a better with
Speaker 1: their money. I guess you could say kind of life
Speaker 1: kind of a life coach if you will.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's funny how much money impacts your life.
Speaker 2: And uh and and so it's you know, the Olk
Speaker 2: shape camps. Uh I still happening, kind of a new
Speaker 2: version of them, and and uh excited for that. But
Speaker 2: you know, that was a lot of trial and error
Speaker 2: on how those went. And we had some amazing experiences,
Speaker 2: got to meet tons of great people. Uh. Some of
Speaker 2: my fondest memories. I don't miss some of those early
Speaker 2: morning Texas drives. You know where We're running across the
Speaker 2: state of Texas at three am, and I think all
Speaker 2: of us have had too much dairy. Uh. You know
Speaker 2: that cramped in a small car. It wasn't good, but
Speaker 2: it's a lot of fun memories.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those we had some good times. Good times you
Speaker 1: weren't kind of you know, I will say, you're such
Speaker 1: a good sport. You're always kind of the butt of
Speaker 1: the butt of a joke of some kind. Full disclosure,
Speaker 1: Jeff is a ginger. He is a redheaded fella, and
Speaker 1: we take full advantage of that. You know, his own
Speaker 1: his own humility, he will he will jump right on
Speaker 1: that bandwagon too and just take the shots and kind
Speaker 1: of add a little bit to it for us.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, you know, I believe I'm gonna go to heaven,
Speaker 2: but I'm not sure how that's gonna work as a
Speaker 2: solace ginger. So we'll figure it out when we get there.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, you have to work really hard and find
Speaker 1: a soul before it's before your time comes for Saint
Speaker 1: calls your name. Well, hey, Matt, we haven't got to
Speaker 1: talk much about ELK season twenty twenty four. How'd you do?
Speaker 1: Did you do? Did you slay the beast or did
Speaker 1: the beast lay you?
Speaker 2: Boy? It's a twenty twenty four felt like a failure
Speaker 2: to me until I got beyond it and looked back
Speaker 2: and I did not kill an elk in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: And I am I am not near as good of
Speaker 2: el kunture as the people that I often get to
Speaker 2: hang out with, yourself included, but I can get I
Speaker 2: get the job done most years, and I got my
Speaker 2: buckcacked this year. But it was I think my season.
Speaker 2: The highlight of my season actually has nothing to do
Speaker 2: with elk hunting, you know. I I for those of
Speaker 2: you that are parents, have two kids and daughters, want
Speaker 2: to get done with this podcast. She's in driver's ed
Speaker 2: fourteen years old and I gotta go take her driving
Speaker 2: after this. Yeah, I know it's scary. My son is eleven,
Speaker 2: gonna be twelve here soon. And I've always tried to
Speaker 2: be involved in as much as possible in their worlds.
Speaker 2: And I'd coached their spring baseball season and it was amazing, phenomenal,
Speaker 2: awesome experience. You know, it was really good for me
Speaker 2: and my son. There were some challenging moments. I think
Speaker 2: we both cried probably at several points throughout the season,
Speaker 2: and you know, I like there were several times where
Speaker 2: I had to come to him and apologize because I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my coaching sucked there, especially as a father. And
Speaker 2: and so when it got to the fall, we signed
Speaker 2: up for football and I show up to football practice
Speaker 2: the first day to drop him off, and it's all
Speaker 2: the coaches from baseball and they're they're looking at me
Speaker 2: and they're like, dude, what are you doing. I'm like,
Speaker 2: what do you mean? You're good with these boys? Why
Speaker 2: are you not out here? And they they pressured me
Speaker 2: into signing up to be an assistant coach on his
Speaker 2: sixth grade football team. And I played football in high school,
Speaker 2: but not a lot of experience since then other than
Speaker 2: being a football fan. And it you know, there was
Speaker 2: thirty two boys on that team, and we went this
Speaker 2: is our third season, so last two seasons. They went
Speaker 2: undefeated season before that, and so they've lost one game
Speaker 2: in three seasons. And so it was, uh, it was
Speaker 2: five days a week, games on Saturday, and all the
Speaker 2: way through September and most of October. And so I
Speaker 2: committed to that, and it was a massive sacrifice for
Speaker 2: my ELK season. I had Idaho tags, I had Montana tags.
Speaker 2: I had all this ambition on what I was going
Speaker 2: to do, and the truth is I probably spent less
Speaker 2: time elk hunting in twenty twenty four than I have
Speaker 2: any year in the last probably ten. And if I
Speaker 2: get the opportunity to coach his football again that time
Speaker 2: with my son being able to build that depth of
Speaker 2: relationship with him and work with him in that way,
Speaker 2: I will trade that for an elk every single year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, congrats, good job, dad, because that's you can't
Speaker 1: get those years back, right, you know you've got way
Speaker 1: more elk hunting years in front of you than you
Speaker 1: got time with your kids at home. So good job,
Speaker 1: good job.
Speaker 2: I will say that that's the frustration of the season.
Speaker 2: BJ my right hand, BJ Cable amazing dude. Loved the
Speaker 2: guy killed his first bowl this year, his first elk
Speaker 2: went out there, did it solo, did it the right
Speaker 2: way North Idaho. I mean, you know what this area
Speaker 2: is like, Dirk. You know how hard it is to
Speaker 2: get into elkap here, especially after they're decimated by wolves.
Speaker 2: But M and I were out a couple of times
Speaker 2: and the one day, I think it was the nineteenth
Speaker 2: September nineteenth, we get into a drainage and there were
Speaker 2: six bowls bugling, and I mean it was it was
Speaker 2: awesome and worked one bowl, got busted, headed for the
Speaker 2: next bowl. He was he was kind of headed to
Speaker 2: the bedroom, probably in his bedroom, and we kept him talking,
Speaker 2: kept him talking. We're working through and brush. We're about
Speaker 2: two hundred yards out and I'm just these tag alders
Speaker 2: and spruce trees everywhere. You're just climbing through this North
Speaker 2: Idaho br USh, trying to get within, get close, and
Speaker 2: a blue spruce branch came and swung and whacked me
Speaker 2: straight across my eyeballs and it ended up like I
Speaker 2: couldn't open my eyes for probably a solid hour. Finally
Speaker 2: we were able to pry my eyes open. We looked
Speaker 2: in my one hole eye was solid a shot and
Speaker 2: go to the trauma center. You know. BJ had to
Speaker 2: hold my hand out of the woods. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: If you would have stumbled on us in that moment,
Speaker 2: you would have had some questions on what was going
Speaker 2: on in the North Idaho woods. Crying with tears in
Speaker 2: my eyes and BJ's holding my hand.
Speaker 1: Oh is this a proposal?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but dang it, no it was. It was a
Speaker 2: good season and my freezers, I'm down to sixty pounds
Speaker 2: of elk meat, so I'm taking elk donations. If anybody's
Speaker 2: needs some freezer space. Uh, no at all. Honestly, I
Speaker 2: think I'm going to go try to kill a buffalo
Speaker 2: here pretty soon stock up the freezer.
Speaker 1: So nice. Nice, So, Jeff, I kind of touched on
Speaker 1: it lightly that you kind of talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about people's financial decisions and whatnot. The elk shaped camps. Uh,
Speaker 1: tell the tell the listeners what you do for a
Speaker 1: living well.
Speaker 2: I am a financial advisor of financial planning. I'm the
Speaker 2: founder of a kind of a boutique firm, Financial Fitters Group,
Speaker 2: that I started in twenty fifteen. And so I am.
Speaker 2: You know, I started this practice, this firm with the
Speaker 2: intention of changing the hunting industry. And you know, I
Speaker 2: fast forward to today. I had no idea how this
Speaker 2: was going to go. As a matter of fact, most
Speaker 2: people told me it would not. Most people said that
Speaker 2: demographics of hunters does not make sense to work and
Speaker 2: as a financial advisor, and I says, well, I'm either
Speaker 2: going to do this or I'll get out of the
Speaker 2: industry and go do something honest, like build houses or whatever.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but so I started Financial Offerers Group
Speaker 2: beginn at twenty fifteen, and you know, you fast forward
Speaker 2: to today. I get to help all kinds of amazing
Speaker 2: people across the country thinks through everyday life decisions, how
Speaker 2: to buy cars, retirement insurances, send kids to college, start businesses,
Speaker 2: invest in real estate. You know, I just I get
Speaker 2: you know you kind of said life coach. The reality
Speaker 2: is a lot of what I do is life coaching
Speaker 2: and helping people navigate the financial side of decision making
Speaker 2: is just the reward of that is something I never
Speaker 2: imagined I'd be able to be in a position to receive.
Speaker 2: It's been phenomenal watching people create businesses and do all
Speaker 2: kinds of amazing things in their life.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I kind of like I kind of compare
Speaker 1: you this for say, you're kind of like a doctor, right,
Speaker 1: Doctors kind of give you advice you never want to hear. Hey,
Speaker 1: don't don't eat those donuts, don't drink those beers, don't
Speaker 1: don't don't do eat celery, do do more setups. And
Speaker 1: I feel like you kind of have that kind of
Speaker 1: advice too. It's like, hey, don't can Hey Jeff, what
Speaker 1: do you think I'm gonna go buy a twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four Duramax And you're like, no, you can do whatever
Speaker 1: you want, but no, don't do that. I feel like
Speaker 1: you have you're kind of that same kind of person,
Speaker 1: you know, you're trying to keep people's finances healthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think you know. The way society has
Speaker 2: taught people to make financial decisions is often backwards, you know.
Speaker 2: It's it's kind of the shoe first, aim later approach
Speaker 2: to financial decision making, and a lot of what we
Speaker 2: hear often told always do this, you know, And there's
Speaker 2: all these financial I'm gonna air quote financial entertainers, and
Speaker 2: they give out this blanket advice that people accept wholesale,
Speaker 2: and they buy into these myths, these financial myths, and
Speaker 2: they don't find out that they're on a path that
Speaker 2: they don't want to be in until five, ten, twenty
Speaker 2: years down the raided twenty years later, when they've created
Speaker 2: some sort of unintended consequence in their life. So a
Speaker 2: lot of my role, in my relationship, in my client's
Speaker 2: lives is helping them look at these different paths they
Speaker 2: could take so they can make whatever decision is right
Speaker 2: for their family and they don't wake up somewhere they
Speaker 2: don't want to be.
Speaker 1: Right now, you talked about what we're kind of taught
Speaker 1: from a long time ago, like you know, do this
Speaker 1: with your money, don't do that with your money, and
Speaker 1: and over the time and listen to you you speak
Speaker 1: at these different venues. It's really made me think, like, wow,
Speaker 1: I've got to rethink things a little bit from what
Speaker 1: I was taught and it really kind of makes sense.
Speaker 1: But let's rewind a little bit, do you You you
Speaker 1: always give an impactful speech at ELK shape camps and
Speaker 1: kind of told about where you came from and how
Speaker 1: you got to where you are today, and it always
Speaker 1: like really sunk into me. Is like it was kind
Speaker 1: of a vulnerable speech too, so I always really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Can you can you give that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah? Let me How I even ended up in
Speaker 2: this role? It's, uh, you know, it's a story that
Speaker 2: on paper looks like a lot of failure, but in
Speaker 2: reality it's you know, you could have given me a
Speaker 2: blank sheet of paper and I never could have drawn
Speaker 2: out this this life that I get to live now.
Speaker 2: And so I mean, I I grew up in a
Speaker 2: poda little farmtown with more dairy cows than people, grew
Speaker 2: up in a very poor household, broken household. You know,
Speaker 2: I went my mom went through several step dads that
Speaker 2: you know, I was the classic Ginger if you will,
Speaker 2: you know, a redheaded step child. And you know, by
Speaker 2: the time I got to high school, I was not
Speaker 2: on a very good path in life. And you know,
Speaker 2: this was early nineties, and I sat down with my
Speaker 2: high school counselor and they told me I didn't need
Speaker 2: to worry about taking a second language because I'd never
Speaker 2: go to college. And so I kind of just wrote
Speaker 2: off the traditional approach that we were all told to
Speaker 2: take at that time in life and got out of school.
Speaker 2: The good news of growing up so poor as I
Speaker 2: learned how to work really hard if I wanted something.
Speaker 2: So I got into the construction industry, started working my
Speaker 2: way up through the construction trades, and I ended up
Speaker 2: going on a vacation in Seattle, met my wife, and
Speaker 2: then I never came home. I said, Hey, I'm staying here,
Speaker 2: like in work construction here and yeah, and I started
Speaker 2: my own construction company. At twenty five. My wife graduated
Speaker 2: from SPU the degree in interior design. She started her
Speaker 2: own here, her own interior design practice, and we were
Speaker 2: making a lot of money, more money than our families
Speaker 2: had ever made. This was kind of the heyday of
Speaker 2: the real estate market pre two thousand and eight, and
Speaker 2: we got we decided that we wanted to be smart
Speaker 2: with money, so we went out and got a couple
Speaker 2: of financial advisors, and most of their advice revolved around
Speaker 2: real estate, which makes sense because it was an insurance
Speaker 2: salesman and a mortgage broker that we're our financial advisors,
Speaker 2: and so they had us take out a million dollars
Speaker 2: in debt in two thousand and seven, and they told
Speaker 2: us that we'll never lose if we do this, And
Speaker 2: we bought investment properties in Seattle in two thousand and
Speaker 2: seven and woke up about a year later in the
Speaker 2: middle of two thousand and eight where all of our income, assets,
Speaker 2: my abilities, cash flow, like everything in our life was
Speaker 2: tied to the real estate market, and we lost everything
Speaker 2: we owned, had to go through bankruptcy, ended up moving
Speaker 2: into my in law's basement with my nine month old
Speaker 2: baby girl, my daughter, and that sucked. That that was
Speaker 2: not fun. Don't don't move into your in law's basement,
Speaker 2: that's all. That's not a place you want to find
Speaker 2: yourself in life. And so you know, at twenty eight,
Speaker 2: that's what I was when that while that happened, I
Speaker 2: made it my mission to make sure that this was
Speaker 2: never going to happen again to me in my life.
Speaker 2: And so I started going to the different financial institutions
Speaker 2: out there, all of the ones that people see on
Speaker 2: every street corner, you know, and all over the place,
Speaker 2: and I heard a lot of the same thing. It
Speaker 2: give us this much money, we'll get you this much
Speaker 2: rate of return, and here's where you're going to be
Speaker 2: in thirty years. And and to me, I knew I'd
Speaker 2: already heard this. This is that it was not financial planning.
Speaker 2: That was just a sales pitch. And through that process,
Speaker 2: I realized that the financial services industry, and this is
Speaker 2: whether we were talking about investment advice or insurance planning,
Speaker 2: or benefits from an employer, or taxes or mortgage real estate,
Speaker 2: like all of these different products or services that we
Speaker 2: need in our lives are all being provided to us
Speaker 2: through a sales process, and no one has taken the
Speaker 2: time to say, let's make sure that all of this
Speaker 2: fits together so that you don't wake up somewhere like
Speaker 2: how I woke up in two thousand and eight and
Speaker 2: I realized had someone helped me make decisions different than
Speaker 2: I did it. Had someone looked out for my best interest,
Speaker 2: I would have never made the decisions I had. I
Speaker 2: would have never taken out a million dollars. I had
Speaker 2: no business whatsoever taken out that type of debt in
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven. I didn't have the right liquidity,
Speaker 2: I didn't have good protection, Like I was essentially kind
Speaker 2: of a wreck, just making a ton of money, and
Speaker 2: so I saw an opportunity to go help people avoid
Speaker 2: making the mistakes I made. So I took off the
Speaker 2: car hearts and put on a suit and tie, which
Speaker 2: you know, fast forward to twenty fifteen, I ended up
Speaker 2: moving my family to Texas. God bless Texas. I love Texas.
Speaker 2: They just don't have much public lands or all hunting there, unfortunately.
Speaker 2: But it was down in Texas, and it was still
Speaker 2: it was still suit and tie sales goals, and you know,
Speaker 2: I just and I just I was fed up with it.
Speaker 2: I was fed up with this world and the pressure
Speaker 2: that this industry puts on most advisors to perform. And
Speaker 2: I was going to leave the industry. And that's when
Speaker 2: I I can't remember what book I was reading, but
Speaker 2: you know, one of these inspirational books to pursue your
Speaker 2: dreams and all that stuff. And I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go work in the hunting industry. And that's why
Speaker 2: I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to provide for
Speaker 2: my family if I did. It's you don't get into
Speaker 2: the hunting industry to to to make a ton of money.
Speaker 2: Like that's that's the reality. It is a modest life.
Speaker 2: But for me, what I saw there was people. I
Speaker 2: saw people that were similar to me. I saw people
Speaker 2: that were salt of the earth, that were blue collar,
Speaker 2: that had a what I would say is a natural
Speaker 2: distrust for the financial services world. And I thought, you know,
Speaker 2: if if there was one group of people that I
Speaker 2: could go out and help succeed in life, these were
Speaker 2: my people. And so I sat down with my firm
Speaker 2: that I was with then and I told them that.
Speaker 2: And that's when they're like, yeah, you're gonna fail, You'll
Speaker 2: be out of the industry. There's not enough money in it,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. It's as well, I'm gonna do this
Speaker 2: my way or not. And uh, you know here we
Speaker 2: are today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think you've been doing a good job.
Speaker 1: And I think You've helped a lot of people, including me,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I think you're living the dream.
Speaker 2: Well, uh what you what's publicly you see there there.
Speaker 2: I still have challenges myself, you know, we all do.
Speaker 2: I got a I got a gut kick last week.
Speaker 2: It was, you know, being business for yourself, especially as
Speaker 2: a financial advisor's hard. And you know I'm an all transparency.
Speaker 2: I had a I had some message me that they
Speaker 2: didn't have a good experience in planning, and for me,
Speaker 2: it crushed me. It still hurts, like I you know,
Speaker 2: I almost postponed this podcast because it's torn me up
Speaker 2: so bad. And it wasn't that they didn't like my advice.
Speaker 2: It was that their experience was bad. And so and
Speaker 2: I'm analyzing that, I'm looking at that. I'm always trying
Speaker 2: to grow and figure out, Okay, how do I have
Speaker 2: the most impact inside of people's lives. And you know,
Speaker 2: thankfullest person as a friend and you know help helping me.
Speaker 2: See so, I'm still growing and evolving. Our firm is
Speaker 2: still growing and evolving. We've got some exciting things happening
Speaker 2: that that we're gonna be able to support clients. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been it's been a constant uh climb, uphill, steep
Speaker 2: grade and a yah, NonStop. Lakes are burning.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's a common thing with entrepreneurs, right,
Speaker 1: It's you just about the time you think I can
Speaker 1: take a deep breath and it's like, oh what about this,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's a grind. I haven't. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of entrepreneurs and I just don't know any
Speaker 1: of them that have you know, every days of ten,
Speaker 1: right you know. Yeah, it's it's a lot of hard
Speaker 1: work and dedication and late nights and grind. So yeah,
Speaker 1: now you well, I'm a circle back here. You mentioned real.
Speaker 1: I mean you just dropped the subtle hint early in
Speaker 1: the conversation. You said, Montana ELK tag. Yeah, must be nice. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it must be nice to get one of those tags.
Speaker 1: I mean you know that. I'm just gonna say it, Jeff,
Speaker 1: I didn't get a Montana tag last year, and I
Speaker 1: you got mine, and you didn't probably even hunt on
Speaker 1: it that much. So I will have a little animassie
Speaker 1: towards you. Yeah, we got it, Like you've had a
Speaker 1: I think you've had more ELK tags in Montana in
Speaker 1: the last three years than I have. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: really need to talk about how you're getting tags.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, somebody, do you know I wish
Speaker 3: it worked that way, Man, I would be kissing, but no,
Speaker 3: I've you know, I've gotten I've gotten lucky, and you
Speaker 3: know I've it.
Speaker 2: It didn't start this way, that's for sure. You know.
Speaker 2: My first out of state hunt that I went on
Speaker 2: was in twenty fourteen to Wyoming. That's that bowl there.
Speaker 2: That bowl's also Wyoming, But you know it, it is
Speaker 2: something that I looked at and said, you know, I
Speaker 2: would like this to be a normal part of my life.
Speaker 2: And it took a lot of a lot of years
Speaker 2: and adjustments and shifts and how I manage my finances
Speaker 2: and to be able to afford to be able to
Speaker 2: hunt several states a year or at least another state
Speaker 2: a year. So in drawing tags is a big part
Speaker 2: of that as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's tougher every year. Yeah. The first time
Speaker 1: I ever got it out of state, it was it
Speaker 1: was Wyoming and after and I shot a nice six point.
Speaker 1: When I get back to work, one of the guys
Speaker 1: there that always had had something to say, He's like,
Speaker 1: it must be nice until he's getting getting paid too
Speaker 1: much money around here. It's like, all right, well, first off,
Speaker 1: I know that guy made a lot more money than
Speaker 1: me because he'd worked there a lot longer he was.
Speaker 1: And also it's sometimes you know, what what are you affording?
Speaker 1: What other luxuries are you affording through the year? What
Speaker 1: are you wasting your money on versus putting that money
Speaker 1: towards going hunting out of state?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I can think of it a lot of things, but
Speaker 1: you know, he just kind of adds up, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, and this is a big part
Speaker 2: of what I hope people take away from this message
Speaker 2: is that we need to think about our decision making different.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to tie this into wealth And this
Speaker 2: wasn't actually this was an elk shaped camp that I
Speaker 2: that I figured out how to pointingly say how I
Speaker 2: felt about wealth creation. Derek, you came to some of
Speaker 2: the Texas camps with us, right the at the Iron
Speaker 2: Game Ranch. Amazing amazing ranch, beautiful high fence. Uh, every
Speaker 2: exotic animal that was there, you know, every bass in
Speaker 2: the pond was five plus plant pounds. You know, it
Speaker 2: was there. Their cabins we were staying at or nicer
Speaker 2: than most people's homes, and so it was one of
Speaker 2: these mornings that that before camp started, and oftentimes I'd
Speaker 2: done this where I'll get up in the morning and
Speaker 2: have coffee, let's go walk around doing a little bit
Speaker 2: of preying before camp and you know, for everything that's
Speaker 2: going to be happening and everybody's message and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: And this ranch was owned by one of the founders
Speaker 2: of PayPal, and I never actually met him. I think
Speaker 2: Dan had met him a few times. I don't know
Speaker 2: the guy's name. But that morning, it was a little
Speaker 2: bit dark, and I could as I was walking, I
Speaker 2: could see into their house and his private chef was
Speaker 2: cooking and breakfast. And I remember thinking to myself, you know,
Speaker 2: this guy, when he wakes up in the morning, there's
Speaker 2: not anybody that tells him how he has to spend
Speaker 2: his time that day. He is in complete control of
Speaker 2: his time, right And as I thought about that, meditated
Speaker 2: on it, and I realized that that is that is
Speaker 2: what we are all actually seeking in life. Is that
Speaker 2: is the greatest measurement of wealth. You know, I've had money,
Speaker 2: I've lost money, I've made money. Money is replaceable, but
Speaker 2: the time that we have in this life, our time
Speaker 2: here on earth is irreplaceable. It is our most precious resource.
Speaker 2: And for me it clicked with my messaging to my
Speaker 2: client tele the people that I work with, is that
Speaker 2: we've been taught that how much money we have, how
Speaker 2: big our retirement account is, how big our bank account,
Speaker 2: our boat, our twenty four duromats, whatever it maybe represents
Speaker 2: our wealth, when the reality is our ability to control
Speaker 2: our time should be how we measure our wealth, which
Speaker 2: which trickles into how we are making financial decisions. And
Speaker 2: if controlling our time is the most precious resource that
Speaker 2: we have, it means that we need to be making
Speaker 2: decisions different than what society, what generations before us, have done.
Speaker 2: What is often said from financial advisors, I oftentimes talk
Speaker 2: people out of putting money into vehicles or products or
Speaker 2: environments where I get paid to do. I talk myself
Speaker 2: out of paychecks because I want them to be in
Speaker 2: a position to control how control their time. And so
Speaker 2: you know, the must be nice. You know, yeah, it
Speaker 2: is nice. It is nice to be able to go
Speaker 2: hunt other states. But it's not accidental. It's not because
Speaker 2: I got lucky, it's not it's none of that. It's
Speaker 2: because I've made decison is intentionally different than what I
Speaker 2: think most people have to create this level of capacity
Speaker 2: to control my time in my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, if you could say, if you
Speaker 1: could give us five things, it sounds like.
Speaker 4: The cover of Cosmo magazine five best practices to make
Speaker 4: your Man Happy.
Speaker 1: I mean, so give me five if you want. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's give me five things that our listeners can do
Speaker 1: to if they have a goal of wanting to go
Speaker 1: hunt out of state or have or maybe just hunting
Speaker 1: in state. Maybe it's just a struggle even to be
Speaker 1: able to get to go hunting you're in your home state.
Speaker 1: What are five things they can do? Maybe that's too many,
Speaker 1: but what are some things folks can do to set
Speaker 1: themselves up good to like not take away from their
Speaker 1: every day either living and their family and you know
Speaker 1: all those things are important retirement stuff. How can they
Speaker 1: still participate in those things yet put some money away
Speaker 1: for for sure hunting for a fun, fun time.
Speaker 2: Well, let me let me start with addressing something that
Speaker 2: you mentioned there, and that is hunting taking away from
Speaker 2: your family. If hunting is taking away from your family,
Speaker 2: if hunting is building resentment between you and your spouse,
Speaker 2: You're doing it wrong. Like, that's just straight up. Hunting
Speaker 2: is if you're a hunter, it is core to your
Speaker 2: DNA and like and I and that's that's how I
Speaker 2: look at hunting in my life, Like there are a
Speaker 2: few human activities that are core to who I am
Speaker 2: as hunting, Uh, hunting is I love gardening and one
Speaker 2: of them is between me and my wife. And that's
Speaker 2: about it. And those are those are the core human
Speaker 2: activities that are part of that are gettingrained in us
Speaker 2: in our DNA. And so hunting should not be something
Speaker 2: that is a liability in your relationship. You know, you
Speaker 2: go back throughout time and you look at the hieroglyphs
Speaker 2: on walls and like those are celebrations of hunting stories,
Speaker 2: and that's how that should be in our in our life.
Speaker 2: But the problem is we're self as human beings oftentimes
Speaker 2: and oftentimes we are poor managing our finances and we
Speaker 2: don't financially prepare. It's hey, we're going hunting, which means
Speaker 2: something else is not happening in our life that should
Speaker 2: be happening. And so first, if if that is you,
Speaker 2: if you felt that, and I've felt this, I've seen
Speaker 2: this in my own life. Like, everything I'm talking about
Speaker 2: are things that I have made, these.
Speaker 1: Mistakes, right, we've all been there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So on the practical side of things, if
Speaker 2: there is something that is that important to you, you
Speaker 2: should have a hunt budget. Like it's not it's not complicated. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, there's there's a lot of different budgeting techniques
Speaker 2: out there, but the practically there should be a bank
Speaker 2: account at your bank. At least create a structure a
Speaker 2: location that you and your wife can see together that
Speaker 2: you know that money that's in this environment is earmarked
Speaker 2: and its sole purpose is to produce this experience activity
Speaker 2: in your life. And so for you know, at the
Speaker 2: very minimum, set up a bank account at your bank,
Speaker 2: have it labeled your Hunt budget, and have a conversation
Speaker 2: with your spouse about what type of money you would
Speaker 2: like to spend, where those dollars are coming from in
Speaker 2: your life, and is it appropriate to spend as much
Speaker 2: as you're hoping to.
Speaker 1: Now, we can't let her see that money, like, okay,
Speaker 1: I think they call I believe they call that mad money. Well,
Speaker 1: because when she finds it, she canna be mad.
Speaker 2: And this is where if if, that is where the
Speaker 2: conversation stopped. You've you've failed, misery because at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, you know, stereotypical, like most of us men,
Speaker 2: this is our thing. There are a lot of amazing,
Speaker 2: badass women hunters out there, mad respect for you, most
Speaker 2: of them out hunt me. But for the most part,
Speaker 2: this is us. And maybe we take our kids every
Speaker 2: now and then, but we have to recognize how important
Speaker 2: hunting is to us as well as recognize that there's
Speaker 2: something in our wife's lives that is just as important.
Speaker 2: And so if you're setting up your hunt budget and
Speaker 2: not your wife's whatever version of hunting is for her budget,
Speaker 2: you've failed. Like I tell everybody, you will go on
Speaker 2: more hunts if you set up your wife's hunt budget
Speaker 2: first rather than yours. That will pay dividends in a
Speaker 2: lot of ways. And so it's not just it's not
Speaker 2: just hey, here's what I'm gonna spend. Take it or
Speaker 2: leave it, babe. This is let's talk about our lives.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about what's important to us. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: things that are not really creating value. And this was
Speaker 2: a big one that I had to kind of go
Speaker 2: through this exact same process when my children were young.
Speaker 2: Once I moved out of my in laws basement and
Speaker 2: uh back, you know, back in normal life and living
Speaker 2: under one roof. I snowboarded all the time, I mountain biked,
Speaker 2: I salmon fished. I did all of these things that
Speaker 2: required money and time for me, and I couldn't afford
Speaker 2: all of those things. And so I looked at my
Speaker 2: life and I recognized the most important activity that that
Speaker 2: I can do that I want my children to experience
Speaker 2: is hunting. It had the most impact in my life.
Speaker 2: It's what I and And so I carved almost all
Speaker 2: of that other stuff out of my life and focused
Speaker 2: my time and energy into one space. And ironically, I
Speaker 2: started killing more ouk when I did that too. So
Speaker 2: it's surprising what happens when you get intentional and focus
Speaker 2: your time, energy and money. And so that that's that
Speaker 2: will be the like foundationally, everybody should have a hunt budget,
Speaker 2: unless you're one of those people that make so much
Speaker 2: money that if you spend twenty thirty forty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: a year and your family doesn't even notice, it doesn't
Speaker 2: even hurt you at all, Like, good for you. That
Speaker 2: is nice. That be really nice.
Speaker 1: That must be nice.
Speaker 2: It must be nice.
Speaker 1: How come you looked at me like that, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't have that kind of money. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: like I think a lot of like a lot of
Speaker 1: wives too. You know, maybe maybe they haven't found their
Speaker 1: version of hunting. You know, maybe they haven't found an
Speaker 1: act life activity that they enjoy or passionate about because
Speaker 1: a lot of them they're so you know, busy and
Speaker 1: invested into raising children, right. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: these moms are just they don't allow themselves or don't
Speaker 1: have a fun out, you know, something they can go
Speaker 1: do that's that's really fun. And maybe we just have
Speaker 1: to get you know, we have to kind of advocate
Speaker 1: for them to find something and help them find it
Speaker 1: and nurture that that thing. You know, maybe maybe you
Speaker 1: if they're a little bit on the fence on this
Speaker 1: thing because of you know, maybe they don't get to
Speaker 1: go have any fun, be like, Okay, here's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. We're gonna split this this mad money right
Speaker 1: down the middle, and half will go into my hunting
Speaker 1: fund and half's gonna go into your fund to do
Speaker 1: X y Z. Maybe that's a weekend away with their girlfriends.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a day at the spa or it's some
Speaker 1: little spoiled thing whatever they're into. Maybe it's a piece
Speaker 1: of jewelry, whatever, they're really into it. So it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna do this together. And and as
Speaker 1: as I build mine, you're gonna build yours. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna you know, we wanted this to be fair. I
Speaker 1: feel like that it would be a huge and then
Speaker 1: also uh full transparency. Uh man. A lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of guys get slack a lot of flak when
Speaker 1: they want to go hunt and they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I told my wife last week I'm going hunting next week,
Speaker 1: and she was mad. She didn't want me to go,
Speaker 1: and she's about ready to burn the house down and
Speaker 1: mad about it. And we've talked about this before in
Speaker 1: our camps that you know, back to that being intentional,
Speaker 1: planning ahead, being full fully transparent with your wife or
Speaker 1: significant other, that you know, this is my intentions for fall,
Speaker 1: this is the time I want to do it, this
Speaker 1: is how much it's gonna cost, and this is what
Speaker 1: I'm doing to make that all happen. So yes, now
Speaker 1: I'm going to you know, opera shows on Saturday night
Speaker 1: in the middle of summer that I never really would
Speaker 1: have ever done. Or I'm taking a trip to Mexico
Speaker 1: or whatever whatever she's into. Like, you're building those hall
Speaker 1: pass points. You know, absolutely hate a lot of the
Speaker 1: things they love, but you used to have to grin
Speaker 1: and bear it and shut your fat mouth and go
Speaker 1: enjoy it and try to make it enjoyable for them.
Speaker 1: That way, you can be like, yeah, I'll do all
Speaker 1: this stuff and then you know, and I'm gonna I
Speaker 1: want to do this hunt in season. If you can
Speaker 1: kind of tee all that up ahead of time, it
Speaker 1: kind of softens it a little bit. You know, they
Speaker 1: still may not like it that much when you're gone,
Speaker 1: but it'll it'll still be like, Okay, well yeah he
Speaker 1: did do all those things. I mean, you don't want
Speaker 1: to rub it in their face, but they know that
Speaker 1: you've been intentional to get to the point where you
Speaker 1: could have little leeway too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's I think a lot of this, you know,
Speaker 2: is what Elk Shape camps have turned into. It's it's
Speaker 2: how to develop a level of self discipline, you know,
Speaker 2: fueled by your passion for hunting. And you know, tremendous
Speaker 2: respect for Dan, He's he's a wild man, I've never
Speaker 2: I don't know anybody who works as hard as he does.
Speaker 1: He is.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's been multiple nights in Dirk. You and
Speaker 2: I both know where camp gets done. We may be,
Speaker 2: you know, sitting down talking about the day and enjoying
Speaker 2: a barley pop, if you will. And Dan is still
Speaker 2: working away and you know his his passion for elk hunting.
Speaker 2: He kind of figured out how and it makes total
Speaker 2: sense how to take that passion and use that to
Speaker 2: stay focused every area in our life. And I would
Speaker 2: say the first area you need to focus is your spouse.
Speaker 2: If your priorities are out of line, if they feel
Speaker 2: whether it's turkey hunting or whitetail hunting or meal ear, elk,
Speaker 2: whatever it is, but if they're not your priority, they're
Speaker 2: gonna look at what your priority is and they're gonna
Speaker 2: be resentful towards it. And so you know, just the
Speaker 2: basic bank account with her name on it labeled whatever
Speaker 2: her activity is, family vacation. That's ninety percent of really
Speaker 2: what women are looking for is just to go spend
Speaker 2: time as a family, whatever it may be. That communicates
Speaker 2: to them that they are the priority. And pretty soon
Speaker 2: what happens over time is you know, similar to what
Speaker 2: I know Jessica does for you, Derek, and my wife
Speaker 2: does for me, is when it's elk season, Like my
Speaker 2: wife tells me, don't come home without killing something, you know,
Speaker 2: and they are excited for us. They're thrilled they see
Speaker 2: us going out and you know, killing ourselves on this
Speaker 2: mountain and accomplishing goals in our lives. And there there
Speaker 2: are biggest fans, and it hasn't always been that way.
Speaker 2: And so you know, if if you can look in
Speaker 2: the mirror and you know, like, hey, this is a
Speaker 2: liability in my life, it may be time to start
Speaker 2: looking at how to reposition that in your world so
Speaker 2: that hunting can be an asset rather than a liability
Speaker 2: in your relationship in your life.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely, something I always talk about is when you're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how you're gonna afford hunting and stuff.
Speaker 1: We go through our day to day life and sometimes
Speaker 1: we just kind of get on autopilot and we just
Speaker 1: do our thing, like, Okay, on the way to work today,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop by the gas station. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: you know, a breakfast sandwich and some coffee, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna spend twelve to fifteen bucks on that, right. So
Speaker 1: there there's a simple thing, one simple thing a person
Speaker 1: can cut to out of their day to day life.
Speaker 1: And let's just talk about that or vices, cutting vices
Speaker 1: from your life. Typically, a vice is an unhealthy practice,
Speaker 1: you know, whether you're using tobacco or maybe it's alcohol,
Speaker 1: whatever your vice or your jam or wherever it is,
Speaker 1: if you could cut that out, if you just start
Speaker 1: looking at dollar insents, it's like, okay, i'd buy a
Speaker 1: thirty pack of beer every week. How much is a
Speaker 1: thirty pack of beer? That's twenty bucks. Let's say I
Speaker 1: depend on what kind you drink. Let's just say it's
Speaker 1: about twenty bucks. Fifty two weeks in a year times
Speaker 1: twenty bucks, that adds up a lot. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: just that's just beer. Well, guess what beer? What else
Speaker 1: is bad? Beer's bad for the budget, Well, beller's bad
Speaker 1: for the belly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know my vice is thankfully you know, I
Speaker 2: don't mind a beer every now and then, but it
Speaker 2: is it's not alcohol. It's good food. I mean, my
Speaker 2: office since the above a brewery with great food. So
Speaker 2: I walked out my office down the stairs and it's
Speaker 2: not the beerer that tempts me. It's you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's the buffalo sandwich that they've got down there and
Speaker 2: so and you're exactly right, like these are things that
Speaker 2: even I have to practice and intentionally tell myself no
Speaker 2: in this space because it is not supporting my ambition.
Speaker 2: I can I can drop twenty five bucks a day
Speaker 2: on lunch and and it. I mean, I've gone through
Speaker 2: seasons of life and I and I get through that season,
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, I'm ten pounds everything I want to
Speaker 2: be and I hate this. I yo, Yo, every year
Speaker 2: I've spent you know a lot of money that you know,
Speaker 2: I realistically is not hurting my family today, but it's
Speaker 2: just not in alignment with my ambition on who I'm
Speaker 2: called to be.
Speaker 1: And and so forgetting that's gone, it's yea god, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'll tell.
Speaker 2: You it's not easier to drop ten pounds the older
Speaker 2: you get.
Speaker 1: No, absolutely not.
Speaker 2: Oh right now, right about? But you know, I think
Speaker 2: that overall, you know, if we go back to the
Speaker 2: hunting out of state, you know that that is something
Speaker 2: that people I hear people talk about like, oh if
Speaker 2: I could only like you can't you can do this.
Speaker 2: It is not impossible to go on and out of
Speaker 2: stake up out of state elk hunt. It's not that expensive.
Speaker 2: A few thousand dollars and covers all of it. Most
Speaker 2: people with the right amount of time can come up
Speaker 2: with that money. And there's lots of resources to hey,
Speaker 2: what's this going to cost? All that type of stuff,
Speaker 2: But you know, set up a hunt budget and start
Speaker 2: systematically saving towards your goal. And I you know when
Speaker 2: I when I first start working with clients, especially young
Speaker 2: clients that don't have a lot of savings capacity, I
Speaker 2: connect savings the same as I do weightlifting. Like if
Speaker 2: you hadn't lifted weights before, you're new to weightlifting, and
Speaker 2: you walk in the gym, you don't walk up to
Speaker 2: the squat rack and see what your pr is. You
Speaker 2: walk up to the squat rack and then you grab
Speaker 2: a PBC bar and you see if you can get
Speaker 2: your butt to the ground, like you see if you
Speaker 2: can even make the movement like ooh right, my hamstrings
Speaker 2: allow me to get level with the ground. And eventually
Speaker 2: then you start doing the bar and then you add weight,
Speaker 2: and you add weight and you add weight. And so
Speaker 2: for those of you that have never had a hunt
Speaker 2: budget that are just beginning this adventure. Want to course
Speaker 2: correct how hunting is impacting your life. Start with the movement.
Speaker 2: Just perfect the movement. Set up the financial structure, perfect
Speaker 2: the movement. Even if it's just twenty five bucks a paycheck,
Speaker 2: you can always add weight to the bar. And once
Speaker 2: you're at that spot, that self discipline leads to other
Speaker 2: areas of your life. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: if you want to be someone that has the capacity
Speaker 2: to hunt out of state consistently, that means that you
Speaker 2: have to align your life with that and you have
Speaker 2: to make financial decisions that look very differ than society.
Speaker 2: And that will be my first like the first big
Speaker 2: thing there is. Like if you are making decisions that
Speaker 2: look the same as everybody else, you're going to be
Speaker 2: producing the same result. And oftentimes, you know, if you
Speaker 2: if you look at the kids getting out of college today,
Speaker 2: to get out of college, get their first job, Better
Speaker 2: go buy that new bmw uh you know, and then oh,
Speaker 2: I've got a new job that I better sign up
Speaker 2: for my four oh one K and start funding my retirement.
Speaker 2: These things like you're gonna you're gonna end up in
Speaker 2: the same spot as everybody else. You have to do
Speaker 2: things different, and so your overall financial health if you
Speaker 2: focus on your overall financial health, you focus on and
Speaker 2: I'll talk through some of these things that I that
Speaker 2: I see people make these mistakes every day and they
Speaker 2: don't realize it because they're doing what people with society
Speaker 2: has told them to do. But if if you are
Speaker 2: financially healthy and you are liquid, you have savings, you
Speaker 2: have emergency funds, you have different types of money in
Speaker 2: your life, guess what You're going to go on more
Speaker 2: l cuts. It's it's not going to be a big
Speaker 2: deal to spend three grand every year or five grand
Speaker 2: every year, or start mixing in a buffalo hunt and
Speaker 2: went on a mountain lion hut last year. Like these
Speaker 2: things just show up the healthier your financial life is.
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Another thing as you were kind of talking
Speaker 1: that out, I was thinking about a friend of mine
Speaker 1: told me one time what they do to help save
Speaker 1: money is they're like, you know, oh, it's the weekend,
Speaker 1: we want to go out. We want to go out
Speaker 1: on the town. We want to go out to nice
Speaker 1: dinner and whatever. And I mean that you can shoot
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars bill right in the face going out
Speaker 1: on the town. You know that that or more right?
Speaker 1: And what they would do is they would they would
Speaker 1: write themselves a check out of their checking account and
Speaker 1: deposit it into their save into their savings account for
Speaker 1: that amount of money, and they would stay home. And uh,
Speaker 1: as a guy, if if you were to do that. So, okay, honey,
Speaker 1: we're not going out of town. What we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cook dinner tonight for you. What I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make your favorite thing. Don't ask her what she wants,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna sit there for forty five minutes like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what do you want? I don't know, well,
Speaker 1: what do you want? Just just just say, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make you your favorite thing whatever that is. Her
Speaker 1: favorite thing is whatever you cook. Usually she doesn't.
Speaker 2: To cook it, especially if you're doing the dishes afterwards.
Speaker 1: And then you you deposit that, you know, half in
Speaker 1: her account half in your account. Man. Just just little
Speaker 1: things like creative ways to like put some money away
Speaker 1: into something good instead of just throwing it down a hole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well, there's there's lots of good things that
Speaker 2: can be financial holes as well, and so if we
Speaker 2: if if we go a little broader as far as
Speaker 2: your financial health, there are a few decisions that I
Speaker 2: see people make consistently that create a ripple impact throughout
Speaker 2: their life that if they understood, they probably would have
Speaker 2: made the decision different. And so one of those first
Speaker 2: ones is your home. You know, it's I'm not saying
Speaker 2: home ownership is bad by any means, but I hear
Speaker 2: almost every single day your home is your asset, a
Speaker 2: greatest asset. A home is an asset. And the problem
Speaker 2: I have with that is when we look at the
Speaker 2: baby Boomer generation, you know, the majority of them, there
Speaker 2: was a massive shift pre Baby Boomer to the Baby
Speaker 2: Boomer generation as far as what people were doing financially,
Speaker 2: and you know, the baby Boomers were taught like home
Speaker 2: ownership is the quickest way to creating wealth, and your
Speaker 2: home is your greatest asset and all of this. And
Speaker 2: now as we see that generation retiring, the majority of
Speaker 2: them have a home may or may not be paid off.
Speaker 2: And unfortunately it's turned out to be true for them
Speaker 2: that their home is their greatest asset. And you have
Speaker 2: to ask yourself, how much income is your home produced
Speaker 2: for you? In retirement, that's nothing. Matter of fact, even
Speaker 2: if your home is paid off, it will only always
Speaker 2: require income from you. And so by no means here,
Speaker 2: don't hear me say the home ownership is bad. But
Speaker 2: it's not uncommon that when you are entering the home
Speaker 2: ownership space that you sit down with mortgage brokers, real
Speaker 2: estate agents, and it's easy to get approved for what's
Speaker 2: called a debt to income ratio, essentially how much of
Speaker 2: your income is required to be paying for the mortgage
Speaker 2: on this home. And people are committing twenty five, thirty
Speaker 2: thirty five percent of their income. The million dollars I
Speaker 2: took out in two thousand and seven was about a
Speaker 2: fifty five percent debt to income ratio for me. And
Speaker 2: so like, trust me, I've been there. I made these mistakes.
Speaker 2: But when what happens when you go down that path
Speaker 2: and your home is your greatest asset and you feel
Speaker 2: society's pressure, we got to own a home, we gotta
Speaker 2: do this, Like all of a sudden, you've made a
Speaker 2: decision that does not leave you financial capacity to have
Speaker 2: flexibility in life. You know, I wholeheartedly believe that the
Speaker 2: best wealth building strategies that exist out there are going
Speaker 2: to be strategies that show up inside of your life,
Speaker 2: opportunities that come from the people that you surround yourself with,
Speaker 2: your community, your network, whether that means walking away from
Speaker 2: a good job and starting a business, whether it means,
Speaker 2: you know, buying the old Ladies farm that your family
Speaker 2: has always been friends with, whatever it may be. But
Speaker 2: the greatest wealth building strategies are not something that is
Speaker 2: going to come from your retirement account. It's not to
Speaker 2: come from a fancy insurance policy or anything like that.
Speaker 2: It's going to come from you taking a risk that
Speaker 2: you have the ability to control inside of your own life,
Speaker 2: having the financial capacity to take that risk, and starting
Speaker 2: a business, becoming a real estate investor one of those things.
Speaker 2: But if you have thirty percent of your income going
Speaker 2: just to pay for the roof over your head, you
Speaker 2: do not leave yourself the financial capacity to accumulate enough money,
Speaker 2: let alone go l hunting, but to take advantage of
Speaker 2: those opportunities when they show up. And you know, most
Speaker 2: of us here probably have seen some opportunities come and
Speaker 2: go in our lifetime that we can look back on
Speaker 2: and say, man, if I only could have done this
Speaker 2: at that time, my life would look different today. And
Speaker 2: that's a big part of the message that I hope
Speaker 2: that people are hearing here is like, let's start making
Speaker 2: decisions different so that we don't have to be the
Speaker 2: person that looks back and you know, day dreams about
Speaker 2: taking advantage of opportunities that have come by. That you
Speaker 2: have the financial capacity that you to go el coming,
Speaker 2: but you also have the financial capacity to walk away
Speaker 2: from steady income, start your own job, to to you know,
Speaker 2: be a real estate investor, all of those things. And
Speaker 2: most of those decisions tied directly back to how much
Speaker 2: of your income is going to pay that mortgage and so,
Speaker 2: and it's hard like today's world, this isn't a this
Speaker 2: isn't an easy solution. You know, I generally encourage people
Speaker 2: not to have any more than fifteen percent of their
Speaker 2: gross income going to cover their housing expenses. And this
Speaker 2: applies towards renting too. So you know, simple math, if
Speaker 2: you're making one hundred thousand dollars a year gross, fifteen
Speaker 2: percent is fifteen thousand, divide that by twelve, that's twelve
Speaker 2: fifty a month. Like you shouldn't be spending more than
Speaker 2: twelve to fifty a month, and that is your that
Speaker 2: is your target, that is your goal of where you
Speaker 2: want to be. It's an ideal, it's not doesn't always
Speaker 2: work out that way, but that's what you want to
Speaker 2: aim towards. Because when you get to that spot, all
Speaker 2: of this sudden You now have the capacity to not
Speaker 2: only take advantage of the match in your four oh
Speaker 2: one K, but now you can pay off that truck loan,
Speaker 2: you can get out a student loan debt, you can
Speaker 2: have a savings account, you can have an emergency fund,
Speaker 2: you can have mid term money, you can you have
Speaker 2: the financial opacity to be prepared to make decisions that
Speaker 2: lead to a different life than most. And I will
Speaker 2: tell you that is nice being in that position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I like you said, you know, I've I
Speaker 1: think we've all seen like that, that those opportunities come
Speaker 1: and go, and it's like like nowadays, I look back
Speaker 1: and like, man, remember back when houses were this much
Speaker 1: money and property was that much money, And man, if
Speaker 1: I could have afforded to buy that property and then
Speaker 1: you know, done something with it, you know, build storage
Speaker 1: sheds or sit on it for ten years and then
Speaker 1: and then dump it and make a whole bunch of money. Man,
Speaker 1: I could have made a lot of money. But but
Speaker 1: like you said, you know, when you're when you're when
Speaker 1: you're at that twenty five percent, thirty five percent whatever
Speaker 1: debt income on your on your home, sometimes you just
Speaker 1: do not have that luxury having that extra money to
Speaker 1: throw around. You're not able to save anything and put
Speaker 1: it away.
Speaker 2: So house rich, cash poor. Yeah, it's an awful spot
Speaker 2: to be there, really is.
Speaker 1: You get to enjoy a lot of nice steakhadations when
Speaker 1: you know a situation you went on vacation, you oh,
Speaker 1: we had a staycation. I mowed lawn and shovel dog
Speaker 1: crap out of the yard. It was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the other big one that I often see is, uh,
Speaker 2: and this sounds counterintuitive, but people being too aggressive and
Speaker 2: funding their retirement. You know, iras four o one case
Speaker 2: are good. We need those financial tools, but we really
Speaker 2: need to understand actually how those tools work. It's not
Speaker 2: just hey, the S and P has done X y
Speaker 2: Z for thirty years. You know, let's do a linear
Speaker 2: math equation. That is not the way investments work. And
Speaker 2: we need four oh one case. We need iras. Those
Speaker 2: are an important part of our overall financial profile. But
Speaker 2: good example, just talking to a client that we would
Speaker 2: all know right before this meeting, and you know, we're
Speaker 2: talking about how much is appropriate to put in this
Speaker 2: four oh one K and he's only contributing enough to
Speaker 2: receive the match, which is exactly what I recommend for
Speaker 2: the majority of people is contribute up to the match,
Speaker 2: get that free money. But any money beyond the match
Speaker 2: has to be money that you very carefully think about
Speaker 2: and make sure is this the best use of these dollars.
Speaker 2: Those dollars are essentially in that environment in the thirty years,
Speaker 2: however long it is that you have retirement and you
Speaker 2: know they're at risk or paying fees and taxes on
Speaker 2: those eventually somewhere along the way, they're kind of not
Speaker 2: part of your life until you're at least fifty nine
Speaker 2: and a half. And so if you want to have
Speaker 2: the financial capacity to do other things in life, anything
Speaker 2: beyond the match is money that you really need to
Speaker 2: think is this the best location to do this or
Speaker 2: should these dollars be part of my life today?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really good because in essence, you're basically taking
Speaker 1: those dollars out of play, you're taking them off the table,
Speaker 1: putting them in something you don't get to play with
Speaker 1: for a long time. Whereas back to those opportunities, if
Speaker 1: you're putting that extra money into some opportunity fund that
Speaker 1: may fund your next project. Let's say, Okay, now I'm
Speaker 1: able to become an entrepreneur if that's your dream or
Speaker 1: or whatever, to take advantage of this next next thing
Speaker 1: that comes along.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I love that. Absolutely, it makes sense, you know.
Speaker 2: And so and let me say this. You know, I
Speaker 2: have to read my disclosure at the end of this podcast,
Speaker 2: but you know, I'm a financial advisor. None of this advice,
Speaker 2: none of this stuff that I'm talking about should be
Speaker 2: listeners out there. You don't take this as financial advice.
Speaker 2: Financial advice needs to be given on an individual basis.
Speaker 2: These are just ideas, thoughts, things that I've seen that
Speaker 2: have had impacts for other people. Whether or not these
Speaker 2: are the right decisions for you, it's between you and
Speaker 2: your financial advisor or financial planner. But you know, just
Speaker 2: like medicine, you know, it's weird your people think of
Speaker 2: the medical world and they you know, they think of
Speaker 2: adults versus kids, Like you're not going to receive the
Speaker 2: same prescription. It may be the same drug, but the
Speaker 2: dosage looks different. Money is no different than that. The
Speaker 2: dosage here needs to be individually applied. And so if
Speaker 2: nothing else, I hope that you know, the listeners here
Speaker 2: are getting some ideas and thoughts, maybe a little bit
Speaker 2: of a different perspective than what they traditionally hear from
Speaker 2: this space, and so they maybe they questioned a little
Speaker 2: bit deeper and start looking at kind of what's going
Speaker 2: on in their own life and take some action so
Speaker 2: they can get some more of those non resident out
Speaker 2: of state text.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, heck, yeah, Well man, it's been good having
Speaker 1: me on the podcast and catching up with you. I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, we've got past the new year,
Speaker 1: the new year knew me thing, but I think it's
Speaker 1: still well, how many weeks are we into the year now?
Speaker 2: Three?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Like how many of us raise your hand if
Speaker 1: you already fell off your goals? Okay, we'll just get
Speaker 1: back on that horse and keep riding and dang it.
Speaker 1: But I thought it'd be a good time of year,
Speaker 1: you know. I think that's uh, finances and try and hunting,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out your your tags and stuff for
Speaker 1: the year. That's in everyone's mind right now. It's like,
Speaker 1: how the heck am I going to afford it? Maybe
Speaker 1: I can't afford it this year, but man, if I
Speaker 1: start now next year this time, I'll definitely build a
Speaker 1: afford that you know, must be nice hunt somewhere cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, start now, because five years from now you're
Speaker 2: gonna be happy. You did, you know? And and uh,
Speaker 2: your financial life impacts every aspect of your life. And
Speaker 2: so it's just as important as as exercise or nutrition
Speaker 2: or faith. This is this is an important part of
Speaker 2: your world. And and so start making the movement. Start
Speaker 2: with reps, even if there's not a lot of weight
Speaker 2: on the bar, and add weight as capacity increases.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talked to a lot of couples too, you know,
Speaker 1: relationships and and a common theme is what strains a
Speaker 1: couple's relations and ship is finances. Right, you know, there's
Speaker 1: always like some kind of a rift. There's things aren't
Speaker 1: going good in your finances. A lot of times things
Speaker 1: aren't going good with your marriage either, and it's really
Speaker 1: hard to get along and nobody wants that, dang it. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: we're just becoming life coaches in this episode.
Speaker 2: Oh man, No, it's uh, You're not wrong though, you
Speaker 2: know you want to want to talk about an expensive
Speaker 2: hobby and try divorce. That's at that's really you know,
Speaker 2: I have never made that mistake, and yeah and so
Speaker 2: and it happens. I mean, lets talk to a client
Speaker 2: yesterday that you know it's it's going to cost him
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of dollars to get divorced. And it's
Speaker 2: just it's heartbreaking. I'm a big fan of marriage and
Speaker 2: working things out. And you know, it's any anybody's been married.
Speaker 2: I think we've got eighteen years here of this fall
Speaker 2: and they know it's not all it's not all uh
Speaker 2: peaches and cream, it's it's all. So so it's the
Speaker 2: hardest adventure I've ever been on and and the most rewarding.
Speaker 2: And yes, your finances have an impact on that, and
Speaker 2: so take it serious.
Speaker 1: In the words of the Tiger King, you may never
Speaker 1: financially recover from it. Big fan. I'm waiting for Tiger
Speaker 1: King two to come out. I wonder if Trump's gonna
Speaker 1: like pardon him and get him out of there and
Speaker 1: then we can get part two of Tiger King.
Speaker 5: Oh mans right here on the podcast. Oh boy, Well
Speaker 5: thanks again, Jeff, you need any closing thoughts or you
Speaker 5: said you have to read your disclaimer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've got a disclosure all ready, but I'll
Speaker 2: just I'll just say I hope that I hope people
Speaker 2: are encouraged from this. It is absolutely possible to go
Speaker 2: out there and be going on this level of hunts.
Speaker 2: You know, there's there's lots of resources out there for
Speaker 2: people to learn about the points system, and you know
Speaker 2: what it costs to go on these hunts, all of that,
Speaker 2: but start today, like you're not going to get there
Speaker 2: if you don't start today with at least the movement.
Speaker 2: And as far as disclosures go, Investment advisory services are
Speaker 2: offered through co HO. I am a representative of Coho
Speaker 2: Advisory Services. Nothing I've given into this podcast is considered
Speaker 2: investment advice. This is solely for informational purposes. Please talk
Speaker 2: to your advisor about anything that I've talked about here today.
Speaker 1: Awesome, awesome, Well, good luck this next fall. And I
Speaker 1: hope your your son's football team carries on the winning streak.
Speaker 1: I know Sandpoint's got a strong football program all the
Speaker 1: way through high school, so good job.
Speaker 2: It's impressive. It's a great community. We love it, blessed
Speaker 2: to be here for sure.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll catch you up again later Thanks
Speaker 5: Derek, Thanks no