February 24, 2022 • 13 mins
Olympic Gold Medalist Rai Benjamin talks about friends who've encouraged him to thrive as an athlete and how his SEP IRA builds generational wealth.
Host: @itstanyatime
Guest: @kingben
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Pay money Movers, Welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenlands. Our
(00:23):
celebrity guest this week is an American professional hurdler and
sprinter specializing in the four hundred meter and the four
hundred meter hurdles. I am honored and super excited to
welcome to the Money Moves Podcast one of the fastest
men Alive, Team USA's own Olympian Rye Benjamin hi Ry
Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank you
(00:45):
for having you. You talked about you know in the
falls where the money is made. Do you correlate this
to making deals that can actually translate into money or
you know, cultivating your skills and talents as a hurdler
the way sometimes I look at it, it's like a
business transaction. You know, you put in all this work.
You you know, you do all these stuff, you get
(01:07):
get all these evaluations, look at numbers, have have your
litigation team go over things, and it's like the same
as me going to practice in the fall and putting
in all this work and at the end of the day,
I'm doing all this to go run probably forty five
seconds on the track. And all it takes for you
to do is to make one decision either to sell
(01:29):
your business or not to sell your business, or you know,
make a decision that's going to benefit your employees or
you know, benefit the business as a whole. So it's
you know, you're you're doing all these things to prepare
yourself and and and to set yourself up for success,
and that all it, all it took was just that
(01:50):
one moment. It probably won't be even thirty seconds, you know,
and and it'll it'll change your life. So that's literally
how I kind of currentate thinks sometimes, how do you
also handled not letting those pressures get you down, because
a lot of this is mental focus mental acuity in
addition to like physical prowess, So how do you sort
of approach the mental mindset as well. Honestly, pressure is
(02:14):
a privilege to me. Um, Oh, I love that pressure
is a privilege. It is it is. I think it
It drives me to be better, um and like it
just brings the best out in me. I think I
performed very well on the pressure. I've realized that too,
not only in tracted in school, Like I have to
(02:35):
write a paper, like and it's like doing two days
or doing a day, and I'm caught and I'm caught
up doing other things. I will crank that paper out
in about two hours and it will be a really
good paper. And it's just the shift fact that I
know that it's due tomorrow and I have to get
it done and get it done right. And I think
(02:57):
that like pushes me to actually do it. But um,
that was just me in college, but even now, more
so on this stage as a professional athlete, it's just
being in that moment and and and knowing that I
have I don't necessarily think about it. It's more of
a in the moment type of thing where you're competing
(03:19):
and you're trying to be the best, and it's it's
the pressure of knowing like, hey, like I have to
win this race, and you know it. Sometimes sometimes you
don't win the race, but in that moment, it's like
you're driving yourself to greatness. And I think that's what
has happened to me these past few years, where I'm
just trying to be just you know, perfect and trying
(03:43):
to actually put my best out there, and you know
i've once so I didn't. But at the same time,
it took a lot to beat me. And um, you know,
we ran a very very historic race at the Olympics,
probably the best race throughout the Olympic Games. So I
mean it's that type of excellence that's kind of required here.
(04:05):
Oh my gosh, that's beautiful, Like that is really going
to stay with me. I hear a lot of incredible
things on this podcast, but pressure is a privilege that
really resonates because it it definitely helps you shift your mindset.
You know, if some people are crippled by it, but
if you can look like as a privilege, that will,
you know, push you to excellence. That is really really interesting. Yeah.
(04:26):
I like you. Thank you. I like that. Thank you
for sharing. Thank you. Yeah. So is there anywhere your
mind tends to go when you're running, both in training
and in the actual competitive setting. So in training, I'm
just sometimes the days are just so hard. I'm just
like why am I doing this? Literally? Like what like it?
(04:48):
It hurts to do what we do, and especially in
my event, it's a lot of pain. It's not really
quick like the hundred and the two hundred. But it's
a lot of like lack take acid, like your your
legs burn your chest burns, and it's just you get
to a place mentally where you just have to keep
(05:09):
pushing yourself and saying like, all right, this is worth it,
this is what I have to do. Um. But some
days it's just so hard. It's just like I could
really like be sitting down right now not doing anything,
and I I'm here out here putting my body, taxing
my body and putting it through all this stress for
what reason, and for the very reason of making this
(05:32):
team right here and and and and winning medals and
stuff like that. But um, but then when I'm in there,
when I'm in the race, it's just like, all right,
I've prepared. I know, I've done the work. Those days
where I was questioning myself like this is what it's
all for, this is why I Um, I'm doing this.
And I set goals for myself to during the season, um,
(05:56):
even if it's like on the track, goals off the track,
goals like you know, things that I want to achieve,
and I just remember those things while I'm at practice.
I'm just like, all right, just when I'm doing this.
So I'm doing You just gotta keep going. And I'm
grateful as well to have teammates as well to push
me as well to reach you those goals and and
(06:16):
and achieve that, you know, everything that I set forward
for myself. Yeah, that's that's incredible and I'm glad for
you know, even just the mention of like teammates, who
are your friends circle or most of your friends athletes
are like where do you go? You talked about jet
skiing to kick back? Yeah, our athletes. Uh. I think
(06:37):
it's just because of the lifestyle that I live. Um surprisingly,
I've met like probably ten new people in the last
week and a half just outside of track and it's
been great, and it's just so refreshing because once you're
in season, you're locked down, and uh, it's you're around
(07:00):
the same amount of people every single day for almost
like more than half the year. So those are the
people are usually hang out with. Most of my friends
are athletes post track at mean, extract athletes. Um so,
I mean those are the those are the people I
really really hang out with the most. So one of
the things we love to talk about on the Money
(07:21):
Moves podcast is also this idea of building generational wealth
and sort of breaking some of the change that perhaps
in the black community I had. And I feel like
you've got a great head on your shoulders in terms
of how you look at your financial choices and building wealth. Um,
where did you get that from? Was it your parents? Books?
Like what really instilled this sort of grounded nous and
(07:45):
approach to um money moves? I would say as my parents,
UM definitely instilled a lot in me. My dad was
a professional athlete as well too, you played cricket, but
and my mom is like extremely intelligent. Um, the rest
of my family have done, you know, very well for themselves.
And uh, it's just one of those things where I
(08:07):
was lucky enough to be surrounded by people like that
and not necessarily listening to everything you see on the internet,
because a lot of people try to stay you the
wrong way and tell you to do this and do that,
and that's just not necessarily the case. But I mean
I've I've gotten that from them. And in terms of
(08:29):
building you know, generational what people tell you by property, um,
invest in the stock market, but like what does that
even look like? Like, Like do you know how time
consuming it is to invest in a property. Now you
have to are you gonna tend to the property yourself?
Are you gonna get a property manager? And now that's
(08:51):
are you gonna have tenants? You're gonna have tenants? Yeah,
that's that's a that's a huge deal. It's it's it's
a big thing. And and you're not gonna have eight
or ten good tenants, like I tell you them are
going to be terrible, you know, and and things are
gonna break and you don't have to fix things, and
where you you will be getting passive income. But I mean,
(09:12):
like how much of that money, you know, do you
think you're going to actually be making? And then you
have to think about like it's a whole lot. So
I mean, it's it's it's it's you talking to either
you have a financial advisor, which is like very important
as well too, or you know you have someone who's
(09:33):
who's been there and who's uh, who knows what it
takes to you know, continue that success for years. So
like something that I did when I first you know,
signed in, when I you know, got an LLC and
all that stuff is I created an S S C
P I R A. So I put it max amount, yeah,
every single every single year. And what I do is
(09:56):
I diversify that portfolio into different stocks as well too,
in order to you know, boost the amount of money
that I can make through that as well too, because
it's it's it's not taxable right now, but in about
whenever I'm ready to retire, and that money, that that
money that you're putting in yearly, it's it's gonna grow exponentially.
(10:16):
So it's stuff like that that I do. Um, you
know something, you know, I don't necessarily dabble too much
besides that in the stock market or by property or
stuff like that, because and all honesty, I'm not familiar
with it and I have no passion for it whatsoever.
So just don't do things because everyone's doing it and
(10:38):
it works out for this person, Like do your research.
If you're passionate about real estate, do real state, if
you're passionate about stocks and bonds, do that type of stuff.
Or you know, four X is kind of like taken
over the right now in honesty, and I don't even
know what that's about. That just looks like a whole
like a little mess of a show there. But I
(10:59):
don't even then again I can't really say, but I
mean it's stuff like that that I do, and I
do what it's comfortable for me and what makes sense
for me. Wow. I love that and like, pardon the punt,
it's like you stay in your lane, but you know
what we're talking about. And I think that's that's really
great to see athletes that are exploring, like, hey, I'm
(11:20):
looking forward to future for I ra s and savings
and can I see your metals? So there's a silver
from the hurdles. How heavy is it? It's extremely heavy,
Like honestly, like if I hit someone with this, I
just I just don't know if they'd survive. Like it's
(11:41):
that heavy. It's so beautiful right here, and then it's
like inscribed under here, so Athletics men's foreign hurdles on
this one. And this is the gold from the four
by four. Wow, the same thing the Tokyo design and
the traditional Olympic be a design on the back. And
(12:04):
this is also inscribed as well to you. And if
that is not testimony to some hard work, my friend, yeah,
yes it is. So do you just like trin them
on and drive around in your car? Now? You said
what you just put them on and drive around in
your car. Honestly I should, huh, but no, I kind
of my whole thing is I I I put them
(12:25):
up so I have a Nike gives you like this
box when you signed with them for your medals, and
I put them in there. I just don't look at
them and I pretend like I don't have them, so
that I could go get some more love that love that.
Let's take that home, quick memory of it. But yeah, yeah,
these are the medals right here. But they're they're they're
(12:46):
so heavy. Like I man, when I first got him,
I was like, wow, this is crazy. But there may
actually made out of recycled electronics. But it's just the weight,
it's just it's insane. It's insane. Wow. All right, right, Well,
thank you for sharing. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you so
(13:06):
much for tuning in. Money Moves audience. If you want
more or a recap of this episode, please go to
the bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an I heart radio
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on iHeart radio, visit the I heart
(13:29):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from,
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Pay money Movers, Welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenlands. Our
(00:23):
celebrity guest this week is an American professional hurdler and
sprinter specializing in the four hundred meter and the four
hundred meter hurdles. I am honored and super excited to
welcome to the Money Moves Podcast one of the fastest
men Alive, Team USA's own Olympian Rye Benjamin hi Ry
Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank you
(00:45):
for having you. You talked about you know in the
falls where the money is made. Do you correlate this
to making deals that can actually translate into money or
you know, cultivating your skills and talents as a hurdler
the way sometimes I look at it, it's like a
business transaction. You know, you put in all this work.
You you know, you do all these stuff, you get
(01:07):
get all these evaluations, look at numbers, have have your
litigation team go over things, and it's like the same
as me going to practice in the fall and putting
in all this work and at the end of the day,
I'm doing all this to go run probably forty five
seconds on the track. And all it takes for you
to do is to make one decision either to sell
(01:29):
your business or not to sell your business, or you know,
make a decision that's going to benefit your employees or
you know, benefit the business as a whole. So it's
you know, you're you're doing all these things to prepare
yourself and and and to set yourself up for success,
and that all it, all it took was just that
(01:50):
one moment. It probably won't be even thirty seconds, you know,
and and it'll it'll change your life. So that's literally
how I kind of currentate thinks sometimes, how do you
also handled not letting those pressures get you down, because
a lot of this is mental focus mental acuity in
addition to like physical prowess, So how do you sort
of approach the mental mindset as well. Honestly, pressure is
(02:14):
a privilege to me. Um, Oh, I love that pressure
is a privilege. It is it is. I think it
It drives me to be better, um and like it
just brings the best out in me. I think I
performed very well on the pressure. I've realized that too,
not only in tracted in school, Like I have to
(02:35):
write a paper, like and it's like doing two days
or doing a day, and I'm caught and I'm caught
up doing other things. I will crank that paper out
in about two hours and it will be a really
good paper. And it's just the shift fact that I
know that it's due tomorrow and I have to get
it done and get it done right. And I think
(02:57):
that like pushes me to actually do it. But um,
that was just me in college, but even now, more
so on this stage as a professional athlete, it's just
being in that moment and and and knowing that I
have I don't necessarily think about it. It's more of
a in the moment type of thing where you're competing
(03:19):
and you're trying to be the best, and it's it's
the pressure of knowing like, hey, like I have to
win this race, and you know it. Sometimes sometimes you
don't win the race, but in that moment, it's like
you're driving yourself to greatness. And I think that's what
has happened to me these past few years, where I'm
just trying to be just you know, perfect and trying
(03:43):
to actually put my best out there, and you know
i've once so I didn't. But at the same time,
it took a lot to beat me. And um, you know,
we ran a very very historic race at the Olympics,
probably the best race throughout the Olympic Games. So I
mean it's that type of excellence that's kind of required here.
(04:05):
Oh my gosh, that's beautiful, Like that is really going
to stay with me. I hear a lot of incredible
things on this podcast, but pressure is a privilege that
really resonates because it it definitely helps you shift your mindset.
You know, if some people are crippled by it, but
if you can look like as a privilege, that will,
you know, push you to excellence. That is really really interesting. Yeah.
(04:26):
I like you. Thank you. I like that. Thank you
for sharing. Thank you. Yeah. So is there anywhere your
mind tends to go when you're running, both in training
and in the actual competitive setting. So in training, I'm
just sometimes the days are just so hard. I'm just
like why am I doing this? Literally? Like what like it?
(04:48):
It hurts to do what we do, and especially in
my event, it's a lot of pain. It's not really
quick like the hundred and the two hundred. But it's
a lot of like lack take acid, like your your
legs burn your chest burns, and it's just you get
to a place mentally where you just have to keep
(05:09):
pushing yourself and saying like, all right, this is worth it,
this is what I have to do. Um. But some
days it's just so hard. It's just like I could
really like be sitting down right now not doing anything,
and I I'm here out here putting my body, taxing
my body and putting it through all this stress for
what reason, and for the very reason of making this
(05:32):
team right here and and and and winning medals and
stuff like that. But um, but then when I'm in there,
when I'm in the race, it's just like, all right,
I've prepared. I know, I've done the work. Those days
where I was questioning myself like this is what it's
all for, this is why I Um, I'm doing this.
And I set goals for myself to during the season, um,
(05:56):
even if it's like on the track, goals off the track,
goals like you know, things that I want to achieve,
and I just remember those things while I'm at practice.
I'm just like, all right, just when I'm doing this.
So I'm doing You just gotta keep going. And I'm
grateful as well to have teammates as well to push
me as well to reach you those goals and and
(06:16):
and achieve that, you know, everything that I set forward
for myself. Yeah, that's that's incredible and I'm glad for
you know, even just the mention of like teammates, who
are your friends circle or most of your friends athletes
are like where do you go? You talked about jet
skiing to kick back? Yeah, our athletes. Uh. I think
(06:37):
it's just because of the lifestyle that I live. Um surprisingly,
I've met like probably ten new people in the last
week and a half just outside of track and it's
been great, and it's just so refreshing because once you're
in season, you're locked down, and uh, it's you're around
(07:00):
the same amount of people every single day for almost
like more than half the year. So those are the
people are usually hang out with. Most of my friends
are athletes post track at mean, extract athletes. Um so,
I mean those are the those are the people I
really really hang out with the most. So one of
the things we love to talk about on the Money
(07:21):
Moves podcast is also this idea of building generational wealth
and sort of breaking some of the change that perhaps
in the black community I had. And I feel like
you've got a great head on your shoulders in terms
of how you look at your financial choices and building wealth. Um,
where did you get that from? Was it your parents? Books?
Like what really instilled this sort of grounded nous and
(07:45):
approach to um money moves? I would say as my parents,
UM definitely instilled a lot in me. My dad was
a professional athlete as well too, you played cricket, but
and my mom is like extremely intelligent. Um, the rest
of my family have done, you know, very well for themselves.
And uh, it's just one of those things where I
(08:07):
was lucky enough to be surrounded by people like that
and not necessarily listening to everything you see on the internet,
because a lot of people try to stay you the
wrong way and tell you to do this and do that,
and that's just not necessarily the case. But I mean
I've I've gotten that from them. And in terms of
(08:29):
building you know, generational what people tell you by property, um,
invest in the stock market, but like what does that
even look like? Like, Like do you know how time
consuming it is to invest in a property. Now you
have to are you gonna tend to the property yourself?
Are you gonna get a property manager? And now that's
(08:51):
are you gonna have tenants? You're gonna have tenants? Yeah,
that's that's a that's a huge deal. It's it's it's
a big thing. And and you're not gonna have eight
or ten good tenants, like I tell you them are
going to be terrible, you know, and and things are
gonna break and you don't have to fix things, and
where you you will be getting passive income. But I mean,
(09:12):
like how much of that money, you know, do you
think you're going to actually be making? And then you
have to think about like it's a whole lot. So
I mean, it's it's it's it's you talking to either
you have a financial advisor, which is like very important
as well too, or you know you have someone who's
(09:33):
who's been there and who's uh, who knows what it
takes to you know, continue that success for years. So
like something that I did when I first you know,
signed in, when I you know, got an LLC and
all that stuff is I created an S S C
P I R A. So I put it max amount, yeah,
every single every single year. And what I do is
(09:56):
I diversify that portfolio into different stocks as well too,
in order to you know, boost the amount of money
that I can make through that as well too, because
it's it's it's not taxable right now, but in about
whenever I'm ready to retire, and that money, that that
money that you're putting in yearly, it's it's gonna grow exponentially.
(10:16):
So it's stuff like that that I do. Um, you
know something, you know, I don't necessarily dabble too much
besides that in the stock market or by property or
stuff like that, because and all honesty, I'm not familiar
with it and I have no passion for it whatsoever.
So just don't do things because everyone's doing it and
(10:38):
it works out for this person, Like do your research.
If you're passionate about real estate, do real state, if
you're passionate about stocks and bonds, do that type of stuff.
Or you know, four X is kind of like taken
over the right now in honesty, and I don't even
know what that's about. That just looks like a whole
like a little mess of a show there. But I
(10:59):
don't even then again I can't really say, but I
mean it's stuff like that that I do, and I
do what it's comfortable for me and what makes sense
for me. Wow. I love that and like, pardon the punt,
it's like you stay in your lane, but you know
what we're talking about. And I think that's that's really
great to see athletes that are exploring, like, hey, I'm
(11:20):
looking forward to future for I ra s and savings
and can I see your metals? So there's a silver
from the hurdles. How heavy is it? It's extremely heavy,
Like honestly, like if I hit someone with this, I
just I just don't know if they'd survive. Like it's
(11:41):
that heavy. It's so beautiful right here, and then it's
like inscribed under here, so Athletics men's foreign hurdles on
this one. And this is the gold from the four
by four. Wow, the same thing the Tokyo design and
the traditional Olympic be a design on the back. And
(12:04):
this is also inscribed as well to you. And if
that is not testimony to some hard work, my friend, yeah,
yes it is. So do you just like trin them
on and drive around in your car? Now? You said
what you just put them on and drive around in
your car. Honestly I should, huh, but no, I kind
of my whole thing is I I I put them
(12:25):
up so I have a Nike gives you like this
box when you signed with them for your medals, and
I put them in there. I just don't look at
them and I pretend like I don't have them, so
that I could go get some more love that love that.
Let's take that home, quick memory of it. But yeah, yeah,
these are the medals right here. But they're they're they're
(12:46):
so heavy. Like I man, when I first got him,
I was like, wow, this is crazy. But there may
actually made out of recycled electronics. But it's just the weight,
it's just it's insane. It's insane. Wow. All right, right, Well,
thank you for sharing. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you so
(13:06):
much for tuning in. Money Moves audience. If you want
more or a recap of this episode, please go to
the bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an I heart radio
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on iHeart radio, visit the I heart
(13:29):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from,
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