292: [William Young] Navigating the Waves of Financial and Mental Resilience

Episode Transcript
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>> Anthony Weaver (00:00):
This episode is sponsored by William R. Young.

>> William R. Young (00:03):
Well, when you have it, this is a
very challenging, uh, question, and
it's an excellent question asked. We all. I, I don't
know what the numbers were. It was like there's a large percentage of
people, I don't know if it's 5 or 10% that are
battling depression at any one time and then maybe 20.
Again, don't quote me on those numbers. I'm just saying it's

(00:24):
like 20 or 30 of people are always struggling mentally with
something and when, when you, you're poor or
you're having, you're always in a
recession.

Welcome everybody back to another exciting show, the about
that Water podcast, where we help the Sam's generation
build strong financial habits so that they can spend
money, talk about money, and enjoy their money
with confidence. And today I have an awesome person
who loves the wave, love to
actually pour in the people and actually help

(00:56):
them thrive in their financial
lifestyle. And his name is Will,
who is a cfp, APMA at,
uh, Liberty Wealth Management,
um, of the Amer Prize Financial
Services llc. So how you doing today, sir?

Great. I'm, um, phenomenal. I know it's
a weird day to say that,
but I, I feel phenomenal. I
mean, really the best mental strength
and health, so to speak, and financially, emotionally
and mentally need all of that to be healthy in
physically. Uh, so I thank you for
asking. I know it's a lot of trauma though, in the market

(01:36):
right now.

That is true. And one of the things that kind of
keep in mind is that putting, ah, a smile on your face is
optional. Uh, because that's one of the things
that a lot of people tend to forget that, you know,
happiness is a choice. And how do
we deal with that? And.
Well, because you focus on the waves of the, the market
and also the waves of our emotion. What are the,

(01:59):
one of the ways that people can kind of stay a little
level when things become
turmoil under them.

Uh, I can tell you what really led me on
this journey to figure out, like, how can
I have the emotional stability?
You're well aware there's a million pieces of information
coming at you at one time and it's
overwhelming. But that's always been the
case. It was just different ways in the
past. And I

(02:30):
decided that I was going to get up in the morning and
instead of just going right to the gym, I was
going to dedicate 40 minutes of walking
and then do listen to
four different audiobooks, 10 minutes a piece. I walk to the
dogs and, and I
devote meditations to

(02:50):
things outside of my normal daily stuff and
feed my mind with
this information. And if it was good
information, I would then,
um, add it to a collection of
notes and then meditate on those so that I could improve.
And I actually found something called brain
pickings. She's been writing a long time, Maria

(03:12):
Popov or Popova,
and she led me to Tim
Ferriss who then. And I know this is long, but
it's very important. She, he, he made a audio book
of all of Senica's writings and stoicism. And I just
started listening and they resonated with me.
It was like. And they talked about

(03:33):
people back then There was over 300
coliseums in ancient Rome. People always think
of one. But there was over 300. They used that
to keep citizens distracted. And Senica
was walking back and he goes, this is
distractions that keeps people from really getting to know
themselves. So I dedicated
this time to study myself and learn to block

(03:56):
things out. You must block
things out to work on yourself. And that's really
what started with my personal growth about
17, uh, years ago, roughly. And
it's been every single day that that little
chunk of time allows me to say, I'm not going to listen to
this. I've gotten my fill of information today, I'll

(04:16):
wait till tomorrow.

So what happened 17 years ago where that caused you
to start looking at life a little differently?

I'm on the spectrum. And
one, uh, of the problems when you're on it is if someone says
something that isn't true and you're just
a hundred percent logic, you can't read them
right. You're like that, that doesn't make any
sense. But that can be very
confrontational, which is a problem.

(04:46):
And I was like, why would someone tell me
butter is made of peanut butter? Like it just
to, to me that's how I saw it. Like
that's be when someone says something
to you directly and it's in the market related, you
have all these biases and
I couldn't understand it. So I said, I need to

(05:07):
figure out one, how to have mental fitness,
mental stability. Stoicism resonated with me. I
found it purely on luck through Tim
Ferriss. And you know, I learned there's three parts to
it. And the first part is Virtue, Excellence and the
dichotomy of control. Now you
hear lots of books since then, such as Victor Frankl
wrote about it and you said it right at the beginning. I appreciate

(05:29):
that you control your attitude and smile.
Keep saying it, keep saying it, keep saying and that's
essentially said, control what you can control and then
don't allow things outside your force
to upset you. Yes. You can be concerned.
Yes. And so once I dedicated that 40
minutes in the morning because it's peaceful. So I get

(05:49):
up at four and. And when.
When I'm walking, I do it even when it's cold, even when it's raining.
The dogs. I have rain jackets for the dogs. They look great.
They're very fashionable. Um, I got
the North Face dog, or dog face, it's called.
So, you know, we get out there, we. And we walk.
It's solitude. There's nothing out there. It's dark,

(06:10):
it's quiet. Everyone needs time to
themselves, whether you're a mother, father,
or you're busy, you're dedicating to
improving the mind, which is a gymnasium.
That must be worked out. And once you do
that, and I just. They just start getting
into the marrow of your bones. You

(06:30):
change. And that's essentially what happened. It took
time because I would read it over and over again. And,
um. And I'm not smart. I'm just disciplined.
And I think discipline is more important
than talent. Because
you've never heard someone say,
well, that, uh, let me say
this correct. You've always heard people say that he's talented, but he didn't.

(06:53):
He didn't accomplish what he should have. But when you said, somebody's
determined, they
accomplish what they want. So determination
and discipline are more important than talent.

And one of the things that I come across a lot,
uh, a lot of people say, like, certain people are lucky
to get to where they are. And I was thinking,
actually, I heard somebody talk about this on another podcast, was
saying, is that people, their success
is chosen by somebody else,
meaning there's somebody who always is better

(07:25):
than you in these different aspects so that they
can run faster, they can read faster, they
understand math faster, or
whatever it is. But
it had to be somebody on the opposite end
that had the opportunity to say,
I want you to be

(07:45):
on my team, or I want you to
succeed. I want to give you this amount of money
to reach your goal. Um,
and it kind of creeps in that imposter
syndrome of why me
in their finances or in their
life? And how do they kind
of navigate that mindset of

(08:08):
that, like, it's okay to be
chosen out, um, of the rest?

Well, I think
your question about chosen, there's multiple layers to that.
The first part is you have to figure out what is your
personal goals. A lot of times we wake up in
the morning and we go to work. But, but we haven't written down
what our goals are. What do we want to accomplish?
That is very important. And I know the
younger version of me is now dead in, in the morgue,

(08:38):
so to speak, but I write my goals down. It's so
important to write, to journal, even
if it's a little bit like, I got up struggle
today, I cheated on my diet. I didn't want to do
that because you, because we're all human
and putting out your failures are just part
of helping you attain your goals. But
you have to write your goals and figure, like,

(09:01):
where do I want to be? And it's really hard to
do in your 20s because you're like having
fun. You know, you have all this energy and you're
not necessarily married with kids yet. That's.
But you know, you know, we all remember, um, that in our 20s
it was very easy. You wake up, you're not tired, you went out the
night before, you get up, you know, you're like, what are we doing tonight?

(09:21):
You're, uh, always running around, you know. But as
you, but when I start to talk to people and when I meet people,
regardless if they're working with me
or not, I said, we, let's figure out your goals.
You and you write a plan. And a lot of people like, I'm too
young to work. I'm like, we need to figure out, is it a home
in two years you need, do you, you know, do you need

(09:42):
a car? And people are like, I've always wanted this. And like, maybe
that's something. Let's get, let's get your needs
done first and figure out your wants and
then your dreams. So if you break things
down like that, my, my
dream is I want to, I want to be
surfing and have a place in, in say, Costa

(10:02):
Rica and work from there a lot
because I enjoy floating in the water. And when you're in
the water, there's a peace. So I know what my goals
are. And, and it's really
tranquility in a world that seems so. And
I tell clients that and I share mine. I think important when we're
having this conversation, you share your goals

(10:22):
and you ask what others are seeking.
And really when they know what you're trying to do,
you get a real sync up with somebody
because they're like, oh, okay. And I think that's where comfort
comes in. So. But initially it starts on your
own and writing down your goals.
And then once you write down your goals, you

(10:42):
want to work with an advisor who does financial
planning 100%. And I
think it's going to be more important than ever because the news
is just too overwhelming. And.
And I had a lot of conversations yesterday
and Thursday, but I had planned for this. So I
had been effectively forecasting them for their

(11:02):
goals. Like, there's going to be things. These are going to be our
goals. And I think clients like to know
that I know their goals. But then also we can see that they wrote
them down. And we're like, hey, we're in line. We're in line.
We're a little ahead of where we expected. And we're
just. So there's. There's multiple layers to.
To the goal setting. But I set goals

(11:23):
not just in the year, but when they come to me. And
when I'm walking, which is what you kind of. I'm, um,
sometimes thinking, and I've had an idea in my head, and I'm like,
oh, and then you can write it down on your phone. And now you.
You have a goal. So you write down those goals. Everybody, when
they come to you, you can always
change what your goal is at any
time.

So it goes back to controlling the controllables, right?

Yes, correct.

Um, and we. Because we were talking down
before, when the market is down, you had a goal of to make
a hundred thousand. Now that the market is down, you're like, you have
a goal of 200,000. You want to lean into that a little bit more.

Yeah. So that I, you know, I try to have a little humor.
There's some funny things on Twitter or other places, and
there's a fake account called Not Jerome Pow.
And it's pretty funny. And
it goes. My goal was to make a hundred thousand. Now it's
200,000 for years. Because you
have people that are trying to chase
something and they try to make money too fast.

(12:24):
We've Human nature, and this is why
stoicism, or going back to Seneca or Marcus
Aurelius or Xeno or
Cleantheses. Everybody's always
tried to make a quick buck. It's human nature to do
that. Um, maybe it took a little longer than.
But they wanted it quicker than everybody else.
That's. That's how we've always been wired. And there's

(12:45):
some really great stories. In the late 1800s in the
US they had Bucke shops, which were
fake New York Stock
Exchange trading places where you could literally gamble and
stuff. So there's all kinds of. We've always done it, and
it was just a tape ticker coming out and Stuff like that.
And they did it over the uh, Western Union
wire. So people were always trying to make a quick

(13:07):
buck but you can't
successfully over time do that. You can
kind of get lucky. But with investors I try to
share what is our goal
and then if we get an opportunity, and this
is where I talk about strategic investing,
I tell them, let's be patient.
There's going to be events that happen so we

(13:30):
always have some cash. So right now, even if
you are my most aggressive person, I have you in
30% cash which looks, I know
it looks brilliant right now and that's why I'm not
stressed. But
there are going to be opportunities because I told them earning
seasons coming, Walmart might say something funny.
Google. And I'm not recommending, I'm just saying Apple might say

(13:53):
something.
And Apple drops 20%. There's always these things that are
coming up and again there are so
many unknown unknowns ahead that your
attitude is like, I'm gonna work with somebody, I'm
gonna find somebody, I'm gonna be patient and wait. And
that patience boils down to stoicism
or some type of philosophy where it's going

(14:13):
to come. And I, I told my father, dad, I'm
excited, there's going to be things coming.
And I tell my clients and they hear my attitude and they're like,
why are you so positive? I said, because we have this money setting.
I'm not going to sell Amazon. A ah, year from now Amazon's
going to be okay, I'm pretty sure. And I'm pretty sure
Walmart will be in business. And I'm pretty sure

(14:34):
about certain things. But
having the right attitude and knowing I got some money and
I'm not leveraged means that people can go
into this thinking, I know I'm down, my
portfolio doesn't look good, but we're going to look at
things because all year long there's going to, we don't know what's going to
happen, but we know there's going to be some crazy. I know there's going
to be some craziness and I think they feel really good about that

(14:57):
because we have a plan. And
you know, I, I haven't been, I'm um,
not positive on people running things, but I
know I'm um, positive on there will
be positives ahead to look forward to. The
mentality of that is very important.

So you mentioned the mental side of the house.
Um, especially in the time of need right now
far as people just kind of, they, they need answers, they trying to look for
a way forward. Would you recommend
therapy first before seeing a c. Uh, a
CPA or a CFP such as yourself?

Well, when you have.
Ah, it. This is a very challenging
question, and it's an excellent question asked.
We all. I. I don't know what the numbers were. It was
like, there's a large percentage of people,
I don't know if it's 5 or 10% that are battling
depression at any one time, and then maybe 20.

(15:52):
Again, don't quote me on those numbers. I'm just saying it's
like 20 or 30% of people are always struggling mentally with
something. And when. When you. You're
poor or you're having financial problems, you're always in
a recession, and that weighs on you too.
I don't. I can't necessarily
tell someone what they need, but I have went through

(16:13):
therapy, and I am now in something
called the Social Edge by Blake Eastman, that
we're going through human emotions and
behaviors that I'm always in. I'm always getting coached
myself, even if I'm a coach across the board,
because I need to get
motivation and see things, and if I'm wrong, I need to be

(16:34):
told and held accountable. So I'm doing that type of
stuff as well. So I would
say you could use a therapist. You. You might have
some type of coach. It doesn't mean the coach you find is
good, but try to. To get things
outside of your normal peripheral.
Because the mistake we often make is we're just

(16:54):
connecting with people in our little social circle.
Go outside of that safety zone and
find somebody, whether it's. And talk
to them, and then figure out if they're working, because you'll start to
uncover and unpack all those things. I don't know if that's
a licensed therapist, which it may be, or it might be a great
coach, but that's how you develop the inner
citadel, by figuring out who you are,

(17:17):
and that is powerful. So, yeah, I
definitely recommend going across and talking
to different people. Coaches and
I cast a wide net. I wound up talking to, like, 12
or 13 different people, and then I found two that
I liked. And because
you're. My personality can be

(17:37):
quiet or it can be very boisterous. It just
depends on the person I'm interacting
with, so to speak. And.

Yeah, I was. Sorry.

No, no, no, please. That's a great question. Wow.

Yeah, because I'm thinking of, um, again,
we mentioning finding your peace.
Uh, and I think a lot of the times we forget
that plants grow the fastest when it's the most
quietest. And when you got all the noise
and if you ever notice when there's a lot of foot
traffic on grass, the grass doesn't
grow in there because the environment is too

(18:12):
volatile for it to even thrive. So when it's left
alone and it's quiet, they can do that
thing. And usually everybody was like, man, you growing
like a weed. But when you think about it, the
weeds only grow when you're not looking. Every
time you look at it, just look like it's there, but
it's just a moment in time. As soon as that sun goes down, it's

(18:33):
sprouting up again. So it's going back to like how
you said that reset. That's necessary that we all have
to have. Um, and finding that quiet in the
noise. And you said like 4:00 in the
morning. I'm trying at 4.

Yeah. Now,
what you said. And I love the garden metaphor, the plant
metaphor. You need darkness for the plants
to grow. Yes. They need light during the day for
photosynthesis, but any great garden
also needs you to go in and pick out the weeds.
So that's why you need to be inside your head

(19:07):
if you want to have a wonderful garden. You got to go and you got to
water that, and that is going and getting the knowledge in
and then the knowledge to pull out the weeds and the bad
habits. That. The garden metaphor is perfect
because. And then you go through seasons of change.
They. Some bloom at certain times. And
that's why you need to be inside your head and pick out the

(19:28):
weeds. And you. You need your
sleep. That is, the plants can't grow if it's
just sunlight all day. They need. They need. And that's
essentially the cycle of sleep. Well, and
if, you know. And so there's a lot of pieces to that, but
I. I love the way you use that.
You need quiet time so you can grow. Plants can't grow

(19:48):
if they're walked on all day.

I got plenty of plant metaphors there.

Okay, good. No, it's true. Because we're very
much like that, you know, and we're at our best at certain
times and, you know, certain times,
you know, in the morning, the sunlight might be better for
certain plants. And whatever the case, it, um,
or certain temperatures. But I. I like palm trees.
I have a ton of palm trees in my house. And they like warm

(20:13):
weather and I do too. I
don't like this cold, we weather, so. Yeah. Right.

But it goes back to where you talk about finding your tribe, finding a
community because if you notice only certain plants
can grow in certain climates. Um, not all
plants are welcome in that particular climate. Like I can't grow
an orange tree in the Arctic. Like it's just not going to happen
no matter how many times I try. You know,
it's, I'm saying like I got tons of metaphors

(20:39):
with this because that's
funny, it's fun.

Uh, but it is true. It's absolutely true. You need to find your
community. And nowadays I'm finding
people through different social
circles.
Like I'm talking to someone in la, uh, in this
group I had someone who's a pianist who trains people
and I forgot the name of the big school in New
York. And then I'm talking to somebody who grew up in a

(21:04):
little farming uh, community in Israel,
now lives in um, uh, California.
And I've found my tribe and they're all over the place.
And I did international internship program with
students for about 10 years. And
so I've connected with certain students on a higher
level. One of them rule, he's born in
the Netherlands but he's living in England. And so I'm, um, I

(21:27):
have this connection and as I went surfing
that's really brought me out to be
me because I have friends that I can
talk to. I'm, I was sending someone a tick
tock in Berlin. She goes, bill, you know, I don't use tick
tock. I'm like, you're the younger generation, I'm the
older one. And that community is helpful
because you can also communicate with them on a deep. So you don't

(21:50):
necessarily just to have that, have them in front of you. And you're right about
that, that's very, very powerful. Thank you for,
for saying that, getting your community
correct.

Yeah. Um, and one of the words that I
try to change the, the terminology against
it which is poor versus broke where
broke is a temporary. It is
something that you're in the moment of. And
poor is more so focusing on the mindset.
Um, because like you said earlier, if you're in that poor

(22:19):
mindset, yes everything's going to feel like it's always
against you. You're not going to see those opportunities
of growth through that, through
that shine. But if you just understand like, hey, this is just a
temporary moment in life where
you at then you can always see, try to find
that opportunity and look at the things that you
can control. Um, what are your thoughts on

(22:42):
that?

Well, it's well said and there's a bias called
learned helplessness where people
often are Surrounded by
other people that keep them in that
area where they, they feel like they're helpless, they have no
control. And that's not their fault
because they were maybe born into it or uh, wound up in

(23:04):
that. And I think the
effect of, it's called the Pygmalion effect, where people
are telling you you're not good or, and you can
have, uh, that does affect us.
And I realize that when you're in those,
it's really hard to break free. That's why
obviously you have people who aren't that smart
but who were born with wealth, have so many

(23:25):
advantages or white, uh, privilege or whatever the
case. You have these. But we all
psychologically have to try to find that.
And I hope your podcast and we can reach
people and let them know regardless if we were in a
better situation or not, the attitude
and what you can control is

(23:46):
you. And that is, it may be
hard because you've had a mindset that
isn't growth minded because you've had too many
people, um, destroying your
plants, you know, your growth and putting you
down, but you got to get away from them. And that can be
hard because that's all you've known. But
that is the single most thing first. You

(24:08):
come first. It's not that you're selfish. It's
that if you don't water your own plants, if you don't
grow your mind and work your mind out and your
body, you're not going to be healthy to do anything
great that you want in life. And that's really where it
starts. And then you can start saving money, you can
start figuring things out, having healthy relationships, which
are all part of the, you know, the behavioral psychology

(24:31):
of money. You know, healthy relationships
allow you to not be taken advantage of, you
know.

Stuff like that and
understanding where you, where you want to go.
What's. I like how we pretty much
putting everything forward to build upon,
um, from the very first, uh, moment of
this conversation, which is
we need to find our peace. Yes, we need to
find it. And sometimes finding our peace, meaning we might have

(24:59):
to change environments. Like uh, you said with the palm
trees you have, they like the warm
weather.

Yeah.

You're not going to do well if you move up to like
Connecticut or something like that. And you now you got a high
bill because you want to keep your, uh, your palm trees.

Correct. Yeah. The environment
matters and I, I hope everyone
who's listening says I need to make sure
I'm in the best environment. And I've had to let
go of friends Because I'm going there, here,
and they're here. And it's. There's no
hard feelings. It's you. They're

(25:34):
pulling me down. And you have to realize
you come first. And that's where the mindset,
stoicism, talks a lot about it in
wisdom, knowing what is in your
control and then
executing that. Uh,
you have to really think, like, if I bring this person in,
they want to go out and have beers on a Wednesday night. I

(25:56):
got to get up early Thursday because I got really important plans.
Or they just want to watch a football game a day.
I want to do some healthy stuff off the couch. I want to
run or go to the gym. So those are little tiny
decisions you make where they have profound
impacts on your life. And that's.
That's where you need to find the right community.

(26:16):
Once you find them, that's how your life starts to change.

Yeah. So how did you find that power of
know, then? Because, like you
say, we got to find those boundaries, but how do. How do we
practice that?

Well, that's. That's very,
very profound. I put it in my
reminders on my phone. It reminds me every day,
you have to say no. You have to
say no. And that means not
checking the market. That means
at certain times. That means not taking calls
at certain times. The power to build your

(26:53):
calendar. That is in
work. I built my calendar
because that's. That reveals your truth
of who you are. So when I'm in a meeting, I'm
not doing other things. When I'm doing trading, trading, I'm not
taking calls. So everything is built around
that. And then when I get to my. My
day ends earlier than most because, um, I'm mentally

(27:16):
tired. And I tell people this.
When you say, I'm done for the day, don't
take calls because you have what's called
decision fatigue. And you. You're
not at your best. And you have
to have the mental fortitude to put in and say, I
will put this in my calendar tomorrow.

(27:37):
So, uh, I'm saying no now.
M. And I know a lot of people that just feel like they gotta
respond right away, but I don't. Because you're not at your
best. It's like, you know, you've worked
it. Uh, you've done all this stuff all day, you've already ran. And then you're
like, you think you could run as well at the
end of the day that you didn't know? Of course not.
And that's. That's where you have to organize

(27:59):
things. So you're going to do it. And once you
get those behaviors and they feel normal, but until
you do that now, it won't feel normal.
People say this to me as I train people. Uh,
you didn't check your emails yet. I'm like. Because I
checked them at 4 and I checked them at 10.
I can't. I have to say no to all these

(28:19):
things. And then I'm very efficient, and people
get the very best of me because I'm in
with them. I'm not checking my phone. I'm not looking around.
I'm not sidetracked. You will be better, more
efficient, and reach your goals quicker. When you
say no, that is. I, I. That brings every
single morning say no 25 times today.

I like that one.

Yeah, it is. It is weird. I, I've never been
asked that question before. That is. That is
powerful. But it is what I do. I, I hear that
people say all the time.

So when it comes to. Because I, um, noticed you mentioned your
father. How has he been impacting your
financial journey?

My father has helped
me through all of my financial
mistakes. Very few
people could have that happen. Now. I'm not saying there were a lot, but
my father has been there for me. My father is
a saver. He's. He's very
disciplined. I was
not when I was younger. I didn't really start

(29:22):
in this field until I was
32. So I've been doing 21
years. So I've been 21 years in the field. And it
took me time to understand that because.
And that's also part of my message is you're not
locked into anything. You
can change and pivot course whenever you want. My
father helped me get a

(29:45):
job out of college and stuff like that, but I wasn't happy.
And he didn't. He was okay with me switching
careers. So my father has been very helpful
for me. And even when we
had disagreements, those
disagreements, I took them as positives to
change who I was. Because I can't change
him.

Right?

Not, not that I need to or want to. I'm not saying that as
a door, but once you realize you have to be
your own person. Like, my dad's very happy for
me now, but he might not have
necessarily been happy the time when I made a
career change, because you. You're literally starting
over. But my dad has been very impactful,
and he helped me financially to start my business

(30:28):
and stuff like that, which I realize
is not something a lot of people get, and I've never had
anyone ask that. And I've never, ever revealed that before,
but I am very lucky, and I love him for that, and
I tell him that. And he's not somebody that likes
emotions because
he's in the older generation. I'm like, I'd hug you right
now. It's like, you don't need to do that.

(30:51):
Yeah. But anyway, I think it's important
when you listen, you. Sometimes people want to be
helped. Sometimes they want to be heard, and sometimes they want to be
hugged. Those are my threes. Help
tug their herd.

I like that because to me, the hug could be a
verbal hug. Um, just saying thank
you.

Yes.

Um, and for me, I think a lot of people
don't say thank you enough as they. They like
to correct ah, even though they want
to be heard sometimes, like, an attaboy can
go a long way. And I'm thinking from people who are in
leadership who are afraid to even say
thank you, or, hey, team, good job.

(31:29):
But it's a difference between. All right,
I'm gonna go back. I'm sorry. Because I'm an elementary educator, so.

Yeah.

One of the things is that, um, in my
teaching career, I used to teach
was that we actually had to
understand to give thanks
and actually say no to an action,
not to the person, so that they can
understand this is a, ah, bad action. Not that

(31:56):
you're a bad person. And thank you for
doing a good job on this
activity. Not that you're just a good
person.

Is that correct? No, that. That is
important. I think we often don't share
that. And that's why I got into a
lot of this stuff, because I would just say no, but I
didn't give them the reasoning behind it.
I wasn't saying no to them. I was saying no to the
time that they wanted

(32:24):
to do it or no to the event they wanted to do,
not to them as a person. And that's
oftentimes, like, now, that's not something I enjoy
anymore. You know, maybe we can agree on a,
um, musical or something like that. I love musicals.
I love music. Music makes me happy. And I love the violin, which
is odd, but. Yes. And as you change,

(32:44):
you're not saying no to the person, and I think that's
important. And you can acknowledge I appreciate being
asked because it is nice someone's thinking of you,
and you should acknowledge that that's really,
uh, a, um, major part of having a strong
community. Because a lot of times people don't say thank you, and.
And you can build resentment from that.

Yeah. And it's. It's sad because even I think it
was, um, it wasn't Meryl Stree. It was
somebody that I saw on, I think, uh, on Instagram.
I was just flying through Instagram and, you know, team
scrolling.

Yeah, we all do it.

Yeah. It was a celebrity that felt
so bad because her mother
resented her saying, like, hey, you did not thank
me when you got your award 30 years
ago. But when they looked at the
recording, she actually did think her
mom, her mom didn't hear it. And so
all of these years, she felt so

(33:40):
bad that she did not thank her mom. But
now that the recording came out to show that
she actually did, it's almost like,
wow, like, these emotions, all they had to do is just go
back and look at the tapes.

Yeah.

And, and I, uh, I think that's something that we miss in
finances is to really look back
at, like, hey, you did your best you could with what you
had at the time, and it's okay.
Like, you can still change and shift from that
perspective.

It's resiliency to one look
at yourself and then you got
to dig deep and then go back and say,
yeah, I made mistakes, I did these
things, I apologize
for them. And, uh, you know, to yourself
and. But you, you change because now you're doing

(34:30):
the growth steps. You're investing 10%
of your income. You're. You're putting money into
a Roth now. You're not taking
the high risk stuff. You're using indexes, you're
working with an advisor, you're selecting some
stocks that align, uh, with your personal
goals and also some that you think could grow
over time. And you, you're, you're starting,

(34:52):
and then you start to really build, like
a mental fortitude and strategy. Because we all need
strategies in life.
We need to figure out how we're going to take things. And,
you know, I handle the finance side. Just like when I'm going
out to a wave, if I see the size
of it, I got to figure out what is the channel to
get out so that I don't get. I don't hit 10 waves

(35:14):
in a row. I. Or, uh, learning how to duck
dive, which is really fun. You see people
when we dive under.

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Because until you learn that or you have too big a board, you get
hit hard, and it's like, it's like,
why would I ever do that? And so these
are the types of things like you said is,
um, going back and looking at your past may be
important and resolving those issues, but
also saying, I'm not that person anymore
apologize or. Or work towards what your goals are in the

(35:45):
future. That's a really good thing because people do have
resentment. And you don't want to resent yourself for not
making decisions because let's say I. I'm 10 years
behind on where I should have started. That's okay
because. But I'm happy now.

And because it's bringing up so
many. I like this conversation as. As I'm going
through my journey now, get pulled back on more things that I've came
across from different conversations.
Is that the
comparison to somebody else's
lifestyle? Like, you look at some of these celebrities who are like, younger
than you are, but making all this money. M.

(36:22):
But you don't know that backstory until they write a
memoir of, like, how their parents were beating them or
the other things that's happening from
the producers or executives that were part of their
journey, the things that they had to go through to get to where
they are today.
Um, and, you know, that's the reason why I was
asking about your story is because it's like those

(36:44):
are sacrifices that you've made to get to where you are
today. And is somebody else willing to
make those same sacrifices? Um, so
that comparison piece, like you we were talking about earlier,
this is the, um,
really taking the moment to understand
your life and not looking at others. So how

(37:04):
can people put their blinders up to kind of ignore
that?

I bring a lot of this back to the psychology and
the stoicism. You need to have something
to keep you focused. Some people naturally are
born that way, but I think we all need to train.
It's like running or fitness. You may have
ran in the past, but that doesn't mean your
Cardio is good 20 years later.
And the mental journey is requiring you to do

(37:32):
this every day. And you might get better at it, but I still
dedicate 40 minutes a day to it. I'm better at it, and I
can put more in there. But the second
you stop running, so to speak, or working out
or eating healthy, that those
behaviors are done. So this is a lifelong habit
to doing, you know, to.

(37:52):
To living this way. And I think we
have. That's why you have to write down your goals and stick to it. But we
all go on vacation, we eat too much, or we have other
things come up. But realistically,
you. You have to follow some type of pattern for a long
period of time. And with investing
or really the

(38:14):
attitude stems, everything can be, I say with
stoicism where. Or psychology. If you see a
psychologist Or a therapist. They can also help you do
that at work with somebody
to really build some emotional
intelligence across the board. I think I'm answering
your question, but that's kind of.
Those are, uh, those are where I'd start as the emotional

(38:36):
intelligence is based on
my stoicism and psychology that I've
studied for that.

So I'm gonna do a quick round of questions
because obviously it's a financial show.
Um, and I know we've been dabbling into it, uh, because
I want to go to the third segment and then the final four.

Okay.

Yeah, I just wanted to do a rapid fire, if you don't
mind.

It's great. I love it.

Okay, so, um, talk about the sandwich
generation. What are the top three
questions that, uh, somebody should have a
conversation with that child?

I think
when right now there's a lot of challenges for
people for trying to buy a house.
They seem expensive. You're seeing people
stuck longer with their parents and stuff like
that. Think you want to have a, uh,
financial education. You want parents.
And hopefully the parents have some financial education

(39:33):
because when, you know, when they grew up, they could
buy a house easily. They could buy a
car. Everything was affordable, and
it's not affordable. So you. We have m.
Much bigger hurdles
now, and I think trying to get people
in the right frame of mind saying, you need to

(39:54):
save no matter what. I know it's going to
be harder to do certain things, but, uh, with the right
attitude, you could be in a better position
than if you have the wrong attitude and start saving
earlier. I think that's very important. I was able to get my
house right before the
things went up and I realized I was lucky with

(40:14):
that. So I think kind of
just starting, save your money,
pay yourself 10% right off
the bat is where it would be. And don't be discouraged by
a lot of the challenges we're facing. Because I hear a lot of people
say, I can't afford a house. They're so expensive. The mortgages
and homeownership is, is fun

(40:35):
to own something, to, to put your head
down. So that's the first thing I always start at
with, with that is because that's a big goal for almost
everybody. Homeownership at some point.

Yeah.

Uh, and that's where a lot of wealth is tied up. And it seems unattainable
for a lot of people sometimes now.

Yeah. Um, but going back to
those sacrifices, like, yes. Are you willing to
sacrifice?

Yes, it is. And then of
course, one of the other things is parents need to
Talk about the retirement accounts. Even if you're
working, if parents can help you, you can
do Roth IRAs. Roth IRAs
are, uh, a great way where you say, look, we're going to put some money
here. And this is where you don't want to
gamble with this type of money. You want to use

(41:22):
index funds. You can use technology,
obviously, or, or whatever you like, and you
can add some stocks, but you want to have them talk to you
like, these are long term. And if you put
this Money in at 18 or 19, you
know, I know you may be older, but I'm just saying wherever
you are in this, this pitch, you

(41:42):
can get money out of the Roth after five years. You can take
the principal out without
taxes. So I tell people, this
seems really unattainable right now, but
let's say we have the market, housing come
down by. You've been putting money away for 10
years. We, we could take out 50 grand
without any taxes to put down on a house.

(42:05):
And uh, granted, obviously I'd like your money to
grow, but the house should
grow too. And, and that's. So I think the
financial education of retirement accounts and
the right type of retirement account is very critical.
And a lot of people don't really know about the Roth like
that, but, you know, that is a great thing to

(42:25):
do is you can take the principal out without any issues
and still the, the gains still grow.
So I think that's another critical piece for
everybody because if you put it in a regular
IRA and you take it out, you're hit with like 30%
taxes, right? And that's, that's, you know, that's
not good.
Um, and then I

(42:46):
think really one of the most important things,
and I is really at that young
age is trying to share with them a
vision of broadening what they
may do. I grew up in a rural
community, but at the same time, every
weekend I spent it at my grandmother's in, in the
city. So I had like two different,

(43:09):
very like one, I'm playing by myself. There's
no, there's no street lights, there's dirt
roads. I'm running around. I got a goat and a
dog, and you know what I mean? And then I go to
my grandmother's and if 20 kids
out in the middle of the street were playing football, so I had a
really weird balance to that. And
regardless of that, and you

(43:31):
have these different groups of people, you want to
give them insight as to, uh, there's things wider
than their short little vision. And especially in
high school, as you Mentioned. Oh, that's all they
know. And once you get out of high school and
if you go to college or whatever, until you really
start to. You want to push them to look at 10

(43:51):
different things. Because I didn't know I wanted to be this.
But I started to see it clearly when I turned 30. And
then I started to get into it because originally I was like, uh,
I'm into math, and. And I'm quiet.
And, uh, obviously I'm not quiet now,
but by. I naturally did it. But a
lot of people need their parents to

(44:12):
help them, and I think the parents also need that, too.
So I think that. And then talking about not only widening
your vision financially,
emotionally, professionally, but that's
also for your friends, because the friends you have,
you're. I mean, high school is so small, you know,
you remember it. You used to. You saw. What did you
teach?

Um, I taught, um, elementary. So I
did first grade, third grade, seventh and
eighth.

Okay. Okay. Oh, wow. So, yeah,
it's, um.
They have so much hope. You want those kids when they're
that young, to keep that energy. If there's a fourth,
I would say keep that joyful energy
because you need it, and you're going to really
need to have it as we get older. Because
life may seem hard at 17 and 18. It can get really

(45:02):
hard as you get older because you got a mortgage to pay or
bills to pay and stuff like that. So I think
talking to them about a vision and to
be happy, I think would be a third thing that's very important.
I. I share that with my nieces who are 17 now
and are twins, and because they don't go outside
as much and they're on their phones a lot more,

(45:22):
it's just a different generation, you know?

Yeah.

And, um, they talk through Snapchat rather than
picking up the phone.

Yeah. I. I'm more of a texter.

Uh, yeah.

Because I grew up in era where you didn't have
many minutes. Um, so, you know, the
teacher, you have more text than you have minutes. And I used to hate
when people used to leave voice messages because it'll take away a minute or
however long that message was. I'm sure you remember those
days.

Well, I may be a little older. I. I had a pager
that had an 800 number so I could check the
voicemail.

Right.

But then I needed a quarter to call them.
I'd be like, when we come up with codes in the pager so
that they could do it. And so I remember that. I
was like, wow, I'M cool. They can get me.

Right.

But I do remember the minutes too. I'm like, don't call
me on my phone unless it's important. And after
59 seconds, I'm hanging up.
People will never understand that.
Uh, I'm sorry, right.

Those unlimited minutes after 7:00.

Yeah, yeah. Right. So you'd be like, all right, can you just
call me at 7? That is funny. That would
have been a great time to have the power of no.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?
So you can do it. See, you could do it. We can all do
it. Um, so, yeah,
that, that is. I. We all have it for certain things. You're
right. If we're waiting for a call,
we'll. We'll not pick up the phone. We'll. We'll sit
there. And I think that brings it back.

(46:54):
I think maybe there's a fifth thing, the power of no teaching people.
Be focused, but also keep your vision
wide at certain times. And I think
books are. Help you be
inside the mind of other people
and realize you're not alone in a world where
oftentimes we feel alone because we're just seeing
tiktoks or this and

(47:16):
everybody's happy. Reading allows you to,
to really be just
engulfed in something. And, uh, so I'm a book
reader. You, uh, know, and when I was young, it would have
been the Bernstein bears or comic books,
but now I read actual things. And it, Once you get good
at reading, you actually start to like
it more. And I think that's important. So

(47:38):
that's a great question. There are some things we really should
spread the word on what parents need to explain,
and also for us to learn in that
habit as well too.

Yeah. Um, and that's
why I like the. This is the reason why I made the shift
for my audience to be more in the Sandwich generation is
because it's a, it's a flow. It's not like, hey, you're
set like a Gen Z or Gen X, whatever they want to call
these generations, but the
Sandwich generation, everybody's going to have a kid at some point.

(48:09):
If they don't, it's okay. But obviously you have
parents that either you might be their caretaker for,
or it may not be your biological parents, but the people
who brought you up that you're going to be taken care of
eventually. So how can you actually
thrive in that environment and still find
yourself without losing yourself, uh, through that
emotional turmoil? Um, or

(48:31):
like you say, the wave.

Powerful.

Yeah. So, um, and that's the reason why I
Like, having these conversations with different people, because it broadens my
scope. And this reason why I like the podcast is
it's a cheat code for me to get more information.

It is. And you're. You're pulling out things for
me that I have never talked about or shared.
But I think one of the most important things in these
conversations is that be vulnerable,
because we. We're in this world together.
We're brothers and sisters, all of us. And once
we have the right attitude and you open up, I'm here

(49:07):
for you. And we often.
We often try to fit into a tribe, but the
more broadening of your,
you know, your world and being able to communicate like
this over the phone allows us to see. There are so many
people like us. We just didn't necessarily
see them, because when we're walking down the street, we were

(49:27):
the goth person or we were the skateboarder. Before it was
cool, I was skateboarding when it was a crime. You know what I
mean? We were getting chased everywhere.
Um, now it's like, oh, of course they're skateboarding, and it's a big
deal. Um, but
it is important to have that perspective. That is
very important.

Yeah. So as we go through the.
The third segment here, which is talking about the futures,
um, what areas are you focusing on to
improve your own life or career?

My goal right now to improve
is. Is writing a
book. I want to put the things that have.
That have taken my life and have
used to transform
me. And I think I hear this, and I don't know
where I heard it from, but don't have a transactional life. Have a
transformative life. And we have

(50:22):
a chance to grow. And you see that like.
Like flowers and palm. Palm trees continue to grow and
get taller and taller and bigger and stronger. That's how we
should be in life. And with
the book, it's forced me to put down
a lot of my words and then reorganize it.
I. I have, like, a mental palace where I'm

(50:43):
like, okay, let me organize this. And I write everything down.
And, uh, I suggest this to everybody. I would use
Evernote or the notes and say, Apple notes.
And I've been doing that for about 20 years and writing things down,
and I could see my growth. And that's one of the things
I like to do, is go back and look
at what I wrote. I'm like, oh, my God, did I write that? I

(51:03):
must have written that in crayon. I must. Because
I look at myself and say, God,
how did I communicate? And I Think that's important because
now I'm saying I can communicate better, and I've
made growth, and maybe I'm not very good, but
I'm vulnerable, and I share my vulnerabilities because I think
it's important to

(51:24):
continue to work on yourself, even if it's slow.
When you climb upstairs and you go walk up, um,
you know, a mountain, it's slow. You don't
run up a mountain because you trip and fall, and then you wind,
um, up. So life is like that. You're just climbing it slow.
And with this book right now, it's. It's forcing me
to really look at all the different things

(51:45):
that have been in my mind, but then put them in a seamless
order. And it is challenging. It really is,
and it's fun. And I remember yesterday,
I'm going through it with the person,
and, like, we've had three drafts already on the
outline, and it's hard.
How do you fit things? But that is

(52:05):
forcing me to grow.
And do I have to do it? No. Do I want to do
it? Uh, I'm not even sure sometimes when I'm doing
it. But here's the one thing that I do know
for a fact on this. When you're
doing something, it may not be fun, but
when you're done, accomplishment feels
incredible. That's the

(52:27):
trick. So I say to myself,
I can get through this next hour and a half being on
here looking like a fool because I don't know how this stuff
works. And then I keep writing back and forth,
and, um, I feel like I learned
something. And yesterday, after I was done, I was like, oh, my
head hurts. But I felt

(52:47):
great because it was. We accomplished a much
better version of the outline. And then we're going to have a fourth.
But I actually felt like the first one was like, oh, my.
Who wrote that? Was that even me? And. But.
And I think I'm very. Being very vulnerable in it. So
that's what I'm doing now because I want to express my difficult
journey. Being on the spectrum, not being able to read

(53:07):
people, um, not being vulnerable,
not being. Not understanding emotions. You're really
bringing out a lot of emotions in. And I think
that's important because we need
to have people give us feedback on our emotions, how we're
feeling, and also understand how they're feeling. So at
this stage, I'm always pushing myself to grow,

(53:28):
and I'm always adding books outside of my
normal study. I'm doing
the, uh, History of the Bible by John Barton,
which is kind of neat. And it's just the.
Even though. Whether I'm not religious, but
I like to learn about things and how things occurred.
I'm doing the history by Howard Zinn

(53:50):
of America, which doesn't teach you
the stuff you hear in school. It teaches you the actual
atrocities that happened. And is
it pleasant? Not necessarily.
But again, I'm listening to it because I want to have different
perspectives of how things occurred. But, um, I will
say one of the best books that I've ever listened to in my

(54:10):
life is why Nations Fail,
I think. And they won a Nobel laureate
last year after it had been out for 12
years, because they tell the real truth
on what makes nations great. And so these are the
types of things that I continue to work on
and push myself so I can share these stories because I,
I do believe we have to go

(54:32):
through pain oftentimes, unfortunately, before
we get to the, the, the
pleasure, so to speak. It's just the way things are
in life.

But it's going back to. Like you said, you have to have those vulnerable
moments to kind of build that resilience
because you put it out there. And if you would have kept
it to yourself, how can you
build that resilience and build your structure if
you never put it out there in the first place? And so
I, uh, commend you for, you know,
putting yourself out there, and I just can't

(55:05):
wait to read it. Whenever you fully find
it, finalize the, the end products, because I'm sure
it's going to be the bamboo of
the, uh, of the book community.

Well, I thank you for that and, and
vulnerability. Once you share like, I made
mistakes. I had negative bank accounts. I,
I didn't, you know, but I worked on myself.
And people go like, they appreciate that and they share
their vulnerabilities. And that's where you get a real emotional
connection. We've all made mistakes, but a lot of times
we try to hide them as if we're perfect. That's why

(55:38):
I keep this right here on me. If no
one can see it, it's a blue morpho
butterfly. Blue is not their
actual color. Light gets trapped in there off the
bones and refracts. So you see
beautiful blue on the outside, but this is the inside of
it.

Nice.

And that's what people see. So I tell people, and
this does catch people's eye, and
I explain that to them.
And I wound up having a great conversation coming back from
Puerto Rico with a woman next to me who was from
Arkansas. And
she, she, her and her I guess she was chasing
out her soon to be daughter in law to Puerto Rico for like

(56:18):
a vacation with that.
And she just opened up to me and shared so many things
because I shared that and how, you know,
I had struggles and reading people and doing things.
And it was an uncomfortable
four hour wait on the tarmac,
but we really talked and, uh, we

(56:39):
both left. Like, wow, we made a
positive connection. We'll never see each other again.
But she shared some things with me that I can now
share with my clients about how
her father
had a, she had
a stepmother that she didn't like essentially, and they didn't do

(56:59):
the estate planning, uh, and she
wouldn't do it. And she made a mess of everyone's life. And she's like,
she hated me from the grave. That's why she did it on purpose.
So that reminded me so much of why we have
to plan. Because planning isn't
always just about you either. It's about the people you
love and that we got to

(57:19):
the heart of the story. If you love somebody, you do the
right thing. And so that's why
planning is so. And I have these comments. I'm like, I got to get your
estate plan. You care about these people, then you need
to do it. And that's the
vulnerable nature of having these conversations. So I wound
up having a great conversation. I'll never see you again. We opened up
to each other and, uh, I felt

(57:42):
like I had growth out of
that. Just sitting on a plane in a horrible
situation and yeah, that was another layer of
bamboo. Now I'm 21ft.
We're growing fast.

Yes, sir.
All right, so is there anything that you want to leave the
audience with before we go to the final four questions?

I want people to really take time to
sit down and, and get some type of
journal on their phone. I know it's easier. You can do
paper or journal and start to write down your thoughts.
Once you start to do that every day and develop that habit, you'll
start to actually just come up with things. And oftentimes
you can ask these journals today to come up with

(58:25):
question to ask you that. That is the first
step in changing everything. That's
mental health, financial health,
physical health are all tied together.
They're all tied together. You can't. You might be
running well and doing stuff like that, but if you don't have mental health
and financial health, it will weigh on your physical

(58:46):
health. And that's. I think the number one thing is
journaling. And it'll say what is,
what was Your favorite part about college. And now I'm
having to think about it. It didn't ask me what college I went
to. It was a question. I'm thinking, God, there were
so many. And now, um. You know what I mean? That's a better
question.

Yeah.

What's the best part of your neighborhood? I didn't ask you where you
lived. You know, what transformed you so? It's these
little tiny questions that get you to think. So that's. That's what
I'd leave it. Because it all stems. Once you change
your attitude, your attitude changes. You
will see the world with the lights on.
And that's important.

Right?

And we all battle darkness
every day. Every day, yes.

Um, so you ready for the final Four?

I am. Let's do it.

Alrighty.
First question. What does wealth mean to
you?

Wealth, to me, that definition
is important. And Socrates talks about that, because we all
have different definitions for. For words. Wealth
to me means I'm able to
not have to have income from anybody else and live
a life where my assets
maintain my life. I can do my charitable work.

(01:00:05):
I rescued orangutans in Borneo. I can
donate to them. I can. I
was going to go to Laos this year to help the
elephants. Um, so the wealth to me
allows me to do things and travel to help
animal charities. And then also I went to Honduras to
help kids who were orphaned from the drug wars and
AIDS there. That's the type. Wealth gives me the

(01:00:27):
financial freedom to do the things that I want to
do because I'm more than work and I believe we
need to give back. And. And that gives us
the power and the money. There's, uh, a. A
thing that I. That is crazy,
but George Clooney started a,
uh. What is it? Alcohol company. A

(01:00:47):
tequila company?

>> Anthony Weaver (01:00:49):
I think so, yeah.

>> William R. Young (01:00:50):
And the reason I'm telling you this is
he sold it for a billion dollars. And his wife
is a human rights lawyer. And they were always
running around trying to get donations
to get help. And he said, once I got
that billion, uh, I don't ask for help anymore.
I can do the things that I want. And it's
unlimited money. That's what wealth is. It's being to do the

(01:01:13):
things you want in life without having someone
else determine what you can
and can't do. You don't need a billion dollars
because you're not probably running around saving people's lives
and all these other countries like she does. But
that's what wealth is to me, is complete independence
to live the life you want and help the people you care

(01:01:33):
about.

Yep. Um, just so
to kind of, like, fact check, I guess, to make
sure we're getting everything together. Uh, I just googled it right quick.
It is, uh, he co founded a tequila
company, Casamigos. That's what.

Yes.

And, um, sold it for a billion dollars in 2017.
Man, that is. Wow.

And so, yeah, now he didn't
have someone give him an agenda to his wife
saying, you can help those people, but you can't help
these people. Now he has the independence to
not have donors tell him. And that's what I mean. For ourselves. If I
want to help somebody, I'm not taking donations from
somebody. I can do it myself. So I can set up stuff like

(01:02:14):
that, because donors can say, I don't want
you to do this. That's what it means to me, where
you don't have someone's control over you.

I like that.

Um, Casamigos. Yes. A billion. Isn't that crazy?

That's is crazy. I was like, I don't even drink Casamigos. I
heard about it, but I don't drink it. Interesting.

Not a bad payday. So that's why he can do
whatever he wants now. And that was one of the problems he mentioned,
is we do these dinners, and they're like, but I don't want you doing this. And.
And, you know, that's like, my job is to help people.
And to me, that resonates with me. I don't need $1
billion, but I do need the
financial independence. And that's what wealth means to

(01:02:53):
me, is living the life I want to
live. And I'm not somebody that spends a lot of money.
I've stayed at hostels with surfers, and when I was
in Borneo, I was sleeping on people's
porches. You know, I'm 50. I was 51 at the time.
Sleeping on people's porches. It's 125 degrees
out. That. That's not wealth to me. Wealth to
me was being in the journey and knowing, you know, I could

(01:03:16):
afford it and I could make donations and stuff like
that. It was a hot vacation.

Uh, number two, what was your worst
money mistake?

Well, that's an easy one. Um, in
2008, I was on top of the
world. I just. I was top in
sales at this company with my. With my
business partner, and
I didn't understand
irrational exuberance. I was a young

(01:03:51):
man. My account went up, like,
164 in one year.

Wow.

Crazy. But I didn't really know what I was doing. And
that's why I want to share this and I tell people this
and that's why I'm more cautious.
In one week without really
understanding it. When that, um, Lehman
Brothers hedge fund blew up,
they had to liquidate everything. And that's what was happening

(01:04:18):
yesterday. There was margin
calls on, um, big companies. And
then it's like a black hole. It just sucks
everything in. And I lost like 80%
of my wealth in a week because
I didn't understand it, that it could just
happen. And it, that's what, that's what these margin.
So the markets, when they do that, it's. How would

(01:04:41):
I have known that? Now I share that story. It's like, this is why you
need to have capital on the side. This is why you need to do certain
things, because you can have. Now
granted, you know, I still, maybe I was up 8%
after that, but I was, I kind of got a windfall
and I didn't understand what was happening
globally. Now I understand all that. And that
was, I mean, that was painful to

(01:05:03):
lose six figures in five
days. And I didn't understand
it. It took, you know, it took years to make and then
was gone in five days.

M& M. I'm sure a lot of people are feeling that right
now, the way. How things going.

Yes. And you know, when
that. Dave Portnoy, I don't know what he owns, but I'm
sure he probably takes very aggressive stocks,
have certain stocks down 30, 40,
50% in just a matter of a week or two.
And that's where you're not managing your
risk and understanding what you're doing.

(01:05:40):
If, like, I have a lot of people with 30, 35%
in cash on the side, even my sister, like, I put
25% of her money in cash and,
and I'm not recommending this. I got to be crystal
clear and 25% in Berkshire Hathaway, which is
essentially a large cash position.
And like, yeah, a bunch of our stocks went down

(01:06:00):
like 40%, but we have all this cash and
to me, she can go shopping. Uh, we,
I'll take her shopping and say, what do we want to buy at a
discount? Because you're getting these margin
calls on a company and they have to liquidate, so things
just fall down so quick, they'll rebound
back, but I want to be able to buy them

(01:06:21):
when those things happen. So I don't time the
market. I look for the opportunity.
And then when it's opportunity happens,
I get the right board and I get
the right, you know, and I swim out and paddle and I get on the right
waves because I waited patiently for that. That's
the mistake people often make is they're always in a rush

(01:06:41):
because they have this group think or
this. This urge to try to make the money back
quickly. Don't do that. That is a powerful
thing. And I didn't understand. So I, uh, you know, I was there, like, how
do I make this back? And there was no way to make it back
because Lehman Brothers went under and then Bear
Stearns. And like, if you remember, like, the world

(01:07:02):
was going under. Literally at that time. They
were meeting, saying, uh, we had Wells
Fargo, um, by
Washington Mutual, which was the fourth largest bank.
So I got the Wachovia, which was the third largest bank, went
under, like. Like, you're talking literally the
biggest banks in the world. And they just disappeared overnight.

(01:07:22):
So, again, that was when I got crushed.
Now, I'm very good at what I do, and I try to share people
that you can lose it all very quickly right now. And I
would be very, very cautious about what you
do.

Okay.

You don't want to start over, so.

Well, yeah. To make sure you put some of it in cash.
Um, okay, so
question three. Is there a book that inspired your
journey or changed your perspective?

There is a book written by
a wonderful, wonderful writer.
It's called the Undoing Project. That
was the first time in a book
I felt like the person he was
writing about. I believe it's Michael Lewis,
very famous authority. And I've read

(01:08:11):
that book nine times.

Wow.

And there was a point where they were
talking of, uh, it's.
It's crazy. It talks about Daniel
Kahneman. He was born in Israel. His dad moved over
to France to be the top
scientist, top chemist
for a major,

(01:08:33):
um, beauty company. And it talks about
that dichotomy of people where
his dad's best friend and the owner of the company was a
Nazi, but then his dad was a Jew. It.
But. And he. And
even though he was a Nazi sympathizer, he
saved Daniel Kahneman's father from

(01:08:53):
Auschwitz because he was a friend of
him. So what? That's when people say, I, oh,
I have a black friend, or I have an Asian friend, whatever. It
doesn't mean you're not doing racial stereotypes and stuff.
Like, it just. He had a connection to him
and he saved his life, even though he was okay with everybody
else. And then, you know, talks about
Kahneman going through all this stuff, and then to go to

(01:09:15):
Israel at, uh, 20 years of age,
become the lead psychologist,
and he created A system that everybody uses
today for the military psychology. But
the journey of Daniel story in that
resonated with me. Like he, he said, I feel different.
I don't feel like other kids. And that's how I

(01:09:35):
felt. And when I joined this social EDS group,
I met other people that felt that way.
And that just tells you we're not alone. We just
haven't found our tribe yet. And that
allowed me to keep searching for my tribe, which
the social edge group with Blake Eastman. He's put this
together and uh, we have these three way calls or two way
calls, and you start to go, oh my lord, we're

(01:09:58):
so similar. But we would never connect with each
other. So that book led me
to this point where Daniel
Kahneman wasn't very talkative. His partner
Amos Tversky was. But after about 20
years, he became talkative and he became.
And that's how I felt. So like deep
inside, like if I had an idol,

(01:10:20):
he. He brought out the best in me
because he allowed me heuristic spices,
fallacies, effects and illusions. And he created the
actual. He created
behavioral economics in behavioral
finance. He is the founder of that. And so that
resonates with me. And that has changed my life and made me

(01:10:41):
search for all of the emotions that were
hidden because of being who I
was.

I mean, to read that book.

Oh, it is. When, when you read
it, Daniel Kahneman essentially is the one that created
Moneyball and all that, uh, everything's based off of him. When you read
that, you will say, I can't
even believe it. You, you will be
stunned. And there was a point where Daniel
Kahneman was picked up by a Nazi soldier and
he was 10 years old. And he goes, he thought he

(01:11:11):
was dead. He had the mark on him that the guy knew he was a
Nazi or knew he was Jewish and
he thought he was dead. Picks him up, gives him
candy, gives him money, and then shows a
picture to Daniel
of his son. And Daniel
looked like his son. And because

(01:11:32):
he looked like his son, he let him go.

Wow.

And that's where he was like,
that's confusing because he's killing all these
people. What happened to his. But because
he looked like his son, he gave him candy and money.
And he's like, it just made me so
confused. And that's how we all are.
We're all confused and complex. And once you

(01:11:59):
start to realize that, you can dig deeper into yourself.
Books are important and you know, why
nations fail. In the Undoing Project are two of the most powerful
books because they're Basically, they're
the. The seeds of the plants that grow in our
mind. And then, like.

I love it.

Yeah, no, I love it, too, because, you know, you're right.
It. Because you can envision the plants, your mind
growing, and that's. That's what's happening.

Yeah.
Number four.

Okay.

What is your favorite dish to make?

I'm not a huge cooker. Um,
but when I do, I eat salads,
I. I pretty much. I cook
chicken or salmon,
and I put it on salad, and
I always get the romaine. I put some
of the Romano cheese and croutons,

(01:12:55):
and believe it or not, I eat it plain. Because
if you cook the chicken, I know everyone thinks I'm
crazy.

Okay.

But when the salmon's cooked right, my stepfather does this
for me all the time. He cooks for me when I come over, and he's going to do
it today, but he does it for me. And I say, no
dressing. Because the. The way if you cook things right
and you put some seasoning on the salmon, it drips
on everything, and it adds moisture. And then you're actually tasting the
salmon in the salad. So that's

(01:13:23):
actually a salmon salad is my favorite. That's
absolute, like, salmon on just kind of plain stuff with a little
cheese, a little Romano. Because if you don't put dressing on it, you
actually taste the food. And salmon
cooked well, or chicken cooked well, but not dry
chicken, but juicy. It's
flavorful, and you never taste it with the
dressing. And when you're sitting there eating it and it's kind of the. The

(01:13:46):
oils from it are all in it. You're getting oil in your
salad. You're just getting it from the salmon. And
salmon is just a phenomenal, phenomenal.
So that's what I look forward to every week. And he makes it for me. And I.
I get this giant plate, and I feel like a king. I'm like,
thank you so much. I feel like I'm
king.

Right.

Um, that. That's my favorite dish, the salmon
salad.

I like that.
Well, this is the last question of the show. Um,
and I, um, mean, I feel like I could talk to you for hours
here, um, even though it's already been like,
an hour and a half. But it's okay, though.
Um, which is where could people find
out more about you?

You have to Google me. I'm not technically allowed to say.
The firm I. I'm affiliated with. I'm Will
R. Young. Um, if you want,
I do financial planning. I've been in this business
for 21 years. It's personal with
me or my team. If you work with me or someone
on my team, you have a personal relationship with

(01:14:45):
someone who cares about you. We become integrated with
your family. You know, I've seen kids
grow up, get to adulthood and help them.
That is one of the greatest things is being connected with
people for 20 years and seeing their kids grow up and
helping their kids and having
that relationship. It's not transactional.

(01:15:05):
I'm fee based advisor and they know that
and we're growing together and if
just google me well our young
or duck duck go or chat gbt it'll pull
me up. And the number one thing I want to do with
everybody is come up with a financial plan. I want to
figure out your goals.

Goals.

Write your goals so you have a vision and it's okay to
change it. And especially if you had it. One of the
mistakes in that when you're looking for me is I'm
going to make sure that you never feel
embarrassed by whatever your goals are and share
those goals and you know, so look for me.
You can find me quite easily. I'll pull up. I got some

(01:15:44):
press releases coming out on on behavioral
psychology and finance and my websites. Will
will r young.com awesome.

Uh, thank you. Well, thank you so
much for your time. This has been a pleasure. And
the uh, person that's listening to this, if you actually found
this important and found
anything that you feel as though
has been an impact to your life, I want you to go ahead on and
subscribe to the show if you're new here. Um, and if

(01:16:13):
you're not new here, you found this information viable to
somebody else in their journey and just don't know where to
go. I think this will be a great episode to start
them off with so that they can figure out their
lives, figure out themselves while they in a place of darkness with
their finances right now. So thank you so much
for listening and you all have a good day.

Thank you.

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