Ever wondered why the pressure to become a millionaire by 30 is so intense? Or why deciding your lifelong career path at 17 sounds more like a pipe dream than reality? Join us on the Balanced Blueprints podcast as we tackle these provocative questions head-on. In this episode, we explore the concept of the "10-year gap," a perspective shift that advocates for extending major financial goals by a decade. Instead of stressing over hitting millionaire status by 30, we discuss how aiming for 40 can make financial milestones more attainable and less anxiety-inducing. We also shine a spotlight on the societal expectations that force young individuals to choose their career paths prematurely and how many don't find their true calling until their late 20s.
Can you truly love your job 100% of the time? We challenge this idealistic expectation, arguing that a 70% job satisfaction rate is a more realistic and healthier benchmark for success. We draw parallels between work relationships and personal ones, emphasizing the importance of resilience and realistic expectations. Understand that friction and challenges are not just inevitable but essential for growth. Ultimately, we underscore that true financial freedom and reduced stress come from building skills through overcoming hardships—not from chasing an entirely stress-free existence. Tune in for insights that promise to transform your financial and career journey into a balanced and fulfilling path.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Balanced Blueprints podcast,
where we discuss the optimaltechniques for finances and
health and then break it down tocreate an individualized and
balanced plan.
I'm your host, justin Gaines,here with my co-host, john
Prober.
In this week's episode, Johnand I discuss what I refer to as
the 10-year gap, as well asother lies that we are told as
youth or just as we go down ourfinancial journey.
(00:23):
We hope you enjoy the episode.
Thank you for listening.
A little bit more of a somberintro than we're used to, but
that is what it is.
It seems like a lot of times weget talking about what sounds
best on paper but isn'tnecessarily achievable.
(00:43):
We're always talking aboutoptimal and our closest way to
get there.
One of the things that Iconstantly talk about with
clients is that a lot of timesthe advice that we get in our
youth or as we start downfinancial journeys, a lot of
times those targets are 10 yearsahead of when they should be.
So I refer to it as a 10-yeargap because you have people who
(01:08):
want to be a millionaire by thetime they're 30, which is highly
unattainable.
People will do it.
It is possible.
It's just the vast majority ofindividuals will not, but with
some planning, some sacrificeand dedication to an investment
journey, doing it by the timeyou're 40 is totally doable.
(01:30):
The other one that falls in thisgap is high school kids being
told that they need to know whatthey do when they turn 17 or 18
.
But then most people don'tactually figure out the career
they want to be in or whatjourney they want to go on until
they're 28, 29, 30, which ispart of the reason why that
million-dollar target gapbecomes an issue as well.
And so I like to tell a lot ofmy clients that whatever
(01:53):
financial plan we're working on,add 10 years to it and that's a
realistic target that's notgoing to cause you a ton of
stress and, at the end of theday, a lot of these financial
targets.
They really shouldn't becausing you a ton of stress
unless you have a lot of baddebts or you're living paycheck
to paycheck because of expenses,or maybe your income's not high
(02:13):
enough.
Those situations are going tobe inherently stressful.
So that's not necessarily whatI'm talking about.
I'm talking about more of thesesituations where we place a
target on something and thenwe're dissatisfied because of
the stress that we're putting onthat target.
Well, if we just added a 10-yearwindow to it, if you were a
millionaire by 30 versus amillionaire by 40, your life's
(02:34):
not going to be significantlyimpacted by that, because you're
still going to work.
If you hit a million at 30 or40, you're still going to
continue to work, because whatelse would you do?
A million dollars isn't enoughto retire on, especially not at
that age.
So you're still going tocontinue to work, because what
else would you do?
A million dollars isn't enoughto retire on, especially not at
that age.
So you're going to have tocontinue to work.
And hitting those investmenttargets at that age isn't isn't
doing much other than causingyou a ton of stress in order for
(02:56):
you to aggressively hit thattarget definitely.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, you see that with fitness stuff too.
I mean, you just put so muchstress and pressure on what you
want to achieve and it's a verylong life.
You forget that this off camera.
(03:26):
But this just popped into mymind too, of like, I'm sure if
at 17 years old, if your onlygoal was to be a millionaire and
you did not care at all whatjob you worked, I I'm sure a ton
of people would be able toachieve that.
But the problem of well, I hatethis job comes in and you keep
switching jobs or looking forother ones, because otherwise
people like we've talked about,if that was your only goal, you
didn't care what work you did,go right into the trades and
(03:48):
you'd be pretty, pretty well off, probably.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
But that actually right now, yeah, going to the
trades and you'd be goldenmaking 30 40 dollars an hour
right, but we run into thatproblem where that's.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's a tough motivator in my mind like I
think it may get people startedor it drives them for a while,
but long term I think that'sthat money motivator itself
usually Like, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
bragging rights.
Is it the ability to say you'rea millionaire, like what is
driving you to want to have thattarget and, a lot of times,
what's actually driving you didthat would be a lot less
stressful, but a lot of timesthe wanting to have a million
dollars comes from, you know.
Maybe they lived a childhoodthat didn't have a ton of
vacations or a ton of thingsthat they could have, and so now
(04:55):
they want to be able to havethat.
So they want to have a milliondollars, because they feel that
that is their point at whichthey can do whatever they want
and they're not going to have tostress about it.
Or there's that other fallacywhere they want to hit that
point and not have to thinkabout money anymore which we
talked about in a previousepisode where that's just not
going to happen.
The way to get to having amillion dollars is by thinking
(05:16):
about money consistently, not ina unhealthy, obsessive kind of
way, but in a healthy, slightlyobsessive kind of way, where
you're tracking it, staying ontop of it, making sure that you
have a balance there.
And so if we can get down tothe root of why do we want to be
at this target, that's going toactually highlight the
(05:37):
insecurities that we have anddetermine why we're trying to
get there.
And then that's going to allowus to back up and determine how
to set our financial journey ina way that'll make us successful
and achieve our actual goals.
Because the number one way youcan debunk somebody saying that
they want the money just to havethe money is okay.
If I could write you a checkfor a million dollars right now,
(05:59):
but you couldn't spend it itcould only go into an investment
account or a bank account wouldyou be satisfied?
If you achieve that goal todayby me writing you a
million-dollar check, would yoube satisfied?
Most people are like no, I'mlike okay, why?
Well, because I can't spend it,I can't do anything with it.
If you had the million dollarsin the bank, what would you do
(06:19):
with it?
And that's another way ofasking why do do you want the
million dollars?
So then you get a mindset wherethey're primed okay, I have a
million dollars in the bank,what am I gonna go do?
I would say, half of the time,people give you answers that
they can achieve on a smallerlevel without having a million
dollars.
It might be a vacation, it mightbe going on a yacht, it might
(06:41):
be a helicopter ride, all thesesorts of things where in their
mind they're thinking about Iwant to own the yacht, I want to
own the helicopter, be able todo it whenever I want, instead
of just paying to go on ahelicopter ride or paying to go
on a yacht trip in the Caribbeanor the Mediterranean Sea,
wherever the case may be.
(07:01):
But you can rent thoseexperiences without having to
own the depreciating asset thatcomes along with that.
So there's other ways toachieve those outlines and I
would say, the other 50% of thetime it comes from wanting the
security, wanting to be able tonot have to stress about money
and not realizing that nothaving to stress about money
(07:23):
comes from having that healthy,slightly obsessive view on
tracking your numbers, being ontop of your budget and making
sure that you have a window foremergencies and, on a day-to-day
basis, you are living belowyour means and not overspending.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's funny too, because my mind goes to I don't
know this for certain, but theconcept of oh, I want to do that
whenever I want, especially alot of the things that people
want to do whenever they want.
I would imagine once you do itonce or twice, they probably
lose a lot of the things thatpeople want to do whenever they
want.
I would imagine once you do itonce or twice, they probably
lose a lot of that likeexcitement.
So it's funny because it's evena better idea of, like, like
(08:04):
you said, go rent it and do itonce.
Like, if you do it once, likethat might get your fix and it's
like, yeah, now you realize,well, you shouldn't have spent
all the money to to do that.
You don't need that type ofmoney to buy those things
whenever you want because, likeyou said, you could rent them.
But yeah, I just think that youcan also find out that you hate
it yeah, that he wants to you.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Take somebody who wants to buy a boat, like for me
for instance, I want to buy aboat.
I really, really want to buy aboat and so I've rented boats.
I've gone on boating trips withfriends and family and love it,
know that I would get a lot ofsatisfaction and joy out of
doing this consistently.
Okay, I should go and buy aboat.
(08:44):
I shouldn't take that off thetable and say I shouldn't go and
buy a boat.
There are plenty of financialreasons why you shouldn't buy a
boat.
But I'm saying, is this a hobbythat I want to put into the
expense categories, onto myincome statement and put the
money into this and enjoy it?
Or is it something I'm going toput a bunch of money into and
I'm going to be like 90% of boatowners who complain about all
(09:06):
the expenses associated with theboat and that's because they
bought a boat without doingtheir research and also aren't
getting the joys andsatisfaction out of it.
I could have gone boating andbeen like, oh fun, but it's kind
of boring.
I'm not really into this, likewhat's the point?
And then in that case I wouldhave spent a couple hundred
dollars renting a boat for a fewhours versus spending tens of
(09:30):
thousands of dollars buying aboat yeah, yeah, and the other
thing I'm getting at too,because I like this scenario of
like, okay, you have a milliondollars in the bank.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
You can't touch it, like you mentioned, because I
think it's a great way to tryand figure out.
If someone's like, what do Iwant to do with my life?
Like that's a good way tofigure it out.
Like, okay, now you can spendit, what would you do and that's
why I kind of mentioned thatbefore, cause it's like, oh, I
would buy a helicopter, I dothis.
It's like I think those arecover up things.
It's like, ok, you can go dothose one, like one time, but I
(10:02):
don't think they're asfulfilling as like what would
you do your entire life?
You know, I mean, if you're 30and you're a millionaire, if
you're 40, you're a millionaire,I don't think you're, unless
you love.
Like some people would want tofly helicopters for a living.
But it's like what do you wantto spend most of your time doing
?
I think that's a good way offinding it out, especially
because I was going to say this,but you already said it.
You know being balanced.
(10:22):
It's like I know people thatknow what they want to do, but
for some reason they're stillfocused on the money and I'm
like, well, like you're, you'realmost more miserable because
you're trying to achieve thistype of money.
But you could go work at thejob you want to work, but it
doesn't make enough money foryou.
I'm like that makes no sense inmy mind.
(10:43):
I was like just go work the jobyou enjoy, save like and do the
nice strategies we've talkedabout in all of these podcasts
of how to save money long term.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Right as long as.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
long as what they want to do will actually cover
the expenses.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, right, as long, as long as what they want to do
will actually cover theexpenses and allow you to not
jeopardize your financialposition?
Yes, I mean that's where youfall into, that you know, your
hobby, your hobby has to, youknow, make you enough to
actually cover your expenses,but that's.
The other thing that I would sayis that's another fallacy that
we get told in our youth is goand do what you love.
And most people that I knowthat have followed their hobbies
(11:19):
into careers now hate theirhobbies.
And it's because once you turninto a job and you have to do it
24 seven, it's no longerenjoyable.
And so you know, both of mybrothers are in that situation
where they followed theirhobbies and they loved what they
did, but now it's 50, 60 hoursa week doing that stuff and it's
(11:40):
just no longer enjoyable.
And so they will.
Both of them will tell you ifyou're looking to figure out
what career you want to go into,line up your hobbies from first
to fifth and don't choose yourtop one.
Choose something between twoand four and don't choose your
(12:12):
top one.
Choose something between twoand four, something that you
enjoy.
But that isn't what you do toget rid of stress and have a
good time.
Don't go after that thing.
Go after the next rung on theladder.
Go after something you enjoythat can.
That, too is job.
Satisfaction isn't talked aboutin a sliding scale.
It's talked about as you eitherlove your job or you hate your
job, instead of a level ofsatisfaction, because I think I
would say that I'm somebodywho's very fortunate and I
absolutely love what I do for aliving.
It's very hard for me topinpoint what that is because I
(12:34):
have several differentbusinesses and so I'm constantly
running around doing differentthings, which I think plays a
role.
But I pinpoint what that isbecause I have several different
businesses and so I'mconstantly running around doing
different things, which I thinkplays a role.
But I love what I do.
But I also would tell you thatI'm at about 65% 75% job
satisfaction.
There's still 25% to 35% of thetime that I absolutely hate
what I'm doing, but I firmlybelieve that once you crest that
(12:55):
70% or better of satisfaction,you have found the job that
you're going to love and you'vefound what you're meant to do,
because even at 50-50, 50% ofthe time you love what you do,
50% of the time you hate whatyou do.
You're in a good spot.
But I think society has told usoh, follow your dreams, follow
(13:15):
your passions, do what you love.
But I think society has told us, oh, follow your dreams, follow
your passions, do what you love.
And that's been misinterpretedas do what you love is loving
what you do 100 percent of thetime, and getting out of bed is
not going to be hard for it.
It's going to be very easy.
Every single day You're goingto be jumping for joy and that's
just not reality.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's not reality.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It sounds nice, it's great, it's very easy to sell,
it's very easy to swipe andlisten to and buy into that, but
that's just not reality, likeif you want to be able to have
an income that's going to coveryour bills and live a moderately
stressed life instead of a highstress life, because I also
don't think, you know, the ideaof a stress-free life just
doesn't exist.
There's a reason why there'sshows like the Real Housewives
and all this stuff that followsvery wealthy individuals who are
(14:00):
chock full of stress and dramabecause money does not solve
that, and so backing up a littlebit and just finding something
that gives you a manageablelevel of stress covers the bills
.
You're going to have to do somethings that you don't want to
do and that you don't like to do.
That is part of it.
Whether it's trying to get toyour financial freedom target,
(14:22):
whether it's going to work,going to a family party, hanging
out with friends, there'salways going to be a certain
level of friction as a result ofus being humans, and so I would
take the same approach that wedo in friendship relationships
as you do with your job.
You're your best friend.
(14:44):
It's not because you've neverhad any struggles, it's not
because you've never gonethrough anything.
It's because you've gonethrough things successfully.
You've been able to havestressful moments and you've
gotten past them.
That's what solidified andfirmed up that relationship and
what makes you love it so much.
The same attitude should beapproached when we're talking
about jobs, where it's not thatwe want the easiest job with the
(15:06):
least amount of friction andthe least amount of stress.
It's one that we want thatchallenges us, but that also
allows us to grow as anindividual and learn things
about ourselves, get throughthem, and there's going to be
crappy days.
There's going to be days thatyou want to quit.
There's going to be days inyour best friend relationship
that you're like screw thisperson up, like I'm so done with
(15:27):
this person, I'm cutting themout of my life, and then two
weeks later you have aresponsible conversation about
it.
As adults, you know like, okay,we're both emotional and
overreacting and let's get pastthis.
That's going to happen in thein your work life too.
If you take your bestrelationships and you compare
those to your your work life andyour job, are you approaching
it with the same level of youknow realistic attitude?
(15:49):
Or are you trying to say like,okay, I should have a job that's
going to be perfect all thetime and I'm never going to have
any issues?
If you do, you're going to endup jumping from job to job to
job, because the minutesomething gets tough, you're
going to walk out and you'regoing to want to leave, and then
your ability to get the nextjob is going to become that much
more difficult and that isgoing to then compound into your
financial position where you'regoing to have to take a lower
(16:11):
salary because nobody wants tohire you, because they only
think you're going to be therefor a year or a year and a half
before you leave.
And so now, okay, you take alower salary.
Now your finances are pinchedand your ability to hit your
financial freedom target getsstrained.
There's all these differentlevels that as a society we
don't want to step into theuncomfortable and we're
(16:33):
constantly trying to avoid it.
And the reality is is that,from a financial perspective, if
you want to get to a point offinancial freedom, you're going
to have to go through financialhardships and financial stress
in order to build those skillsand those tools to get to that
level of success that you'relooking for, where things become
less stressful.
(16:54):
And I firmly believe that asyou grow your savings and your
investments, it becomes lessstressful.
Yes, because you have thesafety net, but it's also
because now you know how to getout of those tough situations,
you know how to weather thosestorms.
You know, what timeline it'sgoing to take.
And so, instead of you beingstressed because it's not
(17:15):
happening, now, you know thatit's going to take three to six
months to take.
And so, instead of you beingstressed because it's not
happening, now, you know thatit's going to take three to six
months to take care of thatproblem.
And now, when it takes three tosix months, you're like okay, I
know, this is the process, thisis what we have to go through,
and so a portion of it comesfrom the experience of walking
through that and now knowing thetimelines, how to handle it,
how to get past it, how tohandle the, the objection.
And I just don't think that'sthe attitude that we approach
(17:39):
with these things.
We take the attitude of I wantit now, I want it easy and I
want to stress, free, and that'sjust not realistic clip it.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I mean that was good.
Um, no, that's yeah, that was agreat way of putting it.
I'm not even going to try andadd anything to it.
But, like you said, I mean,yeah, we're black and white,
that's how we're taught to think.
And now the other thing too,not like it's that because we
want that stress-free life.
(18:08):
But I saw one researcher,someone, talking about the brain
, where the brain's a problemsolver.
I mean that's what it's made todo.
So if you don't have problems,it will create problems.
And that's what the housewivesmakes me think of.
(18:29):
And I've seen people that don'twork or you know, or stay at
home and you sometimes look at,like the problems they have and
you're like like really that's aproblem.
So it's funny just because evenas people try to escape the
stress, it's like then you'llstart stressing about the
dumbest little things and noteven realize that, because the
brain just wants to solveproblems.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Right, yeah, that makes sense.
I've definitely experiencedthat myself.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
where you like, you're trying to de-stress your
life and you get to a pointwhere you're like, oh, there's
not a lot of stress.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And then like little stupid stuff is what puts you
over the edge and it's like yeah, I might work tough about that,
it's not really a problem.
But that makes sense that yourbrain is trying to solve.
Your brain is trying to workand you're not giving it
anything to work on.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So yeah, but when you were doing like 10 jobs at once
and it's like the little things, they even bother you.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Well, sometimes.
Sometimes people blow up too,right.
Well, but even from a stancethat you know the statement of
if you want something done, giveit to the busiest person
schedule.
When I have really busy weeks,I get three to four times as
much done as I do on slow weeks,because when I have a slow week
I'm like, oh, I can putz aroundand get this done in 45 minutes
(19:43):
, instead of just getting itdone in 20 because, oh, I can
look, I can follow this littletrail and figure out what what's
going on here, dive a littledeeper into it.
But it's not necessarilyimportant to do those things,
and so you just get distracted.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
But when you know you have a very limited amount of
time to do it, you're going toget it done in that time frame
yeah, well, I just added that innot to take away from the nice
thing justin said, but but, um,yeah, I mean that that was.
I was like that was a goodepisode.
I like that well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Well, it emphasizes the point of the fallacy that if
I get to this financial target,I won't have any stress,
because the minute you removeall stress from your life, your
brain is going to produce it andmake it out of nothing.
So having a certain level ofstress is important and it's not
a bad thing.
It's not something we should betrying to get away from.
(20:34):
We should be getting away fromthe unhealthy, toxic stressors
and making sure that we have theappropriate levels of stress in
there that are allowing us togrow as individuals and build
whatever we're trying to build,whether it's a larger financial
pie that we're a part of,whether it's a bigger family,
better family relationships,whatever the case may be but
(20:56):
your brain is always going to beattacking some sort of stress.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
We hope this helps you on your balance freedom
journey.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Please share your thoughts in the comments section
below.
Until next time, stay balanced.
Welcome to the Balanced Blueprints podcast,
where we discuss the optimaltechniques for finances and
health and then break it down tocreate an individualized and
balanced plan.
I'm your host, justin Gaines,here with my co-host, john
Prober.
In this week's episode, Johnand I discuss what I refer to as
the 10-year gap, as well asother lies that we are told as
youth or just as we go down ourfinancial journey.
(00:23):
We hope you enjoy the episode.
Thank you for listening.
A little bit more of a somberintro than we're used to, but
that is what it is.
It seems like a lot of times weget talking about what sounds
best on paper but isn'tnecessarily achievable.
(00:43):
We're always talking aboutoptimal and our closest way to
get there.
One of the things that Iconstantly talk about with
clients is that a lot of timesthe advice that we get in our
youth or as we start downfinancial journeys, a lot of
times those targets are 10 yearsahead of when they should be.
So I refer to it as a 10-yeargap because you have people who
(01:08):
want to be a millionaire by thetime they're 30, which is highly
unattainable.
People will do it.
It is possible.
It's just the vast majority ofindividuals will not, but with
some planning, some sacrificeand dedication to an investment
journey, doing it by the timeyou're 40 is totally doable.
(01:30):
The other one that falls in thisgap is high school kids being
told that they need to know whatthey do when they turn 17 or 18
.
But then most people don'tactually figure out the career
they want to be in or whatjourney they want to go on until
they're 28, 29, 30, which ispart of the reason why that
million-dollar target gapbecomes an issue as well.
And so I like to tell a lot ofmy clients that whatever
(01:53):
financial plan we're working on,add 10 years to it and that's a
realistic target that's notgoing to cause you a ton of
stress and, at the end of theday, a lot of these financial
targets.
They really shouldn't becausing you a ton of stress
unless you have a lot of baddebts or you're living paycheck
to paycheck because of expenses,or maybe your income's not high
(02:13):
enough.
Those situations are going tobe inherently stressful.
So that's not necessarily whatI'm talking about.
I'm talking about more of thesesituations where we place a
target on something and thenwe're dissatisfied because of
the stress that we're putting onthat target.
Well, if we just added a 10-yearwindow to it, if you were a
millionaire by 30 versus amillionaire by 40, your life's
(02:34):
not going to be significantlyimpacted by that, because you're
still going to work.
If you hit a million at 30 or40, you're still going to
continue to work, because whatelse would you do?
A million dollars isn't enoughto retire on, especially not at
that age.
So you're still going tocontinue to work, because what
else would you do?
A million dollars isn't enoughto retire on, especially not at
that age.
So you're going to have tocontinue to work.
And hitting those investmenttargets at that age isn't isn't
doing much other than causingyou a ton of stress in order for
(02:56):
you to aggressively hit thattarget definitely.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, you see that with fitness stuff too.
I mean, you just put so muchstress and pressure on what you
want to achieve and it's a verylong life.
You forget that this off camera.
(03:26):
But this just popped into mymind too, of like, I'm sure if
at 17 years old, if your onlygoal was to be a millionaire and
you did not care at all whatjob you worked, I I'm sure a ton
of people would be able toachieve that.
But the problem of well, I hatethis job comes in and you keep
switching jobs or looking forother ones, because otherwise
people like we've talked about,if that was your only goal, you
didn't care what work you did,go right into the trades and
(03:48):
you'd be pretty, pretty well off, probably.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
But that actually right now, yeah, going to the
trades and you'd be goldenmaking 30 40 dollars an hour
right, but we run into thatproblem where that's.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's a tough motivator in my mind like I
think it may get people startedor it drives them for a while,
but long term I think that'sthat money motivator itself
usually Like, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
bragging rights.
Is it the ability to say you'rea millionaire, like what is
driving you to want to have thattarget and, a lot of times,
what's actually driving you didthat would be a lot less
stressful, but a lot of timesthe wanting to have a million
dollars comes from, you know.
Maybe they lived a childhoodthat didn't have a ton of
vacations or a ton of thingsthat they could have, and so now
(04:55):
they want to be able to havethat.
So they want to have a milliondollars, because they feel that
that is their point at whichthey can do whatever they want
and they're not going to have tostress about it.
Or there's that other fallacywhere they want to hit that
point and not have to thinkabout money anymore which we
talked about in a previousepisode where that's just not
going to happen.
The way to get to having amillion dollars is by thinking
(05:16):
about money consistently, not ina unhealthy, obsessive kind of
way, but in a healthy, slightlyobsessive kind of way, where
you're tracking it, staying ontop of it, making sure that you
have a balance there.
And so if we can get down tothe root of why do we want to be
at this target, that's going toactually highlight the
(05:37):
insecurities that we have anddetermine why we're trying to
get there.
And then that's going to allowus to back up and determine how
to set our financial journey ina way that'll make us successful
and achieve our actual goals.
Because the number one way youcan debunk somebody saying that
they want the money just to havethe money is okay.
If I could write you a checkfor a million dollars right now,
(05:59):
but you couldn't spend it itcould only go into an investment
account or a bank account wouldyou be satisfied?
If you achieve that goal todayby me writing you a
million-dollar check, would yoube satisfied?
Most people are like no, I'mlike okay, why?
Well, because I can't spend it,I can't do anything with it.
If you had the million dollarsin the bank, what would you do
(06:19):
with it?
And that's another way ofasking why do do you want the
million dollars?
So then you get a mindset wherethey're primed okay, I have a
million dollars in the bank,what am I gonna go do?
I would say, half of the time,people give you answers that
they can achieve on a smallerlevel without having a million
dollars.
It might be a vacation, it mightbe going on a yacht, it might
(06:41):
be a helicopter ride, all thesesorts of things where in their
mind they're thinking about Iwant to own the yacht, I want to
own the helicopter, be able todo it whenever I want, instead
of just paying to go on ahelicopter ride or paying to go
on a yacht trip in the Caribbeanor the Mediterranean Sea,
wherever the case may be.
(07:01):
But you can rent thoseexperiences without having to
own the depreciating asset thatcomes along with that.
So there's other ways toachieve those outlines and I
would say, the other 50% of thetime it comes from wanting the
security, wanting to be able tonot have to stress about money
and not realizing that nothaving to stress about money
(07:23):
comes from having that healthy,slightly obsessive view on
tracking your numbers, being ontop of your budget and making
sure that you have a window foremergencies and, on a day-to-day
basis, you are living belowyour means and not overspending.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's funny too, because my mind goes to I don't
know this for certain, but theconcept of oh, I want to do that
whenever I want, especially alot of the things that people
want to do whenever they want.
I would imagine once you do itonce or twice, they probably
lose a lot of the things thatpeople want to do whenever they
want.
I would imagine once you do itonce or twice, they probably
lose a lot of that likeexcitement.
So it's funny because it's evena better idea of, like, like
(08:04):
you said, go rent it and do itonce.
Like, if you do it once, likethat might get your fix and it's
like, yeah, now you realize,well, you shouldn't have spent
all the money to to do that.
You don't need that type ofmoney to buy those things
whenever you want because, likeyou said, you could rent them.
But yeah, I just think that youcan also find out that you hate
it yeah, that he wants to you.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Take somebody who wants to buy a boat, like for me
for instance, I want to buy aboat.
I really, really want to buy aboat and so I've rented boats.
I've gone on boating trips withfriends and family and love it,
know that I would get a lot ofsatisfaction and joy out of
doing this consistently.
Okay, I should go and buy aboat.
(08:44):
I shouldn't take that off thetable and say I shouldn't go and
buy a boat.
There are plenty of financialreasons why you shouldn't buy a
boat.
But I'm saying, is this a hobbythat I want to put into the
expense categories, onto myincome statement and put the
money into this and enjoy it?
Or is it something I'm going toput a bunch of money into and
I'm going to be like 90% of boatowners who complain about all
(09:06):
the expenses associated with theboat and that's because they
bought a boat without doingtheir research and also aren't
getting the joys andsatisfaction out of it.
I could have gone boating andbeen like, oh fun, but it's kind
of boring.
I'm not really into this, likewhat's the point?
And then in that case I wouldhave spent a couple hundred
dollars renting a boat for a fewhours versus spending tens of
(09:30):
thousands of dollars buying aboat yeah, yeah, and the other
thing I'm getting at too,because I like this scenario of
like, okay, you have a milliondollars in the bank.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
You can't touch it, like you mentioned, because I
think it's a great way to tryand figure out.
If someone's like, what do Iwant to do with my life?
Like that's a good way tofigure it out.
Like, okay, now you can spendit, what would you do and that's
why I kind of mentioned thatbefore, cause it's like, oh, I
would buy a helicopter, I dothis.
It's like I think those arecover up things.
It's like, ok, you can go dothose one, like one time, but I
(10:02):
don't think they're asfulfilling as like what would
you do your entire life?
You know, I mean, if you're 30and you're a millionaire, if
you're 40, you're a millionaire,I don't think you're, unless
you love.
Like some people would want tofly helicopters for a living.
But it's like what do you wantto spend most of your time doing
?
I think that's a good way offinding it out, especially
because I was going to say this,but you already said it.
You know being balanced.
(10:22):
It's like I know people thatknow what they want to do, but
for some reason they're stillfocused on the money and I'm
like, well, like you're, you'realmost more miserable because
you're trying to achieve thistype of money.
But you could go work at thejob you want to work, but it
doesn't make enough money foryou.
I'm like that makes no sense inmy mind.
(10:43):
I was like just go work the jobyou enjoy, save like and do the
nice strategies we've talkedabout in all of these podcasts
of how to save money long term.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Right as long as.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
long as what they want to do will actually cover
the expenses.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, right, as long, as long as what they want to do
will actually cover theexpenses and allow you to not
jeopardize your financialposition?
Yes, I mean that's where youfall into, that you know, your
hobby, your hobby has to, youknow, make you enough to
actually cover your expenses,but that's.
The other thing that I would sayis that's another fallacy that
we get told in our youth is goand do what you love.
And most people that I knowthat have followed their hobbies
(11:19):
into careers now hate theirhobbies.
And it's because once you turninto a job and you have to do it
24 seven, it's no longerenjoyable.
And so you know, both of mybrothers are in that situation
where they followed theirhobbies and they loved what they
did, but now it's 50, 60 hoursa week doing that stuff and it's
(11:40):
just no longer enjoyable.
And so they will.
Both of them will tell you ifyou're looking to figure out
what career you want to go into,line up your hobbies from first
to fifth and don't choose yourtop one.
Choose something between twoand four and don't choose your
(12:12):
top one.
Choose something between twoand four, something that you
enjoy.
But that isn't what you do toget rid of stress and have a
good time.
Don't go after that thing.
Go after the next rung on theladder.
Go after something you enjoythat can.
That, too is job.
Satisfaction isn't talked aboutin a sliding scale.
It's talked about as you eitherlove your job or you hate your
job, instead of a level ofsatisfaction, because I think I
would say that I'm somebodywho's very fortunate and I
absolutely love what I do for aliving.
It's very hard for me topinpoint what that is because I
(12:34):
have several differentbusinesses and so I'm constantly
running around doing differentthings, which I think plays a
role.
But I pinpoint what that isbecause I have several different
businesses and so I'mconstantly running around doing
different things, which I thinkplays a role.
But I love what I do.
But I also would tell you thatI'm at about 65% 75% job
satisfaction.
There's still 25% to 35% of thetime that I absolutely hate
what I'm doing, but I firmlybelieve that once you crest that
(12:55):
70% or better of satisfaction,you have found the job that
you're going to love and you'vefound what you're meant to do,
because even at 50-50, 50% ofthe time you love what you do,
50% of the time you hate whatyou do.
You're in a good spot.
But I think society has told usoh, follow your dreams, follow
(13:15):
your passions, do what you love.
But I think society has told us, oh, follow your dreams, follow
your passions, do what you love.
And that's been misinterpretedas do what you love is loving
what you do 100 percent of thetime, and getting out of bed is
not going to be hard for it.
It's going to be very easy.
Every single day You're goingto be jumping for joy and that's
just not reality.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's not reality.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It sounds nice, it's great, it's very easy to sell,
it's very easy to swipe andlisten to and buy into that, but
that's just not reality, likeif you want to be able to have
an income that's going to coveryour bills and live a moderately
stressed life instead of a highstress life, because I also
don't think, you know, the ideaof a stress-free life just
doesn't exist.
There's a reason why there'sshows like the Real Housewives
and all this stuff that followsvery wealthy individuals who are
(14:00):
chock full of stress and dramabecause money does not solve
that, and so backing up a littlebit and just finding something
that gives you a manageablelevel of stress covers the bills
.
You're going to have to do somethings that you don't want to
do and that you don't like to do.
That is part of it.
Whether it's trying to get toyour financial freedom target,
(14:22):
whether it's going to work,going to a family party, hanging
out with friends, there'salways going to be a certain
level of friction as a result ofus being humans, and so I would
take the same approach that wedo in friendship relationships
as you do with your job.
You're your best friend.
(14:44):
It's not because you've neverhad any struggles, it's not
because you've never gonethrough anything.
It's because you've gonethrough things successfully.
You've been able to havestressful moments and you've
gotten past them.
That's what solidified andfirmed up that relationship and
what makes you love it so much.
The same attitude should beapproached when we're talking
about jobs, where it's not thatwe want the easiest job with the
(15:06):
least amount of friction andthe least amount of stress.
It's one that we want thatchallenges us, but that also
allows us to grow as anindividual and learn things
about ourselves, get throughthem, and there's going to be
crappy days.
There's going to be days thatyou want to quit.
There's going to be days inyour best friend relationship
that you're like screw thisperson up, like I'm so done with
(15:27):
this person, I'm cutting themout of my life, and then two
weeks later you have aresponsible conversation about
it.
As adults, you know like, okay,we're both emotional and
overreacting and let's get pastthis.
That's going to happen in thein your work life too.
If you take your bestrelationships and you compare
those to your your work life andyour job, are you approaching
it with the same level of youknow realistic attitude?
(15:49):
Or are you trying to say like,okay, I should have a job that's
going to be perfect all thetime and I'm never going to have
any issues?
If you do, you're going to endup jumping from job to job to
job, because the minutesomething gets tough, you're
going to walk out and you'regoing to want to leave, and then
your ability to get the nextjob is going to become that much
more difficult and that isgoing to then compound into your
financial position where you'regoing to have to take a lower
(16:11):
salary because nobody wants tohire you, because they only
think you're going to be therefor a year or a year and a half
before you leave.
And so now, okay, you take alower salary.
Now your finances are pinchedand your ability to hit your
financial freedom target getsstrained.
There's all these differentlevels that as a society we
don't want to step into theuncomfortable and we're
(16:33):
constantly trying to avoid it.
And the reality is is that,from a financial perspective, if
you want to get to a point offinancial freedom, you're going
to have to go through financialhardships and financial stress
in order to build those skillsand those tools to get to that
level of success that you'relooking for, where things become
less stressful.
(16:54):
And I firmly believe that asyou grow your savings and your
investments, it becomes lessstressful.
Yes, because you have thesafety net, but it's also
because now you know how to getout of those tough situations,
you know how to weather thosestorms.
You know, what timeline it'sgoing to take.
And so, instead of you beingstressed because it's not
(17:15):
happening, now, you know thatit's going to take three to six
months to take.
And so, instead of you beingstressed because it's not
happening, now, you know thatit's going to take three to six
months to take care of thatproblem.
And now, when it takes three tosix months, you're like okay, I
know, this is the process, thisis what we have to go through,
and so a portion of it comesfrom the experience of walking
through that and now knowing thetimelines, how to handle it,
how to get past it, how tohandle the, the objection.
And I just don't think that'sthe attitude that we approach
(17:39):
with these things.
We take the attitude of I wantit now, I want it easy and I
want to stress, free, and that'sjust not realistic clip it.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I mean that was good.
Um, no, that's yeah, that was agreat way of putting it.
I'm not even going to try andadd anything to it.
But, like you said, I mean,yeah, we're black and white,
that's how we're taught to think.
And now the other thing too,not like it's that because we
want that stress-free life.
(18:08):
But I saw one researcher,someone, talking about the brain
, where the brain's a problemsolver.
I mean that's what it's made todo.
So if you don't have problems,it will create problems.
And that's what the housewivesmakes me think of.
(18:29):
And I've seen people that don'twork or you know, or stay at
home and you sometimes look at,like the problems they have and
you're like like really that's aproblem.
So it's funny just because evenas people try to escape the
stress, it's like then you'llstart stressing about the
dumbest little things and noteven realize that, because the
brain just wants to solveproblems.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Right, yeah, that makes sense.
I've definitely experiencedthat myself.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
where you like, you're trying to de-stress your
life and you get to a pointwhere you're like, oh, there's
not a lot of stress.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And then like little stupid stuff is what puts you
over the edge and it's like yeah, I might work tough about that,
it's not really a problem.
But that makes sense that yourbrain is trying to solve.
Your brain is trying to workand you're not giving it
anything to work on.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So yeah, but when you were doing like 10 jobs at once
and it's like the little things, they even bother you.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Well, sometimes.
Sometimes people blow up too,right.
Well, but even from a stancethat you know the statement of
if you want something done, giveit to the busiest person
schedule.
When I have really busy weeks,I get three to four times as
much done as I do on slow weeks,because when I have a slow week
I'm like, oh, I can putz aroundand get this done in 45 minutes
(19:43):
, instead of just getting itdone in 20 because, oh, I can
look, I can follow this littletrail and figure out what what's
going on here, dive a littledeeper into it.
But it's not necessarilyimportant to do those things,
and so you just get distracted.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
But when you know you have a very limited amount of
time to do it, you're going toget it done in that time frame
yeah, well, I just added that innot to take away from the nice
thing justin said, but but, um,yeah, I mean that that was.
I was like that was a goodepisode.
I like that well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Well, it emphasizes the point of the fallacy that if
I get to this financial target,I won't have any stress,
because the minute you removeall stress from your life, your
brain is going to produce it andmake it out of nothing.
So having a certain level ofstress is important and it's not
a bad thing.
It's not something we should betrying to get away from.
(20:34):
We should be getting away fromthe unhealthy, toxic stressors
and making sure that we have theappropriate levels of stress in
there that are allowing us togrow as individuals and build
whatever we're trying to build,whether it's a larger financial
pie that we're a part of,whether it's a bigger family,
better family relationships,whatever the case may be but
(20:56):
your brain is always going to beattacking some sort of stress.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
We hope this helps you on your balance freedom
journey.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Please share your thoughts in the comments section
below.
Until next time, stay balanced.
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