November 1, 2023 • 13 mins
Ever wondered how someone could go from financial zero to millionaire status? Brace yourself for an insightful journey into my life, where I started with nothing and now have over a million in investable assets. This episode is packed with my personal experiences, strategies, and tips that will help you secure your financial future. I'll share how I maximized my job's sponsored retirement plan, invested wisely in the stock market, rebuilt my credit from scratch, and managed to get a low-interest rate on my car loan and first investment property.
Retirement can either be a dream come true or a nightmare, and your financial choices today have a significant say in this. Focusing on the key choices you need to make today leads to a comfortable tomorrow. Whether you're just starting out or trying to get back on track, you'll find this episode packed with valuable lessons that can guide you towards financial advancement and a secure retirement. So, buckle up and let's navigate this journey together.
Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Mindset Podcast with George Dines.
To connect with George visit www.georgedines.com
To Schedule a call with George visit: https://georgedines.com/contact/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Common Sense Millionaire, where we
work to promote your financialadvancement in knowledge process
and education so that you andyour family become financially
secure.
This is the place I shareCommon Sense Action Steps that
you can take today to assistyour financial advancement.
So sit back, grab a drink andlet's get started.
(00:23):
Common Sense Millionaire here.
Hope you all are doing well outthere and we're back to
continue our series on how doyou get to that millionaire
status or just simply advanceyour financial opportunities for
yourself and your family.
One of the biggest questionsI've been getting is because I
(00:43):
kind of freely talk about how Iwent from nothing to a million
plus in investable assets.
Now a lot of folks are like,well, you must have had some
help or something like that.
I was like no, so let's justget this clear when I first
started moving in this direction, I had absolutely nothing.
(01:03):
I had a disastrous financialsituation and I actually moved
to another city, which was myhome city, and came back
starting with nothing.
So, in order to avoid what Ihad been through in the past, I
decided you know what, you needto sit down and look at what's
(01:25):
going on with your planning andhow are you going to shape your
financial activities and actionsto match that.
Starting from nothing wasrelatively easy.
I had no credit card debt.
I had no other long-term debt.
I was lucky enough not to havestudent loan debt.
So I immediately went to my joband the first thing I did was
(01:51):
to maximize my withholding forthe sponsored retirement plan.
So the amount I think back inthe day was probably around
$18,000 a year.
So that was all on a pre-taxbasis.
So I just maximized that andsaid whenever I would get a
raise, instead of actuallytaking the cash, I would put the
(02:15):
raise amount into an additionalcontribution to make sure I
always maxed out.
Second thing was you alwayshave choices in these types of
plans as to how are you going toinvest the money.
I just said I just need to dosomething simple that almost
anyone can understand, and thatI was not going to look at these
(02:38):
choices because I knew I wasmaking a 20-30 year investment.
So what I did was I justinvested in the wide stock
market itself and just let itroll.
Basically, when the statementscame in, a lot of times I didn't
open them because I didn't wantto see that I might have money
(03:00):
that I could get to in some way,and that was very, very
important to me.
The second thing I did was justto make sure that I had to
rebuild my credit.
So I wanted to make sure thatmy credit was going to be okay
in the future, because I wantedto make a home purchase and at
(03:24):
some point I knew I was going tohave to purchase a car and
there was no way that I wasgoing to be able to do that
because my credit was so poorthat the rate I would have
received would have been onerousfor anyone.
And I've seen so many peopleget caught up in car debt where
they're paying ridiculousinterest rates because they're
(03:45):
such a high risk.
So, believe it or not, it'seasy when you start from zero.
So to rebuild my credit, Istarted with one of these crazy
cards where you had to put adeposit down.
So I put $500 down and thatgave me $500 to spend.
So every time I would spend it,I would, of course, repay it to
(04:07):
keep that $500 balance.
Again, I had no credit, nobodywas going to ever give me a loan
, and I just used my commonsense principles to build the
credit Okay and over time, as Igot rid of that card and I got
other cards that gave me higherlimits, on the same premise that
(04:32):
I would have to make a depositand then also pay it off as I
Used that credit for variousitems.
Now there's a lot of negativityaround those types of cards,
but the negativity is becausemost people can't manage that
and you have to make up yourmind what you want to do and
(04:52):
when you want to be 20 yearsfrom now and we'll get to that
shortly as to why you have tothink about that.
So then, moving forward, IDecided I need to go back to
school.
I went back to school and Ipaid it with another credit card
when I charged tuition, andthen I was using the money from
(05:14):
my job and savings to pay thatcard off, and Over about four
years, I was able to ditch thosecredit cards and get a normal
credit card where I had areasonable interest rate and
reasonable limit and Continue tojust turn that over.
(05:35):
So I would use the credit cardto purchase something.
I would use my cash to pay itoff.
So I continued to follow thatprocess until my credit score
increased enough that I was ableto get a Regular credit card
which is like a regular card,mastercard from a known bank or
(05:57):
from my credit union.
So my score just keptincreasing.
Now what's what's the benefitof that credit score increasing
at the end of the day?
Well, you know, let's go to the, the present future, as you
want to call it.
When I got my Car loan, when Ifinally was able to to buy a car
that I really wanted Okay, mycredit Score helped me get a
(06:22):
really low interest rate.
My most recent car purchase, Ihad a interest rate of 1.74%
From my credit union.
That was attached to my job.
You know, right now, we allknow currently Interest rates
for cars are ridiculous.
They're in the 7 8% and a lotof people are paying $1,000 a
(06:46):
month for a car.
I'm not trying to do that.
I'm trying to get whatever I'mgoing to purchase as low as
possible.
So I have to maintain my creditscore to make sure that happens
.
Now I wanted to buy a home.
That was a little bit moredifficult because I was still a
little concerned about my creditscore and how that was going to
(07:06):
impact on buying.
The house Didn't turn out thatbad.
I was able to get a wonderfulloan and bought my first
investment property for about ahundred thousand dollars and
Proceeded very quickly to rentthat out, had there for a few
years with a renter and actuallysold that property For a pretty
(07:27):
significant profit that I wasable to walk away with to do
some other things.
All of that's happening whilemy money is automatically going
into my retirement fund andincreasing each year because of
the upward flow of the market.
A Lot of people down the roadgot really scared.
(07:50):
It was around 2008 and we hadthe financial crisis and a lot
of people I knew we're actuallytrying to move their assets out
of retirement funds because thestock market was collapsing, not
in the way of a greatdepression, but there was
significant reduction in thevalue of assets tied to the
(08:12):
stock market.
I Looked at that and said look,I'm 20 years out, 15 years out,
this can write itself.
So, instead of selling theassets, I doubled down, made
sure I maxed out my contributionI and kept everything where it
was.
Remember, when the price of aninvestment goes down, you can
(08:38):
typically buy more of it.
So that's what happened with meJust let it ride and let it go.
Very simple situation, verysimple way to solve that Because
, remember, you're looking at a20 plus year horizon before you
have to retire.
Of course, as you get closer toretirement age, you make
(09:00):
adjustments in that portfolio toensure that, if there's a
sudden shock, you're not wipedout.
Why is this so important?
One of the most interestingthings is that the Federal
Reserve actively tracksretirement investments by
individuals.
(09:20):
In 2019, if you're from the ageof 65 to 74, the average
investment account has $426,000in it.
If your 75 years are over, it'sabout $358,000.
Now, that may sound great, buthow long is that really going to
(09:45):
last you in retirement?
This is also brought out by aFederal Reserve study that
showed that most people in theUnited States don't have $400
for a cash emergency.
So what this tells you is thatthe folk who have investment
accounts is skewed.
(10:06):
It's skewed towards either highearners that have made
investments, and then it's alsolow earners who have absolutely
nothing.
This is why I decided 20 yearsbefore all of this I was not
going out like that and I wasgoing to put away as much as
possible.
(10:26):
Sometimes, when you make thatdecision, people are going to be
talking.
There's going to be chitter,chatter going on about why are
you doing this.
It doesn't make any sense.
Why are you putting all of yourmoney in the stock market?
Well, there's a historicalanalysis that showed that
typically the market increasesabout 10 percent a year, and
(10:47):
also that takes into accountwhen we've had depressions and
other fluctuations anddevaluation of the market.
You've got to get past that.
You can't listen to the chitterchatter.
You've got to figure out how toget the facts.
So that means you either haveto do work on your own to make
sure that you understand this oryou engage with a professional
(11:11):
who can do that.
Honestly, the only reason I gotan MBA is because I wanted to
understand investments.
I took every investment classthat I could, everything dealing
with asset valuation.
I wanted to make sure that Iwas moving in the right
direction, at the same time alsounderstanding what alternatives
(11:31):
exist that can promote theincrease in the valuation of
your assets.
Again, if you don't get it, ifyou're not in the market, if
you're not investing for yourown retirement, you need to step
up.
You need to get with someonewho can help you.
If you need to contact acommon-sense millionaire, feel
(11:52):
free to do that.
If you have anotherprofessional, feel free to do
that.
But you've got to take actionbecause if you still have a
20-year window, you still havean opportunity, as long as you
make your own opportunity anddon't listen to the naysayers
who are going to tell you thatyou can't do it.
You also have choices to make.
Do you need to buy some of thestuff that you got?
(12:14):
Do you need designer clothes?
Do you need fancy shoes?
Do you need a fancy car?
It's not going to help you.
A lot of people think I'm nuts.
I drive a small Lexus MiniatureSUV and people are like why are
you driving that?
You could get something.
No, I've been there and donethat and I'm not doing that
(12:36):
anymore because I want toadvance to make sure that I have
a comfortable future inretirement.
Most people are not going tohave an opportunity to retire.
We all see what happens.
We all have seen the 75,80-year-old folk serving as a
greeter at Walmart or strugglingthrough other types of jobs
(13:00):
because they have no way to payfor what they need.
This is a very unfortunatething.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to really offer you an
opportunity.
Feel free to contact us If youneed some guidance.
We'll be glad to help.
I'll be glad to help.
I can steer you in the rightdirection.
(13:21):
That's what you have to do ifyou want to make it.
Thanks,
Welcome to the Common Sense Millionaire, where we
work to promote your financialadvancement in knowledge process
and education so that you andyour family become financially
secure.
This is the place I shareCommon Sense Action Steps that
you can take today to assistyour financial advancement.
So sit back, grab a drink andlet's get started.
(00:23):
Common Sense Millionaire here.
Hope you all are doing well outthere and we're back to
continue our series on how doyou get to that millionaire
status or just simply advanceyour financial opportunities for
yourself and your family.
One of the biggest questionsI've been getting is because I
(00:43):
kind of freely talk about how Iwent from nothing to a million
plus in investable assets.
Now a lot of folks are like,well, you must have had some
help or something like that.
I was like no, so let's justget this clear when I first
started moving in this direction, I had absolutely nothing.
(01:03):
I had a disastrous financialsituation and I actually moved
to another city, which was myhome city, and came back
starting with nothing.
So, in order to avoid what Ihad been through in the past, I
decided you know what, you needto sit down and look at what's
(01:25):
going on with your planning andhow are you going to shape your
financial activities and actionsto match that.
Starting from nothing wasrelatively easy.
I had no credit card debt.
I had no other long-term debt.
I was lucky enough not to havestudent loan debt.
So I immediately went to my joband the first thing I did was
(01:51):
to maximize my withholding forthe sponsored retirement plan.
So the amount I think back inthe day was probably around
$18,000 a year.
So that was all on a pre-taxbasis.
So I just maximized that andsaid whenever I would get a
raise, instead of actuallytaking the cash, I would put the
(02:15):
raise amount into an additionalcontribution to make sure I
always maxed out.
Second thing was you alwayshave choices in these types of
plans as to how are you going toinvest the money.
I just said I just need to dosomething simple that almost
anyone can understand, and thatI was not going to look at these
(02:38):
choices because I knew I wasmaking a 20-30 year investment.
So what I did was I justinvested in the wide stock
market itself and just let itroll.
Basically, when the statementscame in, a lot of times I didn't
open them because I didn't wantto see that I might have money
(03:00):
that I could get to in some way,and that was very, very
important to me.
The second thing I did was justto make sure that I had to
rebuild my credit.
So I wanted to make sure thatmy credit was going to be okay
in the future, because I wantedto make a home purchase and at
(03:24):
some point I knew I was going tohave to purchase a car and
there was no way that I wasgoing to be able to do that
because my credit was so poorthat the rate I would have
received would have been onerousfor anyone.
And I've seen so many peopleget caught up in car debt where
they're paying ridiculousinterest rates because they're
(03:45):
such a high risk.
So, believe it or not, it'seasy when you start from zero.
So to rebuild my credit, Istarted with one of these crazy
cards where you had to put adeposit down.
So I put $500 down and thatgave me $500 to spend.
So every time I would spend it,I would, of course, repay it to
(04:07):
keep that $500 balance.
Again, I had no credit, nobodywas going to ever give me a loan
, and I just used my commonsense principles to build the
credit Okay and over time, as Igot rid of that card and I got
other cards that gave me higherlimits, on the same premise that
(04:32):
I would have to make a depositand then also pay it off as I
Used that credit for variousitems.
Now there's a lot of negativityaround those types of cards,
but the negativity is becausemost people can't manage that
and you have to make up yourmind what you want to do and
(04:52):
when you want to be 20 yearsfrom now and we'll get to that
shortly as to why you have tothink about that.
So then, moving forward, IDecided I need to go back to
school.
I went back to school and Ipaid it with another credit card
when I charged tuition, andthen I was using the money from
(05:14):
my job and savings to pay thatcard off, and Over about four
years, I was able to ditch thosecredit cards and get a normal
credit card where I had areasonable interest rate and
reasonable limit and Continue tojust turn that over.
(05:35):
So I would use the credit cardto purchase something.
I would use my cash to pay itoff.
So I continued to follow thatprocess until my credit score
increased enough that I was ableto get a Regular credit card
which is like a regular card,mastercard from a known bank or
(05:57):
from my credit union.
So my score just keptincreasing.
Now what's what's the benefitof that credit score increasing
at the end of the day?
Well, you know, let's go to the, the present future, as you
want to call it.
When I got my Car loan, when Ifinally was able to to buy a car
that I really wanted Okay, mycredit Score helped me get a
(06:22):
really low interest rate.
My most recent car purchase, Ihad a interest rate of 1.74%
From my credit union.
That was attached to my job.
You know, right now, we allknow currently Interest rates
for cars are ridiculous.
They're in the 7 8% and a lotof people are paying $1,000 a
(06:46):
month for a car.
I'm not trying to do that.
I'm trying to get whatever I'mgoing to purchase as low as
possible.
So I have to maintain my creditscore to make sure that happens
.
Now I wanted to buy a home.
That was a little bit moredifficult because I was still a
little concerned about my creditscore and how that was going to
(07:06):
impact on buying.
The house Didn't turn out thatbad.
I was able to get a wonderfulloan and bought my first
investment property for about ahundred thousand dollars and
Proceeded very quickly to rentthat out, had there for a few
years with a renter and actuallysold that property For a pretty
(07:27):
significant profit that I wasable to walk away with to do
some other things.
All of that's happening whilemy money is automatically going
into my retirement fund andincreasing each year because of
the upward flow of the market.
A Lot of people down the roadgot really scared.
(07:50):
It was around 2008 and we hadthe financial crisis and a lot
of people I knew we're actuallytrying to move their assets out
of retirement funds because thestock market was collapsing, not
in the way of a greatdepression, but there was
significant reduction in thevalue of assets tied to the
(08:12):
stock market.
I Looked at that and said look,I'm 20 years out, 15 years out,
this can write itself.
So, instead of selling theassets, I doubled down, made
sure I maxed out my contributionI and kept everything where it
was.
Remember, when the price of aninvestment goes down, you can
(08:38):
typically buy more of it.
So that's what happened with meJust let it ride and let it go.
Very simple situation, verysimple way to solve that Because
, remember, you're looking at a20 plus year horizon before you
have to retire.
Of course, as you get closer toretirement age, you make
(09:00):
adjustments in that portfolio toensure that, if there's a
sudden shock, you're not wipedout.
Why is this so important?
One of the most interestingthings is that the Federal
Reserve actively tracksretirement investments by
individuals.
(09:20):
In 2019, if you're from the ageof 65 to 74, the average
investment account has $426,000in it.
If your 75 years are over, it'sabout $358,000.
Now, that may sound great, buthow long is that really going to
(09:45):
last you in retirement?
This is also brought out by aFederal Reserve study that
showed that most people in theUnited States don't have $400
for a cash emergency.
So what this tells you is thatthe folk who have investment
accounts is skewed.
(10:06):
It's skewed towards either highearners that have made
investments, and then it's alsolow earners who have absolutely
nothing.
This is why I decided 20 yearsbefore all of this I was not
going out like that and I wasgoing to put away as much as
possible.
(10:26):
Sometimes, when you make thatdecision, people are going to be
talking.
There's going to be chitter,chatter going on about why are
you doing this.
It doesn't make any sense.
Why are you putting all of yourmoney in the stock market?
Well, there's a historicalanalysis that showed that
typically the market increasesabout 10 percent a year, and
(10:47):
also that takes into accountwhen we've had depressions and
other fluctuations anddevaluation of the market.
You've got to get past that.
You can't listen to the chitterchatter.
You've got to figure out how toget the facts.
So that means you either haveto do work on your own to make
sure that you understand this oryou engage with a professional
(11:11):
who can do that.
Honestly, the only reason I gotan MBA is because I wanted to
understand investments.
I took every investment classthat I could, everything dealing
with asset valuation.
I wanted to make sure that Iwas moving in the right
direction, at the same time alsounderstanding what alternatives
(11:31):
exist that can promote theincrease in the valuation of
your assets.
Again, if you don't get it, ifyou're not in the market, if
you're not investing for yourown retirement, you need to step
up.
You need to get with someonewho can help you.
If you need to contact acommon-sense millionaire, feel
(11:52):
free to do that.
If you have anotherprofessional, feel free to do
that.
But you've got to take actionbecause if you still have a
20-year window, you still havean opportunity, as long as you
make your own opportunity anddon't listen to the naysayers
who are going to tell you thatyou can't do it.
You also have choices to make.
Do you need to buy some of thestuff that you got?
(12:14):
Do you need designer clothes?
Do you need fancy shoes?
Do you need a fancy car?
It's not going to help you.
A lot of people think I'm nuts.
I drive a small Lexus MiniatureSUV and people are like why are
you driving that?
You could get something.
No, I've been there and donethat and I'm not doing that
(12:36):
anymore because I want toadvance to make sure that I have
a comfortable future inretirement.
Most people are not going tohave an opportunity to retire.
We all see what happens.
We all have seen the 75,80-year-old folk serving as a
greeter at Walmart or strugglingthrough other types of jobs
(13:00):
because they have no way to payfor what they need.
This is a very unfortunatething.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to really offer you an
opportunity.
Feel free to contact us If youneed some guidance.
We'll be glad to help.
I'll be glad to help.
I can steer you in the rightdirection.
(13:21):
That's what you have to do ifyou want to make it.
Thanks,
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