How to Stop Trading Time for Money and Start Living with Todd Polke

I’m joined by international wealth educator and investor Todd Polke. From broke fitness trainer to thriving global mentor in wealth creation, Todd shares how one pivotal realization completely transformed his path—and how it can shift yours too.

We dive into the difference between working harder vs. smarter, and why building lasting wealth is less about hustle and more about purpose, sovereignty, and intentional design. Todd pulls back the curtain on traditional financial advice and offers empowering new perspectives on how to use money as a tool to create true freedom and legacy.

Whether you're just getting started or already building momentum, this conversation is rich with mindset shifts and practical insights for creating a life you love—on your terms.

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✨ IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:

• Todd’s “aha” moment that changed everything

• How your environment and community impact your financial trajectory

• The myth of trading time for money—and what to do instead

• Why outdated financial advice might be keeping you stuck

• The concept of sovereignty and legacy wealth building

• Taking radical responsibility for your family’s future

• The power of purpose-driven wealth creation

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🧠 ABOUT TODD POLKE:
Todd Polke is a professional investor and international wealth educator with over 20 years of experience helping thousands of clients shift into financial freedom. His work blends modern investing strategies with deeper principles of purpose, legacy, and sovereignty. Todd believes that no one is coming to save you—but that’s the most empowering truth there is.

Get Todd's Book: Escape The Middle 

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📣 Ready to rethink how you create wealth and legacy in your life?

Start your journey of alignment and abundance by joining us inside Manifestation Playground, where we explore money, manifestation, and the tools to create a life you don’t want to retire from. → www.manifestationplayground.ca

💌 Got a takeaway or aha moment from this episode? Reach out to me at: [e-mail]

Keep the conversation going over on Instagram: @manifestationandmoneypodcast

Episode Transcript

Jenni (00:00):
Welcome to the Manifestation and Money Podcast, Todd.

(00:01):
And it set me out on this incredible journey. , of falling in love with the world of investing, not because of the money, but because of the choice and then being able to help , thousands of people over the last two decades be able to do the same
I'd start again about three o'clock in the afternoon and go through at about seven or eight o'clock at night with clients. And what's my whole philosophy of creating success at that stage of my life at the ripe age of 19 years old was this, the harder I work, the more successful I'll become. Don't get me wrong, hard work is a great thing, but if it's your only strategy, it leads to this world called burnout and, , welcome my life.
, but my very first foray into the world of investing was, , I made a decision at 19 years old. I was gonna buy my first property in six months time. Now, . I had a bit of a problem at the time, , I had no bloody money is the reality of the matter. And, but here's what I know and you'll understand this, Jen, is that , when you make a true decision, like not, not a wishy-washy decision, like a true decision where you choose to leave all your excuses and reasons behind you, you can make absolute magic happen.
, as I rebuilt it, again, I fell in love with the world of crypto. I fell in love with the world of business investing. I fell in love with lending strategies. I fell in love with, , I was trading options and shares at the time. And to me. It's never about the asset class itself, it's about the purpose it serves in a portfolio.
Oh yeah, it does. And I love that nugget you dropped in there when you had the epiphany, and I hope listeners are listening to that. Profits over wages. If you can have that shift, that is a game changer when you realize that you don't have to trade your time for dollars and just keep, like you said, working harder until you burn out.
Everyone is right. Now your business may not be doing very well right now, but , if you're honest with your, with some of you listening in, if you're honest with yourself, your business , may not be working right, very well right now, but you do have one. And as soon as we understand that and we put up our CEO cap and we put it on and we start treating our wealth like a business, not 'cause of the money, but 'cause of the choice.
, it just, it's gone. What is your advice for somebody to start to get on the path to wealth creation? Yeah, it's such a good question. It's so good to come back to , the beginning like stages, like where we are, , I dunno if you've had this experience in your life, Jen, , but have you had the experience of evaporating money where money comes into your life, then it magically evaporates?
So here's the way I always think about it. , every time a dollar hits your bank account, give it a plan. Give it a purpose for want of a better word. Give it a job, right? And, , a lot of people, when money comes into their life, it just goes to urgencies. And so it will tend to go to, , the urgent bills that people have to pay.
Month number three, go to 3%. , and don't tell me you can't save 1% of your money, like tell your lies to someone else. It's not true. We all know that we can, even if it's $5, I don't care, tuck $5 away because something magical happens when you do this. . All of a sudden there's, 'cause money attracts money, right?
I am someone who saves money, not, uh, you know, money's just not for me, , or, you know, I'm always broke at the end of the day, or I never have enough money. I dunno where my money goes. And so , we are starting to shift this whole identity construct. But to me, , everyone I start with, if you can do 10%, cool, do it.
Yeah, I love that. Breaking it down for somebody like that who 'cause so easily as human beings, we just like I see with my kids all the time, immediately they can go to, I can't, and then they just shut down like there's no other options.
It's two things. It's knowledge and it's experience, and that's what takes away fear. And so how can we start to learn the language of money and how can we start having a little bit of experience with money, a little bit of experience with investing in a small, easy way, and we start stacking those wins step by step over time.

Todd (00:13):
what you said up before about the economy and stuff, you know, there's been a lot that's happened since the GGFC, , the last 15 years has been a rollercoaster ride when it comes to finances and it's, unfortunately, it's axed a lot of people.
All of a sudden it goes, ah, can I, , that response I get is unbelievable from people all the time. , what can you And Yeah, absolutely. , one of my favorite areas is the world of cryptocurrency. I love it. I love it for many reasons. Not only because I think it's gonna be the fastest growing asset class in the next five years, , but also.
The crypto exchange automatically buys $20 worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum. And, , I set this up three years ago and I haven't touched it. It is just automatic. I just have a rhythm that every month I check in on it, how's it all going? And I show my kids like, here's what we're building and here's what we're doing it for.

Jenni (00:16):
Yeah, that's so true. , we'll reach that bridge when we get there. I think it's cool that your daughter, you're setting her up to kind of take over like the legacy that you started buying your property when you were in your twenties.

Todd (00:17):
that too. Okay, cool. Cool. Great. Awesome, awesome. , and so , I sit there and I look at Australia and I go. Mean Canada is incredibly highly taxed as well. What's your highest marginal tax rate? We're at 47.5%. Are you about similar?
Build to rent. For those who don't know, it'll, , a fund for example, or a developer will build a building or build a complex, not to sell it, but to keep it so they can rent it out to people, right? So that is increasing at a rate of knots in Australia. Also we're seeing that the government has starting to change, like standard tenants tenancy leases from one to two years, to five years to 10 years.
, what's it gonna be like? It's gonna be impossible to get into the real estate market and have your own home. You're gonna be subject to , become a, just a lifetime renter. Then you've got ai, and then you've got Central Bank Digital currencies, and you've got all the other stuff we can talk about.
So we have to understand that your access to information and education right now, you even listening in right now to this type of conversation.
This money doesn't mean this. This is how we should wind up living our life. , we are taught that we go to school and we exchange that we study hards and we get good grades and that we can get outta the workforce and exchange time for money. And you buy a home with a fat mortgage on it and , you get in some debt to buy some things you don't need to impress people you don't really care about.
And then they get stuck. And it's not your fault. We're just not taught anything about money. We're not taught about how to design the life of our dreams and go execute to be able to do it. We're not taught how to create financial freedom. This is why these conversations and podcasts like what you do, Jen, is so important and so we're not taught any of this.
, mashed in together with the blueprint that you need to know. , it took me two years to write. I'm really proud of it. We've been, we've sold about 5,000 copies so far, and we just got started, , about, , a couple of months ago, which is cool. , yeah, it's a really, really powerful thing.
It's a long term game and the more that you start putting one foot in front of the other baby steps, time and time again, , you'll never recognize your life again in five years time. , and that's a beautiful thing. And knowing that wealth and success is a habit, and because it's a habit, it's about the small things, not about the big things.
The more that we can optimize our life towards this outcome that we want to live, what, whatever that is for you, that version of freedom that is for you. , and then be intentional what we do rather than just random and just leave our life to chance. , your life will just change before your eyes.