Episode Transcript
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Chris Hawkins (00:00):
So you've started
your journey and it seems like
one roadblock after anotherseems to always find itself into
your life.
Maybe you're trying to figureout how to budget and it seems
like nothing but obstaclesappear in your way.
Maybe you're trying to get outof debt and it seems like Murphy
(00:21):
always visits and you alwaysfind yourself having to use that
emergency fund, and it seemslike you keep spending your
wills and you say to yourselfhow does anybody ever get out of
debt?
How does anybody ever fix theirfinances?
It seems like nothing buttrouble follows me everywhere I
go.
Well, what if I told you that'snormal?
What if I told you that I wentthrough probably hundreds of
(00:45):
obstacles on my journey?
What if I told you thateverybody out there who fixed
their financial problems, wholives a more peaceful financial
life well, yes, they had to gothrough financial obstacles as
well.
Let's talk about that today andhow you might just change your
mindset a little bit more sothat you can overcome obstacles
(01:11):
when they appear.
This is the Debt-Free DadPodcast, where we help normal,
everyday people like you takecontrol of your finances so you
can live a happier, lessstressful life.
My name is Chris Hawkins and Iwill be your host for today's
episode.
From 2005 to 2008, my wife and Ipaid off just under $100,000 in
(01:35):
debt, and we've been debt-freeexcept for our house now for
over 15 years.
So now that I've gave you alittle bit of an introduction
into my story, I want to go wayback until about 2002, 2003.
And I wanted to improve myfinancial life, and I knew that
my wife and I we made decentmoney, but it just didn't seem
(01:58):
like we had a whole lot to showfor it.
We had a negative net worth.
Yes, negative net worth meanswe owed more money than the
assets that we owned were worthand I tried to do something
about my finances.
And I had worked for a fairlywell known fast food restaurant
(02:19):
here in the south, and it was acash based business and and I
was a manager, and every day Ihad to account for all of the
money in and all the money out,and so they had a certain
accounting system that theyfollowed.
I decided to follow that samesystem on my own personal
finances.
I mean, here, after all, was acompany that was completely out
(02:42):
of debt.
They dealt completely in cashat the time and I thought, well,
if it works for them it'll workfor me, no, no, trying every
day to sit down, keep receipts,make copies of them, staple them
to a piece of paper that wasall the bank transactions for
that day, put them in a notebookToo much trouble, too much
(03:04):
worth.
And I found after about threeor four months I gave up.
So fast forward about anotheryear, and I guess I didn't learn
from my mistakes because Ithought okay, let's try this
again.
New Year's resolution sameprocess, same results.
Too cumbersome, too much work,and I gave up on it.
(03:27):
So fast forward again to 2005,and I'll spare you all the
details.
But I found myself facing afairly large debt that I had
about nine months to come upwith the money to pay off.
This was a personal loan I hadto deal with a failed business.
I had just drawn a line in thesand and I said I am going to
(03:47):
find a way to come up with thismoney.
And so I sat down and I came upwith a game plan and I showed
it to my wife and she got onboard.
We started attacking this thingand as part of that whole
process, this time I realized Ihad to do something different,
that the system I had used inthe past was what led to me
giving up.
(04:08):
This time I decided I was goingto do some reading.
I was going to listen to someaudio books and there were a lot
of books about money out thereand you've heard me talk about
this on this podcast, my lovefor reading and there were a lot
of books out there about how tomanage money.
There were also a lot of booksout there about behaviors, about
(04:28):
mindset, that didn't haveanything to do with money, but
there just so happened to be onebook that I came across that
was being launched at the time.
That was about both money andmindset.
What I learned from readingthat book was not only a process
or a series of simple stepsvery much like what Brad teaches
(04:49):
here in the Roots of PersonalFinance course a series of
simple steps but also stories ofpeople who had overcome, for a
variety of obstacles that hadcome up during their journey.
And what I learned from thatbook was it doesn't have to be
overly complicated, you can keepit simple, but that there were
other people just like me whoalso had to overcome obstacles,
(05:13):
who also, maybe multiple times,had stopped and decided to
restart the process again.
And so this began a big journeyfor me to continue to learn
more about money what did otherpeople have to say about money?
But also to read more aboutmindset, even if the book didn't
have anything to do with money.
And I came across a book calledthe Go-Getter.
(05:34):
It's an early 20th century goodgracious, maybe even over a
hundred years old at this pointand it's about a disabled
veteran who really wants to goto work and he convinces the
owner of a business to just givehim a shot, and he does well
enough that over time, the bossconsiders him for a promotion.
(05:58):
And so the boss wants to seethis employee who he thinks
might be worthy of a promotion.
He wants to see how resourcefulhe can be, how well will he
overcome obstacles can be, howwell will he overcome obstacles,
(06:18):
how determined is he in himself, how much does he believe in
himself.
And so the boss gives thispotential, this employee who's
he's potentially thinking aboutgiving a promotion to basically
an impossible task.
You see, the task has been setup from the very beginning by
the owner as being an obstaclecourse, not of physical nature,
(06:38):
not necessarily mental, but moreof determination.
It's an obstacle course thatthe owner has set up where it's
basically you're going to fail,and it's called the story of the
blue vase.
You can Google it, it's apretty popular story.
And so the owner gives thisemployee the task of going and
(06:59):
finding a particular blue vaseand delivering it to him at a
specific location, at a specifictime, a couple of days down the
road.
And of course the owner has setthis game up where there's so
many obstacles that his employeegoes out there and he begins to
try to go find this blue vasewith very little information.
(07:21):
And all along the way and Iwon't ruin the story by giving
you the whole details but alongthe way he comes up against an
impossible obstacle and justthrough sheer determination,
through sheer will, byrecognizing that there has to be
a solution, there has to be away, and in fact I think the
(07:41):
character always says throughthe story it shall be done.
That's something he had learnedin the military but before
becoming disabled it shall bedone, it shall be done.
And he just kept tellinghimself it shall be done.
And anytime an obstacle came inhis way he just found a
resourceful way to overcome theobstacle.
And it wasn't easy, but ofcourse human nature says all
(08:02):
right, I just got past that.
All right, it should be easyselling from this point forward.
Well, no, remember, the ownerhas set this obstacle course up,
this task to basically beimpossible.
And so another obstacle.
And he has to be resourcefuland determined and not give up
and think of different ways toaccomplish the task and not give
up and think of different waysto accomplish the task.
(08:24):
Well, after about it seems like10 of these big obstacles put
in his way, he's able to deliverthe blue vase to his owner, to
his boss, at the right time, atthe right place, and so what
he's done is he has proven hisworthiness to the boss.
And you say no, Chris.
What does this got to do withpersonal finance?
(08:45):
Well, it's a story about howobstacles are always going to
come in our way.
Sometimes they're of our owndoing, sometimes they're just
outside forces, sometimes it'sjust the way our society works,
and it's really easy just togive up.
It's real easy to say it can'tbe done.
But I want you to rememberthose words it shall be done.
(09:07):
And when an obstacle comes inyour way, sometimes it requires
looking for a different solution, thinking differently.
You hear me talk about that alot.
What's a different way toaccomplish the task?
I'm not going to let myneighbor, I'm not going to let
my family, I'm not going to letmy friend, I'm not going to let
my coworker tell me it can't bedone.
I'm not going to let them laughat me and tell me that my
(09:27):
journey is stupid or that myjourney is just it's
unfulfilling, that there'snothing at the end of that road.
No, you're going to keeplooking, because you've got the
it shall be done mindset.
Now you have your blue vase,you have your why.
You have your goals in life.
Whatever it is that you'retrying to accomplish.
Maybe it's just trying to getthat emergency fund right now.
(09:49):
Maybe it's trying to figure outhow to budget.
Every month it seems likesomething new comes in and
you're like why can't I get this?
Remember, those are justobstacles in your way.
Learn from them, try somethingdifferent and eventually you'll
figure out your way around thatobstacle.
It's sort of like playing avideo game as a kid, or even
heck, as adults.
(10:09):
You sit down and you play avideo game for the very first
time and it seems like you loseyour three lives 10 seconds into
the game, but you keep playingit for months and months and
months.
The next thing you know youfind yourself all the way at the
end of level nine, beating thevillain.
All right, my point there isyou will learn.
(10:32):
You just have to keep playingthe game.
You have to keep tryingsomething different.
You've got to keep talking tomentors, reading books, which
was big for me.
Listening to podcasts like this,listening to the success
stories, that's a big key.
Brad does a great job on thispodcast of interviewing people
(10:56):
who have been where you're at,and if you will listen to their
stories, you'll start to hearsome common themes there, and
every one of them are going totell you yeah, obstacles came up
.
Sure, there were lots of timesI wanted to quit.
They may not use these words,but they're going to basically
tell you that they had to bedetermined, they had to be
resilient, they had to believein themselves.
(11:17):
And in the back of their mind,whether they use these words or
not, they kept saying it shallbe done.
And so what I want you to knowis that you're not alone out
there.
You're not the first person orthe only person to ever have
roadblocks put up in yourfinancial journey.
They're going to occur and youhave to stay steadfast, you have
to believe in yourself, youhave to know what it is that
(11:37):
you're trying to accomplish andif you will, over time, keep
trying, keep trying, keepfiguring things out Over time,
you're going to win and you'regoing to find your version of
the blue vase, and that's goingto be financial peace.
And that journey is going to beso worth it, because so very few
(11:57):
people are able to get out ofdebt and I'm fortunate that I'm
one of them and I hope that you,on your journey, have the
resolve that nothing, nothing isgoing to keep you from getting
out of debt, from buildingwealth, from allowing you to
accomplish whatever it is thatyou want to accomplish, and that
(12:19):
journey, as difficult as it canbe, is going to be so worth it.
And you're going to look backand you're going to actually be
proud of all the tough momentsthat you had to overcome.
So learn to adopt the it shallbe done mentality.
Learn the story of the bluevase from the book the go-getter
, and if you'll do that, I thinkyou will find, over time, great
(12:42):
success.
Brad Nelson (12:44):
Now listen, if
you're ready to break free from
living paycheck to paycheckwhich, if you're listening, I
hope you are.
You want to reduce financialstress.
You want to build savings.
You want to finally pay offdebt for good, but you're not
sure where to get started.
Don't worry, We've got youcovered here at Debt Free Dad.
Simplify my Money is sent eachSunday to your email.
We make it easy and Simplify myMoney.
It's your step-by-step roadmapto better financial control, and
(13:07):
you're also going to learneasy-to-follow strategies to
manage your money effectively.
You're going to get stress-freemoney decisions that will help
you simplify your financial lifewith proven tips that actually
work.
You're also going to gain thetools and the confidence to
tackle your financial goalshead-on.
You can sign up for Simplify myMoney by clicking the link at
the top of the show notes.
Thanks for joining us ontoday's show and we will see you
(13:29):
guys on the next episode.