The Next Generation of Finance – Episode 069

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[00:00] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast, fresh alternative personal finance talk for independent thinkers who prosper outside of Wall Street. Here’s your host, bestselling author, Kim D.H. Butler, and No BS Money Guy, Todd Strobel. Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the Prosperity Podcast. This is No BS Money Guy, Todd Strobel, and instead of my usual co-host, which is financial author, Kim Butler, we are actually going to have Kim’s son, Robby Butler, who, Robby is currently 19 years old, he’s a sophomore in college, and he’s studying business, particularly finance, and each generation tends to bring their own viewpoints and contributions to this world. So, you know, pretty much we’re handing the keys over to Robby and his generation to

[00:54] make sure that, well, hopefully they make better decisions than we did when I was his age, quite frankly. But we want to learn how they think and what they see and what they feel is coming up in the future. So I am so excited about this interview. Welcome, Robby. Thank you very much. I’m happy to be here. We’re definitely, we’re getting handed the keys, but just because I’m studying finance doesn’t mean that I know much yet. So definitely looking to learn still. One of the things that we’ve discussed on the show that you probably haven’t heard, but the way that you handle your finances and the way that you view the world is pretty much set by the time you are age six. Have you ever heard that

[01:38] before? I don’t think so. So I think that’s pretty exciting in that there are habits and thoughts kind of built in with your perception that is quite different with having a mom that is a financial bestselling author. How many times does financial topics come up in your household? Well, it comes up all the time. That’s for sure. I definitely get to get to pay attention when I want to, but only in recent years have I really realized that it’s important and then I need to be paying attention. I need to know what I’m listening to and understand a little bit, but ever since I was probably eight, we probably started talking about it, saving the importance of money in general, of paying attention to what I’m doing

[02:25] with mine. So it’s been there. That in itself is a change to tradition because typically we tend to really hide financial topics, feeling that we are somehow or another protecting our children and insulating them by sending them out into the world with absolutely no financial preparedness. And it sounds like you’re getting that quite a bit at home. Most of us probably experienced pretty much the same thing at the educational level. How do you feel that our current educational system, you’re a sophomore in college, you can talk about high school, college, whatever, how has that helped to prepare you to go out into the world and handle money? Goodness. Well, I was actually looking at my tax returns last night with my mom and realizing

[03:17] that I’ve got 10 pieces of paper here and I have no idea what nine of them say. And so I think our current educational systems has so much room to improve on what it’s teaching us about our money because as I was leaving my high school, they were just beginning to have some kind of personal finance class that taught you about what it means to save, what it means to invest. And that was just coming in as I was leaving high school. And so I think my educational system didn’t push that forward to me as much as my parents did. But I mean, we spend six hours a day at school for the first 18 years of our lives. And then most of us spend much more than that afterwards. But so if we’re not learning about

[04:06] money, then when are we going to learn about it? It’d have to be at home. But if you don’t spend it at home either, then you’re kind of in trouble when you turn 22 and graduate college. Well, even if you back up a few years and you turn 18 and you face going to college, there’s kind of an automatic debt button there that I can see where most people just really don’t contemplate the impact of coming out of college or maybe even not in completing college with a six-figure debt level. Do many of your friends discuss that at all? Definitely. And I’ve got friends across the, you know, across the, you know, I guess the tax bracket in a way who have very wealthy parents and who have no wealth and who are very conscious of the debt they’re accumulating. And some who are like, what do

[04:54] you mean I’m spending money to come here? So I’ve got friends that are across the board in all of it. And for those of them who are aware of it, I think a lot of them face a lot of fear as, you know, even as they’re in college, like, well, you know, Christmas break’s coming up, I got to pick up some hours at, you know, at the restaurant that I work at so that, you know, so that I’m prepared for Christmas and that I’m still paying off my college debt while I’m gone for five weeks. You know, it breeds a lot of fear for a lot of my friends because, you know, because they don’t know what’s going to happen next. And they feel like, you know, they’re trying to grab everything they can as they go in order to face that

[05:31] storm that’s brewing. Super. And I mean, that’s a lot of pressure and, you know, to start out going into the job market for the first time and facing that. Here’s another question that we’re going to get into a little bit of politics here. The role of government in our everyday financial lives, are they doing what they should or what do you think? I think that, like you said in one of my mom’s podcasts recently, that no one’s going to care about our money as much as we do. And so to have a government that’s taking care of 300 million people, also trying to take care of every person’s individual finances is never going to be as good as each of our own responsibility to ourselves. If they’re doing what they need to now, you know, I guess I’m not in the loop enough

[06:33] with what current events are to be able to make an accurate call, but I’d say probably not even from the standpoint of saying that our educational system isn’t teaching us enough. If the government has any hand in education, but our education isn’t preparing us to handle our own finances, I’d say they’re probably not doing enough to help, you know, to help the general population be prepared for life. That make sense? No, that’s a ton of wisdom in your 19 years there, my friend. So very impressed. So I have a list of questions that goes on forever. So if it gets too intense, let me know. My next question to you would be, how do you feel about the role of non-profits versus for-profits in our country?

[07:26] Goodness. Well, I think- Do you want me to give you a little more background? Would that help? Sure. Yeah, I’ll listen. Richard Branson is an idol of mine and Richard Branson has raised billions of dollars for charity. And what he came to find out is that he was always begging for more money and there was always people that were getting given something and always people that had to give something. And he has dedicated his life to finding for-profit solutions to non-profit problems because then it becomes self-sustaining. Interesting. Well, what I first thought of when you asked me the question was, to be a non-profit and to work for something takes a lot of love for something. You know, you can’t dodge the fact if you’re not working for money, it must be something else that

[08:15] you’re working for. And so, you know, that allows people to handle kind of sometimes the embarrassment of saying like, look, I need $100,000 today in order to help my non-profit, and to make that ask over and over and over is, you know, it’s not always an easy thing. And so, you know, the love has to outweigh the, you know, the effects of always needing to ask. But your original question was what exactly? Just the role, the role between profits, for-profit companies and non-profit companies because, you know, both are very successful in our countries, but their approach to what they’re trying to do is completely backwards. Yeah. Well, I guess a for-profit company would need, you know, would need to have a capability

[09:13] to address the issue. And if they could do both those things, if they could address the issue and make money at the same time, I mean, that’s like the golden egg. You can’t ask for much more while you’re solving problems and you’re sustaining yourself to solve them. And I mean, you know, I would think, you know, say the president of a non-profit basically needs another job in order to do what he’s doing, to sustain himself and to run his non-profit. But if he could have an income from solving the problems that he wants to solve with his non-profit, then he’s going to be, he has more time in his day to invest to solving the problem. The role of them today, you know, I guess, again, if we can solve more

[10:04] problems while making money, you know, if those two things can go hand in hand for every problem this country has, you know, if it’s homelessness or, you know, or medical issues, if they can be for-profit companies solving it, it takes care of both ends of the stick at the same time. Have you by chance read Atlas Shrugged? I haven’t read it, but I saw the first movie and I want to see the others so bad. It’s an incredible book. It’s very long, but yep. Yep. Someday. That is a awesome book that kind of little bit deals with the issue of government, non-profits and for-profit. So would encourage you if you get a chance to experience that. Well, give us an idea of what the future looks like for you. I mean, if you,

[10:49] you know, you’re obviously completing your four-year degree. Do you intend to do more education after that? What’s the plan? It’s funny. My mom and I were talking about this maybe last night or, or very, very recently. And, and we were talking about how, you know, so many of my friends want to go and, you know, get their MBA and, and more education, and that has no interest for me right now. I, I look at, you know, I look at four more years of school on top of the four that I’m going through right now and learning a lot in this four, but to do four more and then, you know, to, to drive for a PhD, all of that has no interest for me because I know what I need to learn. I will learn in my job. I’m, you know,

[11:31] I’m not going to walk into any job and be like, I’m ready, you know, give me my work. I know I’m going to have to learn. So I, I might as well learn while I’m working and while I’m developing who I am as an adult. So in terms of, you know, my future education, I think I will go out into the workforce and I know I’ll be ready. I know I’ll, I’ll have picked up so many college skills that I, you know, that I’ll value and that will help me so much. So in, in terms of future education, I know I’m, I’m probably going to learn on the job. That is a well, well said as well. Boy, you’ve either listened to our podcasts or you might be related to your mom. That’s, that’s a good point. Um, but in terms of my work, I don’t know what field I want to

[12:15] go into. I am interested in, in mom’s personal finance. I am interested in business. I love relationships. I love, you know, I love connecting people in a way. I was thinking about that also while I was, you know, just getting on a spring break, how much fun it is to, or winter break that is, sorry. Well, you know, how much I just love connecting people and finding solutions that, that other people are already available for, but I don’t know what I want to do with that yet. I don’t know what direction I want to take my life in, you know, in terms of what I want to do every day, but I know there, there must be something that, that I’ll enjoy immensely working on every day. And that’s really, that’s what I’m interested in is finding the, finding the job that I can really

[12:55] enjoy doing that, you know, it’s not my nine to five. It’s something that, that I love doing. Super. Well, I would say that you are well on your way to that. And it’s completely noticeable even at your age now of the passion that is in your voice. And if you had a parent, if you were able to say one thing to parents who maybe who had kids were say juniors or sophomores, maybe even seniors in high school right now, and you wanted to tell them something that you’d like to see done differently than most of the parents out there, what would that be? You know, I guess you’d be taking time for your kids to learn this stuff. I know my mom is, is excellent at that. And I know I don’t, I don’t always accept it,

[13:43] which is scary because she’s sitting right here too, but I don’t, I know I don’t accept all the help she’s willing to offer. And so if I had to tell something to parents, say offer, and then keep offering, because, you know, if, you know, if I turn it down once on no, mom, I don’t want to go over my tax forms. I don’t understand them, but if she offers again, and if I recognize the, you know, how much I can learn from her, then I know I will take advantage of that someday. So to offer is, is the best thing you can do, you know, to, to open up the conversation and, you know, and to work to keep it open is, is cool. Robbie, that is probably one of the single graces pieces of advice we have ever issued on this show. You are amazing. So this is No BS Money Guy,

[14:29] Todd Strobel for the Prosperity Podcast. And again, special thanks to Robbie Butler and take care of everybody. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.