How Celebrity Financial Experts Hinder Prosperity – Episode 552

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[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity thinkers, we’re going to be talking about the anti-debt snowball against the political and radio commentary and financial commentary. We’re going to cut through it all. We’re going to get to the stuff that actually matters. I think that our listeners by now know who we’re talking about. So let’s talk about that expert. Well, you know, there are a lot of financial personalities, financial alities. I’m not sure they have like a funny word that they call the Dave Ramsey and the Susie Ormans of the world, and it’s interesting space because there are definitely some people that benefit from Dave Ramsey advice. And if that is you, wonderful. Congratulations.

[00:49] Yet I have an issue with his approach. And furthermore, I am always saddened when I realize that somebody has gone through his process, gotten out of debt, maybe. And then they hit a brick wall because the people that are paying attention to Dave Ramsey are usually in debt and he may or may not have some good strategies for getting out of debt, but then they have nowhere to go after that. And so it’s interesting to me, first of all, if the overt focus is on getting out of debt, then probably what you’re going to get is more debt. And I think for a lot of upper income people that have maybe a little bit of student loan debt or, you know, you’re going to have car loan debt, that kind of thing, that getting out of debt space is the absolute last thing that you

[01:50] should be focused on car loan debt, student loan debt. Those are efficient debts, mortgage debt. Of course, absolutely. You want to keep your mortgage debt for as long as you possibly can. I think Grant Cardone’s got a saying out there that pretty soon we’ll see 40 year mortgages again, and then like 1560 and 100 year mortgages. I think they exist in maybe China or Japan. I haven’t done that research, but that is all good debt. And so if you’re an upper income person or maybe you’re someone who is working with a substantial capability financially, you want to focus on building cashflow. And if you have possibly gotten out of debt using Dave Ramsey methods, my question then is what’s next. So true.

[02:48] I’ve seen this because let me give you some context around the Dave Ramsey pieces that are really helpful. So for years, I lived in Nashville where Dave is from. And I remember my first introduction to Dave was with a friend of mine. And he was friends with, I don’t know, probably one of the first five employees over that day in Francis. And he said, the way they operate on camera or on radio and thinking is very different than reality. And so what you’re mentioning here is essentially you’re talking about a stage of financial knowledge, financial discipline. And you’re finding the usefulness. The word that you always use is and so, Hey, let’s take the savings and let’s go apply it here. Let’s take the attacking of debt and let’s go and approach it this way.

[03:48] So take Kim’s and, and let’s apply it with the Dave Ramsey pieces. And it would also be nice to kind of for once and all push down some of the things that are incorrect. Well, it’s so amazing that there is someone out there that can be speaking for so many years and not be his true self. I like, I don’t, I guess actors are skilled at that. So maybe that’s what he is, but what I have always loved about our podcast is how real and true it is. And then furthermore, how we do exactly for ourselves, what we are recommending that our listeners do and our clients that are part of prosperity thinkers and, uh, from a Todd Lingford truth concept standpoint, all of the financial advisors and life insurance agents out there that pay

[04:46] attention to Todd’s work or to my work. And so the, and is to broaden that focus and start to build the foundation of wealth. And there are so many people out there that have their second and third story of wealth already being built, but they don’t have their foundation. And what I mean by that is maybe they maxed out their 401k. Maybe they got involved in a company’s deferred comp program. Maybe they built up a stock bond mutual fund portfolio. Maybe they got some investment real estate and then some more investment real estate. And all of those elements of personal finance are the second and third story. Notice what’s missing is the first story and also the foundation. So the foundation of anybody’s personal financial situation, it doesn’t matter.

[05:45] The wealth is their emergency opportunity fund it’s liquidity and cash that they can control and cash that they can use to solve emergencies and take advantage of opportunities. And so that, and focus that what’s next question really drives home the importance of shoring up that building that they’ve started to build with that second and third story, getting the foundation underneath, which is cash value of whole life insurance, which is going to grow unaffected by utilization. And then that first story may have some additional liquidity that somebody wants. So the emergency fund can sometimes be stored in a bank account, like the current account that we utilize for cash flow control for a lot of our

[06:43] clients. But then their long term emergency money and any opportunity money is more effectively stored in that whole life insurance space at a mutual life insurance company, whereby the dollars are liquid, they can be utilized, they can be recycled literally. So borrowed against paid back, barred against again, paid back again. They’re going to keep growing unaffected by taxation as long as that policy stays in place. And this is a space that unfortunately, a lot of the financial personalities out there, Dave Ramsey, Susie Arman, and there are many others absolutely categorically speak incorrectly about. I find them to be entertaining. I should say this, not fine. I have to use Clark correct language.

[07:41] I found them to be entertaining because I remember in my early 20s driving in the car, this is before you had satellite radio. And, you know, when there weren’t many options, it would be something that I would listen to every once in a while. I don’t I have not listened to for a long time. And I find it to be useful for some people, just as though some people will look at it and it may help nudge in the right direction. The challenge that I have is it’s not thinking prosperously. It’s just thinking with a person that has one tool, it’s as though you’re a medic on a scene and all you have is a tourniquet and the person doesn’t need a tourniquet, but they’re just trying to use the tourniquet for everything they do.

[08:32] Tourniquet is useful. And that’s how I see that snowball. That’s how I see Susie Orman stuff. What you’re looking at it is you’re looking at it prosperously. You’re saying, let me take an assessment. Let me figure out what’s needed. If there’s a tourniquet that has to be done, fine. We’ll use a tourniquet, but most cases we probably don’t. Well, it is so fun to take somebody’s obviously precarious personal financial situation. I mean, if you’re building the second and third story and you have no foundation, that is precarious and ensure that up and really get it fixed and rectified in a way that will serve them the rest of their life where there is very clear what’s next answers where year by year

[09:21] by year as their income rises and their capacity to take on additional personal financial opportunities rises, that their opportunity fund is rising right along with them. And it’s a real joy to get that space handled. And, you know, us human beings have a really hard time thinking long-term. And yet if you’ll bring in a guide to have that long-term perspective, one that has already been through a good portion of life and seeing the results whereby maybe you have to slow down for a year or two to shore up that foundation, but then you’ll be able to build the fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th story of that building called your personal financial space so much more efficiently, so much more effectively

[10:18] without the risk of it imploding. So, so very true. You said something about having the guide that reminds me of the rain Guest Creek quote that is often used, which is a good hockey player and a good skater is going to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. And that’s what you’re doing as that expert guide. Well, it’s a joy to do. And I’m so honored to be able to help those that are open-minded, willing to tackle things from a efficiency standpoint versus what may appear to be the popular thing. And oftentimes I find that adding in the prosperity lens actually helps on a whole bunch of other areas of their life as well. And that is supported by having that very boring emergency opportunity

[11:24] fund that in the end puts them in a much better space. I love it. So good listeners. Thank you for being with us today. If you’re looking to dive deeper and find solutions to this one, make sure that you’re following the podcast and two, you can dive into books, there’s workbooks, there’s all types of material out there to help you and then always there’s a dedicated email address. Hello at prosperity thinkers.com. Thank you for listening to the prosperity podcast to take control of your money and have it work for you. Visit prosperity thinkers.com.