Post Economic – Episode 638

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors.

[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity thinkers, welcome to the podcast. This episode is called Post-Economic. It’s a strange phrase. Have you heard of this phrase before, Kev? I have not, and I will admit I love the word economic. So you just go right on. Okay, cool. I just heard of this phrase yesterday. Okay. So I was listening to a podcast. It’s one of the favorite podcasts that I listened to. And Tim Ferriss was the guest on the My First Million podcast. Tim is the type of person, interesting. We’ll put it that way. Some of the things I like. Yeah, some things are interesting. Some things you’re like, no, okay, maybe not. But he used this phrase called Post-Economic. And it means, and he said one other thing in relation to that kind of paragraph, that slur of words.

[00:57] And he said, I have these friends that have earned the last dollar that they’ll ever spend, meaning they’ve made so much wealth in their investments that they can’t possibly spend it all. So that’s the group. And he goes, they’re post-economic, meaning it doesn’t matter what’s going on. I love it. I love that. So it made me think for us, what are we? We’re like, we’re prosperity. And we had an earlier episode on Insure versus Insure, the I and the E. And there’s living this world. We’re not talking with billionaires on this podcast. We’re talking with real families that have done something. It’s a post-economic situation that we’re lifting up, that we’re creating. So let’s dive into that. First, post-economic.

[01:54] What do you think? Well, I want to just introduce the fact that a lot of people may not know, and that is that Todd and I actually created a legit public nonprofit called the Prosperity Economics Movement. And that is the entity that publishes our books. So for those of you who don’t know, we have 11 books on Amazon. Todd’s working on one. I’m working on my 12th. And I love that space. And the books, of course, are on audibles. And Spencer, you’re helping me get some of them in Spanish, and they’re available as Kindle, et cetera. And the reason that I love the term economics, and I chose to make mine plural on purpose, is because that’s what we’re dealing with. Not only the worldwide economy,

[02:42] but the U.S. economy and our own personal economies. Well, what do economies have? They have inflows. They have outflows. They have products, which are things that you buy. They have strategies that are things that you do. And they have capital flows, which are when a dollar goes from an asset to another asset. And so to me what post-economic implies is that can we put something in place as this regular American family that enables us to reach post-economic, or some people would maybe use the term financial independence, quicker. Now, I’m not about the fire movement. I’m not about the other names and subsets of that whole space. What I am about is what does financial freedom or post-economic mean to you?

[03:39] And to me it all comes back to cash flow and the ability to have control around our cash flow and the ability to be at peace. Now, for me, there are a couple things that enabled me to be at peace in this arena. And let me make it very clear. I have not earned enough money to be what Tim is defining as post-economic. Like, I am not in that camp. You said it well. We’re not talking to people that are in that camp. And yet I can have the same peace of mind and confidence. Why? Because, a couple things. Number one, I know that I can create value every single day. I know that there are a variety of ways that I can create value. And so if one is not working, I can shift gears. Number two, I know that I control my thinking.

[04:35] First and foremost, from the very second that I am even slowly awake to the very end of the day, consciously, and then I could even go so far as saying subconsciously at night, right? I know that I can control my thinking. And because of that, I can control my mindset. I can bring a prosperous lens to any subject matter that is out there. Now, I still have my bad days. I still have storms, sometimes daily, sometimes hourly, because of stuff that’s going on. But I know that I can create value. And because of that, I know that I can do good in the marketplace. And because of that, I know that our family is going to be okay because that ability to create value and get paid for creating that value, along with an emergency fund,

[05:25] is what enables that peace of mind and that cash flow control that are so critical in this space. So how cool is that? I mean, does this solve all the problems? No. Is it completely perfect? No. Does it still have hassles and problems and things that need to shift around? Yes. And think of the good that it does, not only for my mind but for my body, because I have that peace of mind and that wherewithal to know that I can solve emergencies, take advantage of opportunities, and make sure that my mindset is on track, even if it takes an hour worth of work in the morning with my Bible lesson or my quiet time or my walk or petting the dog or whatever I choose to do in order to get that peace of mind.

[06:18] Oof. Oof. So good. So good. I took a couple of notes while you were talking because I’m like, okay, I’m extracting some little pieces out of here. One, you’re talking about things that in so many people’s minds, they feel like they have to be a billionaire or have hundreds of millions or tens of millions of dollars to get to. Yeah. And the truth is it’s a perspective, a lens that they have right now. Like they probably already have it, meaning if you have a billion dollars and you have to go sit in your special chamber of like this perfect bioengineered vessel so you can get more longevity, okay, or you could be in your house and meditate or you could go on a walk in gratitude, which is probably going to be something you enjoy more.

[07:09] But there are a couple of things that I wrote down that I wanted to ask you, which are this. There are milestones that we receive when we start to feel on the path of post-economic. So one is when we don’t have to look at a menu and be concerned about the prices. Have you noticed that as well? Like that’s, and I’m not calling it a status, but it’s something that happens up here where it’s like, you know, at some point you’re like, I got to order the chicken. And then at some point you’re like, it doesn’t really matter what the menu is. You know, we’re talking within reason. Have you seen that as well? Yes. And I’ll tell you a quick funny story. So the man that suggested that Todd and I date,

[07:52] so I knew my husband, Todd Langford, long before we were married or dating, and we knew each other professionally. At some point a friend, a common friend said, you guys should date. And he said, but you need to know something. Todd does not have a budget around food. I’m one of those people to be very happy with a protein bar. I’m one of those people that happily order chicken, although I love red meat. And I had to really shift my thinking around food and the expense that goes with it. And it took me years. In fact, I still struggle with it, but I always keep that thought in my mind that I’ve been married now to my husband for over 20 years. Todd does not have a budget around food. And what’s so cool about that is that each of us as individuals

[08:44] can choose the thing that we don’t have a budget around, right? We can choose the thing that we are absolutely positively willing to spend money on no matter what else is going on. And yes, it might have to be within reason. And yes, it might have to be adjusted. And yes, it’s going to change over various aspects and times in our life. But it’s a choice. And it’s my values that matter. Now in a relationship, you have to have some of his and some of hers. Nevertheless, it’s a choice. And it’s one that can be made proactively every single day. So good. Knowing of Todd and how he operates around food is just like a smile and laugh. You’re so accurate with that. And you’re right. Each and every person has their thing.

[09:34] That could be obviously within reason. Don’t go with on your means. And that’s nothing that we talk about on this podcast. Now there’s one other thing that Tim said on that interview that had me think a little bit different. And he said this. Most of what we hear in reading books is who we associate with is who we become. And also, it’s pretty much a world where we’re trying to associate up. And that works when we are gaining, going up. But when you’re in post economic, when you’re in the world that the up, Tim mentioned something that was really interesting. He goes, I enjoy spending time with the people that we’re friends with a long time ago that are down. He goes, because going up can often be a problem

[10:33] because you’re always trying to keep up with the Joneses. Whereas down, you get creative. You go on a picnic or a hike instead of taking the jet somewhere. You’re nodding. Tell us about that. Well, I love that because I do not believe that we should just dismiss the friends in our lives that don’t contribute to our forward movement. A lot of people think that you should. And sometimes even family members need to be dismissed. I’m just using that word. And I get that. And I think there’s possibly a time when that is right. But frankly, I believe we were put on this earth to serve. And part of serving is loving people. And I mean with a capital L, not a human aspect of love, but more a spiritual or divine aspect of love,

[11:30] which means seeing them at their highest potential. And there are days when I need to be lifted up. And I sure hope there are days that I lift others up because it doesn’t matter what the dollar numbers are. At the end of the day, we are all still human. And because of that, and because I believe we were put on this earth to serve, and I don’t think we should stop serving until the day that we die, you know, barring some maybe limitations at the end, which let’s hope we die healthy, right? That should be the goal. So when we think that way, it really shifts our perspective. You know, just as an example, Todd and I travel quite a bit. And when I’m walking through airports, I really try hard to smile.

[12:25] And I try to look the people in the eye that are dragging the trash cans. And I’m not always perfect about this. And I’m not a super happy traveler. So I really have to work at this. But it’s so important. And when we know, like literally scientifically, we know that when we put a smile on our face, it affects our whole body. Like our body actually feels better when we do that. And there is a human on the other side of those eyes that have the hands on the garbage can or the mop or whatever it is. So it’s just an interesting environment that is really available for people to rethink. And I love that Tim has opened this door, which let you and I go through it and let our listeners possibly take a step back

[13:18] and just think about what do I have to already be grateful for? Who can I smile at today? What family member or friend that maybe is from my past that I can help lift up? Kim, that was awesome. That was really good. Very dialed in exactly what our listeners need. And they are neighbors. If you’re in any circumstance, post economic circumstance or trying to get there, post economic also, what I enjoy is that it doesn’t mean to pull yourself out of society. It just means that part is probably taken care of, handled, and then you get to focus on loving, serving others more. Kim, awesome episode. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you,

[14:17] visit ProsperityThinkers.com.