Future Proof Your Finances – Episode 337

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[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. On this episode of the Prosperity Podcast, we’re going to be talking about how to future proof your finances. This is absolutely one of those essential episodes you want to listen to, especially this time of year, is we’re coming up and probably setting more goals and having strategy in your life and deciding what you want to do. We’re going to ask Kim Butler what it is that we should be focusing on to future proof our finances. I just love the idea of future proof. That is such a, I guess, future proof finances, it’s alliteration, which I seem to be a huge fan of, and I think the whole concept is just fabulous. It has been so interesting to me, and listeners are going to feel like I sound like a

[00:50] broken record, but it’s because what I am talking about works. Whether you’re talking about future proofing or feeling awesome, or having confidence or the ability to take advantage of opportunities, get into fabulous investments, it almost doesn’t matter what subject it is, it’s going to come back around to one simple thing, and that’s having cash and liquidity, liquid dollars. It’s funny, I coach entrepreneurs for strategic coach, and Dan Sullivan has been a mentor of mine for like since 1994, I think, and one of the guys in my course came up and he said, so I want to share a milestone with you. I think my net worth is going to cross 50 million this year. And I was like, hey, that’s great.

[01:36] How much of it is liquid? And he just looked at me. He was like, well, I’m fully invested. I said, I’m sure you are. And I just let it go. I mean, it wasn’t the right time to have a more thorough discussion about it. But he came back the next quarter and he said, I thought about what you said and I’ve made some changes to increase my liquidity. And so I was like, awesome, where are you going to store all that cash? Because that’s like my favorite question to ask people. And it’s always so interesting because when you think about the future, whether you’re an entrepreneur, whether you have 50 million, 5 million, or negative 3 million in debt or whatever the number is, looking towards the future, being

[02:19] able to take advantage of opportunities, being able to ward off emergencies, being able to give to charities, being able to look into the future and be confident about it and feel awesome about it, all of those things require cash and liquidity. And then of course, the subsequent question is where are you going to store it? Let’s dive into that example. Where did he say he was going to store it? His exact response was, uh, in a bank. Okay. As, yeah, as if like it was a dumb question, but at the same time, you could tell that he didn’t like his answer. Isn’t it funny how people don’t think that way? It is amazing. And this is what I love about the question is that nobody has a good answer for it because they’re in the common knowledge of typical financial

[03:19] space, there is not a good answer for where to store cash. As a matter of fact, the financial planning magazine, which I had to just step away from the microphone for half a second, um, has, so this is the November edition and I read this. I’m not kidding to laugh, which isn’t maybe very nice. Um, but I read this magazine literally to just get my giggles because some of it is just bizarre what they recommend and the things that they suggest and the focus that they have. And there is this whole article on cash and they, they just don’t have a good answer for it. If you do not understand how whole life insurance works, you do not have a good answer for where to store cash and future proofing. Your finances is not only having a good place to store cash.

[04:19] It’s having the what ifs handled so that you can live fully today. And that means other aspects of protection, simple things like car insurance and home insurance or renters insurance, but also more elaborate things like estate plans. And how about a document that says where the extra car keys are and who feeds the dog and how much and all of the things that we would want to have handled for us properly if we checked out someday or became disabled or, you know, we’re on a, let’s make it more positive. We’re on a cruise in Europe and somehow, you know, we’re not able to get home for an extra week and somebody’s got to come in and take over our lives for that period of time. Those are the types of things that you can do to future proof your finances

[05:15] so that you can be totally focused today so that you don’t have this dull throb in the back of your head that says, Hey, if something happened to you, there’s a whole bunch of unfinished business that is a mess. Maybe you’ve got a bookkeeping mess, a tax mess, a legal mess, an accounting mess. Maybe there’s a physical mess like a garage or an attic that has a bunch of stuff in it. I think part of future proofing your finances is getting that stuff cleaned up so that you can be free to live life today knowing that things are as organized and capable as you can possibly make them. Yeah, very, very good point. You know, as you’ve mentioned, you know, from the beginning of this episode, the gentleman that has a net worth of, you know,

[06:01] across the line of 50 million, what’s happening in the venture capital world right now is really interesting. And what I mean by that is a lot of the top VCs are telling companies to just hang on to cash, just start stockpiling it, hang on and get ready. And the same thing is happening with a lot of, you know, family practices where they’re hanging onto cash because it doesn’t mean that it’s bad and it feels like there are different levels of the game. You know, you’ve got people that are playing the game and they feel like they’re playing maybe a short game and they’re getting leveraged out to their nose, and then you have other people that are playing a very conservative, ultra conservative game and they don’t do anything.

[06:51] And you have to have some smart strategy to this. So what you’ve mentioned thus far has been really helpful. Well, it’s a joy to be able to help people with their cash confidence and to help them build up and prepare for opportunities. And I think that’s just a really critical shift in mind as well is, okay, yeah, you got to have your emergency fund, but shift it as quickly as you can to prepare for opportunities. And we all know there’s going to be real estate opportunities. There’s going to be stock market opportunities. There’s going to be business opportunities. There’s going to be opportunities in the future for those who have cash. And additionally, all the good investments that I know of require lump sums.

[07:36] And so when you are building your cash, you’re typically going to do that monthly, maybe quarterly. And so you’ve got to have a place, an interim place, if you will, to build up the monthly quarterly deposits into that lump sum that’s going to get you the business, the real estate, the stocks, the alternative investment, whatever it is. And I just have been studying personal finance for 30 years and there is no better place than whole life insurance. And so if this is a new product to you and you’re not familiar with it, I can’t encourage you enough to just be open-minded and learn about it. It’s a two to 600 year old product, depending on when you identify its starting date, and I know there’s massive amount of negative

[08:22] information out there and yet there is no way that a product could stick around that long if it didn’t work. And so if it doesn’t seem like it works to you, just open your mind a little bit more and learn a little bit more about it and figure out the way that you learn best, whether it’s via watching videos, reading books, or listening, and shoot me an email and I will give you a resource that will help you learn about whole life as a place to store cash in the best way that you can, whatever mode of learning you like, let’s get you that resource so that you can learn about it and then share that information. Our society here in the United States is in desperate desire of good financial information that just flat out works, positively works, may not

[09:15] be the sexiest, may not be the fastest and absolutely is going to be boring. And yet effective and just talking to so many people for so many years, I’m well aware that there is just a massive lack of financial education out of the marketplace and the financial education that’s there is not what is needed. It’s what’s there is how to trade stocks or how to buy real estate. And it’s because that’s the more sexy thing to talk about, but the beginning should be building cash. And the easiest way to do that is monthly or quarterly, as you earn your income, save some of it, and then when you get ready to store it, use the whole life insurance policy, not only is the place to store it, but is the place to keep you going on the good habit that you started, which were

[10:07] those monthly, quarterly, or even annual contributions to that policy. And then just keep doing it. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. You know, I think we’d take that last segment and put a stamp on that. That was pretty good. I’m going to have one of the things that I think is really important for the future proofing of finances. And it goes in hand with what you talked about as far as reading that report and getting those resources. And that is understanding what information you’re consuming and who you are around. So part of future proofing are going to be the relationships that you have. And so look at where you want to be next year and say, who do I need to be spending time with in order to have that better relationship or more

[10:53] knowledge or more resources? Because part of your finances is your personal network, along with your personal network improves your personal net worth. So both of those are important. I want to add something that is a tangible item to help you future proof, and it is called The Torch. Thetorch.com was created by a friend of ours and is now been bought out, but still up and running and doing good in the world. And so think about like passing the torch. And again, while most often people think about that when they die, you never know what could occur in your life that would cause you to be unable to handle your personal finances or your life for a period of time. Things like, and again, the torch is not for the legal aspect.

[11:43] It’s things like who the kids’ doctors are, where the forms are that get them out of school if necessary, the extra car keys, you know, the code to the garage, the storage unit, the dog food, the dog’s vet, those types of things. That’s what The Torch does a really good job of collecting for you in a nice little online manner, whereby if somebody needed to take over your life for you for a little while, all the instructions would be right there. We’ll put that inside of the show notes for you. And as Kim mentioned earlier, send her a message to get that valuable resource so that you can understand how the life insurance works as that opportunity and emergency tool for you. Probably the best email address is hello at partnersforprosperity.com.

[12:31] Would you agree? Yes, that’d be fabulous. Okay, perfect. Well, listeners, thank you for spending time with us. This is a special time of year that you can start to lay out what you’re going to accomplish and who you’re going to become in the future. We wish you the most prosperity in your life and hope that you can continue to share that and grow with others. 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.