Intention and Money – Episode 461

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[00:00] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity thinkers, welcome to the podcast. This episode we’re going to be talking about intention, because intention is the invisible thing that we often overlook, and it comes up and it will sneak an example in our lives and we either observe it and take action on it, or we will be forced to reckon with it at some point in the future. And Kim, you were sharing an example with me that happens often, and we’re going to unpack the intention of that, of what you’ve seen in people’s lives and in their finances. Happily. So what you were stating as we were preparing for this episode is that there are a wide variety of use cases, we’ll say. Some people have developed habits and intentions of savings, and other people have not.

[01:05] I would argue the people that have not may be making the most noise and wanting to solve the problems they have, but they haven’t worked on the correct pieces to make that happen. So will you unpack that for us? Absolutely. And just by way of background, what I was sharing with Spencer is something that I absolutely love about my practice. And that is that I can go from a phone call with somebody in their early 20s that can barely save a hundred dollars a month to somebody in their early 50s with a net worth of 25 million and everywhere in between. And I think it’s a unique aspect of my practice. Most people have fairly dialed in avatars of people that they help. You could say that mine fall into two main categories, but my intention all along, ever

[02:00] since I got licensed in all 50 states and have been helping people in this space, the way that I have been, which was basically since the internet began, is been to help more people in more ways. And I love that I can turn from literally within the space of an hour, one type of meeting to the extreme, you could say opposite monetarily. Now Spencer, you brought up something that’s equally important and that is where those people’s mindsets and in a lot of times, their mindsets are the same or maybe somebody’s is a little bit more developed, but it is awesome to see some of what the 20 and 30 year olds in our country are learning about around their finances, are activating in their finances. They have a long-term perspective, which is amazing.

[02:53] They understand that retirement is a dead end game, which I think is so wise. And they are committed to learning and doing what it takes to have successful financial futures. Now what’s interesting is that doesn’t mean that they’re going to end up with $25 million net worths. And that measuring stick is only one in many, many pieces of things that you could measure in terms of success in personal finance. And one of the things that I love to share is it’s so important that each person determine what their own definition of success and personal finance looks like. Just like we want to determine what our definition of success is for the work that we do, for the family life that we lead, for the home that we buy, etc., etc.

[03:39] And so this intentional space of figuring out what works best for you, picking up on self-knowledge, which is something that we need to work on the rest of our lives, and understanding that developing good habits around this personal finance space is a necessary and very beneficial step to take. And then letting those steps play out and letting life move forward with a focus that is healthy and appropriate in the personal financial arena. Because since money affects everything, we do have to pay attention to it, but we don’t have to be overly focused on it because we truly can simplify our savings, we can automate our assets, and we can install faith in our finances so that we are confident that our money is doing the best job that it can

[04:37] for us all along the way. And I think if you really look at those things, there isn’t anything else that you would want, barring some abnormal thing like, oh my gosh, winning the lottery, or, oh my gosh, you know, I put a little money in and I actually got a lot of money out, and those things may or may not happen, but they’re certainly not what we want to be intentionally focused on. Yeah, absolutely. So I look at it in two use cases or we’ll call it scenarios that may happen. And again, this isn’t my expertise, but this is from what I’ve observed that, you know, we’ll take the person that’s saving a hundred dollars a month and they’re struggling to do that, or they’re developing that habit at some point it clicks, there’s an aha for them.

[05:27] What does that look like? Cause I’m going to go to the next point, which is, but the person of a $25 million net worth, they more than likely developed that habit. They were doing the savings, but the other aha for them is, oh, now I’ve figured out how to operate this different machine, a new paradigm. So there’s those two. Can you help us understand what are the paradigm shifts that happen with those people? Absolutely. Well, the same, we appreciate what appreciates and what we appreciate. Appreciate. So it works both ways is something that people just have to figure out. And I, I guess you could say there’s a shortcut to the learning curve and that’s listening to somebody like myself and saying, oh, okay, I get it.

[06:16] Every time I make a deposit into whatever my savings slash investment product is, I have to appreciate that. I have to be grateful for that. I have to find a way to dig down in my heart and figure out a way to appreciate it. Otherwise it’s not going to appreciate. And so whenever somebody can make that shift and it’s not a one-time shift, I think it takes some revamping throughout life because we just forget things like that. Then we can shift ourselves into the space of the higher net worth individual, the higher income individual. And as we know in our careers, when we provide more value, we will get paid higher. So a lot of times people get to the higher net worse by earning their way there.

[07:04] In other words, the upper incomes create that higher net worth. Not always, you know, maybe it was inheritance or the sale of a business, but we all know that’s basically back to the statement, which is earning the income that then creates the higher net worth from the business. So this environment is absolutely linked. And, you know, you’re seeing it as kind of bookends, which I agree. I really view those two bookends as the bookends of my clientele and everybody else is in between. And so knowing that and knowing that the way to help those people. Well, yes, there are some different financial strategies that the one that’s worth 25 million is going to take that the other person is not. There’s a lot of mental environments that are very similar.

[07:50] There’s a lot of appreciation. There’s a lot of gratitude. There’s a lot of brain on thinking that must occur at every level of the game from the very beginning, all the way through to the end. Yeah. So for me, where, where it helped, and I guess I’m trying to relate to listeners and get your feedback on this, which is, you know, as a business owner and early on in my career, it was around me and the effort and me assembling the pieces to the machine. And then at some point, the capital, the consistency and all of that created a machine that then needed to operate that frankly was outside of all the skills that I had. And that’s where I see someone like you, meaning us business owners or professionals that have saved money and have put in the hard work.

[08:46] It builds the machine, but we need someone that knows how to operate it to use its best capacity. So help us understand for you as that, you know, architect or operator of the machine. Well, a really good example is the whole life insurance and its perspective in the early years. And for people that are just saving money, it’s all about the cash value and not about the death benefit. In the later years, because typically it’s later when we have higher net worths, it becomes all about the death benefit and much less about the cash value, exact same product, very similar strategies are used all along the way, again, there’s some specialization in that upper net worth space, but that shift in focus is where the person with the higher

[09:37] net worth must go. And if they can’t do that themselves, then they need help. And that’s what I do. That’s what other professionals and experts do. And you set it well within your own business, you know, in business environments, sometimes we need help, we need guidance, we need somebody with a level of expertise that’s been there before and walked the path so that we can follow them and shortcut our learning curve and get the results of their experience. And sometimes we have to go through it ourselves too, or in addition, or instead of, but anytime we can get some help along the way, it’s such a win-win-win, because then the person providing that help, they get the joy of seeing you make progress quicker, you get the results of

[10:22] quicker progress, and then your business and all of the people that are clients of the business and employees at the business and part-time workers at the business, all get to benefit from that increased level of efficiency and operation. And going back to one of our previous episodes, which was talking about time value of money, that’s where having the insights of an expert early on makes all the difference. So I know that as a business owner, if I am, you know, putting forth the effort and I am associating and getting knowledge and insight from the right people early on, that has a compound effect that outweighs almost anything else. Really well said. And it’s a humbling experience to ask for help and us human

[11:15] beings do so much better when we bring humble confidence to the table. And so having confidence in your own skills and humbly asking others for theirs is a serious win, win, win. Yeah. That’s a really good way of pointing it. Thank you, Kim, for sharing this. This is one of those episodes where I think it will land for listeners that are looking to use that humble confidence and to get that support that will really leverage what they need. All of us here, just by virtue of showing up, listening to this are doing the work and now we’re just looking to multiply a little bit more. Well said. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit

[12:10] us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.