Stop Saving Just to Save – Episode 689

Transcript provided by the show’s production team.

[00:00] Spencer Shaw: All right, prosperity thinkers, welcome to the podcast. Kim, this episode we’re going a little bit outside of the savings piece. This is cool because this comes from listener feedback and community feedback. So it’s this the title is “Stop Saving Just to Save,” and you’re really good at helping people figure out that savings and opportunity fund. We’re gonna say, okay they’ve got whatever that number is, 100 grand, 250, 500 liquid, they’re ready. They’ve got this powder to go and make something happen. What next? Kim Butler: Ha. Such a fun thing. In other words, what do we pursue for opportunities, Spencer Shaw: Mm-hmm. I love it. So I think it depends so much on what’s most important to you,

[01:00] and it’s so cool in today’s world because age doesn’t matter anymore. So your typical investment advisor is gonna say, “Oh, well, if you’re, let’s call it 30 to 60, then you need to be in growth mode, and you should be pursuing opportunities that are growth-oriented.” Think stocks, mutual funds, probably not bonds. You know, of course there might be a mix of small percentages, but real estate, businesses, that type of thing. And then if you’re in the more 60-plus range, you want to pursue things that are going to create income, that are more conservative, so bonds, annuities, things that might be real estate-oriented, but now it’s a fund instead of an apartment building, or it’s a, some 1031 space of a fund, again, instead of single-family homes, kind of whatever your favorite is. And same with business, right? The people that

[02:00] typically talk about somebody’s business life from 30 to 60, growth mode; 60 to 90, in theory, distribution mode. That was the typical approach And thankfully today we are realizing that age 90 is possibly a midpoint. So think about it. If somebody’s gonna live to 120, s- age 60 to age 120, 90 is the midpoint, which is just shocking even for people like me who think about this and know this space all the time. Kim Butler: And life insurance companies today, and they have been for, I don’t remember, 10 to 15 years, are using age 120. So maybe Spencer, you and me are gonna live to 110 and not 120, but holy cow, if somebody’s 20 or 30 today, they could absolutely live to 120 or beyond because the insurance companies are likely gonna come and adjust that just like they did

[03:00] when they adjusted it from age 100 that it used to be to age 120. So that means that we must look at opportunities very differently. And I will admit that the typical advisor these days is actually having people stay in stocks, so your assets under management style advisor, stay in stocks longer and at a higher percentage because of this longevity thing. But the statistic that I read recently, which I cannot quote but I’ll paraphrase, came from Peter Diamandis, and that is the number of people over 60 that are starting businesses. And so what I love about this space is it enables us to look at opportunities not because somebody said that we should do it or because that’s the only thing we know. I mean, for how many years people only knew mutual funds or stocks, and then the real estate game kind of came into popularity,

[04:00] you know, credit Robert Kiyosaki or whoever you want to, and then people only knew single family homes or, you know, then they would upgrade of course to apartment buildings or, you know, maybe an office building or something like that. Well, in today’s world, it is what interests you that should be your opportunities to pursue. So like a personal side, what do Todd and I pursue? Well, we pursue marketing within our own businesses. That is an investment to us. That is probably our best investment. We’ve done all the things, right? We’ve done lots of alternative investments. We’ve done real estate. We’ve done lots of course, the typical stocks, bonds, mutual funds realm. But our businesses are our best opportunity. So for listeners, Peter Diamandis asks it this way: “What problem do you wanna solve?” Find a problem that you’re passionate about, that you have

[05:00] talents around. And that’s another thing I’ve really realized of late. Opportunities should be pursued based on our talents. And so, you know, maybe this takes going back to when you were a kid, or maybe it just takes some quiet Father, Mother, God thing, but what are your talents? What are the natural skills and abilities that you bring to the table? Then use those to think about problems that you could solve that you’re passionate about, right? So we have talents and then we have passion, and that will create your purpose. I think so many people kind of get slowed down by trying to figure out their purpose. Like, that’s a big question. I work on my purpose once a week with Tammy Brannan of Blueprint Process. I mean, I’m constantly working on it, right? So opportunities, we need to be talents, then something that we’re passionate about, that will create our purpose. Opportunities, as we know, can be a single-person

[06:00] business with AI help that is solving a problem. And so if we need to do some deeper dives into where we might start, I know we’ve done some episodes on that, like where do you start with AI and that kind of thing. But if you can figure out a problem to solve and spend some money on that, invest in that, bring your talents to the table, bring the AI talents, bring help if you need it in addition, I really believe that’s your best investment, and that opportunity can then grow and grow. And because you’re solving problems, it will be profitable Spencer Shaw: Ooh, I like that. Okay, so for our listeners, if they have a, an inkling of what their talents are and what they’re doing they now have call it a small war chest. The the, the powder to be able to go and get into the battle and try something. Is there a certain thing that you’ve seen work? Meaning X amount of days that

[07:00] something should be pursued or X amount of dollars. How is it that you’re navigating that when they’re pursuing these opportunities? Kim Butler: Yeah, it’s a great question because we all know the person that just like a bulldog goes after this thing with his bone and just will not give up, and frankly, to the outside world, goes on too long. Eh, I don’t know. You know, in, in today’s world, you really should be able to figure out fairly quickly if the problem that you are passionate about, that you’re bringing your talents to really is solvable, because there are so many ways to do some tests around that space. So I’m not gonna put a time suggestion on it. I’m gonna make some specific recommendations, and then I’m gonna put a results suggestion on it. So the first specific recommendation, which our listeners have heard so many times, but maybe you’re new to us, in which case,

[08:00] welcome. My first suggestion is that you look at the Kolbe profile, K-O-L-B as in boy-E, kolbe.com. It’s $63, I think, these days, and so worth the money because that will really give you language around your talents, your God-given talents. This is not a personality profile. This is God-given talent, installed the day that you were born, will be there the day that you die, and is really what you should be focused on, and it’ll give you some really good language around that talent. And then quickly see if you can get a little bit of results. So here’s an example. So Todd and his sister, so my husband Todd and his sister Laura like wine, and we have literally six grape plants on our property. Six. And for the last two or three years, they have been… and they are re- rather prolific, so we get a lot of grapes from said six plants, but they’ve been making wine and serving it to people and figuring out if that’s actually a

[09:00] talent that they have. It’s definitely something that they’re passionate about. Could it get results? That’s your question. Could it get results? And I actually have to credit my son, Robbie Butler, because he said to me, “You guys have been producing wine for a couple of years. You need to be getting comments from the people that you’re giving the wine to,” which has literally just been friends. And they had a really fun story occur in that a bottle of wine was given to a family member. It got left at a party unopened, and the people that put on the party found it months later, didn’t know where they got it Drank it, loved it, and finally, after trying to find it on the web, which it didn’t exist ’cause Todd had actually put a nice label on it, finally figured out that it was this family member of ours and said, “This is incredible wine. Can we please get some more?” And so the goal now,

[10:00] okay, that’s a, a signal. That’s a result. So the goal now, of course, is to go back to that person, get a little social media quote, et cetera, et cetera, as we continue to maybe build up this idea of doing some cool things with the wine and expanding the operation, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe not, but that’s an example of results. I’ll give you another one. There is a massive movement around the space of creating contests to measure the results and fund the results. So, Peter Diamandis, again, is famous for this. You know, some of his contests are literally billion-dollar prizes. But you can do it at a very small, minor level and get the ideas out there and help let other people help you. I was gonna say help other people, but you’re really letting other people help you figure

[11:00] out if your results are realistic, repeatable, and scalable, and that should be your answer more than time Spencer Shaw: Ooh, I like that. I think what you’ve mentioned is that there are certain hints that as you dive into this, like they, they give you a couple indicators. So the, the last point in, in my notes here that I have that I wanted to cover, in episodes in the past you’ve mentioned… ‘Cause people often use the word diversification, and you’ve mentioned in the past when a person will be like, “Oh yeah, Mike, I definitely have a diverse portfolio. I’ve got it in mutual funds and stocks and ETFs.” W- what does diversification mean? And take that contents, con- context of diversification with opportunity. Kim Butler: Absolutely. Well, I definitely love whoever coined the term

[12:00] de-worsification, because diversification can absolutely be valuable, but I think so many people truly think they’re diversified, meaning they’re spread out so that they are not at risk of losing money, and they’re frankly not. And so one of the things that we’ll be talking about, so we’re recording this in what is almost the fall of 2026. As we progress into the winter of this year, we have some very specific tools that can help people with this. But I think really the most important thing as it relates to opportunity is to look at your diversification from a liquidity standpoint, and oh my gosh, this is so important, from a liquidity or how quickly can I get it into cash standpoint if the deal is down. Okay? So I talk to people all the time, “What’s your savings?” “Well, I don’t really have any savings.” “Well, you know, what could you get into cash quickly?” “Oh,

[13:00] well, I have this stock bond mutual fund account, and I could sell all of that immediately.” “Yes, but would you sell it if it was down?” Or somebody will say to me, “You know, I have these apartment complexes, and I get offers to buy them all the time, so, you know, in my mind they’re kind of liquid.” Would you sell it if it was down? Same with single family homes or your crypto or whatever your favorite investment is, or investments across the board, right? So this begs the question, what is the importance of cash? And whether it’s actual cash in a bank or a money market, or cash value in a life insurance policy at a life insurance company, what is that importance of cash? And it is because it’s there and available, absolutely, positively, for sure, no questions asked. Another statement I will get all the time is, “Oh, I have a second home,” sorry, “a second mortgage,” right? “A line of credit, a home

[14:00] equity loan on my primary residence,” or maybe it is on their second home. Doesn’t matter. They have a line of credit from the bank. What would happen if it was down? Because if the real estate market was down in the area or the banks didn’t like the deal anymore, people just have forgotten that banks can pull those home equity lines of credit immediately. So what are you going to be able to convert into cash and an opportunity fund if the deal is down? So look at your diversification and answer that question. If this, and this are down, then what is my position of cash? Then what is my opportunity fund, and how could I then pursue something that required liquidity or cash or money in the bank or cash value of life insurance that I could access in three to seven days? That’s really where the question needs to lie Spencer Shaw: I think what

[15:00] I’m gonna, I’m gonna kind of, summarize a few things, which is this. You were talking about us figuring out what our skills are and what our talents are, and then for us to look at the big picture of the opportunities, and then taking that big picture of the opportunities and to really look at our we call it the real opportunity and the real cost of access to capital and the implications of that, the long-term play. I think for me to summarize, you wrote a really cool book, “Perpetual Wealth,” that talks about not just the short-term stuff, but the long-term and what the family does. If I recall, you guys have a shop set up. It’s prosperitythinkers.com/shop. Is that correct? Kim Butler: Yes. Yes. So this “Perpetual Wealth” book is a beast, right? It’s big, and not everybody likes to read. So on our

[16:00] website’s shop is the ability to grab the audio version and also a shortened 52 tips document that summarizes the “Perpetual Wealth” book. And of course, you can get it on Audibles at Amazon as well. And then there’s also on the shop a fun card game, like C-A-R-D, right? To get your hands on, because some people learn best by getting their hands on things. So I would encourage people to pursue learning in that realm. How do I learn best? And then go get that. Is it a video? Is it an audio? Is it something to get your hands on? Or is it the physical book, which of course is on Kindle as well. And that book is a fun story of three different generations of a family going through the process of having conversations about what do we do with our opportunity fund. Of course, the higher generation has a lot of opportunity fund money, the middle one has some, and then the younger generation is still learning and trying to get that all into

[17:00] place. So no matter where you are in life, you have a family member inside the book, John and Carol, and then their kids, and then their grandkids, that you can relate to that will give you some very personal steps that you can take to figure out how best to pursue your opportunity fund in light of that bigger picture of perpetual wealth. And the idea behind the title is really to help people understand that once you do get a little older, legacy becomes important, but it’s not ab- all about the money and what you leave to them. In other words, them, the next generation. It’s about what you leave in them. And so we’ve got some great stories and checklists inside the book that enable people to really focus on what you leave in your lives that you are having an impact on. And, you know, it might be kids, grandkids, it could be Sunday school kids or Boys & Girls Club kids or

[18:00] whatever. What are you leaving in them? And then of course, we address the financial aspect of what you’re leaving to them as well. Spencer Shaw: For all you listeners, head to prosperitythinkers.com/shop. Take a look at the book. Awesome stuff. Kim, thank you for sharing this with us today