Foreign. Aloha Inspired Money makers. Welcome to this year end wrap up episode of Inspired Money, the live stream podcast. This episode is a little bit different than any other that we've done before. It's going to be unscripted, it's going to be relaxed. My apologies that it's running a little bit late, but the plan is to really reflect on the last 12 months of this show. We want to review what we've accomplished, highlight specific episodes and talk about
what's coming up in 2025. Also different, I'm enlisting the help of producer Bradley. Bradley John Eagle Feather, who is usually behind the scenes. Our guests see him but rarely does anyone else see him. He's usually, as I said, behind the scenes, talking to the guests when they come in before we go live. Maybe a little chatting after the stream ends, but I think it'll be really cool to have him on this episode. We're going to peel back the curtain a little bit. Let's welcome
Bradley in. I think together we can reveal some of our behind the scenes talk that takes place during the week that nobody hears or sees. And welcome Bradley. You exist. Well, in this case I do exist, but thanks for actually peeling back the curtain for once. Well, a few times I always forget every episode to thank you at the end for editing the segments. When I remember, I acknowledge you. And then many other times I'm kicking myself after because I go eat. Like usually I go eat after we
record. And then I'm like, oh man, I forgot. I forgot again. Well, it's. It's been a fun experience. There's also another person behind the scenes that people probably don't know about. We've got an animator called Chad. He's a very talented young man. He's actually responsible for the intros and a lot of the other animation things that you guys see in the production. Yeah, it's been a. A wild journey so far, like especially the last year, wouldn't you say? I would say so. I mean, live
streaming is not for the weak of heart. Like anything can happen. Even today we had. You had prepared highlighted clips to show and then like just near Showtime, we realized that there were like maximum file size limitations and we had to scramble. Thank you to Handbrake for helping to reduce file sizes. So we're here. We made it. Yeah. You know what is like quite cool to me is like where we actually started this journey. And I'd like to just start off with a little
clip from at the beginning. And I often reflect on this like as we're doing this for the. The evolution that you've actually undergone, Andy. So, like, probably people don't really notice that much, but I'll show you a little clip and then you can tell me what you think. Okay. I don't know. Is Chris in? I see Joe. Joe Saul-Sehy everybody! I thought Chris was just here and now Chris is gone. So you just booted him? I actually didn't press anything, but Joe, welcome. Welcome to the
show. How are you, man? So 100 of these, you're starting small, you're starting well. We aspire to do 100. We've plotted out 100 episodes and we're going to see how it goes. That is crazy. I don't know. I do it one at a time. So better you than me, my friend. Put one foot in front of the other. Yeah, yeah. Well, okay, let me just give you a preview. I'm going to talk about like the first five episodes. Is that a. Is that a small enough digestible
start? Let's do it. So today we're talking about financial freedom loosely, but episode one is going to have the same title, Financial freedom Unleashed. We're going to talk about the secrets to achieving financial freedom and early retirement through smart investing, good savings, mindful investing. Episode two, the art. So early beginnings there. Well, I got lights, I've got, I think a better computer, I've got a better camera. So it's been, it's been a process for sure. Maybe
just to frame it. Bradley, we. I think, I don't remember how many episodes of one on one Inspired Money episodes. Like 270 something. It was a lot. It was a lot. I mean, this show started 2017 and when I think back, like there's an episode with my kids, like my daughter was 10 years old, my son was 8, my youngest was like 6. Like they were small. And now the then 10 year old is driving. Like I have two high schoolers and a middle schooler. I look at them and I see like
growth. I see the physical growth. But then when you show that clip, I see the growth of the, of this show. But I think it's been really cool going through this change from the one on one episodes and then revamping the show to something completely different, which is a little bit scary to do, also to do it as a live stream. But bringing in the panels is really cool. It's been cool because I liken it to.
It's like you're inviting a group of friends to your house for dinner or drinks and if you know a certain person's coming, then the invite totally changes dynamic because then I'm inviting people. I'm like, would you like to come to the Inspired Money podcast? By the way, so and so is going to be here. And then they're like, oh, if she's going to be here, sure, I want to come. And then we've also had moments where I booked guests at the last minute,
barely got a chance. Like, people didn't even know who the other guests were going to be until the day of. And then as they arrived in, like, in the green room before we went live, they were like, whoa, how am I on this panel? Like, this panel's crazy. Like, this person inspired my career or their book was so significant and influential to me. I can't believe that we're sitting on the same panel right now. Exactly. Speaking of that, do you remember episode 41 with Jacob Lund Fisker?
That was a good one. I think all the panelists, when they saw Jacob, they were like, oh, my God, Jacob's here. I loved his book. Like, he's why I do what I do well. Like, maybe we should share that with the audience and see what they think. Jacob, I've heard you say that retirement is not an age or number, and I think that that's a mindset that probably too few people have. Can you talk a little bit about what are the most common misconceptions about the fire movement that you've
encountered? Well, I mean, I. I don't know how it is these days since I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to the fire movement. But even, like, 15 years ago, and it's probably still like that in many. Many segments of society, the idea was. That retirement, you needed, like, a million dollars. So it's just sort of like an arbitrary
amount. It's been a million since, like, forever. And early retirement was something you did at, like, 55, 60, a few years, few years before, you know, like, traditional retirement. And I think what. I think my main. Main contribution to what the fire movement. Was has become was to do, like. A mathematical study, sort of like typical. Physicist style of looking at the, like, entire parameter space. So I. Instead of looking at age or dollar amount, I looked at the savings rate.
Because I kind of realized that it really depends on how much money you. You want to spend rather than how much money you have. And so I did. Instead of going with, like, the usual 10, 30% that, you know, professional advisors recommended, I simply calculated everything from 0 to 100%. And it became quite clear that if you save more than 75 to 80%.
Of your paycheck, regardless of how big. It was, if you could find a way to live on 20% of what you earned, then you could actually gain financial independence in five to 10 years. And that's not a very long working. Sentence, so to say. So that essentially turned fire or early. Retirement into something that was from, for the few to something that was truly optional for everybody if they wanted it. And the big issue there was, of course, that nobody was
really aware of it. A lot of people were in denial about it. Especially like the first five, seven years. Even when you talk to like, professionals. Like, like bank advisors, they would flat. Out deny this is impossible, nobody can do this. And I would have to sort of like drag them by the ear and show them the math. It's like, look, it's equations that are. Familiar to you, you know, like, and. Then they would go back, do their own math. It's like, hey, maybe
I could do that too. But it was, it was really a sort of like a slug in the beginning. Well, I like that, especially today because it seems like that age of retiring at 65, so many people feel like they need to work longer and longer. But absolutely, the amount you spend is a, you know, you have some control over that variable and then you can calculate the equation. I love that one. I love this one because I've been spending a lot of time on LinkedIn recently and posting about things like
wealth in the United States. Like, there are more millionaires in the last quarter because the market has gone up. So people who have 401k plans and they have investment accounts, they, their wealth did grow, but there's this huge wealth gap. There's wealth inequality. So for as many people that did grow their investment accounts, there are tons more who don't feel the benefit of growing their assets because they don't own stocks, they don't own real estate.
Their costs have risen, right? Things like food, maybe their rent, like their expenses have gone up and too often their wages have not. So there are many more people feeling the struggle. But what I like about Jacob Lund Fisker is that as like a scientist, he looked at the numbers and said, wait a minute, if I reduce my spending to something really, really low. I mean, his book is called Early Retirement Extreme. So it's extreme like he's living on very little every month. He's still
living, right? He's still happy. He's doing things that he enjoys doing. He does a Lot of diy, like working on his car, working on his house. He's doing things like, he's not hiring people. He's proud of the fact that he can read books, go on YouTube and learn how to do things himself. But he gets his monthly spending so low that if you do that, if you can figure out a way to live within your means, it doesn't require a huge salary, but you
can actually grow your wealth. Because I think that was his case. He didn't have a huge salary, but his spending was so low that he's like, wait a minute. If I look at my savings and I actually invest some of that savings, I'm going to have more than what I need. You know, the interesting thing about him was also the fact that he was, like, so heavily into sustainability, and that's actually what got him into
this. That was interesting, too, because sustainability and the investing, that has been one of the many themes that we've covered. So to hear him talk about trying to have less of a footprint, like on this earth, that was part of his motivation, too, not just reducing his cost to something super low. Exactly. Well, do you feel like indulging for one more clip, like, from that episode? Okay, sure. Jordan, you mentioned approaching financial independence As a
philosopher. Can you talk about practices that you recommend for maintaining mental and emotional health? Yeah, I mean, I think a big. Part of it is a lot of. People got to financial independence because they were working and their work at one point felt purposeful and stops feeling purposeful. And so the answer becomes, let's make enough money so we don't have to work anymore. But that creates a vacuum. And this very much happened to me. When I stopped being a physician. I had a panic
attack because it was the only identity and purpose I had ever known. So really the idea is that we. Should start thinking about what we feel. Our true life's work really is. And that really seems daunting because people think there's this one thing we're supposed to do, but the truth of the matter is, I think there are many things we can do that feel purposeful. Some of them may feel big and. Important and like they're going to change. The world, but a lot of them don't. And they're
smaller and they're joyful tasks. They're things we want to do. So I think from a philosophical standpoint, if we're going to talk about, especially leaving the workplace, if we're going to. Talk about enjoying these boons of financial. Independence, then we really have to start Thinking philosophically about who we want to be and what we'd like to accomplish in this life. And then we can start putting our energy, start doing
work to. Towards those things. So again, you never really stop working. You might retire, but you don't stop. Working because life is about work. It's about being intentional and filling your. Days with activities that light you up. That's Jordan "Doc G" Grumet, host of the Earn and Invest podcast. He's a physician turned podcaster and writer. I love that he explores how important purpose is in what you do and in his role as a physician. I think looking back at his experience,
he was a doctor. His father was a doctor. He followed in his dad's footsteps. His dad died early, and that was part of the motivation for him to become a physician. Like, extra motivation for him to want to, like, continue his dad's work and legacy. But then when he learned about retire early financial independence, he was like, wait a minute. He looked at his finances and he said, you know what? I'm there now. Like, I don't have to work as a doctor if I don't want to.
But in examining his life, because he did retire early and then found that he was not happy, he needed purpose. We all need purpose. And he actually went back, like, looking at the work that he did, what was the work that he enjoyed and found fulfilling separate from the money? And that was being a hospice doctor, working with the dying. And, oh, my God, there's so many lessons about money,
wealth, and purpose. Because in working with the dying, his big takeaway was nobody said that they wished that they made another $20,000, like, in their final days. They're like, what matters? Relationships, accomplishments. Like, were you a meaningful member of society? Did you have good relationships with your family, your friends, your community? What were your takeaways? Bradley? I particularly like his conversation when he had a deathbed chat with one of his clients. And the thing that he
remembered was when he climbed Everest. So it's not the accomplishments that we do in work and business that actually matters and resonate. So also episode one where we. We had that panel together on the Fire movement that was particularly, like, moving because, you know, you. You kind of think about the impetus to retire and how hard we program to retire. But then when you get there, what are you doing? So very interesting. You feel like another clip before
we move on. Just a shout out to the other panelists who were in that episode, but we didn't highlight them speaking. We had Chris Mamula. He's co author of Choose Fi, so very well known and impactful in the financial independence movement. And then also Kristy Chen, she's co author of Quit Like a Millionaire where she shares her journey to a seven figure portfolio and retiring early. I love that we have all these different personalities with such rich experiences
and insights when we have these shows. So yeah, if you want to roll another tape, go, go for it. Well, in this case, you know, we've done a couple of episodes on women's empowerment as well, and this one highlights Dr. Judith Wright's work. And then we'll follow up with something else, like with Dr. Bob Wright as well. And Judith, Judith, you do a lot. Of coaching on personal development. So I'm curious how personal development principles be integrated
into financial planning for women. Actually, as I've been listening to two of you, I realize how much more it is than I might have been aware of. But I do a lot of couples work. My husband and I, our last book we did together was on couples the Heart of the Fight couples guide to 15 common fights, what they really mean and how they can bring you closer. And one of the most common fights is dueling over dollars. You know, really, those money fights are really, they're just really big issues
for relationships and they're oftentimes things that aren't sorted through. And to Stephanie's point, really looking at what are your values? What do you really value? What is it that matters to you? And many couples, many families, people, they're sharing monetary resources don't look at that. They don't sort that through. They don't haven't looked at and need to like, what
do you really value? What is. And also there's a, even with the values is there's an emotional component of what money means to people. Money sometimes means security, it means love. It means a lot of things to a lot of people. And it's a very charged topic. So I find really having to work with those issues in relationships to help get that clarity is really important. You know, there's a lot of studies about tons about how
much couples lie about money. You know, hide their purchases, don't tell the truth about things, cover stuff up. And to get to that truth is actually really important in a sense of trust and safety, where that's something that can be talked about openly and worked through. So it's a, there's a, there's a relationship issue with it that needs to be tended to in order for it to then translate into actually the financial planning. And it is
easier said than Done Right. It's something that has to be a practice. And you develop the habit of good communication, specifically about money. Yeah. And it's, you know, looking underneath the fights to. What are those fights really about? Usually just some. It's unexpressed values, unexpressed feelings that need to come to
the surface. I actually like couples to have fights if they can learn how to really resolve those, because the information comes up in that and that they can really start to understand one another and start to get united in their economic future. It's good to know that there's a silver lining to those conflicts. Kudos to Stephanie O'Connell Rodriguez, who you see there.
If you notice she's kind of bouncing, that's because she was home by herself with her baby and agreed to be on the show and said, well, usually my baby's taking a nap. And of course, as soon as we go live, I think the baby got up, her baby got up and she's like, all right, don't worry, no problem. I can just put the infant on my lap and we're good to go. People are tripping, like, on the show. Yeah. We've had some. We've had some people who. The show must go on. Nothing's going to stop them.
We've had a couple of, like, crazy things, like, happening in between. We. So far we've heard from a ship with Dr. John Demartini. We've had. From a RV with. We've had so many panelists now. It was episode six. I've. I've forgotten her name now. Who was in the rv? I can't remember. She's the, the engineer. Well, it'll come back to us. Like, we've had a couple guests who, like, had to get into a car. We've done a couple of, like, weird, weird live streams.
But, you know, it, it works pretty well. It's also worth mentioning that sometimes you've been producing even though people don't see you, but you're sitting in the dark. Yeah, that's a South African thing. So for about 10 years, this country was doing load shedding. So essentially, man, like, scheduled blackouts, good times. So it's very difficult to do things, but sometimes we were in the dark, literally. So it's been good. So I did really
like that, you know, women in Finance episode. We've had a couple that was with Dr. Judith Wright, our good friend Mariko Gordon, who's been on multiple episodes, and then Stephanie O'Connell Rodriguez. There was another episode, the Rise of Women in Finance. Empowering Financial Independence that featured Patrice Washington, Bola Sukhundbi, and Claire Wasserman from Ladies Get Paid as well as a venture capitalist, Lisa Carmen Wong. Actually, she says Wang. I say Wong. Lisa Carmen Wang.
Yeah, that was a epic episode and very strong feminine energy with a lot of workshops and ingenuity and really community. That's the thing that I actually got out of that is if you can build a strong community for the women, then they can actually have more independence. Well, what I love about the panels, and it's something that we consciously try to do, we're not always able to execute because we're not sure who's going to accept the invite. But I really appreciate the diversity of
panelists. You know, in background, in experiences, but also having male, female, different, like, different geographies. We've had guests who are all over the world. We're an international podcast, like, after all. Yeah, we've had guests who are in the Middle east, in Europe, in the us East coast, west coast. Yeah, it's all good. How about a Bob and Judith? All right. You want to set it up for us? Yeah. Dr. Judith, how do marketers tap into our emotions and subconscious to get us to buy?
And how can we guard against making unnecessary purchases? Yeah, it's good. You know, we're not rational in our decision making about spending. The Studies show that 95% of our decisions are driven by these subconscious urges. And behavioral economics studies this and marketers know what that research is, and they know exactly how to get it. You know, things like buy one, get one free. Well, free gives you that. Just that word gives you this dopamine hit and get all excited and buy one, get one
free. Like, oh, you know, whatever. Then I get used to something if I get to free trial of something, and then I don't want to let it go. They know how this works. Fomo, the scarcity, you know, fall season, Starbucks, pumpkin spice latte. It's only available for a limited time. You better get it now. Well, all these things tug on us and they really, they know what that does. We want this sense of belonging. We want to be part of something.
We have the scarcity of fomo, the fear of missing out, time limits, and all of those are just really geared to grab us so that we don't consciously know that that's why we're doing what we're doing. We're emotionally driven, but then we make up rational reasons for doing it. But that isn't what that is. So signage, music sense, fomo, pumpkin spice lattes. All those things, you're going to lose it if you don't get it. Now is preys upon our
loss aversion that we don't want to lose out of something. We're afraid of the pain of that. So we have this compulsive, impulsive buying. So we need to be aware though that these are the forces that are happening. Be able to catch those notice, oh, this is playing on this. And to be able to be more in touch with ourselves, like what am I really feeling? What am I, what am I sensing? What, what matters
to me? What are my real needs? What are my values? And allow that to guide our purchases rather than that knee jerk reaction to those things that economics and marketers know so well. It is sensory overload. Bob, can you explain the concept of me and not me in spending and how that relates to societal pressures? Yeah, well, Alfred. Oh absolutely. Alfred Adler coined a term called lifestyle and we all have
a lifestyle that says this is me, this is not me. And we also have an aspirational me and the, my, the, the marketers know how to tap our aspirational me and to get us to spend just a little more than we should have or. Maybe a lot more than we should. Have or something we really didn't need that fits our aspirational picture. You know what I love about all these episodes as we look back from the time that we started and then especially looking back at 20, 24 episodes, we cover so much.
There's a diversity of topics, but they're topics that I think are actionable. There are things that we can learn. And in that case it's psychology of money. It's like a psychology lesson what drives us to spend and the more we understand, hopefully we can be in control. Well, like Judith talks about soft addictions. She's got a book on that. And like most people act out of more deep seated feelings. And then the soft addictions are coping mechanisms. So the shopping is how it
manifests for most people. So unfortunately you got to like cut up those credit cards as quickly as possible. Yeah, it's great. I mean Dr. Judith Wright, Dr. Bob Wright husband and wife team cool to have them on the episode. And then I think there were some moments where it's like they're speaking so openly about their relationship and what the dynamics are within their relationship, you know, and how they're being very open about how there can be misunderstandings and the need
for communication. And then rounding it out, we had Dr. Megan McCoy on talking about emotional factors and financial decisions and Then a cfp, Maggie Clockengay, was also on that episode. So really good perspectives from very different backgrounds. Yeah, it's. It's. What actually impresses me is, is the way that sometimes the panels come together and you. You get
perspectives that you're not going to get anywhere else. And what's the odds that you're going to get all those experts in the same place, and they're actually not regurgitating the same questions and answers that you've heard a million times? So, yeah, it's been very, very thoughtful discussions, and there is an element of surprise in that. It's like we send out invites to different people in hopes that they're going to accept and that we can put a panel of
three or four people together. But in many ways, every week, I feel like there's a bit that I can control that you and I can control. But ultimately, it's like, all right, the universe is going to decide what's going to happen in this episode, because we don't know who's going to be available. Sometimes people are traveling or they have different engagements. That's one thing about doing this live stream
format. It's at a certain time on a certain day, whereas before we could schedule, depending on the guests availability, it's like, all right, what's convenient for you? But in the case of putting a panel together, we're setting a day, a time, and we need to find people who, one, are interested in this conversation and two, they're available. Exactly. But it kind of works out every time, you know, so it's been like a wild, wild ride so
far. Well, one of my resolutions for the new year is to try to book some of our guests with more advanced notice. I haven't been too good about that, for better or worse, but I'm going to make an effort to see if I can do better on that front. We'll see how it goes. Cool. Do you remember that episode that we did on credit? Like, there were a couple of nuggets in there that I don't think people already kind of got to. Maybe we should share one of those and share some of
the cool things that people should know about. Matt, I want to ask you, you had credit card debt in your 20s. How did that shape your understanding of credit's role in personal finance? Oh, man, it shaped everything about my, you know, my growing up and my, you know, going into adulthood. And it really shaped. Shaped kind of how I view things. And I mean, I think that what it did was it really kind of Forced me to learn about credit and about how to kind of do things right and how
to pay really close attention to your money. It's like what they used to talk about with my grandparents in the Depression, how it changed them so much. It's what we're seeing with millennials having been scarred by the Great Recession and things like that. When you have those really difficult times, it forces you to really learn more about what mistakes you made, what things
you can do better. And that's been really part of my mission in my personal finance work over the last decade plus is to help people make smarter decisions than I did. Because the truth is, like, Lynnette really quantified well, there's very little in life that is more expensive than having crummy credit. So it's important for you really early on to get started and do what you can to make it right. At LendingTree, do you find that consumers generally understand credit scores?
Honestly? No. There's, there's certainly more interest in it and there's never been more information available on credit. But I really think that people generally tend to overthink credit in a lot of ways. Yes, it's complicated. Yes, there are a lot of nuances. Yes, there are a lot of little things that you can do.
But generally speaking, credit comes down to three things and it is paying your bills on time every single time, keeping your balances as low as possible, and not applying for too much credit too often. If you do those three things over and over and over for years, your credit's going to be just fine. And that stuff is obviously easier said than done, especially with as expensive as Life is in 2024.
But, but those should certainly be your goals. Yeah, I like the way that you put it into simplified terms. Yeah, we know that credit is a big problem. And that was, that was Matt Schultz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. Our other panelists were Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, the money coach who had a lot of credit debt at one time and was able to pay it off and now has like, has like a very high credit score. Geri Detweiler, she's a lending credit and small business
finance finance authority. And then Leslie Tayne, an award winning financial attorney. So once again, like, some really interesting perspectives providing insights on this topic. Like, I was also particularly struck with the buy now, pay later stuff because it seems to be very prevalent at this point, especially in the festive season. And Lynnette actually like kind of highlighted like something like well ahead of the festive season. So maybe we could share that
as well before we wrap that episode up. Sure, yeah, go for it. Matt, can you comment on Buy Now Pay later, what some of the trends are and how that fits into this discussion? Oh yeah, yeah. Buy Now Pay later is kind of the big gaping black hole in credit
scoring. And that's because, for a couple of reasons, partially because the credit bureaus aren't receiving the payment history and all the information from the Buy Now Pay later lenders that they get from other lenders, but also partly that the credit scoring companies just don't know how this best fits in
with credit scoring. Because even though they're playing kind of in the same playground as a lot of, as a lot of other loans, they aren't exactly credit cards, they aren't exactly personal loans, and they have different nuances that make them a little bit of a challenge for credit scoring formulas and for lenders in particular. Because if you are a big lender, you want to have as much data as you can on the people you're considering lending to.
So that's difficult for lenders. And that kind of brings to the point where it's important for people to understand that the primary customers for credit bureaus and for credit scoring companies are not consumers, they are lenders. So as much as those bureaus like to keep us happy, the people they really want to keep happy are the big lenders and that sort of thing. So that's partly why this is a big concern. But there's no question that Buy Now Pay later is a really, is a
really significant thing out there now. At LendingTree, we do some monthly polling that we call the BNPL Tracker where we ask if people are considering getting a Buy Now Pay later loan this month. And we've been doing it probably for like two years now. And pretty consistently about a third of consumers every month say they are at least considering getting a Buy Now Pay later loan in any given month. And so that that gives
you an indication of the scope of it. But the biggest thing about Buy Now Pay later really is that is how easy it is to get. And when you're talking about being able, like I think Leslie mentioned having 35 different accounts with, that's one thing with credit cards. But with Buy Now Pay later, you can do that a little more quickly. Granted, they aren't the long term debt that credit cards are.
They tend to be finite installment loan type things, but still those are really significant things and they create a real challenge, especially for people who are just getting started with credit. And while with Buy Now Pay Later A lot of times you don't have to have a hard credit check and your payment, your good payment history isn't going to get reported. There are cases in which your slip ups with Buy Now, Pay
later do get reported. So in theory, you could have somebody who has no other credit, no other trade lines on their credit report, except for missing a Buy Now, Pay later payment. And that's a challenging space. So that is something that a lot of smart people are working on trying to figure out how this all fits into the general credit scoring space as a whole. Can I raise the alarm bells a little bit even more sort of loudly around Buy Now, Pay Later? And I don't want
to come across as the negative Nelly here in the group group. But listen, you know, Buy Now, Pay later is a great option for people who are financially healthy who want, you know, flexibility and, you know, more time to, to pay, you know, pay in three. And the promise of Buy Now, Pay later is a great one. No interest, not traditional credit. And if you just make those, you know, three payments or so, then you don't have interest to pay on, on the, on a
purchase. Part of the problem though, for consumers is we know that people often have the very best of intentions, but then life happens. You know, as I say, you know, life, be life, and sometimes, and all kind of things come up. And people who anticipate, oh, of course, yes, yes, I'll be able to pay this off. They forget number one about how many Buy Now, Pay later accounts that they have. They did it for travel, they did it for retail
purchases, they did it for clothing, they did it for household furniture. They were at some store and at the point of sale or they were online in the last minute, they said. Here, do you want to extend your payments over this? And again, in the consumer's mind, they're like, okay, yeah, I'll be able to pay this off. But then they don't account for the stuff that can go wrong in their lives, like divorce, downsizing, you know, death of a loved one, a breadwinner, somebody in the family
gets sick, unexpected bills pop up, et cetera. And so not only are these accounts not being, you know, all the time reported to the credit bureau. So lenders don't have great insight to see how many accounts consumers have. People can get overextended. And if they can't pay well,
guess what's happening in the Buy now, pay later space. They're becoming more like traditional credit cards because those Buy Now, Pay later lenders are doing kind of like And I'm not calling them a payday lender, but they're doing like the payday lenders do when they allow people to roll over those obligations. They're saying, okay, yeah, you, you, you. You can take six months, you can take 12 months. You know, you can take
more than you could take two years. Well, now you've turned it into a credit card like product where people are effectively paying interest, you know, and so I, I'm really, I'm cautioning people to be aware of, you know, their own financial limits and kind of everything that's. Going on in their lives. And about the number of buy now, pay later accounts. Don't know why you muted. Is it on my side? I'm wondering what's going on. Okay, there you go. You're unmuted there.
Maybe we should do another clip. Like while you're figuring that out, I'll play like one of the other clips from the sustainability episode. In the meantime, Charly, I hear that there are many complexities here to the extent where one can be like paralysis by analysis, not being able to move forward. You're obviously a very action oriented person, so tell viewers, like, how do you look past this Wild west scenario to actually act upon and do what you want to achieve?
Right, thank you. And I think the points that were made before are very accurate. Andrew and Tanzi. Well, you know, when we work with Tonic members and outside of Tonic, with families and friends and wealthy individuals on helping them transform their portfolios to 100% impact portfolios, there's usually four stages that people go through. The first one, well, the prerequisite is actually that you reflect on your values as a family, as an investor, what do you
stand for? Right. And once you articulate that, then most people don't want to forget about that when it comes to their investment strategies. And so you can then detoxify as the first step, your portfolio with things that are counter to your values. Because that allows you to sleep again. Right. Because if you have values, you want. To make sure that
you don't knowingly counter that. Once you have detoxified your portfolio, then you can go into esg, maybe esg plus on the public side of your portfolios, there's a ton of products out there ibe a lot of brainwashing going on and we can dive into that. So pay attention to this. And then most people then that are sincere about impact, they want to go deeper with part of their portfolio into the impact
themes that they choose are important to them. And that's where it's important to collaborate with others, join some networks or learn with others to figure out what in your themes you can invest in with an appropriate
risk. And that's then maybe the most adventurous impact investors then carve out a part of their portfolio do not apply financial metrics anymore because the modern portfolio theory doesn't hold for deep impact because a lot of the themes that you might work on, there's no market for
it. And so what does market rate return actually means? And so most impact investors then for that portion of their portfolio work on an absolute return strategy and say, well, I'm interested in going very, very deep in these types of themes and I expect over that portion of my portfolio, you know, an absolute return of this pain, whatever it is, right? And then that leads you to investments with the appropriate risk. I
mean, you know, Andy, I have. Started, I think the 100% impact movement, what about 12, 13 years ago and within the tonic community, first with the assumption that if we can actually prove that we can have 100% portfolio and it has competitive financial risks, I mean competitive financial returns as expressed by the risk return analysis on asset classes and go as deep as possible on the impact side, that maybe we have a lot of copycatters. And Lisa and I embarked that in 2004 and
2007. We started moving in aggressively 100%. And then in 2018 we published our report looking back at 10 year financial performance. And indeed across all asset classes we were able to show that we had the competitive financial performance while about half of our portfolio went 50% into what the IMP terminology calls contributions to solutions and the rest in ESG and what have you.
And so we wrote a report about this in order to inspire others, you know, to document our impact management strategies, which is the bigger topic that we're talking about articulating our theorist transformation that Andrew articulated quite clear, quite nicely that we are in this
bigger transformation stage and that we need to change the systems. And our theory of change is that we will contribute to that by investing in the first social impact bond, for instance, which explicitly ties the financial return to a proven negative or positive impact. By investing in the first social stock exchanges, by investing in pending capital structures, by investing in first time managers that are not, you know, by investing in DI and themes that are quite
difficult to invest in sometimes. It's getting better now and measuring the outcomes and the outputs using sdg, sustainable development goals terminology, IMP impact management project terminology, IRS terminology, so people can read up on this and can copy and paste. So we we're having like a real mic drop moment like in this case. So I'm gonna have to speak for Andy and under the circumstances considering, I think I'm gonna have to be a ventriloquist. Let.
How about now? Do I have audio? Yeah, you got audio. I think I'm using a different microphone now. All right, well, I love that episode because that was Charly Kleistner, a real pioneer in impact investing. And we really like you hear a lot about ESG Environment Sustainability, governance or SRI Socially responsible investing. But this like Charly is taking it to another level. He wants to have 100% impact in all his investments and he's been doing it for a long
time and has data to back it up. He has performance and even though he's willing to sacrifice some performance for the sake of impact, I think that his performance has overall been pretty solid. And the other panelists were great too. We had Tansi Whalen, she is professor at NYU and founding director at the center for Sustainable Business. And then Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow.
I think we have a clip of Andrew because he shares a resource that he, he maintains that's really helpful potentially to all of us. It makes it much easier for people to actually find the right kinds of investments. Is his index is actually quite amazing. Maybe like hit that clip quickly and then move on. We've got a couple more to go before this wrap up is done.
Sounds good. Yep. Andrew, I know that you have looked at a lot of mutual funds and different choices that investors can or I guess different vehicles that investors can use. Can you talk about that and maybe like what are the differences between socially responsible investing, SRI impact investing and ESG investing? Sure. Well, thank you very much. So just just to as you saw, 501C3, we're a non profit, so we do a great deal of research. At a company level.
We're looking at 3,000 companies on racial justice and DEI across 61 key performance indicators and updating it quarterly. So I take the. What was said before about ESG data is very, very important that we do our own research basically. And because a lot of the data that's being put out by the companies is often misleading, there's very little rules or enforcement around companies that and how they communicate with their shareholders in terms of material disclosure. So you got to get
to the really the core of what's really going on. And the good news is that there's some new metrics that are being developed in Europe. CSRD it's called. And CS Triple D that are being put into going to be rolled out in the next, you know, six, ten months or so. And what we're going to be seeing is 49,000 European companies and 10,000 US companies are going to be starting to report and disclose in a standardized format. They're going to be required to have third
party verification. And so we're about to come into a whole new era of environmental, social and governance data that's going to be able to guide shareholders to identify who are the best management
teams. Ultimately, when you invest, you're investing in a management teams team and the folks who can assess and address risk are going to be the ones you want to overweight in your portfolio because they're most likely to be able to like for instance, look at climate change and they're going to say, oh, you know, I mean, right now we're seeing what we call climate inflation, that there's no olive oil,
for instance, coming out of Southern Europe because of a heat wave. There's no British Columbia just lost their entire vintage of grapes, cacao, chocolate. Is prices doubling because of climate. These heat waves are disrupting the production. So cotton, Pakistan, floods, Texas, there's droughts. So the teams who are adjusting, who are assessing the risk, adjusting to the risk, that's the companies who you want to put your money into as opposed to.
There's a lot of companies that just say we're ignoring it or and I can talk about this more later, but there's been a whole anti esg crusade that's been very well funded by the oil companies and by this far right group that is making it illegal in some states to assess and
address risk. If you can get your head around that, literally Those and those 18 states that have now adopted those laws, all of their pension funds are underperforming the companies that, that the banks that would be funding municipal bonds in those states are no longer allowed to do business in those states because they have a climate transition plan. So all these states are paying more money
for their bonds. And so there's this whole attempt to make it political when really what this is about is just picking the best management teams that are going to be assessing and addressing risk. So I didn't answer your question, but we Also, we evaluate 6,000 mutual funds every month on a range of different environmental, social and governance topics. And we have, it's called
investyourvalues.org open to the public. You can go there, type in any mutual fund or ETF and you will get a ranking for it and then we aggregate Those up for 401k plans for about 60 companies now and we will continue to build that, that out. Any advice for how an investor can go to that website and choose, like, how do they, how do they choose what best aligns with their values? Well, basically you go in there and you could, you literally,
there's a pull down menu and you can say, what do I care about? I care about climate change. You have to get at least a B on climate change and you have to get at least A, an A on private prisons or gender equality. You just, you can put in whatever grades you want and then it sorts through 6,000 mutual funds and ETFs and we'll put the ones at the top that get the better scores and then you can compare
their financial outputs over the last 10 years. So, you know, for instance, if you're looking for a target date fund, you can say, show me The Vanguard, Fidelity, BlackRock and Natixis, which is a sustainable one. Target Date Fund, a 2050 Target Date Fund. You can see the scores and you can see the
sustainable one is going to be getting better scores. And it happens to also outperform over, you know, over the past five to three, you know, all of the years they've outperformed all the other target date funds. So if your company's offering you various target date funds in your 401k plan, you'd say, well, you know what, I actually want to have a livable planet and I want to make more money. I choose that particular one. So it's very simple to use. All right, now do I have audio? There we
go. The ones of live streaming and technology. Bradley told me to reboot and while the video is playing, the highlight video is playing. My fingers and toes are crossed that my machine would actually come back up. Sometimes it takes a really long time. I was afraid that I wasn't going to make it back. Good to be back. I don't know. I think we have a few more clips. Just a couple more.
I'll set this one up. I think one of the really fun things that we've done since we started with this panel format is really ventured into, I think, new areas for discussion. I mean, it's still money related, but we're talking about collectibles and passion investments and that can include classic cars, watches, wine. I think we have a travel episode, like a retirement travel episode coming up in the future.
So I like to say that inspired money is about how to make more, how to give more, and how to live more. So on the lifestyle side, like, really, really, I think venturing outside of my comfort zone, because I'm not really a car guy, I'm not really a watch guy. I don't drink, so I'm not a wine guy. But it's been so much fun just learning and having these panels. Like, one of the car episodes that we had featured Bruce Meyer. He's founding
chairman of the Peterson Automotive Museum. He's out on the West Coast. I mean, Bruce has an incredible classic car collection, like some of the most pristine examples of older cars and buying cars with like, cultural meaning because they belong to someone famous. And then we had Ed Bolian, who's founder of Vinwiki, who loves to buy, like, cars that got destroyed in a flood or wasn't involved in an had an
accident. You know, he'll buy like a Lambo that was crashed up and totaled, but he feels like, well, if I can buy it for really inexpensive and get it fixed up and drive it around, he's going to enjoy driving it around. And then we had Philip Griot of Griot Motors and Lauren Bix. They were all incredible guests. Maybe we can just roll the tape and see what car conversations look like in this past year. Cool. You know where Bruce is buying Steve McQueen's car. Ed bought like a drug
dealer's car car many times. Yeah. Nice. Well, and you know, to me, if. You, if you have two cars next. To each other and one has an. Amazing story and the other one is just a good example, to me, even if it's a bad story, it's still something to talk about at cars and coffee. And I think it can be a whole lot of fun. I, I think when you look at cars that, that are
proper rare, that's always a good start. Just like Lauren said and Lawrence Ford GT of the 2017-2023 generation, I mean, there's 13, 50 of them and that is rare. Historically rare is like less than 100 or less than 250. And so when we talk about rare modern cars, it's a totally different idea than what we think about when we think about rarity. A long time ago now, there are super significant iconic collector cars that are not necessarily that rare, like 300 SLS and like
DB5s and things like that. But they're so significant because they are so beautiful or so iconic or used in such context that, that people just love them. And so that does still exist in the, you know, Top Gear and MTV Cribs generation, growing up and loving cars. And so you Know, I got a really good deal a few years ago on the Mercedes McLaren SLR that was made famous because Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears drove it around. All three of
them sitting in the two seats. And Britney Spears chose to get out of it without wearing underpants. And that made a lot of news. And so it was really, really famous. And I sold it to a huge Britney Spears fan in Bulgaria for cryptocurrency. And he paid a lot of money for it. And so I think that, you know, there are modern examples. Now, is Paris Hilton the Clark Gable of our generation? I don't believe so, thank the Lord. But I do think there is, you know, a group of people.
And I'll tell you, every single person that came into my garage for the year and a half or so that I had that car wanted to find two other friends and recreate that picture. And you know, in the same way that the Wolf of Wall Street Countach just brought three times the money that it ought to, because everybody wants to pretend that they're high on quaaludes and try to open the door with their feet.
And so, you know, these are the modern examples of these iconic celebrity owned or movie cars or race cars or things like that. And who knows what the next version of that will be. It's going to be hypercars. The obsession with Bugatti, Koenigsegg and Pagani that the people that are right now 10 to 25 years old have. But we don't know, we'll find out when they start having the money to spend on them. I'd forgotten how much fun we had in that episode. The characters, especially Ed, like,
it's got the craziest stories. He's got crazy stories. And I think that that's, that's the amazing thing, because whether we're talking about retirement or budgeting or investing cars, watches or wines, the people in the stories that are really, really cool when it came to cars. I mean, if you're watching, you can see the passion that they have for the topic. And I'm sure that if you're just listening, you can hear it in the voices too. It's a little contagious. I mean, I've joked before
when hosting these types of episodes, I'm like, you know what? You guys are like really expensive friends to hang out with. Like, if I hang out with you too much, I'm gonna end up with a car that I don't even want or need. Or watches. Or watches. Expensive friends. But I think that's One of the takeaways, too, that, you know, we focus on money and how we can do more with our money, how we can have more impact with our money. But there's a lesson there that you can't take it with you.
And it's those connections, the relationships, the friendships that you, that you, that you make and the people that you spend time with, like, that's what's meaningful. So if you're hanging out with friends because they like watches and you can have conversations and share that passion together, that's great. Or if you drive a classic car and you have a car club and you get together once a month for a cruise night, I think that there's so much value in that. And it comes down to more
than dollars and cents. I mean, dollars and cents are important. We're trying to figure out how not to overspend, how not to have debt. But I think it comes down to what are your priorities and what's meaningful to you. And the connections and people are very important. You know, it was quite ironic is when we did that Portfolio Perspectives episode is the commonality that exists between the watch collecting, the wine
collecting, and the cars as well. So. And this is a bit of a longer clip, but it's really shows you a little bit of the madness that goes on with people that are obsessed. Brian, can you talk about, like, how does passion guide your decisions for purchasing wine, for investing? Yes. So buy what you love. You know, I'm consulting for a private client right now on his collection, and I'm dividing up his collection right now into three categories. Sell,
keep aging, or drink. And the ones that I'm recommending he drinks are wines that he bought because he genuinely loved them and continues to love them. And, you know, maybe they're getting towards the end of their supposed drinking window. Maybe he won't be able to get quite as much of a return on the investment as he once would have. But guess what? He gets to actually use those bottles for what they were initially intended
for. And even if he's taking somewhat of a hypothetical financial hit in not getting such a huge return on the investment, he's actually having the opportunity to enjoy those bottles that he's been staring at for years, and in many cases decades. He gets to create memories with his family and friends and loved ones. And there's something to be said for that as well. You know, it's, it's. And he knows the provenance is great. He knows these bottles. Bottles
are going to be wonderful. But there's also, you Know what we're all talking about today is there is a sense of emotionality to everything, whether your passion lies in cars or watches or wine or, you know, rare spirits. And being able to open up that bottle is really the same feeling as being able to strap onto your wrist that Patek that you love, to be able to get behind the wheel of that vintage Ferrari. So I always say, buy and invest in what you love, because you can always
pop that cork and enjoy it. And that's deeply, deeply important. I think. I think he's right. It's. It's. It's Nick Brian and what I do in the vintage world. Some of the stuff I missed when I was building my watch for. For about five years is the. The humanness that's attached to an intangible piece of metal that, to me, metal is alive because I see the come a lot. But what I. What freaks me out and why I love
doing what I do. And you already see the portion of this facility here is people have lost their favorite watchmakers when they were growing up. Their dad or their grandpa had calatray from the 40s or 50s or whatever. It was a panic, whatever. They had a fastron like my family, right? My dad had a lot of fashion on from my. My grandfather. But there's no one left to kind of fix those old watches. So they went out and they bought a new Nautilus and they strapped it on their wrists, right?
And they put those watches in the safe, especially in this area in Palm Beach. Well, now that they find someone like me, they start pulling them out of the safe and I can restore them. I can make the gears of the pinions and bring them back to life. They can't believe I can do that, but when I do and they come through the door and I show them that watch that hasn't ticked, it's not the watch. All of a sudden, a flood of emotional emotion and
memories come back. They could have been like me sitting in the back of my dad's Cadillac, driving up to the country house and always seeing his, you know, vacheron on his wrist, you know, on the steering wheel. And they start crying. I mean, some of them. They hugged me, and it's. It's awesome, you know, and that is the connection we have with Nick and the Ferraris, with Brian and his wine could be a memory. They pop a bottle of wine, and it's.
It's reminiscent of what they were doing as a child or what they saw with their parents. It's the same thing in my world, that's why I always guide people in their collections to yes, purchase something and have it checked out and you know, bring it here. But it's something that will be generational. You know, if you're just a flipper, there isn't really excite me. I'm not in this for the money. I'm. I'm in it for those experiences
and to bring those experiences to the people. Like as I just explained, the love that we have, it can transcend generations. You know, two generations from now, that same Patek can come out of the safe and those memories are still attached to that one, that one timepiece. I find that fascinating. You know, Dan, there's I, I just experienced this viscerally with my family this past Saturday
night. My dad's collection, he's been storing it and my good friend Scott Ziskind has a wonderful wine storage facility in New Jersey called My Cellar. So my dad's collection, between his wine fridges and, and Scott's mice cellar, everything has been kept in pristine condition. So my father just celebrated a very important birthday and he decided to pull a bottle of 1995 Chateau Margaux that he bought on
release. And he could have sold that bottle for a ridiculous return on his initial investment. But he's always said, I think this is the wine that I want to share with my family for this milestone birthday. So on Saturday night, yeah, we went. To, we went to, we went to my mom and dad's place. It was my wife and daughters and my sister and brother in law and their sons. And my father popped
the cork on that. And I will tell you that seeing the look on his face and experiencing that profound moment when the aroma of this bottle that we've been staring at for decades filled the air and pairing it with an amazing meal that my mother made, I got to believe that's the greatest return on investment for something like that. So there's really, you know, it's, it's, there are benefits in, in so many ways when it comes to
investing in what you're passionate about. I've also had clients who have invested heavily in, you know, Grand Cru Burgundy, let's say. And they'll buy, if they have access to it, they'll buy multiple cases of these great wines and they'll set aside 80% of it to hold on to and then ultimately sell as a financial vehicle. But then they keep a case, or half a case, whatever it might be to be able to enjoy, you know, whether for business purposes, family
purposes. So I love that sort of dual utility of these things that we can invest in. Wonderful. May I say something very quickly? Sure. I think sometimes the greatest investments that we make in life are those that just. We don't think about them as investments. We just. It's a gut feeling. Right. It's Brian who loves wine. Maybe he has this feeling about a special vintage, a special year, a special maker, and he buys X amount in bottles just because he loves them. And
then one day, things happen to go his way. And I'll tell you a very small story. So, Brian, you and I have also something in common. Obviously not in wine. I live in Kuwait, and alcohol is not permitted here. But I am an avid cigar smoker and a collector of Cuban cigars. I call myself now a collector. I was. I was just a smoker and a hoarder. And at one time, I had bought 55 boxes of Cohiba 1966. I bought each box for $500. Last year, I sold my last box for
$6,000 a box. Wow. The world of cigars have come, like, into this crazy realm. And again, cigar needs to be aged well. There's a lot of fakes. You can be spooked. You have to buy it from a reputable source, and it has to have good providence. So. I know exactly what you're saying, my friend. Score a win for the hoarder. Always. I just wanted to say something really. Quickly about what Dan was saying. And, well, all of you are saying.
It'S a little metaphysical and a little. Bit romantic, but it's true. And I think that objects do tend. To keep the energy of people that had them. So a very old watch, just like a car, is. Is filled with the energy of someone. That maybe raced in it or. Or did extraordinary things or terrible things with that watch. And it's. It's metaphysical, and I can't prove it. But we all feel it somehow. And the energy of people lives on in objects, and that's fascinating. That transcends time and
money and everything. Everything else. I know it's romantic, but allow me to digress. Said like a true Italian. Oh, man. You. You pulled that clip. And I was thinking that is a really long clip. That came from the episode portfolio perspectives balancing watch, wine and car investments. That was a great episode. And just to let everybody in on who was on that panel, it was Dan Spitz, who's been on numerous episodes. He's former Anthrax guitarist turned master watchmaker. There's Jasem
Al-Zerai. He's in Kuwait. He's Patekaholic on Instagram. Nick Baldelli-Boni is my God brother. And he lives in Cortona, Italy. He has a YouTube channel and Instagram account called Cars in Tuscany. And you got to check that out. Like, he's. He. He. What does he have? I can't remember what car. I think he has a Ferrari. But he borrows Porsches and Lamborghinis and drives them all over the Tuscan countryside. And it's. It's, like, cinematic and beautiful, and it's also really funny.
And then Brian Friedman was on the show. He's a wine and spirits writer, so that mix was really cool. And as you said, Bradley, to hear, like, the commonality, even though they have, like, deep passion in different areas, but, like, they can all be friends. That was the group that I said, you guys sound like you're really expensive to hang out with. It's very true. They're going to bankrupt you. You got to be careful, right?
Well, you have to be careful how you spend your dollars. But I think hanging out with them would also be enriching just because they seem like a lot of fun. Yeah, well, you're probably going to get into a lot of trouble, probably at the same time. And just a little behind the scenes really quickly. I mean, Nikki's always at his house in Cortona. Brian, even though he lives in the States, he was joining us from, like, a castle
in the UK somewhere because he was there for work. And then you heard Jocem say that he lives in Kuwait. Yeah. So it was an international episode. So we're running out of time. Should we hit up just a few more? We have some final clips to share. There's one that I really want to. Share. And it talks about student loans, because that is something that is very real in my future. Navigating student loan strategies for
managing and paying off student debt. I found this episode to be so valuable for anybody who, you know, has a student who will be going to college. And I love this panel. Once again, do you want to add anything? No, it kind of speaks for itself, but people should definitely check that out. It's probably one of our densest episodes as far as resources and knowledge. So we're probably not going to do one of those again because they did such a good job, it's almost impossible to stop that
episode. So I'll hit you with a clip. Mark, where should people start seeking money? And maybe you can provide some rules of thumb, like how much money could people Be borrowing. Well, you should borrow no more for your college education than your annual starting salary. If your total debt at graduation is less than your annual income, you should be able to afford to repay your student loans in 10
years or less. So you need to live like a student while you're in college so you don't have to live like a student after you graduate. And a key step that can help is to increase your awareness of how much you are borrowing because that's the first step in exercising restraint. So it's, it helps to understand just how much you really need to borrow. And don't borrow as much as you can, just as much as you need. And it sounds like there are two sides of that. One is how much are
you going to borrow? But you have to be thinking, you know, in the future, what is your potential salary going to be based on your area of study and what job you might land? Right. You should pick an academic major because you love it. But you should also consider how are you going to be able to repay that debt and maybe have a minor in a field that can help you pay off your student loans and pay the rent.
And then as we think of student loans, what's the ratio like, how much should be coming from federal loans, savings and investments and one's current income? Well, a rough cut is that you should plan on saving about a third of future college costs, with the next third coming from current income and financial aid and the last third from student loans. That's a very rough cut.
A lot depends on how much on the cost of the institution, how much you've saved, and how much is reasonable and affordable to repay the student loans. Certainly you may want to go to the most expensive college on the planet, but you probably can't afford to go there. You need to consider the net price of the college, which is the difference between total annual college costs and the gift aid, the grants and scholarships and
other money that doesn't need to be repaid. That net price is the bottom line cost of the college that you'll have to pay for using savings, income and loans. And if you go to too expensive the college, you'll be taking on too much debt, more debt than you can reasonably afford to repay. Yeah, I just felt like, I feel like that episode deserves more views. That was Mark Kantrowitz. He's an expert on student financial aid and author of several books including
how to Appeal for More College Financial Aid. He went to mit, I think pretty much on a full ride because of the scholarships that he received. And other panelists were Dr. Sonia Lewis, she's CEO of Student Loan Dr. LLC. Caitlin Zaloom, who's an NYU professor and author of the book How Families Make College Work at Any Cost. And then Rae Kaplan, who's an attorney specializing in legal assistance on student loan debt and bankruptcy solutions. Great episode. It's very, very informative.
You know, we're biased, but we really love this show. Like, it's, it's, it's what I do, like, in my spare time. So, Bradley, I think you just have a couple more clips, and they're short ones. You want to set it up for us? Yeah, we kind of did these one on ones where we stopped doing the one on one interviews. And then we brought it back a little bit with Robin Sharma, which was like, incredible. That was actually my birthday as well, so. Very nice guy as well. But the,
the wealth money can't buy. Like, what. What did you think of that book? I have it right here. Yeah, well, let's, let's hit them with a clip and then we take this all the way home in the next. Bring it home, Robin. For this, I guess, fifth, fifth part of wealth, money. How important do you think it is for us to ask ourselves and really set a definition? How much is enough? I think it's a great, I think it's a great metric. And again, like, you don't even have to set how much is enough.
It's, there's nothing wrong with the accumulation of money. It does amazing things for you, amazing things for your family, provides a great deal of freedom in many ways. It prevents you from being backed into a corner to make choices you don't want to make. As you, as you make more financial prosperity, you can help more people and serve the world, which is ever so powerful. Having said that, I think our society has culturally programmed us to measure our
success by how much money we have. And I think a lot of people, what it's done is it has them hustle and grinding and also feeling like they're completely unworthy when they compare themselves to other people with more money. But I think integrity is a greater form of wealth than money. I think having feeling good about your days or having an amazing family life
is worth more than all the money in the bank. I think doing your job, whether you're a sweet streeter, a manager, a yoga teacher, a firefighter, but doing it with a sense of pride, doing it in the pursuit of mastery, doing it to add value to other people, that gives you a currency money can't buy. Such A good one for inspired money. It's a great quote. Yeah. You want to do another one, like. And then we bring this home and you
can close this up and wrap it with a bow. Because this is actually, like, a really long show, considering it's just the two of us. Let's do it. So I chose this last segment because it's a call to action for our audience, and it's so unusual. Is this a practice that you've actually done? Well, I haven't gone ghost for an entire
year. It's. It's more of a metaphor. What I'm suggesting to people is if they can take one year and go to the place you've always dreamed of being, maybe it's Vietnam, maybe it's Hawaii, maybe it's Bogota, maybe it's Tokyo.
And leave your phone at home, metaphorically speaking. Bring the classics or the books you've always wanted to read and use that year to leave the world and go into the wilderness and read and study and meditate and walk and savor life so that when you come back to the world, you've recreated yourself into the person you've always wanted to be. Now you don't have to go ghost for a year. Many people can't. We have families, we
have. We have responsibilities, we have work. Got you, Andy. Then if you can't go ghost for a year, go ghost for a month. Can't go ghost for a month. Do it for two weeks. Can't do it for two weeks. Do it for a week. If not, just do it for a day. Do it today. Leave your phone at home. Go get lost in some neighborhood. Spend some time reading the classics, or get lost in an art gallery. But it's so important to remember that if we're not
alone and building the. Relationship with ourselves and every other relationship. Is affected by that disconnection with ourselves, our relationship with our family, with our money, with our work, and with the world. I've taken many times where I've gone for two months, and I've got away from my usual responsibilities. And I think that's incredibly important because I think the most creative, productive people live in seasons.
I think there's a season to work. Really hard, and I think there's a. Season to get away from the world and refuel and to think. Because you don't want to be so. Busy being busy that your clients climbing these mountains each day only to realize at the end of the year, career or lifetime, you've spent your finest hours climbing the wrong mountains. Robin's Great. Yeah. Best selling author. I don't have all the titles in front of me. The wealth of Money
Can't Buy. The Monk who Sold his Ferrari, the 5am Club, just to name a few. But loved the conversation with Robin. So, I mean, I think it was a great year. 2004 for inspired money for me. 2024. 24. 2024. Yeah. That's when you're getting old, plus or minus 20 years, you know. Yeah. I think it was a fantastic year. We covered a lot of territory. I hope that people enjoyed some of the highlights. There were many more. Like we had some great real estate episodes that we didn't get into. So
we cover so much. But I think that if you haven't watched or listened to the episodes, definitely go back into the archives because there's so much there and I don't know. We're also going to share what we've got coming up. Do you have any final thoughts, Bradley? I'm looking forward to the one on one that we've got coming up with Aubrey de Grey. I believe you also got one coming up in January as well. You got something? Yeah.
Hoping to have "Doc G" Jordan Grumet back on the show. He has a book coming out in early January so hopefully next month we'll do a one on one with him. He's also been a regular on Inspired Money. Just a highlight for. For everyone. Some upcoming episodes. We've got a watch collecting episode coming up in the new year. We have
the Power of Philanthropy. We have Mastering Credit Tips for building and maintaining a strong credit score, exploring Passive income streams, Investing for Retirement Growth and Psychology of Money, just to name a few. I think we're going to have a lot of fun in the new year. I don't know, Bradley, anything that you wanted to add? Spread it out there. People like show some love Andy's a very humble guy. We've. We've kind of been going ghost for like a year which
people don't really realize. We, we abandoned social media so that we could focus on actually the quality of what the show is. But it's time that people found out. So. Yeah. So maybe in 2025 we'll let our presence be known a little bit better. I do want to add that we have had some growth in the YouTube channel. I think that we started off with somewhere around 2,500 subs at the beginning of 2024 and right now we stand at around 4,300 something. So definitely go to
YouTube search for Inspired Money. It's YouTube.com/inspiredmoney, I think where you can find us subscribe to the show. LinkedIn has grown for me a lot over the last year. I think I've gone from like 5,900 followers to it's more than doubled to like, I'm approaching 13,000 and been doing short videos there and having fun with that. But the Inspired Money show still has plenty to accomplish in the new year.
We still have big plans. Oh, one thing that before we part ways, you and I have been talking about how, like, with each episode, with each week, the panels are just getting, like, better and better. Exactly. It's also the way that the series is designed. It's designed to ratchet up slowly and people won't even really notice that it's happening. We're at 58 now, so I'm curious to see, like, what happens by the time we get to
99. I think it'll be the best financial education people can get because we've gotten everybody together by then. And it's a diversity of topics and things that you don't learn in school. So we're trying to teach you and I'm trying to learn as we go every week. Thank you for tuning in today, wherever you're watching from, Whether you're on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, thank you for leaving comments and
joining us in real time or if you're listening to the recording. I wish you a very happy holidays and a happy New Year and look forward to you joining us on this adventure in the New Year. We really look forward to covering a lot of great topics, having great guests back on the show, some returning, some new. And until next time, enjoy your holiday, your New year. I wish you good health and a safe New Year celebration.
Go out and do something that scares you because that's where the magic happens. Thank you, everyone. Thanks, Bradley.