Q&A 110121

“What are your 5 most important money management and wealth growth lessons?”

“Hey Bro, You posted last week on FB about how important public perception is (dress, car, watch, etc)  and I was wondering – should I look to upgrade my ride?  I drive a 2010 Mercury Mountaineer that’s fully paid off but it’s starting to show its age (dings, scratches, etc) plus it guzzles gas. If I sell it I can get about 7K and throw some of our savings in I have about 15K to upgrade my ride for a pre-owned “nicer” one. What are some recommendations you have  (Mercedes BMW Audi etc) to look for in new wheels? PS your Mercedes Van is rad ;)”

Hey doc, Ben, Altadonna happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. Didn’t need too many sweets. I’m proud of myself for the first time in a long mile. I didn’t have any sweets. No, Reese’s peanut butter cups. No, Kit-Kats what else is a common, common fare? Um, what’s the third one? I don’t know. I don’t know what the third one is. I guess my favorites are Kit-Kats and Reese’s peanut butter cups. All right. Let’s see what came in over the weekend. All right. Just two questions from Dr. Austin. That’s his first name? What are your five most important money management and wealth growth lessons? I don’t know. He put me on the spot five, not one, five. All right, Austin. Let’s see what, how I can do I read these for the first time? Honestly, I don’t plan these and take notes or research. I just go off the cuff and I think that’s the way to do it.

I feel like you’re getting the most honest version of a person when they don’t have an opportunity to be too strategic in their response. So what are your five most important money management and wealth growth. So you said five and money management and then wealth growth, managing money and growing money lessons. Okey-doke let’s see what happens here. I’m going to do my best for you. Austin, money management and wealth growth. Well, obviously it’s hard to grow wealth unless you maintain money. So they kind of go hand in hand. Um, well, first of all, you don’t buy. Like I’m not, I’ve never, everybody’s different though, Austin, you know, whatever makes you happy. But if somebody’s goal is to, to manage money better and grow wealth, then you don’t buy stupid stuff. Like you don’t buy depreciate narky. I’m using my finger here. I’ll keep my thumb out here.

Number one, gotta remember where I going and where I’ve been. Number one, you don’t buy depreciating assets or too many of them. So you don’t buy boats. You don’t buy jet skis. You don’t buy, um, you know, time shares you. Don’t, what’s another stupid things people do. Um, you don’t lease cars. You don’t do stupid. You don’t buy stupid stuff. Number one, that’s not in any, not giving this to you. And this is my opinion. I’m not like David Ramsey or anything. Okay. So that’s number one. You don’t, but no particular order. It’s not like the top. It’s just one of the five them trying to dance for you today. So, um, you don’t buy depreciating assets. You don’t buy stupid stuff. That’s that’s a big one.

Okay. So that’s that, um, even within the stuff that you need, so there’s stuff that you want that you don’t need. Try to minimize that and try to minimize the stuff that you need. You need clothes, right? But you don’t need to go crazy. You need a house, right. But you don’t need to go crazy. So you need a car, but you don’t need to go crazy. So there’s the don’t buy the that you really don’t need that depreciates and the stuff that you really do need, don’t go crazy. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy more than you need. Or like if you like flannel shirts, but great own three don’t own 10. Um, if you’re a woman you liked these crazy hats are wearing these days or aviator glasses or belt buckles. Great. Have one of each, but don’t buy 10. Um, you know, if you like sneakers the word shoes, great, but you know, minimize excess.

Okay. So that’s number two. What I just said, I would go under minimize excess don’t buy depreciate assets. I’m gonna try not to remember all these five, but, uh, minimize, uh, assets that are necessary or categories of assets that are necessary. Minimize it though. Be smart about it. Okay. I’m really thinking here. Most money management, um, three, uh, don’t think real estate is the best way to wealth. It might it’s it’s, it’s getting the game as much harder than it used to be. So the lesson I learned is that, you know, I did real estate when the timing was right. And I got out, I believe at the right time. Now in the longer, your time, your time window in the, in the feature, the wider much, the more time you can wait, you could probably do okay. In real estate, in some markets, but to make it fast or, um, is tough.

Uh, and it make it long as tough because we cannot forecast the future. The teachers more in certain now than ever, especially when it comes to commercial real estate. And when it comes to homes, even new homes, even cheap, new homes in popular areas are sprouting up because people are getting out of, you know, they’re getting out of New York, they’re getting out of California, they’re going to Idaho. They’re going to Texas. They’re going to, uh, those are probably that really, those are private, one of the top two, but they’re going to Montana. They’re going to Florida. They’re going places. Right. Um, so you think that, oh, that means that this property is going to appreciate maybe, maybe not so, well, my third one has to do with real estate. Cause most people think wealth is built in real estate. Yes, it is. I mean, I live in Danville, California.

You can Google it. It’s the number safest town in California. Probably the one safest it’s number one in California. Like number one, there’s a lot of cities in California. Danville’s number one. I live in Danville. Been there a long time. I own my office. I own my home. I owned, I just sold a rental property recently about maybe eight months ago, a year ago. Maybe so maybe not recently, but I bought, I sold a big home that I had. I rent, I ran it out. I had 27 properties at one time. Now I’m down to a three and I’m selling another one. Um, so I’m going to be down to, uh, just to, um, some day I’m going to might be down to none, which is my, uh, my fourth, my third sub, my three things. I just commented on this real estate. Don’t don’t, don’t get too hyped on that.

Um, okay. Let’s, let’s keep this as part of number three. So you’d be as much as possible about real estate. Um, there’s no sin in renting. I mean, heck when you rent a house, especially one, that’s just a little Greg Stanley said this. When I was in chiropractor college by he said back then he said buy, but get a house or buy a house. That’s a little bit too small to raise your family and a little bit too big to when you’re retired, but stay in that house. That’s that’s a good strategy. So my dad did my dad, my dad, as a plumber, I can’t believe he just has an instinct for health and wealth. It’s amazing what he’s, what he’s accomplished. So, um, yeah, you know, like there’s no sin and renting, man. You don’t have to deal with property taxes. You don’t have to deal with insurance.

You don’t have to deal with maintenance and you have freedom. You, you, you have the ability and the option to be state nimble, be nimble and move. Uh, and uh, so there’s no sin in renting. Not especially if you’re in a town that chances are, the homes are not going to appreciate that much. Like, you know, you buy a house for 400 grand and 10 years from now it’s worth 500 grand. Yeah. That’s not a good, that’s not a good investment. Most homes are not good investments in this country. For sure. So don’t people worry about what people think you don’t want to be the only person on the block renting a house. Oh, you don’t own this house? Oh no. We’re renting. Oh, I know. It just sounds sucky. I get, I get it, man. It’s like, oh, it’s a beautiful house. Thank you.

When did you buy it? Oh, you know, we’re renting. We’re not, we didn’t buy it. We’re renting it. Oh honey. Did you know that the next door neighbors that just moved in, they didn’t buy that house. They’re renting it. Who cares? What people think they sure in hell who cares? Um, so be careful with real estate. All right. So that’s my third one. Number four, money management, wealth growth lessons. Number four is going to be a little unusual because you said wealth growth lessons, money management, well, number four, isn’t necessarily saving or investing the biggest one. I think, you know, what I’m going to say is making it in the first place. So number four would be, make money. There’s no such thing as passive income. In my opinion, there’s no everything needs to be managed. People, people, everything needs to be managed. I don’t believe in passive income. I’m 60 years old. I’m still working my off. So, so screw passive. Okay. That’s a pipe dream.

Uh, where was I? I didn’t have enough coffee yet today. Um, I’m doing my best and I think I’m giving you some good stuff. Um, so where was I? Uh, we talked about real estate pass. Oh yeah. Making my before making money. All right. Just make the money. Like in bodybuilders, you know, in weightlifting world or fitness world, everybody wants to know then the latest trick it’s like, you want to get, build muscle, just lift heavy stuff. You know what I mean? Lift a bunch of heavy stuff often or faster or, or, or more, you know, more volume. So, uh, it’s just make more money like that. Don’t that don’t underestimate the power of just making more money. You know, I, I, I’m not a good money manager, but I’m a good at making money all my life. I like nice stuff. Not like material stuff, but just experiences like arrives and chiropractic school.

I, most of my, my school loan money was, was spent on going out to dinner and dating, to be honest with you and buying nice clothes. I mean, but I always had this like innate confidence that everything’s gonna be okay. It’s not a great strategy. It’s kind of risky. I mean, I didn’t make real money until I was like, you know, three years after graduating from chiropractic school, I started making money. I finally, you know, figured out how to make money and chiropractic. Um, probably like giving people what they want, not, not doing prepays or, or abusing insurance companies or open adjusting or, or, you know, one hour or three or three day report of findings, you know, crazy stuff like that. So number four would be just make more money. Number five, number four is the biggest. So back to my story is, yeah.

You know, when, when you make a lot of money, you kind of, you can, if you make a mistake, you can S you can survive Tom bill. You talks about what he calls a, um, what’s the how’s. He said, he says, um, a mortality event always avoid a mortality event, Googled Tom bill, U B I L L Y E U. And just put the word, Tom, bill you, and then put the word in quotes. These two words, mortality event. He says it better than I can. Um, but, uh, a mortality mint mint event would be something in business or in life that happens to you. I’m not talking about health, uh, something in business. Usually it’s in the context of business that if you, if you, if it goes wrong, you’re like you’re broke. You’re bankrupt. You’re you’re you, you can’t survive financially. Avoid that.

So don’t do stupid stuff. But, uh, so, uh, you know, my fourth, most important money management and wealth, not management, but wealth growth lessons is make more of it. Be a great chiropractor, know how to run a business. Okay. My last number five, I give myself an, a minus on your answer. Number five, money management and wealth growth lessons is I don’t know enough about money to manage it, like manage it. I’m saying manager. I’m not saying, you know, put a dollar in a coffee can. And, uh, for every $3 that you make, I mean, I can, I have enough discipline to do stuff like that. Um, but when it comes to managing the money, I’m not a good money management, Andrew, but I’m against financial professional money managers against professional money managers. Like this is probably the, this is a big lesson. This is like, I would say the number one is make a lot more.

Number two would be this answer right here, do not trust professional money manager. Even that 1% that they charge you each year, over time, a year, uh, over a long, um, over decades, it’s equal to 30% of your profits. So no money managers. Now, I’m not giving you financial advice. Don’t Sue me later. But, um, I’m just kidding. So everything I’m saying is my opinion it’s for entertainment purposes only. But my fifth answer is to, in my opinion, is as I don’t like, I’ve been through all that. I’ve been through financial planners and advisors, you know, they churn your portfolio, they try to sell you products. Um, it’s kind of like medical doctors, you know, there’s, uh, pharmaceutical salespeople or their companies try to say, okay, everybody will just slam this product down your client’s throat now. So here’s my number one, man. And I wish I learned this a long time ago and some of you know, what I going to say, if you’ve been with me long time, I wish I knew this a long time ago. I would be so freaking rich right now. But I’m 60 time is your friend when you’re young, when it comes to saving and compounding money. Um, but here it is, drum roll, please.

Uh, a really good index fund. Don’t buy individual stocks or bonds individually, a good, really good index fund. And I believe the best or the top. One of the top three, which I believe is the best. In my opinion, it’s simply simple would be an S and P 500 index put as much money as you can in it every month and forget about it. Don’t worry about dollar cost averaging. Just put in what you can afford. If you have a lot of money right now, don’t drip it in over time. Don’t wait for dips and put it in, put it all in at one time and forget about it. It would be spy, the trading symbol S P Y for the standard and standard. What is it called? I don’t remember what it’s called standard and Poor’s 500 companies or whatever. S P Y is a trading symbol.

It’s set it and forget it, man. It averages it’ll double every seven and a half 0.2 years on average because of the law of 72. And the fact that it’s the tip of the returns are typically 10% a year. Google it, look it up on Wikipedia. Listen to Warren buffet on YouTube. Talk about it. S P Y S and P index 500 companies. There’s 500 companies and they get managed by, by federal performance and some stay in some, get pushed out. That’s the number one, Austin man, make a lot of money and put as much every month into S P Y. I would fire. You downloaded Charles Schwab app, and there’s probably a Charles Schwab office near you wire money to the, their office. Put they’ll put it in your account. This, this has to do with your, and have two accounts in there. At least I just have to your, your, your IRA maximize it, spy and your, what they call, um, I forgot what it’s called, but it’s your non-contributory account, which is your non IRA.

So that’s the game for me, man. I just put it in and I forget it. The funny thing is okay here. Okay. So that’s my five Austin. I hope you happy, but I’m going to say one thing, but that’s your fi spy? I can’t, I would put that on my gravestone. Uh, I’ll go. I’ll debate with anybody about it. That period, it’s easy. It’s simple. You forget about it. You don’t look at it every day and it just gets in and just reinvest the dividends. And your welcome on that one in 20 years, you will, you will thank me. Do that for your kids. Put five grand in spy for your kids right now, if they’re young, don’t tell them about it and just watch that, that puppy grow and don’t even spend it on their college or the college is a whole nother opinion I have on that one.

So, um, so I think he couldn’t figure that one out, uh, spy, man. I liked Charles Schwab. It’s simple, it’s easy. And uh, but here’s the funny thing. All right, when it comes to, let’s talk about like, why wealth, like, why wealth? I know I’m going really long on this, but why wealth? I’m not saying wealth is not good, but I’m not saying it’s great. Um, takes a lot of time out of your a hundred years on this earth to make it. And you don’t, you will never spend the majority of it. Like I’ll never spend the majority of money. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve worked my butt off to make and pay taxes like California so much, so much in taxes. So it’s like, is it really worth it? You know, so that’s where, I’m my head’s out lately. Austin is all this. I mean, yes, you gotta do what makes you happy?

And I think I really am. So self-aware that what I do for chiropractic and what I do for my members, uh, is, is a value. And I don’t think there’s anything like it in chiropractic. I don’t think there ever will be. So I’m really proud of, of what I’ve created. I’m not bragging. I’m just, I know the blood, sweat, and tears that I put into what I’ve created. And so I, I, I, uh, I silently have some, uh, self, uh, uh, worth and love for what I do, because I know that it’s a great thing that I do. And, uh, my perspective, uh, is, is a culmination of 33 decades of hard work and a lot of reading and a lot of, uh, knowledge and experiences good and bad that I can, I can really compress time and save a lot of stress for chiropractors if they, if they would just be open-minded and listen, I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but, uh, um, you know, uh, you’re listening to somebody that went to chiropractic college at practice.

I mean, we’re, we’re a way more similar than we are different. So I, I believe that what I say is at least worth listening to, uh, once, uh, uh, so, so, so, um, yeah. Oh, money. I almost forget what I say. At least I caught up here. Oh yeah. Like, okay. So let’s say I die when I’m 90 or a hundred or tonight in my sleep, uh, I’ll never use that money. So who’s going to get my money. That’s like, like who’s going to get my money, my loved ones. And what are they going to do with it? Is it going to help them? It’s going to make it happy or make them happier. Do they need all of it? How much do they need? You know, money is tricky, man. The love of money is tricky and, uh, a balanced life is where it’s at.

I believe, great health and relationships. Uh, there’s no amount of money that could, um, you can’t buy it. You know, you can’t buy that. So, um, I’m guilty as charged, you know? Um, so I think the biggest piece of wisdom I can give you, Austin, is don’t put money in the forefront of living your life. Um, and if you need, uh, things to buy in order to be happy, then you’re going to lose. So, uh, don’t overvalue money. I do stress. Oh, another thing is term insurance getting good life insurance policy for your family. If you die, God forbid they’re taken care of. You don’t have to make all that money for them. Or you got to do as a Ford, the term premium, you know, I would get, if you’re out, if you have assets or debt, if you have debt, uh, you know, if you have, uh, uh, um, I don’t know.

I don’t know how everybody listening to your family is, and your kids are how many kids you got and really what you want to do you want, I still wouldn’t. I think everybody should read that book, um, to die broke or how to die, broke or die broke. Um, not that you should necessarily follow it word for word, but it’s just a good perspective that nobody ever listens to or hears. I think it’s just, you got to here counter-argument to mainstream, um, mentality. When it comes to money, read the book, die broke, please. Everybody read the book and then, uh, get a good, make sure you have good life insurance. And if you die, you don’t have any anxiety over if your family is going to be okay. And then what else do you need money for? If you really think about it, food, shelter, clothing, and a vacation once in awhile.

So yeah. Make some money, spend some money, but being wealthy, it doesn’t necessarily need me need to be your goal in life. All right. Sorry for that. Long-winded answer. But I really tried to, um, to answer it to the best of my ability, Austin, I just, at least that’s my, it was my intent. Okay. Next question from Dr. Eric. Hey bro. That’s what he said. Hey bro. Back you posted last week. She don’t even remember what I had for breakfast today up because I don’t eat breakfast. You posted last week on Facebook about how important public perception is.

Well, yeah, if I, I probably said the word important maybe, but it’s real. I know that how important it is. It’s a separate issue. Dressing carwash. Okay. I know that now I know the time to think and I was wondering, should I look to upgrade my ride, Eric using the word bro, and ride you’re like cool today. All right. Should I apply? I guess you mean your car, not your bicycle. Um, should I upgrade my ride? I driving 2010 mercury Mountaineer. I love those mountaineers. I rarely see him keep that car. Eric that’s fully paid off, keep it, but it’s starting to show its age dings scratches plus it guzzles gas it’s so if I saw it, I’d get seven grand and throw some of our savings and I have about 15,000 upgrade my ride. If you have in your savings 15,000 or you said, and some in some of our savings in, I have 15 grand upgrade, my rifer pre-owned nicer.

One. What are some recommendations? You have Mercedes BMW you went from, should I upgrade your car to, uh, should I get a Mercedes BMW or Audi? Sounds like you want a car bad Eric. So I would, uh, to look for a new wheels, PSU, Mercedes van is red. Uh, thanks Eric. But by the way, you know, that’s my office. I work out of it. My Mercedes van, um, forget that it’s a Mercedes cause cargo vans are cheap, right? It’s not that expensive. Mercedes cargo van it’s cheap. The money was in fixing it up inside. That’s where it got expensive. But just to let you know, so you don’t think I counter, you know, I counter contradict myself is, you know, uh, IRS code 1 79. Did I got a full deduction on the van? Uh, from my income all in one year. So I don’t do things unless it makes sense or make some money.

Um, so Eric and your situation, and I know you, I would keep your car, bro. Just keep it, keep it, just keep it, keep it. It’s cheaper to park it down the street that it is to replace it right now. All right. A hundred percent. Eric, keep your car, bro. Keep your car. My man. Alrighty. Then that’s it for today. But tomorrow is another day and I look forward to hearing from you. Yes. You so reply back. Give me a comment. If you like, give me a question, try to throw me a curve ball. Try it, try to, uh, if you think I’m full of BS, call me on it. Um, give me an opportunity to respond to your question, to your comments. Uh, to, I I say, I call you, I call BS on you Ben, or if you just wanna reply back and tell me how much I’ve helped you. Um, I like it all. I appreciate it all. I respect it all. I value it all. Um, it’s all good to me. There’s no good or bad just information and we needed it all. So I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Reply back. Tell me something, ask me something and I will see you tomorrow. Have a good day. Bye. Thank you.