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#3- Karen Beth Ford
9 Plays4 years ago
Karen is a Master Financial Coach, Public Speaker, Entrepreneur, and Author who has coached people with a variety of money issues: from just $500 in debt to $800,000 in debt. She has coached folks with up to 86 credit cards and taught them how to pay down and pay off those credit cards in record time.
Karen’s mission is to inspire others to rid themselves of debt and build wealth. She encourages others to break the shackles of debt and gives valuable insight into building wealth so they can experience financial freedom!
Karen Ford’s #1 Amazon Best Selling Book “Money Matters” is a discovery for many.
This book is not only motivational, but practical.
She is an avid real estate investor, who enjoys buying, selling, and flipping properties. She has even bought properties for as little as $10 and turned a few dollars into thousands!
In “Money Matters” she provides keys to demolishing debt, shares how to budget correctly, and gives principles in wealth building.
Website: https://jimboparis.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JimboParis
Youtube : Jimbo Paris Show #3- Karen Beth Ford - YouTube
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Transcript
Introduction to Financial Coaching
00:00:00
Speaker
This is the Jimbo Paris show and I'm Jimbo Paris and right now we have Karen and Karen, can you kind of begin by giving me kind of a brief summary about who you are and what you're about?
00:00:13
Speaker
Absolutely. I'm a master financial coach. I am all about and have passion for people to get money, build wealth, get out of debt, learn how to budget the whole nine yards. There's so many people in all over the world, actually, but especially in the USA that have no idea how to manage their money. And that's where I come in and help them.
00:00:36
Speaker
That's quite interesting. So can you kind of give a story about what motivated you to get into that in the first place? Sure. Well, you know, this might sound bizarre to some people, but I'm actually a registered nurse, but I haven't practiced as a nurse for several years. I had a friend of mine tell me, Karen, you're really good with numbers. You're really great with money. I think you ought to get some more training because you really have a gift in that.
00:01:02
Speaker
and I heeded their advice and I got some more training and I absolutely loved it. Now I know some people are thinking how can you go from being a registered nurse to a master financial coach because it doesn't seem like they have anything in common but as a nurse I helped people get healthy physically but as a master financial coach I help people get healthy financially and that's so very important because so many people because of varying circumstances were right now in the middle of a
00:01:31
Speaker
Some people lost their jobs. Some people are on unemployment. And so they find themselves in a predicament. And so many people are in debt. So I have a heart to help people. So even though I'm not practicing as a nurse, helping people get healthy physically, I'm still helping people just in a different way.
00:01:53
Speaker
And that is one of my passions. And so many people don't have an understanding of what to do with money, how money works. I love helping people win with money, to be honest with you. Everybody needs it, right? Everybody needs money. What's
Inspiration and Challenges in Coaching
00:02:07
Speaker
one thing you wish you would have done before you started your career, or what you wish you would have known?
00:02:14
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I wish I would have started. Oh, you mean with master financial coaching? I would have started real estate investing 30 years ago had I known then what I know now. Absolutely. I would have started investing earlier. I would have done the stock market earlier. I would have done a lot of things a lot sooner, but that's okay.
00:02:40
Speaker
I started later in life with this adventure, but it's still panning out for me very well. So I just wish I would have done it 30 years ago. So what are a few people that really made an influential impact to you and kind of pushed you over the edge to kind of make a big change in your life when it came to finances?
00:03:02
Speaker
That's a great question Jimbo and I can answer that really easily. I sat down with a husband wife one day and they asked me to help them with their finances and I asked a bunch of questions and I was ending up getting all of the answers I was asking.
00:03:19
Speaker
And we listed all of their debts and I said, is there anything else now granted before I said the question, is there anything else they had already given me 30 credit cards. Okay. So I said, well, is there anything else the wife turned beat red and said, well.
00:03:39
Speaker
I have some credit cards that he doesn't know about. Now granted, they're a married couple, okay? I have some credit cards that he doesn't know about. I said, okay, we listed all of those. And I said, okay, is there anything else? And his face turned beet red. And he said, I have some credit cards she doesn't know about. So when it was all said and done, they had 84 credit cards between the two of them. And every one of those credit cards
00:04:09
Speaker
had a balance on them. So that's what really shifted my thinking and caused me to really dive into this master financial coaching career was that couple right there. Speaking of how you dove into your career, what was one of your biggest failures or things that really hit you hard while you're pursuing? Because there's always that struggle to get to where you need to be. Let's go with coaching.
00:04:35
Speaker
go with coaching. I can't help somebody that doesn't need help or that doesn't want help.
00:04:42
Speaker
So that's a big point of frustration for me. I sat down with a husband and wife. She desperately wanted the help, desperately wanted the help. She was willing to do whatever it is that she needed to do to get their finances in order. But when you're married, it does make a difference if you're both not on the same page and he wanted nothing to do with it.
00:05:05
Speaker
And so that was a real challenge for me. And I'd have to say that was a failure because I couldn't sell him on it. I couldn't make him do it. I couldn't win him over. And I don't know what else I could have done, but I hope they're doing okay now. I highly doubt it because he wasn't willing to do what he needed to do. He wanted to keep spending and doing what he was doing.
00:05:32
Speaker
And that's a hard place to be in, really, is when someone's not willing, they don't want it. Connecting to that lack of willingness, what do you think is a common myth or misconception about the profession that you're in?
00:05:47
Speaker
I'd
Debunking Financial Coaching Myths
00:05:48
Speaker
say that a common myth or misconception is that I'm going to tell you to stop spending money or that you have to eat bread and butter every day and nothing else or that you can never go out to eat in a restaurant again. All of those are really horrible misconceptions, definitely misunderstandings because when I come in, I
00:06:12
Speaker
I'm going to, I'm kind of like a magnifying glass. I'm going to magnify your finances because let's face it, if you're in debt, you don't always see a way out of debt. Or if you're spending money in a particular area but you don't realize how much money you're spending in that area,
00:06:32
Speaker
I shine a light or use a magnifying glass so that it's revealed to you. I'll give you a prime example. I sat down with a husband and wife. They had a little three-year-old daughter and they had no idea how much they were spending on groceries or food or anything each month.
00:06:49
Speaker
They would go to the grocery store every two or three days. They didn't do any meal planning. They ate out in a restaurant once or twice a week. They ate in the cafeteria or work every day. They had no idea how much they were spending on food. So I started asking the questions. Okay, how much does it cost you when you go to this grocery store every two or three days? Okay.
00:07:12
Speaker
How much does it cost you when you go to the restaurant once or twice a week? How much does it cost you when you eat in that cafeteria? Long story short, husband, wife, and three-year-old, they were spending $1,500 a month on food. And they had a real aha moment.
00:07:29
Speaker
because they had no idea how much that was costing them. And so when I saw their eyes get large and realize how much they were spending, I asked them, do you want to make an adjustment? Because let's face it, nobody wants to change, but they're willing to adjust, right?
00:07:46
Speaker
semantics is all important. And they said, yes, I think we are. So they decided they were going to do meal planning. They were going to go out to eat to a restaurant only once or twice a month. They were going to go to the grocery store once a week instead of every two or three days. And they were going to start brown bagging their lunch and only in the cafeteria.
00:08:07
Speaker
once a week at work. So they went from $1,500 a month on food down to $600 a month on food. So they had an additional $900 extra that they could invest, put in an IRA or whatever they wanted to do with it. So it's a real aha moment for a lot of people with the magnifying glass when I come in.
00:08:32
Speaker
What are some interesting statistics that you've kind of gathered over the years? Have you ever seen any relationships between a family that has an only child, may have a different set of issues compared to a family that has multiple kids? Something like that. Have you ever gotten some strange relationships that you figured out?
00:08:53
Speaker
No, not necessarily. I mean, obviously, if you have more than one child, you have four kids. I mean, your bills, your budget is going to look much different than if you only have one child, right? If you have a lot of children, depending on your income, they may not get all the bells and whistles. They may not get the updated or upgraded new iPhone or iPad.
00:09:15
Speaker
as opposed to someone who has one child with a nominal income. So that differs a little bit from family to family. But I will tell you that single people sometimes don't always realize how much they're spending either.
00:09:33
Speaker
You know, I coached a young man one time. I think it was 24, 25 years old. He had a great job, but I couldn't
Inspiring Others to Coach
00:09:40
Speaker
figure out where is all this money going? I mean, I know what your rent is. I know what your car payment is, but I couldn't figure out why he didn't have more money saved up in the bank.
00:09:49
Speaker
And I just looked at him, I said, do you drink coffee? And he said, yeah. And I thought to myself, oh, I think I know the answer now. And I said, do you make that coffee at home? And he said, no. And I said, well, where do you get this coffee? And he said, I drive through my favorite drive-through place for coffee every day.
00:10:11
Speaker
and get my specialty latte every day on my way to work. Long story short, he was spending anywhere from $250 to $350 every single month on coffee. And he had no idea because he didn't use money. He used a debit card or Apple Pay or a credit card. So it's mindless when you're not using cash. And he didn't realize how much he was spending.
00:10:39
Speaker
That's another thing if you have a moment. It's a lot better if you use cash when you buy things than you do with a debit or a credit card or Apple Pay because it's very easy with a tap of your thumb on that phone to rack up purchases and it's mindless.
00:11:01
Speaker
When you use cash, you'll spend less. Studies show that people will spend 37 to 42 percent more money when they use a debit card or credit card rather than using cash. So what do you consider your ideal customer?
00:11:19
Speaker
My ideal customer is someone who wants to make their finances better. For instance, if I've coached people from the age of 18 all the way up to 74 years old, the common denominator between all of the people I've coached is that they never learned how to budget.
00:11:40
Speaker
and a budget is important. So whether it's someone that needs to manage their money in a greater way, or they're in debt and they want to learn how to get out of debt, or maybe it's a person who wants to learn how to build wealth, whether it's the stock market, real estate investing, retirement preparation, whatever the case may be,
00:12:03
Speaker
That's the ideal customer. Any one of those or a combination of all of those. I've coached some people that say, give it all to me. I need to learn how to budget. I want to get out of debt and I want to build wealth. Give it all to me. So any one of those or all of those is an ideal customer. Are there any people that you've motivated to pursue a career similar to your own?
00:12:26
Speaker
I have not purposefully motivated someone. I haven't looked at someone and said, wow, you ought to do financial coaching. But some people, because they received the help, want to dive into it because they know it worked for them. So now what they want to do is almost like a domino effect because it helped me. Now I want to help somebody else. So I have some people that have said, well, I think I'd like to do what you do because it was such a great benefit to me.
00:12:56
Speaker
I understand that the key advice you give to people is to create a budget but we also were stressing how important real estate is. Can you
Real Estate Success and Strategies
00:13:07
Speaker
kind of go into why you value that now?
00:13:09
Speaker
I am an avid real estate investor. I buy and sell properties. I buy properties at auction, foreclosures, from realtors if they're a good deal, good price. I will flip some of them. I will make some of them into rentals so that it's an income each and every month. But real estate by and large is a great
00:13:34
Speaker
investment to get into. However, let me preface that statement with this. You can't go in blindly not knowing anything and think you're going to make a million dollars overnight with real estate. And I certainly, I mean, you can make a million dollars. That's not a problem, but you still need to have the tools in your toolbox. You need to know where to buy the real estate, how to buy the real estate,
00:13:59
Speaker
What are you looking for? If you're looking at a property, what are the deal breakers? I have a list in my mind of deal breakers. Oh, I'm not going to buy that property. There's asbestos in it, or I'm not going to buy that property. There's mold in it. Remediation of mold is very expensive. Unless you have pockets full of money, that may be a property you want to avoid.
00:14:26
Speaker
There's other things to look at, too, depending on how much money you want to put into a property. For instance, if you're looking to flip a property and let's say the neighborhood you're looking at, all of those houses sell for $100,000. Let's just throw an even number out there. Well, you would not want to buy a property for $80,000 in that neighborhood
00:14:52
Speaker
put $50,000 in it and think you're going to sell it for $250,000. Why? Because all of the other houses in that neighborhood only sell for $100,000. Even though you dump a lot of money in that house and that property, you're not going to sell it for $250,000 because it's not a neighborhood of $250,000 homes. But
00:15:16
Speaker
If I look at a neighborhood that has houses selling for $100,000 and there's a foreclosure, they're trying to just sell it, get rid of it, get it off the books. At $25,000 or $30,000, then yeah, I'm going to consider that property depending on how much money I'm going to put in it. Maybe it just needs some new carpet, fresh coat of paint, and a few little things. Let's say that I buy it for $25,000.
00:15:45
Speaker
I put 25,000 in it, and now yeah, I'm going to list it for 110,000 and get 100 out of it. So those are just little tips to consider when you're looking for a property to flip. Properties that you want to make into rentals, you can spend a lot of money on it, you can spend a little money on it, but you have to know the market. How much do rentals
00:16:09
Speaker
how much are they renting for in this particular area so knowing those little things will really help guide you into what properties to look for and what properties to avoid. Quite interesting and I could tell that your background as a financial advisor actually gave you a bit of an advantage when working in with real estate. Can you kind of correct me if I'm right or wrong there?
00:16:33
Speaker
Oh no, you are absolutely correct. Yes. Because numbers, you know, money is all about numbers. So you have to know how much you're going to go in with. What are you willing to invest in that particular property and what you're going to, what, what are you going to retrieve from it? So, you know, I've, I've coached people all over. I was on a podcast probably six months ago with someone in California. Well, the market in California, you're talking.
00:16:59
Speaker
$300,000, $500,000, $600,000 million homes. And she's an avid flipper. She's just all over the place. She'll buy a house for $700,000, dump $250,000 in it.
00:17:14
Speaker
and then sell it for 1.8 million. So it depends on the location in which you live. California is a different beast. So, you know, especially, you know, various areas of California, you're looking at big markups of houses there. You know, I think another thing that I'm thinking about is what's kind of a thing that you would avoid doing in the future when it comes to working as a financial advisor? What's a mistake that you've personally
00:17:43
Speaker
overcome and kind of surpass innocence. Because you weren't always, were you always this good with money? Were you always this good? Yeah. Oh no. I don't think most people have that path of shame. No, when I was in my early twenties, sometimes I'm one of seven kids. And so when you're talking about mom and dad and seven kids in the house, you have nine people in the house.
00:18:06
Speaker
And my mom and dad both worked. They were both hardworking. She was a school teacher and he worked in a glass plant. But we didn't have a lot of bells and whistles. I mean, if there was an iPhone back then, none of us would have had one, right? So we didn't have all of the splurgy things that other kids had.
00:18:27
Speaker
That's because there were so many of us. We weren't dirt poor, but we just didn't have all of the extras that kids today, you know, get to have. And so when I hit my 20s and started working, I thought, man, I want to start making up for things that I missed out on, right? So you start buying things and I'm thinking, well, I don't have all the money for it. So I actually went into thousands and thousands of dollars
00:18:55
Speaker
of credit card debt. And so 30 years ago, 35 years ago, because I'm 58, 35 years ago, I would have not done then, you know, had I known what I know now. And so I want to say to no matter what age you are listening and watching this podcast right now,
00:19:17
Speaker
understand not having and you want to have and you're excited and you don't want to wait but listen don't go into credit card debt just because you're you're wanting these things now unless you can pay that credit card off each and every month don't do it and I know some people are even thinking well yeah I will make my payment every month and it'll be paid off in six months listen something might happen five months down the road and and you need things and
00:19:47
Speaker
you don't see your way out before you know it unless you really practice that self-control you're going to end up over your head in debt don't do it start saving up for that thing maybe you want to buy a new iphone i know they'll give you a deal don't do it start saving up you know each and every month until you can afford it don't go into credit card debt that's sound advice right there from personal experience
00:20:13
Speaker
I think a lot of people do get into that kind of dichotomy. It's kind of like, do I make money with my business or my job? Do I save money or do I invest money?
00:20:25
Speaker
It could get very dual. Yeah, you know, they all work.
Balancing Saving, Investing, and Debt
00:20:29
Speaker
Do it all. You know, depending on what your income is, you know, let's just pretend after all your bills are paid, groceries, utilities, I mean everything. Let's say you end up with an extra $500 a month, right? After, you know, your monthly budget, rent, house, car payment, gas, utilities, food, all of it. You still have $500 a month.
00:20:53
Speaker
Well, definitely you want to have at least $1,000 in a savings account marked emergency because an emergency is going to rise up, especially if you're in your own home. Who knows? Maybe you're going to have to replace the hot water tank. Maybe you're going to have to buy four new tires because your car won't pass inspection unless you put four new tires on it.
00:21:16
Speaker
If you don't have money in the bank to take care of those four tires or to replace that hot water tank, you're going to end up going into debt on a credit card or something to get those four tires on or to replace that hot water tank. $1,000 in an emergency fund right away. Well Karen, how am I going to do that? Well, first of all, look in your basement.
00:21:38
Speaker
Look in your house. Look in your attic. If you haven't used something, this is my rule of thumb. If you haven't used that particular item in at least a year, sell it. Get rid of it. Put it on eBay. Put it on Facebook yard sale sites. It's free to post those things. Get $1,000. Quick, quick, quick. Put it in that emergency fund. Once you have that $1,000 in an emergency fund and you still have $500 left over every single month,
00:22:08
Speaker
Now you can do a couple of different things. You could set up a separate savings account and let's say you put $300 a month in it and the other $200 you decide you're going to put it in some stocks or you're going to put it in a separate account, March Real Estate. Well, that's going to take a long time to save up. No, it won't. You'll be surprised how quickly that will grow and how cheap you can buy things.
00:22:36
Speaker
in real estate. I mean every state has what is called a state auditor office and sometimes when people don't pay their property taxes those properties end up being sold by the state auditor office because they're not in the real estate business and they want to get those properties off the books. That's a great way to buy properties very cheap, very cheap.
00:23:03
Speaker
I bought a property eight years ago for $10 that way. And I made money on it when I sold it. That's the thing. So you actually made the majority of your money through real estate. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. What are the best success stories you have about clients?
00:23:22
Speaker
Oh, wow. I'd have to say that couple that had 84 credit cards, that was a win because they started the plan, they started working the plan. I would have to say another couple who had lots of real estate investments, but they did a little bit differently and they had mortgages on their real estate.
00:23:47
Speaker
And so they had over $860,000 in debt. So I coached them actually, I actually coached them over the phone because they lived so far away. But I would have to say that was another great success. They had over 20 properties. It's quite interesting.
00:24:06
Speaker
The first thing you always recommend to your clients would always be real estate, right? For making money? Yes, building wealth. I would have to say that's one of the top ways to make money, yes, is real estate. But I also like the stock market as well. And another thing I would like to get into is, what would you recommend people to do? Build wealth first or save money first?
00:24:32
Speaker
make more than you spend or save more than you spent? That's a very good question. Well, first of all, if you're in debt, you got to work on getting out of debt. That's the first thing because you can't borrow your way out of debt. I had a couple tell me, well, we're going to get a loan
00:24:52
Speaker
so we can get out of debt. And I looked at them and said, you're going to take out a loan to get out of debt. And they heard me say that you can't borrow your way out of debt. You just have to start paying on those debts until they're gone. So that's the first key. The second key is you can save money while you are investing.
00:25:16
Speaker
depending on where you're going to invest, whether it's the stock market, whether it's real estate, but you still need to save some money while you're spending money in that particular investment. You want to have all those streams going at the same time. But first and foremost, demolishing the debt. It's not one or the other as far as utilizing all of your money to invest.
00:25:42
Speaker
rather than using all your money to save, do both. Do both at the same time. Save and invest.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation
00:25:51
Speaker
Another thing is, if you could have someone else step in your shoes, how would that work for you? You mean I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing? Yes. What type of advice would you give them?
00:26:03
Speaker
The advice I would give them would be know everything that I know. Make sure that you're constantly learning. Don't just get the nuts and bolts on financial coaching and then stop learning and think that you're all that in a bag of chips.
00:26:20
Speaker
because money is always changing. Investing is always changing. People's situations with money is always changing. So constantly listen to podcasts like this, get books,
00:26:36
Speaker
Continue your education in the area of finances because it's always growing and it's always moving and it's always changing. Don't just assume you know it all because you don't. You have to keep going with your education in the area of money. How'd you learn that lesson about not just assuming?
00:26:57
Speaker
not assuming. I would have to say, you know, someone asked me a question once and I didn't know the answer to it. So I was a little bit embarrassed and I thought, wow, you know, they asked me a question I can't answer. And I told them, I said, you know what, I don't know the answer to that. I wasn't going to say I knew it when I didn't. And so I thought, you know what, Karen, you're not all that in a bag of chips.
00:27:20
Speaker
you need to continually educate yourself and make sure you're up on everything. Do you contribute your success to that mindset about always trying to learn more, always trying to improve? Is that how you see it? Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:27:36
Speaker
I learned by doing, and that's sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing, but I learned what not to do as well, right? There's never a failure when you learn from it. A failure is when you don't learn from it. That's a true failure.
00:27:51
Speaker
So if you make mistakes along the way, the only time that's really going to be a fail for you is if you don't learn from it. So even in the process of coaching people I've learned, because everybody's got different personalities, you have to learn how to communicate with different individuals, type A individuals, laid back individuals. If you've ever done the disc, you know, D-I-S-C, what temperament personality are you?
00:28:18
Speaker
You have to learn how to communicate with each one of those individuals made a lot of mistakes along the way, but always learning always growing in the area of of money.
00:28:28
Speaker
and in communication because this is communication here. It's not enough that I just come in like a bulldozer and tell you what to do, what not to do. I have to make sure that you're willing to do what the suggestions are going to be. It's better if you come up with the idea rather than me telling you what to do because we're creatures of habit. We don't like to be told what to do. So if I ask a question,
00:28:55
Speaker
an open-ended question which requires an answer other than yes or no, and you come up with the idea of what you're willing to do, then you're going to own it. Whereas if I come in and tell you, do this and don't do that, you might not because you're not going to want to do that particular thing. It's easier if you come up with the idea. So learning a lot of things on the way, but always, always, always continuing the education.
00:29:23
Speaker
When you're working with people and you're always continuing this education, what are some new things that you've actually learned recently down the line now? I would have to say with communication along the line because husbands and wives think differently, they communicate differently. So therefore, you know, I'm going to interact differently with the woman that I am, the man, right?
00:29:46
Speaker
because they think differently. So I have to hewn in on where is he located, right? So their goals may be different. Their vision may be different. It all may be different.
Understanding and Tailoring Client Goals
00:30:00
Speaker
But I have to learn to communicate with both individuals simultaneously. Because when I coach a husband and wife, very rarely do I coach them separately. They're always coached together because they're in it together.
00:30:16
Speaker
Can you kind of elaborate more on the different types of personalities you deal with? Like, let's say, you know, a more type A, more neurotic type person, how would they handle a situation more than, you know, more of a even keel type?
00:30:30
Speaker
Well, and even keel type, they go with the flow. They'll allow someone else to make the decision for them. Whereas a type A, they probably have already made the decision before I even said anything. So, you know, coming up with recommendations. So knowing how to interact with both of them, because now the type A, I might say, well, what do you think about this?
00:30:58
Speaker
I have to present it in a question form because type A personalities by far don't really like to be told what to do. So you have to form it in a way of a question. Here are some recommendations. Are you willing to do any of these recommendations or none of them? Because it has to become their idea. It has to become something that they're going to own.
00:31:26
Speaker
and be willing to do. Whereas someone that's very laid back, I could say, here's the recommendations, but I really think that this is what you need to do. And I can do that with someone that's laid back. But a type A personality, they will not embrace that. So it's better to ask them questions. When it comes to these questions, what types of questions do you generally ask people? The questions that you use to get out the most information?
00:31:56
Speaker
Oh, that's really good. Yeah. When I sit down with them, the first few questions, I'm getting to know them. And I don't want one of them. I don't want the husband to start speaking and the wife feels like she has to agree. So I'll say, here's a piece of paper and a pen for each of you. And this is what I want you to do. I want you to tell me, where do you want to see yourself 20 years from now regarding travel?
00:32:23
Speaker
Kids, money, where do you want to see yourself in 20 years? 10 years, five years, and even in a year. And that gives me a picture of what each person is looking at. The one of them might want to be completely out of debt in 20 years, traveling the world, have a bunch of money in the bank. The other one might jot down that
00:32:50
Speaker
they want out of debt in five years and they want to invest and you know just different pictures of where they are financially and I can work with that and I'll and I'll say okay this is what each of you wrote down so let's see where the happy medium might be
00:33:10
Speaker
And because now that I see your vision, your goal, I'm like the GPS, right? You know, when you get ready to take a vacation and let's say you're going to travel to Disney World from wherever you are, well, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to Google, you're going to, if you're not going to fly, let's say you're going to drive, you want to find out what's the quickest route to get there. How soon can I get there to the beach or to Disney World, right?
00:33:39
Speaker
Wherever you're going, you want to find out how am I going to get there and how quickly can I get there? Well, that's what I do. I'm the GPS and your finances. If you don't want to get out of debt until 20 years from now, okay, it's going to be a slow road. We can take our time. You want to get out of debt in five years? Okay, now we have to come up with the plan, right?
00:34:03
Speaker
We have to know where you are right now financially. How much do you have invested? How much is in the savings? What kind of debts are we looking at? And now we have to come up with the plan. Because part of that plan is if you went out of debt in five years, you might have to or might consider canceling that gym membership that's costing you $1,000 a year.
00:34:28
Speaker
You might want to, you know, make some other adjustments. Maybe you're going out to eat twice a week, fine dining twice a week. Maybe that's going to look a little bit different. But see, I'm not going to come in there and tell you what not to do because it has to be your idea. I've coached some people that say, look, we're not going to stop eating out.
00:34:52
Speaker
I'm just going to tell you that right now. We enjoy that. That is our crack. You know, that's what we do. We want to go out to eat twice a week. That is what we enjoy. But we're willing not to, you know, not to go on vacation.
00:35:10
Speaker
I have to find out what you're willing to do and what you're not willing to do before we go down that road. So knowing what your goals and your dreams are will help me know how to get you there. So what
The Role of Accountability Partners
00:35:24
Speaker
are some people that were very uncertain about what they wanted to do? I think uncertainty is a tough one too, because I feel like a lot of those even keel people, they may lack the initiative to do something.
00:35:37
Speaker
Right. And what I do with that, now if they're a married couple, usually opposites attract. So those who are kind of lackadaisical, relaxed, usually their mate is not. Very rarely have I ever met a couple where they're both relaxed, right? Or laid back in that. So always possible, but I haven't met a couple yet that are both laid back.
00:36:04
Speaker
The other one will help them along, but if it's a single person that's very laid back, but they sought me out to coach them, then I know that there's some kind of desire if they're seeking me out to get out of debt or to build wealth.
00:36:20
Speaker
but yet they're laid back. They probably aren't going to hit the ground running when the gate opens, so to speak. Now, my question is going to be, again, an accountability partner. That is key when someone is not motivated, is to have an accountability partner. That will hold them accountable to the plan. This accountability partner, how is that shown in different ways?
00:36:50
Speaker
Well, if it's a married couple, they're going to hold each other accountable. If it's a single person, and this is what I tell people, if you have an accountability partner, and let's say your accountability partner cannot be this person that I'm going to describe, let's say you go to a shoe store.
00:37:11
Speaker
Ladies and your accountability partner is with you and you try on a pair of shoes and they're $200 for the pair of shoes and you tell your accountability partner. What do you think about these shoes? That accountability partner cannot say, oh, those look great on you. You should get five pair. No, the accountability partner needs to be able to speak truth to you.
00:37:35
Speaker
Whether it's, you know what, those shoes look great on you, but you can't afford them right now. Let's wait another month or two. That accountability partner needs to be someone that you trust because you're going to have to share your financial situation with them.
00:37:53
Speaker
you're gonna have to share your financial goals with them. And that can't be someone that's going to tell everybody else your financial situation. So that has to be somebody that you can trust. It also has to be someone that's going to tell you the truth, even though it might not be something you want to hear, but it has to be someone that's willing to speak truth to you. Any final remarks?
Conclusion: Overcoming Debt
00:38:20
Speaker
I would have to say no matter what financial situation you find yourself in, no matter how much debt you're in, there is always hope. Because if you got yourself into debt, you can get yourself out of debt. Thank you again. Thank you so much.