Have you ever buy something, or a lot of things that you don’t need? On a credit card? Of course you have, we all have. I do it all the time, maybe not all the time. But there’s so much awesome stuff to buy. And I have the ability to buy them via that little plastic card or metal card or whatever they’re made of these days, and or I can just use my phone, I can use my weapon of mass destruction, my smartphone, and click, and it shows up, like almost immediately. So how do I not to that it’s amazing. It’s amazing human innovation that connects me the person with the thing I want. Fast. Even if I don’t have any money, still do that. Credit cards are irrelevant. If I have money in my checking account, I can just spend, I want I want I want will consume superhuman. And the better part about it is the best part. The best part is I can quickly and easily explain away why it’s okay. Even though I know I’m probably it’s probably not a good thing that I just bought the thing that I just bought the new shoes or sunglass, whatever. I had this ability to rationalize my decision. Very quickly, as quickly as I put them on. I look awesome. I will pay this off quickly. I will, you know adjust my budget next month, I will you you get the idea, we can just easily quickly rationalize away our imprudent financial decision. Okay, totally fine. Modern monetary theory is essentially the same thing is that it’s just done at a really, really big scale. Collectively, a lot of people get together in this example, government, the federal reserve, you know them people that are in charge responsible for the money for our money, you know, that we’ve given them. That’s, that’s what modern monetary theory is, is simply we want to do this thing. We want to spend money on this thing. And so we’re going to do it. And what it really is, it’s a theory that says that the GDP, gross domestic product of the company of the country was continued to rise as it has consistently over time. Therefore, we don’t need to worry about spending, we don’t need to worry about debt came. Is that accurate or not? I? Who knows, I guess, only time will tell. I don’t think that it is. And I think that when I use common sense, it sounds pretty ridiculous. But I went when we’re saying that we’re essentially yucking everybody else’s yum. Because to say that we shouldn’t just be spending money on everything. Is is is is a real bummer. Because we have money and this data thing. I think you understand what I’m trying to articulate what I’m trying to get across. So why, why? Why am I talking about this? Why? Why does it matter? Because in corporate media, I literally opened up the internet and the headlines on one side of the page, we’re talking about the current state of you and I, so the consumer, the everyday American, the American citizen, how our savings rate is down close to zero credit card amount, total credit card debt is the highest it’s ever been. But talking about how it’s not a big deal, because we still have credit utilization, it’s below 25%. And credit utilization simply means how much total credit you have. So I’d say you’ve got three credit cards, you’ve got $5,000 balance on each one, your total amount of credit is 15,000. So if your balance is below 7500, your balance is below 50. It’s your utilization is below 50% 50%. So it’s just the amount of credit that you have available that you’re actually using is your utilization. So the article was saying that for the most part people are below 25% of utilization Therefore, the current financial state of consumers is not a bad thing. And they take that one step further and say, and hey, they’ve got all this home equity, you people, you, you, you, you citizens, you taxpayers have all this home equity. So it’s not a concern. You don’t need to worry about reining in your spending, and just keep using credit cards, don’t worry about saving, because you have other money over here. And, you know, if we were to put a modern monetary theory lens on that, you’re going to earn more money. It’s the way that we rationalize in what I all I’ll start saving, I’ll start planning, I’ll start doing the things I need to be doing in in the future, later. Does that make any sense to you? If you want to buy the thing that you want to buy, then? Sure. You know, I believe the story that I’m telling myself, but in the quieter moments, purchased by ourselves, I can I shouldn’t have done that. I know that wasn’t a good idea. One of the government does that, too. Do you think that they have quiet moments of reflection, where they’re regretful of printing money and doing all these things? I don’t know. Curious. So the power of rationalization is a superpower. But all too often we are using it for negative or for evil, instead of good. So I All that being said, All that being said, I don’t want to put my values on you. And I am not. Again, without I’ve made all these mistakes also, certainly it was in and out of credit card debt. I’m always thrilled to tell people this not hiding anything at all that I made all the financial bad decisions in my 20s and still make financial bad decisions and make impulsive, emotional buying decisions, that all it happens. So I’m not saying that we are ever going to remove ourselves or our ability to make bad decisions, just saying that on the whole. If we were to put on our loud, logical or rational hat on or glasses on, does it make sense? And from my perspective, no, it does not. What’s good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. And, frankly, what’s good for the goose is is not good for the goose. And in this context, it is modern monetary theory. It’s not good for the country. And I’d certainly do not believe that a miniaturized version, a micro version of that for you. And I is also not a good thing. I think that it is extremely important for each of us to figure out what is most important to us to figure out what our priorities are. Because as you know, there are no solutions, there are only trade offs. And because I’m guessing that you have finite resources as I have, unless you are the son of one of our trillionaire citizens, then you probably need to be concerned with how you’re spending your money. We all ought to be more concerned and thoughtful about how we’re spending our time and our energy and our attention. But for the context of this conversation, it’s money. How am I interacting with money? And am I interacting with it in a way that is aligned with my values and what is most important to me. That’s what this is all about. It’s all about understanding and being conscientious about how it is that I’m managing my finances. And just because there’s articles on the internet that tells me that it’s trying to tell me that it’s okay. That I’m up to my eyeballs in credit card debt. I’m not saving any money because I’ve got additional room on my credit cards, that I have more spending power and that I can tap into home equity. Should something happened to me, should I experience some kind of an emergency, and I need to pull back. That’s just that’s just not the case. So back to what I’m talking about. It could be at some point in the future, that that as a country, we will have to face some kind of a reckoning when it comes to money and our finances and the national debt.

And then could be that we needed to eventually take off austerity measures to rein in our spending and our obligations, it could be that we’re just going to keep kicking the can down the road, as the government has been doing for the past 30 or 40 years, instead of addressing these problems that are blatantly obvious. Look at the debt, how it’s exploded over the last 2530 years. From a very small number now to a frickin giant number. And is it too late? No, it’s not too late to be fixing these things, but could be because I don’t know that we have the appetite as a country, and I don’t know that we have the politicians or the red elected officials, to actually do what it takes to to get things moving in the direction that would help us to be financially secure. Again, this is my thinking and my beliefs that are contrary to modern monetary theory. But again, I’m encouraging you to make these decisions on your own. So back to you and I, because we do not have the ability to continue to print money. What happens when things go wrong? What happens? Do you remember back in 2008, I do when we had serious financial problems, were you able to keep using your credit cards, or were a lot of those credit limits reduced dramatically. I know I experienced that. Unexpectedly credit card companies, you had a balance of $2,000. Now all of a sudden, it’s $500. Or it’s $20,000. Now all of a sudden, it’s 10,000. So if you were in that boat, people they were talking about in that article, where you had your utilization was 25%, maybe you had a $10,000 balance, and you’ve got $2,500 in credit card debt. But when the average American has around $7,500 in credit card debt, it’s a lot higher than that. And you’re counting on using that additional credit that you have as your emergency fund. What happens when the bank just all of a sudden chops it in half? Or cuts it down to whatever your balance is that? Could that happen? Of course, of course, it happens all the time. And then for home equity, it’s okay. It’s okay that Americans aren’t saving any money. It’s okay that we have credit card debt, because look at all this home equity. Oh, I see. Okay. So this is our piggy bank. This is designed just to be able to access and tap into because I’ve not made good financial decisions everywhere else. If if that’s what you think, then that’s fine. Just asking you to consider and think about maybe a different way. And then think about it like this, when things are really tough. Can you just call the bank and have them send you money? If you have a home equity line of credit in place? Maybe? Maybe? If you don’t? Are you able just to tap into that as interest rates go up? Does that make sense? I don’t know. I don’t know if that makes sense. Doesn’t make sense to me. I wonder if it makes sense to you. So again, government can always print more money, at least they have historically, always been able to simply print more money. But can you do that? Do you have a printing press in your basement that prints off $100 bills. There’s a dad joke in there somewhere about you sending me your address and letting me know when you’re out of town next kind of a thing, but you get the idea. So I don’t want to put my values on you. What I encourage you to do what I want you to do is to think about all these things, take that big step back, it’s okay. reading these articles says that everything’s okay. But everything isn’t really okay. And how do I put myself in a better position? That’s what this is all about? How do I position myself for success? Regardless of what everything else is, everything else is happening. I don’t have any control over that. Certainly make good decisions when it comes to who I’m voting for and get involved locally and things like that. But I don’t have any control over the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve or how much money we’re sending this that the other thing or where to who, all that stuff. You have absolute control over your household. So that’s what I want you to be thinking about is what makes sense for you. I want you to put your own values on you, wants you to know what your priorities are, I want you to know what matters and to do what matters. So I think that if we can follow three important rules, that that will get us moving in the right direction. Rule number one, the gold medal of personal finances to pay yourself first. And that simply means that you the beginning of every month, are putting money aside into some account that is beneficial to you. So before you pay anybody else, for you’re paying any bills, you are putting money, something towards you. 401k contribution is a great way to do that putting money into an IRA, putting money into your savings account, putting money into your brokerage account, putting money into account to save for the down payment on a home, whatever it might be buying cryptocurrency, I’m not saying that you should just invest in the stock market, I’m not advocating for that, be putting money away for something that is for you. So you’re paying yourself first before you pay anybody else. And again, if you’re in the habit of paying everybody else, first you will get to the end of the month, and there will be no money left over for you sure that we’ve all experienced this some form or fashion at some point in our lives, it’s not a good place to be. It’s a vicious cycle that is hard to break out of. So endeavor to do that. silver metal. Rule number two, when it comes to personal finance, from my perspective, stay out of debt. And specifically, I’m talking about consumer debt, I’m talking about credit cards, I think that credit cards are the absolute worst. They keep us stuck. They they help us to continue spending wave. And then when we even when we don’t have any more money gives us stress and anxiety. And that money stress and anxiety follows us around it taints our work potentially it can taint relationships, it just it’s lousy. And it’s all because we are making those quick decisions, like I was talking about at the beginning, and then rationalizing it away. But we’re rationalizing away our financial future. Because again, you have finite resources, I believe you probably have a finite amount of money. And when I’m paying 20% interest and a credit card because I bought a pair of shoes last week, we are not positioning ourselves for success. So put together a plan for getting out of debt, getting out of credit card debt and staying out of it. You need help with that we’ve got a free course money line men academy.com. It’s called get out of debt. Awesome at naming things. Again, it’s free, take advantage of it. And then bronze metal is to take a diversified approach to your investing. Boring. That’s the idea. Don’t want your investing to be super exciting, be really boring, be very, very diversified. The opposite of being diversified is being extremely concentrated. So putting all of your money into Dogecoin is the opposite of diversification. Putting all your money into Google, even though it’s an awesome company, it’s not a good idea. Great way to diversify is by using a financial vehicle like a mutual fund or an exchange traded fund, you can literally go and buy shares of the s&p 500, which is a really common index ETF mutual fund that allows you to buy a share of it. And then you own a small piece, some of the five of the 500 biggest companies in the stock exchange. Amazing. So that’s about as well diversified as it gets. And you can buy that for pennies, literally pennies, there are some companies that you can buy the s&p 500 for free. So doesn’t cost a lot of money. well diversified. And that diversified approach, I believe, again, I think gain should be

taken as you are pursuing your most important financial goals. So retirement, that think about it from a time horizon standpoint. So your long term financial goals, things like retirement. So being able to step away from full time work one day, I encourage you to figure out make a plan for when it when it is you’d like to be able to do that how much money you’d like to have, how much money you’ll need, how long you want that money to last for what kind of income that that’s going to produce for you. And then be putting that plan into action and saving money and investing money towards that goal. Now, that simply means being on track for that what I want you to do is to be on track to realize that goal. So if you’re 25 years old, and if you plan on retiring at 65 It’s a long ways away but you know and have made a plan and are executed on your plan. Same thing goes for saving for kids college edge saving for the down payment, all these kinds of things, be diversified in how you’re approaching them. And then once you’re on track, to fully fund all of your important financial priorities and objectives, then you can be more concentrated. Essentially, what you’ve done is you’ve written yourself and permission slip, then become more aggressive, become concentrated with then start buying stocks. start buying cryptocurrencies start buying art bottles of wine sports teams, I don’t care. To keep get the idea, just take a more measured approach be more boring with your investing, it’ll even help you sleep better. If you are in debt, talked about a course that’s there. But the first step, step number one, let me take a bigger step back is that we don’t have any money saved up, you’ve heard the stat that majority of Americans couldn’t come up with $500. In case of an emergency, if that’s you need to double that need to get to $1,000 in an emergency fund, that needs to be separate from your everyday checking account, get that saved up, that’s just thing number one that you should do. If you don’t have that, stop doing everything else until you have that saved up, then start paying yourself first, which you’re essentially already doing when you’re saving up the money. But save pay, start paying yourself first in some automated fashion, like enroll in your company’s 401k. Even it’s for a small amount. Step number three, is I want you to get to one month’s worth of expenses saved up. Okay, so we need to know what our budget and our cash flow is. Figure out, okay, I need five grand, four grand three grand 10 grand, however long, it’s going to take you to get that money saved up. That’s what you ought to be focusing on. Once you have that saved up, so the one month’s worth of expenses, put a plan together for getting out of credit card debt, and then attack that credit card debt, however long it’s gonna take to get out of it. And then it’s get two months of expenses 345, up to six months worth of your monthly expenses saved up. That will be your fully funded emergency fund. When you do that, and I’m not saying that casually, because I think it’s easy, because I know how hard it is. It’s a lot of money, could be a lot of time. But I also know the value of it. Once you have that you have financial peace of mind, can let the tension on your shoulders, you can take a deep breath, you’re feeling great about situation doesn’t guarantee us that bad things are can still happen to us. But we have positioned ourselves for success. And then it’s on to saving and investing. Do those things you really position yourself for success. Encourage you to really think about what those values are, think about what’s most important to you your priorities. We have a goals course which you can access access for free on money alignment academy.com, we have a values course you can ask this for access for free. And you can also find the purpose book on money alignment Academy for free. Buy your copy Amazon as well, I’ll link that but you can also go to money limit academy.com. Go to courses and you can get a download of the purpose book for free. And that’ll help you get clarity on all those things on your purpose, your goals, your beliefs, and your habits and helps you line all those things up. And if you still want some additional help when it comes to getting your finances in order, check out our coaching program, our academy coaching program as well. It’s an affordable way to get another set of eyes on your finances and help you get moving in the right direction. All things I’m interested in helping you to do so easy to get caught up in what everybody else is doing easy to look at how our government is spending our money and think oh my goodness, is there ever an end to this stuff? And then we realized that unfortunately, it’s got everything to do with us but I have very little control over that. But I’ve absolute control over the circumstances of my personal finances in my household finances, and that’s the place to start. So, as always, do your part. Doing your best