A hearty welcome to “Grandma’s Wealth Wisdom” with your neighborly hosts, Brandon and Amanda Neely. This is the only podcast that helps you take charge of your cash flow and leverage your assets, simply and sustainably, the way Grandma used to.
Amanda: Hi, I’m Amanda Neely, and welcome to our Grandma's Wealth Wisdom, where we help you break through to a smart, stable financial future, with the tried and true wisdom Grandma used.
Brandon: And I'm Brandon, and this is Episode 95, titled, “Together is better than rich.” Now, that statement might seem obvious to some. I can hear people saying this right now, “I'll skip this episode because I already agree. I'd rather have some good quality relationships than money all day long in the world here.” But if you'll stick with us for a few minutes here, we want to help you live your life more into the idea that together is better than rich. [01:06.6]
So many of us believe community and togetherness is essential to happiness, but too many of us in individualistic America have forgotten what “together” really means, especially in a competitive economy where it's a dog-eat-dog world, and for some to win, it often feels others have to lose.
Amanda: Wow. You just opened up a can of worms there, Brandon. Some people might start to call you the S-word, a socialist. Are you sure you want to go there?
Brandon: At the risk of another controversial statement, I'm not so sure it's a cut-and-dry distinction between capitalism and socialism as some might want us to believe in. In capitalism, you still need other people, customers, suppliers. Even the competition helps you be a better capitalist. Might this idea that together is better than rich be true even in the most competitive of economies? [02:12.0]
Amanda: That's an excellent question, Brandon, and some value that you're not going to hear very much in very many places. Hopefully, we've used that as the way to convince people to keep listening and to figure out, along with us, what together is better than rich might mean for them. Let's dig into some of the ways we see people, sometimes even ourselves, trying to go it alone financially.
Brandon: Now, we could have called this episode “Three signs your DIY financial path could use some community.”
Amanda: And we're going to share those three signs and we're going to share three ways community could improve your yield on whatever savings or investments you do pursue.
Brandon: Now, the first sign your DIY financial path could use some community is that your personal finance is all personal and little to no finance. [03:04.6]
Now, you've heard us say time and time again on this podcast that your financial journey is unique, and, thereby, how you go about walking down your own path is distinctively yours, too. Your journey is personal, but you never journey alone. Your journey is influenced by all sorts of external forces. Let me just name a few: tax rates, market volatility, inflation, family needs, and so on and so forth. I mean, ignore all those non-personal forces to your own peril.
Amanda: And it goes beyond those forces that we often think of like you just mentioned. I was at this conference recently and I heard multiple times personal finance is personal, personal finance is personal. What people were trying to say, I don't think they were trying to say “stay out of my business.” I think what they were trying to say is more likely it has to be custom-tailored to the individual person, and I agree. [04:00.2]
But there was one guy that, when he heard someone say personal finance is personal, he said, “Yeah, but it's also finance.” What this “yeah, but” guy is saying is that there are still basic principles of finance that we can't ignore, like gravity. Those who ignore the laws of nature are doomed to be harmed by them. In addition to the external forces like taxes and inflation, our paths are improved by some knowledge of how finance works, right, and how the forces out there typically influence our chosen financial products.
Now, some are just hypotheses. There are some that are closer to maybe laws of nature, but we at least need to kind of be aware of some of those financial axioms and ask how do we take those financial axioms into account, and for our own personal situation, how do they apply?
Brandon: Now, we don't have time in this episode to debate the most basic financial principles and if they are true for everyone. There are likely more things that the financial industry tries to convince people they need or need to do that are actually true for them and not for the individual. [05:09.8]
What we're saying here is perhaps the financial DIY-ers need to continue to learn and converse with others about external forces, financial axioms, and all sorts of other things, to get to know them better and to improve how they are customized for their own personal financial situation.
Amanda: Yeah. To summarize here, if your personal finance is all personal and no finance, community could improve your yield by giving you more information about finance in general, so that you can better apply it to your specific situation.
Brandon: This is highly related to the second sign your DIY financial path could use some community. You aren't hearing different opinions and perspectives, especially on how it applies to your financial situation. If you've got just one guy, one financial advisor or girl-- [06:04.5]
Amanda: More likely a guy.
Brandon: Yeah, more likely a guy, but if you've got a guy, that can be a problem. You don't have a community. You’ve just got the guy who might be Uncle Vito or something, I don’t know. You might be learning how one person's financial finance works, but you aren't seeing other ways the same financial principles could be interpreted and impact your own personal finance.
Think of it this way. One of the reasons cults are considered cults is because all the people in the cult look up to and follow blindly. The words of an imperfect leader. When the leader does something not perfect, which is every day, then the followers do it to their own detriment. They follow, but they can't see the harm because they are enamored with the leader. Could it be that if you have just one financial advisor or guru, that you're unable to see the imperfections of their way of doing things? [07:04.5]
Amanda: Now, that’s a powerful analogy, Brandon.
Grandma always said, “Eat your vegetables. Look both ways before crossing the road, and never risk your financial future on elements of the market you can’t control.” That Grandma, always good for some tried-and-true advice, and although some of her wisdom seems to have skipped a generation, you don't have to be left behind.
Download “Grandma's Top Tips for an Independent Financial Future” absolutely free, when you visit Grandma’sWealthWisdom.com. Don't wait. Get Grandma's best tips today.
Amanda: I’ve got another one. Even in the curriculum I'm going through for the CFP right now, they made sure we understand that it's impossible to try to learn and to stay on top of everything in the financial sector. If we tried to do that, we'd likely burn out, and they actually encouraged us to specialize in some ways, shapes or forms. [08:05.1]
It would be like a heart surgeon, also learning to be a brain surgeon and a dentist, and staying on top of the latest research on hearts, brains, and teeth. Maybe they know some basic concepts across the medical field, but they're not specialists in all those areas, and I wouldn't want that doctor who is trying to stay on top of the latest research on hearts, brains, and teeth. I wouldn't want that doctor coming anywhere near my heart, brain, or my teeth.
Brandon: They're not doing surgery on you. Is that what you're saying?
Amanda: That's what I would say, yeah.
Brandon: So, why do we ask one financial advisor to help us with our entire portfolio? Why, if, instead, we had a stock expert, maybe a safe money specialist, a tax strategist, and so forth? Yes, it is hard work, but it could just save you lots of stress and worry, and build a solid team for you. [08:58.5]
Amanda: Yeah. We believe every person needs this kind of team of specialists who form their community. To summarize here, if you're taking the word of just one financial professional or guru, community could actually help improve your yield by giving you multiple perspectives that help you see more of the imperfections in your current way of thinking and doing things, and then do something perhaps to use those imperfections in your favor.
Brandon: Now for the third sign your DIY financial path could use some community. You're implementing it alone. Now, this one might be the most obvious. Most DIY-ers out there implement alone. They might read the financial section of the newspaper or watch a YouTube video or two, but they do their own research and make their own decisions. If this is you, you're in danger of not knowing what you don't know, and maybe even worse, having your current beliefs actually reinforced. [09:58.8]
Amanda: Now, there's this real human phenomenon called confirmation bias. Even if you happen to come across something that's contradictory to what you currently believe, you're likely to ignore that new information or forget it, and only remember the things that confirm your initial bias.
It's a lot easier for confirmation bias to happen when you're just reading or listening to a YouTube video. In real human relationships with openness and trust, confirmation bias is harder to reinforce, and it's easier to overcome when new ideas or information contradict what you initially believe because you're in relationship. You want to confirm that friendship. You want to confirm your trust in that person. Friendship becomes more important than what you believed initially.
Brandon: There are two common things that happen when people start to try and find what they don't know they don't know. First is that they end up believing something they know deep down to be a lie when their best friend or someone they trust tells them this lie. [11:01.0]
It's important to be careful here. The relationships, openness and trust needs to go both ways. Go back to the cult analogy. There's a clear leader and a clear follower. For battling confirmation bias, everyone in the conversation needs to be a leader. Be sure if you're trying to combat confirmation bias that you don't replace it with blindly following the imperfect person or process.
The second thing is more common. When people try to combat confirmation bias, they go to Google or just someone they trust in order to do more, quote-unquote, “research.” They think they are trying to do research. What they really are doing is looking for something to confirm what they want to believe, and on the internet, if you want to find something to confirm your beliefs, you can. You can even find flying pigs on the internet, literally. [11:59.4]
Be careful here and check your motivation and your sources as you research. Think about, a) if you're looking for truth or just confirmation, and b) if you can trust who is speaking. Seriously, we know a YouTuber giving financial advice, who a lot of people love and follow, but he has been sued and fined so many times for actually causing financial harm. Be careful out there, folks, who you follow and check your motivations yourself.
Amanda: Yeah, and number three, be careful you don't end up using, quote-unquote, “research” as an excuse not to make a decision. Analysis paralysis is real and it keeps a lot of people that we know from making progress financially.
If you want to really combat financial confirmation bias, get out of analysis paralysis, whatever that looks like, this is why we think mingling with peers is so important, their shared learning, shared questioning of biases. It’s not just that you're looking for someone to share their information with you so you can challenge your preconceived notions, but they're willing to hear back, and it goes both ways. [13:14.0]
Brandon: Yeah, and I would add, Amanda, doing this as a couple when you're married, that's really important, too, thinking when the spouse or you are doing that to each other or within your own situation, and realizing maybe even that idea of self-sabotage. That's real, too. Anyway, as a married couple, doing it together and in community, that also brings really good success.
Amanda: Yeah, and you just have to make sure everyone is open and everyone is really looking for what is best, not the perfect decision, but the best decision from what they can decide, find out and all that kind of thing.
Brandon: Exactly.
Brandon: To summarize here, if you're implementing a loan, community could improve your yield by helping you see what you can't see yet, and, thereby, make better decisions. [14:04.8]
This is exactly why we've created a methodology and a community to practice that together. The method is called the STILL Method and it's all about getting in touch with where we're currently at financially and how to make slight improvements to that. Then the community known as CFO Hours is about coming alongside peer CEOs, so that we can grow and support one another together along our financial journeys and business. You can find out more about both at STILLMethod.com.
Brandon: To wrap up today, we have to say one very important thing. You can still make lots of mistakes and end up rich. You can also do all the, quote-unquote, “right things” and end up destitute. The concluding question for you today is this. Whether you end up with lots of money or a little, would you rather end up there together or alone?
Amanda: Now, in your imagination, go to your best-case scenario of 10 years from now. Everything is working out for the best. Who do you want to be celebrating with? [15:09.0]
Now go to your worst -case ten-year scenario. Who do you want to be there with you to help keep hope alive and to look for alternative financial strategies to turn that worst-case scenario around?
Whether you end up rich or not so much, we hope in both cases, you end up together with people who are looking out for your best and want the best for you.
Brandon: Join is in the next episode where we reveal how there are really only four or five places your money can go. Seriously, there are over 450 different financial products out there, but they all fit neatly into five buckets of which you may only need four. Subscribe and join us next time to get this filter for all those financial rocks that you are carrying around. [15:58.6]
Amanda: Until next time, keep building your wealth simply and sustainably, so you can break through to a smart, stable financial future.
The topics presented in this podcast are for general information only and not for the purposes of providing legal, accounting or investment advice. On such matters, please consult a professional who knows your specific situation.
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