(00:04): Some people are so poor. All they have is money. It's easy to fall into the trap of believing. Having more money will solve all of our problems, but you could almost as easily fall into the trap of believing money. Doesn't matter at all. Today, we wanna share with you our wealth wisdom approach to finding a radical middle where money stays in its lane. And we keep the journey centered around so much more than just money. And we have a much fuller definition of wealth. Hi, I'm Amanda Neely and welcome to the wealth wisdom financial podcast. This is episode one 16, build wealth part two. It's not only about money.
(00:50): Hey, and I'm Brandon. And if you missed build wealth, part one, we encourage you to check it out, but it's totally not a requirement for getting a lot of value out of this episode. Now back in episode 1 0 1, we define wisdom for you, but we never defined wealth today. We're fixing our errors and showing how we define wealth. You've already picked up from the title. That wealth is more than money. What we share with you today is something we encountered way back in 2007, and it's something we've come back to over and over again with our own journey. Get ready to see all the facets of this diamond called wealth. Are you sick and tired of hearing the same old conventional financial advice? We feel you we're fed up with the same old truisms that fall flat. When you get into the unique opportunities and challenges of specific situations. This show is about bringing you historic wisdom around building wealth, with practical insights on how to apply it to your journey today. When conventional financial thinking doesn't get you where you wanna go, you need wealth wisdom, let's master wealth building together.
(02:08): Now let's get into today's episode and talk about this diamond called wealth. Sometimes the best way to understand a diamond is to study the rough around it. I mean, really? What is the rough Amanda around it? Yeah, I, I put that in your script. You remember Aladdin the diamond in the rough seek the out the diamond in the rough, right? And if you were Jafar and you're supposed to go seek this diamond and the roughs that you could get treasures beyond measure, and the cave of wonders, you'd spart by defining the rough you'd wanna be like, well, if I wanna find this diamond and I know it's in the rough, what is the rough around the diamond? So that you're more easily able to spot that diamond because you're, you're able to find the rough And I guess same if you're looking for a diamond in the ground, you'd want to know where they occur and what the environment looks like. So this diamond of wealth, what this rough environment around it is, right? I mean, um, I don't know, look digging in my backyard for diamonds probably isn't going to lead to much. I don't think. Yeah, but Hey, maybe it is. I mean, should I be taking in my backyard for diamonds?
(03:24): Well, let's focus on the diamond of wealth. This analogy, this metaphor first. And if we're looking for what's the rough, what is the environment where we can find diamonds? We like to use this metaphor of a river. And, um, you know, you can kind of see this river flowing, but picture the river as a murky dirty river that flows into this ocean called poverty. This river is mucky because there's all kinds of pollutants that flow into it. And these pollutants are the causes of poverty, right? Poverty is the ocean at the end, you're going upstream to find what's causing this poverty. What are all the pollutants going into the environment that cause people to be poor? And it turns out there's about seven of them. Uh, yeah. Uh, and as we've learned about 'em these things, seven things I think are, um, pretty big concepts, but they all flow into this murkiness. So the seven, and we're not gonna go in any specific order. Again, they all maybe intersect with each other too. There's lack of meaning human injustice, educational, inequalities, poor health and disease, environmental decline, hunger, leadership, corruption, like government and business, and even in families.
(04:51): So the thing about these seven, as you heard those, you have to kind of picture them in what they are and when you picture them, you can almost see the money behind them. Mm-hmm for instance, educational inequalities. We know at least here in America, that part of our educational system is unequal because of how our educational system is funded through property taxes. So areas where the property taxes are higher, have better schools. Yeah. And areas that have lower property values and then lower in, uh, property taxes have, um, less funding for schools. So there's this unequal to it, lack of meaning might feel like a harder one to see money behind it, but a sense of purpose, meaning, you know, in your career, in how you're living your life, that often causes people to make more money or less money. If they're seeking to only work for meaning and purpose versus working just to make a dollar.
(05:57): So I'll read these seven again and try to let let's comment on a few of those, like lack of meaning human injustice. There's a lot of economic injustice out there that that causes unequal human rights to flourish, right? Um, educational, inequalities, poor health and disease. We know that if you're monetarily poor, you're probably not gonna get the same medical care as if you're monetarily rich, environmental decline, hunger. I mean, hunger is a huge one. And then of course, leadership corruption, this might be where we flip the money side on its head. And maybe those who are the most corrupt are those seeking the GA greatest wealth or have the greatest wealth. And again, this is in government and business, but even in families, within families, we have leadership. And so you have to think about that corruption. And then don't forget with all of this river. It's not just these big concepts. There are people who live in this river. There are people who live in the ocean and the pollutants that are flowing through here are these seven things are getting between the people. They create a wedge in our abilities to love, care and respect one another. You can't just think of these big concepts. You have to think of the people that are impacted by them and how it causes division.
(07:21): Yeah. And sometimes even thinking about, you know, human injustice and, and will like point to that and not look at the other things and say, somebody needs to do something about this and not realize that they're interconnected. And I think that's a hard part of figuring all this stuff out is, is we wanna solve one thing or we go and, and we synthesize it. We'll, we'll give a prescription for it and not go upstream to see why did this thing happen in the first place? How do we change that from civil rights? It movements to, you know, uh, just education in general, right? Um, how money works, all of those things are different drivers, but, but sometimes it's, it's even in left field, what's gonna solve it. Yeah. And then, well, we're gonna get to the solution here in a minute, but these wedges that are, you know, being caused by the pollution, they're not just monetary and relational wedges. We're not just talking about monetary, relational poverty, but these pollutants also cause spiritual poverty. These pollutants divide us from our gods, the educational and mental poverty, or sorry, emotional and mental poverty as well. These pollutants keep us from knowing, caring for, and loving our own selves. If you think about the mental health movement, you could probably trace why we need to care for our mental health. Why are we, there's more stress and anxiety today than there ever has been before to one of these same root causes.
(08:59): Now we like to think of wealth in this analogy as the blue clean water that goes into the system and cleans up the pollutants. Right. So you can go through the same pollutants and ask what would clean them up. Yeah. So let's do that. Yeah. So I, and again, I think about it in our world right now, you know, post uh COVID and everything else, a lot of people are experiencing this at a heightened level. And what can we do to reverse the effects of this pandemic, right. Uh, is something I've thought about. So number one, that, and again, not in any specific order, but lack of meaning, what would somebody need, right. Meaning purpose. That's what people want. You know, a lot of times is a sense of purpose. Um, and so if you have purpose, maybe that also will reduce, you know, suicide, things like that, that are, are maybe a driving force. So having meaning having purpose is the inverse of lack of meaning. Yeah. And then you could take human injustice and replace it with human rights, the more human rights and respect for people's differences. And everybody gets the opportunity to play at the same game. You know, those kind of things you're able, that's the blue water and the pollutants get pushed aside. They get cleaned up by advocating for, and seeing more human rights come into existence.
(10:37): Then you have educational inequalities. I mean, of course the inverse of that is educational equality where we are all able to learn and do the things you don't have to just be, uh, affluent or, you know, all of that kind of thing. But everybody can learn, uh, equally and is not just because you were born in the right place at the right time. And then you can replace poor health and disease with health access to good healthcare access, to healthy food. The time to get, you know, exercise three ti three times a week for 20 out 20 minutes, get your heart rate up a certain amount to be able to do that. Not everybody has equal opportunity to do that. Yeah. And, um, thus we have poor health and disease, so let's get some more health out there in all of those ways. And more, And number six is environmental decline. I think we're seeing that a lot more rapidly as well. And really, again, looking at big business, looking at all this other stuff is how are we becoming better stewards of the environments? Right. Um, all of this stuff is again interconnected, but we all have, uh, as much as we wanna say, we're all different in, in all of this, we have one planet that we live on and, you know, we wanna be good stewards. So by having that good stewardship there, it might actually prevent some bad things from happening to other people, even across the world or, you know, other things that are important or our own kids in the future.
(12:21): Yeah. And I think this ties in really well with how these things are interconnected, cuz the next one is hunger. And um, we replace that with sustainability. And when I think of environmental stewardship, I think of things like PERMAculture and sustainable farming, that kind of thing. And guess what, that's probably gonna also solve a lot of hunger yeah. That we can, there can be the same blue water, the same solution, the same concept of wealth in that, uh, helps clean up pollutants in multiple areas. And then finally, number seven, Brandon, you do that one. Yeah, I think it's, uh, it's one that we're very aware of here in the us it's leadership corruption and replacing that with leadership integrity. Now I don't know about you, but I am really annoyed when election season comes along because I feel like it's all about, well, this guy was corrupt, this guy was corrupt and that everybody is corrupt apparently. Uh, and you can't even win on leadership integrity anyway. Um, but how do we create a, build a system about integrity and understanding like even, even within the politics, if we do our parts, you know, it all affect the other things, but there's a lot of greed. There's a lot of money in play that, uh, creeps creates corruption. Whereas what we need is integrity and some honesty, like some of this stuff isn't gonna take like in a, in a four year term cycle, right. It takes longer than that. Um, and so having some integrity in our leadership, in our businesses, in, you know, even our own personal business, that's why I'm hoping people hear from us is we wanna be business owners and leaders that are full of integrity. I will not try and change things because, uh, I wanna sail or something like
(14:25): That. Yeah. And so yeah, that underscores this, uh, integrity leadership integrity is not just in government. It's also in business in nonprofit institutions. Um, and within our families too. And how are we leading with integrity there? And for me, integrity includes a long term thinking and not just looking for quick fixes. So as you, as we start to like, look at, what's gonna clean up the pollutants, what's the blue clean water. What does that look like? Don't forget. There's people living in this ecosystem. Yeah. In this river, in this, uh, ocean, can you imagine how much better they're able to relate with one another and create relational wealth? Can you imagine how much better they're able to develop spiritually and to focus on their soul and uh, cultivating wealth there. Yeah. And then emotional and mental health. Can you just see how much those improve emotional and mental wealth, uh, health, wealth, those go together, right. And then of course, monetary wealth. Is it able to flow around more easily in this cleaner, less polluted water? That's something to think about something to imagine let's get practical though.
(15:45): Well, and again, we, as we were defining in stating the problems, right? Wealth is a lot of different things. It's not just money, right? It is so much more than that. Uh, and I, as you guys are listening, I want you to look around and, and say, where am I really excelling in wealth? And how can I help, uh, other people experience this wealth that I've already attained? Maybe it's, you know, uh, you have a good family environment. I Don't know. Well, Brandon, you're jumping ahead. We're about to talk about how to do this. So Yeah. So how do you clean up the pollutants? How do you add more blue water into the ecosystem? I kind of alluded a little bit to it, but how do you create and build wealth and an economy that's murky. That's black even sometimes. Yeah. It's muddy. It's a very, uh, polluted place. That's not gonna change anytime soon. It's gonna stay polluted mucky, almost like the Ohio river. it's totally polluted Or, uh, a lake where I, I, a little lake, I lost my glasses in, I Oh yeah.
(16:55): And luckily I found it Because like, oh, they were covered with so much crime . So here's where we need to present two competing viewpoints. First, the predominant economic theory, most of you, most of us have heard over the last 70 years is this, you get what you work for. It's officially called marginal productivity theory. And, but it's mostly silly summed up in the ideal that in our economic system, it's so efficient that it gives each individual who's involved in production, the amount of wealth, which they create. In other words, you get what you work for and it's inverse. If you don't have enough, it must be because you didn't work hard enough. If you want a million dollars, then produce a million dollars of value in the world, work harder, produce more. The economic system will reward you for it. I mean, if this theory is feeling a little, little far fetched it's because the last 10 plus years have caused many to question it. I mean, literally I have conversations with my neighbor on this all the time and I just ask, what do you think? And he is like, well, I've been thinking this way for years, but you're right. And I'm like, uh, I'm just asking questions. I don't know if I'm right or wrong or anything. Well, um,
(18:14): So, well, I'll get back to my big, big words here. Marginal productivity theory is a large basis for this idea that you've, if you haven't heard the words, marginal productivity theory, you've probably heard these words trickle down economics. Much of our current economic system has been built on this idea that the rich they're the ones that create the value for society. And then that value is gonna trickle down to the middle and lower classes, helping them have more money, more value for themselves. And yet this theory has been put out there, but we've actually seen wealth inequality increase as we've thought the rich are gonna create value. And then it's gonna trickle down. It ends up not trickling down, at least not monetary wealth. Now we know people who are monetarily poor, who have so much relational wealth, mental health, and wealth, you know, they're, um, spiritually way wealthier than some of the richest people in the world. Um, but at least for monetary wealth there, hasn't been this trickle down and the world has seen a huge increase in value over the last 40 years. You know, think back 1980 to today, 1982 to today, very different worlds. There's so much more value, but is everyone experiencing that value? The same? I think the answer is UND debatable. Yeah.
(19:38): I mean, looking at the big, big guys and we all know who they are, the big Uber wealthy and how big are they're getting, uh, anyway, just questioning some of that stuff, But let's pretend the theories true. Yeah. So if this theory was true, then the best way to clean up the pollutants of poverty would be to create more value in the world. It would all come down to creating more money to flow through the river. Yet doesn't more money just make us more of who we are. More money might actually increase the pollutants possibly. Yeah. So good thing. There's another theory. And then we don't have to stick with this marginal productivity theory and trickle down economics. The alternative theory was actually put out about the same time as this marginal productivity theory. It has its uh, roots traced back through, out economic thinking all the way back to Adam Smith. And before this ultimate or this alternate theory is that our economic system is really all about power. It doesn't matter if you produce a lot of value or you don't those with power exploit that value for their own gain. And here's how some think about it. The economy is not as efficient. It can't be efficient. Right. It's messy. Right? Yep. And so there's incomplete information. And when you have incomplete information, how do you measure the value created and compare against someone else's value? So you know how to reward them for it. When there's incomplete information about value who wins, usually it's the one with the most power.
(21:19): So what would this theory of power say about how to clean up the pollutants in the river? Again, going back to what we started with, it would say to claim your own power, even if it's just seems like a little power to start, then keep growing your power, power again, as control autonomy, authority, influence mastery, and so forth. I literally feel like I'm in a video game, uh, in stage one trying to level up. Yeah. So you need to decide for yourself whether you wanna trust that more value being created in the world will trickle down to you. Or if you wanna try to increase your power instead of waiting for that to trickle down. And if you've got a third option, we'd love to hear from you. But that's really what we feel like. You're either gonna wait for someone else to bring wealth to you in all of these different realms or you're gonna do what you can today and increase what you're able to do, your capacity, your ability, your mastery of building wealth in all areas of life. And you're gonna keep going after it, which would you choose
(22:32): For us? We choose the latter and we take from some very wise maybe, uh, people in the world, uh, and take some of their advice. Michael Jackson started and stated this start with the man in the mirror. No, you gotta sing it. I'm starting with the man in the mirror like that, that, Oh, I'm not, that's what we're doing. Yeah. So, some wisdom from Michael Jackson here, start with the man in the mirror or The woman Or the woman. Yeah. Or Gandhi be the change that you wish to see in the world. He's a little bit more famous for Sage this, but be the change you wish to see in the world. I think it all starts with us. Um, and that's really our economic theories, right? So we invite you to create wealth in your household and all around you by seeking to increase meaning to your kids, you know, really, you know, and put that into them. Right. And for yourself too, and for Yourself, right. Start, Remember, we're starting with the woman or the man in the mirror. We're starting with ourself. Forget about your kids for these, start with how are you doing this? How are you finding meaning and purpose? Do you know your meaning and purpose for your life? How are you advancing that? How are you moving?
(23:55): Totally forget about your kids though. But Yeah, but for now focus on your it's okay. To focus on yourself. Moms, I'm talking to you here. It's okay to focus on yourself and make sure. And maybe your meaning and your purpose are found in your kids. That's okay too. Yep. But make sure you've done that work right. That you, and maybe right now, you can't devote a single minute of a single day of a single week to that meeting and purpose. What if next week you could devote 10 minutes to it, right? Yeah. We're not talking about world changing, you know, totally transform your life tomorrow. We're talking about adding a little more blue water into the murky environment. 10 minutes, right? Like, or if you're already spending 40 hours a week, like we are doing a lot of purpose type work. How could you transform those minutes to have greater impact? Right. That's what we're, we're talking about here. Sorry. I totally interrupted you. But meaning that's number one. Uh, again, creating wealth in your own household is again, looking at the human rights right around you. What are those things? Educational inequality, No equality,
(25:03): Equality, uh, health, environmental stewardship, sustainability, leadership, integrity. All of those things starts with us. And if we do those little things with just our little us personally, and then expand it again, our business former business name was overflow, right? We can change the world. So, and this will rev, reverberate so much wealth that we just, we, we have way too much, right? And not way too much. You can never have too much blue, sustainable water and just see how much wealth you build. Relational wealth, spiritual wealth, emotional and mental wealth and monetary wealth, as well as you do those things. I would bet that a lot of things will come back to you. So to conclude all this meandering, talking about ecosystems and water, here's our, our focusing question for today. If you are ready to build wealth, what if you stopped thinking about money and you started thinking about meaning human rights, educational equality, health, environmental stewardship, sustainability, and leadership integrity. Do you think spending some time increasing one or more of these areas of your life and of the, your, the people that are close by you and your family and your neighborhood, do you think that would help you create more relational, spiritual, emotional, mental, or even monetary wealth? If anything, we warn against focusing so narrowly on money that you lose sight of so much more that you could have. We hope no one wants to be so poor. All they have is money.
(27:01): Ooh, that was a mic drop there. Can you say that again? We hope no one wants to be so poor. All they have is money. Wow. Awesome. Amanda, that was super powerful. Well, as we are getting better at, you know, promoting or sharing this podcast, as you noticed, uh, our podcast, uh, wealth wisdom, financial podcast has evolved as well as our business name. So now we are wealth wisdom. FP. If you go to wealth, wisdom, fp.com, you can see some amazing things, resources, stuff like that, but we can't do this and we don't wanna do this alone. We don't wanna just talk to ourselves. And what we also forget is how much and how important ratings and reviews are. So we're trying to remember and, and say this thing, these reviews, but we really appreciate when you guys write reviews, all you have to do is go to your apple podcast or, or do all of that. If you've listened to a bunch of these, hit that review, share something about it, because it really does help reach more people.
(28:05): And so we just got one from Jimmy E and he said down to earth and approachable, great podcast with great content. I have been educating myself about becoming my own bank. And this pod is one to which I continue to return. That's one of the things I hope that you guys get from these episodes is that we are just wanting you to be educated and to do and learn. So you can build wealth on your own terms. And we're just gonna, you know, be guides along the way and hope you get there. So if you, uh, again like this kind of thing, please write a review, please share it. Uh, we would love to spread the movement. Yeah. And thanks Jimmy, for that reminder, if you are Jimmy, I'm talking to you right here. If you are looking to be your own banker, I think Nelson Nash, the guy that wrote that book, be your own banker. He talked a lot about other forms of wealth and money and that seeking some of the things we talked about in today's episode is what makes you be a good banker for yourself that the integrity, you know, leadership integrity talked about, but also all the other forms, your physical health, mental health, emotional health, you know, all those things go into being a good banker, being a good financial steward. So thanks Jimmy for that reminder there, and
(29:32): I never met Nelson Nash, but I do think he would totally agree with this episode. And, and he would've written about it in his becoming your own banker too. If he was still around, Maybe we'll, we'll get to ask him in heaven. Yeah. When you meet him. Um, the other thing that reminds me is that we are doing this in community. We're not just putting this podcast out there. We love your ratings and reviews, but we also have an of time for you to come and get together with us. And some of our closest friends to talk about things like, what does it mean to be a good banker and how can I create lifetime income, security and so on and so forth. So we're gonna let our good friend and mentor mark share with you more about how you can get connected. Take it away. Mark Markets are turbulent. Inflation is soaring wars and supply chain shocks are threatening our way of life. We hear it all over the news. There is nowhere to hide, but is it really true? Bad news just keeps getting dumped on you by the Oso average media. But we at not your average financial podcast, believe you deserve something better. We don't believe in wishful thinking. We're burying our heads in the sand, but we do believe in telling you like it is and showing you a way out. Could it be that there are some safe havens, some opportunities and even possibilities available in this current economic climate attend our virtual, not your average financial summit. To know if there's truly nowhere to hide and to discover strategies to help you win in any economy. So come and build up your financial reserve, fight back against inflation, save on taxes and prepare for your future.
(31:10): The two day, not your average financial summit is happening virtually. So attend anywhere. Add these dates to your calendar. Now, while it's fresh on your mind, it's gonna be Friday, September 30th and October 1st, 2022 each day starts at 1:00 PM and goes to 4:30 PM central time. So please adjust to your time zone. The event is absolutely free, but the tactics and strategies you'll get are priceless. And it's only made available to members of our, not your average financial community. So get exclusive access to our summit at not your average financial summit.com. That's not your average financial summit.com. See you there. Okay. We look forward to seeing you like literally seeing you on camera. If you, or you can see us on, uh, camera on zoom at the, not your average financial summit I'm gonna do in a special talk there I'd love for you to, uh, participate in it's one of the breakout sessions. So I won't care if you go to a different person's breakout session, but please come to mind and Brandon's doing a little bit of networking and stuff there too. So you'll get just to, um, participate in his awesome networking abilities. Again, it's not your average financial summit.com.
(32:20): And I think you'll meet some people who are embracing wealth of all kinds that you really wanna connect with that are not, you know, just people like us who are like, maybe talking about it, but they are, um, practitioners like finding other practitioners who are, you know, know, putting blue water into the system, as opposed to black water, probably a good thing to, to find other people and ask them, Hey, how are you doing it? So, Yeah, we saw the speakers lined up and I can definitely say that the speakers definitely fall into that category. Now be sure you fit that subscribe button because you're not gonna wanna miss our next series. We get asked a lot of questions about our systems around money. We talk a lot here about how you think about money, kind of money, mindset stuff. We talk a little bit about the practical, how to, but we haven't gotten too much into the systems. How do you do, you know, create a cadence? How do you manage things? What's it practically, it seems like a lot to do. How can we simplify and make it easier? So we're gonna be sharing some of that in the next series, coming up to help you finish the year strong and start next year with those systems in place. So until next time, keep growing and protecting your foundational wealth in all areas. So you're ready for the next adventure. Life brings your way. We hope you live long and profit. The topics presented in this podcast are for general information only, and not for the purpose of providing legal counting or investment advice on such matters. Please consult a professional who knows your specific situation.
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