Do you hate the thought of working past 55 or 60? Do you hate not being able to live the life you deserve today? Do you hate not knowing what your financial future looks like? It's time to stop doing what you hate, here's your host, Mr. Harold Green.
(00:20): Oh, hi everybody. This is Harold Green and it is time to stop doing what you hate. How is everybody doing? I hope you've had a fantastic week. It is Saturday for me. And an interesting show for you folks today. And the,
(00:37): The title of it is hobbies, hobbies, hobbies. A lot of us have been all work and no play, you know, over our lives. And I think it's time to simply relax a little bit and find something that you love to do that relaxes you, something that puts you in a good mood. And so I, I want to get into, I want to get into hobbies and, and why I think that they are so important. But before I do that, I just want to say a couple of things. There's a lot of things going on right now in the world. And some of it is positive, but a lot of it is negative. And a lot of it is just simply noise and things that distract you from purpose things that distract you from reaching your full potential. So if you're out there dealing with something right now, and and it's, you know, because of outside influences and things of that nature, I'm going to tell you straight up, simply ignore the noise, keep your head up, keep your chin up and keep fighting through whatever it is that you are dealing with.
(01:52): And so with that being said, I want to get into hobbies. Are you guys ready? One, two, three less. Get it. You know, I kind of didn't know where to start the show in regards to hobbies and why they are so important. And so I'm going to talk to you about myself a little bit and about some of the things that, that I, I enjoy when I was in high school. One of my favorite things to do was play basketball and I was on the basketball team. I wasn't super good or anything like that, but I made the team my junior year of high school. Now that's crazy. You try out for the basketball team in your junior year of high school. But the funny thing is, is I had been playing basketball with my brothers. I would go to the parks and, you know, in the summertime, after I got done working, I would just go shoot basketball.
(02:46): And that's all we did is just hoo hoo, hoo. And I got so good at shooting three pointers. Somebody is like, dude, why don't you just try out for the team? I was like, man, you know, I've been a band geek all my life. I played music all my life. I started playing music when I was in sixth, my mom bought me a trumpet and you know, it, it took everything. She could just go get that trumpet, but I started playing music. I think it was fifth or sixth grade and I'm playing music, a French horn. I was wishing a French horn. I also played mellophone French horn trumpet. And so music had just been in, in my, you know, and that's what I did, but I just kinda got tired of music and I got bored. And so in my junior year in high school, I tried out for basketball.
(03:24): And for, for many years, basketball was my hobby. When I was in the military, I played in a murals and you know, three on three, five and five. It just, just basketball. And when I, when I got out of the military and just became a regular civilian basketball was my hobby, you know, and that's all I did, but something happened one day when I, I think I had started my own business and a friend of mine said, Harold, you don't, you come to the driving range with us and, and hit some balls. And I, you know, I wasn't really, you know, I thought golf was just one of those sports that, you know, white people played and that's all they taught. It was golf, golf, golf. And I thought it was boring chasing a white ball around for hours and hours on end, and also thought it was I also thought it was expensive.
(04:17): The thing is, is in high school, they asked me to try out for the golf team. And, and I think I told you guys before, you know, at the time and you know, black people didn't play golf. You know, we just play basketball and we played football and we did other things other than playing golf. And I thought that golf was a, a white person. Sport was, you know, what had been in my mind, what I got bit by the golf bug. I caught the bug and, you know, I, I started going to the range more and more and more, and, and golf became my hobby. And I found golf to be extremely, you know, relaxing. And so, but I decided to put work into it. And then I, and I started putting more work into it and started working on things and working on things and harder to train or at one point.
(05:02): And no, I actually got decent at driving the golf ball, but yeah, no, I have some other things to do to, in order to work on my game. But for me, hobbies are a way to refresh my mind. And so let's talk about some of, some of the things hobbies out there. So a lot of people, they here in Hawaii, they serve. And and you mean, you'd be wondering like, why am I talking about hobbies? Because to be honest with you guys, hobbies cost money and hobbies can either be a benefit to you or, or it can be a detriment to you. And so I want to talk to you guys about the things that you can do to make sure your hobbies are not a detriment to you, but that they are a benefit to you. So here in Hawaii, some people surf and there's not a lot of stuff to do here.
(05:46): So, you know, for the most part, either you golf or you, you know, you run as a hobby and also for fitness or, you know, you, you basically shuttle your back and forth from their hobbies, but, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of slim pickings here, but I found guys who did ballroom dancing. I, I know people who collect cars, I know people who collect sports, memorabilia cards and things like trading cards, people that collect records. And then we have a friend that that plays music as a, as a hobby. And he's, he's gotten so good at it now that's his, that's his gig. That's what he does. He plays music and he, and he absolute any absolutely loves to do it. But I want to give you guys a warning about hobbies. Sometimes hobbies can be so time consuming that they destroy relationships, they take away time, you know, an energy from careers.
(06:46): Hobbies can be very detrimental. So when you're choosing your hobby, you want to choose a hobby that fits into your lifestyle and also a hobby that fits into your, into your spending. And so I wanna, I want to talk to you guys about that. So I was doing a little research and one of the interesting things I found was, you know, the internet has a lot of information on it. So when you're researching things on the internet, you kind of have to look at that and take it with a grain of salt. And you're also going to have to plan in, you know, your hobbies into your, into your budget. And I'm going to give you guys a very neat way to, to think about this, but I want to read you guys something I found on the internet and that's something from it's something from Reddit.
(07:27): And it's, it's about this young guy. And, and he starts off by saying, I've read what I can off FAQ's. And spending on hobbies is only mentioned in budget section or what I can find. And only briefly it States to live within your means. And this is a young person, and you're going to hear that a lot like living within your means, right? Some background info is 26 year old homeowner. He brings in 77,000 per years and mechanical engineer. And it's right, no student loans. He has 10% contributed to the IRA. He also has a 10 K emergency fund, which, you know, he says should be sufficient for five months. And he says, I seem to have a good setup right now. So I'm trying to finalize my budget. How much is acceptable for hobbies fund money? My budget currently shows 1200 at an excess money every month after everything, including savings and whatever, whatever. And then he says, since I'm currently contributing 10% to retirement, along with additional 10% every month, a dedicated savings accounts, does that mean this 1200 is technically within, within his means. I like to upgrade my car and spend 200 on myself and fund money. This would drop that amount 800 instead. Is that, is that responsible? So one of the things I always tell my clients is this, whenever we are building your plan, and when we are looking
(08:42): At your budget, I don't care how much money you spend. I don't, I don't care. I never tell a client you're spending too much. X, Y, Z, you're spinning too much on XYZ. So you need to cut that out. I never do that. We build the plan and we find assets to go into the plan. And the goal of the plan is to grow, but then also generate monies for them to enjoy life. So my motto is plan for tomorrow, be responsible and plan for tomorrow while, while yet enjoying life today and enjoying life along the way. Because if the only thing you can think about is I got to reach a certain amount of money in order to be happy. I got to reach a certain amount of money and this, this 401k, or I've got to reach a certain amount of money in that account.
(09:37): And then everything is going to be okay, newsflash. It doesn't work that way. There's always something that's going to happen. There's always something that's going to come up. So you got to figure out how to position yourself and your finances so that your money is working for you and you are not scrambling and working so hard for your money. And this is interesting because, you know, I had a conversation with a good client of mine, a and is a friend of mine. And we've been together for years in regards to planner, client relationship. And and I'm going to have him on my show. And, you know, we were talking about the position that he's in right now, and he's, he's extremely happy. And he said, you know, Harold, I got here, you know, you helped me get to this point and you know what, none of it was stressful.
(10:21): None of it, I didn't have to pull my hair out or anything like that. I got to this position because of the planning and it's just getting better and better and better and better and better. And so going back to this kid, here's my thing about emergency funds. I think you ought to have more than five months in an emergency fund. I think you ought to have 18 months of money to cover bills and things of that nature. I know that sounds like a lot, but here's, here's the thing inside of the rapid retire program, right? We have cashflow management income generation and then a cash reserve system. So the thing about the cash reserve system is it has to be doing more than one thing at the same time, instead of just saying, okay, I have a savings account and that's my emergency fund.
(11:09): No, that thing ought to be making you income. And here's where I'm going with this. This kid has an extra $1,200 a month leftover that he says, technically is within his means. Here's my thing. Take that $1,200, put it in your cash reserve system and then figure out out to get that thing making you money so that if it's spinning off or generating an income, guess what? From an investment standpoint, every year, what you can technically do is you can cash in your gains, pay your long-term capital gains, and then put that in a fun account. And then that money, you can blow it and do whatever you want to do with it. So instead of spending the money every month, pack that money away, let that money grow and then investments carry risk, right? Risk of loss. So go do your due diligence, okay.
(11:52): And make sure you're investing properly and make sure you, you invest yourself in a strategy that will hopefully generate you the money that you need in order to go and spend on yourself. Now, some people say the rule of thumb is, you know, basically five to 10% of your income can be spent on fun and hobbies and so on and so forth. You know, I really could care less about that if you invest the money properly, right? Whatever the gains are from that, you can take that money and either leave it in that pot or take that money out and then spend it for your self. Now, golfing can be a very expensive hobby. The set of golf clubs can cost you anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to $10,000, depending on what you buy. Now, my father-in-law when I went to Japan, gave me my very first set of custom golf clubs.
(12:46): And when I tried to bring them back to the United States, they gave me such a hard time because they said, Oh my God, you have XYZ clubs. Where'd you get these from how much did you pay for them? Because they were looking at, you know, making me pay taxes on bringing these clubs back into the United States. And I said, Oh, my father-in-law gave those to me as a gift. And he just gave them to me and they say, Oh my God, these are so expensive and blah, blah, blah. And I didn't really understand the value of those clubs until I began to do more research and understand that one, one club was like $300 and that, that wasn't even a driver. Okay. So I think, I think at one point I paid, you know, $250 just for three ARN, but golf is expensive. And so what I've learned to do over time is there's a golf shop that basically you can trade in clubs and buy used clubs and try them out and things like that.
(13:37): So, you know, now I, I kind of refuse to spend more than a certain amount of money on a club. And one of the things for me, I was also using golf as exercise. And so recently I hurt my back and now I'm just trying to rehab and get myself better so that I can get back all to playing golf at a, at a higher level, but you gotta be healthy for that. So, you know, that's my thing about budgeting or expenses. I think you ought to have that account set up. And then from that account, you can do whatever you want to do with the money, because it's not money that you technically had to work for, and it's not going to hurt your long-term financial plan. So some of the other reasons why I think hobbies are important is again, you know, you can relieve stress.
(14:19): And right now there's a lot going on in the world. And I think relieving stress is very important. Now, one of the things about stress leaf, it really fairs. Sometimes we do the wrong things to relieve stress. So we've got to make sure that we're not doing the wrong things to relieve stress that can cause us more issues like drinking too much, or, you know, or online video games and things like that that can just kind of lead to bad habits. So you got to watch that, but, you know, I, I love, you know, my hobbies because it, it gets me out and it gets me away from the job. And it's, you know, when I'm out hitting golf balls, it's, it's a mind numbing thing where I don't really have to, I don't think about work. I'm just focusing on the ball and it just kind of takes my mind away from all the serious things that are going on.
(15:05): And so you need, you need that outlet. And I also get a sense of a sense of purpose, something other than work or work, something outside. I can focus on some, some other things. I also have a sense of accomplishment when I'm done, because, you know, if my ball goes straight, I'm happy with that. And that can be the same thing with anything, like if you're playing music or, you know, you're into guitars or whatever it might be, you need these hobbies to help you deal with the things that we are facing so that we just don't like burnout. And I think a lot of us, especially business owners, we get burnt out. You know, we love what we do, but sometimes you, you got to have something else also hobbies. They, it helps others. If you're doing hobbies with other people and or friends, it, it helps them to you get out and you, you get with them and, you know, you're doing things that you guys love and, you know, there's comradery there and it's just a lot of fun.
(15:58): And basically it's a win-win for everybody involved. And if you can do hobbies with your spouse, I think that's important too. I think it's very important for relationships that you have something that you can do together because sometimes, you know, I hear wives complaining that, you know, my husband is married to golf. That's his, you know, that's his second wife and he's always out there with golf all the time. And guys, that's, that's the thing. We got to make sure that we're not using our hobbies as an escape mechanism, from the things that we have to deal with in real life. And that's a very, very, very big issue. I think hobbies also, they refresh your mind and it also, it, it turns off the brain. It helps you to rechannel into and like, like reboot. I know that when I'm done playing golf, my mind is a lot clear and it helps me to come up with different ideas.
(16:49): And so I've gotten a lot of ideas that I share with you guys. And for my planning, just, just going out and playing golf for a day and just kind of getting out and doing something different. And so you're out there and, you know, you're wondering, you know, cannot afford hobbies. The answer is, yeah, you can afford hobbies, but you're going to have to build a plan and make sure that those hobbies, aren't going to be a detriment to your long term financial plan. And so that's all I got for you guys today. I want to thank you very much for listening in, and you definitely want to make sure you are doing things that make sense for your long term financial plan. One more idea. This is, this is cool. If you can turn your hobby into a money making deal, that's going to be great. And so my next venture and my next thing is to become a golf instructor someday or a golf coach. And it helps me to be around golf without necessarily having to money on golf. It's something that eventually I want to get good enough that I can make money from. So if you can turn your hobby into a money-making idea, that's a win-win situation as well. So thanks again for letting me rant and rave about Hybris today. And until next time, everybody one, two, three less. Yes.
(18:10): This is ThePodcastFactory.com.
