How A Teen Builder Learns The Rules Of Money

A 17-year-old just graduated high school, works in his family’s stone business, and spends his days walking luxury job sites that raise a dangerous question: how do I get there without blowing my future on the way up? We sit down with David Oganessian as he heads to UNLV for civil engineering (with finance and real estate in the mix) and talk through the real math behind ambitious goals, smart education choices, and the habits that decide whether “success” feels free or stressful.

We dig into student loan debt and why picking an affordable path can be a wealth-building move all by itself. From there, we get into the stuff most households skip: financial literacy, the difference between wants and needs, and why Americans can earn good money and still live paycheck to paycheck. We also debate credit cards honestly. The plastic isn’t the problem, the behavior is. We break down good debt vs bad debt, consumer spending traps, and how to build credit responsibly without letting debt become an anchor.

David admits he’s a spender and we use that as a real-life case study, from 22 pairs of shoes to the simple systems that can flip the script, like automatic saving splits and a 48-hour pause before impulse buys. I also share personal real estate lessons, including what I wish I’d done differently when buying my first home and the hard cost of taking on a major development right before the 2008 crash, plus how to separate market hype from real signals by doing your homework.

If you care about money management, financial freedom, investing basics, and smart real estate decisions, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a money reset, and leave a review so more people can find these Money Conversations.

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share it with a friend or two!

Transcript

What Money Conversations Promises

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Money Conversations with KJ. KJ is a lifelong entrepreneur who's made a lot of money, lost a lot of money, and found his way back again. If you're looking for a sterile how-to, you're in the wrong place. KJ and his guests will walk you through real-life situations, told by the people who live them, and they are as messy as they are inspiring. Each episode will offer lessons learned, advice on how to replicate successes and avoid pitfalls, and a new perspective to power your financial literacy. Far from a one-size fits all, this podcast can help you build a roadmap to your personal promise land: milk and honey for some, whiskey and steak for others, and remind you that you're not alone on this journey.

David At 17 And Big Ambitions

SPEAKER_04 0:54

Well, welcome back, everybody. I'm super excited today to have the guests with me that I have because it's not often that I get to speak to someone of this young man's age. And I got introduced to him about a week ago. And as I started to talk to him, his story really intrigued me. And I said, Hey, you need to come on the podcast. Let's really hear your story, let the other people hear your story. Because I have live listeners of all ages, and regardless of your age, I believe that everybody's story can definitely be inspiring. And because to me, you're like a blank slate, like a blank sheet of paper, and now we get the draw. You know what I mean? Versus I've had people in here, again, I've had ages from 17, your age all the way up to 85. So I've had the whole gamut. And when you're older, you have a story to tell. You've lived, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, and there's definitely a story. But um, hey David, welcome to the show. Hey, good to be here. Great to have you. So just for perspective, David, tell the people um your age um and where you're at in life right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah, so my name is David Oganessian. I'm 17 years old, just graduated high school, and um I've been working for my parents' uh stone business company for the last two, three years. And um the way I even met Kevin was originally I had been um introduced to real estate development through one of the general contractors that hired um me or our company uh to do their uh countertops. And it really inspired me because I really like saw how these huge companies are building mass massive plots of land and building these mega mansions and you know very luxurious houses.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

So we were we were introduced through a mutual friend, which is Melvin McBean. And I'm not really sure how Melvin either met you or your dad, but Melvin had asked me, hey Kev, I've got a young man who um wants to talk to you and maybe come and shadow you, type of thing. Uh I'm in the middle of a flip, and shadowing me is difficult because this game that we that I play, the real estate investing, I flip homes for a living on top of being a licensed real estate agent. And then my passion is teaching financial literacy, and we'll get into that in a minute. That um I did have you come out to my project a week ago uh at a certain point that I wanted you to because I knew my drywallers were going to come in, and I wanted to have you look at the house and get perspective, so to speak. Like if you went there today, you wouldn't recognize it. All the drywalls almost 100% complete, they're just finishing. But anyway, so I thought to myself, let's get let's get David on the podcast. Let's see, because you have aspirations of going to school, right? You want to go to school?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, I'm to college. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to UNLV for civil engineering, finance, and um real estate in the fall. Okay, great. Which is uh that's a you're taking on a big bite, a big chunk to do all three at the same time. I am majoring in civil engineering. Well, I'm minoring in the other two, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Okay. So you're gonna have yourself, your hands are gonna be full, so to speak. Yeah. But when I asked you last week why you wanted to get into those things, and then I know being part of your dad's business has inspired you because you've been out on these job sites of these you know mega mansions. Yeah, that's that could be inspiring for any kid to walk into a property that's gonna be five, eight, ten, twelve million dollars or more. Yeah, definitely. You know, like, hey, I want one of these, you know, in 20 years when I make my money, right? How am I gonna do that? Yeah, who is the guy who's building this house? He's a wealthy individual. How did he get here? How did he get to the point to build this home? And so you want to go to school to make money. And I was asking you those questions, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

That, okay, let's say the guy, and I we don't I don't know the guy that's building the house that you walked in. Um, whatever he does, how old is he? How fast did he get there? What did he do to get there? Let's it's like we need to learn how to reverse engineer all the way to step one to what he did. Because for you at 17, this is what you're trying to emulate. Yeah. Right? And so if you want to be a civil engineer, right, that which is land, uh civil engineering land out there, and and then ultimately get into land development and get to a point where you can build those types of homes. This is a long career. Yeah, but I love that the fact, like, hey, this is what I want to do, and at least at this point in time in your life, even though you're just getting started and going to go to school and learn the the fundamentals of all of those things, you're going to have you're going to have what I call a plan, right? Yeah. You're not going to wing it, so to speak. Because this isn't a this isn't a field that you wing. We don't wing this. There's a lot to go into it to be able to do what I do and all these other developers do.

Picking UNLV To Avoid Debt

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Um talk to me about because we're on my podcast, Money Conversations with KJ. So we want to talk about the money, right? It takes a lot of money to do what you're getting ready to do, to go to school, to try to get three degrees. It's going to take a lot of time and self-discipline in order to finish in a timely manner, four or five years, right? So talk to me about are you paying for college? Is your dad paying for college? Did you apply for student loans? How's this going to happen?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah, so my parents are fortunately going to be covering all my UNLV expenses. And that's also a reason why I decided to stay home. I actually um I got accepted into NYU and University of Miami. However, those tuitions were going to be $100,000 for four years each. You know, when you also factor in like the business that we're running, it just doesn't make sense to put funds towards that when I can get the same degree here for $4,000 a semester.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

Very smart move. Very smart. A lot of kids today would say, Yeah, I got accepted over there. And even if it's a 50%, 75% ride, right? And you still have to come up with some, they would go over there because one, and my kids did it. I remember my my oldest daughter is 42 now. When she was 18, she told me, She says, Dad, I'm out of here. Yeah. I'm leaving Vegas. I don't want to stay here. I'm out. I go, You want to leave? I go, okay, where do you want to go? And in her case, she wanted to go, she got accepted to a college in Boston. So she went to Boston and she got a 75% scholarship. So I still had to pay for some of her college, right? Yeah. Which back that was 22 years ago, 23 years ago. Um, it was I think it was still gonna cost me like eight, seven or eight thousand a year, right? Yeah. The 25%. And what she really wanted was just to experience life in another city. Because I I shared with her at the time, you're born or raised in Las Vegas, you're what we call a desert rat, okay? You're acclimated to living here. You're gonna go to Boston, where it's the opposite of what we are, they're absolutely freezing cold over there. Yeah, I mean, the winters there are harsh, they're tough. And um, she said, No, I can handle it, blah, blah, blah. I said, Okay, you sure? Yep, I'm okay. And I had a rule in my household: if you want to go to college, great, I will pay for college until you stop. The minute you stop, I stop paying. Meaning a lot of kids will go for one or two years, they go, Hey, I'm gonna take a semester break or one year off for whatever the reasons are. And there's a lot of reasons, and then they want to go back. And so the rule of my household was if you stop, I don't pay no more. If you go straight through, I'll just keep paying. Yeah. So three of my kids went old for three. They started and then they stopped. And my oldest daughter ended up finishing later on her own dime, and now she's got student debt, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

Uh the other two went for the year and, like, yeah, no, this isn't for me or whatever. And my fourth child said, Dad, I'm not gonna make the same mistake. I don't want I I don't want to do it. I don't want to waste not my time, but and or your money. Which, okay, and it but and now she's a different story, and she's actually doing the best of all the kids. But because I taught her how to play the game, how to handle her money is why she's doing better. Not that she's making a lot more money than the other three because she's not, but she's doing better financially because she knows how to handle her money. But anyway, in your case, great, you want to stay here. That tuition is something that's affordable for your parents, and so you won't end up having any education debt. Yeah, which is a major problem in this country. It's the number one debt that's out there that people are strapped with, and it's the only debt that we accumulate as Americans that we cannot get rid of. Bankruptcy won't erase it, nothing will erase it. You have you have they have to pay it back. Now you hear on the news uh the last president saying that they're gonna pay it off. They talked, that was a talk, didn't actually happen.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

Well, one, it's not fair. How would you like it if you worked your butt off, right, for four years, worked real hard, paid for college, and finished, to turn around and watch the government pay somebody else's debt off that didn't even finish school? Definitely, yeah. I would be pretty pissed off personally, but um, that's how that goes.

The Financial Literacy Gap At Home

SPEAKER_04 10:47

So working with your dad, making some money over there working for the store, what has your mom or dad taught you about money? You're getting ready to be 18 in a month or so. What they what did they actually teach you about money, if anything? You know investment wise? No, no, just just any money lessons at all. Not investments, but just did they like it it it was known for a long time, you'll become a parent one day, like, hey, I have to sit down and have that talk about they call it the birds and the beast, sex with my typically 13, 12, 13, 14-year-old somewhere, and that's an uncomfortable conversation to have with a 12, 13-year-old, right? And that's but parents need to do that. And my question is, did they ever sit you down and say, Hey, money is something that we use to purchase things to live the lifestyle that we want to live, right? And I want you to understand how money works. Did they ever sit you down and have that type of conversation with you? I would say no. No.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

No.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

So and again, you're 17. I would tell you 95% of the people that have been on this podcast and or that I've had conversations with in the last 10 years, when I asked that question, they say mom and dad never did. Like it didn't happen for me. My parents never sat me down, taught me about money, right? I was just an entrepreneur and I knew I want to make money. Yeah. This is the problem. This is why America has what Warren Buffett calls it, it's a financial literacy problem. Um, why Americans live paycheck to paycheck? It has nothing to do with how much money you make, it's what you do with the money once you make it. And because I call it the game, most people just call it the game of money, when you're not taught the rules of a game, any game that we want to play, how can you how can you win the game? You don't know the rules. When do we win, right? Yeah, how do we get there? How do we get from point A to point B? And so, but the fact that your parents haven't sat you down and taught you is not a bad thing. It it is what is, because if you went home and told your dad or asked your dad, hey dad, I want to learn how to fly a plane, can you teach me how to fly a plane? And he says, Son, I cut stone for a living. I don't know how to fly a plane. Yeah, does that make him a bad parent?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Of course not.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Of course it doesn't. No, he just doesn't know how to fly a plane.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

And that's fine. And so therefore he wouldn't be able to teach you. So now with m the same thing with money, you want to learn things about money, but mom and dad aren't proficient with money. They work, they make a living, they provide for you. But even though I've never met or talked to them, if I asked them certain questions about where their future and money is going, they probably would want to learn what I'm trying to teach also. So what I will teach you over time here, I probably for sure want you to share it with your parents, all the lessons that you're gonna learn now. Uh, because we talked before the podcast the value of time, the cost of time, because time is our most valuable asset. You want to get ready to go learn and have a career in basically three different fields and work them all together into one business at one point in time, which is great. But to learn those and put them together to run a certain kind of business is gonna take time number one, money number two, knowledge number three, right? So time you have, you have you're 17, you got your whole life in front of you, right? How you're gonna spend it? Time will tell. Time will tell. So if they haven't talked to you about money yet, but you met me and you're being inquisitive, which is a real good thing, you don't have a credit card you just you told me earlier that you don't have a credit card yet. I do not, yeah.

Credit Cards Good Debt Bad Debt

SPEAKER_04 15:04

Okay. Now, you've heard of Dave Ramsey. I have not. Oh Dave Ramsey's probably the most well-known um person out there teaching people about money. And his belief is that we should never have a credit card.

unknown 15:22

Really?

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Credit cards are bad. You'll hear people use the phrase, credit cards are bad, you gotta be careful. The reality, the way I see it, is credit cards are not bad because it's a piece of plastic. And how can a little piece of plastic be bad, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

No. It's how you it's how you handle the credit card, how you use it. Are you responsible? And the problem is most people are not responsible with their credit cards, and they they get into credit card debt, now they're in debt. And now like, oh crap, I'm a thousand, I'm three thousand, I'm ten thousand, I'm twenty thousand in debt. And you gotta pay that stuff back. So it's the only part that I don't agree with Dave Ramsey, is that in today's world, it's very important to have credit. You're going to want to buy a vehicle at some point. I don't suggest buying a brand new vehicle by any means until you can either pay for a cash or at least 50% cash, right? If you want to leverage money. A house no one can pay cash for, so we have to borrow money to pay for a house, right? We get a mortgage.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Sometimes we leverage money in business. I think leveraging money in business is a very powerful thing. If I leverage money in business to make more money, then I get to leverage money and make more money.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

Right? Now there is what's called good debt and bad debt. But good debt is leveraging money. Bad debt is I call it consumer debt. Anybody wants to get in debt because you want to go to dinner, you want to buy some new shoes, I want to go to this concert, and you charge it on a card because you don't have the money, then you shouldn't do any of those things. Do those things when you do have the money. And not only when you have the money, but everything else is paid for. You're young, you're living at home, you're gonna go to school, you probably will be at home for the next five years.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

At minimum, as you should. And during those five years, if you're still working for your parents and going to school and making money, 75% of what you make should be put away. And I say 75% because 25%, if you're gonna work and go to school, you should reward yourself on some level. So 25% of whatever you make, whatever that dollar amount is, that's what you get to use to go and buy the shoes you want, the clothes you want, the show, the concert that you want to go to, all of those things, all of your wants. Spend that 25%, but put to 75% away. That's what I had my youngest daughter do, she did, from 15 till the age 20. Because she lived with me until she was 20 years old. She saved 75% of her money.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

So you mentioned that you had a girlfriend.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:18

Which is typical of a 17-year-old, right? And I asked you, I go, what kind of conversations are you having with your girlfriend?

unknown 18:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

Share with me the types of conversations, life conversations you're having with her. Is she going to school?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

She is. She goes, she's going to school in California. You see Irvine.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Well, everybody listening here that is over the age of 25 probably would is telling you right now in their car if they're listening, um, that's not going to be your girlfriend a very long time. Okay. For a very long time. You're likely to break up because long, long-term, long, long distance relationships just don't work out. Right. Okay. Um, historically. Uh, not that you're a bad person, she's a bad person, but two different states, very difficult. You'll try. And every I remember when I graduated high school, yeah, half of my friends, they're either they left out of town to go to college or their girlfriend left, and then that relationship fizzled out. Just because a relationship is about spending time together and not every two or three weeks, like, hey, I'm coming out this weekend, type of thing.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

You know, but you'll you'll play that out and that'll be fine. You'll have fun. You'll be fine. Um, have you at this point, and again, you're young, have you talked to or had any other mentors in your life for anything? Like, were you in sports?

SPEAKER_01 19:39

I was, yeah. What sports? I've played basketball since I was six years old.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:44

So your mentor would have been your coach.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Yeah, you know, I've had many different coaches, but the coach itself, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

So what what have you learned? What life led because coaches give life lessons. You know, they like your basketball coach shouldn't don't just typically they don't just teach you how to, you know, yeah, the plays of the game and and do practice. Typically, they're gonna give you these little life lessons along the way. Do you remember any of them?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

There's three. Three three I remember distinctly of everything I do.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

Distinctly, meaning like they stuck with you.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

Okay, go ahead and give it to me.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

One, the typical pursue greatness, you know, like in in ever anything you do, you shouldn't go for the average. You should always go for, you know, top tier, the S tier.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Great advice. Yeah. Another one, um, this is something one of my basketball coaches told me after I made a huge mistake in a game, turned the ball over at the end of the game, and we lost the game.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Just be better. He wasn't mad. He actually got mad at me for apologizing. He said, just be better, you know. It's all there is to it. Great advice.

SPEAKER_04 20:45

Because did you really like beat yourself up after the game? Like, I can't believe I did that. You're mad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's that's natural to have that. It would have been unnatural if you weren't upset about that play and the way the game turned out and all of that. It would have been abnormal that why isn't he mad? Right. Um, so that is normal. What's the third one?

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Third one, be glad you made mistakes because you know, everyone's always heard it before, but you only grow in those mistakes, you only grow through failure. And you notice it as well, whenever you make a mistake, whenever you do fail, you see yourself getting better.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

That can't be any closer to the truth, and then I could share with you, because although when you turned over the ball and you lost the game, and that can be construed as a mistake, right? You you learn the lesson. You think back, you reflect. Like, well, man, what could I have done? And those are instantaneous decisions when you lost that ball, right? I could have dribbled right, I could have dribbled left, I could have held it, I could, I could have whatever, not to turn the ball over. Um, but it just happens so fast. Fast. Yeah. Same thing does happen in life. Same thing happens in life. Same thing happens with your money. Your decisions that you're making with money. Sometimes they're decisions that are made. Some people use the word hastily. I hastily made that decision. Yeah. I didn't really think it all the way through. And then XYZ happened. That was negative. That's okay. Because most really successful people will tell you, you're going to be the better person in the future of yourself, the more mistakes that you make. So some people will make a mistake like that, and now they're going to do everything in their power never to make a mistake again, which is the wrong lesson. Don't do that. Don't go through life being very conservative on everything you do so you don't make a mistake. You don't want to do that. Right? It's okay to make the mistakes, make the failures as long, and I there's a caveat to it, as long as you learn from it. If you make a mistake or a failure and you didn't learn from it, that's bad.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

So you just need to reflect on whatever it is when that does happen to you. And trust me, it will happen to you. And sooner than later.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Going to school, doing your, you know, trying to get the good grades, learning whatever. You know, shit, I got a C plus and I wanted to get an A. What happened? I didn't study enough. I'm gonna make sure the next test I get an A because I'm gonna put more time in the study and I gotta know my I gotta know my material. Right? So those are all great lessons. Um It's funny because a lot of these questions that I normally have, you're so young, they they don't really apply to you.

Spender Vs Saver And The Habit Switch

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Um have you had at this point in life, because you spend money, um have you blown money, like spent money frivolously that you regretted? Like I spent money on dollar X, however much, and I shouldn't have done that. Do you have any of those?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Well, let me just be straightforward and say this. I'm a spender. I like to spend my money. I like to, you know, if I want something, I'm gonna go buy it. I'm gonna spend my money. And I think the number one thing I regret is shoes because I can say I probably have 22 pairs of shoes, and these Hoka shoes are that I'm wearing right now. I've been wearing these every day for the last six months. I haven't even touched my other 20 pairs of shoes. Right. So big regret there, you know, and you you can put you can kind of like apply that to many different things as well. Um, I know that I bought an extra snowboard because when it comes to snowboarding, this is kind of off topic, but no, no, it's all topics for sure. Oh, go ahead. There's different types of snowboards, you know. And mine was kind of like a more aggressive, um, have to use a lot of energy snowboard, and I was just getting tired of it, you know. Like every single snowboard day I was leaving sweaty, exhausted. So I kind of bought like a more um chill, relaxed, just glide down the mountain snowboard. And you know, go like going back to it. I never had to buy that extra six hundred dollar snowboard, but like I said, I'm a spender, I like to spend.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

We're gonna go back in time now because through conversations, I know that we develop our money habits between the eye the ages of five and seven, which in your case, compared to me, is not that long ago. And the reason we develop them back then is not consciously, but subconsciously. You're telling me you're a spender, then I'm gonna guess either your mother or your father is a spender. Which one is it?

SPEAKER_01 25:51

You know, that question I don't think it it it applies. I don't think it's a fair question because you know, ten years, right? Ten years ago, my dad was a cab driver and my mom worked at um MGM.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

So, you know, they didn't have that much money to be a spender. Honestly, we never spend, you know, she would stay home, you know, cooking all day, like making us food. We would never go out.

SPEAKER_04 26:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

My dad, he would just be working all day, so he wouldn't even have time to spend. So I would say that actually changed over time. I wouldn't say I got that from them.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

So where do you think you learned that habit of being a spender?

SPEAKER_01 26:28

You know, as I got older and the business opened in 2016, but as the business started doing better, like 2022, 2023, I would say that was around the time that I realized, like, okay, it's okay to spend money on these things. And that's around the time I kind of changed my mindset.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

So maybe it was society, maybe it was your peer, maybe it was your peers. There's a term aspect. There's a term that's saying that, and I don't know if you're young if this term even applies to you, but there's a term that floated around for a long time called keeping up with the Joneses.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

Right? Yeah. Which is that guy has XYZ. I want the same thing. I want to keep up. Right. And so it's very um, it's very how you want to satisfy a want versus a need. Now, as you are a self-proclaimed spender, aren't you at all a self-proclaimed saver? Did you save any money along the way? Or you just knew I made dollar X, and that dollar X I wanted to go by X, Y, and Z, and you just spent it.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

It's definitely like a 60-40 split, 60 saving, 40 um spending. And I actually have it set up like in my bank account where the second I get the check, it instantly goes 60% of it to savings, 40% checkings.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

How long what uh how what age did you do that?

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Uh 16. That's the age you can get debit card, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

Okay, so that's a little over a year. And who shared that that um lesson with you? Who got you to do that?

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Actually, it was um I'm not sure the role it's called, but like the bank lady that was kind of like conversing with me and you know, opening the debit card account for me.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

Opening your bank account, right? So you opened your first bank account at 16 and you sit there and and talked to this the bank associate, uh-huh. And did you did she give you this advice because you asked her, well, what should I do? Or did she just give it to you voluntarily?

SPEAKER_01 28:32

No, no, she gave it voluntarily. Okay. Probably her job, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:36

Okay. And so rather than walking out of that bank, yeah, yeah, whatever she said, I don't know, I didn't listen, type of thing. Or, yeah, I'm gonna do exactly that. I'm gonna put you know, X percentage into a savings account. So did you actually open two bank accounts that day?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah, checkings and uh savings account.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Checking and savings, okay. That's very far ahead of the game than most people your age. That you started on that path. So that's really, really good that you're doing that. Um other suggestions or that she had for you?

SPEAKER_01 29:15

I remember her saying don't spend too much money in one place. That was something that kind of stuck with me as well.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

Don't spend too much money in one place. Okay. Can you remember whether it was a coach or whoever, any other kind of financial advice that you'd been given?

SPEAKER_01 29:36

You know, in terms of financial advice, like I haven't gotten much financial advice in my life so far.

SPEAKER_04 29:41

Okay. And I say that because I I I can in my head, I can hear the listeners that are listening out there who listen to me, and and they're they're screaming right now, right? They're screaming like, tell them to invest, tell them to invest, tell them to start this account, tell them to start, right? I can just hear them saying that kind of stuff, right? Which is fine. Look, you're young, you're 17, you're gonna do a lot of these things and and the things that you and I have been talking about, which is great. Um, and keep heed and follow this direction that you've kind of started on already, and you're gonna be just fine. Um, if you go go home today, tomorrow, and the next week, whenever, on the weekend, and it sounds like from your parents' beginnings here, they started at the bottom working hard jobs to get where they are, which means they understand what it feels like to be broke, not to be broke, but what it feels like, because there's a feeling in our gut that we get when we're actually broke. Meaning, when your dad knew I don't have the money to pay the rent next month, or I don't have the money to keep the lights on, or I don't have enough money for the food. And there's that feeling in your stomach that just really it's a knot. It makes you feel it's not a good feeling. And I remember telling my youngest daughter that I said, I don't ever want you to have or understand that feeling. Yeah. She's gonna be 27 in two weeks. She's never had that feeling. And so I wish that upon everybody your age to not have that feeling. But the reason that people have that feeling is because no one ever taught them about money. So you don't have that feeling. Do the right things, know the difference between wants and needs, right? You didn't need that extra skateboard. You don't need 22 pairs of shoes. You know what I mean? Yeah. And whatever other things that you've been spending your money on. Yeah, you need nice clothes. Yeah, you need probably a couple of pairs of nice shoes, right? Uh 22, that's excessive, right? And so that money could have been not just saved, but invested.

Why Saving Is Not Enough

SPEAKER_04 31:43

So the fact that the bank lady told you to save, okay. But that's only like telling you half the recipe to something that you want to cook. Well, what's the other half of the recipe? How's this meal going to come out if I only have half the recipe? Well, it's not gonna come out. You're gonna you're gonna make a blob of whatever, right? Yeah, and so the other half is investing. And I shared with you that I will definitely talk to you more about investing to get started and more than anything to create a habit. Because a habit is where's what's gonna get you. Now, you talked earlier about one of the things the coach told you, which in my mind means work ethic. Um if you want to be the best that you can be at whatever that you want to do, right? You want to be the civil engineer, be the best civil engineer, right? You want to be a developer, be the best. Um we all can only achieve those types of things through work ethic.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

And I shared with you that we are and will become the five people that we hang with. And we talked a little bit more about that before the show here, but just keep that in mind of who you're hanging out with, right? Keep that in mind for watching other people, watching and learning. Invest in yourself as far as your education, you're gonna go to college. Um take a class or two or semester of finance, right? And learn all the fundamentals. But I even I know personally, I know I don't know, at least a handful of doctors, attorneys, accountants, all people that should know about money that they don't know anything about money. I know doctors that know everything about being the doctor that they are, they don't know anything about money. It's misconstrued that you're a doctor, you must make a lot of money. Well, maybe the guy does make a lot of money, but you don't know what's going on behind closed doors, and his finances are in a massive disarray, right? Same goes for all these other fields. And the person who understands how to play the game the best will win the game, right? So be careful of who you listen to, what they're teaching you, and investing. There are no guarantees. If anybody ever tells you, hey, invest in XYZ over here, it's gonna make a guaranteed return of X. Like the minute somebody even uses the word guarantee, you got to run the other way. You're like, Well, you don't know what you're talking about then. Yeah, no, no, it's guaranteed. I promise, I guarantee it's gonna do this. Like, then that's not investing. That's gambling.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:32

We live in Vegas. You want to gamble? Go down to the hotel when you're of age and gamble. If that's what you want to do, fine. Gambling's entertainment. You know, you don't want to do that to make a living. Um, I know that you shared with me in a previous conversation. What does retirement mean to you? Is it something that is on the front burner, the back burner? Are you giving it any thought at all?

SPEAKER_01 34:59

More the back burner, you know. One of my most important things for me personally is the lifestyle. Okay. I want to be able to, you know, go to Italy, go to the Maldives, go to New York whenever I want. And I'm a big car guy, so I want to be able to drive that nice car or you know, the countless nice cars and own them. So it's definitely the lifestyle. And when you say age, right? I mean, preferably buy 45, but you know, it's one of those harder things to say because if you're gonna end up owning that business, you know, real estate development business, you're likely not gonna retire at 45. You're gonna keep running it and keep being like involved with it until you know you're older.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

So one thing that I can suggest to you, which is don't chase retirement. Because retirement basically means the end. And if you're gonna become the person that you're saying you want to become, you're too hungry for life. You don't want anything to end. You should strive for first financial independence and then financial freedom. When you reach financial freedom, you're gonna be able to do the things that you just described. Right? It's gonna take a lot of self-discipline and hard work to get there by age 45. I shared with you before, you had asked me, is it possible? Can it happen? The answer is 100% it can happen. Couple of things, a couple of things have to happen in order for it to happen, which is one, you could either you could be a genius that I don't even know about, that you don't even know about, and develop or invent something that will change the world and make you a ridiculous amount of money, right? Yeah, you can get there that way, you can get there through just really hard, diligent work. Either way, it's gonna take hard, diligent work, meaning sacrifice. If you're going to have a really good work ethic, work a great work ethic can't come with I want to have a good time all the time. The two don't go together. And any real successful person will tell you that. No, I I worked my ass off from 20 years old to 35 years old, and then I, you know, tell I let's say made it, uh something big happened in their life, you know. They like I'll take, for example, the last 10 years. Um, people who developed the different apps, AI structures, these kids who learned how to code early, and now coding is obsolete. We don't need to learn how to code anymore. AI does it for us, right? But those p those kids who did that and developed started companies and then sold their companies for hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, right? They worked their butts off at a computer, at a desk, in a tiny puppy when they started in their bedroom at home, right? By themselves, and just we I call it grinding, you know, people call it grind, just grinding away, learning, learning, learning, learning. Just can't learn, they're just so hungry for it. Just I want to know more, I want to know more. If you do that, then 45 is achievable. No problem.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

But if you're the guy who wants to get off on Friday and go snowboarding every weekend, yeah, not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah, definitely. And I think for me personally, the biggest thing that you know I want to learn is just the pathway I need to take. And I know there's countless people out there who have done, you know, that pathway to becoming that developer, to becoming the blue heron or the Merlin home builders, right, etc. So, you know, that that's one of the biggest things I'm kind of like pursuing and like actively searching up right now, right? You kind of said how um it's the grind, right? You know, sitting at the computer. Like I feel like, you know, I don't want to come off as cocky, but I've actually, you know, kind of done some of the grind. I graduated with a 5.5 GPA, you know. Sweet. And you know, I'm always hungry for that grind. I just need to know how to pursue it.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

That's great. That means, yeah, it's a great word I like using, and you're hungry, right? And when you're as hungry as you are, you want to eat now, right? You you want to eat knowledge. How fast can I eat knowledge? The thing that you're gonna have to learn is patience, number one, right? It's not gonna happen overnight, but you can and will see your little goals add up. So to come up with an actual written plan of what you want to do and know that every time you hit these little, I call them mini milestones that you hit, celebrate them. Celebrate them, you know, whatever it may be. Um, because it'll give make you hungry for more. Like, I'll

Debt Discipline And Delayed Purchases

SPEAKER_04 40:04

give you an example. If you look behind me, you see what's hanging on the wall right here? I do indeed. It's called it's called debt-free champion. And this is what I will be giving out to my students who go through my course and I teach them how to get out of debt, and they finally get out of debt. Debt is like the biggest anchor to your financial being that you can ever have. And for people who are in debt, whether you've been in debt for six months, six years, twenty years, doesn't matter the timeline and doesn't even matter the amount of debt. Uh, somebody being in debt $1,000 versus somebody being in debt $200,000, if it's the moon away, it's it just seems unfeasible to pay it off. Like, how do I get there? You know, when you say it's to a thousand dollars, somebody be like, I have no way of paying it off. I don't know how to do it. I don't make enough money. How will I get out of this mess? Is the same as somebody who goes $200,000. How am I going to get out of this $200,000 debt? And it's just a to me, it's a math equation problem. Let's just figure it out, get on a path and do it. But I give these plaques out for the day that you get out of debt because that's a massive day. That anchor relief off of the people's shoulders who've been carrying debt for time over time, again, a year, 20 years, whatever it may be, doesn't matter. Um is such a relief. So one thing be careful of as you're going through your journey here of not just consuming knowledge to learn things, but don't let something like debt get hooked on your back. And now that's holding you back from moving forward. I see. So that's gonna take self-discipline to do that. Again, not 22 pairs of shoes, not the second skateboard. You're a spender, so we you're gonna have to take the test. Like you can take my test, we'll be out in a couple of weeks and see what you are, and then how do you stop doing that? The basic way that you're gonna stop doing that is reminding yourself every time you want to go spend money on another pair of shoes, on another, you know, uh skateboard, not skateboard, but the uh the other board that you bought, yeah. You gotta you gotta ask yourself, put that on hold. I want to buy those shoes today. I got the urge. Uh if you put it on hold for 48 hours and then ask yourself that question again, do I still want those? I promise you, 99% of the time you're like, no, that urge is over now. I don't want them anymore. And if you can get in that habit, then you will turn from a spender into a saverslash investor. Yeah. And then when you get to a point where you've your goal is, hey, I want to, I want to invest slash save my money to I want to get to 5,000 bucks. And what's the timeline to get to the $5,000? Did it take you two months? Did it take you two years? Whatever the timeline is, when you get to that five thousand dollars, you should you should feel a sense of accomplishment. And now the next is what's my next goal? I want $10,000, I want $20,000, I need $100,000, whatever that dollar amount is. Just baby step your way up there until you get what you wanted. But also know whatever that dollar amount that you set, what it's for. My I have a module that teaches about savings, and I always say, save for a purpose. Don't save just to save money. Don't just say because there's a number that's in your bank account that you see it and you don't know what you're going to do with it. Don't do that. You see that number and it's halfway 70%, whatever the percentage on the way up to the final number that you want because you want to start your first business. I need $x. You want to Do things that you um need to do because the need is going to satisfy the want later, the going to Italy and stuff, right? Don't for don't spend your money because oh man, for two years I've been working my butt off, I got forty-five thousand dollars, I'm I'm 25 years old or whatever, I'm gonna go to Italy now, right? But I haven't taken care of some of these other needs yet.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:27

You have your whole life to do all that stuff with. Now I will share with you my daughter who is gonna be 27, she has literally traveled the whole world already. Singapore, Thailand, she's been to London, Paris, Jesus, Mexico. I mean, she's been all over the place. Now she has done it because there's two ways to travel. You could travel real frugal or you could travel five star, right? Yeah. Now, she's done this for the la over the last six years. She's been traveling, and she has a friend of hers that is super frugal. I mean, they find the deals that they've been on these vacations on where last year they went to Paris and London, 10-day vacation trip that cost each of them about $2,500. That's pretty darn cheap.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

That is good, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

To go do that trip. Now, where did they stay? Crappy little hotels. Where'd they eat? Crappy little restaurants, you know, not having five-star mills or five-star hotels. You can't do that. You can do that later when you can become successful and what you know, your business ventures that you want to have, where hey, I can go spend twenty thousand dollars on a vacation and go five star.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

You know what I mean? 20,000, that's affordable. I've I'm telling wild now for myself. I got millions of dollars, whatever it is. But try not to blow giant chunks of money because I'm a firm believer in rewarding yourself when you work hard for sure. Just do it in a a frugal means. Don't go all out. You know? Don't buy the best pair of shoes. Don't buy the best car.

unknown 46:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:20

Don't buy the nicest sports car, all of that stuff. Don't buy the nicest stuff. If you can't pay for it and it doesn't hurt you financially, don't do it. If it's gonna put a ding in your financial plan, what you're gonna want to do long term, it's just it's gonna set you back. And then it's gonna take you another year to save that money. And again, the first lesson I'm teaching you is the value of time. Right? Yeah. And at 17, you think I have my whole life. I'm 64, I'm here to tell you, it goes by so darn fast. I've heard that, yeah. You know, so I want you to enjoy all the finer things in life. But I would say I would put my head down, grind the grind, just grind it out till you're 30 before you really start enjoying yourself. You can have your fun weekends here and there to enjoy life, but don't do anything foolish and spend big money. Um because that'll hurt you.

KJ Real Estate Wins And Painful Losses

SPEAKER_02 47:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:20

What are some of the questions or unknowns that you have in your mind that you want to know?

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

When you bought your house, how old were you? My first house, 35, and I didn't and I built my first house. Really? Yeah. I ran my business for a lot of years and saved up enough money, and then again, hanging out with the five people that you want to be around. Uh, one of my best friends was a home builder by trade. Oh, okay. So he helped me. Yeah, I could have gone and bought a track home, whatever. He goes, Kev, there's a piece of land over here. I'm I'm buying one half acre, the one across the streets for sale. Um, these guys are there's a good price for the land, blah, blah, blah. I'll help you build your house, no money. He gave me his time, framed it out, did everything. I was there every day to help do everything. Um, I think I was 35 years old when I built that house. Wow. I I was there almost 20 years, raised my family there. Um, but in retrospect, thinking back, all the money that it cost me being there, I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have done it. Is it still is it in Vegas? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's down the street. It's a beautiful home. I remember when him and I finished the homes, we built them simultaneously. And I remember when we finished them, we sat out in the front yard and we had a conversation. We're like, it was it was uh it was the biggest financial decision that I ever made at that point. I think I spent almost $400,000 building that house. Um, and I had a big mortgage, and he had a big mortgage. And we said to ourselves, what did we just do? What did we get into? How are we gonna pay for these houses?

SPEAKER_02 49:10

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 49:11

We didn't have we didn't have money saved like, hey, if I get hurt, I can pay for my house for the next 12 months. I didn't have that kind of money. I had to go to work to make sure that I could pay for it, right? Yeah, and these were big mortgages at the time. Um, and we just said to ourselves, wow, what did we get ourselves into? But I lived there almost 20 years. I made it work because I ran my own business for all those years, and I made the money to live it and live the lifestyle that I provided for my kids and my wife. You know? Um a lot of great memories. I wouldn't trade that for anything. Yeah. But knowing what I know today about money, I totally shouldn't have done that. I should have lived a more conservative lifestyle and bought half the price of the home that I spent there. I should have bought a $200,000 home instead of a putting up a $400,000 home and invested.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

I didn't know what it is. Who would you have invested in?

SPEAKER_04 50:09

I didn't have anything invested back then. If somebody would have taught me what I'm gonna teach you, what I know today, uh things would have been totally different for me today.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:19

Not that I have complaints where I'm at sitting right now because life is fine. Um I'm not independently wealthy, but I'm comfortable, right? So um but I if knowing now what what I knew knowing back then what I know now, I definitely would have a net worth of around five million dollars. Um, which I currently don't. Uh but that's okay. Again, you gotta learn from your mistakes, you know?

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

My one of my first big developments that I took on was in 2007. All of my friends were building big mansion spec houses. They're called spec houses. You're building your cell, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:03

And they go, Kev, you gotta get in the game. Man, we're all making tons of money building these big spec houses. I built my house, I know how to build a house, I remodeled a lot of houses. I'm like, okay, I got no fear, no fear of building a house. Okay, my credit's good. I have some money in the bank, let's go build one. So I proceeded to buy a piece of land in a nice development and build a 7,500 square foot Tuscan Villa mansion.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

Unfortunately, I finished that house around June of 2008. You were just a kid, but June 2008, this whole country unraveled financially. Yeah, everything just crashed. Now, if the country hadn't crashed and it was cruising along good like it had been the previous five years where my buddies were all making their money, if it hadn't done that, the house that I built was worth three million dollars. And it cost me two million to build it. So I would have made a million bucks.

SPEAKER_02 52:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:11

But that's not what happened. Oh, eight happened, the crash happened, and I lost it all, including the cash money that I had in that house, which was a couple hundred thousand bucks, along with the bank money that they foreclosed on me. So that's a lesson learned.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:27

Right. What lesson would you say that exactly is? The lesson was I didn't know real estate as deep as I should have to take on that big a risk. Because looking back now, there were definitely signs that this is this whole thing is getting ready to unravel. Everybody everybody who was in the know, so to speak, saw that happening about 12 to 18 months prior to it happening. I didn't know how to read the market or understand the market. So I jumped in the market of building that house.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:02

So the lesson learned is do your homework.

SPEAKER_01 53:04

Yeah. So let me ask you this now.

Reading Crash Talk With Better Homework

SPEAKER_01 53:07

In terms of speculation, you know, there's always people saying, like, for example, nowadays, there's always people saying, oh, the stock market is about to crash big, you know, like everything's about to crash. I bet it was the same back then. Like, how do you differentiate that speculation? Because people have been saying that the stock market is going to crash ever since COVID happened and it's only been going up.

SPEAKER_04 53:27

Right. Great question. Um, doing your homework, you're going to listen and follow certain people that are out there educating people on what's going to happen. And you either a guy whose glass is half full or a guy whose glass is half empty. You ever heard of that term before? Explain it. Half full is your optimist. Half empty is your pessimist. There's always going to be a pessimist. Like, dude, this is going to I I was selling houses in 2016, and I would have my clients say, Oh, the market's going to crash. I'm going to wait one more year because I know the market's going to crash and go down. The house is going to be cheaper. Let me wait one more year. And I'm like, Are you sure? And they're like, Yeah, yeah, no, no. I've been listening to this guy, that guy, and that's what's going to happen. I would talk to them two years later. You just waited. You wanted to wait a year. It's been two years. The house that you wanted to pay $600,000 for is now worth $850. Do you still want to wait? No, I'm going to wait one more year. It's for sure going to crash now.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:33

It still hasn't crashed. Since 2016, houses only gone, they've doubled since 2016, right? So, or more, depending on where it's sitting. So you got to be careful. So, doing your homework on what's going to crash, where's it going to crash? When it says the housing market is going to crash, we live in the United States, 50 states across America. What city are you in? Because one city will do worse than other cities. Now, some people say Vegas is the first city to show this signs that there's a housing disruption going on. Yes and no. But if there is, you got to follow the market. Yeah. What's going on? Who do you want to talk to? A real estate professional who understands the market, who has what I call a pulse on the market. What's going on with sales? What's going on with foreclosures? What's going on with cancellation of contracts? You know, people get in and contract to buy a house and they get spooked and they and they cancel, right? That's but that's been up for this past year, cancellations. So there's what they call a buyer's market and a seller's market. Which market are we in? Technically, um, a seller's market is when you have six months of inventory or more. A buyer's market is when you have the opposite of that. Right now, we're sitting at about four and a half or five months. So technically, we're not in the buyer's market, although a lot of people are treating it that way, meaning they all want deals. Um speculation is what makes our economy go around. And so there is no exact right or wrong answer. It's what you believe do to your homework. And are you the half glass full guy or half empty guy? Right?

SPEAKER_02 56:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:22

So that one you have to follow your gut, who you're gonna listen to, and do your homework and watch trends, what's happening. I see. What watching a lot of, and not necessarily these days anyway, not necessarily listening to your local news. Those guys don't get it right very often, actually. You're gonna want to dig into deeper in today because of YouTube. You can go to YouTube, follow certain people who have a good track record of being correct over the last five, ten, twenty years. You can follow their lead more. So follow the right people. I mean, I'm constantly on YouTube learning everything I can. Today with AI, you could ask Claude. Yeah, that's what I do for most of my announcements. You could ask Claude.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:10

Right? Um, because all AI has is all the information that's on the internet and they compile it and they do it all in about 10 seconds. You know what I mean? Exactly. It's fast. Um, you could ask it, how's the market in I live in Las Vegas, in Las Vegas versus the market in San Antonio versus Miami versus New York versus whatever city you want to pick. Right? So when you hear on the news, the housing market's down. That's such a broad statement.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

That's like, I'm hungry. Okay. What are you hungry for? How hungry are you? I don't know. You got to tell me.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:47

Right? So wanting to know those things is it's come down to homework.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

Yeah. So you gotta say homework. What does that exactly? Research. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 57:58

You know, you're getting ready to go to college, you're gonna have a ton of homework because you're learning. And they're gonna tell you this book, read this chapter, we're gonna have a test on this next week, boom, and you're constantly learning. And so to be an entrepreneur, you're gonna be constantly learning. So don't think that you're gonna go to school for the five, six years, get your degrees, and you're not gonna learn anymore. That's literally the beginning of when you really are gonna learn because everything that you're gonna learn in the next five or six years is the fundamentals of the career that you've chosen. You know, you're gonna learn the fundamentals. It's like playing basketball.

SPEAKER_02 58:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:35

Coach taught you all the fundamentals. You you're the one who had to get out there and actually play. Coach didn't play, you played. You made a bad decision, lost the game. You know, you know, um, Kobe and Michael.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:48

They practice harder than everybody else. That's why they're better. That's why they're the greats. They just practice more. Yeah. You know, so doing your homework, doing your research, always listening, paying attention, what's going on. That will make you a successful person.

SPEAKER_01 59:03

I see.

SPEAKER_04 59:03

I don't, I know, I know very little stick statistical stats in sports. Then I have some of my friends that know uh sports stats like the back of their hand, you know, home runs from guys who played 20 years ago. I mean, they just know these things. And I think to myself, I don't know those things because I was never that interested in it. I enjoy watching every sport, and I'm an avid golfer, but yeah, I was never that interested to know the statistics of every sport, every game, as a lot of the guys that are out there that knowing that stuff, unless you're gonna be a sports announcer and make a living doing that, it's it's information that doesn't have any value to you. Yeah.

unknown 59:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:48

That's the only guy that's gonna make a lot of money knowing all that crap, being a sports announcer, right? So be careful what you're learning, that you're not wasting time learning something that doesn't bring you value. You you may learn some things that bring you joy, but not value. Two different things. Yeah, I've heard that as well, right? So be careful of that. Um, it's easy to fall into those traps that you especially with sports.

Key Takeaways Money Mastery Invite

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

Well, this has been a very interesting uh conversation. What give me top three bullet points, your takeaways from what we've discussed. What what do you think the audience wants to know what you learned? Homework. The grind invest. Okay. If you got a five-point fine graduating, that means you are no stranger to doing homework. Of course, yeah. You know what I mean? You know so you know you know how to learn, right? Yeah, because some people don't ever get that part of learning. They don't they don't retain. And so you obviously have built the skill set of learning, which is extremely advantageous in what you're getting ready to do. Yeah. Like by far, you will be the top 10% of whatever you do because you have learned because you have learned how to learn. Right? Some people have never learned, they they go through school just going through the motions. Yeah, taking a test, getting a 70%, being happy. Next, what's next, right? And for you to get that 5.5 means that you pretty much got age your whole high school career, and you learned a lot of stuff that you can fall back on different things that you've learned uh in school. Um so keep keep with that discipline of learning and the things that you're great, getting ready to learn. Um it seems to me because of that, things that you learn stick, right? You'll you'll remember those things as you're going through your career. First your schooling and then your career, they'll stick. Um the things that I like to teach in financial literacy is the same as the fundamentals the coach is going to teach you when you're six years old. Dribbling, passing, yeah, the basics of the court, right? Where to shoot free throws, all the fundamentals of basketball, right? As as a as an example, right? Um, because people who don't learn the basics of basketball, the the fundamentals, and coach will tell you, you've got to get the fundamentals down right. You've if you don't get the fundamentals, I can't teach you the next step. You've got to learn these fundamentals first.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:38

Of course.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:38

And the same goes with money. If I if you don't learn the fundamentals of money, how will you ever grow it? Because you don't understand it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:46

You know? And so when we relaunch, Money Mastery Institute will relaunch here in about two to two and a half weeks. I'll invite you, I'll put you on my email list that will get you the invite to come to the webinar to see what it's all about.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:03

Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:04

Right. And for all you guys that are listening out there, um, this is actually the first time that I'm letting people know that Money Mastery Institute has redeveloped everything and I'm relaunching the whole website and the products that I have to offer. And a lot, uh not a lot of it, almost all of it is due to AI. Yeah. I've leveraged AI in a manner that's going to help you guys, and I'm able to put it out there at a very affordable price so you guys can engage and stop living paycheck to paycheck, start saving for the things that you want in your life and enjoying life. Because people who live paycheck to paycheck have anxiety and stress about money, paying whatever it is that they need to pay for. And so that's the problem I'm trying to solve, right? Um, as you go through school and finish in five or six years, you want to become what you want to become. You're basically solving problems, right? You want to come become a developer, you're solving a problem. Somebody wants to buy something from you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:13

Right? That's just a problem that that somebody wants. They have a need, a very expensive need, that you could fulfill. Right? Along the way, you're solving all these little tiny problems. So financial literacy is a major problem in this country. I'm just trying to put my little dent in it with having these the podcast here, money conversations. Um, there's plenty of episodes for people listen to because we know through stuff through studies that we learn more through other people than we do a book. If you knew what I went, oh, I just explained my part of my story to you. You're like, man, I don't want to make that mistake.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:57

I don't want to go lose hundreds of thousands and then millions of dollars, right? So if that sticks and resonates with you, that could help form a decision in the future that you're like, I already know what's going to happen. I'm like, don't, I'm not going that way. I'm not going right, I'm going left. You know what I mean? So that's what this podcast is about. And you're such a young person with a blank slate. Why I was excited to have you on here. And I talked with you last week about we're going to sit down and have this same conversation in a year.

unknown 1:05:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:30

After you have a year of schooling under your belt, and we'll see where you are then and what your goals are, and realistically where you think you're going to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:41

And that'll be an interesting conversation. And what you've done with money from now till then, people know you have purchased 22 pairs of shoes, right? So it'll be interesting how you actually handle your money just in this first year.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:55

Because people develop habits habits that unfortunately, and sometimes fortunately, will dictate the outcome of their future, whether it's the next year, two years, five years, 10, 20, 50 years, right? We all will develop certain kinds of habits. So that will definitely be fun. So while this has all been a great conversation and you had a good takeaway from it, I will probably be posting this in just a few days. I'll let you know. You can listen to it. And more importantly, your parents should listen to it. They may not know where your head is. Not that it's in a bad place, but they'll say, David, I didn't know that's what you were thinking. Right? And I didn't know that's that's what your aspirations were. And you'll have different types of conversations with them. Money conversations. And that's what I want people to have, is money conversations. Having a money conversation doesn't mean I need to know how much money you have or how much money you spent. How did you become wealthy? Tell me, I want to be wealthy. Yeah. That's what a money conversation is. So, for all you guys out there, listen, do me a favor. You know the drill. Uh, hit the like button, subscribe button if you like what you hear. Uh, leave me a comment if you like. That would be awesome. We like to always hear from everybody. But the subscribe button helps the channel grow. And we'll see you guys on the next one.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:20

Thank you for listening.