You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
Investing Beyond Dollars: Wealth in Health, Relationships, and Self Mastery
Welcome aboard the financial freedom express, led by yours truly, Mr. Pernuer! Fasten your seatbelt for a no-holds-barred journey through the maze of personal finance, as I share my own crushing battles with debt and the life-changing victory of becoming debt-free. I'm laying out a treasure map to wealth that doesn't just skirt around the edges; it goes deep into the heart of smart investing, from the solid ground of land ownership to the soaring heights of the S&P 500. Plus, I'll let you in on why your grandmother's dusty landscape painting might just be your ticket to a plush retirement.
Ever thought about how an exotic vacation or a heartfelt laugh could be the best investment you've ever made? I'm here to tell you, it's not all about the greenbacks! Investing extends beyond the balance sheet, into the art-laden walls of your living room, the miles you've wandered abroad, and the hearty, healthy lifestyle you live. Relationships, too, get a spotlight in this financial fiesta, because let's face it—no one's a self-made millionaire in a vacuum. Whether it's the impact of a supportive partner or the strength of a network of friends, I'm diving into the wealth that comes from human connection and the profound influence it has on our success.
And because life's too short for a one-track mind, we're rounding this out with a holistic look at where else your investment dollars and efforts should flow. From nurturing your spiritual and emotional well-being to mastering the art of magnetic social skills, and even the silent power of a home that hugs you at the end of a long day, I'm covering it all. I'll share stories that prove when you invest in yourself, not only do you reap the benefits, but you radiate a value that's priceless. So tune in, tap into a wealth of knowledge, and transform your life from the inside out. It's time to build a life you love, and guess what? You can definitely afford it—right here on the "You Can't Afford Me" podcast.
www.themrpreneur.com
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Speaker 1:Hey guys, it's your boy, sam Anderson, aka Mr Pernuer, coming to you with another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast, another solo episode. Hey guys, I'm really going to enjoy doing these this year, in 2024. There are a lot of pieces of content that I listen to and I'm like man. I would love to break that down, give a different take on it. So today, good friend of mine sent me a video on YouTube that talked about the 15 investments you won't regret making, and this video was brought by aluxcom. They are not a sponsor of this video or podcast, but this was some great content and I wanted to break this down. So I'm going to give you guys, 15 investments that you won't regret making later on in life.
Speaker 1:Number one is becoming debt-free. Now, guys, I will tell you for me the type of personality I am, and I assume that a lot of other entrepreneurs are like this. I had debt that I needed to take care of, but because I'm an entrepreneur, I'm always looking to generate income, knowing that investments can yield me more money. I kept pushing debt off to the side. I'm like you know what, whatever, I'll get to it whenever. But I want you to think about it like this If you had a credit card with 10k worth of debt and you just made the minimum payments each month, you would end up paying over $70,000. Let me say that again. You racked up a credit card payment to 10 grand, only making the minimum payments, you ended up paying back about 70k. Now, when you think about how much that robs you of your future, you start looking at debt a little bit different. Think about it like this If you ever loan I know this is probably back in the day for a lot of people. Have you ever loaned somebody, let's say like a hundred bucks, and then next time you see them they ain't got your money but they're wearing a new pair of Jordans? What do you feel like when you see that? If you're like me, you don't feel good. I'm looking at that guy like bro, you owe me money, how? You out here flexing a new pair of shoes, all right, that's.
Speaker 1:I've had to make such a mental shift when it comes to debt and looking at that and understanding that it truly is a wealth killer If you can't get that debt knocked out and I know some people are listening to this, they're like that may be easy for you to say you have all these companies, blah, blah, blah. Guys, it's been. It has been a struggle for me as well. But if you're listening to this right now and you're automatically thinking about the reasons you can't do it or the excuses that you can't do it, nothing on this list that I'm going to explain to you is going to be worthwhile for you. You're just going to keep coming with excuses. Now you can either attack it and do something about it or sit there and complain and remain in debt for the rest of your life, paying high interest rates, killing your wealth, building years. So you just have to make a decision that this is something that you're going to do Now. I can start small. For me, it's like I would literally go through my budget and notice where I was spending my money and realized that I did have money to pay this debt off, more than the minimum payment. But just starting with the minimum payment and the weight that begins to come off your shoulders as you pay off this debt, as you pay off these credit cards. Guys, I'm telling you it's a good feeling, because when it rains in your life, it's not a matter of if it's when we're all going to have those storms and troubles in our lives. It's a lot easier to weather those storms when you don't have money that you owe to other people. Now I'm putting your mortgage payment aside, just looking at consumer debt. It is a lot easier life when you don't have that monkey on your back. So getting that debt paid off.
Speaker 1:Number two purchasing rental properties in the two main hubs of each city. Now, for the most part, you have for each hub of a city, you have downtown, which is primarily where tourists are going to be. Maybe you have a major university in your town in that area. And then the business sector where, like, the biggest companies in your town are All right. The two things with looking at rental property in those areas. Those are highly sought after areas that people are going to want to live in. Being in the city when I was younger I lived in the city, all right, so I'm going to be right near the bars, the clubs, the restaurants, all that stuff. People are gonna have to pay rent somewhere. Not everybody owns a home. And then looking at the business district where you have these major companies, people wanna live close to work. So, looking at those two major areas, investing in real estate I've been.
Speaker 1:You guys can tell from season one we had a lot of people in the real estate field on this podcast. You can tell I'm trying to give you guys the gems, right? Real estate is one of the major ways to build wealth. You just gotta do it. Now, all these things on this list are gonna require education. You're gonna have to educate yourself and figure these things out. But if you're looking at real estate, becoming a landlord, looking in those two areas of your cities Number three, probably one of my favorites by Earth. It's a wealth building tool.
Speaker 1:Now, here's why I love purchasing land. It's because for me and I'll be honest with you, guys, I don't have any doors right now, like I don't have any rental properties where I have tenants. 2024 is probably gonna be that first year for me where I get my first door. But I do own land, and I will tell you I love land. Couple of reasons. One, guys, it can be extremely cheap. So I looked at what I used to spend collecting sneakers On average, when I was, like, really into it, I was easily spending a thousand bucks a month on kicks, easily. Guys, the first lot of land I bought was about $3,000. So that was about three months worth of what I used to spend on sneakers. But now I own land. Let me paint even a better picture for you that land I purchased right now. We're in January 2024.
Speaker 1:I purchased my first lot in February of 2023. Purchased it for about three grand. That property's now sitting at about 17,000. Guys, I only cut the grass one time. Nothing has been done, nothing.
Speaker 1:And land is something that you can continually pass through generation, generation and generation. I don't have a game plan specifically of what I'm gonna do with these lots that I have. People keep asking me are you gonna build something on it? Well, I may, but the biggest thing is just ownership Getting my hands on that, because that's something I can pass along with my kids. If my kids wanna live in that area one day, they can build their first house on that lot.
Speaker 1:Property value I told you guys, within a year the property value's going up. What's that? 14 grand, $14,000, or an investment I made for a little over $3,000, it's now valued at $14,000. And it's a lot easier to come up with $3,000 than it is $20,000, $25,000, $30,000 for a rental property. But we'll get there. We'll get there. But buying land I'm telling you guys, look into it. There are some areas of the country in which you can purchase land for as little as $750. One of my favorite quotes one thing God ain't making anymore of is land. So if you buy it, the price will eventually go up. All right, buying earth.
Speaker 1:Number four putting money in an S&P 500. Now again, let me reiterate you don't want to be delving into any of these other investments until you've gotten yourself debt free. Now, if that takes you a year, that takes you two years. If it takes you five years. You're going to be much better off getting that debt paid off before you jump into these other opportunities. Well, putting money in an S&P 500, if you're like me, for the longest time I didn't understand anything about the stock market. I still don't fully understand everything about the stock market, like picking stocks. You hear people say Baishar is a Tesla, buy Apple, buy Microsoft, buy Bitcoin, whatever it is and really not having the knowledge that I thought I needed in order to pursue those investments. But by investing in the S&P 500, especially the top 500 companies in America, that is one of the safest ways to see your money grow. You don't have to do a bunch of research. You don't have. Generally, it's going to yield you an 8% return on your money year over year 8%. You don't have to understand everything about investing, you just have to put your money to work. That is a way to financial freedom. That is a way to generational wealth. You have to get your money working for you. So once you get that debt out the way and you can start investing in these other things, you can really start to see your money grow.
Speaker 1:Number five I'll admit to you guys I don't know a lot about this. Number five is buying art. Now I will say this I talked to my wife when we billed or purchased our next home. I don't want us going to TJ Maxx to get art for the wall. I want to find original artists and purchase their works, because I know that replica of the Mona Lisa that I get from TJ Maxx is never going to go up in value. But original pieces of art to the investment. Imagine walking into your house and walking by a painting and knowing that you purchased that painting for 500 bucks and that painting is now worth $5,000. And probably a lot of people walking into your house are none the wiser. They just, oh, that looks like a pretty painting. But you've got something that's not only making your house feel like a home, it's also an investment tool, something that you can pass along. Jay-z said it in his last album 444. Trying to pass this along to his kids Bought some artwork for $1 million. Half a year later we're $2 million. I'm telling you like the game is out there for y'all. People just aren't listening. Invest in art.
Speaker 1:Number six is an interesting one Invest in travel. The biggest thing travel will do for you is it will open up your eyes. It will allow you to communicate and empathize with people in a way that you never had before. But depending on where you are in the world, things can be a lot different. But to see other people's personalities, to see other people's perspectives, to see them living a little bit different, like there's so much you can soak in and learn from other cultures. Now, this is something I have to work on a lot. Honestly, if I was married, I'm not sure how much I would vacation, like my wife literally has to force me and say, okay, like this is what we're doing. We're taking the kids here or you and I are going here. Right, travel, because all this hustling that we're doing, all this grinding building empires what is it if you don't have experiences? So take that time. Invest in traveling.
Speaker 1:Number seven, maybe the most important thing on this list Invest in your health. I heard someone say one time in our 20s I'm a bunch of this, but you guys will get the idea in our 20s we completely neglect our health. I can remember ordering another number two from McDonald's and go play basketball for an hour and a half. We neglect our health like in college. You're drinking, you're smoking, you're doing all these crazy things. Then you get to your late 30s and 40s and health starts to become a priority. We start to try to make up for all the past years of bad decisions. If you have $10 million in the bank but you're bedridden, how much is that money really worth to you? You don't have your health. You have nothing.
Speaker 1:One of the best returns you can get on investment is in your health. You can extend the amount of time that you're able to produce an income and build wealth. You can extend the amount of time that you have good times with your loved ones, family and friends when you start to break it down. Number one no one's ever walked out of the gym being like man. I wish I hadn't worked out today. I feel horrible Now. We always have to talk ourselves into getting to the gym, but once you get there, you're always happy. You did it. You made an investment in yourself and guys, it's such a small portion of your day a bare minimum of 30 minutes to get in some physical activity to make sure that when you're 70, 80 years old you're not hunched over that you need assistance. Getting older sucks, but there are things that we can do to prevent that. So invest in your health.
Speaker 1:Number eight investing in your relationship with your partner. I've said it before on this platform one of the biggest decisions you'll make as an entrepreneur is who you choose to spend the rest of your life with. You need someone who's going to support you, who's going to be a partner, right? So taking that time to invest in that relationship. The most successful people that I look up to I look at all facets of their life and the ones that I most look up to earn happy, successful marriages. Those unhappy relationships just tend to live longer. They tend to live fuller lives. So making sure that you're taking that time to invest into your partner.
Speaker 1:Number nine, on a similar vein investing relationships with friends. Guys, this is not fun because I have been broke broke. I'm not wealthy now, but I'm doing a lot better than I used to, but I've been broke broke before you ever been broke broke and your friends want to take a trip, or they want to just go out that night, or they want to go out to dinner and you ain't got it. So you don't want to scale to the top of the mountain and have neglected all those relationships and you're at that mountain top by yourself. It's a lot more fun if you take this journey with others. So your relationships with your friends. Check on people. I realized that a guy that was in my wedding was going through something pretty serious in this personal relationship and it had been going on for a year and I had no idea Staying connected with those friends Like these relationships die. I know we all get busy. We have kids, we have businesses, blah, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't take that long to stop and text somebody. Give them a call real quick. Hey, man, didn't want anything, just wanted to check and see how you're doing. Invest in those relationships because the better your life gets, you're going to want to share it with more people.
Speaker 1:Number ten invest in your financial education. Guys, I don't want to hear oh, I don't know anything about stocks and bonds. I don't know anything about Roth IRAs and 401Ks. I don't know anything about the stock market. I don't know anything about real estate. Guess what? I didn't know, jack, about any of these things until I chose to pick up a book, until I chose to turn on a podcast and educate myself, until I started paying for Audible and listening to books on my commute back and forth to work every day.
Speaker 1:Educate yourself. Ignorance is not an excuse. So we can keep sitting here having pity parties for ourselves, complaining about what we don't have, but we're not willing to put in the work. Opening up a book for 15 minutes a day Again, not a lot of time in your day, but I saw this the other day For every self-improvement book you read, your life gets 1% better, cause your income can get 1% better. After every book, your relationships can get 1% better. All these things can grow just by educating yourself.
Speaker 1:And people really understand how powerful educating yourself and reading is, that your income could be completely dependent on the fact that you just don't read enough, that your business isn't where it's at today because you don't read enough. Because you're not the partner you wanna be Because you don't read enough. You're not the father or the mother you wanna be Because you don't read enough. Some of y'all just gotta start picking up a book. I'm telling you, every successful person I've interviewed has shown me that they read on a regular basis, that their education never stops. Make the time to read and educate yourself. Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Are one-on-one coaching Taylor's strategies to your unique business goals? Dive into interactive workshops fostering skills essential for success. Looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event? Book Mr Pernure to elevate your gathering. Visit wwwdmistepernurecom to learn more and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success. Mr Pernure, empowering your entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 1:Number 11, invest in spiritual and emotional health. I will tell you this as I'm going to tell you that I'm not a Christian. I will tell you this as a Christian. In building businesses, guys, times get tough. I mean tough Doesn't matter the scale of your business. You're always gonna have problems. And when those times get tough and I have my faith to depend on there's so many situations and things that have happened that I'm not sure I would have gotten through if I didn't have faith. I don't know what I got. Keep your spiritual and emotional health in check. Number 12, invest in your social skills. You need to know how to talk to people. Now I'll go as far as saying this you need to learn how to get comfortable getting on stage and talking to a group of people. I'm gonna give you, guys, an example.
Speaker 1:I was at a local chamber meeting. They had an open house and there's a bunch of chambers in our area, but this is probably the biggest one and during that open house it's probably a room, I want to say, of 40, 50 people. Everybody's getting about a minute to go around the room and introduce themselves. And I'm sitting there thinking luckily I was like the 20th person or 25th person. I'm sitting there thinking the whole time. What is it that I can say to grab these people's attention, just like that, because I only got 60 seconds to catch them? What is it that I can say just to make them remember that guy in the back? So it was funny. It was like seven people in a row. They were all like professors at VCU. So when it came time and got to me, I stood up, introduced myself and said hey guys, I'm Sam Anderson, I'm a professor at VCU. No, I'm just playing, I'm not a professor. And the room just started cracking up. So then I had them Like because before there I could see them when somebody would get out there, just kind of in out. But after I made that joke I had them and I got their attention. And then, following that meeting, at the end of the meeting I had at least 10 people run up to me and of course they heard a little bit of my story, heard all the businesses that I was involved in. They're impressed with my background, but it was the fact that I was able to capture them in that moment.
Speaker 1:I would say 90% of the speaking engagements I've ever had in my career being on stage talking in front of groups 90% of those I've always walked away with the client. Tuesday, I'm going to a VCU game. Associate of mind got box seats and the people that she's bringing was going to allow for some networking. So not only did I get box seats to a college basketball game, I'm going to walk out of there with some business cards and some relationships. You got to know how to communicate with people, how to interact with people, to connect with them on some level, alright. So invest in your social skills. Learn how to talk.
Speaker 1:Number 13, we got two more. Invest in making your house a home. I remember the first house me and my wife bought after we had to get it set and prepped for the market because we were selling that house. There were so many little things that we did that we were like man. I wish we had done this years ago, while we were living in the house, and could have enjoyed it more. That is your place of peace. That is your kingdom. You want to make it a place that you feel comfortable and relaxed when you come home. Make that investment into your home.
Speaker 1:Number 14, invest in documenting your life. Think back to, like, your grandparents I know I have one my grandfather on my mother's side. I never got to meet. He passed away before I was born and there's only one picture that I've seen of them, or at least that I can keep in my mind. But today, guys, we have access to cameras all day long, everywhere we go, and looking through my camera roll, like the amount of pictures I have of my wife and kids like it's insane. And the cool thing I like on iPhones is that it will create these memory videos for you. So every now and then I'm just on my phone each week and it makes a collage of videos of when my daughter was born, like special memories. Document these things Each year. So far, when our kids have had their birthday, I've made a full video from the birthday party. If you don't have that skill set, hire somebody to come in Doing group doing family photos. Document your life. These are going to be awesome things to look back on one day.
Speaker 1:And, last but not least, investing in yourself and not worrying about impressing others. I want to tell you guys, the moment my life changed for the better Dramatically Is when I truly deep down in my soul, stopped caring what other people thought about me, like I do not care when I tell you guys, I give zero Fs, I do not care what anyone thinks about me, and it was the most freeing moment in my life when I got to that point Not trying to impress anybody, because here's a funny thing I read this before is that, say, a Ferrari goes flying down your street or you're on the highway and you pass one, I know from the mail perspective we will look at that vehicle. We won't even see the man or woman who's driving that car. We just immediately imagine ourselves in our car. So most of you are spending all this money to impress people you don't know who. When they see these items that they covered are automatically removing you from the equation. You're not even a factor. They're seeing themselves in that scenario. So take that time to figure out who you are and what you want out of life, because we can all say we want this or want that. Until you sit down and write out a game plan on these things, it's not going to happen, guys. I can promise you it will not happen. If you don't sit down and really think these things out and plan it, you're never going to have them.
Speaker 1:Invest in yourself, whether that's going to conferences, whether it's going back to school, whether it's finding mentors, find some way to continually invest in yourself. Like I told you about reading books get you 1% better in whatever area it is that you're reading about. These are self-improving books. I'm not talking about Harry Potter or any fiction. Self-improving books, whether it's financial, business, whatever, health, whatever. You can get 1% better with every single book you read. A conference kind of jolts that Because you're getting so much information in a short period of time. But invest in yourself Now.
Speaker 1:When I saw this video and I saw this list of things, I was like this is probably one of the best lists I've seen in terms of investments that everyone needs to make in themselves. It sits every facet of your life and none of these are difficult. It just takes planning and just takes strategy. I hope that someone heard this message today and it connected with them, that there's something on this list that made you say I can do that and you start moving in the right direction. I appreciate you guys, as always, for listening. I got to start doing this more often. Make sure that you guys are subscribing. Leave that five-star review. It really does make a big difference. You guys are getting this information for free. All I'm asking is to leave a review and subscribe. We'll see you guys on the next episode.