The Economy, Elections, and Your Wallet: What Drives Financial Freedom?

This week we chat about how politics, economic policies, and market trends influence your personal and business finances. With a new administration in place, we discuss what we see ahead for small business owners, real estate investors, and everyday Americans trying to navigate a changing economic landscape.

We talk about our different viewpoints on the impact of political decisions—from taxes and tariffs to housing policies and investment strategies. Are small businesses a better bet than the stock market? What role does urban density play in happiness? And how does Tax Increment Financing (TIF) really work? We tackle these questions and more, bringing unfiltered business perspectives to the table.

📌 Key Topics: 
✅ The economic implications of political shifts on business and personal finance 
✅ Why some investors focus on small businesses over the stock market 
✅ The housing crisis and how it affects affordability and investment opportunities 
✅ The impact of urban density on happiness and quality of life 
✅ Breaking down Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and its role in community development 
✅ How civic engagement and government policies shape economic freedom 
✅ The mindset shift needed to thrive financially—regardless of who’s in office 

🎬 Chapters:
00:00 Political Landscape and Business Perspectives
16:34 Economic Implications of Political Decisions
32:52 Investing in Small Businesses vs. Stock Market
35:00 Prioritizing Safety and Security Over Economy
38:59 The Housing Crisis and Economic Implications
42:46 The Impact of Urban Density on Happiness
43:42 Understanding Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
50:39 The Role of Developers and Community Engagement
01:06:09 Civic Responsibility and Political Engagement

Transcript

It's a marketing ploy. So what do you do? You go, you shop, you spend $150 at Kohl's, they give you whatever, $20 in Kohl's cash. Expires by X date. The logic is, or the reasoning is, they want you to go back in the store. You have your $20 Kohl's cash, but you spend $60. So they made money off from you by getting you there.

So we just had a new president inaugurated, I guess. So what's, what's your perspective from a business America standpoint, freedom, you know, without, I don't know. I don't even care. They get controversial. you heard that I got the green light, you know, like I mean, from a freedom standpoint, from a business standpoint, from a religious freedom, like just

What's your perspective on where the country's headed potentially? mean, it's politics, so they all lie. They're open their mouth, they're lying. So, yeah, I mean, we've talked about this before, but I think regardless of what side of the aisle you fall on hoping that he fails is like hoping the pilot of the plane you're on crashes because you don't like him. you see Dave Chappelle's monologue on Saturday Night Live last weekend? Yeah, that was great. The way he ended it was like perfect statement. I mean, it's kind of put very eloquently. mean, regardless who's in office, I hope that they do things right. And I hope that they have a good heart and I realized that the way that our political environment is set up, it's a nasty world. And a lot mean, even at the smaller levels of government, they, a lot of times have to do or say things a certain way in order to keep getting reelected or else they're out of a job. And so they have to learn to play the game and you know, the benefit of Trump not.

I mean, he has, he really has nothing to lose. So I think we're going to see his true colors and either he does that good or bad though. don't know yet. Either we, I mean, he does the things that he says he's going to do or he doesn't. you know, my hope for Trump lies in the fact that he has a huge ego and I think his ego it's what's going to propel America and the next five, 10, 15 years. And what I mean by that, he wants to go down as the best president in modern times. Period, point blank. Like there's no denying that, in my opinion, at least. For him to do that, he has to help both sides of the aisle. He has to propel us forward. He has to get us financially better off than we are. He has to secure our border. He has to... keep us out of these wars. He has to raise up the poor. You know, I was watching something and it was economics podcast or conversation or something. And said we're getting ready to go into a K shaped economy and Trump's economy. We've already been in one under Biden's, but it's going to continue in Trump's. What a K shape means is you have the rich are going to get richer. The poor are going to get poor.

In the middle class, you're going to go wherever you focus. So if you don't do anything, you're going to get poor. If you do stuff and you invest and you ride the wave, you're going to get better. But you have to be able to. It's either or. It's either or. Like that's we are. so do you think that's good? Or what's the overall economic?impact of that. Well, I think the poor getting poorer. I mean, now you get a philosophy on stuff like that, but

They're poor that are poor because circumstances. the, let me back out even a step further. I don't think anybody in America is Not on a a truly poor basis. Like we are financially disadvantaged compared to other Americans, but you can take your wealth. You can sell everything you have and move to a third world country and live pretty nicely. Even the poorest person in America, we just choose not to. So if you live in New York city or California or something like that, and you can't afford life, you can sell your possessions and move to sticks, Nebraska and do pretty well.