How to survive a war-time economy (8 easy steps) | ZFS 67

Trump just said it himself — he's not thinking about your financial situation. So somebody has to. The war in Iran has gas over $4, car loan delinquencies at an all time high, and median home prices requiring six figures just to qualify. Nobody in Washington is fixing this for you. So let's fix it ourselves.
In this episode I'm walking you through 8 steps — surviving, building, and thriving — in a wartime economy. We're breaking down exactly what's happening to your dollar right now, why the stock market is not the economy, and what I'm personally doing with my money. Gold, silver, crypto, index funds, rainy day funds, and the one mindset shift that changed everything for me. This is real talk for real people.

You're an investor, not a consumer. Let's get to work.

Net worth sheet link -  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LGeDwS2y6v36HkNtj4BqcNZUbYmC8B3h3qsNC1FucFI/edit?usp=sharing

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Welcome to episode number sixty six of the Zach Fouse Podcast. How to survive a wartime economy. Welcome to your place on the wild timeline that we live on, where you're now worrying about war. Well, today we're going to walk through eight simple steps from surviving to grinding to thriving on how you can protect your finances. Because, well, to be honest with you, we uh we know that the working class isn't being prioritized right now by this or any administration. We're not just gonna label it down to this one, but I do want to play a few clips from you. We're gonna get started with our current administration, Donald J. Trump, commenting as he was about to get onto Marine One to head over to China, which he is at this exact moment. A couple different comments around the economy and your finances. Let's start with Donald J. Trump.

SPEAKER_07 1:06

Mr. President, you promised to bring inflation down. It's now at its highest level in three years. Are your policies not working?

SPEAKER_05 1:13

My policies are working incredibly. If you go back to just before the war, for the last three months, inflation was at 1.7%. Now, we had a choice. Let these lunatics have a nuclear weapon. If you want to do that, then you're a stupid person. And you happen to be. I mean, I know you very well. Uh anybody that wants them to have a nuclear weapon is a stupid person. So we said we're gonna take the greatest stock market in history, and we're going to go down a little bit. And actually, that turned out to be incorrect because our stock market is now at the highest point in history, which frankly surprises a lot of people. It's a very simple message. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't have a nuclear weapon, and that's a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Okay, so the question is about the economy and inflation. And Sean, is it just is it just white noise at this point when he's throwing random insults at reporters?

SPEAKER_02 2:17

At this point, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

I mean, just in the middle of that, he said, by the way, I happen to know you're a very stupid person.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

By the way, you're dumb. Uh, the stock market's great.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Not how I want my leaders. You have your own opinions. Not how I want my leaders just randomly insulting people's intelligence. But to uh double back on the intelligence debate, could we Oh, are we pulling something up?

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Uh for later. Got it. Pulling some up for later.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

Ooh, a little secret for later. Let's go to our second tab real quick because there was a number he brought up. 1.7%. Trump said 1.7% was inflation before the war began. So, Sean, can you actually look at February 2026? You're gonna have to get real granular. Real granular. There we go. February 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, which is where we get our inflation data. 2.4%, as February 2026 would say. What about the month before that? 2.7, 2.4, 2.7, 2.7, 3, 2.9. Okay. When's the last time we even saw 1.7? We're going all the way back 2022, 2021. There it is. February of 2021. So is he recalling the wrong February? Is he like five years off? We haven't seen 1.7% inflation in over five years. Uh could just be a misquote. But I would imagine if you're showing up to a conversation where you plan to belittle the person you're speaking to's intelligence, that you would come with data-backed information.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

In this case, he did not. Oblivion mean Canada money.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

What is this? Oh, Sean, what is this Gen Z stuff? What are you about to say? Ignore what I'm doing. Ignore what I'm doing. What? Keep doing your thing. God's getting what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

This is how my brain works when I can't remember what a video is called.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

I'm just gonna pull up the play.

SPEAKER_05 4:40

Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

He says, I do not think about the Americans' financial situation. I do not. Did he say I don't think about anyone? Is that what he said there, right in the middle of that? Can we replay that real quick?

SPEAKER_05 5:08

They can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

I think about anybody, anybody. I'm misquoting him. Not anyone, anybody. So if Trump's not caring about your financial situation, somebody's got to. That's why we're going to give you some tips here today. One more clip. Let's round it out. Reporter. It says, you're not considering the financial impact of this war on Americans? Trump, the most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Which, by the way, I'm on board with crazy terrorists not having nuclear weapons. I'm on board with that, just so we're clear. Let's play this video.

SPEAKER_08 5:51

Did you say only the thing that matters to you when it comes to Iran is a nuclear weapon? You're not considering the financial impact of this war on Americans.

SPEAKER_05 6:00

The most important thing by far, including whether our stock market, which by the way, is at an all-time high, but including whether or not our stock market goes up or down a little bit, the most important thing by far is a random weapon, and the clear weapon.

SPEAKER_08 6:22

Every American understanding every American are you are you listening to me?

SPEAKER_05 6:29

Every American understands they were just had a poll. Like 85%, which is surprising as only that they understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

I love the view on the phone and we can see all the hand movement.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

I was just about to bring that up.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

Yeah, he doesn't look like there's much hand movement going on. Then you see the phone angle and this.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

It's gotta be an NPC, right? Like he just has the same interactions, the same insults, like nothing changes. He's the same person day in and day out.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Yeah, politicians do that too. They they get their lines, they get their talking points. He's just got it all down to his mannerisms.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah, he's got it all, man. Even like his humor, he's uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

I think the great question I still have is like, is it a character? Or is is this a version of yourself you portray as president, or is this Donald Trump?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

I mean, was he the same way on The Apprentice?

SPEAKER_04 7:27

I wasn't a watcher of The Apprentice. He fired. Yeah. I don't know if he was all hand motion-y, head tilty, like I don't know if he was that guy on Apprentice. It's probably still creepy, though. We could do some film. We could watch some film, do some comparison and analysis. So in this clip, uh, outside of the hand motions being visible in the phone camera, once again stating I'm not concerned with the Americans' finances. I'm concerned with Iran. I'm concerned with the war. I'm concerned with nuclear weapons. But also in this clip, and in many others, he will reference the stock market as being the economy. I hate this so much. This is like my least favorite comparison you can make in all of finance. The stock market is not the economy. The economy is the value we bring financially to our country and the world. And that value is created by the working class. They're the ones producing the value. And only about 7% of the stocks are owned by the bottom 90% of Americans. 93% of the stock is owned by the top 10%. So how is the stock market always brought into this conversation? It just seems like an easy distraction, an easy uh exit ramp out of any conversation that has to do with real world finance and the real economy for the regular everyday person, that we just throw the stock market in there. Because here's what's actually going on with the regular everyday American. Let's let's click off this and actually go first to what the regular everyday American is actually thinking. Because once again, when I arrive to a debate, which I don't do too often, but when and if I do, if I'm going to insult the person's intelligence, which isn't ex again, not something I'm probably gonna plan on doing or want to do. I don't I don't want anyone to feel stupid, even if they have takes that are a bit moronic. Everyone comes with their own thought process on their own, is is I would have my data right, the sources I'm gonna bring up in that conversation, I would have them locked in. Locked tight with notes and sources. Right there, Donald Trump. Where'd he get that number? It took a little bit of digging, but we found it. It was I believe this was March. Can we scroll up real quick? Yeah, March 25th, 2026. So the war is not even a month old at this point when this was released, and I'm assuming, seeing it was released on March 25th, that the conversations had with the people they were talking to about the war probably on March 19th. Oh no, it says right there. March 16th to the 22nd. Perfect. So that sets in place where we are in the timeline. We're a few weeks into this war when people are asked, Do you approve or disapprove? Well, 37% approve. I'm assuming there's a 1% in there that just hasn't really decided yet.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

Where's that 85% number coming from? Let's scroll down and find it. Let's scroll down and find it. Let's keep going, let's keep going. Boom. We found it.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

It says among Republicans ages 50 and older. Republicans, so not everybody, Republicans. 50 and older. Which by the way, if you're listening to this podcast, maybe you fall into the category of Republican 50 and older. I'm gonna just go out on a olive branch and say, probably the minority of you listening in right now. 85% of them say the US made the right decision in striking Iran. 50-year-old Republicans. So again, we're just throwing out stats that are A, a bit outdated. I mean, I I think even the general opinion of this war in March is a bit different than it is now in May. Because in March, you still had a lot of Republicans believing this was going to be a three to four-week excursion.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Here we are in May.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

So are these numbers different now? I don't know. I haven't seen them. I would assume they are. I would assume they're a little different now. And I would also assume that even the 50-year-old Republican isn't sitting at 85% at this point. But regardless, just flat out saying 85%. Well, that's not the normal everyday American. Here's what the normal everyday American's going through. Let's look at gasoline. This is what the normal everyday American is seeing right now. Sean, what's the gas pump look like in Delaware right now? What's what's Wawa showing?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Uh I just drooped past what was it? Roaf. Oh, I went to Rofa yesterday. It was like 438 or something.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

438? Yeah. That makes sense. 438. I didn't go out this morning, so. 438 for gas where we're at. Wherever you are right now, comment where gas is where you're at. Of course, we're only looking at the median national average. It's going to be different across the country, but we can see before the war, things were a lot different. About$2,$2.00 and 2 cents. Even below a dollar on median? Really? We were below a dollar or$2 on median?

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Yeah, where was that at? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

We were never well, Delaware's always been a little higher than typical as of right now. As we just said, we're at$4.38 while the median's at$3.6.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

But yeah. Comment if you were under$2 before the war. Where was that? Those are my South Dakotians, Alabama. Who has the cheapest gas? I don't even know. The next thing that Americans are absolutely facing in this economy is their car. Unless you live in a walkable town, a little walkable city, walkable community, more than likely your day-to-day life revolves around one, if not multiple, vehicles. And we've talked about multiple times, and I'm not going to go into the minutia right now on the K-shaped economy. But you can see that K playing out right here in auto loan delinquencies. These are people missing their car loan for two months or more. This is 60 plus. So they are going on their third month now of not paying a car loan. Look at it at an all-time high. All-time high. Keep me on. Do we even have it? Yeah, six. Okay, so it went from 6.9 to 6.8. We are officially in recovery zone. Well, what's interesting, so fun fact about this podcast you're listening to right now, is this is the second time we've shot it. This is our second lap on through, right, Sean? Yep. We know what we're doing here. We are locked in. Sean brought this up last time we were talking. Is why does it seem like in like March and April, every single year, there's a drop in delinquencies. It's very consistent across the board. It looks like a little EKG monitor when you look at it. It's like, why is this consistently going up? Why is there consistently a drop? I would take your theory in the comment section. Our theory was tax returns. March and April, you get your tax return. You get caught up on your car loan. Maybe that's what's going on. So maybe so maybe, maybe when we get this stat in for May, it'll drop. As we saw. It's one from 6.9 to 6.8. I'm not 100% sure. Oh, yeah, then COVID. That's gonna be a whole different can of worms to unpack. Yeah, look, it drops so significantly right there leading into April. That's interesting. But the automotive industry, as many know, cars are more expensive, financing is more expensive. People are less likely at this moment to pay and stay up to date with the loan on their vehicle. That is a sign of economic stress. That is a sign of financial stress of the regular American household, which again, I'm gonna help try to my absolute best to prepare you here at the end of this video, back half of this video. We got a few more stats to go through. This is the National Association of Realtors. If you're familiar with them, they are one of the biggest lobbyists in DC. Did you know that? The National Association of Realtors? Like, move to the side, APAC. NAR gives a lot of money to politicians. A lot of money. And to what end? Because the realtor life is becoming more and more difficult as home prices get more and more expensive. And we see here as of the data set showing April.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

What's April P? What does the P mean? What is the March R? What does that mean? Apparently I have more to learn.

SPEAKER_04 16:53

2026, April. The median home in America is$422,300 at a mortgage rate of 6.41% without taxes and insurance. A monthly payment on that home would be$2,115. And the median family income, or I'm sorry, the median qualifying income, I should say, for buying a home in America, 2026, is$101,520. Down from its peak, June 2025, we had a peak of$110,928. So down from a peak, but still you gotta make six digits to qualify for a mortgage on a home. Is that that didn't feel right, my bad. I loved it. Is that a healthy economy when the regular everyday American can't afford a home? When the regular everyday American is struggling with their car payment, or just putting gas in the car? We're not even getting into health care, child care, insurance, taxes are going up all across the nation, food bills, going to a getting a date done nowadays, boys. Have you gone out on a date? Like 150 is like kind of the bare minimum now.

SPEAKER_03 18:21

Where'd the two for 20 at Applebee's go?

SPEAKER_04 18:27

Anytime I hear Sean typing something in, my my brain just goes into wonder mode of what might be coming next. We're about to get into some Canva graphics for for those. Who what? Are you bringing back up that meme again? Who's this guy?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Dude, just just just keep going.

SPEAKER_06 18:45

Stop doing this! Keep going, man.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

You'll see that at the end. It's a little something I thought was funny, and what well it it's it's very like it ties into what's happening today. You'll see. Alright. It makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

I'll stay locked in. Let's go to our first Canva graphic. Oh wanted to show you our Canva that we had rocked. I think it was episode 37 on the fallout of our economy. Now, I don't say this to be black pilly doomer, but the economy's not in a good spot. And we walk through this with nuance. There's about, I think, 40 different elements on here that we walked through the doom dozen and what's actually causing this issue, the fault lines that are seen in our economy right now, how the fallout will play out. And even over here on the right, uh labeled out the 13 reasons why uh things probably won't get better. And I lay out my case. Go watch those episodes. I think it's 36 through 38. We cover all of this graphic. But the thing about it is the fallout section is still playing out as we said it was gonna play out.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

So we're still tracking with what's going on in the economy.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

There's one thing we weren't tracking then that we did add to the graph. Sean, if you want to zoom out a little bit, we did add one thing. I think it was over here on the left. It's real small. There, is that it? Is that it?

SPEAKER_01 20:10

What is this?

SPEAKER_04 20:11

Uh there was something that wasn't going on when we made this graph initially. Oh. Ah, that's right. Whoa. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

A little something over here. That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Just a little excursion over into the Middle East. That's the one thing that we didn't have. Did you see what I put on the tank?

unknown 20:28

No. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

He's riding it, dude. What the heck? That's actually the only thing that pops up if you are in Canva and you type in Trump's name. That's actually kind of funny. It's the only thing that'll pop up. Which I find funny. All right. So let's get into some actual tactics, guys. For those listening in, I promise uh I'm gonna give you some value in terms of how to protect your finances in an ever-inflating, debt-based, neoliberal, corporate-facing, not free trade, even though it's touted as free trade economy. You are not being listened to or cared about right now. The war is more important. And you may agree with that, by the way. That's fine. You may agree, you may say, Zach, I'm cool with higher gas prices. Okay, as long as Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon, I'm cool with it. I'm cool with farmers not being able to reach any form of profit margin due to the fact that inflation in the fertilizer realm because of the war in Iran is going on. But as long as Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon, you might be okay with that. That's fine. I'm cool with that. Or, you know, if you're looking for motor oil or you're looking to buy any form of product that needs to be imported, exported, it's gonna be more expensive due to the fuel costs as well as manufacturing. Diesel costs are exorbitant. Exorb exorbitant? Is that the word exorbitant? Exorbitant. You may be okay with that so long. Is Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. But this video is for you too. This video is for you too because guess what? Whether or not you give a full flippant rat's ass about who has a nuclear warhead and who doesn't, you still have to pay these prices. You're still looking down the barrel of a more expensive economy. So let's get into some tactics on how we can actually improve ourselves, survive through it, maybe even thrive from it. I have us in three sections today. The first three, that's going to be surviving. We got eight in total. Okay, follow me here. Our first three, just about financial survival. You're not in a position where you're investing. Maybe you have some debt that you're paying down. I want to walk you through some tactical steps from getting to the point where you're at now to maybe getting a little bit more financial air or at least financial clarity. Okay, because this isn't gonna be some guarantee magic wand that's just gonna magically fix your finances. I want to talk about more than just finances, and that's gonna be number eight. Four and five, that's gonna be for my people that are investors. You're already investing, you don't have a lot of debt, you want to know where to put it and why. I'm not gonna give you any specific advice on where to put your money, but I am gonna tell you exactly where I have my money. Is that fair? I'm not a financial advisor. I can't tell you what to buy, what to sell, what to invest in. That's not my position in life. I'm not gonna pretend I am. I'm a housing guy, I'm an economy nerd. I'm just gonna tell you where I see patterns flowing. So this is where I'm putting my money based off those patterns. Fair? And then the last three, this is about thriving. This is for anybody, by the way, that listens to the first three and says, Zach, this didn't even help me. I am I am struggling beyond struggle financially. I really need some bigger tips. That might be for you, but the last one's for everybody. Okay, so let's walk through these eight. Again, number eight is for everybody, but I want to start in these first three. If you're already ahead of the game, skip to number four. But number one is print money. What do I mean by print money? I do not mean by print money doing what the Federal Reserve does every single time our economy begins to wobble, which is quantitative ease. Quantitative easing is when they literally are printing money. It's a more complex mechanism in terms of bond purchases and asset allocation, but the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve expanding is the definition of money printing. And because of money printing being an ever available option to our country, we're likely gonna always choose the path. Hear me. We're likely always gonna choose the path of inflation. So here's why it's extremely important that you print money. Because if things are inflating, we need to see where our dollars are going so that we can allocate them properly. So here's what we want to do. We're gonna print out, and by the way, take notes if you're taking notes. Break out the notes section in your phone. Write this down, okay? Because I'm gonna go through some tactics for you real quick. The rest of this video is gonna be pretty tactical. Number one, print money. I want you to print out your bank statements online. Gonna seem very archaic, very Ramsey-esque, but listen to me. Print out your bank statement physically. Go to the library if you have to, go to your uncle's house if you have to. I don't know if you have a printer. Do you own a printer? Maybe you don't own a printer. Somehow print it out. Get a green, yellow, and red highlighter and start going through each and every transaction. There shouldn't be one transaction that goes uncolored. Here's where the colors go.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Green is gonna go on all your income. Money coming in.

SPEAKER_04 25:55

Whether that's your two-week job, commission check you got, your bonus, the check you got in from your monetization, your Etsy store, your DoorDash, whatever. All money in, green. All money out that is required of you. Yellow. What do I mean by required of you? These are the things that keep your household running, your lifestyle moving. This is food. This is power. This is your car. This is insurance. These are the items you have to pay. Okay, now maybe you can improve these items. Maybe you could get a better insurance policy. Maybe you could shop around. Maybe you could use the air conditioning a bit less in the fall and spring seasons. But at the end of the day, these are still things you need. Could they come down or go up? Of course. But they're necessities. Yellow necessity.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Red, that's all the items you don't need.

SPEAKER_04 26:54

And this is it's gonna feel tough to mark these while simultaneously saying to yourself, maybe I don't need this. But we need to have that discipline when it comes down to this of marking anything you truly do not need is red. And I'm not saying you have to get rid of it. Here's what I'm saying. I'm gonna give you some easy math. If you take the green and minus your yellows, total of all your greens, total of all your yellows, what number will you have? The number you have after you subtract your yellows, that total number, you're then gonna subtract by your reds. How much money is left after? Any? A little bit? Are you negative? The whole point of printing out your money is to understand how much money you have in, how much money is going out, and how much that number could eventually change. You hear me? Because this is your ammunition to everything else we're going to be talking about. If you are not in a surplus, hear me, a surplus from the money that you're making by the end of the month, after you've spent all that you've spent, you're in no position to pay down debt or invest. Okay, we can stop right there at step one. Print your money, understand what's going in and what's going out, what's required of you, what is not, and then you can start having the pillow talk conversations with your spouse or yourself about what maybe we could cut.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

The reds being what could be cut. That brings us to number two.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

Number two is race to 100. We're sprinting toward, and this might sound juvenile to some. Some would say, Zach,$100 surplus. You think I don't have$100 sitting next to me? You may, but I know that there's people who don't. Listen to me. We need to get to a point where$1,200 a year guaranteed can go towards some form of ammunition to attack our debt or investment portfolios. That might sound like a small bit, but it's the act of making that money available that will start honing the skill set needed to grow that larger. Again, if you are hearing this and you say, Zach, if I print my money, which whether or not you think it's gonna work, I still suggest you do. Zach, if I print my money, let me tell you exactly how it's gonna go. I'm gonna realize how broke I am. You're gonna tell me I need to put money aside to be able to save, invest, pay down debt. And I I am so far underwater that's not even something I'm even considering. Screw the debt. I'm just gonna run it up. Pop back in for step six, seven, eight for me, okay?

SPEAKER_03 29:38

I hear you. I really do.

SPEAKER_04 29:41

And it can seem very assholy-ish of me to sit here and say anything to the tune of you should be investing money when you're considering how are you gonna pay your rent. When I say, Oh, you should invest in the stock market, and you're like, Zach, I'm trying to afford food for my kids. I got it. I got it. Tune back in with me for step six. But again, print your money. Number two is raise to 100. I want you to have a hundred dollar surplus because that is your ammo to be able to do everything else that we're gonna talk about. And that's step number three, which is the beginning of the process of getting into a better scenario, which is the debt reversal steps. I follow three general steps for paying down debt. Number one, you need to organize it. I want you to, and by the way, I'm gonna plug a sheet in this document called the net worth sheet. It is nothing special. It is an Excel document that I made years ago off of advice from a friend of mine to start tracking my net worth. And I'm gonna give you that advice now, too. Zach, what is your net worth? Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities. It is everything that you have of value. Your house, your retirement account, your crypto coins, your Pokemon cards. Anything you could sell that holds value, that you could sell, especially if it accumulates in value, even better. That is considered a positive piece of your net worth. The negative sides are everything you owe. All of your debts, your student loan, your car, the phones you still are paying off. Everything that's attached to your name as a debt is a liability. Sean, let me pause myself real quick. Does that make sense? The differences between assets and liabilities. I define that well enough. Yeah. Okay. Everyone, you following that? Yeah. You're all, you're, you're locked in anyway. I'm trying to make sure everyone else is locked in, is Sean.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Well, I didn't know what like net worth was until somebody asked me one time on the phone. I think I was talking to somebody from the bank, and I'm like, what are you talking about? What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_04 31:47

It's a great barometer to track, though, because that is the loan, KPI, uh, key performance indicator that you could track on your own personal finance. Because if you were to sell everything, would you be positive, would you be negative, pretty much? Would you have money? Would you not have money? And I'm gonna be honest with you, it might be negative. You might put all of the things into this net worth sheet that I plugged below, highly suggest putting this down on paper or in a document somewhere where you can literally look at it and say, this is what I'm worth right now financially. Now, by no mind, by no means saying that your worth as a human comes down to your worth financially, but you want to know where you're sitting, where you're at. Now, this$100 that you have, this surplus that you have, whether that's$100,$500,$2,000, where are you gonna put it? Well, let me tell you right now, if you have debt, you do not need to invest yet. If you have high interest debt, you are not in a position to invest quite yet. Why? Simple math. The best investment that you could possibly get on average year over year is gonna be like 10 to 13%. Okay, you could beat that, maybe, but guaranteed year over year, 10 to 13% is kind of where that line sits. So hear me, anything you have as far as debt that has an interest rate that is higher than that 10%, you're just you're fighting an uphill battle of interest. We need to get rid of the high interest debt. So the first thing I would do, line them all up and organize them smallest to largest. You have a$500 credit card debt, you have a$2,000 credit card from that store, you got$5,000 toward this, you got$20,000 still toward your student loans. Line it all up in the sheet. Second step, assign the interest rates. Each one of those loans has an interest rate. My ask of you is you do one of two things. You either A start attacking the smallest debt that you have to your name. Okay, we line them up smallest to largest in terms of quantity. So your smallest bill, maybe it's a$200 credit card. You either attack the smallest amount or the highest percent. I hope that makes sense. The smallest amount of debt that you have, or the highest percent, the highest interest rate you have of all of your debts. You can attack either one. I would prefer you to attack the highest interest rate. That's what I had done. And I want to be very clear. When you do this net worth sheet that's in my document, you might get a number that says, Oh, I'm negative. I'm worth negative money. That might be something you look at and think, wow, I suck. I was negative as well. I was negative 86,000 in net worth when I initially made this sheet. This was the first document that ever told me, whoa, I'm losing. And I'm losing hard. Big red. But this gave me a number that I could slowly whittle down and slowly attack. And now it's positive. I hope the same for you. I hope you start in the positive. But if you don't, it doesn't mean it's the end of the game. Because step number three, the surplus is the ammo. That money you have that is extra at the end of the month cannot be used toward more red activities if you have debt to attack. All those things you marked in red cannot be a part of the day-to-day life if you have significant debt to pay down. You are stealing from today. I'm sorry, you're stealing from the future for today. You're stealing from the future. You might be saying, like, there's gonna be a revolution in three years. I don't care about the future. Okay. All I'm saying is long term, the American economy will probably still be here in 10, 20, 30 years. How's it look? How's it feel? Probably a lot different. I do not think that your investment into the stock market, into bonds, into an investment account is just gonna go to zero. I don't think that's gonna be the case. And maybe that's a difference in our thought processes. But long term, I still think asset ownership is the number one gateway to wealth and the number one access way to getting onto the ramp of the top side of this K-shaped economy. So you're gonna take the ammo you have in your surplus to pay down the debts, attacking either the smallest amount or the highest percentage. Does that make sense? We track in here. Those are the first three steps for anyone getting started in this. It's going to be attacking the debt. Now let's talk about getting into actual investing. Number four. Number four is more of a mantra, but I'm gonna put a story around it. So I growing up, big Subway guy. I love Subway. You put$5 in my hand, there's gonna be a foot long in my hands within an hour. I love Subway. I I I fell into the branding trickery of Subway was somehow healthy. I think a lot of Americans fell into that. I was tricked heavily. Eat fresh. Heck yeah, Jared. You don't have anything weird going on, Jared, right? Absolutely fell for it. Jared's still doing great, right, Sean? How's Jared doing? Jared's still eating fresh. Sean doesn't want to say anything. Nothing crazy's happened to Jared, right? I haven't kept up. Jared's still doing great selling subs, ain't he? Don't hit me on a Friday morning with some news I don't want to hear. I was tricked. So the the comparison that I want to give in this in this mantra, the mantra being, I am an investor, not a consumer, for me started with Subway. I'm an investor, not a consumer. What does that mean? It means that I am gonna choose, whenever I have the opportunity to spend money, to think of it one of two ways.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Is this an investment or is this a consumption? Simple. You go to the mall, you go to the gas station, you're thinking about a concert ticket. Just ask the question Is this an investment or is this a consumption? And think about it.

SPEAKER_04 38:36

Think about it. At the very least, you're gonna start developing a tool set in your brain to start categorizing what you're doing with your dollars. And that's important because we can very easily just let dollars fly. It's digital, it's easy, it's on a screen. Tap done. It's very, it's very uh there's no emotion attached to it anymore. There used to be, by the way, when you are holding physical money in hand, it feels different than swiping a card or double tapping for Apple. It feels so much different. It's much easier to spend money, much easier to spend money. We have to track it, we have to know where it's going, and we have to attack it properly, but we have to create a mindset with our money that we are investors, not consumers. What do I mean? When faced with the conundrum of the Subway sandwich, if I were to ask myself ahead of time before I'm going to buy said sandwich, is this an investment or a consumption? Which one of those two is it gonna be?

SPEAKER_03 39:34

It's a consumption. How could I invest it? Well, well, here's what I started doing.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

If I started asking that question, is this an investment over consumption for anything? And I landed on this is a consumption, I would immediately try to think of okay, how can I supplement said consumption with a subway sandwich that would be pack my lunch, make something out of the fridge, get something from the grocery store, make a protein shake, or a PBJ sandwich. Which by the way, I'm allergic to peanut butter, so I can't do the P B J sandwich. I was a I was a jelly and butter guy sandwich growing up. Jelly and butter. Shout out the jelly and butter sandwich. Were you a jelly and butter guy, Sean? You ever had a jelly butter sandwich?

SPEAKER_02 40:18

I've had butter and jelly on like toast before, but never a sandwich.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

Yeah, it sounds pretty icky now that I think about it. But I also was a big fan of get this spinach pizza. You were a fan of that as a kid? As a kid, I there was a weird like three-year span where I loved CC's spinach pizza. Which CC's is a southern, it's a pizza buffet. It's like golden corral, but it's only pizza. That's CC's.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

I mean, no judgment. I like spinach pizza now, but do you? Yeah, as a kid.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

I've never met anyone who actually eats spinach pizza. You eat spinach pizza? Yeah, I like it sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

I might have to try it now just to see if I vehemently hate it.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

No, it's not bad.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

I you know, Peach is going through her face. She loves olive pizza right now.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Which she did tell me that.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

Which I tried and I was like, this actually isn't half bad. It adds a little crunch to it. You don't even taste them. I rocked with a little black olive pizza. It'll give it a whirl. But anytime I'm spending money on, like, say, a olive pizza, is this a consumption or an investment? And there's always a little bit of conversation in my head that goes around it. Because, like, for example, if my daughter, you know, once a month we want to get a pizza and she wants an olive pizza, I can view that as a consumption, or I can view it as this is an investment in me and her having a little date night over some pizza that she wants. There's a there's a lot of different ways that you can take this question. And you don't even have to just apply it to finance. If you're sleeping in when you said you were gonna wake up and go to the gym, is staying in the bed an investment or consumption in yourself? You can have that question. When you're deciding that you're going to eat healthy, and then you're looking at something in the fridge that isn't healthy, is eating that going to be a consumption andor an investment into yourself? Is reading versus doom scrolling an investment or a consumption in yourself? You see how this question can go deeper. The time that I am spending, is this an investment or consumption of my time? That this question like literally changed how I view everything. So I advise you to start utilizing it yourself because the first thing I started doing was if I was going to be consuming that$5 foot long, well, I was willing to part with that$5. Here's where it's really tactical, guys. If I decided that was a consumption, whether it was$5 a subway,$50 to go to some club and pay the cover charge, or$200 for a concert ticket, if I viewed it as a consumption and actively caught it there, I realized I was willing to part with that money. Which meant I was gonna put it into my Robin Hood account instead. Physically moving from a standpoint of consumption to physically moving my money to a standpoint of investment. Does that make sense? If I was willing to part with that money, it was I was ready for it to be gone, ready for it to go into the big old system that is built, by the way, on you being a consumer. The whole system only works if we're all just consuming, consuming, consuming. Materialism is the best. Well, let me move it over here instead. And little by little by little, I grew a little account. Simultaneously, I saw my health starting to improve. Simultaneously, I found my energy starting to get higher. Simultaneously, I started to see my mindset start to become a little bit clearer, all because I was consciously consuming my life. Was consciously in a standpoint where I was consuming every moment in this thought process of how am I going to best invest my time, my money, my efforts into the future and not just take right now, not take a day off of my life, not take a day from my finances in the future, not taking the date night I could go on in five years, and instead spending it on something now. I'm investing into the future. Which sounds boring. Zach, I don't like the future of this country. Do this in Italy. This you don't have to stay here in this country. Do it anywhere. You can do this anywhere. Okay? Be an investor, not a consumer. Number five. We'll keep this moving. You can get back to scrolling or doing whatever you want to do with your time. Which you could view as an investment or consumption. I digress. Number five, extra shield. As we know in a popular game called Fortnite, which I was actually one of the I was one of the very first players of this. I actually started playing it when it wasn't even a battle real. It was like zombies against the world. What was that original one, Sean? What was it called?

SPEAKER_02 45:07

Save the world.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

Save the world. And it was just PvE. It was you were you were trying to stop zombies and there were cool guns, and then on all of a sudden it was like the world's most popular game. I actually only downloaded it because I thought I was going to be getting PUBG. I was waiting on PUBG. And then Fortnite swooped in like two weeks earlier and said, Hey, you want to try this? And it was free. In that game, which I love that these guys just keep dancing on the screen. They just don't stop. Just unlimited gifitude. In this game, you are spawned in with a certain amount of health. You have a health bar. But if you want to improve yourself, you can get a little shield, a couple little shield pots. Now, here's what I want to tell you. You might have that extra money. You might have that surplus. You might have printed your money out and said, Zach, I got an extra bit of cash that I can utilize. I'm low on debt. For one reason or another, I paid it down. Family helped. I never got into debt, whatever it may be. Now you're asking, where do I put my money? Where do I put my savings? Okay. I'm answering where to put your savings, how much of it, and what to put it in. Fair? Okay, let's start with where. Where I am very agnostic about. I don't think there's any one specific platform that is superior. Uh, you could look at Weeble, you can look at Uphold, you can look at Robinhood. There's a lot of different options. Uh, uphold, especially if you're looking more at the crypto options. There's so many different platforms and brokerage accounts. You just want free trades and you want no fees. You don't want anything sifting your money out little by little. Okay, so I had a Robin Hood account. I know some people are like, screw Robinhood. Find one that you like then. Any basic account will work. So where does that matter? It could be with your bank, especially if they have like a high yield savings account, which I'm about to mention. So that's where. How much is the next question. And I think there's a small little equation that we can run, especially for those running a household. Let me run you through the equation. If you do your print money exercise, you're gonna know how much your yellow is. If you know how much your yellow is, then you know how much it takes to keep your household running. I would highly, highly suggest anybody who's in a standpoint of saving, they've paid down debts, and now we're getting the investment world. Before we start getting too, too, too, too heavy into the investment world, rainy day fund. So how much? I would say initially, trying to save two months worth of your yellow in a high yield savings account. What do I mean by that? Uh your yellow. When you did your print money exercise, how much was it? Uh times it by two, and make that your goal for what would go into this high yield savings account. What's a high yield savings account? It's an account that's going to be offered by your bank or local credit union that's going to offer you the ability to hear this beat inflation.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

If your money is sitting in cash, if your money is sitting in a CD, a standard savings account, it is losing value. Do you know that? I hope you know that. I really hope you know that.

SPEAKER_04 48:27

And if that sounds like uh confusing, it's inflation. As there are more dollars available to this country and this economy, and as the elite suck more out for themselves, the dollar is becoming weaker. And that simply means that the power that your dollar holds is less. It's the greatest form of theft. They can't come and take the dollar out of your pocket, so they just take the power out of the dollar that's in your pocket. So we need to make sure it's not in your pocket. High yield savings account is where this rainy day fund should live. It's easily accessible, and it's gonna give you uh uh just a little bit of rest at night knowing that that account exists. Can your rainy day fund also be in a stock brokerage account? Sure. It could still be in a crypto account, it's gonna be more volatile, sure. Could it be held in digital silver and gold? Sure. But at the very least, have some form of rainy day fund and make it tactical, gentlemen. Make it tactical. Look at what your yellow is, understand how much you're bleeding out every single month, and then understand how much it takes to run your household and your lifestyle and have that prepared, have that ammunition ready to fight if need be. And it might sound like a tough fight, but I promise you, when you have that account built up, you're gonna feel a lot better about yourself financially. Now, what are you going to invest into? Let's assume that the wear is done. You have a brokerage account set up of some way, of some form. How much becomes the question because now you have your surplus every single month. How much are you actually investing? My answer to that is once you have that rainy done rainy day fund done and your debts are sustainable, at least paid down on those high rates. Listen, dog, I think every dollar should go into an investment account after that. You keep the money needed to run your household. You have a rainy day fund just in case for that household. Now every dollar after that, like it could go toward now or it could go toward the future. That's really the option. It could go toward consuming or it can go toward investing. I would say, if I'm the guy in front of you, I'd grab you by your shoulders and say, I love you. Put it into the future. Investing. Where do I invest? How much do I put and now what do I actually physically invest in? Again, I'm not a financial advisor, but here's exactly what I'm invested in. So I'm currently running a 2060-20 model. You'll hear a lot of different variants on how you can do this. I'm simply doing it this way. Not saying this is the right way to do it. The most optimal way to do it is the way I'm doing it. I'm in a 2060-20 model with my investment account, meaning 20% of my investment account is in really boring stuff. 20% of my account is in pretty volatile stuff, can move up, can move down pretty aggressively. And 60% is in wealth holders. Okay, I'll break that down again. 20% boring, 20% volatile, 60% wealth holders. What do I mean by that? Okay, so the wealth holders are the easy ones. I've talked about this on this channel so many times. My face is going to turn blue eventually from saying it. Gold and silver. I hold a lot of metals. I hold palladium. Can we bring up palladium and gold real quick? Let's bring up palladium. This is one that slipped around a little bit, but has done exceptionally well since taking its fall, leading into 2024, staying in that 1522 range. Let's bring up gold. Gold right now, as we see if we pull back the graph to the last 10 years, has been an excellent wealth holder. Uh, and especially let's just do the last five years real quick. We look at the last five years, we'll see that. I guess we can't. I wish we could just do two years. We'll see that uh 2025, one of the best years of all time for gold.

SPEAKER_03 52:22

Bless you. We look at silver. Uh silver.

SPEAKER_04 52:32

Ratcheting up as we speak. Uh at fell down to the high 70s after peaking over 110. What did it peak at? 116? Yeah, 116.58 was its peak. Originally climbing up, though, if we go back to the five years, uh, what was it at? It was 22, 30, 31, 32. By January 2025, we started yelling at people to start buying. We happened to just be right before a giant spike up. I mean, I didn't predict that. I thought it was going to go up to like 50 or something. Now it sits above 80. That's cool. But I still think it's a great purchase. Why? Because it is holding wealth. That's why 60% of my portfolio is in silver and gold. All right. 20%. Boring stuff. This is where bonds and index funds come in. Index funds just cover the entire S P 500. Bonds, it's investment in debt. Uh bond rates are higher at this moment, so it's a pretty solid hold. Index funds spread you across the entire S P 500. Zach, I think the entire thing is gonna collapse. Cool. I'm talking to somebody right now, just to be clear, who's planning on holding these investments for 10 to 20 years, if not more. I'm not talking about the ability to buy, sell, buy low, sell, high. I'm a buyer and holder. I'm not a big seller. If I buy something, I'm planning to hold it for a long period of time. It is forget you money. It's gone. It sits in a magical account that I'm not going to touch. Just to be clear. Just to be clear. Because I believe the stock market sits on thin air as well. Just to be clear. I believe that as well. Again, 20%. 20%, not the overarching amount of the account. The other 20s in the volatile stuff, this is where Bitcoin gets involved. This is where Ethereum gets involved. This is where things like XRP and whatever you want to get involved in, you could probably get involved in. I wouldn't suggest getting into the depths of like Fartcoin, but these things that are a little bit more volatile, maybe an individual stock. Like I hold MP, which is a gold mining company. I hold their stock here. If you want to hold AI companies, whatever, like this is where I would subject it. 20 is in the volatile stuff, 20 is in the boring stuff, 60% is in the wealth holders. Zach, do you account your real estate holdings into this? I don't. I only own one house. The equity for that does not count into this 2060-20 model. Good question. All right. So we've covered the first three surviving. We went through four to five, building the investment account. We're about to go to six, seven, eight. For those of you joining us from skipping over the first few sections, hi once again. We're going to get into the meat and potatoes and how you can truly improve not only your financial standing, but your overarching life in this wartime economy. Sean, do I need to double back or be clearer about anything we talked about thus far, you think?

SPEAKER_02 55:20

No, you're hitting the nail on the head.

SPEAKER_04 55:21

The nails being hit?

SPEAKER_02 55:22

The nails being hit.

SPEAKER_04 55:23

Nails being hit. What is there any qu I I want one good qu is there any good question you could throw? Because I'm sure somebody's thinking of a question. Like, Sean, he should have done this. The pressure's on your shoulders.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Well, yeah, I was just gonna ask about Farcoin, man. I thought it was pretty good. All right, man. Nail's pretty good. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

Mut is Mike, Mutus Mike, Mutus Mike. Uh, the financial hour with Sean. It's gonna be a lunch on this channel here soon. All right, let's get through steps six through eight. We're talking about thriving. And I'm gonna start this by stating, by the way, your value in life is not tied to your net worth. You were born on a monopoly board, so I understand that the American life makes you feel like your ability to pay off bills is also your standing as a human. Your ability to show off a big number on your investment account on your screen, big numbers, look at that, is your value in life. Especially, I'll shout out the men, especially the men. Being financially uh uh astute and grounded and thriving in the financial world, there's a lot of pressure in a world where the pressure seems to be mounting. And you're not crazy for that. You're not crazy for that. There is more pressure in this economic space than there has ever been historically in so many different measures. So many different measures. I won't just blanketly say this is the hardest economy it's ever been in America, but it's in the top five. It's in the top five. Arguably, it's it's it's top two and it ain't two. So, with all that being said, I want to be clear: your value in life isn't your money, it's not your net worth, though these things provide the oxygen needed to survive in a capitalistic society, it is not your worth. You are worth way more than your money, whether you have a lot or a little. I promise you. I've seen the millionaires, I've been in the billionaire homes, I've been to the parties, I've spoken on the stages. I I before talking about any of this, I was doing very well just selling homes and making content around getting people to want to buy or sell in real estate. To the point where other agents were asking me how I did it and then paying me for how I did it. And I was going on stages talking about how I did it. I've I've met these people. I've gone to these events and I've networked, and there's great people that exist in these spaces, but I've met with the people who view the dollar sign attached to their business or name as the core value of their life. That is the value of their life. How much they are worth, how much money they're making, how many sales they are getting. I've been in those rooms. They can be exciting and like, rah-rah, I'm gonna do it. Yeah, big me! There's a level of that that I love. There's a level of that that I love. Pushing yourself up, grind, doing something difficult. I like that. I enjoy doing that. But there's a lot of people in those rooms that do not have any form of actual real world wealth within themselves. They don't have any form of real true identity outside of their job. And to be frank with you, there's a lot of people where they sacrifice their family, they sacrifice their friends, they sacrifice being able to go climb that mountain, take any time off to enjoy this world. That's why I got out of that world. I didn't really like the crew. I didn't really like the crew too heavy. And now we're here. So let's talk about the first of these three. Number one, uh, which is actually step number six, is location. Location, location, location.

SPEAKER_03 59:19

And I'm not talking about just real estate here. Ignore me, bro.

SPEAKER_04 59:32

Sean is on one day, brother. I love it. I g I I I can't predict his next move. I don't know what's happening. Never let him know your next move is Sean's motto today. Ah I'm drinking out of my groomsman mug, by the way. I got this from my boy Reese. It's a groomsman mug, seven-year-old mug here, baby. Susage. Alright. Location, location. Sean threw me off there a little bit. He was scrolling off into nowhere. I didn't know what was going on. If there's like a secret graphic hidden over there that I was unaware of. Why do you live where you live? Is it because of your job? Is it because of your family? Is it because you've always known? Why do you live where you live? You might have a really good answer to that question, you might not. Well, here's what I'm gonna say. I have had a lot of conversations with the people across the nation at this point over the last year.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:25

And I've given out a lot of advice of moving. Because hear me. The reason you're financially unstable at this moment might have everything to do with the fact that you live just outside of New York City. Sorry. There might be nothing you can do. Literally, mathematically, nothing that you can do because you live in Miami. Because you live in northern New Jersey or Maine.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:56

You're just outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or California. Let me tell you, the odds are stacked against you so heavily financially. I don't really have a lot of advice for you other than what keeps you there. We're in a very digital world, the side hustle economy, where skills can really aggregate themselves wherever you happen to be. Your skill moves with you, your value to this world moves with you. And yes, you may be at a job that's completely locked into where you're at, but is that where you want to be at in 10 years? Is it where you want to be at in five years, two years? Do you even not want to go to your job tomorrow? Are you at your job right now listening to this because you don't want to be there? You might be. My question, and again, I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a moving expert. I just happen to sell real estate. I've seen a lot of people make moves to Delaware to free themselves from the economic thwarting that they're feeling in other states. Delaware happens to be a little bit more affordable. This is not a sales pitch for Delaware, but if you are moving to Delaware, look up loft teamdelaware.com and hit us up.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:03

Number one team in Southern Delaware.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:06

But the point is, you may indeed be living somewhere for a very good reason, but that very good reason may also be the reason that you feel so financially poor. Could be. Could be. And if you're sitting here like, Zach, I live in West Virginia, no. You're right. Zach, I live in Alabama, Arkansas. You're right. You're you've already made it to the places where things are a bit less expensive. But can I offer you the opportunity of not just the money side of things, there may be better life out there in these other states. Sean, can I shout you out real quick? You ready for me?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:43

All right. The next move I have planned for you, as long as you have this planned, is I'd love for you to tell me how did you feel going from Delaware, place you've always known, place you've always seen, place you're used to, to Tennessee. Because you for Mother's Day went out to Tennessee. How did that feel?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

Dude, it was weird. Um, it's just I I think for me the biggest thing was I can't believe people just drive these back roads every day and not get in accidents and die. Holy crap, these roads are so tight and like there's these sharp turns and you're going over hills and you're going under hills. It's like, what the hell? But um, yeah, no, I I would say it was a culture shock, and it's I don't know. Whenever I go to different areas, I always think in my brain, like, now is what is the the top like three jobs in this area, is what I was thinking in my head.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

Sorry for doing that to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

No, it's a no no I do it in general. I'm just like, what like what are people doing around here? Like they live in the middle of nowhere, they're like estranged from I don't know, like just talking to people. And not not saying it's like that, because I I don't know, it could could actually be a very tight-knit community. Everybody drives to each other's houses, but uh, I always think that in my brain. And like with Delaware, I think like like I always compare the two, obviously, and I'm like, well, I feel like in Delaware it's like if you're a nurse or if you're a cop or contracting or something like that, like blue collar work. I feel like those are the big things in Delaware, and I'm like, maybe it's like similar here. Anyway.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

Well, the job market in Tennessee specifically sucks. It's pretty bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Is it really?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:13

It's one of the main core reason their property values don't soar because it's a beautiful state. Yeah, it's a beautiful state. No one drives through Tennessee like, man, I don't want to live here. Yeah, it looks great, it's hard to get a job. Yeah, but in a world, I bring up Tennessee, in a world where you're working digitally, in a world where you make a little bit of bank on like content creation or selling in your Etsy store. What keeps you from going to a place like that if you're living in Boston?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

It's funny you say that. I was thinking that I was like in Tennessee. I'm like, man, you know, I could I could probably make a kill and shoot and listing videos out here. Like I feel like it'd be that'd be kind of fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:52

Yeah, the homes are probably more uh beautiful, and all at the same time, you could make money doing that, but you're gonna be probably paying less. I I don't know the Tennessee versus Delaware it's definitely gonna be more dramatic when you compare it to these big metropolitan areas we're talking about. But even to Delaware, it's probably a little cheaper out in Tennessee. Definitely, absolutely, especially getting into a house, yeah, which is the core of a lot of people's financial standing is do you own a house or do you not? And in a place like Tennessee, it's more available. So I ask again, location. And these are just questions to ask yourself. Maybe bring up in pillow talk. If you live by yourself, pillow talk is you talking to yourself, don't feel ashamed. Write some stuff down, journal. I I just think it's a question worth asking. Why do you live where you live? And by the way, why do you live in America? I'm not anti America. But why do you live there?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:42

I've been saying for years, you're gonna catch me retiring in Denmark. Maybe the Netherlands.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:50

These are just questions worth asking yourself, because I think a lot of us are in America because we were born and raised in America. So just asking the question like, why haven't I gone and seen Britain? Why haven't I gone and seen Australia? I don't know. It's questions. We're about questions. We question things here. And I want you to question you here. We're not just questioning our government officials and corrupt Epstein list uh perpetrators. We're questioning ourselves a bit here because we're talking about our personal finances. As we heard at the beginning of this episode, our administration does not care about your finances. So we have to. Seven. This is the one where I'm going to get the most eye rolls, but I have to say it. I have to say it. For those who are watching the video version, you probably have already turned it off before I even get a chance to say it. In the money game, we're talking math. It's all about math. That's a SpongeBob is the way most of y'all are looking at me right now. It's about math. What goes in versus what goes out? Okay, money is very emotional. Money determines our lifestyle. Money can be very stressful. Money can be very exciting. Money can attach itself to so many different emotions. Money is the root of all evil. At least the love of money is the root of all evil. There's so many different things you can attach to money. But at the core of it, it's math.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:08

What goes in, what goes out?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:11

How much money you make is the determining factor on how difficult all these other financial problems can or cannot be. How much money you make determines a lot. Now, does making money immediately make you a better person? Of course. Does making money immediately make you a more valuable human? Absolutely. And if you make it to the standard of millionaire, billionaire, you can even start using that money as free speech to orchestrate your ideology upon the plebs within this country. Isn't that exciting? Of course, in a capitalistic system, people determine their value based on how much money they make. But obviously being a bit satirical, I want to remind you that's not the case. But it is what gives you that breathing room, if that makes sense. The breathing room to live the life that maybe you want to live here in America or elsewhere. And so the seventh piece of advice is increase income. Boo. Obviously. Got it. We we hate, man, the sound effects are going heavy today!

SPEAKER_01 1:08:26

Is that where you're saying you just hate it? Like you're like, please stop.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:30

Maybe a little bit. I don't know what others feel about it. Getting a part in my ears. I don't know if I rock with that in and of itself. It's it's a it's the most obvious piece of advice out there. Zach, you're advising I make more money? Are you saying I'm struggling with money because I don't make enough? You don't think I haven't already thought of that? I'm not saying you haven't thought of it. I'm also not saying it would solve all your problems. I know plenty of people that have made more money and became poorer. I know plenty of people who doubled their paycheck and went into much more debt. Plenty of people that will spend just as much as they make, no matter how much they make. It'll be the same people saying, yeah, I'm struggling, we're a bit paycheck to paycheck, and they got a$2,000 promotion. Where'd the$2,000 go? It just it we always find our way into uh consuming ourselves into paycheck to paycheck lifestyles.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

If you're in a position, and this is where I'm gonna get tactical, where you are making less than let me back up. If you're in a position where within the next five years, five years time, it's 2031.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:52

If you're in a position where two things are true, stay there. If either of these aren't true, it's time to start asking questions. Number one, in five years, are you going to be making at least$80,000 or more? I wanna say$100,000, by the way. I wanna say$100,000, but I'm assuming dual income. Are you at a position within the next five years you think that's possible? Yes or no? Yes, no, or maybe. Okay, yes, no, or maybe. Maybe you're in a position that's commission friendly, it's it's flexible, and I can grind toward that. Sure, okay. I love that. Put it on the put it on the mirror. Say, I'm gonna make X amount this year. I'm gonna make 150k, 200k, 80k. I love it. Put it on the mirror, put it down in your journal share. I'm gonna do it, meditate on it, manifest that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:41

I believe in all that, by the way. We gotta have a whole other channel on the woo-woo stuff. The second thing I need you to answer is by 2031, do you think your job still exists? Whoa. Weird question to be asking. But it's a real one. Do you think AI and automation takes your job out? Maybe you don't want to think about that. I hear you. Maybe it's not five years, maybe you're like, mmm, I don't think so. Ten years I could see it.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:20

Maybe I say five years, and you're like, Zach, it might be two years. It's a question worth asking. And it may put you in a peculiar position in your brain where you say, Zach, I don't think I'll be making 80 to 100k within that time frame, and I also don't even know if my job will exist. Brother, it might be time to look into other career ventures, skills, licensed activities. Might I even say jobs that aren't directly attached to W-2 positions. I'm not saying you have to go become a plumber or an electrician or a laborer or a general contractor, though I think there's plenty of money to be made in those spaces. HVAC, electric work. I think there's an intense amount of money that will be made in those spaces next five to ten years. Don't get me wrong. But the skill could be anything. It could be improve your skills at communicating and you become a content creator or a salesperson for a given product or service. You could become an AI wizard and help all of your boomer business owners in the area be able to automate their social media platforms. They're the same people that don't know how to restart their router. They're going to need a lot of help with AI. You can hate AI, but it's inevitable. I hate that it's inevitable, but it's inevitable. The people that want it to be inevitable are making it inevitable because they profit off of it. Go figure. Your income is going to be directly attached to the value or skill that you have that you can give back to this economy. And you may need to re-look at it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:52

Okay, because there's only so much financial advice I can give you if you're in an area that's expensive at a job that doesn't make enough money in a position that isn't really secure from the AI tech wave that is already here and growing. Fair? Questions. I want us asking questions.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:14

Okay, last step. Whole wealth. This is my favorite part, by the way. This is where this is where we exit out of the black pill. We hit the depth, we hit the very bottom. Stick with me. We hit the very bottom, and now we're gonna make our way up whole wealth.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:26

Guys, money is not wealth. Money is not wealth.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:37

Wealth is not money. Money has to do with the overarching feeling of a lifestyle of wealth, don't get me wrong. But true wealth does come from you. Might sound stupid. You might hear that and be like, Zach, get rid of this Alice in Wonderland bull crap you're talking about comes from me. It does. I'll prove it.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:06

Someone's worth two million dollars. Are they wealthy? Yes or no? Okay, same person. Two million dollars. Uh they have to buy two seats to be able to fit on an airplane because they're gigantic. And their heart's failing. Are they wealthy? Yes or no? I'd say no. Just so we're clear. If somebody has a multi-million dollar business, are they wealthy? What if they sacrificed all that time and they have no friends and their family doesn't like them? Their kids don't want to hang out with them. Are they wealthy?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:46

Okay, if you can't hang out in your own brain for 20 minutes without having to seek some form of escape via entertainment, scrolling, doing something, if you can't sit in silence with your own brain, your own heart, your own spirit, are you wealthy?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:03

I think wealth is deeper than money.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:05

And so we've been talking about this thing called whole wealth. Brain, body, and spirit while it's at the end. Let me be tactical with you for a second, and then we'll get back into the woo-woo. Brain, body, and spirit. How can I take care of my brain, my body, and my spirit? And how can it lead me toward being wealthier? Well, for one, everything you do stems off your brain. Everything you've ever done, everything you've ever thought, everything you've ever emotionally conceptualized, anything that's ever happened within your variant of life, any of your five plus senses have experienced is based off your brain. We need to take care of it. We need to love it. You have a nine-pound meat computer with electric and water running through it, in between your ears. You're never gonna see it. It's the most important organ you're ever gonna come in contact with. We need to love it. And we need to stop sacrificing it to all of the vices, we need to stop sacrificing it to all of the entertainment, all of the algorithms, all of the arguments, all of the emotion, all of the things that make your brain everything except what it's supposed to be, which is your GPS. Tactically, I would say meditate and read a book, getting into a five to ten minute meditation practice at the beginning of your day and reading a book, staring at a wall, going on a walk, getting back into nature. Guys, this world's beautiful. There's incredible things that run just by themselves in nature that do not need any human interference, though the billionaires would think otherwise, to keep this life in nature moving. I'm planting a garden right now. It's beautiful. Literally watching this tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little seed I can hardly pick up out of my palm, go into the dirt and boom, jalapeno peppers. What? How does that work? How does that work? There's a beauty to going analog. And so with your brain, I'm gonna suggest that. I'm gonna suggest you disconnect. In fact, I gave some advice on another podcast yesterday. It was a little bit more consolidated advice of what we're giving right now. And I gave him the advice of pad. Okay, pad takes off of what we've just talked about today, just in a more condensed manner. It was print money, asset ownership, and disconnecting. Print money, we already talked about that. Asset ownership, own an asset, or get left behind. Housing stocks, IRAs, gold, all these wealth holders, we already talked about that. Now we're talking about D, disconnect. We need to get away from all the craziness that owns our brains, and we need to get back into understanding we have control over our life. There's a lot of beauty in this world, and we could obtain beauty in this world without a pay gate. There is no paywall for enjoying the world. And a lot of us live the life that we live and the place that we live it, doing what we do. It's just because it's what we've always done. It's what we are taught, it's the groups that we grew up in, it's the friend groups we're a part of, it's the family we grew up in, it's the school we came up in. We are who we've been around.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:58

At what point do you go back and find out who you are? Might sound like a deep question, because it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:07

But it's worth asking the question. How long until you actually go forth and decide who you are? Because most of us play around with a lie identity. A lie identity is the identity we associate with ourselves that is culminated in what other people and our environment has told us we are in one way, shape, or form. Once we realize the lie identity isn't truly who we are, a lot of us will sift into, and this is like the 10% of people, I think. 95%, or I'd say probably 85% are sitting in lie identity. There's another 10%, I think, are focused on my identity. They've escaped the lies and now they're creating their own life, but honestly, it's a bit selfish. Their identity is built around what they want it to be and what they think it is, when in reality they haven't ever even sat down to realize that a lot of that is culminated again off of what's going on in the world. I think there's less than 5% have actually gotten down to true identity, that have sat with themselves long enough and gotten to the point where they feel they actually truly know who they are, what they want to give to this life, and what they want to give to the people around them. And I think that's beautiful. And I think there's no wealthier person on the planet that has that peace. For the body, going on walks, proper nutrients. I have a multivitamin powder every morning, knock out a multivitamin, take some magnesium, work out, put your body through something it doesn't want to go through because that's the stuff that's going to make you feel good. I'm not saying doing something that's like self-harm, doing stuff that's like the gym, working out, running, walking, Pilates, yoga, soccer, walk backwards. Uh, just go out and stand in the yard and do some squats, jump around a few times in the house. Pretend you're jump roping, like doing something physically. You have control over your body, you have control over your brain, you have control over your life. I want you to take control of it through conscious decisions that invest in yourself instead of consuming yourself. We are consuming ourselves to the point where there is going to be nothing left instead of investing into a future better us, a future better society, human you. All right. Last is spirit. 10 minutes in silence, 10 minutes in prayer, 10 minutes in a Bible. You can open up the Quran, you can open whatever you want, a little bit of understanding of you were created in some way, shape, or form. And then every walking vessel on this planet has blood, has arteries, has intestines, has a heart and lungs and rib cage and skull and spinal cord, just like you. And we're put here by some weird something. All right, believe in whatever you want it to be. I believe it takes a lot more to believe we weren't created than we are, but that doesn't matter here. What I'm saying is we're all in some way, shape, or form the same. Experiencing this life on a spinning marble in space. Coming to the grounding of that thought process is beneficial, in my opinion. It makes everything seem a bit less heavy. Joe, who's not mic'd up right now, brings up the thought process of what am I gonna do today that's gonna impact future generations? What am I gonna be able to do with my life, my day that's gonna impact the next hundred years, thousand years? We've gotten away from that thought process.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

That's an incredible thought process.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:25

I want you to not be so focused on money as we talk about money. I want you to understand the mechanisms that can get you out of the holes you were in financially, as our country seemingly doesn't care about that for you, all while taking care of you. Because you are the baseline for everything, every decision, every habit, everything you do every day that you don't want to do. Everything that you do throughout the day that after you've done it, you think to yourself, why am I doing this again? Every time you fall into that habit, anytime you fall into that thought process, anytime you fall back to that person, that vice, that addiction, you're probably thinking to yourself, How am I doing this again? You're hit with that shame. Don't sit in it and feel shame. Sit in it and ask questions. Sit in it and ask, no, legitimately, why am I doing this? What emotion caused this? Did something make me feel like a failure and this is my backstop? Did something make me reminded of that one thing that happened in life and this is always what I choose because of it? Is it that person in my life that's causing me because I'm near them and around their decision making that's making me lean toward that decision making? Ask yourself questions and stop being controlled by everything else around you, from the people to the devices to everything that's going on in the world, to celebrities and politicians. When are you actually gonna take control of your life and seek whole wealth? You may not feel as in control of your financial situation, but you are in full control of how you treat your day and how you treat yourself and whether or not that little voice in your head is leading you toward destruction or growth, consumption or investment. Do you have a DIY cheerleader in your brain or a DIY bully in your brain? Because you get to choose. The world's nuts. We agree. The system's rigged. We agree. The rules around the system are pegged so the elites benefit in the long term. We agree. But all games have rules. We're playing on a monopoly board. You were born in too late, all the houses have been built, most of the hotels are already in place, rent's astronomical, and even though they were getting 200 for pass and go in the 80s, you still only get 200 for pass and go in 2026. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:43

But nobody's coming to save you. We have to start taking authority.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:50

Today, it's just over your finances. Tomorrow, it might be as an entire human race taking control over our country again. But control starts with you. Nothing in your life, your family's life, your friend's circle, your state, your country improves if we don't start with ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:12

As Michael Jackson said it starts with a man in the mirror.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:20

Sean, I believe we have a palate cleanser funny for the end of this. But before we do that, any takes from a fellow Gen Zer, probably speaking to another Gen Zer right now. What would you say, my friend?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:32

Well, you know, I I think of um money aside and all that stuff, we all have this sort of self-concept of ourselves or the person that we want to be. And I think that ties in with self-efficacy or efficacy. And there's like a uh there's always like each of us has uh a vision in mind of who we want to be, how we want to act. Maybe it's like someone you look up to, you want to be like them. So it's cool to have like a goal or a self-concept of who you are and who you want to be. But then also the half of it is self-efficacy, if I'm saying that right. I believe so. But understanding that you need to believe in yourself to get to your self-concept and act that way, um, and having you know, building that confidence for yourself, speaking to yourself in a friendly, like speaking to yourself like you're your own best friend. And it sounds like woo-woo and weird, but once you start doing that every day, like you do start seeing differences. Like it's kind of like what you were saying, manifestation. Things just start happening around you that you number one start noticing, and number two, it starts affecting affecting you positively in your life, and you start it's like changes your mindset. So, like I would say if you're struggling, and like all this aside, let's say like you're still struggling and whatever, just understand that like just believe in yourself in the way of like things are gonna get better. Trust yourself that you're gonna do the best that you can, and then your self-concept will develop, like you it'll it'll align itself if it all starts with that. Just believing in you, trusting yourself, and making conscious decisions for a better future for yourself.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:07

That was beautiful, brother.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:08

That's all I would say.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:09

That was beautiful, brother. You said something deep in there that we gotta believe in who we want to be before we're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:15

Yeah, like understanding. I'm paraphrasing you there. I think you said better. No, it you got it. Like just understanding, like, even if you're not happy with where you are now and who you are, the you like we have the ability as human beings in our brain and our emotional state to change who we are. Yes, it's a power.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:31

And you can look up things like neuroplasticity, uh, or like what Sean's talking about with manifestation, the scientific uh side of this is from the reticular activating system. Your brain will literally start looking for different things, finding different things, noticing different things uh when you are preparing your brain in a different way, talking to yourself in a different way, writing down goals that you wouldn't have happened to write, journaling or meditating. Like the silence can feel so boring, but that silence and putting ourselves in like a dopamine, like disconnected from dopamine-filled activities, makes the dopamine-filled activities that much more important. Yeah, stronger, stronger, and not even the dopamine ones, like the ones where you feel like you're you're connected with loved ones and you're enjoying time with your friends, or even sitting and watching a basketball game, like not having to sit there on your phone to stay entertained, like being able to just lock in on stuff again. I think we've all lost a bit of that skill set. Yeah, and we need to take it back.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:35

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:36

We need to take it back. All right, let's finish this one off. We're gonna be back to back in this. By the way, if you're listening to this and you're hearing it at this moment, tomorrow I'm heading off to Kentucky to meet with Tiffany Seancey and a bunch of other creators that are riding at dawn for Massey. The next episode on this platform, we're gonna shoot at right after this. You'll notice the same outfit. Uh, and as you're watching it, I implore you to find out. Find the people that I'm going to be mentioning, supporting the message of what we got going on, because I'll be actively in Kentucky fighting for Thomas Massey to win his primary over APAC. This video clip, as we round it back to the beginning of the episode, was from the same set of interviews that happened on the front lawn of the White House as he's about to get on, I believe, Marine One to head to whatever plane he was getting in. Which I guess I I recently learned whatever plane the president is in is called Air Force One. I didn't know that. I thought there were two or three Air Force Ones and whatever he was on was the Air Force One, but really any plane he is on is actually tagged Air Force One. So before he gets on the Air Force One, he's on Marine One behind him, has this interview. I don't like this gentleman. I just want to be very clear. I I don't like this gentleman. I I think he's a fascist. I I don't agree with his character, I don't agree with his economic policy, I don't agree with his foreign policy. I don't like it when people that I don't like make me laugh. It's just I don't like when people I don't like make me laugh. But I was scrolling Twitter two days ago, saw this video, and I was like, this has to be fake. It's just so trumppy, it seems fake. He's he's insulting a reporter, he's doing his little trump hands. It it made me laugh. I I so I want to play it for you. It made me laugh.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:23

So what happened is uh we have a ballroom that's under budget, it's going up right here.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:29

To be very clear before we're playing the rest, he's he's talking about the ballroom behind him. This is the first time he has mentioned the fact that apparently he's doubling the square foot of the ballroom. He's doubling the square footage of the ballroom. He hadn't said this before. It's pretty strategic, by the way, that he says right before he heads off to China and gets on the helicopter behind him, oh by the way, ballroom's double the size. See, guys. So I thought that was pretty funny in and of itself. Then the reporter, of course, this is not this is brand new information. The reporter's like, wait, does that mean the budget's doubled? Which I think is a very normal question. Trump didn't think so.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:06

But because we obviously need that, and we're right now on So what happened is uh we have a bowroom that's under budget, it's going up right here. I've doubled the size of it because we obviously need that. Obviously, and uh we're right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule. I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are you are not a smart person. Sean had a theory.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:38

I think Joe had the original theory of when he says you're a stupid person, that there was a microcosm of a pause where maybe he was thinking about calling her a bitch, which we've seen him say things like little piggy and other things like that. So I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. Pauses and says person, but then Sean brought up on the second time where he says it. He has this little rrr and then sucks it back in. Listen to this real quick.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:05

Now on budget, under budget, and ahead of scale. I double the size of it, you dumb person. What about you are not a smart person?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:16

You are you are really dumb.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:19

You are you are not a smart person.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:22

So maybe he was going for a really the top comment says he was going for a different R-word there, which would have blown up the internet if that happened. Um which gets back into is this Trump persona a well-groomed character that in normal settings would talk differently. What do you think, Joe? You're off mic, but what do you think? Do you think the vernacular that Trump chooses to use is different behind the scenes versus what he's saying these? Even when he's saying wild stuff to reporters.

unknown 1:31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:56

He says yeah.

unknown 1:31:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:58

Yeah. He's on mic. That's all we got. That's all that matters. Alright, let's play the song. Let's end this one out. Guys, hit subscribe, hit like if you rock with this content. If you feel so obliged, you can join our dollar club here on YouTube.$1 in supporting independent journalizing journalism, remaining independent. Or you can leave a review on Spotify. You don't have to give us any money. Love you so much. Keep your finances strong and keep yourself moving toward whole wealth. You're an investor, not a consumer. I love you.