Still Learning with Dr. Sima Shahbandar: Education, Parenting & Financial Literacy

She had more questions. Ashley had more answers. And this conversation delivered.

Dr. Sima Shahbandar — founder of Omri Med and a woman who approaches everything in life with intention and care — came back to The Ashley B. Cash Show, and this time, she brought even more to the table.

From education reform to the realities of parenting in a broken system, to building financial literacy no matter where you are in life — this episode covers it all. Dr. Shahbandar puts Ashley in the hot seat, and Ashley doesn't flinch. What unfolds is one of the most dynamic, wide-ranging conversations this show has seen.

Whether you're a parent trying to navigate the system, a professional playing catch-up on your finances, or someone simply ready to do life differently — there is something in this episode for you.

About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.

About Ashley:  As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.

Follow @AshleyBCashOfficial on Instagram & @Ashley Bowes Cash on Facebook.

Visit www.AshleyBCashOfficial.com for more content and features. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Ashley V Cat Show. I'm Ashley and I'm so excited to be sitting down again today with Seema Shavandar. And we have had a great time catching up. You may have seen our previous episode when we talked about lots of different things, but um we're gonna attack it again today and just Seema's gonna ask me a bunch of questions and we're just gonna have a free discussion about all things education and financial literacy. So, Sima, welcome to the show again. Thank you. So excited to be here. So glad that you're back.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Yeah. You know, it's I was thinking about it since our last podcast that we teach our kids algebra in school, but not how compound interest works. We teach them um history, but not how taxes work. And then we throw them into the this world and expect them to know how credit, debit, mortgages, and retirement works all on their own.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yes. Um, that's actually how HB 27 came to pass. Um, it is the bill that passed in the 89th legislature just this last year, um, and is going to now require a semester of personal financial literacy for every high school student. Um, at the end of the 88th legislature, I was talking with then Representative Dustin Burroughs, who is now speaker, Dustin Burroughs, and said, Can I ask you a question? I said, Why do we teach every child chemistry, biology, physics, algebra, and trigonometry? Yet we never teach anyone how to handle money, the basics of financial literacy. Like we literally, when kids graduate, only 5% need those classes of chemistry and algebra. And yet a hundred percent to pay bills, budget, plan for taxes, um, start saving, figure out how to save. They don't know anything about different asset classes in order to be able to save and take care of the best. We don't teach them anything about business. So that's how HB27 came to be. And um, I'm so glad that they got it passed this year. And hopefully I'm I'm now helping um at both the TEA level a little bit, but more um with Aaron Kinsey, who's the chairman of the SBOE, um, to kind of make sure that the TK are going the right direction and that that we're we're going to get everything into that class that we need to get into that class. So um I'm I'm it's it's a good start. It's a good start. But I know you and I've also talked about the 30 years of adults that have had no financial literacy since we got rid of home economics. And and in this day and age, home economics, what it was, which was a great a great deal of budgeting, is not even as much as we should be teaching, right? So how do we go back?

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Exactly. How do we go back? And I always wondered, you know, people are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and they sit down and say, Hey, I need to figure out something in regards to my investments or budgeting, even and they just don't know where to start or who to ask. And if they ask someone, they kind of get the runaround. Right. It's not like we're helped.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Well, and and even myself, my journey, um, I thought, you know, I'd gotten a college education, and then um, thanks to my family, you know, we had great lawyers and great accountants, and I thought I knew everything, right? And then one day, um and and and I knew enough to take advantage of my Roth 401k at work, right? Um, at one point in time I had put some money into a Roth IRA until my accountant told me that I made too much money and I couldn't do that anymore, which was wrong, by the way. Um, and um I had put some money into stocks and bonds, and it wasn't until I was almost 40 years old that I decided I wanted to start. I had been a stay-at-home mom for a little bit. I'd worked in corporate America, and then when my babies were little, I stayed home with them, still working in my family business, but stayed home with them. And then the second that my youngest went to school full-time, I was like, I love my children, but I'm about to poke my eyeballs out with a hot poker. Like, I need to get back into the workforce. Yeah. And hey, being a mother is the hardest job in the world, and to all of those who are like amazing great mothers, um you go girl, um, it just was not fulfilling for me. I did it because I knew it was what was best for my kids. But then once they were gone eight hours in, I was like, okay, what can I fill my time with? Um, and by the way, if anybody asks you, there is no true balance in a woman's life, it just does not exist. So just go ahead and wipe that out of your head. We're all doing the very best that we can do. Just let's go with that. Um, and I have some friends who are some of the absolute best mothers that I know, and I just look at everything that they do and I just stand in awe of what they do. Um, and my poor kids, that's all I'm gonna say. Sorry, guys. I love you. Um, but um so what are we gonna do for the adults? Well, um, there's some good classes out there. Um, in fact, I have bought for my employees a class um by Dave Ramsey that I bought for all of my employees. Um, and I think it's really, really good, especially for people who are already in debt. Yeah. As he helps you get out of debt. But I don't think it's as strong when it comes to teaching you how to be a really good investor. Yeah. So many of the classes you see say, well, here's what you need to know about stocks and bonds, and go find yourself a stockbroker or a financial planner and do it that way. And I see a lot of people just take their money and turn it over to those people, and they're missing all these other opportunities. And the and I had done that for years early in my life, and then in my 40s, when I decided I wanted to um start a business, I decided to start a real estate investing business. I wanted to flip houses like I was seeing on HGTV, you know? And um, that's kind of what started me down the journey of learning about all of these different asset classes and how to invest in real estate, how to um how to do my due diligence to make sure the investments that I was investing in were good. Um, and then subsequent, like I started with single-family homes, and then I started with Airbnb and was an early adopter of that, and then um started doing uh being, I was the bank and I started doing um private lending to other real estate investors. And then that segued into me getting into commercial real estate. Um we've done uh storage facilities. We still have a bunch of storage facilities. We bring other investors in with us. We um have built from scratch apartment complexes. We are in the process of building some um uh condo developments in the Big Island of Hawaii. Um we're looking at over fifty over 55 senior developments and different things like that. We, you know, have bought crypto bots and even now we have gotten into the thoroughbred racehorse business. Yeah. That's a funny one because we did it because it was a tax write-off. Yes, you can write off 100% of a thoroughbred racehorse in year one. And I had made some money at the end of the year that we hadn't planned on and we needed to figure out, and now we are invested into thoroughbred racehorses. We have ranching interests, you know. But I say all of this to tell you that I have not to date found the perfect system out there. Um, but there are things that you can do um in snippets to get you started. And I think Dave Ramsey has some good courses on the front end. He and I disagree a little bit on the back end because I think that you should be investing into yourself at the same time that you're paying off your debt. And he believes in no debt whatsoever. And I believe that leverage can be good, and that is when you have debt into a business that makes you money. Um, but it's you know, it's personal preference. Um, however, having said that, um, I am in the process of writing a financial literacy course. I've been teaching at a church here locally. Um that's incredible. I'm ready to listen to it. Sign me up. It's um it starts at the very, very basics, like with mindsets, because so many people in our society today are either scared of money or they think money's bad, or they think me m people who have money are evil. Um, and none of that is true. Money is actually just a tool. It is just a tool. Okay. And what we have to start doing is teaching people how to use the tool. Um, and I don't know if it has been withheld from our education system because people wanted to control us. And if you don't understand how to use one of the most important tools, then people will have control over you. Um, if it is because there are people who want our society to be dependent on the government, because if you don't teach people how to deal with their own money, then they will probably become dependent on the government. That's all possibility. Um, all I know is that I can take the information that I have in my head. And by the way, I'm not licensed in anything. I'm just sharing information that I have, right? Um, but I'm going back down to the mindset and then where are you today? What are you spending? Where is your money leaking out that you could be grabbing it back and putting it, investing it for your future? Um, teaching people how to budget, the very basics of budgeting. And um, and then we will move forward from there and talk about okay, how much do you need to save for retirement? How do you calculate that? How do you decide what that is? How do you move from investing$50 a month, which is all you think you can afford today, to investing what you actually need to be investing to provide the future that you want? Um, and we'll go through all of those. And um a lot of it, unfortunately, is mindset and recalibrating our consumeristic society, right? The thoughts that we have about I need this today. Um, I want to have the same things that I see that person on television. I want us to have that same bag or those same shoes. And how do you recalibrate your mind to be like, I can wait to get that until after I've put the money in for my future, until I've invested in myself. Um, so a lot of it is just shifting mindset. But again, we've got to go back to the basics. Like they have to understand money is a tool. How does it work? How do you control it? And and I think the most important part of it is why are you sacrificing today so that you can have a better future tomorrow? And that's a conversation we haven't been having with people for a very long time.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

Yeah, and to see that where someone's been and then has become, you know, such as yourself. Um, if there's one thing that you feel like someone needs to do and start today, just one thing, even if it's small, yeah, what would you recommend?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Well, so in my quest for my financial literacy class to find options for people who can only invest small dollars right now, like maybe they're like, Ashley, the maximum I can pull together today is$50. Yeah. Well, I started looking for bank accounts and Roth IA vehicles, retirement vehicles that they could use on a monthly basis. And I was having a real hard time. I went to several banks in town, and um, they're like, Well, they can put their money into a savings account, and then when they get a certain amount once a year, they can invest it into a Roth RA. And I was like, no, no, no, because if it's sitting in that account and they have a need, it's going to be gone. Like, I need something they can do every week, every month, whatever. And so I finally found an app. It's called Acorns, A-C-O-R-N-S. Um, and I have been recommending that to people. Um, you basically attach it to your bank account and your debit card, and you can ask it to invest the cents above your purchase every time. So if you spend$5.20, it will take 80 cents and drop it into your savings. You can also go in and say, I get paid every week, and it will take out a certain amount of money every week, or every two weeks, or every month. And as you have enough accumulated into your account for it to buy an ETF, it will go ahead and buy the ETF. So it will be investing as you go through the year. And you get to go in and set it for how um aggressive do you want it to be invested, or do you want it to be invested very um uh conservatively? And do you want it to go first into a Roth IRA, which once you have your emergency fund set up, which should just be cash or maybe in a money market, and that should be initially$1,000, and then hopefully you get to where you have three to six months of your um cash outlay, so the major expense that you have to pay every month into a savings account. Then I think the first money that you should do if you're a W-2 employee should be to match your Roth, your 401k or your Roth 401k at work. Then the second money that you should save should be your Roth IRA, which is a uh, and this is just my personal opinion, again, not licensed, but in all my experience, and and I did sit on the board of a company um for many years called Quest Trust Company, which was a self-directed custodian for 401ks, Roth 401ks, IRAs, Roth IRAs, health savings accounts, education savings accounts. I became extremely familiar with all of those. Um and and learned how to invest small dollar accounts like that into things other than just stocks and bonds. So you look at the other asset classes and how can you invest those accounts? Well, you can. Most people don't even realize that. Most people think if they have those accounts that they have to be invested in stocks and bonds. And as long as they're with your employer and you're you're employed by that employer, they do have to be invested in that way. But when you do a rollover, when you move away from a company, you have other options. Um and those are you can invest like we invest in real estate, we invest in private placement memorandums, we invest in other people's companies. Um and I know people who've used those accounts to invest in crypto. I know people who've used those account accounts to invest in all different types of alternative investments, whether it's this is gonna sound crazy, but like semen for horses and cattle and things that were valuable things. Um I don't know where you would keep those. You'd have to keep it with a third party. Um, but they're all different kinds of options. And so ultimately in my class that I'm creating, while I'm starting very basic because I have to take people back to the beginning, we are going to create um like a bi-monthly, so every twice a month, we will get online, we will talk about the new things. I will bring in specialists, licensed um accountants, I will bring in licensed um stockbrokers and different things to um help us learn all the different parts of it along the way.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

I love that. We need it. We desperately need it. I need it. Um, especially going through this experience of opening up my own um clinic. I I've realized just how much education I have that I'm lacking, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Well, I mean, you are very, very highly educated in a very specialized field, and you are at the top of your game in that particular thing. Yeah, but this goes back to what I've been talking about with um our entire education system, in particular K through 12. You can look at higher education as well. Um everyone lives in their own microcosm. And whatever they are around, the people that they're around, the things they see, the things they witness, that is what they know and hold to be true. And you don't know what you don't know, right? Until you're exposed to it. And um this is an area for most people, financial literacy is an area that they have not been exposed to. And so they don't know. And it's a very scary area. It's just it's an area that evokes a lot of emotional anxiety because it's your money, it's your future, it's your kids' future, you know, and everyone lives in fear of doing the wrong thing with it, which typically makes people do nothing with it because they want to stick their head in the sand and be like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, I don't know what to do, so I'm just gonna pretend like nothing needs to happen, right? And um that is possible, it's not the worst thing you can do because investing in things that you don't know anything about and getting defrauded is the worst thing that you can do. Um, and unfortunately that does happen to some people. But the worst, the next worst thing that you can do is let your money sit idle because it will be worth less next year than it is this year. And there's inflation that happens every year, right? If you have money sitting in a regular bank account and it just sits there, let's say under the Biden administration, I think one year there was, you know, some people said 7% inflation, other people said 15% inflation. Well, that means next year your money is gonna be able to buy 7% less, 15% less because of the increase in inflation. So your money's actually moving backwards if it's just sitting still. And that that's not what any of us want or hope or dream for, right? So how do we fix it? Well, we're gonna try to fix it with kids that are coming up through the K through 12 education system now through HV27. And now we've got to rely on products out there to help educate people. And so I just want to take what I know and share it and do it for free or for the least amount of money that I can pay to get it out there because I've got to pay other people to get it out there. But um, yeah, so hopefully that will be a good start for some people, but there's some other really great courses out there that people should look into. That's the crazy thing right now, is there is so much free education online. Whatever you're looking for, you can go find it. My advice would be when you find someone that's teaching you financial literacy, don't invest with them. Uh-huh. Right. Okay. Yes. So find somebody to teach you and learn as much as you can. And then learn what you don't know. And find another teacher, find a mentor, find someone that can help you, and then go invest with take the knowledge that you've learned and go invest with other people. That way you know that it's not being done for nefarious reasons.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

What is a good sign of, let's say, an a financial advisor or someone like you said that you would suggest we invest with? How would you know if you're investing with the right person? Because for me, if I don't have that strong of a base and I'm trying to get there, what am I looking for?

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Well, in the people that you're investing with, um, one, you want to do a lot of due diligence. You want to go and investigate them. I mean, look online, find, you know, Google their name, search them up, find out all the companies that they've been, search up those companies and see what their track record is. And that's a big thing. You want to know they have a track record. What is their experience? Okay. Like, have they done this before? Is this their first time doing it? Have they only done two deals? Okay. Have they done 50 deals? Okay, of those 50 deals, did they ever lose anybody's money? You know, are they doing the same kind of deals today that they've done in the past, or is this a completely new type of deal? In which case that means they have no experience in that type of deal. Right. So you've got to do your due diligence on that. Then I have been having this conversation with my children, trying to talk them in like what degrees they're getting in college. I'm like, you have to know the numbers. The numbers always matter, right? And um, you have to do due diligence on those numbers too. Like, look into just because they're providing you a spreadsheet and telling you this is what we think we're gonna make, are their numbers correct? Like getting into actual private placement memorandum investing is a lot more complex than deciding to put your money with a stockbroker and invest in stocks and bonds, right? Now, I personally find real estate to be more secure, but I make sure that my money is tied to the real estate. And I know the real estate actually exists, right? Because real estate, while it may have a market that goes like this, on the history of a hundred years, it goes like this. So even if your money is up and it goes down, it like based historically, it should come back up. And as long as your money is actually physically tied to the property, then you stand a good chance of keeping your money. You're safe, yeah. I mean, as safe as you can be with anything. I mean, there are things that still can happen in in real estate. Like if you have a building and the building burns down and they didn't have insurance, that could be a problem. Verify they have insurance, right? That covers all of the investment. Yeah. There are things like that that you that extra step that you need to go to. There's just so many levels. And again, I am not licensed. I just do this for a living for myself and my family. But those those are the some of the things. Some of there are many, many factors, many, many factors. And I hope on our um on our Zoom and podcast that we will get into those things for people. Um, and if anyone would like to join and start at the very, very beginning, um, they can go to AshleyBcash.com and register. We'll be having our first class mid March. Um, and hope some people will join us. And it may, like the very beginnings may be above somebody's head, but as we move through, and of course, we'll have QA, like a session of question and answer. Answers every month for people just to ask questions. And if I know the answer, great. If I don't, we'll find the very best licensed professionals to give us the answers. And we'll do it together. I love that. I love that. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

I'm I'm I'm ready to be the first to go watch it. So we talked about adults and our issues and how we need to uh kind of go backwards in history and educate ourselves in financial uh literacy. But now at the same time, we need to make sure our kids don't fall into the same trap as we are. And you've been working on that, which is so huge, and I'm ready to be a part of that movement. Um I mean the generational effect that it's gonna take is huge, hopefully, you know, like to because um kids often inherit um uh financial behaviors but not financial education. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

So well historically, so if you look back historically at what has happened, um most people don't realize this. You know, there is this really bad thing in our society right now where people want to hate people with money, unless they are an athlete or a singer, and then it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

I'm like, why?

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Um but most people don't realize that historically when a family, when a person makes generational wealth, and that's where you have enough for not only your life but to pass it on to future generations, historically that money is lost by the third generation. 60% lose it by the third generation, 90% lose it by the fourth generation. And so that begs the question why?

SPEAKER_04 23:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

And what I have come to the realization of is it's for several factors. One, the person who was making the money was so busy making it. The next generation really got to enjoy it, and maybe they'd seen a little bit of how their parents had made the money, and so they kept doing some of the same principles. And then the third generation didn't see their grandparents making the money and didn't realize how hard they had to work, and their lives had become this is what I think the big culprit is so comfortable that they no longer had the scrappiness and the ingenuity and the drive and the desire. They didn't work as hard to keep it. But then there also is the part about no one was sharing the information. I mean, think about it. Think about our own lives today. Um, we have kids, we have jobs, some of us have multiple jobs, and then we take on other things in our communities and we're busy and we spend our time with our, and unfortunately, now there's screens also, which is a really bad thing, um, that take people's time away. It takes their kids away from them and it takes the parents away from the kids because we're all tired at the end of the day, and we're like, oh, just get on the iPad. Um, and so we're not sharing the information. Um, so that's one part, but the the comfort part, like this is the thing I worry about with my own kids that my kids have never had, they've never been without, they've never not had the things they needed. And so they don't have that desire that I want something different, that drive that makes them go the extra mile. And when things get uncomfortable and they've never been uncomfortable, they fall back on comfort and they've got enough to be comfortable, but they're not having that desire and that drive to make them go further and seek more and work harder. And so I think it just falls by the wayside, and it's it's it's tragic. Yeah. Now there are things you can do. Yeah, that's what I want to know. Yeah. So um personal history. Um, my great-great-grandparents um were settlers into the plains of the plains of Texas, right here in the panhandle. They dug a hole in the side of a plateau and built a ranch. And um their children were lucky enough to also live in that dugout and um built the ranch up, started with a little bitty, little bitty wood plank house, and ultimately were some of the first people in the panhandle to find oil on their property. Oh, wow. And so it worked out really well for them. Yeah. Worked out really well for them. Luckily for me, their daughter um learned from her, like worked the land, worked really hard. Um, and she put everything that had been accumulated at that point in time into a trust. And she wrote very specific guidelines for it where you could never touch the principal. The only time you could touch principal was for medical expenses, education, that kind of thing. Um, and that you could only use the income. And as a result of that, that structure and the way that she protected the principal, it has allowed that to stay together, the land and the investments and things like that for seven generations. So my family has actually passed the third three to four generation of loss, which is historical. And my kids are now the seventh generation that hopefully will benefit from that. Now, having said that, so therefore, you can surmise that my mother was fairly privileged in her life and should have had the best accountants and lawyers and everything. But again, back to you don't know what you don't know. Um no one ever taught her to budget, no one ever taught her to save. My family was very has historically been invested in ranching and oil and gas, which are both very cyclical industries. And when prices are high, you have good income. And when prices are low, that falls off. Well, no one ever taught her to save in the good years for the lean years. And so when I was in college, my mother went through bankruptcy.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

And so I was a product of that cycle of watching on the years when we had money, we had great trips and everything we needed, and we had um we had great Christmas presents, and on the lean years, we were selling stuff and we were tightening our belt and we were eating completely different, and it was a situation for me as a child growing through that of these cycles, just being like, I don't want this for my future. I don't want this for my future. Now, the trust protected the main asset, right? So that was still there, but um, it did not provide an education, it did not provide that drive for my mother um and my dad. And um it put as children, we were put, you know, in a bad situation with bankruptcy. And it was embarrassing and it was scary, and it was, I was in college at the time, and all of a sudden I had I was at SMU, which is one of the most expensive schools in the country, and all of a sudden I had to figure out how to pay for everything.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Like all at once, like unexpectedly, and in the middle of it. It's not like I could have planned, oh, I'm gonna have I'm gonna go to college and I'm gonna go to this expensive college, or even been given the opportunity to to go to a less expensive college that I was gonna pay for. And I just had to get a job and figure it out, right? And those that that highs and lows, that roller coaster that I was on as a child and into my early 20s is probably what has driven me to be so concerned about other people and them not having financial literacy, and has also driven me. I mean, in a way, I'm so grateful that I had that experience because I could have fallen to the comfort, right? To the comfort and been worried, like never had the drive to go for more.

SPEAKER_05 30:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Um, or or the thing.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

And and you're relatable to people like there are so many people that are have are currently going through that or have been through that.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Yeah. And um, so in in hindsight, at the time it was scary and and hard, really hard, like having to be in college and all of a sudden trying to make good grades and trying to find a job and trying to make the bills pay and all that stuff. Um, and and and because of my parents' previous income, I didn't qualify for any kind of student loans or um FIFA or anything. So it was just me making the money to pay for it. Um, and luckily I I could figure out how to do that. Um, but it it I think as part of remember when I talk about that comfort, I had been comfortable, but that was very uncomfortable. Yeah, right. And it taught me to be scrappy and it taught me to have between that and my learning differences, yeah. I look back and I think I've had these things in my life that have taught me really amazing lessons. And and I, you know, you hear a lot of people say you always learn more from your failures than you do your successes. Yes. Um these things that I've been through in my life, whether it's my learning differences and having to overcome those and figuring out how to learn despite learning differently, and and and and then the financial roller coaster that we were on, um, has has taught me to be scrappier and it's taught me to be tenacious and it's taught me to question everything, right? And um and persevere. And persevere for sure. Yeah. It's huge for me. Yeah. Perseverance. Perseverance. I well, and then I grew up ski racing too, and um just learned you you ski when you're hurt, you ski. Like you just do it. You do it like watching Lindsay Vaughn in the Olympics this last couple weeks, because I've had three like very traumatic knee injuries and two of them while I was ski racing and um one later on. But um, God bless her. Like I've getting I've been feeling you get it done. You get up and you get it done. You get up every day, no matter what you're going through, and you put one foot in front of the other. And and you and you seek out people who have more information than you. Yes, that's what you do. Yeah, yeah. I agree. You have to so I didn't mean to get into my whole story, but now you'll know a little bit of my story.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

I actually love it. Yeah, I mean, that's how you learn. Yeah, I've always wondered like, how am I going to be able to get my kids to get motivated? Do I start from this young age? So my oldest is about is gonna be turning 10 this year. So do I get her involved in finances? Yes, or absolutely what do I do at home to do I give her a job? Yes, do I see like these are all the questions that go through my mind. What do I do though? You know, how do I is that information even out there for me to go and read and learn about like what to do right now with your kid at such a young age?

SPEAKER_01 33:05

There there are some resources out there, and I will get more and get back to everyone with those because I I know of some they're just not coming to the top of my head, but you absolutely do. And um, you know, you and I had talked the other day, and I was telling you how I had started Roth IRAs for my kids when they were about 10 years old. Um, and to have a Roth IRA, you must have earned income. That means you must have either a 1099 or a W-2. Um, a W-2 is usually a salaried employee. A 1099 is somebody that's hired like hourly on a contract basis. That's my understanding. Um and um so with my kids, we made them go out and work at the ranch. They did not work for Clay and I. They went and worked for the Cowboys at the ranch. Okay. The Cowboys kept their hours. They got paid half what the men got paid, but they we documented that they worked, like they worked cattle, they'd build fents, they'd they'd they'd um paint fents, they'd spray weeds, they'd, you know, go out. Like we would take our boys and some of their friends, so it was a little bit more fun, and we would be like, here's your snake boots, here's your jeans, here's your long sleeve shirt, here's your cowboy hat. You're going to the ranch for the summer, you know, and um they would go out with our cowboys, and our cowboys would be the boss. And if they didn't do what the boss wanted, they got fired, just like a regular human. You know, and we had long conversations about these are the expectations you're gonna work from before the sun comes up until the heat of the day, then you're gonna get to take a long lunch and then you're gonna go back to work in the afternoon when the heat of the day is gone, and you're gonna work until the cowboy tells you you're done.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

And however many hours that is, that's what you're gonna get paid for. And if you don't do what he says, if you ha are on your phones, you're not gonna get paid. If you're messing around with your friends and not working, you're not gonna get paid. You know, they're very, very strict expectations. That's the real world, right? Yeah, yeah. And um, they got paid half of what a man a man would get paid. They they did a man's work, but still they were children, so they didn't get paid as much. And um, at the end of the summer or the week, the cowboys would say, This is how many hours they work, this is what I think they should make. And we'd be like, Okay, and the business would cut them a check. And then that was that got put on a 1099 and they got invoiced their 1099, and then whatever amount that was at the end of year, that's how much they could invest in their Roth ARA. Up to I think it's$7,000 this year. I know it's$7,000 in 2025 for someone under the age of 50. So um, and there were years where they only put$300 in, you know, that's how much they made for this whole year. Um, and then as they've gotten older, it's gotten to be$3,500 a year. But if you can start investing in a Roth RA at that age and do it consistently, you will potentially end up with millions of dollars in your Roth RA based on historical data. And and then on top of that, with a Roth, anything that has R O T H in front of it, whether it's a Roth RA or a Roth 401k, that means you put the money in today, you pay the taxes on the money, and then as it grows and through your distributions later in life, it's tax-free. So I think those are some of the absolute best accounts that you should be investing in. Personal opinion. That's yeah, well, definitely. I I'm gonna go and get my kids to start working for me. Yeah, but you know, but and and there are lots of things that you can do. Like you don't have a ranch, but you do have you're starting your own business. Yeah. So excited for you. And I can't wait to be one of your first patients. Thank you. Um, but uh um, there are gonna be things at your office that they can do. They can sweep, they can clean bathrooms, like you can bring them in on weekends to to to be your cleaning staff. Yeah. Um, you can when you do advertising, you can have your pit your kids in your advertising and they can get paid a modeling fee. Now you have to 1099 them from your business. Yeah, right. Um, there are, you know, in the IRS rules, you can pay your kids a certain amount of money every year. Um, and I know lots of people who do that for their kids, and then they use the the parents don't have to to get taxed on it. It goes to the kids, and the kids pay for their private school tuition out of that. You know, um there's there's so many different loopholes that are all legal. Check with your accountant and your CPA.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Um but there are lots, and and it's just a matter we're not teaching people these things. And we've got to start teaching people these things. I have been so fortunate in my life through my real estate meetups that I go to regularly to have mentors who have taught me these things, taught me tax mitigation, taught me how to get more money into um tax-free investment vehicles so that I like I'm not having to pay as much on those in retirement, right?

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Yeah. See, you you're talking about like mentor mentors, like I wish there was a mentorship for finances, even for kids as well, you know, as they're growing up.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Well, I'm hoping to create that with this program that I'm creating. And and I can tell you where I've gone, and it's been mostly through real estate investing. Um, and there are real estate investing groups all over this country. Um, I was really fortunate when I was starting my real estate investing journey back in when we were living in Dallas. God, it's probably been 18 years ago now. Um, I'm getting really old. Um, but um that I found people who were operating at a level so much more advanced than me. And they were willing to teach me. They were willing to tell me all of the things that they had done, the mistakes they'd made, the successes they'd had, where they'd finally what their accountants and their CPAs had finally led them to, right?

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Um, because that's a whole nother issue that we've got to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

We need more of that. That's so in the medical field, we're kind of taught medicine and then thrown out, and we do our medicine, and then when we get to a point where we're like, okay, so how do I invest this money? How do I save? What do I do? And then you go and talk to other doctors, like, hey, because this is all we know, and this is these are the people we see. So where are you investing? What what people don't want to tell you? They don't want to tell you. It's like their own little secret, like, I found my ore, they're still working and they don't know what to do, you know?

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Well, and and I see it all the time. It happens in every industry. Um, and again, back to that whole your microcosm that you live in, right? Yeah. And um, people don't want to admit it's m money is that dirty little secret. And we've got to normalize saying, I don't know what I'm doing. Can somebody help me? Right. Um, but it's like this dirty little secret, you don't want to admit you're not good with it.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

And especially in our consumeristic society where everybody's driving the nice car, wearing the nice purse, got the nice shoes on, are cash poor. Yeah. And they don't have the cash reserves, they don't have the passive income because I really think that is the key. You nailed income. Right. You nailed income. Yeah, you gotta have the cash flow, but that comes from but the cash flow coming from passive income is better than any other one. And and honest to God, if I didn't have passive income that I have built over the last 18 years, um, I would not be able to do what I'm doing today. I would not be able to spend the time or the finances that I am putting toward transforming education. Because so far, everything that I've done with education, every bill that I've worked on, every trip I've taken to Austin or anywhere else has been self-funded. Um I just have done it because I think it's the right thing to do. Um, I'm getting ready to start off uh 501c3 because this this battle to transform education is bigger than me. It's bigger than I can fund by myself. Um and I'm gonna need help. Will you explain it a little more? Yeah. So um so for the last three sessions, I have been working on legislation in Austin. I have been working on things with um different people to try to transform the K through 12 education system. I think most everyone will admit that there is something wrong. Now, they're great teachers, they're great administrators, I'm not dogging on them. Um, but the system as a whole is not working. It's not working for the students. We're not focused on the outcome of the students, we're focused on teaching these kids for a test, which is clearly not working. Every metric in the state of Texas and nationally for that matter, we're failing these kids. Um, and when we fail these kids year after year after year, which we've been doing, we are also failing our society. Because these are the people that are going to take care of us when we're old. And I'm not just saying that because I'm trying to be selfish and I want somebody good to take care of me when I'm old. I don't want to leave this situation for my kids and my grandkids to have to live in.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Right? Because that's who their contemporaries are going to be. And um, you know, people always say the number one factor in whether a child has a good education is uh parent involvement. And you can be a really involved parent and do a really good job for your child, but your child is still going to be surrounded by their contemporaries, and you have no control over that. But the system today, the way that our K through 12 education system is, it is failing all of our kids. It really is. And you know, we passed SB2 this last week. I had nothing to do with it. I I advocated for it, but um it was the parent choice bill. It's now created TIFA accounts, which are Texas education freedom accounts. If you had a have a child that is in a public school that is not performing well for them, um, they're behind, the school is not as good as it should be. You have a child with um uh impaired education ability. So um whether that's like me with my kids with dyslexia, or that's someone who has an autistic child, or a child that's completely nonverbal, or they have some emotional upheaval in their life, um, and they have been diagnosed and they have a 504 or an IEP plan, or you're a parent who financially just cannot afford to send your child anywhere else, um, these TIFA accounts will let you take the funds from the state and move it to another school. So you can move your child to a private school, a charter school, or homeschool. And funds after you apply, you have to apply. You have to apply by March 17th of this year. So you have very few days to get that done. Get it done. Get it done. Go to uh, I think it's it's there. If you look at Tifa accounts, Texas Education Freedom Accounts tech in Texas, um, it should pop up. And I believe it was like uh education freedom.texas.gov or something like that. Maddie is going to give me that information here in just a second, aren't you, Maddie? Um well educationfreedom.texas.gov. Educationfreedom.texas.gov is how you go and apply for those. Um make sure you do it before March 17th. It will be awarded on a case-by-case basis. It is not first come, first serve. It is geared toward um kids with um um specific needs. Well, yes, edu education needs first and low income as well. And then on a case-by-case, there's a billion dollars. Um there was some misinformation out there earlier this year. People thought it was going to defund schools. Um, it actually is at a billion additional dollars that the state gave out of the general fund. Um, and it will be applied on a case-by-case basis per student. And hopefully, last I heard over like almost a hundred thousand people had applied for it. Um, so it is obviously wanted in our in our school system. And uh, but there to some degree, and I'm all for it, go get it, apply for it, see if you can get the money to move your child someplace that works better for them. But I feel a little bit like people are hanging their hat on private school. And you and I both have had situations in private school that didn't work for our kids. Yeah, right. Which is unfortunate. Yeah. Um, and we spent a lot of money to find out it didn't work for our kids. Um it is the education across the board, whether it's private or public, K through 12, all the way, that is different. This is what I I cannot stress to parents and grandparents enough. I hear people say all the time, well, I went to public school and I took those classes and I turned out okay. So we just need to make some tweaks. No, it is a completely different system. It has been completely overtaken with ideology and been indoctrinated and and not by people, although there may be some people that did it intentionally mean, I don't know. Um, but uh in a lot of ways it was done with people with best of intentions. Um and I want to say to some extent it was done with the soft bigotry of low expectations. It was done out of kindness. We don't want to be hard on them, right? And as a result, we have watered down our system. And the education that kids are receiving today when they graduate high school, other than the fact they're being forced to take chemistry, biology, physics, and algebra, they are basically graduating with what we graduated high graduated sixth grade with, as far as their ability to read, their ability to communicate, their ability to write, their ability to think critically, their ability to problem solve. It is very similar to what I had in sixth grade.

SPEAKER_04 47:19

And add on top of it the realm of social media that's also decreasing.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Yes. I mean, the studies coming out of Europe, there's been some fascinating studies about how bad the screens are for our kids, just how bad they are. And I get it, I messed up, I let my kids have their screens too much, whether it was a phone, an iPad, or their computer. Um and I can tell, like I could literally, I do not have one of these. I'm just gonna preface that, but I could literally pull up in front of my house in a Lamborghini and say, hey boys, you want to go drive this? And they'd be like, No, mom, I'm good right here with my computer, you know. And it just makes me crazy. And I tried really hard to limit the amount of hours my kids had on that. But there are studies showing it rewires the brain, that it causes eye fatigue, that it hurts your neck. I mean, not only like emotional damage, but physical damage to the brain, to the eye, to the neck, um, just overall deterioration of the body as a whole from just all the hours of sitting. Whereas we used to be out playing, we were out running around, we were up and down the street in the fresh air, and now the kids are just sitting inside, you know, and um, it's a real travesty. And we've got to figure out a way around it. And so one good thing, another good thing that came out of this legislative session on that note was they removed cell phones from school. So you can let that. Yes, you cannot have your own personal devices in school. And it is like everybody that I've talked to that is in school is raving about the outcomes of it. They're like, kids are actually paying attention, kids are actually having conversations with teachers. Even better, kids are having conversations with each other over the lunch table for the first time in years. Yes. I mean, so maybe we'll get some of our communication skills back as a result of that, right? But we parents, we've got to start limiting the use of that. I'm not saying don't let them have it at all because you want them to have skills, some skills, but it needs to be rationed and it needs to be done in a very methodical fashion. And you need to be aware of what they're watching because there's really bad stuff out there.

SPEAKER_04 49:27

And a lot of target, they're they are the target, right? The kids are the target.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Yes. Yeah. I mean, and there are studies now showing that American students are being targeted by other countries that do not have our best interests at heart, that want our children to be distracted by these devices so that they're not learning and they're not able to produce as well as other countries in the future.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

I mean, I saw this whole um reel on Instagram somewhere about how kids are in Japan, and it just blew my mind. And I was like, I mean, down to athletics, like how they are sharp and on point.

SPEAKER_01 50:09

All regimented schedules, they're it's planned, and they are not given the time to be on screens all the time.

SPEAKER_04 50:14

Right. Even their food that they eat in their schools.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

I mean, I mean, let's let's have that conversation. I mean, the whole Maha movement. And this is me as a rancher saying um that there's a problem with our food. Um, and it's not the farmers and ranchers' fault. I just want to say that it's not the farmers and ranchers' fault. Um, it's really in the processing side. It's in the seed side, it's in the processing side, it's in the I'm mad at the EPA, I'm at the FDA, the things that they're allowing to be put into and put on our food. Um, people really need to be doing their own research. And I'm not gonna get into details, but do your own research. Make sure what you're putting in your body is healthy. Yes, yes, it's so important and critical. And this that you really need to look at where that research is coming from because um if it's paid by the company, if it's a if it's paid for by the company that's making it, it's probably not a good study. No, no, no, yeah, and and and simultaneously, like we need to do better with our food, but we also have to be protecting our farmers and ranchers because we need these small farmers and ranchers to stay in business. It is a national security issue. We should have regional food security, which means your food should be made within a certain circumference of where you live.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

Um, and we shouldn't be importing more food than we are making. Yeah, and when we do that, I just want everybody to think back to during COVID when we realized that none of our medication was made in the United States, none of the masks, none of the gloves, none of the the things that we needed to make people healthy, the oxygen machines, the um the uh machines that breathe for you. Like none of that was made in the United States, and we were all aghast, right? And we all thought, well, we're gonna fix this. We're we're gonna start making it here again. Well, we haven't, you know, because that takes money and it's cheaper to do it in other countries. Um we don't want to have that same thing happen to our food. We need to make sure that our food is made here, which means we need to keep small farmers and ranchers in business. We've lost 200,000 of them in the last few years. Um that's which is anti-American. Like we need to keep these businesses going.

SPEAKER_04 52:33

I think we need to redirect our focus, like just we do focus on here, focus on America, focus on our people.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

We need to we need to improve so many of the things. We need to improve our education. Yes, because for me starts with there. All of these things that we are facing today starts there, starts with education, our baseline. Our baseline. It's it's it's 30 or 40 years of not having received the best education and people them them moving us to the test. And when that happened, we stopped teaching people to problem solve, we stopped teaching people to think independently. Um 54% of US adults can't read past a sixth grade level, you know. Like, how do they go and find out information for themselves? Right? So they they turn to the screens and they believe what they're told, which gives someone else control over your life. You've got to learn to do your own research. You've got to teach your kids to do research, you've got to teach your kids to think independently. The most important thing that we as parents can do is be reading with our kids. And then the second thing that we need to do is we need to be talking with them and asking them questions, asking them why, asking them how did they do it. Is there another way to do it? Is there another option? Let them be inquisitive. Inquisitive. Because that has been drummed out of these kids. Um, they basically are taught to respond to authority, to listen to our authority, and to do what they're told. It is what it is, and that does not serve any of us well. No, no.

SPEAKER_04 54:06

So I guess we spoke about this. We can't just wait 12 years for kids to grow up. We need a parallel adult solution. Excuse me. So um financial education should be as normalized as health insurance benefits.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

Well, in addition to financial literacy, um, we need adulting 101 classes. There is so much information that is withheld from the population. And I don't think it's done for nefarious reasons. It's just we're not teaching anybody how to do it, right? So just like the financial literacy that we discussed. Um, and and I'm gonna use a couple examples that have come to me recently because I have people that come to me with financial problems, and um sometimes I owner finance houses to people. And I had a gentleman the other day, they're usually people that I know somewhere in my life. Um, and I had a gentleman that used to help me flip houses in in Dallas, and I had owner financed a house for him, and he had had a water leak in his house, it was leaking under his water heater, and apparently had been leaking for quite some time because it had rotted out um the major structural part under his house. And um, he had gotten an insurance policy for the house, and because he was trying to find a less expensive insurance policy, um, he had bought one that only had$5,000 worth of water damage coverage.

SPEAKER_03 55:37

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

Yeah. Um, and the structural damage under his house is substantially more than$5,000. I can imagine. Um and uh so I'm now trying to work with him on that. But through this process, when he first came to me and said, I got a check for my insurance company, it's for$5,000. And I hadn't gotten into his policy yet. And I was like, okay, well, don't cash it. And he goes, Why not? I've got this big check for$5,000 sitting here. Why am I not going to cash it? And I said, Because when you cash a check from the insurance company, you're basically telling them that you accept the amount of money that they're sending you. And you really need to file a additional claim first for more money before you cash that check. Um, and people don't know that.

SPEAKER_04 56:21

No, wait, explain to me further.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

So, like let's say, okay, so let's use what happened here in Lubbock not too long ago. We had a hail storm. Bad wind, bad hail storm. And um, there's so many things in insurance that I want to cover. And I am not an insurance, I'm not a licensed insurance agent, so talk to yours. Um, but then just telling you things that anecdotes I have seen. Um, so um there was this hailstorm, and I am a victim of it. Yes, two two two things can't rose to the surface for me as far as things that people didn't know. Um, number one, um, people had not read all of the different writers inside their insurance policy. We've never taught anybody how to do that, how to read an insurance policy to see if you're fully protected, right? Um, the number two thing is people typically get their insurance policy when they buy their house. And they get an insurance policy. Their their bank, their mortgage company, requires that they cover the mortgage with their policy. And so, and they might even get it for the price they paid for the house. The problem is, is 10 years go by, the value of their house has now changed, and they recognize that they're excited because their neighbor's house is selling for more than they bought their house for, and they're very excited about it. But rarely do they ever go in and adjust their insurance to cover the replacement value on their house. Oh dear. Yes. Um, so we saw a lot of it like down in Houston with the flooding. Um, people had been carrying the same amount of insurance on their house for a long time, and they just renewed it year after year, and their house flooded. It was a total loss, and they only got the amount that their house had originally been purchased for, less um less depreciation, and they didn't get like so say the house they bought it for$300,000 is now worth$400,000. And to replace it would be$400,000. Well, they were only getting$300,000. So they're never going to be able to replace their house. They're going to have to have a smaller house. Or in the case of many people, you see them not building in the same location because they need to move to another subdivision to take that money to actually buy something that works for that for the amount of money they got from their insurance. So, like, just teaching people these basic things about insurance, right? Um, that you know, you can't go on and off your insurance. Like my kids were in a wreck last year. Somebody ran into the side of their car and and like didn't t bone it. She turned into the side of the car and the car drifted, and then the truck hit the thing, and the truck flipped. And um, she had stopped paying her insurance a month before and it had lapsed, and so she had no insurance coverage. Like you can't go on and off these things, no, which is the other reason that budgeting is so important. Um, we need to look at finances holistically, right? Like you can't be like, oh, I want this really nice car, but then not be able to afford the insurance that goes with it because bad things happen to good people, right? Yeah, um you it's just it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 59:42

Um how do we target budgeting? Like really, how do we you were talking about that mindset, and I know it starts with the mindset, but how do we it starts with do you need to turn it on and off?

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Um it starts with mindset. It's about making people realize money is a tool. Um and that not all people who have money are bad. It is what you do with it. Do you do good things with it? Do you bad do bad things with it? Are you greedy? If you're greedy, maybe you're bad. Um, but but are you helping others? Um do you use it as a tool to save for yourself? And unfortunately, when you're young, you need to realize you need to work multiple jobs, you need to sacrifice when you're young, you need to live in the cheap apartment, hopefully safe, but cheap. Um, you need to drive the cheap car as long as you possibly can. The average car payment today is around$500 a month. Think of putting$500 a month into savings for two extra years, what that could do for your future if you just drive that car two more years. Um to not go out and eat dinner all the time, to not go to the bar every weekend, have your friends over to your house, do a potluck instead. Um, to um to not uh to go ahead and get the extra job, the second or the third job when you're young, and not be living in the moment and wanting to be happy today, sacrifice today for your future tomorrow. That's a mindset that we have to instill in people.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:18

It has to be that motto has to just keep going. Yeah, so let's say I've saved. I'm excited. I have some money I've saved, I've been working on this. What's the first step I need or what investment? You said real estate is an excellent area.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:36

And it you it depends on how much money you have saved, right? Like I would recommend um before you can afford to hire a stockbroker or a financial planner, um, you probably need to start with something like the Acorns app, where it walks you through the process and you don't have to know how to invest in stocks and bonds. You just have to get your money into this app and decide if you want like what level of investment risk you're willing to take. Um and they can set it up to put a certain amount into your uh emergency account, and then when that's full, then it starts going to a Roth RA. In the same time, if you have a W-2 paycheck and you're a salaried employee and your employer offers a 401k or a Roth 401k, put at least the minimum amount that they will match into that like first thing. Um this is what I do again, not licensed. Um, but I would start with the acorns out until you accumulate enough money to be able to get to a level of dollars in your investments that a financial planner or a stockbroker will take you on his clients. What do you think that minimum is? It depends on the on the the in the stockbroker or the financial planner. Some are as low as probably 10,000, 15,000. Um, others, um, and and if you if you have parents that have investments, ask them to connect you with their stockbroker. Um if you are a a woman who has a husband, start your own accounts um wherever your husband's accounts are, but that let them be your accounts. Um and um, and that's not to say you won't have joint accounts as well, but you can each have your own as also. Um, and I I think as a woman, um, if you have that ability to keep some money, and your husband should have some to himself. He should buy your gifts out of his money, and you should buy yours out of his out of your money. Um and then you should have all your your money together, right? Um as well. Um, but then you have to accumulate a certain amount of money before you're gonna be able to invest in real estate. Now, one of the things I see happen all the time is people get their money with stockbrokers and financial planners, and then they don't ever want to let you move it anywhere else. And people use them and say, Hey, what do you think about me investing in this real estate deal? Well you have to realize is that the stockbroker and the financial planner they get paid off of the money that you invest with them. Uh-huh. Why do they want you to take some of it out and go move it over to another investment vehicle? Now, there are some that are better than others, that is true of all professions. Um, and that they they will actually give you better advice. Um and um you have to seek out people who are doing it and doing it well, and you have to find mentors and some other people who are teaching it online and go learn about it, yeah, you know. Um that's I did. I knew I started because I wanted to do something. I'd been watching HGTV. It's gonna sound so like corny. Um I'd been when when my kids were little, I'd been watching HGTV, it was on all day because it didn't have bad ads and my kids could see it and whatever when they when they weren't watching cartoons or whatever. And um, so I watched HGTV while I was cleaning the dishes and doing the laundry and whatever. And I was like, oh, I can do that, I can do that, I can do that. And um just having I knew that I needed more information, so I went and sought information out online, and I found a group that was coming to Dallas, Texas to teach people how to be real estate investors, and so that's where I went first, and then from there I sought out other real estate investing groups, and you can go um if meetup.com is such a thing, that's how I did it. I typed in our real estate invest, and it popped up everything in my local community that real estate where real estate investors were meeting up. And I went and I just started asking them, what do You do? What do you do? And you'll find people there who um invest in single family homes and have rental properties or who are private money lenders or who are doing apartments or who are investing in um assisted living facilities or in college living facilities or any number of different types of real estate. Um and I started off flipping houses and then I moved into buying rentals and then I moved into Airbnb, and then I moved into private lending, which I still do. I still have some rentals, I still do private lending, and then ultimately I moved into the commercial space and have storage facilities and apartments and different things. And I also invest with other people because like I can have my money and invest in the things I do, but all of my money that is invested in retirement accounts, whether it's Roth IRAs, 401ks, health savings accounts, education accounts, I cannot invest that money into my own deals. I have to invest that either in stocks and bonds or with other people, third parties. Because you can mess up your accounts if you invest them in your own monies. Again, I'm not licensed, go ask a professional. Um you should be licensed. But um, like you you can mess it up. And so um, so I invest my money with other people as well. I invest in apartment complexes, I invest in private placement memorandums, I invest in other people's businesses, um and my kids' accounts, my kids' Roth RAs and my kids' education savings accounts, and our family health savings account. I invest all of those things. Like that's one. That's one. You want to talk about something most people don't know about? Is that you can invest a health savings account. Most people think through their insurance, if they have a high deductible plan, ask your insurance company if yours qualifies, because that's to each individual. We have a health savings account, and we put our, I believe it's it was$8,400 last year. I think it's gone up slightly this year, um, for the family, and we put it in our health savings account. Now, most people what they do is when they go to the doctor, they reimburse themselves out of the health savings account.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:09

And you can do that. But there is an alternative.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

You can take that$8,400 or whatever it is every year, and you can invest it in stocks and bonds, or you can invest it in real estate, you can invest it in. You have to use a self-directed custodian. There, uh, as I said, I used to be on the board of a company that did this. I was uh there was a self-directed custodian for these types of accounts. Um, I am not any longer. Um, but um they they hold your money and you direct the investment into third-party investments. Um, and so like you can ask them, you can tell them I my this account wants to buy a piece of rental property and a uh manager manage your rental property through that. You can invest in private placement memorandums into businesses, you can invest in crypto with it, you can invest it into um apartment complexes that are run by someone else. Um, like you can invest in all those kind of things with those retirement dollars. And the best thing about it is that if it if it has Roth designation, it is investing, it is compounding over and over and over and over again. And you once it's invested into that account, you never pay taxes on it. As long as you do all the qualified things. There's you bit in different things that you can trigger, but again, ask your accountant. Um there are um, but it's amazing to me how many accountants don't know that. I I didn't even know it. And I don't think my accountant knows that. Well, you know, and and and that's another thing that needs to be discussed at some point in time. Um, not all accounts are created equal, not all lawyers are created equal. And as you know, not all doctors are created equal, right? There are people that are good, there are people that are exceptional, and there are people who don't stay up to date with what they need to stay up to date with. Um, back to we all know our area of competency, and then we don't know what we don't know. And um I tell everybody if you're going to start investing in a new area, you need to make sure that your accountant is really familiar with that and familiar with all the tax loopholes and write-offs that you can take with that type of investment. Um, an accountant that worked out really well for you for years, just with your W-2 paycheck, may not be the same one that or the CPA that you need moving forward when you start investing in real estate, or if you want to move into crypto, or if you want to move into different asset classes, you need to make sure it is a comment upon the investor, the person whose money it is, and this is where we've failed our whole entire population. For them to know enough to know that they are seeking out the right kind of professionals and to know to ask the right questions.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:00

So if someone is ready to take the leap and to learn about all of this, but they're overwhelmed and they don't know which pathway to go, whether it's to focus on debt, whether it's to focus on investment or um any pathway, what do you recommend for them to start educating themselves in?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

So um I wish the company that I was on the board of was still up and and running. We sold it um because it had a really great education platform with it. Um, but there are some others that I would recommend you look into. Um, equity trusts, um, directed IRA um and um Inspira Financial. Um Wells Fargo, I believe, has an arm that will do the self-directed. Um, what you need to ask is whoever your career, your provide your carrier is of your IRA, your Roth IRA, your 401k, your Roth 401k. If you have a self-savings account, if you have education savings account, who is your carrier and do they have education resources? There is a lot of free education online as well that you can go and you can start reading. Go to investor meetups. Those guys are some of the best. That's where I found out about all of this was through investor, real estate investor friends of mine who had found out about it. They had done research, they had started investing using these things, and they shared their information with me. Um, and I think that's a large part of the reason that I'm creating this class is because I have become privy over the years to information that most people don't have.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

And I don't think that we should be safeguarding it and keeping it to ourselves. I think that we should be sharing it. And I appreciate that because sometimes you get so overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:50

It is overwhelmed that you get uh not motivated to look at it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:56

Well, and and you need to, you need to, you're going to need to hear the information more than once. Yes. And and and then hopefully you will find people that can direct you to better resources, right? Yeah. And these these people, like when I was with Quest Trust Company, we had an amazing, amazing educational arm. And there's probably a bunch of that free information out there somewhere. Um, but I know that um Inspira Financial has some education. I know that Equity Trust has some financial education. I know that um directed IRA, direct IRA has some financial. And I think um my money when we sold got moved to Inspira Financial. Um and I have moved some of it over to directed IRA now, just because I think I don't think anybody should ever have all their money in one place. I think that not only does it need to be diversified across stocks, it should probably be diversified across asset classes to best truly diversify it, right? And then it should also be diversified across institutions, right? We've seen in the past that there have been, you know, bad players in all different industries. Um, so to protect yourselves, you diversify um across all of those different things. Gosh, it's like so much just to learn from you and take in. Well, I um, you know, the School of Hard Knocks teaches you lots of things. Um luckily I've had more successes than I've had failures, but you know, in the process of learning, I've I've I would go back and do some things differently. Um I'm happy to share those losses with people. I'm happy to share those failures because I think there's so much to be learned from them. I learned from them, right? To never do certain things again. Um and uh luckily I've come out better.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:54

Yeah, you know, it's great that you have a blessing that now you feel inclined to share and help and encourage people.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:01

It just makes me so mad to see all these people who are being set up to be behind because we haven't provided this information to them. And it should not be gate kept, it should not be um, it shouldn't be just because you have the time to go and look it up either, right? It should be, and that's what we're that's what I'm hoping to get into um the K through 12 education system, at least very most basic of that. And then through this, this these Zoom classes we're gonna do and these online videos and online classes that we're gonna do, we're going to create um a treasure trove of information that will be accessible at people's fingertips, that will be stored there for people to go and look at at their convenience, um, and just make it as available and widely available as we can. I'm ready. Everybody and I know a lot of y'all are ready too. Well, I certainly didn't want this to be the Ashley show today, even though it's the Ashley V. Cash show, but it's not supposed to be about me. It's supposed to be about the show. But but um, it's really where my passion is is in helping others and making sure everybody's life gets to be the very best that it can be. That's so wonderful. Yeah, that's so wonderful. And we just thank you for that. Gotta go back and start with, well, not start with our kids, but we gotta take the kids from where they are and get that better and simultaneously go back and and get this information out to the adults.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:29

It's two things happening, and we need to break.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:32

You said that earlier, they need to be running in parallel. Yes. Where we're educating the kids at the same time, we're educating the adults. Yeah. And then we've got to make it, we've got to normalize being able to talk about this and be able to say, I don't know X. Where can I find it? Does anybody know where I can find this information? And I mean, going online is a great place to go, but make sure that the information that you're getting your hands on is the very best information. And we need to normalize helping each other. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. We need, and that's something that we need to put into our adulting 101 class. Yes, is the importance of community service.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:06

You know, like give back. Give back, help others, you know, and and so many times people think community service is giving money. Yeah. And it is, but that's not all. You need to give what you have, whether that is your time, your knowledge, your expertise, or your money. And if you have the ability to give all of those, do that too.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:27

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We really need to. So you've been telling us a little bit about this movement. What is it? How can we join?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:36

Okay, so I'm on a mission to transform the K through 12 education system because I believe nearly every problem that we have in our society today can be traced back to a failure in education. And I'm not, I'm not dissing the teachers and the administration. I'm saying it's the system. And um, we need to go back and re-implement some of the things we used to do in the classical education system, but with a twist, updating it for today. So it's more the methods that we need to go back to, but with current information, especially in light of the AI that is so prevalent and is only going to make our society move faster, right? Um, but we need to make sure that the kids are reading. So, like I have a piece of legislation I'm taking to Austin this year where I am making the recommendation that we we know that we are failing at reading. We need to go back and we need to do explicit training with phonics, with spelling, with grammar, with um vocabulary, which we had gotten what we used to do and we've gotten away from. But simultaneously, we know we're failing. So let's double down on the amount of time we give the kids to do this. So right now, English is one class and they teach reading and writing. Let's make it two classes. Let's give them twice as much time, especially in elementary school, right? Let's say, okay, so we're not doing a good job. Let's double down on the time. Let's do one class that is just all reading. Let's make the kids read books, let's make them read books that are at a level above where they are today, so that they are they are having to like work for it and like let's engage with them. Let's actually raise our expectations that they're capable of doing this, and they are.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:25

Let's give early intervention sooner to kids who are not doing as well. Um, let's not wait till third grade because that third grade number is a really critical number, and I'm gonna talk about that in a minute. Um, and what then let's create another class that runs parallel to that one where whatever book they're reading, in the other class, they're actually writing and speaking. Yes. So that they're learning to communicate in both the written form and and the oral form right then and there. Because the number one fear of adults is public speaking. Yeah, kids aren't scared of it. Get them over it. Yeah, let's keep them doing it their whole life so they never develop the fear. Um, but let's double down on the amount of time we're spending on that because it's so critical. Like if you do not become a good reader, so this is the statistic I was talking about a minute ago. Less than half the kids in Texas schools today are reading at third grade level at the end of third grade. And the reason that is such a crucial number is because what we know today is that 80% of kids who are reading below level at the end of third grade will either end up in our prison system or on welfare. That's the statistical numbers. In fact, the prison system looks at the third grade reading level to determine how many beds they're gonna have in the prison system in the future. You're kidding. No, and that's why I think, and the bill I'm taking to Austin this year is to double the amount of time that we are spending on reading because it needs to be done early, the intervention needs to happen early. That is the most critical thing that those kids need to learn in those early years from kindergarten through third grade is how to be good readers. And and they should not move forward in school if they cannot read. And we need to give them every intervention that we possibly can. And I don't want to hear anybody say that, oh, that's hard, and that's it is in their best interest that they be a good reader. Period. End of story. And we need to make sure that we're making that happen. Like if I get nothing else done, I want to get that done. The second bill I'm taking though also applies to that, and it is a bill to um so 30 to 50 percent of kids who get diagnosed dyslexic in third grade. Why we wait till third grade to do that? I don't know. Um, when we know the statistics of third grade, but um 30 to 50 percent of kids diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade actually may also have an eye tracking disorder, which means their eyes do not move together. Their eyes actually bounce and work independently of each other, and it is actually a physical problem of the eye. So no matter how much curriculum or intervention you give them, it is not going to fix it. It needs to be fixed through vision therapy. Um, the unfortunate thing is most optometrists and ophthalmologists are not um looking for it, they haven't been taught to do that in medical school. And very few therapists know how to do the therapy. Um, but I would like our state to start doing or paying for, and or paying for the testing early, pre-K if we can, kindergarten, as soon as they come into our education system, we test for vision therapy. I mean, I mean for the eye tracking disorder. And if they have it, I want the state to either provide therapists in the school or to pay for it to be done outside of the school to have the therapy done because it is cost prohibitive for most people. But I truly believe that a large portion of the population that cannot read or does not read well probably also have an eye tracking disorder. And I this is this is personal to me because I learned that my boys have it. All three of my boys have this. So they were diagnosed in like kindergarten as probable dyslexic. Um, we started early intervention in kindergarten with all of them, um, with pre-K with two of them. And they'd had it. My oldest was 11 years old, and I took him to be tested by somebody different for his learning differences. And she said, not only does he have one type of dyslexia, he has two. I didn't even know there were two at the time, even though we'd been doing all this intervention. And then she also informed me, and he has an eye tracking disorder. And I was like, excuse me, what? Yeah, I was like, no, no, that can't be possible because he's been wearing glasses since he was four. Like, surely sometime in the intervening seven years, someone would have mentioned he had an eye tracking disorder. No, because doctors don't test for it. And so I'm taking this bill in hopes of getting the state to not only do the testing, whether it's on school or they pay vendors for it, but also to do the therapy. Um, and I'm gonna tell you it's cost prohibitive. When we did it, it was somewhere between$100 and$150 a session, and we were doing two sessions a week for almost two years. Oh my gosh. So, but I believe it's every child's right to be able to read. And so I think it we we need to pay for this for these kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:42

We need the resources, it's for our whole society.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:45

We have to have the resources for them, we have to fix this. Um, you know, there's 18% of adults that can't read at all. And I have um a friend that I went to Hawker Day with um who was very successful businesswoman and teacher, and in her, we're about to be 54, but she is kind of retired. But what she does in Dallas is she donates her time to teach adults to read. And she told me this story the other day that just broke my heart, although I was also really happy for this person. It was an adult male, and he had come to her to learn to read, and she'd been working for me about four to six weeks, and he came back to her after a weekend and said, I was at a restaurant this weekend, and I could read the menu for the first time in my life. He goes, It's the first time that I didn't have to look around the room and be like, I'll have what that person's having. Oh, and I mean, like, I think sometimes we don't realize the impact that this has on every part of a person's life, and we should not be letting anybody slip through these cracks. You know, um how did we get here? Honestly, I think it a lot of it was just lowering our expectations because we wanted to be nice and we wanted to be kind. Yeah, possibly I I would hazard a guess that there are other people who would like people to be dependent on the government. And um it's unfortunate, and we've just got we've just got to fix it. So that's what my movement is all about, right? So I'm basically trying to take legislation to transform the education system. For the last few years, in this last session, there was tons of good bills. Um, I would like to see a whole, I would like to see a group of people come together and just break down the system, figure out where all the problems are, figure out what do we want this system to accomplish for me. I think the outcomes of these students need to be put as the number one priority. What are they capable of doing for themselves and their family when they graduate high school? Can they take care of themselves in a good way? Can they get a good job? Can they make enough money to take care of themselves and have a fabulous future? That's what I think we should put our goal as. So then how do we get there? What things do we need to put in place to make it happen? Yeah. This this testing that we have now, there needs to be some amount of testing, but not testing for a test, not teaching for a test. Um, we need to give power back to teachers. I'm really hoping a bunch of teachers will join my movement. I want to be your voice. I think you're the most important asset that we have in our education system, and but you need to be unleashed to do the things you were taught to do. Um, we need more teachers. Unfortunately, we've been seeing a loss of teachers. We need more teachers, and they got the state provided a lot of funding to go toward teachers this year, and they made sure 60% of the$8.5 billion is actually going to actually go to teachers this year. That's right. Um, that was in um HB2 this last session. Um, I want to be a voice for teachers. I want to be a voice for parents and grandparents that want better for their children and their grandchildren, and I want to be a voice for business leaders. We it's going to take every single one of us coming together to transform this system. Business leaders need Better, more skilled employees. Um, teachers need to be able to do their job and make a great living for themselves and be safe doing it. And parents and grandparents want the best for their kids. And it's going to take every single one of us coming together because the other side, whoever that is on the other side that doesn't want this system to change, has people that they call on to stop the legislation. And so we need to have people that I can call on to say, hey, there's this great bill. I'll break it down for you. I'll tell you all about it. I'll, I'll, I'll give you the pros and cons. No bill is 100% perfect, but we've got to start moving faster in the right direction to transform the system. And so that is what my movement is all about. It's about bringing together all the people that when when I can call on y'all and say, hey, there's this great bill, I need you to call your legislators and push for it, that we can do that. And I'm starting in Texas. My goal is to hopefully fix Texas and then move state by state. If there are people in other states that want to help me do this simultaneously, we can create chapters and we can work together on how to do it. Um, but that's what this movement is about. And for now, if you want to register and join the movement, go to www.ashleyash L E Y, middle initial B as in Boy, and last namecash.com and register. So you can go to that same website to register for the education movement or to register for the financial literacy class.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:24

So I'll be registering for both. Please do, please do. And ultimately, my goal is I've got some retired teachers and some people that are wanting to come alongside of me and help create a newsletter to let people know what we're doing, what we're looking at, what's happening down in Austin and on in other states, hopefully. And um to be communicating with people and then be able to call on y'all and to get y'all to send emails or go knock on doors in Austin or other state capitals and get the legislators to pass the legislation.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:56

I mean, I find it hard. Why not? Yeah. Well, I mean, this is a great cause. We're trying to help everyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:04

Yeah. Everyone. That's that that is 100% my goal, is for everyone. Like, I truly believe the United States of America is the best country in the world. Um, but I believe it can be better for everybody. But I also believe it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to do our part and to pay attention, to get up and vote. It is, it is time to vote right now. Um, primary votes in Texas are on March 3rd. We are currently in the middle of early voting. Please get out and cast your ballot. Um, and you know, November is gonna come around before you know it, and we're gonna need to go vote in the general election. Do not miss your opportunity to vote. It is so critically important. It has never been more important than it is today. Um, if you don't like where the country is going, go vote. And don't just listen to the talking heads. Go do your own research, go listen to the candidates. They are somewhere in your city close to you. Go listen to them, go talk to them, go ask them questions. Um, and don't listen to what you're seeing on social media. It's not always accurate. Um, I have a friend running um for uh Congressional District 19 right now who is having all kinds of lies and aspersions cast on him by people um who don't want him to win. And you know what's amazing to me is how many people do not realize that you can lie to the media. The media can lie. There is no requirement the media tell the truth anymore. It was removed from um our laws during the Obama administration. And in campaigns, one candidate can say something totally disparaging and lie about another one, and there is nothing the other candidate can do about it. You can't file a lawsuit, you can't, you can't, you can't say it with slander, it's just it's just campaign life. And so just because you're hearing these things about people does not make it true. Do your own research.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:01

Yeah. And your your vote definitely matters. So you make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:06

Yeah. And and at the end of the day, you know, I've heard this my whole life and it's totally true. If you're not gonna get out and vote, stop complaining.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:17

If you want to see something different, get up and vote. If you want, if you don't like the way that the elections are going, find a candidate that you want to run and back him up. Yes, her or her, back her up too. Yeah. Um, you know, and and put make sure that the right people are getting into the seats and and do your part. This is the American way. We all need to do our part. We need to care about our community. Like, I'm a conservative because I believe that our community should be taking care of people, not the government. Yeah. But so my part that I'm doing is I'm trying to fix the education system because I know it's failing people, right? Yes. Um, I'm trying to make sure that better candidates are getting into the seats. No human is perfect. The political system is very not perfect, right? Um, but we've all got to do our part and we've got to stand up. We've got to, and sometimes when you do have a candidate that's in office, let him know what you think then too, because you can change minds. You've got to be active. Yes, yeah. You can't complain. If you're not gonna vote, you can't complain. Cannot complain. Nope. Yeah. If you're voting, then you can't complain. But then you also should bear the responsibility of trying to make that candidate change their mind, getting them the information, because everybody is failable. We we all of us are imperfect, and sometimes people are making decisions without all the information because because you perhaps haven't given it to them, right? Yeah, um, they don't know how all their constituents feel because some people are talking to them and others aren't. So we all need to be talking to the candidates, we all need to be telling them the information we have, we all need to be telling them our feelings, but we also need to be doing our own research and finding out that the null the information we have is true and accurate.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:10

Yes, yes, and we all need to come together.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:12

Yeah, we need to come together, yes, and and that's the thing like every single bit of this should be done in a way that is constructive and not destructive. Yes, yes. Um so take them information, be kind. It does not like you can deliver the same information yelling, and you can do it by being kind. If you do it by being kind, it's like the old adage, my grandmother used to say, you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. Oh, I like that. And so be kind. Yeah, but most importantly, be the change you want to see. So that's what I'm trying to do in my life. I'm imperfect and just doing the best I can every day. Just getting up in the morning, checking in with God and trying to put one foot in front of the other. God first, just asking God to lead me, lead my mouth, feel my heart, um, put his words in my mouth and his actions in front of me, what he wants me to do, and just doing the best I can.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:15

You are. Oh, you're sweet. You're sweet. I I I you're passionate. I am passionate, but often you truly care.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:25

I do, I do. You're right, absolutely. Um, you know, but there are days that I too feel like, what am I doing here? Like, like I myself sometimes have um uh question your purpose. Not my purpose. Although recently that's not true. Recently I've been like, uh, I have all these things that people want me to do, and they're all good things, but which ones are I actually supposed to do? Which ones are truly fulfilling my person? I feel like education is that.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:53

Um, a lot of people ask me to run for Congress, and I was like, I don't think that's my purpose. I think fixing education is my purpose. Um, but um sometimes I feel like who am I to sit here and tell people this information? And finally I just realized I have information that others don't have. And it may not be um, I may not be a licensed, but I'm willing to share it. And so um I'm gonna share the information that I have. Always feel free to fact-check me. As I said, I'm not perfect. I'm sometimes I make mistakes doing the best I can, and I will always correct it if I find out about it. And I always promise to do the very best that I can. I love that.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:35

You will, you'll you'll be great.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:37

You are great. Thank you. Thank you. It's been such a great pep talk for me today. I appreciate it. I have so enjoyed our conversation. Thank you so much. And thank you. I hope you'll come back and I hope that you're tell everybody about your clinic that you're opening up again.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:51

Well, so I'm the proud founder of Omri Med. It's a concierge medicine clinic, and I think Lubbock is in dire need of concierge. We have a couple of great uh physicians. One of them is the founder or one of the pioneers of uh concierge, and I sat with him and we spoke, and I just realized this is what I meant to be. I meant to give uh a new standard of care, and I'm ready to give it to the community of Lubbock and all of West Texas, and maybe all of Texas as well, and uh as well as aesthetics. I love aesthetics. I I I want to um help people in more than one way.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:37

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that. Well, thank you for bringing that to Lubbock. I think that will be a great addition to our community. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:43

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:45

Well, thank you all for joining us today. Um, this is probably going to turn into two or three sessions because it was just such great information, and I hope you all enjoy it. If you would please leave a comment, let us know, go to my social media at Ashley Bcash on Facebook or Ashley Bcash Official on Instagram. You can also go to my website at www.ashleybcash.com to register for the financial literacy class, to register for the education movement, or to let us know the things you'd like us to cover in a future podcast. Take care of yourselves and we'll see you next time. That was fun. So fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:25

You have fun editing that.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:30

I feel like I talked around and around like five different times.