Episode 210: Be Your Own Bank

“If you don’t tell your dollars what to do, your dollars are going to tell you what to do.” 

Money is all around us in a variety of forms, but how are you using it to your advantage?Joseph’s passion for wanting to not only protect people but save them money is just a mere testament to what has kept him in business for more than 20 years. 

 On top of helping over 2000 clients, Joseph will let you know firsthand that there are ways to work within a system that’s not on your side. 

But even once you find a solution, how do you maintain it?

Tune in to episode 210 as Joseph explains why you should look beyond your 401(k), reveals how to take advantage of a specific IRS code and much more! 

For more information about IronHawk Financial:

Website: www.ironhawkfinancial.com

Email: joe@ironhawkfinancial.com

Instagram: @ironhawkfinancial 

LinkedIn: Joseph Lombardi ; Ironhawk Financial 

Facebook: Ironhawk Financial

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We've all heard people say more money, more problems. But what about the solutions to these problems? What about not allowing these to plague ourselves, our loved ones for generations to come? Joseph and the team over at Ironhawk Financial abide by this mantra. They want solutions to these problems. His 2,000 plus clients will show you that. His 20 plus years in business will show you that. All the awards and accolades, the distinguishments, they will all show you that. But ultimately, it's up to you to take that step. Knowledge is power, and Joseph puts a plethora of it out there, not only in his three published books, but in today's episode as well, about what you could be doing to set up yourself for success, set up your family and those around you for success. But ultimately, it's up to you to take that first step. Stay consistent, stay persistent, and then continue to spread that to others as well. So without further ado, enjoy episode 210, BYOB. Be your own bank. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamark Turner. Look, if you look at the screen, my guy, Joseph, he has quite the name, Joseph Lombardi, for all my football fans out there and for everybody who's been tapping in. When I saw the name come across my email, I had to do some, I had to do some looking up. I had to do some Googles, I had to do some searching just to really see who I'm really going to talk to. But you know, nonetheless, I was very um, I wouldn't even really say shocked or blown away, but I was very just intrigued by what Jose does and kind of what he's here to talk about today, what he can really do, what he can really even help you for. Because I know you see that last word in his um title, Financial. So I know people are starting to think money. I know we've got a lot of people on here who can help you make money or show you tips and tricks and even give you some insight as to what they can do. And I'm sure Joseph will be no different. But before we get into all things as to what he does and what he's here to talk about today, Joseph, how you doing today? How's everything on your end?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Life is wonderful, brother. I can't complain. Three kids, beautiful wife, business is booming. You know, life is good right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

You live a you live an amazing, amazing life. I love to hear that most definitely. So look, I know we're gonna have some people tapping in from your side. I know we're gonna have some people tapping in from my side, and then we're gonna have arguably my favorite. So those are the people who know nothing about us, but somehow, somehow came across this episode, found the podcast, found you, and want to learn a little bit more. So, to bring everybody up to speed, to put everybody on the same page, can you just do two things for me? One, just tell me a little bit about yourself, and then two, just tell me what brings you on the Down the Business podcast today.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

All right, so yeah, so I'm the owner and founder of Ironhawk Financial. I've been in business for 21 years. I've won 27 financial industry awards. I have over 2,000 clients across the country, over 2 billion with a B of protection and rollovers in my career. I'm a published author. I've written three books: Being Your Own Bank. There's a Better Way Than a 401k, long-term care without long-term pains. I've been featured in International Business Times, Business Insider, Market Insider, The Daily Caller. I was on the cover of the top 40 under 40, the Blue Book Network, and the Marquise Who's Who of American Congressional Library. I have my own radio show, Money Talk with Ironhawk, that airs on Brushwood Media every Tuesday at 7. I also am five-star rated on Google, A rated on the Better Business Bureau. I never lost a dollar for a client in 20 years, never charged a client a dollar in 20 years. I got into this business when I watched my father owned a prominent construction company fall 30 feet off a ladder and lose a $25 million company. So I started chasing trucks on the highway. They used to call me the dog. And uh yeah, on I-95. And uh yeah, I just have a passion to protect people, I have a passion to save people money, get them away from what I call the United States of slavery, which is the United States government. So I build people tax-free, liquid, sue-proof, divorce-proof, can't lose, averaging 15% tax-free retirement accounts that they can lean and leverage when the market crashes to double or triple their money within a year. Strategy has been proven it's a trillion dollar industry, and the average person doesn't even know it exists. Why I'm on this show is I heard really good things from my assistant. When I asked, I said, Hey, let's get it, get me on some more shows. Let me promote my um business and my podcast. And I heard a lot of good things about Tamar and uh this this podcast, so I definitely wanted to hop on it, and I appreciate you allowing me to use your platform to uh talk talk to uh your your people.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

We got to end the interview now. I mean, I think that was just pretty much I think everybody can pull a piece from that intro, and I think they can kind of realm and figure out what they want to do and what they want to be. Wow, I'm over here. Just I can't even keep up with everything that you just said, but that is amazing. And I I really feel like and I hear the biggest thing in that is helping people, saving people, but also educating them on things that they may not be informed about or things that they may know or have heard, but may not have gotten the best information from it because we know the media has a way of promoting things or the government has a way of picking and choosing what they want to kind of reveal or put out there to people. So I love the fact that, well, don't love to necessarily hear how you got into business with your father and the fall and everything of that, but I love to hear kind of the the turnaround now and what you've been able to do, how successful you've been able to be, and just the information and what you're putting out there to the people. And like you said, it's just a thing of where it seems like there's so much out there at our disposal, and you just kind of want to confine it and you just kind of want to let people know what's what and what's not what. The biggest thing I would say though that stuck out to me was one of those books that it's a better way than a 401k. As someone who, okay, so we're gonna start right there because as someone who is investing in their 401k, and I'm sure that we have some people on the phone. I mean, not some people on the phone, but some people who are listening to this, tapping into this, listening to this, that through their jobs, they just naturally, whether they sign up through Fidelity or whether they just give that percentage each check or anything like that, that they're doing that. And they think that this may be the norm, and they think maybe 20, 30 years from now, I'll be okay, I'll have my retirement built up. But as someone who has also watched companies crash or companies just stop matching 401ks, or your 401k just be built up so much, and then one tragic or one event wipes out all of it. What first of all, I would really say, what are your views when it comes to a 401k? But for your book, for the title itself, why, in a sense, are you staring people away from that? Or when you say there's a better way, what better way are we speaking of?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Great question. Um, I'm very passionate about this subject. Um, I know the United States of America is not a country, it is a corporation. A country actually has borders, corporations don't. Um, we've been bought and sold uh decades ago. Um, the Wall Street has colluded with the United States federal government. The Federal Reserve is not owned by the United States of America, it's owned by the 10 richest families in the world. They print uh uh long-term federal notes on our future labor, which is a definition of slavery. Um, if I own my labor, would I be able to print future notes on it? But I'm not allowed to, they do. Um, we we have uh mandatory slavery tax, which is federal, state, FICA, Medicare, unemployment, social security uh tax on the money that we earn. And then Americans think they save money by putting it at a 401k, and they don't. There's no savings on that money, you're deferring, right? If I'm watching the Packers versus the Eagles and they lose the coin toss and they defer to the second half, did they save anything? No, they didn't save anything, and then it's not only the money that you put away that you deferred, it's the growth and compounding interest, the eighth wonder of the world, compounding interest that's going in the government's pocket, not yours. And then you have to handcuff your money until you are 59 and a half, or they slap you with a bad tomorrow. You don't get to touch your and you're not a big boy. You pay us 10% penalty, and it's even if your company even allows distributions. There's companies like Empower that won't even let you pull your money out of your own 401k. If you're like, I'll pay the penalty, I'll pay the taxes, just give me my money. They're like, No, you have to quit. You literally have to detach yourself from employment for us to give you your money. So you're telling me that I'm gonna consciously make a choice to put my God gift talent that I exchange for a currency or money or a dollar into an account that is illiquid. They tell me I can't pull money out until I'm 59 and a half. They make me pull money out at 73 through required minimum distributions called RMDs. If the market crashes, I have no downside protection. And when am I gonna access my 401k pre-retirement? Which oh, I'll never do that. Yeah, go look at the statistics. 85% chance you will. I'll never do it. When am I gonna pull money out of my 401k? Is it when the market's up and the banks are lending at 0% and companies are all happy and we're just everything's great and butterflies and rainbows? No, it's when the market crashes, banks tighten, you can't get loans, you can't get a whole equity line of credit, and you lose your job. And what happened in 2008? Over 30 million Americans took out over a trillion dollars out of their IRAs and 401ks. What's 10% of a trillion dollars? Oh, a hundred billion dollars just in penalties on the American people? On their hard-earned money was stolen from them. Don't get me talking about the 28% federal and the six percent state and the 40% market loss. You netted less than a third of your money in a down market. Less than a third. Two-thirds of your money is stolen from you from Wall Street and the federal government when you need it most to eat, to pay your mortgage, to pay your car notes. And let's talk about the fees, shall we? 12 B1 fee, class A share fund fee, money manager fee, annual account fee, mutual fund expense fee. Huh. So, what's 1.5% times 30 years? Uh, that would be 30 plus 15. Oh, 45. Half of your money goes to the freaking Wall Street to pay for some schmuck Lamborghini, and you get nothing for that. Not a darn thing. Are you meeting with your financial advisor about your 401k? Are you diversifying? Are you selling uh uh high? Are you buying low? No, you're dollar cost averaging. Go Google what the average American makes dollar cost averaging. It's about four to five percent taxable, so that's like two to three percent. What's inflation running right now? Seven percent? Oh, so my 401k is averaging five on average, and we're having a good year last 12 months, but there's a whole reason for that, and that's the presidential debate to make Biden look better than he was, even though he dropped out of the race. But I don't go down that rabbit hole. If you average five percent, inflation running seven percent, you're guaranteeing yourself a two percent loss on your money. So let's do a 401k. Let's reiterate because I know I'm very passionate about this. I don't think the government has our best interest at heart. And I do know I worked in Wall Street, I worked at Hanover Square in Manhattan, I worked on Wall Street for MetLife. I know they don't have your best interest at heart. Their number one goal is to extract as much money and use your ignorance as profit, period. That's their number one goal. So if you understand then, you understand the government's not your friend, you understand you're living in slavery, which is taxation, and voluntary slavery, which is debt. You're doing that to yourself, by the way. Get out of it, stop it. If you understand that you are putting yourself in your own slave mindset and your own slave financial conceptually, because all we have on this earth is what time. That's all we have. What what other asset do we truly have? If we didn't have to eat, if we didn't have to, you know, get shelter, all we have here is time, and you're wasting your time, you're giving away your time with a 401k. You know what my clients do? They invest in something that's tax-free, liquid, sue-proof, divorce-proof in some states, can't lose because it uses option contracts. You buy option contracts, your 401k? No, you can't. Can you buy it in my strategy? Yes. Why do I want to buy option contracts? I don't know. They've been averaging 15% tax-free, and you can't lose over the last 20 years. That's what all the millionaires and billionaires and trillionaires do. If the max is 19.5 going into 401k, I'm worth 50 million dollars. I'm really gonna put 19,500 my 401k. No, am I gonna put 60,000 in a SEP, a simplified employer pension? Like, example, show Shohei Otani, it's got a 700 million dollar contract to go from the Los Angeles Angels to Los Angeles Dodgers. If he has a 401k, does he put 700 million in the bank with a 250,000 FDIC insurance? So when the banks fail, because they will, especially when they install Trump, the banks will fail. Do you think that he's gonna leave 700 million there and they're gonna insure him for 250,000? He's gonna lose $699 million, $750,000. You think that's what his advisors are telling him to do? Remember when Hillary and Donald Trump were on stage, and Hillary goes to Donald Trump and she says, What? You're a bad orange man, you pay no taxes. And what did Trump say? He says it doesn't make me bad, it makes me smarter. I do the same thing your donors do that you had the option to close a loophole for 30 years and you chose not to.

unknown 13:23

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

If I was listening to that debate 2016, what would be my number one? Let me find out what code they're talking about. You guys want to know what code they're talking about? It's called IRS Code 7702. That's the code. Google it. That is the code they were talking about. IRS code 7702. What's the IRS code 7702? Oh, that is the feature inside of a life insurance policy that legally makes the death benefit tax-free. Well, what if I overfund it? Does that stay within the wrapper of tax-free? Sure does. Well, what is a 401k? A 401k is a wrapper around your money that has high fees, illiquid, high taxes. They tell you when you can take your money and when you have to take your money. Aren't you a big boy or big girl? Aren't you an adult? You're gonna sign up for somebody else. Aren't we all God's children? Aren't we all equal? If we're all equal, nobody has a right to tell me when I can and can't take the time that I earned that God gave me, not them. God gave me that time, and you are voluntarily letting them steal it from you. Good job. You were brainwashed. You know what you were brainwashed in? This. You were brainwashed in the fact that what I'm gonna be making the most money ever made in my 20, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. And then when I'm hit retirement, I'm gonna be in a way lower tax bracket, Joe. That's my goal, is to write it off when I'm making a ton of money, so I'm gonna lower tax bracket later. So, what you're telling me is your goal is to make the most amount of money you ever made in your life in your 40s, 50s, and 60s, and then live in poverty. That's your goal. That's you're signing up for. You're literally signing. That's that's when you say, Oh, well, my accountant says, my accountant says, let me write it off. And then when I'm in retirement, I'll be in a lower tax bracket. What your accountant is saying is you're gonna be broke when you're in retirement. You ever hear the welcome to Walmart strategy? Those 85-year-old nice women and men that are sitting there, can I please see your receipt? Do you think they want to be standing there for eight hours a day at 83 years old? They'd rather be home, spend time with their grandkids playing golf. But you know what they didn't do? They didn't plan right. They didn't, they didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't all this information is out there. Infinite banking, be your own bank, rich person's Roth. Go Google Rich Person's Roth. There's two Forbes articles on it. One written by a certified financial planner, one written by a certified public accountant who doesn't even sell insurance or investments. And he's telling you, yeah, those are tax really bad. And then you got the C the certified financial planner saying, Yeah, those fees and those things, you're getting you're getting smoked. But yet you are blindly checking a box saying, I'm saving for retirement. No, you're not. You're making the government in Wall Street a bunch of money. You're getting a quarter. If half goes to to Wall Street in fees and half goes to the government in taxes, and that's the taxes stay the same. Do you know how much money we own in debt? 34.9 trillion. Do you know how much Medicare they stole from us? $40 trillion. Do you know how much Social Security they stole from us? $27 trillion. Do you know that our our uh US unfunded liabilities are $217 trillion? Do you know your US dollar went down 24% since Biden took office? Do you understand that Americans are 47% more in debt when Biden took office? Hmm. And I'm gonna defer my money so they can steal even more of it? You wonder why you're broke? You wonder why you don't have anything? You think I'm better than you? I'm not. I'm smarter than you, I'm not definitely any more better looking than you. But yet, I'm a millionaire because knowledge is power, and I spend my time learning about monetary system, M1 supply, economics, uh currencies, uh, what's gonna happen with CDC, uh central bank digital currency, CBDC comes. How is that gonna affect me? Can I plan ahead? Can I make good financial moves now? And you're worried about Juan Soto's home run or Aaron Judge uh passing the most home runs, and you know the the batting average of Shohei Otani, but you don't know where your 401ks at, you don't know how much money you have, you don't know when you're gonna have it, you don't know your tax bracket, you don't what? What are you doing? Distracting you on purpose. The government's main goal is to do what make you smart enough to work to put you in slavery and dumb enough to know you're a slave. That's our educational system. We're 29th in math. The number one country in the world, monetarily wise, that spends on education is 29th in math. 29th. I see China, those guys are really smart, right? The Asians uh make more money than than than than all of us do. White, black, Hispanic. 29th? The number one? Spend the most that's like spending the most money on a car and it's a 29th ranked car. I would say, well, I'm getting a bad deal. People are paying uh a hundredth of what I'm paying, and they're quadruply as smart as me, or the car's quite car is four times more horsepower, and I'm spending four times uh ten times more than they are. There's there's a problem, and that problem is on purpose. I'm sorry, guys. Government's not your friend. I'm sorry. They want to divide you by every means necessary. Religion, race, monetarily wise, sports teams, religion. Now they added another category, gender, another way to divide us. Keep us fighting while they steal all your money. Look at this hand over here. Well, this hand steals everything from you, your time, your money, your energy, everything. It's so much deeper than finance. And and this is this is why 401ks are trash because they've been manipulated. They've you've your your your money has already been bought and sold. Back back room deals have been done. All this you can Google this. Go go to go to YouTube. Type in 60 minutes how 401ks originated. 60 minutes did a show on this, like in the early 90s, and they were telling you, Oh, yeah, 401ks doesn't exist, and they used to be tax-free, and they used to be savings accounts, but guess who got their hands on it? Wall Street. They said, Look at all that money's in there. We want our point and a half. These dummies don't know how it works. We're gonna shank them because who wants Wall Street? Oh, the mob. Are those good people? Oh, I don't know if they're good people, right? So if you understood how everything works, which you don't, and I'm not saying I'm the smartest person in the world, I just have thousands of hours of research. I've been in synistry for 21 years. I work with three, Fortune, 500 companies. I talk to some of the most wealthiest people you could dream of. I hang out with Kevin Hart, I play ball with the Celtics. All this is verifiable, by the way. If you if you if you understand how everything works, you wouldn't be playing a game that is 1000% rigged against you, and you there's no way to win. So, what do you do? You be your own bank. You say, you know what? Do I want to be hurt twice by the government and the the the the Wall Street, or do I want to be hurt once by the insurance company with the cost of the insurance? Do I want to take my dollar, not write it off, take my earned income, put it in there, and now all my compounding growth, the eighth wonder of the world, is mine. Not half of it going. Did the government take that risk that you're taking tomorrow? If you lost everything, does government care? Are they gonna reimburse you your losses? But if you win, they're taking half and they did nothing for it. That's the definition of slavery. I trade my time and get nothing in return for it. I trade my risk, my energy, my God-given talent, and I get nothing in return for it. That is slavery. Doesn't matter what color you are, that is slavery. And people are signing up for these things left and right in a in a in an interest rate environment that's going up, which is gonna lower your 401k, in a tax rate environment that's going up, which is gonna lower more money in your pocket, more in Uncle Sam's. And they're doing it at an all-time high in the market. Buy low, sell high, not buy high, sell low. That's what 85% of 401k owners are gonna do in their lifetime when there's a correction. Or you can do something that's suit proof, tax free, can't lose, protects my family, the people I love, gives me long term care, gives me critical illness, has option contracts, have been averaging double the return of the SP 500 over the last 10 years, tax free, which is like Four times more than the SP 500 because the SP500 in your 401k is taxable. So that I know I said a lot, but that's why 401ks are garbage.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

And you know, as somebody who I wasn't really too knowledgeable about a 401k because I would say the job that I have now was the one where I really started investing. I just celebrated three years with this job. Congratulations. As somebody who thank you, as someone who has spoken to multiple people, whether in this industry or not, I've never really heard too many good things about a 401k. And to now watch my job also go from 100% matching to zero has been very interesting. Um contributed to that. Yeah, we have so now I, you know, now I'm really looking at things a little bit differently. But that's I think sometimes what it takes, you know. As for me, I I think about the people who know that there's information out there at their disposal and know that they could be doing research and know that they could be starting somewhere or having these conversations, but sometimes they don't know where to start or what to start, or sometimes you seek or you get that console advice or what you deem to be helpful, and sometimes it's not really generic to your situation or helpful to your situation. So a lot of times, like you know, I and I ask questions like that for my audience too, because I know that they're also, I don't want essentially the blind leading the blind, and I don't want people kind of just going from experience to experience and not really knowing what's going on. So, even for me, even hearing everything that you were saying, that's gonna change some things. I'm logging into Fidelity once this interview is over, and I'm definitely gonna move some things around. An interesting term that I keep hearing you say though is BYOB, and I'm not saying bring your own bottle for my other people out there, but be your own bank. And I'm I'm I'm definitely very interested in that because as you said, you know, we are slowly but surely just seeing things, the dollar losing value, other countries and other places not backing the dollar anymore. Everybody switching to a crypto world and a lot of blockchain things and decentralized finance and everything like that. So for my people who are tapping in, even for myself, too, for those interested in you know, taking or regaining control of their finances and making sure that they're maximizing on everything that they're working hard for and earning. As you spoke to, how can we truly be YOB?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

The best way to BYOB is use IRS code 7702. Start annually, monthly, uh putting away money into your own bank, have it compound and grow, have access to it. Uh, have it if you're divorced, you know, in some states, the courts mandate you to buy life insurance, not sell your life insurance upon a divorce. So that money typically is safe. It is sue-proof because of HIPAA laws. There's no database. Well, if you have children, I have three of them, and you fill out those FASA forms and those secondary forms for college, it's gonna ask you, do you own any permanent life insurance? Just get amnesia. What? Huh? I don't know what that means. No, there's no legal way that they can find out unless you tell them. So it doesn't disqualify your kids from grants, scholarships, loan straight student loans, financial aid. Meaning, if if client A had 100,000 in a 529 account or a Chet or a Rydell, all that they see. And if client B had five million cash in a in a whole life or index universal life policy, they can't see that. So guess who gets the free money? We're in a country that those who have give to those who don't when it comes to social communal type programs like uh slavery or uh uh debt, right? Student loan debt. So if you if you understand how the system works, you can make better financial decisions. So being your own bank, well, when the market crashes, did you lose anything? You didn't. You don't own any any actual physical stock bonds or mutual funds or gold or crypto. You own the option contract or the derivative on that fund, and the insurance company has has all the bets against it called a put, and you have all the bets for it called a call. So your investment portfolio is full of nothing but call options. Market goes up, you make 235% of a U.S. fundamental fund or 140% of just the SP 500. So, do you want to be in the SP 500 in your 401k where you have no downside protection, you get 100% of what the fund does, or would you rather be it in your own bank that's legally tax-free? You can't lose, and you get 140% of what the fund does. It's not rocket science. If I ask you simple questions, do I want to pay taxes or do I want it tax-free? If I'm sued, do I want to have them lean it and take all my money, or do I want them to not know it exists so the money is safe? If the market crashes, do I want to lose all my money or do I want my principal to be safe from market loss? It's I can go on and on, but these questions aren't rocket science. I've never met anyone, raise your hand if you want to pay more taxes. So if you understand how this works and you understand in depth like I do, that's why I'm five-star rated on Google with thousands of clients. I've never lost a client a dollar. Why is anybody upset with me? I sleep like a baby at night. I make a boatload of money and I help a boatload of people. It's a win-win-win because of what I know. I've worked at Northwestern Mutual, I worked at MetLife, I worked at Mass Mutual, I worked at Guardian, I worked at Penn. Now I own my own business. Now I don't give a crap what the company is. Because when I was at MetLife, what would I sell? MetLife Auto, MetLife Home, MetLife Life, MetLife disability, MetLife long-term care, MetLife annuities. Were they the best? Not any of them. But my sales manager's like, yeah, you got to sell this stuff because that's how I make money and pay my mortgage. Then I realized I can just be my own company and be independent and I could shop the market and do the right thing for the clients, not for the company. Which by the way, the company you're working at is a piece of paper. That's what you're idolizing. That's what the that piece of paper is saying you can't spend time for your daughter's birthday because you have to work on Thursday. You can't go on vacation. You can't go to your mom's funeral because you have no one to cover your shift. Excuse me? Who the heck do you think you are? That's why owning your own business is so vitally important. Just people don't believe in themselves. Sad. People people rather live in, I hate using, keep using the word slavery, but they rather they rather live in a world that they deem as safe, which is the least safe possible, than live in abundance. Everybody lives in scarcity. Everybody lives in a place where they don't think they deserve, they don't think they can. They have childhood trauma. They it's like if you're gonna bet on something, don't bet on the the Timberwolves covering the spread. Bet on yourself. Learn, go to a company, but have a plan to get the heck out of it. Have a plan to be your own everything. The only person in this life that got your back 100% of the time is you. That's it. I'm not saying don't have friends, don't have family. But in reality, the only thing you got is you. Nobody cares about you. You die tomorrow, you're you're you're replaced in your business. People that care about you are your family, your friends. Bet on yourself. I know I'm going a lot in different directions, but it's deeper than finances. It's deeper than just okay, I'm gonna start throwing $300 a month into an IUL overfunded, built properly with the right riders and the right structures with the right carrier. It's deeper than that. It it it it all stems to like we're trained to think that we are bad people. We're trained to think that if you're white, you're racist, if you're this, you're that. If you're if you if you're Chinese, you're smart, right? If you and they put us all in these little boxes, they put us all in these little boxes, and the people who don't critically think believe it. Is our world flat? We don't know. Is it global? We don't we have no evidence. Is there gravity? If you look up gravity, there is no uh factual evidence of gravity, believe it or not. Everything they tell us when you go down these rabbit holes of researching stuff, our world is not what it seems, and and it's deeper than money. You have spiritual health, mental health, physical health, emotional health, and financial health. I'm the man of financial health, cool, but there's four other levels you gotta do. I have clients who make sixty, seventy thousand dollars a year and they're millionaires because they take 20% of their income and put it away every single month. And I have clients who make $750,000 a year that their net worth is negative. Doesn't matter how much God gives you in re in regards to currency. What it matters is what you do with God's gift. That's the only thing that matters. And and you and you have a past self, a present self, and a future self. Nobody, nobody, not even your family or friends, can do anything about your future self but you. And if you're not saving, if you're not planning, if you're not doing those things, not just financially, health-wise, too, if you're not doing anything for that, nobody's gonna do it, and then you're gonna be 50 years old broke. If you're 20 years old and broke now, 30 years old and broke now, what are you gonna do differently tomorrow not to be? Pray that you're gonna hit the lottery. Good luck with that. So these these are just it just goes deeper. But but sorry I go on these rants, but it's just so valuable for people to understand that the game's rigged. You gotta wake up, you gotta do these things and keep put the Netflix down. Put the stop playing Call of Duty every I mean I play a lot, but stop playing Call of Duty all the time, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

And and just learn how to do this stuff, man. I don't even really think you have to apologize just because everything that you're saying is useful, and when implemented, when applied, when listened to, it can really change lives and it can really change the trajectory of just our mindset and where we're going and what we're moving into. As you said, one hand is here, the other hand is slowly but surely just taking what we are, taking what we are. And then when you get on the back end of things, that's when you really realize, oh, this wasn't what it seemed for for years on years. They sold me this facade, they sold me this message, they sold me this, and now that I'm here, I'm not even really able to retire. Like you said, I've never really drew the connection as to those people in Walmart, looking at the receipts and everything like that. But now that you say that, they're always the same demographic, the same age, the same, you know, and it's so interesting to see that. I'm just like, yeah, they they definitely the last place they would want to be here is looking at risk. Sometimes they don't even do it correctly, at least out here, you know. So I'll just let you go past or do whatever, be elsewhere. But to now hear it like that and to draw that connection and see it come full circle, that's so interesting. But you you you also talk about all the experience that you have from Wall Street to Guardian to MetLife to everything like that. So, with all that encompassing, with thinking about everything that you did, who you worked for, what you sold, what you saw, what went on behind closed doors, what you even realized that coming out of the industry, wow, this was not the best interest of anybody. To now start Iron Hawk, to now really propel that and elevate that, was there any was there any difficulties with that? Was there anything that you really because as you said, you know, you've put in the legwork, you've done a lot of research, you've done your back ends, you're watching different videos, you're seeing what's right, what's not right, what I'm selling, you've really kind of read in depth to a lot of the things that you're putting out there to people. So when really making Ironhawk, when building that foundation, when setting this tone for it, what was that like? Was it was it did it come easy for you because of the versive experience that you had? Were there a lot of things that you had to kind of unlearn in a sense to really learn how to do it the right way? What was that transition?

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Uh, the financial industry is corrupt to its core. Um, there's so many backdoor deals, there's so many uh things that happen that you would it's so unethical. I mean, you saw The Wolf of Wall Street. Why was that such a good movie? Is it because he was wearing a clown suit and he was like, it's not real? That movie is real, it is real, real. There's prostitutes, drugs, uh manipulation, backstabbing. Uh, you know, I it happened to me. You know, uh, there's a lot of people, oh, they tell you the world, and they like like like literally Pepe Le Pews, but in finance, you know, just trying to get every nut they can um and take advantage of people's ignorance for profit. I've seen agents, you know, you got these companies like Family First, you got these companies, World Financial Group, those things are scams, uh, you know, like easy, easy peasy to understand. I mean, these guys are making 25%, you know, on their FYCs and and three percent on their annuities. I'm getting three, four, five times that uh doing the exact same labor. Uh, you know, there's they they try to come up with different ways, you know, to sell you a false goods. You know, there's there's only one way to do finance, and that's to do the best interest of the client. And a lot of people they don't they don't do the best interest of the client, they do the best interest of them because they have kids, they have a mortgage payment. So this guy's got to pay a little bit more. You know, uh it's like use cars, you know. Well, we bought the car for 10. This guy's willing to buy it for 25, you know. They're ethically probably sell for about 15, maybe 13, 5. I'm gonna sell for 25. Finance take is almost the worst part of capitalism. You know, capitalism, I trade my time for currency. There's a fair market. If I'm good, I make more money. If I'm bad, I make less money. It's a direct correlation to the labor and services you provide as to what your quality of life is. The smarter you are, the more the more you hustle, the more you get. There's an abundance of money here. They printed more money than they have in the last 36 months, and they have an entire lifetime in the United States of America fivefold. So if you understand facts and numbers don't lie, because women lie, men lie, but numbers don't lie. If you understand that concept, when you're looking at numbers, that's why I love numbers, because it's the only concrete thing in life that I can say it's not full of crud. There's no uh backdoor deal to convince people to take a jab that actually causes more harm than good. Uh, they don't fly planes in the towers and then blame it on people in caves and say, oh no, some dude in the cave, like you know, 3,000 miles, he orchestra the whole thing. CIA, FBI, we didn't do anything. Uh you know, the plane hit the towers, four trillion dollars was missing in military budget. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm nothing to see here. Uh, if they're willing to kill their own citizens, which every government has in the existence of humanity, every government has killed their own citizens, some of genocided them. I mean, I don't know if you heard learned this in in school. Um, I did. Uh, you know, some of these governments killed 30 million people. We saw what happened with the Holocaust. So if you understand the government does not have your best interest at heart and you have to do the work, unfortunately, Americans are lazy. Say it how it is. We're lazy. Rather just click a button or 401k, rather just order something on Grubhub instead of getting your lazy butt up and saving 15. I mean, you literally worked an hour. If you're making 15, 20 bucks an hour, you worked one hour of your life to have somebody drive you food. Okay, that's how you want to spend your money. It's on you, you know. So it's just it's just being smart. If if you don't tell your your dollars what to do, your dollars are gonna tell you what to do, and it's not gonna be good. They're lazy, they're they're full of anxiety, they're full of fear. Uh well, at 11 o'clock at night, you're scrolling on your phone, you're like, Oh, I need this useless piece of thing I'm never gonna use for $63. Sure, you just work four hours about to hit a button and to put it in the corner. There, there's your time over there that you're gonna throw it away six months from now, huh? Or should I tell me why dollars were to go? 20%'s gonna go here. I'm gonna buy my own food, I'm gonna make my own coffee, I'm gonna do this until I'm rich. I'm not gonna live like I'm rich when I'm broke, you're gonna stay broke. How are you gonna live like you're rich when you're broke and then make make make your future self proud? How are you gonna put everything on credit cards and screw your future self so you can get a little high today? It's it's just the system's rigged against you and you don't see it. And if you do see it, you don't care. If you don't care, you're probably not listening to this awesome podcast. But so it if you understood how everything works, and you understand the government's not your friend, and you understand that the government is is bought and sold by by corporations. I mean, there there were there was a time in politics where where the democrats hated corporations and the republicans hated the government for telling us what what we can and can't do and can't and can't own. We hate the same thing. That's why the left wing and the right wing are both wings of the same bird. We we we we we vote for these people, they don't give a crap. Do you think Biden cares about me? You think Trump cares about me? I don't even know I exist. It's so deeper than that. But they they put on the circus show, they steal your attention just so that they can manipulate you and you don't know what's going on. Your ignorance is taken for profit on on all five of your of your health emotionally, physically, mentally, financially, whatever the fifth one is, it it you have to do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

You can go on, you can go on. No, but I I I honestly it's just like you I feel like you're speaking to a lot of people today, and I feel like you're speaking to a lot of people who recognize what you're saying as truth, but necess not necessarily knowing where to begin or where to go. Hey, but you're always telling me that this is a setup, this is a scam. I agree. I'm I'm totally in cahoots, I'm wholly in alliance with it, I get it, I understand it. But what do I do? And I feel like that's where people just get stuck, or that's where it's kind of just like you're going up that roller coaster and it kind of just like stops here, and they can never really get to that second point because it's just like they end up right back in that cycle. It's kind of just like you're getting all the way around and you're getting to the point where you should evoke the change and you just can't because you don't know where to go, or maybe you evoke a little bit change, but you're not disciplined, or maybe you evoke some change and you don't hold yourself accountable, or maybe you're trying to follow somebody else's structure or game plan or blueprint, and that's not specific to who you are. Because I think that's something too that we have to differentiate a little bit that everything that works for one person may not work for another person. You can get to the same destination by taking different routes. And I think sometimes people want to follow by the T what Joseph did, what Tamara did, what uh so and so did. When no, you have to follow your path and you can utilize this here or this there, or the principles or the knowledge or the efficiency of it all to get to where you need to be. And I feel like the minute things don't line up or the minute things go a little left or off right, that's when people lose that motivation, that's when people lose that mindset or go fall right back into that trap because they're used to that. Hey, well, I know this is I know that that 401k is gonna come out every check. I know that I'm gonna be able to log in, look at that contribution, and I'll be okay. So as long as I can see that, as long as I'm comfortable with that, I'll continue to remain stagnant and I won't go anywhere else or pivot anywhere else. So for those people though who are listening, who recognize that what you're saying to be true, to be factual, to be, hey, I don't want to keep falling into this rabbit hole or this trap or just keep going around the same ride over and over again. For those people who are more interested in learning about how they can BYOB, how they can make things happen, how they can secure a better future for themselves, their family, wives, spouses, kids, anything of the sort like that. What can they be doing now? How can Iron Hawk even become a part of their lives to help them achieve and ensure success?

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Yeah, I mean, it comes down to doing a budget, right? Unfortunately, I turned down a lot of clients. I could make so much more money than I do. I have clients that listen to all my podcasts, I've done hundreds of listen to my radio show. I have hundred thousand, you know, listeners, and they're like, Joe, I'm ready. I'm like, No, you're not. You don't have a budget, you're in debt. You know, you have 10, 20, 50 grand in credit cards at 29.99. I can't make you 29.99. Those dollars would be better off paying off your debt than investing in yourself. I see people that have uh 401k is but averaging 4.2% and they're maxing it 19.5, all while they're having $60,000 of credit card debt where they're paying 29.99. I'm like, would I want to pay off debt where I'm making 29.99% tax-free on my money? Because that's after tax money goes to fund your credit cards, or do I want to make four percent taxable where I can't touch it for 30 years? What? So you you it's it's it's not rocket science, people. Numbers don't lie. You can't feel like two plus two is five. You there's no transgender numbers, like it is what it is, and you have to look at exactly what it is. And a lot of people don't want to, they don't want to look in the mirror, they don't want to see their bad behavior that they're giving DraftKings or FanDuel, you know, 60% of their paycheck, that they're going to the casino, giving them 30% of their paycheck. They're at the bar, they're giving them 20% of their paycheck, and then they're saying, I'm so poor. It's like, of course you are. You're you're you're you have zero financial uh uh mental health, and then and then you're crying about it. It's like it's like punching yourself in the face and then going on Facebook and being like, Oh, my head hurts so much. I can't this world sucks. It's like doing it to yourself, dude. Like, like so it it's so it goes so deep, and it's like I just want to shake people sometimes. So number number one thing you do is you get out of debt. Debt is optional slavery. Stop buying your freaking scratch offs, stop going to the casino if you have credit card debt. I know. Well, what am I gonna do for fun? Well, unfortunately, does a muscle grow because I say, You're a good muscle, who's my good muscle? Or does it grow with being torn and ripped and pain and more and rip and then build stronger? That's how life is. I'm sorry. There's an easy way, and then there's the right way. There's too many Americans that go the easy way and they are 300 pounds with diabetes. They are broke. They gave away all their money, gambled away all their money. They do drugs and lost all their money through drugs because, hey, I was bored. It was better being high and then, you know, for a year and then giving up the next 30 years of my health. It's the same thing with finance. Same thing. Pay off debt and then get a budget. You know what a budget is? It could be on a napkin. Budget isn't rocket science. You don't need to pay some financial advisor like me $1,500 or $10,000 to a financial plan. That's dumb. Don't ever do that, by the way. Write down one through 30 on Excel, on Word, on your notes, on your phone. And rent, mortgage comes out the first or the 10th or the 15th if you pay late. Or the last day. Your car payment comes out the 17th. My electric bill comes out the 19th. My cell phone bill comes out 30. Figure out what your monthly nut is of mandatory bills, what's called fixed bills. And let's say it's 30% of your income, right? I make 60 grand a year. My fixed bills are uh $2,500 a month, $30,000. Right? So it's half. Where's the other $30 grand go? Oh, well, let's say I give $10, $10 to Uncle Sam so they can claim that they're using it for education and roads. When they're not, they're sending it overseas to kill women and children, making bombs. That's a whole other conversation. So where's the other $20,000 going? I don't know. Don't you think you should? That's like saying, what day is it, John? I don't know. Well, you traded your time for that money and you don't know where that money is, which means you just lost three months of your life. You don't know where it is. What? Your money's like children. You're gonna just let anybody watch them? Or are you gonna vet and make sure that the money where I'm putting it is doing the right thing? It's it's so it mind baffles me. Does money make you happy? No, money solves problems that make you happy. So if you understood that, and what what what if rich people always say? Money doesn't make you happy. Hell yeah, it does. I drive a 600 horsepower Jaguar. I just bought a brand new Escalade 24, fully loaded in cash. You know how cool that is? It's freaking badass, in my opinion. I didn't think I'd ever be able to do that. Who the hell am I? I'm not anything special, but I just know these things, knowledge is power. So it's like if you if you understand these concepts and you can get get out of debt, make a budget, and then start putting 10% of your money away. You got Christmas coming up, you got birthdays, you got vacation. Do the envelope strategy. I mean, it's a lot easier when it's actually cash going on, but then create four different checking accounts. I have like six different accounts, I own three different LLCs. I can have one one one account being my vacation. I throw $50 a month in that Christmas, I throw $25 a month in that. So when it comes, it's not hard. I have three months in savings liquid. I don't touch it. I pretend it's not there, which I know is hard. That Amazon cart's looking real button. I just go hit that damn button. I get it, but you gotta be disciplined, which is what us Americans do not have, especially in the new generation. There's no discipline whatsoever. Is there a pill that can fix it? By the way, our whole pharmaceutical and medical uh uh company is just filled with drug dealers. That's all they are. They don't care about solving your problem, they actually don't want to solve your problem. They want to keep selling you drugs, that's how they make money. They're drug dealers and like white smocks, that's who they are. They're just not on the corner, they're in a nicer building, but they're doing the same thing. That's a whole other story. So get out of all your debt, get everything ready, get a plan, do what you're supposed to do, and then when you're ready to put money away, then we then we talk. I don't I don't take money from people that aren't ready because it's it's unethical, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 47:55

That's fair. You know, I think a lot of people may not necessarily say it the opposite way, but there's a lot of people who do the opposite, you know, they don't really talk about your journey or what you're doing, they think about them and what they have to pay or what they're what's going to feed their children or pay their, you know, so but I do agree, you know, everything that you spoke to from the discipline to just recognizing what we're spending. I feel like you ask people what they're putting on a monthly basis, they probably couldn't even really give you a number. But as you said, those fixed bills, they don't go anywhere. They don't, you know, those are the rent is due on the first of every month. That car insurance is due at the same point, life insurance, whatever you're doing, the 401k, you know, you get paid the same time every bi-weekly, it could just be two times a month versus three times a month. So I feel like you know, it's hard to have that discipline, especially when that bonus check hits or when that commission check comes through. And like you said, all you got to do is click check out and it's on the way to you. So I think that that's very important. And it's also it'll it'll differentiate who really wants to take the next step and build that, and who really is just okay with, you know, I'm all right with struggling a little bit, or I'm okay with getting to my point where I get my 401k, cash it out, but I can't even cash all of it out and I get the penalties, and then it's not really what I think. And then I think about the last 30, 40 years that I put to build this up, and now I can't even reap the benefits. So I I I love the strategy, I love the approach because it really just says, hey, look, I'm gonna meet you where you are, but you have to be ready to go, to propel, to elevate, to build. I'm not gonna meet you where you are and then just hold your hand and drag you through all of this. No, because no, that's that's not what I'm here to do. I'm I'm I'm not here to do that. And especially like I said, it goes back to that blind leading the blind, and it goes back to us really knowing that there needs to be a change, knowing that something needs to be evoked differently, but we just don't do it. So before we officially wrap up, before we close out and everything like that, I feel like this is the most important thing because this is where people can see the name, people can see the company, but this is truly the call to action. So, for everybody out there, as I said throughout the interview, I think that you've probably piqued a lot of interest today. You've raised a lot of eyebrows, you have people kind of looking around the corner now, like, hey, I might need to talk to him, or I might need to do my due diligence or figure some things out, or he he he he even held me accountable without even talking directly to me, but he said something that I need to do, or maybe I need to look at my 401k. For everybody out there who has tapped in, who is going to come across this episode in some capacity. What are the best places to reach out to you? The websites, if they want to find out more, if they want to become a client in the near future, give us everything you got in that regard.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

So, Tamara, I'm offering every one of your listeners who want all three of my books absolutely free, zero charge. Uh, all the articles I've been featured in, the two Forbes articles on my strategy, absolutely free. I'll send you an email form, no cost whatsoever, no commitment. Um, not gonna sign you up some email campaign, none of that. I'll send you a calendar link with my books. If you want to meet, we meet. If not, don't worry about it. You know, learn, get better, grow. And then when you're ready, just you know, I'm not going nowhere. Um, if you want to meet me directly, um, you can go to www.ironhawkfinancial.com. Uh contact us is on the top right, and just fill out your name, your email, your phone number. If you want to write me an email to get my free books um or meet with me, it's Joe J-O-E at Iron like the metal, hawk like the bird financial, all one word dot com. That's Joe at ironhawkfinancial.com. Just put free books, you know. I heard you on tomorrow show, uh, the business show, whatever. Um, I'm not gonna hound you. You get one email from me. That's it. I'm too busy. I don't I don't chase people. Um, uh, if you know, have all three of my books, it'll have all my articles. You can do your research, fact check the heck out of me. What I do is not hurting people. What I do is helping people. It it feels great. It's almost like a charity where I make an insane amount of money and I help a lot of people. Um, you know, you can look me up, listen to me on my radio show, Money Talk with Ironhawk. It's on Brushwood Media Group. It airs live every Tuesday at 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Um, you can go back, listen to my past episodes. It's on everything Spotify, Apple CarPlay, um, Apple Podcast. Uh it's on it's live on the radio and in a lot of markets. It's cool, it's a global show. Um, so listen to my show, get copies of my book, reach out to me directly, check out my socials at Ironhawk Financial and at Ironhawk Financial underscore official. Um, I just try and help people at the end of the day. God has blessed me. I have three beautiful children, I have a beautiful wife. I've been with for 22 years. I love her to death. Um, I have a great life, you know. I have more than I need, more than I even want. So I'm just trying at this point to help people. I don't care if the show is 10 viewers or 10 million viewers. I just want to help people. I want to get this message out there. Um, it's so vitally important. And I I really appreciate you, Tamar, for allowing me to use your platform to get this message across. You know, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

No, thank you, man. I I I'm always just blown away by the resources that my interviewees come on here and just give us for free, you know, and it's just amazing. And another reason why I call it the call to action is just because it's truly that. It's truly up to those people who hear this, who even make it this far, who've been peaked this much or who are that much or who are that passionate about their future that should do this, you know. So I I'm obviously going to do my due diligence and put this word out there. But I a wise man once told me, you can lead a horse to the water, you cannot make him drink it. So, you know, I I know what I need to do on my end, I know what I needs to happen with me moving forward. I'm just hoping that my audience puts on that same code in some regard, you know, not as I spoke to, not following the exact path as someone else, but recognizing that your path could be improved, or that if you want to live, you know, or if you if you want to be able to give the intro that Joe gave, or even give the outro that he gave about just loving his life and just doing things on his term and now just wanting to pay it forward, then then you should emulate kind of those people who are where you want to be. So, Joe, no, I I I thank you. I'm I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have you on here, to join my platform to give so much insight and to even speak to me here, to give me some things to think about, some things to immediately do after we end this. But thank you for just offering yourself to my audience. I understand that you know, you with Iron Hawk and everything that you guys are doing, it's a lot. You guys are staying busy, whether my people tapping with you or not. And at the end of the day, it's just about helping and it's about getting people in a better position where they need to be. So I appreciate you tapping into everybody else who continuously joins us, who continuously shows love. I thank you. I appreciate you. This has been another episode of the down. Oh, and I love y'all. I forgot about that. You know, I always throw that in there. So this has been another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner.