"Building Wealth Starts With Assets"

Building wealth starts with smart decisions—buying assets that create long-term value instead of liabilities that lose it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

So, what is the best um financial advice you've learned over the years?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Um discipline with your expenses, live well below your means. Um Dr. Stanley wrote a book called uh a couple books actually called The Millionaire Next Door and the Millionaire Mind. And I recommend uh that everybody in my congregation read it. And uh they're the books are written about the spending habits of millionaires. And so even Dave Ramsey's made reference uh to it. And so financial responsibility is is huge, self-control, living below your means, uh, telling your money where to go, buying real assets that return money to you, make a tremendous difference in your life. And so, you know, I'm 61. There's a lot of there's a lot of sixty-year-olds who are broke, but in their life they've driven a sixty thousand dollar truck, uh, they've had a forty-five thousand dollar side-by-side, they've had a thirty-five thousand dollar motorcycle, they've gone on all kinds of vacations, but they're broke. They spent their money on things that lose value. But I always try to tell young people and adults in general, spend money on things that will reap benefits to you down the road. And that's why I always wanted rentals. And that's why I tell uh people that I know if if you've got sixty grand for a vehicle and you don't have a rental, go buy a twenty thousand dollar vehicle and spend forty thousand dollars on a rental because that rental is gonna pay you money for the rest of your life, and then you can leave the rental to your kids and it will pay them an income for the rest of their life. But if you go buy a sixty thousand dollar truck in twenty or twenty-five years, it's in the junkyard and you have nothing to show for it. So if you buy assets, you make money for the rest of your life. And I I know a lot of people say, well, a car's an asset. Not really. It might show up on a bank on a uh a financial statement at the bank as an asset, but eventually it goes to zero. The house, if it's maintained, will never go to zero. Even if it doesn't go up by one or two percent, or but by one or two percent, it will still increase in value and it'll still pay income.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah. Uh yeah, I think uh with a car it's more of a liability more than anything.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Well, and that goes back to uh, you know, people worried about what everybody else thinks of them when it comes to the whole image, the vehicle I drive. I mean, if you read the story about Sam Walton, who founded Walmart, in his old age he was driving around in his old single cab, two-wheel drive pickup truck with his dog, going and and and looking at his empire while broke people drive up to his Walmart in SUVs, you know, that are 70,000 bucks. And he's and you know, he was a billionaire.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

And so but he bought that which contributed to wealth building, not something that just ate up everything he had.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

I think it's funny when you talk about finances, I think it's funny uh it how how it actually becomes a mental game. Really, it does. Yeah. Um, and it's probably one of the most uh social, however you want to put it in terms, social uh mental thing that every family goes through and anywhere. You can't say in the US, but uh anywhere. Um I mean, because there's always uh I guess a s a social pressure. I guess that you could label it as like that. Um, with your neighbors. And uh yeah, I mean you like that well, it's just like that with your family. Um not yours specifically, but I'm just saying in general, like family in general, it's like that. And uh it really becomes uh almost like a um how you wanna how you wanna phrase it, like a mental um diagnosis, something that yeah, I think that everybody goes through. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Well, even even as a realtor, I would take I would take couples out and and show them houses to buy, and they would say, Well, I qualify for this much. The bank said I qualify for this, and I'd say, look, you might qualify for 300. I wouldn't spend two I wouldn't spend 300. Right. You can if you want, I'll sell you whatever you want. Yeah. Um, but the the banker is in the business to loan money because he wants to make money. If you're gonna be living hand to mouth and can't hardly keep the electric on because you saddled yourself with a $3,500 mortgage, it's not wise. Get something cheaper.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

And uh and I were and I worked with plenty of clients when I was a realtor who were bound and determined that they were gonna get the most expensive house they could possibly get, and I would and they would tell me their finances, and I'd think to myself, you guys are gonna be broke. And they were. Yeah. And it it took everything they had to make their house payment because of pressure.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Something I was gonna say before that, but it's funny how financial or how finances in general are deceiving. Because a lot of times uh the human brain works when you see somebody in like a nice car or um the clothes they wear or just their appearance in general, you have uh in your mind you you think of uh already of a you put them in a category, yeah. Not knowing everything that's behind all that. Yeah. A lot of times it's uh the many countless dollars of debt.