Next Level University

#1475 - How To Set Your Money Goal

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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What if you could transform your financial picture and save an extra $1,000 monthly? In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about shaking up how you view your finances, stressing the importance of humility and creativity in your financial journey. They discuss how a humble attitude towards making money and a creative approach to finding money-making opportunities can significantly aid in reaching your financial goals. They discuss progressing towards your goals by revisiting old environments with new awareness and breaking down goals into smaller achievable steps.

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Show notes: 
[2:59] Wealth goals
[7:37] Get creative
[10:53] Chad shares how Next Level Podcast Solutions transformed his podcast and provided invaluable assistance along the way
[11:28] Humble yourself
[12:53] Break it down
[14:35] Be productive and gain momentum
[18:47] Face the fear of judgment or "taking a step back"
[21:23] Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Speaker 1:

Next level nation. Welcome back to another episode of next level university, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. We hope you enjoyed our latest episode, episode number 1,474. How much do you understand your ego today? For episode number 1,475? How to set your money goal.

Speaker 1:

If you are someone who has a negative relationship, a negative association, traumas, triggers, past experiences when it comes to money, you might not be setting goals around your money. If you don't believe you are in control of your money much like me for much of my life you might not be setting goals because you don't think you can actually influence them. I want you to imagine two different versions of a human one Someone who checks their bank account very often and they have goals around money. They say I want to make X amount by this date, I want to save X amount by this date, I want to go on this trip by this date, have a home by this state, whatever it is, and write out those things. Versus someone who just says I'll make what I make and I'll spend what I spend and whatever is left over after that, that's just how much money I'll have in my bank account. Those are two very, very different lives and Obviously, you're listening to this podcast.

Speaker 1:

You understand about, you understand the importance of setting goals. Are you doing it with money? If we break it into health, are you setting health goals? So maybe it's, I don't know, jim, personal records, or running a certain amount of time, or whatever it is.

Speaker 2:

Do you have any of those?

Speaker 1:

What are they love goals? What are those? Maybe it's to meet an amazing partner. Maybe it's to have more intimacy. Go out on date nights more, spend more time present. Spend your phone us. Spend less time using your phones when you're together awesome. What are your wealth goals? Because if we don't have them, we're probably, unfortunately, living by accident. We're living unconsciously today. We want to help you live more hyper consciously when it comes to your money goes.

Speaker 2:

So every awesome Thing that we share in this podcast has an origin story. It has something that it where it came from. Emilia and I gave a relationship talks virtual event last Thursday and At this event it was how to get on the same page about money with your intimate partner, how to get on the same page about money in your relationship, and it was a really, really good event I think we had 11 or 12 people and there was good engagement in the chat.

Speaker 2:

It was powerful. But at the end I Asked a question. I said who here, by the way, has actually shared Safe space? Who here has actually shared their money goals with their partner? And there was a consensus in the room of, honestly, I don't really have money goals. And that was a big mirror for me, because a lot of what we didn't realize at that event is, in order to get on the same page about money with your partner, you first have to be on a certain page with yourself, and so that's why we're doing this episode is because I told Kev, I Think that a lot of people struggle with setting money goals because we were never really taught how. I Never. We were never taught goal setting in school. We never took a finance class in school. I didn't take finance until my master's program. So here's a simple way to set goals, and that was the question that we got at the end of the event. They said how do I even set a money goal? So Imagine in three months you want to go on a trip and let's say the trip is gonna cost you three thousand dollars. Okay, what I would want you to do is Find a way to save three thousand dollars in the next three months. That means you have to find a way to on or save at least a thousand dollars a month for three months.

Speaker 2:

And I was on the phone with a listener yesterday and I want to share her story anonymously because I think it's a really good example of what we can all do. So she came to me and she said Alan, whenever I do a coaching call, I'm always trying to find the biggest bottleneck. What's the biggest problem? What's the biggest challenge? What is it that you're struggling with? And she said my landlord is kicking me out and I want to tell him that I can afford it. But he basically doubled my rent. And I asked how much and it actually is. It does make sense financially because she's been paying a lot less Traditionally, but anyways so.

Speaker 2:

So I said okay, there's two ways to solve this problem. I Number one is figure out a way to earn more money. Number two is figure out a way to save more money or a combination of both. I wanna use a combination of both. So I said, okay, you have a $40,000 per year career with 40 hours a week. I said is there any way, if you really had to, for the next three months, if you really had to, is there any way you could work overtime? And she said no, there's no overtime. I said okay, is there any other way that you know of that? You could easily go make some more cash on the side. She said well, I used to work at Walmart. I know the manager there. I could easily pick up a couple shifts and I was like boom, okay, are you willing to do that? She said yeah, absolutely. I said boom, awesome, okay, so how much would you make there?

Speaker 2:

We calculated it, it would be a couple extra $100 a month, so $200 extra per week, rather $200 extra per week, which per month comes to $800.

Speaker 1:

I said, okay, there's $800 right there.

Speaker 2:

Okay, now can you also find a way to save $200 per month? In other words, could you find a way to penny pinch a little bit and not spend an additional $200? She said yes. I said okay, what would you have to do? Xyz, that's a thousand bucks a month times three months. There's your $3,000 trip, there's your being able to afford rent, there's your insert. Whatever challenge you're having financially solved Now, one of the challenges to that is I already don't spend enough time with my dog. My dog's gonna be home a lot when I pick up these extra shifts. So I get that there's bottlenecks to why people don't end up earning more or saving more money. Not everybody wants to work 50 hours a week. I understand that. But at this point in this person's career, at this point in this person's life, she would much rather have more money than stay stuck and feel stuck.

Speaker 1:

I think creativity is a big piece of it too. Just getting creative with what have you done in the past. Even in that case, is there an opportunity for you to walk other people's dogs with your dog? Maybe you can make money that way. I don't know where you live. You might live out in the middle of nowhere, but I do.

Speaker 1:

The ultimate thought behind this entire episode is when you set goals, you focus on your goals. You focus on things that will help you achieve the goals. So if you're not setting goals when it comes to fitness or let's just say, health in general, you're not gonna notice opportunities to get closer to the goal. If you're setting goals when it comes to money, you're gonna notice things. Maybe when you go to the supermarket, instead of buying the I mean the normal brand of tortillas, you buy the store brand. That's $1.50 less. Okay, cool. If you buy three packs of tortillas, that's five bucks less. That adds up. If you're doing that every so often, but it is. I think it's that intention of how focused are you on it.

Speaker 1:

Somebody asked me the other day I don't remember who it was I was having a conversation and I said I'm thinking about money constantly. Now I also understand. I have a different relationship with money than most. Didn't have a lot of it growing up, never thought I was gonna have any of it. I'm also the CFO, so it's my job to focus on the money. But I'm always thinking about money. I had a doctor's appointment today. There's a cafe in the hospital and I was like do I really want to spend five dollars on a nice latte?

Speaker 2:

I did and here it is, and there it is.

Speaker 1:

There it is, but I worked myself through that of. Well, let me see I'm already behind a little bit on my day. Rather than me spending time to make the coffee, let me just pick it up on here. It's on the way out. I'll go home, I'll get right to work. Cool, but that's a conscious thought. So my early next level nugget would be on a scale of one to 10, how much are you focused on the opportunity around your money goal? Maybe not as much of the scarcity, and I understand that's very, very, very challenging. But if you're focusing more on the scarcity, if you're focusing more on the problem, you're spending less time on the solution. I coach a lot of podcasters who are business owners and it's very powerful how one question can change so many other things. I was talking to somebody the other day, alan, and I said this person's in real estate and they said, yeah, I'm always looking for new clients, I'm trying to think of creative ways. And I said you and I went to high school together. Have you messaged everybody?

Speaker 2:

we went to high school with and they said no, not yet. And I said I would literally just send hey, Alan, happy Wednesday.

Speaker 1:

I hope all is well.

Speaker 2:

That's it and then just see what happens and just message all 300 people, or however many people we graduated with. There's got to be one person in there who wants to buy a house or sell a house. There has to be, statistically.

Speaker 1:

So I think a lot of it is about being creative to your point of well, what did you do in the past to make money that maybe you thought you either outgrew, or maybe it was less aligned back then, or maybe you wanted to make life a little bit easier because you were past that phase. I think creativity is a really important piece of this.

Speaker 2:

I think the other piece is humble yourself, because I had one client who is literally an executive. She had a incredible career. She's in her 60s and she still cooks on the side for an extra couple hundred bucks a week. She cleans houses still on the side for a couple hundred bucks a week. It's sometimes, I mean, even that person who is going to go back to an old job at Walmart and pick up a couple of shifts. That takes a lot of humility. Are you above?

Speaker 1:

that.

Speaker 2:

Well, honestly, if you feel like you are well, then there goes that opportunity you could babysit. There's no reason why you can't babysit kids or dog walk or. And I think that what happens is we lose sight of all the ways to make money because, because we aren't willing to look at some of the ways we used to make money, because we feel like we're quote unquote past that. I do think that, and Kevin and I, we still have to do the things that we originally did in order to keep growing and keep scaling this business.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, there are certain uses of our time now at this point that are not as valuable as they used to be Back, when we had more time. Both of him and I are both stretched very thin, but I think humility is a big piece of this because, just like that person who, if I were to jump on the phone with her and say, listen, I'm going to need you to set a goal to make an additional. What is your bank account? Say she's a couple hundred bucks. Okay, I want that to be $3,000 more in the next three months. She would have been like how I don't know, overwhelmed. But when we broke it down and I asked the right questions and I said, okay, what's one way we could earn more money, she's like I don't know. I said, okay, well, let's, let's talk about it. She's like well, I could, I could go work at Walmart again. Boom, Okay. By the end of the call, I said how certain are you that you can get that job at Walmart? She said 10. I said okay, how certain are you that you can save 200 bucks a month if you really try? She said 10. I said okay, how certain are you that you're going to be able to achieve this goal? She said 10. I know I can do it now, Once we broke it down and made it less complex.

Speaker 2:

When we broke it down and made it Very clear, Clarity is a superpower. If I say, go make three grand in the next three months and make sure your bank account says $3,000 more, it's like whoa, I don't know. But when we break it down step by step, it's so doable, it's so doable and I think it's really empowering. And what I try to do with my clients is just give them the clarity they need to actually have the certainty they need to get the confidence they need to get to take action. And then, once they take action, they get momentum. And then, once they get momentum, just watch out. I mean, who knows, Maybe that manager says, hey, there's another manager position open. Hey, here's this other opportunity. Oh, by the way, my friend needs you to also, I don't know clean her house or whatever.

Speaker 2:

The point is is, when you have momentum, you get self-esteem, and when you have high self-esteem opportunities, find you People who are out and about and connected and working and doing things and being productive and getting it done. They get tons of opportunities. I know so many people who have so much momentum and you'd be amazed Some of my clients that have the most momentum. They're swimming in opportunity. They have no time. They're too busy to take all the opportunities to earn more money. They literally have to say no, I can't do that. I want to do that. Thank you so much. I can't do that. I don't want you to be stuck at home with crickets when it comes to money. I don't want you sitting there going. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to earn more money. I want you to gain some momentum so that opportunities start finding you, because everyone wants to jump on a moving train.

Speaker 1:

Well said.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, bro. Well said, and I do believe, yeah, I think the humility piece is very big, because it might seem like you're going backwards. If it seems like you're going backwards, you might not be willing to do it.

Speaker 1:

But sometimes going backwards is speeding up the future.

Speaker 2:

It's not really going backwards.

Speaker 1:

You're just revisiting an old environment with new awareness. It doesn't mean you're going backwards. If there's more money going into the bank and you're getting more freedom, you're getting more opportunity. You're getting more momentum and here's the key your future is brighter because of it. You're not going backwards, you're going forward. That's adding value to the goals that you have today, the awareness you have is much higher, so maybe you're able to do better at the job than you were previously.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you get promoted.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you never know, you never know.

Speaker 2:

This isn't about us, but I think this is a good example.

Speaker 1:

You always hear us talk about NLPS and I coach a lot of podcasters.

Speaker 2:

I don't charge for my coaching If you sign up at IEM. Now finally 50-some-odd clients in. But if somebody signs up with us, I would just give them coaching for free. If they want to do it once a month, I'd hop on once a month. I had some clients I was doing every single week, but that's what had to happen. I had to be humble in the fact that I'm very blessed to have clients and I want to make sure I'm over-delivering.

Speaker 1:

I do believe one of the reasons we've been able to build a business we have is because we try to do it humbly not from a place of entitlement.

Speaker 2:

You don't have to work with us. There's many other people you can work with. Same for you out there.

Speaker 1:

Try to be as humble as you can, but understand that going backwards to a different job, if it seems backwards, does not have to affect your self-worth.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't mean you're any less valuable. Honestly, if anything, it means that you're more intentional and that's really powerful. That's the thing, because I know we've got to go here.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, the fear of judgment and all of that is there and people might judge you for this, but you have to know that you're going to be better off because of what you're doing, better off than you would have if you didn't.

Speaker 2:

That's a positive thing.

Speaker 1:

It might seem like quicksand in the moment, but it's not. It's not quicksand. You're building a foundation. You're building concrete that you're going to lay down and build upon it.

Speaker 2:

Do your best to try to separate yourself and your self-worth from I remember I used to work there and I don't want to go back. It suggests that I'm not making progress.

Speaker 2:

That's not as true as you probably feel it is Set a 90-day money goal that is not so big that you get overwhelmed, but not so small that you don't get ignited. $3,000 is maybe a little too big for some people, too small for others. Set a 90-day money goal by the end of the year we're coming up on Q4. By the end of 2023, I want my bank account to say X number of dollars, and that's $2,000 or $3,000 or $1,000 more. Then you just go to work on figuring out how to do that.

Speaker 2:

Trust me, there's a way and you will find a way. Human beings are unbelievably creative when they need to be. Last story I had a client who was transitioning from an old job making $40,000 a year to a new job that now makes $85,000 a year, but there was a big lag in between. In between, she needed to pay her bills because she was upgrading her lifestyle and she was doing Uber Eats.

Speaker 1:

She was delivering she's a clinician, she's amazing.

Speaker 2:

she's so used to making hundreds of dollars an hour. Now she's sitting there driving and delivering people's food. That's called humility. In between the old job and the new job, she delivered people's food for extra money on the side, and if you can handle the fear of judgment or the fear of criticism or the fear of that quote unquote, step back you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish, Kevin and I.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's really important to understand that A lot of business owners get really entitled. We've been guilty of that at times as well, especially when we have big months. But at the end of the day, we both started coaching for free.

Speaker 2:

And we don't ever want to lose sight of that, you know. So now we're very successful, we're very grateful, but the question is would we be if we didn't start for free? Would we be if we didn't keep momentum?

Speaker 1:

Would we be if we didn't humble?

Speaker 2:

ourselves and and grow over time versus hey, I'm worth $10,000, whatever that stuff is. Again, at the end of the day, I don't want to come off negative with that, but it's. It's important to humble yourself and it's okay to take a few steps back in order to climb a few steps forward and I think, long term, your future self will definitely thank you.

Speaker 1:

If you are looking for help when you're setting your money goal. Our 12th round of group coaching starts on October 10. We will have the link in the show notes that will take you to the landing page, as well as the discount code, which will save you 30% on your entire purchase.

Speaker 2:

It'll end up being $96.60 per month, I believe, with the discount code and the discount code is NLU listener.

Speaker 1:

All one word. We talk about health, we talk about wealth and we talk about love in group coaching at a much deeper level than you will hear on the podcast. So if you're interested, please join. I guarantee it is worth the investment.

Speaker 2:

That listener who I told that story about went from completely uncertain prior to the call struggling nearly in tears to, by the end, totally certain ready to rock. That is what can happen when you get in a room with someone who's willing to sit down and find the problem and help you solve it.

Speaker 1:

That's what my coaching is all about. If you want to check that out, please reach out.

Speaker 2:

Alan at nextleveluniversedcom to say hey, I want to book a free session. I will do all that I can to help you identify your biggest struggle and to help you create a game plan to actually overcome it, particularly if it's financial and you're struggling to set financial goals, I will help you as much as I possibly can. Tomorrow we're talking about goals again tomorrow back to back goal episodes. Tomorrow for episode number 1476, a little Sunday podcasting with Jeff and Jeff.

Speaker 2:

Another reason your goals are so important, not just money goals, not just health goals, not just relationship goals, but goals in general, another deeper reason why there's some important. We'll talk about that tomorrow, as always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and an L you. We are a fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow. Set those money goals Next time, nice man.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host