Next Level University

#1787 - One Person’s Criticism Is Another Person’s Success

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Is frugal living the true path to wealth? In today’s episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros share inspiring stories of people who achieved financial success by being mindful of spending. They highlight the importance of looking at the big picture rather than jumping to conclusions based on short-term appearances. This engaging conversation emphasizes the value of intelligent financial planning and sheds light on the often misunderstood habits that lead to economic success. Join us to learn valuable lessons on financial discipline, the importance of long-term planning, and how diverse viewpoints can shape our understanding of success.

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Show notes:
(3:33) Economical living
(6:01) Obsessive Vs. Statistical average
(9:15) What do you do to become more wealthy?
(11:35) It looks cool...
(16:19) Beyond the cover
(18:53) Long-term impact of choices
(22:24) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your l

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🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

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. Today, for episode number 1,787,. One person's criticism is another person's success. As you know, for a long time and by long time I mean several years I lived with Matt, so you've heard of Matt, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, matt is my best friend. I have two best friends, but they're different. We're not business partners, but Al and I are best friends, but we're also business partners the whole thing. Well, we wouldn't be best friends if we weren't business partners. We'd probably hate each other. So it's different, different buckets.

Speaker 2

I don't think we'd hate each other. I wouldn't hate you. You might. How?

Speaker 1

do you know what if I was a terrible person? Now, if you were a terrible?

Speaker 2

person I would dislike you. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1

I would also hate you If you were a terrible person.

Speaker 2

That's a fair assessment, so we'll see Real quick.

Speaker 1

Go on.

Speaker 2

Okay, when you said the title of this episode. This will be funny for the listeners, not for you.

Speaker 1

Okay, I'm excited. It's not about you. Okay, what's the title of the episode? One Person's Criticism is Another Person's.

Speaker 2

Success. All I could think of and some of the listeners will love this and some might not even understand it there's a quote in the Grinch Okay, where he says one man's toxic sludge is another man's potpourri, yeah, yeah. And then the dog barks, max, and he says I don't know, it's some kind of soup. I've seen that movie. It's all I can think of. Hilarious movie. I think it's a great movie, yeah.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I struggle, though I can't watch it every year Like every other year. Yeah, for christmas, I love christmas. I'm a huge christmas. I love christmas time. I'm already counting down it's.

Speaker 2

We're recording this episode on august 4th only four and a half months I actually thought of that yesterday, because we do the next level hope foundation and we need to contact the ymca, yes, and make sure that we have that available. 100, but I was going to do that in the beginning of October. Okay, that's plenty of time.

Speaker 1

Yep, okay. So I lived with Matt for three years and Matt was making very good money. I don't want to. I'm going to leave it there. I don't want to talk about anything else, any specifics. I'm going to leave it high level. But Matt was making very good money in his career and I don't want to talk about anything else, any specifics. I'm going to leave it high level. But Matt was making very good money in his career and many nights for dinner and this is 100% accurate If Matt was here he would attest to this Matt would literally have frozen chicken patties, frozen fries and I don't know, some sort of diet soda or something.

Economical living

Speaker 1

He would have the cheapest possible meals all the time. He would also go to the grocery store and if there was ground turkey was on sale, he would come back with 12 ground turkeys To the point where I believe, after I moved out, he bought a separate freezer just so he could buy stuff when it was on sale and then just keep as much of it as humanly possible. Smart man People for sure would make fun of him for that. I never did, because I always appreciated it and it helped me be more mindful of the amount of money I was spending. I very much appreciated that he was always on me to spend less money and I hated it. It was a pain in the butt but it was good, just like you're on me to spend less money.

Speaker 1

Imagine a prospective partner. You have them over for dinner one night and you say, on a scale of 1 to 10, excuse me, on a scale of 0 to 10, because 0 is a number also how hungry are you? And they say, oh, probably a 6 out of 10. Awesome, so I'll cook you two chicken patties instead of one you think that'll do. That person's going to probably think you have lost it or they're going to judge you completely. Now, if that's the first date, maybe that's not the way to go about it, but just imagine the level of negativity that you might get. People would probably judge that behavior. You make X amount of dollars and you're having frozen chicken patties for dinner for the third night in a row. Why?

Speaker 2

aren't you having?

Speaker 1

that's why he makes so much money, and that's that's what we're talking about today's episode.

Speaker 2

So that's wrong work that's my story. To get us going here from zero to ten, and this is about achievement, success, wealth From 0 to 10,. What do you think is the probability that Matt will be a wealthy man with abundance?

Speaker 1

10 out of 10.

Speaker 2

Okay, those two are very correlated. Someone who is that intelligent with every dollar is very careful, and the opposite is someone who just lets it ride and which one's going to have more money. Obviously the person who's meticulous and careful Now is he too extreme with that and and should he maybe focus that time and effort on other places. That's a whole nother conversation. I was coaching matt. I would. I would say you're probably too far on the scarcity end based on your current cash on hand, but I respect it and I admire it, and it's much better than going the other way, because if you're overly abundant and broke, that's much harder.

Speaker 1

I don't know if chicken patties are still on the menu. Probably, yeah, probably, were probably always beyond the menu, I would have to imagine. Yeah.

Obsessive Vs. Statistical average

Speaker 2

Okay. So it's funny too, because this conversation my brain is going on fire about all the ways in which that is proof that he will be successful, not the alternative. I mean, think about it. He's willing to be judged, he's willing to be made fun of for that, he's willing to be seen as impolite. He's willing to buy in abundance when it's on sale and then think long term and then invest in a freezer which costs money but saves him money long, like he's in finance. That's the important piece to understand about this. By the way, this person is in finance. He's been in finance for a decade and he's very good with money, very, very good with money, and that's why he'll be wealthy. You have to be good with money if you want to be wealthy, unless you have generational wealth from your family, all right.

Speaker 2

So I have a client of mine who I've anonymously referred to in past episodes. I think it was last week and this client reached out to me and said LOL, today's NLU, and I quote, he literally just throws a 20 into savings here and there. And he put the little embarrassing face playful embarrassing face and I said facts are facts. Lol. I put a brain emoji with a laughy face and he said but here's the thing. Literally everybody else in my life is like why are you doing this? You're fine, you can just sell a house if you ever need to, because this person owns a bunch of houses. But you, on the other hand, are like good job, man, you saved 20 bucks this week. And I said to him I said that shows the difference in mentality. And I said this I said it's an obsessive versus a statistical average.

Speaker 2

What I meant by that is most people would make fun of Matt, the one you referenced, and would make fun of my client for being so quote unquote skimpy, but they also are the ones who own a lot of properties. They both own a bunch of properties, so they have to be skimpy because they would much rather invest that money intelligently. So what's the point of all this If the number one goal? I'm going on a finance show this week and they already reached out and with some of the questions, I actually don't like when that happens because I'd rather them just ask and go off the cuff, but I appreciate the preparation.

Speaker 2

One of the questions is what do you do to become more wealthy? And the number one, most important until you do this, you kind of this, is the place to start. You need to track your spending, you have to track how much money you're spending, and that's really where we can go with this episode, which is two things. Number one, the fact that most people would make fun of Matt your friend Matt or my client is You're smiling.

Speaker 1

Kevin and I, I can't. Yeah, yeah, it's behind this, it's an inside joke. It's an inside joke. It's an inside joke.

What do you do to become more wealthy?

Speaker 2

It is an inside joke, yeah, the fact that most people would make fun of them for what they're doing and you and I are actually impressed and admire it and respect it. The point of this episode is, where are you getting bad advice? Because if my client listened to those other people of, like, what do you mean? Don't worry about it, you can just sell a house if you need to. That's the worst idea ever. What if you sell the house when the market's down? You don't want to sell a house when the market's down, you don't want to put yourself in a. I mean, you and I have real talk. We in business, we're going to be fine long term because we can just start selling stuff. If we have to, we can start laying people off, but I don't want to do that. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Speaker 2

And again, I think that there's a lot of layers underneath this. There's long term strategic thinking. There's being scarce in order to manifest abundance. There's making sure that you spend less than you make. There's being strategic. There's investing in the freezer or whatever. And so my client, who's a multi-millionaire, who saves 20 bucks here, 20 bucks there, and he's going to actually get extra income with a second job. I think that's awesome, but again, his main focus is building a lot of wealth and if you want to build a lot of wealth, you need cash flow and you need income and you need to spend less, and that's a fundamental thing that hopefully all of our listeners are starting to understand one of my favorite things to tell my clients that are podcasters is if you want to start coaching, you should coach for free.

Speaker 1

I think most people will probably make fun of them for coaching for free, but it makes sense. I understand why I don't.

Speaker 2

That doesn't land at all for me. You and I started for free yeah, but nobody is nobody.

Speaker 1

Most people don't aspire to coach for free. That's not why they start. They aspire to coach for money or make money for it to become profitable. If you don't have the whole equation, you might not have any of the pieces of the equation.

Speaker 2

You know what's interesting? I think most of the things that are quote-unquote cool are actually not good for you. I would agree. Yeah, I think that's another episode and maybe we'll just talk about that now.

It looks cool...

Speaker 1

But most things that are cool are actually not good for you long-term. Yeah, I watched a documentary. You know how I like learning about weird stuff. Oh yeah, it was about how much money you have to make to actually for it to actually make sense for you to take a private jet, because there was some fighters that I'm I watch, that take private jets, and I remember thinking you don't make enough money to take this private jet when you made like a hundred thousand dollars in your last fight so that after taxes and expenses, that's not that much money yeah there's no something's up here, and it looks really cool to be on a private jet.

Speaker 1

I'm sure I've never been on a private jet, nor do I plan on being on one anytime soon, but financially it's the dumbest thing this person could ever do. It's not good for them, to your point, it's not good for them at all, but it looks cool, so it doesn't matter. In this weird way it looks cool, so most people will never understand that it's bad for them. Alan's gears are turning. It's just the fact that.

Speaker 2

They will eventually find out that it's bad for them when fighting is not a long-term game and they're in their 50s and they don't have money.

Speaker 1

They're not going to equate that. They won't equate it to that. Why not? Because there's going to be a million other things. The cars, it's not just that one thing, it's more.

Speaker 2

yeah, no it's more the mindset underneath it. Yeah, it's more the prince, whereas the other guy that your, your friend matt, our friend matt matt. What's up, man, if I don't know if he listens but, he's my friend too. I always think he's. You say he's your best friend, so I yeah, but anyways, so he's gonna be okay. Let's say that fighter. How old is that fighter?

Speaker 2

oh 28 okay, and our friend matt is 35, 34, 35, 35, 35. Okay. When they're 50, our friend matt will be very wealthy. That person who's 28 most likely won't be. I think this person Based on my mindset analysis. Again, I don't know that person.

Speaker 1

I think this person will be. You do yeah because they're more entrepreneurial, okay, but what they're doing is a bit reckless. It's not as reckless as some of the other stuff.

Speaker 2

It's less reckless than maybe you think okay, based on and you think they have a financial advisor and a retirement account?

Speaker 1

yeah, they're. They're fairly intelligent, but it's not the smartest thing. Okay, I'm sure they're financial wealthier at 50.

Speaker 2

50 that's not based again this is based on statistical probability. Obviously, no one can predict the future.

Speaker 1

This fighter is young enough where they're. They have another six years at least of fighting and if they invest, they have brands. They'll probably be more wealthy. Okay, they have a lot more exposure. What about?

Speaker 2

70?.

Speaker 1

I would say. I would say they have an opportunity to be very wealthy. The fighter.

Speaker 2

This isn't working. I know, I know the person, I think Matt long-term dude properties.

Speaker 1

I mean, this person has way more money now. They could buy properties.

Speaker 2

Yeah, but I doubt they are. No, they will.

Speaker 1

Private jets? They will be. They're smart.

Speaker 2

Okay, they're smart.

Speaker 1

It's not a good example.

Speaker 2

We need a fighter who's more reckless. I mean probably 90. You should one who is? Who's authorizing this person?

Speaker 1

this person. I mean, they're the one of the only ones taking private jets. So like there's only so many, only so many people I can pull from, oh the ultimate example. For me at least, this episode is not necessarily about wealth I know it's about intelligent, intelligent financial decision making not even that for me, not even that.

Speaker 1

It's about the fact that many people will judge what you are doing based on the fact that they only see it in a very, very small vacuum of time and they don't understand the whole picture. Great example when Alan and I reconnected and this was before we reconnected Alan was on an all-you-can-eat cheeseburger diet and he pretty much was eating McDonald's every day and he was getting chunky. Remember when you were getting chunky, you were doing your book. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people including me probably at the time thought he was. We probably thought he was making a mistake, like why is Alan getting so chunky?

Speaker 2

Does he know?

Speaker 1

you can't eat six cheeseburgers a day, like what's going on. Then, when Alan dieted down and got very lean, he had a lot of muscle mass. But it takes the awareness of understanding the process to know that, although it looks like you're losing right now, you're actually winning. Yeah. So that's where I want to go with this. It's just an awareness thing.

Beyond the cover

Speaker 2

What was that like? And again, I don't want this to be a selfish question. No, no, no no, let's talk about it. What was it like for me to have? I got really ripped up. After that, I got really Ripped up. I got really lean. I got really lean, yeah, very okay. What was it like to see me go from what everyone thought was fat to winning a fitness show? And I know it wasn't obviously super quick I mean it took a year but it was that like?

Speaker 1

oh, okay, interesting well, I, I already had some experience in bodybuilding, so it probably wasn't as mind-blowing to me as it was other people. Yeah, so I don't. I, it probably would be an under-blowing to me as it was to other people. Yeah, so it probably would be an underwhelming answer for me, because I had seen that and experienced it more than the average person who isn't a bodybuilder.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

So, yeah, I don't think I have a really good answer. That would actually be impactful.

Speaker 2

Well, bringing this back to the point, emilia and I share a car, we share a Tesla. We share, uh, tesla I. I adore it. It's she. I wanted the, the car, she wanted the model y way better. I mean, she one of them's utility and one of them's cooler quote unquote.

Speaker 1

So perfect for this episode. You know I would have gone with the car probably dude, it's so impractical.

Speaker 2

Even the beamer it's like dude, there's no room in this freaking thing.

Speaker 1

You know it's wildly. It's wildly impractical. Even the Beamer it's like dude, there's no room in this freaking thing. You can't stand that car. It's wildly impractical. I love it, I hate it.

Speaker 2

Okay, you love it, that's fine, I love it, I hate it. But we both pay for it. No, but? At the end of the day, her and I sharing a car would be something I'd be made fun of, for it's like, dude, you don't even have your own car. But here's the cool part Half of the price, half the insurance, half the gas. It's not gas, it's electric. But half the freaking electricity right, Because you obviously pay for that in a Tesla and it's awesome.

Speaker 2

So we get to have a much nicer car for half the price. Like what a W. Now, again, that's an extreme example. Em and I are, you know. We spend a lot of our time together. We're very, very partnered in pretty much everything business life, all that but anything that seems like a cred hit in the moment is almost always good for you long term. Everything that seems awesome in the moment is almost always good for you long term.

Long-term impact of choices

Speaker 2

Everything that seems awesome in the moment is almost always a pretty bad idea long term, as long as it's chosen. And an extreme example is like smoking looks cool when you're young and then it's just awful terrible idea. Drinking a lot in college looks cool and then it's really detrimental if you continue down that path. I mean, mean, everything kind of works that way, and so at the end of the day, this is coming down to choices. That person who I'm talking about, my client, is a multi-millionaire, but he's still saving 20 bucks here, 20 bucks there, and he tracks it. But what people don't realize is that's the reason he's a multi-millionaire.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah that was one thing that really, that really surprised me when we started working with people that made a lot of money, is how strict they were with their money, because in my mind it would be the opposite you have a ton of money, why does 150 extra dollars matter? But it's the principle of, that's what they, that's what they practice in order to get the results in the first place. And this is you ever see a Sorry, no, no, you're good, you want me to go or you want?

Speaker 2

to go.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you go, I'll go. This is the analogy of somebody who wins the lottery. Oftentimes not an analogy, it's an example. This actually happens. They win the lottery. Let's say they win $150 million and then 10 years later they're broker than they were before they won the lottery. I'm not trying to kick lottery winners when they're down. That's not what I'm trying to do. But if you don't have the principle, understanding and the habits and the mindset and the practices to get the result, it's very hard to maintain the result.

Speaker 2

Even in the beginning, you and I, when we weren't fully together in our finances in terms of the business, you made $8,000 a month, yeah, man, and I made $3,500 a month and I had way more money than you Spent it all, all of it. Yeah, I remember you coming to me saying I don't understand how, how do you, how are you doing this? And I said low, low expenses is a superpower yeah, I didn't like that yeah, what was I gonna share you ever see?

Speaker 2

just just go with it the movie it's an adam sandler.

Speaker 1

Movie. Yeah, it's a comedy, jennifer anderson I. It's a comedy. The.

Speaker 2

Adam Sandler movie. Yeah, yeah, it's a comedy, jennifer.

Speaker 1

Aniston. There was a certain nothing against Mr Sandler, but there was a certain line drawn in the sand where anything after that I won't watch anything.

Speaker 2

Was it 50 First Dates? Yeah, probably. Yeah, 50 First Dates was the last good one, can't do it yeah.

Speaker 1

He, I heard, is a really good movie.

Speaker 2

I've never seen it, I don't know it's not a comedy, it's a very serious movie anyways, I end up watching that movie jennifer aniston and adam sandler. It is funny, it's not great. It's not great, it's funny. Every now and then I want a silly movie to turn my brain off. And it's funny.

Speaker 2

There's a scene in that where the he's a plastic surgeon and he's wealthy quote-unquote adam sandler's character and jennifer aniston is his executive assistant and her son wants to go to hawaii, and so her, her son, comes in. I can't talk. Her son comes in and says can we go to hawaii? Can we? Can we pay? Can you pay for us to go to hawaii on like a two-week vacation? And he says this, and it's actually really funny. He says, well, no, and he says, well, why not? You're wealthy. He says, well, that's why I'm wealthy, I don't just pay to go to hawaii. That would be the opposite of wealthy is if I just went around paying for everyone to go to hawaii and the little kid doesn't get it understandable and, yeah, understandable, but anyways, so I think that's a really. I'll never forget this.

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Speaker 2

I had a CEO mentor who was essentially he ran one of the biggest robotics companies in the billion dollar range, and I used to spend a lot of time with this guy and I remember he messaged me a photo. It was 7 o'clock in the morning. This is back when I used to get up early Before I got lazy no, before I prioritized sleep as well as I do now and it was a huge snowstorm I mean nor'easter and he took a picture of his Porsche in the parking lot empty parking lot. And this is when he was running a different company also the billion dollar range, no, no, I think it was a smaller company, but anyways, he said he sent me the photo and it's covered, the whole parking lot's covered, and it's an empty parking lot, just his car. And he messaged outside his window this is why I'm ceo, because it's 7 am and he's the only one at work. He has since cashed in and now he says he just basically flies to and from the Bahamas all the time.

Speaker 2

But at the end of the day, what he was trying to articulate to me back then is listen, you need to be the one who works the hardest if you want to be the most successful and for wealth, you need to be the one who's the best at lowering expenses. If you want to be the most successful and for wealth, you need to be the one who's the best at lowering expenses. If you want to be the wealthiest Because that's half of the equation, and we talked about this on an episode last week One part of the equation is learn how to become more valuable and earn as much as you can. The other side of the equation is spend less, spend as little as you possibly can, and if you do that over time, you will be in abundance absolute abundance.

Speaker 1

One of the best things about bodybuilding is take a guess. So two things. One, when you said Jennifer Aniston was in that movie, I automatically assumed that was Adam Sandler's wife in that movie, because it's usually some sort of unbelievably attractive actress, slash supermodel, who is his wife in that movie.

Path to success and wealth

Speaker 2

I don't know her name and it's not his wife. It's a girl he's trying to be with. Is she incredibly attractive?

Speaker 1

I would say she's attractive yeah. Makes sense. Definitely. I'd like to ask Mrs Sandler one day I'd really like to sit down with a gentleman and have a conversation, because I wonder if I would. How do you pick your wives for these movies? You just You're scrolling through Sports Illustrated Super Swimsuit.

Speaker 2

Edition? She wasn't, of course. She was Sports Illustrated. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1

Yeah, she wasn't. She wasn't, Of course. She was Sports Illustrated. Yeah, of course. Yeah makes sense. I didn't know that either. That was literally me Just taking a guess. I'm just curious. I'm not judging it. Who knows what would happen.

Speaker 2

If it wasn't me. Movies are not real life, especially those movies. They're not real life.

Speaker 1

That was my first thought and then my second thought. Hopefully more valuable it was and bad news it has since left, which is which?

Speaker 2

is last question I know we gotta jump, kev jeff. What did you not understand? Okay, so seven years ago, you set the goal to eventually have a net worth of more than a million dollars, correct? Yes okay, more doable than most people think, still super challenging. You got to stay humble, okay. Yes, sir, what didn't you understand about what it would actually take to do that?

Speaker 1

I don't get to live like a millionaire ever. Pretty much that, yeah, you don't. Okay, go deeper. Why? Because it's not. It's less about the amounts and it's more about the principle of it. It doesn't. If you're, if you spend 90 of the money that you earn, you're never really going to be financially free, because there's just you're not doing the right thing with the money. It's a principle thing. It's not. Alan's thought is the broker we look, the more successful we will be eventually.

Speaker 2

And I hate it.

Speaker 1

Well, no, so the less we waste the more we invest the broker we live. No, no, I would say that's the broker.

Speaker 2

We invest the broker, we live no, no, I would say that's the broker.

Speaker 1

We look, yeah, yeah yeah, but kind of live like we were talking about this the other day. I have a BMW. It probably wasn't the right play. We probably shouldn't have got it. We could have waited. There's probably somewhere in between my old car and the new car and we had really good months. It was like, yeah, let's do this. But now it's kind of like, eh, that's a lot of money. Yeah, it was reckless. It adds up. That was a little bit reckless.

Speaker 2

Growing a business requires a lot of expenses. I think that's one of the things that no one understands is, we're going to make a lot of money this year, but we're also going to spend a lot in order to make that money. Is that the missing piece? Is that when someone says you have to spend money to make money, does that land and again.

Speaker 1

I'm actually asking I'm not trying to be condescending, no, no, no, you're good.

Financial habits and decision making

Speaker 2

I think it's different in a business sense, but it's personal finance and business finance are the exact same principles, but our expenses are much higher than most people would guess.

Speaker 1

Yeah it's a lot of money, it's different.

Speaker 2

So the business thing so when we say 22-person team, people don't think extremely expensive.

Speaker 1

Well, I'm sure they do. I don't know, I wouldn't have even thought anything about it, about I wouldn't have thought expensive or anything I would have thought cool, I wouldn't have I wouldn't appreciate your honesty. I would have looked at the type of car you were driving and where you lived most likely oh, that's so detrimental, it's has nothing to do with it. Well, I was in trouble.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's true, that's fair. Teach the people. Teach what I was going to say Teach all. What do you say? You'll be wealthy. Now You're going to learn how to be. You've learned how to become wealthy.

Speaker 1

Teach the people, teach, well, I think it's I don't know, there's me because I think it's different when you're in a business and you're a business owner, because it's far easier for me to go make more money than maybe someone who has a nine-to-five. I know there's side hustles and you can quote-unquote try to add more value and become more valuable and home reels and but there's a cap or you can do instacart.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there's a cap right.

Speaker 1

So there, I'm always very hesitant when it comes to that because it's like, well, just go get more clients, we can go get more clients. So I think it's a little bit easier for us as a small business to make more money. It's also much easier as a small business to spend more money yeah, that's what I'm saying, so it's similar principles I know. I know what I don't know. Help the people what? What would I say?

Speaker 2

I have one more that I think will land, please, and again, the only objective here is hopefully, everyone's getting something out of this, okay. One of them is you have to invest more money to make more money, okay. The other one is when you spend less on things that you don't need, you have more. That's another one. And then the other piece of this and this is the one that I don't know if it ever lands when you work more, you spend less. That's so important that doesn't land.

Speaker 1

It doesn't no, because it takes two minutes to go on Amazon.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's different. It's not like I have to go down to the store.

Speaker 1

I can literally click a button on my phone and it's ordered.

Speaker 2

That's actually why a lot of people are in trouble. That makes sense. Actually, it's so much easier to spend money than it is to save it. It's so much easier and it's quicker. I was telling Emilia this on the way to Newport yesterday. We went for a little a day and it was mostly free.

Speaker 1

I mean, we went to dinner and that was definitely not free because that place was on the water and, by the way, never get appetizers crap yeah, I mean the portions are brutal it's like, oh my god, and it adds up, yeah, and now let's talk about newport, rhode island, for those, yeah newport, yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2

So, emilia and I, we don't drink alcohol, so that's cheaper and my steak was awesome, so we spent a hundred bucks at least, but the whole rest of the day was we had a best day ever, went away 100 bucks total. But here's the problem. I told Emilia this. I said on the way to Newport we're not working today, and when you're not working, you're much more likely to spend money. When you're working, you're not spending money. Is that? I need that to land? Not necessarily on this episode, but I have to learn how to communicate that.

Speaker 1

Because when her and I are working like right now, it's monday we're both working. She's not spending money, neither am I. Well, I think it's just a. It's a. It's a for the amount of hours in the day you're working.

The artist and the scientist

Speaker 2

You're most likely not spending money, yeah, so it's like not only are you making money, but you're also not spending it, so it's a huge net w. This is why people who work a lot and who are quote-unquote workaholics end up very wealthy, because not only are they not, not only are they making more money with their time, they're also not spending as much, because being hanging out is very expensive. Trust me, your brain will find ways to spend money when you're just hanging out. That's one of the reasons why I try to work as many hours as I can is because I don't want to just sit here and end up spending a bunch of money.

Speaker 1

It makes sense okay how do you make that?

Speaker 2

I did you ever think of that before? No no because like if you have free weekends, you're just gonna end up spending a bunch yeah, but I don't want to work.

Speaker 1

It's like there's. Is there an in-between where I don't have to work 60 hours on the weekend?

Speaker 2

You'd have to consciously say okay, this weekend we have free, let's try not to spend so much.

Speaker 1

It's not like you can't spend anything.

Speaker 2

We still took a trip, we still got dinner.

Speaker 1

I just think it's kind of the other end of the extreme of like, well, just make sure you don't have any free time, because if you have free time you're spending money. Yeah, I didn't mean it like that. I know it's hyper rational, but yeah, I, I respect it. I respect it. I just know.

Speaker 2

If I heard that I would have been like hey, man, uh, screw you yeah.

Speaker 1

Well, that's why I'm asking you to I I would just say the thing that lands for me now, that didn't really land for me before, is, if you are more conscious on sacrificing now, you'll have less that you'll have to sacrifice later. That's really it. Now it's. We will get to a stage eventually how do I get that to land? We will get to a stage eventually where I could tell Taryn and eventually not now, not anytime soon where I tell Taryn, you can quit your job.

Speaker 2

Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1

Or I can wait 10 years or 5 years after that and she can quit her job and it will be a much, much, much more intelligent decision. Yeah, that you don't. You don't do the thing right when you can do the thing. You do the thing when it's more optimal for you to do the thing right.

Speaker 2

That's why the bmw would have been a terrible choice in the beginning.

Speaker 1

It's a less terrible choice but it's still not when we did it exactly, and it never will be.

Speaker 2

Don't people know that there's? Never a good time to be buy a beamer like real talk, real, real quick, there's never a good time to buy a luxury vehicle no matter what that's a poor investment when I have extra moolah. There's no such thing when I have more moolah.

Speaker 2

You could have built a school with that right. Like there is no extra money, that's fair. What if I had already built a school? Then you can build a second one? I think that's the missing piece. There's never going to be a time where buying a bmw is a good idea it's fair, that's okay, it doesn't have to right. If you value it, then you value it. Like we didn't need a tesla, but we wanted one but, it's also not a terrible idea because of the circumstances.

Speaker 2

Emily and I were in at that time and so again, you know what this is. Your friend, our friend matt, is in finance. My client is an ap calculus teacher. This is all math. So this is going to sound like gibberish to someone who doesn't think in numbers, and I just want to be very vulnerable and honest. I think in numbers. I've never not thought in numbers, so to me, every calculation I do in my brain has to do with utility and numbers. So it it makes perfect sense to eat chicken patties. I'm having chicken patties for dinner tonight. Chicken patties, yeah, nice. Yeah, they're not as cheap as the one matt's hat matt has because they're technically veggie patties. They're actually bomb.

Speaker 1

From a place called.

Speaker 2

Impossible Patty. They're great, but I'm doing it for the fiber. I'm not doing it because I want chicken patties. I don't make decisions based on what I want to eat. Well, you're a very weird person. Yeah, I know, but if people want to be more successful. Try making the decision based on what's best not based on what you want.

Speaker 1

Yeah, logic, more logic. I think that's. That's ultimately what I learned I. This is what I wanted to say how much do you think it costs me to eat for a week? Less nowadays, I would say probably 150 bucks, no, so I went to the grocery store today, but that's, that's back.

Speaker 2

I'm calculating that based on taco bell and all the no. No, I went to the grocery store today, but that's, that's back. I'm calculating that based on taco bell and all the no, no, I'm saying this week. Oh, this week very low, yeah, way low no, but it used to be. I mean you used to get five guys in taco bell at least. Okay, you used to get takeout two or three times a week.

Speaker 1

Look at why don't you pump the brakes?

Speaker 2

hey, it's okay, I'm not making it wrong, I do, and even that's calculated. It's called convenience.

Speaker 1

I love takeout.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, same.

Speaker 1

It is one of my favorite things In the world we love sushi Dude.

Speaker 2

When we were getting sushi it was a hundred bucks a pop.

Speaker 1

I know I was tracking the finances Back then Exactly.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I know that that's not fully optimal. Some of that is because we want sushi $60.

Speaker 1

It cost me Nice For the week. Strong work Kev, but I'm also not eating almost any food, so it makes it easy.

Speaker 2

When you're dieting. Yeah, dieting is also very cheaper, much cheaper. Well, it depends on what you're eating and if you're taking supplements.

Speaker 1

You've got to get your protein, you've got to get your BCAAs. You need your fish, earl. You need all that stuff, fish, earl. I say, um, yeah, like what do we say, earl? I don't know.

Speaker 2

Sometimes I say weird stuff fish oil yeah, fish oil, but for the listeners, they should probably know if someone's gonna look up fish don't look up fish early, you're not gonna.

Speaker 1

Oh, you'll find something. I can't, I can't promise principles. That's kind of what we're that's kind of what we're talking about the principles, the principles of the principles, of what you're doing might not look sexy, but if the person that is judging you doesn't have the result that you want, they might not understand that that is maybe a principle for success yeah, and that would be the artist and the scientist.

Speaker 2

Yes, that's what this episode was. Kevin and I we're we're bantering back and forth for lack of better phrasing in a good way. Hopefully it's both perspectives through both lenses for a greater end state.

Speaker 1

I like bantering with you same no, I don't, it's good.

Speaker 2

No, I said oh, you don't, oh I.

Speaker 1

I was like that was a highlight. That's literally the highlight of my day. I love, I enjoyed that a lot. You don't like that? No, I don't know.

Speaker 2

I feel like I'm calling you out live on the podcast that's okay I don't like that yeah anything you want to add comfortable yeah, definitely well, I'm not offended. I thought that was a productive conversation.

Speaker 1

I appreciate it. I'll be okay. I'm gonna be okay, it's all gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine, we'll work through it.

Speaker 2

That's what I remember one time we had a pretty healthy Discord debate Okay, which one was this? And you were like I don't feel like we debated at all. I'm like what do you mean, man? We were definitely not on the same page, which is fine discussion.

Speaker 1

It was heated, though a little bit of a heated discussion. Constructive conflict, okay, I accept. Okay, all right. Next of the nation. If you are looking for a principle for potential success, I would say success. I think it'll. I think it'll help make sure you're subscribed to the podcast on whatever podcast platform you are listening to us on or on YouTube, if you are watching us there. And if you have already done that and you're saying, kev, I'm already there. I need something else to do. Make sure you're in Next Level Nation. And if you're already in Next Level Nation, there's a bunch of other stuff we have too.

Speaker 2

But those are the two things we talk about the most on the podcast, other than Alan's coaching, which he will talk about Earlier today. Before a coaching session that I had at 10, I was thinking to myself I don't know if I was getting ready or what, but I thought to myself doesn't it suck how most of what we have to do in order to be successful is not enjoyable. It does suck, yeah. And then I thought to myself after that most of what I'm doing with my clients is holding them accountable to things they don't really want to do. Because one of my clients that morning was saying I'm having trouble with this tracker and I said of course, no one tracks habits without hating it, kind of I seriously like that's fair, and this is a business owner, he owns his own business, he's he's gonna gross, keep it anonymous probably 400 000 this year. That's awesome, that's really awesome. But you're not gonna do that without doing things you don't like. It's not a thing. So my point is for anyone out there watching or listening if, if you, if you Know that you, in order to be more successful, you have to do things that kind of you don't want to do and you want someone to help you do the things you don't want to do consistently, so that you can be proud of yourself and be more successful. Please reach out. That's my job.

Speaker 2

I I used to say this. I used to say anyone can teach you how to lose weight. Almost no one can get you to do it. My job is to get you to do it, and and I don't mean just force you to do anything. Everything's by choice. It's not anything toxic, it's just I'm going to help you learn why it's so hard for you to do the hard things that you don't want to do. Maybe there's, maybe there's a block, maybe there's uncertainty, maybe you you have too much, you don't have enough clarity, maybe you don't understand why you're really doing what you're doing. So my job is to help you be more successful, and the only way to do that is to hold you to a new standard, and that's my job, and I hope that someone reaches out, and I adore it. It's my favorite work in the world. My link will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1

As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and at NLU, we don.

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host