Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here with your Daily Dose. I hope you're having a great day. We're going to talk a little bit about finances today and getting a solid financial plan. But before we get started, the quote of the day, which is a great one for financial, it's by Lao Tzu and it's, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and that includes your finances. I encourage you to get over to the Daily Mastermind mobile app. If you haven't downloaded that, you're absolutely crazy. You've got all kinds of free resources, e-books, audio books. We've got some great HD picks and you can see those with the quote of the day on the Instagram page as well. I want to give you a couple of updates. These are sort of, let's call them updates and new content that's going to be dropping, give you a little bit of a sense of what's coming up. Tomorrow we will be posting a private webinar we did with Scott Estill. And for those of you that have heard him before, he is the former IRS senior trial attorney, and he's been a longtime partner friend of ours. He did a webinar last night. We had over 1,000 people registered for this webinar, actually had about 500 or 600 on the webinar live. And he talked about three really, really important things. First, how to plan for tax increases that are coming in 2022. That's a foregone conclusion. There will be tax increases in 2022 and you need to plan now for them. Also, what's included in the December 2020 stimulus bill. If you want to know how to be able to handle that, work with that on your taxes and what's included in the stimulus bill, he covers that. And also talks about tax reduction strategies for this year, 2021, because you need to remember that there is a big difference between tax preparation, like most people do in April, and tax planning that you do in advance in order to maximize and reduce your taxes. Because as I've said before, it's much easier to save money on your taxes than it is to make the same amount of money. In fact, I had a conversation with one of my sons the other day, and we were talking about how he viewed his tax returns. And the bottom line is some of you don't want to spend the money to file your taxes with an expert because you're afraid of spending too much, and yet they can save you thousands and thousands of dollars in tax deductions and reduction in your taxable income. So it's really important to talk about that. That's a great webinar. It's going to hit actually on the podcast here tomorrow. And then next week, we have a education series with Mike Koval. He's a guy I've worked with for a long, long time, an amazing market investor. He's the author of A Trader on Wall Street, and he has decades of experience in stock investing, options, futures, and commodities. He's worked with CNBC and the CBOE and all kinds of different individuals. He is literally the best guy out there that I know of in the game of stock investing. And he's going to be talking about how to eliminate 95% of the risk in your trading, how to create consistent income monthly with covered calls, and also trades that you can do that just take a few minutes each day or week. And so I think you'll learn a lot from him. So tune in for that. And then finally, at the end of the month, and I'll do a post about this online but we have our three-day asset protection and wealth creation event and as I've mentioned in past episodes this is a high net worth event for individuals but even if you're just getting started or your small business owner and you want to learn anyone in our mastermind community obviously that means you because you listening to this podcast everyone that part of the community I have VIP tickets for So you don have to pay any money to be able to go to this three event Absolutely not going to cost you anything. It's three full days. It's done with some longtime friends and partners of mine, Don Pendleton and Kendall Blunk. They're the longest-running financial education asset protection company in the country. They'll cover three days of asset protection, tax strategies, estate planning, real estate, grant stock, and even niche topics like IRAs and self-directed IRAs, residential assisted living, and so much more. You'll get a ton out of it. It's the best of the best by far, all in the world of investing and education all in one place. And they're some of the top attorneys and experts in the world. So be prepared for that. It's like February 22nd, 3rd, and 4th. I think it's a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Now, with that said, I want to get into a topic here today with the time we have left. And I want to talk a little bit about creating a stable foundation for financial security and wealth. The key word being wealth. You know, this is a great one because obviously I need this as much as you probably do. I've made a lot of money in my life and I look back and look at what I could have done differently and better. And, you know, it kills me how much money I've been able to spend versus invest. but that's what i want to talk to you about today because as the quote said earlier the journey of a thousand miles really just begins with one step and and you've got to be able to start one day at a time focusing on what's necessary to hit your targets um because like you i've spent a lot of money on uh on things that you know really long term didn't do a whole lot maybe created short-term happiness and things but um you know i and i'm not gonna say i didn't enjoy it you know the big houses and the cars and custom suits, watches, and a lot of fun things. But when it's all said and done, it's important to remember that your financial security, fulfillment, and happiness, and I do believe those things, in my opinion, all come together, will be tied to your ability to provide for you, your family, and make an impact. And again, my opinion, but impact is going to be a whole lot easier when you have the money to do it with, the wealth that I'm talking about to do it with. So, look, many of the problems in the world revolve around money, and it's time you just double down and start creating some security because it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter how much income you have. There's examples of people that have made literally no money that have created significant wealth, and there's people that have made a lot of money that don't have anything. So I want to talk to you about a couple things today, and I want you to think and kind of ask yourself these questions. Are you looking for income or are you looking for net worth, you know, true wealth? Because income's right now, and most people think about that and they think that's going to contribute to wealth, but they don't have a wealth plan. Net worth is the long term. Net worth is what you ultimately want to create for security. So you've got to define what financial security is for you and what are your numbers. And when I say what are your numbers, what I mean is number one. And so there's three, my partner Robert Stuburg always talks about three important numbers that you need to define. And so if you haven't defined these, I encourage you to just write them down because it doesn't matter whether you think you can get them or not. Like I said before, sometimes you have to say yes and then figure it out. But if you don't know your numbers, you're never going to get there. The first number is what's your financial security number? What is that emergency cash number that you need, the safety net of 6 to 12 months of income, let's say? What the number that you got to get put away saved you know your don money that you can have for financial security Number two and listen that could be six months of your income a year of your income might be 100 grand might be 20 grand might be a million bucks whatever it is for you. The second number is financial independence. What's your financial independence number? What's the number that would help you to replace your job with a business or a job with your investments? I'd like you to gear a little bit more towards independence, right? So if it's something that allows you to be independent. Some of you think that having a business is better than a job, and actually it's worse than a job sometimes. So what is that number that will allow you to be able to cover yourself without the need to go out and create income? And then the third number is your financial freedom number. Now, a lot of people think this is kind of walk away from your job number, but I'm looking at this more like a retirement number that also creates lifestyle. So what is, as my partner Robert would say, what is the amount of investments or net worth you need to create an interest or return annually that would totally fund your lifestyle, totally fund your lifestyle. And that's where you can get into lifestyle. So, you know, my mentors have always taught me that the key to success financially is to have a couple of, you know, core things in mind. Number one, you got to have a game plan. If you don't have a plan at all, you just, you're not going anywhere. You've got to have a plan and obviously stick to it. The second is you got to have a scorecard. What are you using to track your funds? What are you doing right now to be able to track your funds? And we'll talk about some ideas I can give you here in a minute. Also, accountability. You've got to have accountability or else you won't put that money away. You won't not spend it. You won't, you'll expense your money rather than invest your money. And then finally, you've got to have progress. Daily, weekly, progress is the key. Like life, it's not about the end goal. It really is just about progress. And if you can fall in love with progress, the path, everything else, then you're going to get a long ways. when it comes to creating wealth. So you've heard the quote before, and I don't remember exactly how it goes from Steve Jobs and many others, that you should not overestimate what you can do in the short term and don't underestimate what you can do in the long term. In other words, most people, they set all their sights on creating something right now, this year, and they way overestimate what they can actually get done. And yet, they underestimate what they can do long-term if they just had a plan and they stuck to it with progress. And so it's hard for us to focus long-term but execute in the moment, but that's what you have to do. So like the quote today, you've got to create a plan and start to execute one day at a time. And success is only going to come over time, but it only happens when you create action in the moment. So here are a couple of things I just jotted down real quick, some simple strategies to get you going, just some ideas to get your mind going. Number one, I recommend setting up auto deducts from your bank accounts and creating separate accounts. So I've created a separate savings account and a separate tax account. If you're an entrepreneur or even a 1099 or a contractor, someone set up a separate account and then just know, put 10% of that automatically every week. If you're making 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 a week, put an automatic flat number that's going to sweep over into your savings account or your tax account. That'll make it automated. I looked the other day and I didn't realize how much I had in my tax account, which is great because when I had done my taxes, I had extra. And that works really well. I know that there's so many people out there that tell you go invest that money and make a return, but I'm telling you right now, until you have the stability just get that money there in case you need it It be a great payday if you do proper tax planning and you don need it Another thing you need to do is pay yourself first have a savings account Another idea create a budget You know there a lot of free tools out there like Mint that you can download on your phone, hook your accounts up to. And the reason they're great is they set up triggers and reminders. I can't tell you how many times I've just had an email or an SMS that says, hey, you had a fee charged here or a fee charged there. A lot of times you don't think about the fees and things you have, but setting up those automated budgets or free tools is absolutely a way to make it easier for you. I know that you don't want a budget. I know you don't like to do those kind of things, but you have to do it. So find ways to isolate and track your money because tracking your money is going to create the wealth. Another thing you need to do is find a financial mentor. Find somebody that is doing well and is investing well in different areas. associate with like-minded people. If you're hanging out with people that spend their money like crazy, then you're going to spend your money. If you're hanging out with people that find innovative and fun, creative ways to hang out and save their money, then you're going to learn that as well. It never ceases to amaze me how really successful people, and you probably know who they are, you've had them in your life that will haggle over $10 when they get more money than they know what to do with, and yet it's because it's the mindset. That's the mindset they have. And it cracks me up sometimes, but I got to work on that as well. Anyway, also, you've got to learn to look at things and train your mind to focus on what you desire. And to start to identify, just do this, start to identify everything you have as either an investment or an expense. Because if it's not an investment creating a return, it's an expense. And I promise you that most things that you see as expenses could be converted into investments or you don't need them. And the last suggestion I have is just daily reminders. create daily reminders, put notes up. What do you see on the screen of your mobile phone that you look at, you know, a thousand times a day? What do you have on the mirror in your bathroom? What do you have, you know, on the dashboard of your car? Put some reminders to keep you focused and the little things will add up. It's the little things that'll add up over time. So remember that it's important to create a plan, but it's even more important to stick to the plan and make daily progress. So it means, you know, you got to determine what fits inside your talents and your abilities as well because if you create a plan that doesn't align with you, you're not going to do it. So don't just chase the money and don't just chase the fad. Don't just go investing in Bitcoin or Forex or complicated strategies or real estate projects just because you see other people making money with it. It's got to align with you. And I know we're short on time, but those are the thoughts I wanted to be able to drop with you today. So it's my hope that you'll begin to prioritize and work on what is going to take you closer to your goals and that you will figure out what your numbers are. What is your financial security number, your financial independence, and your financial freedom number? And give me some feedback. What is it that we could bring to the table to help you? Is there something we could add to our mobile app to be able to help you keep reminders? Do you want us to send you out some automated notifications? We can do all kinds of things to help you. We're your partners in your personal development and financial education. So give us some feedback. Go over to the Instagram page and hit us up on The Daily Mastermind. But that's our message for today. I appreciate you listening. Look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. And don't forget to tune into that Scott Estill podcast tomorrow. We'll be dropping. Once again, my name is George Wright III, and this has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a great day.
