Finance & Your American Dream | Mark Matson

23 Sep 2024 · 1 h 3 min

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Podcast Summary: The Art of Charm - Finance & Your American Dream with Mark Matson

Podcast Overview

  • Title: The Art of Charm
  • Description: A podcast that focuses on mastering human dynamics, relationships, and personal development through coaching insights from Johnny and AJ, the founders of The Art of Charm.
  • Episode Title: Finance & Your American Dream
  • Guest: Mark Matson, entrepreneur, author, and innovator in financial education.

Episode Insights and Key Concepts

Introduction

  • Mark Matson's Background: An entrepreneur and author focused on transforming people's relationships with money through education and innovative investment strategies.
  • Book Release: His new book, *Experiencing the American Dream*, challenges traditional definitions of the American dream, emphasizing that it goes beyond financial wealth.

Defining the American Dream

  • Non-materialistic Perspective: Matson redefines the American dream not in terms of wealth and materialism, but as a lens for purpose and contribution to society.
  • Misconceptions: Many associate the American dream with ease and material success, but Matson emphasizes hard work and the ability to create value for others.

Money and Happiness

  • Money Doesn’t Equal Happiness: Matson argues that an abundance of money can lead to increased stress and anxiety rather than happiness.
  • Purpose Over Wealth: Having a purpose greater than money can make any amount of wealth feel sufficient.

Identifying Money Blindspots

  • Recognizing Complaints: Complaints about money often reflect underlying entitlement issues and blindspots that hinder financial success.
  • Scarcity Mindset: Many live with a scarcity mentality, believing that money is hard to make and keep, which perpetuates feelings of inadequacy.

Intelligent Investing vs. Gambling

  • Distinction Between Investor and Gambler: Matson outlines behaviors that differentiate intelligent investing from gambling, emphasizing the importance of academic principles in investing.
  • Industry Flaws: He critiques the investing industry, suggesting that many firms perpetuate myths about successful investing without proper accountability.

Overcoming Solo Investment Challenges

  • Importance of Community: Investing alone can lead to poor decision-making due to emotional biases, hence the value of having a coach or community support is highlighted.
  • Application of Academic Principles: Matson provides insights on implementing academic investing principles, even for novices.

Building Wealth and Financial Security

  • Roadmap to Prosperity: Discusses the secret to creating life-changing wealth through disciplined savings, investment strategies, and financial education.
  • Five Discoveries That Change Perspectives on Money:
  • Stock picking is destructive.
  • Market timing is inherently flawed.
  • Relying on past performance does not guarantee future success.
  • Learning from others’ mistakes is crucial.
  • Speculating with money is irrational, especially when it impacts family and values.

Conclusion

  • Change Your Perspective: A shift in mindset regarding money and purpose can lead to fulfillment and a successful version of the American dream.
  • Call to Action: Encourages listeners to explore their values and align their financial decisions with a greater purpose.

Key Takeaways

  • The American dream is not solely about wealth but about contributing to others and living with purpose.
  • Money alone does not equate to happiness; a fulfilling life is driven by meaningful connections and values.
  • Understanding and overcoming personal blindspots around money is essential for financial success.
  • Investing intelligently involves education, community support, and applying academic principles rather than relying on speculation or gambling.
  • True wealth is built over time through consistent effort, education, and a commitment to personal and community growth.

Resources

  • Mark Matson's Book: *Experiencing the American Dream: How to Invest Your Time, Energy, and Money to Create an Extraordinary Life*
  • Workshops and Classes: The American Dream Experience for deeper financial education and community engagement.

This episode provides valuable insights into rethinking our relationship with money and aligns financial practices with personal values and purpose.

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Transcript

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0:28You know why you're tired all the time? talking or even using my camera. Stuff is built to intake information quickly in whatever form you think in and turn it into actionable tasks right away. Lists and stuff are built like completable projects. So that book you want to write, that business you want to start, or that trip you want to plan starts to take form inside stuff, step by step. The magic is it gets exponentially more powerful the more you feed into it. Download stuff today. Start brain dumping and organizing your tasks and feel the freedom of an uncluttered brain. Download stuff for free today by going to trystuff.app.

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1:53Visit bjs.com slash thanksgiving and get the same great savings online as in club. And so there's this scarcity, Thoreau called it quiet desperation, that people, you know, run their life through. The way around that is to have a purpose for your life and for your money that's greater than money itself. If I have purpose, then almost any amount of money is enough. Without purpose, no amount of money is enough. Welcome to the Art of Charm podcast, where we break down the science of powerful communication and winning mindsets so you have the cheat code to succeed with people. Every episode is jam-packed with actionable steps to unlock the hidden superpowers inside of you.

2:31Level up with us each week by listening to interviews with the best in business, psychology, and relationships. We distill thousands of hours of research in the most effective tools and the latest science so you can start winning today. Let's face it, in order to be seen and heard, your communication needs to cut through the noise and we're going to show you how. I'm AJ, successfully recovered introvert, entrepreneur, and self-development junkie. And I'm Johnny Zubak, former touring musician, promoter, rock and roller, and co-founder here at The Art of Charm. And for the last 15 years, we've trained thousands of top performers and teams from every background.

3:06We have dedicated our lives to teaching men and women all they need to know about communication, networking, and relationships. You shouldn't have to settle for anything less than extraordinary. All right, let's kick off today's show. Today, we're talking with Mark Mattson. Mark is an American entrepreneur, author, and innovator in the science of investing and financial education. He creates educational experiences, platforms, and tools that make investing research accessible to investors and transform their relationship with money. His new book, Experiencing the American Dream, How to Invest Your Time, Energy, and Money to Create an Extraordinary Life, is out.

3:42Mark challenges the traditional definition of the American dream and what many of us get wrong when defining it. We discuss why money doesn't equal happiness and how more money can actually lead to more stress, why you need to understand academic investment principles to save yourself from gambling your retirement away, how to overcome scarcity mindset to build your American dream, and what it takes to find your purpose and live an extraordinary life. Welcome to the show, Mark. Great to have you. Great to be here. I think to kick things off, it'd be really interesting to hear you define the American dream and where so many of us get it wrong.

4:15Sometimes you do define a thing by what it's not. And I think a lot of people think it's about materialism. They think it's about greed. They think it's about creating two different classes, the haves and the have-nots. And for me, it doesn't represent any of that at all. What it represents is a screen, a way that you see the world that then gives you the ability to take action and make a difference for other people. So it's not really about money or objects or even financial success necessarily. However, if you have the American dream, you create wealth and prosperity for other people, obviously, you'll create a lot of wealth and prosperity for yourself, too.

4:52So it's about self-expression. It's about having a purpose greater than money itself. And it's about being grateful for all the amazing things that we have here in this country that are lacking in so many different places around the globe. Yeah, I think so many of us think of it as movement growth progression. So, you know, looking at past generations and saying, okay, have I moved forward? Have I moved up the ladder, so to speak, than past generations? Then you feel like you're living the American dream. Yeah. A lot of times people, in fact, I was just reading an article in the Wall Street Journal today about the American dream.

5:27People think about it in terms of, I want to have a house, I want to have children, and someday I want to retire successfully. And then the article asked them how likely did they see that happening or how was it going to be easy to achieve that? And they said only 8 % said it would be easy. Well, the American dream was never about easy. The American dream was about working really hard and suffering and sometimes sacrificing and creating that over a period of years. If they had asked, well, do you think if you work hard and you're industrious and create value for other people, do you think you could create it?

6:02I think they would have had a better outcome in that survey. It's never been about easy. It's been about possible. I came from the hills of West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia. We came from the coal mines and the chemical factories there. And my grandfather never got out of that mentality. It was a mentality of victimhood. It was a mentality of entitlement. I'm sure that he actually thought money was evil. And my dad, even to the time he was 10 years old, he shined shoes, He sold newspapers. He sold clovering sap to the coal miners when they came out of coal mines. So he was already an entrepreneur three times over by the time he was 10.

6:37And he taught me a whole different version of what that American dream is about. And it's a screen by which I see the world and crafts what I can create for myself and other people. Yeah. You mentioned something interesting there. For some people, I feel that lens is entitlement. Like you are entitled to these things. You should just be able to get a house, get a children and reach a level of success. without any of the actual work that goes behind it. Yeah, for sure. And in the book, I talk about money a lot, obviously. It's how to invest your energy, time, and money to create an extraordinary life.

7:10And I own a money management company. We manage$11 billion for 35 ,000 families all over the United States. People tend to think if they have a lot of money, they'll be happy. And they associate their American dream with that. My experience has not been that. Money doesn't equal happiness. I have a lot of clients that had a lot of money early on in my career 34 years ago. And actually, the more money they had, the more miserable they became. There was a lot of jealousy, fear, anxiety, stress to keep it, arguments within families. So money doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be happy. My dad taught me that the idea of being able to express yourself and having love and freedom inside of your family, the people you care about, is a much better gauge of wealth and and having an extraordinary life than just having a big bank account.

7:58Well, one thing for sure, even with our most, well, you could call them the successful clients we have due to the monetary angle, they have the same problems as everybody else. And they're looking to get by and get over the hurdle that is in front of them as well. Sure, the money might make it a little bit easier to get over that hurdle. And certainly that money can be paid to help get you over that hurdle. but those hurdles are there nonetheless. And if you use money to build the bridges to get over that hurdle, a lot of times you didn't acquire the skills to get you over that hurdle. So you only see that hurdle again in front of you.

8:37And this is one of the things that we try to help our clients out with is once we understand the circular behaviors and thoughts that they're stuck in, finding the clasp that holds those together so that they can begin to learn how to get over that hurdle. So it's a win in their column. They won't face that hurdle again. And then the only thing that happens is they'll move to the next one. But again, it's a life of struggle. And it's in that struggle that we're supposed to actualize our best. I love the way you say that. In the book, I talk about money demons, these mindsets, these ways of seeing the world or screens that people get that destroy their ability to create wealth and prosperity and fulfillment for their families.

9:24So when I first started my company, I had a money demon called employees, basically employees suck. They're hard to hire, they're hard to manage, they waste your money, they're never going to be dedicated. And then another money demon, which was I don't know how to manage them anyway. And that gave me the ability to complain, to bitch, to moan, not to play big, not to hire people not to take risk, to be righteous and condescending, but it destroyed my ability to create a company. And that was one of the first demons I had to break through was that there are great people out there. There are creative people.

9:58There are ways to create wealth and prosperity and help your employees. And now we have 70 employees and it's one of my greatest joys is being able to work with them. But it's those beliefs that get ingrained when you have an experience in life. And you make up a story about that, about how the world is and what my place in the world is. And those are like, you know, invisible handcuffs. And they really rob people of their ability to take action and make a difference. Yeah, they place the blame and responsibility outside of themselves. And then you can't face what you can actually control and act on it and move forward and make better decisions and take action and invest in all the great things that we'll break down in your book.

10:39It's just so interesting to me, and I had a weird relationship with money growing up. My family didn't talk about it, which you talk about in the book, how so many of us have unfortunately difficult relationship with money, and that creates these demons. So how can you start to recognize that your relationship with money is off or needs some work and improvement to transform it? So the way to find those blind spots is to look at complaining. the things you complain about. Oh, taxes are too high. Oh, this is too expensive. Oh, I don't know how to invest. Oh, you know, it's complaining, blaming, condemning.

11:18And as I was writing the book, I've always hated the idea of entitlement. And I've always thought about that as something that other people had that I didn't have. Because my dad taught me, you're not entitled to anything in life unless you earn it. And there is no free lunch. You have to create value for other people first. But then when I started looking at my complaints and like taxes is a complaint, taxes are too high. Well, the only reason I can complain about that is because I must think that I'm entitled to the opposite, which is low or no taxes. So every time there's a complaint, there's an entitlement that goes with the complaint that keeps me from being accountable for my own life and creating wealth and prosperity for other people.

12:00So the way that you start to identify, and most people have that scarcity mentality that you were talking about. Money's hard to make, hard to invest, and hard to keep. And no matter how much money you have, if you live inside of that thoughts process, it will never be enough money because there's always with a bigger boat. You buy a boat, okay, somebody got it bigger. When you buy a house, okay, now you need to redo the kitchen. There's always something bigger, better, newer, fancier, and that's why the money itself can't make you happy. Yeah. And I think another behavior pattern that we see in our clients as we talk a lot about money in our masterminds and with our groups is avoidance.

12:39So choosing not to educate themselves, avoiding paying the bill to the last minute, putting it off, hiding it, not wanting to confront the fact that they actually have a bad relationship with money. Yeah. That takes a lot of self-searching. A lot of times people are like, well, I've got these money demons and the basic underlying money demon of them all is that there's just not enough. I don't have enough time to live the life I want. I don't have enough money to live the life I want. I don't have enough energy to live the life I want. And so there's this scarcity, you know, Thoreau called it quiet desperation that people, you know, run their life through.

13:17So the way around that, I know you guys are big believers in this too. The way around that is to have a purpose for your life and for your money that's greater than money itself. And that purpose, no matter how much money, if I have$100 million, great, I can use it to fulfill on that purpose. If I have literally hardly any money at all, I could still, if my purpose was love and generosity, I could visit a friend in the hospital, hold their hand while they're going through a tough situation. If I have purpose, then almost any amount of money is enough. Without purpose, no amount of money is enough.

13:50and then I try to take actions based on that purpose, not based on just getting more money. Yeah, your purpose can't be to make more because then we fall into that trap that it's never enough. And I know for many of my clients, myself included, you reach a level of financial success and security and you get that first big purchase and you want to spoil yourself. And then you recognize on the other end of that purchase, that feeling is fleeting. That win, that victory that you chalked up and you got the watch or the car or the fancy suit. Well, yeah, you know, the second time you put the keys in the ignition, the third, fourth time it loses that high and you start staring, well, the car parked next to me here in LA is actually double the value of the car I just got.

14:33So I still got a ways to go. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I call it in the book, I call it cookies and toys. Either trying to put a substance in my body or trying to own an object that's going to make me happy. It does for a little bit, as you point out, that adrenaline, that feeling initially. Toyota used to call old what a feeling when you buy a Toyota, but it doesn't last. Eventually, you're still eating burgers and fries in the front of your Ferrari and trashing it when you swore you never would. Yeah. And there was a point you made earlier that I do want to touch on, which is this thought that if I hit a certain number, then my worries and concerns with money will go away.

15:14And in actuality, what you experienced and what your clients have experienced is the opposite. Like the more money becomes more stress and responsibility. Now you got to take care of your employees. You can't make mistakes. You can't make screw ups. You want to figure out how to hold onto it and not lose it. And the swings can be really psychological as well. So I was talking to a buddy yesterday and he had randomly invested in NVIDIA when he was doing VR and he forgot about the investment. And of course, we know NVIDIA is to the moon, but he was saying like how stressful it's been to be so staked in it now and see the swings in his portfolio are, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars up and hundreds of thousands of dollars down.

15:53And that's stressful. You're clicking it, you're refreshing it, you're worried about it. There was an article yesterday that said people are now investing more, not investing, they're gambling more on their apps and their phones than they are actually investing. And there's been a blurring. And 34 years ago, when I started the company, the first academic research on how to invest your money came out from the University of Chicago and other great universities about how to invest versus gambling. And I thought there would be this great renaissance where people would get the academic information and then they would stop gambling and speculating.

16:31And it's worse now than it ever has been because of what you just mentioned. NVIDIA, for example, has a standard deviation or volatility that's 18 times higher than the S &P. 18 times. I mean, there are a lot of years you lose 80 % of all your money in NVIDIA. So it's highly volatile. And in addition to that, now you have, you know, of course they make the chips for AI, but now Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, they're now making their own chips and researching their own chips. I mean, NVIDIA someday could end up like Blockbuster and go out of business. You just never know. But people are dumping massive amounts of money into individual stocks.

17:14And it's really playing Russian roulette with their money. And that's why the purpose is so critical. If I don't have a purpose for my money in my life, other than money, then speculating and gambling becomes my default position. But if I have a reason, a purpose for living greater than the money, now I got to find out, and you mentioned going to school and studying, now I have to actually study and get involved. and how am I prudently going to invest my money to fulfill my life's goals and my dreams? And that's not an easy thing for people to do. Yeah, well, you turn on the TV on Sunday, NFL, and all of a sudden you're just inundated with all of these investment firms that promise these great returns and financial security, and they'll handle it for you, and they'll do the picking and look at these past performances that you can depend on.

18:02And it does feel like a funhouse mirrors of who do I trust with my money and how do I even self-educate to a degree where I'm not putting myself at risk. Do you remember the, uh, the crypto bowl, uh, with, uh, Brady, you know, I give the devil is do that was a great commercial. You know, I'm in, are you in, are you in, uh, but that whole, the whole thing was crypto, the whole, the crypto bowl, it was the crypto stadium. I mean, it was, it was terrible. And of course you saw what happened. FTX went bankrupt and then people lost, you know, 30, 40, 50 % in Bitcoin. And it's perpetuated that when I talk to people about investing, there's three things that are gambling and it's often a shock to them.

18:44Stock picking is gambling and destructive. Market timing, trying to predict when to get in and out of the market based on a forecast. And then just giving your money to somebody who had a great 10-year track record. All of those are forms of speculating and gambling with their money. And that's, we call it investor prediction syndrome, the idea that you need a prediction about the future then to invest your money. And it's so destructive. I've seen people... Investing is not like other types of mistakes you can make. If you're on a diet, you lose 30 pounds and you go out and have a cheesecake, you're not going to die the next morning, probably.

19:19But that's not how investing works. You can make one mistake one day with 35 years of your money's growth, and you can destroy it overnight if you don't know what you're doing. And so there's a lot of risk involved. And then you get the anger and the animosity and the scarcity and the pain. And I see it every day. Yeah, wealth takes a while to accumulate, but can very quickly be destroyed by some of these behaviors and speculative actions. And I know myself, there was such a FOMO around crypto, as you were saying, and some of these other speculative opportunities to invest, where you feel like, well, everyone around me is getting these huge gains.

19:56I got to get the NFT. I got to get involved. I got to put some skin in the game here. And the human brain in general is not designed for investing. You know, it's designed for money from saber tooth tigers and, you know, hunting down mastodon when they come through the valley. But it is one of the things we do with hurting. I was listening to one of your guys' videos about talking about how human beings herd and herding is awful for, great for zebra, bad for investors. They're chasing the market. They're all buying the same thing at the same time. Large company stocks made 22 % a year from 95 to 2000.

20:35Tech stocks made 45 % a year in that five-year period. And then they dumped 75 % of all their value. And the S &P lost 50%. And I see people doing the exact same thing today. They're investing in large US stocks, large tech stocks, and the risk is not dissimilar than it was in the 2000s. What they gotta do is they gotta own small stocks. They have to own international stocks. They have to rebalance their portfolios up on the ups and downs. They have to start studying some academic principles of investing because these big brokerage firms are so seductive. I call them Wall Street bullies. They're so seductive in creating this and perpetuating this myth that if you'll just trust them with your money, they're going to beat the market.

21:23They're going to get you in and out of the right stocks. They're going to time the market for you. They're going to do the Bitcoin. They're going to do the hedge funds. Tony Robbins might be a great guru for firewalking and motivation, but his investment advice is absolutely heinous and really hurting a lot of people called that toxic investing. Yeah, and what we don't realize is they're staked in it. So you investing in these products that they're pitching, you know, lines their back pocket and helps their wealth accumulation. Well, the other thing about it too, I mean, the Sam Bankman Friedman thing is the one that we heard about, right?

22:01Like, and the reason we heard about it is because there was a ton of other nefarious stuff going on as well that was exposed and blown out of the water. Most of the time, they don't want, they keep this stuff quiet. They don't want you to hear about it because they want you to invest. They want you to think the markets are safe. You don't hear about all the influencers that are caught up in this stuff and their lawsuits that they're going through and all of the legal stuff that they have to go through quietly behind the scenes to get out of the crap that they're in. And the list goes on and on and on.

22:40Yeah. Very rarely are the settlements and fines publicized. You know, that's not front page news. You settle quietly and you keep pitching in selling your investment vehicle. And to your point earlier, all of these ads talk about how long these investment firms have been around. We've been around 100 years, 120 years, 140 years. You can trust us because we've been around so long. Well, the big firms, they're just masters at illusion. We do a thing in our class. It's called, you know, be a stock picker. And we have everybody stand up. And the odds, we give them a coin, each of them a coin. And odds are, if you just randomly say, okay, here's the Fortune 500 stocks, just randomly pick 10.

23:22Half of you will beat the market in one year and half of you will lose to the market in one year. That's just the odds. And we play this game and after 10 flips, there'll be one person standing up. Now, if that was a mutual fund company, you would advertise that on your website and you would have them go on CNBC and you would have them go on Mad Money and tell them how brilliant they are picking stocks. And so they use the law of large numbers and misdirection. And if the fund does bad, they kill the fund and then put that money into something else. And it's just a massive shell game. And the mutual fund companies know it.

24:00Vanguard knows it. BlackRock knows it. Fidelity knows it. They all know it and they all perpetuate it and they don't care. And the investor pays the price. And then as you pointed out, then you have the straight up con men, the Madoffs and the Bankman Freeds and those people of the world, and most of them you don't hear about. And it's one of the dirtiest businesses. And the reality is, you don't have to beat the market to be very successful. The S &P has averaged 10 % for 70 years. Small stocks have averaged 10%. If you'll just own all of them, don't try to pick the best ones. Small value stocks have averaged 14%.

24:40Those are the types of rates of returns very few investors will ever see. because they're busy trying to beat the market instead of just trying to get the market rates of returns and being prudent over a long time. And they have the FOMO, like you pointed out. They have the hurting bias. They have hindsight bias. They have familiarity bias. If they're familiar with it, they feel like it's safe. You guys can remember Meta just a couple years ago was down 65%. We're dealing with entities that have, they don't have a cap on what they can spend on creating the illusion. it if they don't have a cap and it's so profitable and it's billions i do this little thing in my class where i i take a little handkerchief and i put it in my you know my hand and i make it disappear and the way you work the way it works is you got a little plastic finger and you put it in the finger and then you go like this and it looks like it that's only cost four dollars and 95 cents to create that illusion they're spending billions as you point out billions to create their illusion Over the years, trillions.

25:43Trillions. Indeed. Why is the investing industry broken? What do you see as the big reasons that we're in this situation? I think the biggest part of it is just human nature. So in the book, one of the strategies is apply academic investing principles. And there's three of them. Efficient market theory, which says all the knowable and predictable information is in the price. Only random or unknowable information will change price. The second is modern portfolio theory, which shows you how to put dissimilar assets into your portfolio so it doesn't crash all at the same time. And then there's the three-factor model, which tells you what different types of assets have risk-return preferences that you might want to put in your mix.

26:30Anyways, these are all 12-year PhD-type level things that you would study in college. And I I try to simplify it to break it down for individual investors. Number one, people are lazy. They don't wanna spend the time learning it, but they need to learn it. And then finally, even if you do know the rules, they're almost impossible to follow because of human nature. We all like a good quick story. We all are seduced by getting rich fast. We all tend to be seduced. And this includes the so-called advisors. So let's say that you hire a financial advisor to be prudent with your money. And let's say they manage$100 million and you give them a million dollars to manage.

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27:12Well, they want to seduce you and try to get your million dollars. How are they going to do that? Well, they're going to pick out two or three things that got super hot over the last three or four years. And they're going to say, oh, we'll put you in NVIDIA. Oh, we'll put you in Bitcoin. Oh, we'll put you in XYZ stock that made 40 % last year. And it's seductive. so they get paid by seducing investors investors want it want the magic pill they they want the magic fat pill without having to work and understand it and the academic investing principles that have been around for 30 years have not really caught on that much because it's you got to study it's like coaching an entrepreneur up to the next level you got to study and you got to work hard and you got to learn it and then you have to have a coach and i think a lot of people want to think that they can do it on their own.

28:02And it's almost impossible to apply on your own. Are you ready to elevate your career, master the art of influence and become a standout leader? Then listen up because the Art of Charms executive coaching program is here to help you achieve your professional dreams. Imagine having personalized one-on-one coaching tailored to your unique needs. That's right. Individualized attention and customized strategies that align perfectly with your unique goals. With 17 years of experience and over 10 ,000 satisfied clients, the Art of Charm has the know-how to propel your career forward. Privately, work with us to build your custom North Star strategy, identify your core values, build unstoppable habits, and start reaching your career goals fast.

28:47Whether you're looking to enhance your leadership skills, master the art of persuasion, or develop strong networking skills, our program is designed to meet you where you are and guide you where you want to be. We've worked with elite clients like military special operators and Olympians. Join the ranks of professionals like you who have transformed their careers with The Art of Charm. Our executive coaching program is your key to unlocking your full potential. Apply today at theartofcharm.com slash elite. Start your journey to becoming a better leader and networker today. Don't wait. Your future self will thank you.

29:20Apply today at theartofcharm.com slash elite now. Wow. Walk us through that. So, you know, what are the pitfalls of doing this on your own? And why do you see the coach is so valuable? The discipline part's almost impossible to do. So if I do a pie chart and said, okay, here's your pie chart. Put your money in these pieces. And then what you want to do is you want to rebalance. So if the S &P loses 50%, like it did in 2008, 2009, now only 30 % of your portfolio is in stocks. Well, you've got to sell off the fixed income piece while it's down, and you've got to buy it while it's down back to your 50-50 mix.

29:59But nobody wants to do that. And I didn't have one client out of billions that we managed call and say, hey, I was just noticing I just lost half my money in large stocks, and I want to make sure we rebalance and buy some of this quarter. That does not happen. Human emotion fights that so hard because then you've got pain. you have your biases, you have your emotions, and then you have your instincts. And your instincts is to run towards things that feel good and run away from things that feel bad. And in investing, you have to do just the opposite. And nobody wants to do it. And that's why it's almost impossible.

30:37So those three empirical results that we should be modeling our investments around, can we go a level deeper and walk us through how someone who's just getting started and learning their financial literacy can start to put those into action in their own portfolio? Yeah. So the thing for people starting is that you got to do some learning and studying. And as you pointed out about all the influencers, you don't want to go for your advice on TikTok. Hints and tips might work in some areas in life. I can tell you hints and tips don't work in investing. It's much more difficult. So you're going to have to do some research.

31:16and you want to look at academic research, not research from a broker dealer or from just a TV show you're watching about stock picking. So you want to do some research. You want to allocate, if you're young, you've got a long time, you want a dollar cost average, put the same amount in, let's say 10 % of your earnings every single month and then let that grow as the market goes up or down and you want to primarily be in equities and you want to diversify internationally. You don't want to have all your money just in the US. You don't want to have all your money just in large stocks. And you want to use some type of...

31:52In the book, we talk about things more advanced, but you want to use some kind of ETF, some type of maybe index fund, and you want to stay away from all the active funds that are trying to beat the market and end up underperforming it. But you got to do some study. You've ever seen those movies where that pilot's on the airplane, it's a commercial airplane jet and they get sick and then somebody from the passenger comes up and flies the plane and lands it safely. That has never been done, by the way, not one single time ever in the history of the world. And all the pilots will tell you it is impossible for a passenger, even talking to the tower, to land a jet.

32:31But if you interview men, 50 % of men say they think they could land the jet because they have attribution bias. They might be really successful as a surgeon or successful as an entrepreneur, but that doesn't attribute over to a new area and investing is one of those areas. And so the coaching is critical because the coaching is what keeps you disciplined even when you don't want to be disciplined. I interviewed Michael Phleps and he told me for six years, he worked out every single day, even when he was sick and even on the holidays. And his coach, Bob Bowman, was just brutal with him. And you need that kind of coaching if you want success in life.

33:09To recognize that these biases and instincts are working against us, we're constantly being marketed to. And the more you're watching that portfolio, the more the emotions get involved in these really, you know, important decisions that we need to be making separate of emotions. Yeah. And if it's too good, sometimes the easy wisdoms are the most profound. If it's too good to be true, it's not true. Look, if anybody knew what the best stocks were in advance, and they knew when the market was going up and down, they wouldn't go on TV and tell you. And there's always some stock making 100 % to 200 % a year.

33:49So they would be richer than Elon Musk and Zuckerberg and all those guys combined. And they would keep it all to themselves. One thing I know about the American dream is that the reason it's so powerful is because when you earn something, you feel that sense of fulfillment. that sense that you've accomplished something, that you've helped other people. Ill-gotten money cannot create that for people. So that's the way I kind of look at it in the end for those people. And guess what? Entitlements and handouts do the exact same thing. They'll never create fulfillment. They'll never create joy. They'll never create intimacy or self-expression.

34:28And that's the real gift of the American dream are those things. A lot of people think that, well, even Adam Smith and Karl Marx said that entrepreneurs do what they do for money and greed and self-interest. But I have known a ton of entrepreneurs through the years, and that is not why they do what they do. They do it because they're almost like artists. Artists might use a canvas or clay. Their business is their expression. So they're expressing themselves. They do care about other people. The best entrepreneurs, every single one of them, are creating things that make other people's lives better.

35:01And they do, you know, the money comes. You can't help the money from coming if you help enough other people. But that is not why I know a ton of entrepreneurs. I know you guys do, too. And that is not why they do what they do. It never has been. Yeah, I think it's an easy default to think that if you haven't experienced entrepreneurship on the sidelines. But if you're actually in the arena, you'll recognize just how challenging that is. And if your only sole reason for being there was greed, there are lots of other ways to make money than to try to build a team and launch something and do it on your own versus taking a safer job and a safer route.

35:37When I was 10 years old, my grandpa only came to visit us one time in Cincinnati. He drove from Charleston, West Virginia. We lived in probably a house that was maybe 1 ,800 square feet. Wasn't huge, wasn't a mansion. He walked in the front door and he looked up my dad who had his own business. And he said, how many people did you have to rip off to get this house? And my dad was like, George, I work really hard. You know, I create creating this for our family. I help the people we work with. And he says, well, tell yourself whatever you need to do to sleep at night, but I guess you're some big shot now.

36:17And he left. It literally was only there for 10 minutes. And he was a smart man. He was really smart. And they offered him at Union Carbide where he worked. They offered him an opportunity to go into upper management from the line where he was breathing toxic chemicals every day. And he didn't take it because he said he would be being greedy and he would be working for the man if he did that. And he literally died to keep his view in place. He literally died from emphysema on the line at Union Carbide because he didn't want to see that the American dream was real and that if you helped enough other people, I'm pretty sure he saw my dad's success as an indictment of his own failure.

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40:37That's shopify.com slash charm. Go to shopify.com slash charm and make this Black Friday one to remember. Yeah, I think right now there's a growing fear that the American dream is vanishing and that it's becoming harder and harder with rungs of the ladder pulled up and making those great leaps that, you know, afford the house at the white picket fence and the family and kids going to great schools and being successful is fleeting. I think you're right. I mean, not only do I think, I mean, I've been looking at this for the last two years writing this book. So I know that you're right. And I think that it's the skewed view of what it actually takes.

41:16If I lost everything, God forbid, if I lost everything and had to start over again, I wouldn't try to start at the top somewhere if I had to. I'd be willing to start at the bottom. See what people don't get, a lot of people don't get that are in that poverty mindset is that if you go to work for an entrepreneur, even if you're the lowest employee on the, on the, in the company and you work hard and you educate yourself and you study and you, you'll go, you'll move up the ladder in that company. You could start off at the bottom and end up running the company, being the CEO of the company, but people want it now.

41:47They want it too fast. They want like, boom, you get that degree. And I want to be the CEO of the company when I graduate with my$300 ,000 of debt in my degree in social sciences. I mean, or art appreciation. I got an art appreciation degree. Now sign me up to run the company. They want it too fast. The American dream was never about getting it fast. And what's interesting is half of all people work for small businesses. 48 % work for small businesses. So the American dream is alive. Virtually half of all the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are immigrants or the sons or daughters of immigrants. So it's still the great melting pot.

42:29Creating wealth and prosperity is still very possible. And even for the people that have middle class, even lower middle class, I always tell people, you live better than the king of England 300 years ago. If you only make$40 ,000 a year, you live better than the king of England did. you didn't have chocolate you didn't have air conditioning you didn't have antibiotics you didn't have an emergency room you didn't have medicine you did i mean you had nothing if you had needed surgery you had no anesthesia you had no ivs you had no tv you had some cell phone you had no electricity you had no refrigeration i mean the the quality of the life that we have today is unbelievable.

43:16And the opportunities are still there. So shifting that lens to the future, you know, I think part of the entitlement and the reflecting on the past and the feeling that things are better in the past or more achievable based on wealth inequality and the gap that we're facing. Very many of us can't ever get to the step of visioning the future and truly defining that purpose for their money through that lens. So how do you share with your clients and the people who participate in your coaching the steps to start to build that vision if they've now recognized that this victim mindset is not helping them, that they need to change their lens around the American dream.

43:56And a big part of that is actually having a clear vision for where you're going and why money is not the sole purpose. This is a tough one. That is the million dollar question, right? So you get, look, I got to have a purpose for my money and my life bigger than money. I get that money itself will never make me happy. I get that I got to stop speculating and gambling with my money. But to create prosperity takes, in business school, they tell you, find a need and meet it. But that's not how the great entrepreneurs have done it. They imagined something nobody else could imagine, even wanting. And then they created it.

44:37And then people absolutely had to have it. So it's like when Walt Disney said, okay, look, even his wife didn't think this was going to work. He went to a carnival with his girls, his daughters. And when he went to, he said, this is dirty. It's filthy. It's nasty. It's a terrible experience. I'm going to take these movies that I made and I'm going to turn those into rides. And I'm going to call it a theme park because it's going to be themed off of the movies I made. And everyone thought he was absolutely insane. but you have to create something that other people can't imagine, especially with AI and especially with the new technologies that are out.

45:12And you also, I think to be successful in the future, have to do something that only human beings can do. Because if it's something you can automate, it's going to be done by computers. So you got to create something that's unimaginable for people. I remember when, I'm going to age myself here. I remember when the guy came into my office the first time with a fax machine. I said, what the hell is this? He said, oh, it's a fax machine. It's going to be great. You just fax stuff and you don't have to send it in the mail. I said, that's bullshit. I said, number one, nobody else has one. Number two, it's$5 ,000.

45:49I can just send it in the mail. Well, of course, fax machines came and then email came and then ATMs. I thought that was stupid. Remember when those came out? I'm like, I'm going to pay$4 to get my own money. So the smartphone, I rejected texting. I remember when texting came out, I said, oh, you should text people. I said, no, no, no. If I love, if I'm going to talk to somebody, I'll call them. I'm not going to text anybody, anything. I must do 50, I must do 300 texts a day now. So you, you create something that no one can imagine needing. And it's so powerful that it changes their life and then they can't live without it.

46:25And that's not, that's not easy to do. And I would suggest to people to study some thinkers like that. Read biographies of like Da Vinci and Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and these other innovators that can think creatively. And then always be looking in the world for great experiences that you've had and how you can integrate those types of experiences into your business model. And it's not easily done, but it is doable. So for those of us who aren't necessarily looking to be entrepreneurs, but want financial security and want to educate ourselves in investment. How do you view the future vision from that lens of being comfortable and happy being an employee of an entrepreneur, of an innovator, but wanting financial security and freedom for yourself and your family?

47:13And that's definitely the majority of people, for sure. Number one, you want to find a really good leader. You want to find an innovator and a leader that's powerful and takes risk. and you can follow. Number two, if it was me, I'd want to work for a company that wasn't woke and didn't hire people based on skin color, religion, or gender that would hire a person. I tell our employees, look, the reason you're, we have a lot of diversity. And I tell people the way to get diversity in your company is to hire the best people. If you hire the best people for every position, you're going to automatically have a lot of diversity.

47:50And I tell everybody that works for me, I said, you're here because you're the best I could find, not because you check a box. So if I was going to go to work for someone else, I would want to make sure that the standard I was being held to was based on my abilities, based on what I create, not based on my skin color or any other determinant. And then I'd work like hell to create value for that system. And that's how I go about doing it. I would save at least 10 % of all my money that I make, at least 10. I would use my 401k, then I would take the rest of it, then I would invest it separately.

48:23and I would avoid speculating and gambling like the plague. You got to be with people that are like-minded that have a similar purpose. I'm not going to go to work for somebody whose purpose is just to make money if my purpose is generosity and love. I'm not going to do it. You'd be a very unhappy person if you did that. I think the key point there that I'd love the audience to take away and I definitely took it from the book is that there's that investment of time. You are giving your time to that company joining the team, putting in the long hours, working hard, that investment in time is a way to gain wealth.

49:00There's a value to that time. And if you use that time wisely and you're growing and you're strengthening and you're improving, and that allows you to move up the ladder and earn more, that gets you closer to the American dream. That is so critical. If you believe in, and I've had employees that have fooled me who said they believed in the mission of the company. to help create freedom, fulfillment, love and families, and help them eliminate gambling their money. But they really weren't there for that reason. They were really there because the benefits are really great. The money's really great.

49:34Never take a job for the money. It'll just be miserable for you. You want to find someone whose values and the mission of the company align with yours so that even if you're just a janitor, you can go. They asked the guy at NASA, he was a janitor, cleaning the sinks and cleaning the tile. He said, what are you doing? He said, I'm sending a man to the moon. It's because he's attached to the greater mission of what the company or in this place, the agency was doing. And if you can get behind the purpose of the company and it aligns with your purpose, then you'll be able to work hard. And it won't be like work.

50:08It'll be like, you know, getting to express yourself and create. Sure, there'll be hard days. All of us have to do stuff we'd rather not do. But you'll wake up in the morning feeling on fire and passionate and excited. And you'll be motivated by your own life. And if you find a company like that, that's worth spending 20 or 30 years at. I 1000 % agree. And I think what's great now in today's culture is that mission is front and center in most companies. It's very easy to find. It's not hidden. It's not nefarious. You can actually tap in when you're researching companies and applying for jobs to what are they trying to do?

50:43What is their larger mission? And does that align with my values? Have I even thought about that? And then you can even go to Glassdoor or whatever to see if it was all BS when the CEO wrote it.

50:58A lot of transparency. Another great thing about today that we didn't have necessarily 30 years ago or 40 years ago, when I started the company, I had an overhead projector, a yellow pad, and$30 ,000 in debt. And that was how I started the company. you can start companies today on without massive amounts of capital you don't have to open a million dollar a hundred million dollar factory you don't have to you know raise capital necessarily the way that you had to do in the old days tons of ways to open companies today that don't take that capital and a lot and it's ironic so many people say they don't believe in the american dream anymore but they do believe in entrepreneurism you know like the shark tank kind of thing.

51:41A lot of people believe in free enterprise, but they think of themselves, it's weird. Even though they believe in free enterprise and they want to be part of it, they also kind of view themselves as more, oh geez. Yeah, I'm going to say it. More like socialist and communist kind of like deal, which never works for society, by the way, nor does it work for the people in this society. It's the people that are willing to put themselves on the line for a purpose greater than themselves, those are the people that ended up surviving as entrepreneurs and or great founding people of the entrepreneurial endeavor.

52:15Yeah, it's a wild ride full of highs and lows. And if you can't ground to a deeper purpose or a why behind it, you're going to get off the ride rather quickly. Yeah, it's easy to, you're either always creating something or you're always tearing something down. And it's much easier to complain than create. you want to, this kind of goes back to Napoleon Hill. You want to find a mastermind, a group of people that see the world the same way, that come together for a common purpose, that pull each other together. When I wrote the book, I did something called the American Dream Summit. And I invited the people that I thought could make the biggest difference for the American dream that I knew throughout my last 40 years of work.

52:57You know, my buddy, Rob Lowe, I had Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University. I had people from academia that were there. And we talked about how could we create the ideals of the American dream as a global phenomena. And that energy of those people coming together as a team were much more powerful than any individual could do by themselves. Now, to close, I know you touched on a couple of these already, but I'd love to just unpack the five discoveries that really changed the way you think about money. So the backstory is I always wanted to be a financial planner. When, before we got out of Charleston, West Virginia, I can remember my dad coming home from driving up the hollers covered in dust from the hole in his car.

53:46He would drive in the dirt roads. He wouldn't come up. He would be, he'd be really dusty. And I always wanted, most kids want to be a football player or basketball ball or something. I wanted to sell insurance, a weird kid. But I went to college, got a degree in finance and accounting, went to work as a financial planner, selling insurance, doing investments for a large brokerage firm. And everything I did for my clients failed. And I remember talking to the, in front of like 500 other advisors, the president of the company, I said, everything we're doing is failing. He said, well, what's your problem?

54:20I said, what's my problem is I'm hurting people and I'm a bully. I don't mean to be, but I don't know how to get out of this. And he said, well, just sell him something else and earn another commission. And I was like, I'm not going to live like this. There's no amount of money where I will be willing to do this. And then I went to a debate between Donald Yachman, who was a five-star manager at the time, and a guy named very few people knew, Rex Sinkfeld, from the University of Chicago. And here's what I discovered. Discovery number one is that stock picking in all of its forms is destructive.

54:52Because it's based on gambling and trying to pick top performer. And sometimes the top performers lose 80 to 90, even 100 % of all the money. So stock picking is destructive. Market timing, trying to get in and out and forecast which way the market's going to go is destructive because no one can predict it. Long-term, it goes up, but no one knows whether the next 20 % is up or down. The next 100 % is up, but no one knows the next 20. Track record investing doesn't work because a manager's ability to beat the market has zero correlation with their ability to do it in the future. Chances are, if you've been around for even a little bit trying to do this kind of stuff, you've made some of those mistakes and left, and without a coach, you're going to repeat them again.

55:34That's number four. And then number five is it's abjectly absurd to speculate and gamble with your money. Given that you have a, most people have a family they care about. Most people have values they care about greater than money. And to gamble with it and just throw it away on a guess is really absurd for most people. And those are the five discoveries that I had when I was 27 years old. And knock on wood, I've never abandoned them since then. Yeah, I think for many of us, they're pretty profound. We don't realize it because the way we've been marketed to and the way we see friends moving their money or hear about peers having these massive successes with stock picking and timing the market.

56:14But, you know, the probability of success is against you in every one of those scenarios. It's so stacked against you. And I love what you just said, though, because I had a buddy that inherited$10 million when his mom passed. And he loved to go to Vegas. And he would go there almost every weekend. And he'd come back Monday or Tuesday and I'd go, how'd you do? And he'd go, oh, yeah, I'm out 140 grand. And his blackjack was his thing. Oh, yeah, I made 40 grand this one day. And then I made 20 grand. I said, yeah, but you were there for five days. What happened to the other days? Oh, well, you know, I didn't do so good on Wednesday.

56:53But he never talked about the things where he lost money. And he never calculated how much he did lose. And so it's delusional. We overestimate our own abilities. And then we don't want to admit when things don't go our way and that our system or strategy didn't work out. But what I found in the world is some of my biggest breakthroughs in life came not because I was brilliant, but because I just had enough pain and suffering to admit that I was wrong. It also helps with the marriage, by the way. A partner to also share when you're wrong. Even if it's only 20 % of the argument, I admit it. I own it.

57:35And that keeps me married, which just keeps me happy. Smart move. But it's hard to admit when we're wrong, but in my life anyways, and when I coach investors, once they can see that, yeah, it didn't work and I did hurt myself, then they can come to terms with, now I want a solution. But until they own the problem, they're not ready for the solution because the solution actually takes commitment, time, energy, effort, study. And it's kind of like the matrix, the red pill, the blue pill. Do you want to wake up and face reality and do the hard stuff or do you want to just stay in the matrix? and living a life of delusion when it comes to your investing.

58:13Well, to come full circle, I think that is a profound moment that does shift many people's views are those drastic losses, unfortunately. When calamity strikes, when things don't go your way and your strategy is proven wrong, that will often allow you to shift that view and that mindset to realize, okay, well, I have to make a real change here. I can't afford to keep losing in this manner. I like to view myself as someone who can learn from, there's two types of people I tell them in the classes. So there's people that can only learn from their own mistakes because of the pain and they finally hit bottom.

58:45And then there's people that can learn from other people's mistakes. More rare, but I tell people, you don't have to make those mistakes to learn from it. And in the class that I teach, I know you guys do coaching and training classes. There's a lot of interaction, a lot of sharing and people, you know, getting in front of the class and sharing stories. And that helps really break the log jam up. And we also break the no talk rule, which most people have in their family around their money. And they have a no talk rule about the no talk rule. Maybe no one even said we don't talk about money. They just never did.

59:19Because typically the things that we don't talk about are the things that we have shame and guilt around. And that shame and guilt locks people up until they can start to freely talk about money, what it means to them how they relate to it the good parts the bad parts the parts the investing that worked the investing that didn't work you know there's two things that create stress for people in investing there's the economy and the world at large so look we got had massive inflation over the last three years we've had potential recession right now you've got war in Ukraine and the Mideast. You've got China's saber rattling.

1:00:00You've got a lot of things that are scaring people right now. The market has been very volatile last year, but somehow eked out a positive return so far this year. So there's a lot of fear and anxiety about the market and about the economy and about the world and a contentious election coming up. So that makes it hard for people to invest prudently. But in addition to that, they have their own life experiences. So as you're going through all that chaos, then maybe a kid gets cancer or a loved one dies or somebody loses a job or somebody has to go into rehab. So you have your life circumstances in addition to the external world circumstances.

1:00:45And when those things both happen at the same time and they create massive amounts of stress, even the most prudent investor can mess it up because their amygdala gets hijacked and they just go off on instincts and emotions. Usually at the time, that's the absolutely worst time to do it. And that's what makes investing tough. And I've even seen seasoned professionals, the guys that did the research that shows that markets are efficient and you can't beat them, in their own books, they talk about trying to beat the market and picking stocks in China and picking stocks in the U.S. and bragging about it.

1:01:24And they say it's a good story for their kids, you know, their grandkids. I'm like, no, Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a good story. Daddy, grandpa lost all your money in China. No, that's not a good bedtime story. I don't think so. But even the people that did the research find it very hard to follow. Yeah, well, we appreciate you coming on and sharing your relationship with money and allowing our audience to really think about their own relationship with money as a show that is focused so much on building great relationships. We want a great relationship with our money. Yeah, I always tell people, look, if you just focus on other people getting their American dream, everything else will take care of itself.

1:02:00Find something you love, focus on the other people. Your American dream will happen for you, no matter how much money you have, and you'll have a fulfilling life and great relationships, as you said. And that's what it's really about. Well, thank you for joining us. Where can our audience find out more about the courses you offer in the book? So the book is called Experiencing the American Dream, how to invest your time, energy, and money to create an extraordinary life. And you can get it on Amazon. You can get it on barnesandnoble.com. Our class is called The American Dream Experience. And you could look at it up online and learn more about it.

1:02:35It's a two-day workshop for people with 100 million or people that are just getting started. It doesn't matter. So it's a lot of fun. You learn a lot. It's designed to do together as a family. If you have a family unit that you're in, so you can explore things together. And I really appreciate the opportunity to come on your show and share. When I learned about your podcast, I spent a lot of time researching it and looking at it and studying your stuff. Really fantastic stuff. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your American dream with us. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

1:03:14All right. Well, thank you for tuning in to another amazing episode of the Art of Charm podcast. And this brings us to the part in the show where we showcase one of our X Factor members. Take it away, Preston. Hey everyone. This is Preston from Mesa, Arizona. I joined the Art of Charm because after transitioning out of the military, I noticed I was struggling with building connections and relationships with people on a personal scale and it didn't help on the business side of things either. I tried a lot of different coaching programs, YouTube, personal growth videos, the works. And the great thing about Art of Charm is it's not a pill that you can just take to quickly fix everything.

1:03:46They have a system and a structure so that you can build what you need to see the matrix in yourself and actually get the results that you're looking for in the end. The awesome thing, AJ, Johnny, Michael, they work with you one-on-one as well as they put a lot of time and effort to set up continual meetings there during the week and groups. Again, I would highly recommend this. You're going to see the matrix. You're going to see things that'll help you connect and build great relationships. Thank you for the kind words. And it was a pleasure working with you too. And good luck with your future endeavors.

1:04:15If you've gotten value out of this or any of our podcasts, head on over to your favorite podcast player and rate and review the show. It means the world to us and it helps others find the show. If you've listened this far, you're probably somebody who understands the value of building meaningful connections and expanding your network. Well, do we have something special for you today? Imagine a world-class networking program that helps you grow your social capital, not just through random handshakes and business cards, but through your general interests and core values. Introducing the Social Capital Training, your gateway to mastering the art of authentic networking.

1:04:52Whether you're a professional looking to climb the career ladder, an entrepreneur seeking partnerships, or just somebody who wants to enhance their social skills, our free social capital training is designed for you. It's not about collecting contacts. It's about cultivating connections that matter. What makes our program stand out? We focus on leveraging your unique interests and values to create powerful, lasting relationships. Ready to take your networking game to the next level? Head on over to theartofcharm.com slash SC and watch your free social capital training today. Don't miss out on this opportunity to transform your social life.

1:05:28That's theartofcharm.com slash SC for your free social capital training. Elevate your network. Elevate your life with social capital. Before we head out, a huge thank you to our producers, Michael Harold and Eric Montgomery. All right, everyone, go out there and have an epic week. Yeah, I remember you. You were the bad boy. You threw your love away Like it was just a toy And you sold the world You're a song of a tragedy Cause you had your taste All black on the yesterday Yeah, but I remember you Oh yeah, I remember you It was a bad day, bad day, bad day

From the publisher

In today's episode, we explore money and investing with Mark Matson. Mark is an American entrepreneur, author, and innovator in the science of investing and financial education. He creates educational experiences, platforms, and tools that make investing research accessible to investors and transform their relationship with money. His new book, “Experiencing the American Dream: How to Invest Your Time, Energy, and Money to Create an Extraordinary Life” is out now. Mark challenges the traditional definition of the American dream and what many of us get wrong when defining it.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Mark Matson as we discuss why money doesn’t equal happiness and how more money leads to more stress, why you need to understand academic investment principles to save yourself from gambling your retirement away, how to overcome the scarcity mindset to build your American dream, and what it takes to find your purpose and live an extraordinary life.

What to Listen For
Introduction – 00:00:28

How does Mark Matson define the American dream differently?

What problems does money NOT solve?

Identify Your Blindspots with Money – 00:09:03

How do you identify your blindspots with money and then fix them so they don’t hinder your success in life?

What can you focus on to make ANY amount of money feel like enough?

Intelligent Investing vs Stock Gambling – 00:16:15

What behaviors in the stock market make you a gambler vs an investor?

Are big investing firms actually great at investing your money or just lucky over the long term?

Why is the investing industry broken and can it be fixed?

What are the 3 academic investing principles you can apply to mitigate the biggest risks associated with investing?

Why Investing Solo Will Lose You Money – 00:27:34

What natural human tendencies make it an uphill battle to succeed as a solo investor and what value does a coach bring to the table?

How do you apply the 3 academic investing principles when you’re just starting out?

The Investing Roadmap to Prosperity– 00:39:01

What is the secret to creating life changing wealth?

How do you build financial security and freedom if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur? 

5 Discoveries That Will Change How You Think About Money – 00:48:22
What 5 facts about investing will change the way you think about money and help prevent you from making huge mistakes?

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