MI281: Designing Your Game Plan for Financial Success w/ Devon Kennard

25:34And it's not having a plan. You're either getting better or you're getting worse. So not having a plan doesn't mean you don't have a plan. You just don't know your plan. You're just throwing it up, hoping it works out, panicking when things go wrong because you don't have a solution for it. And that affects your mental and emotional well-being in itself. So, you know, really recognizing that and being like, all right, I need to pay enough attention to this to where I make sure I have a plan that fits what I want. I've seen the exact same thing. I've had some friends that they're like, hey, you focus on money too much, blah, blah, blah.

26:05And they're right. I mean, I love stuff. So yeah, I do focus on it more than the average person, but they're like, no, I don't care about money. I don't need nice cars. I don't need any of this. I just want to help animals and do work at a shelter or have a shelter someday for dogs or whatever. This is just an example I've come across. And I'm like, well, if you want to open a shelter someday, you need money to do that. How are you going to do that? You know what I mean? Like anything you want to do, even if it's to help people, like you need money to do that. You know, I mean, yeah, you can donate your time, but if you really want to make a big impact, you need money to do so.

26:37So like, you just have to focus on it. It's just one of these things that doesn't go away no matter what. And we're talking about the spending and like how much money you make versus what you're spending and all that. And one great thing that I've kind of realized and I get frustrated with is you have the financial gurus out there that are saying like, cut back on the latte and don't cut off Netflix and cable and internet, you know, all this stuff. And I'm like, not saying those things can't help your financial life. They absolutely can. Cutting back your spending, that is, you know, can be great in that way.

27:10But there's fixed expenses and there's variable expenses. And fixed expenses are the things that could really change and impact your life. And there's people out here trying to cut back on the variable expenses when they need to be focused on the fixed expenses. And the fixed expenses are the house you live in. So whether you're renting or owning, that's most likely one of, if not your biggest expense for the average person where they're living and the mortgage they pay or the rent they pay is their biggest expense. That is a decision you need to be really mauling over. The car that you drive, the car that you drive as far as what it costs, but also insurance, the maintenance that comes with it.

27:49The car you decide to drive really impacts your financial life. You want to be cool and you want the new Jeep Grand Cherokee instead of getting one 10 years older or getting a Toyota Camry. Your insurance is going to cost more. The maintenance on that thing is going to cost more. And the actual vehicle is going to cost more. Education. You have kids going to college and getting into an immense amount of debt. And I went to the University of Southern California. And it was when I was there, almost$70 ,000 a year. Even if you go and get a six figure,$150 ,000 a year job, because you went to USC afterwards, if you had to get in a ton of debt to get there, then that's the conversation we were having earlier.

28:30Somebody with$80 ,000 with no debt is living a much better life. It has a way better spread than somebody making$200 ,000 with$100 and something thousand dollars debt. So your education and your debt in general, as far as credit cards and things like that, that bad debt, that is a huge thing. And then your health, what you're paying for insurance, those are the things that you need to be trying to mitigate and limit your spending. If you can go and find an apartment for$2 ,000 instead of$2 ,500, 5 ,000 times 12, that's real money. That$500 does spread. And when you start to think about that, me, especially in African-American culture, fashion's a thing and people like Jordans and shoes and stuff.

29:16And I'm like, it may be smart to cut back and not get the new pair of Jordans every time they drop. But if you control your fixed expenses, you might be able to, maybe not every drop, but every other drop still get the Jordans you like, because that is a variable expense that you could buy and pick and choose when to buy. But you just cut your, you just cut$500 a month off in your rent that you're paying. So a hundred dollar pair of shoes every few months isn't that big of a deal. So fixing people's mindset to where it's like that$7 latte isn't going to kill you as much as the$200 extra payment in your car bill or the insurance you're paying.

29:55So getting people to realize let's attack fixed expenses first and really be aggressive and acknowledge that. And then let's look at Verdon. Are you familiar with Ramit Sethi? He has the Netflix series. He just had the Netflix show. And I follow him on social media now. I've just gotten kind of introduced to him, but I haven't watched a ton of his stuff. So he talks about this and I love his financial philosophy. And I don't agree with everything he says, but I do love one concept. And it's like what you just talked about is he says that you need to be asking the$30 ,000 questions rather than the$3 questions.

30:31So rather than focusing on the$3 latte, focus on the$30 ,000 car or student loans or housing or whatever, these big questions. And he also says, that's kind of like one part of it. And the second part is you need to cut ferociously on expenses that you don't care about and then spend lavishly on the things you do. So let's take an example. If you know somebody that loves buying Jordans every time they drop, shop. That's fine. Spend as much money on that as you want, but you need to cut that somewhere else that you don't care about. If you care about shoes, but you don't care about having a fancy car, then don't get a fancy car just because other people have fancy cars.

31:06If you don't care about that, don't spend the money there. If you don't care about food, reduce your grocery bills so you can spend it on what you really want. For me, I eat healthy, but I don't really care about going out to eat. I never go out to eat. I save a ton of money. I don't drink alcohol, so I save a ton of money there. I don't go to bars. I save a ton of money there. I cut ruthlessly there. I race motocross. I spend a ton of money on dirt bikes, motocross, that kind of stuff. So it's net net spending the same or even less, but it's just really allocating or how you spend that money.

31:34And I think that's really important. And you're getting more fulfilled. I don't know he's said that, but I've always said that it's like, you need to, you shouldn't have more than one or two vices. And you got to know what your things are. So for me, I like to travel and I I like to eat well. So I'm going to I like going to nice restaurants, getting a good meal. I like to travel. I like experiences. Like I get fulfilled even on my book tour recently, you know, for my book, like going to different cities, meeting new people, trying new restaurants. That really fulfills me. I could care less about having chains, a bunch of different chains on and, you know, several different cars.

32:13and so i don't like i buy i have one nice car that was was my dream car and i don't i'm like i can only drive one car at a time i'm never gonna have a third car in my house because it's unnecessary and i don't buy extra jewelry like that's that's not so i've chosen you know that's where i'm gonna spend the extra money on but then like you said cut ferociously on on everything else but what i found where people really struggle is when they have more than one or two vices you Like in football wise, I always tell guys, you can't be a jewelry guy, a travel guy, a club guy, a weed guy, you know, like lavish house guy, the car guy.

32:52Like when you want to look pop it in every category, that's when, you know, you're really susceptible financially and you're putting yourself in a really bad hole. So you got to decide. You really do got to be intentional about what do I value most? And, you know, like you said, spend freely there and cut back else. It's pretty cool hearing how different people were because I've always put that in the vices world, but hearing spend ferociously on what you want and cut back everything else, that's cool too. It's hard because let's say your thing isn't, you don't care about the house you live in, but you want to spend on travel.

33:28It's hard because people compare you to themselves or themselves to others based on your house, not your travel. People aren't going to be like, oh, he went to Florida. He went to here. He went to wherever. you went to Europe, they don't really compare experiences. They do houses. They could be like, oh, he lives in that neighborhood with not a very nice house. And I live in a super nice house. So I'm doing better than that person. So it's hard to cut back on these things that you might not care about because of this idea of keeping up with the Joneses. I think a good analogy, practicality with that, when it comes to houses, I wanted a really nice home that I'm proud of, that I can live in for a long time.

34:05But the area that I chose to live in, I'm in Arizona, I can be in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale in the thick of like where it's popular and the big money is. The home that I'm living in now would have cost probably three times as much in that area. I live about 30 minutes away in the suburbs, in a town that I grew up in. I have a nice home, you know, like everything that I ever dreamed of. But where I decided to live and not being right in the mix of where its values are going up, I'm on a bigger lot. this same lot and house would have cost literally three to four times as much so for me that's where it's like okay i still got a nice home but y 'all got to come out out the way a little bit to my spot because i chose not to live there because that's i having a three four five six million dollar home i didn't value the same i want a nice home but it doesn't need to be that and that's like those are the kind of decisions that you know people should make i don't value that Some people might be like, I want to be right in the mix and I want my kids to go to, you know, Saguaro High School, which is in Scottsdale.

35:11That's like, and so they might spend the extra money on that home instead. But that was my decision and why it's like, you know what, I'm going to do this instead of that. You mentioned you went to USC. So I want to go back. Before you went to USC, you were playing high school football and you had Alabama head coach Nick Saban watching you. You had Pete Carroll, Charlie Weiss. This is all watching you during your senior year. And then you had an MRI that disclosed you tore your ACL in a game. How did this moment in your football career, your early football career impact how you think about money in your later years, like you do today?

35:42And did it make you more conscious of your spending habits while you were in the NFL because you knew things like that could happen and essentially your career could end at any moment with a freak injury? Yeah, it was a big wake up moment to where you can go from being the guy to a guy in a heartbeat. And it was my first taste of that. Like I was always a hard worker, but my upbringing, I had a dad who played professional sports. I was always good. I did school well. Like I was keeping it solid. I was like, you know, the popular kid, good at sports, did good in school. Like I never gotten punched in the mouth.

36:17Like, and that was my big, like knockout, the like heavyweight fight. Mike Tyson knocked me down. I'm at the height of heights. And then something like that happens and change my perspective completely. Number one, it made me realize that I got like football is what I do, but it's not who I am. And I connected my identity to the game of football way too much. And I it made me realize that football is never going to love me as much as I love it. And it started making me ask myself a question of like, if football doesn't work out, what kind of life do I want? And I realized, and I think a lot of young people need to think about this is like, I want to live a good life with or without football.

36:58And I plan football was always an avenue that I wanted to help me get there. But it made me act like realize, like, if it's not football, I still want it. And maybe you decide that, like, if I can make it to the NFL, I'm going to live this life. If I don't, I'm OK with this life. Then. All right. You can you can live your life accordingly. But it was a complete mindset for me because it's like I realized I wanted to live a good life. I wanted to be able to do what I want, what I wanted, how I wanted, where I wanted, with who I wanted, whether football was a piece of it or not. And if I'm making that decision of that's what I want my life to look like, then I got to move differently.

37:32I got to think differently because I got to make sure I'm getting there no matter what. And, you know, that realization ultimately made me think about finances a lot differently once I got in college, leveraging my education. That's why I ended up getting my undergrad and master's degree while I was at school, because my mindset was like, I'm going to school for free. I mentioned it was like$70 ,000 a year. I'm going to finesse them into giving me two degrees by finishing my undergrad early and starting my master's and make them pay for that too. So it just really enhanced how I thought, and it put me in a position to be financially stable.

38:07Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. Hey, it's Sean O'Malley, just popping in with a quick message. If you like this podcast, well, I've got great news for you. We've got a handful of other shows for you to explore, from learning about Bitcoin to embracing a richer, wiser, happier lifestyle. Just go into your podcast app and type in We Study Billionaires to find our collection of shows. We Study Billionaires is our flagship podcast, and we've made a name for ourselves over the years by interviewing the best investors in the world, including Ray Dalio, Howard Marks, Joel Greenblatt, and many, many more.

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41:25That's theinvestorspodcast.com slash tip-finance. All right, back to the show. If you hadn't made it to the league, what would you have done? Any idea what you would have gone into for a career? I think I probably, the broadcast route would have had strong interest with me. And I think I wouldn't be surprised if I would have wound up in real estate anyways, especially with my college experience. So you say if football didn't work out, one of my mentors, or I mentioned it in my book, one of the first people that changed my life football-wise, because even when I was in college, it didn't look like the NFL was going to happen to me for most of my career.

42:02So it was my last year before the season started. And I sat down with the real estate investor and I was getting business cards. I was trying to figure it out because I realized like, all right, now this is four years later after my ACL, yo, my college career didn't go as I wanted. I got one more year to fall out. But as of today, it doesn't look like the NFL is happening to me or it's not going to look that great. So I was like, all right, what is going to look like? I'm meeting a ton of professionals, getting business cards, making relationships. And there was one meeting that completely changed my life.

42:33And this guy was a teacher turned police officer. So I wasn't being too nosy and pocket watching. I don't know exactly how much he made, but police officer money ain't anything crazy. My guess has always been probably around$50 ,000. I don't know, give or take in that ballpark, but he bought a property, him and his wife, they renovated it, house packed it for all the real estate pros out there, bought another one, kept it, did that a couple of times. Fast forward to when I met him and he owned thousands of units in Los Angeles and had his own property management firm where he managed all his stuff, but managed other people's stuff too.

43:10So I'll manage over 6 ,000. And I was like, this dude did that off of a police officer salary. If he could do that, what can I do with even a signing bonus from the NFL, you know, big signing bonus or like, you know, even if I didn't even make it to the NFL, it's like, I think I can go get a job for more than $50 ,000. So even if I got to get it out of the mud and do it his way, if he could do it, I can do it. So that was like the flip that was like, all right, real estate is going to be my game because this dude flew. I can't remember if he owned a private jet or just always flew private, but was like, just telling me his life and his passions.

43:50And I'm like, you were able to do that off of a police officer's salary. That's what I'm doing. And that kind of changed. And so I think ultimately it would have came down to real estate regardless, but I did have strong interest in the broadcasting world too. I had a similar experience where it wasn't one individual person for me. It was, I thought I was going to make my money one way. I thought you had to be really rich to get into real estate. I felt like I was pretty well-educated in finance and investing, but I still tell you to be rich to invest in real estate. So I said, okay, I'll make my money in my career or stock investing, and then I'll take all that money and I'll put it into real estate once I get there.

44:25Then I was in college and I happened to stumble onto BiggerPockets. And on BiggerPockets, I saw thousands and thousands of people that were doing what I wanted to do and were reaching the goals that I wanted to reach. And I was like, these people are no different than me. They didn't start anywhere different than me. If they could do it, I could do it. And then ultimately, that's kind of helped me get over those limiting beliefs that I had and helped me get to where I am today. So it's not one specific person like your story, but it's just a collective group of people that I saw doing essentially what I wanted to do and showed me like, hey, they can do it, I can do it.

44:55I think that's a really important point because my next evolution is similar to yours is I died into bigger pockets. And then I started hearing more stories. Now, not everybody turned into what he did, but just having success. And I'm like, they're able to do it. Why can't I? So it's that same notion. And actually, I think building relationships and leveraging the network you have is such an important aspect. And that's for everyone. Obviously, real estate-based, that's our game. But really in life in general and in finances, you can 10X your life in every aspects by the relationships you start to build.

45:31But I hate the whole your network is your network thing because I found you have to be ready and prepared. And so when you're ready and prepared and then you have a good network, that's where it can really impact your network. But you can go shake hands with Bill Gates today. And if you don't have anything to offer, if you don't have any, then what's it going to do? So, you know, interesting enough, I started to realize once I got in the NFL, I have some capital. So people are going to listen to me now. And then I started to leverage. I'm reading a lot of books on real estate. I'm watching a lot of YouTube videos.

46:06I'm listening to a lot of podcasts. I understand the game. I can talk cap rate. I can talk cash on cash return. I can talk equity and 1031 exchange. And I have some capital. I started to lean into that. So I've actually bought in several markets now based on relationships that I built through books I read and reached out to people, podcasts I've heard and reached out to them, et cetera. But I utilize the fact, wait, Hey, I have some knowledge now because I understand it and some capital. So let me, let me go and lean into this. And it turned into a mince amount of opportunity. And that's how I was able to invest and build such a large portfolio of syndications and my own properties just by even while I'm playing in the NFL, but it's been utilizing relationships.

46:55We talked a bit about what you would do if you hadn't made it to the NFL, but you did. And when you were a rookie, you have this story where you shipped an old car to New York because you didn't want to buy a new one until you knew your football career was moving forward. You briefly mentioned this earlier. And that was despite being pressured to buy a nicer car by your teammates and just other guys across the league. And what I think is interesting is that even at the level you were at, people think once they make a lot of money, they're like, okay, I won't have this dynamic of keeping up with the Joneses.

47:24But even at your level, that was still prevalent. So I want you to first off, tell us that story a little bit. And then also, how did you battle keeping up with the Joneses? And how did you just stick to what you were focused on? I really bought into the notion of delayed gratification. So I was never telling myself I couldn't have those things. I was just telling myself, let me do it differently. Get it later. Get it later. For as long as I can remember, I've had two dream cars, an autobiography Range Rover and a Mercedes S550. Now it's the S63 AMG version. They haven't came out with a new one in a while.

47:58But essentially an S550 Mercedes and a Range Rover have always been two of my dream cars. I was like, I still want those cars one day, but I don't need to buy it right now because I don't know how long I'm going to play. So it's like, I'm not telling myself I can never buy one of those cars. I'm telling myself I need to wait. And then I got infatuated with the concept of like everyone in the league, they make it to the league and they start buying these lavish things. And I'm going to add one step that I think can completely change my life. I'm going to make it to the league and make an earned income and turn it into investments that give me passive income.

48:34And then with that passive income, go buy whatever the heck I want. So that coupled with the delayed gratification concept is like, all right, I don't know how long I'm going to play. let me save as much money as I can so I can make sure I'm buying things that are going to be able to sustain my lifestyle. Once I do that and I have these assets, then I can think about, oh, let me buy that Range Rover. Let me buy that Mercedes one day, but push it down the road and let an asset buy it instead of my earned income. And I started to realize it's easy to just flex with football money. But the real flex to me was buying assets with my football money and then buying whatever I wanted with the excess capital from that.

49:15So that concept really kind of stuck with me. And I kind of mentioned, I didn't know how long I was going to play when I got drafted by the New York Giants. It was talks that, oh, he's going to, he's a fifth round draft pick. He's going to play a couple of years and fizzle out. And I was like, if that is the case, I want to be able to take whatever I make in the league and 10 exit. So I'm not going to buy a car right now, which is going to deplete that immensely. If I only have a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank and I'm spending a hundred thousand dollars on a car, I was like, I can't do that.

49:45So on a rookie contract, which I was a fifth round draft pick, I remember one big notion after my third year in the NFL that I was super proud of that none of my teammates could believe is I had a million in the bank after three years. And that's when salaries weren't what they are now. And I was a fifth round draft pick. So I didn't have a big signing bonus and people didn't believe it because it was like, you've only made X amount and you have a million dollars saved already. And you can see$1 million. And I was like, yeah. And then that obviously compounded and took off because I made more in my fourth year.

50:17And then I signed new deals after that. But many people spend the majority of it and it takes them to get to their fifth year typically for them to hit that mile and that million dollar number, especially if you're a later round pick. If you're a first rounder, you sign millions already. But my signing bonus was only$107 ,000. and you got to cut that in half. So when I say I've hit a million dollars in three years, that's what I mean. A salary of$500 ,000 or$600 ,000, cut that in half, that's$200 ,000 and something. Got to times that by three, so signing bonus, I was being pretty frugal those first three years to hit a million dollars in the bank.

50:54And that's why a lot of my teammates couldn't believe it, but that kind of took off for me because then when I started to make more money, I was so much further ahead than my counterparts. When you say you have to cut it half? Is that because of taxes, agents fees and other stuff like that? Yeah. So for your audience out there, if you guys haven't gone to my Instagram page and stuff, I talk a lot about this on there, but you literally got to cut everything in half. We're taxing the highest tax bracket. I did the numbers in Arizona and it's like, tax-wise, I would expect 44 % to 45 % gone automatically.

51:27And then we pay our agents 3 % of gross revenue. So 3 % of the contracts. So now we're at 47. And that's not including all the extra little taxes. That's just state and federal. And then you got to think if you're in a city like New York or something like that, the taxes are worse. Those numbers are up higher even more. So when it's all said and done, it's 50 % plus that's gone. And you see these contracts online and most of that money is not guaranteed in the NFL. So I've made this analogy before too, But a two year,$10 million deal that you see come across your screen in the NFL is really like a one year,$6 million deal.

52:02And people write me off when I say that$6 million is still a ton. But now you got to cut that in half. So when you see somebody sign a two year,$10 million deal, you got to realize that's really ultimately looks like one year, 3.2 million. Like 3.2 million is a lot of money, but it's a far cry away from 10 million. So when you start to realize that and seeing guys not recognize that kind of upfront and be surprised when it's like they don't get the second year of their deal and they thought they had another five, six million dollars coming and they don't get it or they're surprised by taxes, et cetera.

52:38It's a humbling experience for sure. It's interesting because we talked earlier, I asked you about how the talks in the league and in the locker room have changed from when you started to now. An interesting example of what you just mentioned is that Tyreek Hill, just last year, or maybe it was two years ago, but recently he left the Chiefs and he was looking to see where he was going to go. I believe it was the Jets in New York was a very possible landing spot. He ended up in Miami because of tax. He literally came out and said, I'm not paying New York taxes. That's just crazy. He's like, I went to Florida.

53:10I went to Miami because the taxes are way lower here. I'm just going to make way more money, even if the contracts are the same because of taxes. And so it's interesting because guys, like we talked about, they're starting to think about this differently and they're starting to realize how this is going to impact them. Absolutely. And I feel like you have to. And this whole notion of guys being loyal to organizations and to the NFL, I don't know if you saw what's going on with the PGA and Live, but I tweeted about this yesterday. I feel awful for the guys who tried to do the noble thing. I'm going to stay loyal to PGA.

53:44This is what I know. This is the staple for golf in our country, in the world, really. And PGA was talking down and bad about Lynn. And now they're partnering and just bought out. People got to realize sports is a business. Corporate careers are like this too. That's the thing. People need to realize it's not just athletes. Yeah. These owners, the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, what they care about is the bottom line. And when you get caught up and committed to an organization or a team or doing stuff, there's some golf guys who just missed out on generational money less than a year ago being loyal to the PGA because PGA said they're not messing with Lid.

54:28And now they bought them and that money's gone. If they're good enough players, they'll still get paid a lot of money. I'm not saying that, but what that offer was, today's price is not yesterday's price. They missed out on money no matter what way you can cut it. And, you know, ultimately PGA did what they felt was the right move financially for them. Yeah. Some of those live contracts they were given out or were insane. It's nuts. And it's like, now they're going to be justified and those guys are going to get that money and they still get to be a part of PGA. But they were, I don't know if you remember guys who were deciding to do that.

55:02We're getting scared. Oh yeah. Big time, big time. Like the PGA was like, I'm not a huge golf guy, but like they were, they were saying some like really nasty and negative things. If if I remember correctly about the guys that were going to live. No, absolutely. I'm not that big of a golf guy too, but I was just following the main stories. And when I saw that, I was like, I remember PGA was just talking bad on them to think like less than a year ago. Yeah, it's crazy. And now we're here. It's crazy. So to think that money in the business of sports, that's where it's going. And it's the same thing with gambling and all of that as well.

55:36People need to realize too is, and I think people are becoming more conscious of this, but like corporate jobs are the same way. Corporate companies are the same way. Like there's a saying, and I don't know if this, if I believe this is a hundred percent true, but they say like, you know, if you pass away, that company has your job posting listed before your funeral even happens. Like they're already looking for your replacement so fast, you know, like so quick. And you just, this is why you got to take care of your financial future because these companies aren't looking out for you. So this is stuff I mentioned in my book, but this is the conclusion of why I decided to write my book.

56:10Because I was trying to figure out the difference between me and somebody who has a 9-to-5 job that pays well is I know I have to retire. Best case scenario, in my 30s. I'm 31 right now. I just told you this next year is iffy. Even if I play, I'm retiring most likely at 32 or 33. In the next year, it's done. I've known that, and that's the best case scenario. I could have it could have happened way earlier than this. I'm the anomaly because the average NFL career is less than four years. So with knowing that, I felt like it made me think about what life outside of football is going to be, how I'm going to live.

56:46And that's why I started talking about TMI, fixed expenses versus variable expenses. Yeah, getting to my target number, generating enough revenue. But everyday people out there and all your listeners, they don't have to necessarily think about this. They choose not to because they think they're safe in their job. I'm going to do this for the next 30, 40. I'm in the operations industry. If it's not this company, it's another company. Somebody like, and so they just, they stick to the status quo of the American dream, work somewhere, work in an industry or at that specific job for the next 30, 40, 50, 60 years, retire, get a gold watch, your retirement account, et cetera.

57:22And I challenge every listener out there to realize the time we're living in. Things are changing drastically. There are people out there who are going to lose their job because of AI and where technology and things are just going. So there's a couple of things you should do with that information. One, constantly adding skills and growing as a person. If you're in a nine to five job and you've been working for it for the last few years and you're just riding the wave and think you're good, you need to be improving your skill set because that increases your revenue potential and your desire to keep your job.

58:02That is essential. I had the same thing in the NFL. I'm like, there's always a new guy trying to get in. how am I going to add to my skill set to where I show that I would still value? You cannot stay the same with where the world is going and think you're going to have a job in 10 years. You have to keep going. Number two, how do you not see what's going on in society right now and have the same mindset as an athlete should or that I do in preparing for life without your job, creating other revenue streams that offset? My goal is to always completely replace my income from the NFL. But even if it's like your life expenses, your car note, your house, your fixed expenses, let's call them that again.

58:46What if you can just replace those with passive income specifically? And I know you'll agree doing it through real estate, buying a portfolio of properties and you get to$3 ,000 and that covers your mortgage. Now your next goal is to get to 4 ,000. So you pay your car note and your insurance too. Like, you know what I mean? And then stack up that way to where if, and when that day comes where you get laid off, you're not just hopping into whatever job you can and scrambling. You're going to look for the best opportunity and you can take your time because you have enough money coming in to pay your main bills, to pay your fixed expenses.

59:20I think that's where the world is going now. I think that's how people need to think. That's what my book is all about. I'm forced to think that way because I'm an athlete, but I firmly believe that this is how everyone needs to operate in the mindset that they need to have. Like, how can I offset income so I'm not dependent on this job? And you're taking responsibility for your life and for your household instead of giving that power to your boss who may fire you one day or may decide to buy live golf because it's going to make them more money. Like business is business. What you're seeing in the NFL could happen at your job.

59:55What you're seeing the PGA agents do like business can be savage and you don't know where you're always going to stand. and taking responsibility of your household by thinking of a plan you have in place that removes your job from the picture. I talk about this actually in my book as well. And I say, you need to set yourself up so that you can go on offense with your money rather than being on defense. Most people, if they lose their source of income, they're stuck. They're on defense. They have to play defense. They have to take the first opportunity they can to get that money back because they have these bills they have to pay, et cetera, versus I think people need to put themselves in a position where they can go on offense.

1:00:33And what I mean by that is take advantage of these opportunities that come up. Even if it's not negative, let's say you don't get fired from your job or laid off or whatever, but you have an opportunity where you can join another company and you're going to make less money in the short term. But in the long term, you might make way more money. But if you're living right at your means and you can't take a little bit of a pay cut for the long-term future, then you can't go on offense. You need to be able to go on offense to take advantage of these opportunities? How I kind of word it is like, put yourself in a position to where you're doing what you do because you want to, not because you have to.

1:01:08So live your professional life in that way. And that's how I kind of look at football. Like I want to keep playing, but I want to play because I want to, not because I have to. There's a player in the NFL right now who is similar to me, but he's taking whatever opportunity he gets offered right now because of his financial situation. If I was in a worse off financial place, I've gotten calls. Several teams have called me. I could be on a 90 man roster being in minicamp right now instead of on the phone with me. I've turned those calls down because of the financial position I'm in and I didn't feel like they were a good opportunity for me.

1:01:42there's another player. The next player they called once they got a note from me and that player said, yes, he's probably in a much different financial position than I'm in. So I felt like he had to take that job no matter what. I want to do the things that I want to do, not like, and feel like I have to do. So even if you're extremely happy in your job, putting yourself in a financial place to where like, I'm doing this because I really like what I do. And I want to do this for the next 30 years. But like you have the power over it because I don't need this. I don't have to do it. I like it. And I think being able to shift to that mindset and to that perspective is a powerful place.

1:02:20And I think it should be a part of everybody's financial game plan. Yeah, I absolutely completely agree. Devon, as we wrap up today, I want to give you a chance to tell everyone listening where they can go to find out more about what you have going on, where you teach all this stuff, your book, et cetera. Where do you want people to go? So, yeah, my book is called It All Adds Up, Designing Your Game Plan for Financial Freedom. And you can find me all over social media. Just type in my name, Devon Canard. My book, you can go to my website, devoncanard.com, but you can also go to Amazon. There's audiobook.

1:02:55I tried to make this as accessible to everyone out there as possible. So anywhere you would buy a book, you can find it in person or online. And I'm always trying to push out content talking about this stuff and very passionate about it. So I appreciate the time, Robert. I had a blast. Always good. We might have to make this thing an annual thing now. So hopefully I'll be back next year as well. Yeah, absolutely. We might even have to do it more frequently. Maybe we'll catch up every quarter or six months or something like that and just chat. I always enjoy it. I appreciate you taking time out of your day and joining me today.

1:03:28So we'll talk again soon. Awesome. Appreciate you. All right, guys. That's all I had for this week's episode of Millennial Investing. I'll see you again next week.

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