Most people don’t realize they’re stuck until they slow down long enough to ask better questions.
In this episode of Make Your Wealth Work, Jason K. Powers and Joe Pantozzi walk through the three questions that change how your money actually works in your life:
These questions expose why so many people feel trapped financially, even when they earn good money. Jason and Joe unpack how dollars quietly leak into banks, lenders, retirement plans, debt, or nowhere at all, and why control matters more than chasing returns.
They also explain how this lens connects directly to becoming your own banker, building real savings, maintaining discipline, and creating uninterrupted growth instead of start-and-stop progress.
This episode isn’t about telling you what to invest in. It’s about helping you see your money differently, so every future decision is made on purpose, not by default.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re working hard but not getting ahead, this conversation will give you a new framework to think through every money move.
Learn more or connect at: https://alphaomegawealth.com/podcast
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Welcome to Make Your Wealth Work a practical show for builders,
Speaker:entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to think like one.
Speaker:I am Jason K. Powers here with Joe Pantozzi.
Speaker:Today we are asking three questions that really change how you handle money.
Speaker:It's where does the dollar live?
Speaker:Who controls it, and we're throwing in a third one.
Speaker:Can it keep growing while you use it?
Speaker:We're gonna show you how this lens ties directly to being your own
Speaker:banker, so your dollars work on purpose instead of getting stuck.
Speaker:So let's get into it.
Speaker:Joe, how you doing today?
Speaker:Jason, I'm doing great.
Speaker:Good to be with you, man.
Speaker:How's the week been?
Speaker:I hear you guys got a little bit of weather out there.
Speaker:You keep stacking up that snow, don't you?
Speaker:Yeah, and I keep on stacking up layers,
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:just put on more layers and stay indoors.
Speaker:Winter is here.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Joe, can you believe this is episode number 60?
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:That either means I talk too much or there's a lot, there's a lot to talk
Speaker:about, a lot of benefit to be derived and really a lot of value out there.
Speaker:my concern is always that so many people are.
Speaker:to do what they've been doing because they really can feel no other alternative.
Speaker:They have, they feel like they have no other choice but to keep
Speaker:on doing what they've been doing.
Speaker:So they feel stuck.
Speaker:They feel stuck.
Speaker:They in, in their deepest part of their heart.
Speaker:They know that they are stuck.
Speaker:And maybe they can't get over the hump of understanding that, yeah, this is
Speaker:something I could do if I put my mind and my heart and my soul into it.
Speaker:And in order to do that, in order to make that decision, have
Speaker:to believe that it's worth it.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So
Speaker:so many people don't know what they don't know.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, and we, and we have to, I think in the don't know what we don't know.
Speaker:Then we default to what's the general consensus?
Speaker:What's the general public, what's the, you know, what is everybody else doing?
Speaker:And let me just do that.
Speaker:And that's a.
Speaker:Let's see, a method in getting through life, but not always the best one.
Speaker:And there's no doubt about this.
Speaker:sometimes I give this little bit too little credit.
Speaker:It takes a level of discomfort.
Speaker:In order to make changes in your life, you have to be, You have to become un become
Speaker:comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:have to get to the point where you are sick and tired of where you're at.
Speaker:And this happened to me.
Speaker:Um, my wife and I met 38 years ago.
Speaker:God bless Earth.
Speaker:She's an amazing woman.
Speaker:and 38 years ago, in 1988, we both had made.
Speaker:Misguided choices, unwise choices.
Speaker:Sometimes we had been led down a path.
Speaker:We lost money and we made a decision.
Speaker:We're gonna do things differently going forward.
Speaker:We're gonna put ourselves first.
Speaker:We're not gonna put any creditor before us.
Speaker:And we put God first in our giving and after him on the earth, we are
Speaker:number one, pay yourself first.
Speaker:I
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:50, 50 years ago in, in this business.
Speaker:It's a truth.
Speaker:It's a, a cliche for some people.
Speaker:It's a cliche when you don't practice it.
Speaker:When you practice it, it's a life principle, but it only
Speaker:works if you practice it.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Well, and I wanna dive into these questions and talk about the areas,
Speaker:you know, first let's go through 'em, Joe, and talk about what areas are
Speaker:people doing this with their money.
Speaker:So, you know, the first one we asked was, where does this dollar live?
Speaker:I'll throw out the most obvious one.
Speaker:Everybody would go, okay, well we put our money in the banks.
Speaker:That's the easy one, right?
Speaker:We put our money in the banks.
Speaker:You know, another complicated one potentially is we let our dollars
Speaker:live in retirement plans, qualified retirement accounts, and that's a maybe
Speaker:the second most common one to banks.
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:Business accounts.
Speaker:I know people I, we, we let our dollars live under the mattress sometimes
Speaker:and we say that and people laugh and I'm like, no, I've met people.
Speaker:I had, I had a friend, had a friend who was in his mid fifties, and
Speaker:he passed away obviously early.
Speaker:We went to his house to, uh, to secure his assets so they could
Speaker:be preserved for his family.
Speaker:So the house which was now vacant wouldn't be, wouldn't be broken into.
Speaker:And his have his.
Speaker:Safe, stolen in, in full.
Speaker:And we opened up the safe with his daughter there.
Speaker:uh, and there was over a hundred thousand dollars in currency, not to
Speaker:mention guns and numismatic gold coins.
Speaker:But he believed in possessing his money physically, and didn't take into
Speaker:consideration the, the degradation of your money because of inflation
Speaker:purchasing power goes down every year.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:let it sit there in a box or in a savor, in a mattress.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:Where else?
Speaker:the biggest area that I have to throw in, where does your money live?
Speaker:it lives in somebody else's pocket because I can't seem to hold onto it.
Speaker:And whatever amount I earn.
Speaker:I always seem to be spending five or 10 or 15 or 20% more than I earn
Speaker:because my lifestyle demands it.
Speaker:my lifestyle demands it 'cause it's a lifestyle I've chosen.
Speaker:And I'm not here to tell anybody how to live.
Speaker:not here to tell anybody they need to live frugally.
Speaker:I'm just saying if you wanna have anything for the future, if you wanna build any
Speaker:real wealth, it's not gonna be inside a savings account in a bank or any 1%.
Speaker:That's not going to happen.
Speaker:I don't
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:clients become wealthy by saving money in a bank and letting it sit.
Speaker:Believing that compound interest is an ideal, end result.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:sure, sure.
Speaker:Where else are people throwing their money, Joe?
Speaker:Uh, they're, they're storing their money in lenders, lenders accounts,
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:credit card balances.
Speaker:They're building up neg negative equity.
Speaker:That's all right.
Speaker:They're spending cash because they believe that they should, because some
Speaker:financial entertainer told them that they should pay cash for everything.
Speaker:Well.
Speaker:That's only part of the actual process.
Speaker:To build wealth, you pay cash, but you pay back your savings vehicle, your capital
Speaker:account, where that cash was removed.
Speaker:But most people don't take cash outta savings.
Speaker:They take cash outta their future paychecks.
Speaker:So they're encumbering or pledging or leaning their future earnings,
Speaker:not realizing that the interest rate that they're paying on credit cards
Speaker:so outrageous, they're never going to be able to pay that debt down.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:the money reside?
Speaker:literally handing their paychecks over to lenders.
Speaker:So we call it tox toxic debt.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And of course they'll do that because they feel like there's no other choice.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:I think people also put their money into, one example would be policy life
Speaker:insurance policies, whole life insurance policies and utilizing the cash value.
Speaker:a concept.
Speaker:And That's right.
Speaker:I think my favorite one as we were going through our list and
Speaker:you mentioned it, Joe is nowhere,
Speaker:you know, and that happens so much.
Speaker:Where does the dollar live?
Speaker:And people are like nowhere, man.
Speaker:It's in one hand and out the other.
Speaker:Matter of fact, it's gone before you even hits my hand, you know?
Speaker:And that's a big one for people.
Speaker:I think the important thing though is you know, every location, no matter what,
Speaker:it's good or bad, every location really has its rules, risks, timing issues.
Speaker:Its opportunities, and you have to really look at what are all my options, or try
Speaker:to expand your mind, if you will, to see that you do have more than one option.
Speaker:You do have more than two options.
Speaker:You can make different choices if you want to.
Speaker:To make that dollar live somewhere else, or you can rest assured that your
Speaker:dollar is living in the right places.
Speaker:And you know, I have to say that if you're part of the majority of
Speaker:people money is residing nowhere,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:it's a terrible way to explain it.
Speaker:It's terrible English, but I think you get it.
Speaker:in the majority, you're in a group of people, human beings who have just
Speaker:gone through life and life happens.
Speaker:That's the issue.
Speaker:You're not alone.
Speaker:I wanna make that really strong point.
Speaker:You're not alone.
Speaker:And the thing is, people get so up and nodded up in embarrassment
Speaker:because they're not today where they think they should have been by now.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Then we just have to deal with that.
Speaker:It is what it is.
Speaker:You've made some uninformed choices.
Speaker:You've probably been sold to Bill of Good Goods by somebody whose
Speaker:interest was to get your money.
Speaker:You got disappointed and now you're a little bit stuck.
Speaker:you're underwater.
Speaker:You're in debt, you're living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker:know what, uh, the vast majority of people are in that situation.
Speaker:And you can get out.
Speaker:There is hope, and it's not a matter of eating the elephant, right?
Speaker:It's a matter of one.
Speaker:One little correct choice for you at a time.
Speaker:You don't need to take the burden of a year's worth of work just today.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:work on the steps that you could take today.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:today.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:So we know where we're putting our money.
Speaker:Where does the dollar live?
Speaker:What, let's change that perspective a little bit.
Speaker:Take it one step further and talk about who controls that dollar.
Speaker:You know, we talk about where do we warehouse our wealth?
Speaker:Might be a term that we use, where do we warehouse it?
Speaker:But who's really in control?
Speaker:You, um, can be in control of your own money.
Speaker:Certainly that's the easy answer.
Speaker:Well, I'm in control, but I want people to think about where you park your money.
Speaker:Do you actually have control of that money like you think you do?
Speaker:Employer sponsored plans, for example, retirement accounts, qualified accounts
Speaker:is another place you put your money.
Speaker:The employer plan is what controls your money.
Speaker:Really, whatever that is in.
Speaker:A lender might be a different one.
Speaker:That's a big one.
Speaker:Expand it.
Speaker:Let's call it the bank.
Speaker:The lender controls your money if you've got your money tied up in debt
Speaker:vehicles of various sundry forms.
Speaker:And I always throw the word in just to make it make it sting just
Speaker:a little bit, call it toxic debt.
Speaker:Sure, sure.
Speaker:the most part, people aren't out there using credit cards
Speaker:that are charging five, 6%.
Speaker:They're using credit cards.
Speaker:They're charging 15, 20, 25, 30%,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:doing it.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because they feel they have no other choice.
Speaker:Now you know that you may say this is your opinion, this is your philosophy.
Speaker:You don't think that 401ks are the greatest thing since God
Speaker:created little green apples?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:No, I don't.
Speaker:But I could also give you the mathematical reasons, the economic
Speaker:reasons and if you believe that you build wealth by having control.
Speaker:you would have to up the of a retirement plan and say, well, do I have control?
Speaker:I have any assurance that I'll be in a lower tax bracket, which these
Speaker:salesman have been selling for decades?
Speaker:You'll be in a lower tax bracket when you retire, therefore
Speaker:you'll pay less tax number one.
Speaker:There's two problems with that.
Speaker:Number one, there's no guarantee.
Speaker:You'll be in a lower tax bracket because your tax bracket is determined
Speaker:by the government, not by you.
Speaker:And there is proof of it right now is they're floating a bill in
Speaker:California to tax wealth, not income.
Speaker:They're looking at a billionaire tax, a tax on wealth.
Speaker:talking about taxing, unrealized appreciation in stocks,
Speaker:unrealized equity in companies.
Speaker:Their expectation is they're gonna have billionaires write checks for
Speaker:hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker:On, on, on with liquidity, that liquidity that they don't
Speaker:Three.
Speaker:right?
Speaker:So, so my 401k guaranteed to beat inflation.
Speaker:By the time I get there, there's no guarantee.
Speaker:Is there a guarantee the market will outperform inflation?
Speaker:No guarantee.
Speaker:Is there a guarantee that I won't use to, to rifle into that
Speaker:account and borrow the money out?
Speaker:Like 45% of Americans have already done, they have loans against their 401k.
Speaker:Where are we going with that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:there, is there a guarantee that my money manager, got my 401k will be my
Speaker:money manager in 10 years or 20 years?
Speaker:No guarantee of that, so, so two things.
Speaker:One is, will I be in a lower tax bracket?
Speaker:No guarantee.
Speaker:Will inflation beat up my 401k?
Speaker:No guarantee will I have an absolute critical mass of dollars
Speaker:that I expect to have retirement?
Speaker:No guarantee.
Speaker:Is there a guarantee my employer will continue the match?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So, so in, in so many other areas, folks want to have a measured set of
Speaker:facts before they can make a choice on buying something or investing
Speaker:in something or owning an asset.
Speaker:But when it comes to 401k, people are putting money into an unknown,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and then the.
Speaker:Maybe an equivalent problem or a bigger problem is they're putting so
Speaker:much money in the 401k that they're forgetting that they need cash reserves
Speaker:to live their current lifestyle.
Speaker:And so they're having to borrow money on expensive, toxic credit cards.
Speaker:And so when you look at the math of it,
Speaker:it's upside down.
Speaker:What if you're earning 8% on your 401k?
Speaker:I'm not saying that you will or you won't.
Speaker:What if you're earning 8% on your 401k, but you're paying 28% in your credit card?
Speaker:You need to do the math.
Speaker:Most people don't to do the math.
Speaker:They're afraid to do the math.
Speaker:They just keep on making the same decisions day by day,
Speaker:hoping it will work out.
Speaker:Right,
Speaker:I don't have a
Speaker:so.
Speaker:around retirement plans, do I?
Speaker:I'm not.
Speaker:Well, and that's another parallel example is just traditional investments.
Speaker:You know, forget your 401k for a minute.
Speaker:A lot of people like to get into the stock market, you know, and, but I think the
Speaker:important distinction that we're making is the vehicles you put your money in, do
Speaker:you actually have control over it like you initially think you do, you don't have any
Speaker:control over what the stock market does.
Speaker:You don't have any control over what you're.
Speaker:Employer ultimately chooses to do what if you lose your job?
Speaker:And, and now you've, I know a lot of people, you've got these piles
Speaker:of 401k plans sitting out there from all their jobs over the years.
Speaker:You know, there's been like six or eight or 10 of 'em sitting around
Speaker:there with little piles of money in it.
Speaker:'cause it's, it's just, you feel like it's just stuck there 'cause
Speaker:you've changed jobs, et cetera.
Speaker:So, but even traditional investments, so.
Speaker:We're not sitting here saying all of this stuff is bad.
Speaker:We're sitting here saying, understand who actually has control of your money.
Speaker:Because you may not have control like you think you do of your own
Speaker:dollar and, and if you think you have control of it and you're constantly
Speaker:putting your dollar into this whatever vehicle, under the assumption, you
Speaker:have full control over it and you've never really put any thought into it.
Speaker:Oh, I actually don't.
Speaker:I'm completely, entirely at the mercy of what the markets do, or
Speaker:completely, entirely at the mercy of if that bank is gonna call that loan
Speaker:or raise my interest rate or.dot.
Speaker:And I think that's just the important step is to understand
Speaker:where am I putting my money?
Speaker:Where do my dollars get stored?
Speaker:And who has control of that dollar?
Speaker:And understanding those things.
Speaker:I think you will be able to make some.
Speaker:Important decisions in your financial wellbeing moving forward?
Speaker:You know what I think as I, as I replayed the last few minutes that we've been
Speaker:talking, what we're really talking around is the fact that you have a plan.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And many people don't have a plan.
Speaker:And by the way, I hate the word plan because a plan kind of has
Speaker:the implication that we're gonna get into a rut and we're gonna stay
Speaker:in that rut for the next 50 miles.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:what I mean.
Speaker:I mean, there has to be some logic to the decisions that you're making.
Speaker:You can't make your financial decisions haphazardly or just shoot
Speaker:from the hip all the time, number one.
Speaker:Number two, there really does need to be some balance.
Speaker:And we talk about building, and we call it a pyramid or a building.
Speaker:There has to be a foundation and the foundation has to be protection, right?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Nobody in their right mind would think about getting in their car without having
Speaker:car insurance, protecting the occupants of the car and protecting the car itself.
Speaker:Nobody would drive around without liability assurance in their car.
Speaker:Nobody would own a home without having homeowner's insurance.
Speaker:Most people want to have medical insurance, for example.
Speaker:That's all the foundation of your financial house there has the
Speaker:foundation has to be at the bottom.
Speaker:You can't decide to do it later.
Speaker:Your foundation has to be protect.
Speaker:Life insurance, all those insurances.
Speaker:Some people like Aflac or insurance, which I think is crazy.
Speaker:Not a great idea, but life insurance of some kind.
Speaker:Forget about whether it's whole life or term or universe.
Speaker:You gotta have some.
Speaker:Have some.
Speaker:I'd rather die with some life insurance.
Speaker:I'd rather die with the wrong kind of life insurance than with none.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:'cause if I die with insurance, it's gonna pay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So the foundation has to be there and it's gotta be protection.
Speaker:The next level of savings, next level above that is growth.
Speaker:And it has to be in that order.
Speaker:I mean, you could disagree with me, you could tell me, well, I bought
Speaker:Apple Stock in 19, you know, 79, and I'm a, okay, I'm not talking to you.
Speaker:I'm not talking about the one-off where you made millions of dollars on a stock.
Speaker:I'm saying you have to have a, a systematic methodology.
Speaker:Savings, and I hate systematic and I hate methodology and I hate saving
Speaker:over years and I hate discipline.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:But I also hate poverty, right?
Speaker:I have to eat with some discipline.
Speaker:I really want to eat the whole bag of M&Ms.
Speaker:'cause I love them, but I try to limit myself to 10 or 20.
Speaker:And even that's a lot for some people, but there's gotta be some
Speaker:discipline at some point, right?
Speaker:And saving is the worst discipline imaginable you're saving your long term
Speaker:but you are either going to run your financial life based on a foundation.
Speaker:For me, that foundation is saving.
Speaker:Or you could run your financial life haphazardly, shooting from the
Speaker:hip and just live on credit cards.
Speaker:There really isn't much of an in between,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I'm using radical examples here, radical extremes, because I'm trying to reach
Speaker:out to the few people who would be willing to listen and say, you know what?
Speaker:I am sick and tired.
Speaker:I'm sick and tired of getting the same result that I've been getting, using
Speaker:the same old, habits that don't work.
Speaker:They work.
Speaker:You know who they work for, they work for everybody else.
Speaker:They're making your lenders rich.
Speaker:They're making visa, MasterCard, a trillion dollar company, right?
Speaker:keep on placing your money with other people, with toxic lenders,
Speaker:they're getting rich on you.
Speaker:How?
Speaker:How more, how much more, more boldly can I say it?
Speaker:Other people are getting rich Because you're working hard.
Speaker:Why not put yourself at, at the top of the pyramid here and say, I'm
Speaker:gonna pay myself first no matter what.
Speaker:Now becoming my own banker is a mindset.
Speaker:And we can talk about all the various ways that you could become your own banker.
Speaker:I've been practicing private family banking in my own life
Speaker:since 1976 when I learned the use of whole life and it works.
Speaker:And there's no one that's gonna argue that it is, doesn't
Speaker:work because scientifically.
Speaker:Mathematically, economically it works.
Speaker:That's not even up for discussion.
Speaker:They're talking heads out there who will say it's stupid.
Speaker:Stupid is not mathematically measurable.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But we can show you where it's mathematically measurable.
Speaker:not even getting there.
Speaker:I wanna put you on the road to start understanding your finances
Speaker:and understanding that until you take control of all the financial
Speaker:elements of your life, you're not going to even begin to build wealth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that starts with just understanding.
Speaker:And I think that's why we are asking these kinds of questions to get your
Speaker:wheels turning in your head going, Hey, where do, where does my dollar live?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And understand your options.
Speaker:Who trolls it, you know?
Speaker:And we brought up this third question kind of in lieu of this conversation
Speaker:right now, as you hear Joe talk about.
Speaker:Is it growing, I think is the general question.
Speaker:Is that money growing?
Speaker:Is it doing anything besides just sitting there collecting dust?
Speaker:Is it growing?
Speaker:Because that's the, the previous examples we're looking at here
Speaker:going, you want to park if you're putting your money into something.
Speaker:I think generally you want to say, is it growing?
Speaker:But we're taking it one step further and saying, can it keep
Speaker:growing even while you use it?
Speaker:And what does that mean?
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:We would say uninterrupted growth might be a different way to phrase that.
Speaker:Do you have the capability of uninterrupted growth of some kind?
Speaker:And I think that's an important distinction, you know, that we're
Speaker:gonna kind of talk about here is just what is this uninterrupted growth,
Speaker:uninterrupted compounding versus say a start and stop saving approach.
Speaker:So I, I have to add a little bit pr of a proviso here.
Speaker:When we talk about is it growing, you can create growth in multiple
Speaker:ways, and I'll use real estate as an example because I think it's the most
Speaker:common example to all of our clients.
Speaker:The vast majority of our clients are homeowners.
Speaker:Now when, let's say that I buy a house today I'm buying a 300,000
Speaker:house, and I put a modest down payment down, I put 10%, $30,000.
Speaker:Many people put more, people put less.
Speaker:Let's say I put 10% down.
Speaker:I expecting a rate of return my house the day after I close?
Speaker:not.
Speaker:If I bought the house of $300,000 and put $30,000 down, I assume, I
Speaker:really hope that that $30,000 is gonna represent equity, represent appreciation.
Speaker:By the way, they're two different things.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Get that into another class.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:assume and they hope their house is going to appreciate.
Speaker:Do I believe that real estate appreciates over time?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Over decades?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:This year to next year?
Speaker:No idea.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So when people buy a house, they don't say, well, I better get a rate of return.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:Not only did you pay commissions, you're paying real estate taxes, you're
Speaker:paying insurance you're paying for repairs, you're paying for hazards.
Speaker:That could happen.
Speaker:A tree falls on your house or whatever.
Speaker:Hazard claims things could happen.
Speaker:You could ha live in a neighborhood that winds up depreciating.
Speaker:They put a freeway too close to your house or whatever.
Speaker:There, there are unforeseen things that could happen, but when you
Speaker:move in that house, you don't move in that house primarily because you
Speaker:think you're going to get growth or appreciation in the house.
Speaker:You buying that house because you're gonna raise your family there.
Speaker:You can live there for the next 30 years, or maybe you're just gonna
Speaker:move it for a few years and flip it if you're buying it to flip it.
Speaker:That's another conversation.
Speaker:I, I have clients who are, who are real estate owners.
Speaker:Who have multiple rentals for the pro, for the purpose of building up income.
Speaker:If you're gonna be a homeowner, if you're gonna be a landowner or a a, a person who
Speaker:rents out to tenants and you own one or two homes, you are going to be unhappy.
Speaker:Because you're trying to squeeze out too much profit on too small a portfolio.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Different conversation.
Speaker:But the point I'm trying to make here is that when people move into
Speaker:a home, their primary objective is not building rate of return.
Speaker:And rate of return or growth could be in, in something that's emotional.
Speaker:I'm happy here because I love the environment.
Speaker:I love the neighborhood, I love the access to schools.
Speaker:I love that it's a half a half a block away from a lake or a park or
Speaker:my favorite tennis court or my, my, my best, uh, charter school or whatever.
Speaker:I'm building a value in more things than just dollars and cents.
Speaker:And that's also part of multitasking.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So my life insurance, for example, there's 20 different things while I'm
Speaker:building it, while I'm saving, while I'm funding it over a long period of time.
Speaker:again, I'm gonna go back and say banking is a mindset.
Speaker:Infinite banking is not, not a life insurance policy.
Speaker:They're not one the same.
Speaker:One is a strategy and a mindset, and a philosophy and a lifestyle, and
Speaker:the type of policy you put in there
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:is completely different and according to individual choice.
Speaker:Well, and I think that's a distinction we can make for listeners is we've kind
Speaker:of alluded to it here and there now.
Speaker:Joe has said, used the actual term, you know, the Infinite Banking
Speaker:Concept, you know, and if you're listening to this for the first time.
Speaker:You're like, well what is that?
Speaker:So, so it's in short that it's a concept.
Speaker:The Infinite Banking Concept is about con controlling the
Speaker:banking function in your life.
Speaker:How do we reposition ourselves to actually be in control of our money?
Speaker:And you've heard us talk about of the various opt, where does the dollar live?
Speaker:One place the dollar can live is properly structured.
Speaker:Whole life insurance policies.
Speaker:That's one place.
Speaker:There's a lot of places a dollar can live, but it has its advantages
Speaker:to do that and who controls it.
Speaker:You have more control over it there than many, many, many, many other places.
Speaker:And how does it grow?
Speaker:We could spend.
Speaker:Six episodes on that really.
Speaker:But how it grows is, that's why we asked that question.
Speaker:Like, you can put money into most any growth vehicle.
Speaker:Let's just keep it simple and talk about a savings account.
Speaker:Let's say you've got a high yield savings account.
Speaker:6% it was.
Speaker:Now it's not anymore, but we, we rode the wave, right?
Speaker:6% high yield savings account.
Speaker:And let's say you've saved up, accumulated $50,000 in there and
Speaker:emergency comes up, you need to take 20,000 out and take care of emergency.
Speaker:And now what is that 6% growing on in your savings account?
Speaker:It's growing on the 30 you left in there.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Everybody understands that.
Speaker:'cause I took 20 out, so it's now only growing on 30, not the 50
Speaker:inside of a properly structured whole life insurance policy.
Speaker:If you have 50,000 in cash value accumulated in there, emergency comes
Speaker:up and you take 20 out, it's growing as if the whole 50 is still sitting there.
Speaker:That's the uninterrupted compounding growth.
Speaker:There's
Speaker:and just to be clear, I'm sorry to interrupt you.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I wanna be clear and, and technically correct when we say you're taking
Speaker:money out, you're not taking money out, are using life insurance as
Speaker:an asset, collateral, and you're borrowing from the insurance company.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're lending you their money at an interest rate, and that's why
Speaker:you're paying an interest rate is because they're lending you their
Speaker:money at the most reasonable rate imaginable on a new policy, 4%
Speaker:interest only as long as you want it.
Speaker:You can keep that interest rate for life if you want to,
Speaker:but you're borrowing against.
Speaker:So when you take a loan, your money stays in your policy.
Speaker:Your money continues to compound while you access the insurance company's
Speaker:money using your policy as collateral.
Speaker:I'm sorry to
Speaker:Yeah, you borrow against that cash value and utilize it, and it's growing as if
Speaker:the money never left, and there's just not another vehicle out there like that.
Speaker:Okay, now, now conceptually, think about this.
Speaker:If.
Speaker:Now, I've lost my train of thought.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:If emergency comes up and you take the 20,000 out of your savings
Speaker:account, generally speaking, okay, thank God you had it.
Speaker:What's the very next thing we do?
Speaker:Once situation has been resolved, what's the very next thing we try to do?
Speaker:Usually try to start backfilling our savings account.
Speaker:So what have we done?
Speaker:We've effectively borrowed against ourself and we're paying ourself back.
Speaker:In our savings account, then we're saying, Hey, what would that look
Speaker:like inside of a properly structured whole life insurance policy?
Speaker:Borrow against your cash value and then pay yourself back.
Speaker:And there's where we get this term, we start using, becoming your own banker.
Speaker:And now you're banking with yourself, right?
Speaker:You're borrowing against yourself and paying yourself back in effect.
Speaker:And that is where you start to have more control as you see that unfold.
Speaker:So we talk about this, this is one vehicle of many, right?
Speaker:People are putting their dollars into various and sundry different places.
Speaker:And I just want you to think about when you're putting your dollar
Speaker:there, do you want control over it?
Speaker:Maybe.
Speaker:Maybe that's the question.
Speaker:Do I even want control over it?
Speaker:Do you even care?
Speaker:If you don't care, then okay, that's your prerogative.
Speaker:But if you do care, if you didn't realize, if you've never thought about how much
Speaker:control you don't have putting it in some of these vehicles, maybe that triggers a
Speaker:change in behavior because now you know, you're like, okay, well now I wanted
Speaker:control, but I, I realize now that I don't have as much control as I did.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Now again, I think we're not saying don't put your money in any other vehicle.
Speaker:We're not saying that.
Speaker:Again, the Infinite Banking Concept.
Speaker:The concept itself is about how do I have a lifestyle of
Speaker:putting my money in places I have control over when I'm making financial decisions?
Speaker:How much control am I losing by doing this, and is it
Speaker:gonna hurt me in the long run?
Speaker:So let me.
Speaker:Let me bring up a, a comparison that Jason just outlined.
Speaker:You can borrow against your life insurance policy.
Speaker:You could borrow against your savings account at the bank.
Speaker:Now there are more similarities than there are differences.
Speaker:In those two processes, those two choices.
Speaker:But when I borrow against my life insurance policy, have made a conscious
Speaker:decision that I'm going to pay it back.
Speaker:So first of all, having a life insurance policy or having a
Speaker:saving account requires discipline.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:If I'm gonna put a thousand dollars a month into a savings account every
Speaker:month for the next 10 years, right?
Speaker:I'm gonna have $120,000 in my savings account, plus interest,
Speaker:just call it a hundred grand, right?
Speaker:When I take money out of a savings account, which is what I'm doing, and
Speaker:I'm not borrowing against it, typically do I commit that I'm going to make the
Speaker:payments back to myself with interest?
Speaker:The answer is a resounding no.
Speaker:What I do have is an intention.
Speaker:I took the money outta my savings account and I have to pay it back.
Speaker:I'm gonna pay it back as soon as I get that bonus.
Speaker:As soon as I get that tax refund.
Speaker:God forbid, as soon as I have, uh, changed my job, as soon as I have an increase in
Speaker:my revenue, I'm gonna pay that thing back.
Speaker:I'm gonna it back in spades.
Speaker:I'm gonna play it back plus interest.
Speaker:You know, what's human nature?
Speaker:Say if I. If I negotiate a car loan and I have a new car or used car, and I have a
Speaker:car payment, I make that payment monthly, month after month with discipline.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because I don't want them taking the car back.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I don't wanna lose my car.
Speaker:But also because I have integrity, I'm gonna pay my debts.
Speaker:I agreed to make, to take a loan.
Speaker:I agree to pay it back.
Speaker:That's what we do as good people with integrity.
Speaker:We agree to pay our lenders back.
Speaker:does that same discipline apply?
Speaker:We borrow ourselves.
Speaker:I'm telling you, it doesn't.
Speaker:And so whether you take a life insurance loan.
Speaker:Which in essence is paying back against your own asset, your own
Speaker:collateral, or whether you take money outta your savings account.
Speaker:It's gonna require discipline.
Speaker:So long term, if you wanna build wealth, you have to have discipline.
Speaker:We are not shortcutting the requirement for discipline by suggesting that you
Speaker:use option A or option B. And another thing I'll end with this, is, um, when
Speaker:you're gonna make a financial decision.
Speaker:You might wanna ask yourself making this financial choice, no matter
Speaker:what it is, investment, savings, new business, particular transaction,
Speaker:I more in control of the banking function with what I'm about to do?
Speaker:Or am I gonna be less in control of the banking function?
Speaker:And we can talk through those types of mindsets and conversations with you so
Speaker:that you can get used to controlling your future, controlling your outcomes,
Speaker:controlling your wealth, building freedom.
Speaker:I think that's probably a good way to wrap up this episode.
Speaker:Joe, I think I, I want people to understand
Speaker:your options.
Speaker:You know, we talked early on, you don't know what you don't know, and maybe you're
Speaker:sitting here listening today going, well, I never really thought about it that way.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Let's talk through it.
Speaker:Get on a call with Joe, get on a call with myself, and we'll just talk through it.
Speaker:We don't have a primary agenda for you.
Speaker:We don't know you, we don't know your money situation.
Speaker:Let's talk through it.
Speaker:Let's unpack it and help you, help you navigate that kind of thing, and educate.
Speaker:You need to make some informed decisions with your dollars these days and educate.
Speaker:And we have certainly talked about this.
Speaker:Term, the Infinite Banking Concept.
Speaker:There's a great book out there.
Speaker:If you're a reader by our Nelson Nash called Becoming Your Own Banker,
Speaker:that is a wonderful place to start.
Speaker:That is the place to start and the Infinite Banking Concept, understanding
Speaker:and call us and let's talk through it.
Speaker:You know, I think there's so many choices out there for people.
Speaker:And we can be overwhelmed with choices or another perspective is also, there's
Speaker:so many holes we've dug ourselves into and we feel like we can't get out.
Speaker:We feel like there's no end to it, or we're ashamed, like Joe talked about.
Speaker:We're ashamed of this big, huge hole we have dug for ourselves.
Speaker:So we don't wanna share that with people.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:You know, I have sat with people in wild amount of debt.
Speaker:And it's okay.
Speaker:We will figure it out.
Speaker:We will walk alongside you and help you figure it out if you're ready to
Speaker:make that change, if you're ready to make those different choices, and stop
Speaker:letting money burn holes in your pocket, you know, and we'll get you there.
Speaker:Anything else you wanna tack on, Joe?
Speaker:It's, it's all good.
Speaker:This this is a collaboration.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:telling clients what to do.
Speaker:We're walking alongside you and we're gonna walk a path that for a lot of
Speaker:us, we've actually walked this path.
Speaker:I'm not a salesman trying to sell something that I don't.
Speaker:Own
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I've used this process for many years, even before meeting Nelson.
Speaker:What Nelson did was exploded it for me and, and make it so real.
Speaker:He actually multiplied my wealth by introducing the, the ideas and
Speaker:the thought process that he did.
Speaker:So, uh, we'd like to help.
Speaker:I'm passionate.
Speaker:I. I'm hurt when people feel like they don't have choices except to give their
Speaker:control to somebody else, and I wanna help people get that control back.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Well, today we covered three questions to ask before any money move.
Speaker:Really, where does this dollar live?
Speaker:Who controls it?
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Can it keep growing while you use it?
Speaker:Or how is it growing?
Speaker:If you want help applying this lens to your cashflow, head on over
Speaker:to Alphaomegawealth.com/podcast and book a call with Joe.
Speaker:Book a call with myself and follow or subscribe.
Speaker:In the meantime, share this with one person who needs
Speaker:to hear about this episode.
Speaker:Leave us a good review on any of your streaming platforms as you see
Speaker:it, and share again with people.
Speaker:Let's get the word out that you have choices.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:This is Make your Wealth Work and we will see you guys next time.
Speaker:Good day.