Welcome back to Mindful Moolah! In this episode, hosts Luke Erickson and Lance Hansen turn their attention to the powerful connection between intellectual wellness and your financial life. If you’ve ever wondered how curiosity, creativity, and lifelong learning can supercharge your money mindset, this one’s for you.

Luke and Lance break down the concept of intellectual wellness—think curiosity, problem-solving, and continual learning—and reveal how these habits spill over into smarter financial decisions. Sharing stories about everything from childhood bike jumps (hello, trial and error!) to car negotiations and book clubs, the duo illustrates how intellectual growth directly impacts adaptability, meaning, and fulfillment in both life and personal finance.

Key topics discussed include:

1. What intellectual wellness means and why it matters for holistic financial health
2. The role of curiosity, creativity, and lifelong learning in smart money management
3. Transferring problem-solving skills from life lessons to financial situations
4. How social learning experiences (book clubs, discussion groups, podcasts) amplify both intellectual and financial wellness
5. The importance of informal education and using resources like podcasts, books, and even AI for building money smarts
6. Hands-on financial literacy tools—including the “Night of the Living Debt” game
7. Why challenging traditional financial paths and creating authentic budgets lead to greater satisfaction

Key Takeaways

1. Intellectual Wellness Drives Financial Wellness

Investing in your intellectual growth—through curiosity, learning, and creative thinking—translates into improved money management, adaptability, and more meaningful financial decisions.

2. Curiosity is Your Financial Advantage

An innate willingness to ask questions, explore new topics, and learn from both experts and mistakes empowers better budgeting, smarter investing, and improved financial negotiation skills.

3. Transferable Skills Pay Off

Negotiation and problem-solving skills learned in other life areas (like buying a car, managing family expenses, or group learning) directly apply to your financial life, saving both money and stress.

4. Social Learning Supercharges Results

Joining book clubs, discussion groups, or using apps to bounce around financial ideas makes learning fun and multiplies your growth in both intellectual and financial realms.

5. Embrace Modern Tools

From bingeing financial podcasts to leveraging artificial intelligence for quick answers and deep dives, today’s resources make it easier than ever to boost your intellectual and financial health.

6. Authenticity Beats the Status Quo

Challenging societal money norms and building a budget around your personal values (not just the “expected” formula) leads to greater fulfillment and true financial wellness.

7. Practical Learning Makes the Difference

Interactive tools like the Night of the Living Debt game provide a “safe place to fail,” letting you experiment and improve financial literacy without real-life financial consequences.

Ready to level up your intellectual and financial wellness? Dedicate just 15 minutes a day to learning, whether it’s through listening to a financial podcast, exploring a new topic with AI, or trying out the Night of the Living Debt game (nightofthelivingdebt.com). Challenge yourself to ask more questions, join a book club, or talk finances with family and friends. And don’t forget, you can always reach out to Luke and Lance with your money questions for some honest, practical advice.

Learn more about physical wellness in this bulletin from the University of Idaho Extension: https://www.uidaho.edu/extension/publications/bul-1107

And watch Luke and Lance make intellectual wellness fun to learn in this episode of Moolahed: https://youtu.be/P5j6lKyvJ0Y?si=YHfUkfQnjn2x9ebT

.Welcome to Mindful Moolah with Luke and Lance. Today is part four, episode four, it's intellectual wellness. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. Last time we, to recap, we talked about environmental wellness. And if you remember, you know, our podcast is Mindful Moolah, so we always bring it back to money, but we start with some other concepts that are related to money. Quick recap of environmental wellness. You know, the, the things around us, the environments around us at our office, at home, in our cars, our neighborhoods, they can all end up affecting our finances in one way or another as well as our overall well being.

And today we're going to go along with a similar vibe, right? Like how does intellectual wellness affect finances and vice versa. So that's what we're going to dive into here today. And of course, I've got Lance here with me. Say hi, Lance.

What's up? Everybody happy to be here?

Yeah, just living.

We are living the dream.

We are in the heart of summer living the dream. We're taking some time out of our busy professor summer schedules. I'm joking. They're not that busy. But to bring this episode to you, so let's just dive right into it, Lance. So first of all, maybe a little bit of a definition of what intellectual wellness is. You want to take a stab at that for us real quick?

Yeah. So just intellectual wellness, the things we do to make sure that we're keeping our brains just going all the time. I mean, you can't stop learning, you can't stop being curious, you can't stop being creative, and you just need to keep doing those things. The things I really enjoy the most are things I learned when I was a kid. Fly fishing is one of them. That's lifelong and I'm always learning something new there. So little things are all good to keep your mind functioning and keeping it healthy and well, absolutely.

And I liked what you said. I mean, for me, intellectual wellness is just, let's just invite that, like, natural curiosity that we're born with as kids. Right? Just like that curiosity of like, well, how do things work and what happens if I do this? And you know, especially as kids, like sometimes you do that and it doesn't turn out so well. It's like, what happens if I make a bike jump that takes me five feet in the air? What happens when I do that? You know, and sometimes we learn the hard way that it doesn't end too well.

I, you know, you just reminded me of something super funny. Oh, man. So Napoleon Dynamite. Has anybody seen Napoleon Dynamite? Well, if you haven't, check it out. It's filmed in Preston, Idaho, just south of me. Just a little south, east of where Luke's at on his part of the state. They had that bike jump, and they just. And I did this, too, when I was a kid, and it was the stupidest thing I could have done.

Put the board up there. You've got this piece of plywood, and you have like five or six pieces of chopped wood or something. You lean it up in there, not attached with screws, and you're just hitting this jump and you're expecting to stay in place. Yeah, that's. That's intellectual wellness there. Not thinking things through that as a kid. You don't think things through, man. I flew over my handlebars.

So bad tire hit the middle of that jump. It folded. The other boards went out.

It.

Yeah, it was pretty awesome. If we only had cell phones back in the day, I would have been a YouTube star for that one. And so 100 other kids would have been the same way. They're like, yeah, this is awesome. I'm totally gonna do this, man.

And. And now, you know, because you're curious.

About what I was curious. And I know that, you know, I love to say this to you. Don't do dumb things, but, see, don't.

Have the context to know what dumb actually is. Right? Yeah.

And then they're like, I don't understand what that means. I'm like, you, right?

You figured out was dumb, so. Well, that's the beautiful thing about being an adult is we've got more life context to understand what is dumb and what is it when it comes to exercising our curiosity. And so I think, for the most part, curiosity as an adult is a very useful habit to have something to explore, because what it does, it invites you to learn more about the things around you and the things that interest you. Right. And so that's what we're talking about today, intellectual wellness. And, you know, one thing when it comes to learning is, as we're talking about with kids, you can either learn from other people, like experts that have done research or tried something out and know how it can go awry, or you can just dive in yourself and again, just kind of trial and error and kind of figure it out. And there's nothing wrong with the trial and error. As an adult, we just.

I think we get better at learning from other people's mistakes. Mistakes as adults.

Yeah, the. Let's just say the bike jumps got better. After the first handlebar over the handlebar ride.

Well, there's no, there's no other way to do it to learn than by practicing, right? And sometimes that is the case even as an adult, right?

That whole. The experience we have, especially when it comes to finances, of what not to do, what to do, you know, your first job. I don't know what to do. I'm new. I don't know what to do. You know, you figure it out after a while and just buying your first car. You know, when I buy a car now, I'm like, dude, what's the best price you can get me? I don't know. Say, dude, I'm like, sir, what's the best price you can give me? And don't give me any this bs.

Give me the price. I want to get out of here. I want that one. You know, you just learn and you become better at problem solving that adaptability part as you went through things, but at the same time, part of that intellectual wellness is asking questions to learn, right?

And I think the interesting thing that I've noticed, you know, as I get older, is that, like, things that I have learned in, like, one domain sometimes transfers to another. So you're talking about like, negotiating with a car salesman? Well, like, that practice, you know, that skill that you might be able to build could actually end up being useful in some other area of life. I can't think of a good example, but just. Just basic negotiation skills, right? I mean, maybe it'll help you with your. With your marriage or something. I don't know. Like.

Yeah, well, even a pay raise, you know, you get ready for that next pay raise. You did your performance evaluation. Some jobs, it's like, hey, you're just going to get this and. But some jobs, you'll have the opportunity to have that negotiation skill and just having that negotiation skill and knowing what to do and about how to do it. I mean, I. I have twin daughters and, you know, that the audience might not know, but, man, I learned a lot just by saying, is there a twins discount? I had. I saved so much money on car seats, it was crazy. Yeah, I got off on both car seats and I was like, 40%, you know, it adds up, you know, intellectual wellness.

Apply those savings with twins. Yeah, that's awesome. And. And it's just like, you know, there's. There's lots of phrases around this. Like, it's like live and learn, you know, I mean, sometimes you don't always get it right. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you learn as you go and then you get to use that for the rest of your life.

You know, that principle that you learn. But so, so intellectual wellness, like curiosity, creative exploration, that idea of lifelong learning, I think can really serve you well, especially when it comes to finances. And we'll get into that in just a little bit. But mostly though, it's basically about the informal education. There's nothing wrong with, with formal education. I mean, Lance and I both work for university and we're all about formal education. But there's also no limits to what you can learn, what you can use in your life, as far as knowledge, as far as things that can just make your life better. And again, just learning skills that can transfer to other areas of your life.

So yeah, there's that adaptability, problem solving, fulfillment. One thing that I think is a really huge thing for me anyway is the more that I learn, the more that I am able to find like meaning in things. And that's a really, that's a really huge part of living a full, vibrant life is to be able to feel like you have meaning in the activities that you're doing. So whether it's your hobbies or your work or basically how you earn and spend money, if you find some real value and meaning in that, then it, it just makes sure, it just makes your life more full, makes you, makes you happier, makes you feel like you're just living a more vibrant, dynamic life, right?

Yeah, it does.

So, so basically though, the, the meaning piece, it's like, so I could go out and go for a walk and not put much thought into it. And, and I know we're crossing domains here a little bit, we're talking a little bit about physical right now, physical wealth or wellness. But you go for a walk and like, not really give it much thought. But if I actually do it with intention and be like, okay, I'm going to do this walk, but while I'm walking, I want to focus on meditation or I want to focus on this one issue that's been bugging, bugging me. And you go there within it, within with an intention, and also with an intention of how long you're going to walk, how far, like what you want your heart rate to be. And then all of a sudden you're putting like meaning around this activity that otherwise might just be like, eh, whatever, just go for a walk. Doesn't really matter, you know. And that meaning can make a huge difference because you can actually get way more out of that walk than if you just do it nonchalantly, just without much Intention.

I don't. Does that make any sense, Lance?

Yeah, it does. It totally does. It's. It's one of those things that's necessary but meaning. And we hear this a lot, especially nowadays with, we have these new technologies. I mean, we got these, these wonderful earbuds. You know, we have our cell phones unwinding, unplugging from this. That's part of being intellectually well is knowing that it's okay to unwind, come down from these things.

You know, it comes back to that emotional wellness too.

Right.

Part of things, but important to take time to unwind. That is intellectually a really intellectually smart thing to do.

Right.

To help prepare for the day, get, get the clutter out. Right.

So, so in a nutshell, like intellectual, being intellectually well can really serve you in all the other domains of wellness. And, and so we can talk about a few of those and we've already mentioned a few examples, but you know, another one that comes to. And you talked about emotional wellness, but like social wellness. I. So you know something like a book club. And, and I, and I've done this a little bit before. Book clubs can take time, but they can also be really fun because you can take a book that you would normally just read on your own, or, or maybe you just, you like to read on your own, but you get a book club and then all of a sudden you're, because of the club, you're making that activity more social. You're also having a discussion around the book that you might not put that much thought into a book if you just read it on your own.

Also a book club. Sometimes you find a book like the book the club represents or sorry, recommends a book that you would normally wouldn't read on your own. And, and so it just gets you out of your comfort zone, helps you explore other things in your life that you might not normally consider. So that's just one example. But that's one way that your intellectual wellness conserve your social wellness. Just like combining those two activities of, of being around people who also like to learn.

This particular topic is it. I think it crosses all across all the, the.

The domains.

Yeah, different domains. It really hits every single one of them. That social wellness, part of that elect intellectual wellness, having your group, the people you like to be around, your discussion group. I've said this before. I have a couple of buddies. We have Marco Polo. It's an app on your phone. We do video chats back and forth.

And when those Jack Reacher and I'm not promoting Jack Reacher. But Jack Reacher is awesome, man. It's such good books. When they, when they started doing those movies or the series on Amazon prime, we're like, dude, it's the new one. And we get on there and we're back and forth and we've read the books and we're watching the shows and it's like our little mini book club comparing the, the show. But it's good to have that discussion. And then it usually leads into other discussions like I wish I had a Jack Reacher in my town to take care of some of the riff raff. But yeah, whatever.

I'm just saying. Yeah, but no, it's, it's good to have those groups meant for your mental wellness. And when you're intellectually well, you're mentally well, it all just carries on.

Yeah, carries down well. And there's a famous Harvard study, It's gone like 85 years, I want to say, where they like followed people and, and basically been able to like narrow down what, what basically the nuts and bolts of living a happy, like full, meaningful life. And one of the most important things is have those like warm social connections. So that's a great place to start. Especially with intellectual wellness is, is like make sure that the, the people around you are people that support your lifelong learning too. Or you can have discussions with, or you can, you know, have, have some deep dive conversations with. Right. And then you're knocking out checking a bunch of boxes with, with say a single conversation.

Yeah, but I, I'm with you. I, I think the intellectual wellness is something that serves and supports every other dimension of well being. Should we, we could just go ahead and dive into how it affects finances. Are you ready for that? Yeah.

Yeah. The financial literacy part, that's important because we've hit, you know, when you're intellectually well, you're doing things for your body, you're healthy, like you said, going for a walk, you're doing all the things you need to do. And that intellectual part of it, you know, we talked about, I think last time on the last episode I talked about how I learned about how charging stuff is not so cool when I was a kid because you know, I do a lot of work to pay back my dad because I charge a bunch of stuff but man, my bike was pretty sweet until he took that jump and how to fix it again, but didn't have any, I didn't have a charge count at that point to use and I got in trouble. But just live and learn. Understanding how credit, which is a charge account Essentially how it works and how credit scores benefit us in the long run. You know, just the budgeting, how interest works, making better financial decisions. And a lot of that comes down to being intellectually on top of things. The needs versus wants.

And I always say the Whopper Wednesday. It's Wednesday. It's Tuesday today. If it were Wednesday, Whopper Wednesday, man, I have the app. I get it for like two bucks. That's a smart move, right? Versus the full price, which is like, I think it's six bucks now, which is crazy, right?

That's insane. You gotta, you gotta get the deals on those things.

You gotta get the deal. You gotta have the deal. You gotta be financially smart about this.

Right? Right.

But it's not good for the body, but good.

It's not even real meat. So why does it cost so much?

It's not even real meat. Why does it cost.

Yeah.

How many cockroaches did you put in this meat? They don't put cockroaches in their burgers. They're good. I still eat them. They're delicious. But pre dinner, Whopper man, just don't think about it.

It's still protein.

Just eat. It's still good.

Well, before we dive into finances, I, I just wanted to explore really quick because we did talk about some different ways that you can find intellectual wellness. It's by reading more. It's by having deep conversations with the people in your life. It's by whatever. Find a book club. It's even formal education definitely counts. You know, one thing we haven't talked about much, which is ironic because we're doing a podcast, but that is one of my favorite ways to expand my, my horizons, to kind of let my curiosity just run amok, is there's so many podcasts on so many different topics. I remember as a kid, you know, if you wanted to, like, listen to something as you're driving, it's basically like news radio or sports radio, and I guess sometimes the religious channels or whatever.

So you have a few different topics that you could listen to, but not really. But like with podcasts, you. You can find like any niche topic you can even imagine, and you can find it and listen to an episode about that topic. Right. And so it's actually really fascinating. I mean, I'm sure you can do this on a lot of the podcast players. I use one called Pocket Cast. But if you type in some keywords, then it'll just pull up like whole podcasts on those topics or just individual podcast episodes on those topics, and you can really, like deep dive on a specific topic.

Right. And to me, I actually find that really, really fun and really fascinating because I, you know, I like learning surface level stuff, but I also really love just like diving deep on certain things that I'm, that I'm really interested in at the time. And I've just found a lot of, I, I don't know, I guess you can call it fulfillment or whatever by just, just following what is, what is interesting to me at the moment and just like, you know, just diving into it.

Yeah. And it's a great way to learn. One of the things too, that I think I have learned. The mo thing that I've done most throughout my life is just ask questions.

Yeah.

I mean, my teachers, some of them are like, quit asking questions, Hanson. Come on, man. But no, I asked questions. Figure it out. When I started this job, I mean, Luke was one of my mentors, asked a lot of questions, got things figured out. It's good to have those people that are wise that you can ask questions and they can help you through things. And that's kind of why we have this podcast. We, we really would like to hear from those who are listening, what do you want to know about so we can deep dive into those and give you ideas on things.

I mean, there's some good resources out there. You got Dave Ramsey, he's great. I wish he would cover credit scores better and, and help people understand that one, that one eye opener, how important that is and how much money you can save. And we'll probably end up doing a podcast on that, so stay tuned for that one later on.

Oh, and I wanted to mention AI too, because that's another thing that I, I get really curious with. Right. It's like you get on AI and it's like almost like you're talking to a real person and you're just like, hey, tell me more about this. Like, I do that all the time. I'm sure there's a million ways to use AI more productively than I do, but I like to go on there and just like, say, hey, tell me about this. And then I was like, ask follow up questions. And it's, it's kind of a fun way to learn about things. Of course you have to be careful.

Sometimes AI spits out stuff that's not totally accurate, but it's actually not too bad most of the time.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, learning how to use AI is going to be important for the future, especially for your intellectual wellness, to be able to find out something really fast. Right. It's crazy. You can, man. I was just like, hey, how would Dave, or not Dave Ramsey, how would Warren Buffett, what would he think about this? And it was a financial topic on like investing. And, and he could spit it out and says, I want to use research based Warren Buffett knowledge. What would he do?

Right.

It's pretty cool.

No, it is. It's really amazing. And so you think you, you, you pair up your natural curiosity for learning with AI, and honestly, there's just no limits to it because AI can find out pretty much anything and you can ask any question that pops in your mind, you know, and so, yeah, just, it's, it's a fun. Yeah, it's a fun way to explore more.

I'm just waiting for it to like, instead of typing me back an answer to like in a James Earl von. James Earl Jones voice. I'm your father and you need to do this. And I'm like, oh, cool, man. You know Darth Vader, James Earl. Right, Sorry.

Yeah, you're good. All right, let's dive into financial wellness then, because that's what this podcast is all about. Mindful moolah. So we talked about the topic of curiosity and lifelong learning and intellectual wellness. Let's talk about how it affects our finances directly. Right. So I, I love how you were talking earlier just a little bit about understanding credit, credit scores, things like that. Many of our listeners may not know, Lance, but we, you and you've been a part of it.

And I and some other people, namely your brother, have been part of a team that has created a game called Night of the Living Dead. So we are the authors of that along with New Mexico State University Games Lab. And it's a really amazing program. We encourage everybody to go out there and find it. Nightofthelivingdebt.com so basically it's a game that kind of walks you through a post apocalyptic society where the zombies run the financial world, they run the financial system. And sometimes we joke, well, that's not too far removed from reality. But, you know, but the, the really, really cool thing about the game and again, when it comes to intellectual wellness, is that you're able to learn not only the concepts of building credit scores, but also the interactions of just different elements that, that are needed to build a credit score. So in other words, you get to experience what it's like to say, get a credit card to either default on the payment or to keep up with the payment the entire time.

Oh, yeah, you're sharing screen. There you go. Yeah, those of you watching. If you're listening, you can't see it, but if you're watching, you can see the website Night of the Living Debt. And so you're able to dive into the game and actually, like, experience what it's like to either make good or poor decisions with your credit tools, like a credit card or a student loan or car loan. And that is an amazing way to learn because. Because it's basically, it's a safe place to fail, is what we call it. It's like we actually want you to fail a little bit in that game.

So you can understand both what it is you should be doing, but also what you shouldn't be doing, and also some of those sneaky little things that might catch you. That even if you have a good, solid knowledge about, you know, theoretical knowledge about how credit scores work, you still need to understand how they work in practice, like when you're out actually using them in your real life. And the cool thing about the game is if you do fail, you're not actually going to ruin your score and you're not actually going to lose money like you would in real life. It's just. It's just on a screen is all it is. So that's one really fun, amazing way to learn more about financial literacy, specifically about credit scores.

And then you have all the other resources that are out there, books, podcasts, like this one, which you should be listening to and share with your friends because it's awesome. And a lot of the. The resources, they're free, they don't cost anything. The more you know, the better off you're going to be along the, the whole. All these dimensions we're talking about financial, intellectual. Just that intellectual part.

Right.

Really makes a difference because then you're going to be prepared, ultimately, for which, for me, it's retirement. I want to retire someday. I mean, I'm okay doing this podcast. This is fun. I can do this in retirement. I mean, the hair will be a little retirement plan. Yeah, the. The hair is going to be wider and yeah, the face is going to be a little bit more wrinkly.

But whatever, dude, I'm. I'm okay with it. But as you move forward, doing things intellectually, learning, preparing, you're just going to get better at it. And the more you do something, the better at it you get, and the quicker you get at it. And it's worth taking the time to learn about financial. Especially when it comes to your job. Your 401ks, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, all the tools that are out there that really just takes, take a little bit of time to learn them. They're not hard.

And people make this financial stuff harder than it is. And when we look at the statistics for retirement savings across the nation, we're, we need to do better and that's, we want to help people along the way. Take time and if you don't understand some of the things we've talked about, ask some questions, put it out there in chat box and we will get back to your. Reach out to us individually on our emails. We've shared those before. Lance Hansen with an en at uidah Edu. I don't remember what yours is. Luke, right?

Mys is my last name. Ericson E R I C K S O n@uidaho edu. So, yeah, we like to take questions, not just stuff that we can answer on the podcast, but even just like personal questions. Just when it comes to, hey, here's a financial situation. What do you recommend? Yeah, we do that all the time.

Yeah. Yeah, and we're, we're happy to do that. I mean, we're both accredited financial counselors. And full disclosure, we'll be honest with you. If you're doing something that, that's not financially well, we'll tell you straight up. So be prepared for honesty. And honesty is a good thing, right. You get through the hard times a lot easier when people are honest with you, you know, and, and a good friend's always there to tell you that you have a boogie hanging and you can get it out of the way.

And you don't have one hanging, by the way. Luke, you're good, but, you know, a good friend just tells you the subtle.

Way of letting me know you got it. You gotta, you gotta, you know, give someone hypothetically.

Hypothetical. Love it.

So, okay, so when it comes to financial literacy, I think it's one of the most important things that your typical everyday person can spend some time learning because personal finances affect everybody. And this is actually one of the reasons I got into personal finances. I thought to myself, I don't really know enough about this. And then I just kept learning about it, learning about it until I ended up getting a degree in it. And so that's me. But you don't have to get a degree in it, but you do have to pay some attention to your finances. That's a nuts and bolts, right? It's just like, how do I set financial goals? How do I budget? How do I stay out of debt, how do I use credit instruments? How do I build credit Score. How do I buy a house? How do I prepare for retirement? All those questions like.

Like, pretty much everybody needs to, you know, ask those questions at some point in their life. Like, basically, the earlier in your life, the better, because then you can start to put these plans in motion. Now, like what you're saying, Lance, what. As you start to learn some of these things, you can actually start to automate a lot of these decisions. You start to, like, automate some savings, whether it's for retirement or it's for a down payment on a house or it's for a car or something like that. And you can really start to build yourself a really streamlined financial plan that can see you through for a really, really long time. But, see, that all starts with that intellectual piece, because you need to know what the steps are in the first place and what the tools are and be aware of those things. And so there's definitely that upfront investment of education that you will need around the nuts and bolts of finances.

The good news, like Lance said, is, is when it's all said and done, it's really not that terribly difficult to understand the basics and to kind of get yourself on a. On a nice plan to move forward. And. And I will just say this. I mean, you can reach out. You can read books, you can listen to podcasts, you can reach out to us. But if you just want to get a rough, quick start, like, go to AI and just say. Just say chat GPT.

Help me get a basic financial plan, like, give me the steps, and it'll give you some really amazing steps. Will it cover everything? Probably not, but it'll get you on a really solid start to. To learning what those nuts and bolts are.

Yep. Having a plan, being prepared, preparing. I mean, just preparedness. Super important to all of this. But the plan, the goals, and write them down. Get it written down. Print up whatever you did on Chat GPT. Print it up, have it on the wall.

Set goals, right? And you're gonna be in good shape.

Now, we all know that if you make a ton of money or let's say that you. Let's say you win the lottery, okay? And you get a ton of money, and then you think, oh, my problems are solved, right? And. And everybody knows because there's story after story after story of celebrity going bankrupt, of people winning the lottery who are no better off than they were before they won it, and just different things like that. So money doesn't solve problems. However, when you've improved your. Your intellectual and financial wellness, what you'll see is you'll, it'll free up both time and resources to be able to try to improve your wellness in other areas. But again, that's only if you're intentional about it. The money itself won't solve a problem, but the habits that you can build while you're making yourself a more solid financial plan will stick with you.

And then we'll start to kind of filter over into other, trickle over into other areas of your wellness, again, freeing up money and time go ahead.

As, as we say in the financial world, it's all about that return on investment. The more you put into this intellectual side of things, especially with finances, the greater the return. I mean, what it was, it, is it Rupert Murdoch, that's Warren Buffett's buddy, right? That he started Berkshire and Hathaway. Murdoch. It's Rupert, right? I think it's Murdoch. I remember Murdoch.

I honestly don't remember. Yeah, it's.

His last name's Murdoch. He's like, in that first hundred thousand dollars is hard, but after that it gets a lot easier. I mean, he called it a different thing. I'm not gonna swear it's like it's a son of a, you know, first hundred thousand, but after that. And that's the thing is knowing that that's where they started. They started there to get up to that. And then after that, I mean, look what those two have amassed. An empire like no other.

I mean, and, but look at, you know, Warren Buffett's living in the same house he bought years and years and years ago. Just needs versus wants, planning it out, knowing what's important.

Well, that's a good quote because it really highlights the difference of what we're talking about. The difference between say, winning a hundred thousand dollars for the lottery or earning it because it's still the same amount of money. But the difference is that you have strengthened those learning muscles along the way. As you've earned that first hundred thousand, that will then to serve you as you go on to continue to make more money. And if you just are given that money, you, you're don't, you're not learning those things and therefore you're not going to be able to carry that forward. Right. Unless somebody quickly decides, oh, I need to learn a ton about this and then really fast change their trajectory. Yeah, but.

All right, so let's go to this last part of what we want to talk about today. Or maybe it's not the last part, but real quick, just like practical tips for boosting both our financial and intellectual Wellness at the same time. And the first one is just adopt a learning mindset. I've always said for a long time, Lance, that it's. It's shocking to me that so many put. So many people put so much time and effort into earning a formal degree, like, say, a bachelor's degree. It's four years. And how much money, it just depends.

But it could be anywhere from a couple thousand dollars up to over $100,000, depending on what you're studying and where you're going. And people invest a lot of time and money into that with the idea that that career will help them earn more money as they move on into their. Into their career and into their future. But at the same time, many of those same people will not actually invest much into their financial education, which is the other side of that same coin. You're earning money. But then the other side of that coin is like, how do I spend my money? Do I spend it effectively? Do I spend it wisely? Do I stay out of debt? Like, all those sorts of things? And it's surprising to me how little people invest of that side of the coin and how much people invest in the. Just the, you know, building the career side of the coin. Right.

So adopting alerting mindset can kind of help you get around that. Spend 15, 10, 15 minutes a day, just like listening to a financial podcast, talking, chatting with AI about what you should be doing. Just make it a regular habit in the morning. Like, 15 minutes, just like, check in with your financial plan. Make sure that it's going the way that you want it to.

Yeah. I also say educating your kids, you know, if you have kids, tell them about your finances. Let them know where you're at and what you would like. I mean, I. I knew when we were going through hard times because my dad's like, hey, we don't have it right now. I'm like, okay, man, I guess I'll hold off on the Snickers bar right now, you know, $0.54 or whatever it was back in the day. Right. But that was money that wasn't there.

So, you know, educating your kids about this along the way is super important.

Right.

As well. And then, you know, find creative outlets, ways to either modify your budget, or if you're having struggles making ends meet, find creative ways to balance out your budget so you can get things going, you know?

Well, one thing that I want to point out here, too, is I think it's important to challenge the status quo, because a lot of us get caught up into the Cycle of like, okay, what do you do after high school? It's like, okay, well, I go to college, and then I get married, and then I get a career, and then I buy a house, and then I buy a car, and then I buy a boat, and then I buy a dog. And, you know, and it's like, this is the formula for happiness. Nobody really stops to question whether or not that's the formula that actually works for you specifically. And. And I shouldn't say nobody does that, but it. Too often people just take for granted. It's like, okay, everybody does this. That must be the thing that's going to make me happy.

And so when it comes to budgeting, I think it's really important to build an authentic budget around who you are, specifically what matters to you, and not much what the. What the formula is that's given to you for success in life, because I just don't think it evenly applies to everybody.

Yeah, this. The system. The system we live in. What constitutes success in the system? And who created that system? Does it actually work? One of the craziest statistics out there, it's from 2018. It's the latest one I could find. When you talk about the three most. The three professions with the most millionaires. Yeah.

When you ask. When I ask a class, when I'm out teaching high school students or even college students, they. They're like doctor and lawyer and all that, and those are great professions, but the most millionaires. Accountants, engineers and teachers.

Yeah.

You know, engineers just don't spend money. They're too busy. Like this whole intellectual thing. They're like, I got to take that apart and see how that works. I'm going to put it back together. And, you know, I just think Howard Wolowitz on Big bank there, you know, like, took apart a drone. There's always some missing pieces. It's okay.

You know, they were unnecessary.

Yeah, those weren't necessary. All right, they were extra. We're good. But just. Just having that my. You know, just understanding that different people do different things and the system or the standard that set isn't always necessarily the one we should follow, because it's usually a false standard or a false expectation.

Well, I love that teachers are in there, too, because to me, and, you know, I have the. The research right in front of me, but, like, to me, that indicates that it's probably that love for learning, for lifelong learning that serves them right. And it's like, okay, like, they may not know everything, but they're not afraid to dive in and Learn about something. And when it comes to just like saving money and pinching pennies and of course teachers are notorious for not making very much. Yeah, Definitely not paid what they're worth. And so then they have to, you know, make ends meet, but they have to get creative with it. They have to learn and they have to learn how to invest. And that's the way that they become millionaires.

Right. It's that lifelong learning ends up serving them. So. Yep, I think that's really great. So, yeah, keep your learning social. Right. And I think part of it too is just don't be afraid to challenge yourself. There's, like I said, there's really no excuses.

There's so many ways to challenge yourself to learn more. And I, I just think it's important to embrace that as a life value. And you know, of course I can't tell anybody what to. What to value. You have to value what you naturally value. But just finding a love for your natural and innate curiosity again, I think is the thing that we're talking about mostly today. And that can really serve you financially, but it can also serve you in, in other areas of well, being in your life.

Yeah. Just as you were talking there, I was like waiting for the voice from I don't know if it's Gandalf Whatever is from Lord of the. No, it's the Hobbit book. It's like if. More. No, it was the Thorn Oak and Shield. It's like you're talking to Bilbo as he's like taking his last breath. If, if people valued home and family more and simple life, things would be a lot peacefuler, you know? But that's true.

Your life is peaceful when you have your values and alignment with who you are.

Right, right, exactly. And your budget as well.

And your budget too.

Your budget aligns with, with your values. Right, yeah. And again.

And your, and your paycheck too.

And your paycheck. Yes, exactly. You may value a Ferrari in a yacht, but it's not in the paycheck. No, exactly. Okay, so let's wrap this up then with just some practical tips or call to action. Right? It's. Let's go ahead and dedicate some time to your lifelong learning. Again, I think a reasonable goal every day is, is 15 minutes a day.

And whether, you know, here's this, you could, you could just say you're listening to a podcast or an audiobook like on your commute to work. Like, just call that your, your lifelong learning block or whatever. Again, it could be one of those things where you use AI a lot. It could be one of those things where you join a book club. What are some other things you can think of, Lance?

I mean, right now? I mean, we shared a great one. You talked, you know, you described it really well. Night of the Living Debt. Go check it out. Do that this week. I mean, you've then reach back out to us and we can explain a little bit more about credit scores and we can incorporate some of that into another podcast. But, man, right now, that's, That's a. I'm challenging you.

Go out and check out that game, play through it, share it with a friend. It's pretty awesome.

Absolutely. And so, yeah, we encourage you just to, whatever it is a small baby step to improve your intellectual wellness as well as your basic financial skills that can come through learning more about finances. And with that, I think we will leave you. Any parting thoughts?

No, I think we're good.

Okay, we'll wrap up this week. Next week we're going to talk about physical wellness. So join us for that one. Okay, thanks for joining us today. Take care, everybody.