SPEAKERS

Brian Preston, Clint Murphy

Clint Murphy  00:00

Brian today, we have Brian Preston on the podcast. Brian is the host of The Money Guy Show and co founder of Abound Wealth Management. In his book, he lays out a nine step system for building wealth with the money you already have. Millionaire Mission. With 25 years of financial planning experience and over 617,000 followers across his social channels, Brian empowers people to implement simple financial strategies that go beyond common sense. He started his podcast as a passion project in 2006 with the intention of sharing his financial strategies with the masses. Fast forward, and The Money Guy Show is now its own enterprise, with 41 billion plus views and 9 million downloads in 2023. We cover the five levels of wealth, financial order of operations, and the mindset needed for you to build wealth. Brian also discusses the importance of balancing savings and enjoying life, understanding that the difference between being rich and being wealthy and the impact of savings and investing on one’s financial journey. I enjoyed this conversation a ton. I love talking with experts on financial independence, so we can help you with a subject not enough people know about. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Clint Murphy  01:43

Brian, welcome to the podcast. So let’s dive right into your book. And I love how you have it right there in the background. Millionaire mission, beautiful. Love it. So where I want to start with you on your book, I think a great place to go would be to talk about the Morrow Moment. Can you share who Mr. Morrow was and what he said to you and why it was so influential on really changing your entire life path, not just your financial journey?

Brian Preston  02:17

Well, Clint, first, thanks for having me on the show. I mean, this is pretty exciting stuff, and I love sharing the Morrow moment, because I grew up in a household where we didn’t have a lot of money, but I want to give my parents full credit. They were very disciplined. I never felt like my parents were big spenders. They were not people who got into a ton of debt, but they just didn’t know how to make money work for them. So you know, my parents idea of saving and investing was actually buying CDs or putting money in the savings account. I think that’s probably what a lot of people who don’t know how the financial world works live in that. And so when I had a teacher in my junior year of high school, and here’s the thing, this was not part of the curriculum. This was not something that we were taught in Henry County High School down in South Atlanta. This was somebody who and looking back on it, and I’ve had a lot of time to reflect and even talk to some classmates, because the book has reconnected me with some some people I went to high school with. We think we’ve all come to the agreement that Mr. Morrow was sharing this out of his own, probably place of regret, and he had learned this concept and wanted to kind of pay it forward to his young students. Because he walked into class, and I kid you not, and he basically is one of those one off statements. He says, I’m so jealous of every one of you guys, because if every one of you would just start saving and investing $100 a month, you’d be a millionaire by the time you retire. And I mean, you have to realize back then, I’m working the local drive through at the Hardee’s. I mean, I’m working fast food. And I know you had a post recently said, Hey, everybody ought to work fast food. I lived that life. I made my dollar of that life. Because I completely agree, because it really does, let you see how the world works when you have to deal with, you know, every man and woman that comes across you. But I remember in that time, I was making $3.80 an hour at the local Hardee’s. And I even then, I was like, I could save $100 and if the $100 a month is all it takes for me to be a millionaire, I could totally make this happen. And what I’ve come to realize Mr. Morrow was hidden on was really the power of compounding growth, being young, and then also letting time be the powerful component of letting your your army of dollars, as I like to say, work harder than you can with your back, your brain and your hands. Is the superpower that I think most people don’t take advantage of.

Clint Murphy  04:29

Let’s go deeper on that one, because that’s something I talk about a fair amount as well on Twitter, is this idea of an army of dollars in getting your army to work when you’re asleep. So your army’s out, and it’s conquering for you. It’s bringing in more troops. It’s recruiting, it’s growing the army. What does that look like, and why do we both seem to like that analogy so much? I’ll quickly digress and share with you where it first jumped out at me. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Doyle Brunson, famous poker player. Yeah. And in his book Super System, he wrote at one point, that he never liked to put $1 in the pot if he wasn’t going to defend that dollar, because his chips were his army. And he would never leave a man on the field without trying to, you know, put He was only putting the men out if the goal was to bring more men back. And it was sort of like his chips were his army of dollars, army of chip. And since then, I’ve always thought of my money as my army of dollars. And I only want to put something out if more’s gonna come back to me.

Brian Preston  05:37

Well, for me, I could specifically know it comes from kind of back to that Morrow moment. Because I like to say we’ve amplified what Mr. Morrow was sharing by we have a resource called the Wealth Multiplier. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources, anybody can go download it, where it shows you what the value of every dollar has the potential to become at retirement. For a 20 year old, that’s $88. And if once you realize what every dollar has the potential, if you maximize it to become you’ll think about your spending a little differently, because you don’t look at it as $1, because $1 seems so who cares? But when you start thinking about in terms of $88 or you think about, I could do 100 of those and turn it into, you know, something, to where we’re talking about 1000s of dollars, it feels completely different. I think it changes the way you behave and your relationship with it as very purposeful. Because it is that small, incremental decision that creates huge results. If you start thinking like this in a different way.

Clint Murphy  06:36

I love that. There’s a couple other ways that I’ve looked at it over time. You have Bill Perkins, and we’ll talk about him later, because you have something you talk about similar to him in his book, Die with Zero. Is this idea of once you convert your time earnings rate into hours, and you look at everything and you say, that doesn’t cost 20 bucks that cost me an hour, that doesn’t cost 50 bucks that cost me two and a half hours, whatever your rate is. Now you’re like, oh, like, do I want to spend two and a half hours of my time to buy that? As I started to build my wealth, I started to look at larger purchases, so not the smaller stuff, but larger purposes. I always started to look at it Brian in terms of down payments on an apartment I was building a real estate portfolio, and so it’d be like, do I want to buy that car, or do I want a down payment on a home? Do I want to buy that watch, or do I want 20% of a down payment on a home? It would just force me to say, well, I don’t want that. I’d rather buy another apartment. Like, I want something that will increase the dollar army not drop it. So I love the idea of the wealth multiplier. Okay, before we dive into the meat of the book. There are some mindset ideas you have, four or five of them that you have that the audience should be aware of, that they should be thinking of to prime them I think for the actual meat and potatoes of the financial information. Can you share two or three that you really think should stand out for people to help them on this journey. You and I are about to talk about.

Brian Preston  08:03

Well, I kind of start the book off, and one of the earlier chapters I talk about, and this gets to something you were just covering as well, 

what I call the three ingredients to wealth building. is good if you’ve got to boil down big concepts into easy, digestible, simple – I’ll just say it’s simple – steps doesn’t mean the journey’s easy, but it definitely is simple. And what I always start off with is the moment you realize you can live on less than you make, and that’s a must. That’s what we call the discipline and deferred gratification. That’s discipline is the first ingredient to wealth building, because if you’re not living on less than you make, you’ll never get ahead. It’s just that easy. The second thing is, when you do have deferred gratification and discipline working for you, you’ll notice that’s the margin. That’s what actually yields and creates the money that you’re going to start putting to work. You’re actually going to say, Hey, this is now my army, my dollar bill that’s going to go work for me. How do I actually deploy it and put it to work? So that’s the second ingredient, is that money, that margin, that you got to put to work. And then the third ingredient is the most powerful. It’s also the most scarce. You talked about Die with Zero. That whole concept is understanding that your time is the most valuable thing we have on the planet. You don’t get more of it. The younger you are, the more valuable it is. So if you’re ever jealous of somebody who’s wealthy but they’re 20 years ahead of you, I want you to know they are jealous of you because the wealth you have of time, so you’ve got to make it work for you. So that’s the third ingredient.. You put that discipline that turns into money, and you give it enough time, and I promise you magical, amazing things will happen that will exponentially expand beyond what your wildest dreams are.

Clint Murphy  09:46

Love it. So let’s dive in, then to the financial order of operations. Can you take people through what is the financial order of operations and how is that going to help them on their wealth journey? 

Brian Preston  09:59

Well, of course, I’ve got a great resource. You know, the book gives you the origin story for all this. But this is not where The millionaire mission was, not where financial order of operations came from. We actually came up with this. I did a show years ago called The 30 Minute Financial Plan, and I started noticing, because the whole goal of that plan was to see if I could get an entire financial plan to listeners in 30 minutes. And I started noticing, Hey, these are the things that I’m seeing with my clients. I’m seeing for myself, is that core steps, that if you were thinking a progression, that you need to be thinking about with every dollar, what do you do with your next dollar? And we came up with the financial order of operations. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources you can download this completely free, but let’s go through it. There’s a lot of systems out there, and I think they probably are like, Hey, let’s just put a number here. Like, if you’re $1,000 is where you want to start. I think I get the motivation that they’re trying to create, where you just do something to get the journey started. But that’s not good enough for me. Maybe I’m too I want the intersection of both the math, but also want the mindset. And I was thinking about what I want the first step to do is to keep you from making those desperate decisions that lead you to lean into credit card debt or going and doing payday loans. So we’ve got to figure out, how do we keep you out of the financial ditch? And the best thing you can do is figure out what are the big risks out there? It’s usually like medical things, like you had an emergency, where you got into a car accident, or something was going to derail you, or maybe something at the house goes bad, you have a fire, or you have something that’s big. It’s all these things. And when you start realizing what are the big things that get derail your financial life and really set you back, there’s insurance policies for every one of them. So I was like, my first step is going to be, let’s just cover the highest deductible, go do the research, do the homework, figure out all your different insurance policies. Cover the first and highest deductible, and you’re going to be set to go on to step two. Which step two, this is also unique, which is, get your employers match. There’s a lot of employers out there, and they’re incentivized by governments to do this. Where a dollar for dollar match is a guaranteed 100% rate of return. And look, I hate debt. I hate what credit card companies and banks are doing to people by charging 20 25% on your credit cards. But when I look back and I say, Hey, I’ve got an employer that’s offering you 100% rate of return. You can’t sleep on that. That’s that’s money you’ll never get back. So even though I hate credit card debt, I want you to get that guaranteed 100% or 50% guaranteed rate of return depend on what your employer’s matching formula is. Get in there and do that step three, this is a no brainer. I consider it, you know, common sense, you’re never going to be wealthy if you’re in debt. So you’ve got to pay off the high interest debt. That’s the credit cards, that’s the store loans that can be even student loan debt if you’re in if you’re financed into too high of debt, and it’s definitely the car loan. So stay away and avoid those things. If you’re not scared while you’re using debt, high interest debt, you’re using it wrong. I think too many people out in our society are way too comfortable with debt. Step four, cash is so important, it doesn’t just get one step. It gets two steps. This is emergency reserves. You want to get the traditional three to six months. This is because cash is like the air we breathe. We all take it for granted. We can waste the air that we breathe, but as soon as you go underwater, you quickly realize how valuable. And Clint you mentioned real estate investing, how many people, after post great recession wish that they’d understood the value of having cash so that you’re not making those desperate decisions, you’re actually building your wealth. That’s why I think a lot of people this step number four is going to be a closet wealth builder too, because if you have money when nobody else does, you make lots of money. Step five, this is the first investment step. This is Roth IRAs health savings accounts for all the Americans out there listening. Step six, max out those retirement accounts. Once again, we’re giving a check mark to the tax favored investing trying to get you to 25% gross savings rate, and that leads to step seven. This is an important one. A lot of people like, What in the world do you mean by hyper accumulation? Hyper accumulation is 25% but this is instead of thinking about just getting to the number, it’s how we’re going to use the number. Because hopefully by the time you get to step seven, you’re going to be thinking about, Do I if I’m retiring early, or if I need to put this money to use with real estate, is that gonna be with after tax? Money? Is that gonna be tax deferred? Money? Is that gonna be tax free? Money like Roth accounts? Step seven is gonna help you figure that all out. Step eight, abundance goals. This is prepaid future expenses. This is finally where you’re funding the kids college you’re thinking about becoming a real estate investor. A lot of people are surprised based upon Tiktok and everything else. They’re like, I want to do real estate first. I’m like, I love real estate. I’m a real estate investor myself, but you gotta have the financial foundation so you don’t make those desperate decisions. So that’s why it’s a step eight, and then step nine, they can pay off the low interest debt. This is where you’ve kind of maximized the game. Now you’re dersking, you have get wealthy behaviors, which is steps one through eight, and then you have stay wealthy behaviors that you can do later, after you’ve kind of conquered the game. And that’s what step nine is, with paying off those low interest debts. So I just did. This not all that’s in the book, but you can imagine. Clint, I just gave your people a really good overview. 

Clint Murphy  09:59

Yeah, it was a great overview. And we’re going to work our way through some of them in a bit more detail. And as we do, there’s a concept you use that I love the sound of. You talk about wanting us to become financial So, Brian, what is a financial mutant? And why do we want to become one?

Brian Preston  15:36

This all came about I had a listener who was a long haul trucker who wrote me, and he kind of coined it initially, and sent us an email. He’s like, look, I love listening to you guys, and I find myself as I’m because I’m doing these long drives and I’m listening to a lot of your podcasts. And he goes because I’ve listened to so much your content, I find that I’m thinking about money completely differently. He said, I know now when the stock market’s getting beaten up, but I know that I’m buying into my 401 k in the next few days, I’m getting a deal. And I started realizing this has warped me. This has changed me. I consider myself now a mutant, because I get excited about things that I don’t think the average American does. And I was like, Whoa. That is a concept that I think has some legs to it. So we started using it on the show. And I call people financial mutants, because it’s no different than the mutations you see with the X Men, or, you know, any of the Marvel characters that are out there. It’s just that you don’t have to get gamma radiation or bitten by a spider. This is just you’re going to once you understand what every dollar has the potential to become and have those small decisions stacked one on top of another, can create your great, big, beautiful tomorrow. You will be changed forever. And I’m hoping that this book does that, just like Millionaire Next Door and Wealthy Barber did for me when I first started my journey. I want millionaire mission to be that launch guide for the next generation too.

Clint Murphy  16:59

Yeah, The Wealthy Barber was a big one for me as well. As a Canadian, I love it. So tied to that, I want to go over something that I think is one of the most important things that people don’t pay enough attention to. And you talk about it as one of the rules for financial mutants. So you talked about this idea of increasing our earnings because that gives us bigger margin, which I think is very important. And then the second one is delayed gratification in the simplest path to being financially independent, and it’s spending less than we make. So focusing on what we’re saving, which brings up the concept of a savings rate. So first, most people that are listening may not even know what a savings rate is, so let’s educate them on that. And then when it comes to savings rate, what does the average American save? And what have you and your team found in your research is the ideal savings rate that people should be targeting to achieve the millionaire or the multimillionaire status by the time they retire.

Brian Preston  18:04

Yeah, the typical American is saving between six to 8% of their income, and it varies by pimp on what year you want to look at. We always say it’s pretty normal that it’s about a third of what we think the typical person should be saving and investing. And I get it. Life is squeezing you in all directions, especially this post inflationary period. But it is one of those things where, when you look at how people consume, there’s your car payment, it’s all those decisions you’re making about your life that kind of has it leads to the ultimate result of your life. And it’s a small decision. You don’t realize it in the moment when you’re choosing that next car, or maybe the size of your next apartment, or whether or not you get roommates or not. But all those things are going to really lay the foundation for what your savings rate, what your discipline, and what you’re setting your future self up for. And that’s kind of what I’ve I tried to focus on the 25%. The other thing is that it’s once again, back to the intersection of the behavior. And also the math, is we have a resource. And Clint I promise I’m not trying to just get everybody together the website, but I think it’s just so valuable. We created this stuff. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources we have what 25% can do for you. And what you quickly see is, for somebody in their 20s, it’s an aspirational number. I realize in your 20s, you’re broke, you don’t have money, but you hopefully have a lot of potential. But our research shows that for most people, if you’re just saving 10 15% when you look at what 25% can do for you, you’ll see that even though you might be under 25% in your 20s, it’s going to go a long way, because you’re exploiting that powerful resource of time. By the time you’re in your 30s, you kind of need to be at 25% because now, if that’s where your starting point for saving and investing are, you’ll get to where that’s what’s going to be required to get you to kind of be have replacement ratios close to what you’re making when you do retire. And then if you’re in your 40s, when you finally find out about investing and a savings rate, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost. It just means more the responsibility falls on your shoulders. You might have to be even more disciplined to go beyond saving and investing 25%. And when we talk about it – because maybe I should have done this in a different order – what a savings rate is, is when you look at your gross income and you say how much of that money is actually being going towards and initially can start off our emergency reserves and things like that. But how much of this money ultimately is going to be saved for the future? So that once it’s back to so you can own your time and have even more flexibility with your life, you’ve got to have that margin, and the sooner you figure that out and get that savings rate as compared to your gross income, the sooner you will own your life. That’s the important part that I want people to take away. 

Clint Murphy  20:49

And do you use gross or net? I ask because it’s really interesting, because it can be so varied by..

Brian Preston  20:55

Gross, because of that, I don’t want people’s health insurance or their tax rates influencing or the decisions they made on their cafeteria plan for their employer, impacting their savings rate because you can manipulate. If you go off of gross it’s kind of hard to manipulate those rules because you have a one gross number.

Clint Murphy  21:14

Yeah, the scary one for me is our tax rates here, where I live, Brian. Because that I think 53% of my dollars go to tax, so it’s hard to hit anything above a certain number.

Brian Preston  21:27

And look, I’m not as versed in the Canadian system as I am here in the States, but that’s why there’s retirement plans. Because look, we do have states in America where if you are a higher income, in the state of California, you can be right at 50% as well, and that’s why we even give the guidance. And it’s very important when you’re trying to figure out, are you doing Roth savings, meaning tax free savings, versus, you know, traditional tax deferred or taking the tax deduction. Now, I bet you have the opportunity, Clint. Don’t y’all have some abilities to lower that tax rate, or lower how much of that income is subject to the taxes by saving and investing. 

Clint Murphy  22:02

Yeah, it’s not enough to I’m trying to, trying to think how to phrase this. Because most of the time I was in that 53% bracket, like it’s, it’s on any income above a certain dollar amount. So it’s tiny violin problems that are that I’m bringing up, right? And in the amount that you get to shelter is like 30 grand, right? So it’s as a portion of what I was earning as a high earner. It’s not there. But where this becomes really important is you talked about how it can ship with age. And for those who are listening, I’m 45 now. I probably started my financial independence journey around 35 when we started to take our finances quite seriously. Before that, I wouldn’t say we were frivolous or that we just weren’t as aware. We weren’t tracking our net worth. We weren’t forecasting it. We weren’t doing all the foo steps. What I was focused on was just continuing to grow my career. So the earnings side just kept going up, and the expenses side was going with it, although there was a decent amount of savings. But it was really that realization of everything you’ve talked about in the financial order of operations that said, Well, wait, we’re happy with our lifestyle now, why don’t we freeze that in every dollar we make From here on in. Let’s just throw that into investments, throw that into our registered accounts, our tax free accounts, and let’s make sure that from here on, we’re hitting at least all go if we’re going off gross. Let’s say a 25% savings rate so that we can supercharge our future. It’s been amazing to watch what that’s done over over a 10 year period. So the fact that you can do it at any point in the journey is very valuable. The one thing that drives the savings rate that I want to talk about with you is you already brought up the three things, discipline, money and time. On the discipline side, the biggest area that I seem to see as a problem there is the Keeping Up with the Joneses, right? And so what do you say to your clients? What do you say to the audience, like, what should they be thinking about when it comes to keeping up with the Joneses? You know, like when it comes to cars, you have a 20-3-8 rule. But like in general, how do we let go of the Instagram lifestyle, lifestyle of the rich and famous? You know, champagne and caviar dreams like, how do we let that go? Focus on the future.

Brian Preston  24:36

This is one of those, you get a fringe benefit working in wealth management, is that I live and work around money and successful people constantly. And I think that this has given me a unique vantage point that I know kind of what money can and cannot do, and we are lied to on a daily basis by all the marketers in this consumption world we live in. I think that, that’s the first thing I would tell your audience. And I tell my audience the same thing, is you got to figure out who you are and what makes you happy. What truly put some time and effort in, and knowing what really makes you tick and what brings you joy. Because if you go by what the marketers tell you, or in this consumption society, you’ll just keep chasing, you’ll kind of keep growing, and you’ll never actually be happy. And I’ve seen that with because I’ve seen very successful families with miserable lives, miserable children. But I was also thinking back to my own life, and I put this in millionaire mission. When we were in the poorest part of my parents life, after my dad had been laid off, and we had some of the best memories that didn’t require any money. And I was like, wait a minute, how can those things be connected to where in the poorest of times for my parents and my childhood was one some of my happiest times of life. But then I see people all around me who have who wish for nothing, but are completely miserable. And you quickly realize that money is nothing more than a tool. And if you haven’t actually put the effort into knowing what makes you happy, especially without money, that will be a superpower when you do have resources. If you can be good with a little, you can be great with a lot. But I think a lot of people aren’t actually putting in the effort to know, what is building great memories? Is it spending a gazillion dollars on having the latest, greatest car or nice designer good? Or is it that you just go to the national park that’s an hour and a half down the street and you see what’s the beauty that’s created before us? And those power, those memories, could be just as powerful as some of the stuff that the consumer society has pushed upon us. I don’t think a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into knowing who they are, what they value and what makes them happy. And I think that that’s something that I try to challenge everyone to put into. Because that allows you to kind of have that baseline so that you’re not then keep moving the goal post to try to get more more more, because you’re probably, Clinton, the same situation I am. I could buy a nicer house, I could drive a nicer car, but I actually know that that won’t make me any happier, and I’d rather have that money working for me, so I own my time. That’s the true luxury I want, is a do and live life on my terms. And the only way you go to do that is if you actually get away from the debt. You get away from all the things that are gonna keep you encumbered, to not having flexibility and ownership of your time. 

Clint Murphy  27:20

Yeah, that’s absolutely the key. You know, we’re in the situation where I’m taking what I’d call a step back to take a step forward, and that we’re living in a house that we designed and built, and it’s beautiful, great for our family. I had a really high paying job that was really by the time I was if I stayed in that job for another 15 by the time I was 60, I’d have a boatload of money, more than I ever could have imagined having. But it didn’t give me that freedom to pursue what I wanted to be an entrepreneur, to have my own business, to be in charge of my time in life. And so we made the decision to give up that job. And as part of that, my wife and I talked about it, and we sold this home. So, you know, I’ve got one month left in it, and then we’re downsizing into a town home and taking that step back to build the army of dollars to be big enough that we have. And this is the key that you talked about there. We have control of our time in the goal now, Brian, is to get to a spot. And I’d love you to differentiate this for people, because this is the way I’m looking at it. The lifestyle I had right now, I’d say I was rich. The lifestyle I was I’m trying to build is a wealth lifestyle. I don’t want to be rich. I want to be wealthy. And how do you contrast, because I think you and I actually contrast these two the same way. The difference between being rich and the difference between being wealthy.

Brian Preston  28:50

For me rich, I put this in the book, is you can afford all your monthly payments, meaning that you could drive the BMW, have the 5000 square foot house, and you could afford every one of your monthly payments. On paper and to your neighbors, you look rich. But the reality is, if the music ever stopped and you actually didn’t have the income that was supporting making those payments, it all goes away. It’s a mirage. It’s a fallacy. Whereas wealth is the part that, it’s the quiet, patient work that nobody can see because it sits on your net worth statement, and that’s your money working for you. So you own your life. You own your time. And I think a lot of people, they get confused, because they see rich and they equate that to wealth, but they are so not the same. And you know, you were, I had a unique thing. I was we to celebrate the book. We went on a European cruise with the family to kind of celebrate the launch of the book, and we got to go by Monaco. I think per capita, there are more Bentleys, Rolls Royces, and all kind of other things. And without a doubt, a lot of those people truly are at the level of wealth that just at that point you just throwing and burning money. It doesn’t matter. But I think here around me, I see people who are making those consumption decisions because they want to impress people around them. And that’s just not I think where healthy wealth resides. Healthy wealth is that where you own stuff. You actually, your money. One of the things I have found is, and this is, I love having an investment portfolio that can make more for me in a year than I can with with my labor, just because I’ve built it to this critical mass. I love having a building that generates enough of through appreciation and other things that it is tickles me to death to see my money growing, because I just know what that equates to, in time and memory, building and other things. Whereas every car, and I’ve gone down the luxury car game myself, they’re exciting for a few weeks to a few months, but then you always are looking for the next hit. That’s why lottery winners, I think, are always chasing emptiness. Is because their goals are consumption goals. They’re not actually a life well lived goals. So I’m encouraging don’t get caught up in the consumption goals. I want you to get into what is your best version, so you know who you are, what you value and what really brings you purpose in life, and you’ll think about life differently. What’s funny? I’m in this weird stage now I get offers because, in addition to the content company, I have this wealth management business, and we have all this real estate. We get offers, whether it’s on the wealth management or on some of the properties we have. And I don’t some of them are, I think, are insane. I mean, they’re actually very lucrative or very good, but I think to my life, and I’m like, this wouldn’t change. What would I do? I mean, what would I do with the money? What would I do? I couldn’t get that building back. I couldn’t change my life, and I think that is the luxury. When you own your time, you own your life, you get to think about those teams versus what you have to do. You essentially have a master in all of your obligations and commitments. Whereas I kind of like doing things because it gives me purpose. I mean, that’s why we had a meeting earlier today on some new content, things that we’re gonna do. And my producers like and we’ll put together a list of how much this is all gonna cost. And I was, you know, of course, I groan in public, but I am. There’s a part of me that’s secret, like, man, isn’t it cool that we have the margin to go do something without even knowing that this is going to generate money, because that’s the luxury of kind of owning your time. But I think it’ll be better for the world if this content hits like I hope it will. People will get enjoyment out of that, and they’ll be better for it. And I think that’s going to probably yield results in some way. You know, just because of that abundant cycle that we surround ourselves in.

Clint Murphy  32:31

And so much of what you talk about there is the idea of freedom, right? Like you’re free to make those choices. And freedom is really that differentiator between rich and wealthy. I want to tie this back to the audience. We already talked about keeping up with the Joneses, and this is such an important one where you talked about rich versus wealthy because so many people want to look rich instead of be wealthy, right? And my kids will always tell me about a kid in class who’s rich. And I’ll say, Well, why is he rich? And they’ll say, well, his dad shows up at school in Bentley, and he’s got this iPhone, and he wears these shoes. And I’ve been teaching them since they were, like, seven or eight years old. Well, like, hey boys, you need to understand there’s a difference between what someone looks like and their net worth. Like little Timmy may look rich, but his mom and dad may not be sleeping at night because they have so much debt that they can’t handle it, and you don’t know that unless you know their net worth.

Brian Preston  33:32

I would also challenge parents who are maybe things have gone well and they’re living in some abundance is don’t give your kids everything. I think scarcity is a good thing in some ways. I mean, I have this conversation with quite a few of my neighbors. None of them listen to me, by the way. They all I see the new cars go in the driveway all the time. Like my own daughter, she paid for half of her first car because I wanted her I was worried. I think sometimes with our successful families. If you give your kids too much and you never give them those skin in the moment games or understanding the power of building for yourself, they don’t ever build that muscle and and that’s something that working with successful families, I see it all the time. And what you don’t want to have for your kids is it the best, most affluent time of their life was their childhood? That’s sad to me. You want to give your kids enough appetite, enough scarcity, that hopefully, when they get out on their own, they maybe they get to buy that first car. You know? They get those attaboy moments where they feel what success and the journey and this independence thing, the the power of work, what it can do for you, and then they’re on fire. I mean, and that’s something that I’ve tried to put in my own daughter, and it’s something that would encourage your audience to do too. And that’s why, as soon as my daughter started working, because, like I said, I put her in fast food, she worked at the local Chick fil A, I started doing dollar for dollar matching. On her Roth IRAs and other things and and I would encourage your audience to do that, because now, yeah, I’ve kind of created a beast. I mean, because now, anytime she makes extra money, she goes, Dad, are we still doing that thing? Because she’s a junior in college at this point. And I’m like, Yeah, well, I’ll do it as long as until you get your first job post graduation of college. I’m going to keep giving you dollar for dollar matches, so we can keep this savings habit going, and it’s yielding results already. And I can see we’ve caught traction, because now she sees what her money’s doing for her, where it’s replacing hours, if not months, of her own work. And she quickly realizes this is the power of living on less than I make. 

Clint Murphy  35:40

It’s such a beautiful way that you’re approaching that with your dollar, or with your daughter to teach her the value of dollars. For those who are listening, the idea when you read something like millionaire mission is to have these conversations with your kids. To talk to them about money. Is that something you’ve been doing with your daughter since she was young, like, what? When did you start to talk to her about the financial order of operations and savings rates and net worth and appreciating assets?

Brian Preston  36:14

It really hard. You know, of course, I tried to do the because Bo, my partner on the podcast and YouTube channel for the money guy show. Bo does a great job, because he does a, you know, save, spend, give, kind of piggy bank that he does with his daughters. I’ve tried to do the allowance and all those things. I never felt like that stuff was catching tons of traction. I’m always transparent my stories, even though I’m trying things all the time, because I practice what I preach, we eat our own cooking, as we like to say. I didn’t feel like it really connected with my daughter until she caught that first job at 15 and and that’s when I could sense the spark was lit in her mind, and this started taking tractions. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, as a parent, you shouldn’t try. Because I can’t wait to see Bo’s journey, because his girls are a little bit younger than my daughters are, to see where. But I think every every child is probably different. Now, but for me and mine is I saw the fruits of the discussions kick in around 15. And then we were off to the races, and now it’s with her being a junior in college. It’s funny to me when she comes to me and says, Hey, you gotta to see some of my friends, RSC stuff at campus, well you wouldn’t believe what the these kids are doing. And I even like, I remember parent orientation at college. So they have these two restaurants. They have a coffee a Starbucks, and they have a Chick-fil-A on campus, and they give you part of your food or your your you know, meal plan for your students is they get to choose how much they’re going to they get an allowance to to use a Starbucks and Chick-fil-A. And they tell you a parent orientation, your kids will burn through this in the first month and a half. So go ahead and start working through them with budget. I found out for my daughter. And this is, this is one of those where you feel very pleased because, you know, it’s planning all those little tips and tricks and Jedi mind tricks when your children are young. She’s giving away free Chick-fil-A and Starbucks to all of her friends the last semester of school, because it’s use it or lose it. And it’s fun seeing that play out. I was just sharing that my daughter, I’ve seen it with even how she spends at college. So I can tell I’ve gotten traction on buy in and creating good, good adults. Because I think that sometimes with with parents, when you have resources, you’re not assured, especially if you’ve let your kids not have scarcity in their life. You don’t know how they’re going to be until you you kind of let them start having those life experiences.

Clint Murphy  38:43

When you talk about scarcity, right there, you have this idea of deliberate scarcity. What is, what does that look like, and how do people use that in their life?

Brian Preston  38:53

Yeah, if you read my intro chapter, I immediately give you some terms that I think you’ll find very valuable. And one of the first ones is what I call “forced scarcity”. Remember, the part of big thing is success. This is all simple, but not easy is that you got to make the good habits as easy as possible and the bad habits as hard as possible. And one of those things I do in my own life, and I’ve done this and my daughter’s life as well, is what I call forced scarcity. Meaning that I, on purpose, will expand my savings and goals I put upon myself in my investment plans every time I get a pay raise. You know, I might have 60% of the pay raise go towards saving and investment goals and only allow myself 40% for increased lifestyle. And if you can create these forced behaviors on this forced scarcity, i allows more and more of your army of dollar bills work. Because, once again, making the bad habits that much harder. Because if you’re already allocating every dollar of your army of dollar bills to go towards something and squeezing you down, it makes you that much more productive. Now look, I’m not a miser. I want to make sure your audience hears or doesn’t mishear me. I’m not saying in your 20s and 30s. I want you just to go to sleep in those chapters, you go to work, go home, and go to sleep, and then you save all this money, and then you pop out of the toaster oven at 45 or 50 years old. You go, hotdog I’m a millionaire! Let’s live life! That is so far from what I put in this book. I’m trying to give you the balance to maximize every decade that you’re on this planet, but you should feel some pressure to take a little bit today for that great, big, beautiful Mar. Because I feel like the problem with most people is they just don’t save and invest anything in their 20s. And those are some of the most valuable years that you can actually put your money to work.

Clint Murphy  40:42

In one of the most popular episodes we’ve had on the podcast is Die with Zero. And I worry, Brian, and you probably do to. I worry that it’s so popular because people are like, well, that just supports a YOLO lifestyle, like I only live once. I should spend everything and die with nothing. But I don’t think that’s what Bill’s talking about. I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about. It’s this idea of of doing both, right? Is of saving and investing and then what’s left over, live a good life. Like live a good life appropriate to the time bucket that you’re in. Is that fair?

Brian Preston  41:20

Yeah. Also, I also, I want people to put the work in on the front end to know what makes you happy. Because it might not be spending more money is what makes you happy. You got to put that work in. But then the other part of my system or process is because I’m I haven’t read all of Die with Zero, but I’ve listened and read half of it, and so I feel like, I know, a good part of it. The only thing I thought of when I was, you know, listening to it, is I looked at my own life and I was like, which dollar was the dollar that’s that turned into this level of wealth? That I just couldn’t tell you which one decision or which dollar invested was the one. Now, look, I can tell you this investment on this day did pretty good, but it all was a culmination of a bunch of little decisions that kind of culminated into now. Where, yeah, I could look at my life now and go, Man, maybe I didn’t have to start saving and investing when I was 22 years of age at the level that I did. But if I didn’t do that at 22 would I be who I am now? And that’s it’s always the chicken or egg argument on the whole process. So that’s why I try to give you the education to balance that and the math, so that you know what to do with your next dollar. But you don’t wake up when you’re 45 years old and go, Man, I wish I’d have done more in my 20s, or I wish I’d done more in my 30s. I’m trying to give you the mindset so you can balance those things in your journey. And I don’t think a lot of financial content. And by the way, I give Bill a huge compliment, because I do think a lot of systems are all about get that money. And I even see it with some of the movements out there we pick on, you know. And I have a lot of fire clients or find what financial independence next endeavor, because I don’t find that they actually do truly retire. I find that after they take some time off, they end up jumping into something else, content creation or or some other thing. But it’s still some type of thing that occupies their time. And I think that’s a healthy thing, but I don’t want you losing out on your 20s and 30s just because your happiness you think is going to be in some future moment. If you’re not happy today, you’re probably not gonna be happy then either. So you’ve got to figure out what you can do today to make you happy, because I want you happy through your entire journey. If you’re not, if you’re waking up unhappy like you, maybe you’re a doctor and you’re going to the hospital making a gazillion dollars a year, but you absolutely hate your job. We need to figure that out. We need to figure out what changes, because it’s not a good, healthy mix to say, I’ll just do this for another 20 years, and then I’ll, I’ll be at the happiest version of myself. I think you’ll find there’s gonna be some some scars from that.

Clint Murphy  43:54

Yeah, and the main problem I see with Die with Zero as an example, or even, even the approach I took to financial independence is it’s really geared to the higher earner. It’s geared to someone who, ultimately, at some point in their career, will be earning in the 1%. And it’s like, oh, okay, well, you can start saving at 35 and you can defer the gratification or the savings to a later date, because you know you’re going to keep making more money. And you’re going to get to a level where all of a sudden you can put 75% of it in the bank and still live a pretty good lifestyle. And there are very few people who that actually applies to. So if you look at it from that lens, I would never suggest Die with Zero for someone as a path to financial freedom. I would say, hey, there’s so many other things you should be reading. Should you take two or three or four of the concepts that Bill talks about and apply them to your life? Yeah? Yes, sure, very, very good things to learn and understand. But if you’re not going to be earning in the 1% like, like, if you actually look at Bill’s path that he took in his earnings, it’s not average. It’s not normal. And so I like when we’re when we’re on the podcast, and we’re talking about financial independence and we’re talking about saving and investing is what would work for the average guy or gal out there who’s listening to the show in in the financial order of operations would work for anyone in like..

Brian Preston  45:36

Come on, give it to me, Clint. Well, you’ve seen what I wrote is that permission works for anyone, regarding anyone. And I think about my parents grading. I mean, they actually didn’t have great incomes. My mom was a school teacher, my dad was a salesman. Never made more than my mother is a school teacher, and they had the hardest part down. They saved money, but they just didn’t put it to work. And that’s why this is a love letter to if my parents had found millionaire mission on the start of their journey, I think I come out in a completely different financial situation too.

Clint Murphy  46:14

100%. In one of the one of the big areas, like when we talked about the people that are keeping up with the Joneses. They’re, they’re trying to buy the nice stuff, you know, like this permeates so much of the financial journey, because one of the key areas that it then leads to is debt, right? And you talk about debt being, being a chainsaw, a dangerous chainsaw, of debt, right? So, so why is debt so bad in when you look at it with your clients, Brian, do you differentiate good debt versus bad debt and debt? You know, some, some financial independence writers don’t, don’t like to get into that area, because they’re like, hey, you know, like, it might give the listener too much wiggle room, and all of a sudden they’re arguing. Well, this is good debt. You’re like, Well, is it right? So, you know, let’s dive into debt. 

Brian Preston  47:11

Debt is chainsaw dangerous, I do make that point, but that does not mean that chainsaws can’t be extremely effective at helping you cut down trees. I mean, that’s that, that’s that’s you just it’s back to if you’re not scared while you’re using it, if you’re not losing sleep when you sign the dotted line on any debt, that that’s not a good thing. And I feel like too many people are too comfortable with debt. But I’m also, I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t admit the fact that the first car I bought after I got out of college, because I was broke as a joke, but I had a brand new job lined up at a CPA firm. I had to go get a car loan to get me reliable transportation to that job. I would be a liar if I if I told you, just pay cash for that first car or my first house. I only put down 3% on my first house. So that’s why I wrote the rules to where when you buy your first house, it’s okay if you’re only putting down three to 5% because that’s what a lot of people are doing when they buy their first house. And even now, with some of the commercial real estate I do, we use debt for some of that commercial real estate. It’s just like, my like, this building we’re in, the rate is less than 3% I mean, that’s, that’s a great rate that, um, I’d have been crazy not to take advantage of that when the banks were offering those, those levels on some of this commercial real estate and stuff. So it goes back to the education in your relationship with debt. Because I am not one of those people. I know there are people who are running financial systems to where they’re building as much debt as the banks will give them. And, you know, I think Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you know, lends on some of that stuff. I don’t fall on that, because I do think you will come to a point that you want to own your life, and it’s and it’s hard to do that when you have too many encumbrances. But I also don’t want you to go t total on the other side to where you’re avoiding debt at all cost, to the point that you don’t even get to build your financial life. Because they are get wealthy behaviors, and they’re stay wealthy behaviors. We got to get you wealthy first. And so unfortunately, in a lot of our journeys, we have to use debt in some way to make some of those big life decisions. So my bit, my my goal is to educate you on it, to make you really kind of fluent in how debt works, what the dangers are. So you go into it fully educated, fully aware, and you won’t be just caught in a naked situation to where you got ripped off or taken advantage of, and then you got left holding the bag. At least with my system, you kind of are fully self aware what debt can and cannot do for you so you can be as healthy with it as possible. And I’m very honest about that, because I wanted to create a hypocrite, free system. So what I’ve experienced in my own journey from not having any money to to building substantial wealth is I wanted to make sure that what worked for me works for you, and I’m not just telling you something that that’s not repeatable.

Clint Murphy  50:18

Yeah, and when you when you look at that debt is, it can be a very useful tool in building wealth and in, you know. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I have a large amount of debt, you know, much higher than the average person, because my path to wealth has been through buying real estate properties and and continuing to, you know, I guess I say the Rich Dad, Poor Dad style of just continuing to buy more and more properties over the last decade. And the one thing I didn’t realize, Brian, and I’ve had conversations or intimately about it with my wife recently, is the amount of stress that she’s felt over the last decade as we’ve taken on all that debt, right? So for me is, as the high earner, I’m making more than enough in my in my day job to cover the payments and to make sure that we’re fine and and we’re in a high cost of living area, so the the rental properties don’t necessarily cash flow in the early years. They cash flow in later years. And what you’re doing in the early years is you’re putting a little bit of money each month into the property. And I just looked at that to your point, that that was my forced savings mechanism was, hey, I’m putting that money in, but it’s going to pay down principal, so net worth going up, that’s savings. But she was always stressed. She never said anything. And so she’s, you know, for the last decade, been stressed. And so now I’m at the point in life, and you talk about this in your book, and I’ve seen this with the shareholders that I’ve worked for. Once they hit a certain amount of wealth, it becomes less about growing the number that’s still important. But the other part of the equation becomes, I want to simplify my life, right? And you talk about this as the one of the later steps, that’s when we start to even pay off. What you and I would say is productive low interest debt, because we just want a simpler life. So what does that what does that look like in the later steps? And how does that look like? Because I think you’re at the stage in your journey where now you’re starting to say, hey, I want to simplify my life. Like I don’t want to worry about a mortgage over here or a low cost car, car payment over there. I just want simplicity.

Brian Preston  52:51

Well, I think it’s always this is something I enjoy talking about when we create content. Is that my young version of myself, back when I’m early 20s, doing tax returns because I worked in public accounting, and I remember the younger version of myself used to love getting those tax returns for individuals who owned multiple businesses, real estate. And I’d see these tax returns with all the K ones and all the flow throughs now, like Man, that is so sexy and so cool to see these obviously successful people and what they’ve created. What’s funny to me is, fast forward the decades, and I’m now in this life where I look at my tax return and I have all these flow throughs from multiple businesses, real estate and everything, and I’m like, the complexity is something else. I mean, it just hits because you have to say, you have to keep up with all this stuff, and it doesn’t matter. And I tell people, this is something that I think is an unintended consequence of success. Is complexity surrounds you. You don’t even look for it. I mean, I I’ve tried to be as efficient with my structuring as possible, but every year, with more success, creates more complexity. And that’s exactly what has that’s why I love the content creation, is because it has created what I call the abundance cycle, is that you can keep your life as simple. If you don’t think you need a financial advisor, don’t hire a financial advisor, because it’s gonna be one of those things where that drum beat of complexity gets so big that that’s where for us, people like, yeah, you’re right. I have to, I have to get somebody to help me organize this. And that’s what I still crave simplicity and I try to consolidate. I try to bring things as simple as possible, as much as I can, even in estate planning. I will question the attorneys, do we really have to do it this way? Because I want to make sure I’m not creating a burden for my children down the road too. So I think it is the noble cause to crave simplicity, but to be honest with yourself, that there is an unintended consequence of success, which is just the nature of it is going to create complexity. And don’t be scared. And I look, I know my conflict is this is I am a high, you know, net worth wealth manager for a lot of people. But it’s also because I walk that walk, and I see what, what, what it’s like when you’re trying to carry that all on your own. So your wife is not unusual on that is that we’re all wired differently on what, how we process risk, how we process all these financial things. Don’t be scared to talk to somebody, to get somebody in there to help you on that stuff too. Because, because it also, I found with financial advisors, we help, you, know, be the moderator between spouses too, because going you might be on a completely different risk profile than your wife is, and somebody needs to kind of help you all bridge those blonde spots. And that’s something we’ve always tried to do as well. But I love this. Is the part that I love is that I can create success for my listeners and my audience and the people reading millionaire mission, and I know that I’m going to help them become a better version of themselves, but there is an unintended consequence that they’re going to need somebody down the road, and that’s why I love the it’s kind of a pureness to this abundance cycles. I can give it away while you’re building your first millions, but I know I’ll get you eventually, just because of what we’re creating, creates something that requires additional help and work on.

Clint Murphy  56:15

Yeah, 100% you nailed it. It. We have completely different risk profiles and and I’m full risk on, and she’s risk off. But the accommodation I’ve made, Brian, that I think will work, is what I’ve said to her is, hey, like we’re done, you never have to worry about this again. What we own outside of because now I’ve started a real estate development business. So, I mean, if I’ve taken on, it’s the riskiest thing I’ll say I’ve ever done, right? It is, because now you’re signing personal guarantees on bank loans. But what I’m saying there is, hey, that’s now where the investment is. Once we get to a stage where we’re paying salaries, we’re making money, and we’re taking dividends out of the business. That’s that that all goes to you, and she manages our personal side of the finances that all goes to you, and we’re just going to live life. We’ll enjoy it, spend it. All of my investing will be the business. And then there’s a second business that I’m working on with some partners. That’s more the buy, rehab, hold, and so that will be our that will be the assets that we hold, that will be the real estate development business to build cash flow. And outside of that, we’re just going to live life. You never have to think about this again. You’ve done that to your point. She’s done that for 20 years with me. Now she can just enjoy the fruits of the fruits of the labor, and not be stressed. And so that’s a valuable point, but, but she can only do that because we’ve hit that point in in in the wealth journey, right? Where we’re at that stage where the earlier stages don’t apply. And so what is segueing, left, right, up, down. But this takes us through. What you talk about is the different stages in the wealth journey. What are the different stages and how do people think about them as they work their way through each state?

Brian Preston  58:21

Yeah, I talk about the five levels of wealth. And sadly, here in America, most people don’t even get to the first level. You know, every year, bank rate comes out with that stat, that 60% of Americans can come up with $1,000. And that breaks my heart, because I always say that, you know, it’s really one of those, those things where you’re trying to get through the survival in the beginning, because the five levels of wealth, and you have to think about this, we’ve got the strategy. We’ve got the I’m trying to think of. And Clint, you’re you caught me on this happened to me last time too. What’s the first one? Security Strategy? God dog it. Freedom’s the fourth one. And then abundance. And I know that one back of my hand, but I’m missing security strategy is stability. It’s not security, stability. Yeah, okay, let me, if you give me a second shot on that one. Clint, if you don’t mind, this is the only

 

Clint Murphy  59:27

edit bet, yeah, well, it will edit that out. So Leslie, listening, we’ll edit that section out. There we go.

Brian Preston  59:34

So as I shared, you know, 60% of Americans can come up with $1,000 and sadly, that keeps them from the first step of on the five levels of wealth, which is stability, you know. So that’s where we’re trying to get people through that, where you’re actually, you know, can cover the basics of life, and then that leads to strategy, you know. This is where you’re no longer just worried about how you’re gonna pay the bills. This is where you’re actually thinking about, hey, how do I atually, since I’m living on less than I make, how do I actually have the strategy to actually start saving and investing for the future? And then that leads to step three and the five levels of wealth, which is security. And this is where a lot of people this is where I think you start. You don’t have to sweat the little stuff as much, you know, because maybe in the beginning it’s your budgeting and it’s your sacrifice on those little life decisions, but in security now you’re starting to get some dividends from your life, where your investments and your army of dollar bills are starting to generate some margin additionally for you not requiring your labor. And then the fourth level of wealth is freedom. Freedom is what I think most people think they’re aspiring to, meaning that this is where you reach the level of assets that you don’t have to work anymore for labor. You can let your army of dollar bills work. But I think a lot of people would be surprised to learn that I actually think that there’s a next level of wealth that’s level five, which is abundance. Because in freedom, it’s one of those things where you’re doing what you want, when you want, how you want. But I’m telling you that’s not the top of the pyramid. Where the top of the pyramid is is you know what you want. You know what you value in your life. You know who you are as a person. That is actually a whole different level than, than, than even financial freedom, because once you’re in a financial abundance, you’ve got to get to really get outside of the money and think about what is the way you want to touch this one life that we get on this planet and really maximize that journey. And that’s what I’ve tried to help everybody who comes in contact with our content to understand those simple things. Like I talk about the three ingredient three ingredients to wealth building. When I talk about the five levels of wealth. If you can understand the nine steps of the financial order of operations, you start seeing in this crazy chaos that we all live in, that there are some systems, there are some strategies, there are some indicators that you can follow, and once you educate yourself on those things, you actually see the path and you’ll actually become the better version, or the best version, of your financial self.

Clint Murphy  1:02:02

And when you see people on this journey, Brian, at some point, you talk about this idea, because you know, you’re disciplined to be pushing forward on the journey. You’re disciplined to be going up the ladder of wealth. And at some point people just go off the rails, right? There’s like a you refer to it as a boiling point. So, so what are the things that take people off the rails that we want to be cognizant of, because we want to keep them on the path, on the wealth journey, path. 

Brian Preston  1:02:36

You’ve got to take some celebrations along the way. I mean, that’s the thing is, I think if you are just so gung ho, but you burn out because you didn’t give it enough time, you know, maybe you were only wide open for five years. You got to have some mini celebrations in there. You got to have some indicators. So you’re actually taking a measurement. That’s why I love doing the net worth statement and other things where you’re actually getting some success indicators shown to you. So you get that, it kind of refuels, the fuel packs, so you’re ready to go to the next stage. That’s where I think a lot of people, if you’re not actually doing the work, you will fall off, because it’s more of like a love affair, where you’re only driven by the passion. When you find out about the concepts of personal finance, you’ve actually got to do some of the homework that gives you the staying power and the measuring of success. Because that’s the stuff that’s going to keep you refueled and keep it going. And I’ve tried to give you all those worksheets, I’ve tried to give you all that homework. I’ve tried to give you all that mindset stuff, so that you you really do look back and 15 years has gone by, you start to see what your assets are creating for you, and you are you’re like, it’s kind of like a good, healthy marriage. As you look at your first five to 10 years of marriage and go, man, it went by so fast, and I’m still more in love with this what I’m doing. That’s why I want your relationship with working towards your finances to work as well. I want to be healthy. I want it to be built on abundance, and not just to get to a certain dollar amount to actually know the life that you’re building for. And I think a lot of people just aren’t putting in that effort. If they’ll, if they’ll read the instruction manual to that stuff, I think that they will come out and be like, Man, I actually did learn something from that. Clint, one of the things that has been so fun for me after writing this book, is I go on Amazon and I read the reviews. I would encourage. If anybody is just questioning, is this guy, you know, it seems too good to be true because he is talking about that he’s been podcasting since 2006 just giving it away, giving it away. Is this really that good? I would go read the reviews. I mean, you can see I don’t have that many friends. I couldn’t have faked this, but I really have tried to just give it away, because I am one of those people that I believe abundance creates more abundance, and if we’re all just trying to make this world a little bit better, it comes back. I really do believe that you can love on people, and they will see your heart, and then you’ll get, you’ll get rewarded for that.

Clint Murphy  1:05:03

Yeah, we 100% align on that and that, and that’s a beautiful spot to end the section on discussing the book, Millionaire Mission. Brian, can I fire some rapid fire questions?

Brian Preston  1:05:13

Of course, hit me up. 

Clint Murphy  1:05:15

Let’s do it. What’s, uh, what’s one book that’s really changed your life, Brian, that you want to share with the audience?

Brian Preston  1:05:21

Well, I gave you two already, which I have to because I don’t want you don’t want to make me choose a favorite, but I really do think the first book was Wealthy Barber. You know your your comrade, and fellow Canadian, David, just changed my life, changed several of my friends because I gave it to every one of my friends. So Wealthy Barber, I list first, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Dr. Stanley and Dancos work with Millionaire Next Door as well.

Clint Murphy  1:05:46

Beautiful. AndWealthy Barber. It’s rare that an American throws out Wealthy Barber. Dave Chilton, such a good book. 

Brian Preston  1:05:54

Can I give you a an Easter egg that’s on the back of my book is that, if you notice, I have Clark Howard and I have Sarah Stanley, who’s Dr. Stanley’s daughter, because, you know, Dr. Stanley sadly passed away in 2015 from a from a car accident. I got her to give me an endorsement on the back of the book. I asked David. I asked Dave to give me for a Wealthy Barber. He was very polite, but he says he doesn’t do that. But if he what he doesn’t know is that this was my own personal easter egg. I was trying to to put all the key people in my life from the early part of my journey on the back of my book, and he kind of ruined that by not not agreeing. He’s been very generous, as I’ve talked to him, because he did reach out to me and we were able to connect. So he’s a very generous man, but he just does not give endorsements or write anything on the back of books. 

Clint Murphy  1:05:57

It’s too bad I’ve got to get that book from my boys now that we talk about it. So what is, what are you reading right now that you’re enjoying?

Brian Preston  1:06:25

I’m trying to think, as I’ve done all the we’ve been on a series. Because you realize a book tour is very intense. I have read this book so many times. I’ve edited this book. I’ve added more content. So I’ve gone on, I’ve been on this weird non-fiction I mean, or I should say, I’ve been on this weird fiction track recently. So I’ve done Fourth Wing and The Dragon. I don’t know, I feel ridiculously this, my wife and I when we go read books together, so because then we can talk about it. And so, yeah, I’ve done that one. It’s a great book, if you take out some of those weird love scenes, because it reads like a teenage fantasy series. But for some reason, the love scenes are more 50 Shades of Gray, which seems a little awkward to me.

Clint Murphy  1:07:44

And who’s the author of that one?

 

1:07:46

Oh, gosh, don’t ask me stuff like that. Now I’m curious. I have Now I’m curious. I’d have to go pull it up on my list of of Kindle books. So well, I’m, I’m a sci fi. You’re grabbing people post like, What the heck is that that guy reading that book for him? Because my wife and I love reading books together, like that stuff when we’re I’m not doing serious stuff.

Clint Murphy  1:08:04

Yeah, and I’m a fantasy nut. 

Brian Preston  1:08:06

It’s a great series. It’s a whole series. I’ve actually read the second one too, and I’m blanking on with the name of that book is…

Clint Murphy  1:08:10

Mention dragon and I got excited. What’s one thing in the last year that Brian has spent money on that, you’ve thought to yourself, Damn, I should have bought that earlier.

Brian Preston  1:08:30

Bought earlier. Man, that’s tough. I mean, because, I mean, I will, well, I will say I’ve had a model three, Tesla, I’ve had a model Y, Tesla, and then I bought a Model X, and the X is not worth what I paid for it. But, man, do I enjoy it.

Clint Murphy  1:08:52

It’s got doors that go. Have you ever watch, uh, Silicon Valley? Do you ever watch that? 

Brian Preston  1:08:56

I watched like, the season or two, but I fell off after a season or two, I have a short attention span.

Clint Murphy  1:09:02

It’s got one scene with the guy who loves being in the six comma club, the billionaire, and he always talks about the doors that go like that versus doors that go like that. It’s just one of the best seats. Lot of Google, Google. That scene looks so good.

Brian Preston  1:09:17

fSo Mine, Mine looks like a Honda Accord on the school parking lot pickup. It’s not it’s the cyber trucks that get all the attention now.

Clint Murphy  1:09:24

Yeah, they’re kind of sexy.

 

Brian Preston  1:09:26

Model Ys, and nobody’s looking at Model x’s.

Clint Murphy  1:09:30

Yeah, the. What’s one mindset shift, behavior change or habit change that you did in your life that has had an oversized impact on you?

Brian Preston  1:09:44

I think earlier in my career, I didn’t I was putting, I was governing or putting a governor. If you know how engines work, you know, if you think about you go to the go kart track. All those go karts have governors on them, keeping them from driving wide open because they want the the 50 people an hour that are riding those go karts to not kill themselves. But the I think our brains are the same way. We have governors on what we think we can and cannot achieve. And it really took me a while, and I’ll give my my part and business partner, Bo Hansen, a lot of credit on this. I don’t think I realized how big we could grow, build and become because I had a lot of restrictions on just what I thought was possible. I think a lot of us will probably do that. You’ll think, hey, if I can make this per year, I’ll be happy. And I’ll be like, maybe you should think about, can you be 10 times bigger than that with purpose? Don’t mishear me. I don’t want you to make money. The goal without purpose. But I think a lot of us put restrictions on what we could become, and I’m here to tell you, there’s a lot of opportunity out there, if you will take away some of those contrarian or pessimistic things that are whispering you here you can, you can be an optimist and come through on the other side. 

Clint Murphy  1:11:01

Love it. Love it. We are our greatest limiter. So that’s a beautiful one. So Brian, we went pretty far and wide and deep on the book. Is there anything that we didn’t hit that you want to make sure you get across to the audience today? 

Brian Preston  1:11:15

No, I just want people to know this is not your traditional financial book. You’re not going to fall asleep reading this. This this is not boring. I have tried to put a lot of mindset stuff. I’ve put a lot of self stories in there, and I was a little, you know, insecure on how that was going to be received. But so far so good. Everybody has been very complimentary. It has made it a good read and entertaining read, because I want to come back to Wealthy Barber Millionaire Next Door, I felt like David’s book with Wealthy Barber had the great narrative story. It reads like a storybook. So it was so entertaining. Kept me engaged. But I love the wealthy The Millionaire Next Door is because it had so much in stats and data that it really my analytical self felt like that. That thirst was quenched. I tried to give you that exact same thing. This has got enough entertaining stories in it to keep you entertained, but it’s giving you enough data points and enough measurable goals that you will feel like, Hey, this is, this is a real path. I can do this, and it’s achievable by anyone.

Clint Murphy  1:12:14

Perfect. And how can people find you?

Brian Preston  1:12:17

It’s out there everywhere that you can buy books, but if you want to kind of really be a financial mutant and shop all the prices go to moneyguy.com/millionairemission, and we’ve actually compiled all the online places you can buy the book and you can price shop it. They’re not all the same. I mean, I’m shocked sometimes when I see what one book sell store selling it versus another. So go out there and be a financial mutant and get you the best deal possible.

Clint Murphy  1:12:41

Brian, that was fun. Thanks for joining me on the podcast today. 

Brian Preston  1:12:44

Clint, thanks for having me on. You’re always so generous, and I’m just glad to come on and get to actually tell you thank you in person. 

Clint Murphy  1:12:52

It was a blast.

Clint Murphy  1:12:56

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