Genesis "ish"

The goal is financial freedom

My real niche with people is doing the very immediate things that have positive outcomes in very short amounts of time. These are not life changing actions or incomes but it paves the way for that. And all though I like to dive right in, there is definitely some ramp up information that is pretty vital if you’re brand new to improving your financial situation.

Preamble Ramble

I didn’t say wealth or riches, becoming debt free or anything else. The reason I say financial freedom is because what people do in their own lives are very individual. What’s important to some people is simply not to others.

Finances however impact nearly everyone the same way. Money directs almost everything in your life, and affects nearly every decision you make. But what if it didn’t? What if you could eat what you wanted to eat, simply because that is what you felt like, and you could do that for every meal for the rest of your life?

If your bills didn’t direct what you are doing today, or tomorrow or at any feasible point in the future, how would that change who you are? What would you choose to do on a daily basis?

Now we are not delving into the insanity of “lifestyles of the rich and famous”. Im not asking to imagine limitless cash reserves giving you the ability to do whatever you want. But im asking you to be about 85% there. What would life truly be like for you if you just didn’t have any regular bills at all? Actually let’s make that more realistic. I shouldn’t say don’t have them, but they weren’t a worry. They were effectively taken care of before they even arrived.

That is financial freedom. Does it mean you never work again? Well if that’s what you want. But many people enjoy what they do. But what it does mean is that you don’t HAVE TO. And that’s the kicker. An enormous amount of our adult lives are unfortunately dictated by what we HAVE TO DO vs what we want and choose to do. All I am interested in sharing with everyone is the quickest way to get you from what you HAVE TO DO over to what you CHOOSE TO DO. There is no course here, I do not sell anything, but I love to share the things that have helped me to get closer to that freedom status.

You see the greatest thing about being financially free is that you really get to find out who you are. F U money is the greatest tool on the planet to help you discover who you really are deep down. How many times have you done a task or anything really that you would never do on your own…..but it was simply your job. I can’t express how much I hate that, but almost all of us have been there. I want to walk away from that scenario and never ever be there again. This isn’t license to be a spoiled, entitled waste of human flesh. But maybe that’s your thing, and quite honestly, I would rather people had that choice. Not only would they be who they truly are but you would know who they really are too.

So why would I take the time to be writing about any of this? I really really love seeing most people win, whether it was completely purposeful or accidental. I love watching people get that freedom. Even people I guarantee I wouldn’t like (Gates, Zuckerberg, LeBron), I still like seeing them with enough wealth to chart their own course. I really want that for everyone, although, many many people will never make the choices necessary to get there.

So why have I been droning on about this? Because this all occurs in your mind first, and really understanding that creating financial freedom is about 65% mental. You have to first really choose in your mind that you are going to get there come hell or high water. That’s the number one thing that I see people fail at, the execution is not usually where people fail. They get distracted or whatever but they never really convert their mindset. “Never give up what you want most for what you want now”. That’s one of my favorite sayings but it’s often used in the wrong way to describe slow, lifelong accumulation of resources to finally cash out and retire. That’s not what I want at all. Im obsessed with getting to retirement as SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE, because that’s when the really important part of shaping yourself comes in.

OK, enough pep talk (although it is very very important). Let’s dig into improving your financial life. First off Im going to assume that you are in a middle class situation. If you’re not that’s ok, but im just swinging for the very middle of the crowd here. There’s not much alteration from church mouse poor all the way to very very upperclass. However people that are already “rich” to some extent seem to have the hardest time with this. No judgment here, if you got something that’s working just keep on at it. But I’ve been through most of the stages of income or lack thereof and the formula is pretty much the same, because im the mayor of REALVILLE. I don’t get into schemes, or stocks or things that have pretty high amounts of risk. The path I lay out should work for nearly anyone.

Now, although financial status doesn’t change the equation much, life status does. What do I mean by that? Well, I noticed in lots of books people would write, they always seem to have these very ideal conditions for doing well. Like they’re young and single, already making a great wage, saving regularly, etc.

But that’s not the world I entered into. I was already married with my first kid when I found out about the truth about finances. Since then I have created a pretty big family, and as luck would have it, nearly all my children have a disability. Not something I planned but just wound up being that way. It didn’t stop me or change my plans. I also love my wife dearly, but she's not actively doing the same things I do in terms of creating wealth for us. She has helped a ton in certain areas and that’s not to say she’s not invested in US, but the financial thing just kind of happens around her. And that’s ok for our situation. Kudos to you if you have an active partner but it’s really not required.

That’s also important because I kept reading about these situations of power couples creating wealth. And good for them, but I just didn’t have that. This is me, myself and I providing for an immediate family, a mother in the end stages of ALS, and siblings (as much as I love them) that will never make the effort to do what im doing. In other words, I have one of the worst scenarios you can have if we’re talking an ideal path (barring a truly destructive partner that actively wastes our income or multiple divorces or something). And I’m actively making it work. So it can be done, it just changes your timeline.

The info you really need before starting.

So here’s the absolute out the door scenario, you are “rich” if your income is constantly higher than your expenses every month. The numbers themselves don’t really matter. I once knew a guy that was making 22k a month and he was as broke as anyone I ever met. He literally had expenses that were a good 2-3k higher than his income every month.

I also remember years ago I went to do taxes and the tax guy was really upset with me. He actually chewed me out. He told me, “you can not make $9500 a year, your wife will leave you, (as she should) and you will never amount to anything”. I remember being kind of dumbfounded, because even though it was truly not much money, we were doing totally fine, because we had almost zero expenses. It’s crazy but you can achieve a near zero expense column and that’s where we were at. We had a free rent + utilities situation trading for some valuable insights the owner desparately needed. We owned our vehicles, we had an unbelievable garden and a freezer full of different meats and things. We were living great…….on $9500 earned income. Obviously that didn’t last, but it was actually better than some other years.

It seems really simple and common sense. Yes, of course you want to be in the positive income side every month. So why is it so damn hard to achieve that? Very simply, most people VASTLY underestimate the true cost of their expenses and wildly overestimate their own income. It sounds crazy but across the board, study after study has found most households “lose” 20% of their income on a regular basis. It’s just a phantom suck that happens. How? Well most people aren’t as good as they claim with a budget. More on this later but just know that a massive key to getting incrementally wealthy is knowing where all your money goes, and it’s actually harder than it first appears but easy to auto pilot once you’ve audited your own life.

The key to getting out of the damn rat race is understanding what different types of income are and how they affect you. But as a simple over view there is Earned Income, Portfolio Income and Passive income. Each has a kind of pro and con list, but the overwhelming majority of people live on Earned income alone, meaning they are an employee.

- Earned income is the worst type of income in terms of taxation, but it’s easily the most popular. This is where you trade time for dollars. You only get to keep a portion of your check, and what’s worse is that it’s taken out before you get the chance to make any decisions with it. (That’s because it’s funding a series of ponzi schemes). It does have some pros, like it’s great for personal loan status and personal credit, but my job is to help you start substituting passive and portfolio income from your earned income until you no longer have the need for any earned income. That’s really the plan in a nutshell.

- Portfolio income is generally considered stocks, bonds, etc. Although it’s very well known for high net worth individuals, I honestly don’t recommend even starting into portfolio income for anyone until they have 2 or 3 stable income streams from the passive income side. Now I understand this might ruffle feathers and there are a lot of people who really understand the market. But wealth accumulation in portfolio income is a double edged sword. It’s not really yours until you cash out, which has its own set of fee’s and various things. And it doesn’t become the bargaining chip you can really use until you’ve amassed a sizable amount. To me the stock market isn’t a lot different than Vegas. If you have little to no knowledge, then you are going to be paying one way or another. Either an advisor, or in losses. But it is very much a pay to play environment. Now don’t take it that I don’t see any value in it, I absolutely do. But what it really lacks for the common man is CONTROL. That’s what I love so much about passive income. And as soon as you have established passive income you can move onto portfolio.

- Passive income is the greatest income in the world in my opinion (outside of elicit money). It the CORNERSTONE of becoming financially free. Passive income is exactly what it sounds like. It happens passively whether you’re around or not. Rental income, business income, investments of various types, licensing, leasing, lending, and the list goes on. But the remarkable thing about passive income are the loopholes. My gosh, people fear the tax code (as they probably should being an employee) but on the owner side, and investor side is way different. You keep all your income, you pay your expenses and your taxes come last. This is so huge, it’s hard to comprehend at first, but being able to keep the money you earn, reinvest it, expense it, even take certain amounts of straight income without taxation is a complete mind shift once you start doing it. Passive income with smart advisors can be absolute win wins. Even your bills can aide you along the way. There’s an absolute anthology to be had here, but for now, just know that this is where the focus will be.

- Illicit income ( I debated even listing this because I would never advise it but it is an actual thing). This is what we call under the table money. It happens in many places, sometimes by accident, but often as a criminal enterprise. In any case, making money that is just never reported in any way isn’t legal. You shouldn’t do it and it will come back to bite you eventually. That’s basically all im going to say about it, but just know this appears more often than you might think.

There is much more on the subject, just know for now that the three take aways from this are simple.

1. Choose to be financially free first and be committed to the idea. It’s a change but it so worth it.

2. Whether you are already good at this or never do it, you have to budget to become financially free.

3. Although you likely have earned income, financial freedom is largely born from passive and portfolio income.

*** tangible advice here ***

My specialty is micro streams of income and micro changes to your life that add up to rivers of prosperity so I help people pick simple things that can change their lives right now.

CASH IS KING so I focus on that mainly, but having a bank account and a good credit score really do help. Sorry if you’re a Dave Ramsey fan, but they do. He has decent advice for people with little to no self control. But if you’ve got half a brain, we take the good things he says and leave out the bad. Credit cards are a fantastic tool, don’t kid yourself.

Save your cans. Yes it’s kind of ridiculous but if you drink soda or anything that comes in an aluminum can, recycling centers will pay for them, so save them. Not because it saves the planet (it doesn’t). And not because it will make you rich (it won’t), but because it’s an absolute immediate return of something you would literally throw away or ignore.

I take two construction sized bags in every month or so. It gives me about $8 bucks. So yeah it’s not really moving the needle and it’s certainly not passive. But IT IS a great mental tool to help keep you on track. You see, you start noticing cans everywhere. Turns out there’s just money lying around everywhere. That’s an important mind shift and like it or not, it couldn’t be easier.

This simple thing unlocked an incredible opportunity for me that I’ll dive into at a later time, but for now just know that saving cans is a teaching tool as much as anything else. Now, even years later when I have many other income streams, I still save cans because it perpetuates a habit and a mental attitude. There’s money lying around everywhere, you just gotta pick it up.

Step 2, is for people who have a bank. This is probably extremely common sense, but I missed out on years of small earnings by not doing this. If you have a bank (I actually prefer a credit union) but in either case, you almost always have to have one of two accounts, a checking account or a savings account. I have multiple in several banks but here’s the kicker. Many banks have different kinds of savings accounts. Some are regular, some are CD’s (which I do not recommend) some are “money market” accounts, and so forth. Go and ask your banker to help you find the highest interest savings account they offer that doesn’t put limitations on that money. With a CD you earn ok interest but your money is locked away and you are penalized for accessing it early. Yeah these are not good things to have, because your money’s biggest asset is how fluid it can be. Move it around all the time and you’ll find better opportunities.

It took me a while to do some shopping around but I finally found a “club account” that pays 1.982% for savings. It’s literally no different than my sibling savings account in the same bank that pays .050% but the results are pretty great. Yes it’s small either way, but it’s also effortless and your money just grows at a higher rate. It’s also completely passive. I do nothing to get that extra money (which comes out to about $77 a month) just for existing. So look for high yield savings accounts with no stipulations. The more you look, the more you seem to find deals like this that pop up. I missed out on almost 20 years of passive income simply for having a regular savings account with negligible interest. I hope you catch this early in life and start letting your money grow.

We’ll start snow balling these little things in your life and you’ll be amazed how much it adds up.

April 22nd, 2025