and capabilities to get myself out. I wanted to do that. 100%. No, that's the culture today, too.
It's all about showing that you have it versus having it. Yeah. It's about showing it. Because if you don't show it, you don't have it.
It's just like, remember when there was this hashtag trending, I still remember telling it. If you don't post it, you didn't go to the gym. Yeah. Like if you go to gym, you got to post it, or it's not really what it happened.
So I feel like the same thing with money, my people think that if you don't flash it, then you don't have it. I think what's interesting about that, I was randomly, I typed this in my phone, I think yesterday or today actually, is like we chase the status symbols, regardless of whether we have the status or not. So it's like we are literally living in a culture where people are actually more intrigued by the symbol than the status. So it's like, hey, if I can get the Gucci belt, so walk around and tuck in my shirt and show everybody, like look here, I have a Gucci belt, or I have on Gucci loafers, that symbol of status means a lot to me.
But if I can't do that, but I actually have some status, some substance of some wealth, I'm actually doing things behind the scenes off camera, that's not as appealing to people. And I don't quite understand it, but it's a very intriguing idea to me that people would rather look like it than actually be. Yeah, and you know the other things, I think we're probably gonna know this a little harder. So let me just switch the angle a little bit.
And I think you're gonna agree with me. I don't think it's wrong. You wanna rock Gucci and Louie? Do it.
100%. But if you ever read the book, Rich that poor dad, one of the literally the one thing you have, is for you to buy assets and not liability. Yesterday Forbes released the richest person list, Elon Musk is no longer there. It's this guy who owns the Louis group.
So when you are buying Louis stuff, that's where the guy's going, that's where the money's going. It's going to risk the pocket. Yeah, so all I'm saying is like, you wanna buy it, set some money aside, buy it, but set some money aside. Don't take money out of your 401k potential pension, your future self, your future family, to buy something that, you know, like Jesus put it, rust is gonna come.
And you buy it, how long did Gucci's loafers really gonna last? Yeah. If you buy a position in Louis Louis with on stock, like, you know, it's gonna be wise about it. That's a great angle.
And I do agree that for me, it's about prioritizing. So I was talking to a family member this week and literally having this conversation about, you know, what it means to be financially freedom, financially free, so on and so forth. And I was like, well, it's about prioritizing first and paying the things that need to be paid, right? Getting rid of the debt and all those type of things, taking care of the responsibilities, but then the hard parts comes.
And I'm gonna be like super, I like to be like, I'll call myself example man, sometimes on the show, it's like all examples, but like for me, it's like, I never had money. And I'm just being like super literate, like so now I'm even talking about a high amount, I'm saying let's you say $1,000. There was a point in my life, 12 years ago, I never even had $1,000 in the bank saved up. But the problem was I was in this cycle, Jay, where I had debt, credit cards, whatever, didn't pay bills on time, very lazy with stuff.
At the prioritize paying the bills, paying off the debt. Long story short, I got to this point where all the bills were paid. And now nobody had ever taught me how to have the money. So now I'm in a situation where, okay, bills are paid, I have money, I don't know what to do.
Jay, I actually think that's the point where people sometimes go to the Gucci and the Louis, because it's like, I don't know what else to do. So I like to transition a little bit. Like you said, you're all about planning, budget, investing it so that you can give. Can we talk a little bit about that person now, you have money?
What do I do with it? How to be successful, how to have the money? How to be a good student, what that means. I know we talked a little bit about planning with the goals versus resolutions, but can we just start there and then build towards giving?
Like just starting with the planning where, I have money, Jay, what do I do? How do I find my way now? Yeah, no, of course. And I think everyone starts with debt.
Me and my wife, we paid off $57,000. Like that's a sum of money, we did that in three years. But again, because no one told us what to do, how to do it. So when we came into the realization, like, oh my God, if we keep this up, we're gonna have six figures of debt.
So everyone starts that way. And I think a lot of people, like, they think they have so much debt, like, oh, just forget about it, it's never gonna change. But if you are listening, just so you know, you can do it, you can pay off your debt, you can change that habit, you can change that cycle, and then you move on to this next phase. So when you're planning, the reason I put planning there is because I think a lot of people will try to write a budget and then never do it.
So really, you have to plan to then budget, because the budget almost is like, it's almost a planning action at that point. It's not necessarily not actually investing, or taking like very specific actions. But if you don't plan to do it, it's never gonna happen. And it takes time, right, for your budget, you're gonna need to go get data and bank statements and all this.
But Jesus says that, sorry, not Jesus, there's a proverb, I think it's a proverb in chapter six where he says, look at your flock, take count of your herd, riches don't last forever, and a crown is not generational. So he's literally saying like, look, you need to understand how's your flock doing? How are you finding, like take an overall picture, zoom out, how does it look? And that's literally where you start.
It's just really understanding, take a pulse, where are things at? So once I do that, and I think that's definitely fair, like because a lot of times when you're just frivolously spending money, you're not, you have no plan. I tell people all the time, money is like, if you don't put it in its place, it'll do what it wants to do. And so you'll just be emotionally spending.
So I love the fact that like, first it's just that awareness to plan, and you kind of touched on budgeting. I think a lot of people are afraid of the word budget. I think it feels overwhelming to people. Maybe there's a little bit of laziness mixed up there or fear.
That's where I see it, that's where people push back. It's like, nah, you're not gonna put them up, limit to my money. My money is not gonna put limits on me. It's like, no, no, the limits are good things in this case, it's the exact opposite.
If you have these limitations here, it means you don't have to have limitations elsewhere. Got you, so it's really, again, to me, that feels like that prioritizing and understanding. You set these boundaries so that you can really expand your territory in another area. But I think one of the things we have to realize when it relates to the finances is that you are always making a decision.
And there is some type of effect that is gonna come from that decision, and there's no way around it. I think sometimes we are seeking in our culture this utopia where there are no problems and everything is just perfect. And I'm more of a realist of like, hey man, life, it's part of the beauty of life is growing through something. So limitations with budgeting.
Now, we talk a little bit about planning and budgeting. I really wanted to pick your brain about investing. I know you have a video, I'll link it in the description that is shown for the people listening on Apple Podcasts and watch later on YouTube. You have a video about teaching people how to specifically invest in crypto, kind of a beginner's guide to crypto currency.
I know that there's a lot going on in the macro economy. There's a lot going on within crypto, a lot of liquidations and all types of things from lawyers or associates, FTX. Let's talk a little bit about crypto. I want to start with like, where, when did you get into crypto?
How did you get into crypto? And like, what was that kind of intro to crypto like for you? Yeah, yeah, of course. So getting into crypto was an interesting kind of journey for me.
It really started right now in the head of marketing for a company called Space Ventures. And what they do is essentially allow anyone to invest in space companies, space startups, right? A lot of the users and investors are people that are like into Ethereum. So from a, hey, I need to know my users, let's get into it.
This was a couple of years ago. So starting getting into it started really loving concept, understanding it more and more. But like, I'm at the point now where I realize I don't understand nearly enough about crypto to go in as aggressively as I was before. So I think, and I'll say kind of a pro against it too.
So right now, crypto is not an elementary point. If anyone's like scared because of FTX or whatever's going on in the news, you have to flip that mindset. When this, when the stock market were crypto is at a low point, that's when you get in, because it already, your risk is minimized at that point. When it's at an all time high and people are like on a hype, that's when you should not be buying.
Like don't follow the hype, follow your instinct and what you know. So personally, I invested in like very niche crypto stuff. The coin Ethereum, I had no doe doe doe to go in, I didn't get into that. And then one of the things that I love about crypto currency and blockchain right now, is there's this website called lofty.ai and they'll buy a property, they have a ton of vision, by the way.
So they'll buy this property and they'll tokenize it. So that just means you got $100,000 house, they will split it into 100 or 1000 pieces of $100 each let's call it. And then you can buy a share in that property. Love it.
Literally everything is happening on the blockchain. And two phenomenal things about this, what happens to anyone else do the first, is that they allow you to participate in the ownership conversation. So if a tenant is lagging on his right, they literally send out a email and you can vote on what you want to happen. It's about 45 more days.
Do you wanna charge a life, do you wanna kick him out? So if you don't have that whole $100,000 to buy the property, literally you can start getting some ownership experience just like this. The other thing is that they pass on tax depreciation to the owners. So a lot of the funds don't do this.
And one of the biggest things about investing to really say is that you get the depreciation. So literally you get like an immediate write off. So they do allow for that as well, they pass it on to the owners. And in my case, I have invested in several properties.
It allows me to do the following thing. One, if I go visit that state, I can write it off because I have an investment in that state, so I write it off. Two, everything that I have is stored in a solid wallet. So it's not on the website, nobody can steal it.
It's on a hard wallet. So I mean, man, it's like cryptocurrency in blockchain used phenomenally. I'm not an affiliate of this company. I just generally love what they're doing.
No, no, I love that. I like talking about it, especially as a believer, like I'm heavy in the crypto. I'm, you know, pretty well versed, even though I never call myself an expert on pretty much anything because there's always something to learn. And crypto is so new, right?
That there's so much more to expand and learn. But you talked about something important and it's the mindset of an investor. This would apply whether it's crypto, whether it's the stock market or real estate, whatever it may be. And there's this mental block where people follow the crowds.
And as retail investors jump on, I call them real roads and roller coasters. Like some folks just jump on the roller co...