Strategic Wealth: Freddie Rappina on Transforming Finances Like a Chess Master

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:16.111
I was around chess players and I started learning the different attitudes, how they thought, how they, you know, how they viewed finance and wealth building, and it wasn't all that crazy like the difference in mindsets.

00:00:16.111 --> 00:00:27.312
Then, yeah, once I started doing it, and then my wealth, you know, got up as well, and then I said, ok, well, why doesn't everybody at least know this?

00:00:27.312 --> 00:00:33.231
So I wanted people to know whether they're playing checkers or playing chess.

00:00:39.182 --> 00:00:40.509
Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back.

00:00:40.509 --> 00:00:43.683
This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast, and I'm your host, john Gallagher.

00:00:43.683 --> 00:00:46.771
Today, I've got a fun episode lined up for you.

00:00:46.771 --> 00:00:53.368
I sit down with Freddie Rapina, a dynamic financial strategist and the author of the eye-opening book Playing the Wealth Game.

00:00:53.368 --> 00:01:00.146
Freddie brings a unique perspective to wealth creation, one that challenges the traditional long-term savings mindset.

00:01:00.146 --> 00:01:04.129
Instead, he advocates for creating wealth now through strategic investments.

00:01:04.129 --> 00:01:13.371
We'll dive deep into his wealth strategies which he likens to playing chess instead of checkers, and discover how this approach can significantly impact your financial future.

00:01:13.371 --> 00:01:22.671
You'll also hear a touching story from his childhood about the 1986 World Series that taught him the value of perseverance, a lesson that still resonates with him today.

00:01:22.671 --> 00:01:34.221
Let's get started, freddie Rapina.

00:01:34.221 --> 00:01:35.043
Welcome to the Uncommon Leader.

00:01:35.063 --> 00:01:35.807
Podcast Great to have you on the show.

00:01:35.807 --> 00:01:36.287
How are we doing today?

00:01:36.287 --> 00:01:37.070
Doing great, thank you for having me.

00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:45.730
Yeah, absolutely, Freddie, Looking forward to our conversation today Something I don't get enough chance to talk about on the Uncommon Leader Podcast, and that's building wealth from a financial standpoint.

00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:54.471
You've got a book that just came out recently that we're going to talk about today Playing the Wealth Game the Strategies Behind Financial Moves that Win.

00:01:54.471 --> 00:01:58.210
So it should be a great conversation and one that I'm looking forward to.

00:01:58.210 --> 00:02:01.810
But before I get that started out, I'll start you off with the first question.

00:02:01.810 --> 00:02:09.240
I always start my first time guests, and that's to tell me a story from your childhood that still impacts who you are today, as a person or as a leader.

00:02:11.063 --> 00:02:17.033
Um, yeah, I'm going to have to go with, uh, october 25th 1986.

00:02:17.033 --> 00:02:18.697
Uh, it's the.

00:02:18.697 --> 00:02:25.088
I'm living on Long Island and growing up there, and uh, you know it.

00:02:25.088 --> 00:02:30.087
You know, it's the day that the Mets came back and won game six of the World Series.

00:02:30.087 --> 00:02:33.508
I was about I don't know six, seven years old.

00:02:33.508 --> 00:02:43.788
I was pretty young, but to a six, seven-year-old, like you know, sports is like everything and you know they're in that game.

00:02:43.788 --> 00:02:47.580
It looked like everything was just not gonna happen.

00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:55.615
And and then, all of a sudden, within 10 minutes, you know, uh, gary carter gets a base hit.

00:02:55.615 --> 00:03:01.092
Um, uh, kevin mitchell gets a base hit right now he gets a base hit.

00:03:01.092 --> 00:03:09.805
Wild pitch ball goes through buckner's legs and and, uh, it's like someone just gave a seven-year-old his life back, right.

00:03:09.805 --> 00:03:26.969
So, um, just like we know the whole idea when, like, everything is falling apart, you know, as long as there's still still a little bit of time, there's still a little bit of time, and, uh, you know a little bit of time and good things can happen, just got to keep plowing.

00:03:27.431 --> 00:03:28.111
Marty, I love that.

00:03:28.111 --> 00:03:34.149
I mean I have some friends, I have a client in Boston and I've been working with them for about 10 years.

00:03:34.149 --> 00:03:42.633
They may not share the same love for that story that you do, no doubt, and certainly their love for Billy Buckner and how Mets fans feel, but I do recall, I mean as a Pirate fan growing up as a kid.

00:03:42.633 --> 00:03:48.538
So I lived through the Willie Stargell days and at least two World Series in the 70s and we haven't had a whole lot since then.

00:03:48.538 --> 00:03:52.530
But I do recall, as you were telling that story, I said is Ray Knight going to come up here?

00:03:52.530 --> 00:03:56.349
Absolutely Ray Knight, a big part of that and that Mets team that was going on there.

00:03:56.349 --> 00:04:07.447
So I do appreciate that, sharon, and I'm sure that did inform a big part of your life growing up.

00:04:07.447 --> 00:04:09.276
And, as you said, don't count yourself out until the last out is recorded.

00:04:09.276 --> 00:04:09.979
So that's pretty cool.

00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:12.925
I have a photo of the play.

00:04:12.925 --> 00:04:13.788
It's signed by everybody.

00:04:13.788 --> 00:04:17.146
It's signed by Buckner, it's signed by Wilson, bob Stanley and Rich Gedman.

00:04:17.146 --> 00:04:17.910
Oh wow.

00:04:20.583 --> 00:04:21.346
That's a cool picture.

00:04:21.386 --> 00:04:25.249
right there, show some class by Buckner and Stanley Gedman actually signed that.

00:04:25.790 --> 00:04:26.211
Absolutely.

00:04:26.211 --> 00:04:31.211
Look, I cannot imagine, ultimately, what Buckner's going through as Red Sox fans.

00:04:31.211 --> 00:04:44.362
At least, when they finally broke through and won it in the early 2000s there, that took some of the pressure off of him of 20 years of sadness that was happening, but it's still something that they certainly live through all the time and he'll never live down in that area as well.

00:04:44.362 --> 00:04:48.187
That area, uh, ultimately, but anyway.

00:04:48.187 --> 00:04:53.862
Well, I could talk the 80s baseball and and mets pirates, red socks, all the way through.

00:04:53.862 --> 00:05:01.846
We're really here to talk to you about your book that just came out recently and I want to ask you what inspired you to write the book and who did you write it for?

00:05:03.309 --> 00:05:23.202
I, I think it just the just what I was seeing and understanding and going through the whole process of, you know, being a checkers player myself as a as a police officer, and switching over to chess when I said, oh no, I want to build wealth, I want to, I want, uh, something more out of this.

00:05:24.045 --> 00:05:36.733
And um, you know, just, you know, there are all these financial trainings, all these designations and all that stuff, and not that it's not great information, it's just constantly the same thing.

00:05:36.733 --> 00:05:43.800
And I'm looking at it through the lens of you know, as, with an evidence based mindset.

00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:45.807
I'm like, yeah, but it's not working.

00:05:45.807 --> 00:05:55.168
Like these strategies that have been kind of forced down the middle class road, they're not working.

00:05:55.168 --> 00:06:02.266
If they were working, the wealth gap in the United States would be narrowing, it's not, it's expanding.

00:06:02.266 --> 00:06:08.305
So if we had all this great information that was working, that that wouldn't be the end result.

00:06:08.305 --> 00:06:32.050
Um, not to say that the information is bad, it's the expectation of the information that I feel really needs to be called out and said like, hey, there are two different games going on here and depending on which game you want to play, will greatly impact the end result.

00:06:32.672 --> 00:06:34.072
But I don't say anything's wrong.

00:06:34.894 --> 00:06:35.814
I just say they're two different.

00:06:36.396 --> 00:06:50.795
No, they're different, right, and I think you touched on that in the book a couple of different ways with regards to playing checkers and playing chess, in terms of some of the strategies that exist that, to your point, neither one of those is right or wrong in terms of using it.

00:06:50.795 --> 00:07:04.605
It's just that when you play those games, you want to make sure you play them well, and I love the idea when you're talking about using data ultimately to help you do that, and if we can't use the data to help us drive and make those decisions, we're going to be in a bit of a challenge.

00:07:04.605 --> 00:07:17.754
So I'm going to assume that your story makes you a little bit different, though, than the traditional or typical financial advisor.

00:07:17.754 --> 00:07:18.488
You started off in law enforcement and now you've worked your way through this.

00:07:18.488 --> 00:07:19.788
Tell me a little bit about that journey and what does make you different.

00:07:22.172 --> 00:07:23.934
Yeah, it was really about making a choice.

00:07:23.934 --> 00:07:27.161
It was almost selfish like it was making a choice for me, right?

00:07:27.161 --> 00:07:35.745
And uh, that was around my 12th or 13th year, uh, in law enforcement and I decided, like you know, I'm gonna change, I'm gonna do something different.

00:07:35.745 --> 00:07:42.187
I had, I was still gonna wait until I, you know, got to the 20 mark, 20 year mark and the punch out for the pension.

00:07:42.187 --> 00:07:51.074
But, uh, during that time I started the firm and started very slowly, um, but it got very big, very fast.

00:07:51.074 --> 00:07:53.860
I had two careers for about six, seven years there.

00:07:54.442 --> 00:08:01.423
Um, and it's more about like just I don't know, getting that information out once I was around it more that's the other thing.

00:08:01.423 --> 00:08:19.673
Like, when I once I became a, once I got around chess players and I started learning the different attitudes, how they thought, how they, you know, how they viewed, uh, finance and wealth building, and it wasn't all that crazy like the difference in mindsets.

00:08:19.673 --> 00:08:26.494
Um, then, yeah, once I started doing it and then my wealth, you know, shot up as well.

00:08:26.494 --> 00:08:34.494
So, um, you know, and then I said, okay, well, why doesn't everybody at least know this?

00:08:34.494 --> 00:08:46.572
So I wanted people to know whether they're playing checkers or playing chess and, um, and you know if, if you want to play chess, that's great.

00:08:46.631 --> 00:08:46.851
I think.

00:08:46.851 --> 00:08:51.792
I think too many financial advisors try to talk their clients out of playing chess.

00:08:51.792 --> 00:08:54.379
Um, in like a paternalistic manner.

00:08:54.379 --> 00:09:00.327
Not that it's comes from a position of, you know, deviant.

00:09:00.327 --> 00:09:15.879
It's more like, oh, that's too hard for you, this is, you know, this is you're not going to be you know, it's too risky, it's the you know, leave it to the adults type mentality that we have in finance.

00:09:16.841 --> 00:09:42.856
Um and uh, you know, as we're doing recording this podcast, the stock market is taking a you know three percent and beating right now, today, and just that whole evidence-based mindset with traditional financial planning, typical finance jargon, even things like compound interest, which I talk about in the book.

00:09:42.856 --> 00:09:50.109
Like compound interest which I talk about in the book, in my opinion, compound interest is the most overrated concept to the middle class.

00:09:50.109 --> 00:09:54.936
Not that compound interest is wrong, it can't be wrong, it's math right.

00:09:54.936 --> 00:10:05.836
It's just that people just don't live long enough for compound interest to do what people want it to do.

00:10:05.836 --> 00:10:10.667
In my book I make a little joke If you live 900 years, like Yoda did, compound interest would be great.

00:10:11.087 --> 00:10:15.134
By your 400th year You'd be, you know, super duper wealthy.

00:10:15.134 --> 00:10:42.488
But when, in this lifetime, in this galaxy where you only have so many sets of 10, where your money to double or whatever it's it's it's not the same and um, and even if you do get to that magical number in the way distant future, are you going to be physically able to enjoy the fruits of what that can produce?

00:10:42.488 --> 00:10:47.315
Or are you even going to be here Period, right, so it's.

00:10:47.315 --> 00:10:51.210
And wealth is about creating wealth now.

00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:52.897
Um.

00:10:52.897 --> 00:10:56.905
So chess is about creating wealth now and um.

00:10:56.905 --> 00:10:57.827
And I?

00:10:57.827 --> 00:11:15.340
What separates me from your, you know, typical financial advice, typical firm is that we want to work with people who want to become wealthy now and are willing to do the things that it takes to achieve those levels love that.

00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:16.804
So that's what I was going to kind of ask you.

00:11:16.804 --> 00:11:17.657
I think you started to answer.

00:11:17.657 --> 00:11:23.000
The question is, when you've used that analogy, the difference in playing chess and playing checkers.

00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:28.640
And for those who wouldn't be as involved in or don't get as involved in any time, how do you delineate between the two?

00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:35.582
So chess is creating wealth now and checkers is the Well?

00:11:35.623 --> 00:11:36.705
checkers still still creates.

00:11:36.705 --> 00:11:38.609
Well, it's just, it's saving money.

00:11:38.609 --> 00:11:41.000
It's you know, funding retirement plans.

00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:45.033
It's waiting 30 years for compound interest.

00:11:45.033 --> 00:11:50.865
It's buying financial products it's you know, it's it's saving, saving, saving.

00:11:51.566 --> 00:11:53.308
And let's face it, saving money sucks.

00:11:53.308 --> 00:12:02.360
Um and uh, and if you are going to go that route, I want you to play a really good checkers game, right?

00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:05.859
Nothing sucks more in the united states than playing a bad checkers game.

00:12:05.859 --> 00:12:11.136
You'll get your butt whooped by capitalism, uh, but if you're going to play checkers, play checkers.

00:12:11.136 --> 00:12:17.442
Well, right, um, and have the sacrifice it needs to take to play a good checkers game, but just have the.

00:12:17.442 --> 00:12:19.037
Don't go screaming at the moon.

00:12:19.479 --> 00:12:22.807
Why do the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poor?

00:12:22.807 --> 00:12:28.585
You're not playing the same game, they're playing a completely different game.

00:12:28.585 --> 00:12:41.636
And um, well, I think the one thing that will differentiate, um, between whether you are a checkers player or a chess player, uh, is your attitude towards debt.

00:12:41.636 --> 00:12:52.481
You gotta pick one thing, and the reason being is that, um, if you're playing checkers, you probably want to stay the hell out of debt.

00:12:52.481 --> 00:13:02.822
Right, you paid no, no pain off your house and all that other stuff, uh, and when I say debt, I don't mean consumer debt, I mean like income producing debt.

00:13:02.822 --> 00:13:09.008
Um, if you're playing chess, you probably want to get as much debt as possible, right?

00:13:09.008 --> 00:13:13.698
Whether that's purchasing real estate, purchasing businesses, purchasing things like cash flow.

00:13:13.698 --> 00:13:25.724
So so that is definitely, in my opinion, the turning point for somebody that's playing chess is their attitudes towards debt.

00:13:25.724 --> 00:13:28.375
That's going to be different for everybody.

00:13:28.697 --> 00:13:29.759
You talk about it in your book.

00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:32.957
I mean again, I think folks will find it very informative.

00:13:32.957 --> 00:13:37.921
Playing really really well Checkers is the emergency fund life insurance very informative.

00:13:37.921 --> 00:13:44.802
Playing really really well Checkers is the emergency fund, life insurance, your retirement accounts, college savings, those traditional things that would ultimately be read in the books, right?

00:13:44.802 --> 00:13:59.576
And when you talk about creating wealth and creating wealth now, as in playing checkers, let me ask you from this standpoint first, a, where do you encourage folks to get started and secondly, what's the biggest barrier to them getting started?

00:14:00.197 --> 00:14:07.437
two-part question questions, uh, so the, the, the, where you know, are you ready?

00:14:07.437 --> 00:14:27.799
That's the, the first thing, right, um, if you, sometimes you have to play a really good checkers game before you can hop over to chess, you got to have a good foothold, you got to have, you got to be able to, uh, you got to have what's called debt capacity, um, to be able to, to, to move over to chess.

00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:31.245
Um and uh, the biggest barrier is a mental barrier.

00:14:31.245 --> 00:14:31.826
That's.

00:14:31.826 --> 00:14:32.428
That's.

00:14:32.428 --> 00:14:45.302
That's the biggest thing, um, you know that it's if you're brought up in a, you know, checkers mindset and talk checkers your whole life, and then you know someone comes along with this other game.

00:14:45.381 --> 00:14:50.034
It's going to be, it's going to be difficult to move over from a mental standpoint.

00:14:50.034 --> 00:15:25.191
So I say they're their own barrier, but also the finances got to be correct in order to do that right, because we're talking about using debt very well, and to use debt you need to have leverage, you need to have assets, you need to have collateral, you got to have things that are going to make the lender believe that you are a good bet and you need to be buying something that's worth buying to be able to produce cash flow, which a lot of the times is real estate and or businesses, so those are the two biggest things.

00:15:25.796 --> 00:15:41.808
Okay, so when you think about that and maybe it's through a story or maybe it's just through some of the things that you've experienced, but tell me an example of someone who really did well then at moving into this space and how you helped them get there.

00:15:41.808 --> 00:15:45.403
Okay, so let's say you have, you know, you have clients like this.

00:15:45.644 --> 00:16:12.582
Uh, let's say you have a doctor, okay, and this doctor, uh, they're 40 years old now, all right, or 35 years old now, but when they were a 22 year old resident doctor at this hospital, working ungodly hours for not a big paycheck mountain of student loan debt, that doctor was probably thinking at that time, when they were 22,.

00:16:12.582 --> 00:16:14.246
Like man, I just got to get through this.

00:16:14.246 --> 00:16:23.095
I got to work hard because one day I'm going to be making three $400,000 a year, 500,000, whatever the number is, and this is all going to be worth it.

00:16:23.115 --> 00:16:31.240
I'm going to have, like you know, the life I've always dreamed about, and um, and then you fast forward, 20 years later or whatever.

00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.184
It is Um and uh.

00:16:34.184 --> 00:16:35.527
And they have.

00:16:35.527 --> 00:16:41.503
They've been funding retirement accounts, they've been saving, they've been doing everything by the book digit.

00:16:41.503 --> 00:16:47.565
You know, very uh, adamant like they're, they're saving and they're not feeling it.

00:16:47.565 --> 00:16:49.254
They're like, why is my lifestyle?

00:16:49.254 --> 00:16:57.966
I'm making the money now, I'm making the four, three, four $500,000 now, whatever it is, and I'm still not feeling like I'm wealthy.

00:16:58.154 --> 00:16:59.139
What is going on here?

00:16:59.139 --> 00:17:14.148
And it's that attitude, because checkers can't give you that, you can't work enough hours as a doctor or whatever you're doing, to produce that kind of wealth.

00:17:14.148 --> 00:17:35.805
To produce that kind of wealth, you need to be able to switch over the chess and start using those assets that you have, to be able to take out loans to buy income-producing assets and have multiple streams of income.

00:17:35.805 --> 00:17:36.286
We know it.

00:17:36.286 --> 00:17:40.070
Like I don't think I'm saying anything that people don't realize.

00:17:40.070 --> 00:17:54.125
Like, if you like, I live in Tampa, right, so if you walk up to somebody at the Tampa Bay boat show with a $25 million yacht and you say to them hey, how did you afford this $25 million yacht?

00:17:54.125 --> 00:17:58.296
This is awesome, that person is very likely not going to respond with.

00:17:58.916 --> 00:18:14.464
I fully funded my IRA, I bought a well-diversified mutual fund, I put a bunch of money in my some insurance product with a guaranteed X percent rate of return.

00:18:14.464 --> 00:18:20.803
These are not going to be the answers, right, so we know it.

00:18:20.803 --> 00:18:46.324
But again, if we just continuously pounded checkers, pounded checkers, which is only making not only, but the wealth is going to Wall Street, the wealth is going to the chess players that use the game to their advantage and we're still sitting around wondering why it's not working for us.

00:18:46.905 --> 00:18:51.301
And I'm just one of the few financial wealth advisors that are willing to say it out loud.

00:18:52.704 --> 00:18:55.917
Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share something special with you.

00:18:55.917 --> 00:19:03.869
Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations.

00:19:03.869 --> 00:19:17.250
If you've been inspired by our conversation and are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me.

00:19:17.250 --> 00:19:25.300
It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team.

00:19:25.300 --> 00:19:28.007
Okay, let's get back to the show.

00:19:31.115 --> 00:19:32.941
I appreciate that, as you share that.

00:19:32.941 --> 00:19:35.637
I want to actually talk about a couple of the tips that you mentioned in the book.

00:19:35.637 --> 00:19:38.346
Again, we could never go through all of them that you have in there.

00:19:38.346 --> 00:19:50.784
One of the things you talk about, though and it's probably something that rings dear to my heart, as I even have two young adult sons that have to go through but you say don't buy a car, buy an asset.

00:19:50.784 --> 00:19:55.365
Tell me a little bit about what's behind that in terms of that story.

00:19:56.237 --> 00:20:00.829
Okay, so the concept is not new, right?

00:20:00.829 --> 00:20:11.425
It's covering a liability with an asset, which is what chess players do, but everybody's been through a car buying, or most people have been through a car buying process.

00:20:11.425 --> 00:20:14.805
So I use that as the analogy because I feel like it just brings it home.

00:20:15.315 --> 00:20:26.301
Where, instead of financing the car just outright, where you're giving all, you're giving the interest to the bank and the car's depreciating over the you know five years that that you have this loan.

00:20:26.301 --> 00:20:28.665
Um, you know that's.

00:20:28.665 --> 00:20:30.135
That's a bad checkers play.

00:20:30.135 --> 00:20:55.682
A good checkers play is, um, driving that clunker, saving the money in an interest-bearing account until you can pay for the car cash, right, and then you pay the car cash and then you continue saving that what would normally be your payment back into the account, right, and every five years you're going to rinse and repeat this process, right when you get a new car, you buy it cash, right.

00:20:56.036 --> 00:21:01.263
That's infinitely better than the first scenario, but it's not what a chess player would do.

00:21:01.263 --> 00:21:10.816
A chess player would drive the car, save the money and then but before buying a car, buy an asset, buy a small rental property.

00:21:10.816 --> 00:21:16.483
In my example in the book, that's going to cash flow right.

00:21:16.924 --> 00:21:34.180
And then take out the auto loan, right, but the auto loan needs to be covered by the asset, so the income from the property is paying off the payments for the car, but at the end of the five years you still have all your money.

00:21:34.180 --> 00:21:38.238
It's in the property now, but it's not gone.

00:21:38.238 --> 00:21:52.180
It's not sitting in the bank, right, and you're still going to be receiving the income from the property after the five years is up and I said that in like one minute, right, it's like it's a lot easier said than done.

00:21:52.319 --> 00:22:03.784
I get it, um, but it's the mentality, the concept that you know, people, if they're going to play chess, need to understand, because this is how it's done.

00:22:03.784 --> 00:22:13.778
Um, you know, and uh, so yeah, like I said it's, I'm not going to say playing the good checkers, play is bad.

00:22:13.778 --> 00:22:15.362
I'm just going to say it's checkers.

00:22:15.742 --> 00:22:19.000
Well, I think I love how you said that, because again you talked about what bad checkers is.

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:23.118
That'd be just to take car loan out and make the payments and give the bank the funds.

00:22:23.118 --> 00:22:28.696
A decent checkers play that you're going to get done is to save up the money and pay for the car and cash.

00:22:28.696 --> 00:22:29.538
Don't pay it to the bank.

00:22:29.538 --> 00:22:36.769
But the chess play that good, better, best analogy is to use that money that you saved up to buy the income producing asset.

00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:37.851
Love that as a story.

00:22:38.336 --> 00:22:40.855
Now, frankly, not something that I have specifically.

00:22:40.855 --> 00:22:47.784
So I'm going to say I'm probably just been this checkers player and just moved to maybe a good checkers player in the past few years.

00:22:47.784 --> 00:22:55.303
But I appreciate and I think your book is laced with those types of tips to move from good checkers into playing chess.

00:22:55.303 --> 00:22:59.625
The other one you say and I thought was fun was don't drink and invest.

00:22:59.625 --> 00:23:03.642
Tell me a little bit about that suggestion, because they say don't drink and drive I got that part.

00:23:03.642 --> 00:23:07.839
Or don't drink and go to the liquor store, because you're going to buy all the liquor they have inside the store.

00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:08.241
What do you mean?

00:23:08.241 --> 00:23:09.164
Don't drink and invest?

00:23:09.775 --> 00:23:11.416
Oh, I just you know it's.

00:23:11.416 --> 00:23:15.583
You get into the gambler's mentality.

00:23:15.784 --> 00:23:30.163
Right and even bad chess players will do that too they will over-leverage, they will get out of what's being successful because they need like, just need like, excitement or something.

00:23:30.163 --> 00:23:30.625
I don't know.

00:23:30.625 --> 00:23:35.000
I, I, I, you know I don't have the mentality, so I can only speculate on what that's like.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:38.939
Um, if I find something that's working, I will just continue doing what's working.

00:23:38.939 --> 00:23:57.050
Um, but it's, you know, the the, the gamblers mentality, especially when it comes to, like, the market, um, you know the market is, is a great tool, um, but if I asked you, who do you know we're?

00:23:57.050 --> 00:23:59.799
You know, obviously we're in a little bit of a.

00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:11.436
You know the market's going down as we're talking about this, but just a couple weeks ago we were at all-time highs, right, um, but who got wealthy when we were at all-time highs?

00:24:11.436 --> 00:24:12.618
That do you know anybody?

00:24:12.618 --> 00:24:15.065
Do you know anybody that knows anybody like that?

00:24:15.065 --> 00:24:28.739
Well, so, uh, the marketing continuously goes up, but, uh, you know, having that mentality that you have to pick the right stock, you have to do this, you're like no, it's not like.

00:24:28.778 --> 00:24:29.702
My opinion, that's not.

00:24:29.702 --> 00:24:31.342
That's not how it's done.

00:24:31.342 --> 00:24:31.737
It's not like.

00:24:31.737 --> 00:24:32.280
In my opinion, that's not.

00:24:32.280 --> 00:24:33.007
That's not how it's done.

00:24:33.007 --> 00:24:33.209
It's it's.

00:24:33.209 --> 00:24:37.461
It's done by having the money and then not using it, not creating taxable events.

00:24:37.461 --> 00:24:43.741
Uh, because taxes play a lot into this right, um, but yeah, just that whole.

00:24:43.741 --> 00:25:04.826
If don't have the gambler's mentality, you know, have a strategy and have something you're comfortable with, uh, maybe you're not completely comfortable with, but you're uncomfortably comfortable, you're willing to do this, even though it's not what you're used to.

00:25:04.826 --> 00:25:17.005
But you got to start somewhere and you got to start doing something to change and you can't have uncommon results doing common things.

00:25:17.005 --> 00:25:18.067
That's right.

00:25:18.067 --> 00:25:22.939
I hear it all the time Like well when I'm you know, presenting some strategies.

00:25:22.999 --> 00:25:25.861
Someone would say, well, don't most people do this?

00:25:25.861 --> 00:25:31.762
And I'll say, yes, do you want what most people have?

00:25:31.762 --> 00:25:37.319
Because if you want what most people have, this is what we can do.

00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:57.888
But if you want to do something different, you can't stand in line with everybody at the slaughterhouse and wonder why that's happening to you, happening to you, um, so yeah, just changing that mindset is, you know, and by the end of the book, people should know whether they are.

00:25:57.888 --> 00:26:06.958
The goal of the book is, by the end of the book, for people to know whether they are a checkers player, whether they are a chess player, and if they are a checkers player, do they want to switch?

00:26:06.958 --> 00:26:09.584
Can they switch the chess?

00:26:09.584 --> 00:26:10.605
Can they switch right now?

00:26:10.605 --> 00:26:11.508
Can they switch in the future?

00:26:11.508 --> 00:26:27.146
So, um, but yeah, and for some people, having a really great checkers life, you know, having, you know, have enough assets to retire and see the grandkids and all that stuff, is their goal.

00:26:27.508 --> 00:26:36.144
For those, as long as they're happy, they're doing great what I think that's you know, you touch on that early on in the book is that the first step is to sit down and design what your ideal future is.

00:26:36.144 --> 00:26:46.007
Look, if you know what you want to create and you understand and you have the choice of whether or not to play checkers or chess to create that ideal future, that's a choice.

00:26:46.007 --> 00:26:47.136
That's that's where it starts.

00:26:47.136 --> 00:26:50.483
You use the term uncomfortably comfortable.

00:26:50.765 --> 00:27:11.726
I I'm so, uh, in alignment with that that if we are at a phase that we're comfortable, you're right, we're probably not going to see uncommon results, whether that's in leadership or wealth, or in our faith or where we are in our journey a lot of different things that are driven by that concept that we've got to do as uncommon leaders.

00:27:12.247 --> 00:27:16.364
We're going to have to do things in a way that others just won't do them.

00:27:16.364 --> 00:27:29.645
And to your point again, I could relate the checkers and chess analogy over to leadership, over to our faith, over to our fitness and our health and what we want to do there in terms of being healthy, so many different ways.

00:27:29.645 --> 00:27:38.076
And that's what I appreciate about the book is that there's nothing ultimately that would be too difficult for someone to do, but if they understand where they want to be.

00:27:38.076 --> 00:27:45.701
I think that's somewhere that you can get there by following a plan similar to what Freddie talks about inside of this book.

00:27:45.701 --> 00:27:48.857
Freddie, you mentioned what you want to do kind of when they're done reading.

00:27:48.857 --> 00:27:57.932
I'm going to ask you kind of the book test a year from now, after they're done reading the book and they see your book sitting on the shelf, what do you want them to think?

00:27:58.394 --> 00:28:07.080
uh, when they see your book sitting on that shelf, I want them to think I'm glad I read it, uh, my, my lifestyle has improved.

00:28:07.080 --> 00:28:14.344
Um, because I I don't want to as a as a wealth advisor, I don't want to be just judged on rates of return.

00:28:14.344 --> 00:28:22.569
I feel like that's the pigeonhole thing that people just kind of say that's what they expect of you.

00:28:22.569 --> 00:28:25.403
I want to be judged on lifestyle improvements.

00:28:25.403 --> 00:28:30.467
Are you better now, two, three years later, than you were three years ago?

00:28:30.467 --> 00:28:33.343
Are you living more comfortably?

00:28:33.343 --> 00:28:38.825
Are you going on better vacations, more vacations?

00:28:38.825 --> 00:28:40.607
Are you living the lifestyle you want?

00:28:40.607 --> 00:28:43.282
Because this is all about advancing lifestyle.

00:28:43.282 --> 00:28:46.233
In my opinion, chess is about advancing lifestyle Now.

00:28:46.253 --> 00:29:00.181
You're not going to go from zero to Elon Musk in three you know, three years, right, that's not happening, but it's, you don't have to either, but just those extra.

00:29:00.181 --> 00:29:07.838
You know, moving the ball 10 yards forward, 10 yards forward, 10 yards forward, and then, next thing, you know, you look back a few years later and you're like man I'm.

00:29:08.361 --> 00:29:19.106
You know I'm doing really well and right now it doesn't take a whole lot to be doing a lot better than most people.

00:29:19.106 --> 00:29:25.887
So it's just an attitude and believing that you can.

00:29:25.887 --> 00:29:35.359
I mean I think that's the most important thing and having a good support system, having a good team and understanding that there is two games.

00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:36.782
There is totally two games.

00:29:36.782 --> 00:29:40.377
Right, and you know like I, my son plays.

00:29:40.377 --> 00:29:46.432
He's a travel 13 year old travel baseball player and um the.

00:29:46.432 --> 00:30:04.586
He doesn't play for the Tampa Bay race, right, but the fundamentals that he uses and is taught at the 13U competitive level are the same fundamentals that the Tampa Bay Rays and every other major league team uses.

00:30:04.586 --> 00:30:10.924
Right, the scale is different, right, and the expectations are different, but the game is not different.

00:30:10.924 --> 00:30:17.886
Unfortunately, in finance, there are two different games, so people need to choose.

00:30:19.316 --> 00:30:19.919
Love that, freddie.

00:30:19.919 --> 00:30:23.935
I sure appreciate you sharing with the listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast today.

00:30:23.935 --> 00:30:27.445
Folks want to learn more about you or about your book Playing the Wealth Game.

00:30:27.445 --> 00:30:30.002
How do they get in touch with you and learn more about your book?

00:30:32.535 --> 00:30:34.079
they get in touch with you and learn more about your book.

00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:52.078
Yeah, I mean, if they, especially if they're looking to you know, yeah, they're looking for a financial, uh, professional wealth advisor who, uh, who understands chess, who understands real estate, who understands business ownership, who understands, you know how to you know how to help people create, you know, help people create wealth.

00:30:52.078 --> 00:30:53.684
You know they can reach.

00:30:53.684 --> 00:30:56.180
Our site is optifinancialcom.

00:30:56.180 --> 00:31:00.916
That's our firm, and in the top right hand corner, uh, there'sa schedule a consultation.

00:31:00.916 --> 00:31:19.096
They can uh, then click on that and they can, we can have a conversation with them, um, and uh, you know, and and see what's possible, which is, which is a lot of fun for me, and, and you know that's why, that's why I, which is a lot of fun for me, and, and you know, that's why that's why I love this position is the, is the is the journey you take with the clients Excellent.

00:31:19.336 --> 00:31:25.878
Well, I'll be sure to put a link in the show notes to Opta Financial that folks can go out there and set up a call with you, uh, otherwise?

00:31:25.878 --> 00:31:31.244
Uh, again, I appreciate you joining us today for the Uncommon Leader Podcast.

00:31:31.244 --> 00:31:36.770
I'll leave you with the last word, and that has to do with the final question that I always ask my first-time guests.

00:31:36.770 --> 00:31:38.579
I'm going to give you a billboard, freddie.

00:31:38.579 --> 00:31:43.285
You can put it right out there in Tampa, wherever you want to put it, whichever road's running through there.

00:31:43.285 --> 00:31:48.901
What's the message you're going to put on that billboard and why do you put that message on there?

00:31:51.064 --> 00:31:52.465
I would put on the billboard.

00:31:52.465 --> 00:32:00.962
Focus on what is important right now, like the road, not the billboard, Not the billboard.

00:32:02.645 --> 00:32:04.648
Sir, focus on right now.

00:32:04.648 --> 00:32:06.903
Absolutely yes, stay on the road, do not drive it off.

00:32:06.903 --> 00:32:08.611
Absolutely Friday.

00:32:08.611 --> 00:32:10.155
It's been fun, great conversation.

00:32:10.155 --> 00:32:18.969
I wish you the best, not only in your book launch that's been out for a little while and that you'll continue to grow in that space, but also in the game of chess that you're trying to teach others.

00:32:18.969 --> 00:32:20.211
I appreciate your time.

00:32:21.174 --> 00:32:26.903
Thank you, I appreciate it.

00:32:26.923 --> 00:32:29.606
Thanks for having me on the Uncommon Leader Podcast.

00:32:29.606 --> 00:32:30.768
Thanks for tuning in today.

00:32:30.768 --> 00:32:39.627
If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration we've shared.

00:32:39.627 --> 00:32:44.867
Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform.

00:32:44.867 --> 00:32:52.701
Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of Uncommon Leaders.

00:32:52.701 --> 00:32:53.505
Until next time, go and grow champions.

00:32:53.505 --> 00:32:55.414
It also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders.

00:32:55.414 --> 00:33:02.539
Until next time, go and grow champions.