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RPF0415-Invest_in_Your_Safety


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00:00:29.800 | There are all kinds of little small cheap decisions that you and I can make that on
00:00:38.920 | the front end don't cost a lot, but on the back end can have a huge, huge benefit.
00:00:47.040 | And today I want to encourage you to think about safety, to invest in safety and to experience
00:00:56.940 | the benefits of safety over the long term in your own personal life.
00:01:02.920 | Before we get to that, sponsor of the day today is You Need a Budget.
00:01:07.840 | Guess what?
00:01:08.840 | You Need a Budget.
00:01:09.840 | And the best budgeting software for you to use each and every day is YNAB.
00:01:14.800 | YNAB stands for You Need a Budget.
00:01:17.380 | It's the budgeting software that I just got done closing down on my computer and finishing
00:01:20.720 | myself.
00:01:21.720 | So I put my money where my mouth is on this one.
00:01:23.880 | I use all of our sponsors except for Paladin.
00:01:29.040 | On Paladin I don't use them because I already am set when it comes to financial advice.
00:01:33.960 | But the rest of them I use.
00:01:35.440 | And YNAB is one of those that I use.
00:01:37.080 | Here's how it works.
00:01:38.080 | It's the best budgeting software that you can use because it allows you to actively
00:01:41.400 | allocate the money that's in your checking account and tell it where to go.
00:01:45.480 | Not just track it, tell it where to go.
00:01:47.660 | This practice, if you put this into practice over the course of the coming days, in the
00:01:53.160 | upcoming year, this will make a huge difference in your life.
00:01:56.440 | Sign up for a free 34-day trial at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/YNAB.
00:02:01.680 | Sign up for the trial and take all of the free classes that they have.
00:02:05.160 | YNAB will teach you how to budget and budgeting will give you the results that you need, the
00:02:10.840 | money that you need to invest.
00:02:13.040 | Sponsor of the day number two today is the patrons of the show.
00:02:16.560 | In recent days I've been increasing the sponsorship ads.
00:02:19.520 | I don't want those of you who support the show though to think that I don't appreciate
00:02:23.560 | you.
00:02:24.560 | And so I just wanted to simply invite you, if you would like to bypass the sponsorship
00:02:27.480 | and just simply say, "Joshua, I get a ton of value out of what you're doing," please
00:02:30.840 | consider becoming a patron of my show.
00:02:33.280 | You can do that at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:02:36.120 | That is entirely voluntary.
00:02:37.360 | The content is released to you for free.
00:02:40.260 | You don't have to pay for it with anything other than your time.
00:02:43.440 | But if you find value in it and you would like to engage in a voluntary value for value
00:02:47.880 | transaction, please go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron and sign up to support the show.
00:02:52.680 | You can do it with as little as a buck a month.
00:02:54.480 | You can do it with a few hundred dollars a month.
00:02:55.880 | That's up to you.
00:02:56.880 | What I recommend to you is that you take the amount of money, the benefit that you've received
00:03:01.040 | from my show in the last year, take 10% of that, figure out what that would be on a monthly
00:03:05.520 | basis and send it over to me.
00:03:08.400 | And in exchange for that, I will do my very best to continue giving you as much benefit
00:03:14.640 | every single day, walking with you down your journey to financial independence and financial
00:03:19.160 | freedom.
00:03:20.160 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:03:21.160 | I got a little messed up there.
00:03:26.960 | Then I messed up my music.
00:03:27.960 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:03:28.960 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,
00:03:48.080 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful and long life
00:03:53.520 | now while also building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:03:58.520 | My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host.
00:04:00.160 | And today I am your safety police.
00:04:02.440 | But I think I've got justification for that to show you how a few simple decisions will
00:04:07.280 | make all the difference in the world.
00:04:16.760 | Today's show will be very, very specific, very straight to the point.
00:04:19.920 | And the point, I'll sum it up in a sentence.
00:04:22.120 | And if you grasp the full meaning, you can skip the rest of the show.
00:04:24.760 | It's simply this.
00:04:25.840 | If you take very careful, small decisions to prioritize your personal safety and the
00:04:32.040 | safety of your family members, that has the potential to avoid a significant amount of
00:04:37.160 | pain.
00:04:38.160 | When we talk about finance, we could talk a lot about the concept of insurance.
00:04:41.740 | And we all recognize the value of insurance, even though we don't necessarily always love
00:04:45.680 | participating in insurance programs.
00:04:48.160 | The idea of insurance is there are certain things that can happen to us that are really,
00:04:51.920 | really bad, that have high negative consequences.
00:04:56.160 | Some of these things would be things like dying prematurely and leaving our family bereft
00:05:00.120 | of income, or perhaps getting in a car accident and having our car destroyed.
00:05:05.640 | There are many types of things that are having our house burned down, many things that are
00:05:09.720 | very low probability, but the impact is very, very high.
00:05:14.040 | And that is the appropriate place for insurance.
00:05:17.440 | High impact, low probability events can be effectively insured against, and you generally
00:05:22.600 | should always choose to insure against those problems.
00:05:27.880 | But there are many other things in life that if you just simply look at them and pay attention
00:05:32.920 | to them, there's a very low cost, but a potentially high impact.
00:05:38.720 | And I want to give you some rationalization for this financially so that you'll be more
00:05:43.720 | motivated to take simple steps toward insuring your health and your safety.
00:05:52.200 | Basically it comes down to this.
00:05:53.400 | If you're riding a bike, consider getting a helmet and wearing one.
00:05:57.720 | If you're driving in your car, consider putting on a seatbelt and/or consider driving a safe
00:06:04.840 | car.
00:06:05.840 | If you're going to go out and mow the lawn, put on some hearing protection.
00:06:10.700 | We like to, in our modern society, we like to look at people who smoke, the increasingly
00:06:15.960 | smaller percentage of the population, the US American population that smoke cigarettes.
00:06:20.400 | We like to look at them and say, "Why on earth do people smoke cigarettes?"
00:06:24.680 | In light of all of the evidence that is available of how cigarette smoking leads to cancer and
00:06:31.280 | leads to early death.
00:06:33.880 | And yet so many of us continue to do simple things that could be easily avoided by paying
00:06:39.200 | attention.
00:06:41.440 | Again, my favorite examples would be things like eye protection and hearing protection.
00:06:47.160 | I have a friend of mine who's a retired firefighter.
00:06:49.760 | That poor guy's practically half deaf and he knows it, but it's from long exposure to
00:06:55.920 | loud noises.
00:06:59.160 | It's to the very best of my knowledge, I've never heard a conspiracy theory that this
00:07:03.300 | data is true.
00:07:04.300 | To the very best of my knowledge, it is absolutely a proven medical fact that if you maintain
00:07:09.380 | high exposure to loud audio for an extended period of time, that will damage your hearing
00:07:14.980 | in a cumulative effect.
00:07:17.620 | So therefore, if you listen to me in your earbuds at too high of a volume, that's not
00:07:22.740 | good.
00:07:24.020 | If you listen to music in your ears at too high of a volume, that will damage your hearing.
00:07:29.500 | Almost as surely as smoking will kill you.
00:07:32.980 | If you systematically go out and use loud power equipment on a daily basis or on a regular
00:07:38.060 | basis, going out and driving around on your lawnmower or using, again, power tools or
00:07:44.380 | being in a very noisy environment and not taking care of your hearing, you will wind
00:07:48.420 | up deaf.
00:07:51.380 | Now think about the cost and benefit of this.
00:07:53.820 | What does it cost you to avoid that?
00:07:56.740 | Those loud noises?
00:07:59.020 | Well you can buy a set of foam earplugs to put in your ear that will dampen a lot of
00:08:03.260 | the noise for 30 cents.
00:08:07.440 | You can trot down to the big box store and grab yourself a pair of over the ear earmuffs
00:08:11.320 | for about $3.95.
00:08:14.260 | And that $3.95 investment in your hearing has the possibility to save you thousands
00:08:22.200 | of dollars of hearing aid expenses later in life.
00:08:27.060 | It doesn't cost all that much to put on a pair of safety glasses when doing something
00:08:32.500 | that's safe.
00:08:33.500 | It's easy to do.
00:08:36.180 | Easy to do.
00:08:37.980 | And the potential benefit of something heads for your eyes is huge in terms of your own
00:08:42.900 | personal protection.
00:08:43.900 | And yet how many of us are guilty of doing things that we know would probably be better
00:08:47.800 | like mowing the lawn or using power equipment, et cetera.
00:08:52.320 | And yet we don't take the simple step of putting on safety glasses.
00:08:58.220 | How many of you have ever run a chainsaw without chainsaw shaps?
00:09:02.380 | You know the Kevlar shaps that you put on that protect your legs in case the chainsaw
00:09:05.860 | goes into it?
00:09:07.220 | I think we're all guilty of that one.
00:09:11.020 | It'd be so simple to spend the 60 bucks and take a moment and strap those things on.
00:09:15.220 | And it would potentially save a leg, potentially save a serious medical visit, potentially
00:09:20.140 | save a life.
00:09:24.660 | And yet how many people do you see that take just a moment, grab the proper safety equipment
00:09:29.500 | and put it on?
00:09:32.220 | Very few of us do it.
00:09:33.500 | I grew up riding my bike without a bike helmet.
00:09:35.580 | It wasn't mandated for children when I was younger.
00:09:38.400 | And I've generally ever since then continued that practice just because I never really
00:09:42.220 | went helmet shopping.
00:09:44.120 | But a few years ago I realized how silly that was.
00:09:48.180 | There's no reason not to take a moment, find a bike helmet and put it on.
00:09:51.980 | Has the potential of saving my life or avoiding brain injury.
00:09:57.020 | So simple and cheap and easy and yet how easy not to do.
00:10:04.300 | So don't let your, for most of you, it's probably a male/female thing.
00:10:14.060 | My experience is that women are usually more amenable to safety standards and usually,
00:10:18.660 | not always, but oftentimes it's we men who in our macho approach don't want to do that.
00:10:24.820 | Men don't let your kind of macho aggressive arrogance keep you from doing some simple
00:10:30.220 | things that can keep your hearing, that can keep your speech, that can keep your eyesight
00:10:35.660 | around for potentially a much longer period of time.
00:10:39.280 | The cost of these very simple and small changes is very, very low.
00:10:44.020 | And yet the potential benefit is very, very high.
00:10:46.500 | Where else are you going to get investment returns like that?
00:10:49.500 | A few dollars of safety gear and a potential savings of thousands or hundreds of thousands
00:10:55.700 | of dollars.
00:10:56.980 | There's a reason why if I were hired in a large company or something like that, one
00:11:04.820 | of the first things I would do would be absolutely to make sure that all of my workers were using
00:11:09.340 | proper safety equipment in any circumstance or situation that they needed to, that it
00:11:14.260 | was appropriate.
00:11:15.740 | Because on the aggregate, that will save me and my company a tremendous amount of money
00:11:19.980 | from liability, from accidents, et cetera.
00:11:22.820 | And the only way that you avoid this is the fact that the chances of it happening to you
00:11:27.940 | as an individual are very small.
00:11:30.300 | We know this happens consistently across a population, but we don't know who it happens
00:11:36.340 | to.
00:11:37.760 | So buy the safety gear, buy the safety equipment for you, for your children.
00:11:41.580 | A lot of times it costs a little bit more money to get safety gear that is comfortable
00:11:46.140 | and is stylish.
00:11:48.140 | Don't be scared to spend a little bit more money on safety gear that's comfortable and
00:11:51.420 | stylish if it means that you'll actually wear it.
00:11:55.540 | Don't cheap out and get the junky thing that's hard to wear that you don't like to wear because
00:11:59.860 | then it won't do its good.
00:12:00.860 | If you know, if your children, make sure that you buy them the gear that is going to be
00:12:04.260 | effective for them, if it needs, again, if it can be gotten with this little bit of style,
00:12:08.300 | make sure you do that.
00:12:09.780 | And then also don't be scared to think about this in a broader sense.
00:12:13.660 | I wholeheartedly recognize that this is something that with increasing age, I've become more
00:12:18.860 | aware of.
00:12:19.940 | When I was younger, I didn't ever think about the safety of a vehicle.
00:12:22.740 | I never even just bothered with it.
00:12:24.500 | I had that same sense of invincibility that probably most of us have had.
00:12:28.840 | But as I get older, the safety becomes increasingly important to me and I'm willing to spend more
00:12:33.860 | money to have a safer vehicle for my family, for my children.
00:12:38.660 | I'm willing to make sure that we make different car choices or different travel choices to
00:12:42.660 | make sure that that safety is there.
00:12:45.060 | Now, you don't have to automatically assume that that means you have to buy a $50,000
00:12:49.060 | car.
00:12:50.060 | Simple examples that I use, I own two minivans.
00:12:52.900 | Both of them have full five stars on all of the crash safety ratings.
00:12:56.740 | One of them I paid $5,500 for four years ago.
00:13:01.020 | The other one I paid $3,000 for six months ago.
00:13:05.060 | And yet both of them, according to the objective safety ratings, are as well rated as any other
00:13:10.640 | vehicle available today.
00:13:13.440 | So you don't have to spend a lot of money, but you do have to consider it.
00:13:18.020 | And then finally with this, I will close.
00:13:21.180 | Consider carefully some simple things in your own personal behavior.
00:13:26.020 | Yes, life is good to be lived with zest and with gusto, but stupidity doesn't necessarily
00:13:34.340 | have to be equated with fun.
00:13:37.220 | There are some things that you can do that are just plain old stupid.
00:13:42.820 | There are ways that you can have fun that aren't stupid.
00:13:47.660 | Don't ignore the value of safety.
00:13:53.000 | The gear can help, but the most important thing is just the simple voice in your head
00:13:58.220 | saying what I'm about to do is stupid.
00:14:03.500 | If you find yourself saying, "Here, hold my beer.
00:14:07.260 | Watch this," stop.
00:14:09.260 | Don't do it.
00:14:10.260 | Don't follow through.
00:14:11.960 | And if you find yourself in a situation where somebody else is doing things that are unsafe,
00:14:19.140 | stand up and stop.
00:14:21.220 | Be the person who takes the keys out of the ignition.
00:14:23.460 | Be the person who stands up and stops.
00:14:25.820 | This is hard.
00:14:27.580 | A couple of months ago, my family and I went to a harvest festival that was nearby in our
00:14:32.540 | town.
00:14:33.780 | And at this harvest festival, they were doing hayrides for children.
00:14:36.860 | They had just a small little compact tractor and a wagon there hooked up.
00:14:41.940 | And so we thought it'd be fun to take the children on the hayride and we got on.
00:14:46.460 | Right at the beginning though, we were there and somebody made an announcement that we
00:14:52.180 | couldn't quite hear.
00:14:53.180 | And they said something about, in hindsight, I think they said something about like, "If
00:14:56.860 | you're here for the harvest festival, get off.
00:14:59.420 | Or if you're here for the church group, youth group or something that it was at, then go
00:15:03.940 | ahead and stay on."
00:15:05.380 | We weren't quite sure and so we stayed on.
00:15:07.220 | Well, the driver quickly, the driver started to drive the hayride very aggressively, very
00:15:15.420 | much focused on creating a thrilling ride for teenagers rather than a thrilling ride
00:15:19.860 | for three-year-olds.
00:15:21.500 | And as the driver turned in circles, bounced over ground, et cetera, I became increasingly
00:15:25.780 | concerned, but I sat there and did nothing because I didn't want to...
00:15:30.300 | I didn't know what was going on and I didn't want to mess things up.
00:15:33.700 | And it got worse and worse and I sat there and did nothing.
00:15:37.100 | And in hindsight, I was absolutely wrong.
00:15:40.340 | I didn't want to rock the social boat.
00:15:43.140 | So I sat there.
00:15:45.720 | After a while, it became worse and worse and finally, I told the guy, I said, "Stop."
00:15:49.980 | I got up, got my wife and kids and I jumped out of it and I said, "This is unsafe.
00:15:54.460 | I'm not going to do it."
00:15:56.640 | In hindsight, I was shocked at how hard it was for me to do that.
00:16:00.300 | I am the adult.
00:16:01.380 | I should have been the one in the first place to say, "No, this is not appropriate."
00:16:05.660 | I shouldn't have just been looking out for me and my children.
00:16:07.980 | I should have been looking out for all those other children.
00:16:09.500 | And the man who was driving, I've spent many years driving boats with children on tubes
00:16:14.100 | and driving trailers and things like that.
00:16:16.140 | I can have a good ride without it being unsafe and the man was unsafe.
00:16:19.300 | In hindsight, I regret that I didn't stop the whole thing, but I didn't have the courage
00:16:25.740 | in that moment to do it.
00:16:26.740 | So don't follow my negative example of not having the courage.
00:16:30.020 | Follow the positive example to have the courage.
00:16:32.940 | If you're a young person and you're listening and you're in the car and somebody is hot
00:16:36.140 | riding the car, make them stop, get out, go home.
00:16:42.180 | Turn the keys off.
00:16:44.600 | Whatever you got to do, stop the situation.
00:16:47.540 | If you're with people and they're drunk, be the person who saves the life.
00:16:53.500 | Because the hindsight and the problems with disaster is generally most people know, but
00:16:58.900 | they don't stand up and do something.
00:17:03.660 | I don't have anything more to say other than just recognize that investing in safety is
00:17:08.420 | a perfectly valid and legitimate thing for you to choose to do.
00:17:12.880 | It's a very wise investment.
00:17:16.780 | Purchase safety gear when you purchase stuff.
00:17:20.100 | Purchase quality safety gear.
00:17:22.260 | Purchase if you need sunglasses, dark safety glasses and clear safety glasses.
00:17:28.180 | If you need prescription safety glasses, get them.
00:17:30.580 | If you need quality earwear that is easy to wear, get it.
00:17:35.100 | When I'm out shooting, I use the nice electronic earmuffs that stop the banging noise but yet
00:17:39.760 | still allow you to talk.
00:17:41.500 | That means you'll wind up wearing them more.
00:17:44.580 | Invest in personal protective equipment, whatever that is.
00:17:48.740 | That was one of the things I mentioned when the budget for the accessories show.
00:17:51.980 | Buy quality stuff that will protect you.
00:17:54.460 | Motorcycling, for example.
00:17:55.780 | If you study, in the past I've always enjoyed riding a motorcycle.
00:17:58.620 | Well, is that in contradiction with the safety?
00:18:00.180 | I'll tell you what I learned in my observation.
00:18:02.980 | Are motorcycles inherently unsafe?
00:18:05.140 | I would say that yes, motorcycles are inherently less safe than cars but I think in anything,
00:18:11.540 | if you decide, okay, there's a benefit to it, you can mitigate it.
00:18:14.620 | Simple examples of how I researched it at that point in time was number one, 50% of
00:18:19.980 | motorcycle accidents involve rider error.
00:18:22.060 | The rider outriding their own personal ability.
00:18:28.640 | If you want to be safe on a motorcycle, focus on never outriding your ability.
00:18:34.220 | That's hard for many people to do, especially the type of person who generally rides motorcycles.
00:18:37.620 | A lot of times it's young and aggressive people who try to push the envelope and you push
00:18:42.120 | the envelope on a motorcycle and you wind up going over the edge of the cliff.
00:18:45.420 | I made a commitment when I was first riding.
00:18:48.060 | I said, number one, I will never outride my ability.
00:18:51.220 | I will make the commitment not to follow that testosterone and just to enjoy it but within
00:18:56.220 | my ability.
00:18:57.380 | Number two, 50% of motorcycle accidents involve alcohol.
00:19:00.460 | Made the commitment that and with motorcycling, unlike driving, with driving you may be able
00:19:05.180 | to have one or two drinks and perhaps you're slightly over the blood alcohol level in your
00:19:11.100 | state but it's not really that big a deal.
00:19:13.380 | In motorcycling, one or two drinks will disrupt just the tiniest thing and the impact is huge.
00:19:18.420 | Number three is safety gear.
00:19:20.820 | Many people don't wear safety gear.
00:19:22.340 | Would a quality helmet, a quality riding suit make a huge difference?
00:19:26.260 | Budget for those things.
00:19:27.860 | Then finally, number four is proper training.
00:19:30.060 | With most things, proper training is essential.
00:19:33.540 | Whether you're operating a piece of power equipment, renting a backhoe for the weekend,
00:19:38.460 | driving a car, riding a motorcycle, et cetera, train and there are small little things that
00:19:43.380 | can make a huge difference.
00:19:45.420 | On a motorcycle, it's simply by knowing the most dangerous places to be.
00:19:50.580 | The most dangerous place to be is a road with a turn lane in the middle.
00:19:57.940 | Simple safety habits where you're defensive driving, covering the brakes whenever you
00:20:01.900 | see a car, these little things that you can learn with training.
00:20:05.860 | If you're going to engage, my point using the motorcycle example is that if you're going
00:20:08.860 | to engage in behavior that has the potential to be more risky because you've looked at
00:20:13.220 | it and said, "Okay, this is riskier behavior.
00:20:15.280 | Life is not all about sitting in a padded cocoon so that I'm perfectly safe," at least
00:20:19.820 | do your research and do your due diligence on how to control as many safety factors as
00:20:24.580 | possible.
00:20:25.580 | I believe your family, your friends, your loved ones will thank you for that.
00:20:33.700 | Your future self will thank you.
00:20:35.220 | If you can avoid some of the expensive, unnecessary expenses that older people have to account
00:20:40.000 | for the indiscretions of their youth, I think that you will be happy with that.
00:20:44.580 | That's all I've got for you today.
00:20:46.460 | As I go, I'm going to skip the music.
00:20:47.860 | I just want to encourage you.
00:20:48.860 | If you could do me a favor, please, quick personal favor, come by and complete my quick
00:20:52.380 | 20-second demographic survey found at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/survey.
00:20:57.340 | There are six questions.
00:20:58.340 | You can do it right on your phone.
00:20:59.340 | It's just a simple, anonymous demographic survey.
00:21:03.420 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/survey.
00:21:04.420 | There's a place on there you can put an email address.
00:21:07.020 | I don't care if you do that or not.
00:21:09.660 | It's not signing you up for a list or anything.
00:21:11.660 | I think it's just for the computer to sort it.
00:21:14.700 | If you could just do that quick thing at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/survey, I would be deeply indebted to you.
00:21:21.180 | With that, stay safe and I'll be back with you tomorrow.