RPF0713-How_to_Profit_From_a

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00:00:32.060 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance,

00:00:33.200 | a show dedicated to providing you

00:00:34.260 | with the knowledge, skills, insight,

00:00:36.420 | and encouragement you need to live a rich

00:00:38.360 | and meaningful life now,

00:00:40.000 | while building a plan for financial freedom

00:00:41.600 | in 10 years or less.

00:00:43.360 | Today in the show, we're gonna talk about

00:00:44.560 | how to profit from recession.

00:00:48.740 | We are right now in the beginning

00:00:50.840 | of a significant recession.

00:00:53.180 | Hopefully it's just a recession.

00:00:54.340 | Hopefully we don't have to talk about

00:00:55.480 | how to profit from a depression,

00:00:56.920 | although the basic concepts are going to be the same.

00:00:59.520 | But we're gonna talk today about

00:01:00.360 | how to profit from a recession.

00:01:02.520 | And I wanna start to get you thinking about opportunity,

00:01:05.420 | because in the middle of every crisis,

00:01:07.220 | you can always find opportunity.

00:01:09.760 | You can find ways to improve your life,

00:01:12.360 | to improve your business, to improve your income,

00:01:15.300 | to improve your investments.

00:01:16.300 | There's always ways to improve

00:01:18.440 | every single part of your life.

00:01:20.540 | And it's important that you always look

00:01:22.300 | for the opportunity in the middle of difficulty.

00:01:25.140 | If you look for the opportunity in the middle of difficulty,

00:01:28.380 | you will often find it.

00:01:30.640 | Whereas if you don't look for it,

00:01:33.180 | and you just succumb to the difficulty,

00:01:35.600 | you will often just find nothing

00:01:37.820 | but bleak gray clouds all around.

00:01:40.920 | Every setback is an opportunity for improvement.

00:01:45.920 | Every failure provides you

00:01:47.660 | with an opportunity for improvement.

00:01:49.460 | Every single one.

00:01:53.540 | Now that sounds just like some kind of platitude

00:01:55.420 | that you would stick on a card somewhere,

00:01:57.620 | but it's really true.

00:01:58.980 | Every setback, every failure provides you

00:02:01.960 | with an opportunity for improvement.

00:02:04.000 | One of my favorite sayings,

00:02:05.100 | as trite as it may sound to you, it's real to me.

00:02:07.900 | Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.

00:02:12.180 | Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.

00:02:16.900 | And so I want you to be thinking positively in this time.

00:02:20.300 | I want you to be looking for opportunities,

00:02:21.960 | because this time may very well set the tone

00:02:26.960 | may very well set the foundation for your future success.

00:02:31.000 | This time right now may very well set the cornerstone

00:02:34.360 | underneath your fortune.

00:02:37.200 | This time right now is when you need to be preparing for

00:02:41.120 | and planning for your comeback, if you need to come back.

00:02:45.160 | Now I'm gonna say something here

00:02:47.920 | that is hard to say without it sounding arrogant.

00:02:52.480 | It's hard to say without it sounding a little tone deaf.

00:02:54.880 | It's hard to say without it sounding,

00:02:56.780 | I don't know what other words, just a little bit proud.

00:03:02.200 | Please know that I'm not intending that to be the case,

00:03:05.280 | but I wanna speak honestly with you

00:03:08.040 | and hope to inspire you.

00:03:10.360 | I'm doing awesome right now.

00:03:16.120 | I'm doing absolutely awesome right now.

00:03:22.680 | On April 7, 2020, as I record this, I am doing great.

00:03:27.680 | My family is doing well.

00:03:31.880 | My business is doing well.

00:03:34.160 | My personal life is going well.

00:03:36.440 | My finances are in great shape.

00:03:38.160 | I'm doing great right now.

00:03:39.640 | But it's because of some of the experiences

00:03:45.080 | that I've gone through before.

00:03:47.060 | Now I understand that not everybody can do great.

00:03:49.000 | I understand that not everybody has a business

00:03:52.620 | that can profit from a recession.

00:03:54.600 | I understand that, I get that,

00:03:55.920 | and that's why I said I don't wanna sound tone deaf,

00:03:57.560 | but the reality is you need to recognize

00:03:59.840 | that you don't have to suffer in difficult times.

00:04:04.420 | And so if you're suffering right now,

00:04:07.120 | I want you to learn and recognize from the fact

00:04:09.760 | that that suffering is due to some choices

00:04:12.320 | that you've made.

00:04:13.160 | You don't have to be suffering right now.

00:04:15.320 | There are a few reasons for suffering

00:04:20.400 | that are truly outside of our control,

00:04:22.480 | truly outside of our grasp.

00:04:24.900 | But most of the reasons we really suffer

00:04:28.100 | can be mitigated with good planning.

00:04:30.280 | And I've done some things

00:04:32.360 | because of previous experiences that I've had

00:04:35.460 | that have helped to position me for this time.

00:04:41.060 | I wanna give you some examples.

00:04:44.220 | I started building a business in 2008.

00:04:48.620 | I got laid off right at the beginning

00:04:50.820 | of the recession of 2008,

00:04:52.140 | the so-called Great Recession.

00:04:53.660 | That was when I got laid off.

00:04:55.060 | And that layoff was a big surprise to me.

00:04:58.320 | It was a real shock.

00:04:59.620 | I did not expect to get laid off.

00:05:01.220 | I thought, they're lucky to have me.

00:05:03.460 | I'm Joshua Sheets.

00:05:04.820 | I work hard, I'm a good employee,

00:05:06.000 | they're lucky to have me.

00:05:06.840 | And all of a sudden, they told me they didn't want me,

00:05:08.060 | and that was kind of a crushing thing for me.

00:05:11.220 | Now, thankfully, I had prepared for that,

00:05:12.580 | and so it wasn't as crushing

00:05:13.740 | as it can be in other places.

00:05:16.820 | But at that time, I didn't have a plan.

00:05:19.860 | I didn't have a clear goal, a clear career plan.

00:05:22.780 | I didn't have a specific list of things

00:05:24.880 | that I was working towards.

00:05:25.980 | And because of that, I vowed,

00:05:27.540 | I'm never gonna let this happen again.

00:05:29.540 | I'm never gonna be in this situation

00:05:31.140 | without as many ideas as I have now.

00:05:33.140 | I'm never gonna be in this situation

00:05:34.480 | without backup sources of income,

00:05:36.460 | without backup sources of savings, et cetera.

00:05:38.420 | And I resolved that I wasn't gonna be in that situation.

00:05:40.700 | I wasn't gonna be vulnerable again.

00:05:42.460 | And then over the years,

00:05:44.740 | as my responsibilities have grown,

00:05:46.340 | in 2008, I was single,

00:05:47.620 | I wasn't supporting wife or children.

00:05:49.380 | I did pretty easy for me to survive in those circumstances.

00:05:52.380 | But over the years, as my responsibilities have grown,

00:05:55.220 | I vowed, I said,

00:05:56.060 | "This is my responsibility to care for these people,

00:05:58.180 | "and I've done certain things along the way

00:06:00.020 | "that have helped me right now."

00:06:01.960 | So if you're scared, if you're hurting,

00:06:05.860 | I want you to know that you can do better.

00:06:07.960 | You can do things that are gonna protect you.

00:06:11.260 | But I also learned some lessons through that period.

00:06:15.820 | I met with a lot of people that were hurting.

00:06:17.620 | I met with a lot of people whose businesses were failing,

00:06:20.060 | but I met with a lot of people who were doing well.

00:06:22.780 | I met with a lot of people

00:06:23.740 | who were capitalizing on the opportunities.

00:06:26.300 | The 2008 Great Recession,

00:06:28.280 | when I cut my financial planning teeth,

00:06:30.660 | showed me that there are opportunities

00:06:33.340 | in the midst of chaos for those who are ready to take action.

00:06:37.420 | And so I've been preparing, personally,

00:06:39.700 | for a recession for years.

00:06:40.800 | Now, I was wrong on the timing.

00:06:42.780 | I thought that there'd be recession in 2015 or 2016.

00:06:46.880 | There wasn't.

00:06:47.940 | Then I thought it'd be 2017.

00:06:49.380 | There wasn't.

00:06:50.220 | 2018.

00:06:51.040 | There wasn't.

00:06:51.880 | I haven't figured out why I was wrong back then,

00:06:54.380 | and I think it's important to acknowledge that

00:06:56.460 | even in your own thinking.

00:06:57.440 | As they say, a broken clock can be right, wrong, right.

00:07:00.580 | How can you butcher a phrase like that?

00:07:03.660 | A broken clock can be right twice per day, right?

00:07:07.060 | So even if you, and that's the thing about recessions,

00:07:09.780 | some people make a professional hobby

00:07:11.540 | out of calling for a recession every single year,

00:07:14.220 | and about once a decade or so, they're right.

00:07:17.120 | My favorite old joke is that economists

00:07:19.040 | have reliably predicted all 24 of the last four recessions.

00:07:23.440 | There's a truth to that.

00:07:25.260 | Where it's easy to call for doom and gloom,

00:07:26.880 | and yet it doesn't happen, well, people don't go on.

00:07:30.320 | So I was wrong on the timing, but because I expected it,

00:07:33.640 | I did some things in my finances

00:07:35.560 | that have insulated me for now, and I don't regret that.

00:07:38.360 | In fact, I'm thrilled with it.

00:07:40.240 | Another time, I'll talk more about some examples

00:07:42.600 | of what I'm glad of, but what I've learned is

00:07:47.600 | that I used to think I was a big risk taker.

00:07:51.780 | I used to think that I wanted to take risk,

00:07:55.740 | but I've learned since then

00:07:56.780 | that I'm much more conservative than that,

00:07:58.700 | and that conservatism is expressed in different ways.

00:08:01.740 | What I previously made the mistake of

00:08:03.620 | was I previously made the mistake of thinking

00:08:05.940 | that because I was comfortable with stock market volatility,

00:08:09.980 | that that somehow meant that I was a risk taker,

00:08:11.900 | but I've learned I'm not.

00:08:13.440 | I'm a conservative individual,

00:08:15.500 | and I don't see any reason to take risks,

00:08:17.620 | and especially as my responsibilities grow,

00:08:19.780 | it just seems more and more foolish to me to take risks.

00:08:23.520 | So if you're hurting right now,

00:08:26.540 | recognize that there's some lessons in that.

00:08:29.060 | The first thing that you should do is you should sit down

00:08:31.300 | and start writing out the lessons

00:08:32.620 | that are applicable to you.

00:08:33.820 | I'm gonna give you suggestions and ideas

00:08:35.540 | and examples on how to profit from this time,

00:08:37.880 | but if you're not in a position to profit,

00:08:40.240 | take heed and make sure that next time you are,

00:08:45.240 | because recessions are coming along pretty regularly.

00:08:51.960 | It's kind of like the seasons, right?

00:08:54.960 | We're always going through seasons.

00:08:56.760 | You've got spring, summer, fall, winter,

00:08:58.400 | spring, summer, fall, winter,

00:08:59.720 | and similar things happen economically.

00:09:01.400 | There are cycles, economic cycles,

00:09:03.520 | and if you'll work with those cycles,

00:09:05.660 | you can enhance your results.

00:09:08.100 | Now, now that I've given some ideas

00:09:10.120 | for those of you who are struggling,

00:09:11.400 | let's talk about opportunities.

00:09:13.680 | Some of these opportunities are gonna cost you money,

00:09:15.400 | some of them are not,

00:09:16.640 | but these are just ideas to spark your creativity.

00:09:19.800 | I wanna begin with some suggestions for individuals.

00:09:22.520 | What are some opportunities that you have to profit

00:09:24.440 | right now from this recession?

00:09:27.000 | Well, I think one of the first things

00:09:27.960 | that is obvious to many people,

00:09:29.160 | because of the unique nature of this particular recession,

00:09:31.580 | where work from home is not only encouraged heavily,

00:09:35.960 | it's flat out required,

00:09:38.500 | this gives you the chance to try on

00:09:40.500 | a work from home lifestyle, which is awesome.

00:09:44.780 | That gives you a real opportunity

00:09:46.340 | to get in there right now and say, do I like this?

00:09:50.220 | Do I like working from home?

00:09:52.220 | For me, for years, working from home was a dream.

00:09:55.620 | I had a dream from the time I was 15 years old.

00:09:57.540 | I wanted to sit in front of a laptop

00:09:58.900 | and be able to work from an internet cafe

00:10:00.180 | or work from home,

00:10:01.140 | and that was a dream that I had for many years.

00:10:04.980 | But then when I achieved that, I realized,

00:10:07.080 | it's nice, does open up a lot of opportunities,

00:10:11.460 | but it's not perfect.

00:10:12.940 | There are some things that are real downsides to it.

00:10:15.760 | There are some things I really miss.

00:10:17.020 | I miss going to an office every day.

00:10:18.580 | I miss the camaraderie.

00:10:20.140 | I miss the ability to interact with people

00:10:22.820 | who are not like me, just because I'm in a work environment.

00:10:26.100 | I miss the separation sometimes.

00:10:29.100 | I think it's healthier for my family

00:10:30.860 | if I were to go away to an office and then come back in.

00:10:33.900 | It's a different lifestyle.

00:10:36.140 | Now, on the flip side,

00:10:36.980 | there are a whole bunch of opportunities

00:10:38.420 | that are afforded by a work from home lifestyle.

00:10:40.420 | It gives you tremendous flexibility in your daily activities,

00:10:43.500 | tremendous flexibility in where you live,

00:10:47.020 | which opens up a huge world

00:10:48.600 | of incredible financial planning opportunities,

00:10:50.380 | everything from being able to live

00:10:51.780 | in a lower cost of living place

00:10:53.260 | to being able to live on the other side of the world,

00:10:55.500 | work whatever schedule you like.

00:10:57.260 | It's pretty cool.

00:10:59.220 | But right now, if your job allows it in any way,

00:11:02.340 | you get a chance to try it on for free.

00:11:05.620 | Don't even have to change your job.

00:11:07.100 | This question is, do you like it?

00:11:09.140 | Do you like it?

00:11:11.700 | Think about it, embrace it.

00:11:15.320 | Now, if you're still adjusting,

00:11:16.260 | what I'll tell you is that what I learned

00:11:17.660 | when I started working from home full-time

00:11:19.500 | is there is definitely an adjustment period.

00:11:22.400 | Don't expect everything to be perfect all of a sudden.

00:11:24.700 | Give it some time.

00:11:26.160 | But at this point, if you're working from home,

00:11:28.220 | you've probably been working home for a few weeks

00:11:29.860 | and just test it out, see what you like.

00:11:33.260 | If you like it, you may have an opportunity right now

00:11:37.180 | that is awesome to be able to make this

00:11:39.620 | a more permanent part of your lifestyle.

00:11:42.560 | What I would commend to you is that if you have a job

00:11:46.460 | that allows you to work from home,

00:11:50.380 | and if you're finding that it seems like a good fit for you,

00:11:53.980 | I would work day and night to be hardcore productive.

00:11:59.760 | I would work day and night to be producing so much,

00:12:03.340 | so much excellent work that your bosses

00:12:05.220 | will never want you to come back to the office.

00:12:07.580 | If you can prove to them that you get more work done

00:12:11.020 | from home, that you're able to make more things happen

00:12:13.580 | from home, you have the opportunity to make this

00:12:16.600 | a more permanent part of your lifestyle.

00:12:19.040 | So don't slack off.

00:12:20.180 | Now, you're probably not slacking off

00:12:21.460 | just 'cause you wanna keep your job.

00:12:22.700 | I think more and more of us are appreciating the fact

00:12:24.620 | that we still have work.

00:12:26.460 | But the way that you handle your productivity

00:12:31.120 | during this time will provide you

00:12:32.700 | with more opportunities in the future.

00:12:35.380 | So work hard.

00:12:36.380 | Work hard to demonstrate to your bosses

00:12:39.240 | that this should be a regular part of your life

00:12:42.320 | and your lifestyle.

00:12:43.420 | Because if you can get that, I'm telling you,

00:12:47.520 | it's not perfect for everyone, obviously not,

00:12:49.720 | but it is something that opens up horizons

00:12:52.560 | in a way that you would not believe.

00:12:56.400 | This may very well be one of the big trends

00:12:59.020 | going forward in the future.

00:13:00.500 | This trend that allows people to live and work

00:13:03.740 | from wherever they want to.

00:13:04.780 | This may be the thing that kind of pushes us over.

00:13:07.300 | People are predicting for a long time,

00:13:09.180 | everyone's gonna work from home in the future

00:13:10.500 | 'cause we're all just gonna sit and type on our computers

00:13:12.700 | and communicate with one another, and video chat,

00:13:14.420 | and video conference, and everything.

00:13:15.500 | It's gonna come a huge way.

00:13:17.740 | But the trends have been lagging behind it.

00:13:19.620 | And in fact, in some ways, the trends have been

00:13:21.020 | the opposite direction.

00:13:22.420 | I thought that we would move strongly

00:13:24.620 | in that work from home direction,

00:13:26.140 | but the trends over the past few years,

00:13:27.560 | especially with many businesses,

00:13:29.400 | has been that they've been rolling back

00:13:31.360 | their work from home programs,

00:13:32.780 | rolling back the opportunities for individuals

00:13:35.160 | to actually do that.

00:13:37.000 | This might change that, but it's largely gonna depend

00:13:40.400 | on how effective it is for you and how effective it is

00:13:43.120 | for you and your coworkers.

00:13:45.900 | Now, if you don't like working from home,

00:13:48.040 | what I would encourage you is take note of the fact

00:13:50.800 | that you don't like working from home.

00:13:52.720 | Recognize, I don't like this.

00:13:54.200 | I don't wanna do this, because you'll be a lot more happy

00:13:58.780 | when you do go back to the office.

00:14:00.560 | You'll appreciate it a lot more,

00:14:02.300 | which means you'll be able to bring more energy

00:14:03.840 | and zest to that work.

00:14:05.380 | It's also, however, something that you should think about

00:14:09.360 | in terms of your future lifestyle design.

00:14:11.400 | Because if you don't like working from home,

00:14:14.540 | are you really gonna like being at home full-time

00:14:17.200 | if you're working towards something like retirement?

00:14:19.800 | I ask you to consider it.

00:14:24.120 | Next opportunity for individuals.

00:14:26.280 | I would encourage you, use this time as an opportunity

00:14:31.280 | to cut your expenses to the bone and see what that's like.

00:14:36.100 | Now, I think this is prudent for all of us at this time

00:14:40.160 | of great uncertainty.

00:14:41.540 | One of the things that's just a prudent part

00:14:43.160 | of financial planning, when you're facing uncertainty,

00:14:45.560 | cut back any expenses that you possibly can

00:14:49.360 | in order to hoard cash.

00:14:51.260 | On a business level, this is difficult,

00:14:53.020 | because usually payroll is the biggest expense

00:14:55.680 | of most companies, and yet your biggest asset is employees.

00:14:58.520 | And if you start cutting employees,

00:14:59.960 | that comes with all kinds of problems down the road.

00:15:02.440 | But for individuals, those same things don't occur.

00:15:06.280 | And what's really unique about this current crisis,

00:15:08.720 | when we're all stuck in our houses and everything is closed,

00:15:12.220 | is it gives you the opportunity to just simply cut easily.

00:15:16.120 | I've done consulting work with people,

00:15:17.880 | say, "Yeah, my personal expenses are a little bit high,

00:15:20.040 | "but we've got these nice lifestyle things."

00:15:22.360 | And I'm like, "Listen, everything's closed,

00:15:24.020 | "just cut it now.

00:15:25.720 | "Cut everything.

00:15:27.360 | "Cut your expenses to the bone, see what it's like,

00:15:29.600 | "and then add back only what you really miss.

00:15:33.340 | "Add back what's really important to you."

00:15:37.140 | Sometimes, one of the best strategies

00:15:43.300 | if you want to change something in your life,

00:15:45.140 | renegotiate some commitments,

00:15:46.500 | is to go through some massive change.

00:15:49.300 | I've become convinced that this should be,

00:15:51.060 | in many circumstances, a primary strategy.

00:15:54.280 | A lot of times, people sit around

00:15:55.480 | and they work for little bits of change.

00:15:58.160 | I watch people, they want to get rid of stuff,

00:16:00.300 | and they go through this idea and they say,

00:16:03.040 | "I want to declutter,

00:16:04.000 | "so I'm gonna start with my dresser drawer,

00:16:06.480 | "and I'm gonna do one thing every day,

00:16:08.660 | "and I'm gonna throw one thing every day."

00:16:10.080 | Maybe that works for you.

00:16:11.100 | If it does, great.

00:16:11.940 | I see that it does work for some people.

00:16:13.880 | What I find for me is I find it very hard

00:16:16.200 | to stick with one thing every day for very long at all.

00:16:19.040 | I find it easier to just throw everything upside down

00:16:21.900 | and make some massive change,

00:16:23.580 | especially if it's a change that I want,

00:16:25.480 | if there's a reason for that change.

00:16:27.660 | Sometimes, massive change, massive lifestyle change,

00:16:31.820 | massive disruption provides you with a convenient excuse

00:16:35.180 | to renegotiate your entire life.

00:16:37.340 | And it's easier to tell people why you're doing something.

00:16:42.800 | Let's say, for example,

00:16:43.680 | you've been frustrated by living in a big house.

00:16:46.760 | You've been frustrated by facing down

00:16:50.180 | all these mountains of stuff,

00:16:51.400 | and you've wanted to become a minimalist,

00:16:53.400 | but your parents are gonna judge you

00:16:55.580 | and criticize you for being a minimalist.

00:16:57.620 | Well, then all of a sudden, you get laid off.

00:16:59.100 | Tell your parents, "Sorry, guys, I got laid off.

00:17:00.760 | "I gotta get rid of all this stuff and sell the house."

00:17:03.080 | Gives you a unique opportunity

00:17:04.760 | to negotiate those weird cultural commitments that we have.

00:17:08.640 | So use this as a chance to change your expenses.

00:17:13.080 | It's good, prudent, defensive financial planning

00:17:15.800 | to cut, cut, cut.

00:17:17.000 | Stinks for the companies, of course, but it's good for you.

00:17:21.640 | And then add back what you really miss.

00:17:23.980 | Could be a real opportunity for you.

00:17:27.360 | I've even done this,

00:17:31.360 | recommended it to people even on an annual basis.

00:17:34.640 | I don't do this much anymore.

00:17:36.520 | It's not necessarily,

00:17:37.520 | I don't think it's the best way to do it,

00:17:39.240 | but I've given the advice to people.

00:17:40.320 | Just listen, you wanna change your spending drastically?

00:17:42.880 | Call all your credit card companies,

00:17:44.400 | report all your cards lost or stolen.

00:17:47.220 | You may have lost them to the shredder today,

00:17:49.160 | but report them all as lost or stolen,

00:17:50.880 | and get brand new credit cards

00:17:52.760 | with brand new numbers issued to you.

00:17:54.600 | And that in and of itself will just cut

00:17:56.820 | all of the expenses that are billed to those

00:17:58.640 | and force you to renegotiate everything.

00:18:00.360 | And you'll add back the things that you really miss,

00:18:03.060 | but you'll probably save some money in the process.

00:18:05.560 | So think about ways that you can use this to help you.

00:18:09.500 | That's on the income side for individuals.

00:18:13.280 | Now for businesses, some of these things have corollaries.

00:18:16.440 | For example, for businesses,

00:18:17.640 | I think this is a really interesting time

00:18:19.480 | for you to try out the work from home lifestyle.

00:18:22.500 | Does it work for your business?

00:18:24.240 | Does it work for your team?

00:18:26.000 | Does your team like it?

00:18:27.440 | Is it good for them?

00:18:29.000 | I don't think it's good for all businesses.

00:18:30.840 | I think there are a lot of businesses

00:18:32.400 | that even though they could work with kind of disconnected,

00:18:36.880 | spread around workforces all around the globe,

00:18:39.280 | it's not ideal.

00:18:40.200 | It's better for them that they have one physical location

00:18:42.720 | where people are physically working.

00:18:44.520 | But I do think it can be a useful option for some people.

00:18:50.160 | And so you have a good chance to test it right now.

00:18:54.100 | At the very least, use this time of disruption

00:18:57.040 | to provide you with the opportunities

00:18:58.680 | to build those backup systems.

00:19:00.880 | Even if your team can be in one physical location,

00:19:04.160 | and even if that is the best thing for your business,

00:19:07.000 | I think it's very valuable

00:19:08.700 | that your business have backup systems,

00:19:11.680 | that you have the infrastructure in place

00:19:13.580 | so that if your central business location were disrupted,

00:19:16.760 | your employees could spread out.

00:19:18.600 | That would be a simple part of a disaster recovery plan.

00:19:21.440 | For example, a fire.

00:19:23.000 | Let's say that you had a fire,

00:19:24.280 | just one simple building fire at your primary office.

00:19:28.340 | Well, part of your backup plan for that kind of event

00:19:31.680 | would be to have offsite data storage,

00:19:33.520 | would be to have a way that you could have equipment

00:19:35.880 | so that your employees, assuming your employees are safe,

00:19:38.000 | your employees could go and spend time in other places.

00:19:42.080 | So it can be part of your emergency planning.

00:19:44.680 | Go ahead and figure out the technology that works.

00:19:48.760 | In today's world, the technology that works

00:19:51.080 | when everybody's outside of the office

00:19:52.600 | is in many cases the same technology

00:19:54.480 | that you would use inside the office.

00:19:56.680 | So use that to your benefit.

00:19:58.120 | Use this opportunity to see

00:20:02.080 | how you could build a more flexible team

00:20:05.960 | even for the longterm.

00:20:07.200 | One of the things that I've become really interested in

00:20:10.240 | is a business concept

00:20:11.760 | and have sought to employ in my own business

00:20:15.200 | is how can I make my business more scalable

00:20:18.680 | by not relying on full-time employees,

00:20:21.540 | but rather relying on contracted services?

00:20:24.560 | It's a really interesting option.

00:20:27.720 | Can I use a company that provides me

00:20:31.680 | with a team of virtual assistants that work for me

00:20:35.320 | rather than individually contracting with one employee?

00:20:40.040 | Because when I individually contract with one employee,

00:20:43.840 | I go through those phases of inefficiency

00:20:46.200 | where in the beginning,

00:20:47.280 | they probably have more capacity than I have work

00:20:49.720 | and then you build up and you expand,

00:20:51.840 | but that's a big financial commitment.

00:20:53.640 | It's also just a big commitment of,

00:20:56.080 | it puts a lot of weight on you

00:20:58.120 | when you're responsible for other people.

00:20:59.720 | So if you can use contracted services,

00:21:01.760 | sometimes you can minimize that financial commitment.

00:21:03.920 | You could build a more scalable business,

00:21:07.420 | but you can also bring less financial risk to your life.

00:21:12.420 | This I think could really be an opportunity

00:21:17.320 | for many businesses,

00:21:18.280 | because if your business has the opportunity

00:21:21.560 | to work virtually and you're finding that that can work,

00:21:25.260 | then now you may be able to distribute your work

00:21:30.160 | around the globe.

00:21:31.220 | You may be able to participate in labor markets

00:21:34.580 | that are much more cost-effective for your business.

00:21:37.200 | And that could provide you with a more resilient business.

00:21:40.100 | If you've got a labor force in a high cost of living place,

00:21:45.480 | very high cost of employment, United States, Canada,

00:21:48.320 | someplace in Western Europe,

00:21:49.760 | and all of a sudden business starts to go down,

00:21:52.120 | you have to cut pretty quickly.

00:21:53.940 | But if your business could take advantage

00:21:57.420 | of a lower cost of living workforce,

00:22:00.180 | then sometimes you can just afford to keep that going.

00:22:03.240 | And even though you have excess capacity,

00:22:05.380 | the numbers work out better for you

00:22:06.760 | 'cause you have a more efficient business.

00:22:08.080 | Think about it.

00:22:09.440 | I think one of the big changes

00:22:10.420 | we're gonna be seeing in the future

00:22:11.480 | is a lot of businesses have been exposed

00:22:12.960 | as being overly reliant on China specifically.

00:22:17.100 | They focus so much on one country

00:22:18.920 | that when one country shut down, it caused major problems.

00:22:23.040 | And so it's an opportunity to say,

00:22:24.640 | "Hey, that didn't work, let's change it."

00:22:27.560 | Now, in some cases, that means some American firms

00:22:31.160 | will outsource more to Mexico

00:22:33.220 | or outsource more to other parts of Asia

00:22:36.500 | or bring more jobs back to the United States of America.

00:22:39.440 | I think it's remarkable if you look

00:22:40.920 | at what's happening right now in the markets,

00:22:44.840 | not talking about stock markets,

00:22:46.160 | just simply what's happening in the flow of goods

00:22:50.240 | and services and the flow of capital

00:22:53.360 | and the flow of products,

00:22:55.240 | and you see how exposed so many industries are,

00:22:59.800 | it's remarkable.

00:23:01.680 | And you wonder, was all of the efficiency worth it?

00:23:06.400 | There have been people

00:23:07.240 | who've been warning about this for decades,

00:23:08.300 | but I think there are gonna be some major changes

00:23:10.180 | because many countries all around the world

00:23:12.220 | are seeing how exposed they are

00:23:14.620 | when all of their industries

00:23:17.020 | are outsourced to other countries.

00:23:18.720 | We'll see what happens.

00:23:22.300 | Now, what about some ideas for you

00:23:25.820 | in expanding your operations?

00:23:31.940 | I think one of the biggest opportunities right now

00:23:34.260 | is to expand for businesses and for individuals.

00:23:39.260 | You can either use this time and sit back

00:23:41.960 | and be filled with anxiety and frustration,

00:23:44.920 | or you can make a bold, aggressive plan to press forward.

00:23:48.120 | Let's talk about for individuals first.

00:23:53.660 | One of the things, especially if you're laid off right now

00:23:56.400 | or you run the risk of getting laid off,

00:23:58.760 | you should recognize that your safe,

00:24:01.560 | secure job really never was.

00:24:04.180 | I've always looked at that safe, secure job idea

00:24:09.460 | as somehow that provides security.

00:24:11.420 | I'm like, you got one customer.

00:24:13.360 | That's basically how it is.

00:24:15.380 | If you're an employee working for a company,

00:24:17.540 | you've got exactly one customer.

00:24:19.860 | And if you lose that one customer,

00:24:23.780 | you lose 100% of your revenue.

00:24:26.160 | That's a very, very unsafe position to be in.

00:24:31.000 | Now, not everybody is gonna go out

00:24:34.600 | and build up multiple customers.

00:24:36.480 | Not everybody's gonna work for multiple employers.

00:24:38.400 | I'm not trying to convince you of that.

00:24:40.080 | But if that bothers you,

00:24:41.400 | the fact that you can lose 100% of your income

00:24:44.000 | if you lose one customer,

00:24:45.640 | I highly recommend to you you choose a different path.

00:24:48.340 | Again, not trying to brag, but I'm thankful.

00:24:52.740 | It was built intentionally.

00:24:54.440 | I was worried about that risk,

00:24:55.920 | and I said, I don't want a business

00:24:57.520 | that relies on one customer.

00:24:59.200 | I don't want a business that relies

00:25:00.360 | on even a couple of big customers.

00:25:02.580 | When I first started in the financial planning business,

00:25:04.420 | I remembered I would get so excited about big customers,

00:25:07.060 | and then something would always happen.

00:25:08.540 | I'd have a big client or a big potential client,

00:25:11.060 | and they'd buy something from me,

00:25:12.460 | and then all of a sudden they'd cancel it.

00:25:13.580 | They'd buy a big insurance policy,

00:25:15.080 | and then they'd cancel it.

00:25:16.100 | And then I'd have these huge clawback of commissions

00:25:18.900 | that would just totally disrupt my life.

00:25:20.540 | And I came to the point, I was like, this is crazy.

00:25:23.020 | I appreciate a big sale, right?

00:25:24.700 | We all do.

00:25:25.700 | It's nice to have one big customer

00:25:27.740 | who pays you $100,000 a year

00:25:29.300 | to show up 40 hours a week.

00:25:30.540 | That's great.

00:25:31.380 | But on the other hand, that comes with a lot of risk,

00:25:34.700 | and it comes with a lot of pain

00:25:35.820 | when you lose that one customer.

00:25:37.580 | And I said, I'm not gonna be dependent

00:25:39.140 | on one or even a few big customers ever again.

00:25:42.140 | I want lots of customers,

00:25:43.820 | so that, hey, if I lose 100 customers,

00:25:46.100 | I lose a tiny percentage of my business.

00:25:48.620 | That's one of the things that I've appreciated very much

00:25:50.820 | in this current recession.

00:25:52.520 | I've not lost business.

00:25:53.820 | I've gained business.

00:25:54.660 | I've gained a ton of business,

00:25:56.140 | partly because of having that wide platform

00:25:59.220 | where I have a lot of customers,

00:26:02.380 | partly also that I've chosen to try it over the years.

00:26:06.280 | Once I realized that my strategy

00:26:08.300 | of serving the broke 17-year-old kid

00:26:10.420 | who I've always wanted to find my show and help him out,

00:26:13.020 | once I realized that that was a total failure,

00:26:14.580 | I said, well, I'll just go ahead and serve rich people.

00:26:16.500 | And the great thing about serving rich people,

00:26:18.340 | and not being facetious,

00:26:19.840 | but if you serve rich people effectively,

00:26:22.100 | rich people always have money.

00:26:24.820 | I would always recommend it to you.

00:26:26.640 | If you're looking for an opportunity in your business,

00:26:29.920 | it's just always seemed,

00:26:31.260 | I guess I learned this years ago probably,

00:26:33.300 | again, in 2008, I read a lot of Tom Stanley's books.

00:26:36.220 | At that time, he was a very influential person for me.

00:26:38.480 | I read all his books.

00:26:39.320 | And the thing that he pointed out

00:26:41.420 | is he pointed out how many times wealthy entrepreneurs

00:26:44.540 | would encourage their children

00:26:46.340 | to become service providers to wealthy people.

00:26:49.820 | They'd be service providers of medical services

00:26:52.480 | or of legal services or of accounting services, et cetera.

00:26:57.060 | Because there was a huge degree of security in that.

00:26:59.460 | And entrepreneurs often recognized

00:27:01.420 | how risky the pathway of entrepreneurship really is,

00:27:05.020 | while simultaneously understanding

00:27:07.020 | that if you can serve wealthy people

00:27:08.860 | with those needed services, that'll be useful for you.

00:27:12.020 | And that's been one thing that's been on my mind

00:27:14.220 | for over a decade now,

00:27:15.740 | is that if I serve wealthy people,

00:27:18.060 | wealthy people are always gonna have money.

00:27:20.900 | One wealthy family might lose all their money, right?

00:27:23.300 | They might have a legal issue and whatnot.

00:27:25.060 | But if you serve wealthy people,

00:27:27.340 | wealthy people always have money.

00:27:29.120 | And so it's a very valuable, resilient strategy

00:27:31.220 | that you can put into your business,

00:27:32.620 | is serve wealthy people.

00:27:34.220 | And so my business has been doing well

00:27:36.080 | 'cause I serve wealthy people.

00:27:37.940 | And Joshua doesn't cost all that much

00:27:40.780 | compared to the value of his ideas.

00:27:42.100 | There's a very good value proposition,

00:27:44.340 | and so it works well.

00:27:45.660 | So think about how you can implement

00:27:47.060 | those kinds of strategies in your business.

00:27:48.780 | Can you expand from here

00:27:50.640 | and start to serve multiple employers?

00:27:52.580 | If you've lost your job, yes, should you get another job?

00:27:55.660 | I think you should.

00:27:56.820 | But maybe you don't get another full-time job

00:27:58.940 | that keeps you committed

00:27:59.820 | where you don't have opportunities on your own

00:28:02.540 | to go ahead and bring other customers on.

00:28:04.060 | Go ahead and pick up a job,

00:28:05.580 | but make a plan that you're not gonna depend

00:28:07.580 | on one company ever again in the future,

00:28:09.980 | one opportunity ever again in the future.

00:28:12.040 | I think some of the lessons that we're learning right now

00:28:15.860 | are so valuable.

00:28:16.780 | For example, let's say that you built a real estate strategy

00:28:20.180 | and you were building everything on Airbnb.

00:28:22.940 | The debacle that has been Airbnb investing,

00:28:26.460 | or rental market for investors over the last couple months

00:28:31.100 | demonstrates the real risk of non-diversification.

00:28:35.960 | There are a lot of investors

00:28:38.580 | who are losing everything right now

00:28:40.780 | because their plan was to buy five rental houses

00:28:44.440 | and to rent them all out on Airbnb,

00:28:45.980 | and that worked great until Airbnb imploded.

00:28:48.660 | Now, will that come back?

00:28:51.900 | Probably.

00:28:53.140 | Airbnb certainly has the biggest name,

00:28:55.260 | but man, when Airbnb changed their cancellation policy

00:28:59.500 | and said that all of the Airbnb customers

00:29:02.420 | could all of a sudden cancel everything

00:29:04.420 | and have all that money come back from the Airbnb hosts

00:29:07.940 | in what was, now, Airbnb justified it

00:29:10.500 | under their extraordinary circumstances clause,

00:29:12.420 | but that put a lot of people in a tough spot.

00:29:15.860 | So we gotta learn from these lessons

00:29:17.180 | and say that didn't work.

00:29:18.220 | I need to be more well-diversified.

00:29:19.980 | Now, in the middle of that system,

00:29:24.140 | look and see what kind of diversification works.

00:29:27.220 | If you had a few houses in the suburbs

00:29:28.900 | of a not very popular city,

00:29:30.060 | there's a good chance that you have no rentals right now

00:29:32.660 | if you're in that short-term rental marketplace.

00:29:34.900 | On the other hand,

00:29:36.220 | maybe there are locations where it does work.

00:29:38.140 | So always think about what are the biggest risks?

00:29:40.540 | I've been astounded at the risks that we're facing right now

00:29:45.260 | just to continue on this theme of investing

00:29:47.420 | for just a moment.

00:29:48.540 | I never, never imagined a situation,

00:29:53.540 | as much as I've thought about risk,

00:29:55.140 | I never would have imagined a situation

00:29:58.260 | in which states would say to landlords,

00:30:00.540 | "You cannot evict your clients, your tenants.

00:30:04.140 | "You cannot evict your tenants."

00:30:05.380 | And in which states would say,

00:30:06.980 | governments would say to utility providers,

00:30:08.940 | "You can't cut off services."

00:30:10.980 | I don't know.

00:30:11.860 | Maybe somebody out there thought of that,

00:30:13.500 | but I didn't think we were in that kind of world.

00:30:16.340 | Well, fool me once, shame on me, right?

00:30:18.900 | Or shame on you.

00:30:19.740 | Fool me, I'm butchering, my apologies.

00:30:22.260 | I'm butchering every single one of my cliches today.

00:30:26.140 | Fool me once, shame on you.

00:30:30.300 | Fool me twice, shame on me.

00:30:31.860 | I'm not gonna make that mistake again.

00:30:35.920 | It's an interesting argument for crossing jurisdictions.

00:30:39.700 | Right, it's an interesting argument

00:30:40.980 | where if most of your rentals are in Illinois,

00:30:43.860 | there might be value in having some rentals

00:30:45.540 | in Indiana or Wisconsin, because there are different laws.

00:30:48.580 | If all of your rentals are in New York,

00:30:50.140 | you might wanna also have some rentals in some other places.

00:30:52.600 | So you think about that.

00:30:53.580 | But we're facing risks that demonstrate

00:30:56.580 | the importance of diversification.

00:30:59.200 | So learn from these things.

00:31:00.800 | Build bigger income streams, build wider markets,

00:31:05.460 | try to work in markets where there's a bigger moat.

00:31:07.840 | That was the point I was making

00:31:08.920 | when trying to work with wealthy people.

00:31:10.700 | Wealthy people always have money.

00:31:12.300 | Maybe you work in a market that is essential, right?

00:31:15.420 | That provides you with certain benefits.

00:31:18.020 | Grocery store owners are not going bankrupt right now.

00:31:21.620 | That's good.

00:31:22.440 | Gym owners are, right?

00:31:26.580 | It's bad to go bankrupt, but think,

00:31:28.420 | is there some way that I could adjust this to lower the risk?

00:31:31.180 | I don't know if there's a solution

00:31:32.400 | for every industry, for every business.

00:31:34.860 | In fact, I know there's not.

00:31:36.260 | But I know that intelligent, thoughtful people,

00:31:40.220 | when they face serious risk,

00:31:42.180 | can think about the mitigating factors of that

00:31:45.060 | and make better decisions next time.

00:31:49.020 | Let me pivot to some personal things that you can do.

00:31:53.780 | I've talked a lot about business here.

00:31:55.680 | There's clearly an opportunity right now

00:32:00.300 | and in the coming days for buying good investments.

00:32:06.340 | So right now, if there are investments out there

00:32:09.720 | that you consider to be fairly priced,

00:32:11.700 | get busy buying them.

00:32:12.960 | Buy investments if you consider them to be fairly priced.

00:32:17.980 | I think that we should all have basically a buy sheet

00:32:22.540 | of here are the kinds of things that I want to invest in.

00:32:26.580 | Here is a list of investments.

00:32:28.620 | Here are assets that I want to own

00:32:30.620 | and here is what I would consider to be a fair price.

00:32:33.380 | Now, the reason why most people don't think this way

00:32:37.500 | is because we're basically,

00:32:39.900 | a lot of it is just modern portfolio theory.

00:32:42.540 | We're baked into the idea that the way that you invest

00:32:45.400 | is through a mutual fund.

00:32:47.020 | You dollar cost average into the mutual fund over time

00:32:49.300 | and you buy and hold forever

00:32:50.560 | because the market is efficient.

00:32:52.160 | I'm not arguing against that necessarily.

00:32:55.840 | If that's your theory, then you should be buying right now.

00:32:58.920 | But I've always been more attracted to the value strategy,

00:33:04.200 | the idea of this is what I think

00:33:06.100 | the value of this asset really is.

00:33:08.600 | Here's my argument as to why I think

00:33:10.760 | this asset is this valuable.

00:33:13.360 | And here's my buy price.

00:33:15.680 | And I'll buy as much as I can at this price.

00:33:18.640 | Now, every investment has that kind of valuation

00:33:23.060 | that can be done.

00:33:24.160 | You can do that valuation on a company and on their stock.

00:33:27.620 | You can do that valuation on a piece of property.

00:33:30.720 | You can do that valuation on a pickup truck.

00:33:34.160 | You can do that valuation on almost anything.

00:33:36.600 | You can come up with a formula and you can say,

00:33:38.560 | this is what this is worth to me.

00:33:40.880 | And so if I see this for sale at this price, I will buy.

00:33:44.720 | So I'm looking hard for those deals right now.

00:33:51.960 | Now, the markets that I'm interested in

00:33:53.040 | may not be the markets that you're interested in,

00:33:55.080 | but figure out what markets you're interested in and invest.

00:33:59.680 | There are deals now available

00:34:03.200 | and there will be deals available all around the world

00:34:06.080 | in all kinds of interesting markets right now.

00:34:08.680 | This is a time that you can get busy investing

00:34:15.280 | if you're positioned for that.

00:34:16.780 | One of the things that I have,

00:34:20.320 | one of the things that 2008 convinced me of

00:34:24.840 | was the value of simply sitting back and waiting

00:34:28.200 | for the investment markets to be in your favor.

00:34:32.680 | Over the past years, I've given advice

00:34:34.640 | again and again and again to people.

00:34:36.120 | And I've said, listen,

00:34:37.240 | don't invest if it's not a good deal.

00:34:40.600 | Just sit and wait, stockpile cash.

00:34:44.180 | There's nothing wrong with stockpiling cash

00:34:46.600 | and sitting and waiting.

00:34:48.280 | Because when I think about the outcomes

00:34:51.280 | of good investing for individuals,

00:34:53.900 | what I observe is that you only need

00:34:58.240 | a couple of wins in your life to be set up really well.

00:35:02.820 | You're not managing a mutual fund.

00:35:06.240 | You're not managing a hedge fund

00:35:07.760 | where your performance is gonna be reported

00:35:09.640 | and compared to all the other investment managers.

00:35:12.080 | You're just managing your life.

00:35:14.640 | And in your life, you probably only need a couple of wins.

00:35:18.280 | You need a couple of good deals here and there.

00:35:22.840 | And if you'll put together a couple of wins

00:35:25.880 | and not lose big in the interim,

00:35:28.080 | you can be wealthy and you can stay wealthy.

00:35:31.500 | Meanwhile, if you suffer a couple of big losses,

00:35:39.580 | those losses can wipe you out for decades.

00:35:42.140 | Which is why I increasingly think

00:35:46.680 | it pays to be conservative.

00:35:48.640 | Now, that word conservative is not perfect

00:35:50.760 | 'cause it's so subjective.

00:35:52.200 | I think there are times that you go all in.

00:35:54.440 | And there are times that the losses are not so significant.

00:35:57.320 | And you gotta think about those things.

00:35:59.200 | You gotta judge those opportunities.

00:36:01.420 | I'm not saying don't take advantage of an opportunity

00:36:03.560 | when you see it.

00:36:04.400 | What I'm saying is take advantage of the opportunities

00:36:06.800 | when they're there, but don't chase an opportunity today,

00:36:10.280 | this month, this year, if it's not there.

00:36:12.600 | It's a mistake that so many people do.

00:36:13.920 | They buy, buy, buy because they have to buy, buy, buy

00:36:16.480 | instead of waiting for buying to be

00:36:17.980 | the clearly correct thing to do.

00:36:19.620 | Again, I like to use real estate 'cause it's so intuitive.

00:36:25.460 | But if you just bought, bought, bought because you had to

00:36:28.660 | and went all in on Airbnb, if you didn't have enough room,

00:36:33.320 | sometimes things didn't work out.

00:36:36.640 | I'd encourage you, talk to some older investors.

00:36:39.600 | And what I find in talking to older investors,

00:36:42.400 | more experienced investors,

00:36:43.680 | is they're often willing to simply wait,

00:36:46.660 | to simply observe and to wait

00:36:49.000 | and to judge where we are right now, but to be patient.

00:36:53.980 | I deeply hate using Warren Buffett as an example.

00:36:58.180 | He's so overused and I think any financial commentator

00:37:01.900 | can use Warren Buffett to prove any argument that they want.

00:37:05.660 | But I'm gonna take that bait and just simply say,

00:37:08.840 | observe how much cash Berkshire Hathaway was sitting on.

00:37:12.700 | Now, part of that was uniquely their problem

00:37:16.140 | that they have so much, they're so huge,

00:37:18.620 | they have a hard time investing their cash.

00:37:21.260 | But observe how much cash they're sitting on.

00:37:24.160 | Why should you run your life any differently?

00:37:27.400 | I sound like I beat the same thing constantly,

00:37:31.680 | don't be scared to sit on cash.

00:37:33.020 | But if I overuse it, I'm sorry,

00:37:35.000 | but it's because it's a lesson that I had to learn

00:37:37.880 | and unlearn from the difference between what I observed,

00:37:41.800 | what I learned from kind of pop personal finance world,

00:37:45.900 | which said, invest, make sure you put your money

00:37:48.040 | into your 401k every month.

00:37:49.120 | And what I observed wealthy people doing.

00:37:50.880 | And I observed that wealthy people would just sit on money,

00:37:54.360 | sit on cash, they were prepared for opportunity.

00:37:56.600 | And they would wait for those buying opportunities.

00:37:58.440 | And I became convinced for myself,

00:38:01.200 | I became convinced that the key thing to do

00:38:03.740 | was to always have the ability, have the dry powder,

00:38:06.720 | have the ability to pounce when you see a really good deal.

00:38:09.680 | And a couple of really good deals,

00:38:11.560 | whatever good deals mean to you,

00:38:14.080 | a couple of really good deals can make you for life

00:38:16.800 | and set you completely financially free.

00:38:18.960 | But you can't force them.

00:38:20.920 | You have to wait and be prepared for them.

00:38:23.020 | And I think you'll see that proved out in the coming months.

00:38:27.800 | So buy investments if you consider them

00:38:29.480 | to be fairly priced.

00:38:30.320 | If you don't consider them to be fairly priced, then wait.

00:38:33.080 | Next, shop for consumption items.

00:38:36.840 | Start your shopping now.

00:38:38.500 | If you've got some consumption items

00:38:40.100 | that have been on your list,

00:38:41.360 | now is the time to start shopping for them.

00:38:44.100 | We don't know how long this crisis will go on.

00:38:46.780 | We of course hope it'll be short,

00:38:48.480 | but whether it's short or long,

00:38:51.320 | there are opportunities for you.

00:38:53.120 | Here's what I see happening as of April, 2020.

00:38:56.560 | I don't see a lot of weakness in the used marketplace.

00:39:01.560 | I don't see a lot of weakness

00:39:04.280 | in the used car marketplace yet.

00:39:06.880 | I don't see a lot of weakness in the used boat marketplace.

00:39:09.620 | I don't really see a lot of weakness

00:39:10.920 | in the housing marketplace right now.

00:39:12.500 | I think this change has been so fast

00:39:14.600 | that most people are just sitting and waiting.

00:39:17.280 | Where I do think there's starting to be weakness

00:39:19.540 | is in the new marketplace.

00:39:22.000 | So if you've been thinking about buying a new car,

00:39:24.140 | this is the time that I'd be negotiating hard.

00:39:26.480 | The new car business has completely fallen apart,

00:39:30.660 | and this is a time that I would be going in

00:39:32.720 | and I would be pressing every single button,

00:39:35.040 | getting every single dealer competing with one another.

00:39:37.940 | The new boat business, similar things.

00:39:41.220 | The new RV business.

00:39:43.060 | These businesses have collapsed.

00:39:45.480 | And think about the situation

00:39:47.260 | that most of these dealers are in.

00:39:49.460 | The dealer, what does he have?

00:39:50.580 | He has what's called a floor plan.

00:39:51.980 | And so most dealers buy huge amounts of inventory on credit,

00:39:56.900 | on short-term financing called a floor plan.

00:39:59.300 | And they'll put out huge amounts of money

00:40:02.300 | and sign up for huge amounts of debt

00:40:04.220 | to maintain what's on their lot.

00:40:06.380 | They have to move cars in order to make that system work.

00:40:11.060 | Now, there are different levels of conservatism

00:40:14.320 | that the dealers are operating under,

00:40:15.820 | but they have to move cars.

00:40:17.740 | What has happened is the shock over the last month

00:40:20.180 | has been so severe that the number of cars

00:40:23.700 | that they've been able to move has just utterly collapsed.

00:40:26.940 | And those dealers are starting to feel

00:40:29.180 | massive levels of pressure.

00:40:31.700 | They need to move vehicles,

00:40:33.620 | and they need to move vehicles to service their payments.

00:40:36.420 | They can cut staff, they can cut positions,

00:40:40.380 | that lowers their outflow.

00:40:42.260 | They can reduce their payroll down

00:40:43.940 | to even just a minimum staff.

00:40:45.260 | What they can't cut without getting rid of the inventory

00:40:47.700 | is their monthly payments.

00:40:48.900 | And so they need cash flow.

00:40:51.100 | And so right now, if you've been sitting

00:40:52.980 | and watching and waiting and said,

00:40:54.260 | "You know what, I'd like to have this certain new car,

00:40:57.260 | "I'd like to have this certain new boat, or this RV."

00:41:00.140 | This is the time to be negotiating.

00:41:02.220 | And what I'll tell you is especially focus

00:41:04.540 | on doing that negotiating across the country,

00:41:07.140 | or even across the world.

00:41:08.060 | Go wherever you need to.

00:41:10.140 | And hey, if you're sitting at home anyway,

00:41:11.620 | they're used to working with you virtually.

00:41:13.380 | They're not expecting you to show up.

00:41:14.780 | And so this is the time to work the phones,

00:41:16.300 | this is the time to work the email.

00:41:18.060 | Look for opportunities.

00:41:21.220 | Now, I'm not sure yet that the new house market,

00:41:24.900 | that the builders are feeling the pressure.

00:41:26.500 | I haven't been able to get a good firm grasp on that.

00:41:29.420 | But if you're interested in building a new house

00:41:31.580 | or buying a new house,

00:41:33.260 | I would definitely be investigating it right now.

00:41:36.780 | Now, what about the used market?

00:41:39.100 | I don't know that we're seeing a lot of deals

00:41:40.740 | in the used market yet,

00:41:42.660 | because I think the job markets

00:41:44.460 | or that people are losing their jobs, it's so new.

00:41:47.340 | And I don't see a lot of people panic selling anything.

00:41:49.860 | Now, maybe if you're shopping for something specific,

00:41:52.580 | of course, when I say the used market, what does that mean?

00:41:54.220 | Does that mean the used market in Roomba vacuum cleaners?

00:41:57.340 | Does that mean the used market in hoverboards?

00:42:00.900 | The used market in jet skis or private airplanes?

00:42:03.980 | What are we talking about?

00:42:05.100 | Every one of those is very different.

00:42:07.100 | But whatever markets you're interested in,

00:42:08.820 | whatever toys you've been looking to acquire,

00:42:11.220 | I would be shopping them right now

00:42:12.620 | and seeing what those deals are.

00:42:14.620 | Because I think that if they're not there now,

00:42:16.340 | they're just gonna start to be there pretty quickly.

00:42:18.700 | So get into your, well, if your local pawn shop is open.

00:42:21.060 | When your local pawn shop opens, get in there.

00:42:22.740 | For now, be on Craigslist, be on OfferUp, be on Facebook,

00:42:26.060 | be on, what do the Canadians say, Kijiji, right?

00:42:28.660 | Kijiji, I can't remember if it's the, I think it's Kijiji.

00:42:32.820 | Whatever your local platform is, be on those platforms

00:42:37.100 | and start looking around and seeing.

00:42:38.780 | Because there will come a time

00:42:42.140 | when people need to start liquidating stuff.

00:42:44.480 | And so start getting a sense

00:42:46.780 | of how long the auctions are out there.

00:42:48.900 | That's the key to buying well in any used market period

00:42:51.780 | is to know the market so that you can understand

00:42:54.500 | where you are in the market.

00:42:55.860 | So you can understand when you have the chance

00:42:57.460 | to press somebody, when you say,

00:42:59.380 | eh, well, I'll come back in two months

00:43:01.080 | and then I'll talk to you.

00:43:02.460 | So you need to know the speed, the days on market

00:43:04.540 | for the markets that you're involved in.

00:43:06.260 | So get started shopping.

00:43:07.420 | You're sitting at home, get started shopping.

00:43:09.060 | What are the things that would make your life,

00:43:10.620 | your family's lifestyle better?

00:43:12.220 | You know, it's interesting.

00:43:14.580 | Questions are asked of me.

00:43:16.180 | Joshua, why do you think that you should have cash?

00:43:19.660 | One of the reasons I think you should have cash

00:43:21.500 | is usually just for opportunities.

00:43:23.280 | If you, it'll be very hard for you without a huge income

00:43:29.340 | to be able to live well now and also be financially free

00:43:32.780 | unless you get good at buying cheap stuff

00:43:35.500 | for a great lifestyle.

00:43:36.780 | The typical, you should see some air quotes,

00:43:41.580 | the typical high consumption lifestyle

00:43:44.740 | is insanely expensive.

00:43:46.460 | It's very inefficient.

00:43:49.400 | Let's say that you have a dual income household,

00:43:52.340 | both income earners work jobs.

00:43:54.840 | That is the single most inefficient possible way

00:43:57.780 | that you can set up your lifestyle.

00:43:59.460 | You are absurdly highly taxed in that situation,

00:44:02.380 | both income earners.

00:44:03.620 | So yes, you have good household income,

00:44:05.060 | but you pay a brutally high level of taxes.

00:44:07.820 | You have no efficiencies in your personal life.

00:44:10.340 | And so you often pay very high retail prices for stuff.

00:44:13.620 | You don't have time or energy to make a lunch

00:44:16.300 | or to cook from scratch.

00:44:18.980 | So you go out to eat all the time, right?

00:44:21.880 | That's just the tip of the iceberg.

00:44:23.660 | You don't have time to school your kids

00:44:25.480 | or hire a private tutor in your home.

00:44:27.020 | And so you put them in expensive retail private schools.

00:44:30.940 | You don't have time to research and travel off season.

00:44:34.460 | And so you've got to travel

00:44:35.420 | on the same schedule as everyone else.

00:44:36.780 | So you pay high prices for airfares,

00:44:39.500 | high prices for hotels.

00:44:40.720 | About the only savings that you could do there,

00:44:42.140 | I guess, is do some credit card hacking,

00:44:44.260 | if that's your thing.

00:44:45.880 | You don't have time or inclination

00:44:48.060 | 'cause you're not that class of person

00:44:49.420 | to go and shop on the used market.

00:44:51.180 | So you go and buy brand new RV

00:44:53.140 | and keep it for a few years

00:44:54.300 | and sell it and destroy your money.

00:44:55.500 | You lease cars, you buy new boats.

00:44:58.860 | All these things just destroy your money

00:45:01.060 | at every single level.

00:45:02.340 | And about the only thing you come out

00:45:03.780 | the other side with is a 401k along the way.

00:45:07.220 | Now, can you do it smart?

00:45:09.180 | Can you avoid that?

00:45:10.060 | Yeah, of course you can.

00:45:11.100 | Anybody along the way can start doing smart stuff.

00:45:13.240 | Just 'cause you work a job

00:45:14.300 | doesn't mean that you have to go buy brand new RVs.

00:45:17.860 | Just 'cause you work a job

00:45:18.780 | doesn't mean you can't do credit card hacking.

00:45:20.500 | Of course, that's silly.

00:45:22.180 | It's not either or, that would be a false dichotomy.

00:45:24.800 | But there are a lot of people who are stuck in that world

00:45:28.580 | and because of it, they never get ahead.

00:45:31.140 | Now, if you go into the world of the conservers, right?

00:45:33.300 | The savers, you'll often find

00:45:35.860 | that they buy really fancy stuff,

00:45:38.860 | but the total lifetime cost of their stuff is less.

00:45:43.360 | So let's say you want a boat.

00:45:47.100 | Well, don't go to the boat dealership

00:45:48.700 | and buy a name brand boat.

00:45:51.380 | Buy the boat with cash from the guy next door

00:45:54.800 | who's about to have the thing repossessed.

00:45:57.080 | And he just needs to get rid of it.

00:46:00.600 | Buy the RV from the distressed seller

00:46:05.100 | who's about to lose it.

00:46:06.360 | Pick up the car off lease.

00:46:09.040 | But in order to do those things, you need money,

00:46:11.900 | which means you'll have to save in advance.

00:46:14.060 | And so whether cash just simply means

00:46:17.480 | going and writing a check

00:46:18.440 | or whether it means $100 bills on the hood of a car,

00:46:20.820 | you would be shocked at the deals you can find

00:46:22.840 | when you're ready to move fast and ready to buy stuff.

00:46:25.020 | So this is the time to buy toys.

00:46:27.640 | Think ahead, buy the toys

00:46:29.580 | that your family's gonna benefit from

00:46:31.800 | if you wanna have toys in your life.

00:46:33.660 | If you can cut the total cost of ownership on toys

00:46:38.960 | based upon getting good deals,

00:46:40.420 | you can live a much richer lifestyle at a lower cost.

00:46:43.360 | And it is entirely possible

00:46:47.080 | for an intelligent, thoughtful buyer

00:46:50.900 | to make money on almost every single toy

00:46:53.100 | they have in their life.

00:46:55.140 | It's a skill set.

00:46:56.620 | I haven't been perfect at it, but I've been pretty good.

00:46:59.380 | And I've always inspired by people

00:47:01.060 | who can make money on seemingly everything in their life.

00:47:04.480 | So consider.

00:47:05.320 | Next, use this time of stress and crisis

00:47:09.660 | to renegotiate your obligations.

00:47:12.480 | Renegotiate your bills, your expenses.

00:47:16.760 | Now those can be the big ones,

00:47:19.080 | those can be the little ones.

00:47:20.340 | If you haven't picked up the phone and called your landlord,

00:47:23.060 | I would strongly encourage you to do that.

00:47:25.260 | Pick up the phone, call your landlord,

00:47:27.660 | renegotiate your rent, renegotiate your lease.

00:47:30.820 | Ask for a discount.

00:47:33.440 | One of those major skills to develop

00:47:37.320 | if you wanna really be wealthy

00:47:38.420 | is the skill of asking for a discount.

00:47:40.540 | Consistently, every single time, may I have a discount?

00:47:43.300 | If you don't ask, you probably won't get one,

00:47:45.500 | but if you do ask, you sometimes get one.

00:47:47.660 | So call your landlord and ask for a discount.

00:47:50.700 | It's very much within your landlord's best interest

00:47:53.320 | if you're a good tenant to have you.

00:47:55.120 | So go ahead and ask for a discount.

00:47:58.560 | Now you can leverage opportunities in your life right now.

00:48:02.400 | You can leverage the fact that you're worried about your job.

00:48:05.060 | You can leverage the fact that your hours are cut.

00:48:06.980 | You can leverage the fact that your wife got laid off.

00:48:09.460 | You can leverage the fact that your business is struggling.

00:48:12.940 | Don't lie.

00:48:14.400 | But you can leverage those things.

00:48:17.640 | And just say, hey, listen, my wife got laid off

00:48:20.940 | or my hours got cut at work.

00:48:22.660 | I can still pay you and I do that,

00:48:24.900 | but I'm concerned.

00:48:26.100 | Would you be willing to discount my rent,

00:48:27.660 | at least temporarily,

00:48:28.500 | until we see if we can get through this thing?

00:48:30.500 | That's a much better scenario than you're not paying at all.

00:48:34.620 | So see, can you renegotiate your rent?

00:48:36.380 | Can you renegotiate your leases?

00:48:38.860 | Now clearly, those in the commercial marketplace

00:48:40.820 | are much more accustomed to this,

00:48:42.180 | but use it as an opportunity to renegotiate your leases.

00:48:45.760 | Use it as an opportunity to renegotiate your mortgage.

00:48:48.560 | Consider refinancing your mortgage.

00:48:51.960 | Change the terms in some way that benefits you.

00:48:55.160 | Stretch out the payments, lower the cost,

00:48:57.400 | lower your cash flow.

00:48:58.520 | Renegotiate things right now.

00:49:01.560 | Even your other bills.

00:49:02.840 | Many bills, many service providers

00:49:06.560 | are offering relief right now.

00:49:08.280 | Everything from relief on your student loans

00:49:10.920 | to no early term payments.

00:49:13.920 | No early termination fees for a contract.

00:49:17.100 | Those kinds of things.

00:49:18.340 | So go through and renegotiate all your bills

00:49:20.180 | and your expenses.

00:49:22.020 | Standard practice with things like an internet company

00:49:24.860 | or a cable company is,

00:49:26.180 | in order to get, because of the way they are so dumb,

00:49:29.300 | they treat good customers like dirt

00:49:31.940 | and treat new customers like gold.

00:49:34.440 | One of the best things that you should do

00:49:35.620 | is make a list of that once a year.

00:49:37.420 | Call your cable company and tell them you're gonna cancel

00:49:40.020 | and get the cancellation department

00:49:41.140 | to see if they can offer you a new package

00:49:42.660 | to keep your service going.

00:49:44.800 | Now that's a strategy in difficult times

00:49:48.320 | and in non-difficult times,

00:49:49.740 | but there's no reason not to use it right now.

00:49:51.920 | Renegotiate everything.

00:49:53.760 | If you've got a $180 a month cell phone bill,

00:49:56.120 | then say, "Listen, man, I'm gonna go to Mint Mobile

00:49:58.840 | "if you don't lower this thing.

00:50:00.200 | "What can you do?"

00:50:01.040 | And see what they can offer you.

00:50:02.640 | You don't know if you don't ask.

00:50:04.420 | So renegotiate everything.

00:50:12.200 | Consider what you could have done

00:50:15.440 | if you had known in advance that this was coming.

00:50:20.000 | Consider how flexible you would have wanted to be

00:50:25.920 | if you had known in advance that this was coming.

00:50:28.360 | Sometimes you're not gonna get out of the deal right now.

00:50:34.960 | You're not gonna get out of the contract.

00:50:36.340 | You're not gonna get out of the lease.

00:50:38.280 | You're not gonna be able to renegotiate it.

00:50:40.520 | But if you learn from this,

00:50:41.540 | next time you'll make a better deal.

00:50:43.340 | So I think a good, you know,

00:50:45.560 | I start disaster planning in my

00:50:48.160 | How to Survive and Thrive

00:50:49.280 | During the Coming Economic Crisis course.

00:50:51.160 | I talk about starting with bankruptcy.

00:50:53.140 | That's your starting point.

00:50:54.720 | Let's do bankruptcy planning.

00:50:56.280 | Let's say that you knew

00:50:57.320 | that you were gonna be forced into bankruptcy.

00:51:00.120 | What would you need to come flying out

00:51:02.200 | the other side of the bankruptcy ready to rebuild?

00:51:05.160 | So you start there.

00:51:06.180 | That affects the types of contracts you make.

00:51:10.800 | That affects the where you keep your money,

00:51:12.740 | how you keep your money,

00:51:13.860 | the forms that you keep your money, et cetera.

00:51:15.980 | And then once you start with bankruptcy,

00:51:17.760 | then you could just a matter of going up from there.

00:51:20.260 | Let's give you a simple example, right?

00:51:22.220 | Business loans versus personal loans.

00:51:26.640 | It's never made sense to me why individuals go and,

00:51:33.720 | you know, borrow money in their personal name

00:51:35.720 | to start a business when they could borrow money

00:51:38.280 | in the business name

00:51:39.200 | or in the very least segregate those business debts out

00:51:42.320 | onto a separate credit card.

00:51:44.480 | That's kind of 101.

00:51:45.640 | So assume you start with bankruptcy and say,

00:51:47.480 | how do I protect myself coming out of bankruptcy?

00:51:50.320 | And then begin with that plan in mind.

00:51:52.680 | So similar things, don't sign up for balloon payments,

00:51:57.560 | right, things that could bankrupt you.

00:51:59.200 | Don't sign up for personal guarantees

00:52:01.480 | whenever you have the choice to avoid it.

00:52:03.860 | Don't sign up even for long-term commitments

00:52:06.280 | or long-term contracts when you have the choice to admit it.

00:52:09.760 | That way of thinking, sorry,

00:52:11.680 | when you have the choice to avoid it,

00:52:12.760 | that way of thinking will help you.

00:52:14.580 | The entry-level consumer option is

00:52:18.400 | don't sign up for a cell phone contract.

00:52:20.860 | Use a prepaid plan.

00:52:23.240 | That way you can just drop your cell phone service off

00:52:25.400 | at the touch of a hat.

00:52:26.720 | I've found that to be so helpful.

00:52:28.320 | I fear I make too much out of a small thing,

00:52:32.040 | but for a lot of people,

00:52:34.040 | especially a lot of young entry-level workers,

00:52:36.720 | their single biggest bill is their cell phone.

00:52:40.000 | And this turns into just a crazy bill

00:52:43.360 | where you have a phone payment,

00:52:45.480 | so you're making payments on a device that was expensive,

00:52:48.840 | and then you have a service payment

00:52:50.360 | that you're often locked into with a contract

00:52:52.340 | with a big hairy early termination fee.

00:52:55.000 | Well, what happens if you get laid off?

00:52:56.600 | You lose the phone, you lose the service,

00:52:59.320 | you harm your credit sometimes,

00:53:02.400 | and now you don't have a phone

00:53:03.640 | which is gonna be one of your

00:53:04.480 | most valuable communication tools.

00:53:06.560 | Now I believe that that phone

00:53:07.880 | is probably one of the first things that you should buy.

00:53:09.880 | If I were flat broke, completely broke,

00:53:12.660 | I would probably, I would skip meals

00:53:16.520 | until I could get a functional phone

00:53:18.500 | because that communication device opens up a world to you.

00:53:22.200 | It's hard to get a job

00:53:23.120 | if you don't have a stable phone number.

00:53:25.280 | But that doesn't mean that you have to be locked in.

00:53:29.120 | Over the years, what I've done

00:53:30.880 | is I've moved everybody away from phone calls

00:53:34.800 | over to messaging apps.

00:53:36.560 | This is kind of a funny thing,

00:53:37.620 | just a little bit of cultural insight

00:53:39.240 | into the United States versus much of the rest of the world.

00:53:42.920 | The United States functions on phones and phone systems.

00:53:46.920 | Most of the world functions on apps, primarily WhatsApp.

00:53:50.640 | And there's an interesting anthropological reason for this.

00:53:54.680 | If you go back, and this is my analysis,

00:53:56.240 | I've never read this anywhere, it's just my opinion.

00:53:58.280 | Feel free to disprove it if you want,

00:53:59.840 | but this is just Joshua observing the marketplace

00:54:01.800 | and thinking about why this exists.

00:54:03.820 | But in the United States,

00:54:04.700 | you had an early adoption of telephone infrastructure.

00:54:07.560 | You had the invention of the telephone,

00:54:09.560 | then the widespread installation of it.

00:54:11.240 | And so the US American economy spent millions,

00:54:14.800 | billions probably of dollars,

00:54:16.640 | connecting everybody with a phone line.

00:54:18.760 | But that phone infrastructure

00:54:20.400 | was specifically wired phone infrastructure.

00:54:24.600 | And everybody got used to using their home phones.

00:54:29.280 | So back in the early days of cell phones,

00:54:31.240 | when I was in high school,

00:54:32.080 | in the late '90s and the early 2000s,

00:54:34.040 | you would call somebody on their cell phone,

00:54:35.320 | but it was considered very bad taste

00:54:36.840 | to call somebody for a long conversation.

00:54:38.480 | You would call them if necessary,

00:54:40.000 | but you always moved to a home phone

00:54:41.360 | because the home phones were a lot cheaper.

00:54:43.680 | Even the home phones, though, were expensive.

00:54:45.440 | I love reading old books on saving money,

00:54:48.340 | and I'll always chuckle when you read somebody

00:54:51.380 | talk about saving money

00:54:52.400 | because if you can buy a first-class stamp

00:54:55.780 | and send somebody a letter in the mail

00:54:57.840 | using a first-class stamp,

00:54:59.000 | it was cheaper than making a long-distance phone call.

00:55:01.560 | It just seems so antiquated now,

00:55:03.000 | but it was the real advice back then.

00:55:06.000 | That was the personal finance advice that made a difference.

00:55:08.840 | Well, in much of the world,

00:55:10.420 | that wired infrastructure was never installed,

00:55:13.100 | but there was an immediate leap to wireless.

00:55:15.480 | And this has made a huge difference in many markets.

00:55:19.180 | Many wide parts of Africa and some of Southeast Asia,

00:55:22.800 | some of the Americas,

00:55:23.960 | they just completely skipped all the cost and expense

00:55:26.560 | of installing this massive wired infrastructure,

00:55:29.600 | and they went straight to cell phones,

00:55:31.540 | which was awesome for their ability

00:55:36.280 | to quickly get connected.

00:55:37.860 | Really helped out many of the local people

00:55:39.560 | to gain access to the world of information.

00:55:42.440 | But because of that, they started with cell phones.

00:55:44.780 | So Americans always have needed this interplay

00:55:47.180 | between cell phones and wired phone connections,

00:55:50.120 | but most other individuals had cell phones.

00:55:51.780 | And then very quickly, once data,

00:55:54.040 | once the smartphone came out,

00:55:55.400 | and then once data became more widely available,

00:55:58.040 | they realized, due to the need to conserve money

00:56:00.840 | and conserve costs,

00:56:02.600 | they realized that data was more efficient

00:56:05.240 | than voice communication, than text.

00:56:10.000 | This was back in the days

00:56:10.840 | when you would pay 10 cents per text message, et cetera.

00:56:13.440 | Data was a lot more efficient.

00:56:15.400 | And so apps, communication apps, like WhatsApp,

00:56:19.320 | came to prominence very, very quickly,

00:56:21.120 | and everybody moved to that,

00:56:22.320 | and that became the standard system.

00:56:24.240 | And so to this day, outside of the United States

00:56:26.800 | and outside of Western Europe,

00:56:28.120 | you'll often see that a business will put its WhatsApp number

00:56:30.780 | on the door of its store,

00:56:33.040 | and that's considered normal to ask somebody.

00:56:36.340 | People answer their WhatsApp number

00:56:37.720 | even if they don't recognize the number.

00:56:38.880 | They respond to the messages.

00:56:40.880 | And so what that means, though,

00:56:42.680 | is because WhatsApp is a service

00:56:44.240 | where you're not charged for the use of it,

00:56:46.440 | and because it only connects to data,

00:56:48.580 | then people have a much thinner relationship

00:56:51.220 | with their cell phone provider,

00:56:52.360 | 'cause they're not tied necessarily to one number.

00:56:55.080 | You can have a WhatsApp phone issued in one specific number,

00:56:58.200 | and you can keep that number for years

00:56:59.480 | even if you don't keep that number alive.

00:57:01.600 | And so a little bit of an aside there.

00:57:04.200 | Hope you enjoyed kind of the insight

00:57:05.640 | into the development of it.

00:57:07.040 | You can understand, though,

00:57:07.880 | the anthropology of this movement.

00:57:09.200 | And what you can see is in the United States,

00:57:12.480 | if you can move away from the phone number,

00:57:14.780 | then you have the opportunity to lower those expenses.

00:57:19.040 | And so you can cut out a very significant cost

00:57:21.920 | for young people.

00:57:22.740 | Now, if I'm running a business,

00:57:24.000 | not a chance in the world I'm gonna try to make do

00:57:26.560 | with kind of cobbled together phone systems and cheap stuff.

00:57:30.500 | Man, give me good service, give me stability, et cetera.

00:57:34.040 | I'm not gonna try to run a business from pseudo app.

00:57:36.960 | Not gonna work.

00:57:39.080 | But for somebody who's an entry-level worker,

00:57:43.720 | not earning a lot of money,

00:57:45.120 | the ability to keep communications

00:57:46.920 | but cut $150 out of their phone bill is a huge deal.

00:57:52.120 | But that exact same principle applies at a different scale.

00:57:55.780 | At a much higher scale,

00:57:57.940 | it's a matter of negotiating your leases

00:58:00.680 | and thinking, what if I had to cut this lease out right away?

00:58:04.040 | How would I do it?

00:58:05.320 | It's a matter of negotiating your employment contracts

00:58:08.420 | and saying, what's the total cost?

00:58:09.760 | How can I shorten this up so that we can be more nimble?

00:58:13.120 | It's a matter of thinking about your infrastructure

00:58:16.060 | and how you design your business.

00:58:17.280 | And that's too complex for me to give example after example,

00:58:19.760 | but it's the same level of thinking,

00:58:22.320 | just applied at a different scale

00:58:24.220 | with a different number of zeros behind.

00:58:26.220 | Think through what you'd like to do.

00:58:30.980 | For me, over the years, when I thought about that stuff,

00:58:34.560 | I realized that I was nervous.

00:58:36.440 | I didn't, kind of allergic to the idea

00:58:38.880 | of being in a situation

00:58:40.680 | where I have a lot of long-term contracts.

00:58:43.520 | The thing I didn't like about debt

00:58:44.920 | was I wasn't able to pivot quickly.

00:58:46.960 | And so if I avoid it, then I can still pivot quickly.

00:58:50.480 | The same thing applies to long-term leases,

00:58:52.600 | long-term commitments, contracts, et cetera.

00:58:55.040 | I'd personally rather pay a little bit more

00:58:58.880 | in order to have the flexibility of canceling early

00:59:04.160 | rather than be committed for the long-term.

00:59:07.120 | Your mileage may vary.

00:59:08.480 | Close with this.

00:59:11.260 | Think through this current disaster

00:59:16.400 | and think about what you'd like to have

00:59:18.400 | if this were really bad.

00:59:20.020 | I think we're gonna avoid the worst case scenario.

00:59:25.820 | My best guess at the moment

00:59:29.160 | is I think the medical issues are demonstrating themselves

00:59:32.320 | that they can be brought under control.

00:59:34.880 | And at the moment, we don't know

00:59:36.200 | what the economic impacts are gonna be,

00:59:38.280 | but we're probably gonna avoid

00:59:40.240 | kind of the long-term worst case scenario.

00:59:42.880 | It's still hard to know.

00:59:45.680 | Another few weeks, we're gonna tell the story,

00:59:47.280 | but I'm getting the distinct impression

00:59:49.560 | that people are less scared of the virus

00:59:51.520 | than they were previously

00:59:53.760 | and that they're pretty much done with being shut down.

00:59:57.160 | And so I think that,

00:59:58.560 | although I don't know what that solution is gonna be,

01:00:00.640 | I think it's probably gonna be widespread testing,

01:00:03.340 | antibody testing, and active infection testing.

01:00:07.400 | I think that's probably gonna be the solution

01:00:09.120 | with more isolation for the at-risk.

01:00:11.800 | That just seems like the most sensible solution

01:00:13.760 | and everybody else try to get back to work.

01:00:16.440 | If that happens, I think this could be

01:00:18.120 | more of a more normal run-of-the-mill deep hard recession

01:00:21.880 | rather than just global catastrophe.

01:00:23.880 | I'm still hoping, maybe it's just wishful thinking,

01:00:27.680 | but I'm still hoping that we avoid

01:00:29.640 | the global catastrophe scenario.

01:00:31.720 | But I've been taking notes

01:00:35.760 | because I could still see

01:00:38.640 | that global catastrophe scenario happening.

01:00:42.000 | And it's remarkable to me how fast it happened.

01:00:44.500 | And so I've been taking notes.

01:00:46.920 | All right, what would I need if this were really bad?

01:00:50.160 | How do I feel right now?

01:00:51.560 | You know, what am I learning from the situation?

01:00:55.480 | I was chatting with somebody recently,

01:00:57.560 | said, you know, the $100,000 emergency fund

01:01:00.040 | is gonna be the status symbol of choice

01:01:01.560 | for the next generation.

01:01:03.400 | When all of a sudden you realize

01:01:04.860 | that we can go from practically zero, not actually zero,

01:01:09.060 | but very low unemployment numbers, a few percent,

01:01:13.060 | you know, practically 0% unemployment,

01:01:15.740 | up to 30% unemployment overnight in a few weeks,

01:01:18.980 | I never imagined that was possible.

01:01:21.380 | I never imagined that.

01:01:23.760 | But I'm gonna imagine it going forward.

01:01:25.940 | All of a sudden now a three-month emergency fund

01:01:28.220 | or a six-month emergency fund

01:01:30.100 | just doesn't seem so robust.

01:01:32.360 | I used to recommend it 'cause that was the CFP

01:01:38.700 | accepted standard, three-month emergency fund

01:01:41.060 | for dual income earners

01:01:42.180 | or six months for single income earners.

01:01:44.580 | Well, I've not been quite comfortable with that for a while,

01:01:47.420 | but I mean, with the number of children I got,

01:01:50.980 | three months just doesn't seem all that robust anymore.

01:01:53.740 | Maybe it's different for you.

01:01:55.900 | So maybe you say, you know,

01:01:57.220 | my target is now a 12-month emergency fund.

01:01:59.680 | I sleep better at night.

01:02:02.220 | I don't worry, I don't have anxiety.

01:02:04.780 | I have processed this event far differently

01:02:08.100 | than many other people have

01:02:09.580 | because I don't have any anxiety

01:02:11.260 | about the financial ramifications of it.

01:02:13.340 | I'm well-prepared for it.

01:02:15.100 | Again, not bragging, just trying to say

01:02:16.820 | that the decisions that you make today

01:02:19.100 | are gonna make a big difference

01:02:20.220 | in how you experience the next crisis.

01:02:22.460 | And there's always going to be a next crisis.

01:02:24.760 | And so that sense of peace, that sense of robustness

01:02:28.380 | in my business and my personal finances

01:02:30.900 | allows me to be at total peace

01:02:32.300 | and to focus on how am I gonna turn this thing out?

01:02:34.620 | How am I gonna serve millions of people?

01:02:36.500 | How am I gonna win?

01:02:37.900 | And those are pretty cool.

01:02:40.700 | I think you should take seriously the lessons

01:02:44.380 | that you're learning from your investment portfolio.

01:02:47.620 | I'll admit something that is not particularly popular,

01:02:49.940 | but it's something I've experienced.

01:02:51.740 | I've learned that I haven't been sad

01:02:55.260 | to not own mass market stock mutual funds.

01:02:59.140 | I haven't missed it, which was a strange revelation for me

01:03:04.520 | because I used to make a business out of training investors

01:03:08.500 | not to bail when times are bad.

01:03:11.480 | I was never scared of volatility.

01:03:13.460 | And my entire business as an investment manager

01:03:15.980 | was predicated upon the value proposition

01:03:18.420 | of helping people stay invested

01:03:20.400 | when everything within them is screaming,

01:03:22.220 | sell, sell, sell, sell.

01:03:24.100 | But I haven't been out of that business for six years now,

01:03:27.100 | or six years.

01:03:28.580 | I haven't owned stock mutual funds

01:03:30.180 | in probably four years, I guess, three or four years.

01:03:34.140 | And it's been fascinating to just sit back

01:03:36.580 | with a kind of detached perspective.

01:03:39.900 | And honestly, I've had to reassess.

01:03:41.900 | I'm like, why put up with that stuff?

01:03:44.580 | Like, why put up?

01:03:46.660 | Everyone says, and if I were Nick Murray,

01:03:49.940 | I'm not subscribed to Nick Murray's newsletter right now,

01:03:52.660 | but I used to subscribe to his newsletter.

01:03:54.460 | Right now, Nick Murray is guaranteed writing articles

01:03:59.460 | about how strong the American companies are

01:04:02.500 | on a global basis where they have this global income stream,

01:04:05.620 | et cetera.

01:04:06.460 | And is it true?

01:04:07.280 | It's absolutely true.

01:04:08.440 | But are these companies so fragile

01:04:11.880 | that they couldn't make it through a few weeks?

01:04:14.980 | Right, is Delta Airlines so poorly managed

01:04:18.060 | that they couldn't make it through three weeks

01:04:20.420 | with a shutdown?

01:04:22.580 | Now, I concede that an 80% decrease in traffic

01:04:25.500 | is a big, big decrease,

01:04:27.900 | and it's very hard to prepare for that.

01:04:30.300 | But when you have year after years after years

01:04:33.380 | after years of making profit,

01:04:34.780 | like don't any of them set aside any money?

01:04:38.060 | Don't any of them save money?

01:04:39.600 | I think the millennial complaint is exactly right.

01:04:45.540 | You know, everyone says,

01:04:46.380 | well, buy a little bit less avocado toast,

01:04:47.940 | and all of a sudden you'd be able to save some money.

01:04:49.780 | Well, maybe if you save a little bit of money, companies,

01:04:51.500 | you wouldn't need such a fast bailout.

01:04:54.300 | What a crazy system.

01:04:56.100 | Now, I'm happy to accept

01:04:58.820 | that your rationality of the markets,

01:05:00.280 | I'm happy to accept the unknowns.

01:05:01.820 | Like, it's fine.

01:05:02.900 | I think there's opportunities,

01:05:03.820 | and I'm not, I think there are opportunities

01:05:05.660 | to profit long-term.

01:05:08.380 | I haven't missed the volatility.

01:05:10.020 | That's all I'm saying, just sharing my personal experience.

01:05:13.020 | I haven't missed it.

01:05:14.020 | Because it's such an opaque market to individuals

01:05:20.700 | that you can see the trades sometimes,

01:05:23.980 | but it just seems to me almost

01:05:28.860 | infinitely easier to run your own business,

01:05:33.360 | to be involved in your own scenario,

01:05:34.680 | where the market trends are more understandable to you.

01:05:37.940 | I realized that, you know, I wish I had more gold.

01:05:46.000 | One of, you know, it's the untalked about scenario,

01:05:51.400 | and I own more gold than the average person, certainly,

01:05:54.840 | but one of the things I realized,

01:05:56.080 | like, I wish I owned more gold.

01:05:58.420 | It feels good in times of crisis to have assets

01:06:01.140 | that are not so determined by, you know,

01:06:04.220 | this crazy scenario.

01:06:05.140 | It feels good to have assets that can move easily around.

01:06:07.820 | So, you know what?

01:06:08.720 | I always felt crazy for buying gold,

01:06:11.400 | but I wish I had more gold.

01:06:12.580 | There's an interesting investment argument,

01:06:14.420 | and there's just something about it.

01:06:16.220 | Is it illogical?

01:06:18.300 | I think it is sometimes.

01:06:20.180 | I think people have this illogical connection to it,

01:06:22.860 | but is it real?

01:06:25.140 | It's no less real than anything else.

01:06:27.620 | You know, I've talked to a number of people every now

01:06:30.480 | and then, 'cause I talk publicly about owning gold.

01:06:33.420 | I talk sometimes to portfolio managers and whatnot,

01:06:37.360 | and we talk about gold investing,

01:06:39.440 | and often I'll get people to invest,

01:06:41.640 | to admit to me privately every now and then.

01:06:44.240 | So I'm like, you know, I bought my first gold coin,

01:06:46.520 | and I sat there, and I held the thing,

01:06:47.720 | and you know what?

01:06:48.860 | I realized I like this.

01:06:51.280 | I don't wanna sell it.

01:06:52.600 | It feels good.

01:06:55.040 | And I never got that responsibility,

01:06:58.480 | that same emotion from owning a share of a company

01:07:03.480 | as I got from owning that physical coin,

01:07:08.760 | that one ounce gold coin.

01:07:11.000 | Now, again, the logical side of my brain says,

01:07:13.080 | all right, Joshua, red alert,

01:07:14.880 | logical fallacy coming right up.

01:07:16.320 | Pay attention.

01:07:17.160 | This is probably not something that you should invest

01:07:18.680 | based upon emotions and feelings, but it's really true.

01:07:21.760 | Those emotions and feelings matter.

01:07:23.920 | And over the years, one of the ways

01:07:25.160 | that I've matured as a financial planner

01:07:27.520 | is I've come to take those emotions

01:07:28.880 | and feelings very seriously.

01:07:31.520 | I used to tell people,

01:07:33.080 | oh, you shouldn't pay attention to your emotions.

01:07:34.720 | You should educate yourself

01:07:36.000 | into a more enlightened position.

01:07:38.320 | And then I started to have clients have bad experiences,

01:07:42.680 | and to these days, I've learned,

01:07:44.200 | like, dealing with the emotions is one of the first things

01:07:47.120 | to think about.

01:07:49.660 | So just evaluate what you wish you'd do.

01:07:53.040 | I have more stuff on my list than that.

01:07:55.120 | In fact, I got a big list of things where I'm like,

01:07:56.960 | you know what, I'd really like to have that right now.

01:08:00.160 | I won't go into that detail here, maybe another time,

01:08:02.720 | but for now, those things are things I wanna keep private.

01:08:05.280 | But just evaluate, what do you wish you had right now?

01:08:08.560 | What do you wish you needed?

01:08:09.960 | If you've got a toilet paper shortage in your house,

01:08:12.840 | do you wish you had toilet paper?

01:08:14.160 | If so, pretty soon, it'll be easy for you to stock up.

01:08:17.080 | Right now, you can buy all the commercial paper you want.

01:08:19.080 | Just go get commercial rolls of toilet paper

01:08:20.640 | so at least you have the stuff.

01:08:22.060 | But then in the future, just figure out

01:08:23.480 | how much toilet paper you always wanna have on hand,

01:08:25.880 | and then make sure you never go below that

01:08:27.760 | in your margin of toilet paper.

01:08:29.040 | If it's a month, great, have a few packages.

01:08:31.360 | If it's three months, whatever you use, just do that.

01:08:34.480 | Do you not feel stupid for the fact

01:08:37.160 | that you're a millionaire,

01:08:39.400 | and yet you can't lay your hands on toilet paper right now?

01:08:42.300 | Forgive my harsh language,

01:08:45.840 | but that's the lesson to grasp from it.

01:08:50.560 | Do you not feel short-sighted for the fact

01:08:52.420 | that I've got thousands of dollars,

01:08:54.420 | I've got thousands of dollars,

01:08:55.620 | but I can't get toilet paper?

01:08:57.700 | This thing that I use every single day,

01:08:59.580 | do you not feel short-sighted for the fact

01:09:01.240 | that you're a thousandaire, or a 10,000aire,

01:09:03.740 | or a 100,000aire, or a millionaire,

01:09:05.940 | and you can't lay your hands on that?

01:09:08.480 | Which makes a bigger difference in your quality of life?

01:09:11.340 | The fact that you have an extra $523 in your 401(k)

01:09:16.500 | because you put your 401(k) before everything?

01:09:20.060 | Or the fact that your wife has plenty of toilet paper?

01:09:22.760 | If you feel exposed from the fact

01:09:28.120 | that you're a wealthy person,

01:09:30.560 | but you can't get your hands on toilet paper right now,

01:09:32.980 | you should feel exposed, and you should fix that.

01:09:36.040 | But I think also what's interesting is right now,

01:09:41.620 | I think evaluate where you live, right?

01:09:44.660 | Evaluate your neighbors, your neighborhood,

01:09:46.220 | your house, et cetera.

01:09:48.980 | Evaluate who you live with,

01:09:50.380 | what that environment is like.

01:09:53.160 | I hope you don't wind coming out of this crisis

01:09:55.140 | where you're stuck at home.

01:09:55.980 | I hope you don't come out hating your kids,

01:09:58.980 | hating your wife, and I hope you don't wind up

01:10:01.260 | in divorce court after this.

01:10:02.340 | People make jokes about it, but I think it's really sad.

01:10:04.660 | I hope you really like the people that you like,

01:10:06.120 | but I'll tell you this, if you don't like your children,

01:10:09.060 | whose responsibility is that?

01:10:17.740 | If you don't like your children,

01:10:19.340 | why do you expect anybody else to like your children?

01:10:22.940 | Heard a parenting quote a number of years ago.

01:10:29.780 | I don't know if it's true or not,

01:10:31.300 | but it had a ring of truth to it.

01:10:34.020 | It was expressing something I think that's important.

01:10:36.660 | You should train and discipline your children

01:10:41.820 | until you like them.

01:10:42.960 | So if you find that you're spending hours and hours

01:10:46.580 | and hours a day with your children,

01:10:47.740 | and all of a sudden you don't like them anymore,

01:10:50.140 | that better be your goal, is to say,

01:10:54.620 | how can I change my practices as a father,

01:10:59.620 | as a mother, so that I like my children,

01:11:03.860 | so that I want to spend my time with them?

01:11:05.960 | Why is it that they become these creatures

01:11:11.280 | that I don't wanna be around?

01:11:13.500 | That is not normal.

01:11:15.740 | (silence)

01:11:17.900 | If that's been your experience, I urge you,

01:11:23.540 | examine the fact that that is not normal,

01:11:28.540 | and it's your responsibility to change that.

01:11:33.180 | What about your relationship with your wife,

01:11:37.060 | with your husband?

01:11:40.340 | If you don't like being at home

01:11:41.740 | and spending time with them now,

01:11:43.460 | why do you think you're gonna like being at home

01:11:45.380 | and spending time with them when you start your own business

01:11:48.980 | when you retire?

01:11:50.000 | If you don't like being with them in your house,

01:11:54.860 | are you really gonna like traveling the world with them

01:11:56.860 | when you're old and rich and retired?

01:11:58.700 | Now, I would recommend you not trade them in

01:12:02.340 | for a newer model.

01:12:03.200 | I don't think that's a good plan.

01:12:04.900 | I think the better plan is,

01:12:06.500 | fall in love with them all over again,

01:12:08.860 | and help them fall in love with you all over again.

01:12:11.460 | (silence)

01:12:13.620 | Is it easy?

01:12:18.980 | No, it's not easy.

01:12:19.900 | But is it worth it?

01:12:25.900 | I think it really is.

01:12:27.120 | You can build a relationship into anything that you want.

01:12:31.220 | That's your responsibility.

01:12:34.040 | So can the stress exacerbate things?

01:12:38.140 | It can.

01:12:40.600 | I'm not immune to that stress.

01:12:42.280 | Neither are you.

01:12:43.380 | We're all subject to it.

01:12:45.140 | And I'm not trying to be excessively idealistic.

01:12:48.940 | But there's a difference between the general tone

01:12:52.000 | of your life being disaster,

01:12:54.380 | interspersed with a few moments of fun and joy,

01:12:58.100 | versus the general tone of your life being fun and joy,

01:13:02.360 | and good, interspersed with a few moments of disaster.

01:13:07.700 | (silence)

01:13:09.860 | You can change those things

01:13:13.900 | faster than you can change almost anything else.

01:13:16.460 | You really can.

01:13:22.100 | So consider what you can do in your situation

01:13:26.200 | to improve your family.

01:13:28.140 | It would be a real disaster for you to get old and rich

01:13:31.300 | 'cause you saved money and worked all the time,

01:13:33.620 | and then not to know your children,

01:13:35.240 | not to know your wife.

01:13:37.220 | Evaluate where you live.

01:13:39.060 | One of the things that's so fascinating

01:13:40.260 | about this particular crisis is the difference

01:13:43.800 | in how people are experiencing it

01:13:45.980 | based upon their different lifestyles.

01:13:48.420 | If you have gotten locked in and quarantined

01:13:50.860 | in a little tiny apartment in Wuhan, China,

01:13:52.940 | where they welded the doors of your apartment building shut,

01:13:55.740 | you had one experience.

01:13:57.860 | If you got quarantined in a cute little villa

01:14:00.260 | out in the Italian countryside,

01:14:01.820 | you got another experience.

01:14:03.920 | If you got quarantined in downtown New York City,

01:14:06.320 | you've had a third experience.

01:14:08.100 | If you got quarantined on your 160 acre farm

01:14:10.620 | in the rolling hills of Virginia,

01:14:12.200 | you've had a very different experience.

01:14:14.380 | Consider what that would mean to you.

01:14:21.020 | Again, just sharing from good things,

01:14:24.900 | for us, our quarantine has been great.

01:14:26.800 | I was telling my wife just this morning

01:14:29.460 | how thankful I am not to be living in an RV right now

01:14:31.700 | 'cause that would be really tough

01:14:33.060 | to be quarantined in an RV.

01:14:34.380 | There are travelers all around the world

01:14:35.920 | stranded right now.

01:14:37.160 | People can't get to their boats.

01:14:38.360 | They can't get out of the,

01:14:39.420 | they're locked in RV campground.

01:14:42.640 | They can't move, they can't drive.

01:14:44.120 | It's tough.

01:14:44.960 | And I think there's time for that.

01:14:47.640 | We can't always predict when disasters occur,

01:14:49.440 | but in general, your lifestyle is gonna be set up

01:14:52.040 | and it can be made better or worse.

01:14:54.900 | You know, we live in a great house.

01:14:57.720 | I got a great yard.

01:14:58.820 | And so for us, we've hardly noticed it

01:15:02.040 | because we're kind of homebodies anyway.

01:15:03.680 | It's just the quarantine for us

01:15:05.340 | has been a slightly smaller social sphere

01:15:08.980 | than it otherwise was.

01:15:10.920 | Now, is that better or worse?

01:15:11.780 | No, just saying that it's been much more comfortable

01:15:14.340 | than other places.

01:15:15.180 | And so one of the things that would be a big deal for me

01:15:18.460 | is if I ever needed to move into the city,

01:15:21.980 | I need to live in a small apartment in the city,

01:15:24.560 | given this experience,

01:15:25.860 | I would never want to be locked down in the city.

01:15:28.980 | That's always been important to me.

01:15:31.520 | If I lived in a city,

01:15:32.360 | I gotta have a way to get out of the city.

01:15:34.100 | The city can be a place of tremendous resources.

01:15:36.260 | You're unlikely to starve in the city

01:15:38.420 | because they're gonna send all kinds of food there.

01:15:40.020 | The grocery stores are gonna be stocked in the city

01:15:41.800 | before they are in the country.

01:15:43.340 | But then there can become a stressing point

01:15:45.180 | where the city is not such a wonderful place to be.

01:15:47.860 | Clearly, the city is not such a healthy place to be

01:15:49.980 | in some circumstances.

01:15:51.780 | And so, you know, that 160 acre farm in Virginia

01:15:55.060 | or that half acre lot somewhere with a nice RV on it,

01:15:59.380 | with a yard the kids can play on,

01:16:01.140 | it's all of a sudden looking a little bit better

01:16:02.700 | versus being stranded in your 37th floor apartment.

01:16:06.100 | Consider if there's an option there.

01:16:08.220 | I've been fascinating to watch how different states,

01:16:10.860 | both states within these United States

01:16:13.580 | and also states as in governments around the world

01:16:15.980 | have dealt with the lockdowns and the quarantines, et cetera.

01:16:19.320 | Man, living in a police state is not fun.

01:16:22.540 | It's shocking.

01:16:25.220 | I would not have predicted some of the civil liberties

01:16:28.460 | that people would give up,

01:16:29.380 | especially in the United States,

01:16:30.500 | again, where I have the most experience.

01:16:33.260 | I never believed that the Americans would sit down

01:16:36.260 | and let themselves be arrested for paddle boarding

01:16:38.940 | and why they would put up with that.

01:16:40.500 | I thought better of the Americans.

01:16:43.060 | But man, there's a big difference

01:16:45.740 | in how these things are done from state to state.

01:16:47.780 | So pay attention.

01:16:49.220 | And then just simply, you know,

01:16:50.340 | how do you assess the safety of the place that you live?

01:16:53.740 | You have a community that you like being a part of.

01:16:55.540 | Just assess those things.

01:16:56.620 | And if there are any changes, think about making them.

01:17:00.220 | In closing, times of difficulty are times of opportunity.

01:17:05.220 | Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.

01:17:15.020 | It's possible that you are not in a position

01:17:18.620 | to profit from this current event.

01:17:21.660 | It's possible that this is going

01:17:24.060 | to devastate you financially.

01:17:27.180 | There's no reason for us to be unrealistic in our thinking.

01:17:30.580 | There are millions and millions of families

01:17:32.660 | in the United States of America

01:17:34.060 | who are heading into bankruptcy in the coming years

01:17:36.940 | because of this.

01:17:37.900 | Businesses heading into bankruptcy.

01:17:42.540 | People fighting right now

01:17:45.580 | to see if they can avoid that outcome.

01:17:47.420 | There are hundreds of millions of people around the world

01:17:51.500 | wondering where their food is gonna come from next week.

01:17:54.260 | (birds chirping)

01:17:57.020 | What we're living in right now

01:17:58.220 | is wreaking devastation across the globe.

01:18:01.620 | It's hurting people.

01:18:03.060 | Is the economic hurt, the economic uncertainty

01:18:08.180 | better than the physical hurt and the risk of the virus?

01:18:11.180 | I don't know.

01:18:12.580 | And it doesn't matter if I know or not.

01:18:14.340 | I'm not in any position to do anything

01:18:16.540 | other than set my family aside.

01:18:18.100 | And I think all of us just have to take care of our own affairs.

01:18:21.820 | I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that.

01:18:23.700 | I don't know if it's better or worse.

01:18:25.900 | I don't see why I have to make a judgment on that.

01:18:28.460 | What I would say is that millions

01:18:31.580 | and hundreds of millions of people right now are hurting

01:18:34.380 | and scared.

01:18:36.620 | And they're not gonna be sitting aside

01:18:40.260 | ready to invest in, you know,

01:18:43.020 | make a fortune or buy a boat.

01:18:44.820 | If that's you, resolve to learn from the pain.

01:18:52.140 | Resolve to say, I'm going to go through this pain

01:18:56.300 | and it's going to be bad,

01:18:59.860 | but I am going to learn how to never again

01:19:04.020 | be here in my life.

01:19:05.420 | Once I get out of this,

01:19:09.740 | I am never again going to be here in my life.

01:19:13.140 | And so if that's the way that you win

01:19:18.380 | from this current disaster, that's good.

01:19:22.300 | Start there.

01:19:23.140 | You'll have a chance to do things differently.

01:19:28.980 | I was struck this morning.

01:19:33.540 | I watched a, I was looking at a news article

01:19:38.340 | and I was, it's from the Daily Mail.

01:19:41.380 | And the headline, it says,

01:19:43.980 | "Stark photos show miles long row of cars

01:19:47.740 | waiting outside a Florida food bank

01:19:50.620 | as demand surges by 600%

01:19:53.340 | and more than half a million residents

01:19:55.340 | file for unemployment."

01:19:57.620 | And so there's pictures, drone pictures of the cars.

01:20:00.700 | And what's fascinating to me

01:20:02.860 | is to see how fancy the cars out are.

01:20:05.100 | Now this is a South Florida phenomenon

01:20:07.340 | where especially Miamians, like Miami people

01:20:11.100 | will live in a roach infested single wide trailer

01:20:14.660 | while driving a $100,000 car.

01:20:16.540 | They will starve so that they can drive their car

01:20:19.180 | because it is the status symbol.

01:20:20.820 | But it's hard to find a broken down cheap car in this.

01:20:25.140 | And what I think about this,

01:20:27.700 | certainly there's a component of which you say,

01:20:30.060 | should you make a better decision?

01:20:31.300 | But there's not a shame in seeking help if you need help.

01:20:34.980 | Right, that's why food banks exist,

01:20:36.420 | which is why those of us who have the means,

01:20:39.140 | we need to donate to those, to a food bank.

01:20:41.780 | Whether it's a food bank organization,

01:20:43.140 | they need money, they need food.

01:20:44.340 | And so let's support those to help people in need.

01:20:46.700 | And if you need help, go and seek it out.

01:20:49.660 | But there is clearly a crazy prioritization here

01:20:54.660 | where somebody is out of food

01:20:57.180 | or feels that they need food

01:20:59.580 | in potentially less than a month after a disaster.

01:21:03.700 | That is, I don't wanna say text,

01:21:06.940 | the textbook definition of insanity, it's certainly not,

01:21:09.220 | but it's crazy.

01:21:11.140 | It's crazy.

01:21:13.180 | If you look at the cars in this line,

01:21:16.540 | not all of them, some of them are basic

01:21:18.660 | entry-level transportation, few thousand dollar cars.

01:21:21.900 | But there are many 40, 50, $60,000 cars

01:21:24.780 | sitting in this line that I can clearly identify

01:21:26.740 | from the drone photos.

01:21:28.620 | That's a big deal.

01:21:30.380 | The fact that somebody with a new car,

01:21:33.700 | here's a Mercedes SUV,

01:21:36.300 | being loaded with donated food in the back of it.

01:21:39.140 | That should be a shocking picture

01:21:45.380 | of a complete and total misunderstanding

01:21:50.380 | of the proper priorities of life.

01:21:53.020 | Don't resolve that that is never you.

01:21:57.260 | Resolve that that is never you going to a food bank

01:22:00.540 | after potentially a month of unemployment

01:22:03.020 | to pick up donated food driving

01:22:05.260 | in your expensive Mercedes SUV.

01:22:07.500 | Resolve that that's not you.

01:22:11.340 | Have some self-pride and some self-worth

01:22:13.580 | and some foresight to make sure that's not you.

01:22:16.540 | So if all you gain from this is a chance to learn,

01:22:19.500 | okay, learn.

01:22:20.460 | Learn as to how you can improve for next time.

01:22:25.860 | Learn so that you're not here again.

01:22:30.140 | But if you do have some resources

01:22:32.660 | and you've been waiting for this time,

01:22:34.460 | get busy looking for opportunities.

01:22:37.220 | Get busy looking for that new job, that new career.

01:22:40.300 | Get busy seeing, can I take a little bit of training

01:22:42.300 | and qualify myself for something new?

01:22:44.340 | Get busy focusing in on, hey, how are my competitors doing?

01:22:47.140 | Can I buy my competitors out?

01:22:48.620 | I coach a number of entrepreneurs.

01:22:51.500 | The lesson right now is,

01:22:52.620 | have you touched base with your competitors?

01:22:55.420 | 'Cause right now is the chance to be talking to them

01:22:57.860 | and saying, hey, listen, I'm ready to,

01:23:01.180 | do you want to sell?

01:23:02.340 | Let's get some discounts on buying some new businesses

01:23:04.420 | and expanding our operations.

01:23:06.180 | On buying the equipment at the bankruptcy sale

01:23:08.380 | from the businesses going out of sale.

01:23:11.740 | See, bankruptcy is incredibly important in a marketplace.

01:23:15.500 | It's incredibly important

01:23:20.540 | because it provides an opportunity

01:23:23.500 | for old businesses to get washed out

01:23:28.220 | and for them to be replaced with newer businesses.

01:23:31.700 | And that happens very effectively at a bankruptcy auction

01:23:34.460 | when a new business can come in and buy the equipment

01:23:36.540 | and such for businesses going out.

01:23:38.220 | It gets rid of all the dead weight,

01:23:39.700 | all of the broken promises and such

01:23:43.700 | and provides new opportunities

01:23:45.180 | to the new competitors the chance to come in.

01:23:48.020 | So look around and see,

01:23:50.020 | is there a way that I can profit from this?

01:23:52.180 | Be positioned to win.

01:23:54.820 | And I think there'll be some opportunities for you.

01:23:58.020 | Thank you for listening to today's show.

01:23:59.100 | Hope this has been helpful for you.

01:24:00.260 | I hope, I want you to come away from this show

01:24:05.140 | with a sense of hope and a sense of optimism.

01:24:07.860 | And I want you to look for the opportunities in your life.

01:24:10.700 | I've tried over the years to focus on

01:24:15.380 | preparing for disaster,

01:24:17.580 | preparing for financial disaster,

01:24:19.540 | societal disaster, whatever disaster means.

01:24:22.060 | Because if you're prepared,

01:24:22.980 | if you've at least thought through it,

01:24:24.700 | then you're positioned to win on the other side of it.

01:24:29.700 | So hopefully you've done your preparations.

01:24:34.020 | If you haven't, learn the lessons.

01:24:35.220 | But now that you've done those preparations,

01:24:37.900 | disaster is here.

01:24:39.900 | And now it's time to start looking for opportunity.

01:24:42.500 | There are many, many ways

01:24:45.540 | that you can profit from this opportunity.

01:24:49.060 | So get busy looking for them.

01:24:50.900 | Be creative.

01:24:52.540 | Constraints force upon you creativity.

01:24:54.860 | They provide you new opportunities.

01:24:56.580 | Reorganize your business.

01:24:58.380 | Tackle a new market.

01:25:00.580 | Look creatively for anything that you can do

01:25:03.140 | to improve your circumstances and situation.

01:25:05.540 | If you start looking for things,

01:25:09.100 | it's been my experience that you generally find them.

01:25:12.260 | Pretty much find what you go out looking for in the world.

01:25:15.060 | Hope that's helpful for you.

01:25:16.940 | Thank you for listening.

01:25:18.140 | I would encourage you,

01:25:20.220 | if you have not joined

01:25:22.300 | the Radical Personal Finance Patreon page, do that.

01:25:24.940 | Come on by patreon.com/radicalpersonalfinance.

01:25:28.180 | Join up there, you know, a few bucks a month.

01:25:30.780 | Super helpful to me, helps me to keep going.

01:25:32.860 | And try to offer a lot of access there.

01:25:35.260 | Just did an Ask Me Anything on Friday

01:25:37.060 | where I had a good chat with a bunch of patrons there.

01:25:39.300 | So go to radicalpersonalfinance, sorry,

01:25:40.620 | go to patreon.com/radicalpersonalfinance.

01:25:42.860 | Sign up to support the show there.

01:25:44.220 | I would greatly appreciate your support there

01:25:46.820 | on that platform.

01:25:47.660 | Thank you very much, and I'll be back with you soon.

01:25:49.900 | - [Narrator] The holidays start here at Ralph's

01:25:52.780 | with a variety of options

01:25:54.060 | to celebrate traditions old and new.

01:25:56.460 | You could do a classic herb roasted turkey

01:25:58.900 | or spice it up and make turkey tacos.

01:26:01.140 | Serve up a go-to shrimp cocktail

01:26:03.460 | or use simple truth wild caught shrimp

01:26:05.740 | for your first Cajun risotto.

01:26:07.740 | Make creamy mac and cheese

01:26:09.380 | or a spinach artichoke fondue

01:26:11.300 | from our selection of Murray's cheese.

01:26:13.060 | No matter how you shop,

01:26:14.300 | Ralph's has all the freshest ingredients

01:26:16.420 | to embrace all your holiday traditions.

01:26:18.420 | Ralph's, fresh for everyone.

RPF0713-How_to_Profit_From_a_Recession