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Includes airfare, two-night hotel, tickets to the show, plus $1,000 in spending cash. For official rules and entry information, visit IHeartRadio.com/SmallBusiness. Good Friday to you, Radicals, and Merry Christmas. Today I have for you the final episode of Radical Personal Finance for 2017. And on today's show, five specific topics. Number one is tax reform.

Number two is Bitcoin. Number three is your financial tracking for the new year. Number four is a year-end cleanse. And number five is thoughts on the future and how it impacts your life. Let's start with tax reform. As I record today's show, a little bit earlier today, President Trump here in the United States signed the tax reform bill, officially known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Overall, I am happy to see some tax reform take place. It's very hard to sort out my own personal opinions on the subject and then to look at things analytically. So first, let's just start with analysis for you. I have been looking at the text of the bill, looking at the analysis of it.

And as of yet, I find it hard to fully ascertain the changes and the strategies that will be appropriate for you to make in the coming years based upon the tax reform bill. This legislation definitely does have very significant impact. But probably the most significant impact will be on corporations.

The elimination and also the elimination of the AMT, the alternative minimum tax, which for them, which is really, really valuable. For individuals, this particular tax bill seems to be a mixed bag that's going to bring out, I'm sure, new strategies that we can put in play to help you save on taxes and will eliminate some of the older strategies.

As of yet, I'm not entirely clear with – now that we've got the final legislation, now that it's officially been signed. I'm not entirely clear how to teach you about the changes. So I'll be working on that and when I can, I will discuss those for that going forward.

However, of course, there are a few potential end-of-the-year strategies that you may need to consider, a few changes between this year, 2017, and next year, 2018, when the new tax bill comes into force that you should consider. And those changes, as I can determine and elucidate, are relatively simple.

Perhaps the biggest change for most people that will make a difference now, of course, there will be benefits to lowered tax rates, simpler tax brackets. Those will be beneficial. You'll likely save money on your taxes next year. That seems to be true. But perhaps the biggest tax planning ideas that you need to do or the biggest things that are going to impact you as an individual are the changes to the standard deduction as compared to the itemized deduction.

So remember, of course, that when you calculate your taxes, you have a system of exemptions and deductions that is available to you under current tax law. Well, those personal exemptions are going away, being replaced by a new higher standard deduction. And because the new higher standard deduction will be in excess of what most people would be able to deduct taking their itemized deductions such as their charitable deductions or their mortgage interest tax deductions, etc., then many people will find that those charitable contributions and those mortgage interest tax deductions will not have the same net effect for them on their taxes.

So in terms of what you can do, there are a few things that you can and should consider. If you are going to make charitable contributions here at the end of the year and you're going to make deductible charitable contributions here at the end of the year, one of the benefits would be to lump those charitable contributions together before December 31.

And so perhaps if you were going to make contributions next year, it might be beneficial to you to go ahead and bring those forward. And by doing so, you would have a higher itemized tax possibility, and that would go ahead and be helpful for you to take those deductions now.

Next year with the higher standard deduction, you may still give charitably, but you may not wind up using those charitable deductions against your income tax bill. So you might consider going ahead and lumping your deductions together. In the future, probably one of the strategies that will emerge will be to do much more lumping together of contributions.

So using something like a donor-advised fund to make a big contribution in a year that you can take a charitable deduction and then to make your charitable contributions out of a donor-advised fund in the future. There are significant changes with regard to the deductibility of state and local income and property taxes.

And this, in my mind, is one of the things that will have the biggest political ramifications of this tax bill. In essence, up till now, you have had the opportunity to deduct many of your state and local income and property taxes against your federal income tax liability. But under the new law, if those state and local income and property taxes exceed $10,000 per year, you will not be able to deduct any of those amounts that go over that $10,000 threshold.

Now in this particular provision, I have mixed feelings about it. From the perspective of principle, I struggle a little bit with the idea that the federal government is now going to tax funds that have already been taxed by a local entity. And from the principle of the thing, I'm not entirely sure that that's a good principle and precedent to set.

Speaking politically, this is actually the provision of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act that I'm probably the most happy about because I think this will bring significant pressure onto high-tax jurisdictions that hasn't previously existed, notably places like New York, places like Illinois, places like California. I think this will bring additional pressure and there's already been a major exodus of people, especially high-wage earners, from these high-tax jurisdictions to lower-tax jurisdictions.

And so in terms of this pressure that we brought onto the state and local governments, I'm happy to see it because I think it will result in a reduction of tax rates and tax bases by those local governments. Time will tell but in principle, I want to support anything that will encourage competition among these United States.

And so I'm kind of happy about that. But from a selfish political interest, I already live in a low-tax jurisdiction. I'm sorry for those of you who live in these high-tax jurisdictions who will see an increase from that. But bring pressure on your legislators to lower your taxes. But in terms of what you can do for that, your year-end move is in essence if you have the ability to pay what you can on your state and local income and property taxes during 2017, that would be a good thing for you to consider doing.

Now, in an effort to fend off some good tax maneuvering, the law that was passed, the final version of the bill, explicitly stipulates that any 2018 state income taxes that you pay by the end of 2017 are not deductible in 2017 and instead are going to be treated as having been paid at the end of 2018.

But that restriction seems to only apply to the prepayment of income taxes and it applies only to your actual 2018 tax liabilities, which means that it is still permissible for you to pay your fourth quarter 2017 estimated taxes by the end of 2017. So make sure if you are going to owe state taxes, make sure that by the end of the year, 12/31/2017, that you go ahead and pay your estimated tax filings for 2017.

In addition to that, that restriction – notice that a restriction only applies to the prepayment of state and local income taxes. It doesn't apply to property taxes. So research in your jurisdiction and if possible, see if you can go ahead and pay some of your state and local property taxes.

If you have the ability to prepay any of your 2018 property taxes that you can send in, that should be – in most jurisdictions, you should be able to go ahead and do that and you may be able to deduct those taxes in 2017. I see no pitfalls for you in pursuing that strategy.

I think that's something worth considering. So – and at the end of the day, if you can't deduct them, well, deal with it next year. It's not going to cost you out of pocket. It just means that you might get a deduction that you would otherwise not get. In addition, another major change to the tax legislation has to do with the changes of the mortgage interest deductions, whereas now the mortgage interest deductible amount has been lowered to $750,000 in total home debt as well as the removal of the fact that you could deduct home equity debt up until now.

So if you currently have a home equity loan and one of your benefits of that home equity loan was your ability to deduct the interest on that home equity loan as a component of your overall property tax deductibility, you should look at that and consider if that's a wise strategy going forward.

It may still be a wise strategy going forward. It may still be of benefit. You may have a good interest rate on that loan. You may have good use for the money, but you might consider refinancing that. If the deductibility of that interest was particularly helpful to you, you may want to move that debt elsewhere.

Of course, that could be other benefits for you. You may move a secured debt, which is secured by your home equity line, over to an unsecured debt in some other way. And if you can do that without paying a higher interest rate, that can be helpful to you now that you can balance those things and compare them without that tax deduction.

Or you may just want to go ahead and pay it off and eliminate that source of financing on your home equity loan. If you have a mortgage balance that's in excess of $750,000, then you might consider whether it's worth paying that down as any interest that you're paying in excess of $750,000, meaning any interest you're paying on an amount of loaned money in excess of $750,000, will no longer be available to you as an itemized deduction.

So that's a significant decrease in the million dollars that it was up till now. If you have any other ideas as far as itemized deductions, go ahead and if there's anything that you usually itemize and you can accelerate, consider doing that because that will be a change for many households there where the standard deduction will become much more helpful.

Also increases in the child tax credit, but I think that's enough for now as far as the specific strategies. We'll talk more about this in the new year when I have a chance to make sure that I understand it more and more. I will make one comment on our public debate over tax reform, a few comments on this.

I find it very disheartening to see the debates the way they seem to be happening among people on this particular legislation. I'm amazed at how quickly people are experts on things. I was amazed to see in the recent public argument over the net neutrality rules and the repeal of the net neutrality rules how quickly many people became experts on things that I find to be very challenging to learn.

I've been amazed at how quickly many people find themselves or declare themselves to be experts in something such as tax reform. I know something about taxes. I won't claim to be the most expert person, but I'm still looking at it saying, "OK, how does this work and what's going to be the impact?" It seems as though everybody has already drawn their conclusions about this is great or this is not great.

I'm in a good mood, so I'm going to keep laughing here and trying to smile about it. But it is disheartening to see the place of our public debate. It was interesting. I had a brief conversation with a friend of mine who was responding to President Trump's tweet this afternoon in which he declared 95 percent of Americans will pay less or at worst the same amount of taxes, mostly far less.

He says, "I'm wondering what will happen if this doesn't come true." Unfortunately, my response to him was nothing is going to happen. I quoted for him from President Obama's weekly address in June 6 of 2009. He said these words, "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it.

If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor too. The only change you'll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold." Again, that was President Obama June 6, 2009 in his weekly address. Now obviously in hindsight now in 2017, we can look at that and say, well, each of those statements was factually wrong.

All of it was wrong. But very few people have changed their opinion on anything. Most of us who are Democrats blame the Republicans. Most of us who are Republicans blame the Democrats and that will just continue as normal. And worse, in terms of the actual impact of this tax legislation, it's been hard for me to find anybody who criticizes it or supports it based upon their actual ability to calculate for themselves whether it will help them.

And in my experience as a financial planner, I've asked hundreds of people, "How much did you pay last year in taxes?" And the answer basically about 90 percent of the time was, "Oh, my refund is $3,000." Very few people know how much they pay in taxes now and they won't really know how much they pay in taxes in the future.

And they don't even – most people don't even know how to find out how much they pay in taxes. So it seems like we just draw our opinions from what our preferred pundits have to say rather than on the specifics of it. So my hope is that in the future I can help you to learn the specifics so you can change that.

But it is a little bit disheartening to see our public discourse. It's also – for me personally, it's discouraging to see the games in Washington continue. Here, we'll put this in for you to get your vote. We'll put in this little pet thing for you to get your vote.

Watch the lobbies. I'm amazed that the tax bill has this lowering of mortgage deductibility. The National Association of Realtors fought that tooth and nail. And I'm amazed to see that they lowered it some. I'd love to see it go away completely. But anyway, I'm just amazed to see that something is happening.

That all said, I'm glad that taxes are going down. I wish that spending would go down. I deeply wish that spending would go down. I know there are a lot of people with me. As long as you just take past tax cuts and continue spending, it just worsens the future.

And unfortunately, it's my best guess that I'll be dealing with that during my lifetime. And those of you who are younger will also be dealing with it in your lifetime. What that looks like, I don't know. I did a show on the unfunded liabilities a couple months ago and I plan to pick that theme up in 2018.

I'm going to have a couple of friends on to debate me on the subject. I think that will be fun. So I'll try to do that when we can. That's enough of tax reform. Comments on Bitcoin. I've been asked repeatedly by you to comment on Bitcoin and I have thus far held off from it.

And my major reason for holding off on any commentary related to Bitcoin has specifically been that I find it hard to clearly formulate my opinion. I'm probably squarely in the middle of the opinions with regard to Bitcoin. And I feel that many of the people on the polar ends – and here I'm referring to people who say cryptocurrencies are the next greatest thing, they have no problems, and people who say cryptocurrencies are a total scam.

I feel like they're not listening to one another and not even really seeing the clear things that are possibilities. And I felt a little bit behind the curve in terms of my own education of the subject, which is why I've pulled back from commenting on it publicly. So without teaching on the subject, which I will endeavor to do in the future once I'm confident that I understand the market in a reasonable way, I'll just make a couple of comments on where things are right now.

The current speculation and interest in Bitcoin in my opinion neither confirms nor denies the long-term benefit of Bitcoin in specific or cryptocurrencies more broadly. These cryptocurrencies I think have a tremendous potential future. They have tremendous benefits. And frequently what I hear are people only cherry-picking data from one side of the argument.

It's my opinion that cryptocurrencies will have a major influence on our future interactions. Particularly, cryptocurrencies are well-suited to the increasingly digital world that we engage in. They also have the benefit of being disconnected from any particular state government. And this to me is what is the most exciting. Now for those of us who are fortunate enough to live under a very stable monetary regime such as in the United States or in certain parts of Europe, this benefit can often go by.

And that's great as long as the monetary regime under which we live maintains its stability. I have many arguments to lob and many complaints to lob against the US Federal Reserve and the way they handle the currency. I have many complaints about their policies. But on the whole, I will freely admit as I think any thoughtful, open-minded person needs to that the benefit of doing business in the US dollar is that it's pretty well run.

It's very stable. It does a good job. It experiences wide – it's pretty well done. Not to say we don't have our arguments and our complaints but frankly most of our lives living under a dollar-denominated currency have thus far been pretty positive. That's not the case for everybody. I was intrigued with a recent article I read in Bloomberg, in Bloomberg Businessweek.

And I shared this on my Twitter page. It's called "Desperate Venezuelans Turn to Video Games to Survive." Subheading is "Virtual currencies from such games as RuneScape are prized in a country whose real money is worthless." In essence, the story indicates how because of the economic turmoil in Venezuela, some people who can gain access to a steady and reliable internet connection find themselves playing online games in an effort to accumulate the currency that's used, the virtual gold or the game points or the special characters within that game, which they can then turn around and sell to other players in exchange for a currency and frequently and increasingly frequently a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, which could then be either used locally or converted into a local currency.

That's how bad things are in Venezuela, which is an indictment. When I was in college, I studied under a number of professors who were very strong proponents of socialism and very strong proponents of state-run economies. They were in essence dinosaurs in my opinion. But this was very, very – a very, very important part of their teaching to me.

I have frequently had the temptation to just send them email after email out of Venezuela because many of them used Venezuela at the time, which was experiencing great success supposedly just like Cuba and saying, "Look at the great for human rights and for human flourishing," et cetera. And I have frequently resisted the temptation to bitterly send them email after email and say, "Are you ready to recant from me at this point?" But in looking at Venezuela, it just shows how bad things are.

But it shows how if there is something that could be traded as currency that's outside of a government control, that can be really, really beneficial. And that's what I'm hoping that cryptocurrencies can do. I would like to see currencies compete with one another on a free and open market unencumbered by the influence of any particular state government or any quasi-state entity such as the Federal Reserve Board.

I would like to see currencies compete in the public square under free and unencumbered competition. That would be what I would like to see and let the people decide. Let the people decide if they want to use Bitcoin or Litecoin or Ethereum or let the people decide if they want to use US dollars and rubles or gold or yen, anything.

Just let the people decide. So I think that there's a tremendous benefit in the future for cryptocurrencies. And I think many of the complaints against Bitcoin specifically and cryptocurrencies in general are complaints that are easily answered by the short amount of time that these ideas have been in existence.

For example, I was recently debating somebody and they were talking about the fact that Bitcoin is only used for drug deals and it's not really accepted anywhere. Those were the two basic arguments. Well, certainly, you could make the argument that Bitcoin is useful for some people who are involved in illicit and illegal activities.

The same argument applies to cash. That doesn't negate the value of cash and it doesn't mean that everybody who's using cash or who's interested in using cash is engaged in illegal activities. I'm interested and I try to do as many of my personal financial transactions using cash as possible.

I also do my very best to scrupulously obey the law and make sure that I'm not engaging in any illegal or illicit activity. So we've got a specious correlation here trying to say that just because Josh was using cash that he's fundamentally – somehow fundamentally breaking the law. I don't particularly like using PayPal.

I don't like PayPal's heavy-handed political practices. I also don't like the fees that they pay. So just because I might choose to conduct a transaction using Bitcoin instead of PayPal, that doesn't mean that I'm certainly now trying to avoid oversight and supervision and I'm trying to do something illegal.

I'm just trying to work in the free and open market where I have a little bit less risk of having my transactions destroyed and blocked by a company like PayPal or like Stripe or whomever. And I'm trying to get lower fees. So I'd love to see all of these people compete with one another.

The other argument against Bitcoin I think is just simply – is also a foolish argument because the – Bitcoin has never been more widely accepted. It of course being the big dog that's getting all the attention in cryptocurrencies has never been more widely accepted. It takes time for an infrastructure to develop.

So we don't criticize electric cars because first and foremost – we don't criticize first and foremost electric cars because we can't put gasoline in them and it's hard to find charging stations. We look at them and say, "If the world did have an infrastructure that could support electric cars, is the technology of an electric car superior to a gasoline car?" Well, in my mind for most applications, especially just the standard commuting vehicle, not other applications, the answer to that would be a clear and obvious yes.

Electric cars are generally a superior technology than the internal combustion engine for the way that most of us will use a car. So we do have to acknowledge the fact that the infrastructure is a problem, but there will be early adopters in the electric car marketplace who say, "I'm going to deal with it." And as those early adopters take advantage of it, the benefit starts to spread out, et cetera, and it starts to – and more people start to take interest in electric cars.

The infrastructure is built out more and more. It takes time and then the – and then more and more people adopt it. I see the same thing happening with – by way of analogy with Bitcoin, that Bitcoin early on didn't really have many people who were able or willing to engage with it.

But many of the concepts of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in my mind have the potential to be superior for some kinds of transactions than the concept that underlies currencies such as the US dollar. So you have to look and say how – Bitcoin has not been in existence that long.

And so every day the infrastructure grows. There are Bitcoin ATMs. More and more retailers will accept them. More and more trading organizations exist. It's becoming much more common. People are starting to figure out how do you actually use and interact with Bitcoin, what kind of Bitcoin wallet works. As we start to see the security apparatus develop around protecting virtual wallets, wallets that are held online, physical wallets, et cetera.

I think we'll see that developed and we'll see many of these problems solved. So don't make the long-term – don't judge it on the long-term because of these short-term problems. Now on the flip side, my concern about the current speculative environment is that as long as people are buying Bitcoin for investment purposes, they're unlikely to want to spend it.

And this to me is a real concern because I want Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to function as currency. And the only way that you can have something that functions as currency is when people don't want to hoard it. This is what always hamstrings things like precious metals. Many people may say, "Hey, I like to have gold and silver coins." But very few people want to part with gold and silver coins.

I don't. If you've never held a silver coin in your hand and then compared it to a quarter, a US quarter that's not silver-plated, it has a different emotional appeal. There's a beauty to it. There's a weight to it. And so even if you may look and say, "Well, look.

Silver is flat for many years. It's not going to go up. There's no reason to hoard it." You still have a kind of a – I have a bias in favor of not spending that particular coin. And I think that's a real problem when it comes to things like Bitcoin.

So unless that can happen, unless the massive rises can be smoothed out and it can gain stability, then it won't work as currency. Now, of course, there are various theories that would argue against this. Some people would argue that Bitcoin would be well-served to function as something more akin to gold than currency.

Gold would be a storehouse of value. Bitcoin can perhaps fill the place of a storehouse of value. OK. Well, maybe so. Again, I want to see a competitive environment as far as I'm concerned. I'd love gold coins to compete with Bitcoin, to compete with US dollars and let the people decide what they want to use as a form of value.

But as long as there is significant fluctuation and especially as long as there are big run-ups in value, then people are going to want to hoard it. And it's just going to be a speculative play. Now, what will happen in time? As I record this, Bitcoin has taken a massive – percentage-wise, a massive fall-off.

Does that mean that the idea of Bitcoin is fundamentally flawed? I don't think so. I really don't think so. I think that, number one, this is what many people predicted and time will tell. Time will tell. And when you start to look at the – what is the appropriate value of a Bitcoin, it's hard to judge because it all depends on supply and demand.

So I personally want to be very humble in expressing my opinions. I want to be very careful. And here would be what I would caution you. I think you need to understand as with any speculation, you need to understand what you're doing and be confident in it. I think it's fine to speculate with money.

Speculation and investment are different activities. Investment is a more stable, secure, sure thing. You can be very confident if you look at investing in a large, well-run company that has assets all over the world. You can be confident that when you buy shares in that company, you're making a good investment because your investment is under – it's undergirded by real business, by real activity, by real assets.

And I'm not here specifically referring to the idea of real property versus intangible property. I'm saying that there's real cash flow. Now, speculation has much more to do with I think this is going to go up in value. And speculation would involve much more risk. So just speculate with a small portion of your portfolio.

Speculate with money you can afford to lose and speculate when you know the market. Don't just buy real estate because everyone is buying real estate. Buy real estate because it makes sense to you. I have a few aphorisms that I frequently refer to when it comes to investing. And for me, these are very, very helpful.

So in no particular order, number one, take as much time learning about an investment or frankly a speculation, take as much time learning about an investment as it takes you to earn the money that you're going to put into it. Again, take as much time learning about an investment as it takes you to earn the money that you're going to put into it.

Which means if you are going to invest $100, then figure out how long it takes you to earn $100 and try to dedicate that towards learning about something. You shouldn't treat $100 lightly, especially if your hourly wage is $10 an hour. You shouldn't just automatically throw money in your 401(k) and put $100 a month there when you've never done any research on what you should buy in that 401(k).

That's a foolish decision. Same thing with $1,000 and same thing with $100,000. Now, obviously, this aphorism can't be applied exactly. If you are trying to invest millions of dollars, you can't necessarily take hundreds of thousands of hours to investigate and research that. But think about it conceptually. Wouldn't you say that somebody who's earning $10 an hour and is going to put money in their 401(k) would be well-served by taking 10 hours over the course of the next couple of weeks to read a book on investing?

A very simple entry-level book, wouldn't you say that that would be a good use for the first 10 bucks to buy that book and then 10 hours to read it before they made their 401(k) contribution? And wouldn't you think that if you're going to invest $100,000 in something that it's well worth your time to really study your strategy, think about it, maybe read a dozen books on something, maybe consult with multiple experts, maybe subscribe to the leading experts in the field and find out the arguments against their positions and make your own decision?

So I like that aphorism a lot, not because it can be practically put into practice, like actually followed to the T. It can't be. But because it adjusts you, it protects you. Another aphorism that I frequently apply to the world of investing is this. Investments are like buses. A new one comes along every few minutes.

And so by that, it means don't worry and don't give in to the idea that you have missed out on a market because you don't own it. Everyone else owns a bitcoin and it's just shooting up. Well, don't worry. There'll be another opportunity. You don't have to get into bitcoin because everyone else is getting into bitcoin.

Investments are like buses. Another one's going to come along in just a few minutes. Now, it might be bitcoin and the next one might be Litecoin and the next one might be Ethereum. I don't know. Or it might be investing in Iraqi dinars. It might be buying gold coins or it might be investing in Google stock, Alphabet, whatever.

The point is that there are always, for people who are paying attention, there are always good investments that come along. And so don't worry if you miss one. There are plenty of deals out there. There are plenty of investments. When you have money and you want to put that money to work for you and you start looking, you'll see plenty of opportunities to do so.

So investments are like buses. Don't get attached to any one of them. A new one's going to come along in a few minutes. Now, here's my final aphorism that I usually put with this little speech and it has to do with buses. Investments are like buses. So when a bus comes along, figure out where that bus is going, make sure that's where you want to go, and then get on the bus when it pulls up to the station.

Because it's easy to take that aphorism of investments are just like buses, a new one comes along every few minutes, and have that be your decision to just sit on the side of the road. And a year later, you're still sitting on the side of the road. That doesn't work.

Your job is to figure out where do I want to go, what am I trying to do, and then when that bus comes along, look up at the little sign and say, "Will this get me where I'm trying to go?" If you're trying to become financially independent through buying five rental houses in your local area, and so your investment goal is to save up the down payments on those five houses systematically and buy one per year for the next five years, then when Bitcoin comes along, you better not jump on the Bitcoin bus.

Rather, you need to sit there and say, "That bus isn't going where I want to go." If you're excited about the Bitcoin bus, sit down and look at your plans and say, "Well, where do I want to go?" And if your investment plan changes in advance, then make those changes, write it down to keep yourself honest with yourself, not to fool yourself, and then when the next bus comes along, go ahead and get on that bus if it's going where you want to go.

But the point is there are opportunities to invest, and at some point in time, you got to fish or cut bait. You insert whatever cliche you want to in there. There's time to take action. And so you can't just sit there and sit there and sit there and sit there.

Otherwise, you're going to sit in the same place. So end of Joshua's investment speech and end of discussion on Bitcoin. Time will tell, but we probably won't know for many years in terms of where these things shake out. My opinion, cryptocurrencies are here to stay. I don't put too much stock in the current ups and downs.

I don't put too much stock in those things. I think it's very possible that you can go multiple directions at this point in time. I think it's very possible that a bunch of people will get burned because they jumped in on a speculative play and the value is not there yet.

I think it's also very possible that the value of cryptocurrencies could massively increase. But we are in the wild, wild west. And so if you're going to get involved, you better go in with a six-gun in each hip and a 30-30 and your rifle scabbard and preferably a couple of people behind you to give you overwatch.

Don't go in without your eyes open. Have I destroyed any cliches for today? Number three on my agenda, let's move on from Bitcoin. Hopefully that's helpful. I'll do more on it when I feel competent to do so in a way that I think will help and not just be me sharing my opinions.

Number three, there are certain things here at the end of the year that you would be well-served to do. And I want to keep things very, very simple today. And I want to just talk to you about your tracking system for your money. How do you track your money?

And have you this year tracked your money? If I tell you, "Hey, 30 minutes from now, I want you to produce for me a listing of where all your money has gone in the last year, how much has come in and how much has gone out," could you do that?

Maybe 30 minutes for those of us who have more complex financial lives isn't enough. But could you do it in a few hours, in a day? Could you account for essentially every dollar or at least every meaningful dollar in categories and amounts that are appropriate to your situation? If not, this is the time to start a new tracking system.

You need to track every dollar that comes in and every dollar that goes out. And then regularly, perhaps monthly, you need to regularly sum up those dollars. Now, you can do this with something as simple as a notebook and a pen. And frankly, that's probably what you should do.

It's just notebook and a pen. Just write it down. Just the simple act of writing it down will be very, very helpful to you. So write it down. Keep a checkbook register in which if you're using a debit card, write it down. Keep receipts and just write things down.

At the end of the month, sit down with your notebook and total up those categories. Now, of course, there are many digital tools that are helpful. You can build an Excel spreadsheet. You can use YNAB. You need a budget. That's what I use. That's what I recommend you use, radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab.

Free, was it 33 days, 35 days? Free 30-plus day trial of the software. It is fantastic. So download YNAB. But this is the time to do it. There are certain things that really don't make that much of a difference for a New Year's resolution. But there are certain things that do.

And the end of a calendar year is a really great time to do something like saying, "For the next year, I'm going to track my money." So I ask you, are you tracking your money? If not, can I beg you to try it for a year? Track every dollar that comes in and every dollar that goes out and put it into something that you can look at?

It's very satisfying to look back at the end of a calendar year and be able to look and see, "Hey, here's where the money went." And every single goal that you desire in your life, every single thing that you want to do is going in some way to relate to those dollars that are flowing in and out of your bank account.

I don't care how non-financial you think your goal is. It will relate in some way to those dollars that are flowing in and out of your bank account. You want a new house? Well, that's obvious. It's going to relate to those dollars that are flowing in and out. You want a more love-filled marriage?

That's going to relate to those dollars that are coming in and out. It could be something as simple as saying, "How can I hire a babysitter so I can go on more dates?" Or, "How can I hire a house cleaner so that my wife has less work to do?" Or, "How can we hire a tutor to help with our children so that they can have more time and so that we can enjoy more free time?" Or, "How can we schedule that vacation?" Or, "What can we do or where can I find the time?" All your goals are going to relate to money in some way.

So the fundamental basic step is to track. Set up a tracking system for yourself. Pen and a paper where you write down every transaction you make financially is a good place to start. YNAB is great. Again, radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab. Great. Use whatever you want. Use Quicken. Use Excel. Use Mint. Use Microsoft Money.

Use an app. It doesn't matter. But track it. Next, year-end cleanse. Here's a thought for you to consider. Consider if there's something you can do to cleanse your life here at the end of the year. And there are a number of layers at which you can apply this. For example, you can go through your house and engage in a decluttering system and work on getting rid of stuff that you don't need, getting rid of stuff that you don't love, getting rid of stuff that doesn't spark joy, getting rid of stuff that is costing you money.

You can do that. That is really valuable. Sometimes throwing away and donating a whole bunch of stuff to free up physical space can be a major, major benefit to you. If you live in a cluttered environment, if you live in an oppressive place, just get rid of some stuff.

If you want to know how this will feel, go to any nice hotel or any kind of fancy place, fancy restaurant or fancy museum, something like that, and look at how much empty space there is. What you'll frequently find is the more physical empty space you have within reason, the better you're feeling.

So if your house is cluttered and full, and that may be something that you could focus on, just get rid of some stuff. But if your house is beautiful, don't stop there. Here would be another idea. Consider resetting your phone. This is something for me that I'm actually--this is the one that I'm going to do this year--is I'm going to wipe my phone and restore it to factory defaults and be very conscious about choosing the things that I put on there.

What happens frequently is we add stuff to our lives, and we add all kinds of apps, which have all kinds of notifications, which mess up our life. For much of this year, one of the best things that I have done is pulled out and deleted all social media apps from my phone.

It's been really, really helpful. Well, last few days, I added them back in because I was selling a car online, and I went ahead and put them back on. And I was just amazed at how disruptive they've been to my life and how stressed I've been all of a sudden and how much they've taken my attention away from my wife and my children and the people that are nearby that I love.

And so I can't--as soon as I get my car sold, I'm going to go ahead and remove those apps again. But I'm going to wipe the whole phone and just start fresh. Now, you may consider doing that with other things. Maybe that's for you. That's your computer. And the point is that when you wipe something, you can be really thoughtful and say, "Do I still gain value from putting this on here?" Maybe the answer to that is you delete all of your podcast feeds.

And instead of having all those episodes pile up, you just start fresh and you say, "Well, who really gives me value?" And yes, that includes me. Hopefully, I give you value. If not, go find someone who does. Maybe you delete all your YouTube subscriptions or maybe you cleanse out your Facebook account or maybe you go through your email and unsubscribe from everything and just start fresh.

You could also apply this to something like your time. When's the last time you've done a time budget, gone through your calendar and figured out where your time is going? Maybe this is the time for you to go ahead and withdraw from those four organizations that you don't really care so much about but are still consuming time from you or you pull out of something that's taking time.

Maybe you cancel your TV membership or maybe you cancel something to free up your time. Clear your calendar. It's funny. For me, one of my biggest changes in life has been this. I used to work when I was a financial advisor. I used to go in every week with basically probably the time you included professional appointments, personal appointments, etc., 25 to 30 mandated, scheduled places I had to be at a certain time.

And it took me a couple of years to kind of detox from that to recognize, "Wow, I don't have to be somewhere at this specific time." So maybe that's you. Maybe you can clear out and minimize your obligations or with money. Maybe you want to just do a hard reset.

This is controversial because it's kind of gaming the system a little bit but change all your credit card numbers. Call your credit – shred your card. Call your credit card company. Call your debit – your bank company and ask for a new card and just only add in the things, the payments and things that you need.

Now, that's best done, of course, if you just manually cancel it. But this stuff sneaks up on you. I try to be so careful with it and I had one that – a service that – one of my services for my business that I didn't intend to continue with.

Because they had my card number, they went ahead and renewed my card after – it was 14 months ago that I'd last renewed the thing. And they renewed my card and billed me for $400 for a service that I didn't intend to continue. And now I've been fighting them.

I probably can't get it back. But now I got to keep the service for another year. So the same thing happens. So go ahead and just change your cards. There are lots of things that you can do. Do some year-end cleansing. Maybe that's a dietary cleanse. I don't know.

But figure out – I'm just giving you some ideas that you may consider. Do it with your computer. Go through and analyze. Do I need all these applications? Do I need all these accounts? Do I need all this stuff? Do I need all these things? And just cleanse some things.

It feels really good to start. Start the new year on that basis. Now, as I close out my thoughts for this year, I thought about what I wanted to say to you. And I don't want to just give you some tired cant that's going to relate to – I don't want to be trite.

I want to talk about things that are real. And I think that if you and I were to sit down and we were to be talking about the past year, my guess is that you would say, "You know what? There have been a lot of tough things for me this year." That would certainly be my description.

"I've had a lot of challenges this year." "But I bet that this has been a pretty good year for you if you've looked." And I've got a lot to say about this next year. And I've spent most of this year just listening. I really have. I've tried to read widely.

I've tried to listen widely. For me, a lot of this has been – well, a lot of it for me came after the 2016 presidential elections. And there was just such an anger. And I said, "Man, what have I done to contribute to this?" I went through a real kind of process of soul-searching and I thought about it.

And I said, "You know, I'm just going to spend time listening." And I've tried to listen and – let me cut this short because I don't do a whole show on this of what I see happening in society. Because on the whole, I see many trends that for me are very concerning.

But yet I also see so many things that are for good. And it has to do with where you work and where you focus. And in short, my summary statement of what I see is, number one, everybody feels aggrieved. I'm amazed as I've read and I've listened and I've looked at people from all different perspectives.

I'm just amazed to see that everybody feels aggrieved. And it's amazing to see the circumstances of people feeling aggrieved. And they say the same things over the same things in a lot of political spaces. Everybody seems to feel aggrieved. And it seems like everybody is focusing on the things that they can't control.

I have this article that I may leave the new year with. It was about why millennials are facing the hardest time ever. And it was a good article. It was well-written. I thought the author did a good job at identifying many of the things that I frequently see missed in commentaries on how different the economy is and how that affects millennials.

But the author's only solution was to go out and get involved in politics. I just thought to myself, well, there's a recipe for depression. You think that somehow by voting somebody different in that you're going to be happier and that's going to change your life and your solution to your tax bill and the fact that you owe a bunch of money in student loans is to vote somebody in who's going to provide for you, is going to cancel your debts.

What a fool's errand. It's stupid when there are so many things that you could actually do as an individual today that would help you to be free in the next few years if you do them. So maybe we'll talk about that next year. But everything has to do with where you focus and where you look.

And we have this great problem. And I'm speaking to me. I'm speaking to my tribes. And I'm speaking to you. We have this great problem of wanting to be where we're not. We think all of a sudden that, well, I know everything there is to know about the tax bill and I have all the solutions as to how the US federal government should tax people when in reality I just bounced a check last week in my checking account.

And I can't even handle the simplest of things. But yet I can go and spout off on Facebook about how these idiot Republicans don't know what they're doing when it comes to economics. We read something about net neutrality and we talk about the fact that, well, I can't believe that they're going to do this thing on net neutrality and this is such a nightmare and this is going to ruin the internet.

The internet is going to fall apart. Meanwhile, our son or our daughter is over there embroiled in something on the internet that's harming their soul. And they're lonely. And I'm preaching to me. Lest you think I'm preaching to you, I'm preaching to me. We want to jump on the internet and argue about how the Israelis are treating the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, our neighbor is hurting and they're hungry. Friends, this is a recipe for depression. This is a recipe for disaster. Because you're always doing something and you're always obsessed. We, I'm always doing something and I'm always obsessed about something that I have no control over. That doesn't do any good.

And so for me, one of my big things that I've been preaching to myself and I'm now preaching to you is stop. Stop. Just focus on what you can control. More and more I feel increasingly isolated from society. It seems to me that the society that I'm supposedly a part of, the US American culture, is going in a direction that I'm not going to go.

And so it's been a hard thing for me over the last decade to recognize that I'm increasingly alienated from my own people. But that's not the place to stop. The place to continue is to say, "But what can I do here? Where can I build?" It does us no good to look across the street at how ugly our neighbor's house is unless we first walk outside and recognize that our own house needs to be painted and our own yard needs to be cleaned up.

This is one of the central diseases that I see that's just ruining us. I'm not going to go along with it. I'm going to clean up my own house and I'm going to work where I might have some chance of success. And then I want to come together with you and let's clean up the house between us and let's start in our neighborhood.

And let's not create grand plans for how the US federal government should operate its business when our own house is a disaster. Just opt out. Now, you can vote if you want to or don't vote if you don't want to. You can join a political cause or don't join a political cause.

But there's going to be a whole lot more satisfaction for you if you can actually see the results of your hand and if you can actually affect something. Here's the cool thing. If you're diligent and faithful with your own life to go to bed on time, to get up, to work hard, to take time off, love your husband, love your wife, love your children, love your brother, love your sister, love your neighbor.

If you actually do the things that you know that you should do, then what happens is people start to look at you and appreciate that. And that gives you a little bit more leadership. And that expresses outward. And now all of a sudden you may find yourself being looked at for a place of leadership in your work.

Well, just don't worry about the division of Google that's doing such and such. Just focus on the three people that you're responsible for. Don't worry about cleaning up the mess at NBC or whatever company with the sexual harassment that they're doing. Just focus on making sure that you're not harassing your coworkers and you're not letting anyone harass them.

Take responsibility for yourself and do the simple things. And the amazing thing is if you do that, number one, your influence grows to where someday you might have an opportunity to affect a neighborhood or a town. But even if you don't, it still will be important because the people close to you will appreciate that.

Don't let yourself be distracted by stuff that you can't control. Don't be in the resistance if you're not actually loving your husband, loving your wife, loving your children. Don't be in the MAGA crowd if you're not actually loving your neighbor, serving them. President Donald Trump will neither ruin your life nor make it great.

You'll do that. As I close today's show, I want to read to you a poem. And this poem is really meaningful to me. I read it first a few weeks ago. I was reading through a book on poetry and just this poem really stood out to me. I'd never heard it before but it really stood out to me.

I think it speaks as a useful closing commentary to the ideas that I have to share with you today as we close out this year. So let me just read you this poem and I hope that it encourages you. This is called "The Present Crisis" by James Russell Lowell.

When a deed is done for freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west. And the slave where'er he cowers feels the soul within him climb to the awful verge of manhood as the energy supply of the century bursts full blossomed on the thorny stem of time.

Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throw when the travail of the ages rings earth's systems to and fro. At the birth of each new era with a recognizing start, nation wildly looks at nation standing with mute lips apart and glad truths yet mightier man child leaps beneath the future's heart.

So the evil's triumph sendeth with a terror and a chill under continent to continent the sense of coming ill and the slave where'er he cowers feels his sympathies with God in hot teardrops ebbing earthward to be drunk up by the sod till a corpse crawls round unburied delving in the nobler clod.

Mankind are one in spirit and an instinct bears along round the earth's electric circle the swift flash of right or wrong. Whether conscious or unconscious yet humanity's vast frame though its ocean-sundered fibers feels the joy the gush of joy or shame in the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide in the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side. Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right and the choice goes by forever, twixt that darkness and that light.

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand? Ere the doom from its warm sandals shakes the dust against our land? Though the cause of evil prosper yet his truth alone is strong and albeit she wander outcast now I see around her throng troops of beautiful tall angels to enshield her from all wrong.

Backward look across the ages and the beacon moments see that like peaks of some sunk continent jut through oblivion's sea. Not an ear in court or market for the low foreboding cry of those crises God's stern winnowers from whose feet earth's chaff must fly never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath passed by.

Careless seems the great avenger, history's page but record one death grapple in the darkness twist old systems and the word. Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above his own.

We see dimly in the present what is small and what is great. Slow of faith how weak an army may turn the iron helm of fate. But the soul is still oracular amid the market's din. List the omniestern whisper from the Delphic cave within. They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin.

Slavery the earth-born cyclops, fellest of the giant brood, sons of brutish force and darkness who have drenched the earth with blood, famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day, gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey. Shall he guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?

Then to side with truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, ere her cause bring fame and profit and 'tis prosperous to be just. Then it is, the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, doubting in his abject spirit till his lord is crucified, and the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes. They were souls that stood alone, while the men they agonized for hurled the contumulous stone, stood serene and down the future saw the golden beam incline, to the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, by one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.

By the light of burning heretics, Christ's bleeding feet I track, toiling up new calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back, and these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned one new word of that grand credo which in prophet hearts hath burned, since the first man stood God conquered with his face to heaven upturned.

For humanity sweeps onward, where today the martyr stands, on the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands. Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling faggots burn, while the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return to glean up the scattered ashes into history's golden urn.

'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves of a legendary virtue carved upon our father's graves. Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime. Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time? Turn those tracks toward past or future that make Plymouth rock sublime?

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts, unconvinced by ax or gibbet that all virtue was the past's. But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free, hoarding it in moldy parchments while our tender spirits flee the rude grasp of that great impulse which drove them across the sea.

They have rights, who dare maintain them? We are traitors to our sires, smothering in their holy ashes freedom's new-lit altar fires. Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we in our haste to slay, from the tombs of the old prophets, steal the funeral lamps away to light up the martyr faggots 'round the prophets of today?

New occasions teach new duties. Time makes ancient good uncouth. They must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of truth. Lo, before us gleam her campfires. We ourselves must pilgrims be. Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea. Nor attempt the future's portal with the past's blood-rusted key.

I don't know if you're a poetry reader or a poetry listener, but to me, there's a truth in those stanzas that speak to me, and I hope they speak to you and encourage you as you consider wrapping up this year. And I want to just reread for you these four paragraphs, these four stanzas in light of the truth, because it's easy to say what other people should do, and it's easy to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, but it's another thing to stand up and actually do.

It's easy, and I'm beating this horse about getting online and yelling what other people should do, because that's what is such a trap for me, and it's such a trap for you. Friends, let us not be those who go to tell other people what they should do while we ignore the problems.

Do the simple things. Let this year be the year that you do the simple things that you know to do. Not starting January 1, starting today. Don't wait for the new year, start today. But do the simple things that you know to do that are right, and that will lead to the future that is bright.

That's the key. Not to focus on what everyone else should do. Stop. Look at yourself. It's easy to say something. It's another thing to do it. It's easy to say you love your wife. It's another thing to do it. It's easy to say you love your children. It's another thing to do it.

Let me just read this again. "For humanity sweeps onward, where today the martyr stands. On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands. Far in front the cross stands ready, and the crackling faggots burn, while the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return to glean up the scattered ashes into history's golden urn.

'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves of a legendary virtue carved upon our father's graves. Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime. Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time? Turn those tracks toward past or future that make Plymouth rock sublime.

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts, unconvinced by ax or gibbet that all virtue was the past's. But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free, hoarding it in moldy parchments, while our tender spirits flee the rude grasp of that great impulse which drove them across the sea.

They have rights who dare maintain them. We are traitors to our sires, smothering in their holy ashes freedom's new-lit altar fires. Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay from the tombs of the old prophets, steal the funeral lamps away, to light up the martyr faggots round the prophets of today?

New occasions teach new duties. Time makes ancient good uncouth. They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth. Lo, before us gleam her campfires. We ourselves must pilgrims be. Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, nor attempt the future's portal with the past's blood-rusted key.

This is the time to press forward and do what you can do in your life. This is the time to press forward and take action. Not to talk about it, not to think about it, not to wish that you would. This is the time to actually do. And it's simple.

Most of the things that I talk about are really, really simple. You already know what to do. It's just time to do it. And when you do know what you know to be right, and your neighbor does what he knows to be right, and when the two of you start to talk about it, and you start to get together, and you start to fellowship about those things, that has a movement.

That creates momentum. So, that poem was written back in the 1850s, and the author was an abolitionist. Today you see the result of his work in the fact that the owning of another human being in the United States of America is no longer legal. But guess what? More abolitionism is required.

There are still people in slavery, and that is your task. And so as I close out today's show, I thought it'd be appropriate. I'll play you one Christmas song. This is my favorite Christmas song. I'm sure we all have our favorite Christmas songs. But if there's one song that I love to stand and sing during this season of the year, it's this one.

And the focus in this particular version I'm about to play, the singer only does two verses, but the focus is on triumph and on victory. And as you celebrate Christmas, and as you enjoy this time of year, it's a time of an ending of the old and a beginning with the new, recognize the great change that was wrought in the world some 2,000 years ago, and the fact that systematically, day by day, that change is continuing.

Now you have a choice. Do you want to be part of it, or do you want to fight against it? A lot better to be on the right side of history than the wrong. So enjoy this as a closing hymn. Holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.

And long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appealed and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices. Oh night divine, oh night when Christ was born.

Oh night divine, oh night, oh night divine. Truly He taught us to love one another. His law is love and His gospel is peace. No chains shall He break for the slave is our brother. In His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise.

We let all within us praise His holy name. Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices. Oh night divine, oh night when Christ was born. Oh night divine, oh night, oh night divine. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and I wish you a very happy new year. I'll be back with you in 2018.

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