Hey parents, join the LA Kings on Saturday, November 25th for an unforgettable kids day presented by Pear Deck. Family fun, giveaways, and exciting Kings hockey awaits. Get your tickets now at lakings.com/promotions and create lasting memories with your little ones. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.

For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the message was lost. For want of a message, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. Now perhaps you've not shod a horse recently, but if you've ever had the pleasure of being around a farrier while they put horseshoes on, I'd encourage you to take a careful look at a horseshoe nail.

It's a basically insignificant little hunk of metal. Blacksmiths can bang them out pretty quickly. If you're not familiar with the methods of shoeing a horse, basically the farrier will come along and file down the horse's hooves, make it nice and make it shape it nicely, shape a horseshoe to the horse's hooves.

And then they'll take a hammer and just a simple little nail and nail the horseshoe onto the bottom of the horse's hooves. This allows the horse to walk and to work on paved and rocky surfaces without wearing down their hooves so they don't go lame. It allows the horse to be more comfortable and allows them to do more work.

It's a very important little piece of metal, but it's very insignificant. Now, of course, that famous proverb rings true, but here's my modern version of it. Here's a maxim that I made up that I think is worth your consideration today, and it's very simple. It's always cheaper to feed the meter than to pay the ticket.

Again, it's always cheaper to feed the meter than to pay the ticket. Probably about a decade ago now, I made a firm decision that I was always going to feed the meter rather than thinking about how I would battle the ticket. I can name the street and the city.

It was right here in South Florida. I had parked my car outside an office building. I was running in to pick up some paperwork from a client of mine. I knew it would only be a minute, and I think there was a minute or two left on the parking meter.

Well, a minute turned into 10, and I came back to find a ticket on my windshield due to the expired meter. Now, of course, you've probably thought this yourself. What are the chances of the meter attendant coming by exactly at the time? When I run out, and oh, by the way, I'll be fast enough that if I see them, I can come out and beg for mercy, and they'll probably show me mercy.

You've probably thought that too. Well, unfortunately, your experience is probably like mine. If you don't feed the meter, you wind up with a ticket. I, the office of parking tickets was a couple blocks away, so I just went and paid it right there, probably about 30 bucks, but I remember being really annoyed with myself that I had to spend 30 bucks when if I just spent 50 cents, I would have avoided the whole hassle.

I would have saved the 30 bucks, and I would have saved the time and the frustration. Now, if you run the math, let's say it's 50 cents, how many times would you have to feed the meter in order to equal the total amount that you spend on the ticket?

And what's the likelihood of your being able to park that many times without getting a ticket? If you think about it, I think you'll find that the math works out in favor of feeding the meter. It's always cheaper to feed the meter than to pay the ticket. Now, since that time, I have imperfectly endeavored to feed the meter, to be proactive, and to be careful and cautious in all of my affairs.

It'd really be a shame to have an injury to one of my family members because I ignored some basic thing. I didn't replace the tires on time, and then the car rolled while driving on the interstate with a blown out tire. I didn't purchase the insurance coverage that was cheap to buy that would have protected me from thousands of dollars of loss.

I didn't leave 30 minutes early to give time for any problems with traffic to make it to the important appointment. The potential examples are legion. I encourage you to consider your own examples. Consider your life, or excuse me, I should say, consider a friend's life. Think of a friend of yours who seems to always be struggling, always be behind, always be scrambling, in trouble with the law, in trouble with the authorities, in trouble with somebody, a dollar late and a day late and a dollar short, no matter when it is, grabbing money from here, grabbing money from there, and I ask you, does that person simply feed the meter, or do they try to take the risk and run the ticket?

My experience has been most people who are always struggling and scrambling are that way because they don't ever stop and decide to feed the meter. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can indeed feed the meter. You can fill up the gas tank when it's half full, not when it's at the bottom.

You can put money in the bank, set it aside in savings. You can think proactively about the maintenance items that'll keep your house from falling apart. You can think proactively about your physical health. You can plan ahead with your money so that you have some to spend on the things that you want to spend it.

And if you do that, what you find is that it's always cheaper because you avoid the big expensive problems and you get better deals because you have money. You've been proactive. The 25 or 50 cents into the parking meter really is a bargain when compared to paying the ticket.

You say, "But I just don't carry change in my car. I didn't have the money." Well, whose fault is that? It's not the parking attendant's fault that you didn't have change. It's your fault. So plan ahead. Feed the meter. Almost every major problem that people face can be traced back to a couple of small decisions, which at the time didn't seem so important.

But yet if you'd made a different choice at that time, there may very well have been a different outcome down the road. Not everything, but most things are that way. You didn't go ahead and replace the tires and you suffered the catastrophic accident that resulted in physical injury to you and your loved ones.

You didn't plan ahead and call a cab and you wound up in prison or you wound up losing your money. You didn't plan ahead to get ahead on time and so you were speeding. And then that speeding ticket turned into not only the cost of a ticket, but perhaps the loss of a bunch of stuff.

I was thinking when it comes to speeding, I always think of that case a little over 10 years ago in the United States here. It was called United States versus $124,700 in US currency. It was one of the cases where the police stole the guy's money because they thought it was drug money.

If memory, if my details are right, this Mexican guy was traveling from Chicago, I think back to Mexico, and was passing through the middle of the country somewhere and gets pulled over for speeding. And poor guy, he doesn't speak English, the cop doesn't speak Spanish. They're going back and forth, but he consents to a search.

Back to why do I spend so much time trying to teach about standing up for your rights? Never consent to searches. No, I don't consent to searches. No searches. So the guy consents to a search. Cops go through his vehicle, find in his back seat a cooler with money, $125,000 in it, in cash, and it's wrapped in foil, aluminum foil packages.

So they bring in a drug dog to sniff it. And of course, since all currency has drugs on it, then they say, "Okay, the drug dog signaled, hit to the money that it's drugs." So therefore, they impound the money and they steal the money. That's what the cops do.

They do it down here in Florida. They steal the boats, the cars and whatnot from anybody who's supposedly involved in the drug trade. So they have no other evidence that this guy did anything wrong other than the fact that he's carrying cash, and the fact that he's carrying cash is suspicious.

So the case goes to trial, and the Mexican guy testifies at the trial that he and several of his friends, they were planning to buy a refrigerated box truck in Chicago. And so he had flown up there to buy the truck with the money, and he had flown up there to take delivery of the truck, but the deal had fallen through and they weren't able to buy the truck.

And so he was traveling back to Mexico, and I think he was driving because he had heard that you aren't supposed to fly with more than $10,000. Because of course, if you actually have money, you are by definition suspicious. So he was driving instead. Well, the case went on to appeals, but the legal barrier of the cops stealing your money in the United States is very, very low.

And so the cops kept the money and the Mexican guys were out, all because of speeding. Now, who knows why, just the point, I always think of that when it comes to speeding. Is this worth $125,000 for me to be speeding? The answer is usually no. I'm not going to tell you whether I carry $125,000 around on my backseat in a cooler wrapped in aluminum foil or not, that would be unwise.

Point is that little decisions, little things often have a big set of consequences. Think through and study the stories of tragedy and disaster. Somebody loses their money, loses their house, the house burns down because you didn't check the wiring or didn't do it right, or whatever the circumstances are.

Today, I challenge you with this one simple thing. Take my Maxim, steal it and burn it into your head. It's always cheaper to feed the meter than to pay the ticket. Again, it's always cheaper to feed the meter than to pay the ticket. What can you do today to feed the meter?

What can you do today to be proactive? Whatever you know to do today, start doing it. Don't wait, start doing it. Thank you for listening. You've honored me with your time and attention, and I'm grateful for that. And I hope that I've effectively served you today with some ideas and strategies and tactics and techniques and tools that will help move you towards your goals.

Before you go, three simple requests. One, if there's an idea that's been helpful to you in today's show, make a plan to take action on it. Listening does lead to learning, but learning in and of itself doesn't automatically lead to a life change. It's action that leads to a life change.

So take action. Two, take something that was helpful to you in today's show and share it with somebody that you care about. I'm depending on you to be a co-laborer with me in helping me to propagate the message that I'm seeking to share. That helps the person that you are engaging with, and it also helps you because teaching others is one of the most effective ways for you to learn and for you to cement your learning.

Three, if there's an idea that's been specifically helpful to you, and if you're gaining financial benefit from Radical Personal Finance, I'd be grateful if you'd consider paying me for this work voluntarily. Come by radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron, and you can sign up there to support the show at whatever level you feel is right for you.

This is a voluntary support. That's my Patreon page. You can support me with a dollar a month, five dollars a month, ten dollars a month, any number that seems right to you. But if you're gaining financial benefit from this show, and if it's achieving financial results in your life, I'd be grateful for your financial support at radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron.

Hey parents, join the LA Kings on Saturday, November 25th for an unforgettable kids day presented by Pear Deck. Family fun, giveaways, and exciting Kings hockey awaits. Get your tickets now at lakings.com/promotions and create lasting memories with your little ones.