Latest / The Jon Sanchez Show / What Happens When Money No Longer Controls Your Life?
Transcript
- Jon G. Sanchez: Good Monday afternoon to you. Welcome to the John Sanchez Show on New Stock 780KOH. Pleasure to be with Hope you had a great weekend and a decent Monday. Nice little fall chill in the air. Love it, love it. Well, definitely a chill in the air today as far as Wall Street was concerned. More of the same. Oil prices, rising bond yields. The rising bond yields are really the the culprit. we we had just modest strength in oil prices today, but man, man, right before the show, right? Matter of fact, right when the the music was playing. I wanted to check the the 30 year mortgage after the big run up in the bond market today. And nasty day. Nasty day. I I well let's get right to the number. Seven basis point increase on the 30 year mortgage, according to Mortgage News Daily. Now sitting at seven and a half percent. Seven and a half percent. Some are calling if you can believe this. I saw a couple of predictions today. Don't know how accurate they are. I didn't even recognize the people that made the prediction, so take it for what it's worth. Nine percent. So I, you know, over the next year. I I I mean, that's just speculative. But thought I'd throw that in there. Anyways, here's where we sit. Like I said, a little bit of a tough day today as far as the market was concerned. But you know what? Day's done. One o'clock came, the closing bell rang, and now there's nothing we can do about it. We can take care of ourselves, though. And that's what I'm here to help you do today. I've titled today's show, The Freedom Number. The Freedom Number. What would happen when money no longer controls your decisions? Isn't that a powerful comment? Think about that for a second. Imagine if you had so much money that it no longer controlled your decisions. What if you reached the point where you never had, and I capitalized the word had, when you never had to work another day in your life. But you could work. If that's what you wanted to do. You could travel when you wanted to. You could go start a business or multiple businesses. You could help your kids. You know, financial independence isn't about retirement. It's about freedom. So today I'm gonna help you find your freedom number and what life can look like once you reach it. So I I I absolutely love the topic. I haven't done it in quite a while. That's why I wanted to do it for this Monday. Cause it's it's a little bit tough out there right now. People a little bit concerned. We had a great day on Friday, but you know, again, more of the same. just read some heartbreaking stories of farmers and things across the country that are just on the verge of bankruptcy because of record high diesel prices and Tariffs and I mean you name it, so many businesses are getting hit in so many different ways. But again, another subject for another day. But what happens if you had that financial freedom? The ability to do anything that you wanted to do? I mean, well, I think what I love about that comment more than anything is what I want you to kind of resonate on before I get to the topic. Think about how much of your life, how much of your life is controlled by a money decision. For most of you, I don't think you love your job so much that if money wasn't an issue you'd get up every morning and go to work. I don't think that'd be the case. A few of you, but maybe not the major or probably not the majority. What if again you could go buy whatever you wanted to buy? Whether it was something to treat yourself or maybe a a business asset to help out your business, whatever the case may be. Just let your imagination wonder. And that's what we're going to try to get to today. Your freedom number. All right. Well, with that said, let's get down to the stock market side and get that part of it over with. So once again, we got to go back to Friday. Friday, of course, you know, last week. Wednesday, Thursday, et cetera. you had the president meeting with various world leaders. China, President Xi, of course, was the big one. meeting wrapped up on Fridays I discussed on the show. And, you know, all kinds of promises and things were were were discussed. AI safety and this and that and so on and so forth. And then the other meeting was with the delegate from Iran. I don't think the president met with it. I think he had other, you know. Members of his cabinet meeting with the the negotiators. And there was some hope as I mentioned on the show on Friday. Iran said, Look, it we're we're basically ready to to do a deal. We can have the Strait of Hormuz fully open back up within seven days. And the president basically said, You know what? Let me think about it. Well, he came out over the weekend and said, No, I've thought about it and I'm not willing to do a deal. Again, a negotiating strategy. So we saw oil prices really move up strong this morning. Matter of fact, I'm looking at my notes. My first stock update of $5.23. Oil was up $2.63. The good news is as the day progressed, oil prices regressed. And we finished just with a gain of 27 cents to a price of $92.44 a barrel. But it was the interest rate backdrop that got everybody excited once again. the tenure yield shot up nine basis points to a close of five. Again, we're now we're at that 19 year high and a little bit more. We actually hit an intraday high of 5.26%. we then had the president on CNN, or CNN reported, I'd say that the president would be open to a sanctioned sanctioned relief in exchange for progress towards a nuclear deal with Iran. I wanted to go back to that. I forgot to mention that point. but the bond yield situation is it's a it's a freight train that's running right now. Matter of fact, Scott Bassent, the Treasury Secretary, hired a Wall Street veteran. From Jeffries today, very well respected economist. don't know what, maybe get some fresh ideas. I don't know what the situation was, but I thought it was interesting to to go outside. Evidently, there's been a big turnover. I didn't realize this. Big turnover of officials at the Treasury Department. So maybe they're they're lacking some some quality minds there. I don't know. I doubt that. But anyways, large turnover, some key people. But the bottom line is we got interest rates, it's a runaway freight train at this point. Something's gotta be done because everything that Treasury Secretary Bassent has proposed over the last month or so, it's not helping. And again, these, you know, the mortgage rates just unreal. Seven and a half percent. So it was just more of the same today. There was no bad news. We had no economic reports on the calendar today. It was just one of those days where once again, Friday you go back, oil prices down, bond yields down. Today oil prices up twenty seven cents, like I said, but but bond yields went the opposite direction. And so it sparked some concerns going everywhere. Now let's hit some of the the movers today. Meta, which was just on a tear last week. Stock went up over 13% last week with the all the chatter about their new AI agent, Muse. maybe over the weekend. I I know I caught a couple of college games and boy, there was a lot of commercials on TV about Muse. But stock started faltering towards end of last week. Today was no different. Meta gave up $36.04, 4.79% loss to a price of $715.62. NVIDIA bucked the trend today. they remained a notable exception up three dollars and seventy-nine cents, one point six eight percent gain to two twenty eight eighty six, after the company announced a share repurchase program to the tune of about two hundred and thirty five billion dollars. Well, excuse me, announced additional hundred and fifty billion, bringing the total to well, very large number. I'll just put it that way. I don't have an accurate number, but again, They're saying somewhere around 235 billion, but I think it's a little bit more than that. So today they announced 150 of the two to 235. But again, I think that buyout our buyback number is a little bit larger than that. But Wall Street loves it when a company announces a stock buyback, especially a company of the size and prowess of Nvidia. So nice move on that one today. MongoDB. This was a troubled child today. MDB The symbol stock cleansed 18.46%, $75.76 loss to $334.68 after the president and CEO. stepped down effective immediately to take a senior role, speaking of which, at Meta, making the company's second CEO transition in less than a year. Nike was a nice performer, up 1.73% or 62 cents for the Dow component, $36.37 closing price there. pretty good strength ahead of the fiscal first quarter results that are coming this Thursday afternoon. Stock remains down, though, about 43% on a year-to-date basis. So, like I said, other than that, it was a very, very quiet day overall. I want to mention gold prices. I'll cover this one more time when I come back from the break. $148.80 loss to $4,171.25. People are wondering why in the heck did gold plummet today, right? Stock market a little bit on the shaky grounds. Why isn't everybody flocking to gold? It's pretty simple. As I mentioned on my stock update this morning with Ross Mitchell, here's a situation. If you're an investor and you're looking for a safe haven asset, there's two places you turn. I'm not talking CDs or or bank products. You turn to the bond market, US bond market specifically, or you turn to gold. Well, now that we have these juicy yields, as I like to call them, you know, five and a quarter percent, you know, lend the government your money for 10 years, they're gonna pay you five and a quarter percent a year. That ain't too shabby, as the saying goes. So what the theory is right now is people are going, you know what, I'm getting the heck out of gold. I don't earn any dividend, any yield, I don't earn anything on it. I'm just hoping that it's gonna go up in value. And instead, let me park my money in the safe haven of the US government bond market. So, you know, and collect five and a quarter percent. So that's the speculation, at least at this moment. It can change at any time, but that's at least the speculation that if you own gold, why you may you have experience well, not maybe you did experience a pretty good sell-off in this in the of the price of the the metal today. And then finally, what do we sell on a year to date basis? Well, here we go. We'll go to the Dow up just seven point one percent for the year. NASDAQ's higher by 15.4, SP 500 gaining 12.2 percent year to date, and the Russell 2000. Right at the top of the pack here, right behind the NASDAQ, it is up thirteen point five percent on a year-to-day basis. All right, we come back, we're gonna go ahead and get an early start on our freedom number. What happens when money no longer controls your investment decisions? Let's turn it over to the SACS man of the Right Now Traffic Center. Mm-mm. Back to the John Sanchez show on Newstock 780 KOH. All right, here's once again how we finished a 347 decline on the Dow, a 0.67% loss to 51,481. NASDAQ a 248 decline, 0.92%, closed at 26,820, and the SP down 60 points or 0.77%. Finished the day at 7,683. And the Russell 2000 down 20 points or 0.69%. Once again, oil up 27 cents and 9244, excuse me, 90, yeah, 92.44 a barrel, 148. 80 loss on gold per ounce, 4,176.25, and the 10-year treasure yield up nine basis points to a yield of 5.25%. All right, time to get into our topic today. Once again, the freedom number. What happens when money no longer controls your decisions of your life? Man, what a breath of fresh air that would be. So I want you starting right now for the next hour, okay? For the next hour, I want you to think for just a moment differently. About retirement. Matter of fact, for this next, you know, 45 minutes or so, I don't even want to use the word retirement. I'm sure I'll slip, but I don't want to. Because I think there's a better goal. Instead of calling it retirement, let's call it financial independence. But what's the difference? Well, remember, retirement usually means when can I stop working? Financial independent asks, when can I stop having to work? See, these are two completely different questions. Because if you love what you do, it's not working. So keep working. What if you want to start a business? Then you can start it. Wanna work three days a week? Do it. Wanna teach? Absolutely. Spend your time volunteering? You bet. Three months traveling on a vacation? Go for it. Want to buy a ranch, spend your Tuesday mornings not in an office, but sitting on a tractor watching the sunrise? You can do that also. You see, financial independence doesn't tell you what to do. Financial independence gives you the freedom to decide each and every day what it is that you want to do. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Not dying with the biggest investment account, not retiring with some arbitrary, you know. Hundreds of millions of dollars or you know, hedge fund manager type of wealth. Not retiring at some arbitrary age because society says, Hey, guess what, Frank? You get to retire because you're 65. Everyone retires at 65. Frank, you need to retire at 65. Frank says, No, no. I want financial freedom. I don't want retirement. But reaching that point where your money can support your life and your life no longer has to revolve around making money. That's what we're gonna be g covering. So let's get started. So I guess I should kind of begin the whole process with answering the question. And it's a very, very important question, which is the following. What is financial independence? Right? Everyone kind of has a different idea to that, but let me just kind of give you my my example. Financial independence is when work becomes optional, not forbidden, right? Because when you retire, technically, you no longer work anymore. But financial independence. You may want to, like I said at the beginning of the show, you may want to continue to do what you do if you love what you do. So work becomes optional, but it's not forbidden. And optional, folks, is really the absolute keyword for the entire show today. You have sufficient assets, reliable income sources to support the lifestyle you've chosen without depending upon that paycheck that comes in every Friday or every other Friday. But again, I want to emphasize over and over again, before many of you are rolling your eyes at me, going, Yeah, nice you know, pipe dream, John. No, it's not. It's all within the reach of all of you. Because financial independence doesn't mean that you have to be filthy rich. Private jet, like I said, multi-millions, never working again. It means you get to control your time, and time may be the most valuable asset you've ever accumulated. How many times have you read, and maybe you've known someone, friend, family, whatever the case is, and they're on their dying bed. And they're ask, what's the biggest regret that you have in your life? Never, never. Is that regret? I died with five million, but I really wanted six. No, the biggest regret is time. They didn't spend their time doing the things they wanted to do. They didn't spend their time with their family or their friends because they were too busy working and chasing the American dream. And there's nothing wrong with that, trust me. I'm as capitalistic and as anybody else. But also, as the older I get, I begin to realize how valuable time is. You see, you wake up in your 60s and you go, Wow. There's not that many years really left in my life. And don't know about you, but I start to notice the older I get, the little things in life you tend to appreciate more. Not so much the money side, but the little things in life. Like what I just got to experience this morning. Hearing my granddaughter utter some words that she's never uttered before. You know, she's just turned two years old and you know, starting to to really, really talk, but just just blew me away. Just made me laugh like I haven't laughed in a long time. Cutest thing in the world, warm my heart. Or watching a sunrise. Or I was sitting on my porch last night with my wife before we went to bed, watching the moon come up through the clouds. Stupid things that I thought, man, only old folk enjoy those things. Now I'm starting to do that. So, anyways, again, you get to control your time. You get to enjoy the simple things in life because really that's all that matters. All the other stuff, it doesn't matter. All right, let's go to my next issue. The most powerful two words in finance. I want you to think about these. I want you to write them down. Put them in your phone. Put them somewhere where you're not gonna forget them. You ready? Here's the two most important or powerful words in finance. Have two. I have to go to work. I have to stay on this job. I have to tolerate the boss. I have to tolerate the partner. I have to make this much money. I have to wait until I'm age 67 to retire. I have to keep doing this for five more years. I have to keep working because I don't want to retire before I, you know, was 65 so I can collect Medicare. Your list is a mile long, I'm sure as mine is, when you say I have to. Then all of a sudden financial independence happens. So what happens in your vocabulary is you release, yeah, you release the word have to, and then you exchange it for I choose to. I choose to. The day you become financially independent, you may go to the exact same job the next morning. But the difference is you're there because you want to be there, not because you have to. You choose to be there. What a great way to operate your life, wouldn't it be? If everything that you could do, you're doing because you choose to do it, not because you have to. Now, when we come back from break, I'm going move on to my next area. What's your freedom number? Right. So all this can sound great. I'm sure every single one of you are agreeing with what I'm saying. But you're going, John, facts are facts. Reality is reality. I've got bills to pay, I've got kids to put through college. I've got a retirement, I've got a fund. I I have to, I have to, I have to. So when we come back, I'm gonna explain how you start calculating what your freedom number is. Not mine, but yours. Welcome back to the John Sancho Show on New Stock 780K, which a Friday, Friday, I wish it was Friday, the financial freedom number. That's what we're talking about here. What is your number? How would we calculate it? Get to that in a second. First recap of today, once again, it was a day where oil prices modestly rose just a 27 cent gain at 92.44 a barrel, but it was a day where bond yields surged. Nine basis point increase on the 10-year treasury, closed at a yield of five and a quarter percent. Again, Mortgage News Daily reporting that the 30-year mortgage up. Seven basis points today. Now it's seven and a half percent. The impacts on the market, negative. 347 loss on the Dow, 0.67%. NASDAQ gave up 248, 0.92%, and the SP down 60 points, a 0.77% loss. But it's all over. Now we're focusing on you. Financial freedom, right? That ability to do, like I said, whatever you want to do because you choose to. And once again, I'm going to emphasize. This is not about me sitting here telling you, hey, you need 2 million, 3 million, 5 million saved up before you can even think about this. It doesn't have to be that way. It's really much simpler. Let me give you my approach. All right. So in order to live this life that you want, where you get to do the things you want to do, not because you have to, you must know one very critical number. And I call it the financial freedom number. What the heck is that? So forget about this is this is basically reverse of retirement planning. Retirement plan, we say, okay, how much money do I need to retire? And then we assign a withdrawal value to it, whether it's half a million, a million, five million, whatever it is, assign a withdrawal value to it. And then, okay, Mr. Client, this is what you can expect to live on in retirement. Can you, can you, or can you not? Financial freedom planning is quite a bit different. Because now you say, What does my life cost to give me the freedom? To do what I want to do. So let's go through an example. Suppose your desired lifestyle, right? The lifestyle that you want, and I'm not talking anything extravagant. I'm just talking, you know, paying the bills and having a few bucks left over and so on and so forth. Suppose your desired lifestyle cost is, I don't know, let's say $120,000. Now what you need to do is identify the income that does not require your paycheck. What do I mean by that? How about things like Social Security? Pensions, investment income, rental income, annuity income where appropriate, business slash passive income. Other reliable sources. Maybe you authored a book. Maybe you have a little you know, business on the internet that makes money for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It doesn't matter what it is, but it's money that you don't have to show up and go work for every single day. And again, it doesn't take a lot of money to get those types of income sources to give you the financial freedom. So the gap between what your life costs you. And what your non-employment resources can reasonably support becomes the problem we're trying to solve. That's how we start finding your freedom number. Not again, as I said, everybody needs 2 million or 4 million, like Wall Street tells you. No, BS. What do you need? Right? What do you need? I mean, we all know someone that spends $60,000 a year has a completely different number than someone that's spending $250,000 or a couple million dollars a year. Now let's talk about the financial independence ladder. Because freedom doesn't necessarily happen all at once, right? It's like anything. It takes time, it takes a lot of work to get you to this point. So I've broken this down into some basic levels for you. I call level one the breathing room. I got a little bit of financial breathing room. I've got some emergency reserves. My consumer debt's under control. And I'm no longer worried that if I miss one paycheck, I'm going into foreclosure. Got little bit tucked away, bottom line. Number two, or my level two, I call the walkaway money. You've accumulated enough that losing your job would not immediately terrify you. That's a huge, huge psychological change. The minute that you know, hey, you know what? If that crabby boss of mine says on Friday afternoon at three o'clock, hey, you're out of a job, you're laid off, he expects tears coming from you, and you go, Thank you, sir. Appreciate it very much. Right? That's the walk away money. Level three, work becomes optional. Maybe investments don't support your entire lifestyle yet, but you no longer need that two hundred thousand dollar a year salary. Why? Because maybe you're gonna earn, say, fifty thousand doing something you love. You get my point on this? Work is optional because you've got passive income sources coming in. And maybe those passive income sources are not large enough or don't produce enough so that you can go do something you love, like teaching or something that's going to generate a little bit of money. I I mean, I I I'll tell you, I'm gonna pause right there. I've had a number of clients over the years that they didn't have to, but they wanted to. They would go to work in the spring and summertime. At Home Depot in the garden department. Never had one go to work for Lowe's. I don't know what it is about Home Depot and garden departments. But they loved it. I I just had one, I don't know, probably four months ago. She goes, you know, I'm making like 50,000 bucks a year, kind of working part-time, got some really good deals on, you know, I get great stock options, you know, where they get to buy it at a at a discount. I'm outdoors, I get to talk to people all day, and it just kind of provides a little bit of a gap. She loves that idea. That's what I'm talking about, where work becomes optional. Let's say three-quarters of her life is taken care of by all the investments and Social Security and all the other sources I just mentioned, but she was short a little bit, so she goes and does something that she loves to do. Let's go to my level four, financial independence. Your financial resources can support the life you designed without any earned income. Right? Now we go to number five, the ultimate abundance. Now resources exceed your lifestyle. And the questions change again. How much do we give to our favorite charity? How much do we help the children? Something I've been talking a lot about. What experiences can we go create while we're still young and healthy? What causes really matter to myself and to my spouse? What legacy can we build? You see. It's completely different than all the other levels. So level five is the abundance. And again, it does not take millions to hit abundance. It really doesn't. If you have a lifestyle where you have very little debt, and this is why, again, cash flow planning is so very important when we're talking about financial freedom. Think about it. If you just had the basics of life, you know, your property taxes, your groceries, your utilities, but the house is paid for, the cars are paid for, you don't have any credit card debt, got a few bucks saved up. That's really abundance, isn't it? Work is now optional. How fun would that be to live the rest of your life that way? Now, let's go to the person that says, look at, I've got a $200,000 job that I $200,000 a year job that I absolutely hate. Let's call him David. David's 57 years old, makes a couple hundred thousand bucks a year. Got a few million tucked away in his 401k. House is nearly paid off. Kids are gone. He needs about $100,000 a year for his financial freedom number. And he says, John, you know what? I can't take this job anymore. But I'm afraid I can't retire either, so I'm stuck. Well, maybe those aren't his only two choices. What if he quit that $200,000 a year job and does something he loves? Let's use that $50,000 a year figure again. Maybe he teaches. Maybe he does something like I recommend to a lot of my clients that take me up on it. They go back to the company they work for as a consultant. They make more money. They're already getting their benefits because they're retired. They kind of set their own schedule in many cases, work a few days a week. Get some great tax benefits because now they're self-employed. Pull in an extra bit of money. They love it. And they also love it because it transitions them into full retirement if they ever get to that point. So again, our example, David, makes $200,000 a year, hates his job. But look at, he just needs to go out and make $50,000. Again, works seasonal, like I said, about the Home Depot garden shop. Who knows what? Maybe he starts a business. Well, suddenly his portfolio is. Doesn't need to fund his entire lifestyle. He's now bought himself some options. Because financial independence isn't always going to be from $200,000 of income to zero, right? Like we think about. Sometimes it's reaching the point where you no longer need that full $200,000 from that specific job. Let's go to my next area. The woman who is just the opposite of David. She absolutely loves her job. Let's call her Susan. Let's say Susan's a past the normal retirement age. She's 66, financially independent, loves the company she works for, loves her coworkers, makes about 175,000 a year. And people always are coming up to her and going, Susan, you know, you're 66. You're a year past traditional retirement age. Why haven't you retired? And she says very simply, I don't want to. You see, financial independence doesn't require Susan to quit her job. In fact, something wonderful has happened to Susan. She gets to work without needing the paycheck. That changes everything. It changes her stress. It gives her extreme confidence when it comes to pay raise time and negotiations, gives her flexibility when it comes to hours, projects, clients, vacations. You know why? Because she now has the ability to. To do something that every one of you that work for someone dream about. And that is the ability to say no. No, I'm not going to work the overtime. No, I'm not going to do this. No, I'm not going to do that. Because you know in the back of your mind, I'm financially independent. If my boss says, No, you're going to, and you go, No, I'm not. They Yes, you are. And you go, No, I'm not. They go, then you're going to be fired. And you go, thank you. And you walk out the door. It's amazing the level of confidence you can get when you're financially independent. That takes me to my next area. I want to go into this more detail the power to say no. One of the greatest luxuries money can buy, it's not the Ferrari, not the yacht, not the big giant house. It's the ability to say no. Again, I'm not working on Saturday. I'm not taking that client. I don't like that person. I'm not staying in a toxic job. I'm not moving across the country for a promotion. I'm done climbing the corporate ladder. I don't need another twenty percent raise if it costs me my quality of life. And no, I'm not gonna miss my granddaughter's birthday because you just stuck me with a client dinner. Folks, that's true wealth. That is true wealth. So maybe the ultimate luxury isn't owning more stuff. Maybe it's owning a very important piece of your life. And that's called your calendar. All right, when we come back, now the fun part. What would you do? Welcome back to the John Sanchez show on Newstock 780 KOH, where we're talking about financial independence. What is your freedom number? I've helped you determine that calculation. Now let's get to the fun part. What would you do? You've reached financial independence. Congratulations. But what now? Here's where we're have some fun. We're gonna call this option A first. Keep working. Why? Not because you have to, because you love to. You love your job. Option B: work less. Three days a week. Four months off. Think that's crazy? There's all kinds of businesses. I again I live and eat this with clients. They've got years of experience. Their business does not want them to leave. But they want to leave. So they say, you know what? Can I work part time? Come back three days a week. They go, we'd love to have you do that. It's very possible, folks. Option C start the business. That crazy idea that you've always dreamt about doing. Guess what? Now failure doesn't mean foreclosure. 'Cause if you start the business, it doesn't work out. Okay, you lost a few bucks. But what if it works? Right? I that's what I hate about entrepreneurship. We're so trained just like retirement. We're so trained as human beings that the first thing when we talk about starting the business, we automatically assume it's not gonna work. So wrong. Option D, travel. Spend a month in Italy. I have clients do this all the time. Got some doing it. Matter of fact, leaving tomorrow. Going going to Europe for a month. Very feasible. Told about my stories of clients that have dreamt about traveling the country at retirement. They go get an RV, they travel the country. You can do that too. Option E, buy that dream property, that cabin, that ranch, that beach house, whatever you've worked towards, because you gather the financial freedom. Option F, do a little teaching, a little mentoring. Take that 40 years of experience and those gray hairs that are in your head and give some of it away. Option G, family. You've got freedom now. Do you want to go spend more time with the grandkids? The magnet, as I call them. Are they halfway across the country that you never had time to go see? But now you've got financial freedom. Now you can do it. Or go see the parents that are aging, the adult kids. Go get some experiences under your belt. Just because you're in your 60s or 70s doesn't mean there's a heck of a lot of life experiences you still need to enjoy. And option H is all of the above. Now I want come back to the entrepreneurial power. Because I think this is very important. See, financial independence can completely change your entrepreneurship mindset. Yeah, people start thinking, boy, I've got this business hanging over me. Man, this has to work. I've got a mortgage, I've got food, I got family, I got insurance, I got it's gotta work. But when you have financial freedom, it really doesn't have to work. Doesn't mean that you're careless or frivolous with your money or you don't work hard. It means you can pursue your passion projects. What's my number one rule for being successful in business? Do something you have a passion for. That's ninety five percent of the battle. It means you can pursue consulting, teaching, content. Maybe you want to go get your real estate license, or maybe you just want to become a real estate investor. Whatever it is you want to do, you get to do that. Ideas that maybe have been considered too risky before when you again have all those responsibilities. Nope, not anymore. And you watch and see what a clear mind you have and how much your heart is opened up to going after something you have a passion for. Because financial independence doesn't have to be the end of your productive life by any means. It might be the beginning of the most productive chapter because you're finally building what you you want to build. Not someone else, not your spouse, not your boss. You're not making money for somebody else. You're doing it for yourself. For happiness first, money second. Let's talk about the fun money. Let's say you are financially independent. Portfolio appears to support your lifestyle. Plan solid. Now you have an extra, I don't know, let's say 50 grand a year. What do you do with it? Do you invest it? Give it to the kids? Take the entire family to Hawaii. I have a lot of clients that do that. Buy that boat, remodel that kitchen, donate it. Hey, you know what? There's a lot of personal satisfaction you can get by donating, especially around the holidays. Or you go buy that classic car you've always wanted to rebuild in the garage. Maybe do nothing with it. Correct answer, there isn't one. It's whatever makes you feel good because you have financial independence. So I hope this is a new way for you to look at it. Again, you don't need multi-millions to do this, to become financially free. Start with what you need to live, subtract that from the job you currently have that you want to get out of, and say, okay, what is it that I need to do? To give me the money to support the lifestyle I want. If the mass says I'm financially independent, what do I want to do? That's the most beautiful thing. And I'll wrap you up with this. For decades, we have been taught, and I'm as guilty as anybody, that the ultimate financial goal in retirement is really simple. We work, we save, we invest, we turn 65, we stop, then we die. Financial independence, completely opposite. Lots of freedom, lots of fun. Hope this helps you reach your goal. God bless. We'll see you tomorrow on the John Sanchez Show.