Latest / The Great Wealth Transfer / You're Not Bad With Money. The System Is Mining You | Ali Katz

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You're Not Bad With Money. The System Is Mining You | Ali Katz · The Great Wealth Transfer

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  If you think you're bad with money because you're always spending exactly what you make or
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  wondering if you have enough. It turns out you're not bad with money. It's just the way the system
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  is designed and the people who have the most often have this. The worst. But nobody ever told
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  you is that the system is designed in an extractive way. It's actually mining us so that
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  the corporations and their shareholders can make as much as possible. For years, I thought there was
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  something wrong with me because I was always afraid I was going to run out of money. I had $1
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  million business then I had $2 million businesses. Why was I still worried about running out of
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  money? You're not bad with money. The system is designed to make you think that you are. The key
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  to your liberation is if you think you're bad with money because you're always spending exactly
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  what you make, or wondering if you have enough. Well, you're going to want to watch this video
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  because it turns out you're not bad with money. It's just the way the system is designed and the
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  people who have the most often have this the worst. I'm Ali Katz, personal family lawyer and
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  family wealth advisor here to help you grow up around money. For years, I thought there was
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  something wrong with me because I was always afraid I was going to run out of money, and it
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  really didn't make any sense. I started working at 14. I bought my first car. I put myself through
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  college and law school. I always had enough money. So then when I got my first job making six
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  figures, how could it be that I still felt broke? That really didn't make any sense whatsoever,
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  and it really didn't make sense. After I built $2 million businesses and I still felt broke, I still
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  felt afraid that I was going to run out of money. And I was sure there must be something wrong with
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  me, because I would spend 90 minute yoga classes, the entire class, the numbers running through my
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  mind. Am I going to be able to make payroll? Should I make that next investment? All of these thoughts
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  I'm going to run out of money. In fact, I remember every time I would go to the grocery store and I
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  would give my debit card. Is it going to get declined? Where were these thoughts coming from? I
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  had $1 million business then I had $2 million businesses. Why was I still worried about running
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  out of money? So I figured it out and I coined a term for it, and it's called money dysmorphia. It's
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  the distorted view that we have around our financial reality that causes us to sacrifice our
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  nonrenewable resources time, energy, attention, relationships, health. Those are at the individual
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  level, at the planetary level, are nonrenewable resources. We sacrifice all of it for money. And
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  money is infinitely renewable when we know how to use our nonrenewable resources. But many of us
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  don't. And I certainly didn't feel that money was infinitely renewable when I was suffering from
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  money dysmorphia. You might be too. So what nobody ever told you is that the system is designed in
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  an extractive way that's actually mining us. Those of us that are contributing to the system through
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  purchasing goods and services, those of us that are contributing to the system in the form of
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  workers working for the system, but being paid as little as possible so that the corporations and
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  their shareholders can make as much as possible, so that the CEOs can get paid outsized wages so
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  that the shareholders can make short term profits at the detriment to all of us that are paying for
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  the goods and services for the corporation to employ workers and pay them as little as possible.
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  Those workers then need to receive governmental benefits to be able to support themselves. And
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  it's our taxes that are paying for those governmental benefits. The entire system is
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  designed for extraction, and we're the ones that are being extracted from. So it's not that you're
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  bad with money, it's that the system has been designed to make you think that you're bad with
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  money, so that we take the blame instead of rising up and seeing that there's something that we can
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  do about this, we can change the nature of the game, but we're going to have to see it before we
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  can make the change. That idea that we're being mined was brought forward by my friend Lisa
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  Peterson. She's a CFP, the author of the book Mindful Money. We'll have her on the podcast so
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  you can hear more from her. But that also came from one of my longtime teachers, Charles
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  Eisenstein. And he first brought this idea forward when he helped me to see that we're paying for
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  the very things that we used to share in the past. Childcare needs to be commoditized. Really. The
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  entire care economy is being commoditized in a way where we have to go to work to pay for the
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  kind of care that we used to be able to get for free. Everything has been commoditized in a way
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  that makes all of us feel as if we don't have enough. We're counting what we have in zeros and
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  ones, the numbers in our bank account instead of in our relationships, instead of in what we can
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  give to each other because we can't give to each other anymore because we have to charge for
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  everything. There's no longer a sharing economy, a gifting economy, instead there's just a financial
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  economy. But again, this is something that we can change when we recognize that the zeros and ones
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  are replaceable. It's our time, energy, attention, relationships, health, our natural resources that
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  aren't. And so when we stop sacrificing our nonrenewable resources and recognize that money's
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  infinite, we can step into our roles as creators of the economy. And we can recognize that as
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  creators, we have the opportunity to actually change the game. And that's what I want to talk to
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  you about now. So we have this real opportunity to create an entirely new game where instead of
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  thinking about how much you can have, you can start to think about how little you actually need.
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  We need so much less than we think. But because we are in a consumer economy that preys
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  on our consumption, that tells us that we need more and more and more and more, we think, well,
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  it's all about how much do I need? And having us think that we don't have enough. So the
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  key to your liberation, the key to breaking free of this entire dynamic so that you're not being
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  mined so that you're moving out of the extractive system, it's really within your control. And the
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  starting place is to identify how little you need to love your life. And I don't mean how little you
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  need to just get by. That in and of itself is a money dysmorphia story too. Oh, I'm not going to
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  care about money. I'm just going to have enough to get by. It's actually not about that. It's how
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  little you need to love your life. And when you have a lot of great relationships, when you are
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  able to live with other people and bring your costs down, when you're able to share things in
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  your community, you actually find out that you need a lot less than you thought. And when you can
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  get to that place and you know that you can earn what you need in alignment with your values,
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  you're liberated. You're free. And that is the starting point to our collective liberation.
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  So you can be building your life from this foundation of how little do I need? How can I
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  earn what I need in the time that I have in alignment with my values, which is something all
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  of us can do? Then we get out of this idea of am I going to have enough? Am I going to have enough?
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  because you're no longer relying on trying to create passive income to have as much as possible
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  by investing your money so that your money earns money on it's money on it's money, which isn't
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  something that you can actually count on. But what you can always count on is knowing that you can
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  earn what you need in alignment with your values. When you know how little that is, and exactly what
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  you need to do to contribute to the world and ask for what you need in exchange for what you have
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  to give. This is how we start to become creators of the economy. This is how we start to move out
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  of the extractive system that is based on consumption, and start to step into our role as
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  creators and eventually stewards of our collective resources and our family wealth. You
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  begin to become sovereign and you begin to recognize, wow, I actually am rich. I have enough to
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  start taking care of what I have. I'm going to get good with money, and getting good with money
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  doesn't mean becoming a multi-millionaire or a billionaire. It means recognizing that what I have
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  is worth a lot, and I'm going to take care of what I have and I'm going to do it multi-generational.
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  And that doesn't just mean generational wealth into the future. It means looking backwards as
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  well. Talking to your parents, seeing what they have. Looking at all of your family resources
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  together to see that oh wow. What we have is actually a lot. Maybe it's even more than I've
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  been able to take care of. So I've been in this frantic feeling of I'm going to run out. Meanwhile,
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  I'm not taking care of what I have now so it can start really simply with just looking at what you
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  have, ideally on a cadence, weekly meetings with yourself, your spouse, maybe even
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  friends that you set up. I call them Lyft meetings, legal insurance, financial tax, monthly reviews of
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  your financials where you're actually looking at how much came in, how much went out, what did it
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  come in from, where did it go out to? And I'm not saying that you do that in order to cut your
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  expenses, but to actually look at where do you want to be using your dollars to have a great
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  life. Quarterly meetings with your family. Annual meetings to minimize your taxes so that you've
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  got as little as possible going out to the government and as much as possible, staying in
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  your family, staying in your community, and then aligning your resources toward what really
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  matters. Really looking at what are you invested in right now? And so many people have so much
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  money invested in retirement accounts that they think, I can't touch those resources, $27
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  trillion that we think are not within our control, that are 100% within your control, whether
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  it's to be used now or 20 years or 30 or 40 years from now, how you're investing those resources
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  really matters. You're not bad with money. The system is designed to make you think that you
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  are, and at the same time, it is time for you to get into right relationship with money and most
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  importantly, your nonrenewable resources. Your time, your energy, your attention, your relationships and
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  your health. And when you do that, you can truly step into your role as a creator of the economy
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  and a steward of your family wealth. This is why I've created this podcast, and I've created a
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  Substack as well called The Great Wealth Transfer Substack. I will link to it in the comments and I
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  want to hear from you in the comments. What are the thoughts that have you think that you're bad
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  with money? How can you see that the system is keeping you trapped? And what are the ways that
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  you can see or have questions about how you can shift this dynamic for yourself? What is the next
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  thing that you need to hear about? To recognize that you are a creator of the economy, that you
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  are a steward of your family wealth, and that we actually do have enough. Because when we come
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  together, we truly can change the system. We are the creators of the system. We are the
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  participants in the system. So if you have other people that you'd love to have a better
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  relationship with, money and our nonrenewable resources, please share these videos. Share the
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  Substack. Subscribe. Follow like comment in the comments and let me know what you're learning and
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  what questions you have so that I can answer them and check the show notes so that you know exactly
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  which links to follow to gain more resources and knowledge and understanding, because it's our
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  understanding of these systems that are going to be able to break the cycles, break the chains,
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  create the new patterns and the new future reality that we want to live into together. I'll
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  see you in the next podcast. None of this is legal, insurance, financial or tax advice specific to you
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  is here for educational and informational purposes only. Really to help you with a kind of
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  financial literacy that nobody gave us. And I want you to have so that we can change the system
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  together, because that's what we're here for. And so that you can make eyes wide open decisions now
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  and in the future, instead of what I call eyes squeezed shut decisions that has us as victims
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  and prey of a system that really doesn't care about us making great decisions with our eyes
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  wide open.