Today, a special guest is joining The Invested Dads! Author, teacher, and personal finance expert Joe Sangl is hopping on today’s episode to introduce his newest book 2020 Money: Gaining Clarity for your Financial Future! He’ll be discussing methods for discovering and achieving your dreams as well as some financial advice you can use to accomplish your long-term goals. Tune in now for our exclusive interview with Joe Sangl to help make your financial situation better!
Main Talking Points
COVID-19 Updates [0:24]
Welcome Our Special Guest, Joe Sangl! [4:43]
About Joe Sangl’s Family & Saving For His Kids’ College [10:01]
Resources To Help You Discover & Achieve Your Dreams [13:20]
Your Dad Joke Of The Week Presented By Joe Sangl! [15:24]
Why It Can Be Scary To Write Down Your Dreams [15:46]
One-Time Costs Vs. Ongoing Costs & Why They Matter [18:27]
Creative Ways To Fund Your Goals & Dreams [21:38]
The Importance Of Reviewing Your Goals [25:17]
What Can You Do Right Now To Get Clarity On Your Dreams? [30:43]
Some Final Advice From Joe Sangl [34:07]
Links & Resources
Budgeting Tools from Joe Sangl
20/20 Money: Gaining Clarity for Your Financial Future
Social Media
Full Transcript
Intro:
Welcome to the Invested Dads podcast, simplifying financial topics so that you can take action and make your financial situation better. Helping you to understand the current world of financial planning and investments, here are your hosts, Josh Robb and Austin Wilson.
[0:24] – COVID-19 Updates
Austin Wilson:
All right. Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to The Invested Dads Podcast. Today, Josh and I, still heading our COVID-19 request to work from home, so we’re working from home. But we’ve been doing a lot of thinking as the markets have been all over the place. And definitely volatile time out there with a lot of uncertainty as we’re sitting here at 1.9 million global cases of COVID-19 with over 550,000 here in the US. Driving the stock market’s crazy all the time, up down, all around. Josh, it’s a weird time. What have you been thinking about during this time?
Josh Robb:
Yeah, just, my wife and I were talking about this, that years down the road my wife is like, “I need to take some pictures of us doing stuff with the kids in the house.” Like Easter, all that stuff to say, hey do you remember when we were quarantined in our house on this self-isolation? Because my youngest is two, she’s not going to remember this. But to be able to show her and talk about, this was… never before had we experienced this and hopefully never again will we experience this. Who knows? But it’s just a once unique event that try to document a little bit so that you can have that conversation about why we had to do what we did and what we did.
Austin Wilson:
I saw a meme that was like, okay it’s about time, but all those blizzard of ’78 stories are now null and void. Because we have a little bit longer, maybe bigger and not, obviously there was a lot of sad stuff that happened during then. But this is our generation’s blizzard of ’78.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And I mean, I still have one question that has not been answered. So I had to run to the store the other day to just resupply and some essential stuff. With six people in our house, we go through eggs and milk pretty quick. And I walked down the toilet paper aisle again, just thinking we’re still good, we have some. But I was like, well let me see what’s there. It’s still empty. Who is still stockpiling? It’s been what, three weeks now? It’s obvious that there’s no immediate need for 600 rolls of toilet paper in your house, who’s still stockpiling this stuff? Who’s still buying it right when it hits the shelf, who’s going crazy?
Austin Wilson:
People are going to be back to buying and selling houses in six months or a year, or whatever that may look like. And you’re going to go through a house and you’re just going to see a basement full of toilet paper. It’s like, nah, you’re one of those people.
Josh Robb:
I feel like it’s going to be like beanie babies. Like this’ll be worth money sometime, people are going to really want this. And then you’re going to have just rolls of toilet paper and you’re basically like, no one wants it.
Austin Wilson:
So something we’ve been talking about is how this situation, as far as you know, not necessarily the health side of things. The health side of things we’re trying to get a grasp on. I think we’re making some headway as a country, but the financial side of things, the economic side of things changing all the time. But we’ve been talking a little bit about how this may impact our financial situation. And Josh and I, actually we had an interview with an author named Joe Sangl. And he’s the author of the book 2020 Money. And we recorded this a little bit ago, so this is the interview that we had with him. And we feel like this is very fitting to make sure that we are all keeping track of those long-term goals even during these times of uncertainty when things are really, really difficult.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. You know, and one of the things we’ve talked about is our goals that we’re setting up for all these financial investments that we’ve been talking about, they’re still out there. They haven’t gone away. So if you’re planning for some college in the future for your kids, or retirement, or a lake house or whatever those goals are, they’re probably still out there on the horizon and they haven’t changed. And so that’s one of the things that is still apparent for everybody that’s planning for the future is, don’t lose sight of that vision. Don’t lose sight of that goal. And make those decisions now, am I in a situation now with the market’s down or there’s a volatility that I can actually enhance my ability to meet those goals?
Or just encouragement not to give up on those goals while you’ve seen some little disruption in your accounts and your progress towards them. But that’s one of the things you and I have been talking about is those goals don’t change just because of an event like this has disrupted our normal day to day life.
Austin Wilson:
So Josh, tell us a little bit about Joe.
[4:43] – Welcome Our Special Guest, Joe Sangl!
Josh Robb:
Yeah, today we have joining us Joe Sangl. He is an author, a teacher, and he’s spent a lot of time here in the personal finance world, something that we’re very familiar with. And we ran across his book, his most recent book that just came out and he’s agreed to come on with us and talk about his new book. Joe, why don’t you describe a little bit about what got you to this point and a little bit about yourself?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, great. Thanks so much for having me on The Invested Dads Podcast. I’m fired up to be a part of it. And yeah, the latest book released in December, taking advantage of the year 2020 coming up me and seven million other people, I guess, decided to talk about having 20/20 vision for your life in the year 2020. And it’s really about, I made it timeless because it is timeless to have clear vision for your life. So I use the 20/20 vision concept. And I really took about seven years off from writing a new book. I don’t write books just to write a new one every year. I write it when I have a moment of inspiration. And I really have found as I travel and speak and I get to speak 90 to 100 times a year on the topic of personal finances, that I always ask this question in my live events.
I say, “Who here do not have your plans, hopes and dreams written down somewhere? You don’t have them written down?” And it’s always without fail over half of the room.
Austin Wilson:
Oh yeah.
Joe Sangl:
And it’s not that they don’t have plans, hopes and dreams, it’s just that they have not written them down. And you and I both know that if you don’t write things down, they’re much less likely to become to completion. We won’t go as far. Gail Matthews, a noted psychologist, has done research on this. Says you’re over 30% more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down. And so I really took the time to say, what is it like for people to actually really have a vision for their life and let that dictate how they manage their money? Because I find so many broke people, 70% of people, despite all the good work of you guys and Dave Ramsey and all the different financial experts out there, 7 out of 10 Americans still live paycheck to paycheck.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And that’s the biggest concern we’re seeing is, like you said, is they may want to get somewhere, but they can’t see past where they’re at right now.
Joe Sangl:
That’s it. And they let their bank account dictate their dreams to them. And if you’re like I was, I had an average bank balance of $4.13. And so I really wanted to inspire people to truly get a detailed look at their life. And I’ve got 22 questions that I’ve narrowed it down to that really help people get clarity to that. And then we spend the back half of the book talking about ways to get your money in alignment with that.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And this vision, this idea that 20/20 vision came partly from your first book, which is the, I Was Broke. Now I’m Not. And that was talking about the path to get out of that way. But you need that vision to start this whole process. You need an end goal to see that.
Joe Sangl:
I realized with that book I was helping people fix financial issues. I was teaching the fundamentals of money, how to have a budget, how to get debt free, how to save money, how to get started investing. But I missed something that I had that many of the people I’m helping do not have. And I had clear vision. I had that “aha” 20/20 clarity moment, the fog had lifted. I knew exactly where I was headed. I had tested it, I knew it. And I realized so many people haven’t had that moment. And that is the reason why they’re stuck. And even though they know they need to do a budget, they can’t stick to it because when they get to that inevitable moment when they have to tell themselves no, or wait, or not now, they can’t tell themselves why they’re telling themselves no. And therefore they just give in and go live for the minute.
Austin Wilson:
I think that there were a couple things that really stood out to me from the book, but I think one of the biggest takeaways is that your overall… You have to be a dreamer to have a plan. And if you don’t have a goal, which is a dream, you’re not going to have a plan that’s worth anything because you have nothing to work towards. And the fact that, and I talked to Josh and I talked to my wife about this, the fact writing it down is just unbelievably powerful. And you just spoke on how much more powerful that is than not. But that is something that is just so simple and so easy to do, and is going to have a huge impact on people’s lives. So yeah, kudos to putting that on paper because. You put your idea on paper and that’s going to help other people put their ideas on paper.
Joe Sangl:
There you go.
Austin Wilson:
That’s very, very good. So thank you for that.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, I think, like you said is, for a lot of people you mentioned in the book is that fear if once I write it down, I’m becoming accountable to that. When it’s floating in my head, nobody else knows I’m hoping to have this happen. But when I write it down and I put some accountability to that, that goal takes on a whole new life. A whole new meaning.
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, it really does. And the fear of somebody in my family will see it. My friends at work will see it. And now that ugly word that many people don’t value but really helps those of us who make progress, that word accountability shows up.
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Joe Sangl:
And even when we’re having difficulty believing it, it’s even tougher when somebody is holding us accountable to it. So they just choose to opt out and not write it down. And it’s so sad.
[10:01] – About Joe Sangl’s Family & Saving for His Kids’ College
Josh Robb:
And this works for the family. You talk about this, you were talking about goals, but you’re a dad. Tell us a little bit about your family to start with.
Joe Sangl:
Yeah. So me and my wife, when we got married, she’s the oldest of six kids. I’m the youngest of six boys. So we thought we’d like to have a little bit larger family. And my wife in her junior year of high school had ovarian tumors and we didn’t know if we could have kids. So a couple years in our marriage we had a baby girl, show up and that was awesome. But the tumor showed up again too. And so we went on a 10 year journey with no more children. And so we finally gave up, and I made a brilliant financial decision. The financial teacher did. I canceled my maternity insurance to save money. And 16 days later we found out we were expecting.
Austin Wilson:
Oh wow.
Josh Robb:
Oh wow.
Joe Sangl:
And so we had a baby boy show up. And then three and a half years later I went back and got that insurance. We had another little daughter show up. So this year I have a sophomore in college. I have a fourth grader, and I got the last one in kindergarten.
Josh Robb:
Oh wow. You got a good spread there.
Joe Sangl:
Fired up.
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Joe Sangl:
And so I have a vision for my kid’s life and some of it is from my own money wounds. I went to college, I went to Purdue University study mechanical engineering, went to Clemson and got my MBA. And I also had this other friend named Sally Mae in my life. And so I had gotten to break up with her and I wanted my children to never even know who she was.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Joe Sangl:
I had this vision. And I really started my money journey when my daughter was four, my oldest daughter. And so I started the 529 college savings plan. And by the time we went to look at colleges that $100 a month and then we went to $200 a month when we got debt free, except for a house, that had grown to right out $100,000.
Austin Wilson:
Right. Wow, that’s incredible.
Joe Sangl:
And so it’s in stone now. She’s going to graduate out of college owing nothing.
Josh Robb:
That is great.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. So she’s not even friends with Sally Mae.
Joe Sangl:
Doesn’t even… What she has realized though is that all of her friends know who Sally Mae-
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, exactly.
Joe Sangl:
And I think she really has comprehended, this is a major gift that I’ve been given.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. When you look at the early years of someone’s career and the ability to have more money available to save, to set those goals and those visions without having to pay those debts back, I mean, it just sets them up for success long-term. And so that planning you did when she was four to start that process, a hundred bucks, you think, well that’s not a lot of money in the scheme of things, but giving it that time and that opportunity to grow gives you the ability to go through college and not owe those debts. So you’re right.
Joe Sangl:
Here’s what really stands out to me, and I think this is, you guys know this way better than I as investment advisors and teachers. But when I started saving for my daughter’s college, she wasn’t even in kindergarten. And the idea of her going to college seemed like mythology. Like that’s so far away. And now all of a sudden it’s reality. And now I’m looking at retirement, it’s about the same distance away as my daughter was from college. It seems mythological.
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Joe Sangl:
But something tells me I’m going to blink and retirement is going to be there. I’m so glad I’m making good decisions now so that later that money will be there.
[13:20] – Resources to Help You Discover & Achieve Your Dreams
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And speaking of making those decisions, your book lays out a great process of getting those visions on paper, thinking through them, planning for them, making sure that you not only have this great dream, but setting yourself up to achieve that dream. What are some resources that you have out there to help them get through that process?
Joe Sangl:
Sure. We do have a link, it’s at iwbnin.com/2020money. And that stands for, I Was Broke Now I’m Not, iwbnin.com/2020money. And there’s dreams lists that they can download there. They can also download a SMART goals worksheet so they can have specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. There’s a dreams journal that they can write down as they go through those 22 questions. And so I really encourage people to do that, because in the habit of writing all those down, every time you rewrite it, you’ll get better at it and more firm in your conviction that it really is your dream. Not your parents’ dream, not someone else’s dream for you, but your very own dream.
Austin Wilson:
And it becomes more clear the more you’re right down and the more you revisit it. Every single time it’s just more and more real. So yeah, we’ll link that in the show notes so people can go directly there and get those resources.
Josh Robb:
And you know, I’m one that I don’t like to journal. I don’t do a lot of writing. And as I was going through your book, it doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be anything neat, it has to be my thoughts I’m just putting on paper to make it more concrete. And so if you think, I’m not a great writer, it’s not going to be spelled right. It’s going to have grammar errors. That’s fine. It’s your goal, it’s what you’re trying to achieve. You’re putting it on a paper to get your process started. And for anybody out there, you can do it.
Joe Sangl:
Yeah. And I urge you. You don’t have to write up 71 dreams. Write down the ones that immediately come to mind and don’t view it as a moment in time. View it as something that you’re going to do the rest of your life. Add dreams as you go along. Take dreams off that no longer are your dreams. And let it be a living organic part of your life.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Josh Robb:
That’s good.
[15:24] – Your Dad Joke of the Week Presented by Joe Sangl!
Austin Wilson:
So Joe, it is time for our listeners, one of their favorite times from what I hear of the episode, it is time for the dad joke of the week. So Joe, what have you got for us?
Joe Sangl:
Well, I will tell you I had a nightmare last night that I was a muffler on a car. I woke up exhausted.
Josh Robb:
Exhausted. I like it. That is good.
[15:46] – Why it Can Be Scary to Write Down Your Dreams
Austin Wilson:
The exhaust off, that’s so true. And so we’re sitting here recording this at a time when the financial markets are kind of exhausted. So that’s a fitting one for us there. So Joe, you talked about, you gave us five guidelines for clarifying your fully funded life. Number four was to write it down. What about, so we’ve talked about writing it down a lot, but what about that makes it scary and how can we get past the fear?
Joe Sangl:
Well, I think there’s several reasons why it’s scary and one is, we’ve written down stuff before and then didn’t do it. Or it didn’t come true. We put ourselves out there and some of the stuff just didn’t happen. And I would just say, don’t let some failure in the past dictate how you choose to live the rest of your life in the future. Of course, you’re going to have failure. Failure, what do they say? The path to success is littered with failures. Thomas Edison is known for 1,000 different patents and inventions. Had over 10,000 failed experiments and they once said, somebody made a comment on that. And he’s like, I don’t view any of them as failures, I have merely found 10,000 ways that do not work.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Joe Sangl:
And so I think that’s the biggest reason I… The second reason it says we shared, others may see it and there’s accountability created. I also think that there’s another one is, it’s the cost side of the equation.
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Joe Sangl:
That pretty quickly after we write it down, we start looking at the cost.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. You mentioned the difference between kids when they’re asked their goals and adults. Kids, especially when they don’t have that money factor built-in, the experiences of failures and costs and the money disappearing on your normal everyday life. Kids are just, oh, they’ll set those dreams high.
Joe Sangl:
My fourth-grade son, man, he thinks dad’s got it all. And anything he wants, dad, just go get it.
Austin Wilson:
Yep.
Joe Sangl:
We have enough money. And I tell him, and this is something that I’ve set up in my household. I refuse to say in our household that “we can’t afford that.” I just refuse to say that statement. I believe it’s a very limiting statement. Instead, I will say things like, “we choose not to purchase that.” Or, “how can we afford that?” And “is that cost worth it?” And so I’m not intimidated by the cost anymore. I walk in and out of the Atlanta airport regularly. I park way out in the economy parking and get my 10,000 steps in by the time I get to the airport.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Joe Sangl:
And there’s what I call luxury car lane, and it’s Maserati, Bentley. I mean, I’m talking the $100 parking area per day. And there’s other cars I don’t even recognize, but they look really expensive. And I realize if those people got money to be able to buy those, there’s surely some way we can get the money to fund whatever dream I might have in my life.
Josh Robb:
Right.
[18:27] – One-Time Costs Vs. Ongoing Costs & Why They Matter
Austin Wilson:
That’s right. And when you were talking about the costs of your dreams, so when you connect those dreams to money, there’s two different kinds of costs, right? So specifically some of the examples in your book you talked about were talking about houses, talking about cars, those kind of things. So you have one time costs, like upfront costs, and then you’ve got ongoing costs. So talk about that a little bit. What’s the difference? How should people really look at that when they’re making a plan and having a goal?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, that’s so good. And I wrestled with how to name those. I finally settled on one time cost versus ongoing cost. I originally called it a moment to cost and lifestyle cost. And really it’s a lot of times people really want to have a house. I work in the world of personal finance, a lot of people have that first time home buyer dream, and they just want to get the house, they want to get the house. And they view one cost and one cost only and that is the down payment and closing cost.
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Joe Sangl:
And they forget, hey, there’s maintenance cost, there’s utility cost, there’s insurance cost, there’s so many added costs that are ongoing cost. And so what I really am encouraging people to do is to really think through all of the cost of the dream. Because, what do they say? I want you to get your dream, I don’t want your dream to get you.
Austin Wilson:
Yes.
Joe Sangl:
And I found many people who get the dream, and then the dream blows them up. I learned this early and often, and I decided to go into the world in investing and when I was an engineer I did some mergers and acquisitions work. And I found my gift is fixing broken businesses. That’s my gift. And so I bought a couple of broken businesses and then fixed them up. And one of the things that I learned early is you have to have the money to buy them, but then you have to have the money to feed them and nurture them while you’re fixing them.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Joe Sangl:
And I have seen so many friends buy a business that’s struggling and then they forget that lifestyle, that ongoing cost. And it absolutely eats them alive. And they end up, the dream that they had becomes their nightmare. And they are exhausted. And they end up losing their dream and it’s selling at even more of a discount than they bought it the first place.
Josh Robb:
Yep. And we see that a lot too, with second homes, vacation homes, things that where, it’s a great goal. It’s a great dream to have, but you’re right, they only look at that first cost. And then when the ongoing costs come it hurts and burdens their lifestyle to the point where they can’t enjoy that great dream and goal they had.
Joe Sangl:
There you go. I’ve seen people with a brand-new car, they’ve been driving the old beater car that’s been paid off and it’s had annoying maintenance issues. But then they get the new car and that’s a huge cost. And then the insurance goes through the roof. If you’re in a state, like I live in South Carolina, you have a property tax you have to pay on that vehicle, which is through the roof. I’m talking 50X or higher that of a used old car. And then they don’t understand that. And then the next thing you hear them is complaining about this new car and the dream is no… The tarnish definitely has worn off the dream.
[21:38] –Creative Ways to Fund Your Goals & Dreams
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. So Joe, you talked about getting creative when you want to fund these goals. So we all have goals, we all have plans. Now we have to put it down. How do we get there? So what are some creative ways or some outside of the box ways to really think about funding some of these goals we might have?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah. I encourage people to look at what they have in their hands to start with. And one of the primary places is their house.
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Joe Sangl:
It’s important to be diversified in the stock market. You guys teach that all day long, but it’s also important to be diversified outside of it. And I found that many people can turn their house into a revenue generator. I have a nephew who I kept bringing him to Purdue University football games to watch us lose. My four years I was there we were 3-8, 3-8, 1-10 and 3-8. After that Drew Brees showed up.
Josh Robb:
I was going to say that was probably right around Drew Brees’s time.
Joe Sangl:
Yeah. He came in a couple years after I was there.
Austin Wilson:
Joe, so there’s two of our listeners or two of my friends who went to Purdue for engineering. And one of them played Purdue football. So I spend a lot of time watching the boilermakers.
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, okay. That’s awesome. Boiler up hammer down. But my nephew, he ended up, he’s 10 years younger than me. But he decided to go to Purdue. He got a job working for the Department of Defense as a civilian employee. And he actually bought a five-bedroom house. And he’s single with no options, no prospects. Why did he do that? Because he knew that a lot of people working at that place were on one-year government contracts. And so they worked four 10 hour days and many of them are not moving their family for that one year contract. So they literally would drive in Monday, they would rent one room from him for Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, they’d go back home to their family on Thursday and he had all four extra bedrooms rented out. And as a result, by the time he met Laura, six years later, he had half his house paid off and had never paid a payment.
Austin Wilson:
That’s awesome.
Joe Sangl:
And so that’s thinking outside of the box. And I know a lot of people don’t like the idea of sharing their house, their space with somebody. But I wrote a book called Oxen, and it’s about investing. And one of the things I like to say with the Oxen analogy is, if you want to have Oxen, which are carrying the load for you, doing the work for you, you’re going to have to deal with the messes, the little presents they leave laying around.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Joe Sangl:
That’s just a fact. And you don’t have to deal with the market going up and down. You have to deal with the value of whatever it is you’ve put money into going up and down, hopefully over the time going up and to the right.
Josh Robb:
And that’s with, you’re writing down your visions, you can adapt them. They’re not set in stone in the sense that you can’t change them. So you look at, like you said, a house or something and say, okay, if I can’t afford this on my own, and you give that example in the book, what are ways I can afford it using a different approach? And maybe it’s a little bit different vision for a while than what I thought I’d be, but it gets me to a better spot in the long run.
Joe Sangl:
Absolutely. And I chose to use an outrageous example in the book, on purpose. Because I really wanted it to be, I purposely had a young person who many people would say that’s not possible. And had them think outside the box to kind of jar the reader to say, I first wanted them to get angry with me and say, this is just not possible. This is ridiculous. Because then I’m going to go take them to the persons who have done it.
Josh Robb:
Right. And show them actually how.
Joe Sangl:
To say, hey look, maybe the reason I’ve included this in the book is because you’ve been thinking in the terms and the norms of your life and those around you, and I’m trying to open up the circle to say, there’s a lot of other ways to do what you’re trying to do if you’re willing to think differently.
[25:17] – The Importance of Reviewing Your Goals (Especially with Your Spouse)
Josh Robb:
Yep. And that comes to the review process, right? You talk about those goals, you have to review those goals. Why is that so important?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, and if you’re married, I encourage you to review them together. And the reason it’s so important is because if you don’t, you will forget that they are your dreams. Because in the day-to-day of life, you get busy. I mean, I forget stuff that is important from the time I get called or I don’t get called, my wife texts me and tells me, “pick up a gallon of milk on the way home from work.” Yes ma’am. And I drive right past the store. Or even worse, I go to the store, wander around for 30 minutes, walk out with $80 stuff and a fishing pole and no milk.
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Joe Sangl:
And if something so simple like that, you will forget in just a brief moment of time. You will surely forget your dreams. Doesn’t mean they’re not there, but they will go into the distance and it’ll be two, three years before you reviewed it again. And so I literally have a reminder set up on my reminders feature on my iPhone that every three months, every quarter, it pops up and says, review your dreams list with Jen.
Josh Robb:
Okay. And what do you do if you’re married and you and your spouse have different goals? Is that okay?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, it’s absolutely okay. And you absolutely do have different dreams and goals. My wife loves to have a scrapbooking room. And wants a Cricut, I didn’t know what that was. It looked like it spelled cry-cut. But it’s awesome. It’s a scrapbooking thing. And it’s not my dream, it’s her dream. I love hunting. It’s not her dream, it’s my dream. And of course we have shared dreams for our kids. And what we do, and I found this worked well for us, is we look at it and say, who funded the individual dream last? Okay, now it’s your turn. So I funded the big red barn on the farm. Well then she got the pool, finally I did not want the pool. I literally spent money to dig a hole in the ground. Guess who spent the most time in the pool last year in its first year at our house? This guy.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right. There’s a pool for you.
Josh Robb:
Well you were tired from all the digging, I mean, you need a break.
Austin Wilson:
You needed it.
Joe Sangl:
Guys, I had the five time reigning national backhoe digging champion, dig my pool. I didn’t know that was a thing.
Austin Wilson:
That is-
Josh Robb:
I’m going to have to Google that and watch some videos. I’m sure that’s intense.
Austin Wilson:
So Joe, that review process, I was just thinking about this. So review process is good when you’re looking at progress on goals, but I think reviewing past goals is also equally important. So if you cross off a goal and that dream has been fulfilled, those are good things to also remember and keep track of because you can look back and say, “Wow, here’s what I did to get here, and here’s how I did it and where it’s at now. And I was able to complete it, complete the goal, achieve a dream.” And that has got to be so encouraging going forward to do it again. Right?
Joe Sangl:
That’s great. I need to include that in the second edition of that book.
Austin Wilson:
You don’t need to tag me. You don’t need to tag me.
Joe Sangl:
But one of the things… That is so powerful because I think we, a lot of times, we are driven to look at our failures or the misses. And that reminder of past successes helps give you that courage to stick with it. I think that’s an excellent point also.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, I think looking back can be just as powerful as looking forward when you’ve got a plan.
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Joe Sangl:
Absolutely.
Josh Robb:
And along with that, you talked about having your aha moment that really got this whole thing kicked off. What do you do if you and your spouse haven’t had that aha moment together, but one of you is on fire ready to go, the other one is hesitant or just hasn’t hit the same point? Do you have a way of getting them both on that same goal and the same vision together where maybe one’s less enthusiastic than the other?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, I really encourage the 22 questions that I have written in the book. I encourage that to be gone through together as a couple. Me and my wife went away for three days to Charleston, South Carolina, it’s about three and a half hours from our house. And we spent three days working through those questions. And we found that we could make it through about six a day.
Josh Robb:
Okay.
Joe Sangl:
And it wasn’t nerd, “We’re going to go through all 22 questions today, we got an hour and a half.” We went through some of them sitting at the beach, some sitting at the pool, some sitting over dinner. Sometimes we were like, we’re not doing any more questions for next couple of hours. I’m sick of this. But that is, those questions really help manifest to the surface the different latent dreams that we may have. And sometimes there’s something like shedding, asking the question that brings new light to that dream, and you actually get to have a productive conversation. So I’ve heard it said this way, we changed where we were at. So a change of place plus a change of pace will lead to a changed perspective.
Josh Robb:
Okay. I like that.
Joe Sangl:
And so we changed our place, it changed our pace, because no kids were present, which is awesome. And it changed our perspective. And it allowed us to have the most productive conversation we’ve had on dreaming and vision that we’ve had in a long time.
Austin Wilson:
That’s awesome. Yeah, change it up. That is actually one of the… So that’s what a lot of education focus people say when you want to go study, what do you do? Go find somewhere you haven’t been because it releases all these endorphins to allow you to absorb things and think more deeply and think more creatively. So I can see how that would be very, very beneficial for when you’re thinking about your dreams as well.
[30:43] – What Can You Do Right Now to Get Clarity on Your Dreams?
Austin Wilson:
So Joe, besides buying your book, which is a great book and we’ve read it and we encourage everyone to do that, it’s awesome. What else can listeners do to get started on this process of gaining clarity on their dreams?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah. I encourage them right now, just when you get to a place, you’re probably listening to this drive time or whatever, whenever you get to work. Next time you have a quiet moment in the evening right before you go to bed or when you wake up take five minutes to scribble down some dreams. Be thinking of them now, scribble them down. And then plan a time, if you’re married, to go sit down and have that conversation with your spouse to be able to really start to have a productive conversation.
The other things I would encourage you to do is do right now financially the decisions that it doesn’t matter what your dreams are, you know they’re right decisions with your money. Take advantage of compound interest. Have a long-term perspective. Plan every dollar with a budget. Avoid dumb debt that is on no value at all. Pay the credit cards off. Those are things that, sometimes certain dreams really won’t show up in your life until you achieve these financial objectives is what I’ve found. I could never have imagined buying a business when I was broke. But when I got my finances in order, all of a sudden these became an option and something that was definitely a far off dream, if not even a dream, became reality because of it.
Austin Wilson:
Yep.
Josh Robb:
And you mentioned buying some business. Now there’s a couple other businesses that you are a part of. One is, INJOY Stewardship Solutions. Tell us about a couple of those that you’re a part of.
Joe Sangl:
Yeah, so INJOY Stewardship Solutions was founded by Dr. John Maxwell, who’s the number one leadership guru on Amazon. Sold over 30 million books on leadership. And this organization he created to help nonprofit organizations, churches, schools, the like, have capital campaigns to fund major capital projects.
Josh Robb:
Okay.
Joe Sangl:
And it’s onsite, high touch consultative services. We’ve got another one that’s for church leaders called ministrydeal.com. And it basically is Groupon for church leaders. And then we have, I Was Broke. Now I’m Not, which helps individuals with their personal finances, basic financial tools. We also have Fully Funded that helps with regular giving systems within churches or nonprofits, helping them raise their donor base. And then we have another one that is called GiveIn Joy, Giving Solutions. And it is an online giving portal. It’s the entire mechanism for which people can actually give digitally, electronically, or via text to their organization of choice.
Josh Robb:
That’s great.
Austin Wilson:
Awesome.
Josh Robb:
So it’s very apparent that you have a passion for people and organizations to get from where they’re at now to a better spot to better impact their ministry or their outreach. And that’s just really great to see and hear. Now you mentioned the, I Was Broke. Now I’m Not, and then the Oxen book, which is about the investing and getting your investments to grow. What are some of the other books that you’ve done?
Joe Sangl:
Yep. I wrote a book for young people, high schoolers and 20 somethings called What Everyone Should Know About Money Before They Enter The Real World. So it’s written with prevention in mind. And we wrote that one for that. And then I’ve written some other books that are for church leaders that will be less relevant I think to this audience.
[34:07] – Some Final Advice from Joe Sangl to Our Listeners
Joe Sangl:
But I would just summarize everything that I’ve said today to your listeners. I would say this, you are one or two key decisions away from completely changing the trajectory of your life. It’s worth spending the time to think about what those one or two decisions are and go make one or two of them and watch what happens.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, definitely. And it’s those steps, right? The steps that get you there. You got to start by making that plan and then following through with that.
Joe Sangl:
Absolutely.
Austin Wilson:
So listeners, we’d encourage you to check out Joe’s books, there’s an Amazon link for his latest one that we read and are discussing here, but also check out his other books they’re great. Check out his websites, we’ll throw those in the show notes below. And mostly Josh and I just really, really want to thank Joe. He has been such a valuable part of our podcast and our journey kind of getting up and going in 2020 ourselves. And we’re thankful for him. So Joe, any final remarks or closing thoughts for our listeners?
Joe Sangl:
Yeah. I would say, if you have a dream, don’t let anybody else tell you it’s not your dream. Be a believer in your dream. When I first started to teach personal finance, obviously I was saying, well, I’m not Dave Ramsey. And I went and spoke one day and I had the, “I am not Dave Ramsey” complex. And I mentioned something he said, I said, Dave Ramsey says you got to live like no one else. You got to live like no one else. Who here has heard of Dave Ramsey?
And I asked it just flippantly. There’s about a hundred people in that room and one person raised their hand. And I literally, it floored me. And I went, wait a minute. Who here has not heard of Dave Ramsey? And it was 99 people in the room had not heard of him.
Austin Wilson:
That’s crazy.
Joe Sangl:
And it’s like, have you been living under a rock? Where have you been? And it was in that moment that I realized that one person and one person’s voice can’t do what I’ve been called to do as well. So I just decided I’m going to be Joe Sangl living out my passion with what I want to help people do. And from that day on I’ve been freed up from feeling like I’m living somebody else’s dream or taking it away. I encourage every one of your listeners do the same. Go be you and what you love to do.
Josh Robb:
Appreciate that. That’s a great thought. Joe, thank you again for coming on. As always, if you liked this podcast, make sure you like it, share with your friends. And if you have any thoughts or topics you’d like us to talk about, make sure you email us at hello at theinvesteddads.com.
Austin Wilson:
Thanks Joe for being here. We’ll talk soon.
Josh Robb:
Thank you guys.
Joe Sangl:
All right, fire it up.
Austin Wilson:
Bye.
Outro:
Thank you for listening to The Invested Dads Podcast. This episode has ended, but your journey towards a better financial future doesn’t have to. Head over to theinvesteddads.com to access all the links and resources mentioned in today’s show. If you enjoyed this episode and we had a positive impact on your life, leave us a review. Click subscribe and don’t miss the next episode.
Josh Robb and Austin Wilson work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. All opinions expressed by Josh, Austin, or any podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.
There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions, or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment. Any investor who attempts to mimic the performance of an index would incur fees and expenses which would reduce returns. Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.
