A Journey Through Intentional Living and Mindful Money Management

Embrace the dawn of a new year with a promise of transformation and triumph. Our latest episode isn't just a conversation; it's a blueprint for cultivating a mindset that turns aspirations into achievements. Join me as we unpack strategies for success in 2024, where health and happiness aren't just goals but a way of life. From the simple joys of a daily walk to the shared dreams with my partner-in-crime, Sandra, I reveal how we're paving the path for a year of milestones. It's about striking the perfect chord between embracing the present and planning for the future, wrapped up in a narrative of love, laughter, and intentional living.

Now, let's talk money—but not in the way you might expect. We're exploring the delicate art of saving without sacrificing the spice of life. I'll share how saving bit by bit has unlocked doors to adventures and why a moderate approach can lead to a richer life experience. Take a seat at our table of heartfelt discussions, garnished with personal tales and seasoned with wisdom on achieving financial peace without missing out on today's pleasures. Whether it's setting a budget that still lets you savor life's delicacies or investing in your dreams before it's too late, this episode is a heartfelt invitation to balance your budget with your bucket list.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Well, hello there. This is living your success with my pain, it's right. Happy New Year. Yes, we're eight days in the New Year and it's still happy. It is not perfect by any measure, but what I told myself in 2023, I'm going to start off the year right in the first week, the first month, and do things differently. First, I'm changing, I'm enhancing my mindset. Be more positive, still be realistic. Folks, not saying you to lie to yourself, but I'm going to be more optimistic, more intentional and take action once I think it and plan, do it, do it, do it till you satisfied, whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Dating myself with that song, that song, no, but I find it's most important to act upon, act upon the drain, act upon goals. What you aspire to be or not to be, that is the question. Okay, I borrowed that. So I'm going to do differently and smooth my feet I left foot, then my right foot, then my left foot, right. I'm going straight, straight on the road. I'm on my road and all the challenges I eat problems that originated in 2023. I still got a couple, okay, but I've changed my mindset to say you know, despite this obstacle, the challenge, I can't give up. Be a little clump. I can't give up. What does that leave? My family, myself, my future, if I give up? So I'm going to be proactive and I'm going to continue to work my plan. And what's some of the elements of that plan? Well, so glad you asked me Health be walking more, exercising more, going to be eating healthier. We're going to cheat a little bit, I'm going to lie to you or myself, but going to improve 20, 30% more on the health front, exercise front, that's right. That's right. Going cold turkey on a lot of things You're saying no, no, thank you.

Speaker 1: 3:14

When someone offers you doesn't mean you have to accept it, right? You say no, thank you, are you sure? Yes, I'm sure, thank you anyway. And so I also said I'm going to call people and visit people more often. Actually, just started that in December, kicked off the new year by starting in December. So I'm so glad that me and my brother my brother and I I don't know best part of his goals, but he naturally joined me visit family and we're going to visit each other more, and so that's a good thing. Yeah, family come over, or you go to them and said, hey, what you doing? You know well to start saying yes when it comes to get together with old acquaintances and friends the positive ones, by the way, the other ones is over.

Speaker 1: 4:17

That ship is sale, but and I said those are that's what I want to do to get out there. And and it's an investment. You know, a lot of times we talk about investment. We're talking about money. Right, let's be serious.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Hard cash investments that I pledged to make in 2024 are true. I'm going to continue to invest in stocks, etfs, index funds, crypto and the state, of course, invest in my health, invest in relationships, invest in my marriage. Double triple on that one. Be on the same accord, same page, with my wonderful, lovely wife, sandra, and invest in our couple of times, like we just did. I've been planning for thinking, not even planning going to a Spanish restaurant for a year or more and finally just said let's do it. Winner had a great time. Plus, it's investing in one of my most precious assets my relationship with my wife. So those are things that definitely that's in the works and it's not going to be all.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Let's do this on and on and on, like I used to. You're like, hey, let's just do it. I want to do this. I already told her another place where we're going to go and I said, okay, and we're going to do it within three weeks, see that, see that. So that's a commitment and so it's not a job to me, but I see it as rewarding.

Speaker 1: 6:28

So what else am I going to do? Save more money and not being cheap or anything or overly frugal, but depending on where you're at economics states you're in, may have to be extremely frugal Rice and beans, beans and rice, as Dave Ramsey says. So wherever you are on your pathway and road to living your successful life, then you have to adjust and relate accordingly. And so I said I want to save more money and I want to, I'm directing more money so we can have future major travel. Like, we want to go to Spain, I want to go back to Italy, I want to go to Scotland. So the first two up is Scotland in Spain, spain and Scotland, in that order. So in order to do that, it's going to take some money and we want to avoid debt and getting us there.

Speaker 1: 7:41

So sending certain dollars to the account is called travel Travel account. We have a travel account, so that money just put in 100, 200, whatever we have for the month, so it can build up over time. So in two, three years it's all cash, right? Yes, absolutely, that's how we're doing it. And then we take a minor, putting funds aside for minor vacations, or a major one and a minor one. Minor ones are every year, major ones are every probably two to three years, and so the minor ones probably more. Like a fraction of the cost, definitely, and these are just between one state to another, essentially in any direction, so anyway. So so directing the money of certain accounts and we're naming that account based on the objective of the dream, the prayer, the goal, etc. Won't do any good if we're not healthy. So we've been challenged with some health issues, but we're taking care of business and just hey, we've got to go to the doctor, got to go, got to go, got to go, got to go.

Speaker 1: 9:06

So, curious, what are you going to do differently in this new year 2024? What are you going to start doing? Do more of or do less of or not do it at all? So those four things, what are you going to do? Not do? That's going to elevate your game. Take you to the next level Now. The name of the show Living your Success 24-7.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Let's just focus on the living what I just told you. Although some money and planning is involved to do the activities, the focus isn't on the money, it's on the living. And I thought about that for 30 years, off and on. I didn't live, didn't live. And so let's focus on living and not just breathing. And if you look at it both ways, fortunately unfortunately it takes money to do certain things, it just does.

Speaker 1: 10:14

So I encourage you to save whatever you can, as much as possible. When it's growing up, you'd be so laugh and mock me because Michael just has $5, $10, $20. But they didn't know I was saving so, oh God, aggressively. Just imagine you're saving $50, $20, $10, $5, $1 aggressively every week. That adds up after a handful of years. Did you know that? That's right, really does, adds up. So let people mock you and laugh. Don't tell them you're business, by the way. Oh, and don't make them, you know, try to attack them being jealous and or to make them jealous of you. It's none of their business, just do it.

Speaker 1: 11:07

You know there's a lot of folks, when they die, the family or friends and associates realize well, my God, they had a million dollars in the bank and a half a million wouldn't have known it. Now that also means don't be too frugal and tight where you don't live. So it's a lot of people you know. They die and get buried, they're dead and they didn't truly live and they had the resources to live. So there's two extremes the people that just go broke and they spent all what they have just foolish, absolutely foolish, stupid. Then you got the other extreme where they just hoard the money and they die and don't get to use it and don't use it. They do get to use, they just choose to not to use it. Two extremes If that's what you want to do, god bless you.

Speaker 1: 11:57

But if you want to be among the living and smart, you will save and invest your money over time. And when people want to spend your hard earned money for you, you say no, thank you, no gracias, no, oh, thank you, nope, nope. Let's say you want to go to Disneyland and spend 200 bucks. Well, you want to do it. You save the money and do it live. Not to quote Bible on you, but tomorrow is in promise. So many people are finding that out. Tomorrow is in promise.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So don't have a long list of regrets in this living, this thing called living life. It's an action, it's a verb, to do. To live is an action word. It means you're doing something, preferably. Preferably, you're doing something you want to do for recreation and hopefully job wise or career wise too. But that's not always possible. You got to get a job just to survive I've done that, not on how many times and so do what you got to do. Don't be ashamed. Take care of yourself and your family, and they have goals If you want to get a.

Speaker 1: 13:19

At one point I had a full-time job, a part-time job, two full-time, a part-time job. It was all a real place to have, and that second job helped put me, helped save me. Just didn't have enough and over-encumbered, made me too much debt, foolish debt, lesson learned and I've learned half a dozen big lessons of my life. So not to judge anybody, that's where your walk is right now, but the objective is not to continue going down the wrong path. Financial hell Financial hell is not just broke where you don't have any money, but it's when you're broken, you owe a lot of money on top of that lot of debt. That's financial hell. And so put things in perspective. So it comes back.

Speaker 1: 14:27

What are you going to do differently or not do differently in 2024? And so the name of this podcast is episode, particular episode, to be so many things. It could be intentional action. By definition, intentional is action, so it sounds better when you add that action on there, but anyway, redundant. So you can only do so much reflection on what went right, what went wrong, and you need to do that. But it's time to get going. So establish budgetary intention constraints and what you're going to do with your money, and sometimes it's on the income side. We just don't make enough money to live the life we want to, but that's part of your plan to earn more money. How are we going to do that? Perhaps you need to invest in going back to school, take a class, get a certificate program or get a degree. Maybe it all depends on what you want to do. And so life is precious, so don't keep kicking that can down the road.

Speaker 1: 16:00

Saying one day In my book Slaying your Dragons Living a Life you Always Wanted, I please encourage you to buy the paperback version or the online version, which will save you a lot more money on Amazon. Please go to Amazon. Michael Cain, k&e Slaying your Dragons Living a Life you Always Wanted. It gives you an opportunity to establish a plan, a plan that needs to be acted on. So a lot of people stop at thinking don't ever write it down. Then there's a second group that thinks it, writes it down but doesn't put into action. So you want to be part of the third group which thinks it, plans it and do you do? Did you do? Yes, you do, and that actually acts out the plan and may massage and adjust the plan and certain things need adjusting Right. That's what you do and I have a perspective.

Speaker 1: 17:11

We just recently went to the funeral of a long-term family friend and they thought I tell you, the funeral is going to wake you up. I said, oh my God, man, I've been saying this for years. Let's do it. So we're doing things now and feeling good about it. You know, yeah, we're spending money, but we're doing our best to save twice as much money as we spend it. So we'll always be ahead. Easier said than done.

Speaker 1: 17:41

So but one the best thing you have is time. I did I don't know how many podcasts on time, even in my book Staying your Dragon Slippin' Life. You Always Wanted Talk about time in there. You cannot control it. Can I grow it, reduce it, affect it? All you can do is manage it. We all have the same time. What are you doing your time? How's that translating to your bottom line? I didn't blood run. I'm like I didn't blood read, but black ink where you're making saving, investing, and the return is compounding interest.

Speaker 1: 18:22

And my life is not perfect by any measure, especially if you're an investor, especially in real estate. Right now I'm in the midst of, in the midst of effecting somebody take so long to do that, somebody that's absolutely refused to pay. I wish the law were more aggressive for people that could pay something, but they just choose not to. That's a whole nother podcast, probably, but I don't want to dwell on that. So, okay, you know. So I'm funding it, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:59

So it is what it is. We can cry. We can cry. There's tears, mike, where's the tears? But we're not going to cry. We're going to have a plan to move forward, move on, and sometimes there is a bump in the road. But it's how you react to that bump in the road you just totally give up and say, oh, it's over, or do you dig your feet in the ground and and then you re-plan right, adjust your plan? Easier said than done. I know there's a lot of emotional motions involved, but it's important to keep things on a positive way, to again not blind fold yourself or put your head in the sand like problems and challenges don't exist, but it's important that you move forward despite and spite of the challenges.

Speaker 1: 20:10

So, that said, be excited for 2024. And so everything is in your grasp. Be yourself. You're smart, talented and you have resolve and you're resilient, and that you will make it and you will see a brighter day. But I would just say, be thankful for the day you woke up in. Tomorrow we'll take care of itself. Yesterday is gone. Thank you for allowing me to wake up and have another opportunity another day to do what I need to do on this earth. So, that said, I wish you well and you're going to hear from me again.

Speaker 1: 21:06

Please subscribe to this podcast. Living your Life. Who's our podcast? Is that Living your success, living your life. But live your life is what I meant to say. Live your life, live your life and by living your life, you're living your success 24 step. So subscribe to this podcast, share it with family and friends, and thank you for supporting me. I appreciate each and every one of you. I know we don't personally know each other, but around the world, I thank you in all the different continents. Oh my gosh, we're everywhere. And please pass it on and please keep listening to me. I appreciate it. So living your success 24 seven with Michael Cain out until next time, my friends, adios.