Chris Panagiotu | CAPitalizing your Finances

Are you inadvertently sabotaging your financial future? It's a question that haunts many of us as we navigate the complexities of investing, saving, and planning for retirement. In the latest episode of our podcast, we delve into the world of finance with Chris Panagiotu, who returns to share his expertise and highlight the errors that could be derailing your path to prosperity.

Chris, who was introduced to investing at the tender age of ten, has built an impressive career, growing his practice from scratch to managing nearly $140 million. His near-decade of experience at Lucia Capital Group has given him a unique perspective on the financial mistakes that people from all walks of life tend to make.

During our conversation, Chris distilled his insights into four key areas where individuals commonly stumble. From misunderstanding the power of a 401(k) to underestimating the impact of emotional spending, Chris covers it all. He stresses the importance of a financial framework that should be as routine and emotion-free as brushing your teeth. It's about consistency, simplicity, and a clear strategy.

This episode was sourced from this episode of Chris' podcast:

But it's not just about avoiding pitfalls. Chris provides actionable advice on maximizing retirement savings, explaining the 28/36 rule of buying a home and measurring debt levels, and why investing in the stock market is crucial for long-term wealth building. His passion for finance is palpable as he discusses his journey and the lessons he's learned along the way.

Perhaps most intriguing is his perspective on salesmanship within finance. Chris reveals that his upcoming book, "Capitalize Your Sales," will explore the art of selling not just products but ideas and, ultimately, better futures.

This episode is packed with wisdom, humor, and a no-nonsense approach to finance that will leave you both entertained and educated. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, there's something for everyone in this conversation.

Don't let financial mistakes hold you back from the future you deserve. Listen to this episode, absorb the insights, and start implementing the lessons.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS AFTER THIS BRIEF MESSAGE

Disclosure: The links provided are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase. You will also usually receive a discount by using these links/coupon codes. I only recommend products and services that I use and trust myself or where I have interviewed and/or met the founders and have assured myself that they’re offering something of value.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Chloe: Stocks for beginners. Phil Muscatello and Finnpods are authorized reps of money Sherpa. The information in this podcast is general in nature and doesn't take into account your personal situation.

Chris: Nothing that is extremely important in this world comes easy. You've got to put in the work. So that is what you need to understand for your retirement plan. A nutshell. Put into the match and then basically work up to maxing it out. If you don't get there, that's fine. I know tons of people that have millions of dollars in their retirement account. They never maxed it out. But I tell you this because you want to keep your life simple in your 401k. It's the best engine that you're going to have from a fee standpoint, simplicity standpoint, and even tax strategy standpoint.

Phil: Hi, and welcome back to stocks for beginners. I'm Phil Muscatello. Are you inadvertently sabotaging your financial future? What are the financial mistakes that could be derailing your path to prosperity in the future? Joining me today is returning guest Chris Panagiotu to point out the errors of yours and our ways. Hi, Chris.

Chris: Phil, it's great to be back. I can't believe I'm here for round two. But I will say we do have in common the passion for stocks, the passion for learning, and seems like a lot of people liked me on, uh, last time, so I'm excited to grip it and rip it and see where we go, uh, the second time around.

Phil: Grip it and rip it. I love it. So just a little bit of a bio information. Christopher, uh, a Panagiotu was introduced to investing at the tender age of ten. Have a listen to the previous episode to get the story on that. Chris feels extremely blessed to have discovered Lucia Capital group, and in 2015, he began his journey to grow what is now capitalize your finances. And that's with a capital cap, obviously. In his nearly seven years at Lucia Capital Group, Chris built his practice from scratch, going from zero to nearly $100 million in that time span. So you got a little bit of form in this area, don't you?

Chris: A little bit, yeah. And actually, what's really crazy is since then, we're up to almost 140,000,000 under management.

Phil: Get down.

Chris: Um.

Phil: Go, Chris.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Which part of that, I'd like to say that was just all investment returns. Part of that is investment returns, but frankly, it's just been the compounding of the capitalized brand, and people are waking up to it. So I'm super blessed to have it.

Chris: Super blessed.

Phil: So today, for the benefit of listeners, we're going to be covering the four most common financial mistakes that people make. And, um, you had to whittle this down from a much bigger list. How Big was the list originally?

Chris: Oh, my God.

Chris: Well, so I'm a rambler. I work on it really hard. My social media manager, who's also my brother, reels me in. I think it was, God, it was like 30, because there's so many mistakes that people make. But the four biggest ones, I thought to myself, okay, these are four Big.

Chris: Ones that really span across all planning situations.

Chris: But when you dive into the weeds based on people's net worth, there are commonalities. I see. Whether you're mass affluent, everyday higher net worth, and in the ultra high net worth, just because you have a lot of money does not mean you're not making a lot of mistakes.

Phil: And, um, when you look at it, these points that you're making seem so obvious, don't they? But they really bear repeating so much, don't they?

Chris: They do. And I'll tell you, and you probably know this, too, being a fellow podcast host, you have to remind yourself that even though it gets old for you.

Chris: To repeat what is important, people that.

Chris: Are coming to you, it may take.

Chris: Them dozens of times for you to.

Chris: Say the same thing. I can tell you we had a fan message. Me, I think it was a week or two weeks ago, and I forget exactly what the topic was, but they thanked me for saying something and it was something really common.

Chris: And I'm thinking, bro, we've been talking.

Chris: About this for the last two years, relentlessly. And then it got me thinking, but wait a second. It took him that long to hear, to truly take in what I said, okay? Even though it's monotonous for me and sometimes I'm repeating myself, I've got to keep going because that's how the compounding of success changes lives.

How the industry has portrayed money is reflected in how advisors advise clients

Phil: I think it's also one of those things because that's just got me thinking about sometimes I feel that I'm going on about the psychology of money a bit too much. And this is not what we're going to be talking about today and when we talk about the common financial mistakes. But money is so tied up with emotions, isn't it?

Chris: And you know what's weird about that is it shouldn't be at all.

Chris: But it's also how the industry has portrayed money. So when people go and hire, I'm not here to tout my expertise here. I'm just telling you, like it is when people go and talk to advisors or planners, one of the first, if not the first sentence out of an advisor's mouth is, what is your risk tolerance? That subconsciously puts emotion at the forefront of the conversation of money. And that is the wrong way to approach it. And I've actually talked about it from a quantitative measure as well, because if.

Chris: You think about it, someone comes in.

Chris: To, let's just say my office, hypothetically, young couple, twenty s, thirty s, forty s, and they've got, uh, a really conservative risk tolerance according to what they have been told. Well, congratulations. Now I'm handcuffed. All I can provide are cds and money markets and bonds and online savings accounts in a friggin checking account in cash. Even though you're investing traditionally, what we would say is conservative from a planning perspective, it is a very aggressive plan because you have to make up for the lack of returns by saving a whole heck of a lot more versus if you just approached it prudently. And I write about this in my book.

Chris: Right.

Chris: And thank you for the support where there's never been a 15 year period where stocks, long term investments like real estate, private equity, private credit, hedge funds, they've all tried to earn about the.

Chris: Same in the 8% range.

Chris: Are you going to earn, in theory, a higher return as opposed to conservative investments? Yes. Is that technically deemed more risky? According to our industry, it is. But from a planning standpoint, you actually have now a more conservative plan because you don't have to save as much.

Chris: Because your dollars are working harder for you.

Chris: So when it comes to emotion with.

Chris: Money, people are screwed up, man. They're screwed up in the head.

Chris: And it gets me really fired up, as you can tell.

Chris: You poked the bear, Phil, where all.

Chris: I'm trying to do is get people.

Chris: To understand that capitalizing your finances should be easy as brushing your teeth. Zero emotion.

Phil: Do you find then, when you're having a conversation with someone like this, who's got a low tolerance for risk, that if you start trying to point out the reality of the returns that they're missing out on, that because of their low risk tolerance, they don't really trust what you're saying, that you might be coming across as a bit of a salesman?

Chris: That's a great question, and it's a loaded question, I would say at the.

Chris: Beginning of my career, because for me.

Chris: The book and the podcast and the master class that came out at the beginning of the year, all of that stuff didn't come out until recently. In the grand scheme of my career.

Chris: So I would say the first three years, that was an issue.

Chris: And people were like, I don't know if I trust this guy.

Chris: Maybe he's either truly that good, which, here's my thing.

Chris: It's not that I'm truly that good or not. I've just done the research, or he's just the best salesman of all time. And the answer was obviously the first one. It's like, dude, I'm just screaming to you, this is what you need to do.

Chris: Now.

Chris: You fast forward today, the brand has kind of sold itself. And so when people come in, I don't want to say I let my salesmanship down, because I don't. But we have people that listen, that are fans, that want to become clients, or we've had people that have already read the book and have taken my master class. So I'm kind of already rounding third, heading to home plate, if you will. And there's no hard sales, because all of my listeners and business partners, this is me.

Chris: I've always been me, as you know.

Chris: So, yeah, I used to run into that. But the hard sell, even though I'm 32, like, yes, I'm a young guy. I mean, look, I've invested since I was ten. You mentioned that at the beginning. I've advised since I was 18. So I've been doing this for a while. I've given so much of my goodwill.

Chris: Like, I've put it out there, where after all of that, if someone's just having a bad feeling about me, then you know what? I'm not for everyone. And like my late grandma said, miss.

Chris: Your grandma, God rest your soul.

Chris: They're missing out. And that's it.

Phil: Okay, let's dive into the four most common financial mistakes that people make, and let's start by, uh, talking about the first point. And this is based on a recent podcast episode of yours, which we'll put links to in the show notes and the episode blog post. It's about saving for retirement. What are most people getting wrong about saving for their retirement? Apart from not planning, obviously.

Chris: And I'm going to try to give.

Chris: A different flavor of what I answered in the show in my podcast. So it depends where you're at. So for younger people, they just don't think about it like it's not a thing. And, Phil, it frustrated the holy hell out of me in my early twenty s when I'm talking to my friends and they're just living for the now, living for experiences. Like, that's a huge millennial thing.

Chris: And I think, was it Gen Z is after me. And it's interesting now, because my wife.

Chris: And I, which, again, I understand, I'm super fortunate to be in the position I'm in, but I've also busted my.

Chris: Ass to get here. So the compounding is starting to take flight.

Chris: And it's interesting because you've got people that weren't planning accordingly, and now what they're starting to do in our group.

Chris: You become an excuse.

Chris: So what I mean by that is, oh, well, you got to where you're at, because you've always been financially successful.

Chris: No, I haven't.

Chris: Like August of 2017, $11.14.

Chris: That's it. That's all I had.

Chris: I reinvested everything into my business, uh, making sure my assistant could eat, making sure that rent was paid, and I.

Chris: Almost didn't make it.

Chris: And now, obviously, we're not there, right? We're up to at least $12, and my wife and I can do what we want to do, and that's a great thing. But in, people don't think about it, and then they start to get bitter about those that have planned.

Chris: I would say in your 40s, people.

Chris: Plan for retirement, but they think that.

Chris: It'S got to be some super custom and creative thing.

Chris: That's not the case. Yeah, when someone comes to me, you can get incredibly creative with growing your net worth, whether it's the market, real estate involved, private equity, utilizing the endowment model. I talk about that in my book a ton and on my show.

Chris: But you can make it really simple.

Chris: And then when it comes to being.

Chris: Retired, that is the biggest mistake I.

Chris: See people make, is they think that they need to keep the same psychology of money in the deccumulation phase as when they were accumulating their money. When you are taking money out, the number one goal is to maintain your standard of living. And that's where you have to backfill in to more immediate types of monies. Bonds, cds, money markets, annuities, structured cds, even maybe preferred stocks for intermediate monies, and then backfilling in everything that is left over. That's what you can risk for the long haul. Alternatives, stock market exposure. But that's also the engine to your net worth. There's no way in God's green earth that you are going to beat the market when you are retired, because you can't.

Chris: Like from a holistic standpoint, you're comparing.

Chris: Your entire thing to beating a market or keeping up with the market. Newsflash, that ain't going to cut it. So those are the biggest mistakes I see based on phases of people's lives.

Phil: The stock market is a wealth building machine. Over long periods of time, stocks have consistently outperformed any other investment option.

Phil: But how do you cope with the.

Phil: Stress, the noise, and the emotional turmoil that hits you hard every day?

Phil: What if you were able to follow a team of tenured advisors with three phds and 100 years of collective investing experience, who provide you with two new picks and five best buys every month? A ah, full buffet, if you will, of innovative, wellresearched ideas for you to choose from. Seven investing might be for you. They want you to invest for the long haul in great companies with great leaders who can compound capital for years. Seven investing are pleased to offer listeners of this podcast a free trial for a week and 15% off the annual price. If you sign up using the promo code stocks for beginners, that's only $170 per year, 15% off the regular price. Believe me, this is solid research from experienced advisors who live and breathe the markets. So go to seveninvesting.com, that's the number seven investing, and use the promo code stocksfor beginners, or lowercase one word to get your absolutely free trial and discount on the annual premium plan. That's seveninvesting.com and that code again, stocksfor beginners. I receive a small commission for services that I recommend, and this helps me to keep this show trucking down the highway. I only recommend services I use myself.

Phil: So if you're a young person and thinking about your any other kind of pension plan or retirement plan that maybe your employer offers, how should you be thinking about structuring that plan?

Chris: Are you talking as an employee or.

Phil: If, like employee, as an employee, like you're sort of coming into it, you've listened to this episode and you think, okay, I'll get my act together. Do you just buy an off the shelf plan? Are you looking at mutual funds? I mean, there's a lot of financial industry jargon which doesn't help you actually plan properly for the future and where you can make another financial mistake even though you think you're doing the right thing.

Chris: Right? So as an employee, it's actually a.

Chris: Lot easier than as an employer because you show up and you got the benefit of whatever it is.

Chris: Most of these plans out there are.

Chris: Going to be invested in mutual funds, which you and I know are vehicles that own hundreds, if not thousands of different companies for extreme diversification. Now, if someone in their could argue even up until your early 50s comes into a they go how do I attack this?

Chris: Number one, you need to put in.

Chris: At least whatever the company matches. So if it's a dollar for dollar, up to 4%, don't really care what it is, whatever that match is, that is the percent you need to put in because it's free money, frankly, after.

Chris: That, and I didn't even get into.

Chris: Like, if you have debt and balancing all that fun stuff, but assuming just keeping it cookie cutter, you want to keep increasing your retirement plan contributions until you max it out, which is either 23 grand if you're under 50 or 30 grand if you're over 50.

Chris: Now, how you go about it?

Chris: If you're in your there's good and bad. The bummer is you're probably not earning as much as those that are more seasoned in life. But the good news is, if that's the case, you're not paying as much in tax. And so you could take that money and contribute to your retirement plan after you pay the tax called Roth. And then that money grows tax free.

Chris: When you start to make a lot.

Chris: More or you're closer to retirement, that's when you can contribute before you pay the taxes. Because when you get to retirement, you're in a high tax bracket today, and then you're paying in a lower tax bracket tomorrow. You just made a lot of money.

Chris: On taxes you're never going to pay.

Chris: Now, notice how at this point, I'm.

Chris: Getting to how do you invest it.

Chris: Which a lot of you that are diehard investors are going, Phil, this is an investment podcast. Like, why did we wait to the very end? You want to get all the Big ticket items in the Big ticket winning items out of the way. Investing is the last piece of the puzzle. So if you're in your until even.

Chris: Early fifty s, you are not going.

Chris: To want to invest it in cash. You're not going to want to invest it in a bond fund. You're going to want to invest it in some form of a stock market.

Chris: Fund, because businesses are going to be.

Chris: The engine to your net worth, not an IOU and definitely not money under.

Chris: The mattress, I. E. Cash business ownership.

Chris: And how you go about it, because.

Chris: There'S all these different funds out there.

Chris: That's where you really want to hire a professional, or you want to do your own diligence. I talk about this a lot on my show of finding your own salsa. Whatever works for you. Interviewing the majority of the uber successful investors in this world, Gautam Bade, Adam Cecil, Guy Spear, Monish Pabrai, Robert Hagstrom, who wrote the Warren Buffett way. I've gotten to know all these guys, minus monish, and they all have different flavors of investing within the market. But the one common theme that they all have is they're ragingly successful. So there's so many different ways to skin the cat.

Chris: What I would do is I would.

Chris: Pick one or two of those funds.

Chris: And actually read about them and ask yourself, what are they trying to do?

Chris: Now, the bummer with that is you.

Chris: Actually have to work at it.

Chris: But shocker, nothing that is extremely important in this world comes easy. You've got to put in the work. And sorry that I'm the messenger that told you you have to do it, but someone had to do it.

Chris: Phil's too nice, so he's not going to do that.

Chris: I'm the one that's going to have to pull the teeth here. So that is what you need to understand for your retirement plan, in a.

Chris: Nutshell, put into the match and then.

Chris: Basically work up to maxing it out. If you don't get there, that's fine. I know tons of people that have millions of dollars in their retirement account. They never maxed it out. But I tell you this because you want to keep your life simple in your 401. It's the best engine that you're going.

Chris: To have from a fee standpoint, simplicity standpoint, and even tax strategy standpoint.

Phil: Okay, moving on to zero two in financial mistakes, what's the 28 36 rule of buying a home, and why doesn't that add up to 100?

Chris: Yes, so, good math.

Chris: The 28 36 rule is regarding basically, like, how much debt you can take on relative to your income. But, uh, there's two parts of it. Hence the 28 36. So 28% is kind of the guideline of how much mortgage and or rent you can afford relative to your gross paycheck. So, to keep math very easy, let's say that your gross paycheck is $10,000 a month. If that's your gross, that means that you could afford comfortably up to $2,800 a month. Now, actually, in the United States, they will approve you for a home. I think it's up to, like, 43%.

Chris: Which is just dumb. Like, so much money going toward a box, right?

Chris: That's crazy. But that's the 28% rule. The 36% rule is basically all of the debts that you have relative to your income, your gross income. You want to make sure that that number is not higher than 36. Like, ideally, we all want to be debt free and live the well in.

Chris: Our case, the american dream.

Chris: And so because of those rules, and because these rules are so valuable, what.

Chris: Ticks me off is people just ignore it.

Chris: Or instead of ignoring it, they'll go, oh, 28%.

Chris: Well, I got to have a home.

Chris: That'S at least to that, right? Because that's like, I got to get the most bang for my buck.

Chris: No, you don't.

Chris: If you bought a home, I mean, granted, you don't want to buy a shack, but if you bought a home well within your means, think about how much more you could save. Retire earlier, and or have a whole heck of a lot more when you retire. That's how I think about it. You've got to fall in love with delayed gratification. In the 28 to 36 rule, it basically just gives you the guardrails or in this case, the bumper of what not to go above. But the mistake that people make with that is they rev the engine to the tips, because that's what people think, right? Like, oh, if this is the limit.

Chris: I'm going to get to that limit.

Chris: That's a bad idea.

Phil: Can I just clarify those numbers? So, 28, that's 28% of your gross monthly income, and that's the amount of your gross monthly income that you would be paying off on your mortgage. Is that correct?

Chris: Yes.

Phil: Okay. And the 36 is paying off the rest of your debts based on your growth.

Chris: Total. Yeah.

Chris: Total debts.

Phil: Mhm.

Chris: Total debts.

Phil: So if you're paying off your car.

Chris: And personal loans, student loans, credit cards, whatever.

Chris: Yeah.

Phil: And what does that leave you left over? What's the amount that's left over then?

Chris: Well, I mean, then anything left over, that's where you get into. Okay, whatever we have left over, how do we save for that accordingly, whether that's maxing out the other retirement vehicle, because there's a number of them in the United States, there is saving up for a short term investment. So let's say you want to put a down payment on a home. If you're renting, well, then you work backwards within our framework. This is what we do. But you work backwards within a framework to calculate how much you need to save per month, given the rate of return that you're going to earn with a certain risk tolerance to it, and then anything above and beyond. That's where you get into if you wanted to. All right, let's save for a vacation fund, or let's save for an IRA or start investing in a non retirement account. One thing I will say, um, I just thought about this.

Chris: A lot of people think that you.

Chris: Need to have all of this flexibility and cushion for experiences and all that fun stuff in your.

Chris: I'm not saying don't live, but think.

Chris: About how much longer people are living. I mean, how many centurions are there? Whole hell of a lot more than there were a decade ago. And it's only compounding, knock on wood.

Chris: I hope to be around for a long time.

Chris: So because of that, a lot of people think, oh my gosh, twenty s and thirty s. Like, it's never going to be this good. I can tell you right now. I mean, I'm not in my any of that. Yeah, you get older, you get more tired, whatever the case may be.

Chris: But you can't avoid the progression of life.

Chris: But think about how much more beauty there is in your fall. More in love with my wife every single day. I've got a beautiful one year old at home. We're a couple of years away from the compounding that I've been working on for a decade, where I can go.

Chris: Whoa, if I wanted to, I could.

Chris: Sell the business for a penny, live off the investment portfolio. And now I can be at every ballet recital, soccer practice, gymnastic event. I'm just thinking of all the things that I'm going to go to because let's face it your don't have those Big things.

Chris: You might as well save and be.

Chris: As maximally efficient with every dollar.

Phil: And of course, at the other end of life, uh, 100 is the new 80, isn't it?

Chris: That's right. One thing I will say, and I talked to my counselor about this, my counselor actually threw it back. He's like, no, you just think extremely long term.

Chris: I mean, most people don't.

Chris: He goes, I've been doing this for 30 years. I'm asking you questions and this is your counseling session.

Chris: And I'm like, uh, I guess you're.

Chris: Right, most people don't understand what long term really means. And then people try to make the excuse of, well, by the time I get there, I'm not going to be able to enjoy it.

Chris: So 2030 years ago, you feel, yeah.

Chris: You might have some different feelings today than you did back then, but that's how life is.

Chris: But I'll tell you what, all things being equal, I'm going to safely assume.

Chris: Here, so you can tell me offline if I'm wrong. You have prudently compounded your success to the point where you can afford to do all of these things at the same level. But the difference is you can do it because you want to.

Chris: Not because you have to.

Chris: You're doing this show because you want to, not because you have to. Imagine how bootstrapped you were 20 or 30 years ago financially compared to where you are today. And it's crazy to me because late.

Chris: Boomers don't want to have those conversations.

Chris: With people my age and people my age. It's like the joke of, uh, oh, my gosh, there's the boomer.

Chris: I get so disgusted with my generation and how disrespectful they are to the boomer crowd.

Chris: I'm like, dude, they're the ones that can do all of these things. And you're sitting at home broke as.

Chris: Hell with your, uh.

Chris: I almost said it, but with a.

Chris: Body part in your hand, and you're doing nothing. Like, you're doing nothing.

Chris: Why don't you look at these elders.

Chris: And go, hey, enlighten me on what.

Chris: You wish you knew at my age so I can compound more prudently and do it with respect, because they're the ones that have paved the way for you, and you should understand how valuable that is. But then, by the time all these millennials get to where you're at, unlike you, who have done the prudent planning, and a lot of boomers have, millennials just kind of go, I'm here for the now. And for those of you that are listening that are millennials or Gen Z that are doing that, that's fine. You're going to have a rough rest of your life. And sorry that I'm the messenger for it, but if you want to change.

Chris: That, then I'm probably the guy, and.

Chris: Phil's the guy that you need to.

Chris: Listen to, and you've come to the right place.

Phil: Okay, I guess that's a good point to start talking about. Point number three, spending habits.

Chris: Yes.

Phil: Look, let's actually combine the last two points, because it's spending habits and a framework for financial decision, because they seem to be completely tied up with one another, don't they?

Chris: Yeah, totally.

Phil: Because I'm just talking out of school here a little, perhaps, but it seems to be that every time that you spend, every time that you invest, you do need, uh, a framework for that, uh, process. You have a reason, and like you say, thinking long term.

Chris: Yes, thinking long term and removing the emotion and just saying, I'm going to be prudent with my money. I'm not going to be aggressive. I'm not going to be conservative. I'm going to be prudent. It's interesting. Spending is actually a really quick one, and it actually ties into the last point we discussed, because the mistake I see with spending is your listeners are probably going to laugh at this, going like, yeah, this is me. You know what you need to do? Like, I'm not a rocket scientist here, and I'm not some dude on Wall street with the tie and the spender saying, like, well, this is what you need to do. Frankly, I'm an everyday dude that happens to be obsessed with my framework. Financial planning, true financial planning. And I'm just telling you, you know what you need to do with spending? You're just not doing it. You're not buckling down. You're not actually looking at your situation, and you're not actually saying, you know, oh, I have all these subscriptions. I don't really use them. Um, but I want to keep up.

Chris: With the Joneses, so I'm going to keep them. You know what you need to do? Fix it. Framework, different story.

Chris: Because a lot of people don't have a framework. And I can tell you, going back to the prudency of things, it actually ties into the beginning of how people are so emotional with money. Imagine if you had a financial framework from your 20s through the rest of your life where you know what you need to do with every single dollar that comes in your door, and there's no emotional negativity to it. It is like brushing your teeth. And if anyone gets emotional brushing their.

Chris: Teeth, you need to talk to someone. Right?

Chris: Like, I don't have any.

Phil: Uh, go to that counselor of yours.

Chris: You've got to go to my counselor, man. Mike Smith, Pearl street counseling. I love you, buddy. He probably hates that I said that, but it is what it is. It's one of those things where brushing.

Chris: Your teeth or getting out of bed.

Chris: That should be one of the most.

Chris: Unemotional things in the world. You just do it. You wash your hair, you eat. Like, there shouldn't be emotion to it.

Chris: And imagine if you had all of that negative emotion or just emotion in general with money set aside. This is a controversial thing that I've said over the last couple of guest appearances, and I've gotten some heat for it, but I really could care less. Some of the most valuable money minds.

Chris: That I have surrounded myself with are on the spectrum, and I say that.

Chris: In the most complementary manner, because these people's minds, I'm not saying they don't have emotion, because they totally do.

Chris: But it's so extremely logical with money.

Chris: In this particular case, and it's beautiful.

Chris: Because I'm um, human, too, Phil, you're human. We're obviously in this, like, we're in.

Chris: The business, but I still have emotion. Some of these people, like, for me, I'm like, whoa. Like, you just have no emotion to it. And it's so beautiful for me because it betters myself. And so I'm going to tell you, and this is where the controversy lies. But if you know someone that is in the world of finance, whether it's.

Chris: Investing or planning, and they are on.

Chris: The spectrum, like scale of one to.

Chris: 1010 and above, surround yourself with them.

Chris: And ask them how they feel about money and their frameworks, you are going to come out infinitely better than you were before entering that conversation, mark my words.

Phil: Why is that? Is it because they don't have the emotions? Is that part of it?

Chris: And they're just so hyper logical. My counselor and I have actually, because I've asked him, I'm like, I say.

Chris: Some pretty wonky stuff. Do you think I'm on the spectrum?

Chris: He's like, you very well could be.

Chris: And I probably am. And I'm not going to name names out of the respect for the asset managers I've worked with and all that, and investment people I've surrounded myself with. But there's one in particular. I'm just going to leave it at that. And when I have these conversations, when.

Chris: You remove the emotional weak points in.

Chris: Investing and planning, it's just unlocking a new world of logic that someone even like me, that's obsessed with this, I'm going, how did I miss that? That's so brilliant. And then I take that and I reapply it to my own situation as well as my clients. I reinvest it into my microphone. When I give it to people through.

Chris: Podcasts like this, it's just the hyper focus on logic.

Chris: Maybe beautiful is a weird word for it, but it is beautiful to me.

Chris: I think it's a piece of art. I really do.

Phil: So your book is capitalize your finances, which we'll put links to in the show notes in the blog post. But you've got a second book coming out later this year, and what's that going to be about?

Chris: I do so, actually, fun little fact.

Chris: I think this is the first podcast.

Chris: That I'm making this announcement on, but it's because you had me back, Phil, and we're basically best friends at this point where I had to give your listeners something that no one else had. Know I was kind of bummed you didn't order, like, fireworks for my studio. But maybe that's the third episode when I come back on again. So capitalize your finances. That is my framework, that's my passion.

Chris: That is what I've lived for, a.

Chris: Passion that I don't talk a lot about, but I actually think it is equally, I could argue, more important is salesmanship.

Chris: So for me, I've learned over the.

Chris: Last couple of years, like, I just love sales.

Chris: I love sales because of my passion.

Chris: And I know how much I love capitalizing people's finances. All I do when I'm in these.

Chris: Meetings is I go, okay, I know.

Chris: What I have is going to help this person across the table. So I'm going to work at all ends of the earth to make sure that I fill that need so they can better themselves from here for the rest of their lives.

Chris: And I truly mean that in salesmanship.

Chris: That'S all it is. It's your passion. You find a need for people and you go to the end of the.

Chris: Earth to make their life better, and you happen to get paid for it.

Chris: And so capitalize your sales is just that. It is my entire career, how I went from my apartment to building my practice, and it goes from my apartment and how I went to networking events, in the art of a networking event, in getting people into your office or a Zoom call or whatever, and how you conduct those meetings. And all you're trying to do is help the person across the way, really, without expecting anything in return and compounding that. So by the time your business is growing and you're becoming more successful, whether you work for a business or you run a business and you're growing it as you're taking distributions, then you can turn around and you can learn how to capitalize on your finances, because it's one thing to make a lot of money, it's another to be a steward of it.

Sales skills don't necessarily have to be applied to just selling something

So that's the second chapter in the capitalized series that I'm extremely excited to.

Chris: Reveal to the world.

Phil: And this is something that I've felt as I've gone through life, is that sales skills don't necessarily have to be applied to just selling something to someone. It's also about how you conduct yourself. It's about your confidence within yourself and what you can offer other people as well, isn't it?

Chris: It totally is. And also, I'll tell you this, introverts.

Chris: Are some of the best salespeople I.

Chris: Know because they're brilliant at listening and they hate talking.

Chris: So a lot of people think, oh, you've got to be this gregarious kind of like the captain capitalized guy, where I get out there and I'm in people's space and all. No, you just need to find, very similar to capitalizing your finances, finding your salsa. You need to find your salsa in salesmanship. And once you find that, you're going.

Chris: To be infinitely better off.

Chris: And some people use it for inappropriate reasons. I know there are some bad salespeople out there. In fact, I've met a number of them. And I'm sure when I release my book, a number of people are going to buy it because they're going to try to sleaze their way into getting the next buck.

Chris: But eventually that's going to come to a head.

Phil: Did you see the Schwarzenegger documentary on?

Chris: I did.

Phil: There was a great line where he was quoting Ted Turner, which was early to bed, early to rise, work hard all day and advertise. And that's the philosophy he worked with.

Chris: Oh, yeah, actually, you bring that up. So someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I know we're going off the rails on investing and planning and getting into sales, but Arnold's got a really interesting story.

Chris: Know, he came over from Austria, no.

Chris: One could pronounce Schwarzenegger, Schwarzenegger. And, oh, you're going to get into bodybuilding now. He did have a lot of things that were just God given. Like he had the physique already and he worked at it. He knew how to pose. He was fortunate that he met Joe weeder early on in his life, but he also knew how to sell himself. And even in bodybuilding, he understood the salesmanship of his posing. Like he had an amazing chest. His back was always lacking. So when he posed, I, uh, competed for eleven years. So I get this.

Chris: He would always basically perk his chest.

Chris: Up and his arms and his biceps, and he would mask his weaknesses.

Chris: It's no different than sales for me, being an extrovert, I'm not going to.

Chris: Try to beat an introvert at their own game. So I have to come in and approach it with a different strategy and framework. But at the end of the day, I know from the deepest depths of my heart, I'm doing it to better the person across the way from me. So that's why I don't feel bad.

Chris: About it, because sales should be a genuinely exciting thing.

Phil: So, Chris, we've covered investing, we've covered spending habits, we've covered financial mistakes, bodybuilding and sales techniques. This has been a wide, raging interview. Chris, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast again.

Chloe: Thank you Phil, thanks for listening to stocks for beginners. If you enjoy listening, please take a moment to rate or review in your podcast player or tell a friend who might want to learn more about investing for their future.

Chris: Our.

Stocks for Beginners is a production of Finpods Pty Ltd. The advice shared on Stocks for Beginners is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. Stocks for Beginners exists purely for educational and entertainment purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Philip Muscatello and Finpods Pty Ltd are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.