In this transcript, Business Coach Clay Clark (US SBA Entrepreneur of the Year) and Caleb Taylor (Thrive15.com Correspondent) discuss saving money during a Thrive15.com, one of the top business schools in Florida.
Caleb Taylor: I don’t know all the details of this business coach story, but we have a mentor who became a millionaire the old fashion way by just saving, a schoolteacher.
Clay Clark: The thing was that as a schoolteacher everyone’s paid a certain amount. He capped his lifestyle and just saved money back.
Caleb Taylor: It’s possible for a business coach.
Clay Clark: It’s possible.
Caleb Taylor: You can actually do it. You don’t have to win the lottery. All you need is a business coach.
Clay Clark: Remember in high school where they tell you, they say- Hopefully everyone watching has had this class, and if you didn’t, I want to make sure you have it right now.
Caleb Taylor: Good. Please, go business coach!
Clay Clark: If you go ahead and save $2000 a year every year for 30 years and all you make is 10% interest on that, the compounding interest works in your favor where you end up having millions of dollars when you’re in your 50s. Again, if you just take $2000 a year and you save it and you did that for 30 years, every year you get a 10% interest so it compounds. Over time, you have millions of dollars. Everybody watching this right now. You can achieve massive financial success if you’re living below your means, but only if you’re willing to live below your means. It means you need to buy a nice suit, you need to look sharp, but you don’t need to spend $4000 on it.
Caleb Taylor: I think it was interesting for me, eye opening, to see this first hand when we traveled down to Orlando to meet with Lee Cockerell. He ran Disney World, managed I don’t know, almost 40,000 employees.
Clay Clark: He charges quite a few dollars for speaking events.
Caleb Taylor: Yeah. He’s got some money, but what is he driving?
Clay Clark: A minivan for a business coach.
Caleb Taylor: He’s driving a minivan.
Clay Clark: It was hot. He put spinners on it didn’t he?
Caleb Taylor: I don’t think so. I think you’re thinking of something else.
Clay Clark: Didn’t he put a big system in it?
Caleb Taylor: No, no, no, no. It was clean. It was a clean minivan.
Clay Clark: Wasn’t it a Ferrari branded minivan?
Caleb Taylor: No, this was a typical minivan.
Clay Clark: He had some business coach Gucci shoes on though, right?
Caleb Taylor: This guy lived by his principle.
Clay Clark: Yeah.
Thrive15.com provides mentorship to entrepreneurs through 15-minute episodes for less than $50/month, making it one of the most affordable business schools in Florida.
Caleb Taylor: It’s real. People actually do this. You’re not just talking about nonsense.
Clay Clark: Frugality leads to unbelievable financial freedom with a business coach.
Caleb Taylor: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I love it. All right. Let’s me move on to characteristic #5. We plan for saving on those rainy days. We plan to save for those rainy days. Again, here we go, a quote from this, Millionaire Next Door, book. “We have a “go-to-hell fund.” In other words, we have accumulated enough wealth to live without working for ten or more years. Thus, those of us with a net worth of $1.6 million could live comfortably for more than twelve years. Actually we could live longer than that, since we save at least 15 percent of our earned income.” If everything goes to hell, they’re okay. It doesn’t matter.
Clay Clark: One of the things in the books he talks about is that- I’ve had this happen before. I did consulting years ago for a company and the guy I did consulting for was just a jerk.
Caleb Taylor: Okay.
Clay Clark: One day I walked into the office and this is after like the 10th time. I said, “Listen, you otherwise me x amount of commissions.” It was like $30,000 at this point. “And every time that you pay me, you don’t pay me the amount you owe and I have to like argue with you to get the payment.” I didn’t say go to hell, but I said, “Hey, I don’t appreciate it.” He said, “Well, what are you going to do about it?” I said, “I’m quitting immediately. I don’t care.” He said, “Well, what do you mean,” He said, “Well, I thought you.” “No, see I have enough money saved that for, I don’t know, 10, 20 yrs. I don’t have to work, so I’m done immediately, peacing out.” It freaked him out.
It gave me immediate freedom. Today, I never have to work on projects I don’t like. If I’m working with a client and they prove to be difficult, I tell him. I specifically say these words. I think you’ve even heard me say it before. I say, “Hey, the amount of money that you’re paying me is not worth the amount of joy that I’m losing by working with you, and so henceforth I am no longer working with you.” That’s what you do.
Caleb Taylor: I remember the conversation. I remember hearing it.
Clay Clark: I say it all the time. It’s just the deal where that money allows you to say, “Hey, go fly a kite” … To things and people that you don’t want to work with anymore.
Caleb Taylor: Right. In order to get to that point, you’ve got to live below your means. You’ve got to start putting that away.
Clay Clark: Let’s get real for a second. If you’re watching this right now and you’re in an apartment. Let’s say your apartment is about $800 a month. Chances are, you’re getting the peak apartment that you can afford. This is something I encourage you to do and I don’t think most people will do this, but I know you will. Go to the leasing agency. Go to the apartment complex and say, “How much is the smallest apartment possible?” They’ll say, “$450, but no one does that because it’s just one bedroom, and.” “I’ll take it.” Then move all your stuff into this small apartment and stack it up tall like it’s a New York City apartment and live below your means.
If you have a house, you and your husband own a house, and you barely are making ends meet, go put a for sale sign in front of your house. Sell that house, find a house that is well below your means, and live there comfortably. You have a new car, you can barely make the payments. Chances are you can barely make the payments. Get rid of that beast. Get a car you can afford, pay cash. I drove a 1984 Chevy brown van without a door.
Caleb Taylor: That’s crazy.
Clay Clark: I used a table, one of those 6-foot tables as a door to keep the aerodynamic drag from being too significant. I did that for years because it was paid for. I didn’t want a car payment.