Are You Playing by the Wrong Money Rules? Discover the Secrets Banks Don’t Want You to Know, Part 1

Speaker C: 00:00:00

Welcome to make youe Wealth Work, the.

Speaker C: 00:00:02

Podcast where wealth becomes your greatest ally.

Speaker C: 00:00:05

In achieving your dreams.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:00:07

Hello, everyone. Joe Pantozzi with Make your Wealth Work. And I'm here today with my friend Curtis May, whose podcast is the Practical Wealth Show.

So we're doing kind of a consolidated old home week where we're just going to talk about some. Some items that I think hopefully will bless you, will be important to you, and we'll give you some food for thought.

And it's funny that the further I go down the road in this vocation, I keep on saying to myself, or I always have said to myself, you know, getting control of your finances is really simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. The pieces, parts are not that difficult to comprehend.

But then, then as we go into peeling the onion, I realize there are a lot of different perspectives that people bring to the table. There are a lot of different biases. There's lots of different baggage.

And so sometimes it's not just a matter of teaching a new financial regime, right? Teaching a new financial model.

It's helping people to realize all the baggage that they're carrying around, trying to fit that old baggage into a new model. So. Hey, Curtis, it's good to see you. Let me have you say hello, too.

Curtis May: 00:01:36

So. Hello. It's good to be here. And always love talking all things cash flow, ibc, because it's, it's. It's a way of life. You can't.

I can't talk about this stuff too much because I always learned.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:01:53

Yeah, that's good.

Curtis May: 00:01:55

So hopefully, you know, we can share. So folks dig in. And it's hard to win a game. You don't know the rules. And most time when it comes to money, we're playing by the wrong rules.

We don't know the rules at all. And so we're playing by the rules of people that. And this is kind of what we're going to talk about today.

They create the situations, control the outcomes so that they profit off of how to adjust because they profit off of just playing the money game because the wealth transfers are built in. So what you got to do is you got to get mad about that. You have to. This is kind of what I tell people, Joe, that I talk about your personal economy.

And so it's been set. You've been taught to have it set up so that it transfers your wealth away to your banks, to Wall street fees at aum.

And then what you have to do is with a coach, you have to deconstruct your personal economy, and then you have to reconstruct it so that it serves you right. But that transformation is too much like work.

And, you know, so, you know, you're as I think we started recording, you can't put new wine in an old bottle, right? And so you got to kind of change your. What I call, change your mind about money and work it so that you want control of your money.

So that's my two cent.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:03:23

There you go. There you go. So one of the things that kind of is a beating. What do you call it, something that you beat all the time.

I watch a YouTube with Josh Hawley, Senator Josh Hawley, a couple weeks ago from Missouri, and he had a couple of CEOs that he was grilling, right? And he said to them, so tell me, how much credit card debt do you actually control?

How much credit card debt do credit card borrowers have outstanding with your company? And they said, well, we'd have to check into our records. And he says, yeah, you don't need to. I'm going to show you a chart.

Because he never asks a question. He's a good lawyer, never asks a question he doesn't already have the answer to. He holds up a gigantic chart.

He says, you know, you two companies have about $1.3 trillion that's owed to you. $1.3 trillion. So this represents Americans thinking that it's a good thing that they have great credit histories. They have a great FICO score.

Every time they make their payment on time, practically the credit card company is giving them more credit. Hey, you want to buy more heroin? You want to stick more heroin, more toxic debt into your life? We're here to bring it to you. $1.3 trillion.

And he says, so tell me, what's your profit margin? And each of them said, above 50%. Above 50%, right. Now, you know what I relate that to?

My friend John Savage said a long time ago, can you believe that there are people out there in the world who cannot save 50% of their income? Well, somehow Visa and MasterCard are saving 50% after all expenses of the income that they're getting from the $1.3 trillion in outstanding debt.

And he says, so what's the average finance charge that you're charging your customers? And they said about 28%.

Now, in all due respect, very often these are the same people that will come to me and say, hey, what's that program that you're suggesting that we use? Whether it's infinite banking or life insurance or some model, what's the rate of return on that thing. Wait a minute. Let's back this up a second.

What's your rate of return on that vacation you just took to San Diego last weekend? What's your rate of return on that thing you just bought and put on your credit card? 28%.

Well, your rate of return is negative 28% plus the earnings that you could have earned. So it's not only 28% that's your hard cost, then it's a bigger number on top of that. Right.

So Visa, MasterCard making 28% on $1.3 trillion and half of its profit. Right.

And see, before you could even think about reading the book or finishing the book or reading the book the fifth time and thinking about whether you want to bring the concept of infinite banking into your, you have to determine that you want to turn off the negative things that you're doing in your life. You can't. Like Curtis said, you can't put new wine in old bottles. I call it silo thinking.

Well, you're still going to continue to do all the things that you were doing before, and now all of a sudden you're going to say, well, you know, Curtis made a really persuasive argument. And I really think I should become my own banker. Therefore, I'm going to buy this policy. And now I'm going to start struggling to make the premium.

I'm going to put this thousand dollars a month into a policy. You know, we make $10,000 a month, so I'm going to put $1,000 a month into a policy. And I know I can do it.

We just have to get some things under control. Wait a minute. We got to take a step back and rethink some of the things that we insist on holding on to.

And we insist on holding on to those chains that around our neck which represent toxic debt. And we insist on sending out 90 to 100 to 110 to 130% of our income to somebody else who doesn't care about you. Right.

You know, a friend said, hey, why would you waste any time worrying about somebody who's not going to cry at your funeral?

Curtis May: 00:07:48

I think, and see what we've been basically bought into. Enslavement, because the institutions make the rules. So most people are trapped.

And I got this idea from my friend who, who unfortunately passed away, Jeffrey Reeves, from Money for Life, he calls it, so I call it now as being on his Money for Life. Guys, the debt paradigm, right, where you're taught to earn, then Borrow, spend, buy what you need and want, repay, repay others. Okay.

And repeat that over and over and over again. And that is transferring your wealth away at 28%. And, and then, and then save a little bit so you can spend it later.

So for most people, saving is just delayed spending and then maybe buy some term insurance on top of that. Like that. That is, you know, what 98% of people are taught to do. And that makes everybody wealthy but you. Right?

And so, you know, you've got to examine that because it's like, well, why do you have all this debt? Because so when I talk to. About Jet Joe, I say, look, debt is. So here's how my definition of it. Not, not counting mortgages and that kind of stuff.

It's a, it's a. You're using future earnings as collateral.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:09:06

Yes.

Curtis May: 00:09:06

Right. So it's a obligation that you have where the only way you have to pay for it is with money you have not yet earned.

And you know, because we're taught that, oh, we don't focus on the debt, we focus on the payment. Right. And so that, but you don't see that payment as here's money that's leaving you.

What you try to do is, you look at, I had one guy, he was like, he did the spreadsheet and he was comparing the policy to his high yield savings accounts and, or to his mutual funds and all this other. So he's really comparing apples and oranges because you're trying to make this process fit into something you understand.

You know, rates overturn and, but if you have in it or. And of course, he hadn't read the book because in chapter page two, he says, it's not about rates of return, you know, it's about banking. Banking is.

You are. See, because I don't know if I should use banking thing. You're already banking.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:10:11

Yes.

Curtis May: 00:10:13

All right, you're banking already. What's the players in the play? Right? You got the saver, depositor, the bank and the borrower, right? So right now you're two of those.

And, and then the bank.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:10:26

Maybe you're a saver.

Curtis May: 00:10:28

You're right. You're right. Maybe like according to the Federal reserve, less than 5%, 4%. Right? So you're not even saving. And so I was doing.

I'll show this example where I'll say, look, if you were making, I use it on calculator, but without just for inflation, if you're making 80 grand a year over the next 10 years, you're going to earn $800,000.

So, but if you don't put away any money at $800 is going to pass through your personal economy and you ain't stopped none of it matter fact you're probably spending 8:50 because you got all this debt. So all your money is, is set up to, to go to somebody else.

And you, I think that we have to, and you do what's a much better job this than me but of, of get people to rethink their thinking and I've got to get, I gotta rearrange my thought process so I can get a pool of money that I control and, and reverse the flow of this money. Right. So that, that's kind of what, that's the thought process. Ain't nothing to do with insurance. It's the thought process that comes first.

Then the best platform to facilitate the best product to facilitate this process happens to be properly structured dividend paying, whole life with a mutual company. But the product is last, not first.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:11:53

Yes, yes.

So one thing I think a lot of our clients seem to get, the clients who really, really catch on and start to use it and start to actually build wealth, not just use it as a revolving door to move debt around. There's kind of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

What people are starting to understand is that everybody is playing by the same rules or everybody uses the same rules or everybody follows the same rules. Some people are controlled by the rules and victimized by the rules, but they don't know it.

And some people have learned how to play the game and say, listen, if the rules work this way, then I'm going to learn how to be a master player in this game. So what are banks rules? Banks want your money. Right. We have to remember banks look like churches very often, but they're not, they're not nonprofits.

Right. Banks want your money. Banks are looking to make profit for the bank, for the stockholders of the bank.

And number two, banks want your money over a long period of time. They want to continually have you bringing money to that bank.

They want to hold it for a long period of time and then when it's time to pay you out, they want to pay you out in drips and drabs in the smallest increments possible. And then they're going to tell you, well, we're going to make sure that you have a lifetime income.

Yeah, well if it's $3 a month, a lifetime income isn't going to do me much good.

Curtis May: 00:13:31

Right.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:13:32

So why don't we learn or even consider that the rules, the way the banks set them up, are set up for the purpose the banks make in a profit, right? So I'm also part of another organization for Christian financial Advisors called Kingdom Advisors. And here's a model. It is a different model.

And model starts with give. Imagine give on top. Now, you could pick the recipient where you give money, right? But it's give, then live, then owe, then grow. So you want to.

And this is just a suggestion. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. You don't have to have to listen to this podcast.

But if you want to get different results than you've been getting for your entire life, consider putting the money that you're giving in your system first and then put yourself second. My lifestyle, my family, my commitments, the things I care about are part of my lifestyle, part of my living. I give first, then I live, then.

Actually, O has two components because the IRS is always going to be a part of our life. So you're always going to have a tax component, and you may always have a debt component in some way, shape or form.

Hopefully you'll get to the point where you understand the difference between good debt and toxic debt. So it's give first, then live, then pay who you owe taxes and debts. And then finally grow.

Grow money for the future, Grow money for opportunities, grow money for giving, grow money for posterity. Grow money to send money to causes that you care about, right?

For creating a footprint, a lasting footprint that's bigger than the one that you personally occupy.

And so if you're not going to think about changing your entire paradigm to start creating wealth and start keeping some of those millions and millions of dollars that are gonna be passing through your hands.

What you're really doing by maybe thinking that our idea is a good idea, you're saying, well, I'm gonna add one more debt to my pile and I'm gonna make sure I pay that thousand dollars a month, or 10,000, whatever the number is, and I'm gonna make it an obligation. No, you just added more stress to your life because you're trying to add a new idea that should help you, but you're adding it onto an old paradigm.

So some of the things that you have to do is like, as Bucky Fuller said, I spent my entire life unlearning the things that I found not to be true.

But in order to do that, you really have to take inventory of some of those things that may be controlling your life that really don't have to be true. And one of those things is, well, I can't fill in the blank. Well, I can't save 10%.

Well, I can't save 30% because I have all these obligations, because I have all these debts. Okay, let's, let's, let's get to the meat of the matter. Nobody put a gun to your head to be in that debt. Right.

And we can help you get out of that debt. And we can show you a model where you could build wealth at the same time you're getting out. And somebody said, I don't know if it's true or not.

It depends on how aggressive you want to be and how serious you are about changing your situation. If it took you 10 years to get into debt, it may take you 10 years to get out.

Curtis May: 00:17:14

Right?

Joe Pantozzi: 00:17:15

Right.

And I've shared that we who are advisors and authorized practitioners of the infinite banking concept and so forth with other alphabets who beat after our names. We need to be able to show you that we're actually doing what we're suggesting, what we're coaching. So I could show you my plan.

I could show you where some of the money's gone. I could show you why and how I'm financing all my cars. In my family, I haven't taken a car loan with a commercial bank in 25 years.

Curtis May: 00:17:45

Wow.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:17:45

Right. But I have to show you that it's actually working for me. And I hope to God that you will create wealth in half the time it took me.

I'm not Albert Einstein, but you know what I did? I saw a path that made sense. It was simple. It involved privacy. Instead of having everything open to the public, it involved freedom.

It gave me control. It's systematic. It's simple. But you have to think about what is you want to accomplish.

Well, maybe the first thing you want to accomplish is improve your health by removing some of the stresses in your life that don't need to be there. Having obligations to people that you voluntarily got into a contract with to borrow money forever is not a healthy thing for people.

Curtis May: 00:18:42

Yeah, it's like one of the things that in our, one of our one on ones, I had to catch myself because I was.

Sometime I'll think of even in 10, you know, 10 years in I, I was thinking of premium as a bill and I, I had to look, no, this is money going into my asset column. And I had to not be afraid to capitalize, you know, and, and put in more money because I was looking at, okay, what's going out?

How much do I have in I I need more money. Like, I, I'm setting up a new policy because, like, all right, I have a 24 year old who's in love and I might have a wedding in next three years.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:19:25

Your lips to God's ears, you know.

Curtis May: 00:19:28

So it's like, all right, well, we need to, to. I need more capital just in case. And I have three daughters.

So it's like this is going to be a recyclable event, you know, and, you know, because those are, you know, major capital, I call them major capital. Purchase anything you can't pay for in full within monthly cash flow.

That's one of the, the errors that I've used my banking system for or for opportunities to make money.

Because really once you get control of the, you know, restructure your debt to get interest moving towards you rather than away from you, then if you owned your own bank, would you bank at Wells Fargo?

Like, you know, you know, so if you, you want to marry into the family, like, because a lot of times we'll talk to real estate investors and we'll show them the banking structures. Like, okay, I says you're, you see the bank for. No, I say, look, you see the real estate? All I see is the real estate.

I got money, I want to float into another deal. And all we're saying is, look, make a stop because you, let's look at how the bank looks at your real estate.

You see real estate as the asset, but the bank, and I'll ask them what to the bank, what is your real estate? It's collateral, right? Their asset is the note. And you know, they're out here making 5, 600, really infinite returns using other people's money.

Hey, what if we could add that business model to what you're doing? How much better off would you be if you control the financing?

And, but again, you've got to rethink your thinking, like, because you, you know, and you got to have. I'm doing a study group this week for this organization on the, on the book. And I'm going to go into the human problems, right?

And so you, you know, Parks's law, the arrival syndrome.

So you can't think, you know, everything, you know, and I always try to, you know, I always try to be the, when I go somewhere, I always try to be the dumbest, brokest person in the room. And because I don't, I've never think, I try not to ever think I'm arrived or I'm all that because I still have a lot to learn.

People say Oh, I read the book two years ago. I got it. You don't got anything. What are you talking about? And that's the arrival syndrome.

So if you're thinking that I got this together, you know, I'm going to make a million dollars with my crypto. And you know, okay, but maybe you should want to have some safe money somewhere. I'm just saying. And where you have a foundational.

What if you could build a foundation that you could never lose and never goes backwards, and you build your house on rock and not on sand. That's all we're talking about. You got to think, because you've been trained to chase returns, right?

Joe Pantozzi: 00:22:13

You know, good point about crypto. You know, if you had a million dollars worth of crypto and you saw an opportunity tomorrow, let's say you're going to buy a.

Buy a 4 Plex or something, are you going to go and liquidate some of your crypto to buy the Fourplex? No, no, I'm not going to do that because I'm making so much money on my crypto. Well, then I guess the Fourplex is not important to you.

It's not that attractive investment. Well, actually, I like the idea of diversity diversification. Well then. Well then you have to have capital available.

Maybe all your capital shouldn't be in crypto. Hypothetically. Right. Maybe all of your money shouldn't be in any one place.

I mean, I'm talking to a client that's got 80% of their assets in the 401k and in IRAs and all deferred accounts. But they have debt because they don't have current cash flow sufficient to cover their current expenses. Right.

And Nelson has always reminded us, and it's in our soul now. I sweat it, I bleed it. Like you just said, we collateralize everything. We finance everything we buy.

You just said you're collateralizing that purchase with your future earnings. So you're obligating your future self for a purchase you wish to make today.

You don't know what condition you'll be in in the future where you're obligating your future self, just like the government is obligating our great grandchildren's great grandchildren with all this, all this debt.

Curtis May: 00:23:38

You're not even protecting that. Right, because we don't have disability insurance. Right. So your number one asset is your ability to earn income.

And you know, I try to like the framework. I try. What? I've been kind of organizing my mind. So it's funny, we're on a call yesterday and it says you asked, what did you say?

Would you ever get hit thoughts and just write them down and think about. I do that every day. My. I have like 10 years worth of journals, like over in my corner. I have a section on my. This bookshelf behind me to my journals.

And I. You know what I mean? You just, you, you. A lot of episodes for my show comes from, you know, stuff I look back at my draw. That's a good idea.

Let's flesh that out a little bit more. You know, why didn't I do that? I probably have like at least $10 million ideas.

Joe Pantozzi: 00:24:31

And, you know, and I found that to be the case too. I found notes because I've got piles like you do.

And I'll go back and I'll find the note that I made five years ago or eight years ago, and I'll say, wow, that was really well written. It's not because it came from me. I probably stole it from somebody or somebody shared it with me.

But the thing is, the test of time is important because if you look at an idea that you wrote down five or 10 years ago and it still makes sense in your brain and your mind and your soul and your gut, it's probably solid. And see, one of the things about what we're doing here, what suggesting people do is, is get away from the mindset that everybody else has.

First claim on your money. Hey, guys.

Speaker C: 00:25:16

Hope you enjoyed part one of this episode. It's just too good to limit to one show. Join us next week to hear the rest. This is the podcast factory.com.

Speaker C: 00:25:34

It.