If You Had to Spend $50,000 in 48 Hours, What Would You Do?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We're in such a scarcity minded mindset and environment of a day-to-day. Anytime we miss work, if we're working hourly, any missed day can influx and snowball our entire month. That means either whether to choose rent or food, rent or daycare, rent or gas. These are decisions that make it inhumane to literally live. So that does show unfortunately how badly things are for majority of the people. But also why this podcast and what you're doing, Darren, is so important. Because even though you may be dang broke, you can still be an investor.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

All right, all right, all right. Money is on my mind indeed. Yes, everybody. It's your boy, Darren Harvey, and I am your money counselor. And this is Financial State of Minds, the show where we help you get to that bag, manage that bag, and grow that bag as best as possible as we discuss financial business literacy and anything and everything to do with the almighty power of the dollar. And today I got my boy over here, Troy's in the building. Troy, what's up, my boy? How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Man, I hear you going viral. I can't wait to talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Yeah, yeah. Because your guidance, because your help. So yeah, just wanted us to jump on, make this reaction video to my I guess virality or viral moment, whatever you want to call it, on threads. So for those who haven't seen the post, and I'll probably throw it up on here on the screen and throwing an edit somewhere on somewhere on the screen after YouTubers always somewhere over here on the screen. I love how the YouTubers do that. Yeah, so I made a post. When was it, Corey? This was like four days ago. Yeah, four days ago now. And the post was essentially if you were given fifty thousand dollars, but the caveat is you have to spend it in 48 hours. And you had to spend it all in 48 hours. What would you do? What would you spend it on? Currently, as of the time of this recording, that post has nearly 300 likes, over 500 comments. A couple people directly messaged me, had a couple repost. It is without a doubt the most viral I've ever been on social media. Period. This period. Even being the 10K views that I got on Instagram back during the pandemic era when everybody was getting views like it was nothing. You meet that. So yeah, I just wanted to jump on with you and kind of make some quick reactions to it. So, okay. First off, follow me on threads, shameless plug at financial state of minds. Just follow me so you can see the poster says go in case add your thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Add your thoughts to the thread.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Help your boy out. Help your boy out. Join the conversation. But it was really interesting. I told my girlfriend about it. I even told my chiropractor about it. Like it's been crazy, but I'll just let's just jump right into it. The one of the most interesting things, if not the most interesting thing, that I noticed is that number one, almost every post that I've seen, people are talking about paying off their debt.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

The number one like literally, like 100%. If this was family feud, my guy, there wouldn't be a two, three, four, five percent.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

No, 99.9% said this one big answer.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Yeah, it was every answer I've seen was debt, paying off debt, and it's I've heard some people were really specific, most people were kind of just general, but it came down to paying off debt, and I can probably categorize what the debts were. They all had to do with credit card debt, a lot of paying off car debt and mortgage debt. Or what I was shocked was people said that they would keep money aside for like six months to a year in a savings, I'm assuming they mean a savings account just for rent.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

And that was something else. As a former homeowner who now rents, I mean I'm privileged, so like technically, I guess I do the same thing, even though I teach it. This is kind of embarrassing to admit, even though I teach it, I kind of never thought about it because I went from homeowner to straight being a renter. So I but I have the money. Right. So I just never thought that would be a thing. Like, okay, people want to put six months aside to make sure their rent is straight for six months or so. So I'll leave it there. How do you how what was your reactions as you were looking through the post?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

For starters, I did also comment my own points on the post. Yeah, I don't know exactly what I said, but basically in the nutshell, pay off some debt, pay rent, just like everyone else. And I think if we're talking about financial state of mind or talking about people's mindsets around it, rent is such a time suck. We're just constantly thinking about oh, Patrick, Patrick, oh I gotta pay rent, I gotta pay rent, I gotta pay rent. Like we're thinking about paying rent probably more than we're thinking about paying groceries almost. This isn't the same equivalency of what am I gonna eat? We don't have money for rent, we don't have money for rent, we don't have money for rent. And I think just getting a cushion where you get six months to not think about that, and now instead of I gotta make it over one month, you have time now that if you need to do other things, two or three months to accumulate enough for that rent, and as long as you keep the cushion now, as long as you keep the cushion, it's such a mind reliever than other things. Just having that breathing room is probably more mental and psychological well-being than anything, than the actuality of it, honestly. And I can speak for that as for myself. So I think that number one thing is probably what everyone's like, I just need not only rent paid, but a lot of people said rent paid for the year. Like they just wanted it. Hey, you know what? I want to pay my full one-year term, so I can just go one year without scrambling to pay for rent. And then if I can add in my car note, pay it off. Now, I'll mind you too. And again, I've read a lot of these comments. I really think we're pretty almost neck to neck on how many comments we've read and interacted with or engaged with, or at least consumed by. Uh, and we again, for those who are listening, didn't know about it, go financial state of minds on threads, follow, engage, share, please do so and contribute to the conversation because we may do a part two, and we'll categorize. But I say I think a lot of people, when they saw it, I think what people may miss, this wasn't like a clickbaity thing per se. It was genuinely asking. But I think what brought a lot of people to this more so as it progressed over these four days was the vulnerability and honesty of where we are in the economy and how most times when people are out of money, we're in massive debt, we isolate ourselves. This is like an individual walk. Like we're the only ones going through this exact scenario. And then you look, yo, there's a lot of folk across this whole country. You have people internationally interacting with the comment as well, having the same lived experience, and sometimes it just doesn't make you feel so small, all by just seeking relief. I'm like, dare you bringing people together by asking one dang question, and yeah, so many things you said.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

I'm gonna touch on a couple. I want to say start by saying first point, I know I'm in a blessed position financially. I've alluded to that position multiple times in my podcast and my show. But even when I wasn't in to this extent, a blessed position, I can honestly tell you, Troy, I have never at any point in my life, except for that one point, which that story I will share in a later episode. Worried about paying rent or mortgage. Never, it's never happened. It's never happened, and I'm truly blessed to say that. However, I know that's not the truth for the average American. And what was so fascinating to me is that, you know, Troy, of course I'm a financial coach, of course I'm a financial nerd, so I love reading statistics. I love reading the data. The data is really where a lot of the times I get the reality check. Where I live, it's high income owners everywhere, everywhere in this apartment complex, everywhere in the city of Palo Alto, high income owners. So I always enjoy reading the data, the statistics to get a reality check, along with talking to friends and family and stuff like that. But the scale, the comments, actual people with their pictures, with their usernames saying I would love to say six months of money just for rent, a year's worth of money just for rent, it humanize the data. I want to leave people to listen to that. It for for me, it humanized the data. You know, as they say, people aren't just always numbers, and that really humanized that data for me to go holy crap, to the point where, like I said earlier, I have to show my girlfriend, like, look at what they're saying, babe. Like, look at what they're saying. They're all saying basically the same four or five things, which is payoff debt was number one, literally, pretty much a hundred percent. Emphatically, yes, payoff car, right? Like 100% of the answers, literally, that we've read so far was payoff debt, and then number two was car, either payoff car, buy a new car, repair a new car, and then to your point, Troy, there was a lot of just detail, like transparent detail. Hey, I have a 10-year-old car, I need a new car, I need to repair it. One comment, Troy, the person said 24-year-old car.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Right. I think I listened to the car. What car is it? Because we need to know because that thing is still running for three years, first of all.

unknown 11:22

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

That car is a built, that car's built differently, it's gone through apocalypse, or you just gotta take care of a car.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Like, what skills you got? I almost wanted to DM that person and be like, Can you explain to me?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Like, we should y'all can find that person, please. If you're listening, we're gonna let you know. Hey, all who were commented, please follow up with us. We may bring you up and talk about it. Like, come on now.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah, that's crazy. 24 years is literally longer than me and you being adults.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Man, when you put it like that, we were like babies. What the what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yeah, we were teenagers, we would have been like preteens, like 12, 13, 14, around there. But car was number two, and then I did see medical bills. Um that was kind of lower, but credit cards, credit cards, credit cards, credit cards, credit cards, CC, credit freaking cards. Oh my god. Just I would say that might have been tied for car note, car loan, buy a new car. Like it was pay off credit card debt, pay off car, save money from rent, were like the top three for sure. But then lastly, and I'll let you have the floor again. I did read Troy a couple of people say save money for groceries. Man, that one hit.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah. That one hit. Yeah, man. There was some tear jerkers in there. I mean, I'm saying all of them were emotional, but there were some that people weren't really in depth and were really vulnerable. And you had to stop and think about your life. Real talk. It's hard out here in groceries. I I would add too, um, if you know, we're breaking down the debts component. Again, that was mortgage, rent, credit card, car loan, other loans. Some people was being real, like, yo, I gotta pay back things on my baby mama. So it was just being blunt about it, right? We had a whole category of just debt. Now, if we were to pause the debt conversation, we're gonna come back to it, and then we're what's the other categories outside of necessarily debt. The next thing I really saw as ink in an emphatic sense was switching gears to actually taking a real vacation, taking a real vacation, whether it's for themselves, their family, their parents, their children, someone else they love on a friend that they need a vacation. They need a break, they need a gift, a love offering, um, something to that dynamic. Um, and that also creates two things. You're trapped in a system where you're constantly either worried about debt and just trying to make it there, but then you don't have enough money to do anything else of any type of enjoyment of any type of escape ever. So you're trapped under the weight of this cycle every single month. And it resets without you getting any type of break that you literally can't afford. This is what we're dealing with. How do you get out of something deep? And the last thing I'd say, I think a category beyond that now, I would say, again, there's a lot of nuance in there, but a lot of people said they were either tithing. So if you're a religious person of church dynamic, we're not pushing any religious affiliation. A lot of people contributed, and what people may not know, that's 10% of your earnings to the church, things of that nature. And on the other side of that was contributing to Boys and Girls Club, other nonprofit initiatives or organizations. So you had still a lot of people who said like 40,000 was for them, 10% was for someone else, or 10% was for an organization. So you see people still, despite being financially strapped with the surplus, still chose to be givers and help others beyond themselves, which tells me two things. If people were given the money, most people would still do good and right by other people unequivocally. So it's not a bad behavior problem. If you could just get out of the hole, you would actually be conducive to society, even more so. And then number two, it shows that your money problems just don't stay with you, they impact those around you, whether we know it or not in our communities, with our other families, our partners, our co-workers. We emphatically impact others by the debt we carry within ourselves and by the behavior we carry from that. So I just wanted to pause there, but just want to acknowledge those things.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

You beat me to that. So there's two things I want to piggyback up on what you said. The amount of people who said I want to give money to family members and friends, both sides, parent to child, child to parent. So parent to child, child to parent. I saw a lot of that, a lot of that, which which was great. And like you said, the amount of donations, like you said, every category seemed to someone wanted to donate to. The one that I I remember fondly was cancer. And um, so again, what you're saying, humanity's still there, like humanity is still there, even when people are in the hole, that dark hole of debt, that just feeling buried, buried alive from debt. They're still like, hey, we wouldn't be willing to give back to somebody, or whether they know them or not, whether they know that person or not, they're willing to give back to somebody. And that was that was great to see. So there was that. Now I wanted to get into the one that basically sparked this entire you guys. Troy knows where I'm about to go.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

I want to say I've commented at this point at least over 50 directly. Over 50. And they weren't just hard, you guys. I wasn't just hardened. I was trying to comment, and a lot of times I would ask questions or inquisitive, these were thoughtful comments. But the thing that I thought after about 10 comments or so, I counted Troy. Out of the 50 that I commented on, only five had the word invest. Only five. And out of those five, Troy, only one mentioned invest to start a business. So to clarify, when I say five said the word invest, that's it. They said the word invest. I can't tell you those five said invest by going to school. I can't say those five said invest by getting some education digitally or online classes or something like that, or hiring a coach or something, or anything. No, I'm just saying they just said the word invest. Like that's all I was counting. It was just like invest. And to make it clear, I don't think any of them except for one said that was the first thing they would do. I don't think anyone would think that's the first thing they would do with the money.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

The single thing that shocked me out of the thread conversation is other than one person who said they would invest in a business, not a single person that I've read so far has said they would invest the money. And for the four or five people who said invest, it came after payoff cards, buy or pay off a car, save rent money, slash payoff mortgage, then invest. It was always like number three or four. Right, right, right. I love the humanity, you guys. I love how so many people want to donate. And yes, we just commented how that's amazing. That's amazing, very positive thing. But I was also thinking you guys know if you invest the money, especially fifty thousand dollars, wait on it for a few years, it's gonna turn into a much bigger number for you to help yourself and or other people. And again, no one gets thought that way. It was again pay off credit card debt, pay off mortgages, cars, uh, medical bills, stuff like that. Again, I can't stretch this enough. This this conversation really opened my eyes and humanized the data, but also gave me context to what people are thinking. And that's something data doesn't tell me. Data just tells me, okay, this person of this ethnicity or background makes this amount of money. This person or these populations of people in this income lane has this much amount of debt, this much amount of credit card debt. The credit card debt consists of actually a lot of its needs, contrary to belief. Um, a lot of people use credit cards as their safety nets, their needs. Yes, there's a lot of people, and I do make fun of it on my show, that spend their money on, frankly, dumb crap. But a lot of the data shows that it's needs, actually. But there's just no investing. And I'm so privileged to say that I am an investor that it makes me more privileged than ever to say that I am an active investor. So uh Troy, I want to hear your POV. When you noticed no one's saying invest, what kind of went through your head?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I think there's a few things to consider here, right? So, number one is that scarcity, desperation, pain. And I think you echoed this in a previous episode of your podcast on your financial situation, your responsibility, um, about delayed gratification. People just want relief so badly, they just want the pain to stop, even for a moment. That's more priceless than saying, Oh, hey, technically speaking, your situation, like Let's be real. Let's say your situation is going to stay the same. And even though you're struggling, this is literally what's keeping you going and you're making it work. The math is mathing, but it's stressing you out. That same $50,000 you gave it to you that you had to spend air quotes in 48 hours. It's a whole massive surplus you've never had asked to before. In theory, you could literally send all that money to an investment pool, forget it's there, struggle the same way you were because, you know, whatever. And if let's say you could just what you were going to do anyway, but assuming you could, and there's no other additional factors in play, go six months, just six months of pressing on with that 50,000 just sitting there and accumulating interest, accumulate more surplus. Then look at it. Oh, wait, I'm making more money off the money I didn't even know existed that I did not have access to two days ago that's doing more for me. Now, if my pain is constant and I can handle it, that's called endurance. We don't want it, but we're enduring it. It's not over the point of no return, right? We're enduring. So if I can endure a little longer and go a full year, what if that now goes from 50,000 to 60,000? Again, that that's I know people are being technical for the interest. I'm just giving you a simple example. If you waited a year and you made 10 grand off that money, and now it's at 60,000 off of doing nothing off money that was never part of the equation ever. It was just there. It's almost like sending money to playing your favorite game that you're spending. This doesn't mean anything. It's just there. You don't even think about it. Now what? Oh wow, that's a big difference. And if you keep doing it and keep doing it, pretty soon you done doubled your money from nothing. You didn't have to input in. So that same 50,000 you said was gonna wipe everything out, you just made double. So now you can wipe everything out and do more. But the problem is, well, I don't think we're not educated enough. But two, I'll have to be real, and I'm speaking for the people because I'm in this number, I'm not ashamed to say it. Statistically speaking, most of us don't have the access to actually make that decision. Even though it might be a better decision in the long term, we're in such a scarcity-minded mindset and environment of a day-to-day. Anytime we miss work, if we're working hourly, any missed day can influx and snowball our entire month. That means either whether to choose rent or food, rent or daycare, rent or gas. These are decisions that make it inhumane to literally live. So that does show unfortunately how badly things are for majority of the people, but also why this podcast and what you're doing, Darren, is so important. Because even though you may be dang broke, you can still be an investor. I think that's the thing. People only think you need to be a big baller to invest anything, your little money here and there, can go into an investment pool to get you started.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Absolutely, Troy. And I even made an episode with co-host Marie Shabazz. Shout out to him. We made an episode titled How to Invest When You're Broke. And I made that episode specifically because, well, the average person is, I won't say broke, but well, the average person, they don't have $500 put away in a savings account. That's the average person. So to your point, if you only have $500 put away, don't even have that, I mean, you're not thinking about investing. Two, you probably don't know too many people who are investing. So you look to the outside sources like social media, like YouTube, like influencers, and very few of them say that they're investing that little amount of money. Right. Even the ones who are telling you, Troy, hey, investing is the way to go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or, hey, you can invest any amount of money and it's still good, they're not doing that. Like, I'll be, and I'm I'm guilty, Lord. I make that content. I I didn't start investing with just five, ten dollars a week putting in there five, ten dollars a day. I started investing when I had, well, ten thousand to throw in there. Because even when I started investing, it was, oh, if you don't have thousands of dollars to start with, what's the point? I had to educate myself and actually do the numbers, do the math to realize, oh no, you can. You can even with five, ten dollars. Some people break it down five dollars a day, fifty dollars a week. And I see why they break it down because I just say it in months because that's how I tell people to plan out their budgets and monthly. So I say, even if you can throw $200, $100. But I realize now that that number is big. One, it legitimately is big. $100, guys, is still a lot of money. Things are high price nowadays, but to earn $100 for somebody who works at who is flipping burgers at McDonald's or someone who's handling packages at Amazon, that's still four, five, six hours at least. It's a whole day's channel. At least minimum. Absolutely. So I noticed that, but one thing that I found interesting though, Troy, and um you know, ultimately you're right, it's a mindset thing. But let me show you why you're so right when you say a mindset thing, it's a scarcity of mindset. People are quick to donate first before they invest. Okay. That's what shocked me. That's what shocked me. People said pay off debt, buy a new car, give money to mom, give money to daughter, give money to Kirk. That's what threw me off. That's when I knew you were right. It was a mindset thing, and that's where I was just like flabbergasted. I was like, wait, you know, I don't have to tell, and I've been joking around about this forever, but it's true. I don't generally have to tell people, well, you need to pay off your debt first. This thread conversation proved that the average person knows that. Pay off your debt first, whether it's your mortgage, medical bills, credit cards, whatever, pay off your debt first. I don't have to teach somebody that. That's common sense at this point. But the shock really was not so much people weren't thinking about investing, that they rather donate the money or buy a in some cases maybe a want or a want slash need before they invest. And that is what really surprised me because my philosophy is you have to help yourself, one, to be in such a place in life that you can you have the abundance to give. People forget that when you give, by definition, you're taken away. Even if it's from yourself. Even if it's just as simple as you're taking 30 minutes out of your day to listen to a friend who had a bad day. You're still using your listening energy, your intentive skills, your time, your time, your time. You're giving that up. And anyone who knows me knows that time is the most valuable asset. That's why I'm obsessed about money. Money's the only thing that can buy your time back. But that's what really shocked me was they wouldn't invest the money or they wouldn't think. I think by the time people listen to this episode, they're gonna be like, oh shoot, Darren, you're right. I should have invested. There's not gonna really be no real pushback. I want to make that clear. I'm not trying to shame anybody. This is not about shaming anybody. This is about what Troy is saying, that because people are in the scarcity mindset, they're so wired to go get myself out of survival mode. The moment I'm out of survival mode, help everybody I care about get out of survival mode. And I don't blame anybody, I don't shame anybody because I was exactly the same way. I was exactly the same way. Now, what changed? Why am I not that way? Am I alluding to? Well, I made a full episode about it. It's a really old episode, actually, that I might need to redo called Financial Decisions I Regret. But the short version is what I learned is that you can give people all the money in the world, but if you don't teach them how to make the money and manage the money, they're gonna end up in the same situation as they were before. Of course, most people know this. We see the lottery winners. But I guys, I I'm not blaming anybody. I'm guilty. I did that. I have given and loaned. That was my number one reason on the episode. The number one financial regret I have in my adult life is loaning people money. Because regardless of if they paid me back or not, almost none of them are in better financial situations. There is actually one person, one person who is in a better financial situation that I lent money to, and you know that person, Troy, and I'll leave it there.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Okay, as I low key trying to figure out who that person is, but anyway, I digress. I want to add to this point, and I think I can speak for the people. You're the people's money counselor. I am speaking for behalf of the people. So on behalf of the people, I think the other thing that hit me that I'm sure we're all kind of in this synergy mode is if we're looking from paycheck to paycheck, Darren, money's coming in and out so fast, you have to be quick about what you're gonna do, even if that's to your enjoyment, because you don't know if some auto-pay thing they always come. You said something for an annual, you forget about it, and that's that one time you get a sliver bonus, a slide of increase of give, and just wipe you out, or you're in the negative, or whatever. Additionally, we're conditioned to spend quick. We gotta do something with this money right now, or else. Or else it's not gonna be less what we want. So, even to the people who said they were going to donate, they're saying that too, because if I don't do this right now, that money could be pulled somewhere else, and then it won't be to the intent I wanted to use it for because we're in such a pool of oh, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. We can't manage. Darren, if we did another, like where we respond to each person individually, and let's say half of almost the 600 comments were to vulnerably, honestly say a list of every single expense they got. Could they do that? Do they know where every single dollar is going for? And I'm not going to even include the money they can't afford. So we're talking all the money you make plus what you do between what we all know, a lot of us in the red do, is using one credit card to pay another credit card to pay another bill, to be an additional surplus mechanism that you don't have access to, that you don't really own the money for, in hopes that at some point you get a bigger surplus to survive again and you do it every month. And when you think of it like that, of course I see why they don't think investing, because that's the one thing is completely different to everything else psychologically, is to just let the money sit. Most of us have never had the ability to let the money sit. Because we were too afraid and knowing whether we knew it or not, something's gonna take more money out than we planned for, and then we can't use that money for what we wanted to do. And that pace of being so quick of waking, going to sleep, that fear or that anxiety, or that anxiousness of going to sleep and waking up and being more money gone than what you anticipated, because we just were so deep in the hole, we don't know what's going in and out and on time and all that stuff. I see why people are just like, you know, I'm a Uber now, give it now, give it now. And that's how I land this plane on here is again, it comes back down to, but if we were educated, and I'm not saying no one's not, I'm saying if we were educated on how instead of I'm gonna donate right now in this moment for this organization, I'm gonna take that same amount of money, put it in an investment pool, let it sit for the year, let it sit for six months. And if that whole until just that money alone for just that group, you're gonna get add a little more to it than now you can give back to those people. And now it's a better thing. Or the people who said they're gonna give money to their families or their partners or their friends. If you were to create an investment thing for them, have their name on it, their access point to it, it's gonna make more money already. Wow. So it's making more money than what the initial value is if you just let it sit there. But we are conditioned that if we let money sit there, it's gone. Bonito over. So until we heal from the trauma and the pace to the understanding of that, even if we have the surplus, we're not gonna think to sit on it because our whole lives have been if you don't spend it, it won't matter.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

I'm loving this, I'm loving this conversation. Show is really giving me perspective because as I've said in Lord knows how many episodes of this show, I always am transparent about my upbringing. Middle class. I don't think I've said this part on the show. One parent paid for all the bills. If you guys notice, I say I grew up middle class teetering on upper middle class because one parent of mine could pay all the bills.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Comfortably, I might add. I want to echo that too. For I was single mom, single dads, one dynamic household. Right, but comfortably.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Comfortably, and that was by design. My dad told me that was his plan. He designed it, he made it clear, Darren, we could have had the house on the heels. But I thought just in case your mom and dad couldn't work no more, something were to happen to us, we can pay all the bills and hold the house. And I will always thank my dad for that plan because that's exactly what happened to me personally.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

That's what happened. But until that happened, yeah, my childhood was one parent paid for all the bills, the other one was extra money. This is in the 90s, so and I don't mind sharing, right? Okay, and I don't mind sharing the actual dollar amount, which was both parents made 50 to 60k in the 90s. In the 90s, guys, I acknowledge that people are barely making 50-60k in 2026. Talk about it. I talk about it. I acknowledge that. I understand I don't have that experience. I don't, I don't have the experience of seeing my parents struggle and go, oh crap, we gotta make sure we have money put away for rent or mortgage. Um, seeing parents argue over money, never zero, never happened. I don't have any of those experiences. I got all the I was a kid who got all the gifts during Christmas. So it's so important that I ask these questions. It's so important that we have these conversations because it helps me uh uh understand the mental mindset, the space, the emotional bandwidth it takes when people only have enough money for 30 days, which is not even the average person, by the way. It's not even that. The average person can't even afford 30 days worth of bills saved up, they don't have it saved up. So that feeling, you guys, I can't relate to it, but what I can tell you guys, what I can tell you guys, as someone who cannot relate to that feeling, man, that ish, that ish, just thinking about it, being an empath, whoo, just it just gives me kills, you guys. Like, so I feel for everybody. That's why I want to help. That's why we are a nonprofit. We're building a nonprofit out because we just that oh foreclosure might be coming. That notice is coming, a notice is already on the door, the eviction notice is coming. I could honestly say this. I don't think I've ever said this on the show. I think that's scarier than going blind. I generally feel that way. I generally feel that way. So I commend everybody who is in the trenches, who's in the trenches dealing with that. I really do. But however, this is why I am both a financial coach and a business coach. Because what I found very quickly is that yes, there is a ton of people, a ton of my client base, who frankly mismanages their money. They spend their money too much, period. However, there's just as many people who simply don't make enough money. And what I find is that the people who don't make enough money, they're mismanaging their money, they're mismanaging their expenses their spend because they're in that hopelessness. They're in that scarcity mindset that you described, Troy. That's what I find. So that's that's why I feel like to really solve the problem of people who are I would say anything in the five figures and up in debt, we have to teach people how to make more money. And I hear all my single mothers, I hear all my parents with two, three, four kids, young kids, babies, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, five-year-olds that daycare age that just wipes people's incomes away. I hear you guys. How to teach them in any situation that they are in, how to make more money, and to teach them and to help them believe that it's actually possible. It's actually possible. But as I always say in my show, you guys, all of this making more money, getting yourself out of debt, building up your emergency fund in six months plus, becoming an investor, relative in real estate, stock market, crypto, whatever you want to invest. None of this is easy. It's difficult, it's hard. You're gonna have to sacrifice. Sacrifice looks different for everybody. Sacrifice is not just, oh, I have to work a second job that I don't like. Sacrifice is also, well, maybe your kids don't get Christmas gifts in a year. Like some crazy sacrifices, some wild sacrifices that I wouldn't even tell somebody to do because I couldn't even do it myself. But that's what financial freedom takes ultimately. That is what being debt-free takes ultimately. Whether it's your fault, you're in debt, completely in control, you're just a moron, or unfortunate circumstances entered your life multiple times, guys, which I definitely relate to. And it's ultimately your choice. So that's one more thing I want to say, but Troy, I kind of want Your feedback on everything so far.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

The D in debt, you're going to have two experiences. You either gonna be disciplined or you're gonna be depressed. You either gonna have the discipline, because not all debt is bad debt. There's a lot of folk who know how to make debt work for them to make them more money than you can even imagine. Debt is only a bad word to people who don't know how to utilize debt properly. You have absolutely reason to talk about that, right? But for most of us, debt comes, we are born into debt. Literally. Kids are financially burdens. We love them. I was a dink forever. Transparently, I never talked about it. I won't talk about it now to just add some color to the conversation. Dual income, no kids. 10 plus years. Transparently, we didn't know we could have kids. I am now having a nine-month-old baby girl. I am more overjoyed about this baby girl I've ever been. But now that I've had this baby girl, and we only nine months in, y'all. I ain't got the year one, year three, year five, year ten, I ain't been none of that yet. And I'm over here like, where does the money come from to invest? Now, mind you, I've made the investments. I've had a portfolio, I've rose at the corporate ladder, I've done all those things. I've worked multiple jobs, I've done all the stuff that people say you're supposed to do to build the nest and the saving fund. And then things happen. And I lost it. Not on my own bad feeling or mismanagement of funds. I've never been bankrupt, nothing like that. But life happens, y'all. There's nothing you can do about it. It's not your fault. And I love Darren when you said it may not be your fault you're in this situation at all. However, it is your responsibility to buckle down and figure out your way out. And there's a starting point to that. So I think about that, it's like, ooh, that's a lot. Another thing I want to say really quick, because Darren, you said, you know, about your show and multiple times on this episode alone, your lived experience is different than my lived experience. It may be different than other experiences who are listening and watching, which I commend you for that transparency, because a lot of folk don't want you to know. They want to feel I'm this, I'm that. You're making it very clear. But the thing I know some people may be thinking, well, why would I want to hire you as a coach, Darren, as a business advisor? Because if you haven't lived my experience, how can you help me? Let me ask y'all something. I'm about to mess this whole thing up if y'all give me two minutes. Who just won the NBA finals? The Knicks. Who's a coach of the Knicks? Mike freaking Brown. Has Mike Brown ever played in the NBA? No, he has not. And he is a four-time NBA champion as a coach, a really good coach. I know Sacramento is feeling some type of way today, but I digress. My point is saying just because someone has not lived your exact experience does not mean they can't coach you out of yours. You mean to tell me if a doctor is not living through your exact illness, they can't help you get better? That's some foolishness. So again, just because someone has not living your exact experience doesn't mean they can't understand it, they can identify it, strategically organize it, and help you navigate out of it. If anything, would you want someone who is not in your living experience? Because that means they know how to be outside of that headspace. So I wanted to call that out too and make that very clear. Because again, when you're in a scarcity mindset and you're looking for help, we sometimes think, oh no, because here's the other thing. Where do you think the money's coming from? Not the people who are also living your same life experience, it's the people with the surplus, the people who fund the loans, the people who donate, the people who give you the money, the people who do all these things for you, the handouts that you say you don't want, but you want secretly in your heart. The lottery, where do you think the money is coming from? Where do you think people give it to the people who actually have the ability to give it? Not the people who don't have it. So no matter where you go, you're gonna have to come to the people who have been on the other side where you've never been to. But when we're in scarcity and when we're in this money thing for a long time, it does mess with our mind and it messes with our rational thinking. And that's not your fault. It's the condition that comes over generations because your grandfather, your dad, your grandfather, your great-grandfather all had to have this same pathway. And they want to be free, but they know from the moment they were born, they're born in the debt and they can't be free. And the very people who do do that, it looks so hard to be so disciplined about it. Because discipline means I have to restrain even more than what I already have to not have. So what we need to separate is we want we have our wants, we have our needs, and we have our necessities and our core necessities. And people are deciding between the core of the core necessities to rationally think. If they're not getting enough food, enough protein, enough nutrients, and we're living off of sugar and chips because it's the cheapest thing, because the healthiest stuff is more expensive, we need to fill our bellies so we can't think rational and have enough mental energy to have the discipline even to choose better, because we don't have the optional table to begin with. So not only do we need to be educated, we need community to reinforce the behaviors that's gonna help us get out of these situations. But that's what financial state of minds is doing. Darren is not only coaching people, he is building communities. He is partnering with other nonprofits, other organizations who are in the trenches, making sure for the youth, the next generation, for the adults, those who don't have degrees, those who do have degrees, those who change transitions, to actually find the pathways and the nodes for them and their customized needs to help them finally have a breath and not be consumed by debt and have the choice to have the discipline to get out of debt. And so this isn't just Darren speaking of observation. This is him also acknowledging that this is happening. But if the more people listen and understand, the better they'll be. So that's why we need you to follow him, financial state of minds on YouTube, on threads, on Instagram, add to the conversation, share with your people, ask them to contribute. Listen, this is free game that people have gone years holding back the access point. And I know this feels very thick, but sometimes you need a third party that y'all don't know to echo and tell y'all, yo, do y'all know who y'all got? It's giving y'all free game who can help change your life if you want to? That's crazy. And the last thing I'll say, because I know I'm on this weird bench, but I think it's useful for you right now and for other people. If you've been in that headspace and you've been on that training, the thing is, you're afraid. You're afraid to make the investment because you think if I put that money into this coach's hands and it doesn't work, it was a waste of my time. And that's money I can't use. But think of how much money you're wasting on things by you never worn, things you paid for you never got, that got damaged, all that stuff adds up, right? And in an equivalency, it's still more affordable and then anything else. So, what do you have to lose? If we were to say 500 bucks, 250, 100, or a custom payment dynamic based off your needs, what you can afford, that maybe him and his team can help you do, will be relevant to you in this moment to help you finally start dealing with the stuff, even the mentor, the mindset of the money stuff that sets you apart from other people who never do. You hear the same thing from the health journey, how they lose weight, they finally took the time. Same thing on any other journey that we are on on TikTok and everything else. So if you're listening and you're like, yo, I'm in this cycle that's never changing. You're listening to multiple episodes of Financial State Minds, you follow Darren, you're like, yep, yep, yep. Maybe this is the echo moment where you're like, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna ask. Oh, and if we could, Darren, there was someone. I know we have two examples. I won't tap the other one because I'll let you do it. There was one example that someone reached out from your thread and said, Could you help me a pro bono? And laid it out. They just was point blank about it. Now you may think, Well, wow, why would they do that? And gotta pay me. The thing is, you gotta know how to ask for help. You gotta make it very clear. People aren't, all people aren't mean, most people are empathetic. That if you come the right way, maybe they can make an arrangement to get you started. And if you show that you have a heart that you're willing to put in the work, maybe they give you a three-month cushion, a one-month cushion to get started, then the payment plan starts, whatever the case might be. But they came up straight up, asked you, hey, this is my situation, here's what I'm trying to do. And maybe when I'm at a certain point, I can start paying. I commend that person for even taking the chance to speak to you on that. But I don't land the plan there and just want to acknowledge that, echo that people, hey, don't discollude people who are not living your same experience that they still can't help you. And to that point, but the person actually reached out to ask for help.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

I I appreciate you saying everything you just said because it's so true. Because there's one, because of everything you said, two, there's layers, right? So, yes, I grew up middle class, upper middle class, as I just explained, but I don't have enough money to where I never have to work again. I didn't come from that. I can never say, guys, that I came from an environment where I knew any single person that had enough money to where they need to have to work again. I didn't come from that, so I had to learn from somebody who has attained that level of financial freedom, that level of financial wealth. And the people who I learned from, some of those people were just born into it. Or some of those people had obstacles that they did not have to face because of ABC reason. So everyone's situation is never gonna be the same, regardless of ethnic background, gender background, country they're from, social economics. No one's situation exactly the same. So I want to acknowledge that, but make that clear that no one's situation is gonna be the same. Even two people from the hood. Not gonna be the same situation. So that's that part. Now I've said this many times. One of the biggest reasons why I decided to make financial state of minds and really just be public. Because I'm not the type of person who likes to be super viral, loves the glamour and the lights or whatever. You know, it is what it is, it's fine, but I don't get excited from that. The reason why I decide to put my face in front of the camera is to let people know that guys, I'm an African-American 36-year-old male who is going blind. If I can improve my financial situation, anybody can. Anybody can. There was actually a couple of comments, Troy, where people mentioned that they're disabled. Shout out to the disabled community. I'm a board member of my local council of the blind, and I'm a board member of another blind center in the city of Palo Alto. That extra layer I understand too. But like a friend of the show, Tariq Williams said would say, but however, comma, there's perspective. It's all about perspective. What I would add is it's all about choices. You know, Troy, like you, I know a lot of successful people, financially successful people. These are people who never have to work. They never have to work. Their kids will never have to work, their grandkids will never have to work. And I really have kind of analyzed their life and their story because I'm blessed that they share it with me. And I came to a conclusion about life. When it comes to success, it simply is people making the best choice consistently over a long period of time. People don't even gotta be a good moral people. I know a lot of people listening know, oh, yeah, Darren, we know that a lot of these people are immoral AF. But when it comes to financial freedom, it's just simply that people made uh good uh choices, good personal choices over a long span of time, consistently, over and over and over again. It doesn't mean every choice was good, but the good choices they made got them to a place where they don't have to work a day of life again, they don't have to work a day in their life again, they're in financial abundance. I'm not even at financial abundance, but they make those choices so really what Croy was alluding to you gotta make a choice, and it does start with belief, it does start with oneself. I do believe that you have to believe that you can get yourself out of it, and that's one thing that I was very lucky that my parents instilled in me, and then it never left, even though they left. That has never left in me. Even though my eyes are literally leaving me, that has never left me. I believe that I can do or be whoever I want to be. Listeners, I want to make this clear the vast majority of my financial success in life has come after being diagnosed with glaucoma. I've said this story, I think in the previous episode we just recorded. I made three hundred dollars doing a consultation, aka talking to somebody. This was four or five years ago. Guys, four or five years ago, I wasn't driving a car no more. I couldn't see well enough to do it. I would end up with a white cane the same year I made that amount of money. So anybody can do it. And I know when a person who has $20 million say that, it might be a little bit hard to believe. But I hope that when the black blind guy says it, it may land a little bit differently. And I bring this up because there were disabled people explaining their situations, and I feel for them. And there was one particular person who actually was vulnerable enough to divulge their monthly income. And it was a number that no matter where you live in the United States of America, you can't live off that. Please go check out, I believe it's episode 57, where I talk about my disability story. And I even made another episode where I talk about a disability tax. But I bring it up to say even when the government says, Yeah, you so disabled, we gotta help you out financially, they ain't gonna give you enough money. You gotta go out and get in your own. And you have to make that choice. And you have to make that choice. Okay, even though I'm disabled, even though it could hurt literally, I know people, their disability, it hurts them 100% of the time they're awake. You still have to make a choice because ultimately, completely not your fault. It is your responsibility. The onus falls on you, the individual. And that's something that's truly equal in this world. Doesn't matter who you are, the onus is on you, the individual. What are you going to do? Are you gonna hire me? Are you gonna consume this podcast and get fired up and then just go back to your day job and complain, complain, complain, complain? Are you gonna consume other greats like Dave Ramsay, Graham Stefan, Caleb Hammer? You're gonna consume all that stuff and just do the same thing, okay. This is entertaining, ha ha ha ha, and just go back to your life and complain about how expensive everything is? Or are you gonna make the choice, the simple choice to give yourself a chance and start that path towards financial freedom, financial independence, financial abundance? If I can do it, anybody can do it. Anybody can do it. I'm gonna wrap this episode up here because I respect Troy and his time. But Troy, any last thoughts before we conclude this episode?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:57

There's a lot of things going on in the world. There's a lot of people who are in massive debt. There's a lot of people can't see their way out of it. But yeah, every day you wake up the next day and you try again. If you change by point zero zero one percent, it will add up and make a traumatic difference than doing nothing, anything differently. What this thread with this episode should reveal that you're not alone, that others are also feeling the same way, that this is not even your fault, but there's also opportunities and ways to get out of it. It's not easy, and some of it's not sexy, a lot of it sucks transparently, but I don't know what's worse. Choose the pain that you want to tackle, the pain of never getting out and staying in the cycle for generations, or the pain to do something different, challenge yourself, educate yourself, invest in yourself, and finally take control of where you want money to go in your life and those around you. So if you haven't subscribed, subscribe. If you haven't listened, if this is your first time experience, hey, leave a review, leave a like, follow Financial State of Minds on all the channels, reach out to Dan. He's a very approachable person. I'm not just saying that because I'm on the show right now. Maybe one day we'll share our story of how we met and that whole dynamic. But I'm really speaking for the people, I'm not adjacent to a lot of the things. There's a lot of difference, and I think the fact that he's bringing people on that have different living experiences, and he's able to give sound advice and a way to navigate. That's something you want. So take the moment, sit with it. I know it's a lot of emotions with money and debt and shame and pain and all that, but we gotta separate the emotions aside for the moment and get a grip and see what we can do. So it's been a joy, it's been a pleasure, brother. You went viral. Congratulations. Continue to add vibe to threads. Maybe we'll do this again and see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

Absolutely, absolutely. Troy, thank you for taking the time out of your day to come on. Yeah, his episode's coming soon, you guys. Coming soon. That's that's gonna happen. But uh, thank you for coming on. And guys, I want to personally thank every single person, all 500 plus people who left a comment. Um, you know, even if I hadn't had time yet to comment back or like back, I did at least see the majority of them, and I do plan on at least liking and hopefully engaging with every single one who took the moment out of their life to be vulnerable. I do appreciate it because it really humanized the average American's financial situation to me. It no longer was just a number. You guys were no longer just a number. You guys became human for me personally in that. Experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

We are out of here.