THE ATM TELLS THE TRUTH

[00:00:01]Every time I go to the bank I try to turn it into a lesson for my son.

[00:00:05]Most of the time when I go he comes with me and I want him to notice something important. You know, he watches me deposit money in the bank. He sees me put the money in but he never sees me take the money out.

[00:00:18]And I think that matters.

[00:00:20]Uh because kids learn more from what they watch than what you actually uh lecture them on. I mean, we all know that. So, when we go to the ATM and I deposit the cash or or the checks, I have him put his hand in the garbage can and take out all of the the receipts that people had.

[00:00:41]And it's powerful lesson.

[00:00:45]And I'm telling you, it's pretty scary what we see. Most of those receipts have less than $500 in the account. A lot of them are double digits and even shocking amount of them are negative balances.

[00:00:58]I'm not saying that to make fun of these people. I'm saying it because this is a real-world financial lesson for my son and he can actually see it with his own eyes.

[00:01:08]You know, it's it's one of those things it's it's more than just telling your kid to save his money.

[00:01:14]It's another thing for him to see what happens when people don't save their money. And the question is, how does that even happen?

[00:01:23]Most people don't go broke from one giant mistake.

[00:01:27]They go broke from $5, $10, $20 increments.

[00:01:32]That means lunches every day at work, coffee, smoking, drinking, vaping, weed, fast food, lottery tickets, going out to eat, buying things because they feel like they deserve it.

[00:01:46]You know, Benjamin Franklin said the way to wealth is to either diminish your wants or augment your means. In simple terms, either make more money or want less stuff. Because those little habits do not feel that dangerous in the moment, but a $15 lunch feels harmless.

[00:02:05]A few dollars here and there is nothing, but over weeks, months, years, and a decade, it becomes huge. That could have been your car paid off or multiple cars paid off.

[00:02:17]That could have been a down payment on a house. It could have been an emergency fund.

[00:02:22]It could have been a financial nest egg that you smoked away or drank away or threw away on dumb [ __ ] You know?

[00:02:32]For some people, that could have paid their entire mortgage down over the the period of their life.

[00:02:38]But instead, it disappeared slowly. One little purchase at a time.

[00:02:44]And sometimes, the life people say they want is being quietly traded away by those small little habits that destroy their financial future.

[00:02:57]Thank you.