Pursuing Financial Independence! Feat. Rory K Douglas

Welcome to the Unscripted Authentic Leadership Podcast, a podcast we're seeking to lead change while also seeking to understand. We are also here as a platform for lead us to come together to unite, to develop and empower other leaders in the areas of business, family and community. I'm your host, La'Fayette Lane, joined by My co-host, John LeBrun. Today we are joined by a returning guest, he's not a guest. Returning family member Rory Douglas. Rory has joined us again to have a conversation this time around. About pursuing financial independence. A little bit about Rory Douglas. He is a financial educator, international bestselling author with over 20 years experience in the financial industry. He has worked with some of the top names out there, like Tony Robbins, Kevin Harrington from ABC Shark Tank and Jim Britt He has not only educated countless amounts of families across the United States and Canada, but also has recently taken social media by storm. And we know that to be true. The last time he was on our show, he had 50 some thousand followers. I think I check the day he's up to 118,000 on Instagram. Rory has also been voted top 100 global leaders in finance by 20, 20, 21 by GCI F and today again he's right here on the unscripted Authentic Leadership Podcast. Rory, thanks for coming back off. Man, man, man. I'm so excited, man. Locked in and John, you guys. Man You guys are my buddies. Thanks for having me again. I'm really excited. I know you mentioned about IG Instagram and the followers, but I just got a million followers on Tik Tok last week. 7 million likes. So I'm really pumped up, man. My hair is kill the game. He's of getting more time on Tik Tok and it's happening fast to man. But thanks thanks to you guys for the support and our last time Pokemon. I know a lot of people got a lot of great information I heard a lot of great things about our conversation so I can't wait this time man. I'm telling you the game's telling me you guys with. Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's get right into the conversation again. We're talking about pursuing financial independence that can go so many different ways. But I kind of want to get a working foundation on. When we talk about financial independence, what does that really mean and what does that look like? Well, financial independence is something that is a requirement today. And if we're honest with ourselves, we know that the old model doesn't work anymore. What I mean by the old model old model of going to school, get a great education, get out, get a job. Yeah, well, here's some facts and some statistics. The average person keeps a job in corporate America today, five to six years. That's fast. And the average American was one to two paychecks away from being homeless. Before the pandemic and one out of three Americans in debt before the pandemic. And the average American family cannot even handle $100 emergency So we see the characteristics of poverty is so familiar. So today we need something new. We need some answers. In a world of uncertainty, Absolutely. What would you say to that person that is in pursuit of trying to become more financially independent and financially free? What are some things that they can do to start that journey of financial freedom? Well, the first thing we have to do is we got to take the initiative to start learning about basic finance, one on one principles and rules. I always tell people, most people, they don't plan to fail. They just got to have a plan. Today, you have to have a plan. So really, a lot of people are losing hope and encouragement, but really don't get discouraged It's really all about just learning about finance one on one. And like I said, having a plan, you know, in America, we're very famous for you know, for hoping. And our imagination is real big. But the bottom line is we got to have a plan. And that's what it's all about. And I always tell people, you know, don't praise progress, but praise I mean, don't praise perfection, but praise progress. In other words, just take one step at a time. But I can give some people some tools that are really helped them The first thing you want to have is a solid foundation. I always tell people when you're building a house from the ground up, what's the most important part is to find in the foundation climate what happened to the foundations we the house was. So first you got to have a solid foundation. Then you go from a solid foundation to debt management. There's two types of debt. There's good debt, there's bad debt, good debt. If I'm paying for my mortgage or my children's education or I'm investing in myself, bad debt bad habits, wasteful spending, credit cards, all of those things. Then you go from debt management to emergency fund. There's something that's called the tin 20 rule 1020 rule. The 1020 rule is we should have as Americans six to ten months of our monthly expenses saved up just for emergencies. So let's say if I have $1,000 in expenses a month, I need a minimum of 6000 saved up just for emergency. The twin represents 20 times our annual salaries to retire 20 times. So if I make $60,000 a year, I need 1.2 million to retire. Not at one time, but over time. And then we go from emergency fund to investments. You notice how investments came last, because if you don't have a solid foundation no debt management plan or emergency fund established, you can't really invest or even save properly. The average American, John, pays every bill first before they pay themselves. And that's a bad habit. When you pay your bills before you pay yourself, you're training yourself to be a consumer. That's why the average American is one to two paychecks away from being homeless and one out of three in debt. So one of the first rules of money learn how to pay yourself first before you paid any bill So I think that's a good start for people That's awesome. So what about. There's a lot of information. And since we the word and misinformation is used a lot lately, we'll go with that about do I pay debt? Do I pursue, you know, developing income or do I do both at the same time? Some people say you already cover the bad debt versus good debt, which was one of my questions because that's everywhere and people don't seem to filter that. And so what about the person says, I got debt and I want to start paying myself first, but do I tackle the debt first or do I pay myself first? What do I do here? Great. Question. You know, I'll tell you this. I don't waver about this. And I know you guys are believers, but I'll tell everybody, debt stands for do everything but tie everything but time. First of all, you want to pay yourself first. As I said before, For those of you guys who are believers, pay your tithes first, then pay yourself. Now, when it comes down to debt, the only solution for debt is is a few things. Today, the average American has at least two jobs. The average millionaire has multiple streams of income So I always tell people that if you want to get out of debt, you want to make sure that you create another stream of income to work towards your debt. But you still have to pay. So first, whether whether you like it or not, even if you have to go back and what you sell, everything is one on habits I always tell people, winning this habit and losing is a habit. It takes about 21 days to give up a habit. About 21 is really bad. So everything is all about a habit. So you want to create a healthy habit, paying yourself first and trying to save. And not only that, working on your day. That's what it's all about. And like I said, you chip any one day at a time, one step at a time. And once you understand how money works and you're putting your money in the right places, now you can have money for a lifetime and not a lifetime. We'll talk about that as we move forward. I think you've probably answered this, too, but one of the questions I'm sure some people have is, okay, you say pay myself before I pay any bills. I got a lot of bills to pay. How am I supposed to do that? In my head, I'm thinking if I get I start lowering the amount of expenditures they have. But can you talk to that for a second? Yeah. Once again, like I said, it is no silver bullet. The bottom line is, is that when we are in debt, let's be honest with ourselves. A lot of us, we have overspent and we've done things quote unquote, to really mess up our our spending habits the way we operate. Right. That's the reason why I'm encouraging people to create multiple streams of income whatever that means. We always tell people, turn your nine to five to your six to. If you're. Yeah, you got to create something else on the side that's going to work toward eradicating that. But there's no silver bullet. And see, that's the reason why we have to face that day. And I always tell people, you can get out of debt very easily. But you just got to face that. That's the reason why you got to have a plan. But you can't sit around and know that you have a champagne taste with a beer budget and you don't have a money to even do the month and think something is going to happen. Miraculously, no, it you know, it wasn't easy to get in debt and it's not going to be easy to get out of debt. But I guarantee you that if you raise it, you would have to get out of debt. So I would I wasn't that years ago when I was in school. So I learned a lot of debt. It's just it's all about discipline. Like I said, in habits. And that's what it's all about. And I think that it'll be shortchanging people to tell them anything other than that. When you go in debt, you got to do what it takes to get out of debt. What I mean by that working smart, not necessarily heart was working smart. That's so good because I heard someone once a while back say, you can you can focus all your attention on just getting out of debt and wait on your whatever that second stream or third stream you're going to start. And you can wait. But then but then what? Eventually you're out of debt and now you're just now you're starting. I mean, and so I've always been a proponent of start that side hustle or whatever and use it to pay your debt down. There's so many ways we can make money these days that are very low entry, if any, and you can basically create money out of thin air and your debt off. Yeah. And you start paying your debts down. And then once your debt is gone, now you have more more fuel to put basically on your fire right. And the feeling of debt free is so amazing because you may come see you. Well, it's like, oh, this is I remember my first get out of debt and then I'll let you get on. Has those questions. I'm sure they're great. First get out of debt. And I remember getting getting a bit of paycheck and thinking now everything okay? I sat there and stared for a while, not literally at the direct deposit, but I always had a spreadsheet and I would pay this pay, this pay, and it felt like everything left our house, all the money left every time. And then once it was gone, I sat there and stare and I thought I had to keep second guessing myself. Do I own it now? No, no, that's gone. That's gone. I thought, Well, I guess I'll just leave it here. Wow. Yes. Hey, you know, and listen, that may sound really, really crazy, but let me tell you something. Sound also crazy. Once we get out of debt and once we start making the money that we want to make in, like, we take the money and we put it in the bank, I want to here you know, go and go green. That's our next step. Okay, well, what in other words, let's say if we aren't all with real estate, Bitcoin, whatever it may be, and we're successful at the end of the day, when we make that money, where do we take that money? We take it to the bank. And that's a problem. I'll tell you the reason why, because banks in America on average give us about negative 1% inflation. I call it the silent killer. Inflation right now is about seven and a half percent. And climbing hasn't been in this house since 2008. So think about that. The banks on average is giving this negative 1% inflation is seven and a half percent. We got to have at least 8% agree to just even beat inflation. So that means that I could be actually having money sitting in the bank. My money is not growing. It's actually going because it doesn't beat inflation. So let's say if I do have $10,000 in the bank, $100,000 in the bank, I just sold the bank $100,000 for negative 1%. So I always say to people of faith, would you rather put your money in the bank and get a negative 1%? Would you rather put your money with the bank with their money? That's the problem. But most Americans, they don't know where the bank put their money because they put their money with the base, not to talk against banks. But the bottom line is you have to do smart banks. So I always tell people once you understand how the system works, then you can really, really have money for a lifetime and not the least. And by doing smart banking, there's two things. The first thing is called fractional banking. Fractional banking. That means that banks by law in America are only required to keep 10% of our deposits. So let's say by deposit $2,000, the bank is only required to keep 100. They're going to invest in nine. What do they invest in? Nine in home loans, student loans, credit cards, real estate stock market, S&P 500. Then the banks do something that may come to a big surprise to everybody. Banks are heavily, heavily vested in life insurance. It's called b o l i b o l i bank on life insurance. Last year, during the pandemic, the banks in America purchased over $190 billion in insurance. Now, what do they do with that? Life insurance. They take the life insurance and they do what you call fractional banking. They take the money. That's their life insurance policies, and they lend it out. They also cover their executives with the life insurance and the employees. And then it all comes down to one word that most Americans dread but the rich and the wealthy pay very little while taxes. They are strictly from taxes. Tax now, tax later in tax advantage tax. Now it's like a checking account or savings account. Think about that tax now. It's like a checking account or savings account. The same bank, John, that we save money and that doesn't save our money. Still tax our tax later like a 41 K or TFP, a whole three B or pension. Those attempts later and then have tax free accounts, tax free accounts or tax advantage accounts for accounts like college savings plans, Roth IRAs and life insurance. So we see that the banks do the same thing. They take their money and they put it inside of life insurance vehicles. But the average American has the wrong interpretation. Of life. And so we think about life insurance. The first thing we think about is someone passing or dying. Does that make sense? But the true meaning of life insurance for everyone is listening right now. Is to transfer wealth. So not only are the banks doing fractional banking, you as an American should be doing infinite banking. What I mean by infinite banking BYOB. Be your own bank. Do what the bank is doing. It's smart business. Can you speak to this whole Bitcoin and NFT sort of resurgence that is really going on right now, especially with the NFT Keys as of late? Is that a good route to go for one that's trying to pursue financial freedom? And if so, can you kind of explain what that is and what we can do with that? Movement. When I get on you guys, show me. I'll go right in to it, man. I mean, that is great. I love that subject because I'm heavily involved with both of those things. Okay. I'm extremely involved cryptocurrency. I'm heavily involved with and it's definitely I'll tell you the reason why I see tomorrow belongs to those who prepare today. And right now, as Americans, we are in the Stone Ages. In other words, we don't even have basic financial literacy education. In other words, the banks we're right now, we're talking about banks where banks put their money. We already know banks give us minus negative 1%. Inflation is seven and a half percent. We're still dealing with compounding interest. We're dealing with simple things like life insurance. However, it's a new industry because originally the dollar bill was backed by gold. You would say one U.S. dollar, $1 back in gold. Now the gold is gone. So now when I was a kid, we had something called a silver certificate who was one U.S. dollar, $1. And so now the silver is gone. Now the bill says, note note like house, no car, nope. It's borrowed. It has no value at all. So if a depression took place tomorrow, dollar bills would be stacked up on side with no value at all. So we are still reluctant not to get involved with the cryptocurrency space. But what we don't realize is the same dollar that people worked for, kill for, die for that same dollar has no value is, oh, we see people today putting money up to their ears. They better be careful in carry infection. But the bottom line is that dollar has no value. So right now it costs more money to make feeling and to still pay more money to make a nickel to spend the nickel. So electronic currency is here and it's here to stay so I'm sure in the very near future that cryptocurrency is going to be something that's going to be the actual norm. We have it. Professional sports players today getting paid in crypto. They rather take crypto. Now, when it comes down to NFT, I think everybody should be create an NFT because like I said earlier, that today, right now as we speak, you know, when you look at the job industry, I told you guys when I first started that the average American keeps a job five the six years of corporate America today. Right. You think about this. We go inside the store. What do we see today? Machines. We go in the bank, we see machines, we go into airport, we see machines. Here's the bombshell in the next five years. 85 million jobs are going to be displaced due to artificial intelligence, A.I. robots. So we're going to have to learn how to go from Social Security to self security. So we move from customer service now to convenience, which means the future is small business, not only the small business, self business. You going to have to learn how to be entrepreneurs so that crypto space and if keys I always tell people today they don't buy books, they don't buy music, they buy you. So NFT is great because as you build your brand, hopefully you're being you. You might want to make sure that you brand who you are and you can get into the NFT space, you can get into the crypto space, but that's where it's at. But I always tell people right now is the time to start learning about it. So therefore you be prepared when it does hit because it is here as we speak. But people are still in the stone ages. We still dealing with trading time for money and now only trading time for money, putting all our faith in the job when we already know that a job just stands for just over broke so with the when people I get I get asked a lot about I'm not heavily involved in crypto cryptos. I've played with it a little bit just, just trying to figure it out more before I spend a bunch of money there basically. But I do get questions on it. Like, Are you doing cryptos when you know cryptos and like, I don't know a lot, not enough to like put a bunch of money down. I would totally be rolling the dice. Just toss them out there. How does, how does someone educate themselves on where to go with it? I understand it feels a little wild, wild west right now. Things go up, they crash down, they go back up, things drops. Recently, bitcoin's like half its price, which tells me it's probably a good time to buy it. But anyways, how did how did people have nowhere to go to educate themselves on what do I buy? There's hundreds, if not thousands of cryptos out there and is it is it is the goal to put your money where it will grow? Or is your goal to hit one early and hope it explodes? You're an instant millionaire. The goal is, is to follow the model that I said earlier. Remember I told you guys, we start from the ground up, the solid foundation if you notice, investments came last after we had a solid foundation, debt management and emergency fund. The investments came. You noticed that, right? So what we should do is all about education. Before we start getting involved with crypto, why learn about crypto? Because there are so many different tutorials that actually allow you to deal with crypto so you can educate yourself. So it's really my education first before you get involved because I'll tell you this a lot of people won't say this, but I'll see it when you guys show. 85% of the people who invest in the market moves on average, and the people who are winning are the people who are educating themselves about what's happening, cutting edge. In other words, start doing it now. Don't wait to everything gets popular now. You want to get on board. Does that make sense? Yeah, sure. I give you an example. I got a colleague of mine, he's in the NFT space. He has a business I told him, hey, get into the NFT space. He said, Okay, so he created a logo for his business. Well, you get that logo out there. I'm NFT space and I start off with the logo selling for $1,000. And just last week the logo, so for $10,000, you see. So that's where the world is going. It's a new space digital currency gravity, artificial intelligence. That's where we're going right now. And people got to really jump in, but don't jump in without having knowledge and education of how it works. That's what it's all about. So most people jump in and they listen to what someone else is telling them without any knowledge, put their money in, they lose and now they're disappointed and then they stop doing it. John, did you have another question before I let you? Go ahead? Okay. ROI for the month of February, we are in a series called Black Excellence, and we're calling it Black Excellence because as you know, the world has title February Black History Month, which I believe it started off with, well, intentions, and the message was well intended. But I believe that it has exactly become what has been name history. And it just focuses as if the achievements, the greatness of black people and black culture is a thing of the past and not the present and the future. So we remixed it and call it black excellence. And you are exemplary of that. I want to ask you. Yes, sir. When you hear the word excellence and living a life of excellence, we know that principle transcends color. It transcends denominational lines and ethnicity. When you hear that word excellence or living a life of excellence, what does that mean to you? Well, first of all, I would say this year, I'm glad that you brought that up, because when I think about black history, I always tell people black is not a color. It's the which our color comes from. So we're all one family. Sure is not history. That's how I look at me. Yes. Black excellence is is great because that's what it's all about. It's all about it's all about being the best version of yourself every single day. And not only being the best version of yourself every single day, being being the type of person that bring happiness, the brain's hope and inspiration to everybody. That's what it's all about. And I really, really pride myself on black excellence because I know for a fact that we got so many young people today out there live in this society, and they're ready to do a lot of things to make the world better. But know I saw yesterday of racism and bigotry and all the stuff that's taken place. Yeah. I think today you have an opportunity to not only show black excellence. We have an opportunity for especially the millennials to really, really come together, work together, to make the world a better place. Excellent answer. Go ahead, Joe. I have nothing that if you if you were to leave, if you were to leave our audience, one last tip or piece of advice and it doesn't have to be about financial independence. It could be about that, but something that's on your heart that you want to share. What would that be? ROI, you know, for everybody that's looking and listening I would encourage you not only to be the best version of yourself each and every day. Keep this in mind. Your job is what you get paid for, which are calling is what you are made for. And what I mean by your calling, the calling, the thing that's inside of you. I've said this before, the gift that's inside of you. Everybody has greatness inside of them. Everyone has a gift. And it's sad that most people never discover their gift because more more people spend more time outside of themselves and very little time with themselves. I'm encouraging people to spend more time with themselves, to discover the gift that's inside of them, because the cemetery's one of the richest places on the planet Earth. This won't bury dreams. There are more ideas there. I'm encouraging people to be the best version of themselves. Don't be afraid to look at themselves, not to be afraid to to discover themselves. That's what it's all about. So really, when it's all said and done, I strive every single day to be a change agent when I say change it. In other words, I'm trying to help as many people as possible. But I'm counting and rooting on whoever is listening and looking right now. You got greatness inside of you. I may not know you, but I do know the potential you have, and I believe in you. So I want to let everybody knows, listen, I believe in you. And I'm counting on you to not be afraid to look at yourself, to be the best version of yourself. And not only that, live life to its fullest you deserve to stay connected with more. You could do that several ways. Follow him on his social media accounts. Follow him on his TikTok, which has a 1 million followers now at Roy K Douglas. Purchase his book the The Power to Get Wealth Nobody Required. Now, Roy, you mentioned that you're on a book tour, but I don't believe it's that book. What book is that? That's the book, Cracking the Rich Code with Tony Robbins. Kevin here from ABC's Shark Tank and Jim Brim and it's a truly international bestseller. I'm excited about that. And that's where we are right now. But people can get me anywhere. Mary Kate Douglass, I'm like AMC Theaters everywhere I talk, you'll talk with Connect with Unscripted. Stay connected with us here on our social media. @unscripted leadership, unscripted-leadership.com, and our podcast is available on all streaming platforms. Again, we say thank you to Mr. Rory Douglas, our family, for coming back on dropping more fire, dropping more gems, as he did the first time around. Again, this time was no different as always, we pray that you be the leader that God is calling you to be. We're here to build bridges and not walls. Bridges connect, walls divide until next time. I won't let you off the hook that easy. I will let you guys look. Okay, go, go, go, go. I want. I just want to thank you guys. First of all, is the work that you guys are doing out there and the genuine content that you guys are giving people made is highly needed. And like I said, I know that the sky's the limit. What you guys are doing. So any time you already know I'm here for you guys, any time to pick up the phone and I'm ready to go.