044: Building a Wealthy Mindset with The Money Guy Brian Preston
With over two decades of experience in personal financial planning and taxes, Brian Preston is driven to help others optimize their lives so they can focus on the things in life that truly matter to them.
Brian’s firm emphasizes having the heart of an educator, and this desire to create educated clients led to the award-winning podcast, The Money Guy Show.
When not helping clients reach success with simple, smart strategies, Brian loves spending time with his wife, Jennifer, and their two daughters.
So let’s dig in. Let’s meet today’s Master of Money…
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The Poverty Mindset
One thing that Brian talks a lot about on The Money Guy Show is your mindset towards prosperity, whether that prosperity is money or just the life you’re trying to build for yourself. For Brian, he had to move away from the preconceived notions he had about money since childhood. Those notions were going to be barriers to his success.
He grew up in a household where his parents were extremely good at saving money even though they didn’t have a lot of it. The problem was that they had this notion that the wealthy typically have money because they’ve inherited it.
When Brian started on his journey to understanding money better, he was in high school. He had an economics teacher (who was also the wrestling coach), and he said, “You guys have all the opportunity in the world. If you save $100 a month, you can become a millionaire.” Brian didn’t believe it at first, but it changed his mindset and he knew he could save $100 a month from his job at Hardee’s.
He started acquiring as much knowledge as he could. The two books he read at the time were “The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning The Wealthy Barber” and “The Millionaire Next Door The Millionaire Next Door.” This is where he learned that millionaires are typically the first generation. The poverty mindset was negatively influencing Brian’s thoughts about money. Through education and reading, his poverty mindset was changed into an abundance mindset.
Money That Works for You
If you’re feeling stuck in your money growth, Brian’s advice is to get rid of any sort of “get rich quick” mentality. Wealth sneaks up on you. You don’t realize that all the steps you’re taking will amount to something until you see the results. Having your money working for you liberates you.
Stretch Goals
Brian set goals for himself and failed on every single one, including making $100,000 a year by age 30. He had just started a company at the age of 28, which would eventually morph into Abound Wealth. One of his other goals was having a million dollars saved by the age of 40. These were “stretch goals” so it was okay to not make it, but Brian believes it’s always good to
set goals.
Since Brian had started his company, he was working as hard as possible to save up his money. He reached out and networked as much as possible, trying to get enough revenue to stay afloat. His wife was a stay-at-home mom and he only made $19,000 his first year of running the company.
When he started his company, he had $42,000 in savings. That ran out pretty fast and they took on some debt. This is why Brian highly recommends compounding interest and saving 15-20% of everything you make.
From Corporate Job to Company Owner
Brian’s dad being diagnosed with leukemia is what gave him the confidence and desire to start his own company. He had been working so many hours and realized his life was out of balance. He wanted to make sure he was able to show up in his kids’ lives so he made the crazy jump from a corporate job to his own company.
He and his wife saved her salary for an entire year in order to be able to start their company. It takes 3 years for most companies to really take off and Brian thinks that the preparation is the most important part. Your great idea could end up being a fail simply because you didn’t prepare well.
Saving Makes Investing Easy
Brian recommends using Vanguard or Fidelity for investments. Their websites are super easy to use and you have so many options as far as accounts you can set up.
The first brokerage account Brian ever opened was through his bank, which was not a smart move. You want to be able to take advantage of the index funds. He admits he’s made all the money mistakes that you can. Saving is the hard part, investing is easy.
Saving to Make Spending More Enjoyable
During the early years of starting his business, Brian and his wife were careful with their spending so that they could afford to celebrate the big things like birthdays and anniversaries. When you don’t regularly go out to eat or spend that extra money, it makes it even more enjoyable when you do.
Brian finally got to $100k in a year around the age of 32 and hit that million dollar savings goal before the age of 44. He still gets a little nervous about sharing his net worth because he never wants to seem like he’s bragging.
Benefitting Yourself and Others
Now that Brian has his firm and has great associates, he finds fulfillment in watching his partners have kids, buy houses, and create opportunities for themselves. He encourages people to find a vision plan where the money happens, but you also get to see the benefit in the lives of others. Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable are great resources for giving. The paperwork is simple, and Brian recommends using those options to benefit both yourself and others.
The Journey to Wealth
Wealth is like a marathon. You have to go for all those morning runs and gear up so that you’re prepared. But it’s also like an obstacle course. There’s going to be things that come your way that you have to hurdle. If you take the time to stay on the course, you’ll look back and see that the wealth crept up on you. The journey is what makes it fun.
Show Notes
- 2:31 – A wrestling coach changed Brian’s perspective on money
- 5:50 – How wealth is like the Boogey-man
- 7:45 – Going from a six-figure income to $19,000 a year
- 12:00 – A desire to show up in his family’s life led to a major pay cut
- 17:08 – Making all the money mistakes possible
- 21:43 – When Brian finally met his million dollar savings goal
- 23:07 – Finding fulfillment in the lives of others
- 25:36 – The marathon-like obstacle course of becoming wealthy
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This show is part of the FinCon Podcast Network and was produced by Steve Stewart.
