The Anti-Financial Advisor

Justin Recla:

Welcome back to Incorporating SuperPowers. And today is one of my favorite topics. We’re going to be talking about money, money, money. More importantly, we’re going to be looking at money completely backward, something that you’ve probably never been taught in your life, or you’ve had lessons on this. You’ve seen it, but you don’t quite understand it. And we’re going to be exploring money from well, the exact opposite of what you were taught in grade school, high school and college. We’re going to be looking at how money works.

And my guest today has been in the financial industry for the last 20-some-odd years. But more importantly, he’s been doing the work that he has been doing, which is the exact opposite of what the industry will teach you, for the last 15 years. He considers himself the anti-financial advisor, and he is the host of The Chris Miles Money Show. My guest is Chris Miles. Chris, welcome to the show today.

And the answer is most likely no. In fact, I would say almost 100% of the time it’s going to be a no. Even for people who have been doing this for decades, they still can’t get financially free. So why are we following the same advice? It’s that definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Why are we following it?

Justin Recla:

Well, we were following it because that’s what everybody teaches us. That’s what they tell us to do in school. In high school, the most we get to learn how to do is write a check. And then, of course, when we go into college is where we’re taught to where all we have to do is acquire debt, so we can go get a job. And nobody’s really teaching the truth of how money works and what it is. And you and I were talking before the break. We were talking about flow and stagnation and how saving and so forth and not putting your money in the right places causes blockages because you’re right. The world, this universe, this world that we live in is abundant, and we have to stop looking at it from a scarcity viewpoint.

Chris Miles:

Exactly. Its principles and strategies. You’ve got to have the right principles of prosperity, those abundant principles that have been around forever. They’re timeless laws. You’ve got to apply those along with the strategies to make it work so that you work because you want to, not because you have to, so that you’re free, that you live an abundant life and have that prosperity.

And the problem is that if you look at there are really three mindsets around money. If you really break it down, it comes down to three. Two of them are rooted in scarcity, which about, I would say, the vast majority of people fall into. One of them is having a saver mindset. This is the one that every financial advisor comes from. They’re always telling you to save everything, spend nothing, pay off your debt as fast as possible.

And then, in fact, when you’re in that mode, in that way of thinking, the problem is that you can never pay off debt fast enough. And even if you do become debt-free, then you can’t ever save enough. You can ever accumulate enough. And then you end up being what I call a lot of people I’ve come to have become clients who are asset rich and cash poor. They’ve accumulated and hoarded a lot of money, but it’s not working for them. It’s not doing anything. There’s no life or flow.

And without flow, there’s no life. If there’s no water flow, there’s not going to be life to the land. If there’s no blood flow, there’s no life to your body. And if there’s no money flow, you’ll financially be dead too. And that’s what it runs into. So the savers, that’s the more subtle one that people think is what’s supposed to work, but that’s the one that doesn’t.

And we know, of course, the spender is the other second scarcity one too. Spenders, by the way, are minorities. Savers are actually a bigger majority than the spenders are, I’ve found. It’s funny because there’s a lot of the people in the saver mentality, especially the Dave Ramseys of the world that will tell you, “Hey, you know what? Everybody’s a spender. You guys aren’t. We’re the people who’ve got to stand up.” The truth is if you look at the real numbers, more people are saving in their 401ks than not, that has a 401k. And by the way, I’m not a fan of the 401k.

So that even tells you that even people eligible for 401k that aren’t doing it are in a different mindset, a different mode that’s more abundant. 

Justin Recla:

This is good stuff. This is good stuff. I want to pause right here because I want to save the rest of this conversation for the backside of the break because I don’t want to give up the ghost too much here. Because this is the conversation that diving into and understanding this, folks, and understanding how money works and taking a look at the paradigm that you’ve been taught and stepping out of it and looking at something different from a different and higher perspective are going to change the way your view on money works. And that’s why I’m excited to have this conversation with Chris on the back end. But before we do, where can we go? Where can people go to start to learn more about you?

Chris Miles:

They can go to moneyripples.com, or they can check out our podcast, The Chris Miles Money Show, that you can find on any platform, YouTube, iTunes, you name it.

Justin Recla:

Fantastic. Folks, go take a look at Chris Miles’ show, The Chris Miles Money Show. Subscribe to his podcast. This is a conversation that you need to continue having well beyond this episode. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

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