Hello, I'm your host, Mr. Chuck. I'm a retired accountant, turn truck driver, I have reduced my debt to zero in a short matter of time, debt reduction to achieve financial freedom takes commitment, confidence determination. Today, I'm going to reinforce keep it going. For those of you who've been working on this for a while and for a new people, and then I help you get started. Together, we're going to explore our finances and figure out how to improve them. reduce debt increase wealth is a podcast to inform those to improve personal finances, whether it's eliminating debt or making smart investments. This being my 51st episode, or my first episode of year two, review my first year. And podcasting. When I got started, I had zero experience. The only research I did find out what do I need to start a podcast? I need a microphone. I need software. And I needed a computer. I tried using the microphone built in my computer, it didn't sound very good. So I bought a USB microphone. And that's what I got started with. I had some software that I tried. Some of it was free. I didn't like it, because they didn't know what I was looking for. So I ended up with a software that worked fairly well. And it was inexpensive, let's say. And that got me through the first seven months of creating podcasts. My audio wasn't the best. And I went back and tried to fix it, which I did, and the first 10 to 15 episodes. But still those episodes, the is not the best. After seven months, I decided, well if I'm gonna keep on doing this, I need to upgrade, I need to upgrade my equipment, and he to upgrade my software. At the time, I wasn't so sure I needed to upgrade the software. So I started out upgrade my equipment. I got an interface. So I could use an XLR microphone, which is the industry standard. You need an interface because the microphones are analog. And the computer is digital. So you need an interface to convert your audio from analog into digital using analog microphones because they work the best. And they pick up the best sound. I bought an interface. I tried to set it up, I thought I had it set it up. I was using my old microphone. I couldn't tell any difference. They said that the quality of my microphone would improve. And I couldn't tell any difference. I wasn't sure if I even had it set up correctly. Because it didn't seem like it was working the way it should. But I forged ahead and I did my research. And I found a upgrade microphone that was willing to spend the money on in my price range. So I went ahead and I ordered it but it was out of stock. So it was waiting. I wasn't any hurry to receive it or to upgrade because my plan was I was going to start using it at the start of my second season, which was still four months away. I had plenty of time. The salesman at Sweetwater called me and said, while we had some other options if you don't want to wait for microphones, what are you doing and you know when you want the information? So I talked to him? And he said, Well, yeah, we got some other options. And I said, Well, I like to see those options. And despite chance I'm a truck driver. I was going to be driving right by the location where he was the next day without a trailer so I could stop in see what microphones he was talking about, you know, go to the store instead of doing it online. So I did that. And I ended up buying an upgraded microphone, which I'm using now, which I have been using for probably the last 10 weeks. right at home, set it up, didn't seem like it was working. So I reinstalled my software for my interface. And I try to set it up, and my software wouldn't do anything with it. And that's when I realized maybe this software is not what I should be using. And I need to upgrade software. And so I looked around, and I found a 90 day free trial of the software I'm currently using, I still hadn't paid for it yet, because I'm still on my 90 days, and I'm in no hurry to pay for something if they're gonna let me use it at no charge. So then in 90 days, I will upgrade and I will pay for it. No big deal. I reloaded all the software for my interface and put it in the new software. And lo and behold, everything works just like it should. And a microphone, I have a much clear, concise, noise free, better sounding audio. So I'm happy with that. And then one day I was experimented with the, and I flipped the switch on the microphone. And I want I forgot about it. And I thought I don't know why I can't get this to sound like it used to. And then it dawned on me and like three weeks later, I flipped the switch back and I'm back to square one. And that's my review of my first year of podcasting. So it's a learning experience. And I went on YouTube and I watch videos on how you're supposed to do a podcast. I shortened up my intro outro. So you'll notice that on this episode, I changed some of my music on my intro and outro and I just making, you know, little improvements here and there. Plus, I'm getting more comfortable and doing this. And it's becoming much easier to record and edit my recordings. That's my year of podcasts and review. That's basically my life story on podcasting. And next is my new description. For my podcast, debt reduction to achieve financial freedom takes commitment, confidence determination, because I read somewhere or watch the video, and they said that the description for your podcast should be 10 words or less. And that is 10 words or less. And I can change it from debt reduction to increase investments, increase savings, to achieve financial freedom and freedom takes commitment, confidence determination. And I just was thinking before I started this episode, Do people really know what financial freedom is? I thought I knew a natural freedom is not having so much debt, that you can't do anything but go to work and pay your debt and restrict your life. Having financial freedom means you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. If you decide you want to quit your job and start your own business, if you have financial freedom, he can do it. How long you would have fat financial freedom after doing such a big move may be short lived. But here's the definition of financial freedom means Dave ramsey.com financial freedom means that you get to make life decisions without being overly stressed about the financial impact. Because you are prepared. You control your finances instead of being controlled by them. And financial freedom doesn't mean that you're free of the responsibility. of handling your money well. So you have the freedom to make a decision without having to think about the financial impact, because you're prepared. So you have an emergency fund, and you have money saved up. And making a financial decision, like quitting your current job and starting a business. If you didn't have a large emergency fund, you'd be stressed about making that decision. And you may not even make it, you may not even do it, because you don't have the financial money behind you to start a business. But once you achieve financial freedom, that doesn't mean you can just do whatever you want, you're still gonna have to be responsible, and handling your money well, because you want to stay in that situation. It's possible for everybody, no matter your age, or income, to achieve financial freedom. That's what the budget will do for you. I know people don't like budgeting. But if you have a well planned out and executed budget, and you stay on top of your finances, you control your bills, don't let the bills control you. And you can have financial freedom at age 30. And when you only have an income of 25,000 or less, or at age 50, when you're making 50 to$70,000. So it is all possible for everybody. Now I like to talk about those of you, if you've been following this podcast for any length of time, specially the last three episodes, identify your spending habits, your bad spending habits, prepare a financial plan, prepare a budget, and get a debt reduction plan and do all those things being just a matter of time. And you'll be able to claim you have financial freedom. Remember, that reduction, to achieve financial freedom takes commitment, confidence determination, you got to want to do it, you got to be committed to doing it. You have to have the confidence that you can do it no matter what. And you have to stay determined and you have to stay on track every pay period every day, every month until you get there, then you can let up a little bit. That brings me to you got to just stay at it. Keep it going. If you're new, if this is your first time you listen to this podcast, you need to go back at least three weeks. Identify your bad spending habits, prepare a financial plan, prepare a debt reduction plan. If you need more information, you can go back to other episodes that I have where I give you a little more detail. I have a story because over the Christmas break. I saw a old friend of mine who's doing relatively well I think has a nice home a couple children that are doing well in school, getting ready for college. I think one might be in college, a wife that works and makes decent income both of them together. A couple of nice newer cars, couple toys like a boat. And I was talking to him and I just happen to mention, as you're doing pretty well and he said, Mr. Chuck, it looks like I'm doing well. But I'm not. I Oh, wait, you mean, you look like you pretty well set, because I have other than my 401 K through work, which I'm only putting in a bare minimum, and my wife is the same. We don't have any money. If I would lose my job next week, I could lose everything you see here. I'd be broke, I'd be out on the street, I could be homeless. I go, what's the chances of you losing a job? Yeah, slim to none. I know why you're worried about it. You just need to have a plan. So what I tell him, get yourself a plan. Write it down. If you want to build up your savings, to have a bigger emergency fund, you just need to plan for it. And then you need to budget for it. And you need to pay yourself first. And he said I never thought of that. Which brings me to Harry United States. We're the richest country in the world. So I thought, what we can compare ourselves and be thankful for what we have. And here's what I found. worldwide. adults with$10,000 or less in wealth, and wealth, ban all your assets less that debt you owe on it. So$10,000, here's an example. At$25,000 car they owe $15,000 or less on that's $10,000. And well, that's all they have. That is 71%. Globally 71% of the people have less than $10,000 in wealth. So if you have a $25,000 car and you owe 15,000 or less on it, you're better off than 71% of the people. The next level up wealth of 10,000 to 100,000 is 21% of the world's population. So if you have a wealth of under $100,000. That would be a home. You paid$250,000 you owe $150,000 or less, you're better off than 21% of the world's population. Or you're part of 21% of the world's population, then the next level 100,000 to 1 million. It's just 7% of the population worldwide and is 40% of all the wealth worldwide. The average American has a wealth of 535,000 in net worth. Consider that according to the Federal Reserve, the medium American family had $81,000 in net worth and 2013. The average family had 535,000 in net worth. I never made much over 55 60,000 a year. And I have over $500,000 in net work puts me in the top 7% of the global population worldwide. There is a lot of poor people out there. And there's a lot of people out there who have a lot less than what we have here and the United States. Wondering why everybody wants to come here. Perhaps that could be the reason the stats I just cited to you I got from the Chicago Tribune, and I have a link in my show notes for those who are interested in reading the full article. And I'll be back in 30 seconds with my final thoughts. If you listen to this podcast using an apple podcast app, please rate and review this podcast for all your non Apple users, you can download iTunes on a Windows machine and go to the upper left hand corner, select podcast, do a search, reduce that increase Well, you can subscribe to the podcast. And you can also rate and review the podcast. I appreciate any feedback that I get. As I continue doing podcasts, I'm sure I'll learn how to make improvements and get better at doing this. For those of you who are struggling to get your data and control, stay the course it can be done. You just have dedication, confidence, and commit for the rest of us in the United States, where are better off than 93% of the people worldwide. And that's just the average person. So don't be discouraged. You can achieve your financial freedom. You just need to identify your problems. Create a plan, stick to it, and be determined that you can improve your life and your financial freedom no matter what difficulties may lie ahead.