How Does Financial Health Impact Your Well Being?

How Does Financial Health Impact Your Well Being?

Sean: How do I know if I’m a high-risk or low-risk trader?

Toni: Well, you can take a risk profile assessment. That’s how you’ll know it. There are lots of risk profile assessments online, but let’s say you don’t like taking tests and you really want to know it immediately, you can know it based on two factors. Time Horizon and your Capital.

Toni: So normally, if your time horizon is relatively short, then you’re forced to sell, or there’s a possibility that you can sell at a significant loss. So that’s why it’s riskier. Whereas if you invest long-term, even though you have losses along the way, you can still recuperate. Another factor going back to the second one, which is your capital. Basically, the amount of money that you can afford to lose will determine your risk tolerance. That’s it. The more money you can actually use to trade. And if you’re willing to lose all of it, then you’re technically a higher risk trader. And how about you Sean, what would you say? Are you a high risk or low risk trader?

Sean: I’d say somewhere in the middle.

Toni: Miiddle? Moderate?

Sean: Because of Marvin Germo’s hype, I really got myself to being a high risk trader. But yeah, I think I should have put less on my crypto, that’s what I think right now. But maybe it’s just because crypto is down. But yeah, I would say somewhere above average maybe, above average, how about you?

Toni: Well, I would say – well I am not a trader, I am not an active trader compared to Marvin Germo. But also like what you’re saying about crypto, I think I have, maybe about 10 percent of my portfolio in crypto. So it’s not the majority of it, it’s not the biggest part. But again, it’s the money that I’m willing to lose, that even if it goes down to zero, it’s alright for me.

Sean: Yeah, some somewhere there. Same. But yeah, I think for me, it might have been too many, but yeah. So you’re probably somewhere saying right above, above average risk.

Toni: I would say I’m a High-Risk investor, high risk I am at that. And I think it has a lot to do with age.

Sean: Yeah. So for Mitch, can you tell us the story, oh its storytelling time, of how you grew the Money Health Check Facebook community?

Toni: Oh so, just the Facebook group? Basically, Money Health Check is a brand born out of my passion for teaching about financial literacy. So normally when we hear of Money Health Check, they think it’s or the person behind it has always been very good with money, but that wasn’t always the case. Right? Because there are also a lot of people who would say money can’t buy happiness, but in reality, that doesn’t mean that finances can’t affect your well-being. So, if your financial health is in bad conditions, then it’s going to affect several aspects of your life. So that’s why I feel as if if you want to improve your well-being, then you also have to take care of your money health. And in my setting or the way I grew up is we avoided talking about money because we thought that it’s going to just cause stress. It’s going to cost a lot of arguments. So the tendency is we would just avoid the topic. And then when I graduated, and I started earning my own money, I struggled handling it. I didn’t know how to manage it, I didn’t even know how to open a bank account, and I didn’t know how to invest. So I feel as if if you do several check ups to your financial health, just like how you would with your physical health, then you can better manage your financial stress. And in result, then it’s going to lead you to your financial goals and it’s going to improve your overall wellness. So that’s why it’s called money health check. And because I was consistently posting on TikTok, I sort of led my followers to a Facebook group where they can also ask questions, and other people in the group can answer. So instead of it being just a one topic per video in Tiktok, in the Facebook group, we get to interact in two ways, so it’s very similar to Sean’s discord, the Leadership Stack discord where people can ask questions and you know, you really get to connect with your community there. So that’s how the Facebook group was born.

Sean: Yeah. And so, yeah, community is super important, especially like Toni, she’s not doing it really for money or getting paid to do this. It is a calling. It is something that you do because you want to pay things forward. You know, we want to help other people and the community is very important to spread the word, get the word out there. And her follow up question is actually about TikTok. How do you plan the content that you’re going to do?

Toni: How do I plan? I learned this from Benjamin Law, and he said, if you want to create consistent and quality content, your channel should have three types of content. So the first one should be educational. So this is content that teaches. Just like ‘what are the financial mistakes to avoid?’ What are the different types of insurances?

Toni: And then the second type of content that you should have is content that’s entertaining, right? It doesn’t have to be comedic content. It just has to show your values. It allows your viewers to understand or know your character as a content creator. And then the third type of content should be engaging. So how I create engaging content is when I reply to my followers’ questions. So I usually reply with a video feature. So if you go to my TikTok channel as in, it’s a mix of everything. It’s not too heavy on education. I put in a few entertaining memes like videos, and I also respond to comments with the video features.

Toni: So you can see how it can’t be too heavy on one. Because if let’s say my content is just all on teaching, it’s all too technical. Then to others, you can seem like an intimidating person, right? Because they’re going to think, “yeah he or she knows what they’re doing.” Right? He or she does not look approachable, so I like to put up entertaining content every now and then, because it factors in that relatability to my followers and at the same time, they get to know me personally, basically who I am outside of being a financial adviser or a content creator. So I show like what Sean watched recently, a day in my life – those types of videos.

Sean: Yeah, very interesting.

Toni: And so that’s what I do. How about you Sean? Like, how do you plan your own content?

Sean: Right now? Yeah, I needed to hear your advice because I don’t have anything entertaining there. I don’t think I have anything yet that shows who I am like a day in my life. I don’t think I’ve ever done that.

Toni: Really, like vlog type of videos.

Sean: Yeah, I haven’t. Maybe I think I’ve written like.

Toni: I think you do. No, you do on your Instagram.

Sean: Oh, yeah, yeah. Instagram.

Toni: Yeah, like Instagram. It’s more personal, though that’s not like a business account for you. But if you go to his Instagram, you should follow him by the way, he’ll post pictures about his family, how he’s also a father, the things that he likes to do, which is travel, those kinds of contents. And so again, those are not funny, but it shows your character. That’s what entertaining could mean. And you’re engaging your community by this live show, right? You’re answering your community, your followers’ questions at the same time, it becomes a two-way interaction. So it’s a mix of three already.

Sean: Now, how do one create the prosperity mindset when you don’t have enough money or are just living off your savings?

Toni: How do you create the prosperity mindset, Sean?

Sean: It came from the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that changed my perspective. So Robert Kiyosaki stated in the book, ‘the world is rich. It actually is very, very rich.’ If you look at the GDP of the US, for example, how many trillion dollars per year they produce in business and you look at the Philippines, how many billions of dollars in our own GDP, right? We’re not on the trillions, but we’re still like on a billion dollar scale, that’s what we produce as a country.

Sean: And so I thought, that’s a lot of money, you know, that’s a lot of money. How come people keep thinking that, ‘life is difficult, earning money is difficult, working is hard, there’s not enough money’. Those are the things that I usually hear. I didn’t grow up in a rich family. Actually, we’re like, you know, we had enough to get by, and I would often hear that, I’d often hear that from my parents that “life is hard, earning money is really difficult.” And then when I read Robert Kiyosaki’s book, I thought about, ‘Where does the billion dollar GDP of the Philippines really go? How can I also get into that GDP?‘ Right? And what you have to do is really add value to yourself, so you can add value to other people. And that’s what the world will pay you for. That’s my take on that.

Toni: OK. So speaking of books, the book that changed my entire perspective about money is the ‘Secrets of the Millionaire Mind’ by T. Harv Eker, and I always promote this book, even though I am not paid to say this. But that was the very first book that, as you said, before I didn’t really have – I did have a stable job, but I couldn’t save, and I couldn’t even save five percent of my annual income back then. Because I would always think that it’s okay, when I finish all the money I have because I know next month I’d be able to get it again.’

Toni: So I realized the error of my ways when I read that book and I learned how you should change your money script. So you know how sometimes whenever we see, let’s say someone riding a sports car, we would always have that negative mindset or would usually think that, “he or she’s boastful.” That’s how we view people who had money back then, and sometimes we tell ourselves, ‘Oh, I’ll never be able to afford that. So if you keep thinking this way or if you maintain this perspective, then you will feel as if you’ll never be as successful as your wealthy friends, and this is basically an example of having a negative money script. So your money script will shape the way you view money. And that’s why another part of having a good money script is to have a direction for your money. So your money needs to have direction, and that’s why, as financial advisors, we do financial planning because it’s important when you have a plan for your money so that at least you’ll be able to shift your direction, you’ll know your biggest “why” about why you’re saving and why you’re investing. So even if you don’t have enough savings, thinking that you have this certain goals, you want to be financially free, you want to be able to work at the job that you love without worrying about money, then you will be more motivated or you’ll shift your mindset to abundance, when you have a direction for your goals. So that’s my take on it.

Sean: Really good stuff now. You know, we look at people who have Billion-Dollar businesses like the person mentioned with a Ferrari. And I remember also Elon Musk tweeted this not so long ago that we tell people about the American dream. We tell people to work hard, to hustle, and to have a successful outlook for the future. And then once you become a billionaire, people start looking at you and say, why don’t you give that away? Or Why do you have all the money?’ It’s so ironic what’s happening to society? And that’s the problem in our society, having that as a mindset, It’s generally wrong.And even here in the Philippines, we have the crab mentality.

Toni: Right, right.

Sean: And you look at people and feel like “they don’t understand me because they’re rich. That money could have been used to donate to the poor” or something like that, right? And it’s sad because they worked for that, right? Most people, they really worked hard for it.

Toni: So, yeah, right, right. And I guess those misconceptions have a lot to do with how we were raised, you know our upbringing. In my case I mean, I was born in quite a privileged family, but there was a point when we lost it all. So from having that comfortable lifestyle, we had to make a dramatic shift. So from a house, we had to move into an apartment that was only good for one person studio apartment larger. But we were five in the family and I had to sleep on the floor.

Toni: And during those times, my mom still had that mindset that when money comes, we have to spend it. So even then when we were so broke. She kept spending on bags. She kept spending on luxurious things. And for me, that’s what made me realize that your environment really affects the way you spend money. This is why I’m super thankful that right now I have a circle of friends who are just as motivated as me to make money, to invest money, right. So it also has a lot to do with your circle of friends. That’s why they always say that your network is your net worth.

Sean: Really good stuff. And I think, you know, at your age doing what you do, you’d probably blow past whatever it is that I’ve been able to also do during that time. I mean, the book ‘CEO at 22′ sounds great, but if you saw me in my parents’ attic trying to start SEO-Hacker, it’s nothing glorious at all. It’s not like I had a fully air-conditioned office, or carpeted. I really got nothing during those times. It’s all really a grind you know, hard work and getting to know people, just what Toni stated.

Toni: Exactly, exactly.

Toni: And actually hearing Sean’s story helps a lot because when we see successful people, the millionaires or billionaires, we see them at their highest peak. But you know, you get to learn a lot more from their struggles, their journey and on how they came to be. And you know, that helps you realize that, “Okay, so I should go through this? This is just part of the process.” And yeah, so I know some of you are familiar with Sean’s story and when I remember back then, you know, you were broke and you were with your girlfriend, who’s now you’re your wife. It is really inspiring, in that sense.

Sean: One of the things that I always share when people ask like, how do you become successful? I tell them, “don’t ask how a sausage is made while you’re eating one.” So if you want to know how to be successful, what makes success? It’s a lot of failures. That’s really what makes success. You know, if you’re failure averse, don’t think that you’re going to be able to achieve your picture of success. You’ll get by for sure, you’ll get by. But don’t think you’ll achieve your picture of success. A lot of failure goes into it, right Toni? I’m sure you’ve had your share to be where you are now. I saw your TikTok contents about this like before. These are the things they say about me, but look at me now.” type of contents, right?

Toni: Those are my glow up stories, right? Because it is usually a common question that we get, even as content creators, is about “how to be like you?” Whenever they see me now, they envision someone that is very independent and successful. So what I like to do is I like posting content of me when I was super bad. Like, I remember posting a TikTok video of me when I would have blacked out. I would cry after a talk or every time I would do public speaking. Because I was never as good as I am now. I’m not saying I’m good now, but back then it was really bad. I had stutter problems and all of these things. So when I show people that side, it actually inspires them. There is hope to improve, right?

Sean: Yeah, we’re people too.

Toni: True.