Motivation and Inspiration Source

Motivation and Inspiration Source

Sean: Question is, how can one learn to be wise with their income?

Karlo: Yeah, I think you need to keep on learning new things, such as the principles about finances, most of it I learned from the Bible. Because the real main source of our wisdom is the Bible. So it has a lot of verses about money, so how can you handle money? How can you save? How can you be generous? So I think we need to go back to the Bible because it’s the source of our wisdom.

Karlo: And of course, we need to combine it all with the practical principles, such as what we mentioned a while ago. You can find someone who can mentor you and who can guide you, who can be accountable to you. And of course, as you go along, you need to read books as well. If you want to learn more about money, finances, or of course, watch the Leadership Stack podcast on YouTube or listen to Spotify or The Now Finance podcast.

Sean: Well, that’s that’s very good, very practical advice. One of the things that the Bible says also is that a wise man leaves an inheritance for his children and his children’s children – what it means is it’s your grandchildren. So definitely the Bible says for you to save up for the future. And also, it tells you to give to God 10 percent of what you make. That, for me, is being wise with money, because when you’re able to give to God 10 percent of what you make, you’re a lot looser with what you have. You’re a lot less materialistic or you tend to love money a lot less. That’s what giving does. It opens up your heart and takes off the grip of money from your spirit, which is a very good thing. And I realize that’s one of the biggest reasons why God asks us to get back 10 percent, even though, honestly, God doesn’t need our money. He owns everything.

Sean: So that is one of the ways that I would say you should be wise with money, and then like with what Karlo said always be a student. Always want to learn more. Listen to podcasts, read books. What should you do with your money if you have excess what you do with it? Should you just let it sleep in a bank? Should you get life insurance? What kind of insurance should you get? Should you insure your car, you’re building your house if you’re going to invest? Which one will suit you best? Which one do you know more of? Is it real estate or whatever? Always be a learner and then any big investment you’re going to make, pray about it. Ask your spouse as well if you’re married.

Sean: How can one make big financial decisions?

Sean: I’ll go ahead. For me, if you have a big financial decision, if you’re married, ask your spouse. She or he owns 50 percent of the decision, and then pray about it. If it’s a big financial decision – you’re going to purchase a house, you’re going to purchase land. You’re going to purchase a car, a vehicle, truck, or whatever. Pray about it and then make the decision after that. Also, make sure that you’re not going to that you can pay right. If you’re going to ever go to loan the money from the bank, make sure you could pay it off in the number of years that you intend to pay it off.

Karlo: Just to add, and maybe you can have your due diligence before buying a particular property because the cost is not that small. And it’s a big financial decision for your family, conduct some due diligence. What are the documents needed? How much is your budget? Also, set a timeline? Usually, when it comes to big decisions, you cannot decide overnight. So maybe you can set three months, six months or even a year before deciding. Of course, you need to consult your spouse. And if you’re not yet married, maybe you can consult your parents or someone you’re accountable with. So you got to really think about it and also research about it before making the decision.

Sean: That’s right, 100 percent.

Sean: From Jerome, what do you do if you feel uninspired or demotivated to carry on?

Sean: I list down 20 things I’m thankful for and I would thank God for them out loud. That always gets me going. How about you, Karlo?

Karlo: Yeah, that’s true. I agree with what you mentioned Sean because I love this principle. It’s about thanks-living. It’s about being grateful and counting all the blessings that you have right now. And of course, going back with your ‘why’ in your life. ‘Why’ you are doing things that you’re doing because you want to help your family, you want to bless the community. So I always go out with my own desire and whenever I look at the people around I become motivated. Though, sometimes it’s okay not to be oka,y because there will be down moments. But as long as you have people around you, and your families around you, you can be motivated again. And so like what Sean mentioned, you need to always count your blessings.

Sean: Yeah. Motion before emotion, right? Action before inspiration. Make sure you act first. So list down those 20 things, I’m sure you could think of 20 things right now. I’m thankful that I’m alive. I’m breathing. I’m not sick. My family’s not sick. I have a roof over my head. So there are so many things to be thankful for. When you remember those things, you feel a lot better. You feel a lot more motivated to do stuff, that for me, always works, and I hope that works for you as well.

Sean: Mitch is here as well. Watched a lot of interviews on Karlo’s channel. Thanks, Mitch, for that. Your following and following stuff around there and she has a question – can you tell us the story of how you started your podcast or YouTube channel? That’s for you.

Karlo: Oh, that’s a good question. Actually, I started it last year, and my motivation behind it is to really add value. First off, to my clients because as a financial planner during the pandemic, we need to adapt also to the new normal so we cannot meet them anymore in person. But eventually, it evolved more than just adding value to my clients, it expanded to our countrymen because I want to educate Filipinos more about personal finance and of course, about business. That’s why I asked Sean Si also to be one of my guests.

Karlo: And because of that, I became motivated even though I really started small. Actually right now, Sean, my subscribers on YouTube is around 500 plus, I think, and in the podcast, my total streams are not that high yet, it’s around 2000 plus streams. But because of my purpose, and because of my ‘why’ when I started the podcast. It gives me motivation. As long as there’s one person listening in my podcast, I will keep on doing it. A backstory I want to share, I was so frustrated reporter, because my ideal course to take up in college was mass communication, but rather I took a business course in college. So because of the podcasting platform, I realized that it can be an avenue for me to practice my frustrations while adding value to others of course.

Sean: That’s good, and yeah, that’s a very good attitude to have, that you will continue doing it as long as there is one person listening. You know this AMA when we started the AMA, there’s not a lot of people tuning in live. We get like three, five, six people tuning in live. And that’s it. And I talk to like, there’s like a hundred of them, and that’s because you have to have a vision. Someday maybe I’ll have 100 people tuning in life and someday maybe we’ll have, you know, 50000 downloads per day. That’s the vision, right?

Sean: You don’t have that, and I don’t have that now. I have 50000 starts, 50000 downloads, total since I started way back in July 2019 compared to others, that’s like nothing. But we’re not doing this for the numbers and we’re not doing this for money. We’re doing this to help other people. And if you have a purpose that’s bigger than numbers and money, you’re going to keep going.

Sean: I mean, this Thursday night live, we sacrifice one hour. Sometimes it’s two hours. And for what? You know, you and I, we’re not getting any money out of it. It’s really to help other people. Hopefully, they get value out of this, share it with others who get value out of this. That’s all we can hope for. So this is an episode I really enjoyed. Hey Karlo, thank you for being our guest tonight. I hope you enjoyed this episode as well and hope to see all of you next week. Take care everyone.