When Bill Bloom was a kid, he remembers his parents fighting about money – a lot. So much so that Bill vowed as he got older to take control of his spending and saving so he wouldn’t have to go through what his parents did.
“Your first education about money comes from your parents, whether you know it or not, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent,” Bloom said. “Our money habits really dictate where we end up later in life.”
Today, he is the founder of Bloom Financial Company in Chicago and host of the “Retire As You Desire” podcast. At the heart of what Bloom teaches is helping people develop an awareness of where their money goes and then developing a plan to help them achieve their financial goals.
Bloom is about to release a financial planning app called Diane Money in memory of his mom. The app allows you to prioritize your goals, pay off your debts, and takes the guesswork out of the process
Bloom explains to host Mark Wright why it’s important to enjoy the journey toward financial independence. “It’s not about getting to a certain point,” he says. “It’s about enjoying the whole time and that whole path forward.”
Resources from the episode:
- Learn more about the Diane Money app and download it here.
- Follow the Diane Money app on Instagram at @dianemoneyapp.
- Learn more about Bloom Financial and how you can retire as you desire here.
- Listen to the “Retire As You Desire” podcast here.
- Connect with Bill Bloom on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Speakers: Bill Bloom and Mark Wright
BILL BLOOM 00:01
You have to enjoy the process of who you become during that time as well because once you start making changes and put more money away every month or stop spending so much every month on things you don’t need or pay off debt and save and invest for your future every month, that’s a powerful tool. It’s not about getting to that certain point, it’s about enjoying the whole time and that whole path forward.
MARK WRIGHT 00:31
This is the BEATS WORKING Show. We’re on a mission to redeem work: the word, the place, and the way. I’m your host, Mark Wright. Join us at winning the game of work. Welcome to BEATS WORKING, winning the game of work. This week on the show, rethinking your relationship with money. When Bill Bloom was a kid, he remembers his parents fighting over money a lot. So much so, Bill vowed as he got older to take control of his spending and saving so he wouldn’t have to go through what his parents did. Bill is the founder of Bloom Financial Services in Chicago. He’s also host of the Retire As You Desire podcast. At the heart of what Bill teaches is really becoming aware of where your money goes each month. He’s about to release a financial planning app called Diane Money in memory of his mom. The app allows you to prioritize your goals, pay off your debts, and start making your financial dreams come true. I discovered talking about money is where we all have to start if we want to change our relationship with it. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Bill Bloom. Bill Bloom, welcome to the BEATS WORKING podcast. It’s so good to have you on the show.
BILL BLOOM 01:49
Mark, it’s great to connect again. Thanks for having me here.
MARK WRIGHT 01:52
So, this is going to be a fun hour. Um, we’re going to be talking about financial empowerment in the age of apps and AI and all kinds of cool stuff like that. So this is, this is something that I’ve had an interest in for a long time and it’s also something that’s given me sort of a stomachache for a long time and that is financial planning. So, I’m so glad that you’re here, Bill, to share your wisdom with us.
BILL BLOOM 02:16
Yeah, financial planning is such a hard thing to actually embrace. There’s just so many moving parts and with Amazon and Netflix and all these things, it makes it so easy just to spend money rather than actually have a plan to have it work for you. Seen it a million times. I’ve been there, done that. I mean, I’m still working on it. I’ve been doing this for over a decade. So there’s a lot of work to be, to be had, that’s for sure.
MARK WRIGHT 02:42
So, Bill, your superpower is giving people hope that they can have what they want. I think that’s, I think that’s really the American dream, isn’t it? But why is it that financial planning is so hard for all of us? Um, it just seems like we don’t want to think about it, and we don’t take the necessary actions that will take us to that goal. How come that is?
BILL BLOOM 03:05
Well, it’s hard to do the work. First and foremost, people don’t want to do the work. I mean, I’ve seen that time and time again. You have to put in the work to get ahead and understand where things are going. You know, number two, this is the biggest one. We’re not educated at an early age. Like we’re forced to memorize states and capitals and all these other things that have no meaning to us that we don’t use. But we have no information about money. None. A big fat zero. I mean, I went through four years of university, I double majored in four years, I played soccer all four years, and I literally used very, very little to none of my education. So, it’s all an education standpoint, but the cool thing is, because of podcasts like this one, and YouTube, all the information is free. I mean, you could literally buy a $10 book, and it can make you a multi, multi-millionaire. So, it’s just little things you have to put in the work. You have to read the book, watch the video, listen to your podcast. Little things like that. It’s all little things. They all add up.
MARK WRIGHT 04:15
So, Bill, how come our education system isn’t designed. Well, I, I guess I’m going to answer my own question, but I mean, we, we still take three months off in the summer so that kids can go home and help gather the crops with their parents. Um, but you know, I’ve done some work with Junior Achievement over the years and that’s a financial literacy organization. But it’s like all this stuff that really makes a difference in our lives. Understanding mortgages, understanding compound interest, you know, understanding 401ks, how to save for the future. How come schools aren’t positioned better to help our kids and to help us get a financially secure future.
BILL BLOOM 04:53
Well, it’s interesting. You look at the teachers, they are some of the most underpaid people on the planet. I have the most empathy. I have all of the, you know, respect for them and they’re teaching things that they’re told to teach. I don’t know how much free will or free reign they have with their curriculum. So there, in and of itself, if it’s not in the curriculum, and they’re not free to teach what they want to, how are kids supposed to learn? I mean, yes, you can learn math and geometry, all these things you don’t really use. I mean, you have a calculator on your phone, there’s 10-year-olds, 8-year-olds, who have a cell phone, and they can do math on their phone. So, the thing about mortgages and the thing about car loans and all these other aspects of finance and compound interest, it’s all tied up into the American Dream. But the American Dream is what? Go to college, that means going into bad debt, right? Student loans, you’re getting 6, 7% interest, so that’s terrible debt. Mine was $54,000 coming out of college. So, I had to pay those off, and I paid them off in three years. But that’s bad debt. If I would have taken that 54,000 and invested it, I would, I mean, that would be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars today. So, in and of itself, they’re putting you into bad debt. Part of the American dream, go to college, where you don’t really need to anymore. The next step, let’s buy a house. That’s debt. Go buy a car. That’s debt. So, they’re teaching you to go into bad debt to keep you working so that you’re dependent on a job. And they don’t want you, and I don’t know who these they are, you know what I mean? I said that terribly, but there’s powers that be that want to keep you in debt, so you show up to work on time, you do your job, you work the extra hours at night, you’re always on call, and you have to do this in order to pay your bills. And it doesn’t teach us anything about how to think freely and how to think for ourselves.
MARK WRIGHT 07:10
So, what I’m hearing also, Bill, is that, you know, we live in a consumer economy. So, like what 75% of our GDP is based on people spending money on cars and stuff like that. So, there’s a real incentive to not plan as well as we should and to spend every last penny that we earn, right?
BILL BLOOM 07:26
Well, it’s cool to have stuff until it isn’t when you can’t. You can’t afford to go to a restaurant, or you get laid off and you have no savings. There’s always issues with that. You know, Nick Peterson, I just read his book, it’s called Bumpers, excuse me. And he said something that was super cool. It was really prolific to me. So I’m not going to take credit for this. But you look at New Year’s resolutions. You don’t get a fresh start. January 1 comes around. You still have a body of evidence showing you for the past however many years since you came out of college that, you know, your income’s not great, or maybe your income is great, but you have no savings, or you barely save for retirement. There is a body of evidence that shows you where you’re at, and your bank account reflects that, your investments reflect that, and your time, they all reflect that, for what you’re actually doing. So, you have to ask yourself, Is it worth buying the stuff, or is it worth buying into investing into yourself, which is a much better investment. Because you can have a closet full of clothes and shoes and all this crap that you don’t need, to where as you can buy that 10 book that can change your life. Again, it goes back to little things. You need to elevate your floor. It’s not about okay, I need a mass overhaul. If you could literally understand those two to three things that you’re doing very poorly, whether it’s daily, monthly, annually, it’s all about keeping track of your time. And I preach this all the time, you have to keep track of your money. If you don’t understand where your money is going, how in the world are you supposed to get ahead and reach your goals? It’s pretty hard.
MARK WRIGHT 09:19
Yeah. So, we’re going to talk about the app that you’ve designed called Diane Money in memory of your mom. But I want to go back in time because I think, I think your, the story of your life, Bill, is such an intriguing one in terms of where you got the motivation to do what you do for your life’s work. You say that, uh, when you were a kid, you came from a very loving home, but your parents often argued about money, and they struggled with money, and that had a really big impact on you. Take me back to that time when you were a kid, and tell me what that was like.
BILL BLOOM 09:50
Oh boy, we’re going to go deep here, so I remember being six and seven, a really young kid, and my parents would always argue about, is mortgage paid? How late are we? We’re six months late. Are we going to have a roof over our head? And I’m a kid and I’m sitting here thinking like, what the heck is going on? This shouldn’t be this hard. And again, I have no concept of money and how it works, but from a relationship standpoint, being so young, I realize that life shouldn’t be this way. And again, the American dream, but let’s buy all this stuff, let’s have a house. We need to get a second mortgage because that’s what everyone’s doing. It’s just, it was really difficult to see my parents struggle, and that really ruined their relationship for many, many, many years. If you can’t get your money right, it’s hard to get everything else in order. So those painful moments really came to fruition through high school because my dad wasn’t working, had no job, and mom had to work two jobs just to get the lights on. It, it was just completely unnecessary and it taught me a couple things. And it really came down to what’s important. Is it more important to have a roof over your head or buy this thing that you don’t need? Just something simple like that. And asking yourself a question before you do anything, whether it’s spend money, you know, say yes to a dinner or a trip. Like, is this me living my best self? Is this me doing the best things that I can with my time? And if the answer’s no, you really need to reassess that. And I learned these things at a very young age, because I saw what not to do. You know, they weren’t businesspeople, they were just trying to get by, and I never just want to get by. And now my wife and I have two kids, we’ve been blessed, but, you know, I’ve worked for it. We’ve worked for it. And if you don’t put in the hours, it’s really hard to see the results. You have to put in the work. And that’s why I created Diane Money, to help people get ahead and figure out those little things and really raise their baseline, like what Nick Peterson says, you have to figure out those couple little miscellaneous things that are hurting you, and that’s what Diane Money does for you.
MARK WRIGHT 12:20
Well, let’s jump in and talk about Diane Money. It’s an app that you’ve created. And, uh, the more that I’ve learned about it, the more it just sounds like a fantastic tool because it harnesses the power of AI to figure out where our money is going and what we’re doing with our finances. So, break down for, for our listening audience, Bill, what, what Diane Money is and, and how you came up with the idea.
BILL BLOOM 12:44
So, Diane Money is a smart-thinking financial app. It’s going to, every single month, analyze your spending for you. So, it’s going to show you those 3 to 4 things that you’re doing every month to try and eliminate, and that goes back to raising your baseline. If you can get rid of those 2 to 3 or 4 things every month that are not helping you, think about what you can do with all that newfound money. Because you’re going to reallocate those funds into things to help you get out of debt, pay off those student loans, pay off those credit cards that are at 30% interest. That’s what Diane Money is going to do for you, and you, the user, this is the fun part, you get to set a goal. So, let’s say if you wanted to pay off your credit card debt in two years, because you have no idea how to get out of credit card debt. Diane Money, Diane was my mom’s name, so this is named after her. You know, she is going to do the thinking for you. She is going to analyze what you can be doing every single month to pay off your credit cards even faster. So, it’s going to analyze and do the thinking and do all the math for you. So, it really takes those guesses and stresses out of your financial life and just give you the roadmap every single month to show you what you need to do to get ahead, and it’s all based on you. It’s not based on anyone else. It’s based on your goals. And that’s the way life should be.
MARK WRIGHT 14:16
And it uses Plaid, which is a financial platform that links accounts and can do all the, the connections of all your accounts. So, it’s not like we have to take notes and then bring you a shoebox full of receipts at the end of the year. Have you sort that out?
BILL BLOOM 14:30
Oh, Mark, that would be a nightmare. Um, but plaid, I mean, they use 256-bit encryption when you connect your bank accounts, or your credit card accounts or your debt into our technology. So, there’s a huge encryption firewall there, which is really important and that’s, what gives us the confidence to really look at your individual financial situation to really analyze what could be done better for you because who doesn’t want simple financial advice that breaks it down in one or two steps every month. I mean, most people cannot figure out what’s the first thing they should do. And I think that’s part of the issue too. If you have all these lines of debt, or if you have all these aspirations and goals, what should you tackle first? And with me being in the financial world since 2008 of all years to start. You know, a big financial crisis, you have to break it down into first, second, third, cause that, that’s what’s going to give you your roadmap and a navigational tool to get to great places. So that’s really cool. Really, really cool and why the app is different and the whole AI portion is a smart thinking computers and the algorithms that we use. Because if you don’t know how to figure these things out yourself, just like we weren’t educated on how to do this back in the day. I mean, you could learn now, even as an adult, I mean, there’s 40- and 50-year-olds who have been on the platform. So, it’s not just for 20-year-olds who can’t figure out money. It’s for a lot of different generations. So, it’s pretty universal actually.
MARK WRIGHT 16:10
Hmm. That’s, that’s such an intriguing concept because the way the system is designed right now, when I get my credit card statement every month, they don’t tell me how much in interest I’m paying.
BILL BLOOM 16:21
Why do you think that is?
MARK WRIGHT 16:23
Yeah, they don’t want me to know. And so, all they tell me is, here’s the minimum payment that you need to make. And you could have, you know, I’ve been spending a lot on home improvements and paying it off. But they don’t want you to pay it off because it’s like, you know, you could pay us $111 and that’s the minimum payment but it’s just crazy. It’s just not designed uh, for the consumer. It’s designed to make those companies tons of money. So, and also, Bill, I think something that you touched on is that a lot of people, I think, have this idea that, well, if I just get the house paid off, then I can work on that other stuff. But like in my case, I refinanced it, like, 2.75% on a 15-year mortgage. And it’s like, at 2% something interest, that’d be stupid to pay off the house, wouldn’t it?
BILL BLOOM 17:15
Well, it depends on your goals. I, I, I’m gonna give you like what I do because we bought a house, it was for like 850,000. That’s, it was 2001. It, our mortgage is 2.75% and we owe like 430,000 on it. So I could write a check right now and pay that off. But I talked to my wife, why don’t we try and do something different with this money because for you, for what you just said, I think there’s better uses for that money. I have another dear friend who’s very religious, we grew up together. He believes in the Bible and the Bible says have no debts. So, he paid his house off. Because that’s what the Bible says. God bless, right? I mean, I, you have to have your own moral compass to show you your path. And for him, that’s what it was. For him and his wife. I said, God bless. I don’t agree with it, but I think you should maybe do it in a different way. And even interest rates are higher right now. You know, we’re the middle of 2023 interest rates are pretty high right now. So, you can make more interest on that money than what your interest is on your mortgage. So that’s even a better use of your money depending on where you put it. So, understanding how money could work for you is one of the most important tools to understand and learn for your own financial future. It’s just, what are the bad things you’re doing? Try and get rid of them. Ask yourself, am I living, you know, the most important aspects of my life through my actions? Am I making my life better? And am I utilizing the most opportunity with my money? Those little aspects are so important.
MARK WRIGHT 19:10
And then incremental action over time really is, is the most amazing part, right?
BILL BLOOM 19:16
Oh yeah. It’s the only thing that truly matters is those day-to-day activities. It’s the hardest part to change too.
MARK WRIGHT 19:25
Yeah, it is. It is. Um, you know, I’m super inspired by my in laws. They both were school teachers for their entire careers. And what I’m so impressed the thing that they were very diligent over the years to make sure that they set aside money every month to put into their investments and, uh, and you know, teachers have pensions still and pensions are kind of rare these days. But what they really did is they just were very smart about taking control from an early stage. And they, as school teachers, were able to retire in their 60s and are living the most amazing life now. They’re traveling, they have amazing freedom, and they did it on, you know, like you said, school teachers don’t make very much money compared to other industries, and I just think that it’s such a beautiful example that you don’t have to make tons of money to make your money work for you, right?
BILL BLOOM 20:22
Yeah, you don’t need to. It’s not about making a million dollars a year. It’s about how do you maximize what you’re currently doing to make your life better. It’s all about that, and here’s another big trap that I’ve seen so many people fall into, and I’ve been guilty of this. I want to be very clear, like, this really plagued me when I started my career because I always thought, man, I want to make a million dollars a year. I want to make a million dollars. And why am I not doing it? I just had this big lofty goal. I never broke it down into smaller steps, just like your money. But, you have to enjoy the process of who you become during that time as well because once you start making changes and put more money away every month or stop spending so much every month on things you don’t need or pay off debt and save and invest for your future every month, that’s a powerful tool. It’s not about getting to that whole time and that whole path forward. Don’t miss out. Don’t be mad. Don’t be sad. Don’t be depressed on things you don’t have because it’s not about having things. I mean, if you’re 90 years old and if you’re on your deathbed, you’re not going to care if you bought that watch. You’re not going to remember those pair of shoes. They’re all a waste. You’re going to remember the memories with the loved ones in your life. So, it’s not about things, mitigate that. Um, just enjoy the ride. Really enjoy it and try and get rid of that bad debt because that stress kills. It really has a bad impact on people’s lives and their relationships. If you can manage that, you can do anything you could really, if you can figure that out, you can do anything you want with your life.
MARK WRIGHT 22:07
Bill, how important is it to understand our relationship to money? Because I think if we’re really honest with ourselves, some of us spend money when we’re stressed, some of us, spend money when we’re depressed and want to feel better about getting something. Um, money has a really interesting psychological relationship to each of us, doesn’t it?
BILL BLOOM 22:28
It does. I mean, I’m the worst at spending when I’m stressed. Because it’s like a relaxation thing, or, uh, Dopamine head, right? That’s what they call it. And I know my relationship because I’m so aware of it now that I’ve paid attention to it. But I’ve also had probably thousands of conversations throughout the years about money with people on a one to one or a one to two basis or a family, like working with the whole family. So, I’ve seen so much and that’s why I built Diane Money because it’s like the missing tool in the financial industry. But the relationship is so crucial. If you have a very scarce mindset, if you’re very scarce, you probably grew up that way. It’s probably a household thing. From a stress spending standpoint, that was my childhood, million percent. Like, I saw that growing up. I saw my mom do it. It was just not a great way to live, and I really curbed that appetite. I really, really did. I’m not perfect with it, but I, I really take it back to asking myself that question. Is this me living my best life before I do something big like that and not just make it a spontaneous purchase because there’s money in the bank. It’s not the purpose. But if you look at your childhood and how your parents actually acted around money, that’s going to be a big tell because those are your first aspects about money. You learned it from your parents or the people around you. So, you have to look back in order to look forward. That’s the big Dan Sullivan ism. You know, understanding how far you’ve come throughout your life. But if you really take it back to your childhood, if your parents spent all the time, you probably spend all the time. If you’re very scarce, because your parents might have been older, maybe they went through the depression, you know, you may not spend a lot of money. But you may not invest a lot of money to make more money. You just have it sitting in the bank account. Which, you know, is probably not the best thing to do all the time. So, there’s, there’s a huge variation, Mark, between all of these aspects. And that’s why, Diane, I wanted to create an assessment about your relationship with money. And then I realized no one’s gonna pay for that. No one wants to know the truth about that. That’s like a really deep dive into your own personal life. And that takes work and that takes time. And then the whole concept of, well, why don’t we just do the work for the user? And that’s where the light bulb went off, and that’s where the change came into play and started working towards it and, uh, getting very close. It’s very, very close, uh, to making it even bigger and better than what it already is. So exciting times right now.
MARK WRIGHT 25:24
That’s so cool, Bill, because I think the pain point really is the action, right? And if I, if I let you take over the action of, you know, paying this amount on this credit card or saving for that or whatever that that’s, then you take the stress and the, and the anxiety out of it because you’ve taken over, taken over where I, I’m not willing to step in uh, where I should.
BILL BLOOM 25:48
Totally. I mean, one of our beta users had three credit cards. One of them was, don’t quote me on the percentages completely, but one of them was like a 27, a 21, and a 15. They had change on it, like 15.75, but it’s arbitrary. And there were different amounts on all three cards. So, what we did is we showed them which one to pay off first, because we’re able to analyze the interest and what they would pay with the algorithms. It’s just doing math. We do the math for you and show them, pay off this one first, pay off this one second, pay off this one third, in larger chunks because they had extra cash flow every month. And just with that planning, during the beta testing, they were able to pay off two of those credit cards so quickly. Because they changed the way they thought about them. And not just put 20 bucks on this one, 20 bucks on this one, 20 bucks on that one. They really prioritize, okay, here’s my goal, pay this off because that’s what the math told them to do. And it’s just showing them a much more efficient path towards financial freedom. Because if you don’t have debt, all your income is gravy. Then you can invest, then you can put money away, then you can save. Go on more vacations. Vacationing is fun. We should all travel. But yeah, just getting rid of that bad debt is crucial.
MARK WRIGHT 27:18
So, Bill, you’ve been in the financial services industry, as you said, since 2008, right out of college. I’d love to get your perspective on that industry because the way that industry is structured, it’s really hard for the consumer to understand. Am I being charged 1%? of everything that, that, uh, you know, I have in assets this year. Is it fee based? Which one’s better? Um, is it, is it based on the types of products that the financial advisor, uh, sells us? That industry is, it seems like part of the problem. Because they don’t have to do much to make a ton of money because if you’re just getting 1% for managing my money, whether you make me money or not, it’s, there’s no incentive, right? So, I would love, I would love your perspective as someone who spent time inside that industry, um, to break that down.
BILL BLOOM 28:08
Yeah. And still am part of the industry, mind you. I mean, I still have my other company and I, I do financial, right? Absolutely. So how do I want to phrase this? If you think about all the different tools and features and products and types of investments that financial advisors have in their belt per se. There’s so much out there. There’s 50, 000 mutual funds and privately held funds that you could have access to. There’s so many different types of investments. There’s so much noise around it too. Um, you know, from an advice standpoint, I would like to give advice for what users should look for in a financial advisor if I’m going to reframe the question a little bit and what to avoid um because I think that’s a good way to look at it. There’s just too much confusion just like financials and money as a whole. We’re not educated on this. So, we want to hire a professional. When we did our will and trust believe me, we didn’t do it. We had my friend do it. Just like when we go to the dentist, I don’t do my teeth our dentist does. They’re incredible. But not every dentist is good, not every lawyer is good, and not every financial advisor is good, too. So, here’s what we want to look out for. You want to look out for people who work for just one company, and they don’t offer you multiple companies’ investments. So, if you work for a company, um, ABC, and they only offer you ABC investments, and they don’t offer you any other companies, it’s probably not a good thing for you. That’s part of the issue and there’s a lot of companies or insurance companies like that. You need to have different types of offers. That’s a great thing. Um, we’re very transparent with all of our costs on our statements that shows all of the costs to the user and to the client so that they know what they’re paying for. And there needs to be communication around that. And you need to tell your advisor how often you want to be communicated with. That’s up to you. You need to communicate that because on the other side of the table we don’t always know. It’s okay to pick up the phone and tell someone if you’re happy or unhappy. Because it’s your money at the end of the day. Pick up the phone. Don’t be afraid. Just because they may know more than you doesn’t mean it’s right. All right? Always feel free to pick up the phone, make the phone call, ask the questions. I love questions. Questions are always good. And then there’s commission, fee based, and um, investment advisory fees. So, it’s not easy, Mark, to make a lot of money. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of people, and it takes a lot of years and trust to build that up. Um, when I started my career, it was at Prudential, and only about 5% of advisors stayed between years 1 and 5. So there’s a 95% attrition right there. Huge! So, most people don’t even make it past 5 years. You have to do the work. Common theme here, right? Do the work. It just takes time to build up that book of business and get trust, and you have to have a long-term mentality just to be in the business and to invest because when the markets are down 20 or 30 percent, it’s probably, probably better to do nothing or to invest more at that time rather than to, oh, get me out, because then you miss. You’re guessing. And if you’re working with an advisor who’s trying to get you in and out, up and down and all around every other week, I think that’s a red flag. That’s just my opinion. I would stay away from people like that. Because they’re trying to pick the hottest stock. And what are the odds of that? Probably pretty small. So, you’re better off having a longer term, more, um, more consistent approach to your money. Um, then just trying to work with someone thinking they’re hot stuff and trying to buy you the hottest thing every other week doesn’t work like that. So slow and steady is not necessarily a bad thing.
MARK WRIGHT 32:30
I heard you on another podcast Bill say that, uh, um, you want to help people become financially secure, but you also want to help them find their purpose. Um, why is that? Why is that important in your mind?
BILL BLOOM 32:42
Purpose drives everything? It drives everything in your life. If, if you have something to work towards, if you really have something to look forward to every single day, then the money doesn’t matter because you’re doing what you love. It could be being in the garden eight hours a day. I have clients who love knitting. I have clients who love classic cars and they spend all their time in money.
MARK WRIGHT 33:11
I’m just imagining the knitting client sending you a nice stocking cap for Christmas.
BILL BLOOM 33:17
You know, I haven’t gotten one actually. We don’t get a lot of gifts, and that’s okay. That’s not something that I’m there for. The gift is just me being happy, being able to provide that service for the people. And, um, yeah, if you understand your purpose in life, that really can direct everything else for what you do. So, talking about raising the bar, raising your floor. Are you doing the things that give you your purpose? And if the answer is no, you need to reconfigure your life. Again, it’s gonna take work, but it’s very hard to enjoy your life if you’re not doing the things you’re meant to do. And I really just want people to be really in their unique abilities and being with the people who they love because their relationships are the most important thing, especially once you get towards your older years in life. If you don’t have them, it’s really hard to be happy. It’s really hard to be happy.
MARK WRIGHT 34:17
Yeah, it just seems like, you know, when we think about the things that really make us happy in life, I don’t really very often think about money. Um, it’s, it’s a lot of the stuff that doesn’t take a lot of money that really is, is the good stuff. So, like, we, we hear a lot about the concept of having an abundance mindset. Um, that term gets thrown around a lot. And when you talked about scarcity earlier, I really, that really hit home with me. I remember, you know, as a kid, we were, we were really poor as, as a kid. I didn’t, I didn’t know how poor we were at the time because my parents were pretty good about finding a way to get food on the table. Um, but I definitely was shaped by that scarcity mindset because, you know, as kids we were in grade school working for my uncles on the farm. Just to get enough money for school clothes in the fall and shoes and stuff like that. But when we talk about abundance mindset, I’d love for you to give your perspective on that. What does that mean to you, Bill, and how important is that to financial success?
BILL BLOOM 35:20
How important is that? If you think negatively all day, it’s really hard to have your money be positive. Because it’s probably not in the right places and it’s probably not going in the right direction. I mean, my household was very negative growing up, and scarce. The one book from Robert Kiyosaki, you know, How Can I Afford This? Not saying I can’t afford this. That stuck with me. I read that in college. And oh my god, was that true. If you think you could save a million dollars, you’re halfway there. You have to believe it first. If you think you can get a million users on your platform, you’re halfway there. And you don’t quit. Remember, you’re in control of your time. And you are the one setting up the time frames. So, if you don’t hit the goal within a month or a week or a year, you’re probably not giving yourself enough time and not understanding that things will take a lot more time than you think to get there. You’re going to have issues, there’s going to be struggles. But during that whole process, you know, there’s going to be blessings and opportunities and you have to seize them. And having that mindset truly can be your north, your north star Mark to get you out of a crappy situation or being poor. and it’s probably the people around you who are keeping you poor and having that bad mindset. So, instead of going out to the bar Friday, Saturday night, stay home and read a book. If your friends are negative, it’s time to find new friends. It’s little things like that that are hard to do. It’s okay to fire friends. It’s okay to say, you know what, I’m going to spend six months to focus on me. I’ve done so many times and I’ve pissed so many people off. Um, and I didn’t feel bad about it. If they were truly my friend, they would want to root for me and say, go spend that six months. Be awesome. Can’t wait to talk to you in six months. They don’t think of it like that because they’re looking internally for themselves. They’re not meant to be in your life anyways.
MARK WRIGHT 37:46
You talked about Dan Sullivan earlier, Bill. Can, can I ask what your relationship is with Dan, and I’ve heard you talk on other podcasts about the impact that Dan has had on, on your thinking and your your business ideas. So, if you’re comfortable, I’d love to maybe give some love to Dan.
BILL BLOOM 38:05
Yeah, so Dan Sullivan, Bev Smith. They are the creators of Strategic Coach. I Joined Strategic Coach in 2014 when I started my first company. And that was like an 8,000 investment for me at the time, which was a lot of money because I netted, netted 24,000 of revenue my first year. Think about that. Like I was, I was on the struggle bus. It was a really difficult time, but the people at Strategic Coach are just some of the most fantastic people on the planet, not only from a community standpoint, um, it’s just, they really help me get out of my own way and realize how to grow and build a self-managing company and realize you’re never going to do everything yourself, so stop trying to do everything yourself. And they help me focus on free days. A free day is where you spend 24 hours, you don’t check your work email. You don’t do anything. Like this Wednesday, I’m going to take a free day. Middle of the week. I can do that because I have systems set up and teams set up who handle the work. I just don’t need to be in the office every single day. And Dan and Babs, you know, my wife and I have been blessed to spend a little bit of free time with them outside of coaching. Have dinner and just see them and see them as themselves. In a different light, and Dan is just one of the most interesting people on the planet. He really is and being in that 10X room with him and him actually coaching. I mean, the Diane Money concept came in a 10X session in Strategic Coach, like in the workshop with Dan.
MARK WRIGHT 40:02
And what is 10X session? What is that Bill?
BILL BLOOM 40:05
It’s just a different level. Um, that they offer Mark at Strategic Coach. They have three different levels there. And I, I can’t say enough about it. It’s really been the best investment I’ve made besides asking my wife out on a date after meeting her for 15 minutes. It’s like, okay, we’re going out to dinner next weekend. I knew I was in trouble, man. I was in so much trouble, but it was there, went for it, still married, happily married. So, um, but it taught me to really have confidence in myself, follow my own intuition and you got to go for it. If you don’t take action, you’re going to end up in the same place next year, and then the year after that, and it’s going to be a lot worse because that, that stress compounds over time. So, you got to take action.
MARK WRIGHT 40:53
Well, Bill, before we wrap things up, I’d love for you to give some some advice to two different groups. I’m thinking a 20 something just starting their career. Give them some advice. And then I’m also thinking about that 50 something or 60 something person who maybe didn’t do the best job of managing money, but, you know, maybe feeling is it too late to make a difference in my finances. So, I’ll set you loose on those two groups.
BILL BLOOM 41:20
All right, cool. Let’s start with the 20-year-olds first. If you’re in your 20s, try and get rid of your bad debt first. That’s number one. Like your student loans, you’re paying a ton of interest, it’s gonna hurt you long term. This whole forgiveness program is probably nonsense from a student loan standpoint. Remember, yeah, you don’t have to make payments on it, but your interest is occurring. You’re getting screwed that way. You need to pay off that debt in the most efficient way and fastest way possible. And then, utilize the tools that are available. Again, not going out to the bars on the weekend. Read a book. Because if you do those little things now, you’re going to have the rest of your life to go out if you do things right. You have time. Utilize it. And take care of your health. That’s the one thing that 20-year-olds, they’re young, they think they’re invincible, start reading about your health. Follow like a David Sinclair, like the Andrew Hubermans of the world, understand how medicine works. There are things that you could take and enhance your life or your own longevity because if we’re going to be living to 120, 150, which is not out of the question, it’s not going to be out of the question because of these technologies available, you’re going to have to get your money right. Because how in the world are you going to live to a past a hundred and still have your health and not have your money? So that’s a big aspect, big, big aspect your health and your wealth. They’re inseparable. They’re married together. So, focus on those two things and lastly, understand the taxation on your investment. Is it worth the small tax break now to have taxable money later? I would say no. I like doing things in a tax-free way and the Roth aspect of things. If you’re just going to do a 401k, if that’s what you’re comfortable with, look at, um, the Roth aspect of, side of things, because that way you could potentially get tax free money later instead of taxable. That could really help you out, really help you out. And then the 50-year-olds, these are the people who I work with on a day-to-day basis. So, I know this inside out because those are the people who I love, love, love being a hero to Mark. It’s just how my brain works is figuring out their scenario. So, let’s say if you haven’t saved enough for retirement, if you’re behind, you started in your forties or in your late thirties and you feel like you’re behind, the one thing I would say is don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. Because the number one question I get asked, where am I compared to all your other clients? I go, it doesn’t matter where you’re at compared to them. And they look at me like I’m crazy. I say, are you happy with your life? And they’ll say yes most of the time. Are you doing what you want to do? Yes. Do you have enough money to do that? Oh yeah. So, what difference does it make what whomever over here has? It doesn’t. Don’t play that game. That’s true for the 20-year-olds, for the 50-year-olds. It has no difference what someone else has. If you’re making yourself better, great investment, great investment. And then, going back to that, if you haven’t saved enough money, get rid of that bad debt too. Like, truly get rid of your mortgage, get rid of the credit card debt, the car payments, because the least amount of debt you have going into retirement if you want to retire someday, that’s important. Because then your social security or your pensions or income off of your investments could truly be all for you instead of having to pay someone. So, getting close to that, that time, if you have 50,000, 100,000 on your mortgage and your interest rate is 2.75%, those are the questions, you know, that you really need to think about and work with someone to analyze and have the math run to see what makes more sense for you because that’s a hard situation. What do you do here? Run into that all the time. Also, if you think you have saved enough, you know, don’t forget about your health in a way that you could set up plans. that could have funds available for you if you become ill, if you can’t feed yourself, if you can’t bathe yourself, if you can’t transport yourself. I mean, it’s that whole long term care aspect. I mean, 70, 70% of baby boomers are potentially going to need some form of care in their later life. So don’t forget about that in your 50s. If you could plan for that, there’s great ways to do it and there’s poor ways to do it in my opinion. But, I would say, think about that because if you get ill, who’s going to take care of you? The government doesn’t pay for that. That’s a big misconception. Especially if you have funds, you don’t want to spend everything down to, to rely on that because that could cause a big taxation problem as well later on in life. So, trying to plan for these things are very important. And then lastly, I know this is a long-winded answer, but I’m going to wrap this up here for you, Mark. Try and plan to have your income last to at least a hundred. And if you don’t know how to do this work with someone, hire someone. Even if you love doing the investments yourself, pay someone to put a plan together. Just pay someone the money. That way you’re not second guessing yourself. because that’s going to bring stress later on in life, too, when the markets are bad. So plan for your income to be to at least a hundred because we are living longer now.
BILL BLOOM 47:26
Great advice, Bill. Um, I’d love to wrap things up by talking about Diane Money, the app that is, uh, you’re, you’re working on. It’s going to come out in the fall. And as I look behind you, I see the icon of your mom, the artwork of your mom. I’d love to ask you, Bill, what, what would, what do you think your mom would think? Of the work that you’ve been doing, uh, and, and the app that’s named, named for her.
BILL BLOOM 47:51
Yeah, I mean, she’d probably shed a tear. I mean, she’s always said how proud, you know, she was of my brother and I. She was our number one fan. I mean, not the best with the funds and things like that. But, you know, she had a really rough time in the relationship with my dad and she would be she’s very happy and pleased to see that this is going to touch so many people’s lives in her memory because she’s not with us anymore. And that’s the driving factor is I grew up similar to you. I mean, we, there were, we always had food on our table, right? Like that was there, but so many other issues. It’s just, if we can eliminate that by understanding two to three little aspects of your life. and change them. The future is so bright for you. I mean, it’s there for you. And believe me, it’s been difficult at times doing this project and understanding tech and understanding the new language and all this code. I’m just like in over my head sometimes, but I have great people who are helping with that. And I think she would just be very happy, just really happy to see that I’m going for it. I’ve always done that in my life. I’ve always just gone for it, and it’s worth it. It’s worth the pain, it’s worth the struggle, it’s worth the headaches, the late nights, the early mornings, a ton of meetings. It’s going to be great when you hear the stories from the actual users and simplify their life. So, it’s not about me, it’s all about them. It’s really a fun plan and a fun process to be going through, so and I want to teach that for my kids. That’s the coolest part is that one and four right now, but they’re seeing daddy, you know, work and do the work and put the time in and, uh, it’s just a blessing all around. I mean, I wish she was still with us, but it’s just a blessing. It really, really is.
MARK WRIGHT 49:55
Well, our mission on the BEATS WORKING podcast is to redeem work. And it’s so clear how you’re redeeming work in the financial services industry Bill. That, uh, in creating an app that truly is going to make, uh, the lives of many, many people better. So, super inspired by you. Um, how can people stay in touch with you, Bill, if they want to connect?
BILL BLOOM 50:17
Yeah, it’s, uh, the best place to go is dianemoney.com. Everything is there. And, uh, you get to read about the story, see how the product works, see the features, and see how it can help you. So, Dian Money would be the best way to reach us.
MARK WRIGHT 50:33
Alright, well, it’s been a pleasure, Bill, to spend some time with you and, uh, just really appreciate, you know, how you show up in the world and, and the advice that you’re giving in the name of making life better for others. So what a, what an honor. Keep up the good work, man.
BILL BLOOM 50:47
Thank you, Mark. It was truly a blessing to be here. Thank you.
MARK WRIGHT 50:51
I’m Mark Wright. Thanks for listening to BEATS WORKING, part of the WORKP2P family. New episodes drop every Monday. And if you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Special thanks to show producer and web editor Tamar Medford. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear from our Contributors Corner and Sidekick Sessions. Join us next week for another episode of BEATS WORKING, where we are winning the game of work.
