Managing Your Personal Cashflow with Raymond Holt

00:00 In this episode of the Team Superdad podcast, Raymond Holt and I talk managing your personal cash flow how money affects your relationship and why Starbucks could bankrupt you. Roll theme! Welcome to Team Superdad Real dads creating their best lives ever more time more money more fun You are not alone. You're on team super dad Hey, it's Jonnie. Good morning good afternoon wherever you are Team Superdad friends family members all around the world is great to have you here on another yes another team super dad live as you know we are always bringing on people experts coaches guests

00:48 To speak about the F5 and that is focus, fitness finance family and fun. These are the core tenets of being a super dad not that you've got to be something extra special better than everyone else this is about the skills and abilities your values your love your laughter inside of you in the busy lives at Dad's Lead here we are today on International Men's Day so I'm really excited to be doing something positive and constructive for For all men, for all families and of course Team SuperDap members. All around the world as we like to say! And this subject has been something a bit of a personal challenge for me I remember my mates at uni took the piss out of me one day because i said... I wangled having like multiple bank accounts student overdrafts and all them and I remember one day saying

01:42 They always take the piss out of me because they're all scousers and northerners. And I went, I'm up to my limit in all my bloody accounts! And that became the phrase for when you had no money left. Right? I'm up to the limit in all my bloody accounts which basically meant I'd maxed out all the overdraft on all my accounts And so clearly that was a day for other people buying me beers. And now, 46, so that's some kind of 25 years later I'm just getting the hang of mastering my finances part of the Tears Of Freedom community and also on LinkedIn talking about Team Superdad

02:20 Sharing the word, inviting coaches and experts to come inside of The Hero Academy and be coaches provide modules and be coaches for you guys. Well That's how I met Raymond. And in just a second, I'm going to bring Raymond on he'll tell us all about what he does as a business coach and financial advisor meshing those two skills together to work with men to give them real values based approach to their family and their work. And guess what? Creating the life of their dreams which is exactly what we say at Team Superdad as well! So enjoy this without further ado let's bring Raymond in

03:03 Raymond. Hi Jonnie! How are you doing sir? Alright, how are you? Good I'm really good really really good it's International Men's Day so we're hanging out, who meant? When he mentioned it was like is it really cracking yeah God you got to shave your head by the way on international men's day yeah well there isn't much there anyway says fine We're both on that one involuntarily... involuntary yeah thats the word Yeah definitely It's also Movember. Have you ever done Movember? No, because being fairly light-haired to actually try and do it is really painful! You would be like week three and people go when are you starting Raymond?

03:52 Yeah, I grew up on once and I got called out on this the other day by a friend of mine and another awesome dad called Nick Barr. And he sat there with this stupid Mexican thing hanging down his face not that Mexicans... if you're Mexican and you're watching this no offense intended but obviously for us West's other European we were watching that and going like spaghetti Western moustache, you know? But here goes it's for charity! You know like what Just grow it again. And I said, I can't, it was so horrible you can't stop touching it! What would ever know this thing? Right. Horrible. The just...I could wax lyrical about the downsides of having a moustache for ages. It flows over as well into seeing people with beards because you know half the world's got to beard these days right

04:42 Is it really? They seem to be everywhere. Everywhere you go people seem to have a beard, I just think they look ridiculous! I've got friends who've got these big bushy things and i'm just like what are you doing?! Anyway we're not here to talk about facial hair, we're here to talk about money So how long have you been in the money business, Raymond? Will you introduce yourself to us. Tell us about your business and coaching practice and I'll start digging into some questions for you. Yeah well my business is Agnentis Partners. I've been doing it for about five-and-a-half years now but i've been a finance director involved with money for

05:24 25 years or so, primarily up until when I started my own business in industry managing money of lots of businesses but with lots of interaction with senior individuals around their personal finances and how what they were earning and not earning and how that was impacting on them professionally as well as personally. So I came out inside my own business just over five years ago To work with business owners about connecting family and business together, primarily through understanding their finances and understanding the connectivity between the two. And more so to create sustainability and as you talked about in terms of living life that people really want I think money tends to be if not the first it's certainly one of the top 2 or 3

06:17 Issues and real energy sappers for prevention of that kind of life that people want to lead. Yeah, and totally it's you know it's not that money is... Jim Rohn says money isn't everything but its right up there with breathing! Without it life's really hard and you need it And it's just, and it does make everything easier you know. Relationships that if you're in a loving relationship and then you hit financial hardship the stress and strain you start tapping into each others values that perhaps didn't know existed before

07:00 Resilience, despair, flipping blame. I'm just like back in the room type thing but it's important to have these perspectives. Like I say inside of Team Superdad, I'm not the expert in all these areas. I've experienced some of them. I'm on this journey with you but I think particularly on this International Men's Day, Make everyone clear that this is a shared experience, it's not a unique problem. Yes yes it isn't and thats what taps into such as drain people mental health alot as well I'm the only one can tell anyone yeah those kind of things so being part of community as well again Hero Academy and Team Superdad its just to be able have safe space to say

07:53 What's going on? And if anyone is watching, we have the bi-weekly Dad Call which is a free...listeners as well on the podcast. It's a free session on Monday nights 8pm UK time 2pm Eastern Time and any dad can come on there and we can have... We have a laugh but we also share problems when they come up so what I'm trying to work, we're going to try and piece this together a bit differently than some of the podcast episodes that people will be familiar with. Because we want actually do a little bit of advising, a bit of coaching inside of this if you've seen the title and it says managing your personal cash flow then thats kind of what were gonna talk about today but on the way into this probably good to talk about why people struggle with that and even like what the bloody hell is it because

08:48 Some business owners are going to be really clear about what a cash flow is. What is a cash flow please, Raymond? Well it is fundamentally a really simple way of tracking and controlling your cash. Your money so that you can actually see where you are today and record what you're going to spend moving forward. So you can actually track what cash you're going to have at any point in time. It's as simple

09:26 And that, well I say simple. It is in the main typically a simple Excel spreadsheet that enables you to record everything you spend. In fact i'm going to bring up...I've got a Team Superdad template. Well it's just... I think it's important when someone thinks about cash flow is it needs to work for the person who's using it. I think too often we get saying here's a template you must use it like this. Lego, the first time you get anything like a cash flow use it the way that is intended and then work out what works for you and how you want to manage how you think. A lot of you talked earlier about relationships and a lot about cash is actually mental and emotional. Money has mainly been emotional and mental as much as it is about numbers

10:21 Yeah, and that comes from attitudes we adopt in our childhood. We pick them up of our family. Yep yep and I think the easiest way to do some of this conversation is actually to make it personal so When I was the kind of teenager who, when all his friends were buying chips and everything else outside the fish and chip shop wasn't the one who was able to afford to buy a fish and chips. So my background with money is not very much always having just enough or maybe not enough

10:58 But never having more than enough. Yeah, all the way and those attitudes and beliefs about money do come with you into your... And I certainly did for me coming to my adult life with me. And it's then how they impact on my views of money as I've grown up and the impact that's had on, if you can imagine being a finance director and actually on my own personal finances? People, particularly in coaching circles and stuff and personal development. And we talk quite a lot about manifesting and law of attraction and things like that which I'm always conscious to tell people that's not some weird woo-woo thing it can be if you want to go on that side of it but actually on the other end of it is practical thought based goal setting and really starting to create people connections activities around you right? So but

11:55 A mindset of abundance versus a mindset of scarcity can really impact people's outlook. So what are some of the things that could be a telltale sign as someone who is stuck in scarcity or has got a glass ceiling on their finances? Well, the main ones which I typically notice when it actually comes to with the way you spend your money and The decisions that you make around how you spend your money. So for example, if you have a scarcity mindset and you've got £10,000 in the bank, how do you feel about the fact that well actually I don't want it to be less than £10,000? And the way I always talk to business owners or even when there's an industry talking to partners is was is that fear based or is it values based

12:49 As in, do I want to have enough money in the bank that means I can cover all my expenses for X number of months without having to worry? Like an emergency fund or a backup plan. Like an emergency fund and that's values-based. Or is it I had a bad experience in the past and therefore what I'm scared of is that I won't be able to replace the money that I lose And the way you, so when it comes to actually making decisions about money is kind of the question that you ask as much about what you ask yourself. As much as what you're asking am I looking at this and saying I don't want to spend this because i'm worried I won't get it back or actually I'd rather have three months worth of the emergency fund and that therefore becomes how I value based, value base well how much cash I need any point in time?

13:37 And might someone who was thinking about it as an emergency fund be quite satisfied that it's there and happily build on top of it? But someone who was scared in scarcity would kind of hold it tight, and almost not go out and add to it. Yes absolutely right! Absolutely, and I think that's a real man thing as well... It really is we my experience has been that the fear of losing what can be even more powerful than building on it and building and actually adding value to it. Right, because they wouldn't invest a grand... Let's say it was just a business and they're going to put some LinkedIn ads up and they wouldn't invest a grand in that or I guess coaching investing some additional knowledge and a community taking part in the mastermind so put you know investing some money to put yourself in an environment to succeed

14:40 As opposed to, I'm not going to risk it. I'm going to stay here but then you don't grow and then it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy where rather than expanding and moving forward you sort of contract and slide back? Yes that is exactly what it's like Wow And what cash flow should do is really good cash flows will give you enough sight moving forwards so you can actually with confidence The Jonnie Jensen Show, Jonnie Jensen, Raymond Holt

15:31 It's semantics really, but there is a distinction in cash flow you actually projecting and looking forward. So let's bring up the screen here and share it all. People won't be able to see this is not personal data by the way this just as a template for Team Superdad. But on here is the summary then you can see along the top it runs all the way long into March yeah and then on this tab I've got income The Some outgoings which are about managing debt, building an emergency fund and investments. Yes And underneath it's broken down into home expenses supermarket living car social life and holidays all of which provides a total you've got a total on the income in a total on the payments and that goes back into The summary and updates here so as you can see along the bottom closing cash flow at the moment because there's only this

16:37 £700 coming in each month, it's just going up. But if there was stuff coming in and out that would be going up and down And with some level of accuracy you could see how much money you're gonna have in March through the actions that your taking Through the actions that your taking and that is the key It's about decisions The cash flow is ultimately a decision Is the outcome of the decisions that you make So it's good is what it is, but ultimately comes down to what you decide to do. The way that you've shown that in terms of how its broken down... the first rule of good cash management is where your money goes. Okay, let's bring that back out on the show. Document exactly where every penny of your money goes

17:34 And that's payment details, so that's where money is going out. Yeah yeah the money going out before you even think about the money that you've got coming in ensure that you are really clear on where your money is going and to then what I encourage people to do is then go through and identify what value they get for that money that they spend. Now, value has multiple ways of looking at it. Paying your mortgage is one thing. For example paying for a Netflix subscription you might go well I don't know but if your children are watching that Netflix on a consistent basis and you are getting good family value from that money

18:18 Look at it through the lens of what do we get in the return for the money that we spend. If we're not getting a return or it's not the return that we need, stop it! That then gives you good foundations as to where you actually are. What you can then do is bring in the income that you're receiving and cash inflows coming in because if let's say you've got 5,000 coming in and 6,000 going out Once you've got yourself into a place where you know, we've basically taken the wheat from the chaff on your expenses. You can then prioritize what you're spending because you know the return you're going to get on that money you are spending and I think too often We don't start with the basics it's almost most... you talk about business owners and cash flow And reason why laugh is so many business owners manage their businesses to the money in the bank

19:18 So, have I got enough money to pay my salaries this month? They don't necessarily project it forward. They just look at the where am i today and a lot of... And that's the same with household planning yeah! A lot of is have I got the money in the bank today to be able to pay all the bills that I need rather than taking even just a short view forwards just to see how it has actually going to play out Well with this cash flow, because I've got my own ones is full up rather than that being empty. You can start to see how things tot up, how things increase over time and in particular if you're going to put Christmas in there and it's suddenly your monthly expenditure is not two grand its suddenly three grand like oh okay so I would... If it wasn't for Christmas I would have enough money in March

20:10 But as things stand, because of Christmas I'm not going to have enough money in March. Okay something's got to go yes in October so that I'm gonna be okay in March and that cash flow will see you'll be able to see ah I've took out Netflix and we're now okay uh do you ever watch that? It's not great TV but it is occasionally enjoyable the one where they go into people's houses and change what they eat Yes, yes I have. Well i know the program that you mean so yes. It's like change what it's called Change What You Eat or something like that but the other week

20:49 We're in the supermarket and it was classic. She hated cooking, so had basically given up he did the cooking but didn't really enjoy it so they were always eating the same thing. So there was a degree of unhappiness and unhealthyness around what they were eating yeah but worse than that Wow. And they both, and this is the interesting thing. This is why this point is relevant to this conversation. Neither of them had any idea. Yeah because we don't! We pay our credit cards every month we use our debit cards it's easy... No! ...We don't take the time to actually sit back and look at what we actually spend how many of us actually reconcile our bank accounts anymore or do we just go well I've got that much in the bank? We don't look back on what we spent yeah

22:03 What a lot of companies will rely on people not doing that I'm sure you know couple weeks ago parking ticket is actually in the bin now because i it's quite funny i appealed it cuz. It was outside my house and it's like I've got a permit, right? So I appealed it but then I freaked out that they were going to cause such a fuss. It was gonna take ages and I was gonna go over the date there's gonna be another double price so I just paid as I'll find pay and then uh... And then The Appeal came back and said oh we agree and see you don't have to pay it and I said Oh! I paid it but it wasn't until I looked at my bank statement a month later that I'd realized they hadn't refunded it

22:45 The Jonnie Jensen Show, Jonnie Jensen, Raymond Holt and being really clear about where money's going. Kids, if your kids ever bought something on their Xbox... This is so funny this happened to me a couple of Christmases ago so my boy got a Google Play voucher from Grandpa for 25 quid he then went on and built himself a team on his tablet on Dream Team £125 on players

23:22 And he, bless him. He was like seven and he goes I just didn't think it had run out because I just thought it was magic. I thought it's never ending. Your dream team team almost as much as your tablet. Hilarious! The funny thing is that I give him a pound of gold if he scores a goal in his football. So he scored 75 goals that season so he was... Wow cool So what about, why do people have reservations about cashflow? Like I've struggled with this. Right. I'm only just doing this in the last six months is part of my team super dad journey as part of the conversations with you conversations with the tears of freedom and other coaches. So like okay shit if like you look at success

24:14 Models of success, people who have been successful and they say oh yeah well we talk we manage our money. We keep fit like I get up early have a morning routine you know things that most of us struggle with why do people get so angsty about managing their finances and doing something as simple to cash flow? You said something at the beginning about relationships yeah Yeah And an expression i use when i'm coaching is relationships go the way money flows Also a twist on the where energy goes, no. Where attention goes energy flows that's the twist on that one. Yes and I think my experience around money has been when it's we don't want to sometimes we don't want to know

25:02 Right, and you say where relationships go money flows. Relationships go the way money flows yeah. Relationships go the way money flows okay cool so if your money's running down the drain guess what your relationship is going to follow it pretty soon after? Because how many of us don't talk about the fact that when we got worried when were challenged financially and I mean talking amongst ourselves forget about whether we talked with our partners or not right just talking amongst ourselves we don't but also our relationship with ourselves, with money. The moment we see that money is not working... So do we view money as success? Many of us do! Yeah yeah so not seeing the right amount of financial return and it's not success it is deemed to be failure

25:58 So our relationship with ourselves when we look at funds, so in some ways it's easier not to think about it than actually shine a light on it. When actually what you want to do is shine the light and then get the assistance you need with the position wherever you are and actually we might be in a good position but sometimes just easier not to know Well I think people that are cash rich probably struggle with that, where their business is going well and they've got a load of money flowing in but they just don't know where to spend it. No? No i think there's a real... so you're talking about energy and there's a real

26:39 I think there's a couple of principles which, I think, stay the same. Irrespective of the amount of money you have, they just change the baseline and something I talked about with another coach who I work with is about standards and extras so actually the more money you have maybe just the standard amount of money you spend on a monthly basis changes Now, if you are able to meet your standard expenditure every month it kind of is like a very neutral... emotionally quite neutral. Yeah I did what i'm supposed to do this month big tick right? If you actually add more in than what you're expected too so the standard bills was five thousand and I managed to bring six thousand you feel pretty good about it yeah? But when you're not able to meet the standards

27:33 The baseline, when you're not able to beat the baseline what happens to the energy level? How do you feel? You actually take...you regress right mentally and emotionally and energetically. You take a step backwards Yes yeah I can see that Is that going back to our fight or flight type primeval type stuff yet Yeah It's not going well, i can't take any risks, I've got to hunker down this is bad this is so good oh it's me And we've been, in many ways, experiencing quite a lot of that over this current period. Whereas you're actually saying it's about not... I would say to the owners themselves around their personal money is don't spend anything but take a view of what you've got and spend it and invest it appropriately so you might only have a fiver or you might have £5,000. It's not

28:26 The amount of money that's relevant is how you spend it, where you spend it. What return are you looking for from the money? And that's where the cash flow is helpful in a sense that if you only have an amount of money how do you deploy that to give you your best return and then comes back to what are my core standard expenditures I need on a monthly daily weekly basis first And actually that's confidence building on the basis that you're able to do, if you look like oh my god I don't know and actually sit down and you can actually come to a conclusion where the amount of money you have does actually meet your standards. At least that's as a fairly neutral position to be it's okay yeah but it takes a lot of courage to actually look at something and actually break it down knowing as we do that some of the things we are spending

29:24 The Jonnie Jensen Show, Jonnie Jensen, Raymond Holt Are you an example of the family, the husband and wife who were spending on food? Yeah. You're watching it going how do two people spend more in Starbucks and sandwich shops than they spend in a supermarket? And then you realise actually that's not that many if there are blooming coffees four quid like the grande with the cream and sprinkles and all that sort of stuff If its 4 quid ago

30:15 You've done 10 in a week, which is only two a day. One in the morning and one in the evening. I mean, that's the cake or whatever came with it! Then you bought a sandwich at lunch and didn't go to Boots and get a meal deal or something...you just went to Pret and bought the salad and soup and boom 12 quid! But its bit like one of your other videos was watching the other day which was around cooking? Yeah It's a mindset thing Yeah, it's easy to go and buy a ready-made meal. But actually you want to change the habits and by changing the habits one is healthier one is more financially beneficial secondly if you're cooking for your kids it's amazing right? And that's the same thing with do I get up in the morning and make a sandwich of

31:02 Something I would enjoy and buy it from the supermarket, buy the stuff from the supermarket and probably cost me about 30p a sandwich given that you can make with loaf of bread. Or do i go and spend six or seven quid in prep just getting... And because because you're working and then when you're working your urgency to get eating or if you're busy? It's a mindset thing of how do I set myself up to be successful with my money Yeah, and we're talking about little things here right so someone's going on that. It could be just the same if they've gone out and updated their mobile phone to the latest one and it costs 600 quid or they've been in updated their car and it cost them

31:45 What, 60 grand or something like that? The higher the income the bigger the price tag but the same problem, same challenge, the same risk I guess exists. Yes and that's one thing you talk about so it's also then about how you teach your children Yeah, the same because they watch us and how we spend money. And that's how so for example what we do with our children is if this if they've got birthday money or whatever they literally write it down It's in an envelope every time they spend something They write it down What they spent on it why they spent it until you get to the end of it? And when they go I want to spend something for 20 bucks where you've only got a fiver well no No

32:28 You had the choice, every way through spending your birthday money you have made the choice on what you wanted to spend it on. Yeah Yeah, put some of it away and you can have the rest of it for the disposable income for you. Right? But I've spent... well I've got one son who's um if I've got a fiver I'd like to spend 20 and I've got one son who's like I've got 20 quid and not spending any of it! Yeah my well especially they got an Xbox or something like that yes they blasted on the points. My rooster link, because I got the letter here. My kids have got Rooster accounts which having done the research...I like Rooster a lot cheaper than GoHenry and I love the app and how easy it is to manage everything in the kids can do as well so there on their

33:21 On their rooster account they can keep track of what money's been spent on a retailer or an online thing it says but if I, if they're out with me and they've asked for a picture in The range I can pay off their rooster and then they say, why did you debit this? It was for that bloody great big poster. And that's great! And that is when we go back to what he said in the beginning it does come back to our initial experiences with money everything it does come back to how we as children We're exposed to money or not and how when we were in that period, during that period of our life. How we felt about the money that we had on notes and how we bring those emotions and experiences into our adult life? Yeah

34:11 And tricky, it getting increasingly tricky because we're not playing with cash anymore. So kids are not going to actually feel their money. But I do like the idea that you know write it down in a book because any time you take a pen out and actually there's a different connection in your brain with writing something down and going back to that book and being able to see it. I quite like the idea of that to be able to see at the end of the year. I bet some couples are listening to this and going...I want you to do that! Well, what about... Okay. So it's okay great so we've talked about cash flow if people want the cash flow template that I've got you can simply comment template in the video here if you're watching this on a replay then great! I'll definitely pay attention to that If your watching this or listening to this in a few months time feel free to come over to the Team Superdad page or the group and just message me directly so you make sure that we actually saw that

35:08 Inside of the Hero Academy, we've got a whole module on cash flow managing it setting it up some skills and tricks on spotting where the holes are in the opportunities in there. So Hero Academy you can check that out at TeamSuperdive.com Let's move on now to Like managing our money so that we have more of it. So we've talked about like observing where we're wasting our money, but what about financial goals and how important they are? Because I'm well aware in my own situation not in a relationship at the moment but thinking to myself in the family or I guess now we want a bigger house

35:54 to go on a holiday, we want to make sure that we've got money for Christmas. How does someone who's not financially... how does someone plan for that if they're not that confident about finances? Where does it start I guess I'm asking you? Say again? I guess where does it start? Where does planning our financial future start like? Well it starts without the finances which is you first and foremost identify what it actually is that you want to do So for you, when you've just said about wanting a bigger house that's the primary driver?

36:34 And it's important then, what you then do is you bring the finances to the goal that you want to achieve because having a new house can look multiple different ways. You can have a mansion, you can have three or four bedroom house, whatever it is... It's generally an upgrade isn't it? It's a general upgrade of where we're at right? Yeah and when you establish what the gap is in the finances between what you actually need and what you actually have Then you can plan. I think too often we get caught up in the, oh it's going to cost half a million pounds or it's gonna cost £100,000 or whatever it is... No first of all what is it? What is the objective and why? And then bring the financial planning to an object to achieve an objective. And then what you do is its baby steps.

37:27 Okay, just hold that thought a second. I want to show you...I made this post the other day it seemed like i could find it! I've got it and that wasn't good TV was it or podcast but we're going to leave out the pause so I made a post there that I got lots of empowerment things around the house right? So this is my What's at Stake. I need a bigger house right uh so what's at stake is a bedroom for Rosie, a bigger garden for Jago me finding love and having more fun with our cousins that's what's at stake for me in terms of increasing the income making at hero academy, the success that I know it's going to be. So they're the things that are at stake

38:04 That can be part of my motivation, but having the house is going to be 400 grand or something. That could be so daunting that people just get stopped in their tracks. But you're saying the way to bridge that gap is to start with baby steps? Yeah, you break it down into sensible milestones based on where you are So if you know, let's say you need to have a disposable income of £3,000 a month and you've only got two and half thousand pounds a month to be able to get a mortgage. The best way to do this is to actually first and foremost set the first step as in actually get us actually to work how you get to the three thousand pounds a month

38:50 The Jonnie Jensen Show, Jonnie Jensen, Raymond Holt What have I taken out that I don't need to spend? I've done that tick. How much has that saved me, that I wasn't... To bridge that £500 gap it's saved a £150. Great! So therefore the gap is £350. What can I do to bring more money in

39:26 To get to bridge out that 350 pound down to maybe 200 pounds. So actually the gap you have is actually 200 pounds, not 500 pounds and actually from a from an emotional perspective You actually feel like you're making progress Yes Steps forwards Well then the human brain is a beautiful machine that when you give it a problem to solve, it's more inclined to come up with a solution. So worrying about I haven't got enough money is quite negative sort of based on worry like I'm never going to afford that 500 grand how am I gonna get my mortgage? It's impossible

40:03 No, so the baby step is cashflow was in there. So we now got an idea of what we're spending and now we've brought it down to this a £200 gap. So the question we start asking ourselves is now where do I find £200 from? How can I become £200 worth more value to the world per week, per month whatever it might be And you're right! You give the brain the problem you want it to solve because ultimately that's what the brain will solve And I think that's a far more positive way of dealing, looking at it and approaching it rather than well that's a really big gap and I don't know how I'm going to bridge it. It is very rare that you eat an elephant in one mouthful isn't? You eat it one little bit at the time and you plan to that place. Well I am a celebrity! I can eat an elephants testicle now thats enough

40:53 We've got to make sure that you set the benchmarks along the way sensibly so that you actually don't... There's one thing to stretch yourself, it's another thing to set yourself something that is completely unattainable. And I think we try to do two...we almost tried to do Superman looking at a picture they had in the back but bound These tall buildings in one leap, it doesn't work like that. You do it very small very slowly one step at a time and set yourself a sensible timeframe but you walk towards it positively rather than oh well I can't do it yeah

41:31 And what about people who have, who are carrying debt at the you know part of this process couple of credit cards or something. Money's going out to those debts where do your thoughts on people that got that sort What do they call it? Consumer debt that's hanging around them. Should they be attacking that first? If that's costing you more than what's coming in, yes because actually it's saving your money so actually to pay off your credit cards are on high interest you consolidate them as much as you can into one interest rate of low rate and then what you do if hundreds of pounds are going out on interest is unnecessary

42:18 That's why good financial planning is built on where your money goes first. So you reduce the amount that's outflowing because it's like a leaky boat, isn't it? If you don't plug the leaky boat, It doesn't matter how much you put in it. It still leaks so you've got to plug the leaks first You've got to stop going at things...the money going out that you don't need it to go out. So consolidate as much as you can and get it to as low a number as you possibly can I consolidated my credit cards and when the first one came through it wasn't enough to put, the thing online said it was right then when he came through like two grand short so that I put all the amount on there and had to go get another one to put the final 2 grand.

43:07 Is it cheaper than what you were paying previously? Yes, it was. Although it's run out now so now I need to get another reduced rate type holiday situation yeah And one thing I would say is that and we're talking maybe more about partnerships here rather than... especially if one of you is good with money and the other one isn't let the one who is good with money Do it and look after it. Yeah, play to your strengths! I've seen plenty of times where business owners with their partners have gone well I'm the one who looks after the money and they're the one who's actually got more financial now self, why are you doing? It doesn't make any sense let the person whose got confidence in the ability skills to look after the money

44:05 Look after the money. Yes, I really is teamwork in yes absolutely and yes absolutely. If you don't look after the money at home whatever you do don't look after the money in your business because those same challenges you have about looking after money at home, manifest themselves in your business and all the behaviors that happen in business come from your personal life. I can see in business, and this is from my brother very successful business like 15 years old now he looked after the finance side of it. And then one day he got an interim FD to do stuff to support him within a week he goes oh! I can see that basically the business had outgrown his

45:02 His capabilities and when this guy came in and did the first week he was like wow okay so it was again about realizing that the time had come to evolve. And doing so grew the business exponentially, holding on to something you've historically been good at be prepared some point to realize That someone else can do a better job. And that could be at home, couldn't it? Yes! I run my business successfully and actually my wife can probably handle this better than I could Yeah and the bit about teamwork is really key It's really key but then that comes back to the relationship bit If its not great and its challenging as painful as it is, it is better to be on the same page because ultimately if you're on the same page

45:59 You can actually move forwards together. Yeah, yeah totally I've got a question here which we're going to bring in let me just make sure it's not full of swear words and stuff as has been the case okay right so Someone says, by the way if anyone's watching and if you're listening on the podcast then you can participate simply by catching The Team Superdad lives. And um... If you go to streamyard.com forward slash Facebook it will pull your name through So this person says isn't there a risk of cutting out everyday luxuries that make us feel uninspired? Some cutting is probably important but what if we can't cut are there other clever ways we can use our money smarter

46:39 E.g., school fees, we pay tax on the money and the business pay tax on the money. Consolidation you mentioned is kind of what I'm asking about here how can be more clever with what we have? Take your question out there Raymond! Well one thing which a really good accountant should do more of is actually when you bring your personal business finances together What that does is it enables you to look at your money in its totality and work out what is the best way to do things. And be tax efficient with it, because otherwise if you look at them as two separate buckets

47:24 effectively overpaying on one area. So what you can put through your business that you didn't know you can and actually say... I'm going to explain that for people who haven't got a business basically, someone who's running a business the business could receive money and you pay tax on that money And then if you pay yourself a salary that you then get taxed on You've basically been taxed twice on that same piece of money. So it's not avoiding tax, it's just being conscious of have I already paid tax on this money and so in order for me to be able to spend it how can I spend it without paying tax for the second time? In a most tax-efficient way yes! And some of your expenses like a mobile phone could be something like...

48:15 Plenty of ways which you can look at what you actually have going through your house, especially if you work from home. Especially if you work from home there are ways to attribute certain household expenses to the business and going back to the point about cutting out luxuries just on the other piece that's why I say when you look at what you spend be clear about the value that you receive from it Because it's luxuries that you want to cut out, as in where they are kind of nice-to-haves. Where they give you a kind of an adrenaline boost rather than add value with what you're doing so there's nothing wrong with spending... There's nothing wrong with going into the cinema right?

49:01 Because the value you hold to that is, that's time for us as a family to spend time together and actually it's an investment. Think about your 5 Fs I think its perfect if it fits within the five f's why would you not spend it? Do it in the most efficient effective way you can But they're the guiding principle. Go on and get a five, three for five price on Groupon or get clever in that respect and you also said about rewarding yourself so if you're casually just eating out five times a month because you can't be asked to cook then shift your perspective too we're going to save 200 quid and then reward ourselves with a 50 pound dinner

49:48 Yeah, we haven't saved 250 quid but we have saved 200 quid and we really enjoyed that dinner out where we celebrated the fact and laughed and giggled together. And then you say actually learning to cook and actually the different engagement that brings as well so not only do you save money but you actually enhance your lifestyle But it's principle-based. And that's why I always say about money, money comes to you in a principled way so don't get too hooked up on oh well the number says... It's the decision making and the way you bring things together that has driven that financial outcome. If you overspend

50:34 And you go into debt, significantly into debt. It's the behaviors that have driven you there... The fact that you have overspent is on the back of some things that you have decided to do and it's tapping into where did it go? Why did it go there? What value did I see? Did I really get that value that actually will drive the cash but uh the actual way your cash flows? Yeah and I know just The risk of covering points we've already covered. I know from tracking what i eat that the very fact that each day, I'm aware of the fact that was a day when I ate 2000 calories or that was a day when I had to have three and half thousand calories I can see it like oh ok wow that was

51:18 That was the on target day and that was the off target day. And thats why the expression where attention goes energy flows actually can work because you suddenly start to become conscious of things and start to find different pages creating a pleasure out of not being going into our overdraft this month versus the pleasure of going out having dinner And that's what I want to say about overdrafts. If you're in an overdraft, don't try to come out of the overdraft all in one go. Come out of it stepped because one thing is a lot people forget and I know business owners forget this

51:58 And it can be a real challenge with partners is they go from, well I'm going to take home three grand this month and then I'll take five next month. Then they go back to four and then they go to three and the next thing you know is up to six. Then it's down to three again and he's down at two Whereas when you're talking to your partner, what they're looking for is it's three consistently. Three and a half consistently four consistently four and a half consistently because you can manage knowing that over a period of time it's going to be the same amount we can adjust to that but when it's doing that Emotionally, that's what you do with it. You try to be like this with it but you go like this with it and that's why we've overdraft exactly the same thing so you say about credit cards almost slice-and-dice yeah if you can clear the off great but if you can't keep taking a small chunk out of it consistently because your confidence comes from I am improving in the situation where I am

53:00 Very much in this whole conversation, it's easy to get I'm blinded by this is basic stuff. I already know this, it's not going to help but it is about taking those baby steps and about controlling the different areas of our life effectively managing the basics. I talked to so many different coaches and experts and people that have been successful in and they do these little things consistently over time and that's where the results come from at the end of that person's question they ask how can we be cleverer with what We're kind of answering it in these different ways. And just to touch back on that point, importantly

53:44 Their accountant should be able to help them work that out basically in terms of how can we be cleverer. If it's personal income and personal finance, and you're not a business owner then it is about managing that income at home and possibly looking to grow your incomes in different ways. And if it's about being a business owner then it's being really clear with the good accountant that you're being tax efficient. Yes and to be really clear with what it is you are trying to achieve because accountants typically look Well, you've got to file your taxes. Now I actually want to be clear this is what i'm trying to achieve help me yeah because if you want to get a mortgage you might want to show a high income if you've already got a mortgage and you're now looking to put more money aside to invest then perhaps you want to take a lower income but take money from the business in other ways that you can invest it maybe in property or yes

54:38 In terms of someone else's business or into a new venture, something like that. Yeah and what you say about the family piece in terms of personal peace about Groupon and things like that is it's about Don't know what you want to do and look to find the most financially efficient way to do it. Don't cut back on what it is you're trying to do in that context, yeah? Yeah! Lidl versus Sainsbury's how about that? Perfect example! That is a lot of money saved! Yeah. I mean, things you go to the big Tesco's or Sainsbury's for because whether it's a branded item or whether it's whatever it is but when you're buying meat and milk and butter and one's twice the price of the other that is... That's a quick way to transform your finances blimey! Yes it is and just it's the discipline that's the bit so when you talk about focus

55:41 It's the discipline, yeah? It's having the mindset that says that what...that the outcome is if I save £50 or a hundred pounds a month on my shopping. What do I do in return to say that was really good and I think we're and it's not and I think sometimes we think of its big goals its no! Its little things. Is the little goals that is those little goals on a regular basis that make the difference because Because it's the little goals on a regular basis that hit the big numbers. Yep, totally. Well Raymond this has been awesome as like I said to anybody who's managed to listen to this part of it thank you so much they're juicy bits are at the end if you comment template or cash flow while sending the team super dab one you can search on Google as well just know there'll be PDFs or if you search

56:35 What's the end of it? Excel.xls yeah so if you search google for cashflow.xls, it will come up with one Um, we've had the guy who asked the comments came back and said brilliant. And thank you. And that is okay! That is good. But yeah, we can get your template over or use another template. The Hero Academy is launching in January and there's a whole area on managing your finances Getting out of debt and then making more money increasing your income. Raymond and I are talking about that together so you'll likely see Raymon in there, and Raymond if people have enjoyed the idea of some of the stuff you do or want to work with where can they find you? They can probably best is maybe via my email it's raymond.holtagnentis.com

57:32 And you're on LinkedIn as well? Say again. You're on LinkedIn of course Yes, I am on LinkedIn yes and i am more than happy to have a conversation with anyone in SuperDAD around any way that just naturally anyway that they need any questions they have anything it just ask is absolutely fine Absolutely brilliant what perhaps what we should do is um on one of the upcoming DAD calls would do a finance special And then, because the dad call is not recorded. It's not streamed it's a completely like

58:08 It's a closed room basically. So we'll have a Q&A in there on finances or any of these elements and members of the Team Superdad community can come and get on board. There is Raymond's email address if you're watching, you'll see that in the comments below. If you are listening to this podcast then it's raymond.holt at agentes.com Or search up Raymond Holt on LinkedIn. Yes, you'll see me there! Awesome. Raymond such a lovely phone call I really enjoyed it. Who's turned up?

58:47 My wife has just come back from shopping. You better get the receipt out! I'm like, not supposed to be home yet? Get that receipt out make sure we didn't... If my youngest son was been here he'd go do we need that? Okay. Brilliant, right Raymond I'll see you on the other side of me saying goodbye Team Superdad members family friends all around the world we'll see you on the next live stream remember to come and subscribe to The Team Superdad Podcast if you go to teamsuperdad.com forward slash start hyphen here or forward slash podcast you'll be straight into subscribing to the podcast i look forward to having you on the next episode team super dad out bye

59:38 This has been Team Superdad. Find us at teamsuperdad.com