Ep 382: Unlocking Financial Freedom

[00:00:00] Liquor Talk, another new episode starts now. Welcome, everyone. Welcome, everybody, to another edition of the Liquor Talk Podcast. I'm your man, Vic, and I'm always sipping on something good because this is a podcast where we just don't sip liquor. We have conversations that stir the culture, and we have the tough conversations that nobody wants to have, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:00:22] So shout out to everybody that's joining us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or whether you're watching this on YouTube. Go ahead and subscribe. Go ahead and comment. Go ahead and tell us what you think. My guest today is a credit advisor joining me from Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is a little bit outside of Denver. She's a financial advisor and an educator, and she's joining me today to give y'all some education. It's Coach K. It's joining us in Liquor Talk today.

[00:00:51] Thank you for having a drink with me today. How are you doing, Coach K? Coach K. I'm doing good. I appreciate you for having me on today. Coach K. I definitely appreciate you for coming on as well. Real quick, I forgot to say this. I want to thank everybody that was praying for me while I was in the hospital. I want to thank everybody that was showing me love while I was down. You fall down sometimes, you get back up. That's some things I kind of took for granted. I will have that discussion with my fellas. Y'all stay tuned for that episode coming soon.

[00:01:20] Later this month. But Coach K, tell us a little bit about yourself and tell us about what you do. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm glad to see that you're back in action. So I appreciate you again for having me on. My name is Coach K. I'm from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I help entrepreneurs leverage their credit to create wealth. I do financial advisory. I teach businesses how to build systems and how to fund their business, whether they're scaling, whether they're just starting, whether they just need some financial advisory.

[00:01:50] Not a lot of business owners look at the numbers, right? They want to work on their business. They don't want to work in their business. So I usually help them, you know, get to the right banks, create those relationships and, you know, just take it to the moon. That's real. That's real. Real quick, Icebergers, for those who are sipping with us, what's something you like to sip on while discussing money? What's your drink of choice while discussing money?

[00:02:15] Hmm. That's a, that's a good one. I like margaritas. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a type of margarita cat, but I do like a, you know, we could do some tequila any day, any type of tequila. Yeah. Tequila, get it right. Yo have some tequila right while we talking about the money.

[00:02:31] Um, so with 2026 coming to me and hard to believe we're already in July, happy birthday America, by the way. Um, y'all need to remember who built this damn country, but, um, how, how we, what should, what should people be doing financially with 2026? We, we only got like six months left in 2026. So where should, what should people be looking to do financially?

[00:02:54] You know what they got to do? They got to get into bad, they got to get out of bad debt and get into good debt. You know, I see a lot of people not understanding what they really got to do with their money. Right. Um, paying yourself first. Right. We all got bills and you know, man, the economy is so it's trash right now. Right. So we got to, you know, understand how money works. Right. Um, so whether you know how money works or you don't know how money works, you know, the first thing you can do is starting to pay yourself first. Right. Put the money into yourself.

[00:03:20] Um, you know, we all got bills. Of course you don't want to be late on your bills, but when you do have that money, make sure you're paying yourself first. You're investing into yourself. That's the biggest thing we can do in 2026, especially our community. We got to know where the money is going, right? We don't know whether we're spending more money on, you know, going to the club or we're spending more money on McDonald's and, you know, Wendy's. So there's a lot of things that we got to be, uh, you know, very well versed on when it comes to finances so that you know where your money is going and you know, you know, where it's not going, you know?

[00:03:48] So you got to know when to put money into the market. You got to know when you want to invest in something. Right. Another thing that people could do is they could get an opportunity fund. It's one of the biggest things that I tell people is like, when you get into, you know, entrepreneurship or you're like ready to start building something, cause who wants to work for somebody for their whole life. Right. So if you don't have that, you know, that mindset already, then, you know, you're already 15 steps back. But if you have that mindset and you're like, all right, I'm ready to, you know, start investing into myself.

[00:04:14] You have to know how to get your credit right. So if you have that opportunity fund or you have some cash put aside, you can definitely capitalize on any opportunity. So those are a few things that people can start doing. But the big thing is, do we know how the money works? Do we know where it's going? You know? Yes, we definitely got to know where the money is going. And also we got to know how to budget that stuff because we know circumstances might, might, might play a factor in that as well.

[00:04:38] And sometimes you might need to change a few things. You might need to be okay with sacrificing some things, you know, because, hey, the club ain't, the club will always be there, you know? But if you have opportunity to go get money, go get money because partying and clubs will always be there. So what is the biggest financial myth that you still hear today? Hmm. That's a good one. The biggest financial myth that I see is that, you know, credit, like I'm, I do credit, right? I do credit repair.

[00:05:08] But the biggest thing that I see is in credit, a lot of people don't know how to use it. They think it's just something that you use for gas or you use it for, you know, groceries, emergencies, right? And everything has its purpose, right? But you want to be able to use credit as a tool. So I think that a lot of people think that debt, you know, which could be considered as credit whenever you get, you know, extended credit is, you know, it's debt, right? So whenever you look at it like that, you got to understand that it's a tool, right? A lot of people think that you want to get out of debt, right? Or I want to be debt free, right?

[00:05:36] But that's a big myth that I see. You want to get into good debt, right? For example, like if I got a credit card for $20,000 and I want to go buy a cash flow in business, right? You know, I can do that off the strength of my credit without even putting no cash up, right? So there's ways to leverage it and you just got to know how the game works. But the biggest thing that I've seen is people just think that debt is a bad thing, right? It's not a bad thing depending on, you know, who you are and, you know, depending on, you know, like I said, you know the game, you know how to play it, right?

[00:06:02] So if you know how debt works, you know, then you know that's how the rich get rich and that's how they stay rich. Yeah, because I've seen these stories about how wealthy people will leverage their one debt by moving, by diversifying funds and stuff. This is a lot of things. One thing I've learned about this is a lot of things, they just were not taught in the black community. They just were not, now this generation, this new generation, they ain't got no excuse because they got technology and we teaching them.

[00:06:30] So how does people's upbringing shape our relationship with money? It is the biggest factor on your relationship with money, right? Like I grew up, you know, a lot of people don't know this about Colorado, right? Colorado does get a little, it gets a little crazy sometimes, right? So in every, you know, I think Ice Cube said every hill is the same, right? So you can go to, you know, certain places in Denver and Colorado and you see, you know, you see the drugs, you see the gangs, right?

[00:06:59] So I grew up around, you know, some rough circumstances, right? I didn't know how to budget money. I was on food stamps, Medicaid, right? You know, child support, government assistance, right? And, you know, the thing about, the thing that I was taught about money is that it's not a tool. Like it's something that you just, you just have, right? It's not something that, you know, you can leverage, right? It's just something that you spend, spend, spend.

[00:07:24] You know, so I think that the biggest thing is if you don't like really want to learn about money, right? You can stay stuck in that, right? So when you grow up and you learn about, you know, how to, you know, swipe the food stamp card and you learn that food may be free, right? You go to the, you know, you go to the, you know, the hospital, you've never had to look at a medical bill, right? But then it's different people, right? Different strokes for different folks, right? Because certain people, they may have grown up and they had to, you know, they weren't on free lunch, right?

[00:07:51] But the thing about the lower class, right, or the poor, right, that you would say, I would recommend, I mean, I would say that I grew up poor, right? You know, we was on food stamps, right? There was times where we didn't have clean laundry. There was times we didn't have, you know, toilet paper. We had to make it work, right? So when you look at that aspect of it and you say, okay, I grew up poor, your relationship with money is that it's just, you just spend it, right? It's just something that comes in and it goes out faster than you get it, right?

[00:08:19] If you look at the middle class, right, people who just, you know, are really stuck right now, especially in today's economy, and you're just stuck in the middle, you're like, I don't have money to put away, but I'm doing okay, right? You're not poor. When you look at that aspect of it, they just use money to get themselves by, right? They just use it because they need to, you know, you know, pay their bills. And then once they get, you know, that little cushion, right, then they go redo their home. They might get a home remodel. You know, they go do things that they can afford to do and they live a better lifestyle.

[00:08:46] Now, if you look at the way the rich people, you know, use money and most people that are rich did not grow up rich, right? So, if you look at that, you can say, okay, rich people use money as a tool. So, I think the relationship with money, depending on your upbringing, it can shape the way that you, you know, you look at money. But if you want to, you know, be an entrepreneur, you want to grow a business, you got to go find out how that really works.

[00:09:12] So, if you look at the different classes and the way that they look at money, it all comes down to, like, do you know about money? Who's teaching about money? And as we all know, right, if you can look at the urban communities, you look at the black communities, you look at the brown communities, we use money differently than most other communities, right? We use money. We look at it as, you know, just something to blow, right? And when you're growing up like that and you look at, you know, our music, right? You look at our entertainment.

[00:09:42] Money is looked at as something that we flaunt, right? And, you know, it's in our genes, right? A hundred million years ago, we were wearing gold chains, right? So, when you look at it like that, you just got to know your roots. And once you know, like, what you want to do with yourself, I think that the upbringing is going to, you know, show you what not to do, right? So, when I'm doing things nowadays, I look at it like, I'm not going to do the things that I see my parents do. I'm not going to go, you know, get the great value stuff just because it's cheaper, right?

[00:10:10] Like now, you know, I'm practicing even being healthier. I'm trying to lose weight. So, now I'm fasting, right? So, there's different things that I grew up learning about eating pork and that stuff that I just don't do anymore, right? So, when you get older, you have to, you know, you got to make that shift, right? So, I think that's real important. Like, we come up and we look at money, but what are you going to do with it? Like, what do you really want to do with yourself? And you're Brad, for real. I feel you. Also, I feel you on the losing weight part. I'm trying to lose weight my damn self. So, I definitely feel you on the losing weight part.

[00:10:40] And also, I also know that to people out there, if you stay struggling, if you stay in a survival mode, that's on you because it's like, yeah, you were born into it. That don't mean you have to stay in that mindset. And one thing I've learned as well is a lot of things you had to unlearn because it's like our parents were always struggling. Like, because I like you. I grew up in a poor household, single parent household. Those times we were on food stamps. Those times we didn't have a lot of different things and stuff.

[00:11:07] So, it's like you had to unlearn some things because it's like you're always grinding and always struggling. And also, and there's a reason a lot of these companies, they market to black people because they know we spend money so loosely. And it's like, and if we had more educated, man, things would be a whole lot different. Yeah, it would. And that's the big, that's like the big thing.

[00:11:29] It's like when you look at the way we were programmed to look at money and the way that they keep us programmed to, you know, look at, you know, chains and Mercedes Benz's and Cadillacs, right? When you look at the way that it was marketed, the system is working how it's supposed to work, right? We still now to this day, we look at, you know, the black community or the poor community in general. We look at money as, you know, a way to go flex on other people. And that's not what money's for, right?

[00:11:57] You know, if you like, you see the richest people, like the richest people pop out and they're not in, you know, they're not wearing $500,000 chains, right? But if you see, you know, NBA Youngboy out with that big old chain on, you're like, oh yeah, that's what I want to use my money on because I listen to NBA Youngboy, right? So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, like I said, the system is working the way it's supposed to work. And we got to, as you know, people who have our own brains, right?

[00:12:21] And our own free will, we have to go look for that information and look for other things because obviously what's been going on ain't been working for us, right? We obviously have not been able to, like you said, if you, if you still in that struggle mindset and you're always in survival mode, that's on you because you're not going to look for different opportunities. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again and it ain't working, what are you doing? Like I see people like, um, you know, I was working in fast food, right?

[00:12:48] If I'm trying to go get a better job, I'm not going to a better fast food restaurant, right? If I'm trying to be a, if I'm trying to do something in culinary, I'm trying to go find a restaurant. So I'm always looking to go up. A lot of people don't want to go up. They just, they're just, it's easy to stay comfortable. It's easy to say it's easy to stay stagnant and lazy, right? It's hard to get up and say, okay, this ain't, this ain't what I want, right? And most people know that going to work 40 hours a week just to pay your bills is not what they want to do.

[00:13:13] They know that, but it's easier for them to be like, you know, I just want to sit at the crib and, you know, binge watch TV. You know, it's easy. It's easier to do that. And what that tells me is some of the people don't have ambition. They don't have dreams. They don't have, they don't have something that they don't, they don't have like something they're into or something they're passionate about. So whether it's a podcast or whether it's music or whether it's wanting to launch a business or whether it's fashion, you know, people like that, that tell me that they have no ambition, no drive.

[00:13:41] It's like we in 2026, back to 2027. And if you don't have no drive, what the hell are you doing? You know? And guess what? The rich people, they take the risk and stuff. And they want to take the risk. And going back to your point about the rappers, I would say, look at Jay-Z, look at what he was wearing in 2000, like in the 2000s. But look at what he's wearing now. You don't see him with much jewelry on now, not that he's a billionaire and stuff. You don't see that much now because obviously things change, you know?

[00:14:08] So, and you know, because we don't, some people will still have that mindset of we need to flaunt it. But if you look at the wealthiest black people and also the wealthiest people generally, they're not flaunt that shit. You'll barely even know it because a lot of them, they ain't driving the German engineering cars or the cars that cost a lot to, you know, maintain. They probably driving a damn Toyota or something, you know, that they've had for years. Right.

[00:14:38] Yep. And it's to be studied, right? The game is to be studied. Like if you look at the people who are really making money, the money is not, like the money is not the end game, right? I think that's a big thing that a lot of people think, like money is the end. Like that's just what, like that's where you stop. Like that, if you get money, then you're successful. No, because a lot of people are, you know, they might not be happy. They might not, you know, they might not be in the career that they want to be in, right? You hear a lot of stuff about people selling their soul, right?

[00:15:08] You hear a lot of people about, you hear a lot of things about people, you know, compromising themselves in these situations, especially in, you know, the entertainment industry, right? Or if you see things like, you know, whatever, BET Awards was a clown show, if you ask me. Like certain things in that, in the BET Awards was just like, this is what we're doing. And if you look at that type of stuff, then it's going to consume you, right? If you let it, right? But if you look at, you know, the way rich people move and the way that, you know, the real wealth, the 1% of the 1%ers,

[00:15:37] then you look at like what we're doing right now is just like, it's just a system. Like it's just a system that just keeps revolving and keeps revolving. And you got to like, I think they call it the matrix, right? You got to be able to get out of that, but it's in your mind. Like it's all in your mind. And there's the things that, you know, the content that they push out, the music that they push out, the food that they push out, these are all things to keep us in that box, you know? Yes, those are definitely things to keep us in that box.

[00:16:07] And I didn't even have to watch the BET Awards to know this year that it was going to be a clown show. It's like, I feel like the BET Awards have not been the same since BET left Black ownership, you know? But that's another rabbit hole for another day. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Liquor Talk. The more you drink, the better we sound. Shout out to everybody that's tuned in right now on different platforms, streaming platforms. Also, the website is launching this month, ladies and gentlemen. The website is launching this month. I promise the website is launching this month.

[00:16:36] Coach K, when you look back at your personal life, what is something you wish you could have told yourself about finances when you were younger? Because when you look back, you probably made some mistakes that got you to where you are now. So what's some things you probably look back that you did while you were younger that you wouldn't do today? For sure. Well, here's what I'll say. Like, I'm still young. I'm only 23 years old. But what I will say is what I could have done when I was younger is, you know, really put the money in the right places.

[00:17:05] You know, you look back at yourself and you're like, damn, I could have been rich. Like, you see, like, so many things that you, like, just let fall out the window, let fall out of your hands because you was just being young. Right? So I would say big thing is, like, you know, stop letting myself spend money on the wrong things. Right? I'm a, I was a compulsive spender. Right? I'd like to, you know, spend it when I knew I didn't have it or spend it when I knew that was all I had. You know, and I, you know, I would do shit like I would save up money for, like, months and then I would spend it all at once.

[00:17:35] You know? So it's, like, little things like that that would make me, like, damn, I wish, you know. But then I have to say, like, I learned about that. Like, because that's how, you know, I felt comfortable with money. Like, I wasn't, like, it wasn't, like, an attachment thing for me. Right? Because when I was saving it up, it was a mental thing for me to stay disciplined. But when I spent it, it was something that was compulsive. Right? So it was something that I had to study on my own and be like, you know, this is not how I want to, you know, use money. Right? So, or this is not, you know, the income that I want to have.

[00:18:05] You know, that was a big thing that helped me, too. Like, that was like, okay, if I'm going to spend all this money, I need to make sure I got more money coming in. Right? So that's when I started saying, okay, I got to learn how to make the money if I want to live this type of lifestyle. And then a big thing that I just learned recently, you know, I just moved into my new apartment. But I downsized. And there's nothing wrong with that. Right? There's nothing wrong with downsizing if you, you know, you want to do certain things. Right? Like, you say you got your website coming. I applaud it because I'm trying to work on my website. I'm trying to get my app going.

[00:18:35] So I'm like, okay, I need a small space to where I can work and really just lock in. You know? So that was one thing that I learned that it's not, it ain't nothing wrong with, you know, downsizing or doing something, you know, or taking a few steps back. Right? And reevaluating your situation and saying, you know what, I got to get it together. And one more thing that I will say is getting into credit repair, I had to learn the hard way. I got my car repoed, not because I couldn't pay it, but because, you know, I was testing the waters.

[00:19:02] You know, if anybody knows about credit repair, when you get into something called like debt validation, right? You want to send something to somebody. I had two different companies trying to contact me about the same debt. So the person who I bought the car from, they had sold my debt to somebody without me even knowing. So this is when I started getting into credit repair. I'm like, this can't be right. Like, how would I have two different companies trying to, you know, collect the same debt? So I just stopped paying it because I was trying to do the right things. I started sending in letters, but I just stopped paying it.

[00:19:32] And one morning I came home, I came home at like three o'clock in the morning. I woke up again at like six, seven a.m. to go, you know, take, I don't remember what I was doing, but my car was gone. Right. Car repoed. Right. So I'm looking like, damn. Like, so I went to, you know, I didn't have a car for like a year, you know, and this was, this was my baby. I had a, you know, a 2010 Dodge Charger SXT. It was all red. Right. She, I called her sexy red. Right. So she was, she was nice. Right. So when it got repoed, I'm like, what am I doing? You know what I'm saying?

[00:19:59] And so that's when I started getting into my, getting really deep into credit repair, studying these laws. And, you know, I learned that it's okay to downsize. Right. And I tested the waters. It didn't work out the way I did it. I wanted it to work out. But now I'm in a space where I'm like, okay, I know what I'm doing. Like I shouldn't have been, you know, 20 years old with that car anyway. I thought I was just doing, I was doing too much. Right. I was like, yeah, I'm just flexing right now. And I don't even need to be doing that.

[00:20:26] But it was, it was, it was, it's a lot of stuff that you got to learn the hard way. So I'm glad that I learned the hard way. I know that, you know, I learned a lot. I learned the most, you know, our people, we hard hit it, bro. So we like, we learned the hard way. Like I had to learn it that way or else I would like, I wouldn't appreciate the stuff that I got now the way I do. So that's a big thing. Well, I definitely feel you on getting a car repossessed. That would definitely humble you. And that would definitely make you appreciate whatever car, whatever vehicle you're in.

[00:20:53] Because going that time without a car, I'm like, oh shit, what the hell are you going to do? You know? And having to rely on rides. Yeah, that shit gets real. So I totally feel you. It was definitely, definitely humbling as well, you know, because I've had a car repossessed as well. And also I've had, I've had cars I've had to surrender because the shit didn't work. You know, the car just didn't work. So I said, yeah, I'm taking off my hands and you know it. And you're definitely right about the credit laws and stuff.

[00:21:22] And not a lot of people know about these credit laws because they're like, as soon as somebody calling them, like a debt collector calling them, harassing them, they give in. They suck at this shit. But then it's like, you got to know the laws because you got to know that this is a valid. I didn't sign it. I didn't agree to this, you know? And many people don't know is the original creditor, once they sell off the debt, you ain't responsible for it. Yes, sir. Exactly.

[00:21:50] That's a, that's the biggest thing that like we talked about myths about finances, right? The biggest myth about credit repair is that it's like not legal or it's unethical or you're like scamming the system. You're, you're, you're, you're running off with the bag, right? But that's not the case, right? When you do credit repair is based off of consumer law, right? So, and a lot of people don't know that. Like if you, if you go to, if you think about any other industry, right? If you think about any other, you know, you know, like when you get fired wrongfully, you know, you can go file a wrongful suit, right?

[00:22:19] When you get harassed in the workplace, when you have people who are, you know, what is it? Like when they assassinate your character, right? You know that there are certain laws. Exactly. So you have the information, but the thing is not the same way credit. They don't know because they make so much money off of it, right? If you see like the data centers, everything with AI coming out right now, data is what these big companies use to control everything. So data is extremely, extremely expensive.

[00:22:47] But it's not in the sense of money wise, right? In the sense of how much data can you get because that's how much information you get. And if you know how much information you have and you have the most information, you can make the most informed decisions on how to make money. So that's how these companies make money, right? They're selling debts and they get information or they can collect because they know people don't know that a debt collector cannot call them. They don't know that they can refuse to pay the debt. They don't know that. So if they don't know that, then they're like, oh my God, if a debt collector is calling me, I have to pay.

[00:23:16] Most of these debt collectors are shysters, right? So they're buying debt and they're harassing you for it and they already paid for it. And the company who sold the debt already got paid. And then they wrote it off on their taxes. And then they're going to come back and take it from your tax return. And now you just paid them about three or four times. A lot of people don't know that.

[00:23:39] If you write to the original collector, because I saw this happen with Discover, they sent me a letter saying, hey, we removed this off of your credit because the account was charged off or we've already charged off. So many people don't know that sometimes that credit repair shit actually works. So now I am going to go ahead and revisit the credit repair for myself later in the year. But what is some fast ways for people to improve their credit? Yeah, yeah.

[00:24:09] Here's one thing that I have to tell everybody, right? There's a proven method on how to repair credit, but there's no proven timeline. When I was first starting to repair credit, it took me over a year to repair one of my first client's credit. Now we can go on and sometimes you get results in a month. So I think people have like unrealistic expectations on how credit repair works. It's just like any other, if you go to some, if you look at the legal system, right?

[00:24:38] Some cases are the exact same and there's two different outcomes, right? So if you look at that, you got to understand that credit repair is not an exact timeline. But some ways that people can start improving their credit is they can open bank accounts, right? They can create banking relationships. That's one of the biggest things that I like to teach because that's how you get to the money, right? If you have bad credit or if you have no cash on hand, say for example, you got, we'll use Discover for example.

[00:25:04] Say you've had your bank account or your check coming in every two weeks. You know, you got regular deposits coming in from that bank. Say you've been with that bank for 10 years, right? And you don't, you've never had credit, but you have a relationship with that bank. They know you can pay. They know how much money you have coming in. They're going to give you a back versus you going to, you know, Navy Federal right next door, right? And you've never had a relationship with that bank. They're not going to give you money, right?

[00:25:29] So relationships with banks are the biggest thing that anyone can start doing to improve their credit because it's the back end, right? Say that you don't have good credit. Say you don't have any credit. That relationship alone can get you some money or get you some cushion when you want to go get a credit card. Say you want to go get an auto loan, right? People just go, just say like, oh, I'm just going to, you know, apply and apply and apply. Don't do that. You got to be strategic. Another thing that people could do is something that is just starting.

[00:25:56] It's always been legal and it's never been illegal, but it's something that people are just starting to catch on to, which is reporting your rent, reporting your utilities. That's one of the biggest things that you can start doing. Say you've been at your, you got a mortgage for 10 years. You've been there for 15 or you got a 30 year mortgage. You've been there for 15 years. That's 15 years of rental history, which is going to be, you know, the biggest thing that bankers look at when it comes to funding. Like say you want to ask for 150K, but you don't even have any type of history on your credit report. They're going to be like, what are you doing?

[00:26:24] Like you've never even dealt with 50K, right? How are you going to deal with 150K? So that will put you in position to go get some funding or go get some money, period, right? So if you want to, you know, report your rent or your utilities, you can go to sites like rentreporters.com, right? And you literally just put in your lease agreement and it'll literally start reporting that to every single bureau. And that's going to build your history. So say you got two years history on there. Say you've been at your apartment for a year. That's going to show on your credit report. That's going to boost your score up.

[00:26:55] One more thing that they can do is when it comes to credit repair, you can fix your credit, but how are you going to rebuild your credit, right? So you want to open certain accounts, right? If you open, you know, two to three checking accounts, always make sure you open a savings account. Another thing they can do is open a high yield savings account, but that's, you know, that comes to money. But when we're talking about improving your credit score, you can start getting credit builder accounts or trade lines. One other thing you can do is authorize users.

[00:27:23] Now you don't want to have too many authorized users on your report. If anybody doesn't know what an authorized user is, it's basically say, you know, someone who has good credit. They can put you on as authorized user. You can, depending on who they are, you can use that card as well. If it's like your mom or your dad or your kids, right? They can use your credit card. But if it's just somebody that you know that has good credit, you can utilize their credit report. And that will reflect on your credit report. So say someone got a 700 and you're sending out like a 560.

[00:27:49] You can get an authorized user and that'll boost your score up because their positive history is now reflecting on your history. Right. But when it comes to funding, I know, you know, you don't want to do too much of that because, you know, lenders look at that and they watch Facebook too. Right. They see all this stuff that, you know, people are posting on Facebook too. So you just got to be strategic. If you want to improve your credit, right, you got to know what you're doing and you got to do it in a sequence. Right. Don't just, you know, go wildly doing stuff. Right.

[00:28:14] That's, that's going to put you in position of where you're like, now you got all this debt and you don't know what to do with it. Of course. Of course. And people, they might have all their debt as well. And then also you got to know if that debt is even valid, you know, because you got to know if that debt is the actual creditor or did they just sell it off. I'm going to keep reminding y'all that because you know what, because some shit, y'all don't even have to pay for it. Y'all paying for it, you know, and we about to keep the money in house.

[00:28:42] And yes, I definitely agree with, you know, trust and relationships with banks. And I would definitely advise you to go work with the bank you already been dealing with, you know, because they see your account. They see when you get paid. So why go talk to them? And for my people out there looking for a car, that's who you really want to go talk to because that car lot, they're going to send you, they're going to give you, they're going to run your application. They're going to send about 5,000 banks.

[00:29:10] And some of them people might say yes, but you might have a high ass down payment, you know. Yep. Yep. Yep. I think, ooh, that's, I'm glad you brought that up because a lot of people think that they just go to the car dealer. It's the same thing with credit. You don't just walk in the bank and be like, hey, can I get some money? No. You don't just walk in a car dealership and be like, I want this car. You got to know what you're doing. And they're going to run your credit around 15 to 16 times depending on how bad your credit is. And guess what?

[00:29:39] That's going to make your score go down because that's hard increase, right? There's a difference between a hard inquiry and a soft inquiry. Soft inquiry does not affect your profile. Like, it's not going to make your score go down. That's usually when you like background checks and when you're like trying to pull your own credit. A lot of people think your score goes down when you pull your credit. It doesn't. So you can, you know, utilize soft pools, right? But when it comes to a hard pool, it's literally going to be them asking Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, or whoever they pull your report from. Can we have your information?

[00:30:08] You accepted it because you're trying to get a car, right? Some people are desperate. They don't want to leave without a car. So they're going to be like, yeah. And guess what? Now you just turned around and you messed your credit up because they ran your car. I mean, they ran your credit 15, 16 times. And you probably say you didn't even get approved. Now you got a hit on your credit. Now when you go to the next dealership or you try to get your stuff right and you come back, that's going to put you in position. And you're just like, what am I doing? Or you end up getting a car that's straight trash, higher interest rates, right?

[00:30:38] Higher monthly payments, right? Higher terms because a lot of people think, oh, I got a longer term. I got, you know, I don't want the 48 months. I want the 72 months. But what they don't understand is that's more interest that you're paying every single month. So do you want a higher payment a month and less time paying it? Or do you want to be cheap and have a lower payment and, you know, have higher interest? That's the same thing with credit cards. A lot of people think that, you know, just because you paid the minimum payment, you're clear. You're in the clear, right?

[00:31:06] But that's wrong because if you look at how many times you're maxing out your car to say you didn't get the 30-day late payment on your credit report, but you got the late fee with the bank. Now that's also messing up your score with the bank. Now they're probably not going to give you no money. And then you're really most times when you're paying your car down, it's all going to be interest. So you got to understand how the money works. You got to understand how the credit works. And if you don't go to your bank and say, hey, can I get this money to go purchase a car? Right. Then you have to go ask.

[00:31:35] You got to you got to trust on the car dealership to go ask 15, 16, 17 different banks. Can you get a car? And now you just look at you just looking crazy. And now the car dealership knows I can take advantage of you. And that's what they're there to do. They're there to make a commission. Right. It's not like people think that everybody's supposed to just look out for him. You got to look out for yourself and make sure that, you know, you don't trust what everybody's saying. You know? Yeah. You definitely can't trust everything that everybody's saying.

[00:32:00] And especially you got to know to do your homework before applying for any kind of credit, whether it's getting a car or getting a house or, you know, because people can really take advantage of you. If you, especially if you have bad credit. Yep. Especially if you have bad credit. It's ridiculous out here. So it's like, so with people with bad credit, when should people like just take a break and chill on like applying for things?

[00:32:28] Like when, when would you have, when could you look at somebody's credit? Like, you know what? You need to chill out. You just need to just make your money and pay shit off. Don't be trying to get new things. Yeah, that's, that's a good question. I think it has to do with a few things. So the first thing is what's your mindset when you think about money, right? If you don't have money coming in, you don't need to be spending more money, right? If you don't understand that, then you need to go back to the drawing board and you need to understand how money works.

[00:32:54] Because if you have more money coming in, I mean, you have more money going out than you have coming in, you know, it just, you can see how that might not work. Right. And that's why you see people, they have to rob Peter to pay Paul, or they have to go get a loan from Peter to pay Paul. Right. And now you have to pay Paul back from the loan that you got from, you know, somebody else. Right. So when you, when you look at that, if you don't have enough money coming in, you shouldn't be applying at all. Right. If you have one or two credit cards, you know, that's good. Keep yourself, keep, you know, get yourself right.

[00:33:23] But if you have like 10, 15 credit cards and they're all maxed out, you need to close some of those accounts. It's going to give you a hit on your report. But if you have all those, you know, maxed out cards and you have all that bad debt, like say you're, you know, here's a big thing. Right. If you're using that credit card to go to the mall and you're buying the new Jordans and you got the new PS5 and the new PS5 games and you're at the club every night and you're buying everybody's shots and you're maxing out your credit card. That's another reason why you probably shouldn't be applying anyway. Right. So it's all about your mindset.

[00:33:52] If you don't know how to use your credit cards, you shouldn't have credit cards at all. And another thing is when you are applying, you don't want to apply too aggressively. So you don't want to have like, you know, if you go open one account. Right. And you open it with the same bureau. So one thing I teach is credit stacking. So I'll break that down just real quick. When you're credit stacking, you go to different bureaus. Right. So each bank gets, you know, they pull from different bureaus. So, for example, Navy Federal Credit Union, they pull from TransUnion.

[00:34:19] So if I go to Bank of America who pulls from Experian, they're not going to see that. Right. So if we look at inquiries and you don't want to stress out your credit profile, and this is basically for business funding, but you can do this when you're trying to fund yourself as well. Right. So if you want to, you know, not stress out your credit profile, not get 15, 16 inquiries, go to different banks that pull from different, you know, you know, bureaus. Right. So if you can get, you know, one bank that pulls from Navy Fed, one pulls from Experian, you

[00:34:46] know, TransUnion with Navy Fed and Bank of America with Experian, and then go to one that pulls with Equifax, you're not really going to stress out your credit profile. But here's the big thing with that. Don't go get like three cards on one bureau. Right. Because that's going to stress out your credit profile. But if you want to, you can. Right. If you know you can pay them off, you can do it. But all I would say is, you know, that it's different for different people. But all I would say is you have to know how to use your credit cards. And when you do, you don't want to open new accounts within, you know, around six to seven months.

[00:35:16] Right. So if you get six credit cards. Right. You don't need to be open. Like you go through sequences. Right. That's why I talked about sequence because you can go through a sequence and get six credit cards. But you don't need to be going next week and trying to go get six more. Right. Like play it safe. Especially when you don't when you're not sure what you're doing. Right. Like if you're just trying to fund your business or you're just trying to get personal credit, you're trying to redo your home, you're trying to get an auto loan, you can go get stuff in sequences. But make sure you're not going to, you know, different banks within that six to seven month period.

[00:35:46] Some banks are even going to be 12 month periods. That's that goes back to inquiries, too, because a bank will deny you a loan if you have too many inquiries in a certain amount of time. Like, for example, Chase, they have that 524 rule to where you cannot apply for any more five or more of their credit cards. Right. You can't have five or more accounts. Don't matter whether it's their credit cards. Discover you can't have five accounts open in 24 months or they're automatically going to deny you. So certain banks have certain rules. Right.

[00:36:14] So if you're like stressing out your credit profile, you're trying to go get 16 different credit cards in two months, you're probably going to get denied for a lot of that. So it's all about being strategic. So if you want to, you know, build your credit, don't like stress your profile out. But you can go you can go to different bureaus and still run some place. Right. So there's different things that you can do. So, wow. That that's a lot of financial what not right there that I didn't even know of, you know,

[00:36:39] that y'all she y'all might need to have the notebook and notepad ready for this right here because that that's some good things about, you know, stretching out the credit stretching and stuff. You know, I didn't even realize that, you know. So shifting gears to content creators like myself, you know. So when should content creators start treating their content like a business? At what point it should be when they're starting out or at what point?

[00:37:07] Because I feel like people need to do it for a while before they started as a business because some people, they might start it and then they might not like it, you know. So what do you think? No, I agree with you. I think that it really depends on what you're trying to do. Like for me, for example, I would like if you're in finances, you might want to build up some rapport first. Right. A big thing that you can do is like lifestyle. Right. If you want to do like lifestyle, you live in that the lifestyle that you want to sell to people.

[00:37:37] Like if you're selling finances, you're like me. If I'm selling credit repair, people don't want to see that. You know, I'm living in the hood. Right. So if I go and I and I'm like in a, you know, trap house or something, it's not going to look like I can sell someone a new lifestyle with credit repair. So it depends on your industry. But if you're like an entrepreneur, content is going to be the biggest thing you could do right now. Like we're in the age of content. You can stream. You can get on. We on Riverside right now. You can get on live. You can. I use Riverside for a lot of things.

[00:38:07] You can go. You can do, you know, so many different things. But if you're an entrepreneur, your business has to be a part of your journey. So if you're trying to do content, I would say start when you're ready. Like start when you're like when you're seeing some traction, when you got some people paying attention to you because everybody got social media, right? Everybody got personal accounts. Another thing you can argue is that you can start a personal brand.

[00:38:34] And that's one of the biggest ways any business can, you know, move, right? Like if you go on certain pages, you don't see a lot of people. Like, for example, she might do someone might do nails, right? She's probably not posting every single time she gets a client because a lot of times she might wake up and show you that she's taking her kids to school. She might show you how she went and had lunch today and didn't have to, you know, be at work at 9 a.m. or something like that, right? So there's different ways you can make content work for you. But if you're not ready and if you don't know what you want to do, I would say don't even start, right?

[00:39:04] And some people are going to tell you just start, just start. Or yeah, you can just start. But I'm one of those people that you got to have a plan first, right? If you don't have a plan, you don't know what you're trying to do. Or just like you said, you might start it and then a couple months from now, you're not consistent because you don't really want to do that, right? Or say you're not even someone who wants to get behind the camera. If you don't want to get behind the camera, like when I first started, I ain't gonna lie, like I never thought like I'd be doing a podcast, right? Like I never thought that I was going to, you know, start, you know, you know, speaking on stage. I never thought I was going to do that.

[00:39:33] I always wanted to do music, but I got on a different type of stage, right? But when I got behind that camera, it was a way for me to be like, okay, I don't, I know how you don't have to come to me. I'm going to come to you, right? So certain people, it works, but certain people, it doesn't work. And I think you got to know who you are and what you want to do before you even do content. And then sometimes people get consumed by that shit. Like they don't, they, that's who they become then in a couple of years, right? Like, um, so if you like, I want to be a content creator, I just want to do it so bad.

[00:40:03] And that starts changing you. You might want to, you know, take a few steps back, but I think you just have to know who you are and know like what situations you can handle. Cause a lot of people don't want to get behind the camera. Um, they might want to have somebody do it for them, you know? That's real. That's definitely real. Um, people, they, they're definitely in certain situations. Um, I've had, I've been in the podcast game for years and, um, I've had people I've had on that day and even creating concerts today. So it's like, so I know that fully well.

[00:40:30] So for the seasoned creators out there, how much should they save up for their taxes? Because you know, living in America and for all you foreigners enjoying the world cup right now, if y'all decide to move to America, just know uncle Sam is going to get his cut out of everything. So, cause I know you see the people for the world cup, they just enjoying America, but

[00:40:57] it's like, it's like, it's a, it's a front because America is, you know, it's like a front, you know, it's like, yeah, it's the world cup. So you're going to see the best of America right now. So, but I say all that to say is, um, how much should content creators be putting aside for taxes? Because you know, every January, every first of the month, every first of a new year and at the start of the new year, tax is going to come out.

[00:41:23] And I would hate for people to have to lose things that they worked so hard for because they didn't satisfy their taxes. So how much should people be putting aside for taxes? Okay. So there's a two things, right? So when you talk about taxes and don't, don't, don't buy my head off for this one, but I'm not a, uh, I'm not a tax expert, but what I do know a little bit about saving taxes. And I do know a little bit about business owners that want to save taxes. And when you're a content creator and you're making money off of that, you've then become

[00:41:53] a business, right? You've became a business. You're making money off of something that you give back value for, right? So if you look at that as someone who's a business owner or entrepreneur, whatever you want to call it, you have to put money away for taxes. It's a non-negotiable, right? Um, so if you look at, you know, just numbers, right? You want to at least put away 30% of your earnings, like your whole earnings towards taxes. And then if you, if you spend it, you don't spend it all right.

[00:42:21] Save you, you got to spend 5,000 on taxes, but you put away 10,000 for the whole year. Guess what? You just got $5,000 that you can go put into your business again. But what I will say is you have to have a tax strategist, right? Um, I, uh, definitely on my other podcast, um, uh, we're on, uh, the liquor talk podcast, but if you go look at one of my other, uh, podcast episodes, I was on there with Earl Harden. He's a tax strategist and you don't want to, he told me like, don't get a tax advisor, get a tax strategist, right?

[00:42:50] So you want to have people who know how taxes work. Just like you have someone who like, if you talk to me, I'll tell you what place to go run, which banks to go to. Uh, a tax strategist is going to show you where to put your money, what you should be doing with your money, how to grow your money, how to save your money. Right. So how to write certain things off. Um, but if you're a content creator, most of that money that you're like, you, you, you're getting good money, right? Content creators are making great money right now. So you, you got the money, right? Put it away. Right. I know it hurts because it coming out your pocket.

[00:43:19] You'd be like, man, this, this has been sitting here this whole time. I could have spent the, you know what I could have did with $10,000. Right. But then you look back and you're like, okay, but I'm compliant in my business. Right. And that's the big thing. If you want to be compliant, you want to have something going, you want to be able to, you know, uh, operate the way you're supposed to operate. Right. Then you got to put away money for taxes. If you, and even if you don't make any money, you still got to file taxes. So taxes is a big thing for anybody who's making money, whether that's a side hustle, whether

[00:43:47] that's your main business, whether that's your W2, whether you're do contract working, you have to put money away, but specifically for those content creators, you should be, you know, making sure that you're putting that money away. Cause nobody's going to do it for you. And if you don't have an accountant, nobody's going to do it for you. You're going to set yourself up for a big, big bill. Right. So it's either pay it now or you're going to pay more later. You know? Of course. Of course. You're definitely going to have to pay more later. Like, and look at what celebrities have gone through over the years.

[00:44:16] It's like they avoid uncle Sam, but guess what? They, and people will always come to collect, you know? So I'd rather, you know, just go ahead and pay it now. Go ahead and pay it now. And wow. Cause I'd rather you take it now than if you have to take it later because taking it later is going to not be good. So ladies and gentlemen, once again, this is the liquor talk podcast. Shout out to everybody that's out there tuned in. Tell us what you think about this episode.

[00:44:43] Now I do have some rapid fire questions for you. Now I've heard this myth. So many, I've heard this so many times people will be like, when you, when everyday life, you need to be paying things with a credit card instead of a debit card. What do you think about that? Yeah. Cause if you think about it is like I said earlier, and like we've been talking about putting money in the right places, if you're going to spend it anyway, why not spend it on, you know, leveraging your credit card and building it up with building that relationship with that bank, you know? Right.

[00:45:13] So, so basically people need to be paying with a credit card instead of a debit card. For sure. For sure. Everyday things. What should people use the debit card for? Just like their bills and stuff? No, you could use it for, you could use your credit for anything. The debit card you should use when you want to pay, you know, for, you know, if you just want money coming in or you got money coming in, you go spend some, uh, you know, say you go get $10 at the store, whatever that looks like.

[00:45:40] Or another thing that you could do is you only use your debit card to pay off your credit card. Big thing. And you're just putting the money in the right place. And now it looks like, you know what you're doing. You got the money anyway. So now you spend it on your credit card. You pay off your credit card. Say you do that twice instead of one time a month, you're boosting your score up. You're tricking the algorithm and your score is going to go up and you're going to, you know, get more money. That's right. That's right. Now shifting over to investing, like now everybody in the black community is like, we should

[00:46:09] have been long about investing, you know, and you're young. So you find out about it. You're at a good age to find out about it. Cause hell, I wish I would have listened when people told me, Hey, maybe you should consider investing and stuff, but I didn't know how to play the investing game. So what do you tell people about investing? Tell people that you, you invest when you're ready. And when you want to invest, I mean, here's the thing, right. And I'll kind of back up instead of saying when you're ready, you invest when your money is ready, right?

[00:46:36] When your money is looking right and you have money to put away and whether it's $5, whether it's $500, you have to put it into some type of investment, right? Whether that's stocks, whether that's a cashflow and business and mergers and acquisitions, whether that's, you know, um, you know, your personal business, right. Putting it more towards marketing, putting it more towards your personal brand. Investing is going to be the only way you separate yourself from working a job and, you know, getting where you want to be, right.

[00:47:05] As an entrepreneur or, you know, buying a house, that's going to get you closer to that. And it's going to give you a separation between your W2 job. So that's, that's the only way to get that far, right. You don't see people, you know, getting rich just off of their business, right. They get rich off of investments. Yeah. And like I said, um, I've heard that thousands of times. Um, I'm gonna get started investing sooner or later, but, um, what is a common mistake you see people make when it comes to investing is like investing into the wrong thing or they're

[00:47:34] not doing their due diligence before investing? Not doing the due diligence is the big thing because it's like, for example, like if you invest in stocks, right. If you put it in the wrong stock and you don't know how stocks work or you're just watching YouTube videos and you're just going off of that and not understanding how that works, that's going, you're going to lose some money, but you're going to lose money anyway. I don't care. I don't care what your investments is. Like most of us have missed more shots than we've made. Right. So if you look at that and you're like, okay, I'm okay with that.

[00:48:01] But another thing is understanding your, your loss, like your risk factor. Like, are you okay with losing? Like me, when I told you I was saving up money for months and then I was spending it in one day, I was okay with that. A lot of people probably couldn't do that. Right. A lot of people can't go lose a hundred thousand dollars in a casino game and not like, you know, blow their head off. Right. Some people can, right. Some people want to do more. So sometimes you got to understand what you're willing to take and what losses you're willing to take.

[00:48:28] And that's going to, uh, you know, that's going to help you learn on what to invest in. That's real. That's real. Now we are relatively young and, you know, they, they say, they keep saying that social security is going to run out. And by the time we get to be in our sixties, it's not going to be there. So what do you advise people that are young, that are in their twenties and thirties about retirement accounts? You know, make your own retirement account, um, build a trust, do something to where you're

[00:48:57] protecting your wealth and somebody else is not protecting your wealth. Whether it's, whether it's your house, whether you're young and you don't have anything yet, set yourself up for the future, because if you don't, you're going to be, you know, 70, 60 years old, and you're going to have to depend on social security. You're going to have to depend on, you know, the check that you get from the veterans every month, not to say that there's anything wrong with getting those checks, but you don't want to have to depend on that. You don't want to have to say, this is all of my income coming in from social security.

[00:49:26] So when you're young, plant those seeds and let them grow and make sure that, like I said, you're investing in the right things. You get your credit, right. You know how to protect your wealth once you get it and that you become a business owner and entrepreneur. Because if you look at the way things are going right now, that's the only way we're going to be able to fix this gap between the rich and the poor is if the poor stop being in that, like we said, that survival mindset and they get off the couch and they put their feet to the pavement and they go learn some things and understand how important information is. So that's the big thing.

[00:49:56] If you don't know what you're doing, you ain't going to have no plan. And then you're going to be 60, 70 years old, depending on the government, which is the worst thing you could do. Yes, it's definitely the worst thing you could do because I've seen so many reports saying that, oh, the millennials and the Gen Zs and they are not going to have social security because, you know, it's like we paying for it now. But it's like they're saying we ain't going to have it when it's our time. So I would definitely need people to be like, y'all need to go ahead and start investing

[00:50:25] into it. And next up, when it comes to investing, what are your thoughts when people talk to you about real estate? Because they always say real estate is good. But as you can see, housing markets will crash. And at the rate, people are jacking up the rent right now. So you mentioned downsizing. I don't blame you because I had to downsize my damn self because the way they keep jacking up the rent right now, it's about to crash sooner or later because people are going to get tired of this shit.

[00:50:54] It's like it's always going up, but the rate of pay is not going up. So what do you tell people when it comes to real estate? Listen, you said people is going to get tired. They're already tired. They're done because it's like that's one of the biggest reason I had to downsize. I went from a two bedroom apartment paying and I'm in Colorado. So that's one of the most expensive states out here right now. Like we're like right like you go to L.A., you're going to spend around the same much as you would in New York if you come to Colorado. Right.

[00:51:23] So it's extremely expensive. I would have never guessed that, but continue. It's expensive, man. And it's like the you know, it's a beautiful state. Like I love my state. I'm proud to be I'm from Colorado. Right. But here's the thing about when it comes to real estate. Right. You have to understand that whether the market is up or down, you need to invest. Right. I would recommend do it when it's down, because this is the same thing with stocks. If you understand investments, then you have to look at, you know, what are people doing? Right.

[00:51:52] So when the market is down, that's when you want to buy. Right. Because when you have people that are, you know, distressed, when you have people that, you know, for homes going into foreclosure, when you have people who can't afford a one bedroom apartment. Right. That's where you're going to have a lot of success because you dealing with a lot of people who just don't know what they're doing. Right. Obviously, if you if you look at the economy right now, it's just it's just horrible. Right. And people can't afford it.

[00:52:17] And in Colorado, you got to have two jobs and a roommate just to be able to make a $800, $900 rent because then the prices of the food are so high. We all see these gas prices. So if you look at the economy, real estate is going to be the only thing that you can invest in, whether the economy is up or the economy is down, because real estate is going to give you a lot of leverage that nobody else has. But where do you get the money for that? Right. So that's the big thing.

[00:52:46] I would tell people if you're one of them, if you really want to build wealth, invest in real estate. You don't need to have credit to invest in real estate. You don't need to have money on hand to invest in real estate. But what you do have to have is coaching and people who know what they're doing and who are really in the field with it. Because if you're just, you know, trying to go get all your homies and you guys are going to try and go get an Airbnb and then you wonder why it's not, you know, you don't put it on the South side where but you're making the Airbnb $5,000 a night. That ain't going to work. Right.

[00:53:14] So you got to know what you're doing. You got to know where you're putting your space. You got to know what type of space, whether you're trying to get an Airbnb or you're trying to get a commercial space. Right. You got to know what you're doing. And I think that whether, you know, you you know about real estate or you don't know about real estate, you want to know about real estate. Right. Because I think I looked at some statistic. It might be different now because this was like a while ago, but around 90 percent of the most wealthy people invest in real estate. So if you look at that and like I said, the game is to be studied. So you want to study the rich people. They got real estate.

[00:53:44] They got properties. Right. So you can you can do a lot of things with real estate. But the biggest thing is you got to do something. So real estate, if you really want to, you know, build some type of wealth, real estate, you got to have something in there that has real estate in there. I don't care if it's one property. I don't care if it's 20 properties. You got to have some. Yeah, I would definitely say just start off with one and go from there because it's like because they say starting off, you're going to take more losses. But it's like you got to be OK with taking the losses to get somewhere because I've heard

[00:54:12] stories of how rich people, they they didn't start breaking even. And so they got their fourth or fifth property. So I would definitely agree. You know, you definitely got to start somewhere because the way the market is going now and the way everything is going now, you need to be investing. And also, I agree with you on everything being expensive because I'm here in Florida and it's just as jacked up as California, Texas is California. I never thought I'd say that. But Florida is just as bad as all the other states.

[00:54:41] So because the thing is, you get a lot of people that want to come here from different places because they say it's so expensive. Well, it's you people that's making it expensive because I know you feel the same way about Colorado because I know it's like Arizona and Colorado. Like when people want to leave Los Angeles or San Francisco, that's where they're heading. I've been seeing a lot of people from the South out here. Like it's so many people from South Carolina out here, a lot of people from Texas.

[00:55:07] So people like there's so many like I like if you are really from Colorado, it's the inside thing. But people that are really from Colorado and we introduce ourselves and you're like, yeah, I'm from Colorado, too. That's not really heard of out here. You know, there's so many different people from outside of Colorado that are living in Colorado now. And it's like people are trying to they're trying to adapt to what's going on. And you want to find something that seems like home. Right. Or you want to find something that may be totally different. But then you come out here and you're like, damn, these are my people. Right.

[00:55:37] So a lot of people just they get the moving and they start they thinking that they doing something better. But then you go to that new state and you got new problems. Right. So it's it's a big thing. And it's like I know like I ain't been to Florida yet, but I know like in Texas, it's horrible. Cali is horrible. And it's just like there's like what do people do at that point? And that's why people are getting so like just so, you know, just frustrated. But, you know, Trump's having, you know, UFC matches at the White House.

[00:56:05] You know, he have a UFC matches and he's always at the World Cup, you know, and right. And shout out to Knicks for winning the title. But the one game they lost, he was there, you know, so it's like it's and they went crazy. Like when they won the cup, not the cup when they won the finals. I think they said like 60 people that went to jail that night. Like they was just acting up. Yeah. Some places go buck wild when they went to hell.

[00:56:34] Hell, I'm pretty sure y'all are the same way in Colorado. I done seen some Colorado teams winning championships. I know it probably doesn't get got rowdy out there, you know. For sure, for sure. It really did. Yeah. Like I remember when we saw some of our teams here winning. It definitely got rowdy. So, but you're right about moving to another state. My advice to people, if you're going to move to another state, you need to spend some significant time in that state before moving out there. Because I've known some people that they're like, oh, I love.

[00:57:04] We're here in Florida. Next thing you know, they pack up and move here. And then six months later, they're like, what the hell did I get myself into? I'm like, you definitely need to spend some extended time in a state before deciding to move, you know. Because I remember I spent some time in California. I was spending a weekend in California. I was like, I like it out here. But then I looked at how much California and Texas are. And I'm like, oh, hell no. I'm like, I see why there's so many people from California that be flocking any chance they

[00:57:33] get, you know. Mm-hmm. But then there's people that are like, I want to go to California. Like, okay, you're going to go and you're going to find out. Same thing with New York. You're like, oh, yeah, this ain't it. I was like, yeah. And then like Colorado is expensive out here. But like you get breaks. Like so certain things you can, you know, leverage like out here or like, for example, Texas, like you don't have like, you know, like business taxes. In Florida, I don't, y'all don't have, y'all don't have taxes, do you? No, we don't have state taxes.

[00:58:03] Yeah. And they're trying to work, they're trying to work on removing property taxes, which would be bad because it's like, there's going to be so many other things that it's going to, it's going to be a trickle down effect. I mean, you take out the property tax, they're going to get their money some other way. So it's like, it's not a good thing. Right, right. Yeah. That's, that's huge. And like, it's to be studied. Like you got to see like what things, what, what is the government and what are the people in charge doing and how are they trying to control shit?

[00:58:30] Like, it's like the same thing with the food and same thing with the healthcare, right? Like healthcare is so expensive right now. Nobody's able to afford it. They can't, you know, they can't pay for it. Then they get in medical debt and it's just getting to the point where it's like, we're on a brink of the system that we have right now is not working. And the only way we can change it up and get rid of, you know, this high inflation or

[00:58:56] even deflation, you know, you have to look at a different system and you got to look at the people in power and you got to like literally tear it down and build it all back up. That's like really what I'm seeing is the only way to change what we got going on right now. And to really like make some true differences in the economy and start, you know, building some things up and getting some things back moving and how it, how, not even how it used to be, but getting it better and getting it from where it was and making sure that people

[00:59:25] can afford to live, right? People don't have to go donate blood to, you know, go get groceries, right? People don't have to, you know, sell their cars to make sure that they're, you know, hitting rent. People don't have to go take out 16 different loans so that they can make sure that their kids are eating, right? That's horrible that like, you know, so many people are dealing with that. So many people are getting misplaced. So many people are losing their homes. And then you look at, you know, certain things with the immigration and they're getting,

[00:59:52] they're able to get stuff before we're able to get stuff. And now it just creates a whole system of people just not, they're just, they just don't care anymore. Right. And they're just like, I don't trust anybody in power and they're just going to do whatever. Right. So if we get to that point, you know, it's just going to be up. So we got it. We got to hop in gear. Yes, we definitely got to hop in gear. As we close, where can you got any final words of encouragement for the people out there?

[01:00:19] What final words of encouragement or call to action for the people out there? Yeah. Yeah. So if you guys want to find me, you know, you guys want to come chop it up with me. You guys can follow me everywhere. I'm at coach K I'm on Facebook. I am Athena Evans, my government name. I'm trying to figure out how to change it. Cause I like being called coach K, but last words of encouragement. I want to tell everybody who's watching this episode and who tuned into the liquor talk podcast. I want y'all to understand that finances and financial literacy and credit and debt is the

[01:00:49] only way that you are going to be able to get out of the rat race, right? To be able to get out of, like we talked about the matrix, right? So start investing in your financial future, start investing in your financial literacy. So you know how to gain work. So you don't have to go pay someone to learn about how the money works. You can pay someone to show you what to do, right? So you don't, you, if you know how money works, you don't got to pay for coaching. You just got to show someone which you got to hire someone to show you which place to run. Right. So that's my big thing. If you know about financial literacy, you know how money works.

[01:01:19] You can, you know, get out of the rat race. And that's what I like to teach people. That's what I, that's my movement right now. I want to start building the community. I want everybody to come together and learn how to build with each other. Right. So that's a big thing. And I appreciate you for having me coming on. I definitely, one of my favorite conversations. Hey, listen, I want to thank you for blessing the liquor talk with your presence as well. Um, definitely some eyeopening things. We definitely know that noted on here. So definitely appreciate you.

[01:01:45] Um, remember if you ever need to collaborate, if you never need anything, I might be in Florida, but I'm always a call or a DM or a text away. So I want to thank you for blessing the liquor talk with your presence. And thank you to listeners for tuning in to this episode of the liquor talk podcast. Shout out to everybody that's tuned in everywhere. Where's Apple podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio. So for the meantime, follow liquor talk at liquor talk podcast on Instagram and TikTok. And be on the lookout for the website until the next episode. Peace.