Debt-Free Living and Wealth Building: Matt Plumer’s Blueprint for Stress-Free Financial Freedom

Are you trapped in the debt cycle or fearing your next financial move? Ever wondered how to manage your finances when your income is as unpredictable as an entrepreneur's journey?  

In this episode, we're diving into the world wealth-building with the amazing Matt Plumer. As a financial coach and real estate agent, Matt specializes in guiding agents and entrepreneurs, including couples, to financial stability.

Join us as Matt unpacks the unique challenges entrepreneurs face, like dealing with inconsistent income and financial chaos. He's all about living with intention and making smart money moves, something he's mastered through his own transformative journey of overcoming addiction, weight struggles, and debt.

Matt's not just talking finance; he's sharing life-changing insights on the power of positive relationships, protecting your energy, and letting your finances flow naturally. He and his wife have navigated their financial journey together, learning the art of open communication about money, setting goals, and escaping the debt trap to focus on growth and opportunities.

Matt Plumer is more than a financial and business coach; he's a speaker, author, and real-life success story. He's dedicated to helping real estate professionals and entrepreneurs organize their finances and break free from debt, leading them towards a stress-free, wealthy life.

An avid runner and fitness enthusiast, Matt is a familiar face at half marathons and loves his Orange Theory & CrossFit sessions. His passion extends beyond fitness to guiding individuals and families on their debt-free journeys through Financial Peace University.

Ready for some financial wisdom coupled with real-life inspiration? Tune in as Matt Plumer shares his journey and expertise in building a life free of financial fear and full of opportunities.

Key Takeaways:
Inconsistent income and financial disorganization are the two main stressors for entrepreneurs and entrepreneur couples.
Living intentionally and making a plan for every dollar before spending it is crucial for financial stability.
Surrounding yourself with the right relationships and protecting your energy are key to success in all areas of life.
Awareness, decision-making, and intentionality are the three steps to transformation.
It's important to have a clear vision of what you want in the future and reverse engineer your goals to create a plan for achieving them.

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Transcript

[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:00 - (Matt Plumer): You start living on a lifestyle, and then if our income drops, our lifestyle can't drop fast enough. And that's where we get stuck. And we use credit cards and you buy things on payments. Our greatest wealth building tools are income. So we can really scrimp and save over here because there's no money and you don't want to go make more money. Or we can live intentionally and let's go focus the next year, two years, three years in raising this right. I call it raising the bridge versus lowering the water.

0:00:33 - (Matt Plumer): There was a time in my life I would not have fitten in this chair.

0:00:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, really?

0:00:37 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. I mean, I was 300 pounds 1112 years ago, and alcoholic, addictive sports gambler, smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, fast food twice a day, and half a million dollars in debt.

0:00:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): Everyone, welcome back to the fit and frugal podcast. I am your host, Tawni Nguyen. You can find me on IG at Tawnisaurus. So today I'm here with my friend Matt P;umer. He's a financial coach.

0:01:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Real know, I kind of forget.

0:01:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): What?

0:01:05 - (Matt Plumer): Real estate agent.

0:01:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, you can do it better.

0:01:06 - (Matt Plumer): Financial coach.

0:01:08 - (Matt Plumer): Financial coach for real estate agents, entrepreneurs and entrepreneur. Couples is definitely people that generally attract.

0:01:17 - (Matt Plumer): Or flow into my world.

0:01:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:01:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Why do you think that is? I remember you mentioning something that stuck out to me was financial instability.

0:01:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): Right?

0:01:28 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah.

0:01:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you feel like couples have a harder time when they're both entrepreneurs?

0:01:31 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. That is such a tough battle that they go into it unknowing how tough.

0:01:39 - (Matt Plumer): That'S going to be after now thousands of conversations with mostly real estate agents or other entrepreneurs.

0:01:48 - (Matt Plumer): The two things that we have found.

0:01:50 - (Matt Plumer): That the two things that stress agents.

0:01:52 - (Matt Plumer): And entrepreneurs and even couples out the most is inconsistent income and then also financial disorganization.

0:02:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): Can you elaborate on that?

0:02:02 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah.

0:02:03 - (Matt Plumer): As entrepreneurs, especially real estate agents, that's really who my client is.

0:02:10 - (Matt Plumer): At the core is that when $20,000.

0:02:14 - (Matt Plumer): Comes in, one, two, three different closings.

0:02:16 - (Matt Plumer): On a specific month, so many people have lived a lifestyle that has a certain number.

0:02:24 - (Matt Plumer): And so the money that comes in.

0:02:26 - (Matt Plumer): Has generally already spoken for, whether that's.

0:02:30 - (Matt Plumer): Payments or lifestyle or debt or whatever it might be. But also as real estate agents, everybody.

0:02:38 - (Matt Plumer): When you start the world of real estate, nobody signed up for raises their hand.

0:02:43 - (Matt Plumer): They want to do open houses every week. They want to sell real estate forever, and they want to make sure they.

0:02:48 - (Matt Plumer): Talk to 50 people a day.

0:02:49 - (Matt Plumer): Like, nobody signed up for real estate because of that. They signed up for the freedom and the flexibility and the entrepreneurship and all of that.

0:02:57 - (Matt Plumer): And so when you put $20,000 a month into someone's bank account that doesn't.

0:03:04 - (Matt Plumer): Know how to run a business or has never been taught to run a business, they think all $20,000 is theirs.

0:03:10 - (Matt Plumer): So they live a $20,000 lifestyle, but.

0:03:13 - (Matt Plumer): They forget to or haven't allocated money.

0:03:16 - (Matt Plumer): For profit and taxes and business expenses.

0:03:22 - (Matt Plumer): And future things and opportunities and investments into the business.

0:03:27 - (Matt Plumer): And so they just start this transaction.

0:03:29 - (Matt Plumer): They're just caught on this transaction treadmill. And a lot of it can be overcome because of, with organization and then also consistent income.

0:03:38 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think that's one of the language I really like is people don't think budgeting is sexy.

0:03:42 - (D): No.

0:03:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): But to reframe it, it's just budgeting is just telling your money what to do instead of figuring out where your money went after 100%, it's just telling.

0:03:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): Your money what to do before you spend it.

0:03:54 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, right.

0:03:55 - (Matt Plumer): I don't care what you spend your money on.

0:03:58 - (Matt Plumer): That is not my job.

0:04:00 - (Matt Plumer): Now, I will give some coaching or.

0:04:02 - (Matt Plumer): Advice or counseling or consulting if I might see something that's out of hand. For example, spending $300 on food and $3,000 on golf, we might want to.

0:04:16 - (Matt Plumer): Slide those numbers in a different direction. Right. Or to where it's balanced. I don't want you to eat peanut butter and jelly every day, but you.

0:04:23 - (Matt Plumer): Get to go play golf 24/7 same.

0:04:26 - (Matt Plumer): Thing with, like, there's got to be some balance, right?

0:04:28 - (Matt Plumer): And so it's just saying, hey, I'm.

0:04:31 - (Matt Plumer): Making $10,000 a month or $6,000 a month or 60,000 or 60,0000, whatever the.

0:04:36 - (Matt Plumer): Numbers are, you have to tell every dollar what to do before you spend it.

0:04:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): That was my biggest mistake, too, having.

0:04:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): A more disposable income when I was.

0:04:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): A bartender and, like, multiple streams of income that I was kind of mismanaging is because it was cash and it was just flowing from all sorts of places. It was in different bank accounts, it was going to my businesses. When I was going to college, I didn't have time to manage my money, so it was just kind of staggered everywhere. And I think my spending stayed at an inflated lifestyle that I didn't realize I picked up. And then once when I went back to college, it was kind of less. And then I still lived on the same expenses.

0:05:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): And that's exactly what you were talking about, right?

0:05:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): The disorganization.

0:05:17 - (Matt Plumer): Well, and it's also when we start living and have that lifestyle creep kick in as we start making more money in business and entrepreneurship, and we get into real estate, and we have real estate investing, and we start investing in the stock market or real estate capital.

0:05:32 - (Matt Plumer): Funds, or whatever it might be, and you start living on a lifestyle, and.

0:05:38 - (Matt Plumer): Then if our income drops, our lifestyle.

0:05:41 - (Matt Plumer): Can'T drop fast enough, and that's where we get stuck. And we use credit cards, and you.

0:05:46 - (Matt Plumer): Buy things on payments. And obviously, in this town, I mean, anyone on the corner will lend you.

0:05:51 - (Matt Plumer): Money at 37% interest, and next thing you know, your income is back up.

0:05:57 - (Matt Plumer): To where it is. But you can't catch up because you've.

0:06:00 - (Matt Plumer): Overextended yourself on obligations.

0:06:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Especially consumer debt or.

0:06:04 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, whatever it is. Right.

0:06:05 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, it can.

0:06:06 - (Matt Plumer): Cars, student loans, credit cards, and it doesn't take much.

0:06:10 - (D): Yeah.

0:06:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you think that's where a lot.

0:06:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Of the root issues for couples who are entrepreneurs together or take on that journey together is that they can't have that financial conversation at the beginning of the relationship?

0:06:20 - (Matt Plumer): I think that they don't want to.

0:06:25 - (Matt Plumer): And I know for the longest time, it probably.

0:06:30 - (Matt Plumer): 40 years ago, when my.

0:06:33 - (Matt Plumer): Mom and dad met in high school.

0:06:35 - (Matt Plumer): There was no money.

0:06:36 - (Matt Plumer): So it was like, why even have we all.

0:06:38 - (Matt Plumer): We both have zero, right?

0:06:40 - (Matt Plumer): Today, you're getting people that move out of that come out of college.

0:06:46 - (Matt Plumer): Some have $200,000 worth of debt, and some make $100,000 a year the day.

0:06:52 - (Matt Plumer): They move out of. The day they leave college. And that's because of, obviously, the opportunities that are out there, right. With the Internet and YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and all the stuff where you can truly have a business in.

0:07:02 - (Matt Plumer): The dorm room where that didn't even.

0:07:04 - (Matt Plumer): Exist unless you were a bookie 15 years ago, which I'm sure there are people on my floor in college that were.

0:07:11 - (Matt Plumer): Right.

0:07:12 - (Matt Plumer): So now I think that people.

0:07:15 - (Matt Plumer): They don't want to talk about it.

0:07:17 - (Matt Plumer): Or they think it's too personal.

0:07:19 - (Matt Plumer): But, I mean, if we're going to.

0:07:21 - (Matt Plumer): Go on dates every week.

0:07:25 - (Matt Plumer): And if.

0:07:26 - (Matt Plumer): It'S more than dinner, if it's more.

0:07:27 - (Matt Plumer): Than the movie, we need to have conversation on who's paying for it and.

0:07:31 - (Matt Plumer): How is paying for it. And I think that's an easy way to start talking about, hey, Tawni Hey, we've gone on some dates. Or Malinda, right? My wife. Like, hey, we've gone on some dates. If we're starting to see ourselves go.

0:07:45 - (Matt Plumer): Down the road, let me ask you this. How do you handle your money?

0:07:47 - (Matt Plumer): Like, if you make $10,000 a month.

0:07:49 - (Matt Plumer): How do you handle it?

0:07:50 - (Matt Plumer): I don't really care about your debt or your background.

0:07:52 - (Matt Plumer): Like today, if you make ten grand, how do you handle it?

0:07:56 - (Matt Plumer): And ask me the same thing. And as you go down that road and you become together and more engaged, and then as married as a couple. I think the biggest challenge that couples.

0:08:06 - (Matt Plumer): Have is that they don't have a conversation around goals and money and what they want for their life, and then.

0:08:15 - (Matt Plumer): That just defaults into what's mine is mine, and what's Melinda's is Melinda's. And, hey, she makes this and I make this. And, yeah, we go on some trips.

0:08:23 - (Matt Plumer): Together, but the money never talks to each other.

0:08:26 - (Matt Plumer): I think that's just a really big.

0:08:28 - (Matt Plumer): Challenge that a lot of couples have.

0:08:30 - (Matt Plumer): To overcome if that's how they handle.

0:08:31 - (Matt Plumer): Their finances versus.

0:08:35 - (Matt Plumer): My personal income comes into an account, Malinda's personal income comes into an account, and then we decide.

0:08:40 - (Matt Plumer): As a family and as a couple.

0:08:43 - (Matt Plumer): What we do with that amount of.

0:08:44 - (Matt Plumer): Money every single month.

0:08:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:08:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you think a lot of that shapes to societal expectations? Because the traditional route is the man.

0:08:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is the provider, the woman is the nurturer at home, and doesn't really have.

0:08:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): These resources or the knowledge to handle a lot of money until lately.

0:09:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): To where women are more outspoken.

0:09:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): They make their own money, so they want to keep it kind of separate.

0:09:06 - (Matt Plumer): Right.

0:09:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): So where does that conversation kick in?

0:09:08 - (Matt Plumer): I just think that it's going to be around.

0:09:11 - (Matt Plumer): I believe it's who you surround yourself with.

0:09:14 - (Matt Plumer): I know that I surround myself with.

0:09:16 - (Matt Plumer): People that have common goals and philosophies.

0:09:22 - (Matt Plumer): And not ideals, but, like, we don't worship money, but we have the same beliefs around finances, and that our spouse, regardless if that spouse is a homemaker with three kids, or that spouse makes $2 million a year because she's the CEO of XYZ, and anywhere in between that, regardless of what that person makes, it's all our money. And I just think that if you're not having that conversation with people, you.

0:09:50 - (Matt Plumer): Should, because it's affecting your relationship, whether.

0:09:54 - (Matt Plumer): You believe it or not. I believe it's affecting your relationship, and.

0:09:57 - (Matt Plumer): It'S 100% affecting your wealth building journey.

0:10:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I completely agree.

0:10:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think to be aligned on a.

0:10:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): Mission, especially something that I think my.

0:10:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): Partner and I talk about, it's like, hey, it's our values aligned, our mission, and especially our lifestyle.

0:10:14 - (D): Right.

0:10:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): And then the first couple of conversations before we've been dated, seriously, we have, like, debt dates. That's what we call them.

0:10:20 - (Matt Plumer): There you go.

0:10:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): Lay it out on the table.

0:10:22 - (Matt Plumer): I like it.

0:10:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Taking it debt dates?

0:10:25 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. You have debt dates.

0:10:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Where are you at on personal finances? What do you spend on? And I'm pretty open. I'm like, hey, this is my spreadsheet.

0:10:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): This is how far I've gone from.

0:10:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): Being completely an emotional spender and impulsive.

0:10:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Spender, because there's months to where it's just a wreckage.

0:10:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, I'm just going to be honest with you.

0:10:42 - (Matt Plumer): Well, yeah. And, hey, you know what? I busted the budget this month. Or, hey, I went way out on this category, and we experienced that a little bit. Not necessarily today, twelve months after, but.

0:10:55 - (Matt Plumer): We just moved to Las Vegas twelve months ago.

0:10:58 - (Matt Plumer): And for the first one.

0:11:02 - (Matt Plumer): I'm a planner.

0:11:03 - (Matt Plumer): Right? I'm the nerd. I'm the spreadsheet guy. Melinda's like, what's my fun money for the month? And I'm like, okay, I've got a 13 generation spreadsheet, right? That's not that crazy. But you get the point. So we saved a ton of money because I looked into the future, and I think that's one of the superpowers.

0:11:23 - (Matt Plumer): I have with the coaching clients that I work with, is I can see.

0:11:27 - (Matt Plumer): Things before you even know they exist.

0:11:30 - (Matt Plumer): When it comes to money. For example, when we were moving, we.

0:11:35 - (Matt Plumer): Have movers, we have furniture, we have window treatments, we have things that are going in the house, like the light fixtures and the ceiling fans and all of that stuff. And that stuff's just going to cost.

0:11:44 - (Matt Plumer): A ton of money.

0:11:45 - (Matt Plumer): Throughout this process. I also know how people, when they move into something and they get something.

0:11:51 - (Matt Plumer): New, because I've had so many conversations with people that, hey, we're going to.

0:11:56 - (Matt Plumer): Need new plates and new spatulas and new rugs and new this and new lamps and all this stuff.

0:12:02 - (Matt Plumer): So we planned for it, and it still wasn't enough. And so I set aside a certain amount of money to just allow Melinda.

0:12:12 - (Matt Plumer): To just do her thing for the.

0:12:14 - (Matt Plumer): First 90 days right now, there were guardrails. Right. Had to. But you have to have those conversations.

0:12:21 - (Matt Plumer): With your spouse and even your partner.

0:12:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Right.

0:12:26 - (Matt Plumer): And I think the best and easiest.

0:12:28 - (Matt Plumer): Way to bring it up is to share your journey.

0:12:33 - (D): Right?

0:12:33 - (E): So, case in point, we started our.

0:12:36 - (Matt Plumer): Financial journey back in 2014, 2013 14.

0:12:40 - (D): 2014.

0:12:41 - (E): And we were making some traction. And I started talking. I started asking my mom some questions around her money and her debt and this and that, or their finances, right.

0:12:54 - (Matt Plumer): Not necessarily, like, with their business, but, hey, what are you guys thinking about this? And where are you guys thinking about that? And it very easily came to that powdered butt syndrome, right?

0:13:04 - (E): She was like, you powdered my butt.

0:13:06 - (Matt Plumer): We don't need to talk about money. Or, I powdered your butt. We don't need to talk about money.

0:13:09 - (E): Right?

0:13:10 - (Matt Plumer): And I couldn't tell my mom what.

0:13:12 - (E): To do with money, but I could.

0:13:14 - (Matt Plumer): Share with her how much debt that.

0:13:16 - (E): We paid off and that we paid off a car.

0:13:19 - (Matt Plumer): We sold a car, we eliminated this.

0:13:21 - (E): Credit card debt, and that got her.

0:13:23 - (Matt Plumer): Engaged to where she started asking me questions.

0:13:27 - (D): Right.

0:13:27 - (Matt Plumer): So if you have a partner that's.

0:13:28 - (E): Not open or doesn't want to share.

0:13:31 - (Matt Plumer): Or willing or doesn't, or there's some conflict and that's a business partner or a spouse or you're dating anyone, just serious, like, cool.

0:13:41 - (E): Can I tell you what I've done? Because I'm very proud of it.

0:13:44 - (Matt Plumer): Right? I have a net worth of this, and I paid off $14,000 last month, or I saved $10,000 to invest into a sep IRA or $6,000 into a sep or a retirement account or whatever.

0:14:00 - (E): I think you just come from that.

0:14:01 - (Matt Plumer): Vulnerability and say, hey, here's all my.

0:14:03 - (E): Stuff, and here's the journey I'm on. I think it's just going to open up that conversation a little more.

0:14:10 - (D): Yeah.

0:14:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think one of the values that I misplaced, I guess, within myself is.

0:14:14 - (C): The fact that at the core, I'm pretty frugal.

0:14:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think I just kind of lost.

0:14:19 - (C): It within the lifestyle.

0:14:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Inflated versions of myself in my 20s, with all the drinking, it didn't really help because bar taps cost a lot, and coming from. As an ex bartender, I know the margins on how much drinks cost because I ran the bars and I know how much things cost, but I still.

0:14:35 - (C): Go out and spend money, and I think that kind of leads into how.

0:14:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): Disconnected I was from my own finances is because I was kind of falsifying connections with people. It's because those kind of friends that.

0:14:47 - (C): You meet at bars and your drinking.

0:14:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): Buddies and all that stuff, we've never really had any eventual goals together to make more money or to do anything until I kind of moved here. And I think that was the costly.

0:14:59 - (C): Mistake that I lived for about ten years plus.

0:15:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think within my teenage years, too, just doing things that are cash based. And cash is so much harder to.

0:15:09 - (C): Track than if I was getting a.

0:15:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Steady income, which I never really had. A true w two.

0:15:14 - (Matt Plumer): Sure.

0:15:15 - (C): I think I held a mall job.

0:15:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): For less than a year. I was miserable. I think on the third month I'm like, I can't do this. I can't have someone tell me what to do for $8 an hour, right? This was like 2008, I think, and it was terrible. And I'm like, I don't think this is the life I wanted to live. So it's good that you kind of brought that up with sharing your journey with your partner. Does that conversation happen before an engagement, or is that a red flag that people should be looking out?

0:15:43 - (D): No.

0:15:43 - (Matt Plumer): I think today, if you're in the.

0:15:46 - (E): Dating world now and you're going through.

0:15:50 - (Matt Plumer): The dates and the conversations and you.

0:15:52 - (E): Find people that you're connected with, I personally would be transparent. I think that's more attractive than holding.

0:16:02 - (Matt Plumer): Things close to the vest. That's just my personal opinion. You're also talking to someone that hasn't gone on a date with anyone else since 1998. So I don't know what the dating world is like. Right. So I have zero comprehension on what that looks like.

0:16:17 - (E): However, I know that if I am.

0:16:21 - (Matt Plumer): Open and transparent, and it's because I've been open and transparent since day one of social through my alcoholism and my journey and my weight transformation and financial transformation, and now business and moving relocation.

0:16:36 - (E): Like, I just think that that's going.

0:16:38 - (Matt Plumer): To be so much more powerful and impactful for the relationship and that other person than if you just kind of.

0:16:45 - (E): Hold things close to the vest for.

0:16:47 - (Matt Plumer): A really long period of time.

0:16:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): Where did you relocate from?

0:16:49 - (Matt Plumer): We were in northern Virginia, so in the Ashburn Sterling Reston area, Dulles airport, Tyson's corner corridor.

0:16:58 - (E): We lived there for 20 some od years since college.

0:17:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, what was your decision like, moving here? Has your lifestyle and spending changed since.

0:17:05 - (C): You moved to Vegas?

0:17:06 - (Matt Plumer): That's such a good question.

0:17:09 - (E): Yes and no.

0:17:11 - (Matt Plumer): Our lifestyle has dramatically changed from a.

0:17:14 - (E): Quality of life standpoint, and we spend the same amount of money than we did in northern Virginia.

0:17:23 - (Matt Plumer): We just spend it a little differently.

0:17:25 - (E): Here, frankly, because we don't have the same type of. We lived in a high rise, a.

0:17:33 - (Matt Plumer): Thousand square foot apartment for five or.

0:17:35 - (E): Six years in northern Virginia. So that cost is pretty confined, right?

0:17:40 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, it's just, you're paying rent, food is this much. There's only so much stuff that fits in the house.

0:17:49 - (E): So we were able to save a.

0:17:50 - (Matt Plumer): Lot of money to make this journey. Now that we've moved and we've settled.

0:17:56 - (E): We'Re spending on the consumables.

0:17:59 - (Matt Plumer): We're still spending the same amount. I would say where we are spending more is things that are improving our lifestyle and improving our quality of life, not necessarily raising our lifestyle to an all time high.

0:18:14 - (C): And what does that look like here?

0:18:16 - (E): Yeah.

0:18:19 - (Matt Plumer): It's hard to say from a food and stiff standpoint, because as we were.

0:18:24 - (E): Moving, the inflation of the economy was just going up.

0:18:28 - (Matt Plumer): It is definitely more expensive to eat.

0:18:30 - (E): Out here than it is in northern Virginia, by far.

0:18:35 - (Matt Plumer): I think some of that obviously is just the trend of how much it.

0:18:39 - (E): Costs to eat, eat out.

0:18:42 - (Matt Plumer): But for whatever reason, just know this is a couple of dollars more. This is a couple of dollars more. This is a couple of dollars more. And next thing you know, it's $20.

0:18:50 - (E): More to eat for a couple of two than it is, than it was.

0:18:55 - (Matt Plumer): To just go across the street to the rest in town center. I have no idea why, but it just does. I don't know why.

0:19:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, there's more restaurant selections here, too.

0:19:03 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. And there's more restaurant and spend more.

0:19:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Money on golf here.

0:19:06 - (Matt Plumer): Well, golf, yeah, the golf here in the shoulders, right.

0:19:12 - (E): In the April, May and the October, it can get out of hand.

0:19:17 - (Matt Plumer): Golf can get really expensive here.

0:19:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, what's the most you've spent in.

0:19:21 - (C): A month on golf?

0:19:25 - (E): Well, I mean, I played Cascada.

0:19:27 - (Matt Plumer): If I play Cascada and a couple of other golf course, you'll spend 700, $800 pretty easily. But I mean, Cascada is $500 before tip and before caddy and this and that. Shadow Creek is 1000 plus plus you can play those golf courses how often as you want.

0:19:44 - (E): But that starts eating into future possible money. Again, it's all relative, right.

0:19:54 - (Matt Plumer): That's one thing that I've learned in the last five, six years of really.

0:19:57 - (E): How I look at money, is my.

0:20:00 - (Matt Plumer): Hundred dollars is not the same as Bob's $100.

0:20:04 - (E): If he makes $3 million and if.

0:20:06 - (Matt Plumer): I make a half a million, he makes 3 million. Those hundred dollars are different, right? Him spending, it's the same $100. But the way it's just in a.

0:20:17 - (E): Relationship to his income, as long as.

0:20:21 - (Matt Plumer): The ratios are there and you're doing.

0:20:23 - (E): The right stuff with money, doesn't matter.

0:20:26 - (D): Yeah.

0:20:27 - (Matt Plumer): And that's where I'm really focused on.

0:20:29 - (E): Is like, hey, now as I'm growing.

0:20:31 - (Matt Plumer): My business and I'm encouraging and coaching.

0:20:34 - (E): My clients is like, hey, our greatest wealth building tools are income.

0:20:41 - (Matt Plumer): So we can really scrimp and save.

0:20:43 - (E): Over here because there's no money and.

0:20:46 - (Matt Plumer): You don't want to go make more money.

0:20:48 - (E): Or we can live intentionally and let's.

0:20:51 - (Matt Plumer): Go focus the next year, two years.

0:20:53 - (E): Three years in raising this right.

0:20:55 - (Matt Plumer): I call it raising the bridge versus lowering the water.

0:20:58 - (E): Let's maintain and stabilize the water so.

0:21:02 - (Matt Plumer): We can go raise the bridge. While we raise the bridge now we have much more income that we can aim at. Opportunities versus obligations.

0:21:10 - (C): That's a really good concept.

0:21:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm going to make note of that. Yeah, I just thought of a castle with a moat.

0:21:15 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. So if you think, like, our greatest.

0:21:18 - (E): Wealth building tools are income, and when.

0:21:21 - (Matt Plumer): All of our income, like it used.

0:21:23 - (E): To be for us, was going towards obligations, debt, car payments, student loans, back taxes, with IRS, it can't go towards opportunities.

0:21:35 - (Matt Plumer): Iras, 401, real estate, capital funds, saving for future opportunities.

0:21:43 - (D): Right.

0:21:45 - (Matt Plumer): Which is one of the foundations of my business of stress free wealth. Stabilize the present.

0:21:50 - (E): We structure the future.

0:21:51 - (Matt Plumer): We have to stabilize that water level.

0:21:54 - (E): First, which is the spending, so we can go raise the bridge, which is our income.

0:22:00 - (C): Yeah, this conversation, I kind of wish.

0:22:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): It was happening two years ago when I was floating in my water, when I was trying to figure out where.

0:22:08 - (Matt Plumer): The hell all my normally, how it works.

0:22:10 - (D): Right.

0:22:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, you got to drown first and then try to get yourself out.

0:22:13 - (Matt Plumer): You got to save yourself first and.

0:22:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): Then meet the right people or something like that. I think that's just how the universe works.

0:22:20 - (Matt Plumer): But it's never too late, right? I mean, on your journey, right. Your sobriety and my sobriety.

0:22:28 - (E): I met the right person at the.

0:22:29 - (Matt Plumer): Right time that challenged me to go.

0:22:31 - (E): To 90 meetings in 90 days.

0:22:35 - (D): Oh, really?

0:22:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): How long ago was that?

0:22:37 - (Matt Plumer): Eleven years ago.

0:22:38 - (C): Eleven years ago?

0:22:39 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, I didn't make it 90 days, but I stopped drinking. Yeah, I didn't go to 90 meetings, but I mean, ultimately, at the end.

0:22:49 - (E): Of the day, you just have to have that.

0:22:51 - (Matt Plumer): Transformation is a three step process. Awareness, decision, intentionality.

0:22:56 - (E): Whether it's money or finances or money.

0:22:59 - (Matt Plumer): Or weight, physical, financial, sobriety, whatever it is, whatever type of lifestyle, whatever type of transformation, you want to have those.

0:23:10 - (E): Three awareness, rock bottom moment. There was a time in my life.

0:23:14 - (Matt Plumer): I would not have fitten in this chair.

0:23:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, really?

0:23:16 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah.

0:23:17 - (E): I mean, I was 300 pounds 1112 years ago and alcoholic, addictive, sports gambler.

0:23:24 - (Matt Plumer): Smoked a pack of cigarettes a day.

0:23:25 - (E): Fast food twice a day, and half a million dollars in debt.

0:23:32 - (C): Was a lot of that your own doing or did you think that wherever.

0:23:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): You were before, that environment kind of created you?

0:23:39 - (E): So it all started with me mirroring what my dad was doing. So for all the parents that are listening to this, more is caught than taught when it comes to your kids. And I was catching everything my dad was doing. So when my parents got divorced, I.

0:24:03 - (Matt Plumer): Kind of geared off towards my dad.

0:24:04 - (E): My sister went towards my mom, and.

0:24:07 - (Matt Plumer): We were both with my mom.

0:24:08 - (E): But I was like, I'm going to.

0:24:10 - (Matt Plumer): Go hang out with dad, right? I'm going to go do that. And that's when I learned how to.

0:24:13 - (E): Play golf and all that.

0:24:14 - (Matt Plumer): But I would see him.

0:24:18 - (E): Drink in the field at 12:00.

0:24:22 - (Matt Plumer): I would see him sign for the $5 cheeseburger at the golf course, put.

0:24:29 - (E): It on the tab, right?

0:24:31 - (Matt Plumer): I would see him be with his friends and drink and just do stuff they weren't probably looking back. There's zero business doing, right? Looking back at 16, I think I'm a cool kid because I get to hang out with my dad while I'm doing all this stuff, right?

0:24:49 - (E): So I saw him sign for $5.

0:24:53 - (Matt Plumer): Cheeseburgers and $50,000 combines.

0:24:56 - (E): I just saw him do it.

0:25:00 - (D): When.

0:25:00 - (Matt Plumer): I went to college, and I borrowed money to go to college. I borrowed money to get off my first car. I had credit cards in college because I didn't know how to handle money.

0:25:08 - (E): Because I just did it. I saw my dad do it, and so I think it's all really learned at home, and then it just get into the world. But when I was at that rock bottom moment in 2012, I thought it.

0:25:27 - (Matt Plumer): Was all Melinda's fault. We were literally sitting on a couch like this. She was on one end, I was on the other. And he asked me if I could go 90 and 90, and I was.

0:25:34 - (E): Like, dude, I'll do whatever I want. But she's still going to bitch and moan, right? And that didn't go well.

0:25:42 - (Matt Plumer): But ultimately, at the end of the day, I thought it was all her fault. I thought the reason why the backseat had cartons of cigarettes and Diet coke bottles and bags of old bags of.

0:25:53 - (E): Fast food and why I drank.

0:25:55 - (Matt Plumer): Mike, I thought it was all of the nagging that she was doing on.

0:25:58 - (E): Me, but ultimately, it was all me doing it because I didn't have a relationship with her.

0:26:08 - (Matt Plumer): We were together, we were engaged, we were married. But there was no conversation.

0:26:14 - (E): It was just roommates.

0:26:16 - (Matt Plumer): And we made it official, and we got married.

0:26:18 - (E): And that was.

0:26:21 - (Matt Plumer): The vibe of our relationship in the beginning. Looking back now, yeah, we didn't see.

0:26:26 - (E): It then, but looking back, that's all it was.

0:26:30 - (D): Yeah.

0:26:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's good that you can sit here and reflect back. It kind of sounds like you're just operating both on autopilot.

0:26:35 - (Matt Plumer): Oh, it was 100% autopilot.

0:26:37 - (C): Through whatever you were trying to get through.

0:26:39 - (E): Yeah, it was tough, man.

0:26:42 - (Matt Plumer): Looking back those last couple of years.

0:26:46 - (E): My darkest moments were, like, 2008 to.

0:26:50 - (Matt Plumer): 2012.

0:26:53 - (E): 100% self inflicted. I made more money than I made.

0:26:58 - (Matt Plumer): In my entire life in those five years.

0:26:59 - (E): And the economy was going through chaos.

0:27:04 - (Matt Plumer): And I was making plenty of money, and it was just stacking. Bad habit after bad habit after bad habit. Because I had no structure, I had.

0:27:12 - (E): No goals, I didn't have a mentor.

0:27:15 - (Matt Plumer): The people that I hung out with.

0:27:16 - (E): Were just like speed pedals on the.

0:27:19 - (Matt Plumer): Right, there's no break, and let's go.

0:27:23 - (E): Had my rock bottom moment in 2012, and I didn't start with alcohol. I didn't start with.

0:27:31 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, I was.

0:27:31 - (E): I was a train wreck, but I started with weight.

0:27:34 - (Matt Plumer): And then when I got some few victories on the scale, it was easier.

0:27:38 - (E): To say no to drinking because the alcohol affected the weight loss.

0:27:43 - (Matt Plumer): Wasn't alcohol affected me or my relationship with Malinda. The alcohol affected the weight loss, so I stopped drinking it.

0:27:50 - (E): I stopped drinking as much.

0:27:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): So, like, the minute you stopped drinking.

0:27:55 - (C): You lost the weight.

0:27:56 - (Matt Plumer): So I started losing weight. I was 293 pounds, and I was 291 then. Two eightyn. And so I was seeing some victories, and I knew because I'd done it in the past, I'd lost weight.

0:28:08 - (E): Before that, if I was drinking a Coors light in Tawaka or jaeger or fireball or whatever it was I drank then that was going to hurt me losing weight. And so instead of stop drinking totally.

0:28:23 - (Matt Plumer): I was like, I'll just drink vodka instead.

0:28:26 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because it's the healthier option.

0:28:27 - (Matt Plumer): Because it's less calories. Right. Or less carbs. Right. So that plan didn't go well. But then eventually, I got to that moment. I was coming home from Washington, DC, of an event. I was driving down I 66, and I'm like, man, I am tired of.

0:28:45 - (E): Pissing away days of sobriety because I'd.

0:28:47 - (Matt Plumer): Have to come here, sit on this couch, and talk to my counselor that's sitting in that chair, and tell them that I was three days sober instead.

0:28:52 - (D): Of seven.

0:28:55 - (Matt Plumer): Because we met every Thursday at 915.

0:28:59 - (E): And every week for, like, four or.

0:29:01 - (Matt Plumer): Five weeks, I came in, and it.

0:29:02 - (E): Wasn'T seven days of sobriety. I got so mad at that that I stopped drinking.

0:29:10 - (D): May 19.

0:29:11 - (C): Yeah. Was that so?

0:29:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): At one point, you just had enough of your own shit, too?

0:29:14 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, when I stopped drinking, and I.

0:29:18 - (E): Haven'T drink since, two weeks later, I.

0:29:22 - (Matt Plumer): Had a massive blowout on gambling. I went, like, four and 27 on.

0:29:26 - (E): A weekend, lost I don't know how.

0:29:29 - (Matt Plumer): Many thousands of dollars, and I haven't.

0:29:31 - (E): Placed a bet since.

0:29:32 - (C): Oh, really?

0:29:33 - (E): So it was like, when I go.

0:29:35 - (Matt Plumer): I go, there's generally some carnage and fire and a train wreck associated with it. But thankfully, nobody got hurt.

0:29:44 - (D): Right.

0:29:44 - (Matt Plumer): It's just my own disaster. But, yeah, lost the weight, got some victories, quit drinking, and then it was fast.

0:29:53 - (E): And then once I stopped gambling and.

0:29:55 - (Matt Plumer): Drinking and focused on weight loss, I lost 30, 40 pounds in a summer. And then that started a domino run.

0:30:03 - (E): That you look back and, I mean, that's pretty significant.

0:30:07 - (D): Yeah.

0:30:08 - (Matt Plumer): Over a.

0:30:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, when you look like, do you and Melinda talk about it? Because your relationship is more intentional now.

0:30:16 - (D): Right.

0:30:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, she could have left you at any time.

0:30:18 - (C): You probably are aware of that.

0:30:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Why? Didn't know. Did you question her? Like, why didn't you just leave me.

0:30:23 - (C): If I was such a train wreck?

0:30:25 - (E): Yeah, she really loved me, and she.

0:30:30 - (Matt Plumer): Had so much faith in Jesus that.

0:30:32 - (E): I was going to come around. Yeah, I gave her a hard.

0:30:39 - (Matt Plumer): I know I said so many bad things, like, mean, why don't you just leave? If I suck so bad, just leave.

0:30:47 - (E): And she's. And I know she said that because.

0:30:51 - (Matt Plumer): I love you too much.

0:30:52 - (E): If I leave, something bad's going to happen. And so she didn't.

0:30:58 - (C): Yeah, right.

0:30:59 - (E): There was never a car wreck. Nobody got, like, I talk to people.

0:31:03 - (Matt Plumer): All the time that I ran with back in the day.

0:31:06 - (E): I was like, dude, how did we keep it between the guardrails for so long and not run off the road? Hit a light pole. God.

0:31:17 - (Matt Plumer): I pray every day and thank God that that didn't happen. And anytime that you hear that story, it just tears me up because that.

0:31:25 - (E): So easily could have been me that.

0:31:28 - (Matt Plumer): Hurt that child or hurt that kid or whatever. Because of being a drunk.

0:31:32 - (D): Yeah.

0:31:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because you never think it's you either, because you think you're in control.

0:31:38 - (Matt Plumer): You're a superhuman when you think you're.

0:31:40 - (E): A superhuman when you go five and.

0:31:43 - (Matt Plumer): Two and you win $1,500 and you have 14 beers and three cheeseburgers and.

0:31:49 - (E): You think you're untouchable.

0:31:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, it sounds like my bar shoes.

0:31:54 - (Matt Plumer): Well, thank God drugs never came in because I probably wouldn't be here if.

0:31:58 - (D): That was the case.

0:31:59 - (C): Really?

0:31:59 - (D): Yeah.

0:32:00 - (Matt Plumer): I never got into drugs.

0:32:01 - (E): Never touched them.

0:32:04 - (D): Just thank goodness.

0:32:06 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, I had that much common sense. But we talk about it now. We meet monthly. Right. You mentioned the debt dates. Right. We talk every month about where our goals are, where are we going to.

0:32:20 - (E): Go on a date this month.

0:32:23 - (Matt Plumer): Which church service we want to go to? We're still trying to figure that out here in Vegas of what's going to be our home, church and stuff. And obviously, every month we sit down before the month begins, and we say, hey, this month it's going to be $18,000. This month it's going to be $27,000. Hey, this month it's 50 grand. This month.

0:32:39 - (E): What do we want to do with this money? And that used to be 40 00.

0:32:45 - (Matt Plumer): 50 00, 70 00, 30 00, no thousand.

0:32:48 - (E): Like, what are we going to do?

0:32:50 - (Matt Plumer): How are we going to make this work?

0:32:52 - (E): And we got on the same page.

0:32:55 - (Matt Plumer): Pretty quick when I got sober. And as we both went through a.

0:33:00 - (E): Physical transformation, she's also sober.

0:33:06 - (Matt Plumer): I think next year is a decade. I think she was 2014, August of 2014.

0:33:11 - (E): So she'll be celebrating a decade next year.

0:33:18 - (Matt Plumer): We talk about and kind of reminisce a little bit about it, but I.

0:33:20 - (E): Don'T want to stoke the fire too.

0:33:22 - (Matt Plumer): Much and bring up any of the bad memories for her. I will take all of that brunt.

0:33:31 - (E): And hold that before I even think.

0:33:33 - (Matt Plumer): About even bringing it back on her.

0:33:35 - (E): Like, I'll just carry that with me and I just don't want to bring it up. Right. So with her, I don't want to.

0:33:42 - (Matt Plumer): Bring it up because I just don't want to bring up any bad memories.

0:33:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:33:45 - (Matt Plumer): But, yeah, we talk every month about.

0:33:47 - (E): That kind of stuff, and then we.

0:33:49 - (Matt Plumer): Have such great weather. Here we go on little 1234 mile walks and hikes.

0:33:53 - (E): And I know when to ask and.

0:33:57 - (Matt Plumer): When not to ask, right. About goals or how she's feeling or this and that.

0:34:03 - (E): We've been together a long time.

0:34:05 - (C): Yeah. I think our lifestyle is definitely underrated.

0:34:07 - (Tawni Nguyen): Here because we're accessible to so many.

0:34:09 - (C): Things that doesn't really require money because people think living in Vegas is super expensive.

0:34:16 - (D): Oh.

0:34:16 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, it doesn't cost any money to play pickleball or go on a hike.

0:34:19 - (D): Right.

0:34:20 - (Matt Plumer): And, I mean, you can go to any park out in Summerlin, and they've.

0:34:22 - (E): Got four, five, six pickleball courts and.

0:34:26 - (Matt Plumer): The aquatic center out in Summerlin. You can swim for nothing. You can go to the park for nothing. I mean, the red Rock canyon costs, what, 13, $14? It just doesn't cost that much to get into the parks.

0:34:39 - (E): You go to Mount Charleston and it doesn't cost anything.

0:34:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): Lake Mead's like $30 for a pass.

0:34:44 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, you can do so much off of this. We're right here off of the boulevard.

0:34:49 - (E): But, I mean, all the money is here, right on the strip, if you.

0:34:53 - (Matt Plumer): Can stay off the strip and maybe if you come down for shows or.

0:34:57 - (E): Whatever, it just doesn't cost that much to live here. Unless you do it.

0:35:03 - (Matt Plumer): Unless you just kind of get caught.

0:35:04 - (E): Up in the vibe, which know downtown.

0:35:07 - (Matt Plumer): Summerlin, you go here and you go.

0:35:09 - (E): Here, you go to the strip, and next thing you know, you were mentioning how much alcohol.

0:35:15 - (C): Yeah.

0:35:15 - (Matt Plumer): Go to the strip and have a.

0:35:16 - (E): Ribeye versus going to whole foods and.

0:35:20 - (Matt Plumer): Buying and going to whole foods and buying a ribeye.

0:35:23 - (D): Right.

0:35:23 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, you talk about a six or seven x cost to the exact same piece of meat. That's what I help people just understand.

0:35:34 - (E): Is that I'm not here to tell.

0:35:37 - (Matt Plumer): You not to buy the $75 steak.

0:35:39 - (E): It's my job to help you understand that.

0:35:41 - (Matt Plumer): You can go get a $15 steak, it's going to taste just the same.

0:35:45 - (E): And we can spend $50 on doing something else. But if you want to go to.

0:35:49 - (Matt Plumer): The strip or you want to go.

0:35:51 - (E): To yellow tail, have a ribeye, have.

0:35:53 - (Matt Plumer): Some sushi, have a bottle of wine, it's going to be a $400 dinner.

0:35:56 - (E): Plan on it. Don't just do it and then get.

0:36:00 - (Matt Plumer): There and spend $400 and don't know.

0:36:03 - (E): Why you spent $400.

0:36:05 - (Matt Plumer): If you want to spend $400 on a dinner, go spend $400 on a dinner. You want to go spend $1,000 at the craps table, go spend $1,000 at the craps table.

0:36:13 - (E): Please do it keeps our taxes at zero. However, do it intentionally.

0:36:20 - (Matt Plumer): Like, have it part of your written.

0:36:21 - (E): Plan that says, this month I'm going to go gamble $1,000 and take $1,000 and go down and gamble. Yeah, but also make sure you give.

0:36:34 - (D): Make sure.

0:36:35 - (E): Because there's three things you can do with money. Be generous. Save and invest it and enjoy it.

0:36:44 - (Matt Plumer): And if you want to take some.

0:36:45 - (E): Of that money that you enjoy after.

0:36:48 - (Matt Plumer): You are generous and after you save.

0:36:51 - (E): And invest and you want to take.

0:36:52 - (Matt Plumer): Some of that money and enjoy and you want to go have a big dinner, go have a big dinner, just do it intentionally.

0:36:56 - (D): Yeah.

0:36:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think a lot of people, how.

0:36:58 - (C): They got out of that mindset is.

0:37:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): They'Re like, oh, I deserve it.

0:37:01 - (C): It's because I got a promotion, I.

0:37:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Got this, I got that. We need to celebrate all of these things without realizing that's not really allocated for, because I was guilty of that in my 20s, too. I went to sushi by myself every other day, and it was a couple of $100 here and there. Every trip I went on, I realized it wasn't really traveling. I was just vacationing because I was escaping some deeper rooted issues in my 20s just because I can. I had the income, and it's always going to come back to me.

0:37:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): And it was a cyclical cycle. I don't think I was ever really in bad debt.

0:37:33 - (C): I just never got out of that, you know?

0:37:38 - (E): Oh, trust me, when it comes to I deserve it.

0:37:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): Treat yourself kosher.

0:37:45 - (Matt Plumer): What's that?

0:37:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): The treat yourself?

0:37:47 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. Like, when we moved out a year, just last week, we celebrated our one year anniversary of being here in Vegas.

0:37:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Congrats.

0:37:54 - (E): Thanks. And so the week of our move.

0:37:59 - (Matt Plumer): We stayed at Resorts World in the.

0:38:02 - (E): Trump hotel.

0:38:05 - (Matt Plumer): Like, before the closing, during the walkthrough, and then came back and stayed there.

0:38:10 - (E): And I was going through my Instagram or something or Facebook that showed, like, your memories. And I was like, we had dinner at Yellowtail Capitol Grill, nobu, all in a week.

0:38:26 - (Matt Plumer): Now, we had it planned. I knew that we didn't have a place to eat right, so I knew we were going to eat out a lot.

0:38:32 - (E): But, I mean, it was $1,000 and probably four or five dinners.

0:38:37 - (Matt Plumer): And we don't say we were medicating ourselves. That was our celebration week. However, you can't take that and do that monthly unless you have a plan, you have the income and you do it intentionally, or else you're going to get caught. You're going to get caught, like, when the water goes in or when the water goes out.

0:38:55 - (E): What's Warren Buffett say?

0:38:56 - (Matt Plumer): When the tide goes out, you're going to see who's skinny dipping.

0:39:00 - (D): Yeah.

0:39:00 - (Matt Plumer): And so that's why.

0:39:02 - (D): That's money.

0:39:02 - (E): We could enjoy that month while we.

0:39:05 - (Matt Plumer): Were saving, while we were being generous, and while we were investing, that was.

0:39:08 - (E): Part of our enjoyment money. And when that works, it works. Just go.

0:39:15 - (Matt Plumer): This isn't about, like, you can only drink three energy drinks a month because of their $6.

0:39:24 - (E): Just be intentional with your money and it'll all work out.

0:39:27 - (C): Yeah, I like that you said that. Because I think even now, what we.

0:39:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do with my partner, and we even allocate money to go camping. Camping doesn't actually cost that much, but we're like, this is what's going to look like. What do we want to do with the rest of our fun money? We're like, do we want to put into more real estate? Do we want to save that? Do a bigger real estate deal? And that's exactly the conversation that I'm hearing from you. I wasn't aware of this conversation.

0:39:55 - (E): And here's the thing.

0:39:56 - (Matt Plumer): Most people don't have that conversation.

0:39:58 - (E): Most couples don't. They should, but they just don't. And I learned. Well, we learned a few years ago, and everything's with dates. For some reason.

0:40:14 - (Matt Plumer): I remember dates. I don't know what I wore yesterday, but I can remember significant conversations with.

0:40:20 - (E): Melinda, and I. I'll never forget.

0:40:22 - (Matt Plumer): In 2017, we had just paid off.

0:40:25 - (E): All of our debt.

0:40:27 - (Matt Plumer): So we used Dave Ramsay's framework, total money makeover, financial peace University, to get.

0:40:32 - (E): Through all of our debt.

0:40:33 - (Matt Plumer): And I started real estate, but we weren't making that good of money.

0:40:40 - (E): But Melinda had her birthday, and we.

0:40:41 - (Matt Plumer): Lived on the east coast, and she.

0:40:43 - (E): Wanted to go to New York City. And so I remember budgeting everything all.

0:40:49 - (Matt Plumer): The time, and the money to the.

0:40:51 - (E): Dollar of what things were going to cost. And the challenge with that was as soon as something didn't work out, it.

0:41:01 - (Matt Plumer): Broke everything else after that, you didn't leave the buffer. There was zero buffer. There was no buffer on time. There was no margin or no margin on time and this and that.

0:41:11 - (E): And I'll never forget, we bought Rockettes tickets online. Call it $50.

0:41:18 - (Matt Plumer): I don't know how much of the word, but they were $50.

0:41:20 - (E): We had $100, and that was a lot of money to us back then, and especially on that trip. And we went to the wrong side of the building to get in to wherever the rockets were playing.

0:41:34 - (Matt Plumer): And by the time we got all.

0:41:35 - (E): The way to the other side, the.

0:41:37 - (Matt Plumer): Show had already started, and they wouldn't.

0:41:39 - (E): Let us in, and we couldn't redo.

0:41:41 - (Matt Plumer): Our tickets and exchange our tickets for the 09:00 show versus the 05:00 show or whatever. And I was so mad at her.

0:41:48 - (E): And myself and whatever. It just ruined the entire trip.

0:41:52 - (D): Oh, really?

0:41:53 - (Matt Plumer): Because we were so tight on time and money, and I'll never forget, that was by far, probably one of the.

0:42:01 - (E): Worst trips we went on. The next year, we went to a goal setting retreat in Austin, Texas, and we had planned, and we went to Australia in 2018 for her birthday. And during that goal setting retreat, I asked her, if she could do anything every year, what would it be? And she said she wanted to travel to a new country for her birthday every year. I didn't know why she wanted to go to Australia. We saved up the money, and we went to Australia.

0:42:43 - (Matt Plumer): But until I understood that it was.

0:42:45 - (E): Her goal to go to a new country every year for her birthday, now we have.

0:42:52 - (Matt Plumer): Now, at the core, I know why she wants to go.

0:42:55 - (E): She wants to be an adventure, because.

0:42:57 - (Matt Plumer): It was so for her childhood and through school, she never got to experience any of that.

0:43:03 - (E): And she wants to adventure, and she.

0:43:05 - (Matt Plumer): Wants to jump off of buildings, and she wants to swim with sharks.

0:43:09 - (E): And she wants to do all that. I want to go play golf. Like, I'm easy right.

0:43:17 - (Matt Plumer): Now.

0:43:18 - (E): When we have conversations, I ask her, where do you want to go on your birthday? And she'll say, dubai or Spain or Italy or Cabo or whatever, doesn't matter. New country. And so the answer is not ever. No. The answer is now.

0:43:40 - (D): Great.

0:43:41 - (E): We'll plan for it so you can get that trip.

0:43:44 - (Matt Plumer): And it's opened up the relationship to.

0:43:47 - (E): Say, now I have to go build a business that funds that trip because.

0:43:54 - (Matt Plumer): I know how important that is to.

0:43:56 - (E): Her every twelve months.

0:43:58 - (D): Right?

0:43:58 - (C): Yeah.

0:43:59 - (Matt Plumer): And so that's the encouragement I have.

0:44:00 - (E): For people that are either in phase.

0:44:04 - (Matt Plumer): One or phase two.

0:44:05 - (E): And having this conversation with your spouse.

0:44:07 - (Matt Plumer): Find out what your spouse wants and.

0:44:09 - (E): Why do they want it. She's like, we live in Las Vegas.

0:44:15 - (Matt Plumer): You can only jump off the stratosphere so much, right? But you can skydive over the palm.

0:44:22 - (E): Of Dubai, or you can go to.

0:44:24 - (Matt Plumer): Dinner underneath the Eiffel Tower, you can.

0:44:26 - (E): Go do the pyramids.

0:44:29 - (D): But you're not going to be able.

0:44:30 - (E): To do that every year, right? So going to do that and having.

0:44:35 - (Matt Plumer): That life moment and that life experience has really helped us grow our business, grow our relationship, and to start really having wealth building conversations that start paying.

0:44:44 - (E): For that stuff versus saving $2,000 a.

0:44:47 - (Matt Plumer): Month, what are the things we can.

0:44:49 - (E): Invest in that start funding that so.

0:44:52 - (Matt Plumer): We can start shifting our quality of.

0:44:55 - (E): Life up into the right while we're increasing our business and increasing our wealth.

0:45:01 - (D): Yeah.

0:45:01 - (C): That's such a powerful perspective. Australia is expensive.

0:45:05 - (D): No joke.

0:45:06 - (C): Holy crap.

0:45:07 - (Matt Plumer): And we did not fly that trip. We flew in the back of the plane and stayed at $100 a night hotels. Nothing wrong with that, by the way. But that's just the season we were in.

0:45:22 - (E): It was an expensive trip. It was a big trip for us.

0:45:27 - (Matt Plumer): With the money we were making.

0:45:28 - (E): And it's a time expensive. I mean, it's two weeks, so it's.

0:45:34 - (Matt Plumer): Really more time expensive than financially. But it was both for us back then.

0:45:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Go to the great Barrier Reef.

0:45:40 - (E): We did.

0:45:41 - (C): Yeah. It was amazing.

0:45:42 - (Matt Plumer): We did. Yeah.

0:45:43 - (E): I mean, just like most times when.

0:45:45 - (Matt Plumer): People go to Australia, you don't go for long enough. It's such a big country and continent, right.

0:45:52 - (E): That there's so much to do.

0:45:56 - (Matt Plumer): I will 100% go back. I will do Sydney again. I don't need to do the great Barrier Reef again, but I will definitely do Sydney.

0:46:04 - (E): I can do then.

0:46:07 - (Matt Plumer): And then parlay that.

0:46:09 - (E): Know Tanzania or a know or or do Fiji.

0:46:14 - (D): Right.

0:46:14 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, once you get all the way over there of, like, stay, you.

0:46:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Might as well just be over for a month.

0:46:20 - (C): That flight was brutal.

0:46:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): What's that on the plane for?

0:46:22 - (D): Like, ever.

0:46:23 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. Well, it's come from Washington, DC, not Las Vegas.

0:46:26 - (D): Right.

0:46:26 - (Matt Plumer): I mean, it's even. Yeah. So this year, we just got back. We just did the mastermind that I'm in. We just had a London mastermind. So we went and did Scotland before London, and then went to London, then.

0:46:40 - (E): Came back, but again, all saved for, all paid with cash and just enjoyed it.

0:46:48 - (Matt Plumer): The vacation.

0:46:49 - (E): Didn't come home with this.

0:46:50 - (Matt Plumer): I didn't come home with a $12,000 credit card bill that I got to.

0:46:53 - (E): Figure out how to pay.

0:46:55 - (Matt Plumer): It was all paid for in advance and then paid for along the way.

0:46:58 - (E): And that's why I call my coach.

0:47:02 - (Matt Plumer): Or my wealth building business.

0:47:04 - (E): Stress free wealth. It's not worth it if it's stressful.

0:47:09 - (C): Yeah.

0:47:10 - (D): Nothing is.

0:47:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Amen to that.

0:47:13 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. It's just not. I mean, when you're sober, it's less stressful being sober.

0:47:19 - (C): It's a lot less expensive, too.

0:47:21 - (D): Yeah. We can value.

0:47:23 - (E): It's less stressful trying to figure out.

0:47:28 - (Matt Plumer): Are you going to play blackjack this weekend?

0:47:30 - (E): No, I just don't.

0:47:32 - (C): Yeah.

0:47:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): Or hungover trying to figure out.

0:47:33 - (Matt Plumer): Hungover, trying to figure out.

0:47:35 - (D): Yeah.

0:47:36 - (Matt Plumer): Or why you have a $300 bar tab.

0:47:38 - (E): Or getting home at 06:00 a.m. And.

0:47:42 - (Matt Plumer): Then going out and trying to make 20 phone calls. You just can't do it. It's just too stressful.

0:47:48 - (E): So bringing all of that in.

0:47:52 - (Matt Plumer): To help create wealth in all areas of.

0:47:54 - (E): Life, I think, is very important, and everyone should put that on your goal list.

0:47:59 - (Matt Plumer): To just be wealthy in all areas of life. Stress free wealth in all areas of life.

0:48:03 - (C): Do you have any tips for shifting.

0:48:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): That kind of mindset that you currently have from your sobriety to building wealth?

0:48:09 - (D): Yeah.

0:48:12 - (E): Now, I got this along the way.

0:48:15 - (Matt Plumer): So it's not like I had this.

0:48:17 - (E): Ten years ago, because I didn't have anything ten years ago. I had be sober today. And don't go to the fast food drive through.

0:48:26 - (Matt Plumer): That was my plan a decade ago.

0:48:28 - (D): Right.

0:48:29 - (E): So there are five mistakes, financial mistakes.

0:48:36 - (Matt Plumer): That agents and entrepreneurs and truly people.

0:48:40 - (E): Make when it comes to their wealth building journey.

0:48:43 - (Matt Plumer): And the very first one addresses what you just mentioned. Too many people don't know what they.

0:48:49 - (E): Want when they want it.

0:48:54 - (Matt Plumer): Which means.

0:48:55 - (E): If you're here and you don't know what you want out here, then the only thing you're going to do is look down the line of time. Today is Monday, right? Now, if you have inconsistent income and.

0:49:13 - (Matt Plumer): You are financially disorganized and you and your spouse do this, it's this, right.

0:49:19 - (E): Or it's that and you have kids.

0:49:22 - (Matt Plumer): And we have political injustice, we have.

0:49:24 - (E): Social injustice, and we have all of.

0:49:26 - (Matt Plumer): The chaos that's going around us in.

0:49:28 - (E): The world and we have car payments.

0:49:29 - (Matt Plumer): And we have student loan payments and.

0:49:32 - (E): We have credit card payments. And it's Monday.

0:49:36 - (Matt Plumer): How far down the line of time?

0:49:39 - (E): Like you're looking out towards the end of the year, how far can you.

0:49:42 - (Matt Plumer): Actually see if that stuff is clouding your judgment?

0:49:47 - (E): Like Tuesday, right? And when people are in that mode.

0:49:54 - (Matt Plumer): And they can only see Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they can see Friday, right? What's the old saying? Oh, God, it's Monday, thank God it's Friday, right. If that's the mentality or it has far down the line of time, you.

0:50:06 - (E): Can see you're going to make decisions based on that. So now if someone's here and they.

0:50:15 - (Matt Plumer): Do want to get here, they don't.

0:50:16 - (E): Know how to get there, and a seller calls and says, hey, I want to take my house off the market. It's not selling or why isn't my household? You're going to fight this fire.

0:50:28 - (Matt Plumer): Well, and then a buyer cancels a.

0:50:30 - (E): Contract and you're going to fight that fire versus looking all the way out. And all that does is going to.

0:50:38 - (Matt Plumer): Do is just take you off, it's.

0:50:40 - (E): Just going to take you off track to your goal.

0:50:43 - (Matt Plumer): Very similar to the, hey, we're leaving. Sorry, very similar to like we're leaving Las Vegas and we're going to New.

0:50:51 - (E): York, we're going to Washington, DC, and.

0:50:56 - (Matt Plumer): We get up, we leave the airport.

0:50:58 - (E): And then the plane is one degree.

0:51:00 - (D): Off to the north.

0:51:02 - (E): Well, one degree off from Las Vegas to Denver is not that big of a deal.

0:51:07 - (Matt Plumer): But over the course of 2500 miles, you're not getting to Washington, DC, you're.

0:51:12 - (E): Going to end up in New York.

0:51:14 - (Matt Plumer): So that's what happens when we start making decisions and we don't course correct.

0:51:18 - (E): On a very short time frame.

0:51:22 - (Matt Plumer): So what I always encourage everyone is determine what you want. That's going to keep you selling real estate over and over and over and over and over.

0:51:29 - (E): It's going to keep you on the transaction treadmill.

0:51:31 - (Matt Plumer): It's going to keep you selling whatever you're selling. It's going to keep you going to your nine to five job and away from entrepreneurship.

0:51:38 - (E): When you don't have a big review of time.

0:51:41 - (Matt Plumer): So what I always encourage everyone to.

0:51:43 - (E): Start day one is write down what you want, be vulnerable and honest with.

0:51:50 - (Matt Plumer): Yourself and tell yourself exactly what you want.

0:51:53 - (E): And then when do you want it? Do you want to be married? Do you want kids? Do you want a country club membership? Do you want to be sober? Do you want to be debt free?

0:52:10 - (Matt Plumer): And it actually all starts with write down. Exactly. Actually become aware.

0:52:13 - (E): Be honest with yourself. I'm 300 pounds. I'm an alcoholic.

0:52:18 - (Matt Plumer): I'm $200,000 in debt.

0:52:20 - (E): I have an inconsistent income. I don't know where my next closing is going to come from.

0:52:25 - (D): Right.

0:52:27 - (E): I watch porn, I cheat on my spouse.

0:52:30 - (Matt Plumer): Whatever it is, be honest with yourself in that general moment.

0:52:34 - (D): Right.

0:52:36 - (E): Be honest with yourself and then write down what you want. And then obviously, if you're a believer, confess, repent and write down what you want and be honest with yourself.

0:52:53 - (Matt Plumer): I want $50,000 a month of passive income. Want a $10 million net worth.

0:52:58 - (E): Want a house in Cabo, want a country club membership to Sohai.

0:53:02 - (D): Right.

0:53:04 - (E): I want to lose 30 pounds. I want to be pain free.

0:53:07 - (D): Right.

0:53:08 - (Matt Plumer): I want to play 60 rounds of golf a year. I want to go on 36 dates with my wife.

0:53:11 - (D): Yes.

0:53:12 - (Matt Plumer): I want to play more golf than have dates with my wife.

0:53:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): She's aware of that, right?

0:53:15 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, she is definitely aware of that.

0:53:17 - (E): Right. But write all of that stuff down daily because that will then help you.

0:53:24 - (Matt Plumer): Decide where you need to take action.

0:53:26 - (E): The next twelve weeks on the two.

0:53:29 - (Matt Plumer): Or three things to help you move.

0:53:30 - (E): The ball down the field.

0:53:31 - (Matt Plumer): Because if you can go from today.

0:53:33 - (E): All the way out to some day from now, that could be five years.

0:53:37 - (Matt Plumer): From now, it could be 30 years from now, I don't care.

0:53:40 - (E): Someday.

0:53:40 - (Matt Plumer): Look back, connect the dots.

0:53:41 - (E): How did you get there?

0:53:43 - (D): Right?

0:53:44 - (E): So ten years from now, what do you want? Someday from now, ten years from now, what do you want?

0:53:51 - (C): Yeah, because I have a ten, five.

0:53:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Three one list and I think I'm working on my year one because I'm reverse engineering.

0:53:58 - (D): Yeah.

0:53:58 - (E): Cool.

0:53:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): Where I want to be ten years from now, I'm not going to live here. I'm going to be in a farm somewhere.

0:54:03 - (E): Okay.

0:54:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): Hopefully in Montana.

0:54:04 - (Matt Plumer): There you go.

0:54:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm going to be in an rv.

0:54:06 - (C): With my pack of dogs, maybe some children. That is in the future of the.

0:54:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Vision that I envision for myself. Like all the real estate we own.

0:54:14 - (C): Can be all rental properties, have multiple.

0:54:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Homes in the places that we want to travel to. Pretty basic real estate investor kind of blueprint, right?

0:54:24 - (E): Sure.

0:54:24 - (C): So I think seeing that within the ten year self, like, where I want to put myself, what do I have.

0:54:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): To do at year five? What's my net worth going to be at my year three? What do I have to do on year one? What do I have to give up? And for me, on my year one, it's like alcohol is what I gave up. And all of the things that I'm building towards is all reverse engineering from.

0:54:45 - (C): All the mistakes that I've learned and.

0:54:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): How I can propel from that and just kind of slowly cruise through.

0:54:51 - (Matt Plumer): There is zero doubt in my mind that you're going to be living with a wolf pack and a couple of kids in an rv sitting on some side of the Yellowstone. You're going to be on the set of Yellowstone ten years from now, right.

0:55:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): No one can reach me.

0:55:04 - (D): No.

0:55:04 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah.

0:55:06 - (E): One of the things that I want, right. Is I think everybody loves to. They say they love to travel. Do you love to travel or do.

0:55:19 - (Matt Plumer): You love to vacation?

0:55:21 - (D): Right.

0:55:22 - (Matt Plumer): Because I don't know anybody that loves the process of traveling.

0:55:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's a pain in the ass.

0:55:26 - (Matt Plumer): It's awful, right. The pack, we live 20 minutes from the airport and it's still a pain.

0:55:32 - (C): Yeah.

0:55:32 - (Matt Plumer): Right.

0:55:33 - (E): And so one of the things that's.

0:55:36 - (Matt Plumer): On my goal list is I call it world class travel, which that means.

0:55:44 - (E): I go with my golf clubs and a backpack.

0:55:49 - (D): That's it.

0:55:50 - (E): And when I get.

0:55:51 - (Matt Plumer): And there is no security.

0:55:53 - (D): Right.

0:55:53 - (Matt Plumer): It's either private or someone else's jet.

0:55:55 - (E): Or whatever service is available, that's how I go to.

0:55:59 - (Matt Plumer): We'll say Cabo San Lucas. When I get to Cabo san Lucas, I'm going to buy everything I need.

0:56:05 - (E): When I get there. Or it's already at the house that we own there. One of the two.

0:56:11 - (Matt Plumer): We don't own a house. I'm going to buy everything I need.

0:56:13 - (E): When I get there. I'm going to play all the golf.

0:56:15 - (Matt Plumer): I'm going to eat at all the best restaurants.

0:56:17 - (E): I'm going to enjoy it world class. And then before I get on a.

0:56:21 - (Matt Plumer): Plane to come home, I'm going to have it cleaned.

0:56:24 - (D): I'm going to give it to a.

0:56:25 - (Matt Plumer): Family in need on the way out.

0:56:27 - (E): Of town and in the bag, and.

0:56:29 - (Matt Plumer): Then I'm going to get on a.

0:56:29 - (E): Plane and I'm going to come home. Like that takes a financial number that.

0:56:36 - (Matt Plumer): Does not exist to me today.

0:56:38 - (D): Right.

0:56:39 - (Matt Plumer): So now I have a target, I have your montana and an rv. I know what that looks like for.

0:56:45 - (E): Me because now vacationing and travel are the exact same there's zero stress on that trip.

0:56:53 - (C): Yeah.

0:56:53 - (D): Right.

0:56:54 - (Matt Plumer): There's no TSA.

0:56:55 - (E): There's no packing.

0:56:57 - (Matt Plumer): Right.

0:56:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): Overthinking.

0:56:58 - (Matt Plumer): There's no overthinking.

0:57:00 - (E): It's like, hey, three people. If you can get to Vegas, I got.

0:57:05 - (D): Yep.

0:57:06 - (E): Or just fly know, on southwest if you want.

0:57:09 - (Matt Plumer): But if you want to come with me, you gotta get to.

0:57:13 - (E): But now, like, now we have a vision.

0:57:16 - (Matt Plumer): Now I have something to go chase.

0:57:18 - (D): Right.

0:57:18 - (Matt Plumer): And you have something to go chase, but you bring it all the way back to now. You just need to stay sober today.

0:57:23 - (C): Yeah.

0:57:24 - (E): Because if you stay sober today, you're.

0:57:26 - (Matt Plumer): Going to keep taking steps towards that.

0:57:29 - (E): One year goal, which will help you.

0:57:31 - (Matt Plumer): Get to the three, which helps get to the five, which gets you the ten. So that's the number one mistake that most people make, is they don't do.

0:57:37 - (E): What you just did. They fight the fire today because they don't have a vision of ten years from now. So good job.

0:57:46 - (C): Yeah.

0:57:47 - (E): Thank you.

0:57:47 - (Matt Plumer): That's awesome. So when did you start doing that? When did that one. 3510 or that ten? Five, three one? When did that come into your world?

0:57:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): About six months ago.

0:57:59 - (C): I started doing it last year, but it wasn't really concrete.

0:58:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's because I was so kind of.

0:58:04 - (C): Wishy washy about the things that I.

0:58:07 - (Tawni Nguyen): Needed to put in place or to make it happen.

0:58:09 - (D): Right.

0:58:09 - (Matt Plumer): Because I was kind of 180 days ago.

0:58:11 - (C): Yeah. I thought sobriety was something that potentially looked good.

0:58:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): I just didn't know it was accessible for me because it took, like, a whole lifestyle shift. Sure. So I think that was the hardest thing is just making a decision, like you said.

0:58:27 - (C): Right.

0:58:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Awareness has been around for a while.

0:58:30 - (C): Since when I hit rock bottom.

0:58:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): It was about 2021, pretty much.

0:58:34 - (C): When I moved here in 2020, I.

0:58:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Isolated for a while, hit rock bottom, but I didn't know what kind of rock bottom it was.

0:58:40 - (D): Sure.

0:58:41 - (C): Like, was it my health?

0:58:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): Was it financial? It was kind of everything.

0:58:44 - (C): It took a while to kind of.

0:58:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Crawl out of that, just to get into a capable mental space first, so it's always like, hey, get out of.

0:58:54 - (C): It, and then kind of build a plan from there.

0:58:56 - (E): I love it. How many days sober?

0:59:00 - (C): 115 today.

0:59:01 - (D): Awesome. Good job.

0:59:03 - (E): How do you feel?

0:59:05 - (C): I feel amazing.

0:59:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think I have a shelf of. I'm a scotch drinker. Like, I still have my single malts. I don't even consider smelling it. That was the thing for me. I love smelling scotch now. I don't even reach for the waters, just for the smell.

0:59:20 - (E): So what are your challenges?

0:59:21 - (Matt Plumer): What are your blind spots. When it comes to your alcoholism and.

0:59:24 - (E): Your addiction, what are the things that.

0:59:27 - (Matt Plumer): Are, like, what are the landmines that are laying out there? Where's the ninja behind the corner with the sword that you don't even know.

0:59:34 - (E): Exists around your alcoholism?

0:59:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Before, it was just the friends I was with. That kind of caused me into spiraling into emotional spending. Sure, obviously, right? But now I don't think I really have any landmines. Is because it's so much easier for me to say no, is because I'm making my decisions from such a conscious.

0:59:54 - (C): Place, because I'm living intentionally.

0:59:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): I can still hang out with people, but now I just say no to most things. That doesn't really appeal to me. It's because alcohol kind of made me comfortable where I usually wouldn't even be comfortable because I'm pretty introverted. Because before, I'm always a fun friends. I always have fun blackout stories. Like, oh, guess what I did. You don't know what you did. I'm like, I don't know what the fuck I did.

1:00:13 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, exactly.

1:00:14 - (C): We try to kind of mend the.

1:00:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): Pieces of all the things you break the night before. Relationships, conversations, whatever, right? And I just got tired of living like that. I think the landmines was kind of like me. It's just if I'm having a bad day or if I'm triggered or if.

1:00:28 - (C): I'm stressed out, that's the first thing I did.

1:00:31 - (E): Same friends or new friends?

1:00:33 - (C): New friends, yeah.

1:00:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): I moved here with no friends. So every friend, now that I consider a friend, it's kind of like family to me.

1:00:40 - (C): It's because they hold my core values.

1:00:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): They don't really peer pressure me or anything, because I don't consider those people friends.

1:00:47 - (E): What would you say are your core values?

1:00:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): Staying fit.

1:00:51 - (E): Like fit, so healthy.

1:00:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, right?

1:00:53 - (C): Like, my health is my number one thing.

1:00:56 - (D): Okay.

1:00:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): I don't think anything, no relationship is going to ever take me away from being the healthy person that I fought.

1:01:03 - (C): So hard to be in the last.

1:01:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Few years of just constant struggling and all of these mental health issues that.

1:01:09 - (C): I was dealing with. So that's kind of why this platform.

1:01:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is important, because I sat down with myself and it's like, what is my core values? It's staying fit and staying frugal. That's how it's going to take me to where I want to be in the next one. 3510 years.

1:01:22 - (E): Nice.

1:01:23 - (D): Yeah.

1:01:23 - (C): So thank you for asking that.

1:01:25 - (E): Yeah, for sure.

1:01:26 - (Matt Plumer): Proximity is everything, right? We're going to be Jim Rohn's quote right. You're going to be the five people.

1:01:36 - (E): That you hang around with the most. And I just believe that the more.

1:01:40 - (Matt Plumer): That you can keep that circle so.

1:01:42 - (E): Small of the people that have the.

1:01:47 - (Matt Plumer): Same faith and the people that have the same values around relationships or money.

1:01:51 - (D): And.

1:01:54 - (Matt Plumer): They don't have to be sober, but they honor your sobriety.

1:01:57 - (D): Right.

1:01:58 - (E): I think that's just the thing that.

1:02:01 - (Matt Plumer): I've focused on the most, is that I never want to have to apologize.

1:02:05 - (E): Or say, I don't drink and have.

1:02:10 - (Matt Plumer): To be in the place to where.

1:02:12 - (E): That makes me fit in.

1:02:14 - (Matt Plumer): If that's the case, then I just don't need to be in that circle or that room. Right. And so I just think it's important. And it sounds like you've done a very good job of that, of just.

1:02:23 - (E): Being like, this is who I am, and I don't need to apologize for it. And I love that you know your dates.

1:02:31 - (Matt Plumer): I remember this is day 90. This is day 115. When I asked you that earlier off camera, you're like, what is today? And I was like, june twelveth? And you're like, 115 days.

1:02:42 - (E): When you know that one.

1:02:45 - (Matt Plumer): The awareness, the decision, and the intentionalities there.

1:02:49 - (E): And then I'll give you a little secret. When you stop losing count of how.

1:02:53 - (Matt Plumer): Many days and all you know is months or a.

1:02:56 - (E): It's this date, you can start stacking a new habit.

1:03:01 - (Matt Plumer): But until then, stay focused on this sobriety.

1:03:05 - (C): Thank you for the tip.

1:03:06 - (E): Yeah.

1:03:06 - (C): Wow.

1:03:07 - (Matt Plumer): Like, I don't have to think about not drinking anymore.

1:03:10 - (E): It's eleven years now. There are alcoholics that cannot be around alcohol. There are gamblers that cannot walk into a casino.

1:03:23 - (Matt Plumer): The good news is, I've been able to really build the right habits to where that just doesn't. There's no enticing. And I know that if I ever.

1:03:34 - (E): Have an itch that I just need to leave because it's just going the wrong way.

1:03:39 - (Matt Plumer): And I haven't had that here.

1:03:40 - (E): But it's interesting, now that I'm itching.

1:03:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's the irony that you move to Sin City.

1:03:46 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. You go into a gas station, you hear the dings and the lights, right? Going to terribles.

1:03:54 - (E): And, I mean, you go to get.

1:03:57 - (Matt Plumer): A full tank of gas and an energy drink, and the next thing you know, you got slot machines right next to their video poker machines right next to the cash register.

1:04:03 - (C): Yeah.

1:04:04 - (Matt Plumer): They're everywhere.

1:04:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Inspiring, man. I'm glad I met you on this journey.

1:04:07 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah, for sure. We're always looking for new people to hang out with. There's no conflict, right. Faith and beliefs and money and relationships and lifestyle are all going in the same direction. It just takes less energy.

1:04:27 - (E): One of my coaches first step is.

1:04:30 - (Matt Plumer): Like, focus on getting your income creating and have that income create cash flow. And once you get to the consistent.

1:04:38 - (E): Income that creates cash flow, then it's.

1:04:41 - (Matt Plumer): All relationship, energy and finances.

1:04:44 - (E): So ref. Ref.

1:04:45 - (Matt Plumer): Right relationships. Energy, finances. Focus on the right relationships, protect your energy, and the finances will take care of themselves.

1:04:54 - (D): Boom.

1:04:55 - (E): Yeah, it's good.

1:04:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): Just want to acknowledge you for being here today. Your presence kind of mean a lot to me. And sharing your time, which is, like, a really valuable resource.

1:05:04 - (Matt Plumer): I can't wait for you to meet Malinda. You guys will rock it together. You guys got to hook up and go on some hikes or play some pickleball or something.

1:05:11 - (D): Yeah.

1:05:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Non golf things.

1:05:12 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah.

1:05:12 - (D): Yeah.

1:05:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): I can go to the driving range. That's about it.

1:05:15 - (Matt Plumer): Yeah. She likes the golf outfits, so. She likes the golf outfits, the golf dresses, and that kind of stuff.

1:05:26 - (E): But I don't know if playing is her thing, but she'll go on a. Yeah, for sure.

1:05:31 - (D): Cool.

1:05:32 - (E): So, yeah, definitely connect up with her.

1:05:34 - (D): Yeah.

1:05:35 - (C): Well, that's it for us today.

1:05:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): I hope you enjoyed anything that Matt has to say. You can connect with him more on.

1:05:40 - (Matt Plumer): Instagram at Matt Plumer at CoachMattPlumer on Instagram.

1:05:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): CoachMattPlumer on Instagram.

1:05:45 - (E): And then Matt Plumer on Facebook.

1:05:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): So, yeah, that was a bit of our journey. So thanks for sharing that with us. Hopefully you can make a decision to.

1:05:53 - (C): Stay fit and stay frugal. Bye.