Navigating the Road to Financial Freedom: Balancing Experiences and Investment with Mike Tinter

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey friends, welcome to the Uncommon Freedom Show.

Speaker 2: 0:03

I'm Kevin and I'm Becca, and we're your hosts here to help you reach your potential and maximize your impact in every area that matters. Let's get started.

Speaker 1: 0:16

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Freedom Show. I've got a return guest today, my brother Michael Tinter.

Speaker 3: 0:23

Different location, Different location slightly different.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Yeah, today we are recording from the Charest to. We are in a marina in the Bahamas. We just got back from an epic week long trip. Fall break has become a tradition for us, definitely my favorite spot on earth. How about you? Oh?

Speaker 3: 0:44

same. It's unbelievable. I mean, anything down here is great, and then the further out you get from people, it just gets better and better.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Yeah, it's amazing. So, because we are in port, they're cleaning up the boat. So if you hear some background noise, that would be it. If you see a little sway, you might see that as well, but we're excited to be here. We wanted to record at sea and it didn't quite happen. We were too busy having fun. But excited to knock this out before we hop on a airplane to head home to our respective homes. That's correct, awesome. Well, mike, you're a successful business person. We are business man. I'm not going to use that that won't crash.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Both are true, but we'll go with the business man, and we've talked a little bit about your business journey on the first episode, but you also recently reviewed my book, which I appreciate, and what we really want to do is just focus on some of the disciplines from the book, one which would be master yourself and master your wealth. What are some of the takeaways or the lessons that were in that that resonated with you and you think are that you've seen play out in your life?

Speaker 3: 2:00

Well, I think so much of it was. I think it resonated because it reminded me a lot of like the journey I went on. So if I were to write a book, I would find myself writing a similar chapter. And most of these are, I mean, quite frankly, so many of these principles are. It's not that they're unknown or new no offense to the author, right it's that so few of us ever implement these or practice these practices. They've been documented, recorded, talked about for probably centuries.

Speaker 3: 2:32

But as long as I've been alive but it just took me until call it age 30, just start applying any of these principles. So I mean, where to even begin? I think at the end of the day, I think probably the most important lesson that I ever learned about this particular topic is just understanding the value of a dollar from the standpoint of it's really just a tool and it's not anything more than a tool. It unleashes a lot of opportunity, but at the end of the day, money is just a tool. Don't fall in love with it, but utilize it like you would any other tool you have in your toolbox. So that's how I would probably summarize like just reframing, like how we look at money. It's just a tool that you can use.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Yeah, I know Dave Ramsey says money is good for three things spending, saving, giving away, right. One of the things that Beck and I have realized, and we experienced this growing up, having especially once our parents received a significant inheritance that open. You know our parents did what they could to give us experiences, but I think one of the best tools or the best uses of money is experience. Obviously, this week is an example of that and you know our parents scrapped together. You know our dad was known for. You know scrapping together a few hundred bucks to buy us a mud bug or a mini bike or heads, dirt bikes, all that kind of stuff and we, you know, we, we, those were experiences.

Speaker 1: 4:10

They weren't as much stuff or things as it really was the experience of getting to have fun together as a family. And when our parents received a nice inheritance that allowed them to take us on that trip out West, a trip to Puerto Rico, which really were trips that kind of opened my eyes up to man travel is a lot of fun and just the fun that we had as a family. But yeah, I totally agree with you, money is it can buy you experiences in a good way.

Speaker 3: 4:38

Or at that age so I was whatever five years younger, I don't know that I actually associated inheritance or extra money with oh, there's this new opportunity at that age, did you? Were you already connecting the dots? Oh yeah, oh, the reason we're now doing this is because mom and dad have money they didn't have before.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Absolutely, yeah, I mean we did the first trip I think it was one of them was the summer before my senior year of high school. The second one, I don't remember which, went first.

Speaker 3: 5:08

I'm guessing they're 94, 95 or 95, 96.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Yeah, so it would have been the summer of 94, summer 95. And so I was, you know, 17, 18, maybe 19 at the time and clearly understood that the cost, like I'm guessing, because of how young you were, you probably weren't even thinking how much this trip cost.

Speaker 3: 5:27

Summer of 94 and five I would have been 11 and 12. Yeah, so Dylan's age, right, I don't think I associated cost. I mean I was just telling the story the other day. I mean I think it was when we were still living in Lakewood, so it would have been six or seven. But I asked mom a question like I don't understand why we don't buy like more stuff If all you have to do is write one of those checks.

Speaker 1: 5:50

I didn't understand that there was money behind the checkbook, right right.

Speaker 3: 5:53

So I still, you know, when you're a kid you're still learning the stuff and generally no one's teaching you, so you just have this, you know false concept and, quite frankly, I guess there's a point where you realize, oh, it's because we don't have that much money that you just wonder, like why don't my parents buy nicer things or do these other things? Like I thought it was some self-assessed, like yeah, we just don't do those things, not like we don't have the money or the funds or the resources to do those.

Speaker 1: 6:20

There's realizing, there's limitations, correct, because because your bank account has a stopping point at some point, right, and you know, kudos to our parents.

Speaker 3: 6:31

They did not live in that oh the amount of people I know, you know, in our age range, who are talking about, like parents, that they're having to take care of or going to have to take care of. Man, oh man. Is that a burden and not?

Speaker 1: 6:47

just physically, but financially oh yeah, I'm both.

Speaker 3: 6:51

And yeah, and I don't know which one is worse. To be honest with you, because if you have physical problems, that's one thing, but money doesn't. Money doesn't. What did mom used to say money is not as important as oxygen, but it's pretty damn close. Two times I've ever heard her swear like it. Just if you don't have it, yeah, you realize how much you you need it or how few things you can do without it, especially in this day and age. But I mean health care or just taking care of somebody, and it's very expensive, regardless of how you go about it and I think that's a great reminder for us, as you know, people who are in her 40s middle age.

Speaker 1: 7:29

You know, I was just thinking about this because we were we're actually on this trip. We were having a conversation with the kids about compound interest and how, you know, on average, an investment can double about every 10 years. You know, a care investor or it could double quicker than that. But I was just thinking about the fact that you know, beck and I were 46. I was like we only have, you know, if we were to retire at 65, 66 years old.

Speaker 1: 7:52

I was like we're only gonna double two more times in our life. Right, if we push that out till mid 70s, we're only gonna double three times. And I was like, wow, you know we have done really well. But what occurred to me when I was thinking about where my kids are at and the fact that they're earning income through our business and all have fully funded annually Roth IRAs? It's like they have the power of time and I've known this. But it was like a really sobering moment for me to realize man, I'm only gonna double two or three more times. My kids are gonna double five or six more times in the in the course of the life and the power of time with regards to those investments.

Speaker 3: 8:34

So I can't remember who it was, but they taught a lesson on understanding, like how you're spending and how you make spending decisions, especially big ticket items. So if you take that same exercise every 10 years, your money doubles. Really it's quicker. I think it's like every. What is the rule of 72? So you take the interest rate. You know, take 72 divided by the interest rate you can make and that's how right times or how often your money doubles up. But if you're to like, take the kids.

Speaker 3: 9:01

So the lesson taught to me was figure out how many times you can double up. So let's say it's six times. If you wait 10 years now you're just dropping off the last to double up. So in your last 10 years, if you go from a million to two million, you can't speed that up right, you lose that most powerful. Yeah, compound the other visual. I think you know I I learned this years ago. But if you take a piece of paper and fold it over on itself 50 times, you know how thick it is is that the one where it goes all the way to the moon, or something like that all the way to the moon, I believe.

Speaker 3: 9:34

Yeah, so one piece of printer paper which it's it's hard to visualize, like, how can you fold it over 50 times? You can't physically right, do it right. But if you were to take it and, if you know, cut it up in enough pieces that you put two together, then double that, put four together and kept going up, right, that little printer paper thickness, which is four thousandths of an inch thick, would be from here to the moon and back. But you take out the last double up and it's only halfway there. So you're getting two X the total impact just on saving that last fold. If you eliminate that, you have half at the end of you know your time stacking up.

Speaker 3: 10:10

So if you apply that we were talking about Austin. He bought a shirt for 60 bucks. He thinks it's cool and I just told him. I said do you think that shirt is worth, you know whatever? $1800? Yeah, he said well. No, I said well, you could think about the fact that it cost you $1800 because instead of taking that money and investing it and letting it compound, you spend it on a shirt that you won't even have in two years, but that same dollar value for the shirt, if invested, could have been worth $1800. Yeah, I'm sure that one in one ear and out the other maybe not well in in the book.

Speaker 1: 10:46

We talked about the fact that Warren Buffett, you know, billionaire, but a significant like the majority of his wealth has been built since he was like 65 years old, sure. And then going back to that paper doubling scenario, most of us have heard would you rather have a million dollars or painting a day, doubled for 30 days? And most of us have heard that. And so when you think about the fact, like the power of that last doubling, like you go from it's like five million dollars to ten million dollars on day 30, right, so day 29 or roughly four, or five, day 30, year, like eight or ten, I don't remember exactly what the number is, but that's a great reminder of the power of getting that extra doubling. And so the lesson for us is, whether you're listening to this and you're 18 years old or you're 70 is if you are not maximizing your investment capacity.

Speaker 1: 11:38

And you know, one of the reasons that we can justify a trip like this is we've already, literally, have invested for retirement everything that we legally can't. We've maxed out our retirement opportunities. But you know when it is a little bit sobering to think about what the long-term cost of an unbelievable trip like this is, but we're not going home to credit card debt to do this, which I encourage everyone to never take a trip that you cannot afford to pay off at the time of the trip, absolutely not. And when you're, if you're already prioritized. You know, if your only debt is your mortgage at most and you've prioritized retirement, then it's time to create, because this is the other thing is having. The memories like this are certainly priceless. How?

Speaker 3: 12:23

do you guys balance out? So you know, on one hand you could get pulled into this trap of like save, save, save and get hyper focused on you know. Well, we don't want to do these things, or we're going to live cheap just to keep padding retirement, because retirement accounts, that's, that's one vehicle. But, truth be told, I mean there's no cap on it, like investment properties, real estate, or just investments outside of retirement accounts, which you know is something I do. But how do you guys prioritize, like, the value of experience as compared to, like, the value of long term savings and investing in your financial future?

Speaker 1: 13:01

That's a great question. I mean, the first thing is like one of our financial rocks is maximizing retirement. Then the second piece is making sure that we have three to six months we live at six months or more of emergency savings. So and we've been there for years and we've actually built it up and padded it up since then. So once you have that buffer in your maximizing retirement, it makes a lot easier for us to justify trips.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Also, knowing you know we've we just especially you know social media, I think every single week back when I have a conversation about someone we know who is either our age or younger, that is tragically diagnosed with cancer and maybe dies. We know people that have, you know, dads of teenage kids that have literally been killed by a tree falling on them. You know, a complete, random, freak accident. And so it's this balance of like you know it's not a you only live once attitude, but it's also realizing. You know so many people.

Speaker 1: 14:07

There's kind of both ends of the spectrum. They neglect the future for today and they really pay for it. But then there's the other half. You know it's the. They spend their entire life building wealth and they spend the last part of their years, you know, spending all their wealth to get back their health. So they give up their health to build their wealth. And I would say the health is also the relationships and quality relationships, especially with your kids. And so for us it's just realizing. You know, one of the things is kind of identifying. We only have, you know, with our oldest son two summers.

Speaker 1: 14:35

And so he's actually he's going into his. You know he's in his junior year, so we really have one summer left with him, because by the time he graduates from high school, you know the the ability for him to even go on a vacation with us is very small. You know we might have one more vacation with him after he graduates. And so just realizing we have a limited, you know, not to say that we won't ever do it again, but you know he's not going to have complete time freedom as far as taking time off. And so it's just realizing if we don't prioritize the time with the kids now.

Speaker 1: 15:06

And I think for me epic experiences are so valuable, because I significantly remember those two experiences we had with our parents. I mean we, you know, we took the summer vacation drive down see aunt and uncles and cousins in Tennessee. We had fun. But the two trips that really stand out to me were when we went out west, went to the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell, and then when we went to that wedding I don't even know who it was, it was a friend of mom's, but it was an excuse for the whole family to go to Puerto Rico.

Speaker 3: 15:38

It was somebody that we didn't really know all that well. I think was it actually when David was living in Dayton Fairborn.

Speaker 1: 15:45

It might have been a connection like that.

Speaker 3: 15:47

Yeah, so it was just like David was like living in a house with some guys. This guy was marrying a woman from Puerto Rico. The wedding was there, they invited a ton of people and we got the invite.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Yeah, and once again, you know, fortunately finance has made it possible. Prior to that it wouldn't have happened. It just there's no way we could have afforded it, so right.

Speaker 3: 16:10

You know, I wonder if you were to take I'm just as I asked you that question like do you have a you know sliding chart? Or how do you decide, like how much you carve out for you know spending or experience versus saving and investing it? Almost so I'm working with a guy right now as a business coach and a strategic life coach named George Datus. Great guy, he's been there, done that. He's 72 years old. He grew a company from I won't say the exact numbers because maybe he doesn't tell everybody but under a million dollars to over a hundred million dollars. Okay, so he has the experience to speak to it.

Speaker 3: 16:47

And he, when we first sat down to do a business coaching session, he first asked me about some personal goals and I was like time out, like business coaching. He said, well, you know, so many people live a life that their business allows them to create. He goes and I think that's backwards. I think you've. What's most important is that you understand, like, what is it? What's your purpose, what's your calling, what do you feel like you're supposed to be doing? And let's make certain that, one, your business is going to support that, yes, and two, your business isn't going to pull you away from your personal life or prevent you from doing what you want to be doing. Your business should ultimately be the engine that allows you to like, lean into and live out your personal goals.

Speaker 2: 17:27

Yes.

Speaker 3: 17:27

And that's been really challenging, because it's not that it's put me in a bad place, but I've effectively, when looking measuring backwards which is a Dan Sullivan principle from, I believe, the gap in the game he talks about you have to measure backwards, and when I first read this a year ago, I realized that I hadn't measured backwards in a long time and so I was living a life that was great, no complaints, but I had hit the last, really like long term goal that I wanted to hit personally. I had surpassed it like eight years ago, and I hadn't like revised personally what I wanted the business to be able to support. And so now I find myself in the process of like recasting a vision that's further out there, because right now I don't personally have a vision that is beyond or stretched out past what the business can already support.

Speaker 1: 18:24

That's good, the concept of a finish line versus, you know, because when people cross the finish line they stop running and so, whether it's health, finances, relationships, right, Like we see this happen in marriage all the time, you know guys are notorious. You know they pursue the woman, they get married and then they stop the pursuit. It's this finish line mentality. With health, you know, the diet mentality is okay. I reached my goal weight and so I go back to my old habits. Well, that's finish line. Drop your pack. You know, party type mentality doesn't serve you. The key is to keep stretching yourself and it takes a lot of discipline. But certainly in our coaching business, whether it's people from their health standpoint or the business standpoint, we see people set goals and if they don't, it's just human nature. If you don't set a new goal for yourself, you're going to stop growing, and the reality is, if you're not growing, you're shrinking.

Speaker 3: 19:17

That's right or you're going backwards. So the thought I was having as we're talking this out is I don't have an exact number that I set aside for experiences. I generally have a soft rule, which is I don't go on a vacation or a trip that cost me more than the business makes that week. So I go out of town. I don't want to be like, oh, it's going to take this week and next week, yes, or this week and the entire month and the next two months to pay for this. That's, that's good, and so that's kind of been my cap.

Speaker 3: 19:51

But I'm thinking about what George status has been talking about, and this comes back to a principle. Well, you love Daniel Lapin's book, right, is it? Thou Shalt Prosper, yep, so. But there's this whole principle about resting. That works whether you have a biblical outlook on life or not, which is if you rest one day a week.

Speaker 3: 20:11

So I think what I'm going to do when I go home is I'm going to carve out what would it look like if I took one seventh of like my take home and applied that to like rest, retreat, related things, and just see how that pans out, and then use the other six sevenths for all the other, just, you know, operational, investing living stuff, but truly just took one seventh of it for like true rest and retreat and just see what that would look like, because something tells me I tend to see that, like God's design of things tends to show up working pretty well. And so if he told us to like chill and like rest one day a week, I bet that one seventh approach to finances would probably be a pretty good starting point.

Speaker 2: 20:51

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Speaker 1: 21:06

The challenge, you know.

Speaker 1: 21:08

I think one mistake that families can make is thinking we're not, you know, like we're just going to nose to the grindstone when we're at home and we can just take vacations and that'll make up for everything, and I don't think that's a wise approach to life and parenting.

Speaker 1: 21:26

But what we have seen is that when you unplug literally like our kids phones they haven't had them for a week, there's virtually no cell service out here, the Wi-Fi is spotty and it's just a natural unplugging. And the quality time is so valuable that when you pile that on top of normal life and being intentional about investing when we can, that the return on investment is incredibly high. You know the memories you create, because I think shared memories are one of the things that bring closeness and that's what Epic Trips can really create. So you so let's just go back to, I know in the early days of your business career, you were, you know, you were self-employed, not a business owner, and you experienced some debt. So what are some of the lessons that you learned from that and how would you help people not fall into that same trap?

Speaker 3: 22:27

Well, at the end of the day, it's just like it's a discipline and a decision. So one of the biggest traps I think entrepreneurs find themselves in early is somebody whispers this phrase into their ear that it takes money to make money. And then they use that. I use that to like justify, like putting something on a credit card. Well, I need you know. You got to spend money to make money.

Speaker 3: 22:48

And it does take money to make money. But can we please put an asterisk down with a footnote that says but it doesn't mean it has to take money, you don't have to make money. It might mean that you have to grow slower. It's going to take longer to scale up to where you want to be. But I think the most important thing would have been just in proper education and understanding of like basic finances and the decisions you make. So if I could go back in time, I just would have never put anything on a credit card to get started.

Speaker 3: 23:19

My first business was truly just a you know, solopreneur. I was had employees, had subcontractors, but I could not go on a trip like this, regardless if I could afforded it, and the business continued to run and make money and operate smoothly back home. That didn't exist. I was just self employed. Yeah, but the biggest trap I fell into was I didn't. I didn't know my numbers. I didn't truly have it dialed in as to, like, what my gross profit margins were. So I didn't have control over the business. And most businesses don't fail from a lack of you know revenue or lack of business opportunity or talent or skill or ability. They they've failed because people don't know how to manage the financial side of the business.

Speaker 1: 24:05

Yeah, and that's what I didn't know the first go around and the reality is a home unit is essentially a business and most families couples. They really don't know how to manage the business of their family and that's what. That's where they struggle.

Speaker 3: 24:21

I get it. I was just golfing with my buddy, caleb last Friday and he said he and his wife, he's the president of a good sized company and he and his wife, they have a business meeting every Friday morning, but it's the home business meeting. He's the president of his company, she's the president of the household, from a from one perspective, like that's. Her primary purpose is to make certain that they're like family household is good and they have some mentors through their church and he's like. They told us to start having a business meeting once a week and she and I are on the same page because she's at home more than I am and we have to prioritize the fact that we run the household just as meticulously as I run the business. And so we have that business meeting but it's the home business meeting.

Speaker 3: 25:11

Yeah, the first time I'd heard that, I thought it was a great idea.

Speaker 1: 25:14

It was a great idea, and I've also heard the saying you know, a lot of people spend more time planning their vacation and they do their life and when you think about it, it's really true and like when you plan your life, you can spend a lot more time and money planning your vacations With so many people they are accepting, as John Maxwell says I love this quote accepting the life they've been given instead of leading the life they want, which forces them to take vacations to get away from their life, and then they go back to the misery of their day to day for 51 weeks until they could take another vacation. But if you were to just reverse things and the challenges, it requires giving up some immediate gratification. But it's that short term sacrifice that really leads to the long term payoff. Just shift gears real quick and just kind of talk about stewardship principle.

Speaker 1: 26:08

You and I have similar values regarding giving things like that and you actually recently had a pretty cool example. You don't have to share specific numbers, but I think it's one thing for me and Becca to talk about this on a regular basis, but I also love it when other people experience the law of tithing and just the benefits that come. I guess let's first go back to when did you start to really implement it and then how have you grown through that, and then you can share the recent, pretty cool story you have.

Speaker 3: 26:41

Yeah, well, I couldn't remember the exact year, it's probably 13 years ago. But that was a transitional period in my life. It was post-divorce. I don't even know if you know this whole story, but at one point I had the IRS like drain my bank account.

Speaker 3: 26:58

I did not know, that, yeah, irs drain my bank account. I went out to lunch, tried to put lunch on a debit card, got declined, pulled up my bank statement I promise you you never want to see this line item on your bank statement but it just literally said IRS withdrawal and the balance went to zero. So you owed taxes, I owed taxes. I didn't know that they only have to send notices to a last known address, and they were sending notices to an address that I didn't live at. Wow yeah. And it went back to some post-divorce stuff and they were like well, we knew how to get your attention, so we just drained your bank account. Holy smokes, yeah, granted a little bit of a head in the sand season, no doubt about it. So I probably could have been in the know. But long story short, they get my attention and it's one of those rock bottom situations. And so I was sitting in church and I was like all right, lord, I know what I haven't been doing. So here it is and I believe actually I know where I was sitting. I think the amount of money I had in my bank account was ridiculously little, but it was something like okay, lord, I'll do this. And I literally tied that night with something to the extent of like $2.16. Like I had 21.60. Yeah Right, that kind of low number. You know, there's a story about this woman who just she gives the little she has but it's like it's everything. Yeah, it's a small amount but it's everything. And I forget I think it was at that point I was liquidating out my old business. I had a couple of things that just weren't selling. I literally tithed. I believe it was a John Mark McMillan concert that night at my church I tied $2.16. And then the next day this piece of equipment I'd been trying to sell it's like solely $14,000. So just like freed up, right. So I had all this cash flow issues as a result of a lot of things going on in that season of life and so just instantly, there was this moment. So that's since that day. I have never, never backed off.

Speaker 3: 29:12

That story actually predates the IRS draining the bank account True story. You could ask my pastor, andy Secora. I had to email him and tell him hey, there's a tithe check I wrote that's probably not going to clear because the IRS has drained my bank account. Wow, it happened on a Monday. I wrote the check and dropped it in the tithe box and he sent me an email back. He's like, well, this is the, this is the first, and also like it's happened before where the tithe check is found but no one's ever given me a heads up Like, just let me know and miraculously I don't know how this happened, but it actually went through. And then I managed to negotiate money back from the IRS, like in this hey, I'll deal with this, but like you got to throw something back my way here and they did. And ultimately I mean, dave Ramsey talks about getting the KGB off your back. I that's when I really went into like, okay, like time to clean up the financial.

Speaker 1: 30:01

It's a little tense mode Holy smokes.

Speaker 3: 30:03

You want to talk about running at the speed of light. Like you do not want to be in bed with the IRS. That is not a friendly agency at all.

Speaker 1: 30:10

Well, yeah, that's a little scary. How much power they have.

Speaker 3: 30:14

They got a ton of power, but you know, I probably just head in the same type of stuff it's not like they came out of left field Nonetheless, so that those are kind of like the early on, like okay, I'll never not do this the tithing principle that'll forever be a part of like what I do, that money is allocated first and that's the end of it. It continues to show up Like the principle of like tithing and like God giving it back to you, just continues to show up and it's sometimes. It happens so often now I sometimes miss like the kind of God throwing it back my way. But the story that you mentioned recently I went to look at a house. I like the house. You know $1,050,000 asking price on the home and I didn't think it was worth $1,050,000. I thought I was like I would pay $950,000 for this house.

Speaker 3: 31:14

There's some complications. I found out that the homeowner is a friend of a friend and I was like well, I really don't want to negotiate with a friend of a friend. This guy's a member of the golf club I just joined, so it just felt like it had the opportunity to get messy and you never know how somebody's going to react to an offer Right. Some people wouldn't be offended if you offered them, you know, 200k under asking price. Other people, if you don't offer a masking price, they might be like we know each other or like we have mutual friends. How could you low ball me like this? So I just decided, as we looked at the house on a Friday and I just decided I wasn't going to do anything with the house, I wasn't going to put an offer in. So the next day, on Saturday, I'm golfing and I turns out that two of the guys I'm golfing with are friends with the owner of the home. I looked at and I told my looked at the house but I didn't really want to negotiate with the homeowner and so that's just where it was at.

Speaker 3: 32:09

On Sunday I'm doing church. Actually I was watching online and I just felt God tell me like hey, cover this gap that the church has in the budget. We had some storm damage, some water backed up into the building we had to remodel and we were behind budget close to just a little less than $50,000. Actually I think it was like 43271. And I just felt the Lord say just cover it. So I grabbed my computer and I just, I use a National Christian Foundation. I pulled it open and I had them send a grant or whatever it's called, to renew for the gap in the budget.

Speaker 3: 32:55

The next day I get a phone call from one of the guys I golfed with on Saturday, who's friends with the homeowner. He said hey, the homeowner, john, wants you, wanted your cell phone number. He said he wants to offer you the house at a price that you won't turn down. And John, great guy, I've gotten to know him at this point. But he owns car dealerships and so when a car guy is like hey, I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse.

Speaker 1: 33:17

You're like is he gonna pay above?

Speaker 3: 33:19

asking like where is this going? Is he offering me a free warranty, like some undercoding what's going on? And so I was like, hey, yeah, that's fine, you know, give my number. So John calls me and he just starts talking about the house and all the maintenance and everything they've done to it. They built it, they're building the new house, with the same builders. Going on and on for 15 minutes and I'm fully anticipating, like this token offer of you know, 20,000 offers.

Speaker 2: 33:43

Yeah, that's right, or million even, will get it done.

Speaker 3: 33:46

He's like look, mike, I heard you know you were asking is the room of the property to put up a second garage or put a, put a pool in the back? That stuff's all expensive. So if you want the house, you can have it for 900,000. Wow. And I was like well, john, I don't. I don't make big decisions without thinking about it, praying about it and sleeping on it. So let me call you tomorrow morning and I'll give you my answer.

Speaker 3: 34:06

And obviously well, not obviously, but I you know obviously it felt like it was from the Lord. So I just called him the next day and accepted his offer to buy his house, which is a unorthodox way of buying a home. But it didn't hit me until like a few days later that I told my realtor I would be willing to pay 950, but I don't want to negotiate. Right, if we had gone into it and started negotiating, I probably would offer like nine and a quarter. He would have probably been like, well, I can meet you halfway, or something like that. I'd be paying any or being asked to pay in the upper nines for the house.

Speaker 3: 34:41

But if you look at the timeline of events, I just felt like uncomfortable so I did nothing. Then God puts it on my heart like, hey, do this thing be obedient here? I'm obedient there, and then the next day the homeowner calls me and says I'll give you not just what your upper limit of paying for the house was with, I'll give you 50,000 off of it. So within 24 hours of God saying, hey, do this. He, he gave a hundred percent of that right back to me. Yeah, and I'm not sitting here telling the story like, hey, it comes with a hundred percent money back guarantee. It's never, you're never gonna, you know, feel it missing, cuz gotta return it right. It's not like a, you know, a coupon that you redeem necessarily right, like that story prescribed, but that's just it. It just goes to show you or there was a good reminder for me that, like God is faithful, he does always return it one way, shape or form or another.

Speaker 1: 35:40

And that's just the most recent example and it's a pretty cool story yeah, that is awesome and you know, beck and I, we just encourage people. We know that many people they they don't tithe, you know, and I know there's some debate is. You know, is tithe an Old Testament thing? Is a New Testament thing? As far as it being a 10%, I'm fully convicted that a tithe is. You know, I wouldn't feel comfortable tithing anything less than 10% and I heard the stats on.

Speaker 1: 36:08

You know, christian giving is it's something like the average is about 2%. Yeah, and a few years ago, when Beck and I actually made a shift from tithing on our personal gross to our business gross, it was just this realization of you know, I think God can bless whatever he wants. But I I, what I think is God typically blesses what we give him, not what we don't give him. And so your example is it's a great case study in that and, like you said, it's not a, it's not a given, it's not a coupon, it's not a vending machine like, okay, put in your tithe, you're gonna get it back and you know a raise or something like that. But I think a lot of people they don't experience those blessings because they just don't trust God with that 10% and I think that's kind of the starting point well, and I think most people's mindset behind tithing is like cause and effect or correlation versus causation.

Speaker 3: 36:59

So if they see somebody who they, their perception is, oh, they have the means to give. Of course they give. Look at how you know wealthy or successful they are, and so if I'm ever like that, I'll do the same thing yeah, and I think that's just a mindset trap.

Speaker 3: 37:17

Look, when I the the last time I gave for the first time, I gave $2.16, right, okay, right. I felt the Lord been like, hey, you need to be faithful here and I'll take care of it from there. So like if all you have is $21.60 in your bank. Again, I'm not promising, it's not my promise, to give right, but you, this isn't restaurant reviews, this isn't like you know, five stars would go again. This is my experience has been like God is faithful. I believe it's 10% and that's what you should do. My advice or recommendation would be just go to the Bible, read it for yourself and pray about it and do it, yep, and if you have differing results, okay, I doubt you will yeah, well, and I think that a lot of people, whether it's investing in themselves, investing in their relationships, the marriage or tithing, we have very short-sighted.

Speaker 1: 38:20

You know. People think, okay, I tied one time, I'm gonna sit back and wait and wait for this, the harvest of this. And you know, I love the concept of being a farmer and just this, that standpoint of you don't just plant one seed, you plant many. And you don't just plant the seed and walk away, you still have to tend it. And I think that that is a mistake that people make, as though they're like all right, I got a hundred dollars, I'm gonna tie 10 and see what happens.

Speaker 1: 38:44

And it's like you know, not to say that God won't, but he probably won't, and that's a mistake. And it's also going back to the parable of the talents. It's like, right, when you're faithful in little, you'll be faithful and much, and most of us have not been faithful with the little we're saying. We're going to be faithful with a lot when we get there, but until then I'm not going to tithe or whatever you know the snare might be, and that's the mistake that we make.

Speaker 1: 39:11

So learning to be faithful and that little is key. So, mike, it's been awesome, been awesome chatting with you, appreciate just all the great discussions we have about business and all the ins and outs and of course it's been, you know, it's been amazing hanging out for a third time in the Bahamas. I wish that and, the one hand, I wish that everyone had the capacity to do what we've done. I don't want the Bahamas to get too busy, so selfishly, people stay away, especially the first week of October. I think we saw one other yacht at sea this. Yeah, it was unbelievable. Literally, it was like the the Bahamas was our, our playground. It was absolutely unbelievable. But, man, folks, you, if you really harness, if you implement these disciplines, there's so much potential out there and you know, life was great without money. It's just a lot better with it because the experience is specifically like. I'm not enjoying my investments right now, but I do enjoy his experiences I get to have with people that I love. So, been great having you folks thanks for listening super excited.

Speaker 1: 40:23

We are now less than one month out from my book release date. I've already had, you know, I've had a handful people review it and the feedback has been very positive. I've already had, you know, some people, specifically one close friend of mine, just talk about how reading, and specifically the financial piece of the book, was really convicting and caused them to make some you know some some decision changes with regards to their finances. So I'm confident that if it's impacting some people before it's even released, it will have a positive impact in you. So looking forward to really getting the word out over the next few weeks and you guys have a great day.

Speaker 1: 41:02

Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the uncommon freedom show. We believe freedom isn't man's invention. It was created by God. If you are enjoying this show, please give us a five-star review on the platform you're listening to us on, then subscribe and share with friends and family that you think will enjoy the show. You can connect with us at beckandkevcom for more resources to learn biblical principles, essential disciplines and the winning habits that help, once average people lead the life they want instead of accepting the life they were given.