Get Better at Money with George Grombacher

Allyson Scammell: [00:00:00] Oh, hi. Before this episode gets officially underway, I have an important message for you. If you’re a soul guided leader, light worker, coach, healer, entrepreneur, or truth seeker, our energy is upgrading as I speak. This means you can amplify your five spiritual gifts or the gifts we use to connect to and co-create with the spiritual realm.

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Hey, ho dear ones, what is happening today? I hope you’re fantastic. I know that there is a lot of fear in the collective right now about money and financial uncertainty, and I think that there is a fifth dimensional aspect to this of ascending to something higher, ascending above that fear, so you are not having to manifest it into your experience or not having to manifest it anymore if it’s something you have struggled with

but I also think it’s important to talk about third dimensional aspects of money. Like what, how do we get better with our money? With investments, with what you do with it, what you do with [00:02:00] it when you wanna save, when you wanna save responsibly. And so, I have a really amazing guest today that will explore this, George Grombacher.

I was on his podcast a few months ago, and we’ll link leave a link in the show notes to that episode, and I really enjoyed connecting with George. He is from the upper Midwest like I am. I’m originally from South Dakota and he has family from South Dakota, so he and I just have a special connection of farm, kind of.

I’m a farm kid and he has farm kid roots as well, so I really enjoyed learning from George, and I know you are gonna find this episode extremely useful, so let’s get to it. In today’s episode, George reveals why money feels so hard, how money is changing and how to tap into the new currency of [00:03:00] money, we end on an invitation that will have you changing your entire relationship to money to one that serves you over the long term.

So please, my dear ones, stay with us until the end. Welcome to Soul Guide Radio, a podcast for soul guided leaders, influencers, and entrepreneurs here to bring about change on a massive level. We’ll explore how you can activate your big soul mission, amplify your spiritual gifts, and clear the energy blocks weighing you down so you can gain unstoppable momentum in life and business.

I’m Allyson Scammell, your host and soul guide.

Hey there, Soul Guide Circle that is the name of this community of soul guided leaders, influencers, and entrepreneurs. In the Soul Guide Circle, we have big soul missions [00:04:00] and we yearn to earn more, serve more, and grow spiritually along the way. If you aren’t already a member, then I invite you to join our Facebook group of nearly and over 2100 leaders and light workers who are in service to each other and the planet.

You may find a link to join on my website, allysonscammell.com, or in the show notes. Today’s guest is George Grombacher, and we’re talking about money. George has worked in personal finance for 20 years and was named as a top 100 advisor in the United States for the past three years. He’s working hard to encourage, empower, and entertain others so they can get better and live how they want.

He is the President of Financial Consulting Professionals, the Founder and Chief Community Officer of Money Alignment Academy, and the host of the Lifeblood Podcast. I [00:05:00] Love George’s energy and his take on money. May you receive as much from his wisdom as I did. Please enjoy.

Welcome to Soul guide Radio George.

George Grombacher: I am super excited to be here. Thanks for having

Allyson Scammell: me. Okay, so I have the most, I’m just gonna go ahead and start with the most important question of this episode, and that’s, What’s your favorite beer?

George Grombacher: My favorite beer. I love, I love all beers, first and foremost, I fell in love with Coors Light when I was in my twenties.

It’s a very, very American thing to do right there. And today I love craft beer, so I’m pretty typical there and I. But long story short, my favorite beer is sort of in the middle [00:06:00] there. It’s Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I love that. I love that beer.

Allyson Scammell: I ask because I lived for many years in Belgium and when I lived there, I grew.

I myself also grew to love beer not Coors Light. So, living in Belgium makes you very kind of snobby when it comes to beer. So, when I go home, that’s what my, you know, my dad gives me. But So, when you started with Coors Light, I was like, Oh, oh, but you went up fast, so that’s good, right?

George Grombacher: Gonna bring it harder than that, for sure.

Allyson Scammell: Okay. So, we’re actually not here to talk about beer, although I think it is a nice little fascinating conversation. We are here to talk about money, which I think is so timely to have. Not to have conversations about money, but to have the right conversations about money. And I think that’s what makes this so timely.

So, tell us, when did you get started with Money [00:07:00] Talk?

George Grombacher: My first job out of college, first job at a college, I went to work in financial services, actually selling life insurance and I was 22 years old and that, that is how I started. Today I am, I’m turning 44 here a couple of weeks. So, it’s been, it’s kind of crazy to think about it that way.

It’s been almost 22 years since I’ve been doing it professionally. So, a long time now, Allyson

Allyson Scammell: cool. Well, who Early, Happy birthday. Thank you, So tell us like, I mean, at the end of the day, it’s like, you know, the people who listen to this podcast are spiritual folks, soul guided leaders, and I think most of ’em would say, Yeah, I wanna pay my rent and stuff, but I don’t really care about money.

I’m not really driven by money. And I think that would be true. I mean, I think that’s for, That’s definitely true for me. Yet at the same time, money still has a way to get a grip on us. [00:08:00] And we set our goals around money, I think, in ways that don’t feel good to a lot of people. And we feel bad about ourselves when we don’t hit those income goals, especially if we’re in business and it’s a really hard story to rewrite.

And you know, I’m trying to rewrite it for myself constantly and not label myself a failure if I don’t hit my money goals, et cetera. So why is it that, you know, if you can go a little bit deeper in this question than maybe you would in other podcasts, cause this, this audience likes to go deep. Like, why do we do this?

Like, why is this so hard? Even when we say on the outside, oh, you know, I’m not driven by money, I don’t care about money, but yet it still has this hold on us. Why do you think this is?

George Grombacher: Yeah. Money is a really, really, really powerful force. It’s this weapon of mass destruction. If, and I don’t really think that it has any value.

Doesn’t have intrinsic value. I don’t like money. Money’s not good, nor is it bad. [00:09:00] But it has the ability to really destroy things because it touches every aspect to life. Money destroys relationships and marriages and business partnerships and destroys companies and societies. And it also does amazing, wonderful things like, gives us options, and allows us to take wonderful trips with our families and have peace of mind and not worry.

So, I think that in order to be successful with money, we need to define what that really means and think about the things that we really want, and put money and look at money for what it is, which is a tool for helping us to get the things that we want. And whenever we get that sort of twisted and we’re pursuing money because we think that the pursuit of money is going to get us happiness and it’s gonna give my soul the things that it [00:10:00] feels or it that it wants.

Well, it’s never going to do that. And we as human beings, love to have to figure things out for ourselves. But we all know intellectually money doesn’t buy happiness. It doesn’t buy love. It’s not going to, all the fame and notoriety in the world is not gonna make me a happy person. If I am a happy person and I can interact with money, then it can accentuate and give me wonderful, wonderful things.

So, the reason for why that is just, well, I think that the majority of us were probably brought up in situations where our parents weren’t wealthy. Probably money was a little bit tight and today in the United States at least, Two thirds of us are living paycheck to paycheck, which means we’re essentially broke.

Got $6,000 a credit card debt that we’re paying 20%. Probably a lot higher interest on as interest rates tick up and it’s way more of a weapon of bad than it is a tool for [00:11:00] good. So that’s the ball of twine that we need to unwind.

Allyson Scammell: Yeah, I grew up, so you grew up in the upper Midwest in the United States and so did I on a family farm and back in the eighties when all family farms were going bankrupt.

It was a really sad thing, you know, when I think about this, because it was the conversation at the dinner table all the time. It was always about money. Although my parents tried so hard to shield us from it, you know, they really tried. But I think it’s hard to, you know, your kids are, kids know what’s going on.

And what makes me so sad is that they didn’t want to file bankruptcy, which would’ve been the absolute best option from a financial perspective. And they absolutely didn’t wanna file bankruptcy because, you know why, guesses? The

George Grombacher: shame around it. Stigma.

Allyson Scammell: And it was printed in the newspaper, whoever [00:12:00] filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy was printed in the newspaper.

Like, why would they do that? Why would this stuff get printed in the newspaper? I don’t know if that’s still a practice, but it was where I lived back in the eighties and they didn’t, and they were gonna kill themselves to prevent the shame of you know, the community knowing that this happened, even though it was happening to so many at the time.

So, yeah, I just, I don’t know what the question is there, but I just wanted to share that it was really sad, you know. I

George Grombacher: appreciate you sharing that, and shame can be a really powerful motivator. I, what flashes into my mind is, what else do they print in the newspaper? A lot of the time they print DUIs or DWIs in the newspaper, and that’s to certainly shame people and shaming people because of financial mistakes that, you know, probably

out of my control. It’s maybe who knows, who knows what the reasons are, [00:13:00] but we all carry around shame about money, and we’ve all made mistakes about money at some point. I’m super fond of telling people that I’ve made a lot of great financial decisions over the course of my life, but I made all the bad ones.

It’s just a very, very human thing to do because, even if they taught me about money in school, I probably still wouldn’t have paid attention cause I wasn’t paying attention to history class in school and all the other junk that they were teaching me in school. But I do not naturally. In fact, my brain does the opposite of what I should be doing with money.

A lot of the time. I know that I’m supposed to buy low and sell high, but I wanna buy when things are high and I wanna sell when things are low. And when I lack the tools, like how do I, how do I really manage my cash flow? How do I invest? How much should I be investing? What kind of accounts?

How do I track taxes? Oh my gosh, insurance. It is a lot. And so, to think that I’m gonna be awesome at this and when I’m not awesome at [00:14:00] that I shouldn’t be, you know, that I’m ashamed because of it. That’s just that vicious cycle down, and it keeps people stuck that I don’t raise my hand and say, Hey, I need some help here.

Where can I find it? So, I’ve certainly been there. Lots of people have been there, and that’s a terrible story about your folks.

Allyson Scammell: Yeah, well, you know, they bounced back, which is the other thing about money, you could always bounce back. You know, they bounced back and, you know, the price of farmland went up, has gone up so much and they’ve, you know, ended up building a lot of wealth for themselves.

My memories of childhood was that about shame around money. And so, I, on a subconscious level, made the decision, I’m not gonna do that. I’m not gonna worry about money. I’m not gonna, I’m just not gonna stress out about money. And you [00:15:00] know, it’s like that thing you, if your parents are struggling with something, you either take it on or reject it often.

Mm-hmm. addictions or whatever. And I rejected any, any of it. And so, I noticed a few times in my life where I was absolutely down to nothing. Especially one time I, long story, but the point is, I got to a point where I had all credit cards maxed out. I had nothing left in the bank and I would never ask my parents or any, I just wouldn’t ask my parents or loved ones for money.

I just wouldn’t. I’m a farm girl from the upper Midwest. You just don’t do that. And something miraculous happened and the very next day when I was literally just on my last cent. The very next day, I was offered a lucrative job opportunity that got me out of debt and then, and quite a lot, then some within 12 months.

And I think this is, like, this is like, this is it. I [00:16:00] believe this is like the real currency of money when you really trust that no matter what choices you make, that that when you trust, when you have this trust, that you are always gonna be held and supported, that there’s a divine power here to help us.

When you have that trust, this divine help will always arrive at the right time. So, I’m just wondering like what, do you have a similar perspective on this and what your reaction is to

George Grombacher: that? Yeah. Well, I think it 100% can be true. I think that it’s very, very natural to go against the grain of the way that we were raised.

If it’s with our parents or whatever. There’s so many different systems and expectations on all of us, and some of us just like, that looks awesome. I’m just gonna jump right in the current or people like you and me, we’re gonna swim against that current and with money, you say, you know what, I’m just, I’m not [00:17:00] interested in feeling that way about money, so I’m not going to feel that way about money.

And it probably caused you to think differently about money and then act differently about money. So, it’s a hundred percent possible, but it’s not easy to do that, what we just said. I’ll start thinking about it differently, and then it’s gonna show up when I need it. Well, it’s not just, it’s not that easy.

There’s a lot of work I think that needs to be done, which I’m sure that you did. And that’s, I need to really establish and think about how I wanna think and feel about money. So, take the time to do that. How do I wanna feel about the situations about making money, about saving money, about earning money, about investing, all these things?

And whatever’s standing in my way, whatever blocks I have in beliefs, because I can want that but if I don’t really believe in my soul, deep down inside that’s possible, or if I think that money is the root of all evil [00:18:00] or people that have it are garbage or that people don’t like them, that’s gonna prevent me from doing it and actually being successful with money.

I need to identify people who are out there that are doing the things that I want to do with it so that my brain can see, oh, look, there’s another human being that’s similar to me. So, it is possible. I think that there’s just a couple of extra steps that if we do follow and commit to it and pay attention to how we’re paying attention to money, that will absolutely position us to do exactly what you were just

Allyson Scammell: saying.

Yeah, I, and I totally agree with that, and I think that you know, if you, you know, I was listening to Karen Curry Parker talk, she’s a human design person, and she was talking about money and money wounds, and she was talking about how, if you grow up in generational poverty, it’s very hard to have healthy ideas about money and to get healthy energy about money.

You know, because you are surrounded by people who’ve went [00:19:00] their whole life for generations without. So that’s, I totally agree with that. So how do we get there? And I do believe I’m the example of, I saw what I didn’t wanna experience for my parents, bless them as they struggled. And I just said, Nope, I ain’t gonna do that.

And, you know, I did have the opportunity, you know, I was, I was raised in a middle-class situation where, I could see, and I could also at the same time develop a healthy relationship with money. Like I had that option as well. So, I had choices before me, which some people don’t really have the same choices the way.

So how do we start whether a listeners grew up in a destitute situation or they grew up with a lot of money and are now not having a good relationship with money. You know, it goes both ways, right? How can we start getting healthier wherever we are, whatever our bank accounts look like with money.

George Grombacher: Yeah, and it definitely does [00:20:00] cut both ways. I mean, how do I get good at money? I don’t have rich parents. Well, no, not necessarily. You know, generational wealth often fails to transfer from one generation to the next. Winning the lottery’s not gonna do it. Being a professional athlete’s not gonna do it.

After five years, the majority of both the folks in those camps are bankrupt and have lost all the money. I appreciate that it does, definitely does cut both ways. I think first and foremost, I think it’s better, it’s valuable to run away from something, but more valuable to run towards something in this example.

So really taking the time to think about how do I want to feel about money? How do I wanna feel about it? You may be like, that’s dumb. Well, no it’s not, cause you’ve probably never done it. Get a pen and paper and write about how you want to feel about money. How do you want to think about it? How do you want to interact with it?

And just be honest with yourself. If you [00:21:00] wanna be rich, that’s awesome. Let’s figure out how to get rich. Just wanna stop worrying about it and stressing about it. I wanna stop stressing about money. I just want to not have to worry about. Great. That’s awesome. Write it down and get clear. And then let’s figure out what we’re doing that is standing in our way.

Cause probably there’s behaviors that we’re engaging in, there’s thinking that we have that is keeping us stuck. Are you budgeting? Are you managing it and looking at your cash flow, your transactions on a monthly basis. Well, maybe, maybe not. You know, have I actually set some financial goals? I want to be able to have 10 grand in the bank for an emergency.

I wanna be able to buy a house one day. I wanna be able to retire. Okay, well let’s, let’s make plans for that. And then really it is figuring out what new knowledge do I need? Well, I need to learn about an IRA. I need to learn about mutual funds. I need to learn about whatever it might [00:22:00] be. Figure out what steps I need to take

and then put the plan into action and then find the support that you need. Maybe you wanna do all of it. That’s awesome. Maybe. Wow, I’ve discovered personal finance and it’s super exciting. I wanna dig into this. Maybe you say this sucks, I hate it. So, I need to find somebody, or some system that will help me to follow through on this if I’m not interested in looking at it or to touching it, which is also totally fine, but you need to support yourself and position yourself for success.

Allyson Scammell: Yeah, I like that. I, and I don’t think the listeners of this podcast would find that to be a stupid question at all. I mean, we’re, we’re all into these types of questions, so I just asked this question of myself honestly recently, because I noticed things shifting in my life and, you know, the expression, new level, new devil.

I feel like I’ve upleveled in many ways in life and business. And so, there’s, so every time you do that, I think it’s a good time to ask the [00:23:00] question again. I don’t think that question is a one and done, right? So, I ask the question again, a variation of that question, and I got this answer. I wrote it on a sticky note, and it says, my new currency is well-being.

My new currency is wellbeing. And so, what that means is anything I bring into my experience, I would like it to augment my wellbeing. So instead of my, in my business thinking about, oh, well I’m gonna do X, Y, and Z to get, you know, 10 new signups to my program and call in so many one-on one clients so I can hit this

monthly income target, I’m gonna think about what can I do in my business that’s gonna contribute to my wellbeing, make me create at my best, give me energy deposits, set up a business structure that allows me to rest and have ample time with family and a holistic approach, so my business doesn’t encroach right?

And it has, it’s one piece of my life, but it’s not my life. And as part of that, [00:24:00] Income is gonna come in to support my wellbeing, but it’s not about the income, it’s about that what it gets me, and it gets me happiness and rest and vacations and massages. If my neck, my neck is stiff. So, it is a shift in perspective, and I feel it pretty strongly like, and it feels damn good for me.

It feels very motivating, and it feels very aligned, and I think that’s a shift that many of us are experiencing to money. It doesn’t really define money that differently. It’s just a different way to tune into it. It’s a different perspective on it. So, I was just wondering if you were experiencing something similar or if you had any thoughts and reflections on this.

My new currency is wellbeing. I love it.

George Grombacher: I think it’s awesome. I think that how you look at something makes all the difference, literally [00:25:00] all the difference. I think that our perspective, our ability to pull back from a situation, it’s a photography term, right? To pull back and to be able to see the whole thing is a superpower.

And our ability to change that, to say, Okay, how do I wanna think about money? Well, I choose to think about it as my new currency is wellbeing, whatever it is that you decide. And that’s an incredible thing. You’ve been thinking about money one way your entire life. Society’s been thinking about money one way for a long time, and now things are changing.

So, we have the ability to make these decisions, and I think that we see it everywhere right now. You know, Covid has called into question the way that we police our communities, the way that we educate our children. The way that we work, the places that we work, and the way that we interact with one another. [00:26:00]

And I think that we are craving this decentralization of things. I’m sick of having to wonder and really work hard to figure out what’s true. Cause how do I know if one channel says this thing, the other channel says that thing, how do I know what’s true? It’s if I could just get the truth on this.

With our money, you have new types of currency which are coming along, which are decentralized currency. So, it’s the same thing. We’re sick of having somebody or something or whatever that is standing in the middle of between me and what I want and so reframing and rethinking, okay, what are these systems and assumptions that we’re talking about a little bit earlier,

what do I think about that? And I’m not gonna throw the baby out the bath water. Some of the stuff I’m gonna keep but maybe I can build my life and change my [00:27:00] thinking and my feeling in a way that’s gonna serve me, and it’s gonna help me get to where I want to go and be a happy and more contented person.

So, I think that that’s immensely valuable.

Allyson Scammell: Yeah. I love that perspective. So, what are your, some of your top tips for folks to get better with their money? You know, I think that a lot of the listeners of this podcast do have businesses, not all of them, but a lot of ’em. And many of us are experiencing shifts in the market, especially in the service-based industry.

You know, interest rates are raising, as you said, and so a lot of people are, you know, shifting what they wanna put, you know, prioritize their money, things in the online space are shifting. So, it creates uncertainty for the future, you know, what used to work isn’t working now what’s gonna work? So, if there are listeners out there that are feeling uncertain and anxious or having anxiety, like what will, what will 2023 bring?

What are some of your top tip tips [00:28:00] to get us feeling good about money? Even when we’re feeling anxious, even in those times we’re feeling anxious or, maybe it’s top tips to help us shift out of that anxiety and into something better.

George Grombacher: Yeah, I appreciate that. It’s funny, I’m mildly embarrassed. But not really.

I guess I didn’t know what first principal thinking was for a really long time, and I came upon it. I’m like, Oh, That’s really cool. First principles are just what is fundamentally true. So great example is when Elon Musk decides he’s going to go and disrupt an industry or create a new one, instead of just going with the common orthodoxy or what’s been done, he says, let me break this down to first principles and maybe redesign it.

So, he was able to actually make electric cars and create new batteries not by looking at existing rocket or battery technology, but by figuring out, okay, what’s the best way to build this and da da. So, I think that there are a handful of financial first [00:29:00] principles that are true no matter what in whatever our, And I have, you know, I can’t tell you what the stock market’s going to do.

It’s either gonna go up, it’s gonna go down. I can’t tell you what interest rates are gonna go, anything like that. I’m not that smart. But there are three things that I think are really, really important, that if we can get our arms around and put it put into practice and put to work for us, whatever stage of life that we are in, then we will be positioned for better success.

So, there are a handful of first principles, financial first principles that anybody can really benefit from, and if you’re a parent and you really wanted to help your kids be financially successful, I think that these three things, if you could help them put them to work in their life, would really position them for success.

Or if you’re 50 years old, doesn’t really matter what age you are, these things are true. The more we can do them, the better. I empathize with entrepreneurs. If we are building businesses online or offline or wherever, it is even more challenging with money because sometimes our [00:30:00] income is a little erratic and it’s not quite as consistent.

But if we put these things to work, I think it’ll be of immense value. So, Three things. Number one is the golden rule of personal finance. So, it’s been true for a really, really long time. And that’s pay yourself first, and you’ve probably heard that before, but maybe we don’t actually understand what it means.

Fundamentally the opposite is you pay everybody else first and then wait around to the end of the month to pay yourself or the end of the year to pay yourself. And what you discover when you do that is that there’s no money left over for you. This is a thing called Parkinson’s Law says that work expense or contracts to fill the amount of time available for its completion.

Well, I think the same is true of expenses. Our expenses will continue to expand and consume all of our money until all the money is gone. And that’s what happens when we live paycheck to paycheck as we’re in this cycle where you end up with more month than money and you’re stressing and you’re scrambling around at the end of the month trying to pay your bills.

So, when we pay ourselves first, we put money towards one of our [00:31:00] financial goals at the beginning of every month before we pay anybody else. So, we accomplish this either by setting up an automatic contribution to a savings account from a checking account. We can do that with a brokerage account from my checking account to a brokerage account.

I can do that with an IRA or a 401k. So that is how we pay ourselves first. And even if it’s 1% of your income, just getting in the habit of doing that will start to position you for financial success. And I get pushed back from entrepreneurs who say, well I need to pour everything back into my business.

I totally get that, and we do need to invest and reinvest and consistently invest in our business and put it all back in. And we need to take something out the table for ourselves also. So, think about it from a parent standpoint. If you taught your 15-year-old and you get your first job, if you put 10% of your income away, you would really be set up for long term financial success.

So that’s the first one [00:32:00] is just get in the habit. Put in place a way that you are paying yourself first on a monthly basis. Second one is stay out of

Allyson Scammell: debt. I like that. And, and I like the second one too, just to comment on the first one. You know, as my business has grown and kind of, it kind of took off, I had a moment where it sort of took off.

And I noticed that managing the money in and out of my business got more complicated, and I’m not like a bookkeeper by any stretch of the imagination, but I really decided until it, my business gets too big, where it’s just doesn’t make sense for me to keep the books anymore. I’m gonna do it myself, and I’m gonna take that time once a month.

I reconcile everything because I wanna see and I wanna feel with my own fingertips what’s going in and what’s going out. And that’s been a really good practice of mine. And then I always make sure, as you say, I do make sure to pay myself first, even if it’s a very small amount of money. And I just put it into my business savings account, which is sort of my no touch. [00:33:00]

I do find that to be a really, really powerful practice. Just seeing it for yourself, and I actually think my perspective, unless you’re someone who needs to just like get it out of your account, so you don’t spend it if you’re not that person. I think it’s very powerful to actually transfer the money yourself so you can feel.

You can feel yourself getting paid and it’s something I’ve always done and I, you know, I, I give myself, cause I don’t have a boss, right? I’m my own boss. So, I give myself a payday and it feels good when I do it so, just adding a little perspective on how I approach your very good advice.

George Grombacher: No, it’s awesome. I appreciate that very much so it’s, it’s a real thing, you know, even if it’s a little bit, we are developing a new muscle. We’re showing ourselves, I’m capable of saving and investing money and that’s nothing but a positive thing. Yeah. It’s pretty good to habits. So, stay out of debt, stay out of debt.

That crushes us. It is just a [00:34:00] massive burden. It is just real shit. It’s awful. So, if you’re currently in credit card debt, and this is me, in my twenties, 100%. We need to put a plan together and figure out what I need to be doing to get myself out of credit card debt. And I’m not somebody who says all debt is bad.

Certainly, have a home mortgage, take out a car loan, stuff like that if you do a business loan, great. But we need to figure out how to avoid consumer revolving debt because that just really, really crushes us. And again, back to the kid’s thing, you teach your kid that, so they never get into debt. That’s not the better.

Really, really positive thing. And all the stuff about student loans that we’re going through in the United States right now just shows you that we are positioning ourselves for financial failure when we graduate as a 22-year-old with 50 or a hundred thousand or $200,000 in debt, that is not positioning ourselves for success.

So, there’s one and two? Yes. Awesome. That’s not, that’s not

Allyson Scammell: rocket science. No. But can I just also, I wanna reflect on number two. I live in [00:35:00] Europe and have for the last 12 years now, and typically speaking, and not all European countries are the same, but if I kind of could generalize a little bit, I would say typically speaking, they don’t, Personal debt isn’t really a thing here.

There is no, like credit card debt is not really a thing. I don’t know, like, we could have a two-hour debate as to why that is. You know, typically if you’re gonna buy something here that’s not a house. And you know, oftentimes, you know, in Holland anyway, university education is free. So, most kids don’t have to take out student loans for education.

But it’s just, if you don’t have it in the bank account, you don’t buy it. It’s just, it’s like, it’s just like it’s in the people just know that to be true here. Think that it just as someone who now like really lives and breathes that after being in it so long, I can just see how healthy, how healthy it actually [00:36:00] creates a society.

You know, people are buying things only when they have the money to buy it. And people are very cautious when they buy things like, oh, my money and my bank account is precious, right? So, I’m not gonna just buy something on a whim. I am gonna make sure that I prioritize the things that I wanna bring into my household or bring into my life, because I’m not gonna just run up a credit card debt.

I really, as someone who’s seen what it can look like when there is basically no credit card debt. It is a beautiful thing,

George Grombacher: No doubt about it. Well, I’m glad to hear that credit card debt is uniquely American. So,

Allyson Scammell: I mean, I don’t know about that, but awesome. It doesn’t, I don’t, You don’t see it here. So,

George Grombacher: Yeah, and that’s that.

Those are more first principles. If you can’t pay cash for it, you can’t afford it. And I was alive before credit cards were ubiquitous here in the United States, and when I ran out of money it meant I stopped buying things. And credit now just allows us to keep spending and that’s not a good thing at all.

So [00:37:00] just adopting the mindset that you’ve just laid out, money is precious, and I need to be judicious and a good steward and prioritize. These are really, really, really positive things that are very wise. A third thing quickly is just is just to diversify. Also, here in the United States, we’ve got these amazing new companies like Robin Hood that are making online trading really, really exciting.

And the unfortunate reality is that the vast, vast majority of people who are engaging in trading on these kinds of accounts are losing money. That’s an unfortunate education that professional traders would refer to as your tuition. So, you wanna invest in individual stocks, you will lose money. Doesn’t mean you’re always gonna lose money, but you will lose money if you are interested in becoming a professional trader and beating Wall Street.

It’s possible to do it just like it’s possible to play in NFL football. It’s not possible for me to play in the [00:38:00] NFL but there are a thousand people who do it. It’s possible for you to beat the stock market, but you need to become a professional. You need to take the time and learn how to do it, have processes, and be disciplined.

If you’re not interested in doing that or not willing to do that, like me, well then, we need to take a more diversified approach to our investing. The core of my portfolio needs to be well diversified. Low cost is better than high-cost investments. Again, we’ll just, I’ll focus here on the United States, the S and P 500, a mutual fund, an exchange trade of fund gives me the opportunity to buy a share of the S&P 500, and I own a small piece of the 500 biggest companies in the stock market versus putting all my money in one stock, so I’m not opposed to

buying individual stocks. I’m not opposed to buying cryptocurrencies. I do all of these things, but the bulk, the majority of my invested assets are in low cost, well diversified investments. [00:39:00]

Allyson Scammell: Nice. I like that. And I think that also holds true of our business as we go into a time of potential and I don’t know, but some people say we’re going into a time of potential financial uncertainty in the markets and maybe some instability,

et cetera. I think it’s an important thing also to do in your business. Think of different ways to diversify, have several streams of revenue coming in. Don’t put all your eggs in the basket of one offering. That’s something that I used to do in my business. I was the kind of person I’d like to have like two, maybe three offerings and do two, maybe three launches a year, and then that was it.

And I definitely noticed for me and for a lot of my peers, that’s not really working anymore. It’s just. It’s, you know, things are shifting so it’s not working for us, and it doesn’t mean that couldn’t work for you. So, I really realized that I had to take this on, or I really had to diversify my business and think about different partnerships and [00:40:00] affiliates, things that I hadn’t really considered before.

And to be honest, when I really got into it, it’s starting to feel really good and it feels much better than I’m putting all of the eggs in the basket of two to three offerings and that’s, that puts a lot of pressure on the business. So, I would just, I love the advice and really expand it to business owners out there to think about how you could diversify income coming into your business.

And there’s just so many different opportunities out there, and just being open to expanding that. Expanding that a little

George Grombacher: bit. Yeah, I think that that’s well said. That’s, we’re positioned for success by having things spread out a little bit that gives us the opportunity I talk about, right? Giving yourself a permission slip to let it rip on a more concentrated opportunity.

But if you just put everything on black or red, to use a roulette analogy, if it doesn’t come up your way, well then you are bankrupt versus if you’ve got a lot of resources and then you can take more, more aggressive bets.

Allyson Scammell: Yeah, exactly. [00:41:00] All right, George. Well, thank you so much. I really enjoyed chatting with you about this.

I learned so much from your perspective and really thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom with us. I would love to invite you to leave our listeners with an invitation, inviting them anywhere you wish them to

George Grombacher: go. I invite people to tap into their superpowers. First one is to figure out how you want to feel, and this goes for every aspect of life.

Whenever you find yourself thinking about things you don’t want, catch yourself and reframe. What is it that I do want? If we fill ourself up with negativity, we’re gonna get more of it. I’m confident your listeners know to that. So, whenever you find yourself thinking about things you don’t want, shift it.

Think about what it is you do want. And the second thing is, we as human beings have the ability to visualize the future, we want for ourselves [00:42:00] and to make plans and work towards doing that. And that’s goal setting. It took me until I was 35 years old to actually go through a proper goal setting process and I can now look back and say, wow, that made a huge difference.

So think about how you wanna feel, think about the future you want, and put pen to paper and get to work.

Allyson Scammell: Nice. I like that. And George, I know that there’s gonna be people in my audience who are gonna want to connect deeper with you, get into your world, and I understand you have a book coming out, so can you tell people how they can get in touch with you and get their hands on a copy of your new book?

Yeah,

George Grombacher: for sure. And thank you so much for having me. I spent a good amount of time writing and I finally committed to writing a book. And so, my first book. Be your own CFO: business-like approach to your personal finances. So, it takes a lot of the best practices that we’ve been talking about today and what [00:43:00] it takes to run a successful business and how do I apply that to my personal life?

So, you could find that on Amazon. And then if people are interested in finding more about me, go to my website, which is money alignment academy.com. I’ve got lots of different ways to get better at money so you can live how you want.

Allyson Scammell: Beautiful. And all of those links will be in the show notes. And we’re also going to link in the show notes when I was just a few weeks ago, a guest on your amazing podcast.

So, you can check out my episode on George’s podcast and check out George’s amazing podcast at the same time. Win-win. Beautiful. Thank you again so much for sharing your wisdom with us on Soul Guide Radio.

And I wanna thank you so much, dear listener, for tuning in, for always tuning in. I really appreciate you [00:44:00] so much from my heart. I am grateful for you, and I always feel connected to you every time I get behind the mic to record another episode on Soul Guide Radio. And as always, until next time, may your soul guide the way.

Are you ready to fill your business with soul clients in the next 60 days? Then download my free energy upgrade meditation to amp up your energy frequency, dissolve the doubt, and attract the soul clients you are destined to serve. Find the link to download on my website, allysonscammell.com, as well as in the show notes.