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- [00:01]
Progressive Insurance
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings. When you choose the best rate for you, give it a try after this episode@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. Welcome to the Candy Valentino show, the podcast for founders, investors and entrepreneurs where we have honest conversations about what it takes to grow your business, build more wealth and create financial freedom.
- [01:15]
Candy Valentino
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Candy Valentino Show. Thanks for tuning in with me today. And today is one of our favorite parts of the show. It's new, it's fun, it's time for Ask Candy. This is where I answer your questions about business, finance, life. You name it, we are answering it. So let's dive into today's listener question. This one you can listen along as we hear from Renee H. Renee, thanks for calling in.
- [01:46]
Renee H
Hi Candy, thank you so much for taking my call and taking my question. First of all, thank you so much for all the great value and insights you provide and I hope you're doing well. I know you're healing well and I'm praying for you and the best. So my question is I am almost 60 years old and I have a small business still, believe it or not, recovering from the COVID pandemic epidemic. I have a small real estate company, family owned and I have a military retirement and so I'm still trying to get back. We were in a special space in the real estate side of things and I'm trying to decide do I focus on really trying to increase my revenues because I don't have a 401k or and or to still work on building my business credit and personal credit and getting out of personal debt because I'm saddled with between personal student loans and student loans for my children. So I'm just trying to decide which method away should I be going. I'm a healthy, I'm fairly healthy so I got, you know, quite a few more working years to go but I'm not sure what to focus on like just generating more income and then do the build back my business credit and personal credit. So yeah. So any advice you can provide, I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much. God bless.
- [03:20]
Candy Valentino
First and foremost, Renee, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are a lot of people that are still having challenges, whether it's from COVID this economic climate, the tariffs. There's so many different changes right now in the business landscape that it's making it very difficult to understand how to navigate. And so you're not alone. I want to share that first. And second, I want to share that you are 60 years young, my friend. You mentioned that you have a few good years because you've got health, you've got so many great years left. You could build a whole new career in a whole new industry starting at 60. And so often what happens is people look back, they look and see, oh, my gosh, what did I do to get me into this situation or what didn't I do to get me into this situation? And a lot of times with money and with business, there's a lot of emotion, and sometimes we get trapped into those emotions, which is what really creates this lid, the ceiling, if you will, of our ultimate growth. So the first thing I want you to think of is regardless of what got you to this place, regardless of whatever was outside of your control or decisions that you made, we need to literally leave them right here at the door. We need to decide to drop it all and step into what's new and what's next. And if we can get the mindset right, if we can get you back to that feeling of confidence, of empowerment, of knowing that you're going to do whatever it is that you want to do, if we can start there, it's going to make this grind a lot easier. So that's my first step. I want to get your mindset right, to drop whatever has been done to this point. Forget the mistakes, forget the decisions, forget whatever challenge that you face. And I want you to use it as fuel to enter into this new space. That's the first piece. The second piece is the tactics of this. And I love that you're so specific in your question, Renee. Like, what should I be focusing on? Right? Because there's so many variables in the air. The super simple version of this, the watered down response, is there are only two ways that we can get out of a difficult financial situation. We either make more or we spend less. Like, that's really the simplistic answer of it all. And typically it's the first where we have to grow out of something. We have to earn more in order to not have whatever this issue is be so big. So what are your next steps? It's focusing on how do you increase revenue without increasing your expenses at the same rate? And I use this simple role called my 10-10-10 as just a starting place. How can you increase Your revenue by 10%? Or if you don't have a business, how can you earn an additional 10%? What can you do on the side? Is there a sideline industry that you can be in? Can you create another vertical inside of your business? Can you do something on the side? Sell your skills, sell a service in order to just increase 10% more? The second step of the 101010 is how do you reduce your expenses by just 10% so that you can start to bridge a gap, right? Increase by 10, reduce by 10 so that you have more of that money that you can start to throw on this debt. Because the number one destroyer of your net worth will always be debt. Bad debt, personal debt, credit card debt, anything that is not on an appreciating asset like real estate or a business do you know what's sitting in my garage right now? A Range Rover. It is the only vehicle that I have had over and over again throughout my lifetime. And that's because the Range Rover Sport blends power, poise and performance and it's free from unnecessary details. It has this raw power and agility that can take on roads anywhere. And when you drive one, you won't want to drive anything else. Just like you, it was designed to make impact. The Range Rover Sport combines dynamic sporting personality, elegance and agility to deliver a truly instinctive drive. It has defined true modern luxury and it's a force inside and out. The Range Rover Sport was built with you and I in mind. Build your Range Rover Sport@range Rover.com US Sport.
- [07:50]
Progressive Insurance
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally Responsible Financial Geniuses Monetary Magicians these are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.
- [08:29]
Candy Valentino
But I would not be focusing on anything right now that was not income producing. So how can you delegate some things off of your plate so that you can be doing more income generating activity? And is there anything that you can do with the debt that you currently have? Can you call the creditors? You can you call the banks? Wherever you have these loans and see if they're willing to work with you. Will they reduce your rate? Will they extend your terms? Will they consolidate something? If you have a few loans with the same company, Right. Getting on the phone, having a conversation is always the best place to start. Because if we don't ask, the answer is always no. And you would be shocked to learn how many times I have helped people negotiate better terms and deals just by asking. And this doesn't stop just with your loans, your banks, and whatever creditors that you have debt with. You can also call your utility companies, your landlord. There are so many ways that you can start to look at, how can I reduce my expenses and how can I reduce my overall debt? Asking better questions. So often we're focused on what is that. We don't always see what's possible. We don't always think about the alternative because we're so riddled in this. This specific situation right now. So I want you to think about, okay, how can I reduce my overall expenses and this debt? And then how can I increase my revenue so that I can bridge that gap and start really tackling the highest percentage of interest that you're paying? So if you have a credit card or a personal loan with 18, 20, 24%, I want you to start dumping as much money as you possibly can on that. You don't want to worry about building your credit. You had mentioned something about, should I focus on building back my business credit or personal credit? We don't want you to worry about building a cred score. We want to worry about getting out of personal credit card debt or personal debt of any kind. And the way that we do that is by focusing on the right things. How do we increase revenue or income? How do we make more money? How do we spend less and reduce this debt? How do we bridge that gap and start tackling the debt so that we can get out of this situation? Now, of course, you don't need to just stop at 10%. You can grow at 15, 20, 25%. But we first want to start with something very attainable so that we can start stacking wins. A oftentimes people will say, oh, I want to double my income. Okay, that's great. But so often we focus on, how do I make another million dollars? As opposed to, if you're making 100,000, how do you make 110,000? If you're making 200,000, how do you make 220,000? Right. So that you can start stacking wins. Because all of the research shows that wealth building is 75% behavior. It's not as much of the tactics as we think it is. We want to make the decisions that create the action so that we can create new hab because those new habits are what sticks and that's what creates a new reality. And until we get out of personal debt, until we remove all of these loans from the balance sheet, if you will, we can't even start to think about investing into a 401k. You had mentioned something about not having a 401k that needs to be completely placed on the side because we can't invest into something that historically gives us 8 to 12% annually if we are paying 16, 18, 24% on credit card or personal loans, on depreciating assets, or even student loans, depending on what the percentage is. So increasing that revenue or that income is number one, reducing those expenses would be number two, bridging that gap. And start placing as much money as you possibly can on that debt to pay it down. All of that has to happen before we start laying money into investments because you cannot out invest bad debt no matter what. It just doesn't work that way. So I am sending you so much love, Renee. I know you can do this. You are strong, you are capable. This is a challenge. But I know that you have gotten through difficult challenges before and you're going to get through this too. Don't give up. Start tackling that. 10-10-10. I am cheering you on every step of the way. You got this. God bless. All right, guys, that's all for today's episode of Ask Candy. And if you have a question for me, business finance life, head over to candyvalentino.com askcandy and submit it so that we can listen to it here on the show. You can even write it in. That's all for today's episode. Thanks again. We'll see you next time. Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to this episode. And if there was something that you loved or you had a specific takeaway, share it and tag me Andy Valentino. And if you haven't already, grab a copy of my latest book, the 9% Edge. Life changing secrets to create more revenue for your business and more freedom for yourself. You can pick it up anywhere books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent store. And once you do, head over to 9% edge.com and claim $1,500 in pre order bonuses, including a chance to join me on this very show. Thanks so much for tuning in and spending this time with me today, guys. We'll see you next.