Dr. Nicholas Michels - Rich by Choice: Why True Wealth is an Immediate Decision, Not a Destination

In 3, 2, 1.

Welcome back to Becoming Preferred, a podcast where we help you become the best version of you.

If you're an entrepreneur or a business professional, you know that scaling a company often comes with a massive cost.

Too many high performers find themselves financially successful but time poor, stress ridden and completely disconnected from the life they originally set out to build.

Well, today's guest is here to change that script.

He's an elite wealth strategist, founder of Michael's Family Financial and author of the powerhouse new book, Rich by Choice.

Nick has a fascinating story that spans from childhood financial hardship and working on a Texas golf course to playing professional basketball overseas and turning down a massive 8.1 million corporate signing bonus just to ensure his advice remained entirely independent, transparent and focused on his client's best interests.

Today we are discussing how to align your revenue with your deepest values, protect your hard earned assets from advanced tax leaks, and use the rocking chair test to design a life of radical generosity and freedom.

Get ready to take back control.

Please welcome to the show, Dr. Nicholas Michaels.

Well, hi, Nick.

Welcome to the program.

We're delighted to have you.

Hey, Michael, I'm happy to be here.

Thank you.

I'm excited about this.

We haven't really covered this topic in six seasons and we've addressed it and it's one of the things which I think people think about all the time and how to maybe rich by choice.

And we're going to talk about money, the functions of money, how we create it, why it's such a big important thing in our lives.

But actually maybe get some clarity around it and maybe look at putting some functionality into it and going, hey, what does it mean for us?

And so that you've got some exciting things to share with our audience.

But let's talk about where you came from.

First of all, you're back in high school.

You're living in, I think you're in Dallas, Fort Worth area today.

That's correct.

So are you a Texas boy?

You're living in W and you're going to school.

Where'd you go?

Like Richardson or Richardson, where'd you go to school?

I went to school at Granbury High School, the small town outside of Fort Worth.

And now you're deciding what you want to be in life.

You're sports.

What led you down the path that you're on right now?

Absolutely.

It's actually my childhood.

I mean, I came from a well to do family.

My father was an entrepreneur.

I mean, we weren't rich, but we were comfortable four boys.

I was the Middle youngest of four wild boys, as you can imagine, Michael.

But it changed.

My parents got divorced and essentially overnight, my mom went from a stay at home mom of four boys, pretty comfortable life.

To my mom's now a single mom of four boys working three jobs just to keep things going.

And you can probably imagine that, man, I saw two sides of the world very quickly of a comfortable lifestyle to oh my gosh, no, we're barely going to make it.

And that shaped me.

That really did.

And it kind of led me down the path to where I am now.

All right, so college, was that an experience for you or did you jump right into the corporate world?

No, actually I played basketball.

Basketball is my way out.

Coming from a humble beginnings, there's no college fund waiting for me, no rich family member wanting to pay for my college.

So it's either going to be the military because they would pay for my college, or a basketball scholarship.

And so I was very fortunate to go down that road and very blessed.

A point guard, I'm assuming that's it.

Actually, I'm called a combo guard because I shoot too much to be a natural point guard.

My buddies give me a hard time.

Awesome.

Hey, well, so you got into the financial world.

You started working for a financial firm.

First of all, I did the evolution of that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I actually got an internship at the end of college.

Just need an internship.

But it was a family friend was a financial advisor.

So I was junior broker, intern.

And I fell in love with it.

I did.

I encourage all kids to get internships because you learn so much.

It doesn't matter what you get paid or even get paid at all.

But two things will happen.

One is you're going to learn about the business, you're going to learn about the life.

But then also, if you don't really just mess it up, probably have a job offer.

And so I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with the work.

And I just knew that, hey, basketball and finance were my two favorite passions.

And away I went.

Fantastic.

Now you started working in the firm.

You were there for a number of years.

And then what I was interested in was you actually turned down a major offer to come work for a corporation.

Let's talk about that.

Because it was quite significant.

I think it was like 8.1 million in order to come to unpack that for us.

Absolutely.

I mean, that's life changing money.

Michael, think about it.

My age, very young, I hit the corporate world as a rising financial advisor and things were just going great.

But I started to see cracks in the industry.

Not all financial advisors, not all financial firms, but I started to see corporate greed, bottom dollar thinking, doing what's best for the company, not what's best for the client.

Like a lot of things that you might hear about.

And it was true.

So I get this offer and I shockingly, because I thought the day would be better.

Because you, when you're young, growing up, you think you get an offer like this, like your life's set.

But I went home and I do.

I remember this.

I told my wife I couldn't do it, and I had to make a change.

And I said, let's start our own firm.

And she didn't bat an eye.

That's how great my wife is.

She said, okay, let's do it.

And so we turned down the offer and started our own firm.

Because I started to see things in the industry, like kickbacks, revenue sharing, spreads, things like that that most people don't even know about.

And so it just changed my philosophy that we wanted to do things our way.

No, I think that's smart.

You have.

It's interesting because you get to work with lots of different type of companies and individuals and families.

So I'm assuming you work with family offices all the way down to independent entrepreneurs.

Are there commonalities that you see, regardless of what someone's starting point is or wealth, whether they inherited it?

Are there things that you see that are just common denominators amongst across that spectrum of demographic?

Absolutely, Michael.

It's one of the things I talk about a lot because.

And one thing that I love about this work is because I get a backstage pass into people's lives.

I mean, when you're working with someone's finances, the families, it's a very intimate situation.

You understand everything, all the dynamics within their family, what they want, where they're going.

But you hit the nail on the head, you start to see common traits, common values, a lot of people.

And that's what's great about America.

In the world we live in today, you can make money doing many things.

Wonderful.

But all these individuals who find success with money, but also success in life in general, they do.

They have certain traits, characteristics, values, and it's fascinating and it's powerful.

What are some of those characteristics?

What are some of those traits that you see?

Absolutely.

They have a passion for what they do.

They have a passion for the people, their lives, all the ones you read about, integrity, work ethic, grit.

We call it my family, Michael's grit.

We use it a lot because My last name is Michaels, and I teach my kids Michael grit.

Michael's grit, because it's perseverance, work ethic.

Because life is going to throw you curveballs all the time.

It's going to happen.

I remember when we first launched our company, I planned for years and years, you know, things to get, to learn, how to do it, to transition.

And right as we launched our company, we dealt with some pretty major curve balls that completely changed everything.

We worked so hard to plan, and we had to pivot and move.

So it just lets you know that no matter what, you're going to get some curveballs.

But it's not what happens to you.

It's, you know, this.

It's how you handle what happens to you.

That's what creates success or failure down the road.

Oh, I love that grit and resilience.

My wife's a McLean, she's Scottish, and they call it the McLean grit.

So I understand.

Okay.

I. I'm well indoctrinated in that one.

It's interesting.

Your book is titled Rich by Choice, which is interesting.

So for many entrepreneurs, rich is treated as a.

And professionals, it's treated as a distant destination or a specific dollar amount in the bank.

You argue that it's an immediate decision.

What does it actually mean to be rich by choice?

And how should a busy business professional shift their mindset in today's world?

Yeah, and so that's what I think what the book has had so much success is because it's the mindset that, yes, it's going to help you become rich with money, but it's also going to help you become rich with life.

Because you talked about a certain dollar amount.

How many people do we know that say, hey, I'll be happy when.

And it's where I get a million dollars, $100 million, whatever it is.

But they're not.

It's not what they thought.

It's not nirvana.

So what it does is it takes a reader on a journey to where you need to understand, hey, who's important to you, what's important to you?

What's the exact life that you want to live, the joys you want to experience, the pain that you need or want to overcome.

And yes, there is a dollar amount associated with that, but it's all aligned.

It's not just one or the other.

Because, Michael, how many people do you know that have tons of money but would trade just about all of it to go back and maybe have a better relationship with so and so or missed out on this life experience?

Oh, I just read an article the other day, brought tears to my eyes actually, because it's like I've come to this conclusion in a healthy environment.

But it was a gentleman that he was, he's famous.

His name slips me.

But it was just on in the news the other day.

He was, he was, he's famous because he paid 650,000 for lunch with Warren Buffett and just for lunch.

And he started his own hedge fund and his own.

Based on value investing.

Well, you know, which we're talking, I'm sure you're a believer in.

He's coming back from a ski trip with his family and got a nice young family and you know, teenagers and they're older and he has a mal seizure.

So get to the hospital, check him out.

Well, he's got an inoperable tumor.

They can do some things to it, but basically affects four out of a hundred thousand people.

And you're, you're done, you're done in 15 months.

And he's halfway through that process and, and so he unwound his fund.

He gave all the investors back their money.

Everybody is whole.

Not a problem that, that.

But he said, you know what I would give up?

He says, I'm not going to see my kids get married and I'm not going to see my grandchildren or meet them.

And he goes, I would give up everything, every last dime to start over, to be able to have just another 10 or 15 years.

Yeah.

So.

And I've seen this time and time again and I'm sure you have to.

It's way most people, it's a tool.

And I think it's about, you know, in your book touches on.

This is about clarity.

It's about purpose and control.

Most people are financially busy, but they're emotionally broke because they chase wealth without defining what they want that money to actually do for them.

Right.

So how do you help them find that clarity?

Absolutely.

I mean, it's a process.

It's a step by step process.

But the first thing is you just said it.

People are so busy.

I mean, I am too.

I've got four kids, I'm coaching T ball.

I'm doing this.

I'm involved in a lot of stuff.

I'm just as busy as everyone else.

So I get it.

But not many of us take the time to really sit down and go, okay, where am I going?

Is it gonna make me happy?

And most people set goals such as, hey, whatever, a numeric, a million in revenue, 5 million in revenue, whatever that is.

But they don't Understand?

Hey, what's that life look like?

It's Tuesday afternoon at 3 o'.

Clock.

What am I doing?

Who am I with?

I have four kids.

What happens if one lives out of state?

Okay.

And you know, I hope they don't.

Hope they all stay in Texas, real close to mom and dad.

But what happens if they do them?

Are we, what does that relationship look like?

Are we just going there on Thanksgiving and Christmas or are we buying a second home there?

There's no right or wrong answer.

But these are huge decisions that most people don't take the time to think about and it needs some planning.

Not many people, Michael can just go write a check, you know, once the son daughter decides to move out of state and start having grandkids, it just takes time.

But if you have time and understand what you're going to want to do and what things look like and you can't predict exactly but you see, you understand what I'm saying?

If you just take that time and understand, hey, this is what we want, this is the life that we're going to live and it's going to bring us most joy.

Well, great, let's start planning for that.

Yeah.

I have a friend of mine, he's written about five books when he works with high net worth families offices.

So a lot of billionaires and the dysfunction that goes with that and succession planning and affluenza and the kids being spoiled and ruined and I want to kind of get into that a little bit as well because sure, an important element to it.

And he asked me, I went through his process to see what he did and he asked me what does money mean to you?

And so you know, I give him the answer and he goes okay, what does that mean to you and why is that important and why does that mean to you?

And I keep drilling down to it finally boiled down for me it was really about freedom and that's the ultimate thing.

I want to be able to do what I want when I want.

End of story, just that's it.

And not be restricted to it obviously within boundaries and I, you know, I've achieved that.

It's been tough sometimes, but it's still nice.

If I don't feel like working, you know, we talked earlier, I can take the afternoon off and just shut.

And we're going where if you take someone and we look at others and we think oh I would love their lifestyle.

Take the, you know, the President of the United States, well, are they free?

They can't go just anywhere.

There's a Whole process.

You know, half the people don't like you, no matter what side of the fence you're on.

Good point.

It's just awful.

Like, who wants that?

Like, you can't just go down the street and hold hands with your partner.

You can't just go sit at a park and do that.

You've got handcuffs.

You're surrounded.

Is that worth it?

I work for some of Warren Buffett's companies over the years, so I've seen how he operates and what he values and how he values things.

Well, you know what?

He's got all the money in the world, but a normal house in a normal cul de sac drives a normal vehicle.

You gotta love that bill now.

Yeah.

And you know the stories with him.

He hits McDonald's every day.

Old.

So I watched T. Boone Pickens.

I saw half a dozen of these billionaires on a panel one time, and they're all arguing on how cheaply they could buy their suits for and how old they were and versus buying that $5,000 suit that's custom tailored.

And we buy things sometimes where we want things because we want to show people we're really successful.

But I don't think money really does it because I met many miserable people who have all types of money or they earn their money and then their kids are having troubles and problems and they're spoiled because if they don't know how to make it, they don't know how to keep it.

Do you see that in your work as far as succession planning, where somebody's built up a small fortune, they've got some money to pass on to their family, but the kids, they've never had to do it or work hard in their life.

And so do they keep it?

Or does this get just spent over the next couple of generations?

Yeah, great question.

And I've seen both sides of it.

I've seen some families that have gained success, and guess what?

The success went down.

The core values and traits went down to the next generation, where they built on that.

And then, yes, I've seen it too, where the next generation comes along, there's a little bit more entitlement and that the family fortunes squandered.

But then I've also seen the other side too.

Where did they set trust and things like that up to where they couldn't, but they would if they didn't have those parameters set in place.

You know, I think it's so important because you hit it right on the head, Michael.

I could probably become a billionaire.

I really could.

And I'm not bragging.

I think most people can.

That human mind is a powerful thing.

But for me to do that, I would have to.

I'd probably be divorced so many times, my kids wouldn't know me.

It just wouldn't be worth it.

Now, I'm not saying all billionaires are like that.

I'm just talking about my particular situation.

But when you stop for a second and say, okay, where are things going?

Because everything's about trajectory.

You know, where's my life going?

Where are my relationships heading, what influences that, like you talked about earlier, that.

When you become very clear on what it is, why you're here, what you want, all the decisions, you just talk about T. Bone Pickens, what suits to buy, Warren Buffett, where he lives.

You have so many decisions that you make every day.

But if you're clear about this, every decision is going to start leading this way subconsciously and consciously.

And so that's what's so important.

But you have to be.

That's what I love about these exercises.

It's not just, hey, I want to retire, or, hey, I want that.

No, it's exactly so many different details of that life.

And you can always change your mind.

But every decision then from when you wake up and to go to sleep is geared towards what's getting me there.

And it's not tough.

It's not work, because it's exciting.

You're building something.

I mean, how exciting?

That's not the drag of, oh, I got to do this until I'm 65.

No, you're building something, the life that you want.

That's inspiring.

Yeah.

I think it's understanding why you want the money, what's the purpose for the money, and go from there.

You know, I'm not a big tattoo guy, but it's on my arm for a reason.

It's from Marcus Aurelius from 2000 years ago.

Okay.

Ego is the enemy.

And whenever I've made a major mistake on a financial basis, whatever.

So let's say I want to go buy a new motorcycle, or my wife will say, read your right arm.

I actually woke up one morning and it was tattooed.

I think she roofied me.

When I've made mistakes, it's always been about, I'm going to buy this new car, this BMW 5 Series, because people are going to think I'm cool or I get to park it there.

It's not money in itself.

It's what we do with it.

And some of these billionaires is.

It doesn't mean anything to them.

Warren Buffett's giving away over 99% of it.

His grandchildren, all right, his grandchildren, he could give them 100 million each and they wouldn't, he wouldn't even bat an eye.

But they get a four year ride scholarship and room and board and that's it.

And he's got the best line ever.

Food always tastes best when you're hungry.

And that just stuck with me.

It's like when you were building your practice and you went, decided you turned on the big paycheck and you started building.

When you landed that first client, you're taking your wife out for dinner and you're maybe having a glass of wine and you're going, hey, we're doing it.

We're on our way.

Those are the accomplishments, right?

But that's not your identity.

It's not who Nicholas is.

All right?

It's that.

It's what we do.

And one of the best lines I hear, I saw that somebody say to a billionaire was I have something you can never have.

And the billionaire said what?

He said, I have enough.

And I thought it's a good point.

Yeah, brilliant.

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And now back to my conversation with Nicholas Michaels.

Let me ask you this question in your work.

Now I want to talk about the financial curse of business growth.

That money can either be an incredible blessing or a stress ridden curse that strains relationships and marriages.

So entrepreneurs often put everything on the line which can create massive pressure at home.

So how can business owners insure or professionals Ensure that professional success doesn't become a personal curse for their families.

Absolutely.

So I'll do two things there.

You talk about money first being a blessing and a curse.

Let's address that and unpack that, because I think it's a blessing when you understand money.

You said tool.

It absolutely is a tool.

You can use a tool to build amazing things in your life, or it can also be something that tears things down.

The difference is, is do you educate yourself and do you know how to use it?

It is.

Just think about it.

If I inherited $5 million and I squandered it, just made terrible investment decisions, lost it, whatever it might be, I would beat myself up and just the agony, the pain to go along with it.

But if I took it and used as a springboard to elevate my life, it didn't even be $5 million you're starting.

So that's what I mean by it.

When now answering the second part of your question.

How you know, entrepreneurs being overflowing from, hey, business stress to affecting home life.

Correct.

When I first started out in the corporate world, I had pretty quick success.

And it had nothing to do with me, Michael.

Nothing to do with me.

I was so blessed.

I went to.

I had five individuals and I went down there.

They're senior financial advisors in the corporate world.

And I went down and sat down with all of them, and I essentially said, hey, I know nothing.

I'm awful.

You know, tell me what to do and I'll go do it.

And I listened to what they said, how they talked, how they dressed, what, you know, what are their financial principles that they follow.

And I just, I copycat them.

They were obviously much smarter.

And then things took off for me.

But here's the thing, why I'm getting to what I did.

I had certain daily activities that I just focused on if I do these.

Because think about the financial world is very tough.

From getting hired by a firm to passing your test, to building a successful business, it's one in so many make it, it's not in your favor.

But it never bothered me because I was told that, hey, if you just do these activities every day, whether it be make so many phone calls, meet so many people and just say, hey, I'm Nick.

I want to help you out.

Once I did that, I went home and checked out in the sense that, hey, I did what I was supposed to do today.

I called my hamburger at the end of the day that I got up, I did my daily activities, went home, completely checked out, hung out.

Did the things that I wanted to do and wake up next day, do it all over again.

And so I just found those and I was blessed again because people helped me and told me exactly what to do and I just did it.

So to answer your question is how can you do it?

Put it all on the line.

But if you're an entrepreneur, you got to understand who you're helping, how you're helping them, and how many times you can get in front of them and say, hey, I'm so and so this is how I can benefit your life.

But it's a little more complicated that.

But once you find those activities, you just do them.

And guess what?

Because you are going to get to where you need to be.

And there's joy and peace in that, just knowing that, hey, I just got to do this and then this is going to take care of itself down the road.

Well, you said it.

You know, even as your experience as a basketball player, it's a play, I think that you got to learn the play by a coach who understands the different plays, different situations.

If you're down, you're going to have a set of offensive plays that are going to work.

If you're, what are the defensive plays?

And I think it works the same way.

It's a perfect metaphor for what I think you do.

Assuming that is that if somebody's already got a bunch, how do I keep it?

Like when I was younger and starting a family, my wife and I raised seven.

It was creating an estate.

I was young, I didn't have an estate.

It was about creating that estate.

So as we're traveling, anything could happen.

I needed something to happen.

So there were financial instruments that helped me creating a state.

If I didn't make it on my journey now at this stage in life, it's about insurance, products, etc, now it's about protecting the estate.

So.

And it's a different mindset.

And so now I'm protecting home court because stuff can happen once you get there, once you know how to get there again.

So been able to execute that play.

So I think it's having a healthy attitude towards that and it's finding that clarity and what that really means to you.

And I say creating those plays and I think you create those plays based on individuals.

When you meet with clients yourselves, is it a standard?

You take them through a process, but how do, how do you address it to the goals?

Because everyone's got different goals.

What are some of the goals that you see and how might you change.

Your approach to that oh, completely.

Because.

And that's one thing I love about my job, Michael, is that all my clients are wonderfully different.

And different can be taken as a bad word today.

And I don't think so different.

They're just different.

What they want, what they like, what they're looking for, what they're looking to grow upon, what they're looking to protect, how they're looking to protect it.

So we have six key areas that we help people.

Number one, investment consulting.

Help them make smart decision with your money.

The typical stuff.

Investments, roi, all those different things.

Then we help with taxes.

Huge, huge into taxes.

Very important.

And no one's doing this.

And not many people are talking about it.

And there's so many tax codes out there that can help people.

But I get it.

It's confusing.

And a lot of our clients, even our clients worth hundreds of millions of dollars, they weren't getting calls saying, hey, let's talk about this tax strategy.

That tax rate, what taxes look like down the road.

Very important.

Increase cash flow.

Number three, wealth protection.

Making sure our assets are protected, but also our way of life is protected.

Two flip sides that are very important.

Wealth transfer.

Yes.

We're all going to die one day.

And then charitable giving.

So those are the things that we do.

But how has it changed everyone?

We're going to help in those areas, and we're going to go deep.

But I had this client walk in, this couple, and they were getting ready to sell their business.

Okay.

They spent all the time entrepreneur.

Every entrepreneur dreams about this.

The exit.

I'm looking for this.

It could be a dollar amount, could be a day.

But they started telling me all the data and all the business evaluations, which is wonderful.

But I stopped them.

I said, hey, hang on one second.

You know, I care more about you and your family than I do your money.

What I mean by that is the first several meetings, we spend hours talking about seven key areas of our life, and we have 66 different questions that we go into.

We're going to help them in those six key areas.

But those.

The answer to those questions are going to dictate how we help them and where their roadmap is going to go.

Because it's all them.

So it's all.

It's all completely different.

And it should be.

Because where you want to end up, Michael, and where I want to end up is not better or worse.

It's just, hey, what's going to make us happy?

Joyful.

Yeah.

Well, that's.

That's where I think the clarity Comes you're diagnosing before you're going to prescribe.

Just a cookie cutter solution where if they're going to somebody just at their local branch somewhere, they're going through a very formulaic process by someone who's never done it.

Right.

Typically.

And I think it's just a different game altogether.

Yeah.

I mean, imagine if you walked in the doctor's office and he just started giving you prescription drugs before even talking.

I mean, that's worrisome.

So you're exactly right.

Yeah.

Practice.

Yeah.

Prescription before diagnosis.

Malpractice.

Right.

Let's talk about the rocking chair test for decision making.

You utilize this concept called the rocking chair test to help your clients design their dream lives, which I think is great.

How does this framework apply to an entrepreneur or professional who's currently caught up in the daily grind of scaling a business?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, so the rocking chair test is you pretend like you're 110 years old and you're on a rocking chair on a front porch and a beautiful cabin.

You're about to pass away and you're looking back over your life.

What specifically has to happen for you to be in that rocking chair and just go, michael, I did it.

I lived it.

What a wonderful journey.

I was able to do all the things I wanted to do.

You know, I actually was on an interview here recently, and a gentleman told me the other side.

Hey, imagine you're a kid on a kid's eyes, you know, so about the world and what do you want to do?

Same thing.

It's just, hey, what has to happen?

And you talked about the grind of an entrepreneur.

I've been there.

I've done it.

Actually, I've done it twice when I started in the corporate world.

Then we relaunched our company.

It's tough, but when you get really focused on where you're going and what you want to do, you don't lose sight of that then, I mean, it just.

It's an inspiration that it's not a grind because there's a means to the end.

And what you want to do is you want to focus on, hey, yes, yourself.

But the daily grind of who are you helping?

What are you passionate about?

What's your purpose in life?

So when you start to get all these things aligned, it is still hard work.

I'm not saying that.

But it's not necessarily a grind grind anymore because it's step by step.

You're building and you're growing.

It becomes exciting.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

We've been successful in Our businesses.

So it's easy for me to take a perspective as your habit.

Things have gone well.

I've been lucky, you know, definitely lucky early in life, which goes a long way, you know, through it started businesses that just took off.

Timing was right.

It's a good stock picker.

I'm still a good stock picker.

My problem is I sell too soon.

Okay, but.

But I'm great at picking them.

I'm awesome at picking them.

All right, say it's like I.

If I just held on to everything, we probably wouldn't be talking.

But people, you know, if you're making a certain amount of income, you're in the top 4 or 5% globally worldwide and.

But there's a lot of people who are struggling from day to day.

What can someone do who.

Maybe they're just starting out.

Maybe it's a young couple, they're just starting out and they're looking, they're chasing returns instead of trying to get clarity about where they're going.

What should they be focused on?

And maybe it's somebody who's maybe getting on.

On life.

We've got a lot of people.

I was reading one stat that showed, and you would know this better than I would, but something like 60, 70% of the retirement community have less than 80 or $90,000 in the bank.

And it's like that's staggering.

They relying on Social Security and can't go do anything.

Is it.

Is it too late for them?

Because we need time if we're investing.

But what can these people do in all those generations?

Got five generations out there now that are working and communicating.

What can they do?

What's a good place to start?

Absolutely.

First of all, there's lots of places you can start.

That's a tough thing when you start talking about money because what could be a great answer for you could be a terrible answer for someone else.

So.

And there's so many different things that you can do, but the first time is it's mindset.

Know that, hey, life can be better and it will be better.

You just got to first believe it.

But in my book, I, there's a chapter called the earnings power.

Your earnings power.

And it's unique because a lot of financial books don't talk about that.

It.

It teaches you ways.

We call it the growth grid that you can become better.

You know, my wife and I, we have a nonprofit and we go to high schools and we talk to high school kids, seniors about to go out into the world.

And the reason why Michael is someone did this for me.

I had a golf course owner.

I worked at a golf course.

His name was Rex.

And he taught me about compound interest.

But he didn't just tell me about compound interest.

He actually took some of my paycheck, the raw numbers, and showed me if I put it back.

And I don't remember the exact details, but Michael, I remember that I was like, oh, my gosh, I could be rich.

You know, it seemed like a ton of money to me, but it was the first time after going through what I did through as a child that I go, hey, my future could be brighter than my past.

I was empowered.

But the thing we tell high school kids when we teach them these things, we talk about the growth grid.

Because if you think about a ladder, everyone on this side of the ladder talks about the things they want.

You talked about a motorcycle earlier.

They live on a beach.

Nothing wrong with those things.

It's nice to have nice things, right?

It's okay.

And then they think about action plan, because you need to take action.

But what most people don't think about is over here, and I think this is so important, is who do you become?

The greatest ROI is you as an individual becoming smarter, learning different traits, learning different.

I call my kids this.

I say pretend like you're Batman, and Batman has all these cool tools around his belt.

And I just say that those are skills, those are traits, those are values.

Because my kids and every person in this world is going to wake up one day and you're going to know exactly what you want to do in the life you want to live.

Okay, how then are you going to go from point A, where you're at now, to point B, what your purpose is and what life that you want?

It's going to be that Batman belt that I talk about.

But there's little daily activities you can do that.

We talk about that.

Oh, hey, Warren Buffett says 1% better.

Think about that compound.

As an individual, how I grow as a human being, my value will grow.

And value does not mean that you worthiest person, everyone's worthy.

But you see what I'm saying, The value that I bring to the table, the value I could be compensated for, Very, very important.

I think that's absolutely huge.

You know, I learned very early in life, like I said, I was starting a career early, and it was, how do I create an estate?

And I know what, three, $4,000 a year put away.

You know, a few hundred dollars, that Starbucks money I've run.

You can always find money, whether it's for education or learning and 15, $20 a day and it disappears.

Or you got to have that car and you're in a hurry for that car and you want all of those things because we want to be cool, we want the nice things, we want the image of success, that we're successful where two, $3,000 over 30 years and 40 years, all of a sudden you're a millionaire, whether you like it or not.

And a million isn't a million anymore.

A million, like really it doesn't get you that far.

Like, yeah, I mean it's still significant if you got a good return.

But I think the compounding and I think it'd be a great commercial for the.

We were chatting about the my new book coming out in this month and I talk about compounding education, compounding learning, what 1% does every day.

And it's like atomic habits.

You're 37 times better at the end of the year.

And so even if you don't have anything, start with something again, you're just using tools and it's learning how to use that tool for that right application.

But why do I want.

And I think if you get to the why of it, why it's important.

Do you see some common aspects when you're working with entrepreneurs, successful business professionals?

Do you see the why of why they're wanting to create the wealth?

Like, is there commonalities there as well?

Yeah, absolutely.

And there's actually two things in this why.

And it's very interesting.

Number one is yeah, most of the wise are very similar.

I want freedom.

I, I want freedom to do what I want, but also freedom to do what I want when I want.

But there's a cost associated that like the lifestyle, the freedom to have the lifestyle.

The interesting thing I see in common too is a lot of entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs to have freedom and spend more time doing this family life, travel, da da da.

But they don't.

They kind of lose track of that, that the entrepreneurship, it just gets in the way.

I say in a way that's a bad term, but just it takes up so much time and it becomes a grind and they stay in that hamster wheel grind.

So those are two things.

And I think I've been very fortunate that I've had people again.

You're starting to see a common trend here, Michael.

I've been lucky.

I've had so many smart people come across my life, my path that have helped me.

I started receiving coaching just like you talked about sports earlier.

Just think if I played for a Better coach and I had better trainers and da, da, da.

What's going to naturally happen to me.

I surround myself with better players.

I was playing, I had a chance to play professional basketball in Europe and I'd come home and I'd work out in doubt.

And we had some of the mavericks there that work out with us.

It's a pretty unique experience.

Like, I. I never thought I'd have that, but I got an inside look at that world.

And Jason Terry played at Arizona, played for the, you know, one NBA championship with the Mavs.

And he was, he would work out there and I would see him work out.

And the things they were doing that, it was just unbelievable.

The dude, the net barely moved when he shot.

It went so it went straight through the rim.

I mean, he was so good.

But you start to see that, that, yes, these individuals, they're very genetically gifted.

They are.

But the work ethic, how they work, it's amazing.

And so same thing in business.

I've been part of mastermind group.

I pay lots of money to learn, to grow, to be masterminds because I learned so much.

A you learn what can be done, that you meet an individual and it's not knocking them.

Like, if I. I meet Rick over here and Rick has got all this success, but I meet Rick and I go, you know what?

There's no difference between Rick and I.

Like, he's just a human being.

He made mistake.

But Rick's figured out certain things that, guess what?

I can learn those things.

And so that's so important.

Like, you talked about growing, continue to do it.

You want to be the best at what you do.

I believe it is a continuous learning process, as we've discussed, and you can learn whatever you want.

Most people are.

It's like, I don't want to transition into how AI is impacting all of this and how we can use those tools.

You know, people are worried.

People are scared.

They're like, what is it going to replace my job?

Well, it's.

To me, AI is not the issue.

Irrelevant is.

All right.

It's the not learning.

It's the not putting into it.

So you're not going to lose your job to AI, but you will lose your job to someone who knows how to employ AI.

And so like a calculator, it was.

You know, I grew up with the slide rule, and then calculators came a thing, instruments, right.

And you had to do it by long form.

When you went and did your test, you couldn't even use a calculator.

Well, Then the calculators came.

So we've had these disruptions and people are concerned now, am I going to lose my job, my livelihood?

Their identity is tied up in what they do.

I am a doctor, I am a lawyer, I am an engineer, and there's, I'm a teacher.

There's these things that are going on that are going to transform their world.

So we're living in this era where artificial intelligence can instantly generate a budget, it can analyze a stock portfolio, it can draft a basic financial plan.

So an increasingly automated world.

How does a human financial advisor, someone like yourself or any professional provider stay irreplaceable and truly relevant and preferred by their clients?

Absolutely.

You could say the word financial advisor, I think like you say, it applies to everyone.

What I'm about to say.

It doesn't matter what category.

Your goal is to be an expert in your field.

Whatever it is, your goal is to be an expert.

Because what it's going to replace in a huge percentage is the task stewards, just people that just operate, push a button, things like that.

But you can't replace an expert in a field.

And I'm not saying I'm the smartest person in the world, but in any industry, any career or category, if you're an expert, AI still makes mistakes, but it takes an expert to know, okay, this works, this doesn't.

That's right, that's wrong.

This is an efficient model.

That's not efficient model.

This is good advice, but it won't apply to this situation because let me tell you where they could go wrong three years down the road.

So people, you need to be an expert in using AI because if you combine an expert like yourself, Michael, and the power of AI, and you bring those together, that's where magic happens.

It's not just one or the other, it's the combination.

Because you need each other.

I mean, AI is not a person.

It's the greatest, greatest team member that you can have and to lean on.

But you've got to take time to use it, but you still continue to work on yourself, become smarter in your area.

Second thing too is people still like dealing with people, especially individual United States right Now that are 40, 50 and older, they still want to deal with a human being.

Now, I don't know what 40 years down the road looks like, but generations now, especially in my field, people with wealth, they don't want to talk to AI now they want, they're smart to know that AI can help their situation.

Absolutely.

But they still want to deal with an Individual now also in finance, too.

Behavior Finance Behavior Finance 101.

There's a lot of people out there that know money, but they still make terrible decisions with money because it's the psychology of money.

And so you need help with that.

And talking to another human beings, I don't worry at all.

In fact, I embrace AI.

I love it.

I don't think it's going to replace me or the benefit, the value that we add to people's lives.

And if your goal, if you're listening right now, continue to grow, Michael said, read, go, go to seminars, become an expert in your area, embrace ar and you have nothing to worry.

In fact, it's going to be the opposite.

You're going to have so much success, you're not going to know what to do.

Yeah, I agree 100%.

And what would you say to people, though, they like the.

Your dad of four.

We're teaching our kids and it's avoiding that entitlement.

Sometimes.

Yes.

We look at the different generations and, oh, that's an entitled generation.

Think that of the next one.

And we created that.

That's a monster we created for sure.

And our society is kind of.

It's like today a younger generation.

That's where I would tell my kids to go pick a trade if you want something that's got a sure thing.

Because in my mind, like, and we talked about AI, they're saying, how can I make these tools help me get there faster and quicker?

And what do you say to those young people who are.

Because I'm sure you meet them or they want to.

They want to be millionaires at 25.

And so they can have the nice cars, the nice houses.

What would you say to them?

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, first thing I'd say, usually it's your poor is like, why?

You know, when I talk to the high school kids, I talk about the why too.

I said, listen, if you need a fancy car or fancy watch or fancy this to impress someone, one of the opposite sex that you're interested in or friends or I'm telling you that those are not family but significant others and friends, those aren't people that you want to be in a relationship with or people you want to hang around, that's the first thing that that is because you are enough.

And if you're in, that's a rabbit hole.

Once you start going down that hole, it's.

I call it outwardly successful, inwardly stressed, because that's what that rabbit hole is.

You keep wanting more and keep having to impress and you appear successful.

Yes, but inside the walls of your home.

Home.

It's a nightmare.

It is.

In fact, I was there, Michael.

I was there because.

All right, I call it the roller coaster of life.

Remember, I was a wealthy kid.

Well, to do.

Not rich, but comfortable.

I was a super poor kid, all right.

And I thought, woe is me.

Oh, this is terrible.

But come to find out, guess what?

My life was probably similar to 90 of other Americans at the time because 9% of Americans right now are stressed.

But I just thought money was the key indicator.

Had money, lost money, wanted it back.

Experience freedom, joy, Experience pain, hardship.

So when my life started going up and income, monetary from playing professional basketball and rising in the corporate world, my happiness didn't go along with it.

And reason why is it was just one area of my life.

There's other.

I started having issues with my wife and not, not on the brink of divorce, but we were butting heads about money.

I was young and I was dumb.

I didn't understand how to do it together.

Hey, how do we start building this together?

What is that?

My wife wants these keys open conversations we talked about earlier.

Life was coming at us fast.

I mean, every young kid, I fell into that.

Yeah, but so that's the thing is you want to be rich in all areas.

So number one thing I tell them young players is, hey, take.

Understand what you want, where you're going to be and are you on track to get there.

How, Michael, how many people do you know that went from rags to riches overnight?

Really?

Really.

From.

I'm talking zero to a million.

Zero to ten million in inside six months.

How many do you know?

No, it just doesn't happen.

So it has to.

I say the juice has to be worth the squeeze.

So if you want this high life, if you want it, and then, Michael, there's nothing wrong with wanting nice things.

There's nothing wrong with what.

But the key is why do you want it?

100.

No.

Yeah, it is.

I think it's getting those values.

And it's hard because they're bombarded with here's what it should be, here's what it should look like.

And it's like you.

And people start panicking.

They start worried because they see their livelihood.

If they work hard, they're working 40, 50 hours a week, they see their livelihood disappearing.

We have new technologies that are merging, new disruption.

Back to the AI story.

I was thinking as you were talking about it, I would lean into what AI can't do and it's the more humanistic Skills.

It can't be responsible, it can't be accountable.

It can't be.

It's not going to take response if you use AI to do the investment portfolio and allocate the tanks because of where somebody's got to be responsible for that.

AI is not going to take that job.

It doesn't have wisdom.

All right.

It's not empathetic.

So I think we have to lean into.

I think EQ is the new MBA and we need to focus on those things and what's important.

You said why rich by choice.

Take back control, master your money and design the life of your dreams.

Let's talk about the taking back control and mastering the money.

So for someone who's.

They're moving along, they're working, they've done okay.

They're.

Let's call it middle class because the middle class, that standards a little bit.

But again, if your needs change like one thing I found is generationally speaking thinking we're getting older.

My wife and I, you know, I spent the first 50 years accumulating and planes, trains and automobile.

And then I've spent the last 15 years getting rid of everything as you can.

And every time I.

My wife calls it, we're going to Marie Kondo our lives and we're, we're, we're getting rid of.

Because it brings us joy.

Right.

And getting things that occupy space and because I already know it's not coming so I want to use it for good things.

Right.

Our values change as we get older.

Not, not trying to build so much anymore as I am trying to.

Hey, what makes my life better?

Because I got more time behind me than ahead of me.

How do we take back control and how do we master that money and design the life of our dreams?

Yeah.

And so it depends on what phase and chapter of life you're in.

Just think about right there.

You just talked about yourself.

You spent so much time accumulating, accumulating blood, sweat and tears.

Right?

Wonderful.

But now you're more in hey, capital preservation.

How do I protect it and use it to bring more joy?

So you're looking at more risk metrics.

And so understanding risk metrics.

I mean for.

Here's for example, Michael, just use.

I use simple math because I'm a kid from Granbury, Texas.

I like easy math.

If you have a million dollars and just the 5% rule, take out $50,000 a year.

That's Warren Buffett philosophy.

Live off $50,000 a year.

If you did that for seven years, at the end of seven years and you retired in 1995, 1.6, 1.7 million there and continue to take out that 50,000.

So you start taking out more and you're home free.

If I same million dollars, same 5% rule, take out $50,000 a year.

But I retired in 2007, I probably have $600,000 and my math might be a little long but you're getting, getting the point $600,000 of principal and I'm in trouble now what was the difference between us same investment, same dollar amounts, the luck of when I retired and this is just one example.

There's so many areas where luck can come into play.

Well you want to take out that, that's just one example.

So they call it sequence of return risk.

There's two to three year period before you retire and two to three year period after you retire that there's a lot of luck.

And what the economy does in your investments.

I'm just using the stock market as one but there's so many different types of investments.

Oil and gas, real estate, business businesses.

But they're all cyclical.

So these are things that we want to look at and protect.

And number two number thing is taxes.

Michael.

Taxes is huge.

Name one time in the United States where people when they became wealthier, taxes became less.

Now the taxes didn't become less, they were smarter and used the tax code to advantage.

Why they paid less.

And I always say don't get mad at someone now if someone's breaking the law they need to go to jail and they need to be Rep. We talk about that consequences.

I'm not saying that, I'm just saying you see a lot of people that are very wealthy and they use the tax code.

The United States Constitution is very clear.

It's our job to pay our fair share, no more, no less.

And I love the United States.

I have no problem paying taxes but I am going to use the code that's there for my favor and my clients benefit.

So those are two areas for you that you want to take back control.

Because here's the thing, people fear the unknown.

If you don't know what's going to happen or how it's going to happen with confidence.

There's not a lot of joy and peace in your life as you go into this next chapter.

So there's certain things that people go into each chapters of their lives that they need to understand.

But once you understand and have confidence and clarity on the direction you're going, that's when there's joy.

That's when there's more peace, confidence.

And so I mean that's just one example for you.

But it's different from person.

I think you're right.

It's avoidance, not evasion.

And there's like 78 or 68,000 lines of code, tax code.

So we need help navigating that code.

And that's where professionals like yourself come in, where business succession planning is.

You, you're our Obi Wan Kenobi, our Yoda.

You're guiding us, right?

Regarding us to here's the landmines.

Hey, go this direction and you're on that same journey.

What's interesting, there's a product called Freedom 55 Financial Planning Company and it's a product freedom.

People are always working because they're on that treadmill.

They want to work and get off and retire.

I've always held the value, always like always never retire.

So I work with some insurance companies and I want, I want to address this because I think it's important the average executive is that you've seen the actuary tables for actuary.

The average retirement retiree is professional, is dead 36 months after retirement unless they have something they're transitioning to.

We could be charity foundation, profit, another business, something that they're giving back that keeps their mind active.

And so do you address that or do you see that yourself?

That's the whole part of the vision statement is it's not like when we get there, there was this, I was watching this show and there's this legendary musician and I can't remember was it was an 80s rock band and his main goal was to go gold platinum.

And he thought once he did that that his life would be set.

And he said it was one of the worst days that once he won it because he wasn't flushed with these amazing feelings like he thought it would be.

He's actually kind of down and in the dumps.

The reason why I say that is don't necessarily think about the destination, but think about the life and the journey along with it.

Because we do, we spend tons of time of okay, hey, we sell your company for 100 million.

Hey, you retired and you have X dollars in, you know, okay, what does that give you?

What does your life look like?

So all the things you just mentioned, I'd sum up up into one.

One, where is purpose?

You need to have purpose.

Yeah.

To go home and purpose could be, you know what, hey, I want to have a garden and hang out in the backyard and be a part of my grandkids lives.

Purpose.

That's fine, that's your purpose.

But you need to be aware of that.

So it absolutely is.

Because if you don't have purpose, I believe the soul dies and we die pretty quickly.

What you just said.

Yeah, no, I think you're right.

Well, the book is called Rich by Choice.

It's available everywhere.

You can find your book, Barnes and Noble bestseller, Amazon bestseller by Dr. Nicholas Michaels and they can find it there.

We'll also have that information and links on our show Notes.

Are you looking to take back control, master your money and design the life of your dreams?

It's a good thing.

Think of it as a success manual backed by real stories, deep psychology and elite level financial freedom strategies.

Thank you Nick for sharing your insights with us.

Truly valuable.

We could do this again and again because I know the game's changing constantly and at least by way the the game and I don't think it's ever too late and I think that's come across great.

So thank you so much for being our guest today.

Hey, I'm happy to be here.

I wish everyone nothing but the best of luck.

Thank you.

Michael, as you are listening to this episode, what is one idea that you've heard that's caught your attention and why does it matter so much to you and who is one person who you can share that with, either sharing this episode or just sharing that insight that occurred to you while you were listening?

Perhaps it is that true wealth isn't just a distant destination or a dollar amount.

It's an immediate mindset decision to align your money with the specific life and relationships that bring you the most joy.

Or maybe it is that the greatest return on investment you will ever achieve isn't in the markets, but in compounding your own personal growth skills and values.

Thank you for listening, for learning, and for investing in yourself so that you can become the best version of you.

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Until next time.

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Goodbye.