If you had one wish this Christmas, what would it be?
In this heartfelt episode, I (Chris Miles, your cashflow expert and anti-financial advisor) talk about the power of clarity, intention, and giving as we wrap up 2024 and head into a brighter new year. I share personal stories—like a humbling Christmas experience during my most difficult financial season—and reflect on what it means to set meaningful goals, be a wise steward of your resources, and create a ripple effect in the lives of others.
This episode is for YOU:
✅ If you want financial freedom and passive income.
✅ If you’re looking for clarity and purpose in your goals.
✅ If you’re seeking inspiration to give more and live more intentionally.
Let’s talk about how to make 2024 a year of action, growth, and true prosperity. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and let’s get ready to make this new year your best yet.
TRANSCRIPTS
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you had any wish you could have this Christmas, what would it be? Let’s go into that right now. Hello, my fellow Ripples. This is Chris Miles, your cashflow expert and anti financianal advisor. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you guys. This is for you. This show is for you. Those that work so hard for me because you do work hard for that money and you now want your money to start working harder for you today. You want that freedom, cashflow. You want to become work option where you work because you want to, not because you have to, and you want it today, not in 30 or 40 lifetimes from now, but you want it right now so you can live that life that you love with those that you love so dearly. And it’s not just about getting rich, it’s about living a rich life because as you’re blessed financially, you have a greater ability and capability and resources to bless the lives of those around you.
(01:01)
Guys, that is my Christmas desire for you, of course, to have that ripple effect going through your lives. Thank you for allowing that ripple effect in my life too. You guys have truly blessed my life because of the fact you guys have been binging on these episodes sharing, but most importantly, you guys are doing something about it. You’re actually taking action where your life gets better. That means the world to me. So thank you so much for doing so. If you would be so kind, I would love it this Christmas season. If you would leave a great review, whether it be on Apple Podcasts or be on YouTube, whatever it might be, or I guess YouTube, well, I guess you don’t really leave reviews, but hey, like this video, subscribe to it. Appreciate all the love that you can give to us as well as we try to give that love back to you.
(01:45)
Alright, so I want to talk about really what’s your Christmas wish, and I want to keep this episode pretty short. I want you to spend time with those you love right now. So I’m not going to spend a lot of time rehashing this, but as I was really going into this holiday season, thinking about that, this is typically a time for giving and I don’t just mean forgiving, although that could be for it as well. I wasn’t intending to sound that way, but it’s for space giving. But yes, it could also be about forgiving others too, but really about the season of giving. This is a season where we start fresh, we get to that winter solstice that things just get brighter from here forward, and this is why as we move into New Year, you really look for really a more positive, you look for a better year.
(02:28)
And I’ll tell you, for me personally, I know that in some ways in my own personal life, there’s a lot of things that I would say 2024 for me was almost like not as bad as 2020. It was for a lot of us, but it was definitely a challenging year for me in so many different ways in my own growth and helping me to become a better person, not just create more money. Yeah, that was great, but for me, really it was about how do I grow personally? How do I become the person that I want to become someone that I would look up to, and that’s what I’ve really been working on a lot during this year of 2024. So it was a rough year because that personal growth is a tough journey and you know what it is. I mean, it’s hard to show the outside world what’s going on, but it’s that inside out.
(03:12)
And as I was thinking about, really what I’m thinking about for you this Christmas season and really going into the new year and everything too, is really what is your desire? What is your wish? What is it that one thing you wish you had? What is it you hope for? By the way, if there’s any way that we could somehow do this, I don’t know, each of your individual wishes and what you have, you might have different focuses and journeys that you’re going on. Maybe you’re wishing to have more time with your family. Maybe you’re wishing to be a better parent, a better husband or wife, a better partner. Maybe you want to make more money, maybe you want to do something like that. Maybe you want to become more prosperous. Maybe you want more passive income. By the way, if there’s a way we can help you, let us know.
(03:51)
Reach out to us@moneyripples.com, right? I mean, maybe you want better health, you want to drop some weight, release some of that weight and be able to really increase your overall wellbeing and state of wellbeing or whatever it might be. I know some of you guys might be going through relationship struggles. Maybe you’re looking for either one, healing from a relationship or two, be able to move into a new relationship. Maybe you’re looking for stronger bonds with your children, whatever it might be. I mean, there’s so many ways, a better spiritual life, ways to give more and give back, whatever that might be. Think about that wish, that desire, because the one thing I can tell you, especially if you write it down, that is the desire that can truly develop into something great. There’s been so many times I’ve written down desires, not looked at it again.
(04:39)
Now, maybe I’ve looked at it from time to time and it definitely helps if you look at it more often. There’s been times that I’ve actually written down my intention and it’s not just about writing it down, it’s writing it down with a full desire and emotion behind it. If there’s anything I can help give as a bonus to this episode really is if you want to achieve anything you want in your life, it’s not just about writing it down and wishing and wishing upon a star, right? Oh my goodness, it’d be so joy and joyful and I can’t even say the word right, joyful and glee and all that kind of stuff. No, it’s really about not just one, knowing what you want and being as specific as possible. The more specific you are, the better. But then two, what kind of emotions can you have behind it?
(05:22)
What’s the why that drives it? What’s the purpose behind it? For example, even when we have clients that want passive income, well, why so what? Because I’ve seen so many people create good amounts of passive income and they say, Chris, my life didn’t get any different. It’s still the same. Yes, because you are still the same. You didn’t change, your money did, but you didn’t. Now, they might’ve had to change some perspectives and mind shifts as well, but that feeling of scarcity was still lingering with them even when they had more money. The scarcity didn’t go away because they didn’t change. The scarcity will follow you around just like abundance will too. And so make sure that whenever you put as an intention out there, especially as you’re going into that new year, what does that desire? What do you truly want for the new year?
(06:11)
Be specific, write it down and then understand the why behind it. Why is it so important to have it and what would happen if you don’t get it? One of the important things to think about why is well, what happens if it doesn’t occur? Because if there’s nothing on the line, there’s nothing at stake, well then it’s just a wish. There’s not really any vested interest. So let me give you example. One thing I’ve been trying to do is be more intentional with my time as I have with my children, also with my wife, my wife and I, she kept saying, Hey, I want more time with you. I want more time with you, which I’m like, oh my goodness, come on. Everybody wants my time. Okay, join the club, get in line. I’m a desirable man. What can I say? No, but no, she wanted that time.
(06:55)
And finally you had to get down to the point. We got specific and I said, tell you what, the kids obviously want my time and we have this bedtime routine that we do, so I have kind of that one-on-one time with each kid, even if it’s just for a matter of a minute or two, right? Just to have that time to check them in versus off the bed with you. See, you guys hope you wake up in the morning. We don’t do that. And so as a result, I said, well, the bedtime is hard. Plus once it gets after nine o’clock for me, I want to just mentally shut off. Really, I wanted mentally shut off sometimes by seven or eight, but by after nine, I don’t want to be mentally turned on and if she wants to talk and process things, I’m not going to be fully present.
(07:33)
So I told her, I said, let’s take the time between when we finish dinner with the kids. We can always send ’em off to go play or do whatever and the time that I put ’em to bed, it may only be like an hour or two, but let’s use that time intentionally. I’m more awake, I’m a little bit more patient, versus when it gets late at night, I don’t want to do anything, and so let’s do that. And that’s where I had to get intentionally. Now, what was the reason behind it? Why? Because if you’ve been following this podcast, you’re probably looking for great ways to create passive income right now, right? Well, we got you covered here with central lending. Central lending specialized in alternative investments that actually are designed to create steady returns and long-term financial security for you and your family. Now, they prioritize transparency.
(08:13)
They love building those strong relationships, giving you that confidence, peace of mind knowing that you have your money working harder for you so you don’t have to work so hard for that money. You want to learn more how to do that, go to central lending.com and check out what they’ve got today to create your passive income and wealth creation right now. I wanted to make sure I fostered that relationship. I believe that that partnership between husband and wife is more important even than between the kids because if that relationship doesn’t work, things fall apart with the relationship with the kids as well. Even though we’re a blended family, I still see that be the case even though we have bonus, children’s step children, whatever I want to call ’em, it’s still a big part of it. And so I had to be very intentional and I’m still going to New Year being that intentional of how can I make sure it’s specific?
(08:54)
How can I still make sure I have time for each of my kids? Can I give them more of that? I’ll tell you one activity I wish I had done in the last few years I haven’t done lately, especially since inheriting more kids, was I used to pick one day a week where we’d have a quote late night, we’d send the kids off the bed pretty early, and then even if it’s like 15, 30 minutes after, stay awake with one of those children and maybe we just spend some time together. We could just be talking. It could be that you watch a little TV show or something like that, although we try not to do TV right before bed. That doesn’t always work sometimes, but just have that one-on-one time. It could be just playing a game, whatever it might be that personal attention. It could be a daddy daughter date or a daddy son date, or for you, it could be a mommy daughter date or a mommy son date and those kinds of things.
(09:40)
And again, I’m just giving you examples so that I’m not just teaching this hypothetical stuff, but those are the kinds of things you can do. Get specific financially. What could you do? Could you be doing something to actually learn more about this stuff? Yeah, you’re listening to these podcasts. Can you take it to another level? How can you take it to another level? Actually implementing this, and I don’t want to just mean implementing. You’re just being a monkey with a machine gun because you think you just shoot up the world and just do whatever you think you can do. Just go find whomever random person wants your money because there’s lots of people that want your money, but I wouldn’t put my money with them. And it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, but it does mean that you don’t want to be taking high risks. So what can you do to get better at that?
(10:17)
Could it mean you’re starting to track your money? Maybe you haven’t been tracking money at all. Maybe you can start to see what’s actually available. What money could I be using to invest? Get yourself prepared to that point. Can you improve your cashflow? Can you pay off certain debts that really are just at that low cashflow index like we teach about in the show? Could you get rid of some of those to help improve your cashflow some more, right? Could you even just start saving? Maybe you just need to get a bigger emergency fund. Maybe you need to start building up this savings so you have more to invest. Typically, if somebody wants to work with us, we recommend they have at least 150,000 between savings old IRAs or well IRAs, old 4 0 1 Ks, like former 4 0 1 Ks that you had with other companies. Roth IRAs, could be brokerage accounts, could be equity and properties, even rental properties and things like that.
(11:01)
There could be things you could do with that money that be working harder for you so you make more passive income. Those are the kind of people that we often work with. Maybe you have to build up to that point. Maybe you’re like, I got 50,000, but maybe I want to work up towards 150,000. Maybe I need to do infinite banking. Do I need to look into that this year? Do I need to start focusing, like I said, on just cashflow? Do I need to reduce taxes? We did a lot of webinars on taxes on this very money Ripples channel, so there’s lots of resources there too about how you can save money on taxes. Do you need to increased revenue in the business? What kind of goals do you need to do? What kind of ways do you need to develop yourself as a leader or as a salesperson or marketer, or do you need to develop your team or whatever might be focus on that.
(11:42)
And so whatever your Christmas wish is, I just wish for you guys that you get very clear on what it is and then at least find the next step. You don’t need to know the full path of to get there, but just at least the next step in your journey, that’s all you need. Start there. That’s already leaps and bounds ahead of most people that wish for things, but never get it and think it’s something that never happens to them. I am living proof. I’ve been in places where at this time of year in Christmas time, I was literally on welfare. Or I mean, if you guys heard the story, if you’ve gone far enough back on my podcast, I can’t remember which years I’ve shared it, but I had my own Christmas journey as well, right? I’ve been in a place where financially I struggled hard, especially during that last recession, living in a dream home that I wasn’t paying for because we were just not making payments. We were trying to short sell the property. They wouldn’t let us short sell, so eventually became foreclosed, but before it foreclosed, I remember it was Christmas 2008. We were desperate for money. We didn’t have anything.
(12:46)
We didn’t know if we could even provide any kind of Christmas for our kids, and we had a very young family. They didn’t know what was going on. They were too young to really understand. But we knew, and I remember our neighbors just started doing this random 12 days of Christmas. So the first day of Christmas, a partridge and pear tree, and I think it was a candy like chocolate partridge, something like that, or like a dove or something of that nature. That was kind of cool. What was the second day of Christmas then? It was two French hens. There was two chickens. It could be like Costco chickens. I can’t remember what it was, but it was like store-bought chickens that were left on our doorstep that we were able to feed our family with three turtle doves and so on and so forth.
(13:26)
I remember the one that got me was the eight millions of milking. They left eight quarts of milk on our doorstep, and it was a cold winter day. It was snowing on our porch, everything. We got the knock. Somebody ran off again. They had the previous seven nights leading up to that point. And then we see these eight cartons of milk sitting our doorstep. And what they didn’t know, or they probably didn’t realize that we were flat broke, not knowing. In fact, we were just having discussions that night. What are we going to do? How are we provide for our family? Or Christmas we’re on welfare. But that wasn’t doing great. And by the way, I was the guy that was to have it all figured out. I was once a millionaire. Now I’m over a million dollars in debt. I’m upside down millionaire, not able to provide for my family because all the money’s going back to just keeping our business afloat, a business I had with Gary Gunderson.
(14:10)
And so when I got that, it meant the world because it meant there was just one less thing we had to buy. And the next morning I woke up and I saw, of course I saw that footprints went around the house, but where did they go? They actually went to our back windows. Kind of creepy. Now I think about it now in hindsight, but it didn’t creep me out then because I kind of imagined my own mind. The fact that they went all the way to that back window. They saw us bringing the mo cartons, and I wonder if they even saw me crying and what that made them feel like, and I really hope that they felt something special. I hope they felt like, at least to some small measure what I was feeling, which is they were really blessing my life. This is the chance you have to chance to bless lives.
(14:56)
I’ve been able to help people on Christmas times as well this time of year, and it doesn’t have to be a Christmas time, obviously. It could be any other time. You might be thinking, dang, 12 days of Christmas, I missed it, guys. It doesn’t matter. You can do it on a random date. You could pick whatever you want. It doesn’t have to be 12 days of Christmas. You can make somebody’s year special. Find ways to give back, and even if you’re tight on money, can you serve with your body? Can you serve with your mind? There’s times that I’ve actually done calls for people like I did one this month, earlier this month. I said, this is like my tithing. I’m going to help this person out. I know that they have nothing to pay me. They have nothing to give financially. I’m just going to help them out.
(15:33)
I felt impressed to do it, and I did it, and I hope, because sometimes the hard thing is when people don’t pay us, they don’t do anything with it either. My hope and prayer is they actually do something with that information. I invested that time and energy. There’s other times when I was flat broke, by the way, that same time of year I was going around to all the neighbors and shoveling snow. I was trying to figure out what I could do to really create karma in my favor. I call it karmic debt, where you create so much karma it has to pay out at some point. It builds up and it’s like a dam that’s going to burst, and eventually it did. It took longer than I hoped it would, but it did eventually happen that way. Not to mention the growth of who I became in the process.
(16:14)
And so that’s kind of my Christmas wish for you. I know you have your own Christmas wish. My wish is for you is really what’s going to be the best and highest use of your growth as a steward. What will help you become a wiser steward of your time, your talents, your resources to help create a ripple effect through others’ lives. That’s ultimately what I would create. That’s why I want financial freedom for you. That’s why I want you guys to be able to get your money working harder. So you have to work so hard for that money because you stop looking at yourself and start looking at how you can serve others, what you can do for other people too. So again, I told you I’d keep this a little bit shorter today, but I just want to wish you Merry Christmas, happy New Year.
(16:50)
Obviously, we’re going to have a New Year’s episode coming out too, but I really want to wish you a really happy holidays and hope that if any way possible we can help your dreams come true, give us that chance. We’ll love to be able to co-create with you as you’re trying to really walk on this journey of life just like all the rest of us. You’re trying to grow, you’re trying to improve, you’re trying to become better, and you want to make a difference. Hey, love to help you any way we can, any way we can support you, let us know. Merry Christmas, happy holidays. Make it a wonderful and prosperous now end of 2024 into the new year. We’ll see you later.