2023 was one heck of a wild ride. Thanks for taking the trip with me!
I love doing an “end of year” recap video to see what episodes you liked the most!
Here is the list and links to the episodes I mentioned:
1- https://youtu.be/nw84jpyboaU?si=ul1jjxzHMsGaS42D
2- https://youtu.be/JzmA7i4rElI?si=TpxA4G5TYbFwZqWN
3- https://youtu.be/BQjIu7BlhfU
4- https://youtu.be/lqU-SZAPVE0
5- https://youtu.be/Z3XIMlQE4ok
Take a listen to them all.
It’s 2024. Time to start doing things differently and getting your money working for you! Click here to start: https://bit.ly/3NWNYq4
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TRANSCRIPTS:
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, my fellow Ripples. This is Chris Miles, your cashflow expert and anti financianal advisor.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Chris Miles was able to retire twice by the time he was 39 years old, but he’s not content to just enjoy his own financial freedom and peace of mind. Chris wants you to have your own ripple effect so you can live free today. He’s not the financial advisor you expected. He’s the non-financial advisor you deserve. He’s jumping behind the mic right now, ready to make waves. Here’s Chris Miles.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I’m going to show this for you. Those of you that work so hard for your money and you’re now ready for your money, start working harder for you today. You want that freedom, you want that casual, you want all that Now. You don’t have to wait 30 or 40 years from now like it says, but you want today so you can live that life that you love doing what you love. But guys, most importantly, it’s not just about getting rich, it’s about living a rich life because as you are blessed financially, you have a greater capacity to bless the lives of those around you. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Happy New Year. Welcome to 2024. So excited to have you guys on here today. Hey, as a quick reminder, go to our website, money ripples.com. If you want to be able to find more information, consume more content.
(01:15)
If you haven’t already done so already with your YouTube channel with Money Ripples channel, feel free to go check that out as well. Okay guys, so going into this new year, I wanted to go and recap 2023. I mean it, what an amazing year. So many more of you guys tuning in, so many more of you downloading. Like I said, we’ve put us in the top 1% of podcasts worldwide and that is all because of you. So again, I can’t thank you guys an for tuning in and making this special. Well, as a result, I want to be able to go back and see what were your favorite episodes and we tend to take both stats. Before we always used to just take our stats from the listens that you have from iTunes and things like that. Well, you guys aren’t just doing that anymore.
(01:53)
A lot of you guys are actually watching the videos as well on YouTube. And so we combine those together to get kind of the top. Really, we’re going over the top five podcasts of the year. I’ll mention a few honorable mentions, but I want to go into the top five podcasts going in reverse order. So number five, just jumping right into it. Actually it was one that I did, which is good because most of the time you guys will vote for ones that have the guest or it’s something different. And so it’s kind of nice to see when there’s an episode that I just did solo that shows up in the list, wasn’t number one, but hey, it’s definitely a good one. But it’s where does Chris Miles invest, which you naturally, I would think that one would be a popular one because where do I invest?
(02:32)
And so this is episode number 689. I actually did this last year in February 22nd, so this is earlier in the year. Some of those that maybe you’re newer to the show, you might have to go back a little ways to find this one because it’s buried deep, almost a hundred episodes back. So definitely invite you to do that. I talk about where I invest my money in, maybe how that could apply to you, even though I don’t give any investment recommendations as I always say, but definitely it’s something that I wanted to share and be open and honest with people so they can see more about that. So great episode if you want to be able to know where I personally have been investing my money and how I do that. So go ahead and check that out. That’s where does Chris Miles invest episode number 6 89.
(03:10)
Alright, number four. Now number four. This is, we’re getting to some pretty interesting numbers here. Some of these are really close, but number four was a good one. If you guys might or recall, this was last spring, April 14th, Eddie Wilson came as the guest on our show. Now, Eddie’s somebody who’s been a mentor of ours as well. He’s bought and sold many businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars. And so I brought him on to talk about where does he invest his money. And so this is episode number 7 0 4, which is called How Eddie Wilson made over 1 billion investing outside of the stock market, talking about really his business experience. And what was interesting too is that he actually brought up his experience with infinite banking, how his grandfather who owned a bank actually taught him how infinite banking was vital, how it’s such a cool strategy.
(03:55)
And so it was kind of cool to get a different take from another perspective outside just the typical insurance industry, but more of a banking perspective as well as a company perspective. So really great nuggets that Eddie had shared with us there. So number four is how did Eddie Wilson made over 1 billion investing outside of the stock market? Episode number 7 0 4. So check that out. Alright, number three. This one came from another guest as well. One who was a dentist who’s now financially independent. He’s retired. He’s actually someone that I’ve become friends with over the years in a dental group that we’re a part of. And this one’s episode number six 80, which is leveraging life insurance for Financial Freedom and legacy with Jim Rocker. A great episode, Jim. I mean, man, this guy, he’s brilliant. There’s no doubt anybody who knows, Jim knows that he’s a brilliant guy.
(04:43)
And so he talked a lot about how he’s using infinite banking with his situation, but also how he’s using it, not just for investing and things like that, which of course he loves, but also how he uses that for legacy, for creating generational wealth. This is a very similar topic. If you’ve ever read the book or heard of the book, what would the Rockefellers do that Garrett Gunderson had wrote in there and that sort of thing. You’ll see that he references a lot of those kinds of things in that book and how he applied it for his own situation to not just be able to make money here and now, but also generational wealth too. So definitely check out the episode. It’s a really cool one that we did with Jim Rocker there, which is episode number six 80. Alright, now we’re getting to number two.
(05:24)
So the top two right now, this one was really cool as well. Same topic. Funny enough, you guys apparently love infinite banking and it could just be YouTube sending a lot of referrals because a lot of these do have very high view counts. But then again, it’s not just YouTube because you guys also downloaded it from iTunes and things like that. Alright, so this one’s episode number 6 79. Like I said, just a few days prior to Jim Rocker’s episode. It’s called, how Can Life Insurance Increase Your Cashflow? So this is a common subject, I want to tie it all together. So really if you look at this week of podcasts number 6 79 and six 80, some of our top two podcasts of the year were both about infinite banking here. They were both about really how do you use this to actually invest and create more cashflow.
(06:09)
So you get the cashflow with this episode where you got a little bit more of that generational wealth talk with the Jim Rockers episode. So two great episodes right there. So number two was how can life insurance increase your cash flow? Great episode where I really go into the depths of how does that actually work and not just so you know, it’s not just from the savings component, that cash value component, it’s actually even how the death benefit increases your cash flow as well. And I use a client example of her planning and how that actually worked. So definitely check that one out. Okay, so before I get to number one, I know I’m just flying through this list, but I really don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but I want to give you some final parting words of advice as well.
(06:46)
But I want to go through some honorable mentions because some of these were really close to making the top five. Usually I’ve done the top 10 list. Now I’m just doing five with this, but I want to give some honorable mentions here. So one of these, of course, that really was so close to making the list but didn’t quite make it, this one was episode number seven 12. So this is from May 12th, number seven 12, which is what investments did this client do to become financially independent in 2023? That was an episode that I did with Eric Vitti, one of our clients. He actually just barely hit financial independence this year in 2023, so he shares the experience. So really good to hear some of our clients make this list. Really, it wasn’t the top 10 out of really 104 episodes that we have released each year.
(07:28)
And so great, great experience that you see from that as well. I wanted to give an honorable mention for that. Also, episode number 6 96, we did How can you Profit in Real Estate without Owning It with Heather Dres, who’s with Secured Investment Corporation. If you guys have heard our commercials, especially if you listen to the podcast on a iTunes or whatever it might be, you’ve already heard this been advertised many, many times, but she came on the show talking about investing in real estate but not having to deal with the tenants, the toilets and the trash. So a great one there. Episode number 6 96, that was from March 17th. And then also another one I’ll share is how to Retire by 2030, which was done by me. It was episode number 7 0 3 from April 12th, how to Retire by 2030. I give an example of one of our clients who actually came out with his own game plan of how he did that, but really talking about how that is our goal, really our ultimate vision and mission and even going into 2024 as well, is to help 1000 families become financially independent by the year 2030.
(08:23)
So I talk about really how does that even possible? How do you even make that happen? So definitely a great episode that I’d recommend anybody to listen to as well. Great stuff. And not just because I hosted it, not just because it was me, because it really aligns with our big vision of what we’re trying to accomplish with Money Ripples. This is the ripple effect that we are here as a company to help create in your life. And so many of you listening right now, it’s very, very possible that some of you guys could actually be part of that group of a thousand families being financially independent in 2030. So check that out. Okay, now we get on to the number one. What was the number one episode? And by the way, this one blew ’em all out of the water. It wasn’t just close.
(09:01)
A lot of these were really close, seriously, sometimes within one view or one download. Some of these were really that close in this top five or 10, but number one destroyed like double the count. And that one actually just came out in December 13th of this year. This is why this one deserves the crown of being the number one episode, and that was here’s why Dave Ramsey’s co-host disagrees on the 4% rule, which was episode number 7 73. I know many of you guys had heard of this episode. I actually didn’t expect it to do this. Well, I was very intrigued by it. I thought it was entertaining, especially when Dave Ramsey blasts his co-host George, not directly, he wasn’t there, but indirectly because the caller called in saying, Hey, George said the 4% rule doesn’t work, which you’ve heard me say on the show many, many times.
(09:56)
Well, George had data to back him up and Dave said no, and even he didn’t even like the 4% rule. He even said it should be like seven or 8% rule. So it really just exposes that arrogance and even some ignorance that came from Dave Ramsey’s point. So you guys apparently liked it, YouTube definitely liked recommending it, but it was very obvious to you guys that you picked that as your number one favorite. So that’s it. Here’s why Dave Ramsey, co-host disagrees on the 4% rule number 7 73. So if you haven’t done so, it was really just about six episodes or so ago. So go check that as well. Parting words, guys, as we’re heading into 2024, I am very excited for what this year has to bring. I’m excited for what 2023 had to bring too. There was a lot of lessons that came from 2023, aren’t there?
(10:44)
It’s interesting, you see the stock market come back. What’s fascinating is you saw the stock market come back and even when it closed out the year said it went up 24%. That’s after it lost 20% in 2022. What’s interesting, even though it’s made it seem like it gained more than what it lost, the truth is it was still about 1% less than the top that it hit in 2022. And that kind of goes along with that point that I’ve brought up many times is that those average returns versus actual returns aren’t the same, are they. Think about it. I mean, when you lose 20%, you need a 25% gain to get back to zero, right? So if you’re a hundred dollars, you lose 20%, you’re down to 80 bucks, right? But if you get a 20% return on 80 bucks, 20%, 80 bucks is only $16, that only gets you back up to 96.
(11:36)
But to really get back to a hundred, again, you got to have that be a 25% return, where that one quarter of 80, which is 20, gets you back up to a hundred, not including fees and everything else. So the crazy thing is that even though everybody’s talking about the recession’s over everything’s shiny, happy people holding hands as REM would say, even though that’s the case, it seems to be the case. We still haven’t got back to where we were even two years ago. If you have money on a savings account, you’re still beating out anybody who had left their money in the stock market. Really think about that. Even if you’re in a crappy savings account, you’ll still beat out anybody in the stock market for the last couple of years. Can the market go up? Sure, it could. I don’t think it will a whole lot longer.
(12:17)
I think actually now, again, I’m recording this at the very end of 2023, literally just a few days before we release this episode. I don’t know what’s going to happen in this next week, but I’ll tell you what typically happens is that January, usually people sell out of the stock market. That’s usually when you start to see the selloffs happen. So it’s very possible you could be seeing that happening as well. You might be seeing some of the best days to come for a little while. Again, I think the market will go up overall, but at what cost to you and to your freedom, how many years will you lose of your life buying in to the same thing? In fact, we just had somebody who’s a follower of ours say, well, what investments do you have that beat the s and p 500? My response was, well, the SP 500 is only average just under 8% a year for the last 30 years.
(13:01)
That’s a real actual rate of return, not the average that just like we’re talking about here, but the actual rate of return. Well, if that’s the case just about anything that we have as investment options, especially backed by real assets like real estate has beat that, just anything seriously just about anything has beat that. So for someone to say, well, what do you have that beats the market? Pick one, pick it. And I’ve shown you guys, if you ever watched some of my masterclasses outside of the podcast, like our YouTube channel for example, I’ve done masterclass where I’ve shown you how properties have easily crushed anything that I would’ve had if I kept my mind in the stock market, even the last five and a half to six years. So that’s my message to you guys that you could keep doing the same thing that everybody’s kept doing for the last several years, but you’ll keep getting the results you have always gotten right?
(13:51)
You will always have the same results. Those results, as I’ve shown, is that really less than 1% of people feel like they actually have hope of real freedom in retirement. But on the other side, what we have here is that we have people getting that freedom. Now, we actually just had another, we’ve had other clients come on our podcast sharing these experiences, understand that our clients, they aren’t, it’s not like they’re more brilliant than anybody else that we bring on. And they’re smart people of course, but it’s not like they’re superhuman, right? I’m not superhuman. Trust me, I’m not. I’ve got my flaws, I’ve got my limitations as well. But I can tell you is that no matter who you are, by doing the right things, doing ’em the right way, you can get better results than the average person. If you want something that’s not just ordinary, but you want something extraordinary, you got to do extraordinary things and you want to make sure you do things that have actually been proven to work.
(14:49)
And I’m telling you, there’s millions of us that have done this already, just like many of our clients are already doing, many of our clients, I told them just the other day on one of our private calls that we have, I said, listen, you guys, even if people only make a thousand bucks a month, do you understand that you’re still ahead of the vast majority of Americans right now? And just so you know, a lot of our clients usually average at least about two to 3000 or more a month of passive income in just the first year alone. And then as they reinvest it, that money just keeps building and building even in that situation. And many of them, just so you know, our ages can range anywhere from your late twenties all the way up into your sixties and possibly even seventies. But man, they’re still way farther ahead than anybody else.
(15:30)
Not because they have more money, but because they get that money to work harder for them. So as I always say on the show, so they always have to work hard for their money. That is the secret. That is the key to true freedom. So as you’re going into 2024 guys, really consider that. What are your goals? What is it you want to have? How do you want to look? And who knows? Maybe you end up being one of these people that we bring on this show and say, look, what have you been doing? How have you been doing it? And you might end up being one of the top people just like Eric Vanti saw as well, right? I mean, we saw people like that. Hey, you never know. And so that’s the thing is I want more of you not gurus on this show.
(16:07)
I want more of you guys showing up these podcasts becoming our top hits. Why? Because I know that you are the people learning from yourselves as peers can be way more impactful than just learning from somebody who seems like they’ve had it perfect. They’ve had it all made. I don’t want that. I want more of you showing up. Now, I know you might say, oh, I don’t want to be on the podcast. That’s fine. Most of our clients are too shy to go on our podcast because they’re like, oh, okay. And it’s funny too, because a lot of ’em might think, oh, there’s probably millions of viewers. No, there’s not, right? There’s thousands, but not millions. But again, that makes ’em nervous and that’s fine. But what I love and the thing that I take huge joy in and reward in my own personal business love language, is seeing our clients get awesome results.
(16:57)
And that’s exactly what I wish for you and your family going to this new year as well, is how can you have more freedom, greater capacity, be able to have that light bulb moment turn on and say, oh my gosh, this is way easier than I ever thought was possible. That is the thing that I wake up for each day. That is the thing that I’d love to live for, is just that is ripple effect that happens in your family’s life. That’s what I love. I’ll end with this and just your experience. I was speaking with someone who actually was one of you as listeners. You know who you are. He was talking with me just for a few minutes the other day, and we were talking about what results he can get. It was probably roughly about 20,000 or more depending on his situation.
(17:38)
I said, although the calculator said about 29,000 that he took on Money ripples.com, he tried that calculator. I said, you could go very, very conservative, easily minimum 20 to 25,000 a year. I said, but it’s not just that because this guy just like me, has six kids between the ages of about eight and 19 or 20. And I said, what I love is that I want you to have the same thing that I have, which is I’m trying to create a ripple effect for my kids, because how many of us would’ve loved our kids to know the things that we now know now today? He’s like, oh, that’s exactly what I want. I even just try to help my kids get into this little investment. He did a little investment from one of our podcasts. He’s like, yeah, I’m getting each of them in to just make more money than they make in the bank.
(18:24)
I said, how awesome is that? How many of us would love to have parents that taught us those same things? Guys, that’s a ripple effect that I can get behind on. That’s the kind of ripple effect I love to see, not just for my own family and my own life. Yes, but for you, that is the fun thing for me. That is what I love hearing about. So guys, keep those experiences and questions coming in and sharing that with us, because that could be the very thing that becomes one of these top episodes because people have been asking this question just like you have been as well. So I invite you if you have feedback or questions or episodes, you say, Chris, I would love to see a show on this. Shoot me an email info@moneyripples.com. I would love to hear your ideas, but in the meantime, guys, I want to wish you a happy new year of prosperous 2024 so that you can also experience that joy, that wealth and prosperity and freedom, and ultimately that legacy that you can pass on to your children as well.
(19:17)
Go and make a wonderful prosperous new year. We’ll see you later. How many years will you lose of your life buying in to the same thing? In fact, we just had somebody who’s a follower of ours say, well, what investments do you have that beat the s and p 500? My response was, well, the SP 500 is only average just under 8% a year for the last 30 years. That’s a real actual rate of return, not the average that just like we’re talking about here, but the actual rate of return. Well, if that’s the case, just about anything that we have as investment options, especially backed by real assets like real estate has beat that. Just anything