Episode 08: Living a Life That is Truly Rich with Patrick King
Patrick King 0:00
You know, we talked about purpose and mission. I know you and I have talked about this plenty, but like, it doesn't have to be something grand. And it doesn't have to be, you know, putting a dent in the universe. As Steve Jobs said, it could be something as simple as writing down your bucket list and start checking those items off and consciously making it a point that someday is today. And that's the kind of stuff that gets me excited. Once we get clear on that. We can start aligning your money to support that life.
Matt Johnston 0:29
The human experience is the greatest project any of us want to take. It's often the one we spend the least amount of time working on. My name is Matt Johnston. I'm a self-professed personal development junkie, a retired pro golfer, I now work for an organization that provides employee and health benefits to hundreds of thousands of people. It should be common sense to realize that what happens at work is what people bring home and what happens at home comes to them to work, but that's too often ignored. That's why each week I hope to uncover a little more around what it means to be a human working and living in the 21st century, will be learning from experts having conversations and getting insights into all those things that fall at the intersection of life and work, emotional and physical health skills and money. All the relationships we navigate each day and of course the purpose and meaning we all desire. This is The Human Assignment.
Welcome back to The Human Assignment podcast. I'm thrilled to share a recent conversation I had with a friend and all-around great dude, Patrick King. Patrick is a certified financial planner and the founder of Transformative Financial. Over the years, he's helped CEOs, executives, all-star athletes, Grammy winning artists and dozens of other folks from all walks of life - including the world's top baloney salesman, by the way - grow their financial lives. Patrick started Transformative Financial as an alternative to the big box brokerage houses and the pretentious - air quotes here - firms that cater to the ultra-wealthy. He has said that building this firm was his way of walking the talk, by pursuing the work that he loves, on his terms, just the way he encourages all of his clients to do.
Patrick has a podcast of his own, which I love, called Invest in Your Life. And he'll be releasing a new show very soon called Claiming No Dependants. In the months and years to come, I want to have many conversations around this topic of finance on this podcast. It's one of if not the biggest stressor for most people. And I want to learn more, and I want to shine a light on that monster in the closet. I think this is too important not to talk about, and learn more about and I wanted to get Patrick on the show is the first guest to be able to share with us some of the things that he's talked to me - around how to shift the role that money has in our lives.
He certainly helped me a lot. And I think that he'll help you too is you'll quickly see in this podcast; Patrick doesn't see his role is just maximizing his client's personal wealth. He sees his job as integrating a sound financial plan in order to help people to live a life on their terms - to help them to live a life of their dreams. I love the conversation with Patrick that we had in this show. And I love every conversation I had with him, but I think it'll be really helpful. If you want to learn more about him. You can visit him at his website, Transformative dash Financial.com you can check out his podcast, Invest in Your Life, and keep an eye out for that new show that's coming soon, Claiming No Dependants. If you want to support our show, the best way you can do so is by giving us a review on iTunes. Any love that you give us as much appreciated, any feedback you give us is much appreciated. So, without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Patrick King.
Patrick, welcome to the show.
Patrick King 4:00
Thank you for having me, Matt, pleasure to be here.
Matt Johnston 4:03
Thank you for taking the time. So, Patrick, you're a certified financial planner, the founder of Transformative Financial, and the host of the Invest in Your Life podcast, the intersection of personal finance and personal growth, helping people live a life that's truly rich. You're about to launch a new podcast. I'm so excited to have this conversation today.
Patrick King 4:27
Me too.
Matt Johnston 4:28
I'm excited to learn from you. I picked your brain for the last couple years on this stuff. And I just, I love your approach. But where I thought we could begin is talking about your path. You started as a mechanical engineer, which just seems like a perfectly linear path to becoming a financial planner. So, I was hoping that you could talk about that trajectory.
Patrick King 4:51
Yeah, it was. Obviously, the logical step was going from mechanical engineering, right to personal finance. But let me - yeah, I'll kind of give you the story because in the end, I think it kind of makes sense. You know, back in the day, I got my undergrad degree in mechanical engineering and I love that stuff. I was the design engineer out of school and did that for a few years. And I designed construction equipment, lawn mowers, outdoor light fixtures, packaging equipment. And while I enjoyed the creative aspects of design engineering, I also had to spend my day around engineers.
Personality-wise, I think, you know, I can do engineering but at the same time, engineers are special people. There are stereotypes for a reason, I think for those guys, and I say that in all true love because I have a lot of great friends who are engineers. And I often say that I'm a recovering engineer. But one thing I noticed while I was an engineer, either - all the companies that I was working for, we're either going out of business or outsourcing all of the design work to China in India. In fact, I had a Chinese visa to go to Shanghai and train all of our replacements at one of my jobs. And so, the writing was on the wall. And so I knew that I was going to have to do something to move my career in a place where I would move myself up the value chain, in essence, and right around the same time, because all these companies were going out of business or outsourcing everything. I was doing a little job hopping, so I had these old retirement plans from my old companies, and they needed some help with it.
And I knew a little bit about investing my, you know, my mom was a banker, my dad was an accountant. So, I was around this stuff growing up, but I didn't want to do it myself. And at the time, someone who is very, very high up at one of the banks, Wachovia actually, which is now no longer with us because of the financial crisis this person introduced me to a quote unquote financial planner at the bank who would help me with my retirement plans and lo and behold he put me in these investments that paid him handsome commissions and weren't necessarily the best investments for what I needed. And his idea of helping me with a budget was given me a spreadsheet and wish me luck. So I was, understandably, let's just say pissed off.
And I thought, "Man, if, if this guy who at the time had an office that had climate conditioning, which I didn't as an engineer, get a nice car and he seemed to be doing well. And now what if, what if somebody got into this business and actually gave a shit you know?" And so, as I was going through this need to move up the value chain and change career paths, I got introduced to someone who is a fee only financial planner. And a fee only financial planner is what's called a fiduciary. Which means that they're required by law to put their client's interests ahead of their own, which was back then a very rare thing. And I thought, "Man, this sounds like fun. I can be in a job where I get to talk to people, I get to have climate conditioning, which is a big deal in Atlanta. It gets a little warm here. So, air conditioning is very important. And, and most importantly, I would get the opportunity to do good and do well."
And so, there's not a lot of jobs that that are out there where you can do good and do well. And this is one of them. So, so yeah, went back to grad school. Got my MBA got a master's in financial planning, interned with one of the, I guess the first fee only financial planners in Atlanta. And then after that got a job at one of the big firms here in town. So, it was a very, very quick four-year career decision. It did not happen overnight, but it was, but it was well worth it. So that's kind of how I wound up becoming a financial planner. And, and I'm actually the math on the engineering thing does help. So, one of the financial planners that actually understands the math.
Matt Johnston 9:39
Well, I know from because you're a friend of mine, and then also from one of your podcasts that this is one of the few transitions that you've made in your life.
Patrick King 9:50
Oh, my goodness.
Matt Johnston 9:51
Yeah. And so, I know that the transitions that you've made over the course of your career are a big part in helping you, you not only support your clients, but support them in the way that you do. Seeing them as holistic humans. Can you talk a little bit more about the transitions that you've gone through? And how you relate that to the work that you do?
Patrick King 10:17
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, ideally, we can get into this in a little bit. But ideally, real financial planning is really life planning. At the end of the day, the finance stuff is important, the investment stuff is important. But I don't want to help people be the richest person in the graveyard. You can, you can become wealthier and be miserable and you can become wealthier and be happy. And why not just do wealthier and happy because the happy part doesn't really cost anything. So, you know, with that in mind, you know, I think back to the transitions that I've had in my life, you know, the career the change is certainly a big one. And it took a lot of effort to do that. And I'm very proud of that. But there are also other transitions that I've had, you know, one was a health transition where, where I started cleaning up my diet and lost a ton of weight and started exercising again, which, as I was approaching middle age, which let's just I'm still squarely in middle age, let's just say
Matt Johnston 11:24
You look good, man.
Patrick King 11:25
Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Matt Johnston 11:28
I'm looking at you know, a little you're turned into a silver fox quickly in this,
Patrick King 11:36
I don't care what color the hair is, as long as it hangs on.
Matt Johnston 11:39
That strong jaw and shoulders for days. I mean, you look like you look like your days out of out of guiding Clemson, you know, to a national title.
Patrick King 11:52
Right. I like that. I like that. Now I feel like I feel - I really do feel like I've aged well. I feel like I've gotten better looking strangely, as I've gotten older, so I'd absolutely love that. And it's been kind of a weird thing because I was such a dork growing up. And then all of a sudden, at this age to get attention from, from the ladies in Atlanta here, the gentleman too. It's a kind of been an odd experience, but a pleasant one.
Matt Johnston 12:21
Yeah. Good for you. It's hilarious. So, you went through a health transition. And then even a real relationship and skills in that area transition.
Patrick King 12:34
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I was married for a while and it was not a very healthy relationship. And, you know, part of the work that I did there was recognizing what I contributed to that. I'm not going to say that it was all my fault. You know, it was it - but we were in it together. And it wasn't a healthy thing. And the great part about that is that I was able to invest the time and effort into examining, you know, looking inside and figuring out, :Alright, what have I done that put myself in this situation? And how can I change that? And how can I up-level this going forward?"
And I think that started me down a path of really diving into the self-improvement arena and, doing a lot of work on relating. And that's been amazing. And amazing therapists went through some amazing programs, workshops and the like, and, and I've come out of it in such a better place where my relationship now is one with an absolutely amazing woman who's done her work, who is super smart, who owns her own business. And by the way, she's pretty hot too. So, I feel like, you know, life is good.
Matt Johnston 13:55
Life is good. I you know, your podcast. One of the things that - I really enjoy your podcast - it's a show focused on money focused on finances. And everything that you've just talked about is covered in the show. It's very personal, really appreciate how you bring yourself to the show. And then cover these topics you talk about relationships, you talk about relating, and your journey through all these things. And I just I love how you weave it all back to the theme of money but do it in a way to show that money is a is a component of your life. It's a tool, but it isn't your life. It isn't something that's just compartmentalized it, you have to take all these things into account. If you're, you know, when making decisions and gaining awareness. I have many questions to ask too.
All right, gotta pick your brain and, and help us in this in this big area. But I just want to frame it in this in this way that we're not just going to be, you know, putting on the on the financial hat in this conversation, just that, you know, weaves in a holistic look at life in order to make improvements and important decisions in finance.
Patrick King 15:17
Yeah, absolutely. You know, all that stuff. It's details and the details are important. But, you know, who cares what your investment strategy looks like, looks like if all you're doing is covering up a hole in your heart, you know? So, what's the point of that? What’s it always comes back to? What do we want to accomplish before we kick it, you know, for kick the bucket? And you talked about the ceiling tile test, and more and more I've started holding clients to this idea of what do you - what is it that you have to accomplish before we check out in this life? You know, because even if we live into well into our 90s, or even hundreds You know, it's not enough time. So, let's get to work. What is what are those things that you have to experience? And you know, when we talk about purpose and mission, I know you and I have talked about this plenty, but like, it doesn't have to be something grand. And it doesn't have to be, you know, putting a dent in the universe. As Steve Jobs said, it could be something as simple as writing down your bucket list and start checking those items off and consciously making it a point that someday is today. And that's the kind of stuff that gets me excited. And once we get clear on that, we can start aligning your money to support that life. You know, when it comes to the financial stuff, you know, if you aim at nothing, that's exactly what you'll hit. Right? So, what's the point of all this? Living a good life?
Matt Johnston 16:50
Every conversation that you have with a client is - how does it start?
Patrick King 16:54
Yeah, that's a great question. I think, what I've done is I've started More and more to be very deliberate about these conversations. And it's almost like it's a hurdle that folks have to have to jump over before they can work with me. Now, at this point, I've got three exercises that I work through with potential clients. And it's all about uncovering that life purpose. And these three exercises, they - it's all about really those experiences and very rarely, at the end of it, does it come down to a material thing, very rarely Is it about buying the beach house or the Range Rover or whatever. It's about that thing that's underneath it that they have to feel like they appear in the world as a success because of the money messages that maybe they got from their parents as a kid. Or they were rejected by the cute redhead in high school and so they have to make a success for themselves in order to feel like they, you know, that they're, that they've accomplished something in life or whatnot.
I've started more and more to have this almost as like, you've got to be this tall to ride this ride, before we're there, I mean, because there's, you know, I live in Atlanta, there's 1,000 other, you know, guys - because unfortunately, most of them are guys, you know, it's a very kind of still male dominated industry - who will be happy to work with somebody who, who doesn't want to incorporate purpose into their life and be conscious about their money. But, you know, I've done this long enough and, you know, this is the life that I live to. That yeah, life's too short for me to waste my energy on people who just want to stay at the surface. There are plenty of people who, who are ready to go there and be real when it comes to doing what they have to do before our time here is up.
Matt Johnston 18:55
And we talked about this before we got on online, this taboo subject and It's scary, right? Like it's, it's not something that we talk about at the, at a dinner party, or most of us don't talk about it at a dinner party. And there's all sorts of stigma around it and uncertainty and fear. And can you speak to that for a second? And how we can grapple with that?
Patrick King 19:20
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, money is the last taboo. I feel like that. You know, people will tell you the crazy sex shit that they did on the weekend, and, but they won't tell you how much they make every year. You know, you think about going to the cocktail party and having someone come up to you and ask, "How much do you make every year?" or "What's your net worth?"
You'd kind of freak out? Right? Yeah, we just we just don't talk about that. So that's kind of where we are. And, and getting it out into the open. It's not I'm not saying that. You know, I'm not advocating that you know, post your adjusted annual gross income on Facebook or whatever, but just be aware that these things aren't being talked about. And I don't know, I'm curious to how your experience was in Canada growing up. But in the United States, at least in South Carolina where I grew up, we weren't taught any kind of personal finance. We weren't taught budgeting we weren't taught about I mean, something as simple as a savings account or a checking account or investments at all or any of this stuff. And I think that's on purpose.
I think when it comes to Wall Street, they've got a vested interest in all of us being ignorant, because they're going to make money on either side of the trade, whether our accounts go up or our accounts go down. It's in the interest of the people who are in the money industry that we all be ignorant. And I think that's sad. I think that's so again, you don't have to go around with your net worth tattooed on your arm but just be aware of it when you're out. And be aware kind of the perception of wealth to the perception of wealth is never wealth. You know, people with the big cars and the big houses well, especially cars, because they depreciate so much, that's wealth spent as an expenditure so yeah, that's kind of where I'm at on now.
Matt Johnston 21:32
For all of us who don't talk about money, didn't grow up, talking about money didn't take that personal finance class in high school or wherever. And are sitting in middle age or they're someone sitting in their late 20s in their mid 30s in their mid 40s, mid 50s, whatever it may be, and are still scared about this and uncertain. You know, we hear we hear about the fees when you go to approach an advisor, we hear all sorts of the - you know, you go to it that you go to the bookstore and there's an entire section on different ways to budget. I know I shouldn't buy that frappuccino on the way to work, but you know, I just put it on a card. So, it's no big deal. Where do we start?
Patrick King 22:20
YI think that's - I mean, that's a great question. And there are a couple of ways to go about it. And when it comes to comes to money, you know, there's always a couple of fundamentals that are there. And that's, you know, being cashflow positive, you know, making sure that you're earning more than you spend in general in life, having some cash on the side. A little emergency fund or rainy-day fund or whatever it is, and you know, the rule of thumb there is, you know, between three and six months of your living expenses in cash, and that's not a bad rule of thumb actually. And then, and then you know, pay, pay down your debt. You know, that's, I'm not a big fan of Dave Ramsey, but his, I guess the first few chapters of his book are actually excellent on paying down debt. And then once you get past the paying down debt part, just throw the book away because all the investment stuff's terrible.
Matt Johnston 23:19
Okay, well that's, that's helpful. And kind of seems like common sense.
Patrick King 23:26
It is, it is. But that doesn't mean it's easy. It doesn't mean it's easy because, again, there's pressure for us, you know, that social pressure that we have with our reference group, all the people that you hang out with that you go to work with that go to, you know, the same golf club or whatever you do, whatever your hobby is. There's always pressure to fit in with your reference group. And that means a lot of cases spending more money than you can Well, you know, Jimmy down the street bought the Range Rover, I need to buy the Range Rover too. You know, he has the same job I do, you know, his family looks like mine does. That doesn't mean that, you know, he hasn't inherited a bunch of wealth.
I will say that after doing this for a long time now, I think that people have less money than you think they do. I think that a lot of people beat themselves up about not having money. And I think I think that's one of the most common things that I hear. When people come to see me. No matter how much money they actually have, there always seems to be a comment somewhere along the lines of this is what I have. I know I should have more than I do. Or almost everybody and it's really kind of funny. And so, we all collectively beat ourselves up about where we are financially. There's no perfect way to do any of this. There's no frictionless transactions. There's no way to go through life without making a bad investment decision somewhere along the way. I mean, it's just part of life.
So, if we were actually talking to each other about this stuff, we could all get this out into the open. I mean, they're really this kind of like some strange like money healing that needs to happen in some cases. But yeah, I mean, that's kind of where we are. I think another fundamental to real quick is just the investment piece is doesn't have to be hard. The investment stuff is less about what you invest in and more about how you behave around them.
Matt Johnston 25:41
So, what do you mean by that?
Patrick King 25:43
Yeah, it's, it's, it's more about sticking with your strategy for the long term. And I know that sounds boring, and it sounds like it's common sense, but nobody does it. Everybody freaks out when the market drops and sell everything or everyone gets greedy when there's like a tech bubble or something and puts all of their you know, stock into Apple or Google or whatever it is and instead of being diversified and doing the boring stuff. And I think this was a you know, a video I did one time where you know, you're a golfer like investing is like the US Open like you don't win by making birdies you win by not making bogeys. You know, you're not firing up flags, it's all about being boring and hitting fairways and hitting greens and to putting and moving on, you know, it's, it's all it's all about playing the long game.
You know, so I think there's this myth out there. That's glorified by TV and Hollywood where there's some sort of magic trade or a few shuffle this around here and there and, you know, you hear the you hear the stories like The Big Short, and the movie that was came out a few years ago, love that. Of course, it told the story of like the, like two or three people that actually figured out the financial crisis is going to happen. Right. Right and did something. Right. So, think about that as a percentage of human beings. You know, there were, you know, Stanford educated economists that missed it. Right? It's all about having a strategy that will weather the ups and downs of all of that.
Matt Johnston 27:33
I know that you're not going to give us advice on that strategy today. I actually love the line in your podcast, it's what is it? I'm not your financial advisor, I you know, go to you go to your mom, your, what was it?
Patrick King 27:49
Your CPA, your attorney, your witch doctor and your mom. Yeah.
Matt Johnston 27:56
Whoever it may be witch doctor, mom's lawyer, CPA, what do you suggest? Because that sounds great playing the long game. And how do you find an advisor? How do you do? Do I need an advisor?
Patrick King 28:15
Well, I mean, I believe that everybody needs a financial advisor, obviously, I'm what I do. I'm big on coaching, right? So, people will hire a personal trainer, people will hire a dietician, hire a personal coach, business coach. But people are reluctant to hire a financial advisor a lot of times because - and I don't blame them. It's traditionally a dirty industry. You know, back in the days when, you know, all these brokers would get money from selling you something. There's been a lot of misplaced trust over the years and all you have to do is watch The Wolf of Wall Street. And it's glorified even. That movie like it was a, it was a kind of indictment on that culture. But then again, it kind of glorified that culture. They were kind of like robber barons, but of individuals.
I get why people don't do it. But at the same time, you can't, there are good, there are plenty of good people out there. And one of one thing I would recommend doing when you're looking for an advisor is look for someone who's fee only. That means that they're paid only by their clients, they don't have any conflicts of interest. When your accounts go up, their fee goes up, and when they go down, their fee goes down, too. So, they are aligned with you. And the best way, this, that everybody knows how to do this. It's kind of tough in the US there's an organization called NAPFA and you go to napfa.org. You can find a fee only advisor there.
Canada, it's a little tough, you have to just find someone locally. So, I guess maybe do a little Google search. There's no Canadian fee only group that I know of. But you know, find someone in your area and then make sure that they're fee only.
Matt Johnston 30:11
You mentioned money healing a little bit earlier, we should all do some money healing. What the hell would that look like?
Patrick King 30:19
Well, I mean, there is actually I'm, I'm not sure I'm ready to go into this area. But there is a movement of financial therapy that's happening in this industry where people like me are starting to blend what they do with therapy. Like hardcore therapy. And so, so all right, think about this. Like what? What were some of your early money memories growing up? I'll share one with you real quick, like one of the things that I remember growing up was like I had a pretty good childhood but the times that I remember like mom and dad being angry with each other was over money. So that's stuck with me for a long time.
Matt Johnston 31:02
Yeah, money doesn't grow on trees.
Patrick King 31:05
A lot of money scarcity messages growing up, right. So, so yeah, I mean, there's, and that can lead us to all different kinds of behaviours, you know, especially, you know, you know, growing up, like, I had a great childhood, but you know, we weren't wealthy by any means. So, you know, I didn't get the remote-control car as a kid growing up, right, which is, which is fine. You know, I could I could go make that happen today. And I haven't so it's not a big deal. But, you know, I remember, as a young man, thinking I had to be I had to guard my wealth like and so I missed out on a lot of experiences because I didn't want to pay for things.
It took me a little while to realize kind of what I was doing. And that, that money is a tool. It's not just for things but it's for people. experiences too. And so, you know, that's a that's a hard lesson to learn, you miss out on a few things like I wish I should have done, you know, that trip to wherever, you know with my college buddies or whatever, you know. And so, there is a, like a money maturation process that happens there's actually a great book called The Seven Stages of Money Maturity and it's read by -
Matt Johnston 32:29
The Seven Stages of Money Maturity.
Patrick King 32:30
The Seven Stages of Money Maturity is written by a gentleman named George Kinder. And, and the seven stages correspond with the seven chakras. And so, the first two stages are this, innocence and ignorance and pain kind of combo. It's like kind of a financial samsara that a lot of people are stuck in where they're ignorant about what's happening, and they keep putting themselves into painful situations because of the ignorance. And a lot of times it's because they don't have the self-awareness to get themselves out of that cycle. And a lot of times, it's willful, they don't they think it's painful to move to that next level of taking control of taking responsibility of their financial life. And so, they stay stuck in this financial samsara in a lot of ways. And so, a lot of that money healing helps us progress along those seven stages.
Matt Johnston 33:26
You know, that makes so much sense. And I don't I don't mean to sort of get us stuck here but I just know for myself and this can be related to health or anything else is that sometimes it's easier just to ignore it or like point a blind eye. Like, I'm going to deal with it. It's off there. It's somewhere in - my statements or somewhere on the internet, and I'll deal with it next month. You know, I paid the Visa bill this month. Yeah. All you know, I'll create a budget at some point.
Patrick King 33:58
Yeah. And so, I mean, so think about that. There are a lot of people who are like, I've got so much going on. I don't want to deal with it right now. They're in that cycle of not being in debt, or you're living paycheck to paycheck, much less planning for retirement down the road or being financially independent, or what happens at age 65, or whatever, when you want to walk away from work. And you can't be living paycheck to paycheck. But we are and I think this is just being human, where we're focused on the here and now so much in comfort in the present. That thinking long term is something that's actually very difficult for us to do. So. Planning for your future and all this investing stuff is not really natural. Right? It's not something we do. It's in our best interests, but it does require a little bit of that stepping out of I'm not gonna say childish, but it's like the childlike mentality of I just got to do this or, or like a comfort seeking mentality. You know, I'm not going to lose a ton of weight if I eat queso every day right, but it feels good.
Matt Johnston 35:17
So, what's something that we could we could all do today and take control ourselves, having to coach someone in your corner, and advisors is critical. What could we do today to empower us - ourselves - to gain awareness and start us down this path?
Patrick King 35:32
Well, I think that's, that's the key is the awareness. The awareness is like the most important thing I think, when you when you feel that stress about money coming in your life, when you feel it coming up inside you. Just take note of it. And then ask yourself where it's coming from. And ask yourself what you keep bumping up against. And just notice it, I think. I think that's the most important thing is just to see that it's there, you don't necessarily have to take action immediately, but just kind of like put a name to it and make friends with it a little bit.
We all know what to do. We all know that we need to spend less than we make, we all know that we need to have a little cash set aside, we know that we need to have all the insurance crap and but the but doing is a whole different thing. So a lot of us even if we're in relationships with it, whether it be with ourselves or with a partner, we've set ourselves up in a way that's comfortable in the short term, but maybe there's discomfort knowing that long term, deep down we know it's not sustainable. So once you've got that awareness, I think it all comes down - that's why it comes back - that's why this, this whole idea about getting clear with what you need, what you want to do in life and what's important to you is so crucial in this whole process.
Because if you bring it back to that notion of what's crucial for you, it allows you to cut away the things that aren't. And quite frequently, you know, living in the expensive house or having an expensive car, those things aren't going to make you happy, that's not going to fill that, that deep need. And I'm not saying that those things are wrong. I certainly enjoy living in a nice place. And I certainly enjoy driving a nice car. But you know, you know, at this point in my life, like the car thing, which used to be important to me is not important anymore. You know, I'm doing things that are more aligned with what's important to me. So. So once you do that work, it becomes a whole lot easier to say, "Screw it. I don't need this big house. I'm going to sell it. Or screw it. I can Just take ride-share everywhere instead of having a car or I'm actually going to move to a different location to be closer to my family because that's more important to me." It frees you up. And I think at that point, you can really start making big changes and the whole idea of the latte millionaire thing starts becoming really ridiculous because you can really change your life quickly.
If you start prioritizing and I'm talking about your financial life. It all it all becomes about choices. You know, the always talk about the Latin root of the word decide means to cut away. So, if you choose proactively to pursue one thing, then you implicitly cut away a bunch of other stuff. And at the end of the day, like, let's pursue those things that - when you're lying in the hospital bed, taking your last breath staring at the stupid ceiling tiles - matter to you. Like all this other stuff, you can just let go and then all of a sudden, boom, you've got free cash flow to do the stuff that's important. That it oversimplifies that there's a lot of coaching involved in accounting accountability involved with actually letting go of the stuff that doesn't matter, because that can be uncomfortable. right but you know, it can also be uncomfortable having like a low-level stress for your entire life knowing that you're not going to be financially secure.
Matt Johnston 39:37
Well, that was a hell of an answer.
Patrick King 39:38
I feel like I just kind of rambled there for a little bit. Not even quite sure what I said but it was so
Matt Johnston 39:45
That was fantastic. And it makes a lot of sense. I mean, the principles that you've that you've stated at the start of the at the start of the show, you know, stay cash flow positive. Have a rainy-day fund. Pay down my pay down your debt like these are very simple things. But the it's the doing it that is that is hard. You know, weight loss is not overly complicated. It doesn't have to be overly complicated. Except it is because it's a human. It's a human thing. So, I know are there are there resources, you've got some great resources on your website and I encourage anyone to go check out, check out your site, a transformative financial com, right?
Patrick King 40:33
It's transformative dash financial dot com.
Matt Johnston 40:36
dash financial com. Yeah.
Patrick King 40:38
It's a long URL there, but all the good ones were taken.
Matt Johnston 40:43
And I'll get that in the I'll get that in the show notes. Are there are there books or other resources that you that you'd recommend for people to check?
Patrick King 40:52
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think you know, the, the Dave Ramsey book is great if you're in debt, to help you get out of debt. The there's a book called the Random Walk Down Wall Street. And it's kind of an old book now. But the principles outlined in that book are pretty solid. And it's all about the long-term investing strategy that actually works. You know, Vanguard is a company that was very famous because it had these low costs, diversified mutual funds back in the day, and everyone's moving towards these things called ETFs now, but it's the same, same principle.
It's all about high diversification, low fees, and then just don't mess it up. It's kind of like your investment strategy needs to be like a scab, just don't pick at it. But like so Random Walk Down Wall Street's a great resource. There's a book called Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by a gentleman named Nick Murray, that's very good. I would I actually send clients a copy of that book. I also send clients a copy of Crazy Good by Steven Chandler when they sign up now, because those two books together I think kind of encapsulated how I work.
What's Crazy Good like, by Steven Chandler.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's the subtitle is called A Book of Choices. And it's all about choosing to have a life. That's crazy good. And each chapter goes into different choices to make around having a crazy good life. And I think, you know, one of my favorite chapters from the book is called Agreements Versus Expectations. And I'm big on creating agreements in my life, which is always fun and weird and interesting, but, but yeah, so I think that is, I think it's more of a general book about choosing, making like affirmative have choices to have a crazy good life.
Matt Johnston 43:05
Well, Patrick, I want to be respectful of your time here. We took a minute to deal with some technical issues at the start. Thank you so much for being on today. And yeah, too. And hopefully we can we can set up another one in the future, your constant inspiration to me you have no problem - not no problem. But you continue to reinvent yourself. You just you're so focused on serving the clients that you have, and then the next set of clients that you have, you never stop learning. And this holistic approach this desire to help people live a better life, you know, with the focus on you know, the skills of money is just, it's just awesome to see you doing this work in the world. And now with the podcast, sharing it with so many more.
Patrick King 44:04
Right on right on. Thank you. Yeah, I just want to say that that I am going to be moving forward specializing a little bit more in people like me who don't have kids. So, the podcast, which is invest in your life, it's still going to be out there. And I definitely want folks to have those episodes but look for the new one, which will be focused on a lot of the same stuff, but maybe a little bit more specific for my niche of people who don't have kids. It'll be called Claiming No Dependants, a little reference to the tax forms that we fill out here in the States, not having kids. But a little it'll be a lot of the same kind of content, where it's about how to get your finances aligned with what you want to create in life and not the other way around. And thank you, thank you for those kind words. And right back at you.
Matt Johnston 45:00
And so, people can find you find you the new podcast.
Patrick King 45:03
Yeah Claiming No Dependants podcast, and then online. My firm is transformative financial. It's transformative dash financial com. Fantastic. Yeah, that's how you find me.
Matt Johnston 45:16
Thank you so much, Patrick as always, and to be continued.
Patrick King 45:21
I like the sound of that. Thank you, Matt.
Matt Johnston 45:25
Take care.