CO-HOST | Make Money by Taking Control of Your Financial Future

0:00You're listening to the Travis makes money podcast presented by gohighlevel.com for a free 30-day trial of the best all-in-one digital marketing software tool on the planet. Just go to gohighlevel.com slash traps What's going on everybody welcome back to the Travis makes money podcast for a submission to help you make more money on this episode My producer Eric is in studio picking something out of his teeth. I have some steak from Chipotle and my tooth What we call that a snack Secondary snack can get it out. I'm just gonna make gross smack in All right, so a we just recently covered that tax refunds are bigger and better than ever 11% higher in 2026 and in the article from CNBC There was a hyperlink to an article that I was like we should talk about this It's the CNBC and survey monkey quarterly money survey for affordability For April 2026. So hot off the presses actually survey monkey did this survey and

1:0425% of respondents to survey monkey said they would be using their excess tax money to buy bananas Save them out And equal share said they would be buying barrels to throw up Mario and The remainder of the response to survey monkey just simply wrote in the margins. Oh That's a good show. That's off the dome too. That's off the dome. You know earlier The first time I said it just like that. It was off the dome Yeah, the delivery was better when you weren't laughing because I didn't know it was so funny the first time because I was still finding it now I know Oh That's a funny joke. I take that on stage any day Wednesday All right, here's the key findings. There's the key findings Half of Americans

2:0650% are more stressed financially than a year ago This is a large number. It is it's a half That's crazy with 70% of Americans just managing struggling or falling behind Low savings and data are the leading contributors of financial stress for Americans Americans are pessimistic about the US economy as they face raising prices for groceries and transportation The addition of cutting expenses Americans are navigating rising prices by tapping to their savings increasing their income or taking on debt 4 in 10 that's 39% of Americans have used a credit card to pay for groceries or household essentials due to affordability issues Affordability is a leading issue for upcoming elections and 38% of Americans blame the federal government for The crisis so which one of these you want to dive into first I can go to the expanded Man, I mean the 50% versus a year ago is Not a great stat. Yeah, it's a sign that the economy's booming right? Yeah, right

3:10But again, that's that's why we talked about this on the show so much is that You have to take control of your finances. It's like There's always going to be a reason to point the blame regardless of who's in charge or what administration it is Even if the administration has everything to do with it or they have nothing to do with it It almost to me is like irrelevant to the conversation of creating financial peace for yourself Because ultimately nobody has as much control over your own financial situation as you will be able to have Assuming that you would actually take charge of it and do something about it. It's not to downplay the Circumstances outside of our control that's making it that way of course We talk about this especially as it relates to housing prices and things like that like everybody feels that you know Even like when we're looking at moving to whatever Austin or Nashville or whatever Like just looking like going and looking at houses on Zillow even torrent is is disheartening

4:12Every day. I'm tired to what I used to be. I hope the housing prices don't go down so Travis can never move I want him here with me forever It's not sweet Sorta. I hope that you can never have the house just went to South Carolina I hope you can never hear yeah, and I realized it was bad to be away from you boo. Yeah, that's not that's not what it was Well, it helped it helped that you were here if you well, I have to say this if you weren't here I may have picked some else where would you have picked? I Thought about Utah. Did you actually but then I was like what are the George Utah or like Salt Lake Utah? Just Utah. I mean, we just looked at Utah and then I was like Nah, that's a drag man You know, no, it's not my vibe and then it is just my point is to say that like I listen to our carolina Different yeah, like Charlotte No, there was a place there was a place called Carrie North Carolina and we looked pretty seriously at that Anyway, all it to say I'm glad we're here together, and I don't want you

5:13And I hope that Trump drives housing prices to the moon. So you never leave Yeah, the point is to say that there are of course broader macroeconomic trends that are completely outside of our control that are disheartening to say the least But if you're waiting for the federal government to come save you in your financial situation I just think you're going to be waiting for a very long time. So it might feel good to point the blame and Say and even again, even if it is true It's not helpful is you know, I'm saying like it two things can you can hold two truths at once It might you you might be able to point fingers and say like well, it's their fault and this is a terrible situation and they should fix it It's like okay great agreed But in the meantime How long are you willing to wait for somebody else to come fix it when You if you could just take control of that yourself and learn a new skill or get better at something that

6:14Allows you to make more money or try to go get a promotion or pick up a side hustle or learn how to sell or something like that Like there's there's multiple paths forward that you have more direct control over Rather than just hoping and praying that someday in the future a new administration comes in and solves all your problems for you Just you're going to be waiting a long time. Yeah Just to share more insight on that for in ten Americans say the federal government has the most responsibility for the current affordability challenges More than double the percentage you say there's no single group responsible 15% or Attribute the challenges to global events 13% more than half of Americans who identify as Democrats blame the federal government 55% While only 23% of Republicans point a finger at the current administration Yeah, I mean that tracks it makes sense if the thing is like Economic cycles happen all the time regardless of who's in the White House is my point that yeah

7:14If if you're only focused on that there's no solution to the problem The solution of the problem just gets punted another four years another eight years and other 12 What do we do Travis? I mean like if we want to make more money and like it doesn't feel like the government's got our back man Like what do we do like if I'm listening to this and I'm going Travis? What's the path forward the government's not going to bail me out? What do I do what should we do? It's almost like you got to make more money. How do we do it? How do you make more money? Yeah, well first off look to see if you can pick up a side hustle Second off see if you can get a promotion at work or take on more responsibilities at work that deserve a promotion at work See if there's additional skills that you can acquire that will make you more valuable to the organization that you're in So that you can ask for a raise and actually justify the reasoning behind the raise or learn the skills that are required to Do the new side hustle thing at a scale that's larger than what your salary is currently capped at We we've talked about some of the downsides of AI recently on the show

8:16But one of the upsides is that the volume of work that can be done by a single person is so much greater than it used to be Even stuff like what we used to work on like producing podcasts for people You know, it's like when we first started It was difficult to build a podcast production agency Because of how technically difficult it is to scale that type of work because of all the the hands that it has to move through From editing to writing show notes to pulling clips to production to video stuff and in the last five years All that's gotten significantly easier to be able to accomplish even if it's on your own So it's like you might not you might not be like sitting here going like I don't I don't I don't care I don't want to have a five million dollar a year business It's like well you don't at this point you don't have to like you can build $200,000 a year business where you get to keep 160,000 of it and you can have control over your finances and it's like Does that is it going to require you to level up your skills or learn new things? Yes, it will

9:18But Imagine having that result like feel what it would feel like to wake up every day work for yourself and make more money than you ever made And then ask yourself the question is the tradeoff worth it? Is the additional time that I'd have to put in learning this new skill Worth the the outcome that could potentially give me and I think more often than not the answers Yes, it's just that again, it's easier. It feels better to just point the blame and go like well It's their fault so they have to come up with a solution not me. It's like okay You might be right You know, I'm saying like But even if you're right It doesn't help the fact that you have $27,000 in credit card debt It's not going to pay that off it doesn't help if you aren't making enough money to send your kids to the school that you want to that like the You're going to be waiting for a really really long period of time for somebody else to come in and save you Versus just taking taking children finances and I know that it sounds like I'm oversimplifying this because I probably am

10:18But also it's the path I've always opted for like I've never had a job and it's not just because It's not just because I I am I'm just an entrepreneur and screw getting jobs It's because every time I've tried to get a job I couldn't get one You know what I mean like I wasn't qualified enough I didn't have the degree that they wanted I hadn't worked in the field long enough You failed the drug test I failed the drug test every time That's not true. No, that's a joke But for whatever reason I was not good enough at selling myself in a job interview to be able to get offered a job So the option for me was basically I either take a job I don't want where they pay me nothing to do something that I don't want to do for someone I don't want to work for or I Figure out another path forward that works better for what I want to do with my life And that is the path that I had to take because Not a lot of people Are lining up to pay fat salaries to una credited Bible college graduates So I just had to figure out another path forward and learn new skills and do something different

11:20At first it was sales. That was the skill that I had That was helpful in bridging the gap But then podcasting and sales are two completely different fields So when I started podcasting eight nine years ago It was because I was just like hey, this would be cool I wonder if I could figure this thing out and then I spent several years and lots of time energy and money Trying to learn this new thing, which is now the thing that I get to do full-time so It is it like to me it's like the question of whose fault is it is just an irrelevant question Because the solution is going to be required by each individual person If they actually want their financial situation to change. Yeah Well, let me ask you this I know you mentioned side hustles, but this is one of the things that they found in this survey Was that with these tax refunds coming out which are supposed to be higher tax refunds than the year prior Paying down credit card debt increasing savings and covering living expenses are the top expected uses of tax refunds

12:22One in four Americans who expected tax refund this year plan to use the refund to pay down credit card debt It's 23% of people put it in savings. That's 23% of people 20% expect to use the refund to cover living expenses Less than 10% plan to use a refund to splurge on purchases Uh make a major purchase 4% pay down credit card debt 7% or invest it 3% If someone got a refund that was a nice chunk of change They don't have immediate something they have to take care of like oh, we've had this medical bill sitting there forever We have to do it They have a little bit extra money and I would say they're in that 23% that's like let's show this in savings or You know or even we have some way for a little extra purchase. We can upgrade the couch whatever If someone's seen there and they've got a little extra cushion there. Let's say an extra thousand bucks You know, what would you recommend that person do that might take you know put them in a better position than just say like Throw it in the savings account invest in your skills is is really the only like is

13:25It's it's the idea that you Having having the money does not Take care of the actual problem the actual problem is that you don't know how to go get more of that next month It's that you're waiting for next year's tax return to have a surplus of money again So in the meantime, it's taking that money and instead of buying a couch or letting it sit and rot in your savings account You invest it into a skill that can actually affect your ability to go make sure that next month you also have an extra thousand dollars and the month after that You have an extra fifteen hundred dollars and the month after that you have an extra eight hundred dollars And the month you know, I'm saying like that's why that's why I'm so bullish on the skills part of it because the skills Impact your ability to ensure that your that that you control whether or not there's a surplus Rather than like hopefully there's a new bill that comes out that increases my tax return next year so that we can have a little bit of money to You know or your favorite a hobby horse

14:26raising minimum wage The take that nobody ever gets mad about yeah, right exactly. I love posting them It's like putting it's like putting you naked in a field with a target on you and then giving people bows and arrows and ladies Yeah, it's just yeah, you you got to you got to just Understand that you get paid for the value that you bring to the workplace or to the marketplace workplace if you're an employee Marketplace if you're an entrepreneur and the only would increase the value that you can bring is to make you yourself a more valuable person Which is the entire purpose of all the shows I've ever done and podcasting Is that it's just continued self-improvement and if it If you are willfully Not making yourself a better version of yourself or or or ignoring the potential that you have on the table And then getting upset about your financial situation Then it probably tells me that most of it is going to end up being your fault at some point and even if it's not your fault

15:27It's still ultimately your responsibility. So is it a spending thing you could be you know, there's probably I mean that's Fairly inarguable seeing the volume of credit card debt and by now pay later debt that we've covered on previous episodes So spending is always an issue But if you assuming you have that one locked down and you know where your money is going and you have a budget But you still don't have excess money That's why we talk that's why this show is Travis makes money because we always want to talk about how do we increase The how do we affect the other lever like there's only two levers you can pull it spend less money or make more money like that Those are the two in spending less You can only go to zero. There's a cap on how less you can spend But there's not a cap on how much more you can make and what like we said something about this recently Somebody commented on TikTok like oh, I never thought about that You know, I'll just go make more money and it's like I understand the sarcasm and I understand that it sounds that I'm making it sound simple But that has literally been my mo and your mo like it just

16:31Okay, you can mock that all you want but like it's also the truth like you you have the ability to Impact the amount of money that you're making by investing in new skills meeting new people going to new places And not allowing yourself to sit in this This comfort zone that previous generations were able to sit in because that's that's what I think is pissing people off now Is that they look at their parents or their parents parents and they go yeah, but my dad went and got a bachelor's degree and in business communications and then worked for Whatever Ford Motor Company for 35 years and didn't have to pick up a side hustle and he could buy his first house for $42,000 and and could create wealth for himself with a with a matching 401k or a pension or whatever else and didn't have to think about retirement So so it's like Because the previous generation didn't have to deal with those things they look at it is like well

17:31That's just unfair that we have to deal with those things and again We can have a conversation about what's fair and what's unfair and what should be happening or what should not be happening But while you're to while you're focused on trying to Move the blame to certain parties or while you're focused on trying to get people to feel bad for the situation that you were handed Your financial situations only going to get worse So the only Solution the only path forward is to try to figure something else out And then that's when you can shift to focusing more on the positive things about the hands that we've been dealt as Younger people in society today It's that there's also never been more opportunity to be able to create your own income outside of a job before like Like each generation just wants to play the blame game and then look at the the hand that they were dealt to go I wish I would have had this you know because at the same time that we're being like I wish we had our parents housing prices I wish we could just get a stable job and work there for our entire lives and I have to think about it anymore

18:31At the same time we're saying that our parents are looking at us going like man I wish we had the internet when I was a kid I wish I wish I had the opportunity to make social media content I wish I had the opportunity to like look up anything in my fingertips and get the answer to it and even Realize that there were other ways of making one I don't even know that these things existed because it was never even in the zeitgeist for me You know growing up in this rural town and just getting this Job at the plant like I didn't even know that there were that people could make money doing these things I wish that I had what you guys have and then we're like we wish we had what you had and it's like well none of that's possible so The only path forward is to take responsibility and Assume that the government's never going to fix your problems and that you are going to be the one is ultimately responsible for creating the life that you want to live and It's sort of that idea of the truth will Set you free, but first it'll piss you off No, which Michael smokes out on our on our interview and that's this the truth. It's like you you Of You can get pissed off about if you want you can throw a bit about it if you want you get frustrated with with it

19:35All you want and it's like maybe maybe that's healthy to do a little bit of that at first when you first start accepting that This is the reality that you've been handed But once you have accepted that You'll figure out pretty quickly that well The just it is what it is the situation just is and Regardless of whose fault it is it is so the only path forward at that point that's actually going to have an impact on your life Is you assuming responsibility and you getting out and figuring out how do I take advantage of all the opportunity That's at my fingertips. How do I eliminate the distraction that is also never been easier to engage in and get focused on something That's actually able to impact my my my financial situation. So I don't want to take responsibility Yeah, it feels bad Nobody likes taking responsibility, but I'm just care. I'm gonna start taking responsibility right now So go ahead and end the episode. No, you're not Anyway, that's it for this episode of the show remember money only solves your money problems But it's easier to solve the rest problems of money in the bank So let's start there here in the Travis makes money podcast. Hey student in catch next time. Peace