Who are you taking advice from?

There are so many similarities with health and wealth when it comes to giving (but most importantly) taking advice...

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I've spent the last five years learning from those brilliant minds in money, wealth, and investing. And now I'm part of a group of driven women who are changing the game and taking control. Don't know where to start. I get it. So join me and follow along. As I learn, apply and share the secrets towards more money, more investing and more freedom. My name is Simone Masa, Huggins, and welcome to ms. Wealthy's kiss my money podcast.

So I just got home from Pilates and it was a hard class. It was one of those classes where I just felt like I couldn't do everything the teacher wanted me to do. I wasn't strong. You know, I was just having one of those off days and I've had this before. Maybe you have to. And it just, I was really frustrated and just kind of deflated really that it felt like I was back when I was beginner. And it was easy for me to, I guess, feel sorry for myself, but I had to stop and think and reflect back on how far I've come. So about two and a half years ago, I had a back injury, pretty major one, and it was really just trauma. A buildup of different things, uh, fell the wrong way. A bunch of times when I was snowboarding, I fell down a flight of stairs when I was younger and everything kind of compounded onto each other.

And then about two and a half years ago, I was at the dog park. I kicked a bowl for my dog and I just felt a pinch and the pain just started running down my back and something was wrong. And then it only really took a few days for it to really set in. And I had a disc Boge in my L five S one, which is the very, very low part of your spine. And I could barely walk. I was bedridden for days. It took me months to really even walk even just down the street. And it was an incredibly painful process of recovery. So why am I telling you this? Well, there are a lot of similarities between health and wealth. I think a lot of comparisons between the two, because they really are almost the same thing often. And when this happened, when I had this back injury, I was getting advice from so many people just of what to do, how to get better.

I was told by some people to go and do CrossFit. I was told by others to go and do [inaudible]. And it was possibly the worst advice that anyone could have given. I didn't follow it, but I just remember thinking, why are you telling me this? It was almost like someone that had broken their ankle and then giving advice to them by saying, Hey, go and start training for a marathon that just didn't make any sense. And when I finished the class today, I just was thinking, this happens too, when it comes to money. I see it a lot. I hear it a lot. I notice a lot of people even asking questions from others who don't have really the remit to give such advice. So things like, what should I do with my money? Should I save more? I don't know how to save for, uh, what should I invest in?

And the questions are being asked to people who either don't have any experience or are not in a position that you would want to be in. So the people giving advice might be in debt or have never invested before, or have three credit cards or, you know, uh, almost on the poverty line. And yet so many people take advice from others who are in a position, either worse than them, or just not any better, but really what perpetuates this is. I think the human need and desire to help and to give advice. And I know that the intention is pure. It is coming from a good place and that's often almost where things unravel. And if I had taken the advice from other people to go and do this insane training, when I just had a debilitating back injury and literally could barely walk, then it would have pushed me back years and I would have put myself in an extremely compromised position.

So I had to be really careful about who I listened to and even when it came to experts, because some claim to have experience and knowledge and expertise in the area that I needed. And they just didn't when I dug down and really looked at kind of that credentials, the past experience and the more research I did, you know, I guess I got a lot clearer about what I needed. I Seeked out experts in STEM cell. I was adamant that surgery was just not an option after everything I'd seen, heard, read from even the top leaders in their field about it really not ever working. And it was a long recovery. There are still some exercises I can't do. I can't really do yoga. I have to be really mindful about not training too hard. I can't go for long runs. And I really have to, I guess, have a tunnel vision focus when it comes to looking after my health, particularly around my lower back and develop my core strength.

And that's essentially what it kind of comes down to. But most importantly, I have to have a tunnel vision focus when it comes to who I listened to, particularly around my health in my lower back. And I guess it's the same when it comes to money and wealth. And so my question to you is who are you listening to? Who are you asking? Who are you taking advice from? And this is part of my issue, I guess when it comes through financial advisors, some of them, and I hate to say it, but a lot of them really do not have their money stuff together. They don't invest in what they recommend for their clients. They don't follow their own advice and they're financially in just not a great position. I know a few of them through my network and they're just not people who I would ever want to go to or ever listened to.

So my question is, even if you don't seek out a financial advisor, who are you listening to in your life? And I know that this happens a lot, particularly with girlfriends and women love to talk. We love to give advice and help and just talk things out. At least I certainly do. And I love to do it with my girlfriends and often it's easy and it makes sense to listen to, and to talk to the people that are closest to you. But my question is, do they actually have what you want? Are they on the path to what you want? And should you really be listening to them? I know a lot of people that have taken stock advice from the uncle or their brother-in-law, and for some reason, these people thought that that was a good idea. And for some reason, they took advice from people that really just didn't know what they were doing.

And it's, I think easy because we get into this emotional state of thinking that they care and obviously they do. It's just, they don't actually have the results that you're after. And so our intelligent mind gets clouded with our emotional feelings about how much they care. And that's a good thing. It's just from an intelligent perspective, it's not a good decision. So that was all, it's a short one today, but I really wanted to ask you the question of who you're listening to. And this is partly why it's so important to have a strong network of friends and people around you that lift you up, not just kind of emotionally or psychologically, but also in terms of surrounding yourself with people that push you towards what you want to achieve and whatever your definition of success is. Because when you have those people around you that are really on the path or years ahead of you, or have the wealth of knowledge of experience, then they're the people that will help you get you where you want to go.

If you're surrounding yourself with people who are in debt, have a million credit cards, go on shopping sprees, ignore their finances, have bad relationship with money, have negative views, have horrible self-talk then that's going to rub off on you. There's no doubt about it. And I don't want that for you. And I'm sure that you probably don't want that for you either. And it doesn't mean that you have to go and break up with your friends. It just means that you have an opportunity to find people who can challenge you, inspire you, push you to be better, do better, and really take action on the things that you want to get in your life. And maybe even inspire you to think bigger because when you see what they can do, when you see what they've achieved, then that will rub off on you too. Okay. That's it for me for today, but I love to know who you have taken advice from the funniest stories, the good stories, even the bad stories. You can leave me a message on the anchor app. Uh, otherwise I will see you.

Yep.