EP69: Interview with David Delisle

In this episode, I interview David Delisle, founder of The Awesome Stuff,  is an Amazon bestselling author, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and speaker. His first book, The Golden Quest, is a graphic novel that teaches kids (and adults) how to live a richer life and create the freedom for what is most important to them.

I cover the following topics in this episode:
- Why is The Golden Quest referred to as Rich Dad Poor Dad Meets Calvin and Hobbes?
- Why does The Golden Quest resonate with 5yrs olds to 95 yrs olds?
- What are the 4 Golden Rules?
- How do you filter out the noise?
- What is the Awesome Stuff?
- When is enough, enough?
- How did you get interested in finance and money?
- Why is it important to start investing early?
- What do you say to folks that are afraid to start investing?
- Why isn't financial literacy taught in schools?
- What does financial freedom mean to you?

Link to David Delisle's sites:
https://daviddelisle.com
https://www.theawesomestuff.com

sDisclaimer: The views and opinions shared on this channel are for informational and educational purposes only. Simply Investing Incorporated nor the author and guests shall be liable for any loss of profit or any commercial damages, including but not limited to incidental, special, consequential, or other damages. Investors should confirm any data before making stock buy/sell decisions. Our staff and editor may hold at any given time securities mentioned in this video/course/report/presentation/platform. The final decision to buy or sell any stock is yours; please do your own due diligence. Stock buy or sell decisions are based on many factors including your own risk tolerance. When in doubt please consult a professional advisor. No advice on the buying and selling of specific securities is provided. All trademarks, trade names, or logos mentioned or used are the property of their respective owners. For our full legal disclaimer, please visit our website.
Lastly, we cast a spotlight on the marvels of starting your investment journey early, with the magic of compounding returns taking center stage. We reminisce about youthful days flipping through mutual fund books and how they shaped the financial sagacity of today. Through real-life exemplars like Warren Buffett and the merits of dividend investing, we underline the importance of an early start in investing and the potency of long-term strategies over short-term gains. As we close, David's fervor for financial education and his dedication to charity remind us that ultimately, the wealth we accumulate is as valuable as the good it can do in the world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

In this podcast we talk a lot about dividend investing and how to make more money in dividends essentially, how to make more money. Today's special guest is going to talk to us about our relationship with money. When do we have enough and how do we talk about money and investing with our kids? Hi, my name is Kanwal Sarai and welcome to the Simply Investing Dividend Podcast. Our guest today is an Amazon bestselling author, speaker, investor and entrepreneur. He wrote an incredible children's book, a graphic novel called the Golden Quest, which has been referred to as the rich dad, poor dad meets Calvin and Hobbes. David DeLyle. Welcome to our podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:48

I'm so happy to be here. This is going to be a fun, fun conversation.

Speaker 1: 0:52

I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so much for being on our podcast today. Let's get started with the first question. Why are people referring to your book, the Golden Quest? Why do they refer to it as rich dad, poor dad meets Calvin and Hobbes?

Speaker 2: 1:09

What's funny, I've got two young boys like we just mentioned and I'm trying to figure out how do I teach these guys financial literacy, because if they're like most kids and adults, they didn't want to let. Nobody wants to talk about this stuff. I realized kids are reading graphic novels. That's what they want to read, that's what they're consuming. By taking all these fundamental principles and ideas and putting them in a graphic novel as an adventure, it just became something that kids just easily just read, get excited about and learn from. It's sort of like that idea of that financial literacy, but in a format kids want to learn from.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Yeah, absolutely, and not just kids. I was fascinated by it. I kept going, it was entertaining and it was nice to read, as opposed to just a large volume with just text in it, right. So the pictures are great, the artwork is fantastic. I think you mentioned on your website this book isn't just for kids. It's from five-year-olds to 95-year-olds. Why do you think it would resonate with such a large age group here?

Speaker 2: 2:18

So actually I wrote it for the kids because adults are so much harder to teach and so the idea is that the kids can learn it and then teach their parents. So that really is what I was hoping for. It's really written for adults and I find, if you think about a lot of these core principles, if you can simplify it, there's truth in that, and if it's very difficult to explain and you start going around in circles, usually you're not at the core idea and the core concept. So with most of these things, by getting to its essence, that's actually the lesson, and so that essence applies to kids as well as adults. It shouldn't be difficult. If you can't teach a kid, then the concept itself. You probably haven't simplified it yet.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Yeah, I absolutely believe in that 100% I talk about. I've been teaching dividend investing for over 24 years and I tell people it's so easy that a nine-year-old could do it, and I had my kids, when they were nine, go through the dividend investing course and they've been investing in dividend stocks ever since then. Right, and they're much older now. So in your book there are the golden rules, and again I resonated with that because we have the 12 rules of simply investing that we use to pick our investments. Can you tell our share with our audience Some of the golden rules, or if not all of them I'll leave that entirely up to you what they are and what are you hoping the audience, the reader, will take away from the book?

Speaker 2: 3:56

Yeah, so it's. I mean there's only four rules so I can touch on them really quickly without going into depth. And the reason I only came up with four is because I've been investing most of my life Like I read investment books when I was 10. And I've always been a bit of a money nerd. But looking back in hindsight I've realized a lot of it is really habits and mindset, it's not the details. So I'm sure even people in your show like you can get really into the weeds of the mechanics and how to invest in a specific stock, but at the end of the day you know time, habits, how you feel about money. Those have a greater impact over time.

Speaker 2: 4:32

So the rules the first rule is only by the awesome stuff, and this concept is all rooted in money, mindfulness and understanding. Really, what's important to you and I find that's the first rule, because without understanding why you even want money, you just endlessly chasing. And that's what I'm hoping to break is this concept of endlessly chasing. And then the next two rules they get into the basic habits. So the first one is always save first. Same idea of like pay yourself first or set up a habit or automate your savings, and that's mostly just because most of us are terrible at budgeting. There's the whole thing of lifestyle inflation. This ensures that the saving portion is a habit.

Speaker 2: 5:16

And then I talk about letting your money go to work for you, and that's just teaching kids about investing itself and understanding compound growth, because I think I'm sure even people in your audience once we hear some of these compound growth just stories. It still blows my mind away when I hear how fast things grow and how big over time and we briefly touched on that just right now, before the call right now, and that's the thing is we that compound growth is massive, and so I try to just illustrate in a way that people get behind it, because I think when you fully understand that, that's when money and investing becomes exciting, and then the fourth rule is given you'll have more. And I really want to again get back to this mindset piece of scarcity that usually happens and show that the more you give, rather than feeling scarcity, you actually start feeling more and more abundance and it does come back. And so I want to teach that to young kids as well, and it's really cool because these, especially these mindset pieces, that might be a bit of a stretch for adults to get behind or believe.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Little kids, five year olds, seven year olds, they embrace it almost immediately. So it's been really fun. And then all those rules wrap up towards just really creating the freedom to do what you love and get back to that idea of the awesome stuff. And what is it that you truly love?

Speaker 1: 6:41

Yeah, that is incredible, and especially if you can start, the younger you are, the better off you'll be to understand these concepts, because I was never taught any of this stuff when I was young, wasn't covered in school either, and I had to stumble through it in life to through trial and error, and I think if the kids can learn this sooner than later, they're going to be so much better off when it comes to investing, when it comes to money as well and you talked about getting to the essence of you know what is the golden rule, and there's a lot of noise out there, and as adults too, we see so much noise out there. How do you I don't know if you have any suggestions for the grownups out there how to filter out or get rid of the noise and get to the essence of what it is when it comes to investing and finances.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Well, again, if it's confusing, it's probably noise, and that's what I found is. The idea around compound growth is a great example Because that's the one where we could have the most information questions. People can really dive into it. But, at the end of the day, understanding compound growth and that concept, which you can just tell in stories and teach to a five-year-old, and just see how things grow and how big and powerful that is, that's the lesson.

Speaker 2: 8:09

How to invest, I mean that's a little bit simpler. I mean, if you want to invest and you want to stockpick and do your own things, there's a lot of information out there and you can do that. But the reality is is most people that invest they don't actually even understand these mechanics and they don't need to. If they've got a financial advisor and they're investing their money and they're in the habit of you know, this percentage of everything that comes in is invested. That's going to actually set them up for financial success and all these other things. I mean I love interest rates and macroeconomic economics and watching trends and all these things because I'm a money nerd, but you don't actually need that stuff and that's what scares people away from investing. They feel like they need to know all of these things, and they simply don't, and so that's what I try to teach people is that habit of investing is more important than the how.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Yeah, I like what you said there. If it's complicated or if it's confusing, it's probably just noise and you need to get, so that's incredible. Now you touched on something a little earlier when we were going through the golden rules and you said focus on the awesome stuff. So what is the awesome stuff? Who are you talking about?

Speaker 2: 9:23

Yeah, so this is, I mean, this is the essence of, you know, the movement I'm trying to create and the big mindset shift. Because what I found is and this happens at all ages all we've been taught typically is more. So it doesn't matter what we achieve, we're always looking to the next thing, and I see this all the time where people are like, if I only had, you know, $100,000. And then they have that and they're like, well, if I only had a million dollars, I only had a house. And then it's well, if I only had a house that had two cars, you know there's no end.

Speaker 2: 9:59

And if there's no end, then we're constantly. Not only are we constantly chasing, we're constantly in this mindset of lack and not having what we really want, so we're pursuing happiness that we can never achieve. So this idea of the awesome stuff is trying to break that endless chase and get right down to the fundamentals of what really makes you happy. And this again is the noise, because we're being told what we should like, what would make us happy, especially for Gen Z with social media. It's all in their faces. But if we really get down to, like you asked, what is the awesome stuff? And this is again where it gets just pure and simple. What is that thing where you can feel in your body, you get excited. So people tell me you know what I really want to. You know, buy this new watch, I want to get this new you know purse, or this car or this house, and I don't really care if that's what they want, but I could tell by the way they just told me that's what they want.

Speaker 2: 10:59

It's not their awesome stuff, because that same person, when they start talking about a recent trip they did with their family, or one of their favorite memories or you know the favorite item in their house, they start lighting up and we know those people where they're like they want to show you a collection or they want to show you something. They just you can feel it. They lean in their energy changes and they're so passionate. The passion, passion, right, yeah, and so the awesome stuff is just starting to become more aware of what actually gives you that passion. So then, when you're looking at things, rather than thinking of what you want or what you think you want, or chasing something, you compare it to that passion, that feeling, and then you can ask yourself is this something that's going to make me feel the same way? And if the answer is no, then that's probably not your awesome stuff and it's probably something that's not going to get you further towards happiness and what really makes you happy.

Speaker 1: 11:51

So that's really interesting. It sounds like it's going to be different from one person to the next. Right Something that I might think is awesome or unpassionate about, you may not be, so it sounds like it's going to be unique to the individual of what's going to make them happy.

Speaker 2: 12:05

And that's I mean just the fact that you notice that and that seems novel. That's part of the problem, like we're all so different and we all think we want the same things. We all want the yacht, we all want the mansion, we all want three houses, we all want to travel, we all wish we had a million, 10 million, 100 million would be even better. That's not true. We're all individuals and different and if we can understand what truly makes us happy as an individual, we'll get rid of all these negative feelings that we have towards money, like the shame and the envy and the jealousy and the comparison. I mean all of that really is the media and external factors and has nothing to do with what actually makes us happy.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Yeah, and social media doesn't make this easy, because now you see everybody else flying around in private jets and with the expensive cars in the big homes and you get that sense of like, well, I don't have enough, you know, to have all that stuff too. So I really like that focus that you're talking about is the focus and key in on what is the awesome stuff for you. And we talked about cutting out the noise when it comes to investing education.

Speaker 2: 13:17

Maybe we need to do the same thing when it comes to what do I really want in my life and just sort of cut out the noise that's out there For sure, Like, even if we took a simple scenario, like if you think about your closet full of clothes, like most of us have our favorite sweater or shirt or things that we wear all the time, and if we think more is better. So a big walking closet with, you know, 300 pairs of shoes or a thousand shirts, and just and we just take it to the extreme we can't even find our favorite shirt and all the rest of the stuff in there we don't like as much anyway, and it's just a noise. And that's a good example of what's happening. When we chase more, we forget about the things that we really love.

Speaker 2: 13:59

I mean, if you have, you know, your two or three favorite shirts, that's probably going to be bringing more joy than a hundred shirts that aren't your favorite, and you can't even find your favorite. And now and this takes us down that path of well, now you need a bigger house to store more clothes and now you need to have all the clothes, and then you can't find what you want. Now you're trying to figure out what to decide what you're going to wear in the morning, and it just we take this more to the extreme with just something like clothing and we can see how ridiculous it becomes. And yet we're thinking well, if we had 10 watches and 20 purses and 50 shoes, it's got to be better and it just it isn't better. It's all distracting for the things you really love.

Speaker 1: 14:44

And this is so important because, knowing the reason why You're investing, why are you trying to make so much money? Because I'll get a lot of emails all the time. Right, people want to know Okay, what's the quickest way? I can double my money in six months in the stock market. How do I triple my money next week in the stock market? And you know, and I'll get emails about what do you think about this stock or this stock versus this one? Which one's gonna grow faster? And I think you're right, because we get caught up in just wanting more, more, more dividends, more income, more capital gains, but for what? So that is so key is to understand the what for yourself, and I think it's you kind of have to reverse engineer it. So, what are the things that are important to me? Okay, how much do they cost? Okay, how much do I need? Well then, how much should I invest? And I think you can live a more Serene or peaceful life that way, as opposed to being on this never-ending treadmill, mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 15:44

Well, you'll start to notice things too, because it just makes you notice the inconsistencies. So an example would be if what I want is more time with my kids and To achieve that I'm working harder, I'm spending more time at work, I'm buying more expensive things and creating a lifestyle that has to be Maintained by working harder and harder and harder, and it's creating more, that's actually not creating more time with my family. If that's what my awesome stuff is and we see that all the time where people will say, well, all I want is X, and then you look at their actual actions and what they're pursuing and what they're buying and where they're spending their money and they're not. It's not in line with what they want. And this is really important because you can start seeing, for a lot of people, a Lot of the things that might be your awesome stuff, like if it's hanging out with your friends. That doesn't actually doesn't necessarily require money. It can, and you know what your friends could be.

Speaker 2: 16:48

We charter a private jet and we fly somewhere, but it could also be we just, you know, get a bunch of friends over. They all, you know, come to my house and we cook a dinner together or, you know, play a board game, and it doesn't have to cost anything. So understanding what you really want is interesting, because then you can start seeing, well, how much noise is in there. Take and go back to the private jet. If it is the private, if it's the friends, not the private jet, well, now you have to get to the place and now you're traveling, you're doing all these other things. You're not even spending time, they're so busy trying to get to do whatever you're doing and you're missing the core. So it's just understanding that core and It'll. It'll shift the way you look at things. And it doesn't mean that private jets bad, because I'm not saying that, it's just what. What is the reason you want that? And, for some, once you really sit on what that reason is, you might realize that's actually not what you want.

Speaker 1: 17:44

Yeah, and it sounds like, David, you've done. You practice what you preach, because before we hit the record button, we were chatting and you said you're semi retired and right, and you have been for a number of years and you're one of your key Focuses was spending time with your kids and being able to do that. So then, why write this? We talked about why. I understand why you wrote the book, but that's a lot of work, right? Why not just sit back on the beach somewhere and just relax? So what was your motivation? What gets you passionate about this topic, what we're talking about today? What gets you Talking about this?

Speaker 2: 18:23

Yeah, well, thanks so much for that question, because that's a great question. And you're right, I mean, this book wasn't motivated by money. There's a way better ways to earn a living than writing a book and, and, if anything, pushing this, the book, and writing the book and doing everything around it has been something that's cost money, not earn money. But for me, I just notice how important it is to just get some of these ideas out there that people aren't thinking about, because right now it's just getting More and more of an influence from that social media towards consumerism. And so I Love, like when I hear for me, the awesome stuff is hearing a young kid reach out and say, oh, I always wanted, you know, I was bugging my parents for a brand new TV, I really want a new TV, and then realize the only reason I wanted a TV is because all my friends have one and I actually don't even want a TV and I mean I love that. This isn't about doing without or saving, like we've typically you know, traditionally taught this is no, it's, it's not something I want. So then it removes all that jealousy in comparison and everything else and you could be happy for people who have the TV Without the jealousy because it's just not your thing. But you recognize, for some people that is their thing and so, yeah, this is definitely just something I'm I'm passionate about.

Speaker 2: 19:42

And then quickly back to the semi retired. So that's a good point, where it really I like I reached a point where I was spending more and more on the homes we were living in and we're spending more and more on travel and there was no end. So really, I Think with most people, it's what we choose. It's important whether or not we need to keep earning more and growing. I mean, if I, if I, aspired to having more, I would have to work more, and Instead I love the freedom of being a, travel when I want, spend time with my kids, pursue a passion like this and that's my awesome stuff.

Speaker 1: 20:25

That's great. That is fantastic. I mean, I think what you're teaching, what you're hoping to get through to kids, adults, everyone alike, is it's a way to change the world, make the world a better place, like if everyone kind of understood this. About what is your awesome stuff? Where are you starting from? I think that would make I maybe I'm an idealist I think it would make the world a better place.

Speaker 2: 20:52

I'd love that. So, like, just simply, what I'd love to see is, if I think of a typical scenario, say, like I talk about this a lot because it's just so simple a child wanting an ice cream and you've probably had that as well You're at a fair, your kids are wanting an ice cream and having it. You know a camp, gym or baking and as parents, if we don't want to get them an ice cream, we might say something like it's too expensive, we can't afford it which isn't true. It really is. We choose not to get it for whatever reason. So I'd love to see, instead of like talking about making the world a better place, instead of telling the kid we can't afford it or it's too expensive, If we just said is that your awesome stuff? And that same child just pausing, taking a moment and just thinking to themselves is this my awesome stuff, Is this what I want? And if that happened and that's how we taught our kids about money and financial literacy yeah, it would. The idealist in me as well gets pretty excited.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Yeah, that is incredible. That's awesome. Let's talk a little bit about your background, David. How did you get interested in talking about money, finances, investing? How did that all come about? Do you have a background in accounting or economics or finance? How did you start it's?

Speaker 2: 22:09

funny. I mean a lot of it's just sort of self-interest Like I was when I was 10, I was reading finance books and back then we didn't have access to ETFs and information like we do now. I remember buying every year. They put out an annual book on mutual funds and advisors and you could read about who the team was, how it had performed, how it had changed, what percentile they're in, and it would come out annually all these top fund books and I would read them and this is something that I'd read when I was grade six, grade seven. I just love that stuff.

Speaker 2: 22:48

And then later as an adult, sort of as a side thing, just because I had so many friends in the field that kept encouraging me, I did go in and pursue financial advice and career as well, but really more as a hobby and a passion. And I started investing in real estate when I was in my 20s and I've just loved all this stuff. But again, when I wanted to talk about the same stuff to my kids, I realized how I was. Like I love this stuff, but really if I'd simply just invested, like you talk about dividend investing if you picked a good blue chip dividend stock and you just invested in it in your 20s and then in your 40s, you're still doing the same thing. That would have so much more of an impact than looking for the best, hottest fund, trying to, like you said, try to double your money in six months. What's the hot stock in and out? In and out? No. Imagine if you'd invested in Microsoft for the last 20 years and that's it.

Speaker 1: 23:57

Yeah, absolutely. I just want to add to what you're saying. Right, like chasing the latest IPO, the latest Bitcoin or whatever the hottest topic of the day, you might get lucky, but the chances of that happening are extremely low and for the majority of folks, you end up losing a lot of money. So the key is to stay consistent. Now you talked about starting early. What if somebody bought Microsoft years ago, decades ago, and just sat on it? Why is it so important for folks to start investing early? Why not wait till you're in your 40s and 50s? And when you do have a lot of money? Why?

Speaker 2: 24:40

should you start earlier? So it's that compounding effect. And so I like to think because, especially if we're on a show like this with the audience, they're all investors, and so you think of one of our better all-time investors like a Warren Buffett, and if you think of your money doubling every seven to 10 years, which, at a 10%, 8%, 10% return, that's what you're going to see. So someone like a Warren Buffett, who we consider one of the best investors of our time, all those decisions he's made his entire life, he's going to double his net worth over the next seven years.

Speaker 1: 25:20

Wow. I never thought of it that way. That's incredible. That's incredible.

Speaker 2: 25:24

So all the decisions he's made over the next seven years will be worth twice as much if he just left it in the stock market and didn't touch it. So the vast thing is it grows exponentially. So if you think of $10 or $100 or $1,000 doubling over seven or 10 years, it doesn't feel that big. But someone like Warren Buffett he's just been investing for so long. That's how his fortune's growing. I mean, his actual returns aren't that high, but his net worth is incredible and if you imagine as rich as he is, all things equal, moving forward, that net worth will probably double again in the next seven to 10 years.

Speaker 1: 26:11

That is a fantastic example, a great example for folks who are just starting out to invest, and even for folks who are in their 30s or 40s, who might be just waiting at the sidelines because they're still waiting for the next great market opportunity, right? And they're like well, I'm not going to invest just yet. I don't know what's going to happen with the stock market. Inflation's too high, interest rates are too high, so I'm just going to wait. What would you say to those folks who are scared or fearful of investing today and they just want to wait?

Speaker 2: 26:45

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is, there's so much fear in it. And if you're chasing like, if you're just to make one purchase today and that's it for the rest of your life, I don't know if it's the timing's right or the stock's right, but if you're going for the averages instead, so you're investing over time, so now you don't have to worry about timing the market. And if, instead of picking one individual stock, you spread it out, so now you're not wearing on one company those averages. That's the thing is. Don't try to beat the stock market. That's a really difficult thing to do. If you're just trying to gain the average, that's something that most of us can achieve.

Speaker 2: 27:25

And then back to why wait? Traditionally, we're getting like 8, 10% returns If we're looking at a 10% return. So this is not you outperforming, this is just you sort of going for the average of that market. And I start today. And I started investing 10,000 every month or 100,000 a year, whatever month, it doesn't matter, it's all relative. And I did that for the next seven years. And then I stopped and never invested another cent. And then you started in seven years investing the same amount. How many years would it take for you to catch up to me when I've stopped.

Speaker 1: 28:03

That's a great question. I'm just going to take a wild guess because I have no idea. I don't know 14, 18 years? Just to catch up to where you are, I don't know, yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:18

If you're earning 10%, within those seven years, your money's already earning more than you're contributing. Wow, you would never catch up.

Speaker 1: 28:26

Never.

Speaker 1: 28:27

That is incredible, wow, okay. So for anyone listening on the sidelines because that's an important thing to know is don't, don't wait. And I'm gonna reiterate what you just said, david there's no perfect time to know when to invest, right, I don't know what's gonna happen in the stock market next week, next month or next year, but if we look at the averages and, like you said, we're not even as dividend investors, we don't try, we're not trying to beat the market, just get the averages, and our focus is, of course, the dividend income, and that's what we want to do is, if we can increase our dividend income as safely as possible without taking too much risk, then I guess the message is to get started. Doesn't matter what age you're at, like, just start, get started.

Speaker 2: 29:15

Well, if you think about that, I think it would be safe to say if the market continues the way it has over seven to ten years and you start investing, that Contribution will be repeating itself through your investment. So, all of a sudden, that that whole machine is starting. Whether you stop or not, that's happening and it's going to start growing. And if you think that's, and if that happened in seven to ten years, that means in the next seven to ten years that's gonna double again. Hmm, and then over the next seven to ten years, then that's gonna double again. So now, now you're not at twice, now You're up four times and eight times and sixteen times. It grows fast, but in the first, you know, one to three years, even the first seven years, I might not feel like much. Yeah, so that time, that time's important. Go back to the Warren Buffett story. If he started seven years later, his net worth would be half of what it is now.

Speaker 1: 30:18

Yeah, that is powerful, but it that way. That's, the numbers are staggering and that is extremely powerful message. Yeah, I'm gonna switch gears a little bit here. Why and I don't know if you have the answer. I'm gonna ask you anyway, because I don't have the answer why do they? Why isn't this taught in schools and I'm talking about elementary and high schools why is this basic understanding of money, our relationship with money, financial literacy and investing why don't they cover this stuff in in schools?

Speaker 2: 30:54

Yeah. So when I first started this journey, I was thinking exactly the same thing and thought, like we just need to teach financial literacy. But what I've realized in talking about it more is that Money is such a tricky subject because we have so much emotion tied up into it, so our own personal views start clouding how we teach money, so it becomes something that would be very difficult to just roll out, because not everyone has the same relationship with money. And that's why when I'm talking about it even when I talked about like the awesome stuff with no judgment around it so often people are like well, that's a stupid thing to buy, or you don't save enough, so you must be bad, or you wasted money on this, like we, we start Just adding too much emotion and feeling and shame and secrecy around money. And so the more we just talk about it and just talk about in a way where it's easy to talk like there there is no, this is what you have to do, or if you don't do this, you're bad. It would make a big difference. And back to you know something like the compound growth. I get a lot of pushback on compound growth because there are people that believe investments themselves are bad, because if you invest, you're just gonna lose your money and it's it's dangerous and it's reckless. And, again, if we take that emotion out and just think of, like, what you're actually doing, and if you're not chasing the next big thing, you're looking at like the entire US or North American economy as a whole, that's a whole different way to think about investing. Then some people where they're like, well, no, I know someone who bought this stock and it went to zero and they lost everything and I'll never invest again. And so, yeah, we really need to just have conversations with the teachers as well, where we take away some of the the myths around this and and make it something that's accessible, where people aren't scared and and it doesn't feel like it's risky.

Speaker 2: 32:57

And same with the timelines. Like you said, I don't. If you invest today, I don't know if you'll have more money in a year, over a 10 or 20 year period, though it gets a little bit easier for me to predict and the chance is. So that's what we got to start talking about as well. Like most times, anytime someone talks about like invest in, you know, bitcoin or the new thing, we rarely pair it with a timeline. Hmm, and that's really important. And so people are thinking, well, okay, like I want to invest in this, it's a good investment. I don't know if it's a good investment until I know the time frame that we're talking.

Speaker 1: 33:32

Yeah, no, that is so, so important and that is a great way to. I've asked a lot of people that question why don't they teach us in schools? And you've had a great day. That's a great answer. I think that is a great answer and that might be the the reason why because there's so much emotion involved in there and, believe it or not, I'm gonna just throw that in there are 12 rules of simply investing. The last rule, number 12, is keep your emotions out of investing. That's, that's number 12. That's the last rule and that is so key, like emotions are.

Speaker 1: 34:04

It's it's hard to get away from, because this is your hard-earned cash, right. Whether you're putting it into an RSP or a TFSA or 401k or you've got an employer matching program, it's still your money. You've worked hard for it. And that's where a lot of the fear comes out of, and it's like you said. People will say like well, I know a cousin who bought a stock and it went down to zero and they lost ten thousand dollars and that just creates so much fear around it paralyzes people, and then they don't want to invest at all?

Speaker 2: 34:37

Yeah, and I think keeping your money in this check savings account is not gonna help either, because inflation is gonna get away at it well, and if we could at least like what I'm trying to do is if we could at least show these Illustrations so that people can see what we're talking about and what this would actually look like and start realizing that all this, like this network that we see around, or there's people with all this, this money, like you, can't Save your way to that amount of wealth, you just can't like savings don't grow.

Speaker 2: 35:08

And so, like I mentioned that whole idea of like if I started saving for seven years and stopped, if it's invested well, that savings continues growing at the same pace whether I stop or not. But if it was just purely saving, it wouldn't, it would stop and that would be it and I would have seven years worth of savings and it would never grow. And I don't think people who don't understand investing fully recognize what they're missing out on the. The loss that they're thinking of is to just that savings amount. But that opportunity cost is so much bigger Especially for talking to young kids and they've got, you know, a 40 year time horizon it's, it's massive. And I think that's the thing is, we just don't understand what that opportunity cost is and it's Massive, yeah and we're?

Speaker 2: 36:03

you take a war on Buffett. If we just think of what he's earned in his life, hmm, there's no way he would have the like he. Just he could not be a billionaire, he couldn't be worth a hundred million, hmm. And so that opportunity cost is bigger than people Really take into account, and that's why all they're thinking about is the loss of their savings. But that opportunity cost needs to be taken into consideration.

Speaker 1: 36:26

Yeah, absolutely, and I'm gonna throw in their inflation. Because I had a young individual a couple years ago and he said well, I'm not putting in the stock market because it's like gambling, and I've got 20,000 saved up, I'll just keep it in the savings account. But think about that in 10 years. Sure, the 20,000 is still gonna be there, but it's not gonna be worth 20,000 dollars. You factor in 10 years worth of inflation and Now you've actually lost money. Right, it might be worth I don't know 17, 16,000 maybe I don't know. But yeah, you're right, it's, it's. You're missing out on the compound growth and inflation is gonna eat away at it as well. So what does David? What does financial freedom mean to you?

Speaker 2: 37:14

So for me and this is and I talk about it a bit in the book so that first lesson of awesome stuff like what lights you up, what gets you really excited, once you really start sticking with that idea and what really brings you joy, you'll start realizing a lot of it. A lot of times it's experiences and it's freedom to do the things you love, freedom to spend the time with the people you love, choose a job you love, and so financial freedom to me is just choice and that's all it is is being able to choose what you want to do without money being a massive factor in that decision. Ideally it wouldn't be a factor at all, and as soon as money stops being a factor in your decisions of how you live your life, to me that's true financial freedom.

Speaker 1: 37:59

Yeah, that's a great answer. That's great. Now, one of the golden rules you mentioned earlier in this episode here was you have to give to get more, and I noticed in the book and even on your website it says you're giving away 20% of the proceeds to charity. So why would you do that and which charity is it?

Speaker 2: 38:26

So the charity is give directly, and they do like micro loans for people in developing countries, and it's one of those things where this is actually one of the harder lessons for me to get behind, because, being a money nerd, I've always viewed money a little bit differently but also really understood the value of it.

Speaker 2: 38:47

So giving it away feels very counterintuitive. But what I've found and there's research behind it, there's so many ways that giving makes you richer. I mean, the simplest is just how you feel and creating that energy, and we all know people that we want to help, help because they're so kind and giving. They just give off this energy. We see them help in the community, we know they've helped others and we want to help them. So there's just that energy itself and you can feel that, let alone how you feel personally as you give. And the reality is is a lot of these things. Money does have a bit of an energy to it, and so there is a bit of that flow, and so I've noticed that the more I give, the more that comes back. It's really as simple as that.

Speaker 1: 39:42

Yeah, no, that is great, and it's something for our audience to think about as well, because we have a number of people in the audience who are dividend investors, who have been investing for a long time. And then what do you do with all of that dividend income? Right, of course, you're going to use it to cover your living expenses you might be semi-retired, you might be retired, you might still be working but then to consider helping others and I think that's what you're doing, david. You're setting the example. You talk about it in the book as one of the golden rules, and then you're actually doing it yourself, which is fantastic. To be able to help others. That is incredible, david. Where can people find out more information about you if they want to get in touch with you? How do they buy the book? Give us some of that information.

Speaker 2: 40:31

Yeah, so information on the book and that community is all under the awesome stuff. So the awesome stuffcom. Instagram is the awesome stuff, tiktok is the awesome stuff and it's because that movement I'm trying to create in terms of speaking, public speaking. They can find me at daviddelilecom and I'll have information there if they'd like me to come and speak at their school or their community or the conference. And for me, just sharing this message it gets me so excited. So, definitely, if anyone wants to reach out, I'm happy to talk to them.

Speaker 1: 41:01

Okay, that is incredible. I'll put all of the links down below in the description for our podcast, David. I enjoyed reading the book. I encourage everyone to go out and get it, Whether you have kids or not. Like I said, this is for young and old. You will learn a lot from it. It is rich dad, poor dad meets Calvin and Pobs. I absolutely agree with that, so it's a great book. Thank you so much, David, for taking the time out today to talk to us and talk to our audience. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 41:31

Thanks so much. This is a lot of fun and, like I said, I love talking about this stuff, especially with people who are already into investing, because it just those habits and the mindset pieces are the. Those are the things we often overlook, and it's so important.

Speaker 1: 41:45

Yeah, that is awesome. Thanks for being here, david, thank you Bye. Yeah, a lot of fun.