Ep 232: What Football Wins Can Teach Us About Money Wins

Hey, everybody.

David Chudick here.

And it is that time of year again.

It is football season starting.

So I live in the south and college football is a big deal in the south and across the rest of the country, pro football is just as big and is a huge deal.

So today we're going to make some analogies between football and your finances.

So this should be pretty fun.

We're going to talk about watching film, we're going to talk about your financial playbook.

We're going to talk about to talk about some boring things, maybe running the ball and special teams and those monotonous things.

And then we're going to talk about scoring touchdowns and running up the score.

And this will be from a financial standpoint.

So hope that you enjoy this episode.

And here we go.

Welcome to the weekly wealth podcast.

I am certified financial planner David Chudick.

This podcast and my wealth management practice are both designed to help the mass affluent to live better lives, better by.

How they handle their money.

We talk about financial strategies, prosperous mindsets, and simply how to build true wealth.

So come on and let's enjoy this journey together.

All right, this should be a fun episode talking about football and finances today.

But before we get started, please, let's do all the things.

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Alright, so we're talking football, right?

It just started in the south last week and pro football is getting started up and it is a big deal.

So I thought it'd be fun to make some comparisons to financial success and to football.

And football is not won on Saturdays or Sundays.

It's really won during the week and during the off season with all of the preparation.

So the first part of football that I wanted to make an analogy with, your finances are, is watching film.

All right?

Coaches and players, they both watch film and that allows them to review their own performance.

Everything from footwork to body positioning to identifying mistakes.

Teams spend hours and hours learning their opponent's tendencies.

And this is the boring part of football.

NFL quarterbacks often spend 20 to 30 hours per week on film studying outside of practice.

So we think about football as like throwing touchdowns and making these outstanding plays.

But let's not remember Peyton Manning was famous for watching film until 2am during game weeks, often knowing defenses better than the opposing coordinators.

So this is, is maybe not that fun.

This is maybe a little bit boring.

This is not exciting.

But this is what separates champions from last place.

So what does this have to do with your finances?

So I deal with a lot of people and they have like, gut feelings on their money.

They have, I think this is what I need to do, or I think, think this is what I have.

But if we equate to watching film with reviewing bank statements, reviewing investment performance, what about your debt balances and your actual cash flow?

So knowing your financial facts, we can compare to football players and football coaches and football programs watching film.

So do you know how much debt you have?

Do you know what your investments amount to?

Do you know what you're invested in?

Do you know why you are invested in what you're invested in?

Now, one thing that I can help you to do is I can help you to put together a financial balance sheet that'll help you to organize some of your financial facts.

So if you feel like having a financial balance sheet would benefit you, you can go to www.weeklywealthpodcast.com and that will get the process started.

There's no cost.

And we can help you just to organize your finances.

We can help you to know what.

Your net worth is.

Now, if your net worth is positive or negative doesn't really matter.

We just need to know so that we can get to where we need to be financially.

So football coaches, football programs, they know their statistics.

And maybe you and I, we should work hard to know our financial, financial statistics.

So here's another part of football or.

Sports in general that leads to success that we don't often see.

Because remember, right, we see what's on tv, we see the replays, we see the touchdowns, we see the home runs, we see the big plays.

But football has a playbook.

So NFL playbooks are huge, often several.

Hundred pages long, with plays for every.

Situation, offense, defense, and special teams.

And in college and even in pro football, learning the playbook is as important as physical training.

A talented player who can't master the.

Playbook won't see much playing time.

Coaches have specific plays for specific scenarios, right?

So third and short, third and long, red Zone, goal line.

They almost have predetermined ideas of what they are going to do in these situations.

And many teams script the first 10 to 15 plays of a game.

So Bill Walsh of the 49ers pioneered the strategy.

It reduced stress, helped players get into rhythm and allows the coach to test how the defense will react.

Now, yes, each week the playbook is trimmed to a smaller but game plan based on the opponent and there are game plan adjustments.

So just like your financial plan might need some adjustments, your, the football game plan may have some adjustments, but we.

Have to have a plan.

So some pre decided choices that coaches might have is a set of plays.

Designed for speed and clock management during.

The two minute drill, maybe some fourth down decisions and even some red zone packages.

So how does this relate to your finances?

A couple things.

First of all, I talk a lot.

About the planning process.

I talk a lot about doing the boring things and coming up with a plan.

So with my clients we don't really.

Start off with the sexy things like.

Which investment should I buy, how do I quadruple my money.

We talk about the basics of what do I do when I get a bonus, how do I respond if the.

Market drops by, let's say 10%.

Should we stay invested?

Should we panic?

What is our debt repayment process?

Are we using like a snowball debt repayment process?

And we just have a strategy for.

All of those little things that again.

These might not be the most exciting.

Things, but these are things that have.

To be dealt with because it's the.

Small things that make the difference between winning and losing.

It's the small things that make the difference between finishing maybe middle of your conference and winning the conference title.

So without a playbook, players or families.

Are left to improvise and their mistakes multiply.

So a financial playbook, or we can call it a financial plan, is hugely important.

Now I need to talk about the business owners because I am a business.

Owner and I love the business owners.

The business owners also need another type.

Of a playbook and that's a standard.

Operating procedures manual or some sort of an operating manual.

So this way your team knows how.

To complete the tasks that they need.

To complete and they're not having to reinvent the wheel every time that a.

Routine item needs to be done.

Now I've seen businesses where constantly the.

Team is having to fumble to find.

The right passwords to get into site.

So even simple things like using a password storage program to keep passwords words.

To available to everybody, the ones that.

Everybody needs Access to can be important and can help your organization to work better.

But even more important than that, it's.

Like we need to have some standard operating procedures, so we need to know how to complete tasks and we need to do them in a consistent manner.

So our customers and our clients and.

Our vendors and everybody involved with our.

Business is getting the same experience.

So my business, we use a system called VidGuide.

If you'd like to take a look at it, you can go to www.weeklywealthpodcast.com VidGuide.

And what VidGuide does is it helps.

You to standardize how you're handling tasks.

You can make a screenshot video, you.

Can make a library of tasks.

And then that way every time something has to be done, the team doesn't have to come back to the owner.

Or to the manager or to the.

Leader and ask how to do it.

There should be a documented procedure for how to do most tasks.

It's a little bit of an investment.

In time to document how you complete activities.

But once it's documented, forever, and you shouldn't really ever have to explain how.

To do it again.

So.

Www.weeklywealthpodcast.com VidGuide Check it out, see if.

You think that it would help your business.

The great teams, the teams that overcome adversity, they do the boring, they do the simple things that win games.

So they have things like the ground game, they run the ball.

Running the ball 3, 4 yards per carry, that keeps the clock moving.

It wears down the defense.

And teams with strong running attacks often dominate times of possession.

So even if runs don't gain much, they set up play action passes and keep defensive honest.

And historically, teams that win championships, they have strong running games.

What about special teams?

Special teams can win the field position game.

So a punt that pins the opponent inside the five or ten yard line really isn't glamorous.

You almost never remember it, but it can create a huge momentum swing.

Hidden yardage, a 10 yard advantage on field position per drive adds over time.

So the special teams part of the game, they often don't get the credit, but they can be the difference between winning and losing games and championships.

What about third down conversions?

Every once in a while you get a running back who just struggles for that extra yard or two when he falls forward.

And that keeps the drive going.

Not a big deal in the statistics, but it kept the drive going.

What about the offensive line?

These are the unsung heroes, the hall of Fame quarterbacks, the Montanas, the Brady's the Mannings.

They credited their offensive lines as the unsung heroes of their careers.

As a matter of fact, Tom Brady actually took less money in salary so that he can pay his backup offensive line more money.

So they recruited a backup offensive line that may have been even better than a lot of team's first strings.

But Tom Brady knew that when one of the guys that are protecting you goes down, you need to have somebody else waiting in the wing.

Then other things like turnover margin.

So if you keep a plus one turnover margin, you win about 70% of the time.

If you keep a plus two turnover margin, your win rate jumps up to over 80.

So how does this relate to your finances?

Just like football, winning financially isn't always about financial flashy investments or big windfalls.

It's about blocking and tackling.

So these are the things like regularly saving, making sure that you have monies going into your different buckets, your emergency fund, your short and medium term savings, and your retirement plans.

And oftentimes you can systematize these, sticking to a budget or a spending plan, or simply living within your means.

Now I work with a lot of high earning and high net worth clients, but quite a few of them actually have a difficult time living within their means.

And what this means is they have very little financial margin and if one or two things happen that's unexpected, they may have some issues.

Another one of the not flashy financial moves that you can make is paying down debt.

Now you can do this systematically or you can bite the bullet and pay it off in one lump sum.

But suffice it to say, if we're paying down debt, we're doing the small things.

That's like a special team item.

And then here's another one that a lot of us don't really like to think about.

It's not sexy, it's not exciting.

But insurance, I say it all the time.

Insurance serves one purpose.

Insurance protects your money.

Nothing more, nothing less.

So if you were to cause me to have a loss, either you are going to indemnify me, which means make me whole, or your insurance is going to indemnify me up to the limits of the policy.

So this is something that's very important, but it's not incredibly exciting.

So where do you think some of the boring parts of your finances are that you maybe need to either get started with or boost?

Do you think maybe saving regularly, maybe sticking to your budget, maybe paying down some debt, maybe having an insurance review with a great local insurance agent?

Now again, these aren't that much fun, but these are the things that make a big difference over time.

These are the fundamentals and the flashy players.

The flashy team.

Yeah, they may get some SportsCenter highlights, but they oftentimes or very rarely do they win the championships.

Let's step away from the podcast for just a moment.

One of the services that I offer to my clients is help planning to exit their business.

So as business owners, you're familiar with the challenges and complexities that come with steering your company day to day.

But have you considered the transformative power.

Of picturing your end game?

So imagine having a destination so clear in your mind that every decision you.

Make naturally aligns with it.

To download our free ebook called the.

End Game, go to my website, www.weeklywealthpodcast.com Endgame.

That's www.weeklywealthpodcast.com endgame and okay, now let's get back to the podcast.

Welcome back to the show and let's.

Bring it home here.

Let's talk about the fun stuff.

Let's talk about touchdowns.

Let's talk about flashy stats.

Let's talk about the exciting things.

That was touchdowns the ultimate goal, right?

The whole game plan is designed to achieve touchdowns.

They're memorable, they're celebrated, and they change the score quickly.

So most teams love scoring touchdowns.

And oftentimes the touchdowns can be a flashy play.

Most teams also look to have some big stats.

The 3 and 4 and 500 yard passing games, 100 yards, rushes, the sacks, the interceptions.

These look great in the box score and they highlight a player's talent and hard work.

Fans and media and sportscenter love them.

But behind every stat line is hours of preparation and execution of those boring fundamentals that we talked about.

And in this era of SportsCenter, we love the long bombs, the one handed catches, the pick sixes, the kickoff returns.

But I would venture to say that many of the all time greats, they may not have quite as many of the flashy plays as some other players who did not achieve the long standing greatness.

So yes, a SportsCenter highlight is a great thing and we would all love to have them.

But many of us would much rather have a championship.

So how does this relate to your finances?

So we have some big wins within our finances.

Think about that day that you write the last payment to pay off your home.

Or think about that time where you write a big check to buy that dream vacation home or your new dream home.

Think about the time where your kids are going to college.

And you know that you've made some sacrifices, you've made some hard decisions and you are writing a check to pay for your kids college and they are not going to be burdened by student debt.

Now these are your financial touchdowns.

These are the things that we live for.

These are the things that we look at as the ultimate goal.

We celebrate things because they only happen once or twice in a lifetime.

But they happen because of consistent preparation.

So the big stats and the big growth, both in the football game and in your personal finances, things like growing your net worth, hitting a savings milestone, paying off debt, reaching a million in your 401k, reaching 5 million, reaching 10 million in the 401k.

These are like the quarterback's passing yards.

The numbers show the results of steady execution now flashy plays, selling a business for a large profit, landing a major client, making a smart investment in the right stock or property.

These are exciting.

But if you rely only on the Hail Mary financial plays, you will lose more than you win.

So just like in football, financial touchdowns.

Don'T happen every day.

They're the result of film study, which.

Is knowing your facts.

They're result of a strong playbook, having a process.

They're a result of executing the fundamentals.

This is the boring stuff.

This is the punts, this is the budgeting, this is the bookkeeping.

And when those things are in place, the big things become possible and the celebrations feel incredible.

So don't only look for these home runs, the touchdowns, the big hey, I put $10 into a stock and it turned into a million dollars because those things don't happen very often.

Let's look at the consistency and then over time we will have some touchdowns, we will have some highlights, and we'll achieve some really, really big goals.

All right everybody, so what do you think?

Talking about football, right?

This is football season, college football season in the south and it's pro football season in the rest of the country.

What do you think about our analogies?

So what do you think about watching film?

Are you watching your financial film?

Do you think you can do a little bit better with that?

Knowing your own facts, knowing your own tendencies, knowing your own quantitative and qualitative positions?

Do you have a playbook?

Do you have some predetermined decisions that you're making?

Do you have a plan?

Do you know what to do maybe when your investment portfolio drops or when it goes up?

What do you know about your financial plan?

What do you know about your financial playbook?

Is it adequate for you?

The boring parts of your finances?

Are you doing these things well?

Are you having a meeting with your spouse once a month, talking about your financial situation?

If you're a business owner, are you working either with your team or with a fractional CFO and looking at your financial statements and seeing what you can afford, what you can't afford, what items are profitable, what items are not?

Are you doing the things like knowing where your insurances should be?

Are you doing the things as a business owner, like working with a bookkeeper to make sure that your books are accurate?

These are not fun, but these are the things that take us to the promised land.

And then finally, what are some of the flashy plays?

What are some of the touchdowns, the home runs?

What are some of those things that you would like to achieve in your personal finances?

So do you want to buy a beach house?

Do you want to pay off some debt?

Do you have a certain number that you would like to have?

Your net worth?

Do you have maybe a number or a dollar amount that you would like to give away to charity?

These are some of the things that I hear from my clients and from my prospects that would be considered touchdowns.

Let me know what you think.

Email me davidarallelfinancial.com or even better, go to www.weeklywealthpodcast.com, click on the microphone icon, and leave me a message.

Let me know what your financial touchdowns are and maybe even if you're on track or if you need some help.

So speaking of me needing help, what is this podcast?

Why do I put out the weekly wealth podcast every week?

I love doing it and I love talking about money and I love talking about financial planning.

But this really is a marketing tool for my private wealth management practice.

I work with clients to help them to make the right financial decisions for them for the reasons that are important to them.

And like I said, this podcast is a marketing tool.

So if you listen to the podcast, you start to learn my philosophies.

You start to say, hey, I would really like to work with that guy.

Or maybe, I don't know, I don't know if I really would want to work with that guy.

But hey, you know what?

I'm just putting myself out there and I want you to get to know me.

And if you think you would like to know what it would be like to work with me personally, the process is pretty simple.

So email me davidarallelfinancial.com we can set a short appointment, we can talk about some of the things that are keeping you up at night.

We can talk about some of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of your personal financial situation and we can decide if there are any next steps.

It really is that simple.

And there is no cost for that appointment.

We can do it in person if you're local, or we can do it via Zoom.

I have clients in many different states and we're very adept to working virtually all right everybody, I hope that you enjoyed this episode.

I hope that you learned a lot and I hope that your team has put in all of the hard work working on the fundamentals, and I hope that all of that hard work pays off for them with a bunch of touchdowns, a bunch of flashy plays, and more than anything, a bunch of W's in the win column.

So until next episode, I wish everybody a blessed week.

Thanks everybody.

The information contained herein included but not limited to research, market valuations, calculations, estimates and other materials obtained from Parallel Financial and other sources are believed to be reliable.

However, Parallel ll Financial does not warrant.

Its accuracy or completeness.

These materials are provided for informational purposes only and should not be used for or construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security.

Past performance is not indicative of any future results.

So here is your bonus content for this week's episode.

Now, we talked about that the touchdowns and the great flashy plays, the sports center moments.

These are the things that people want to see.

But I would ask you to please in your own personal financial situation.

Let's celebrate the small wins so many college football programs give out stickers on helmets like the Ohio State Buckeye Leaves, Georgia bones.

Florida State Tomahawks players earn these not only for touchdowns, but also for less glamorous contributions like blocking, recovering fumbles or great effort in practice.

In locker rooms, coaches often hand out special teams Player of the Week awards for hustle plays that set up field position.

And the Seattle Seahawks under Pete Carroll emphasized celebrating win forever moments.

Even small wins in practice, like breaking up a pass or finishing a drill, were met with energy and enthusiasm.

So in your personal financial situation, maybe you made an extra payment on a credit card.

Maybe you got some debt paid off.

Maybe you worked really hard as a business owner and you got your Profit margin up by 5%.

Maybe you've increased your emergency fund.

Let's celebrate these.

Let's celebrate these either just by acknowledging them or if it's within your financial reality.

Let's reward ourselves and let's make sure that we are celebrating the small wins because these will ultimately lead to the touchdowns and the wins and the championships.

All right, everybody, we'll see you next week.

Thanks.