When it comes to wealth building, right, so obviously, you said that one of the things that got you into this whole thing is you were so passionate about the principles, right? So when we build wealth, we normally say there are like two things that you can do: you can either increase your income or you can decrease your expenses. Well, early on in our careers, increasing income is a difficult thing to do. I mean, we try our best, but it sounds like decreasing expenses is something that I think a lot of young people really, really focus on. And you developed a really unique skill set and affinity for finding out how to do things a little bit differently early on in your career. He's being nice; he's basically calling you, are you in Taiwan? Wow, do you self-describe yourself as a title? I will say I'm frugal, and I think that comes from my Middle Eastern background. Frugal, you know, my dad is from Egypt, my mom's from Syria, and I feel like the Middle Eastern culture, we love a deal, we cannot turn down a deal, and we love trying to get the deal and land the deal. So, I grew up couponing with my dad on Sundays; that was the Sunday event after church. It's like, "Let's get the paper out, let's see what's going on, let's cut the - let's go shopping." And so, that was a fun thing we did together. Do you still coupon? Uh, I do, yeah. In fact, yeah, even paper. So, locally, if you're in the Franklin area, there's a book called The City Saver, the coupon book, and I live for The City Saver, and they have an app that pairs with it that doubles the coupons in the BOGO. So, when it comes to date night, I'm like, "Hey, where do you want to go? We have all these cool, like, it makes it more fun. You know, you could put it in a fishbowl and just choose one and go, "Alright, we're going here tonight." So, all of that, I don't think has, you know, accelerated my wealth-building journey. I'm not trying to pretend like you can coupon your way to millionaire status, but it's one of the things that creates the margin, sure, to be able to invest more or be able to go out and not have it, you know, bust the budget. And it's a little bit behavioral, right? Like if you're thinking about managing the small decisions that way, it's going to permeate throughout all the big decisions you make, too, right? Like if you can master the small things, the big things kind of fall in line. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Oh, the mindset too, I mean, because that's what you say. It didn't propel you to millionaire status, but if you have a mindset, it's kind of like when you exercise, well, I know when I'm exercising, I eat better. Don't you find the same mindset when you're practicing good things, behaviors with your finances that you everything else? Oh, absolutely, and thank you for mentioning my physique. You work out. People often wonder. I mean, look who I hang out with. Well, Beau has to work out to get that physique. I get this without working out at all. That's amazing. That's - I'm what I'm trying to work, and that's what happens when you - you know, you split meals instead of getting one for yourself. That's a money hack right there. There's so - number one money hack is make sure you split. What are some other, like, money hacks, whether - I don't know, like, there would be value, but you found, like, really valuable, whether it's travel or eating out, things like, "Hey, this is part of what we, as a family, do, and this is where I'm able to save a few bucks?" Well, the general principle is most people just look at something at face value, what's on the menu, what's the price, okay, I'm gonna buy it. I actually take some time to go, "Is this the best value? Is this the best option? Is this the best retailer? Can we do better here? Is there room to negotiate?" Now, I'm not going to negotiate with the Chick-fil-A employee, like, as a chicken sandwich really worth six bucks, can you come down? But there are things you can do, for example, at Chick-fil-A or wherever, you know, it's very restaurant-specific, and I'm not the kind of guy who's, like, "Go to Taco Bell and get everything on the dollar menu, money hack." Like, that's not - that's not me. Is that really a money hacker? You know, getting all the cheap stuff? Chick-fil-A is my one, like, fast-food pass. I think we can all agree for summer, it's still terrible for you. What's your hack to lean into that? So one hack, which now they've increased prices, thanks inflation, but the kids' meal was one of the best values on the menu, and I know it sounds crazy, but the amount of food you get in a kids' meal at Chick-fil-A is - it shouldn't be a lot, it's not that different than one at all, no, you're getting six nuggets, you're getting the fries, and you can trade the toy in for the ice cream, so you're getting ice cream on top of that, it comes with a drink, you know, and it's still calorically a dense meal, probably too much for the average human being. Have you noticed when you do the kids' meal, you can get, like, I like the Arnold Palmer, the diet Arnold - yes. If you order it on the normal menu, it's like a 45- to 60-cent upgrade, but if you do it on the kids' menu, it's free. Wow, I want to put you on the spot because I think that you've done this. You have, you go to Chick-fil-A, you have all these rewards. Yep. Do you know what the best deals on the reward side are? I downloaded a spreadsheet one time. I didn't create the spreadsheet; I found it. I knew I found it. I created a Google sheet ranking every single item on the Chick-fil-A menu, what the value is on the rewards, and then rank them based on which is the best value for the reward. So they'd be like, "Hey, a salad is not worth what they're saying it is in the rewards. You want to go for the fries; that's going to be your best value." So, I'm like nerdy enough to want to look at that. I'm not nerdy enough to create it, it's fair enough. But the other thing you can do at Chick-fil-A, which a lot of people don't know about, is get a BLT, and it's like two bucks because all you get is you order a toasted bun with bacon, lettuce, and tomato, the grilled cheese, a toasted bun with cheese on it, and you're like, okay, that's not - you know, not quite a full meal for a guy of this stature, sure, fair, fair. But he's doing me because he saw this, the part that's hidden by the dust, but there are a lot of things you can do like that, which are kind of - they're kind of fun. I mean, the other one is getting chicken strips on their own and then getting two buns; it's cheaper than two sandwiches. You can save a few bucks. Go outside of Chick-fil-A and other things, what are some other money hacks, because you give money hacks all the time on ways you can stretch your dollars. What's some of your favorites? So they - I kind of bucket them into like travel, shopping, and food. Those are the main areas I think people can actually legitimately save money, and that's where a lot of people spend a lot of money, right? Absolutely. I'm gonna save somewhere; there's three goodies, yeah. And there are some, you know, there are gas apps, and I do cashback, and if you go to this station, you'll get 19 cents back through Upside or one of these apps like that, so a lot of people know some of these apps. But one of the, for travel, for example, there's a Southwest hack that I was just doing, and I was like, "Oh, nobody knows about about this." And so my friend Ken Coleman tried it. We were at dinner; he's like, "Dude, you just saved me 300." So here's what you do: you book your flight on Southwest, but then you check that same flight and rebook it, and if the flight is cheaper, they will give you the difference back. Oh, so a lot of people just refund that they booked their flight, and I go, "Well, I booked my flight. No, I don't - I don't know if it was a good deal or not." So just check. Right, you know, once a week, check that same flight, go to your app, recheck the flight, you can rebook, and it'll give you that credit back. And when you do that, you know, round trip with multiple people, that adds up real quick. For more information, check out our
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