113. The Power of Discipline in Growing Your Finances ft Aaron Knightley

In this episode, Aaron discusses his early life marked by financial hardship and how it fueled his desire for financial stability and independence. He also discusses the importance of continuous learning, self-belief, and maintaining a disciplined approach to finances.

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• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@aaron_knightley?lang=en

Chapters

• 0:00 Personal Finance and Money Mindset
• 5:21 Financial Planning and Wealth Building
• 16:42 Building Business and Wealth Through Investing
• 21:15 Investing in Yourself and Your Future
• 33:06 Discipline, Patience, and Consistency

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys and welcome back to the Penny Spons podcast with your host, Kia, and this is the podcast where we aim to dispel your myths, simplify difficult financial jargon and rectify your own personal problems. Happy Monday and I'm happy to have everyone back today. We've got an amazing episode for you today with a fantastic guest. But before I get into it and get too excited, guest who are you?

Speaker 2: 0:20

Well, oh gosh, I find this one really interesting because I talk a lot about titles. So I'm actually just going to say I'm Aaron Knightley, I'm busy, I do a lot of things in the entrepreneurial space and I love my finance. Yeah, and that's about it, but maybe we'll reveal a little bit more in a minute. But that's it, aaron Knightley, I always go with Aaron Knightley.

Speaker 1: 0:39

I feel like just an air of ambiguity is good.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 0:42

So let's touch on the personal finance side then. Yeah, so I want to ask you, what got you interested in personal finance? Because I feel like that's a big area for me, and whenever I ask people this who are in that space, there's always something that happened as they grew up, whether it was just in school, whether it was a learning, whether it was something that they went through growing up. But what got you interested in?

Speaker 2: 1:03

it. We didn't have any money when I was growing up. So that was really it. It was a case of my mum and dad have always worked incredibly hard. You know they've they've only ever paid for things that they could afford. And that really was. It is that you know as a child, when you're growing up, you see your parents sort of struggling and you know times can be pretty tough. I suppose it embedded into me that I didn't want that when I got older. So really it came from probably a pain point of thinking I need to be better with money but in order to have money I need to make more money, and it kind of just evolved from there really, and I never really wanted to work a job either. I kind of knew that at a young age. So when you combine, how did you know?

Speaker 1: 1:44

Sorry, that's an interesting part. How did you know? Because I feel like when you're in school, you're taught to. You know you're in primary school, get the grades, go to secondary school, secondary school get the grades to go to college or sixth form, and then you're going to go to university and get a job.

Speaker 2: 2:17

How I think? Because I've always been loud, outspoken, confident. I've always made my own decisions. I've never fallen into peer pressure. I've never my head's sort of never been turned by other people, you know, doing their thing. I've always kind of been my own person. I was very happy to live life. Like a bit of a hermit I was, I was just okay with it. I'm very comfortable with my own skin and I think those were just early traits of I'm good to focus on me, not get distracted and again blending that into looking after your money and trying to build a business. It works really well because you're not looking at external or hearing external noise. I just knew that I. I just did. I like control. I wasn't happy giving it away.

Speaker 1: 2:50

I think and same with my money. That's good. That's good. So we come back to personal finance. Like you touched on what would be some of, or one of, the key lessons that you think is just so important for everyone to know.

Speaker 2: 3:02

I think at the moment and it always has been for me, but more so now my biggest flex is having money in the bank and time freedom, like you know, just being able to do things like this. I'm not tied to a certain location or a certain place, so I was just always aware that for my money to go further, I really need to nurture it, and I was never bothered. Going back to my traits, I was never bothered about spending money to look rich. And if someone said to me well, where did you learn that or how did you develop that habit? I would just say my parents. They didn't have money to spend, and I think I've just picked up on well, if you haven't got it, don't spend it, and I've always stacked it. I've always been fairly good at making money, even from a young age. I was always tinkering, doing things. So I look after money, I value it and I respect it, and it served me well really I think that's a good relationship to have with money.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I think everyone's got different perceptions and a lot of it comes from your upbringing. Like you mentioned, your parents were big influence for you. Mine were with me and it's just so important to acknowledge a relationship that you have with money. So I think we're fortunate that we have good relationships with money because of our parents, but as people who perhaps fear it or maybe don't value it as much, so they spend it.

Speaker 2: 4:15

But I think once you identify it, then you can actually work to look after money in a good way I would say one of my biggest lessons as well, when it comes to money mindset both both of them being tied in. Is that quite early on when, when our son came into our lives went well, I was just turning 20.

Speaker 2: 4:33

So I was super young and that was like a defining moment for me. Although I was already good with money and I was trying to make more money at the time, I got even better and it gave me more direction. But the whole money and mindset really ties in because I had binned off a lot of people that I was hanging around with.

Speaker 2: 4:50

I used to hang around with bit dodgy people, people who weren't good with money and people who still wear and talk and do the same things as when they did when they were 14. I distanced myself and cut them off and my social circle changed almost immediately after having my son. So I started getting around people who were in business, who were very entrepreneurial, and that just played a huge factor to my. Oh my god, like if I take this seriously, I can have a piece of the pie and it was a game changer that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 5:20

That is really amazing. I think a lot of people can make that change it doesn't need to be as early as you.

Speaker 1: 5:25

You were fortunate in that, but I think everyone can make that change, which is obviously why we create the content that we do and we have the channels that we do to push that message out to people. When it comes to the mistakes, then, that some people make, that you see, what would be one of the mistakes that you see people make, often with their money, that people, if they just changed it or acknowledged it, that they could be way better with their money.

Speaker 2: 5:45

Well, what I'm about to say in my content can flare a lot of people up. I'm a realist, so what I'm about to say will trigger some people, but it will only trigger the people who have an insecurity. The cost of living crisis is not real. It does not exist. It does not exist. No one can counter me. I have an answer for everything. The cost of living crisis only affects those who have poor money management habits.

Speaker 2: 6:12

If you look over a hundred year financial chart, what has the chart done? It's always gone up. It's had dips, but it's had corrections, but it will always end up going through an inflation phase. If you look at the Dow Jones industrial chart of all the markets, again it's always gone up. Everything has always gone up. So it's the people that are stagnant and watch and complain and victimise themselves and read the news. Blame Jeff Bezos, blame Elon Musk. You know all these new technologies coming in and companies and corporations, yet, despite they employ 30, 40,000 people who pay tax and stuff like that is that they watch and they complain rather than creating a bubble and going.

Speaker 2: 6:52

Look over the last 100 years. It's always going up. It's not going to stop Just because petrol's gone up by 40p. I need to evolve because times are changing. So I'm going to learn new skill sets. I'm going to cash flow, I'm going to money manage. I'm not going out watching England play every weekend, spending money on fags, booze, betting, drugs. Travel, get better with money and evolve, because no one's coming to save you and I realised that very early on. No one is coming to save you no one. So actively participate in evolving your life.

Speaker 1: 7:21

It's true, no one's, there is no superhero to come and save us. That is very true. But I would ask you then would you do you acknowledge that there are people who obviously are at the far end of the spectrum, who, you know, just really don't have money at all right. So those people who there is no kind of like budgeting their way out of it, they are just on that lower end as well I would.

Speaker 2: 7:40

I would say so, but I would say where there's a will, there there's a way Okay.

Speaker 2: 7:43

I truly believe I've been at the bottom end, not like bottom, bottom bottom, like you know, a single parent, you know on drugs, broken, like decrepit and like literally nothing. But I've been on the council estate, I've been brought up, I've been around the wrong people, I have got the t-shirt and I never, I never, play my own violin. But I've been there and I got myself out. Only income, young family, no education, no college, no GCSEs, no hand-me-down, all self-made covered in tattoos. Now I work with the richest people in the UK. You know I've built one of the fastest growing events companies in the UK. No one's done it for me, so I have very strong opinions when people go oh well, it's not that easy.

Speaker 2: 8:22

No, it's not, no, no, you're preaching to the wrong crowd. Yeah, I have very strong opinions and I've never flexed on materialistic things. The reason I have money in the bank and I have done well financially at 31, is that I have not spent money on Gucci, louis Vuitton slides. I've never financed a car I couldn't afford. I've gone through years and sacrificed my twenties and at 31, I'm now reaping the rewards and that's it.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Yeah Well, I would agree with you that there is this, especially in a younger generation. I talk about it all the time that there is this keeping up the Joneses. You know there's people who live above their means, who will indulge in luxury items that they perhaps can't afford. Can't afford and I've seen it firsthand with friends and I'm like I know you can't afford that. It's a lovely car, but you were really overstretching yourself financially to get this.

Speaker 1: 9:09

And that's when you, if you start to unpick it, you see that people are working extreme hours to try and pay for their monthly finance. Or you know they've bought this, this top that looks great, but they need to try and return it. All these things that people are trying to do that to live above their means and it doesn't benefit them in the long run with their finances. So it is just looking at yourself and reflecting, I think. I think that's that's the main thing that we take away from. It is reflecting on how you're currently spending, what your lifestyle looks like and the cutbacks that you can make. So I think there's a lot of cutbacks that people can make if they're being honest with themselves.

Speaker 2: 9:39

Yeah and yeah, just looking at how they spend and it goes deeper Open up your WhatsApp and have a look at the last 10 people that you've spoken to.

Speaker 2: 9:45

Because your network is important. How many of those are making money? That's the thing I always say to people forget about the business, forget about the money making. Open up your WhatsApp and your call log. Who are the last 10 people you spoke to? Well, tony, down the pub, laura, you know, whatever. Okay, what are they doing? Well, you know they're moaning about life and where you know he's got he's always got cancer and someone else is always moaning about this. And they've got 400 kids.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Okay, where's the productivity, like, where's the positivity, where's the ambition in any of those 10 conversations you're having? Well, I suppose there's not Right. Change your social circle. Spend a week with millionaires how about? Of course, there's always people that go. Well, where'd you find millionaires? It's like, oh my God, do we have to tell you everything? So I think, when it comes to money priorities, anytime I ever make money automated I did a video about it I have 33 bank accounts and it's like an entire ecosystem. I have 15 streams of income. I don't touch any of it and it all goes into this beautiful orchestrated ecosystem of finances. And everything goes into stocks and shares, private pension, peer to peer private lending that I do now you know gold and all these kind of avenues and venture capital that I have and stuff like this all happens and then at the bottom, if I've got any left, that will be fund money and if we can, if we can afford to go and do something, we will. But if we can't, we won't because people aren't planning for their pension.

Speaker 1: 11:09

A pension is a massive one. We always talk about in this podcast. Pensions are so, so, so important. But you tell us why do you think pensions are important then?

Speaker 2: 11:16

Pensions are important because, number one, if anyone has children, you know life goes pretty quick. So I now have an 11 year old son and I'm like where's that gone? Like where's 11 years gone? I'm 11 years older and if we have a look at the average person that is now retiring sort of within our you know, if you're, if you're, if you're sub 30 and you start planning for, let's say, 60, 65 years old, you know to live a reasonable life as a single person, you're going to need about £800,000. And that's yeah, and that's if you live like the next 15 years. And then you've got to plan that.

Speaker 2: 11:52

And the thing is people don't realise or don't want to put themselves 30 years ahead of time because that can be quite scary, quite daunting, thinking, well, 30 years is a long time. It's not really, and I love there's a meme and a saying you would give anything to go back to the age that you are now for the ability that you have, and I think we take that for granted. And so you need to work smarter with your money. Your money needs to work smarter itself and you need to generate as much cashflow so that the life that you're living now, you know, whatever that might be, it doesn't drop off.

Speaker 1: 12:26

Like.

Speaker 2: 12:26

I find it fascinating how people buy a house and then they think, well, I could downsize, yeah, but you bought the house because you love the house. Why are you planning to downsize? You're already planning on an easier way out. So I think, people, it's a slight insecurity and not again we're in a world of not wanting to face facts, because sometimes it's a little bit like vinegar on a cup. Now that hurts, I don't really want to think about it. I'm happy to think of myself as a 60 year old man and the life that I want to live then Fit, healthy, traveling everywhere yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:57

So I plan for it 100%. I love to want pensions and people always look at me like I've got two heads because, I'm 26 and it's probably one of the topics I bang on about the most, because it is so important it sounds boring, but it is so important because I said when I hit 60 something, I should be sipping pina coladas on a beach, having a good time, not worrying about money. So that's why you need to think about it from now when I can make those provisions but even private medical care.

Speaker 2: 13:22

This amazes me. The NHS, you know it's great, we've got it, but it's piss poor. You know, quite frankly it is. It's shocking, right.

Speaker 2: 13:30

This is kind of where I really drill into people. Okay, so you're spending money on, you're financing a car, you've remortgaged the house, you want a marble kitchen so that your friends can come over and you can say, oh, look at my marble kitchen, although they don't give a shit. But yet you haven't got private medical care. So when one of your family members gets diagnosed with a lump and they get told to come back two weeks later and then the operation is in eight, nine weeks, you're happy.

Speaker 2: 13:51

Yeah, to wait eight, nine weeks for your family member for a lump to develop, whereas if you have private medical care and the average private medical care is between four to 7,000 pounds a year I did an entire average breakdown of the average person where their money goes. It adds up to about nine and a half thousand pounds a year on going out, restaurant, clothing, financing, car, materialistic things, nipping into the car, buying lunch. All of that average spend, added spend, added up to about 9,000, 9,500 a year for an average person working, you know, 40 hours a week, but people won't spend four to 7,000 pounds on an AXA or a Viva private pension so that if a lump develops, they can get in the day after in the Montefiore or the Priory, wherever it might be, and get it dealt with, because the hell is.

Speaker 2: 14:35

It's like I find it. I find it fascinating that one of the most asked questions on google is how to make money. And it is, yeah, it is, and I can bet your last bottom dollar. Most of those people are unhealthy in their body. So why would you want to invest and learn to make more money when you won't enjoy the actual return on investment when it comes to fruition, when you're high cholesterol, high blood pressure?

Speaker 1: 15:01

I find it fascinating aaron, you are probably the realest talker we've had on this podcast. Everything that you said does hit home, but you know, sometimes people aren't used to hearing it. Yeah, they don't in that way, I think when, when you consume content online, it's quite nicey-nicey and passive, but a lot of things you've said people do need to hear.

Speaker 2: 15:23

It's the truth, yeah it's the truth and people don't like it any any subject and and the thing is, I talk like this because I've walked all of this and when people complain and I look at my journey and I think, well, I haven't complained any, any rejection, any failures that I've had or any bad decisions. It was my choice, it was my responsibility. So I think you know, having a good mindset, being real and accountability and ownership is probably the biggest thing, because when you, when you decide that right, no more excuses, you can get very real. And then, when you get real, you can start to plan. I feel, if you keep lying and you keep immersing yourself in this false reality of dopamine hits and pretending to look rich, I mean, my God, I know a lot of people on social media who pretend to look rich. They ain't got a pot to piss in. You're lying to yourself. It's no skin off my nose, but I say it as it is and I'm very Marmite. People will agree with me, but they won't.

Speaker 1: 16:26

It's up for people to decide, but, like I said, we want to hear what you have to say. And I want to come to business now, because this is how you built yourself and got yourself to where you are today. So tell us a bit more about what you do and what you had to do to get to where you are.

Speaker 2: 16:42

So you know, jumping right back, I always knew that I wanted to go into business. I was always buying and selling things from a very young age. I was always very entrepreneurial. Again, it came from a place of pain, thinking well, money solves problems. And one thing maybe we can touch on is money is the root of all happiness. It truly is. And the saying of would you rather cry on a push bike in the rain or would you rather cry on a Bentley?

Speaker 1: 17:06

I promise you now I'd rather cry on a Bentley.

Speaker 2: 17:09

And wealthy people, for the record, are not lonely and unhappy. I know many of them. I work with many of them. They are laughing Now. I knew that building a business one, because I built a very good network very early on. So I knew that business was the direction for me. But I knew that it was the ability to give me resources and options and not have to put up with crap. I have to be honest with you, it never went down well in the 95 when I was told what to do I was. I was that guy in a meeting where I was building a business in my 95. But when I was told that I had to do things, I was like, yeah, I'm not doing that really. Oh gosh, yeah, because I had a few money. I won't swear too much but I had a few money in the bank.

Speaker 2: 17:49

I could get up and leave pretty early on in my job because I'd built a finance company which done very well as a middleman, earning high commissions, and I was looking after a lot of wealthy people's money, right. That was my first official business, which I still run today and that started to earn me a lot of money. And when I earned my first commission over well, nearly 10 years ago now you know, nearly 10 years ago it was like 38,400 something in one hit right. It'd taken several weeks to do that and then I had this light bulb moment. I was like oh, I've just earned more than my year's salary in a period of like 14 days from starting the deal to closing the deal.

Speaker 2: 18:29

If I replicate this and I do this very well and I offer the highest level of professionalism and I build my network, which today is worth about $2.8 billion on my phone I could make a lot of money and I just doubled down and I knew that business was the way to give me freedom, because I wanted to get out and I survived very quick and, especially having a young son, I just wanted comfort and I wanted to enjoy that and I knew that business was the way forward and now I'm still building businesses as enjoy that and I knew that business was the way forward and now I'm still building businesses as we speak, and I have a lot of business plans, but it's it served me very well.

Speaker 1: 19:03

It has. I mean, to do that from very young is very commendable. I think you know, like I said, at that age you're thinking university, do I get a job, do I do an apprenticeship? Because it is such a young age to decide what you want to do. So to have decided that from that point is very commendable to you and obviously you're still growing that to this day yeah, it really is a testament to you.

Speaker 2: 19:22

Do you know what? It wasn't even a case of what do I do? It's like I was no good at school academically. I'm pants. I can't do maths. To save my life, you asked me a math you asked me a math question right now.

Speaker 1: 19:33

I don't know. There's no point like.

Speaker 2: 19:34

I'll be honest, math is hard I got pe in a gcse was it I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew that I needed to make more money. I had a flair, I had this confidence, I could always talk, I had the sort of the gift of the gab and I had this sales ability. So I was like, well, I am just set up for business. But when you don't know what to do and you know if we go back, and even I'm a little bit older, but like I didn't have all the resources we do now, I had to network. I was coming into London all the time to build my network, so it was a slower journey for me really.

Speaker 2: 20:10

But when I started making really good money, I started again nest egging everything. And then then, obviously, I was able to leave my job. I got up one day, packed my laptop, told him to stuff it and I was off and from there I've just enjoyed now business because it's so, it's so collaborative, like it's so it's, it's limitless and I love it. And, um, financially, you can, you know you can really benefit, right, you can really benefit if you build up a good business, successful business yeah I want to talk to you about investing.

Speaker 1: 20:39

That's a big thing for you investing. There are people who are going to listen to this episode saying you know what, aaron, you've done so well for yourself. But I want to kind of get that ball rolling for me. Maybe it's not starting a business just now, maybe it's just investing some of the spare cash that I have. What would be some of your actionable steps that you'd say to someone that they can take to go from not investing at all today to maybe, if it's in a week or two and a month's time, beginning investing?

Speaker 2: 21:02

So for me, if I'm answering this honestly, when someone says to me what should I invest in and I get this question a lot, especially when I live stream every day is that my first thing is where are you in life? Because there's so many variables. One I'm not a financial advisor, but what I would say to people is are you in debt? First question Well, yeah, I've got a little bit of debt. Right there you go. That's where your money's going. If you're not in debt, how big is your emergency fund? Well, I've got a couple of months. No, no, no, 12 months minimum. People say three, six, 12 months and then that reduces their pot down. They're like, oh, okay, actually, so I had like 10 grand. Okay, so technically I've got like two grand left. Okay, so your two grand now goes into your maintenance pot.

Speaker 2: 21:41

So, in terms of investing, this is the way that I would do it Clear down debt, but it goes emergency maintenance, floating cash reserves, private pensions, stocks and shares, marketing and venture capital. After that, if you have money to invest, perhaps start looking at bonds, commodities, peer-to-peer private lending. But until you've done those, I actually would say to people investing doesn't get you cash rich. So, depending on their circumstances. It really varies. But if they're doing all of that and they're asking me still what to invest in, I don't think I'd be asked that question because they're probably pretty savvy already. If they're doing all the basics, they don't need me to tell them now what to invest in. So for me, it's doing the fundamentals. That gives them financial empowerment.

Speaker 2: 22:30

Because I just want to say this do you know how many people are suffering with depression and anxiety because of the workplace and remaining in a place because they haven't got their money right, because they can't leave? Do you know how dangerous it is to be dependent and need a job? That scares the living daylights out of me, to say, even on a person as well. Same thing. It's crazy, yeah, and that's why so many people I do a lot of content about people are seeking quick wins, seeking quick money because they depend on their job. They're suffering mentally. I mean it's crazy, like the world health organization, um, like stats, about how many people suffer with mental health due to a lack of money and remaining in a workplace. So I would say all of those things that's what I'd be investing in, and then I just go hard on private pension stocks and shares isa. Yeah, I second those things. That's what I'd be investing in, and then I'd just go hard on private pension stocks and shares ISA.

Speaker 1: 23:19

Yeah, I second that as well.

Speaker 2: 23:20

That's it. Pensions, stocks and shares Don't overcomplicate it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:23

I agree. I think sometimes we do overcomplicate it. There is so much online that it can be hard to kind of dim out the noise and know what to actually follow.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:32

But those are some good steps you've given us there. On the other side of investing, there's investing in things stocks and shares, pensions, like you mentioned but it's investing in yourself. So what would you say to someone who's saying, look, I want to invest in myself, but what does that actually mean?

Speaker 2: 23:46

For me it's number one self-belief. You know it's really hard to tell someone who hasn't educated themselves you could be a millionaire. People write it off Again. It's another thing. I find fascinating that people write themselves off very quickly. That comes from two things their upbringing and what they've seen. But their social circle Been off the social circle, be alone for a while, develop a new social circle of ambitious, successful people, and then you go. It is possible I'm around people who are actually doing it. Maybe it is possible for me.

Speaker 2: 24:16

So, self-belief, investing in yourself, get yourself right. Invest in your health. You know it's a funny one, but I believe wealth equals health and then health equals more wealth. Because health you know, I just bought a sandwich for a homeless guy on the way here. He doesn't look healthy, he has no money. So when people say, well, health first, it's always health first, it's not, is it? You need money to be healthy. So I would say yes, self-belief, invest in your health, because when you have a healthy body and you're physically strong, you are mentally resilient. And then, when you're mentally resilient, you can deal with the ups and downs and the turmoil of trying to build something better than what you have now. But get around the right people. You don't have to spend loads of money. Audible and networking those are the two things that I would recommend to anyone watching. Buy audible and buy a couple of tickets to networking events every single month okay, non-negotiable, and you meet new people with no agenda and just absorb okay, let's, let's break down audible then.

Speaker 1: 25:17

Are you talking about so people can listen to books?

Speaker 2: 25:19

yeah, game changer for me. I was never any good at school, but I was listening to all. I mean, I've done, um, I've done something like 190 books on audible and I listened to them on the way to work, during my break, while I was at work, on my way home on the weekend, when I was training on the treadmill. I just consume, consume, consume, consumed. And it does you know, when you say to someone who hasn't consumed, they might think, oh, it's a bit fluffy, no, it really works. But here's the key Application. Application is always the biggest thing. Application Don't be a librarian. I was talking about this yesterday in the gym with someone you know, we all know that person who goes oh yeah, did you know so-and-so? And you're going right, okay, yeah, but did you do it? Oh, no, right, well, you're a librarian. Then You're just hoarding information. You never applied it.

Speaker 2: 26:09

I've always taken segments, apply, rinse, repeat, take another segment and a lot of the books. The reason I've listened to so many is multiple times listening to the same books and then you just take little pieces, I think to avoid overwhelm. You don't overload. So you know, you just take things that are relevant. I don't listen to a lot of billionaires as well. Okay, people listen to billionaires too much. It's's too far away. I believe you listen to people who are five steps ahead if you want to grow fast. So, um, I listen to people who offer me good advice, but also people who are quite close and very similar to my journey, because then I can I can speed up the process yes for myself, 100% I agree with you, and I agree with you on the networking events because, ever since I started my business almost five years ago, I realised that sometimes the people that you grew up with they're great and you should still keep them in your circle in terms of like socialising, but if you're talking about business, there is just that disconnect.

Speaker 1: 27:08

When I was in the beginning stages, I'd be having conversations about should I do this, I'm debating on that, and they didn't really have much input and it's not their fault, they just aren't in that world yeah so you need to find that, and I realized when I was meeting people who are doing way better than me. It almost shifts your perception of what is attainable yeah because if you're in a certain space like I grew up in inner city london you think oh okay, I can only reach here.

Speaker 1: 27:31

Then you meet someone who's here yeah and you're like, oh, wow, okay, so it is possible. I should just double down and change some of the things I'm doing, and it does kind of expand your mind as to what is possible yeah, the thing is, when you meet great people, you're inspired, because it's a really tough journey like entrepreneurship finance none of it's quick.

Speaker 2: 27:50

I think the one thing that social media has done a great job of bodging up is telling everyone that this is a fast process. And it's really not. And which is why I would say also, one of your other biggest investments, which is non-financial, is your time. You know, I do. I work with a lot of people quite closely and there's four evaluations self-evaluation, time evaluation, financial and social evaluation. But the time evaluation is super, super important because if you're not backed by money and you don't have rich parents to go, we're going to start you on a business, we're going to bring up all of our contacts and you'll have a business tomorrow and it'll do very well. Well, most people don't have that, and I didn't have that. I'm sure you didn't have that, and so we've had to put the work in right. So time is of the essence.

Speaker 2: 28:37

I am so hot on time is that I want to max. I mean, look like you know getting the content here downstairs, just getting bits done. I don't want to waste time because I know it's not coming back. Money comes and goes and it flows, but I know I'm not going to get my time back. So I actually don't meet people for coffees. I don't. I don't have Nissa, nata, like, I've got my, I've got my family, I've got my group, I've got my people. That's it. I'm good. Other than that, I just want to make progression because I know that, uh it, it goes really quick and I just want to maximize it. And there's nothing wrong in having social circles and categories and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 29:10

But I'm just so picky on time now and if someone's values aren't aligned with me, I have nothing of interest, which is why I was saying I'm so picky on podcasts now, yes, you did, yeah, I love this subject and I could talk about it all day long. I'm just really now picky on my time. Yeah, you have to be.

Speaker 1: 29:26

You have to be. I think, like I said, time is so important and time, like you said, you don't know, but 11 years is gone. It's flown by, yeah, and when you put it into perspective, I look back and I'm like, oh my gosh, like things have just gone by. I was like I graduated university like about three, four years ago now and I'm like that felt like it was yesterday yeah, I can't believe it, just things fly by.

Speaker 1: 29:45

So it is so important to really grab time with both hands and prioritize what needs your time. I think a big thing that people do and I'm not gonna like I'm immune to it, I do it sometimes is that you put off the hard things, the things that you know you need to do, especially the things that you know you need to do to progress yeah because it may not be quick and easy and fun. You may just say, oh, I'll just do it later my thing is not the fun part.

Speaker 1: 30:06

I don't need things to be fun, it's just sometimes like, oh, this is quite laborious, I'm just I'll do it in a bit. But, all you're doing is just wasting time and delaying that. And it is kind of organize yourself and saying right, you know there's different ways that people do it, but it might be just waking up and saying right, let me get things done straight away. I'm going to think about it, I'm going to get it done, put it into blocks, and just making use of your time.

Speaker 2: 30:26

Planning is everything Like, even with finances. You take, you take the emotion out of finances. You put everything on a standing order. You know if you owe someone money which you should never owe someone money but if you do, that paying of that money back shouldn't be an emotional thought on a Friday when you get paid, oh, I've got to send him 50 quid, but I've just been offered to go out. Oh, maybe I'll pay him back. No, no, no. That money, when that comes in, it already goes to him. That money, when that comes in, it already goes to him.

Speaker 2: 30:54

You take emotion out of everything, and even with social media, just for a moment. Is that to manage your time correctly? You know, it's shocking, obviously, the the amount of hours that people spend scrolling, consuming mind-numbing content opposed to the creation side of it, and the procrastination and then and then they're like I'm deflated. I've compared my life. I've now fallen into a slump. Two hours have gone by. I've been watching cats jump off roofs for the last hour and a half. I've gained nothing, and now I feel quite flat and like actually the things that I saw of people living their life. I'm sitting here in a one bedroom flat or wherever people are living and they're like my life's bum, like what am I doing with my life? Well, you caused yourself to feel like that. It's the, it's the investment of time.

Speaker 2: 31:36

Like I always say to people anytime anyone works with me, I want to know what you do monday to monday and I'm not on about. I want to know the few things. I want to know what you do when you wake up as in. Are you having a coffee? Are you scrolling? Are you saying hello to your partner? What do you do? My hours, my entire day, is done by 15 minute segments, apart from things like this and training. Other than that, everything I do is 15 minutes. Nothing takes me longer than 15 minutes. We're going to move on, but nothing.

Speaker 2: 32:04

nothing takes me longer than 15 minutes, quite literally. And so when people say to me, well, I've got a meeting, if I'm working with someone, I'll say, okay, cool. But like, what's the meeting about? Oh well, it's a business meeting. Oh, here we go. Okay, do you just want it to feel and sound like a business meeting? Are you actually having a business meeting? I have a lot of business meetings. None of them go over 15 minutes. Agreed, yeah, agreed, great, we all know what we're doing. Great'll see you later. Bye, bye, and then I'm off and then we just get on with it. So time, just like 360 of your life time. So important, biggest investment for me personally anyway 100.

Speaker 1: 32:42

I completely agree with you. Before we wrap up, then, because you've shared some insightful gems. What would be your top three takeaways that you'd like all of our listeners to really action in their lives, whether it's to do personal finance, business investments, anything like that I think, just three key traits discipline, yeah, in your personal life and your and your financial life.

Speaker 2: 33:06

Sacrificing in your personal life and your financial life, and patience. Those three things we've almost lost or have the inability to apply near them. I just I was disciplined, I've been disciplined my whole life. I sacrificed a lot of things in my 20s which actually I'm saying they're sacrifices, but I'm they're sacrifices to the standard of a normal person. Really, aaron, you're not going out every weekend, you're. You're actually just going against normal society you didn't really sacrifice.

Speaker 2: 33:35

You just did what was the right decision, aaron, by not financing a car to pretend like you look rich so that you can drive down the beach and everyone goes. Oh my God, he's got that. You sacrificed that. Now you have money in the bank. You were so disciplined on yourself. You're fit, you're healthy and your money's doing really good and people are around, you are happy and you're not stressed and I'm not worried. And then patience. In the beginning was I patient. No, I wanted it really quick. But now I'm like it's going to come. It will come Consistency. Yes, it's going to come. Yes, as long as I keep moving forward, it's going to come Consistency. So I'd probably Provide patience and consistency I love that In all areas of your life. Yeah, and ignore social media. Put yourself in a bubble.

Speaker 1: 34:16

I love Aaron. Thank you so much. This has been a really good episode. Like I said, the realest talk episode that we've had. But I think a lot of the things that you said people needed to hear. But for anyone listening and watching, where can they find you to see more of your content?

Speaker 2: 34:30

Pleasure no-transcript.