Adam Torres and Dale Alexander discuss Texas FFA
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Show Notes:
Listen to coverage from the 96th Texas FFA State Convention in Houston, Texas. In this episode, Adam Torres and Dale Alexander, Author of “The Talk” (about money), explore Dales new book, “The Talk” (about money): A Young Adult’s Guide to the ONE DECISION That Changes Everything
About Dale Alexander
Dale Alexander CFP, CLU, ChFC has served in the financial services industry since 1987. Originally from south Georgia, he and his wife Kimberly split time between Canton, GA and Jacksonville Beach, FL. They have three adult children, Sophie, Grant and Davis. Oh, and two pretty cool dogs, Harper and Jax.
He fell in love with the study of money early on in his career and that led him to earn the Certified Financial Planner® (CFP), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designations.
His motivation for “The Talk” (as he is often asked) was to share the principles he has seen work in his life with young adults. He believes not only their life, but the lives of those around them will benefit greatly from the lessons contained in these pages.
Dale has been blessed to pour inspiration and motivation into others for all those years. As a well-known employee benefits broker, Dale also combines his passion for living with speaking and writing opportunities to impact others’ lives and attitudes. His stages have included numerous corporations, association conferences, churches and school convocations. If you ever see Dale speak, one thing he wants to leave you with is passion.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and I’m in Houston, Texas for the Texas FFA convention, my third year coming, my favorite time of the year, meeting some amazing members. And Aaron, Aaron gave me my next guest, Dale Alexander. Let me tell you about Dale.
He’s got a book. The talk about money and I’m saying that right. Yep. The talk about money and I’m going to get into the book with, with Dale and he’s given out 17, 000 books. So everybody that’s coming to this conference, all the members, they’re all getting a book, which I think is absolutely amazing. I think he said George Georgetown also got some books.
We’re going to get into all this, but first off, Dale, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Let’s for my long term listeners and viewers, you know, I love supporting authors This is the first time dale that i’ve heard of an author giving away that quantity of books to this many young adults There’s I mean first off kudos and thank you.
Thank you. You’re welcome. It’s really not hard I mean, it’s it’s something that that my wife and I and our family loves doing is is Financial literacy for the next generation. It’s really not hard. There’s just a lot trying to make it impossible So it’s not hard to be successful with the money. There’s a lot coming at them, though Yeah, how how did you originally get involved with FFA?
I actually was in FFA in South Georgia and so originally I fell in love with it years ago a lot a lot of years a long time ago And I was introduced to, to, to Cassie and Aaron, and Cassie and I, the first time she called asked me about finances, the book that I wrote, it just, it’s like I had known her for twenty years, and met Aaron.
Again, I met them for the first time today, but it is literally like we’ve been friends for 20 years. I mean, you know how great they are. Yeah, they’re easy to love. The book, what originally inspired the book? Like how’d that come about? So I’ve been a certified, I have my certified financial planning designation.
It’s not what I’ve done. I’ve had another financial services company, but it’s money’s what I’ve studied all my career. And I’m always talking to my children about money. And one night, a few years ago, my middle son said, dad, you need to tell all of our friends this principle, this story that you tell us all the time.
And so I said, get all your friends together. Christmas break. And I, they came in How old? How old are they? How old now? They’re 26, 24, 2. They’re 1921. And young adults. Yeah. It’s amazing. Yeah. The 19-year-old said, dad tell all of our friends this story. Yeah. Insightful of them to do that. Yeah. And so they all came in there one night.
50 kids, pizza all over the place. And I tell the story and it kind of locally goes kind of viral. And then I said, wow, that kind of has legs. So I wrote the lesson, started going to high schools, giving in, and it went crazy. And then my friend editor publisher said, they’ll write this book. Yeah, I wrote the book and then Fox business news and Fox and friends took it.
And it’s just now I’m all over the country speaking to young adults about money. Wow. So give us some of the, give us some of the flavor of the book. Like what are some of the things that the readers are going to learn? So the title is the talk about money, you know, and it’s funny We talked to our kids about a lot of things like some walls ethics were in the rears things like that But when it comes to money Most adults come up after they hear my story and they say where was this when I was 18 and our parents never talked to Us about money.
Yeah, so that’s why I called it the talk about money a young adults guide to the one decision that changes everything And there’s one moment. There’s one decision in a young adults life You That will change their grandchildren’s grandchildren. You probably want to know what that decision is, right? You tell.
Alright, so So, these young adults, when they get out of high school or college or the military, think back to when you got your first real job, wasn’t too long ago for you, but for some of us it’s a stretch, thinking back that far. But when you get your first real job I’m still trying to get my first real job, what are you talking about, Deb?
But when you get your What I do for a living, what are you talking about? That’s good. I’m still trying! It’s all true! Alright, I get it! I get it, I’ve been there! I am there. But when you get your first real job. Yeah. When you get that first job. Paycheck. Yeah. Instead of taking and spending all 100% of it.
Mm-Hmm. stop at 70%. Mm. Make 70 your a hundred. You don’t have a standard. Look, 70 percent of that first job paycheck is still going to be the most money you’ve ever seen in your life. Yeah. You’re at zero. Yeah. Yeah. Make 70 or 100. You don’t have a standard of living established yet. Mm hmm. And whatever number, 70 percent that you accept as your standard, that becomes your reality.
By the way, the other 30, take 20 percent and invest it. Yeah. And give the last 10 percent away. Give it away. Mm hmm. I’ll come back to that point. Yeah. Yeah. After two months, you’ll never know that 70 is not 100. That’s just all your hundred, that’s just all you’ve ever known is your hundred. It’ll sting for about two months, and then it’ll be over, and that’ll be your hundred.
And here’s the most important thing I’ll say. They have one shot. To make this happen Because if they start spending three of those first job paychecks getting all 100 percent of it, you’ll never back down a 70 It’s over. Oh, so that’s why it’s so important to give them at this age. They have like Like the numbers Oh Aaron think of it this way when you pay off a car loan The next month you’ve got 500 free dollars.
Don’t yeah. Yeah found money. Mm hmm You can either turn that and use that money for good right then. Yep Or you can leave it alone and let busyness and unawareness and social media and greed and advertising, it will go grab it and in two months, you can never get it back. Adam, it’s gone forever. Mm hmm.
This is that decision on every paycheck for the rest of your life. Mm. And you’ll never know you made a decision because you’re at zero. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And you’re going up, and you’re just gonna stop, stop short. What kind of feedback have you been getting on the bus? Like, what kind of feedback? It’s, I’ll say this.
The other day, I, my office in Atlanta calls me. We’re in our, our home in Jacksonville, Florida. And my office calls and says, Dale, a young man named Jamesy just called you. And he’s an Amazon driver in Jacksonville Beach, and he’s trying to find you. An Amazon driver had come up to our home, and I started talking to him.
Very sharp young man, Jamesy. And I said, Jamesy, can I give you a book? I’m gonna help you out. Can I give you a book? And I just gave him randomly my book. Yeah. And he just called me, it was six months ago, and he called me and he trying to track me down and he said I’ve got to find Dale and tell him what this book has meant to my life.
Wow. I’ve had 10 year olds write me letters, I’ve had 23 year olds call me from Washington State. It’s just, it’s crazy the feedback. Yeah. Because like I said, most adults say where is this from when I was 18, and our parents never taught us about money. Yeah. And so it’s just, it’s just been crazy and it’s a simple 70 20 10.
It’s easy to understand. What, what’s next on the promo? Like, I know this thing keeps on growing and I know this is just like, I feel like you’re doing a lot of speaking. You got a lot going on. And then now you just now, in my mind, I can’t even imagine after this week of you know, 17, 000 more books out there in, in the world and that many more people being helped and they’re going to take it home.
The parents are going to see everybody’s going to be like, where was this at when I was a kid? I’ll say this is many states are mandating personal finance. So kudos to them. George is one of them. Yeah. They’re, they’re man, it is, you know, Oh, everybody hears this. We will train consumers after like industrial revolution.
Now, can we educate the population, please? Like I say, getting money, right. It’s not hard. There’s a lot trying to make it impossible though, but it’s not hard. And so people are finally realizing that our, our young adults who need. More financial literacy, understanding. And my message is just, if you will just start on making your hundred 70, a young man came up to me one time and he said, well, if I live on 70 percent of my income, Am I still going to have, am I still going to have problems?
Sure, whatever you’re living on, you’re going to run up, you know, 100 percent or in one day. It’s funny how that happens, though. It is amazing. What’s that law called? I don’t know, but there’s a law out there that says that money’s gone. Somebody said if you can’t live on what you make, more money’s not going to help.
It’s not going to solve the problem. But this young man said, but when we have problems, they’re going to land a lot lighter, aren’t they? And I go, yes, they are. Your problems are gonna land lighter when you realize there’s financial margin in your mind. Yeah, things just tend to land lighter. So that’s why I say this one decision changes everybody coming behind you.
It will change your grandchildren’s grandchildren’s lives. Yeah, on one moment in these young adults, these 17, 000 young adults. Yeah, one moment in their life can change their grandchildren’s grandchildren’s lives. Yeah, I, I feel like it’s interesting. It’s an interesting concept. It’s very, very direct, it’s not complicated, and I think that I know you, I know this is for young adults, but I feel like there’s going to be a lot of, you know, not so young adults that are watching this that are going to be thinking about what, hey, how do I start, maybe start to scale down and try to, you know, whatever they could do in terms of getting those percentages down.
You know, that’s funny. Adults. Because once you read it, you’re like, Almost every adult will say one of three things. Where was this when I was 18? Parents never taught us about money. And third thing they might ask is, If I didn’t start on 70 2010, what do I do now? That’s the third thing adults usually say.
But so, there’s something in this for everybody. 65 year olds come up and go, Dale, I, I needed to reset some things that I read in your book. By the way, it’s 87 pages. It’s a fast read. Yeah. It’s a real thin book. You’re going to get one by the way. Yeah. I’m in. I’m in. I read and I love promoting authors. I’m going to make a video.
We’re going to be talking about this book. There we go. There we go. For a long, long time. There we go. So, in terms of, You’re promoting at Texas Buffet, you’re doing a lot of obviously speaking engagements, media, things like that. I talk to a lot of authors and as soon as I talk to authors, they get in this book thing.
Like I feel like you got other projects where it doesn’t have to be a book, but what other type of content are you creating in general? Like what else you got going on for content creation? So I do have other other books and the words that talk about your first job. Six things to help you go further faster.
Yeah. I’m excited about that. The talk about relationships, talk about debt. There’s a lot of things that I’m working on, but right now this financial literacy thing in our country is, is so important for me to stay on the speak. Absolutely. Sure. Tour and. There’s 4 million seniors in U. S. K 12 public high schools in the United States.
There’s 4 million every year. And until every, all 4 million get my lesson in their hands or a lesson like this, I’m just not gonna stop. So I got work to do. So are you, are you on social media? I am. How do people connect? Like how do people follow your journey? The best way is at the talk about money, at the talk about money.
Yeah. So you can follow me every Monday morning, starting in August, school year. I do a 60 second, a 60 second, just insight about money. It’s really quick. Monday Money Minutes. This is at the talk about money. So just follow me and are these videos? Is this quick videos? Just a little short Just a little 60 second thought about money.
Oh, that’s cool. And they’re on the website Yeah, and you can go to the talk about money. com. Yeah, and actually watch the lesson online It’s actually they’re free so you can watch it all the materials are there the lesson notes the link to the book and amazon and it’s on audible kindle also Yeah, and I think you answered the next question.
So not everybody’s at the texas mfa conference So for those that are going to go ahead and purchase it, which I want you to go purchase amazon Yeah, yeah amazon amazon just you can go to the talk about money. com The link to amazon is there and you know, everything kind of takes off from there Perfect and for everybody watching just so you know We’ll put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on them and head right on over And speaking of the the listeners and viewers if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t hit that subscribe button yet This is your invitation.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re putting out new content New thought leaders and hopefully new inspiration to help you along in your journey as well You Dale again, thank you so much for all the work and I appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you so much.