Don Mespelt: The budget shows up the leaks from thy
Don Mespelt: purse and enables thee to stop them and
Don Mespelt: control the expenditures for definite and gratifying purposes.
ken ouellette: Oh, beautiful. Yep.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. It shows thy leaks.
ken ouellette: Wow. Shows thy leaks.
Don Mespelt: I mean, that guy.
ken ouellette: Yep. I've seen lots of budgets that are
ken ouellette: leaking.
Don Mespelt: Welcome to a life well lift. Grow, preserve,
Don Mespelt: and transfer your wealth with Ken Ouellette, CPM
Don Mespelt: certified portfolio manager and founder of Orca Wealth
Don Mespelt: Management. In this podcast, he will provide some
Don Mespelt: clarity and setting goals needed to build, preserve,
Don Mespelt: and transfer wealth and overcome some of life's
Don Mespelt: financial obstacles. Ken provides actionable steps to help
Don Mespelt: you plan through your financial ups and downs
Don Mespelt: in a way everyone can understand. Join us
Don Mespelt: on this journey where Ken will explore many
Don Mespelt: financial avenues, drawing from his three decades of
Don Mespelt: experience in helping others avoid risking a lifetime's
Don Mespelt: worth of work and savings by not having
Don Mespelt: a plan and a strategy in place. Now,
Don Mespelt: on to the show.
ken ouellette: Well, good morning, Don. Good morning, Ken. Yes.
ken ouellette: So we just had you know, we always
ken ouellette: start with a little weather segment. Right?
Don Mespelt: Because it's just kinda
ken ouellette: segues. Pertinent. Yeah. It's pertinent. We've had we've
ken ouellette: had six to eight inches of snow here
ken ouellette: on the coast of of North Carolina.
Don Mespelt: Wow.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah. The kids kids kids got three
ken ouellette: snow days.
Don Mespelt: Does that happen often?
ken ouellette: Basically never. So, like, once a decade.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. Yeah. Well and on the flip side,
Don Mespelt: we've had no rain in Oregon on the
Don Mespelt: coast.
ken ouellette: Well, it's coming.
Don Mespelt: Well, yeah. That is. But I'm just saying
Don Mespelt: it's kind of amazing how the the nature
Don Mespelt: is nature is fickle.
ken ouellette: It is. It is. And today, we've got,
ken ouellette: we got something new. We're gonna do a,
ken ouellette: little book review. And for the listener that,
ken ouellette: has not been allowing for every podcast, Don
ken ouellette: is on his retirement journey. It's about to
ken ouellette: wrap up in a year or two. And
ken ouellette: so I gave Don a homework assignment of
ken ouellette: a book to read. And that book is
ken ouellette: Don?
Don Mespelt: That book is The Richest Man in Babylon
Don Mespelt: by George s Clayson.
ken ouellette: Yes. The for the listener that may not
ken ouellette: have seen that in, on the Amazon top
ken ouellette: ten list because it was written, what, nineteen
ken ouellette: twenty six?
Don Mespelt: Yeah. Yeah.
ken ouellette: Yeah. It's a classic. It's a classic. But,
ken ouellette: as we're gonna as we go into it,
ken ouellette: we dive into it, we're gonna see that
ken ouellette: these principles have not changed.
Don Mespelt: So I'm just gonna say it from a
Don Mespelt: start point. He mentioned Ken mentioned that he
Don Mespelt: Ken mentioned this book to me, and I'm
Don Mespelt: like, I've never heard of it. I mean,
Don Mespelt: you know, I was all in engineering junk
Don Mespelt: in college, and and, you know, this is
Don Mespelt: a money book. But it's not really a
Don Mespelt: money book. It's actually kind of a life
Don Mespelt: but it could be in two sections, like
Don Mespelt: the finance section, but also in the self
Don Mespelt: help. Yeah. Yeah. Because, really, there's a lot
Don Mespelt: of things I think that this could go
Don Mespelt: into self help as well. But just to
Don Mespelt: read off the back real quick, George s
Don Mespelt: Clason wrote the collection of parables set in
Don Mespelt: Babylon, ancient Babylon, and provided guidance to one's
Don Mespelt: financial well-being. And one thing I didn't know
Don Mespelt: as well is these guys at the US
Don Mespelt: banks and insurance customers, they they created pamphlets
Don Mespelt: out of these because they they wanted to
Don Mespelt: help people. And and so they actually had
Don Mespelt: them in their air stores and stuff and
Don Mespelt: his parables. And so they combined them all
Don Mespelt: together to make this book. Yeah. And it
Don Mespelt: was also during the Great Depression, which I
Don Mespelt: found interesting. And people were trying to find
Don Mespelt: anything to save and help and then try
Don Mespelt: to better themselves during the Depression. And this
Don Mespelt: is one of the books that, actually came
Don Mespelt: through the whole thing as a success.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, the reason
ken ouellette: I how I came across this book was
ken ouellette: somebody slid it across my desk when I
ken ouellette: first started. Said, listen. This is a this
ken ouellette: book is what a it's not very many
ken ouellette: pages. How many pages is it?
Don Mespelt: Well, I was gonna say, though, they slid
Don Mespelt: the clay tablet across because you started, like,
Don Mespelt: that long ago. But, it's like a hundred
Don Mespelt: and sixteen pages.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a hundred page
ken ouellette: book. It's a real simple read. You read
ken ouellette: it in one evening. But it's got some
ken ouellette: profound, timeless, little nuggets in there. And like
ken ouellette: you said, you know, a lot of a
ken ouellette: lot of finance crosses over into life. And
ken ouellette: so that's why I think, this book is
ken ouellette: really, really interesting for the listener to to
ken ouellette: give it a chance.
Don Mespelt: For the foreword, the very first line of
Don Mespelt: the whole freaking book, I was like, well,
Don Mespelt: that sets it up. And here's the line.
Don Mespelt: Our prosperity as a nation depends upon the
Don Mespelt: personal financial prosperity of each of us as
Don Mespelt: individuals. Wow. Doesn't that just sum it up?
ken ouellette: Yeah. That sums up today, doesn't it?
Don Mespelt: I mean, it is. It's like, wow. This
Don Mespelt: is nineteen twenty seven. I just thought that
Don Mespelt: was amazing.
ken ouellette: Yeah. You you know, things things, history doesn't
ken ouellette: repeat itself. It rhymes. And, and this book
ken ouellette: is really so let let's get into the
ken ouellette: meat of the book.
Don Mespelt: Well, he starts out, and he and he
Don Mespelt: gives you a little, like, you know, seven
Don Mespelt: pages of here's Babylon. It's great. It's beautiful.
Don Mespelt: It's, you know, big walls, all that stuff.
Don Mespelt: And then he starts out the very first
Don Mespelt: one of his first one. And the thing
Don Mespelt: is he talks in parables, which I thought,
Don Mespelt: you know, a lot. You know, if you
Don Mespelt: wanna help get your story across, people will
Don Mespelt: take it more meaningful with parables. That's, you
Don Mespelt: know, Jesus. Yeah. Talked in parables too.
ken ouellette: Yeah. So a parable just takes a a
ken ouellette: complex subject and puts it into layman's terms
ken ouellette: in a short little story that
Don Mespelt: that Easy to understand.
ken ouellette: That parallels the actual concept.
Don Mespelt: So here, he starts it off with Banzir,
Don Mespelt: the chariot builder of Babylon, and his friend.
Don Mespelt: And he's sitting well, Banzir is sitting there
Don Mespelt: going, you know, I make a lot of
Don Mespelt: money, but why am I still poor? I
Don Mespelt: mean, I have to work every day. And
Don Mespelt: then he comes up to his buddy who
Don Mespelt: says, you know, I can't loan you any
Don Mespelt: money because I don't got any myself. So
Don Mespelt: they start talking about it, but and they
Don Mespelt: say, well, let's go talk to Frankie over
Don Mespelt: here, who's the well, it's actually Alcazar. He's
Don Mespelt: the richest man in Babylon. So then they
Don Mespelt: go over and they start talking to him.
ken ouellette: Okay. And he gets the wisdom. Right?
Don Mespelt: Oh, yeah. He starts talking about, you know,
Don Mespelt: how great it is that people wanna learn
Don Mespelt: and and learn from him. And one of
Don Mespelt: the biggest things he goes off of right
Don Mespelt: then is just talking about well, out of
Don Mespelt: every ten what's the word? Ten coins or
Don Mespelt: ten chuckles or Shuckles. What? Shuckles? Yeah. Yeah.
Don Mespelt: You you know, you could spend nine, but
Don Mespelt: put that tenth away. Don't touch.
ken ouellette: Yes. And I think, you know, what we'll
ken ouellette: try to do is take the principles of
ken ouellette: the book and kinda put them in today's
ken ouellette: terms. So what we like to deem that
ken ouellette: is ten percent of your earnings, you should
ken ouellette: pay yourself first. So just like you have
ken ouellette: an electric bill, just like you have a
ken ouellette: mortgage payment, we try to get particularly younger
ken ouellette: people to think of their retirement as a
ken ouellette: bill that's gonna come due because it does.
ken ouellette: And so you need to pay yourself that
ken ouellette: first ten percent or that first shekel. At
ken ouellette: one shekel out of ten, you need to
ken ouellette: pay yourself.
Don Mespelt: And and it Vance here goes, I I
Don Mespelt: wish an income that will keep flowing into
Don Mespelt: my purse whether I sit upon the wall
Don Mespelt: or travel to far lands.
ken ouellette: Wow.
Don Mespelt: That's a that's a dream for all of
Don Mespelt: us.
ken ouellette: Yeah. I would think.
Don Mespelt: And that's when, the the, the man, Artzir
Don Mespelt: and I'm I'm killing his name. That's why
Don Mespelt: he says you should always keep a part
Don Mespelt: of what you earn. You should always keep
Don Mespelt: it yourself. And he coined the phrase, pay
Don Mespelt: yourself first.
ken ouellette: There you go. See, it stuck. I read
ken ouellette: that book thirty years ago, and here it
ken ouellette: is. It said, just pay yourself first.
Don Mespelt: But, I mean, I've heard that other places.
Don Mespelt: It's just it's never been coined back to
Don Mespelt: him, or I thought that's kinda impressive too.
Don Mespelt: And then wealth grows whenever men exert energy.
Don Mespelt: Wow. Arc Arcad.
ken ouellette: Alright. So
Don Mespelt: These are just my highlights as I go
Don Mespelt: through. I thought it was kinda fun. But
Don Mespelt: pay yourself first, and that was one of
Don Mespelt: the next quotes I really love. Wealth grows
Don Mespelt: grows wherever men exert energy. Okay. And that's
Don Mespelt: the truth. So I mean but it takes
Don Mespelt: effort to put away that one shekel.
ken ouellette: Yes. I would yeah. That's okay. It takes
ken ouellette: energy.
Don Mespelt: That's my thought. And then he goes off
Don Mespelt: and says, okay. When he was young, he
Don Mespelt: actually paid, that well, this all changed around
Don Mespelt: to Joey, the, brick builder. He gave him
Don Mespelt: some money to go over to the next
Don Mespelt: town and buy some diamonds.
ken ouellette: Okay.
Don Mespelt: Unfortunately, Joey, the brick builder, didn't know what
Don Mespelt: he was doing. And so he, he came
Don Mespelt: back with some glass, and he got he
Don Mespelt: got frauded. So he lost all of his
Don Mespelt: shackles that he saved.
ken ouellette: So the the parable there is telling you
ken ouellette: be very mindful of the ten percent that
ken ouellette: you provide and who you provide it to.
ken ouellette: Vet that person to make sure that they
ken ouellette: are going to do well by the monies
ken ouellette: that you save.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. And and then the coins, how he
Don Mespelt: has it in his little book too is
Don Mespelt: guide your treasures.
ken ouellette: Guide your treasures.
Don Mespelt: Guard your treasures.
ken ouellette: Guard your treasures. Excellent. So don't be maybe
ken ouellette: in today's terms, don't try to hit home
ken ouellette: runs. Don't try to be too speculative. Don't
ken ouellette: try to catch the latest fad or or
ken ouellette: investing craze, but guard your treasure. I like
ken ouellette: that.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. And and then he goes off, and
Don Mespelt: I I jumped ahead that one because I
Don Mespelt: was kinda excited because I thought that was
Don Mespelt: pretty funny how we paid some dude to
Don Mespelt: that doesn't know anything about diamonds to go
Don Mespelt: get diamonds. And that's a true story in
Don Mespelt: today's world with all the people clumps. Say,
Don Mespelt: hey. Do I have a deal for you?
ken ouellette: Yes.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. So one of the next ones
ken ouellette: good. Yeah.
Don Mespelt: How's it going? I'm sorry.
ken ouellette: Yeah. You have to do this now, or
ken ouellette: you're gonna miss out on this opportunity. That's
ken ouellette: usually
Don Mespelt: the reason.
ken ouellette: Yes. The fear of missing out. Excellent. Yeah.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. So, and then he goes off the
Don Mespelt: second one he really says after he says
Don Mespelt: you pay yourself. He says, get a budget.
Don Mespelt: Nice. So and he says, control your expenses,
Don Mespelt: and do not confuse the necessary expenses with
Don Mespelt: thy desires.
ken ouellette: Oh my goodness. That's a good one in
ken ouellette: today's society, isn't it?
Don Mespelt: Yeah. Well, isn't that the truth, though? I
Don Mespelt: mean, it's just yeah. It it's crazy how
Don Mespelt: this is nineteen twenty. Well, it's money. Right.
Don Mespelt: And even as they pointed out, this is,
Don Mespelt: because this is what he said Babylon was,
Don Mespelt: like, you know, two thousand years before this
Don Mespelt: and everything else. And even in Babylon, two
Don Mespelt: thousand years ago, money is money. And you
Don Mespelt: have to know how to control it and
Don Mespelt: make your little your dollars work for you.
ken ouellette: Yeah. And it it the budget thing is
ken ouellette: important because if you don't have the if
ken ouellette: you don't start with the budget, it becomes
ken ouellette: difficult to pay yourself the ten percent first
ken ouellette: because you don't know where all of your
ken ouellette: money is going. So So a lot of
ken ouellette: people will have the conversation with, particularly younger
ken ouellette: people. Well, things are very expensive now. I
ken ouellette: just don't have money to put away from
ken ouellette: myself, or I can't I hear that one.
ken ouellette: X out my four zero one k, or
ken ouellette: I can't even do the company match if
ken ouellette: it's five percent. I I can only do
ken ouellette: two or three percent. Well, if you start
ken ouellette: with a budget, there's gonna be places in
ken ouellette: that budget where you're gonna be able to
ken ouellette: find an additional two or three or four
ken ouellette: percent. Now it may be may be something
ken ouellette: that you're used to doing. You know, it
ken ouellette: might be making your own coffee versus buying
ken ouellette: coffee.
Don Mespelt: It might
ken ouellette: be, you know, cooking dinner more often than
ken ouellette: going out. It might be there might be
ken ouellette: some forms of, discipline that you're gonna have
ken ouellette: to do, but in the end, your that
ken ouellette: that bill's coming, so we need to carve
ken ouellette: out a space for that ten percent.
Don Mespelt: His bow his, quote is, the budget shows
Don Mespelt: up the leaks from thy purse and enables
Don Mespelt: thee to stop them and control the expenditures
Don Mespelt: for definite and gratifying purposes.
ken ouellette: Oh, beautiful. Yep.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. It shows thy leaks.
ken ouellette: Wow. Shows thy leaks.
Don Mespelt: I mean, that guy.
ken ouellette: Yep. I've seen lots of budgets that are
ken ouellette: leaking.
Don Mespelt: So when I was talking about, giving it
Don Mespelt: to, Jimmy Joan, the, these are just fictional
Don Mespelt: names I'm throwing out, of course, not to
Don Mespelt: offend anyone. But Jimmy, the, the brickmaker, that's
Don Mespelt: what this one is. The next one is
Don Mespelt: this. He says, make thy gold multiply.
ken ouellette: Make thy gold multiply. And that's a good
ken ouellette: one too. So we have seen throughout history,
ken ouellette: sometimes people confuse, safety with with lack you
ken ouellette: know, or or not getting purchasing power. So
ken ouellette: they're trying to they're trying to be very
ken ouellette: safe and conservative with their money, but it
ken ouellette: doesn't grow, keep pace with inflation. You have
ken ouellette: to have some form of multiplier in there.
Don Mespelt: So he, he talks about this whole section
Don Mespelt: is about having a lean purse, which is
Don Mespelt: a great way of saying that I'm broke.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. Yeah. So his his his lean purse,
Don Mespelt: he says, for a lean purse to a
Don Mespelt: man no longer able to earn or to
Don Mespelt: a family without its head is a sore
Don Mespelt: tragedy. It's just like, wow. This guy. Man.
Don Mespelt: But he he puts it straightforward. It's it's
Don Mespelt: such a great way of doing it, I
Don Mespelt: think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and then, another
Don Mespelt: one that he talks about with investments was
Don Mespelt: talking about, the sheep dude. This guy comes
Don Mespelt: up with a bunch of sheep, middle of
Don Mespelt: the night. Said, oh, I can't. I gotta
Don Mespelt: get rid of these. I don't have time.
Don Mespelt: My wife's sick. I gotta go back home.
Don Mespelt: I can't show him right now. But if
Don Mespelt: you wanna buy them, you can. I'll give
Don Mespelt: you this great price. And the guy's like,
Don Mespelt: I don't know. Anyway, turns out he it
Don Mespelt: was a good deal, but he lost money
Don Mespelt: on it because he didn't take advantage of
Don Mespelt: it. So, I mean, he shows you both
Don Mespelt: sides.
ken ouellette: Right. So then you're talking about opportunity cost.
ken ouellette: You know, if you have an an opportunity
ken ouellette: to invest in something that's got a nice
ken ouellette: track record, you have to have some faith
ken ouellette: that it's gonna work out and be able
ken ouellette: to take advantage of those opportunities. So have
ken ouellette: a growth mindset. I think that that is
ken ouellette: what he's getting out there.
Don Mespelt: That works. I didn't quite get that same
Don Mespelt: well, I got the same take, but you
Don Mespelt: you say it much nicer in today's world.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah. So what what is your take?
Don Mespelt: You know, the opportunities are around, but you
Don Mespelt: have to use your smarts and figure out
Don Mespelt: what's actually good.
ken ouellette: Yes. You have to be you have to
ken ouellette: have a discerning eye. No doubt about it.
Don Mespelt: You're making me sound here really bad.
ken ouellette: Well, you you're you're you're doing the nineteen
ken ouellette: twenty six version. I'm doing the two thousand
ken ouellette: and twenty five update.
Don Mespelt: Well, I'm trying to actually do the middle
Don Mespelt: version to bring it in a little bit.
Don Mespelt: I'm doing the abridged
ken ouellette: I'm doing the abridged version of of richest
ken ouellette: man in Babylon for the listener.
Don Mespelt: Well and then when he was talking about,
Don Mespelt: the the brickmaker, he one of the things
Don Mespelt: he says is to get expert advice. That
Don Mespelt: was one other another one of his cures
Don Mespelt: for a lean purse. And you've gotten into
Don Mespelt: that.
ken ouellette: Yeah. So use a financial adviser. Yeah.
Don Mespelt: Men of action are favored by the goddess
Don Mespelt: of good luck. Wow. You could take that
Don Mespelt: one a lot of different ways. But, I
Don Mespelt: mean, if you don't try something, you you're
Don Mespelt: never gonna
ken ouellette: Yeah. My view on that is, once again,
ken ouellette: do what I found throughout my career is
ken ouellette: there's really two types of people. There's the
ken ouellette: half half full, the glass is half full
ken ouellette: people, and then there's the half empty people.
ken ouellette: The people that have an optimistic attitude make
ken ouellette: very, very good investors because they're patient. They're
ken ouellette: willing to to have their their investments do
ken ouellette: bear fruit. Whereas the people that are pessimistic,
ken ouellette: they tend to not have faith in the
ken ouellette: process and the markets. They're just so critical
ken ouellette: that they have that makes them react. And
ken ouellette: so I think what he's trying to say
ken ouellette: there is is that you have to have
ken ouellette: patience and and have faith in after you
ken ouellette: vetted the the investment process you're gonna use
ken ouellette: and the adviser that things are gonna work
ken ouellette: out.
Don Mespelt: Is that right? He was big on that
Don Mespelt: one. He talked about, don't just talk to,
Don Mespelt: you know Right. Silly willy down the corner
Don Mespelt: and stuff or, you know, get advice from
Don Mespelt: TikTok. Well, I said it.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You wanna be
ken ouellette: able to because your financial plan should be
ken ouellette: specific to you, and the financial adviser should
ken ouellette: have a history of dealing with good, bad
ken ouellette: markets, and you should be able to put
ken ouellette: your faith in in that individual who you
ken ouellette: so desire to hire.
Don Mespelt: And one thing that, in going and I
Don Mespelt: left this book, it kinda it's all it's
Don Mespelt: all the same idea with different stories, and
Don Mespelt: it kinda goes around a little bit. But
Don Mespelt: one thing he did talk about is, is
Don Mespelt: just in the beginning, he talked to Akbar,
Don Mespelt: the richest man in Babylon. He he himself
Don Mespelt: learned from someone else.
ken ouellette: Right.
Don Mespelt: And this dude came in, and he's like,
Don Mespelt: well, hey. You gotta do that. Pull one
Don Mespelt: aside and and do it. And he did
Don Mespelt: that. That's when he told the story about,
Don Mespelt: you know, giving it to and buying some
Don Mespelt: glass and not gold diamonds. And the other
Don Mespelt: one is after he learned to live on
Don Mespelt: less, which I thought was interesting too. And
Don Mespelt: he liked it in the long run because
Don Mespelt: he could actually see his shackles growing.
ken ouellette: Exactly. Yeah. I mean, there's there is definitely
ken ouellette: a you grow in confidence through experience in
ken ouellette: the investing market. And sometimes the the investment
ken ouellette: process, you know, teaches you to become more
ken ouellette: patient or or it teach or it kinda
ken ouellette: we we have a saying that people that
ken ouellette: use speculative measures, it kinda spits you out
ken ouellette: at the bottom. If you use margin, if
ken ouellette: you use here in the recent news, you
ken ouellette: know, there were a lot of people that
ken ouellette: were using exchange traded funds that were two
ken ouellette: times the leverage of the individual item. So
ken ouellette: a stock that's all over the news had
ken ouellette: a real bad day yesterday, was down seventeen
ken ouellette: or eighteen percent, and there were individuals that
ken ouellette: were trying to gain a little bit more
ken ouellette: advantage on the upside of that by two
ken ouellette: times. So it would move two times up
ken ouellette: or two times down. So if that's down
ken ouellette: seventeen percent, they're down thirty three percent a
ken ouellette: day. Uh-huh. So that through that process, either
ken ouellette: you learn from that and you see your
ken ouellette: shackles deteriorate quickly, and you learn from that
ken ouellette: process and never do it again. But when
ken ouellette: you do learn from it and you don't
ken ouellette: do it and you see your shackles grow
ken ouellette: over a period of time, and shackles were
ken ouellette: meaning dollars, you grow in confidence, I think.
ken ouellette: I think is that is that what he's
ken ouellette: gonna try to say there in the book?
Don Mespelt: Well, I think that's how I got it.
Don Mespelt: I mean, you you develop you develop this
Don Mespelt: sounds I'm sound like a motivational speaker, which
Don Mespelt: I might add, do you know this was
Don Mespelt: one of Jim Rohn's favorite books?
ken ouellette: Oh, really?
Don Mespelt: For those I mean, for those of you
Don Mespelt: that don't know Jim, I mean, he's a
Don Mespelt: motivational speaker from nineteen seventies, I wanna say.
Don Mespelt: Well, no. And yeah. Oh, he is the
Don Mespelt: man. But, yeah, it was one of his
Don Mespelt: favorite ones, and he would actually, talk about
Don Mespelt: it in some of the speeches just about
Don Mespelt: how because it's so positive and it has
Don Mespelt: there's nothing wrong. There's no bad advice in
Don Mespelt: this book. Right. I mean, it doesn't say,
Don Mespelt: like, you know, go out there, and and
Don Mespelt: if you sleep upside down for five days
Don Mespelt: in a row, you're gonna make money. It's
Don Mespelt: like yeah. It's straightforward.
ken ouellette: Very, very straightforward and very, very, principled advice.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. So, I mean, you develop, as you're
Don Mespelt: saying, that that that that I the the
Don Mespelt: idea is kinda like when you start working
Don Mespelt: out. At first, it sucks, but after a
Don Mespelt: while, you get used to it, and you
Don Mespelt: start building a little you feel them better,
Don Mespelt: you feel them better, and it builds on
Don Mespelt: it. And then you you actually feel like,
Don Mespelt: oh, I'm gonna go do that again. You
Don Mespelt: can't it motivates you to keep going forward.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. And that's what he's talking about. Akbar
Don Mespelt: is trying to build them up, and he
Don Mespelt: learns
ken ouellette: that from the first guy. Yeah. And I
ken ouellette: think, you know, Charlie Munger, who was, Warren
ken ouellette: Buffett's partner for decades, who recently passed away
ken ouellette: last year, he used to always say that
ken ouellette: the the most difficult, process of investing is
ken ouellette: getting to your first hundred thousand. Once you
ken ouellette: get to your first hundred thousand, it it's
ken ouellette: like you get momentum. You get confidence, and
ken ouellette: you see the process. And so, he was
ken ouellette: he was famous for saying that.
Don Mespelt: What I find interesting about that is I
Don Mespelt: don't even remember when that happened. I mean,
Don Mespelt: because that's, like, you know, early early on.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. And it just kinda you know, I
Don Mespelt: mean, for me, at least, I don't I
Don Mespelt: never looked at it early on. It's only
Don Mespelt: been as of late as I start actually
Don Mespelt: thinking, can I actually retire when I start
Don Mespelt: looking at it?
ken ouellette: Well, you started to put these principles in
ken ouellette: into effect without even really without knowing they
ken ouellette: were principles. You were just doing it. And
ken ouellette: all of that
Don Mespelt: made me.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah. That that's part of it. But
ken ouellette: then also, you know, once when you're working,
ken ouellette: your head's kinda down. As long as you
ken ouellette: get the budgetary process down, you're just putting
ken ouellette: the money in, and then all of a
ken ouellette: sudden you're seeing it growing, and you're getting
ken ouellette: confidence that this is gonna work out over
ken ouellette: a thirty, forty year retirement. And then those
ken ouellette: those kind of those those bellwether marks, the
ken ouellette: hundred thousands, the million, they kind of fade.
ken ouellette: Whereas if you're not if you if you're
ken ouellette: not as experienced and you're trying to you'd
ken ouellette: kinda hang on to those benchmarks.
Don Mespelt: So I'm gonna lead into the the five
Don Mespelt: laws of gold Okay. Which this is straightforward.
Don Mespelt: And I'm gonna delete a little hit header
Don Mespelt: on each. Gold cometh gladly and increasing quantity
Don Mespelt: to any man who will put not less
Don Mespelt: than one tenth of his earnings to to,
Don Mespelt: create an estate for his future and that
Don Mespelt: of his family. Jack. That's the one we
Don Mespelt: just talked about. That was a beautiful one.
Don Mespelt: The second law of gold. Gold laboreth diligently
Don Mespelt: and contently for the wise owner who finds
Don Mespelt: it for a profitable and joint employment, multiplying
Don Mespelt: even as the flocks of the field.
ken ouellette: Compounding? Yes. Yeah. Jack.
Don Mespelt: Third law. Gold clingeth to the protection of
Don Mespelt: the cautious owner who invested under the advice
Don Mespelt: of men wise in its handling.
ken ouellette: So be consistent in your investment process. Know
ken ouellette: what you're doing. Buy good solid things that
ken ouellette: are gonna just grow over time, and you're
ken ouellette: not having to worry about bankruptcies, bad markets,
ken ouellette: things of that nature making your gold or
ken ouellette: your investment portfolio go away.
Don Mespelt: The fourth law of gold. Gold slippeth away
Don Mespelt: from the man who invested in the businesses
Don Mespelt: or purposes for what she is not familiar
Don Mespelt: or what she is not approved by those
Don Mespelt: skilled in its keep.
ken ouellette: Excellent. Stay in your lane, I call that.
ken ouellette: So if you have and and, you know,
ken ouellette: I can I can speak to myself? I
ken ouellette: know dividend stocks and dividend investing. That's my
ken ouellette: lane, and that's what I stay in. That's
ken ouellette: what I know. And I tell my clients
ken ouellette: if they wanna speculate, I'm not against that.
ken ouellette: You know, there there's a certain portion of
ken ouellette: money, but you'd have to either find somebody
ken ouellette: that knows that area of technology stocks or,
ken ouellette: commodities or things of that nature, which I
ken ouellette: cannot speak wisely about.
Don Mespelt: Uh-huh. The fifth law of gold. Gold flees
Don Mespelt: the man who would force it it to
Don Mespelt: impossible earnings or who fall with the alluring
Don Mespelt: advice of tricksters or schemers or who trust
Don Mespelt: it in his own inexperience and romantic desires
Don Mespelt: in investment.
ken ouellette: Boy, do I see this all the time.
ken ouellette: I mean, I could go we could spend
ken ouellette: an hour and a half of me counseling
ken ouellette: clients that have come to me after chasing
ken ouellette: some fad securities, or investment scheme that didn't
ken ouellette: work out. And every single cycle has new
ken ouellette: schemes. Every single one. It's repetitive. It's going
ken ouellette: to go on forever. And, whether it be
ken ouellette: in two thousand and eight when everybody was
ken ouellette: buying homes, you know, on margin, on leverage,
ken ouellette: assuming that the house values were gonna go
ken ouellette: up forever, and they would have workshops about
ken ouellette: real estate. It just goes on and on
ken ouellette: and on, and the the dot coms of
ken ouellette: the two thousand and two thousand, nineteen ninety
ken ouellette: nineties. Yeah. You know, so what do we
ken ouellette: have now? We've got we've got, you know,
ken ouellette: gold is getting up there in in the
ken ouellette: speculative area. You've got a lot of these
ken ouellette: tech stocks that AI, you know, may has
ken ouellette: that kind of that that Allure. Allure to
ken ouellette: it. You know, easy, quick money. I'm going
ken ouellette: to be able to make twenty percent a
ken ouellette: year. As soon as you you start to
ken ouellette: think that I can make that there was
ken ouellette: an old saying we had. When you think
ken ouellette: you've got the key to Wall Street figured
ken ouellette: out, they always change the lock. I've
Don Mespelt: seen that with an orangutan on the poster.
ken ouellette: I thought I had all the questions, and
ken ouellette: then they changed all the answers.
Don Mespelt: I mean Yeah.
ken ouellette: Yeah. That Yeah. You kinda feel like an
ken ouellette: orangutan after that. Something like that happens. So
ken ouellette: we wanna avoid that for sure. That's that's
ken ouellette: good advice.
Don Mespelt: One of the, second to last chapter of
Don Mespelt: it is, the gold lender of Babylon, and
Don Mespelt: I think this is kinda it's it's kinda
Don Mespelt: awesome. Again, some guy makes a lot of
Don Mespelt: money, and he goes over to this guy
Don Mespelt: and says, hey. I see that you have
Don Mespelt: a lot of money, and you're rich and
Don Mespelt: stuff. And I just got this. What do
Don Mespelt: I do with it? And, of course, he
Don Mespelt: goes on the same things. How do he
Don Mespelt: wants you to make your, you know, make
Don Mespelt: your dollars, make your shekels bro, and will
Don Mespelt: work for you kind of thing. Mhmm. And,
Don Mespelt: he's like and he's like, woah. Does that
Don Mespelt: mean I should help my, you know, my
Don Mespelt: brother-in-law who needs this and stuff? And his
Don Mespelt: quote for helping out family, which I shouldn't
Don Mespelt: say family, family and friends. And in general,
Don Mespelt: it's always, you know, do what you it's
Don Mespelt: whatever. But, if you desire to help thy
Don Mespelt: friend, do it in a way that will
Don Mespelt: not bring the friend's burden upon thyself.
ken ouellette: Oh, boy. That's a classic.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. That way, that I think you could
Don Mespelt: do a book on that alone, can't you?
ken ouellette: Yes. Yeah. And then so I think in
ken ouellette: the last podcast, we talked about the client
ken ouellette: who did the second wedding for forty five
ken ouellette: thousand dollars. And I said, well, that's fine.
ken ouellette: You can do that, but it it blows
ken ouellette: up your plan a little bit of what
ken ouellette: you've worked so hard for. So the daughter,
ken ouellette: at some point when you're eighty, is going
ken ouellette: to have to give that money back to
ken ouellette: you. So I think that's the prudence that
ken ouellette: he's talking about there. And we see this
ken ouellette: too, like professional athletes. Right? They wanna buy
ken ouellette: cars. They wanna buy their they've got a
ken ouellette: lot of friends that they wanna try to
ken ouellette: take care of, that they grew up with
ken ouellette: or what have you, and they've come into
ken ouellette: money quickly. They wanna buy their parents a
ken ouellette: house, but then their career is relatively short,
ken ouellette: and then all of that money is gone.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah.
Don Mespelt: You just have to do it in a
Don Mespelt: way where it's not gonna hurt you in
Don Mespelt: the long run.
ken ouellette: Yeah. I always I always say exactly. So
ken ouellette: whenever whenever somebody wants something like that, it's
ken ouellette: gotta be something that won't affect the plan.
ken ouellette: And then if they never pay you back,
ken ouellette: it's it's not going to it's it's gonna
ken ouellette: have zero emphasis on your long term strategy.
Don Mespelt: So and and this is why the gold
Don Mespelt: lender of Babylon is a very rich man
Don Mespelt: because if he does loan something out to
Don Mespelt: people, he says, I want something in return.
Don Mespelt: Right. And that has to be something of
Don Mespelt: value to the person. Otherwise, they're not gonna
Don Mespelt: bother with it. Right. And so, he he
Don Mespelt: goes off here and it's and he says
Don Mespelt: this one person gave him a scarlet cloth,
Don Mespelt: and he learned that one is, the bitter
Don Mespelt: remorse, she threw herself into the Euphrates and
Don Mespelt: killed herself, and the loans will never be
Don Mespelt: repaid. And so everything he borrows from people,
Don Mespelt: he puts into a chest, and he says,
Don Mespelt: the chest tells you, Rodin, that was the
Don Mespelt: name of the guy who came to him
Don Mespelt: with a lot of money, that human in
Don Mespelt: the throes of great emotions are not safe
Don Mespelt: risks for the gold lender.
ken ouellette: Wow. That's pretty profound. Human.
Don Mespelt: I know it's nineteen twenty seven, this dude.
Don Mespelt: Humans in the throes of great emotions are
Don Mespelt: not a safe risk for the gold lender.
Don Mespelt: That's true. Yeah. That's straightforward. I mean, it's
Don Mespelt: just right up there. Yeah. So so he
Don Mespelt: gives you a few other examples of, you
Don Mespelt: know, how you shouldn't just loan to this
Don Mespelt: from various people and stuff without having something
Don Mespelt: that's meaningful that makes them gonna come back.
Don Mespelt: And he also talks about this dude that
Don Mespelt: he's grown to really like and the not
Don Mespelt: like, but they've done a lot of work
Don Mespelt: together, and he trusts them. And he doesn't
Don Mespelt: even require him to give him anything in
Don Mespelt: the in the future or for future loans
Don Mespelt: because he shows a habit. He always repays
Don Mespelt: them on time and early.
ken ouellette: So, basically, I guess, he's speaking to prudence
ken ouellette: there. Who's she? No. Prudence. I'm joking. Oh,
ken ouellette: okay. Yeah. So be prudent in who you
ken ouellette: you lend money out to. If it you
ken ouellette: know, we we so I have historically, regardless
ken ouellette: of if it's if it's friends or family,
ken ouellette: I like to use an amortization chart, and
ken ouellette: provide that just so there is a written
ken ouellette: principal and interest payment that is done. We
ken ouellette: recommend that to our clients, just because it
ken ouellette: makes it official, and then there's no questions.
ken ouellette: But, you know, that that is how we
ken ouellette: we we attack that prudence.
Don Mespelt: And the final chapter of the book, Ken,
Don Mespelt: and it talks about how the, they find
Don Mespelt: these clay tablets, and they start talking about
Don Mespelt: them in in in college, not in college,
Don Mespelt: but in the, in a archaeology kind of
Don Mespelt: profession.
ken ouellette: Mhmm.
Don Mespelt: And, it's kinda hokey, but it just reiterates
Don Mespelt: everything not hokey. It just reiterates everything that
Don Mespelt: they've gone through in the book and and
Don Mespelt: how they're transcribing and figuring it out. And
Don Mespelt: the guy can't believe that this is actually
Don Mespelt: written that many years ago. And he goes,
Don Mespelt: I must live upon this portion and never
Don Mespelt: use more nor buy what I may not
Don Mespelt: pay for out of this portion. And it
Don Mespelt: just it just talks about the pretty much
Don Mespelt: the same thing we just talked about everything
Don Mespelt: we've had here. One tenth I have set
Don Mespelt: aside to keep my own. Seven tenths have
Don Mespelt: I divided with my good wife to pay
Don Mespelt: for our living, and two tenths have I
Don Mespelt: divided among my creditors. It it's just kind
Don Mespelt: of funny. He just kinda surmises the whole
Don Mespelt: thing, and then it goes on to say
Don Mespelt: the luckiest man in Babylon, talks about how
Don Mespelt: he was once a slave to money and
Don Mespelt: everything else and owed everyone in the world.
Don Mespelt: And and then he goes off, and he
Don Mespelt: actually becomes a slave because he he he
Don Mespelt: does a bad deal with, some other guy
Don Mespelt: doing running cattle. And Chris is not cattle,
Don Mespelt: but he got me. Yeah. And, yeah. So
Don Mespelt: he gets picked up as a slave and
Don Mespelt: everything. And then finally, this person says, oh,
Don Mespelt: you're good enough. You you know, go back.
Don Mespelt: So he goes back to the town where
Don Mespelt: he was there, and he pays back all
Don Mespelt: of his creditors, builds up his whole his
Don Mespelt: wife gets his wife back, everything. Great story.
Don Mespelt: And it's kind of like the moral story
Don Mespelt: is, you know, I mean, he is the
Don Mespelt: luckiest man in Babylon because he was given
Don Mespelt: a second chance to rebuild and pay, and
Don Mespelt: and he became a person that everyone wanted
Don Mespelt: him to be.
ken ouellette: Right. And and he learned these principles, which
ken ouellette: he can apply in his life, even though
ken ouellette: he had that setback.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. Yeah. So I just this is the
Don Mespelt: richest man at Babylon. Like you said, it's
Don Mespelt: a hundred and sixteen or so pages. You
Don Mespelt: know? And then I I highlighted it, so
Don Mespelt: it probably took me an hour and a
Don Mespelt: half. But the principles are here. And this
Don Mespelt: is kinda one of those books that you
Don Mespelt: can almost give to, you know, I mean,
Don Mespelt: people that I love, younger kids, and just
Don Mespelt: say, read this.
ken ouellette: Right. And that's what somebody did for me.
ken ouellette: And I think that's kind of a pass
ken ouellette: down type of thing. And it can makes
ken ouellette: these sometimes when you're when you talk about
ken ouellette: financial things, you know, investments and, the process
ken ouellette: and what you need to do, it because
ken ouellette: it's got its own acronyms and its own
ken ouellette: language, people tend to get a little overwhelmed
ken ouellette: initially on it. And I think that this
ken ouellette: book, because it puts it into these the
ken ouellette: the parable type language, people can understand it,
ken ouellette: and then they can apply it. And the
ken ouellette: it really applies across the board to everybody,
ken ouellette: and everybody should utilize these type of parables
ken ouellette: and principles.
Don Mespelt: Well, like I said, he was, wrote this
Don Mespelt: right before the depression, And everyone, during depression,
Don Mespelt: of course, was trying to figure out look
Don Mespelt: for ways to they could help themselves to
Don Mespelt: get out of this depression and get through
Don Mespelt: it. And that was one of the things
Don Mespelt: that actually made him famous because he actually
Don Mespelt: survived it unlike his business. He, and another
Don Mespelt: interesting point, he started a map company, and
Don Mespelt: he was the first one to publish a
Don Mespelt: road atlas, the United States and Canada.
ken ouellette: Oh, that's true. Yeah.
Don Mespelt: Yeah. So he's and then, and like I
Don Mespelt: said, his businesses didn't survive. But that but
Don Mespelt: this parable book and everything else, of course,
Don Mespelt: through history, and and we're reading it right
Don Mespelt: now. And he has the phrase, pay yourself
Don Mespelt: first.
ken ouellette: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, for the listener
ken ouellette: out there, this is a nice addendum to
ken ouellette: to well, these podcasts, I think we we
ken ouellette: try to cover almost every one of these
ken ouellette: subjects, every time we there's a there's a
ken ouellette: sprinkling of the richest man in Babylon, I
ken ouellette: think, in every one of our podcasts that
ken ouellette: we do because they're timeless. And so, you
ken ouellette: know, we encourage anybody to pick up a
ken ouellette: copy of this. I mean, you could buy
ken ouellette: it on Amazon. I think it might even
ken ouellette: be a free Kindle download. I don't know.
ken ouellette: It's it's been around for so long, but,
ken ouellette: you know, you could pick this thing up
ken ouellette: for three bucks, I think, anywhere, and it'll.
ken ouellette: It see? He's still working even since nineteen
ken ouellette: twenty six.
Don Mespelt: Yep.
ken ouellette: That's awesome.
Don Mespelt: Alright, Ken. Thank you for an enjoyable read,
Don Mespelt: and thank you for recommending this. And taking
Don Mespelt: your knowledge and spreading the wealth, thank you
Don Mespelt: again. How do I get a hold of
Don Mespelt: you?
ken ouellette: Orca Wealth, o r c a w e
ken ouellette: a l t h dot com. And as
ken ouellette: always, my phone, seven two seven seven four
ken ouellette: one six zero seven seven. Orca Wealth Management,
ken ouellette: that is our landing site, our web page,
ken ouellette: which, has the podcast, pertinent information on the
ken ouellette: team that we have put in place. Seven
ken ouellette: two seven seven four one six zero seven
ken ouellette: seven. I can always be reached by phone.
ken ouellette: And then, you know, grab a copy of
ken ouellette: this book, and, let's have a conversation about
ken ouellette: it.
Don Mespelt: Yep. Akbar is awaiting you. Akbar. I didn't
Don Mespelt: think I don't know if that's his name.
Don Mespelt: But, Ahmed Akbar, it it was a a
Don Mespelt: Babylonian ish type name.
ken ouellette: Awesome. Yeah. Well, thanks for the day, Don.
ken ouellette: I enjoyed it.
Don Mespelt: I had a great time. Thank you, Ken,
Don Mespelt: for bringing this book to my attention.
ken ouellette: Alright. Till next time.
Don Mespelt: Cheers. Bye.
Don Mespelt: Thank you for listening to a life well
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