Jim Dew, Advisor To The Entrepreneur®, is the CEO of Dew Wealth Management. Jim has twenty-four years of experience building virtual family offices for entrepreneurs. He earned a BS in Mathematics from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Arizona State University. Jim is a Certified Financial Planner®, Chartered Financial Consultant®, and a Certified Private Wealth Advisor®. He has been featured in Inc, Entrepreneur, and Huffington Post magazines and is the author of “Beyond a Million: The Entrepreneur’s Playbook for Expanding Wealth, Freedom, and Time.” Jim is also known for speaking on national stages for elite entrepreneurs.
Mindie: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Lucrative Society. Today, we are so excited to introduce you to our dear friend, Jim Dew. I’m a little bit nervous about this conversation just because Jim and Sean are together and most of the time, I would say 99.9% of the time, ends in, what would you call it, chaos?
Sean: Beauty! Brilliance!
Jim Dew: I’d say seventh-grade shenanigans.
Sean: Oh, oh.
Mindie: Exactly seventh-grade shenanigans. So I might find myself playing moderator here. I’m not sure. We’ll see how it goes. But Jim, welcome to the show.
Jim Dew: Thank you. I will try to keep this above 12 or 13-year-old levels.
Mindie: I don’t know if that’s possible because you’re hanging out with Sean right now.
Sean: We’re going to be model citizens today, Jim, I promise. So Jim, if you would just share with our listener a little bit about your wealth and career evolution, like where you started to where you are now so they get a picture of what you’ve created with wealth and your own career.
Jim Dew: Sure. I guess I’d start the way I was raised. Both my parents grew up in the Great Depression and my dad’s dad, my grandfather, was out of work for seven years during the Great Depression and had to work for the WPA, the work progress administration that FDR put in place to help some of the 25% of Americans who were out of work. So my grandpa dug ditches for the WPA for about seven years and struggled to put food on the table, lost two homes, and that molded my dad. And you know, my mom grew up very poor as well. So I was raised by that generation where I had all these stories about poverty and about the hardships. And I have to say that that actually was good in a way, cause it made me respect the security of money. But it also made me feel that being poor was honorable. And to get my dad’s praise or to make my dad proud, I found myself trying to act like I was poor, as weird as that sounds. So I’ll give you a quick story. When I was a junior in high school, I refused to let my mom buy me new shoes and my tennis shoes had holes in the side. So when I would run for track practice, which was conditioning for the basketball team, my socks would stick out the sides of these old tennis shoes and they would, I’d get holes in the socks cause they would stick out when I was running, which drove my mom crazy cause I was ruining these socks and I just refused to let her buy me new shoes. So even though my parents were very frugal, that made my mom very angry and she had to tell my dad to come talk to me and order me to let them buy me shoes. And my mom used to give me a little lecture.
She would say, you act like it’s a great thing to be poor. Your father and I were poor, it’s not a great thing to be poor. And by the way, you’re not poor. You’re not in a poor family. So that was interesting. And I was that way really through college. Just not spending money on anything. Wouldn’t let my parents buy me anything of any value, felt like material things were almost bad. And then that’s why I became a teacher. I became a math teacher because I thought, how can I change the world in the most positive way if you don’t care about making money? And if you ask that question, a lot of times “teacher” comes up as the answer. So I did that, taught math and physics, and coached basketball at Queen Creek High School near Phoenix and did that for five years and I went from making $20,000 a year my first year to $25,000 a year in my last year.
But during that evolution, and of course, early in that process before I became a teacher, I met Mimi, my wife, who I’ve been with for 30 years and she grew up in a different way. Her dad, her parents were immigrants. They brought her from Korea when she was five and her dad always felt like, different than my dad, that in America it’s easy to make money. What are you talking about? You just go out and make money. Whereas my dad was always of the mindset that it’s hard to make money and you have to keep every penny. So it was an interesting dichotomy and we kind of learned together. She learned that her dad’s spending everything they made and having nothing wasn’t that good a way to handle money. And my dad’s trying to scrimp and save every penny for security wasn’t really a healthy way to handle money.
So together we kind of came up with a mid-range where we both learn from the other. And I also learned that the people that were doing the most good in the world actually had money because if you have money, you can actually do things for others and you can move the needle in some dramatic ways. So I kind of evolved to that. I left teaching, wanted something that, number one, would help others. I still wanted that to be a main value and it still is today. But I also wanted something where I could actually make a living. I wanted something that involved numbers and math. So I found financial advisory work. Started for a big firm in New York in their Phoenix office. Long story short, once I learned how the sausage is made with those big companies, I found that it was difficult for me to serve my clients because I was constantly getting forced to sell stuff, services and products that I didn’t think were best for my clients. So in 1999 at Mimi’s urging, I left the security of a big company and started my own firm and it was very scary and had to really realize how much it costs to run your own business, but then realize that I feel most comfortable being an entrepreneur. So that’s a little bit, I know I’m kind of droning on, but that’s a little bit about my history and how wealth has impacted me.
Mindie: I totally love that story because you’ve come from a lot of different perspectives and become really a mixture of many of those things. You know, we know you well. We’re dear friends in real life, not just on a podcast and…
Sean: I won’t go that far.
Jim Dew: [Laughing] Don’t start.
Mindie: You know, you have maintained a lot of those value-oriented things and yet, expanded your mind or your concept of money and all of this as you’ve gone into more of an entrepreneurial venture. So I love all of that. My next question for you, Jim, and I ask this to all of our guests and I’m very interested in what you have to say as a wealth manager, but what is your definition of wealth?
Jim Dew: That’s a powerful question. My definition of wealth, I think it’s different for different people. For me, wealth is doing the things you love to do, helping people you care about making a difference in the world and not having the fear that you’re not going to have enough for yourself because when you’re afraid you don’t have enough for yourself, I think that limits your ability to help others and do things for others. I think there’s a whole part of wealth that goes into health because if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. And I remember early in my career, I met a woman who had $3 million and at the time I thought that was so much money, I’d never seen anything like that in my life and she told me, she said, I would give every penny I have to be as healthy as you and that stuck with me. I thought being healthy is probably the number one thing that you need to be wealthy. But in addition to that, when it comes to actual money, I think having enough and knowing you have enough is huge and then being able to share with others so that others can grow and improve and so that you can invest in yourself and grow and improve.
Sean: So when does somebody have enough money?
Jim Dew: That’s a great question. Part of that is psychological and part of that is actually practical, looking at the numbers, a simple way to value that as if you took what you have and turn that into income streams. Would you have enough income so that you wouldn’t have to do anything that you could paint or sculpt or exercise or spend time with friends and family? If you had enough from that income stream to sustain yourself, then that’s enough. But I also find that working with a lot of entrepreneurs, that there are some people that enough is nothing that they can get their head around. They always want more in some degree. So I think there has to be a certain humility about what “enough” means. And if you’re not sure, I know you two have gone to Africa and you’ve gone to some of the poorest parts in the world, and I would imagine that gives you a perspective because what we need, what is enough, for most of us, is exaggerated.
Like we think, Oh well, you know, I couldn’t drive a Honda, or Oh my gosh, if I had to stay at a Hilton, that would kill me. You know, those kinds of things that people in their mind without realizing it, they’ve created this enough idea or story in their head, which is not really true because we don’t need to stay at the Four Seasons. We don’t need to drive the latest Tesla, we don’t need all those things to be happy and fulfilled. So the definition of enough as an important psychological thing that people should think about. And by the way, if enough for you is a Honda and staying at a Holiday Inn, you can still go to the Four Seasons. But guess what? You have a different appreciation and gratitude when you go there.
Mindie: I love that point because you know, I have struggled with that myself of like I grew up in a very, I would call it, materialistic area North of Chicago and I rebelled against that. I was like, I don’t want that to be my life at all. So I gravitated towards things like doing work in East Africa and lots of volunteer work and whatever. And also, by the way, I had no money for a lot of that time. And so then, learning the balance of like it is okay to stay at the Four Seasons, but coming with that gratitude. So I totally appreciate that you brought that in and that leads me to my next question for you is… Really what this show is about and the conversations that we want to have are integrating wealth, whatever that concept is for all of the various listeners, and happiness. Because Sean and I have, you know, we sometimes joke about the fact like, Oh, so-and-so’s really happy but they’re broke. Or these other people, a lot of entrepreneurs who are maybe very successful financially, but totally miserable, and we want to be a stand for: you can do both. You can have both. You can be both. And so I want to get your take on that, that intersection between wealth and happiness and maybe even a little bit of how you and Mimi do that or maintain that.
Jim Dew: Yes. I believe there are people who are broke and happy and people who are rich and miserable. And I know some of both. So with wealth, with money, with riches, don’t necessarily come happiness. And the one thing we know for sure is the wealthier you are, the more complex your life gets. And with complexity can come more stress and you can get more problems. What was that? Mo’ money. Mo’ problems, right? So you have to be aware of that. And I like to use Oliver Wendell Holmes, his quote, which is “I wouldn’t give a fig for simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for simplicity on the other side of complexity.” And the way I think about it is when I was first a teacher and Mimi and I were living in a little apartment in Chandler, Arizona, our life was simple.
We had car insurance, I had my little paycheck that would come every couple of weeks. We really didn’t have anything and our life was simple. But today our lives are complex and now more and more we seek simplicity because complexity can cause problems. So being aware of that transition that happens as you get wealthier, part of that is awareness so that you know how to handle that. That being said, I do think that having more wealth puts you in a position to have more happiness if you know how to deal with it. And some simple things are if you’re increasing your wealth and getting more and more material things and you’re feeling satisfaction from that. I’d say that’s a danger zone because a lot of that is about what the rest of the world thinks about you and you’re creating this image or impression that makes you feel good.
So you’re getting validation from the outside. Validation has to come from the inside, otherwise, it’s fleeting. So that’s one thing is just understanding how that works. Now as you get more wealthy, if you’re getting more life experiences, if you’re able to learn and grow and hire people like you two as coaches or go to different events to learn and grow and meet other great growth-mindset people, then that can be a tremendous way to increase your happiness level while your wealth is increasing. So I think awareness is the key. And I think not being afraid of growing wealth because sometimes people think that growing wealth will lead to unhappiness. But truthfully, if you have the right mindset, you know who you are, and you know your values more wealth generally makes more good stuff for you and how you feel about yourself and less wealth limits you. But if you don’t have the inside right then you’re not going to be happier by getting wealthier.
Sean: Jim, have you found moments, still to this day, where you flashback to when money was tight for you and even though you have wealth in your life now, that just sometimes you’ll look twice at a price tag and then you’re like, whoa, why am I complaining about a four dollar increase on these whatever. Do you have those flashback moments still?
Jim Dew: Absolutely. All the time.
Sean: When does it happen for you?
Jim Dew: Anytime there’s a big payment or anytime a lot of money that we earn goes into our bank account. I find, still to this day, I look at that number and I feel shellshocked and I think about, I put it in context of the first year I was teaching where I made $20,000 and that year I learned that I actually wasn’t making $20,000 cause there was FICA and all this stuff that came out of that. I didn’t understand at the time, but I actually didn’t net… At first, I did 20,000 divided by 12. Wow. We can live great off of that. And then I realized that it actually doesn’t turn out to be 20,000 divided by 12. But I use that number a lot when I look at if we buy a car, if we go on a trip, when we make money, we make money monthly or quarterly and I see that money coming into our bank account.
Sometimes it shocks me and I’ll think of my family history and the poverty that both my mom and dad endured and my relatives behind them in history. And sometimes it just shocks me and I think if my relatives could see me today and how much wealth I have and how easy my life is, I think they’d be happy. I think the hardships they lived through were hoping that someone in a future generation would have a better life. So I see that stuff all the time and sometimes Mimi has to kick me because I will be getting frustrated over, like you said, an extra $4 on something or I want to go shop more to find a better price. And she’s like, dummy, we can afford it. It’s wasting your time and energy to worry about four bucks. But I do fall into that from time to time. It actually sometimes can be helpful because I do understand that $4 means something and maybe it means more to me in my life as a teacher, certainly. Or it means more to other people who I might interact with on a daily basis. But I think having a respect for money at all increments and for all people in all situations is an important, healthy way to think about it.
Sean: Yeah, we talk a lot about how you need to celebrate every dollar that comes in as opposed to look at it and go, ah, it should be more, or why isn’t this what I made last month? No, a dollar is a dollar. You have to celebrate every unit that comes in without judgment and contrast. We find that a lot in our relationship to money.
Jim Dew: In many years, Mimi and I have gone on this holiday shopping where we take disadvantaged kids shopping and they give you a budget of 200 bucks and you got to buy their necessities like underwear and winter jackets and stuff that they don’t have. And then you can get them a toy at the end and if you go to Walmart or a place like that and shop for a kid, you would be shocked at how much you can get for 200 bucks because, of course, we don’t shop for clothes at Walmart. I’ll admit that. When we buy something, like I bought a shirt and that’s almost as much as I could buy for these kids that would last them for a couple of years with all the clothing needs that they have. So I think those kind of things just like you guys going to Africa and spending your time there, it’s good to build that into your life too.
Mindie: It totally is. One of the things that I was always interested in talking with you Jim, is you have insider information that I feel like more people should know about and I’m like, why don’t most people know about this? And I wonder if you could just maybe riff off a few tips. The main one I’m thinking of is about where you can use your own house for entertaining and that could be a tax deduction for the things you do to get your house ready for that. Can you talk just a little bit about that and maybe if there’s another like just secret that you know that most people could benefit from that they just don’t know?
Jim Dew: We could probably spend a couple of hours on that. I’ll talk about, you’re referring to what’s called the Masters Exemption or the Augusta Rule. And that came out of the 1970s, where people who live in Augusta, Georgia, when the Masters golf tournament came into town, they wanted to get out of town cause you had all these people come in from all over the world. And if you’re not aware of Augusta, Georgia, outside of the Masters Tournament is not a really great town and they don’t have a Four Seasons. They don’t have a Ritz Carlton. So these wealthy families would come to town and they had nowhere to stay. So the people with these beautiful homes around the golf tournament thought, why don’t we get out of town, rent our homes for the week and make a bunch of money. So they started doing that. The IRS caught wind and they wanted them to declare this as rental income.
People who live around the Masters have a lot of clout. So they went to Washington, Congress agreed, and they passed a law saying that you could rent your home to anyone for 14 days a year tax free. The reason why that helps business owners is because business owners often have a personal residence or a vacation home and they have their business, which is a separate entity so they can rent their home to their business for business purposes up to 14 days a year. It’s tax-deductible to the business. It’s tax-free income to the business owner. So that’s one little trick that you can use to reduce your taxes. Just like anything, you want to make sure you document everything properly and that you’re working with tax professionals that know how to do that so that you’re not just doing it and not documenting it properly. But that’s the idea I think you were referring to.
Mindie: Yeah, I think that’s so interesting because we didn’t know that before we knew you, and we’ve been in business a long time and never, never heard that before.
Sean: Jim, you are known in the industry for having very high integrity and I know you’re not one to brag for yourself so I’ll do it for you. You have such high integrity…
Mindie: And he’s a fiduciary.
Sean: So I’m curious when people are looking to have, whether it’s a wealth manager, accountants, anybody that’s in the conversation of their money and their future, what are some of the things that they should be looking for in terms of spotting like high integrity, high value, good people? What are some of the characteristics that you look for when you’re kind of vetting for your clients, people to work with them?
Jim Dew: It would be a little bit of a different answer if they’re looking for a wealth manager to head up their team versus an attorney or a CPA or something like that. So let me talk in generality and if you have a specific question about a specific profession, I can go there. One of the first things that often consumers don’t do is look to the regulatory websites to find out about any disciplinary history. Most people, and this is just the world we live in, they Google a person so they Google and find out what they can about that person. I don’t like to do that because even people who have that things can bury their Google search through hiring people and all those tricks. So I go straight to the regulatory websites and that gives me the exact how these people are licensed, how they’re positioned with the clients, any regulatory problems or complaints they’ve had against them.
So that’s step one. I always do that with any professional. I also look to their education and their experience, their specialty because anymore it’s best if you can work with specialists who really know your situation and not generalists. Though most investment advisors, attorneys, CPAs are generalists, so it’s best if you can find a specialist. And then a personality match. You want to find people that you definitely can relate to and talk openly with and feel like they get you. I’d say those are some of the things that, off the top of my head, that I would make sure that you look for and then make sure they have knowledge in what’s going to be important to you. And then they’re willing to work with other professionals because one of the biggest mistakes people make is they have an accountant, have an attorney, they have a banker, they have an insurance agent, they have an investment advisor. And none of these people ever talk to each other. And if they’re not talking to each other, there’s probably gaps in your plan and missed opportunities.
Mindie: I could not agree with that more. And that has been one of the benefits of our community is that between you and our accountant and our insurance agent, I mean you guys all know each other and respect each other.
Sean: Our attorney.
Mindie: There’s so much interaction and I love that. I haven’t had that prior to this current time, but it’s so, so good. So yeah, I would definitely recommend that. Jim, I want to ask you too, cause I want to dig in a little bit deeper about maybe your own personal wealth journey. Not necessarily your journey as an entrepreneur, but I really like the term that an author named Barbara Huson uses. She calls it “overcoming under-earning” and I feel like your story that you told earlier is that. Like you have had to overcome under earning and other than Mimi kicking you sometimes because I know that that happens. What have been some of either the tools that you’ve used or things that you need to remind yourself of or how have you done that? How have you overcome your under-earning?
Jim Dew: It’s interesting. I think for me it’s a balance between abundance, which is having faith that things are going to work out and that money and wealth are going to come my way and the reality of knowing that things can go off track and things can happen out of our control. So not just leaving it to, Oh something great is going to happen. I’ll have this money. So balancing between those two things. So not a scarcity mindset, but not an abundance mindset where you become unrealistic and just think, Oh the world’s going to rain money on me. Cause that usually doesn’t happen. And I’d say one of the simple things that I do every year, Mimi and I sit down and kind of plan out our year and we think of the five buckets that we want to have money or put money in, and this is pretty simple, but it’s been really useful, even back in my days as a teacher.
The first is cash for emergencies, the second is lifestyle, the third is growth, the fourth is financial freedom and the fifth is giving. And no matter where you are, if you’re adding to each of those buckets, unless they’re already full and overflowing, it does something to you psychologically because it kind of covers everything we’re talking about. And I can talk a little about each of those buckets if you want, but that’s how I put together my plan. That’s simple. And then make sure I am consciously putting things in place so that at the end of the year, all these things are going to happen and I’ll feel that I’m hitting those five key areas.
Mindie: What specifically is the growth bucket? What do you do with that?
Jim Dew: If you’re an entrepreneur, there’s two meanings to it. If you’re not an entrepreneur, and you have a career or a job, there’s really, in my opinion, one, well there could be two also, but really the two for an entrepreneur would be growing your business and growing yourself as a person. If you don’t feel like you have a business to grow, you could say growing your career or getting better at your job skills and growing yourself personally. And I think being conscious about actually putting time and energy and money toward those areas every year can make a huge impact. I think it was Bill Gates that said, “People overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.” But to get on this track for 10 years, I think one of the reasons that Mimi and I have been so successful is we invest time and money into growing our business and the value we add for our clients, but also in growing ourselves personally, trying to be better this year than we were last year and better next year than we are this year as people, as human beings.
Sean: Jim, what I admire about you is you think saving is cool and think investing smart is cool, whereas so many other people think spending and buying flashy things is cool.
Mindie: Yes, Jim, you’ve been a great influence on Sean.
Sean: Yeah, I mean, seriously. In the years that I’ve been friends with you, I have changed my definition of financial cool. So how did you change? Did you have to do something to make saving cool?
Jim Dew: My dad always made sure I knew that saving was cool. In fact, for my dad, saving was the only way. There was nothing but saving. There wasn’t investing. It was CDs at the bank. There was saving and having no debt and that was it. So I learned that and that was ingrained in me. I will say though, after working with people for 24 years, I see what it does to people who are not savers when they come to me and I see their position in life, which can be very stressful versus people who save over time. So I get more excited over saving than spending. And that’s a personal thing. And Mimi knows that. So we balance each other. Cause I’d still be in our little house in Chandler, Arizona if it wasn’t for her. So I appreciate the lifestyle and those things and life experiences.
Mimi always says you’re going to remember the life experiences. So she pushes me to do that. On the other hand, I got to say, I get super excited over savings and when I put my plan together at the beginning of the year, and at the end of the year, I see that I saved even more than I planned to. I’m super pumped and I can’t even describe it. It’s one of those things where, it’s not like I go tell anybody, it’s just this internal feeling of, wow, I took some of that wealth that was bestowed on me and I put it in safe care or for future growth. I put it in something that’s going to give back to me or somebody else in the future, and I think that’s pretty cool. Not just using everything that you’ve created for a year, but putting stuff in places that are going to help us or help someone in the future.
Sean: Excellent. So this next question we ask all of our guests. It’s four parts. I’ll walk you through each of the parts and it’s really to get an idea of how you became you or how you continue to have what you have. And it’s an acronym, herb, H. E. R. B.
Jim Dew: I hope it’s a multiple choice.
Sean: H stands for your habits, what are some of your habits, both personally and professionally to make you into the man you are?
Jim Dew: Just me as a person, not my wealth?
Sean: Either.
Jim Dew: I’d say habits that make me who I am, exercise, that’s part of my daily regiment. I’d say thinking about ways I can grow. So books I can read. Hanging out with people like you two. I think people sometimes underestimate the power of other people and spending time with people who inspire you or educate you or who challenge you can be a great way to grow. That’s a habit that I try to keep on the front of my mind.
I have habits as far as saving. So a lot of stuff I set up automatically. If you read David Bach’s book, Automatic Millionaire, there’s a lot of good techniques in there and I use them. I’m human too, so a lot of my saving is automatic, so it doesn’t matter… You know, you never miss a mortgage payment. If you talk to people, they never miss a mortgage payment, but often they’ll go through a year and not save anything. Well, one simple thing is make yourself a mortgage payment that actually pays you and not the bank. So those habits of automating things so they just come out without thinking about it can dramatically improve your trajectory over the years. That’s another one of my habits. I try to think continually about how to add value to my clients. What can I do that will make what I’m doing for them more valuable? Because for any of us, when you’re more and more valuable in anything you’re doing, that means that you can attract better people, you can charge higher prices. So I do little exercises where I try to habitually ask myself, what else could I do that other people aren’t doing? What could I do for my clients to improve their situation? Those are some of the habits that I think of when it comes to habits.
Sean: Perfect. So moving from the H to the E, E stands for environment. What are some of the things that you let in or you do not let in into your personal environments?
Jim Dew: Simple things. My phone is nowhere near my bedroom so it stays in the kitchen. So when I shut down for the night I am not looking at my phone. So that’s one thing. And I think a lot of people… Having your phone in your bedroom, I think it’s a detriment for things that we probably can’t even identify with. So that’s one thing that I do. I think surrounding myself with the right people. There have been a lot of studies and brain scientists can tell you that your brain actually mimics people you spend a lot of time with them. I think some of the famous authors who’ve said you are the five people you spend the most time with. So I’m very conscious about creating an environment where I don’t spend time around people who I feel like are negative or people who are shortsighted or people who are small-minded. And that has made a huge difference in my life. So I think those are a couple of the big keys for environment that I look at all the time.
Sean: So that moves us into the R, which are resources and a resource can be a book, a course, program that has developed you. What are some of the resources that you recommend to people both personally and professionally?
Jim Dew: So many! Believe it or not, I’m going to bring up this book because I think it’s the greatest love story ever written. The Notebook. Which some people have seen the film and loved the film. The book is 10 times better than the film and I think it’s, to me, the greatest love story probably greater than Romeo and Juliet. I love that love story and I think love, having love in our lives is something that people don’t talk about, especially in podcasts and build your wealth and all that kind of stuff. I think love is a huge thing and I love that book because it kind of keeps my mindset about my marriage, but it also I think relates to friendship when it transcends everything with money and stuff and influence and image. And you just love someone and they love you as two human beings, I think that’s a really cool thing. As far as business books, I really liked Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow. I think that really helps people who haven’t read that understand how our brain works and to make better decisions. I also like Taleb’s book Fooled By Randomness. He wrote The Black Swan which is the more popular business book. But I love Fooled By Randomness. Now just to give a warning, there’s a lot of math conversations in there and I love that. So some people might not enjoy Fooled By Randomness, and then Keith Cunningham‘s book The Road Less Stupid. So many great things in there. And I think what I learned from that book is the most important thing for anyone, in anything you’re trying to achieve, is the questions you ask yourself. I know a lot of people talk about the things you say to yourself, but the brain can’t avoid but answer questions. So, unfortunately, if you’re asking yourself questions like, why am I such a dummy? Why don’t I ever get ahead? Why am I failing at this? Why doesn’t my marriage work? You’re going to get answers. So the right kinds of answers are going to get you. I mean the right kinds of questions are going to get you better answers. So the key I think to anything in life is knowing or finding the right question to ask yourself.
Sean: Excellent. So from the resources, we’re going to finish out this acronym with the B, which is beliefs. What are some of your core beliefs that make you who you are?
Jim Dew: I believe no one’s coming to rescue me. That whatever I do is up to me and that everyone has excuses. Everyone can come up with reasons, everyone has circumstances, some better, some worse than others, but it’s easy to go that route. So I hold myself accountable to a level of, it’s up to me. No one’s coming to rescue me. No one’s going to figure it out. No one has some advantage or special treatment that somehow is going to exclude me from being the best person and the most successful I can be. That’s one of my strong beliefs is it’s really up to me and sometimes that gets me into trouble cause I can project that on other people and sometimes when other people are “woe is me” and “the world is against me” and all that stuff. I can be hard on friends in that way and say, hey, you got to cinch it up. And yeah, I remember one of the things my mom used to say is, you know someone saying, Oh, nobody loves me, nobody cares and my hands are cold. And my mom would say the answer to that is God loves you, your mother cares and you can sit on your hands.
Mindie: [Laughing]
Jim Dew: That’s a big belief of mine is it’s kind of up to you and you can figure it out in whatever situation. I also believe in honor as the number one value and I like to say loyalty above all else except honor because I’m an extremely loyal person. That’s been to my detriment at times in my life where I just don’t give up on people and I’m just so crazy loyal, kind of like a golden retriever. On the other hand, I believe honor is the ultimate value and so I try to ask myself in certain situations what would be the honorable thing to do? So that’s helped me a lot when it comes to my beliefs.
Sean: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jim. All four of those things really help us out here, so if people want to know more about you and what you’re bringing to the table, where would you like to send them?
Jim Dew: They can go to our website at DewWealth.com. If they’re curious where they are, I created this wealth mastery matrix that tells entrepreneurs, helps them identify where they are right now in their mindset and how they’re handling their wealth, and if you go to WealthMasteryMatrix.com you can see that and actually go through a little questionnaire if you want. Those are probably the two best ways and then, of course, my book, which is on Amazon, Beyond a Million. That’s a great book I think for entrepreneurs who are having some success and can learn a lot about the different things they can do about wealth management, and the Master’s exemption is in there, plus a whole bunch of other tips for tax planning, asset protection, estate planning, and just how to think about money.
Mindie: Awesome, Jim. Well, we want to thank you so much for your time, your wisdom, your expertise. We absolutely adore you and Mimi, you know that. So we are so appreciative.
Jim Dew: Well, I admire and love both of you and I respect everything you’ve done and I’m so grateful that we’ve gotten to know each other.
Sean: Jim, I think this is the longest we’ve gone. This is the longest we’ve gone with being responsible.
Mindie: Without dropping into junior high?
Jim Dew: I know. I’m kind of proud of us. I’m thinking I’d like to think it would happen again, but I know I probably never will.
Sean: No, it’s a rare eclipse.
Jim’s Recommended Resources:
Great interview! Timely as I work thru my own dichotomies around wealth. Always appreciate hearing the guests answers to HERB.
Thank you, Jeanne! Glad you’re enjoying the show. ❤️