Thinking Like a Bank - Getting Money Smart

October 18, 2021

Have you taken the Lifestyle Design Quiz yet?

If you have, you would have received your free report by now, and seen that ONE of the Lifestyle Design Domains is - Business and Finance!

It makes sense, right?

We cannot live the abundant lifestyle of our dreams unless we have adequate resources at our disposal to make those dreams a reality.

That's why I thought it would be really great to bring on an expert in the Financial sector to find out what he's doing to help his clients reach their goals AND how he's using education to scale that success for others.

Meet Sarry Ibrahim, a Bank On Yourself® professional, founder and CEO of Financial Asset Protection, and the creator and host of the Think Like a Bank podcast, where he teaches ordinary people to think like a bank and achieve more financial freedom in their life.

Sarry didn't always know he would end up in Finance. He attended an MBA program in Chicago, originally focussed on project management. He took on a side job doing sales and marketing at an insurance company. This is how he discovered his gift for helping people with their financial issues. Sarry enjoys talking to people and help them solve their problems. He also discovered how as people trusted him more and more with their financial issues, he became confident and comfortable asking people about money and decided to make it his career. Sarry is now a well-trusted financial consultant, planner, and advisor among business owners and real estate investors.

We all want success in our business and work life, It's usually what fuels our other dreams.

Let's learn some of Sarry's secrets for scaling success in the financial sector.

Once you've listened to the podcast, you might be motivated to get clear on your personal goals, but be unsure where to start...

I highly recommend you take the Lifestyle Design Quiz. It only takes about five minutes and it'll generate for you a free customised report with your strength profile, your focus for growth, and some specific coaching questions to help you get clearer on what that personal goal for you is.

And if you want to explore those insights in more depth, then book a free coaching call with me to help you get more clarity on the next step on your journey.

You can click below to get a free copy of the book that Sarry mentions in this episode...

Podcast highlights:

[2:38] Bank on Yourself strategy (Pamela Yellen): Two major problems that people have are (1) the amount of interest paid to lenders - almost 1/3 of income and (2) taxes. The bank on yourself solution helps you create and become your own source of financing.
[6:25] Life insurances have to connect like a puzzle to the financial situation. It has to be congruent and aligned with a person's financial objective. A competent advisor comes in as somebody who can take a step back from everything and diagnose what the client truly wants, whether infinite banking and bank on yourself are a good fit.

[8:00] A lot of business owners do not have pensions and retirement accounts. So when you're a business owner, you have to also consider retirement.

[9:41] Specific methods for business owners: Infinite banking help in saving money first and then borrowing against that to become your own source of financing. You're saving money for the future, and you are allocating it towards investments.

[10:32] Leveraging on your cash value as collateral for borrowing: Unlike in infinite banking, just because you own a home and you have equity in the home doesn't mean you're automatically entitled to get in the cashout. But with life insurance, as long as you have cash value in the policy, at any point, you could borrow up to 90% of the cash value regardless of your credit situation, regardless of the economic situation, too.

[13:59] Banks did pivot with economic times. They reacted to it by holding back on loans and that could be problematic for people. Your business could be doing fine, but because of the bank's financial situation, and the economic situations, now you're in a harmful situation, not because of things that you can control.

[14:43] Life insurance companies were not affected at all by COVID. You always want to plan not only for your financial situation, but also the economic situation you're in, and make sure that if things go down or things go south, you don't want to be on that same ship as everyone else’s.
[16:15] Permanent life insurance vs Temporary life insurance: Temporary life insurance (term life insurance) has a set start and end date. There is no cash value in temporary or term life insurance. Permanent life insurance has cash value involved in it, specifically with whole life insurance. Two aspects of whole life insurance: death benefit and cash value.

[17:54] Podcasting and interviewing people: Bringing the knowledge and expertise from the boardroom to the air about taxes, legal strategies, money, economics. People can listen to it for free and truly understand how to think like a bank.
[21:43] One basic rule is that only invest in things you understand because that helps you measure the risk. But getting good depends on whether you're actively involved in a business or you're passively involved.

[22:51] Tips for Starters: Before you start the business, outline your personal objectives. Figure out what you want to do in your life, and then use the business as a way to connect those goals in your life. The business itself shouldn't be the goal. It should just be used as a tool to get you to your actual goals. Use it as a tool to get you to the next level and as a tool to help people, either employees, partners, investors. Don't just do business because it's a thing to do, or because it seems like a good idea.

[23:50] You have to be good not with numbers, but good with YOUR numbers. It's not really an accounting. It's a matter of you understanding your numbers. You also need a way of tracking these things.