Financial Epidemic: The Kangaroo Syndrome (#37) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 37
Dustin Serviss introduces his Kangaroo Syndrome analogy for having wealth while struggling to enjoy life. He reflects on spending choices, relationships and the difference between assets and lifestyle.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:24] What is Kangaroo Syndrome?
[00:01:43] Saving with a purpose
[00:03:00] Lifestyle assets and family memories
[00:04:07] Experiences beyond conventional choices
[00:04:46] Protection and opportunity
[00:05:27] Spending habits under the microscope
[00:06:46] Spending on what matters
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Transcript
[00:00:01] Show announcer: Welcome to the Picture of Wealth, a podcast all about living more of your life now yet being responsible for your future. Lifestyle experimenter, wealth scientist, and financial coach, Dustin Service, shares life hacks, wealth tips, and interviews successful entrepreneurs on how they're thriving in happiness, purpose, and prosperity.
[00:00:24] Dustin Serviss: Don't fall victim to the wealth epidemic, kangaroo syndrome. Kangaroos have short arms and deep pockets. Many rich families are experiencing lack of lifestyle, connection to people, purpose, and struggle daily with being tired, yet they have deep pockets. How can this be? Now the new school wealthy are getting much more tactical in how they spend, somehow trying to stop the spread of this lifestyle limiting condition. The new wealthy look for ROI in big purchases like usable real estate, something they can enjoy and later use as a rental property and eventually sell it. It was a home and then it became an asset.
[00:01:03] Dustin Serviss: QuoraForm writer named Sergio So to says one shouldn't get confused with what they call the flexer. People who make decent money, say one to two hundred thousand a year, but think they are millionaires. On the other hand, they tend to spend a good bit of their money on items that will become liabilities. Brand new luxury cars. Cars are guaranteed to depreciate unless you are lucky and it becomes a collector's item like a vintage Mustang. Ultra luxury apartments rented. You'll have nothing to show for the payments you made over the years. Expensive jewelry. Unless you do this very sparingly, it will eat up your cash flow.
[00:01:43] Dustin Serviss: When I wrote a blog post a while back saying, don't save, but be responsible for your future, I meant it. Simply saving more and more money in the bank and not understanding why you're doing that is a recipe for disaster. You wanna live a life full with intent, productivity, and happiness. I recently reviewed a block of clients who had high interest bank accounts, and the promo interest rate is now gone. The current interest rate is point one five, which sadly, in the banking world, that's a decent savings account interest rate. Before I forget, I will summarize the end of this podcast ten things wealthy people don't waste their money on.
[00:02:22] Dustin Serviss: Now, back to this low interest rate situation. It got me thinking, what if I could help these people use their savings to achieve lifestyle goals, or if nothing else, compare the returns of the bank versus upgrading their lifestyle. Here are five places you could park money instead of in a bank account getting point one five percent, and upgrade your lifestyle all at the same time. Now, full disclosure, do your own research, speak with professionals, this is not a buy or sell recommendation. But here is the list of five places you could park your money. A condo at the ski hill. Why?
[00:03:00] Dustin Serviss: Even if the value of it stayed the same or went down slightly over the next ten year period, if your goals were to spend more time with your children and that showed up on your goals or your family values were, you know, we wanna spend more time together as a family, then that condo will provide invaluable memories. A summer lake retreat, or not even a lake retreat, just a different place. Maybe further out of town, you buy an acreage, or in a different town that's an hour and a half away. A little side story, just regarding acreages. A friend of mine recently, and we're at the the...
[00:03:32] Dustin Serviss: In twenty twenty one right now, he bought a larger piece of property in a remote or would be deemed remote place three hours away from where he lived. But it was densely treed with the right kind of trees. He was able to sell those trees due to the price of lumber being so high, and get back a large portion of what he actually paid for the property. This now lowers his risk that if he sits on that property for a while, the price has to go way down, and he needs to have to sell it before he's ever in a situation where he's not parked his money in achieving great value. Buying item that you can move around on.
[00:04:07] Dustin Serviss: Seeing different things is stimulating. A motorcycle, an RV, a motor home, a bicycle, an e bike, a scooter, a tractor, a skateboard. Challenge yourself to be a little more less mature in your decision making, and don't limit yourself. If you've always wanted an old school stand up loud jet ski, get it on the list. Buy a pair of skis. Finish the basement in your house and rent it out or finish the area so you can host and connect with people. As the pandemic, the kangaroo pandemic, and COVID nineteen pandemic subside, there will be a great space that you can share your home with friends and family that don't live close. Here's a bonus.
[00:04:46] Dustin Serviss: Buy good life, illness, and disability insurance. It says to yourself and the universe, you are responsible. You care about others, and you are in an offensive position to capture the next opportunity that crosses your path. There will be less second guessing. The best opportunities usually find you, and they usually need to be acted on quickly. That is not the time that you realize you need insurance. Wealthy people come in all shapes and sizes and come from different backgrounds. I summarize the top ten most common things the wealthy people don't do. Number one, impulse buys. Number two, leave extreme inheritances to kids.
[00:05:27] Dustin Serviss: Number three, lots of TV channels or video games. Number four, luxury brands. Number five, buying an overpriced home. Number six, this is what I call the newest emergence, I think, is renting instead of buying. Back in the day, property was more affordable, and buying property to enjoy it was, I would say, more of a status symbol than anything. But now, wealthy people realize that why buy a place in Maui when you can rent different places or rent and not have any of the headache? Pricey grooming, haircuts. Number eight, multiple credit cards. Number nine, late fees and penalties. And I'm a...
[00:06:08] Dustin Serviss: I'm not a big watch your pennies and the dollars will follow type of guy, but this late fees and penalties, it's a mindset and it shows your attention to things that matter. The fee may be small, but the loss in other areas of your life could be huge. Number ten, don't buy things that don't last. The cheapest route is not the best route. And here's a bonus, wealthy people buy experiences instead of stuff. I gravitate to this in the in the form of gifts, and giving experiences as gifts to a friend or family member is always better than stuff. We can all get stuff in this day and age, but we can't buy
[00:06:46] Dustin Serviss: that great visit with our close friend while doing a wine tasting and lunch at their favorite winery on a sunny day. Knowing where you're going is important like stretching. So get yoga ing and stretch your kangaroo arms into your pocket and spend on things that matter to you.
[00:07:05] Show announcer: If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend. If you found this episode super valuable, leave us a review on iTunes. It will help us continue to bring you top quality content. For more information on anything discussed on this show, visit w w w dot servicewealth dot com. That's service spelled s e r v I s s. Any investment topics covered on the show are not investment recommendations, and you should seek professional advice before making any investment decisions. This show was produced by Prodigy Podcasts. Thanks for listening.