At 29 years old Tanya Van Court thought she had more than a million dollars on hand to change the world and live the life of her dreams. Until it vanished in a few hours. 

Tanya's money story:

Tanya Van Court:
I was 29 years old, it was in the first tech boom where all of the Silicon Valley companies had stock that was just rising uncontrollably. I happened to be one of the first 200 employees at a company in Silicon Valley that was doing extraordinarily well.

Bobbi Rebell:
What company?

Tanya Van Court:
The company was Covac Communications. Before any of the telephone companies or cable companies were offering high-speed data I had a great job, a meaningful job, and I had a lot of stock that went along with that job.

Tanya Van Court:
I got all this stock in Covac, and some of the stock I couldn't cash out yet, but a lot of the stock I could cash out. I could have sold that stock and went and diversified my portfolio and bought mutual funds, or invested it in many, many stocks, as opposed to having all of my eggs sitting in one proverbial basket. But I didn't, because it was literally the first stock I had ever known or owned-

Bobbi Rebell:
Wait, let's just back it up, so you were given, as part of your compensation, shares in this company. Did it go public? Where was this stock? Explain exactly what you were given, and how it was valued, and did you have opportunities to sell it?

Tanya Van Court:
Yes, I had opportunities to sell the stock, many opportunities. The company had gone public, and so I had the opportunity to sell the stock when the company went public, I had the opportunity ... not exactly when it went public, because we had a certain window. But that window had passed, and so I had many opportunities to sell the stock, but I had no idea that I should sell the stock.

Tanya Van Court:
The stock kept going up, and I thought, "Wow, this is great. The stock just doubled in the past six months. I should just hold onto it, and I guess it will double again."

Bobbi Rebell:
At its peak what was the value of this stock, and how old were you at that time?

Tanya Van Court:
I was 29, and the value of the stock at its peak was about 1.2 million dollars.

Bobbi Rebell:
At that time how did you feel?

Tanya Van Court:
You know, I was so excited, because since I came from a household of two parents who were elementary school educators, all I ever wanted to do was make a difference in the world. I knew that having that 1.2 million dollars in my late 20s was going to enable me to make different choices and different life decisions to help people and to give back instead of just working in corporate America and doing things that were kind of interesting to me, but weren't impactful to other people. I felt free, Bobbi. I felt really free and empowered.

Bobbi Rebell:
You're 29 years old, you have stock that on paper is worth 1.2 million dollars. What happened then?

Tanya Van Court:
The big Dotcom bust happened. Literally in hours stock just started to tank for company, after company, after company. I watched the stock literally go from being in the teens, each share was trading in the teens, to trading for less than a dollar. When I say less than a dollar it went from the teens to like .50 cents in the course of a few hours. Every bit of that 1.2 million was wiped away in a matter of hours.

Bobbi Rebell:
Wow!

Tanya Van Court:
Yeah.

Bobbi Rebell:
How did you feel then?

Tanya Van Court:
Then I felt stupid, I felt deflated, I felt panicked, depressed, it was almost as if you had 1.2 million dollars sitting in your living room, and you just left the front door to your house open and walked out and went to the park, right?

Tanya Van Court:
It was, like, wait a minute. I had been living this life and treating this money so casually, as if it would always be there.

Bobbi Rebell:
As you say, it was the dotcom bust. This was happening to everyone?

Tanya Van Court:
It was happening to everyone, and it's interesting, because while I suffered a tremendous loss with that stock that I could've diversified, what I still had was ... I still had a home that I owned, I had bought a condo, and I still had that. What I found with many of my colleagues who experienced that same bust, is that they had actually leveraged their stock to buy lots of other things, so they bought cars, and they bought multiple houses.

Tanya Van Court:
Because they had borrowed against that stock, once the crash happened, they then had to pay back the money that they had borrowed by going and selling off all of their assets, including the assets that they had come to the company with.

Tanya Van Court:
If they came to the company with a big million-dollar home in Silicon Valley that was passed down to them from their parent, or that they had worked really hard in a previous company to be able to buy, now all of a sudden, they not only lost all of their stock, they lost every other asset that they had, because they had to payback loans that they had made against their stock.

Tanya’s money lesson:

Oh my gosh. Diversify, diversify, diversify. Don't ever put all of your money into one basket. I don't care if that basket is a real estate basket, and you have found a hot, booming real estate market that's working really well for you, and so you're, like, "Let me just buy it."

More apartments here in X place, or more houses in X place, don't do that. Diversify your money. If you have found that your golden goose is a stock that is doing really well, don't do that. Diversify your money. You really have to weigh and measure your risk, and think about the worst case scenarios. If that particular company, if something happens to that company, if something happens to that area of town that you're investing in, and every asset you have goes under water, what happens to your entire portfolio?

Tanya's everyday money tip:

My everyday money tip is actually a money tip that kind of goes back to my time in college. I would always watch people who ... I don't happen to drink, but I would watch people who would do progressives. Where they went from one bar to another, or one restaurant to another, and progressively partied from one place to the next. Like, the party would follow them. Like, a group of people would go and they'd hang out in one place, and they'd do that for 20 minutes, and then they'd go and hang out at another place.

I thought, "Wouldn't that be fun if we did that just with our friends, and did it in order to swap and exchange stuff that we no longer needed at our respective homes." Look, we all look in our homes and we go, "There are 10 things here that I don't use anymore, that I don't need." If you happen to have kids there may be things that your kids don't use anymore, or your kids don't need. If you happen to be a sports fan there may be equipment that you don't use anymore. "Hey, I'm not golfing as much as I used to anymore."

There are things in all of our homes that we don't want or we don't need, and so it's a great way of getting together with five or six friends, scheduling it on a Saturday, and going to each other's houses where you put everything that you don't want in your living room, and it becomes a virtual shopping spree.

Bobbi Rebell:
I love, first of all, that it's social, and I love, also, it's always delicate, because when you want to gift to somebody something that maybe you don't need anymore it's an awkward thing to give them something that you don't want. Because it's kind of like, "Oh, you're giving me your leftovers." But if you just put it there and they can just decide to take it, then it takes away that sort of negativity and makes it a positive thing.

Tanya Van Court:
It absolutely does. I think it makes it a positive thing for everyone, like, you're super happy to get rid of it, but they're super happy to get it.

Financial Grownup tip #1:

One things Tanya mentioned that stood out is that, while she lost money that she had on paper, I know it still hurts a lot, others had leveraged against their stockings and lost so much more. In addition to her advice to diversify, we also want to be very careful when borrowing against actual assets. Do not over leverage.

Financial Grownup tip #2:

This holiday season take it a step further than what Tanya was talking about. Think carefully about the physical stuff that you are buying for other people, not just children. Unwanted gifts are a total waste of money. There are so many new ways that technology is allowing us to give differently. Apps like Goalsetter are great, especially for kids that have too much stuff. But when you want to send a physical gift, and sometimes this is even for business purposes, there are new services, like, GiftNow. That's my personal new favorite that I'm obsessed with.

Basically, the way that one works is that instead of a boring gift certificate you virtually send someone a specific gift from a retailer to their email, so you don't need their physical address, you don't have to send them an email asking where should I send this, who will receive it, blah, blah, blah. It opens in a virtual gift box, and they can select their size, so you don't have to be guessing. They can change the color, if you don't know what color they want. They can even exchange it all before it gets delivered, so you don't have the whole hassle of the return and all that stuff.

I just used it for my friends' baby's one year birthday. It was so great to not have to carry a gift to the party, not worrying about it getting lost in the pile, and to know that my friend could swap it out without me even knowing it, not worrying if she would hurt my feelings, if she didn't love the fabulous dress that I got her daughter.

Then again, you can never have too many little frilly little girl dresses, right? I'm sure it was a huge hit.

EPISODE LINKS

Check out Tanya's company GoalSetter here!

Tanya Van Court is on Shark Tank!

Follow Tanya!

Instagram: @tvancourt

Linked In: @Tanya Van Court

Twitter: @tvancourt

Follow Goalsetter!

Instagram: @goalsetterco

Twitter: @goalsetterco

Facebook: @goalsetterco

Learn more about GiftNow

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

In Jerry’s money story you will learn:

-How Jerry learned the hard way that looking like you make money doesn't mean you do

-Three ways to deal with difficult people in the work places

-The benefits of having a career mentor

-Why Jerry sold all of his cars and his motorcycles and what it did for his budget

In Jerry’s money lesson you will learn:

-The simplest way to figure out financial assets and liabilities

-Jerry's two tips for figuring out where in the budget to cut down on spending

In Jerry’s everyday money tip you will learn:

-Where to buy luxury brands like Nike and Adidas for less

-The best athletic clothes that will last a long time

In My Take you will learn:

-Why it's important to keep an open mind and look past first impressions

-What T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and other retailers have to offer when it comes to workout clothes

Bobbi and Jerry also talk about: 

-Check out the luxury athletic clothing brands we mentioned, Nike and Adidas.

EPISODE LINKS:

Order Jerry's book "Guns, Drugs, or Wealth" here

Follow Jerry!

Instagram: @realJerryFord

Twitter: @realJerryFord

Facebook: @realJerryFord

On this Financial Grownup podcast episode Jerry Ford helps us to learn how we can get the best deals on work out clothes. #Podcast #MoneyTips

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Transcription

Jerry Ford:
I sold all of my cars, all of my motorcycles. I paid off my credit cards. I spend three hundred dollars a month on Uber pool and that's cheaper than any car note that you can get. And I set a seventy dollar budget for food per week.

Bobbi Rebell:
You're listening to Financial Grown-up, with me, Certified Financial Planner, Bobbi Rebell, author of “How to be a Financial Grown-up”, but you know what, being a grown up is really hard, especially when it comes to money. But it's okay, were gonna get there together. I'm gonna bring you one money story from a financial grown up, one lesson and then my take on how you can make it your own. We got this!

Bobbi Rebell:
Hey financial grown up friends! Love this guest because Jerry Ford, who you'll hear from in just a few minutes, is just a little bit different from the typical guest that we have on here, in that he is not from a money expert background. In fact, he's a celebrity fitness guy, and he came to being a financial grown up really after he had money. And then he realized that he wasn't actually using all that money and there was a good amount of money. He wasn't using the money in a very grown up way, and some really scary things could have happened but fortunately he found a mentor that took him under his wing and set him straight before things went really down hill.

Bobbi Rebell:
Welcome everyone. Thank you for investing your time in yourself and in learning from the high achievers that we have on the show. If you're enjoying it, remember the show is free. All we ask is that you help us grow the show by paying it forward and telling a friend that you think might enjoy the show.

Bobbi Rebell:
Let's go to our guest. Jerry Ford is a celebrity fitness trainer turned author. He overcame intercity poverty, violence, personal tragedy, to get where he is today, which is pretty incredible when you hear his story. His book and this title kind of threw me off when I heard it and then when I understood what it was about I had to have him on the show. His book, "Guns, Drugs or Wealth" is riveting. Its very candid and I'll bet its unlike anything you've read before. And I want you guys to stay till then the end, we have a big give away. Jerry sent me three signed copies of his book. I'm gonna share details after the interview about how you can win them. Here is "Guns, Drugs or Wealth" author, celebrity fitness trainer, Jerry Ford.

Bobbi Rebell:
Hey Jerry Ford, you are a financial grownup. Welcome to the podcast.

Jerry Ford:
Hey, thanks for having me.

Bobbi Rebell:
Congratulations are in order. We are taping this before your book has even been released, by the time this is out, your book will be out. But, your book “Guns, Drugs or Wealth” the three income secret to success that took me from the streets of Detroit to the top of my game, is already a number one new release from Amazon and sure to have many more bestseller benchmarks in the weeks to come. So, congratulations.

Jerry Ford:
Thank you, I'm really excited.

Bobbi Rebell:
And were gonna talk more about the great information in the book, including different investing like real estate, stocks and the importance of earning and saving, after your money story, which is about, you're also a trainer I should say out there in L.A. where you are..

Jerry Ford:
Yes.

Bobbi Rebell:
It is about a client that you didn't start off great with, but ended up being a mentor. Maybe this is a little about not judging people on first impressions and being open to people that maybe are very different from you. Go for it.

Jerry Ford:
Yeah, you know what, that's true. So I was twenty-three years old. I was really young. I was working at a gym called The New York Health and Racket Club, and I was by far their superstar trainer. I was young. I had Rolexs, fancy cars. I thought I knew it all.

Bobbi Rebell:
Wait, wait, wait. How are you buying this Jerry?

Jerry Ford:
You know what, I was top five in this company. This really luxury company called New York Health and Racket Club. And I was one of their top level trainers, I was training maybe two hundred and ten hours a month. Each session after you get bonus, after hitting a certain amount of hours that is unreal, I made maybe a hundred and ten dollars a session.

Bobbi Rebell:
And how many sessions a week?

Jerry Ford:
I was doing maybe two hundred and ten sessions a month.

Bobbi Rebell:
So they give you a new client and what happens?

Jerry Ford:
So now I'm thinking, you know, this client wants to work out six days a week. And he was calling two sessions, every session. So this guy was paying me double for every session.

Bobbi Rebell:
How old was he?

Jerry Ford:
This guy at the time was about fifty years old. This was maybe seven to ten years ago.

Bobbi Rebell:
Okay

Jerry Ford:
And I said this is gonna be a breeze. This is nothing. All this guy wanted was abs. I said this is gonna be more luxury items for me, because at the time I thought that if you look like money that people would spend money on you, which is true but you can't take that too far. Right, so. So, I stared training this guy and little did I know he was the biggest jerk that I've ever met in my life. I mean, he would tell me to explain everything we were doing in two seconds and like snap his fingers and tell me to go as if he was timing me for my response. I mean I would drive to work in the morning time playing scenarios in my head, like literally cursing this old man out.

Jerry Ford:
And so six months later he tried to convince me that a chest press didn't work the chest. So, I kind of, you know, popped him on the shoulder and firmly explained, how a chest press worked your chest, you know. And he kind of stood there and shook his head and said, “Okay, fine.” But at that time, it was almost as if he was done testing me. You know from that day forward, we became best friends, mentor, kind of like a father/son relationship, it was strange. We talked every day about everything.

Bobbi Rebell:
Wait. So, basically, he was waiting for you to push back.

Jerry Ford:
He was waiting for me to push back in a professional strong sense. Because we argue every day but he always enjoyed the fact that he got under my skin. So, he was testing me, waiting for me to push back in a certain way.

Bobbi Rebell:
And tell me what you learned from him.

Jerry Ford:
Everything. So before I moved to Los Angeles, he helped me build my portfolio. I mean to a “T”. He helped me gain a lot of passive income, and he taught me just everyday life lessons about being a businessman. So, when I moved to LA I was still the same, I started working at another gym, but I was training even more high end clients, I was training royal family members, celebrities, other taste makers. And then I got fired from Equinox. And when I got fired from Equinox I think that shook me out of being a superstar trainer for a corporation, for a gym.

Bobbi Rebell:
Why were you fired?

Jerry Ford:
I was fired for working out with one of my clients, which, when I first came to Equinox, Equinox was the gym, when I first came to Equinox because I had so many taste makers and so many celebrities and so many models back in New York I was able to work out with a lot of those people because, you know, models are at a certain level to where sometimes they don't want to you to train them and stand over them. They want you to work out with them. And in this case, a lot of my models, they were just a lot more when I worked out with them. I called Bill and I said, “Okay, very few people, make, one percent of the world make what you make. So, how did you do it?” And it was kind of silence over the phone and he was kinda like, “Oh, you gotta be good looking and the rest would flow.” It was like a joke, it was a joke, he's always joking. I'm like dude I'm not laughing, like how did you do it?

Bobbi Rebell:
Right, you're ready.

Jerry Ford:
I'm like ready to go and he's like, “You know what, when you gonna be in New York next? Well talk about it.” And I'm a all or nothing guy so I said, “Dude I'm hopping on the next plane to New York tonight.” So I went to LAX literally with nothing, I went to LAX, I hopped on a plane and went to New York on the red eye. The next morning, I went to Bill's house or his estate, he opened the door and literally I said, “Let's get to work. I need to figure out how you did this.” So he was like, “Oh cool your jets, and you know well talk about it.” So we ate some breakfast, we sat at the table, and he looked at me. And this guy, right now he's like a best friend but, he's your classical Wall Street fast talking, New York [inaudible 00:08:35].

Jerry Ford:
He says, "What's the difference between us?" I said, "No liability." And I'm thinking, man we've been over this so many times. And he's like "No, what's the difference?" And I explained how assets put money in your pocket and liabilities are obligations that they take money out of your pocket. And he says, "Exactly!" So then he did something that was life changing. He handed me a pen and a piece of paper and he said, "Okay. Write your assets down in one column and write your liabilities downs in another column." And literally I remember to this day, it was liabilities, rent, BMW payment, Porsche payment, motorcycle payment, insurance for all cars, AMEX credit card payment a month, Capital One credit card payment per month, phone bill, utilities, clubbing all weekends with royalty clients, shoes, watches, restaurants. It was terrible. And asset column was stock portfolio and personal training.

Bobbi Rebell:
Wow!

Jerry Ford:
And so he said, “I want you to reduce your liabilities and then come back to New York and we can get started.” So, I hopped on a plane back to LA. Bobbi, I sold all of my cars. I literally sold all of my cars, all of my motorcycles. I paid off my credits cards. I started to Uber pool, because I spend three dollars a month on Uber pool and that's cheaper than any car payment. I factor with car note and gas and occasional parking tickets, its cheaper than any car note that you can get. And I set a seventy dollar budget for food per week. After that I called Bill back, I said, "Okay, I sold everything. I'm ready to go". He thought I was nuts, but he could not deny that I was ready to build wealth. So he says, “Okay, are you gonna fly back.” I said, “No, due to the budget that I've set for myself, I'm calling you this time.”

Bobbi Rebell:
Alright, so what is the lesson for our listeners?

Jerry Ford:
So, the lesson for the listeners is, I suggest that everybody write down their liabilities and their assets. And, just you seeing them in the columns, you would then be able to say, okay I don't need this, I don't need that, I don't nee this. And I advise people to buy more assets and less liabilities. But, you have to see it on paper.

Bobbi Rebell:
Alright Jerry. What is your everyday money tip? Cause, you spend a lot of time in gym clothes. Is it really worth spending so much money on fancy gym clothes?

Jerry Ford:
Well you know what, you can go to some of these brands, so Nike and Adidas and all these luxury brands, places like Big Five have these same brands, but its just a lot cheaper. And, I wear gym clothes all day so I save a lot of money, right. And I wear gym clothes and then I throw on my luxury watch and luxury items and that makes me look a little more fancy.

Bobbi Rebell:
So, is it worth paying up for the more expensive work out clothes brands? I mean, obviously, if you're gonna buy them, you wanna buy them somewhere you can get a discount if that's possible. But, are they better?

Jerry Ford:
You know what, I think they are better, because I've taken Nike pants, Nike outfits, I've had them, and they've lasted longer than workout clothes from Target. You know, its kinda like, Oh you wash these clothes, and you wonder why they ripping up so much. It's because those luxury brands have better material.

Bobbi Rebell:
So they really are better.

Jerry Ford:
They really are better.

Bobbi Rebell:
Alright, lets talk about your already bestselling book. Tell us more.

Jerry Ford:
So, this book is about building wealth through real estate, stocks and smart spending. But, I tell it as a personal trainer, but more importantly, I tell it in laments terms, as more of a porch casual conversation.

Jerry Ford:
Its kind of like if Jay-Z and Warren Buffet came out with a how-to guide on building wealth. "Guns, Drugs or Wealth" would be it.

Bobbi Rebell:
And its inspired by your actual life.

Jerry Ford:
It is inspired by my actual life. Its inspired by my actual life, which is coming from Detroit, the hard streets of Detroit, and starting to build wealth like I did.

Bobbi Rebell:
And where can people find you, find out more about you? You have a huge Instagram by the way. Love those videos. I'm ready to go workout right after this interview just from watching those videos. So, everybody, go put on your fancy expensive gym clothes, cause they're apparently worth it, and go work out.

Jerry Ford:
People can find my on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. And my handles are @realJerryFord.

Bobbi Rebell:
Jerry Ford, thank you so much!

Jerry Ford:
Thank you!

Bobbi Rebell:
Hey everyone, lets get right into it. Financial grown up tip number one. Be careful about judging people by first impressions. Sometimes even second, third impressions. Jerry basically wrote off his client because, okay the client was such a jerk but, sometimes relationships, including those with mentors or sponsors, they take time to develop. Because the two men spend a lot of time together and Jerry was willing to start listening instead of just putting up with his client the relationship changed. And Jerry came out a big winner.

Bobbi Rebell:
Financial grown up tip number two. Let's talk about the fancy gym clothes cause this is something I actually spend way too much time even thinking about. I go back and forth on this. I want to say its worth it to buy the clothes that will last for a decade or whatever. But at the moment that you are actually trying to purchase leggings that cost over a hundred dollars, that's just really hard to do.

Bobbi Rebell:
I recently finally bought one really expensive item, its actually a Lululemon jacket, but only because I had an expiring credit. And I still fell guilty about buying it even though literally I had to use the credit and it was a gift. Here's a work around if you want the best stuff but can't always get over the price. So, for most work out items, the only difference between the new stuff or last season's is the color or the pattern. So this goes for sneakers too. So, look for last seasons of whatever workout gear you want. Stores like T.J.Maxx, Marshalls and then all of these departments stores has these outlet versions, you have like Nordstrom Rack, Sax off Fifth, whatever is near you and they probably also have a lot of this stuff online, those places are great places to look. Also, the quote "We made too many of the fancy boutique brands", they often have last year's style, last season's style, usually just a different color that wasn't as popular. Go work out feeling like a million bucks and maybe be like Jerry and wear a fancy accessory with your workout gear, so you can feel fancy like Jerry.

Bobbi Rebell:
Alright giveaway time. So, friends what was your takeaway from Jerry? DM me your thoughts on this episode on the socials, BobbiRebell1@instagram, BobbiRebell on Twitter. And I'm going to be giving away the three signed copies of Jerry Ford's book, "Guns, Drugs or Wealth" to listeners. And, yes it is open to international fans. In fact our last giveaway winners, which were the Chris Hogan and the Rachel Cruze signed books, included one listener Barbara Olner in Austria. And don't forget that we are starting to do listener Q&A episodes with some of my money expert friends maybe making guest appearances. So DM me your questions as well or you can also email us at hello@financialgrownup.com, that's hello@financialgrownup.com. And that goes for the giveaways to. So, DMs or emailing hello@financialgrownup.com whatever is good for you is good for us.

Bobbi Rebell:
And thank you to Jerry Ford. Great motivation to get us all one step closer to being financial grownups.

Bobbi Rebell:
Financial Grownups with Bobbi Rebell is edited and produced by Steve Stewart and is a BRK Media production.