It's been 3 months since my last email. Sorry I've been MIA - I've been working.

For those that care (which you all should) here's what I've been up to:

Now let's get into today's post -

Most of you are awful with money. And that's okay. I am knowledgeable on all things money and I too mess up.

It's not your fault. It's your emotions' fault.

Most of the time people spend or overspend out of emotion. Think about it. You probably bought something to make yourself happy. Or maybe you overspent to make someone else happy. And it always ends the same way - "I will pay that back later".

And when I fall into these bad money traps and ruts - I activate my "financial mastery" mode.

The easiest way to get out of any financial trouble is to cut the bleeding. Like immediately. So - remove cards from Apple Pay, hide the credit cards, and live on cash for a while.

Once the bleeding is stopped, you now have to change how you view things.

My go-to trick is to view money as time. Let me explain.

Instead of viewing an item as $20, I view it as 1 hour (assuming you make $20 an hour). Essentially I want you to base it on your hourly wage.

So anytime you want to buy something - new clothes, new iPhone, a gift, a trip - take that number and divide it by your hourly wage.

If a new iPhone costs $1,000, at $20/hour that means you need to work 50 hours to secure that item.

By viewing your money in time you start to visualize and feel the real impact of your money decisions.

Well yes it does. I just told you.

But why does it? Because most of us hate our jobs. And if you sit down and realize you have to spend 50 hours at your job dealing with BS just to cover a brand new iPhone, then maybe the latest upgrade might not be worth it.

Remember this is the easiest way to trick yourself to spend less is by viewing money as a form of time because now you will start to be more intentional with your dollars.

Back in 2001, the average person had no clue how much space 5 gigabytes of storage represented.

But they definitely knew what having 1,000 songs meant to them.

To consumers, the technical storage capacity of an iPod was irrelevant, but the benefit of carrying their top 1,000 songs everywhere was immediately meaningful. Both "5 gigabytes" and "1,000 songs" described the same capacity, but only one connected with what customers actually valued.

When selling a product or service, you should emphasize how it improves the customer's life rather than just listing technical specifications. Most customers care about what a product does for them, not how it works.

This principle applies broadly in marketing and sales - translate features into meaningful benefits that resonate with customers' desires and needs.

Instead of saying "I helped over X amount of people open a Roth IRA," I can say "I help you build generational wealth with only $600 a month."

There's a crucial difference here.

Many people might not know what a Roth IRA is, but everyone understands and desires generational wealth.

For my fitness enthusiasts, the image below is a perfect example of leading with emotion rather than numbers. Connect with what people want to achieve, not the technical mechanisms that get them there.

Capital One's acquisition of Discover has received final regulatory approvals.

The merger, valued at $35 billion, is expected to be finalized by May 18th.

But why does this matter?

Well, let's go to Banking 101.

Let's say you run a lemonade stand and you let people pay with cards.

Behind the scenes, every time someone swipes a card, the payment has to go through a "payment network." Think of it like plumbing but…it moves the money from the customer's bank to yours.

Now, there are three big companies that own both cards and payment networks:

These companies make money by charging network fees every time someone swipes a card using their system even if they didn't issue the card themselves.

Now, Capital One mostly gives out Visa and Mastercard cards (look at your Capital One Card, you will notice “Visa” or “Mastercard” logo), which means:

But Discover is different. Like Amex, Discover issue cards and run their own payment network. So when someone uses a Discover card:

So since Capital One is buying Discover, it's like saying: "Forget paying rent to Visa or Mastercard. We're going to own our own payment system now just like Amex does."

SO…what does this mean for Capital one? This means:

It's like going from renting a lemonade stand on someone else's block... to owning the whole neighborhood.