TD (00:01.794)
Hey Garrett, welcome to the Fearless Podcast. How you doing today, brother?

Garrett Gastil (00:05.865)
I'm doing awesome. Thanks for having me, Jim. TD.

TD (00:08.45)
Yeah, so, so, I want to talk about some current events. think are very relevant to what we're going to be talking about, but maybe before we do all that, maybe give us a little bit of your background. we are going to be talking about the infinite banking concept. So maybe tell us what led you to that and, all that good stuff.

Garrett Gastil (00:37.213)
Yeah, so my story starts about with that about probably eightish years ago now, I was in consulting. I was doing financial consulting for healthcare providers and it feels like a long time ago now. And I had just gotten married and I got introduced by my brother to bigger pockets and know, rich dad, poor dad and all that stuff. And so you just get this fire inside of you of like, is there a different way than.

sell on my soul for work and chasing this thing called being a partner, but it seems like the partners actually are still doing the same thing that I'm doing today. So I got introduced to that and I kinda got disillusioned a little bit by the math I was doing of getting the financial freedom with these investment things, right, with investing in real estate and stuff. And it seems like you either had to have

a bunch of capital from your parents or something, or a lot of time to do sweat equity, neither of which I had being like a new husband and working a lot. And so I remember I did this spreadsheet where I was trying to do the math on, after all of our expenses and maxing out our 401ks and paying for daycare, because my wife was working and I was working, what do we have left over to put towards an investment property?

And what would that cash flow conservatively? like the math was probably wrong, but conservatively it was like, I could retire at age 55 or whatever. And I remember just being like discouraged by that and just kind of, you know, that there's not another way. Right. But then discovered this, my uncle gave me this book called Becoming Your Own Banker. I think I read like the first 50 pages and it's like, how do I do this? This is, this seems pretty incredible. And so.

I got a policy, my first policy with a group called Living Wealth. And a couple of months later, my wife and I were looking at it and discussing it. And then we just went all in on it and decided this is what we wanted to do. And we really liked that it provided access to capital now with stable growth. And we were also a new family. We had just had our first kid. So the death benefit protection was also just the cherry on top, really.

Garrett Gastil (03:02.503)
that kind of became this cascade of, I left the consulting world and kind of started pursuing some different things outside of that world. And ended up back in a consulting role a couple of years later when we moved to, we've actually moved from Texas to Idaho just during COVID. We were in a city and we moved kind of to more of a, Idaho still kind of feels like a small town relative to DFW, it does, right?

TD (03:31.822)
Sure.

Garrett Gastil (03:32.362)
And so really what I was at, a big four consulting firm, and I really enjoyed it, great benefits, but kind of just the same stuff started happening. I actually started looking into going to become an agent and teaching people about this. And it took a while, but I finally landed at Ascendant Financial where I am now, and I'm wearing the shirt right now.

And now I'm a practitioner of this. I'm teaching people how to implement this and coaching them around it. And that's how I got introduced to you, because you got connected with the Wealth on Main Street podcast and then got connected to me and then the rest is history.

TD (04:19.55)
Yep. So I want to segue from that and talk about how this applies to current circumstances. But we look around and we see the silver spot price skyrocketing. think it's up six.

dollars today or I'm sorry, 6 % today. It's up like it's up over a hundred. then interestingly enough, I watched this, bizarre video. It said the guy was the president of the United States. was this guy, Donald Trump, and he was at the world economic forum. And, I really feel like we live in a simulation or like the matrix or something, but

Garrett Gastil (04:40.947)
Well.

TD (05:08.92)
He's this billionaire guy is at this technocratic forum of all these people that think they know what's better for us. And he's saying he's he's talking about interest rates and he's saying America should have the lowest interest rates in the world. And I'm like,

Garrett Gastil (05:19.177)
you

Garrett Gastil (05:23.966)
Mm-hmm.

TD (05:34.413)
Does he not know how interest rates work? And I'm not saying, mean, look, the fed, like the whole thing's a scam and the fed is definitely a scam and, and interest rates don't work, but like this note, this arbitrary notion that because we are the economic force, on the planet, like we should just arbitrarily have the lowest interest is it's very strange and surreal, which is, which is why we've

Garrett Gastil (05:43.015)
yeah.

TD (06:04.416)
chosen 14 years ago we chose to relocate strategically and live a more

basic purposeful simplified life and Take control back instead of like delegating it to others Daycare government school You know the major food manufacturers all these different things. We're like, you know, what's like better is like if we just take personal responsibility and take control of You know our own lives and stop waiting for the Republicans next

Garrett Gastil (06:26.227)
Mm-hmm.

TD (06:44.302)
time and all this stuff and you know, just let's, let's focus on the most important things. Let's focus on God and on our family and on our children and on our food and like on what's really important. Let's pour our energy and our attention into that. so, you know, let's do that. So we, did that like 14 years ago and ever since I have become incredibly skeptical of.

of all things mainstream, including they, them, and those, these supposed powers that shouldn't be that supposedly control everything. And, you know, when you hear a billionaire that made his billions in real estate,

Talk about interest rates and act and talk about them like he's five years old or something. it just makes you like question reality. And, you're like, whoever wrote this really bad movie needs to be fired and we need somebody else. Like we need better ideas here, people. so, you know, to me and, probably to many listening, this looks like a controlled demolition of the dollar.

and consequently the middle class. And we know that if you don't know the problem, the solution doesn't matter. So when we're watching these massive signals, what is that telling you about the health of the traditional banking system right now?

Garrett Gastil (08:25.427)
Well, I think you've been saying it is that everyone else is in control, right? So some, mean, the interest rates should, so this whole entire concept, right? It's all based on this thing called Austrian economics, right? Which I'm sure some of your listeners have heard of and will appreciate. But the interest rate was never meant to be like manipulated and controlled. It was meant to be aligned with consumer

like consumer demand, right? So if there's demand for dollars, the interest rate's gonna change based on that. So when you have these people saying, we're gonna fix the interest rate and do whatever, I mean, that's why we have the inflation that we have, that's why we have the skyrocketing prices that we have. And I think the thing that is interesting about all of it is that it's really not like a, it's not like,

the Republicans or the Democrats have caused this. It's like our government has totally got behind this idea that the Federal Reserve and that we should be controlling the dollar and managing the money supply and all that stuff. And it's tampering with the money supply, right? And we know what happens when the government starts tampering with prices of things, right? Like what happens?

TD (09:49.375)
Yep, we're watching it. If you don't know what happens, just look around you.

Garrett Gastil (09:52.104)
Right. Right, exactly. And so I think what's interesting is that people are not okay with the government doing that with other things, Like commodities and that sort of thing. But then they're kind of like, whatever, with interest rates. So I can't wait for the rates to go down so I can refinance my mortgage. And that's actually gonna cause more problems than it's going to help, because it's going to send signals to the market that aren't real, unfortunately, right?

TD (10:20.643)
Yeah.

Garrett Gastil (10:20.873)
It's like you're lowering interest rates. People are gonna start investing in things that consumers don't want, right? That's what starts to happen. And it's dangerous, right? It's why we get into these manic phases in the economy where there's this production, production, production, production, and then it all falls out from underneath it because there was never demand for that kind of thing, right? So it's just, it is very surreal and it's interesting that like it doesn't really matter.

who's in office, they're always talking about those same things and pulling those same levers. They're all Kenzie-ing at the end of the day. And that's, you know, it's not good for us, right?

TD (11:00.047)
Yeah, they're all leading to the same goal. You will occasionally hear people talking about end the Fed. Ron Paul was a big proponent of that. I definitely resonated with that and supported that. And the reason I am drawn to private family banking and the infinite banking concept is because you, the...

The statistical odds that any politician will ever end the Fed, I believe is delusional at best to think that it would ever happen. because the money changers have been trying to pull the strings for, thousands of years and, they continue to do so. And, so, but by, but by implementing a personal system that.

Garrett Gastil (11:47.315)
Yeah.

TD (11:56.707)
where you can, create and house legacy wealth for you and your family. You can end the fed in your own life. Right. And this is like the epitome of personal responsibility is like, okay, yeah, all these people and you know, the new Christian nationalist movement and none of them are talking about the fed, which is just like insane. They want to talk about like ethnic groups and all this kind of stuff. And I'm like, wow, you're really missing the point. But anyway,

Garrett Gastil (12:06.813)
Yeah, that's right.

TD (12:26.731)
you know, we can, you know, just, just like when you're, if you're concerned about the quality of your food, you, you do have the ability potentially depending on where you are and how much dirt you have, you do have the potential to maybe grow your own food, maybe grow a cow or whatever. And the beauty of private family banking and the infinite banking concept is absolutely everyone has the ability to, control the banking function.

in their own life and to privatize it for themselves and to create a network and a system for them and the rest of their family members. And if they are inclined, even friends or maybe, you know, local community to participate in a closed system that is designed by you and controlled by you. And in essence, you are ending the Fed for yourself.

Garrett Gastil (13:23.913)
And I think just to define a couple of those things, what can we say banking function? It's as simple as you control how you finance things. It's that simple. And when you don't control that, the bank finances everything for you, even when you pay cash. And most people don't understand that. And really what they're giving up is that they're giving up the access that

to that cash and the things that they could have earned with that cash, right? And the infinite banking concept builds capital for you that you are able to access and control the payback terms, right? So, and something else that you said, Jim, that just I wanted to touch on is, what's really cool about it, right, is that when you do this concept, what it is is you're buying a policy from a mutual life company, right?

And mutual companies are these really cool entities where you're all in it with people who want the same thing. So like you buy a policy, like Jim, you and I both have policies from some of the same carriers, and we both value the same thing. And these people who are doing this, they have oftentimes this desire to care for people in their community and their families and take care of those things. And we do that through the financing in our lives.

but it's also through the death benefits that we are providing for our families as well. So it's all these people who kind of have this like mind of we want to care for our families and the community at large too. So the mutual relationship with the company is a really unique one in the marketplace that allows us to do this concept in a really powerful way.

TD (15:15.567)
Yeah, and it's a private contract and, and, you know, so, um, and there's a lot you can kind of say about that with covenants and, know, if you're a Christian, different things, and that's why that resonates with me as well. Um, but you know,

Garrett Gastil (15:18.215)
Mm-hmm.

TD (15:33.167)
You know, I, I often say the, system isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed basically to enslave people. And,

Garrett Gastil (15:40.361)
Yeah. Right.

TD (15:46.881)
And I do believe it appears to me that these current moves, it appears that they're trying to do a major collapse kind of all at once. And I think, you know, the, the, silver signal is so undeniable and irrefutable and the fact that they can't control it, you know, which, which is kind of wild because they create all these derivatives. go to college and you learn options trading and you learn about commodities and Hey, you know, all this stuff, create derivatives, create

Garrett Gastil (16:05.833)
Hmm.

TD (16:16.785)
liquidity and you know, we need liquidity and arbitrage and all this stuff. Right. And they say these big words and you're like, and at the beginning, you know, it's rather magical, so to speak, and you're hypnotized by it you're like, yeah, arbitrage and, uh, liquidity and look, this is the grease that makes the wheel go round and all this stuff. And then you're like, wait a minute, this is all a scam and this is just a wealth transfer. And, uh, you know, now we're, now we're watching.

Like silver skyrocket. if you just look at the. options contracts that met that major, banking institutions have here in America, they're already, technically imploded. Like they cannot cover these contracts. these contracts are like 10 times the annual.

Garrett Gastil (17:09.001)
Wow.

TD (17:16.14)
actual production of silver

And so when, when these contracts are called to bear, I, know, it's definitely going to take, you know, the fed intervening and bailing out these two big, failures again, right? But eventually that shoe's got to drop to like, I dunno, probably a CBDC, which is a central bank digital currency. That's kind of what everybody's guess is. It doesn't have to be that, but whatever, same thing. The modern monetary system.

Garrett Gastil (17:46.281)
Right.

TD (17:50.683)
that we are taught in government schools and you know how all this stuff works and what we should do even though we're not given any kind of economic training whatsoever that's worth anything.

That entire system is designed to fail. you know, it's our responsibility to educate ourselves, read a book, learn something, maybe network with other like-minded people, consult with them and the multitude of counselors, their safety, right? Talk to some people that might know a little bit more than you. And then, you know, eventually once you educate yourself, you have to take action. And that's really kind of what I wanted to talk about today is just

Garrett Gastil (18:06.131)
Yeah. Yeah.

TD (18:33.037)
taking action, creating this parallel, economic system for yourself and your family. you know, and we, we don't necessarily have to delve into the mechanics of it or anything like that. we could talk about like maybe,

why you saw it as effective and how you're implementing it and what you see for yourself and for your family as far as legacy, you know, maybe why you're doing this.

Garrett Gastil (19:02.632)
Yeah.

Yeah, so mean the big thing for me was the control and access now was a big part of it. And there's...

It's not, you can't have a 401k in retirement plan. Like there's nothing inherently wrong with those options, right? And I would say if you're an employee and you wanna just do that all the time and have a nice little nest-segment retirement, that's fine, right? But what we wanted, like my wife and I, we wanted more control and more access now, right? We're not, know, teach us to number our days, Lord.

We're not guaranteed to live as long as that money is locked up, right? And I think there is a part of me when I realized that that was like that's my money I can't I can't get to it and they're telling me to get to it. I Have to pay all this money to get to it that's for my good like that's that's like that's to help me from hurting myself like there's this whole like Thing like Thanos and you know, the Marvel movies like I'm gonna wipe out

TD (20:10.681)
Mm-hmm.

Garrett Gastil (20:11.101)
half the universe because it's for everyone's good. The obvious thing is that that's obviously not good, right? So it's this idea that we know better than you that I just didn't like. so what it's enabled us to do is we've had a lot more freedom, right? I think it's where most of our money has resided over the last eight years.

And it's allowed us to do things that we never would have been able to do. So like I have a business where I buy and sell raw land. And then I also was able to quit like my consulting job and jump into this new business kind of feet first, right? And with no real like pipeline or anything, but just like faith and some cash value that I could access to live off of in the meantime.

So it's just given us the ability to do things that we wouldn't have been able to do before. And the freedom to like live now, but also know that this system is gonna keep growing and keep compounding and keep working for us. we're gonna have, even while we have access to it, right? There's a huge piece of it to that as well. And I think the other thing that, the thing that sold my wife actually was,

Term insurance is this thing that everyone thinks, everyone's told, buy term, invest the difference, right? And term insurance is, it's a cost that you, the carrier, when they underwrite you, they know you're, if they give you a policy, there's very little chance you're gonna die with that, and within that window. Like they look at so many lives, like statistically, you're probably not gonna die if they're gonna give you the policy.

If you do, it's gonna be like the freak accident thing, right? Which does happen, but statistically you're probably not going to, right? But then, then when you, you know, when you're however old you are, you know, if it's 20 year term, you buy it when you're 30, at 50, that same term policy is gonna be a lot more expensive now. Cause you're older, you're more likely to die than you were when you were 30, right? And then, you know, if you're 65,

TD (22:09.231)
Mm-hmm.

TD (22:33.967)
Yeah.

Garrett Gastil (22:36.871)
it's even more expensive and they probably won't even give it to you, right? It's like as expensive now as a whole life policy would be. But what sold my wife on it was you buy this policy and this death benefit that you're told is so expensive, within, so like I'm just gonna speak generally, within five years, the policy can essentially pay for itself with a whole life policy. And what I mean by that is,

There are ways that the way it's growing and the way the contract works where it can actually pay the premium going forward for you. And it's also growing, it starts compounding and really, really working and giving you more access than you would have had before that. And so for my wife, was like, okay, so it pays for itself completely within five years and then you get access to all that money that you put into it and there's a permanent death benefit on it, right?

So why would you not do that for her? That was the big thing for her. Because you talk to a lot of people and they're not my age and between your age too, Jim, who they're not thinking about dying. No one does. And most people, they either have a small term policy. when I say, a million dollars in a term policy is great, but if you have a half million dollar home and four kids, your wife doesn't have that much.

runway with 500,000 after if something were to happen to you, right? So there's an element of like people aren't thinking about that piece of it. But then on top of that protection that it's giving you, you also get the access, right? Like you can use it to, you know, buy the cars you would have financed through Ford or, you know, do an investment deal. And there's this concept that we talk a lot about within infinite banking.

called anti-fragility. And the idea is that to be anti-fragile, you kind of have to have these protections in place, right? And so a policy, whole life policy provides that. And what I mean by that is a policy is guaranteed to increase every year, a dividend paying whole life policy contractually, right? The person assuming that risk or the party assuming that risk is the carrier, is the life insurance company.

Garrett Gastil (25:01.821)
When you're investing, you're assuming the risk, right? That's what it is. Like you're assuming some risk for higher return. But if you're investing with these policies or using the life insurance company's money to invest, your money's gone, it's in the policy. You have the policy now and the death benefit and the cash value, but it's gonna keep going up in value every year, the cash value is, which allows you to do things when everything else goes down, right? If there's a giant,

market crash, everyone's portfolios will go down. The life insurance companies, everyone's dividend paying all life policies have to go up contractually and they do. I remember that their Living Wells founder, Ray Poteet told Nelson, I think like in the 08 crash, like my policies went up today. Like they just, you know, it's what they do. And that allows us to do things that other people can't do, right? When those kinds of

big events happen. So I think all of those things together, there's the access now that you don't get with other things, like with investments, you put your money in and you lose access to it. There's that access element to it and a life insurance contract is not an investment, it's a life insurance contract, but it allows you to do things that you couldn't do with an investment. And then it also,

more abundance now and then just like that peace of mind knowing, know, my family's taking care of if something happens to me. That's been a huge thing as a dad and a husband.

TD (26:43.427)
Yeah, I believe the family economy is the only true safety net. mean, the family economy was the economy and we want to build family banks that allow us to finance our own businesses, farms, children's homes.

Garrett Gastil (26:53.905)
Mm-hmm.

TD (27:04.415)
education without asking permission from a loan officer. I don't know if any of y'all have done any conventional banking and the amount of financial reporting, blood work, DNA samples, your child's firstborn.

Garrett Gastil (27:12.681)
Mm-hmm.

Garrett Gastil (27:24.125)
What do we call it, Jim?

TD (27:26.631)
Yeah. Financial colonoscopy. Yeah. It's a financial colonoscopy, but,

Garrett Gastil (27:29.863)
Yeah, there you go.

TD (27:36.655)
Most people think of leaving a legacy as just, you know, dumping a pile of money on their kids when they die. How does IBC function as a living banking system that teaches the next generation how to steward capital rather than just consume it?

Garrett Gastil (27:46.441)
Mm-hmm.

Garrett Gastil (28:03.325)
Yeah, it's great. So really what IBC is, is it's a system, right? And it's knowledge. And I would say from like a biblical perspective, it's wisdom, right? There's a way that the world is, God set it up in an orderly way, right? And this allows us to practice, as you've been saying, banking at the family level, right? And really,

Like there are, and I would say like Jason at Ascendant has taken this to the, you know, where we all aspire to be, right? Where the family is really not reliant on banks and anytime they need financing, they come to, or to buy anything, they come to the family bank instead of to, you know, like you were saying, to traditional banks. But really what this is before it's even like,

before it's life insurance, it is a process, it's a system, right? So, you know who the Vanderbilt family is, right? Like the Vanderbilt College and all that. They were one of the wealthiest families in America. And then within three generations, it was all gone, right? Because they didn't teach the next generation how to steward the wealth, right? Now who are the Rockefellers, Jim? Do you know who they are? Are they still around?

TD (29:31.711)
Mm-hmm. They're still around.

Garrett Gastil (29:33.128)
Yeah, they are, right. And they passed on a system, It wasn't just, it was knowledge. It wasn't just about the wealth, right? And so what we really want people to understand about this concept is it like exactly to your point, it's not just a death benefit. It is a living system that you wanna bring the kids into and teach them about it, right? But then passing on the system someday is what perpetuates the wealth, right?

Cause we've all, it's rags to rags in three generations, Is like the story of the Vanderbilt family. And really when we think about what wealth is, it is wisdom, right? Like you read through Proverbs and it says insight and wisdom and understanding are more valuable than gold and silver and jewels, right? And I think that is true of this too. So like, it's really not about the size of what you're passing on your children. It's about the wisdom you're giving them. And I think

TD (30:05.615)
Mm-hmm.

Garrett Gastil (30:31.209)
This whole concept and everyone who does it and practices it and Nelson, the guy who wrote the book, it's all about how do we pass on that wisdom and teach our kids how to do this well, right? Because I think that a lot of us out there who get into this kind of thing, and this is just true about families, right? Like lot of families are just like, okay, you're on your own, right? Get out there, right?

What I've heard people say with this is what wealthy people do actually is they circle the wagons with their kids. They don't throw their kids out in the world and like go figure it out, know, go blow all your money on, you know, whatever you want with that first paycheck. You know, like they teach them how to use it and steward it even when they're young, right? So this concept, it's very simple. Like I think that, well, I talk to a lot of people about it every day and it's like, ooh, like.

what is this thing, right? And it's really not complicated, right? Like you, instead of putting your money in the bank or in stocks or wherever, you put it in a policy first and then you access it kind of like you would a bank, but there's a little bit more process there. And then you just pay it back like you would any other loan, right? Like that's, but then it's how you actually are using it and teaching your family to use it and making sure that you're treating it like a business.

Right? And I think that's the critical piece and not just, this is our family's money to do whatever we want with. Right? It's like, it's always about how do we protect this business that we're building as a family? And that means treating it with respect and, and, and this, and my kids are too young to borrow from the bank. Right? there's still really little, but I know families who have older children who do this. It's like, you, if you're going to borrow from the system,

You have to pay it back the way that you would Honda or this doesn't work, right? It just falls apart. And I think it's that knowledge and that practice and that also that accountability and responsibility that people want, right? And need. And that's what sets us up for success, I think. And our kids and will our kids as well. So.

TD (32:47.919)
Yeah. And we, we only implemented this, what, less than three years ago. And, um, we were able to finance my oldest son that he built a brand new house and we were able to finance that for him. You know, he was 19 at the time. He would have never qualified for a loan. Um, he wouldn't have, he would definitely wouldn't have qualified for the size alone that he needed for her. And, um, so we.

Garrett Gastil (33:09.307)
Right, right.

Garrett Gastil (33:14.397)
Hmm.

TD (33:17.873)
We've been able to do that and then we're currently financing a investment project. We're building an Airbnb and we've been able to do that because we have just taken personal responsibility. We started implementing the steps. We started applying the principles, teaching the kids. I have a couple policies. All of my kids have policies and...

You know, my, my new daughter-in-law, has a policy. we, are continuing to grow our system so that they can continue to implement and then so that their system is big enough to, basically assimilate our system when, when me and my wife pass on. But, with, with the.

Garrett Gastil (34:06.345)
And something that's just really cool, go ahead Jim, sorry.

TD (34:13.474)
No, no, no, go ahead.

Garrett Gastil (34:15.497)
Well, I was just going to talk about your son financing, you guys financing the house for him. It's a super cool thing where, like with a bank, that money that he would have financed every time he pays them, it's leaving your family forever, right? But when he finances it from the bank of dad, right? That money he's paying back in is refilling your policies, which will also...

come back to him in the form of death benefits someday. So it's like this wonderful thing where you're getting to help him now and he's paying you back with, he's gonna pay you back, but then he's also gonna benefit from that someday as well. So it just kind of perpetuates this cycle that's not a vicious cycle anymore, right? It's this thing where it's this mutual aiding and helping each other out for the rest of your lives.

TD (35:09.421)
Yeah, it is the...

epitome of loving and providing for your family. It's the epitome of loving your neighbor, you know, and it is the it is parallel. I mean, it is it is a completely parallel system that operates outside of, you know, I've taken several I've taken several very large loans. So I've taken I did some private lending when I first started and I borrowed like 90,000

$20,000, you know, and I didn't I didn't have to qualify I didn't get some exorbitant I didn't pay 12 % interest on a personal finance deal I clicked I said request a loan I clicked a button it said how much I clicked a button and it was Deposited within three days. So the simplicity of the system Is rather incredible and then when my son wanted to build a house we

said, okay, how much are you going to need? And the other very fascinating thing, um, which is probably a little unique to our situation is the boys built the house themselves. So while they only borrowed 125,000 to build the house, the house is worth probably about 375,000. And, um, so once again, not only were we keeping the money in house and in the family,

But they, because of their sweat equity, like immediately created an additional maybe, uh, two or $300,000 of real assets. And that's the kind of compounding that we're talking about. You know, we're talking about a 19 year old kid that never would have qualified. We're talking about someone who works for themselves, you know, doesn't have any W2 or 1099 income would have never

Garrett Gastil (36:45.491)
Mm-hmm.

TD (37:11.121)
And now he has a 10 year note with a reasonable rate. I'm his dad. I'm not super stick, you know, sticky on him as far as like what day of the month that he pays the loan, because I know I'm going to get it, know, and his income fluctuates a lot. So I give him some grace there, but, in reality, it's the only way.

Garrett Gastil (37:14.601)
Hmm.

TD (37:38.017)
Like if we didn't take control of that and didn't take personal responsibility for that, it's the only way that it would have happened or could have happened. But the end result will be exponential.

Garrett Gastil (37:49.353)
Yep, because you're gonna do that several more times, you know? And that's when I just keep perpetuating it. Yeah, yeah, it's so good.

TD (37:53.945)
Correct. Several more times.

Yep.

And so on this most recent deal, I was like, Hey, you know, I've been accumulating some capital and they were like, well, you know, we, keep talking about doing an Airbnb. So, you know, let's build an Airbnb. said, okay, I'll pay for it. You guys build it, you know, so, and it'll be a 50 50 split. And, you know, once again, we're creating generational wealth. We're, creating a passive income stream for both of us, you know, and, and that is.

taking control

And being involved, being aware, we're part of the building process, you know, we're, we're, we're completely plugged in. We're completely involved and we're taking our, TV time and our Netflix time and our doom scroll phone time. Right. And we're putting them into things that matter and count, you know, and we're, and we're accumulating assets and we're building wealth and it's, it's, it's totally doable. It's not, it's not complicated.

Garrett Gastil (38:52.189)
Amen.

TD (39:03.041)
It's not scary. It's not for them. that's for those other people, you know, I'm, I'm about as blue collar, as you can get. I'm, and I'm working with one arm. I'm like borderline almost disabled, right? And we're able to do this stuff. And, you know, with, with,

with the economy looking shaky, some people might feel paralyzed or think that they don't have enough cash flow to start. What do you say to the family living paycheck to paycheck? Is this like a reachable for them or is this only for us rich folk?

Garrett Gastil (39:50.484)
So here's what we tell people is that this can help anyone, but it's not for everyone, right? Because I'm just gonna read this straight from the book actually. Let me pull this up.

Garrett Gastil (40:06.281)
It's on page 65. And this is the 65 of becoming your own banker, okay? I just reached like I had my glasses on. That was funny. Getting older. So Nelson says in the book, he says, one of the biggest questions he gets is how do I get started? And Nelson says, the most important word that comes to my mind is desire. Without it, you probably can't do it. And he says, remember Parkinson's Law, which is the idea that

time and money and everything fills the water, fills the space that it comes to reside in. And the idea is that if we have income and we don't find a place for all of that income, our expenses will rise to meet income. That's just the way humans work. It's the result of the fall, right, probably. There's probably something in there that has been twisted, but.

TD (40:57.805)
Mm-hmm.

Garrett Gastil (41:02.089)
He says, everyone is already spending all financial resources and what he thinks is best. There has got to be some honest introspection at this point and a commitment to get out of financial prison. And that must be a burning passion. This is going to require a change in priorities in life and recognizing that controlling the banking function personally is the most important thing that can be done in your financial world. So I would say that the...

If you are living paycheck to paycheck, are, I know a couple people, right, where that's just the reality right now. It's maybe a season they're in. But I would say for most people, there's places where you could sacrifice a little bit, right? I've talked to a couple people in my time doing this who, they've just, they have caught the fire of this concept and they're in debt, but they're figuring out how to make it work to,

put money into a policy to get out of that debt and to build something in the meantime, right? So I think that it's not an easy thing, right? Changing your habits and changing your priorities around. But I would say if you're not saving money today, that's the first place to start, right? And I think that along with reading the book, right? Because I think most people just think that this is how it is, right? I hear all the time, I think just,

how you are, Jim, you just have this very strong accountability about yourself and responsibility. And I'm sure a lot of your listeners do as well. You see a lot of people whining about everything, right? And there are some things that are oppressive, right? Like Trump pulling the strings on the interest rates and the Fed, like, should be criminal, right? But it's not. Unfortunately, it's the world we live in, right? And I think that we spend money on the things we wanna spend money on, is I think the point.

TD (42:47.107)
Mm-hmm

Garrett Gastil (42:56.265)
And to do this requires an understanding of the problem, like you said at the beginning of this. And the problem is that someone else controls the banking function. And you can keep living in that and keep living paycheck to paycheck. And I think those people just haven't caught it yet. So I would say, read the book first, Becoming Your Own Banker by Nelson Nash. And then doing that might help you see that there's more going on than maybe you thought.

And maybe this podcast has this conversation has triggered that for you too. And take an honest look at your life, right? And you know what? Sometimes there are seasons where it's just not gonna work and that's okay, right? But I think for most of us, there are some places we could sacrifice to start getting out of financial prison and start controlling the making function.

TD (43:55.053)
Yeah. And I think it's even more, you know, when I got involved, we were already debt free. We got debt free maybe like.

Seven or eight years ago, you know, and the big thing, you know, and we, you know, we tell a little bit of our story online on the podcast, on the YouTube channel and different things and everybody's like, you're lucky or whatever, you know, and I remind people I, I, I'm, I'm 50 years old. Okay. I'm 50 years old. This took a while. This took a little bit, took, took a minute. 14 years ago, we hit a reset button and we started from quite literally zero from nothing. did a.

Garrett Gastil (44:05.032)
Mm-hmm.

TD (44:32.465)
complete reboot, moved somewhere where we didn't know anybody and hit a reboot. So really, I mean, it did take us 14 years to, um,

Garrett Gastil (44:43.026)
Yeah.

TD (44:43.535)
Basically, it took about seven years to get out of debt and then start accumulating capital and the infinite banking concept was quite literally an answer to prayer or God's end for me. I was accumulating capital. I was doing really well. We had bought some land and some infrastructure and some stuff and I'm like, okay, but now what do I do? You know, I can't keep, we can't, if I'm going to plan for our children and different things and I knew I was under insured to boot like,

And I knew my family had like massive exposure on that end. And now I have a banking system that provides a death and ever growing expanding death benefit that just by initially funding it expands the wealth transfer by a factor of 10 or 20 initially, let alone an ongoing growing death benefit that will be there when you actually need it that creates

Garrett Gastil (45:14.247)
Right

TD (45:43.463)
tax-free wealth to be transferred upon death. so you're avoiding the, you know, death and taxes, right? Well, you're not going to avoid death, but you can avoid taxes in this case. And, and who wants to pay taxes because all they're going to do is, don't know, bomb Iran with it or, you know, teach kids why they should, you know, cut off their organs and fund all that stuff or, you know,

kill people in Gaza or whatever, you know, that's what they do. That's a government's be government. and that's why we decided to design and live an intentional life, observe the masses, do the opposite, you know, take control as much as you control, leave the results to God. But just, know, we, you know, we're called to be disciples, you know, and disciple means discipline when we're called to discipline ourselves to reject.

Then basically the mainstream and the, entertainment and the distraction and the sports balls and all the, any more politics anymore is just, inter is sports for intellectuals. All politics is sports for intellectuals. And unfortunately, when intellectual people hear a spray tan guy say we should have the lowest interest rates in the

Garrett Gastil (46:54.408)
Hmm.

Garrett Gastil (47:03.112)
Hmm, yeah. Wow.

TD (47:15.35)
world and I'm like

He knows how this works and he's not, he wouldn't say something that stupid on purpose. unfortunately all of the like MAGA, Hammond Eggers like eat it up or whatever. Like, yeah, yeah, we should, you know, like, no dude, it doesn't work like that. What are you talking about? Like, I think you're being played. Right. So, I mean, that, that's the whole point of why we're having this conversation is, you know, don't be played.

Garrett Gastil (47:21.342)
yeah he does

Garrett Gastil (47:44.541)
Yeah, no, it's, no, it's good. when you were, you said something that triggered this for me, it's a good, so something that I've been, we've been doing this prayer and fasting with our church for the last 21 days, and one of the things that keeps coming up for me is that distraction is from the enemy, right?

TD (47:46.327)
You know, don't buy the hype.

Garrett Gastil (48:13.778)
There's so much out there and there's so much pulling our attention and it's so hard to focus and to do something really well now. And like God wants our attention, right? Like that's the first thing. And He'll reward that, right? And I think like the other night actually I was praying about it and the Lord was speaking to me about like I need to...

TD (48:28.579)
Yeah. Yeah.

Garrett Gastil (48:39.43)
be focused on what I'm doing and then do that well. And like, I am here is kind of like a phrase that I've been hearing from him. And it means like, I'm in this space, I'm not God. And I have to give up like controlling the kids and controlling everything at work and clients and everything. I can't control it. I'm right here in this space. And I think that that's just so important. And I think if we can settle ourselves enough to

maybe open our eyes to what's really going on and trusting him, he'll reward that. I think that's just, it's funny you're saying that because that's like the fifth time this week I've heard that thing about distraction. And then there's one other thing that I neglected to mention earlier about the family maybe living month to month cashflow that I wanted to just address Jim. that's, if cashflow is tight right now, but you're like,

I wanna do this concept, right? You might not be insured enough, right? You might still have the expenses that we all have and you might not have enough insurance to work or whatever it is to take care of your family if something were to happen to you, right? So what we do with people like that is we help them get like a convertible term policy. And the key there is that it's convertible, right? So that you're locking in the death benefit.

And if things change down the road, like for you financially, you can just convert that policy to a whole life policy. And the reason we do that is things happen, right? Like people get chronic illnesses, they get sick, things, you you have to have surgery. That's just like a weird thing, but then the carrier won't underwrite you for the whole life policy later. So like if you're healthy now, but you don't have as much cashflow as you want to do this, like a term policy might be a convertible term policy.

might be a really great thing to do just because you're solving that protection piece while locking in the insurability if you ever want to do this down the road. So that's just something I wanted to encourage people with if that's them.

TD (50:49.475)
Yeah. And, know, you were just talking about, how if we, if we focus on the Lord and pay attention and we're present and we're not distracted like God will provide for us. And that was just a, a recent, podcast that I did, talking about.

Or maybe it was in it, or maybe I was, maybe it was a message I was given at church. forget, but anyway, yeah, I think it was cause I was, I was, I was talking about proverbs, you know, and, whatever your eschial.

Garrett Gastil (51:21.66)
It was either me or my true, yeah, yeah. It's good.

TD (51:31.745)
eschatology is, know, wherever you, I, I really dislike dispensationalism and I used to be a dispensationalist. So don't hate on anybody. I do think that dispensationalism is kind of the bane of Western humanity, but even if you're a dispensationalist or whatever, like, you know, and, and I don't want to go. We could, do you want to talk about this?

Garrett Gastil (51:50.601)
Should we talk about this? This topic? Do you want to open that can of worms right now? I don't know. I didn't say this. I'm a pastor's kid. So like, this is my jam right now. Yeah. You can have me on for another one and we can talk about theology and all that. I'm in, man. I love it.

TD (52:02.113)
Okay, okay. boy, this could be dangerous.

TD (52:08.309)
Okay. Let's do that. Let's do that. Maybe we'll, but, anyway, regardless of how you see, the time of the end, you know, and, and I do believe that there's still future events to yet, happen from the book of revelation. And I do believe that.

none of us are going to stop any of those things. don't think any air quotes, good world leaders are going to stop any of those things or whatever. Okay. nobody's coming to save you, but, Jesus Christ is coming and he's coming for his saints. he's not coming with a smile on his face.

Garrett Gastil (52:58.94)
Amen.

TD (53:02.371)
He's coming to rule and reign with a rod of iron and he's coming to judge the quick and the dead. And so we should, I mean, for all the preparation for everything that you're considering, your first and foremost preparation is you should prepare to meet thy God. You know, we're all created in the image of God and he did make the rules, whether we like it or not. And we will give an account to our creator when we stand before him.

So if you're preparing for something, prepare first for that. And once you do that, a lot of things, lot of things in your life will like straighten out. You're like, wait a minute. Like all this stuff that I thought was important isn't important anymore. And now you can get the rest of your house in order.

Garrett Gastil (53:36.392)
First. Yeah.

Garrett Gastil (53:47.369)
It's amazing and like he loves us. He loves, and he wants to commune with us, right? And it's a free gift. And it's amazing what he promises when you do that with him, right? And there's no situation so far gone that he can't touch.

TD (53:53.337)
Yeah.

TD (54:01.038)
Yep.

Garrett Gastil (54:16.752)
and reach, right? There's a peace that comes in his presence that surpasses all understanding.

TD (54:24.451)
Yeah, that's right. That's right. And, know, he is going to care for his own, regardless of whatever might come as a history advances here. and things might get really tough and maybe. Yeah.

Garrett Gastil (54:38.428)
And they probably will. They're probably going to get tough. It's going to happen.

TD (54:41.825)
Yeah, they, they, they've, they've gotten tough in the past. They'll probably get tough again. but you know what? there's always a remnant and God provides and God cares for his people and God keeps his promises. And, you know, and I, I absolutely know that.

more than I know most things. uh, Garret man, this has been great. Appreciate the time you're investing here. If, if, if somebody want to get to get in contact with you, had some questions, what's the best way for folks to reach out to you, Garrett.

Garrett Gastil (55:06.514)
So good.

Garrett Gastil (55:19.282)
Yeah, they can reach out to me. Are you gonna edit this too?

TD (55:24.718)
Yeah.

Garrett Gastil (55:26.13)
Okay, great. Can we link my email or a scheduling link or something? I want people to be able to just reach out if they want to. Okay, so I'll say a scheduling link, but I'll also put my, yeah, okay. I'll put a scheduling link to get in touch with me. So if you wanna get in touch with me, I know...

TD (55:35.587)
Yeah, yeah, I can put that in the show notes.

Garrett Gastil (55:52.38)
Jammer TD, sorry.

TD (55:54.703)
CD.

Garrett Gastil (55:56.136)
Okay, okay, sorry about that. TD will put in the, TD will, thank you, thank you. TD will put in the show notes a link to get in touch with me if you wanna have a call. He'll also link my email in there. You can reach out to me over that if you just have questions. And would love to get in touch if you wanna have a conversation about this concept or just have a conversation about any of the things Jim and I talked about, TD and I talked about today.

TD (55:58.687)
That's okay, I'm gonna edit it all out.

Garrett Gastil (56:25.128)
Because we love people and that's what we really care about.

TD (56:30.115)
That's right. That's right. This was great. I appreciate it. All right, y'all. thanks so much for listening. like share, subscribe, maybe share this with friends or family, maybe somebody that has a question. if you want to, communicate back and forth, check out the fountain app. It's a great place to communicate back and forth with a podcast and whatnot. And we love y'all and we'll see you on the next one. Take care.