TODD POLKE | Escape The Middle

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Todd Polke, an investment strategist with over 20 years of experience. His new book, Escape the Middle, is all about breaking free from financial mediocrity.

Todd kicked things off by painting a vivid picture of what he calls “the middle.” It’s that place where so many of us find ourselves—stuck with a middle a limited amount of time, money, meaning, and freedom. He recalled his own starting point: a burned-out personal trainer working 17-hour days, trading time for money, and feeling like life was going nowhere.

He admitted to building a “house of cards” early on—racking up properties and trading options without a solid foundation. When the economy shifted, it all came crashing down. It’s a reminder that wealth isn’t just about accumulation; it’s about strategy and safety.

Todd lays out some practical steps for escaping the middle. First, treat your finances like a business—get intentional with every dollar. Second, shift your psychology—turn on your “millionaire mode” by ditching limiting beliefs like “money doesn’t grow on trees.” Then, build a plan and leep learning.

Todd is a fan of starting small with micro-investing—$1, $5, whatever you’ve got—and making it fun. He told me about his coconut water game: every time he scores a discount at the supermarket, he invests the savings—gamifying wealth-building takes the fear out of it.

Todd is all about designing a life you don’t need to retire from—one with meaning, choice, and purpose. For him, that includes conservation efforts for oceans and wildlife. It’s not all about money; it’s about what money lets you do for yourself and the world.

Escape the Middle isn’t just a book—it’s a roadmap to help people see there’s more to life than the treadmill. If you’re feeling stuck in the middle, this episode might just be the nudge you need to step off and start building something bigger.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS AFTER THIS BRIEF MESSAGE

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Phil: G'day and welcome back to Shares for Beginners. I'm Phil Muscatello. What does it mean to escape the middle? And why do so many people feel trapped there? How can everyday investors start building a portfolio that works harder than they do? And what's the secret to creating a legacy that goes way beyond money? G'day, Todd.

Todd: Phil, great to see you. Uh, thanks for having me, mate.

Phil: Great. Thank you very much for coming on from the rainforest.

Todd is an investment strategist and author of Escape the Middle

Todd is an investment strategist with over 20 years of experience. He's the author of Escape the Middle. Todd's helped thousands of Australians break free from financial mediocrity, and his book lays out a roadmap to build wealth that lasts. So, uh, Todd, what is the middle?

Todd: Phil, it's such a good question. And to answer that, I'm actually going to take you back to when I first started my investment journey. You know, we all have one of these stories, right? What was the pivotal moment in our life that got us involved in the world of investing and starting to set out a new pathway in life? You know, before I go in the world of investing, I was a burnout personal trainer working 70 hours a day from 4am in the morning till about midnight in running a business and doing all the different things you'got to think about when you run a business. And so I was doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing. You know, I went to school and I studied, I got out of school, I got a job, I started exchanging time for money. And so my whole rule of creating success back at that point was that, well, the hard I work, the more successful I'll become. And I'm sure many of your listeners have probably tried that strategy before. And, uh, now, of course, nothing wrong with the, uh, hard work, but the challenge with that is that if it's your only strategy, it leads to burnout. And welcome to M. My life, right? I'd broken my body, I'd broken my health, broken my relationships. And the one thing that I thought was supposed be working based on how many hours I was working, well, that wasn't working either. I was broke financially. And I found myself in this place called the Middle. And what I mean by this place called the Middle is that, well, I had a very small amount of time. A middle amount of time was probably even less than that. I had a middle amount of meaning in my life. Middle level income, middle level of earning, middle level of happiness, middle level of freedom. And I found myself in this place called stuck. And I was sitting at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs in Brisbane when I was about 20 years old. And I was fast forwarding, wow, if I just keep going down the same path I've been going on for the next five years, where is my life going to go now? At the time, I didn't know what the middle meant, but I just, I looked ahead and I went, wow, that doesn't feel really good. And then I started seeing that so many people around me, including parents and everyone I knew, was having the same experience of wanting more time, wanting more freedom, wanting more choice, wanting more opportunity, but feeling stuck, just exchanging time for money and working to pay the bills. And that's what the middle is all about. And I think that freedom is everyone's birthright, and it's time that we have to take it back.

Phil: And psychologically, people feel it's the right thing to do in so many ways, don't they? I mean, it's like society programs us to be cogs in the machine and to not think outside of the box and that, you know, you might be getting above yourself or trying too hard if you try and break out of that. And so a lot of people just automatically just stay there, don't they?

Todd: Uh, you said some. It's like you've been reading my mind, Phil. Like, so, uh, one thing I say all the time is that, like, from birth, we're literally programmed. We're programmed into the space, become an economic cog, the in the wheel of society. And that's what it is. And that's just what we're taught from all sides. From parents, from teachers, from education system, from society. Because you know what? The government doesn't want crazy people running around being financially free, being able to do what they want to do. You know, money is a form of control. And you know, anyone that says that money isn't m important, well, try living without it. It's just a tool of choice. But unfortunately, we're just not in no type of education system we ever taught how to use money, how to manage money, how to invest money, how to create freedom in any way, shape or form. All we're taught to do is follow this set default life that is laid out before us. And for most people that get to a point in their life where they go, I want more, I want more choice, I want more opportunity, I want more freedom.

00:05:00

Todd: But the old rules of the money game of life just have not been giving them the results. They want to start looking for something else.

Phil: And in your book you've got that beautiful analogy that people are seeing other people, you know, traveling down the stream and doing a lot better than their own selves. Because there are many people who do see things clearly and they take these moves and they take the steps to escape the. But other people are looking from the side and going, well, how do I do that? Sorry, that was just a little bit of an aside that I wanted to say.

Very few people get started learning how to invest in real estate

But tell us about your journey, escaping the middle after that day at kangaroo point where you were taking a good long hard look at yourself.

Todd: One of those at very early stage of my life. And you know, just touching on your point there, you just made your little side point. It's so true. And you would see it in what you do as well. You know, the people that take that step to get started learning how to invest in shares and trade shares and things like that. A lot of people think about it, but very few people get started because most people feel trapped in this comfort zone in their life, right where and they're driven by fear or waiting for the right time or the perfect moment or any of those things, you know, from that moment, sitting on the Cliffon Kangar pointed 20 years old. It was December 15th. I remember it so well. Like it's just, just like it was yesterday. I call it your done moment, right? And I was having one of those done moments where it's like line in the sand. Um, I'm done. Not another moment, not another day. That's it. Step over line and move forward. And everything that I taught I was supposed to do, I've been doing and it is not working. And I realized the system is broken. And so I went looking for another system. Now we didn't really have podcasts back then, you know, was just 20 years ago. We didn't have webinars. We didn't have all these things. It was let's read some books and let's attend some physical events. And so there was some formative books, which really shifted my whole perspective of my psychology because I really believe that wealth begins in the mind. You know, like what happens first, a million dollars in a bank account, become a millionaire as a person, right? And so I started just going crazy, reading books and attending events and things like that. And I had this one experience attending this property investment seminar. You know, property is my major background. I've traded shares, trade adoptions, done a lot of stuff. But you, business investing, alternative investments. But property is my major background. And I met this mentor at this time and I made a decision at this one event. And it was one of those decisions like where you choose to leave all your excuses and all your reasons behind you, right? Like there's one of those, um, true decisions that I was going to buy a property in six months time. But, uh, my problem is, well, I had no bloody money, of course, and that makes it difficult to buy real estate, right? But, uh, over the next kind of six months, I found some ways to save some more money. I found some ways to earn some more money and I saved up $9,000 over the next six months. Now that might sound like a lot of money to anyone listening, but to me at the time, it was an absolute fortune. Not enough buy a piece of real estate. But I got the first home in this grant stamp duty savings. I bought my very first property in Labrador on the Gold Coast. Paid 291,000 for $400 for it. 400 because I was out of money. I was done dust. I got the deal done, saved up another $10,000 in the next six months, did a renovation on the property, made $70,000 in profit in that one property deal in the space of nine months from when I bought it, which incidentally was more than my entire year's income. Bustling my ass 17 hours a day as a personal trainer. And, uh, I learned this beautiful phrase that the late Jim Rowan said is that profits are better than wages. The profits from my portfolio began to out earn my income. And uh, from that point in time I was hooked. Got have everything I was doing. Started the residential real estate sector, realized it wasn't for me. You know, I was working in an office of 17 agents. Only one other agent had to investment property, I realized was the wrong environment. And I literally annoyed the crap out of the guy, my original mentor for six months until he made a job for me. And, you know, that was about 20 years ago now where I got started the investment world. And since then I've, uh, been coaching the, educating investors all around the world how to build strategic wealth portfolios.

You lost everything early in your investing career because you built a house of cards

Phil: So you lost everything early in your investing career because you built a house of cards. Tell us about that story.

Todd: Yeah, that was a fun and painful and enjoyable story.

Phil: A great lesson, I'm sure.

Todd: Ah, I'm a way better person and coach because of it, and I'm hypersitive around protecting people, that's for sure. So here's what happened. After I bought that first property. I got the equity out and went and did another property deal, and then I got the equity out of that and I did another property deal. And I'd started doing a lot of trading and options and things like that at that point in time to try and create some more income. And so I started moving forward my investing, and I got a lot of early success. I built a solid level of wealth at a very young age, which, you know, was a beautiful thing. But it's also when you're young and you don't necessarily have the life experience and some of the challenges to learn from it can create some scenarios. Right. And so I built, as you said, a house of cards. And what I mean by that is that everything looked beautiful on the outside. It was this nice, like, you

00:10:00

Todd: know, beautiful structure and I'growing, uh, it. And I was appearing successful and every. I was talking success and everything was looking that way, but there was no foundation underneath. I didn't have enough buffers in place. I was always relying on pulling more equity out to go and do more deals. I was negatively geared in the portfolio and I wasn't holding things in the right entity. I wasn't taught how to protect my portfolio. All I thought I was supposed to do was just more, more, more, more, more. And that's a little bit more amateur hour when it comes to the world of investing is what I've now learned, what investing truly is. Strategy is, sure, accumulating assets, but that's a peak of the iceberg, right? The real majesty behind your portfolio is your strategy and your structure and your system behind it, your personal finance management, how safe you are. And so I didn't keep myself safe. And so all it took was for the wind to blow in the opposite direction, which is a shift in the economy, and everything came crashing down. Right. I was bleeding money I had to sell off the vast majority of my portfolio. My ego took a giant hit. I was humbled in, in the most magnificent way possible and I lost everything. Had to start all over again. Painful experience but absolutely critical for me as a coach. It taught me so much around what wealth truly is because it's not about building wealth flash and a pan wealth and it's really is about how do we create sustainable wealth. And I always likeing it to like you know, options trading. You know success in share trading and options trading has everything to do with sticking to your rules, right? And uh, I'm sure you teach a bunch of these things and how do you keep yourself safe while you're growing out your portfolio?

Phil: What was the kind of options trading that you were doing?

Todd: I was mainly doing um, bull put spreads was my primary strategy and mainly on the Australian market and covered calls. So I wasn't going on anything too crazy. I was doing some calls, some straight puts but mainly bull put spreads is what my one was. And I did well out of it for quite a period of time until uh, I made one gorgeous mistake and lost a whole lot at a short period of time because I didn't stick to my rules. But yeah, I used to love it. You used to have a great time doing it. It was the first time I retired was some was options trading. Are you confused about how to invest? Life Sherpa can ease the burden of having to decide for yourself. Head to lifesha.com.a you to find out more. Life Sherpa, Australia's most affordable online financial.

Phil: Advice M so it sounds like you take a lot of your own experience which you're imparting to people. Especially in the book.

How do you start treating your financial life, your wealth like a business

Let's start talking about some of the practical steps that listeners and viewers can take today to start making the shift out of the middle.

Todd: You know one of the biggest things that I think about, and I say this to all my students, is that ah, why would you be given more money to manage if you can't manage what you've already got? And so most people in their financial lives are very unorganized, right? They only get to money when there's a bill to pay, when there is tax time, when there's an emergency or when it's too late. And so they're not running their financial life like a business. It's a very reactive process and one of the big mindset shifts that have to be made is that well, how are you going to start treating your financial life, your wealth like a business? Because when you take on that level of psychology and take on that level of mindset, you start thinking about it in a very, very different way. So to me, the first thing is, well, how are we going to build a deep and strong foundation? You know, I talk about in the book where most a lot of people are in the space, where they're kind of treading water financially. And you would meet a lot of people in the space as well, Phil, where it's kind of like they're doing a lot of stuff. They're doing a lot of stuff. They mil egs are moving really fast, they're working really hard, but they just feel like they're not getting anywhere and they're stuck on this treadmill going around and around in life, right? And so one of the things that we've got to focus on doing is that we've got to put a floor underneath them, you know, so how can we get close enough to the financial shore where we can put two feet down and stand firmly on a really strong foundation? And to me, foundation comes in four different ways. One, how are you going to create a system for your personal finances? So when I talk about that, you know, for most people's financ, uh, is this very reactive process. Money comes into their life, they earn it. It gets ravaged by the tax office and superannuation. First and foremost, they get some money in their bank account. And then the urgencies kick in, oh, I better pay for my mortgage, got to pay for my rent, got to pay for electricity bills, got to pay for the kids, got to pay for Internet, got to pay for phone. I've got to pay for this, got to pay for this, got to pay for this. And then if there's any money left over, then I might put some away into savings. But unfortunately, uh, for most people, they run out of money before they run out of month. So one of the biggest things we want to do, first and foremost, is install a personal finance system. So as soon as a dollar hits your bank account, it has a plan and it has a purpose. And in one of the first chapters of the scape, the middle of the book, I take people through a process called a finance farm. How do we go and install a personal finance system so that every time a dollar hits a

00:15:00

Todd: bank account, it knows exactly where it's going to go and you're going to become intentional with your finances. So that's number one. Number two is psychology. How do you turn on what I call your millionaire mode? And the subtitle of the book is turn on your millionaire mode and build wealth, which outlives you. So how can we create the psychology and take on the mindset of a millionaire investor, uh, even before we are one? Right? And so, unfortunately, we're just all given a very. We have a dirty mind when it comes to money, right? When we're not really g a solid foundation when it comes to it. We're taught that, you know, money doesn't grow in trees. You got to have money to make money. Wealthy people are evil. Like all this type of garbage we're taught along the way. And so we've got to start fine tuning our psychology. And what that means is how do we start unraveling, uncovering the hidden saboteurs, the mindset traps that we already have, and how do we start installing a new set of beliefs which are supporting us to where we want to be going in the future? Right? So personal finance system psychology. The next big one is let's get a plan in place. And that's the plan for your finances and your and your strategy. And then how are you'going to build a team around you? And the biggest thing from that is that then just get started. Stop waiting. Like, a lot of people are waiting for the perfect time or the perfect moment to the right right weather, or when the kids grow up, or when their boss gives them a raise, or any of the other times, the people are waiting. But I just suggest that people just get started. Even if it's $5 a week, I, uh, do not care. Start taking those steps into the marketplace so that you are starting putting some energy, some intention, some awareness towards where you want to be going instead of just continually operating in the same way, staying exactly where you are right now.

Starting with the meaning before starting with the money is key to wealth building

Phil: There's a quote from the book that I really liked, which is starting with the meaning before starting with the money. Is this a key step in it? Because rather than just looking at a bunch of figures on a spreadsheet, you want to know why you're doing it. Am I reading that the correct way?

Todd: Yeah, you're absolutely spot on. And that meaning can come in multiple different ways. Like one is that, well, it's not about the money, it's about the choices that money give you. Because money is just a unit of choice. That's all it is. So how can we set, um, a target, what I call your financial freedom figure and your pathway, where you've got this north star sitting up in the sky that's going to pull you through the ups and downs of the marketplace that you've got something that you means more than just let's us make some money because that's only going to get you so far, it's exciting. Then you make some money and then you realize, well like that's meaningless unless it gives you something in life, Right? But uh, the other thing is, is comes down to all about intention. So you don't start with the money, you start with a meaning. We start with the meaning of what's the outcome that money is there to crave for us in life. But then we start with the meaning behind and the purpose behind what element everything is serving in your portfolio. What is the purpose? Each element is serving your portfolio, right? So like your earning potential, what's the purpose that's there serving to help you create your ultimate goals. If you buy a property, what's the purpose of the property? Is it just capital growth? Is it cash flow? Is it what I call momentum? If you're investing in the share market, are you investing for long term capital growth? Are you investing for dividends? Are you trading for consistent profits? Like we've got to start, uh, get rid of all the assets because that's just uh, a means to serve the purpose. And instead we want to focus on well, how are we going to build a structured systemized portfolio where every element is serving a purpose in the portfolio that's going to go you one deal to the next, deal to the next and ultimately you towards this place called financial freedom. But it's a key part of my teaching. It's all about intention.

Phil: It's a lot of hard work, isn't it? It's not something that you can take lightly, is it?

Todd: Yeah. But I also want to say that don't make it bigger than what it is. You know, like any journey, I think that wealth building is a marathon, it's not a sprint. Right. And Phil, I'm sure in your teachings and things that you do, you might get the get rich quick as will come into your world at some point in time. And I get them as well. And they just want to come in and they've spent decades getting themselves in their currentish position. But then they want to change it overnight. And so they go for the big goals or big kicks or something like that instead of actually putting one foot in front of the other and just learning the system and rewiring their mindset and setting the the right intentions in place in the right structure of their portfolio in place. And so I always think about it as that learn one thing and do one thing and we're talking about some big concepts here. And it doesn't mean that you have to know everything before you get started. I talk about this in the book like the biggest thing is just get started and know that if you put one foot in front of the other and you take baby steps while you're building your financial IQ and your investment iq, uh, your whole world will begin to shift in a very short period of time. So don't make it too big in your mind so it stop you from getting started.

Identify your own strengths and build a strategy that suits yourself

Phil: Another thing that you talk about is identifying your own strength to build a strategy that suits yourself. Tell us about that.

Todd: So, uh, let me take you back to my, uh, share trading journey. Right.

00:20:00

Todd: So in Options, I'm a firm believer that everyone has a genius firm believer. And so it's when we can double down and triple down in our strengths is when we can find our greater source of leverage. You know, I talk about the book, the six different types of leverage, right. The number one is all about your strengths. How do you double down and triple down in yourself? Now I had this great experience probably about 10 years ago now, and I was at of New Year's party with some beautiful friends of mine and we used to go down to Barron Bay and we'd spend a few days there just hanging out, chilling out, like talking cool stuff and just really good human beings and really interesting people. And one of the people there, her name was Vicki and she was one of those people that really had a big impact on my life. So she used to do a lot of personality profiling. So she took me through this process. I don't know if you've heard of Roger Hamilton and Talent Dynamics. I don't know if you've heard any of that great stuff, like really good stuff. She took me through this process and I went through this test and then she unpacked it for me. And as she was sitting there telling me what this test was saying, like, I feel like I've been found out. Like she was so spot on, is so accurate about my strings. What I struggle with, where I'm in flow, where I'm out of flow, and what I find easy versus what I find difficult. And it was just uncanny. It was a really incredible experience. And so what I learned from that is that so many things that I was doing in my life, I was just trying to fix my weaknesses. I was trying to get better at the things that I just actually wasn't actually gifted at, where I was then neglecting and not spending enough time just on my Strengths and what my core part of me is that if I double down a triple down in that my results would absolutely soar. And so what I learned to understand is that when we can double down a triple down on ourself, it's going to be our greatest source of leverage and we create the results. Right. Although I learned how to trade options and uh, I learned how to trade shares, what I also found out was that it wasn't me and my natural flow state. Right. Because I can tend to be you big picture thinker and I get distracted easily and then I want to do this and I want to do that and I've got a million ideas going on at any point in time and I have a high risk tolerance. And so when I was in the world of trading, I would try and twist rules and I'd change things and I'd try and if, uh, my position wasn't going well, I would try and adjust it and change it and things like that. And so I was not operating in my own source of genius. And so I don't believe that everyone should be renovating real estate or being a developer. Ah. I don't believe that everyone should potentially be running an Amazon business or even trading shares. I think that everyone should go, well, how can I build a portfolio wealth on based on me? How can I, in my job, in my income, how can I find out what I'm incredible at and just do the few things that I'm really good at, mitigate against your weaknesses, but how can I communicate based on who I am? Then build a solid team around me to support me in the areas that I'm not so great at. And that's where having the best team around you is absolutely key.

Phil: What do you mean by a team?

Todd: Yeah, so here's the truth of the matter. You're only going to get world class results when you get world class advice. And because we're not given a solid financial education or investment education, we often very have to rely on others to be able to support us. And you know, as people listen into your podcast and come to you to tap into your experience and your knowledge and your decades of understanding and your results, like we need to do that in all these different areas of our life. But unfortunately, the people that most people turn to to build their wealth or get advice around that, uh, their parents. And it could be a mortgage broker, it could be a real estate agent, it could be a financial planner. Now nothing against any of those professions or any of the people in them. However, when I Was used to teach people how to do some share stuff. I became a qualified financial advisor and it took me two weekends via distance education to become a qualified financial advisor with an open book exam. Right. And all of a sudden I just lost absolute faith in the system in a big way. I became a real estate agent in a few weeks and I didn't learn anything about real estate or investing. I just learned how to fill out contracts. I became a mortgage broker in a day because I talk about financ and lending all the time. Took me three hours. Now I had some recognition of prior learning and things like that but I've also uh, many of these as my clients and I've worked with them over the years. And just because someone has a piece of paper doesn't mean they actually know how to invest. Right. Qualifications do not mean qualified to help you grow your wealth. I always think about a six star team, right? You need people that's going to help you with strategy, you need people that's going to help you with financing, you need get people are going to help you with deals and opportunities. You need people to help you with execution, you need people help you with structuring and you need people to help you with making sure you're safe for the future. And so when we

00:25:00

Todd: can build this team around us, we can surround ourselves with incredible human beings that are great at what they do and we can lean into other people's expertise and knowledge. Right. I don't pretend to know how to trade shares or invest in shares anymore. That was a long time ago. It's not my skill set, not where I am. And you know, this is where we uh, come and tap into like your expertise feel to be able to learn how to do that because you're in the game all the time. Right. And so for me I'm a big believer in leaning on a team. I'm a big believer in surrounding yourself with incredibly intelligent people so you can focus on do what you do best and outsource the rest. It was one of the things I learned in a business course when I was a back and a person trainer. It's something I've brought all the way alongside with me. So I think building your wealth team is a critical part of building your foundation.

Phil: And you're not going to find these people in the next cubicle in your uh, corporate environment.

Todd: No.

Phil: For them. And um, yeah, yeah. But I think I'll say you'psychologically you've got to come from a position of strength yourself by building up your own skill set by starting out and actually starting to understand then you're going to um, find the kind of people that you really need, aren't you?

Todd: And you need to be know that you're probably going to upgrade along the way as well. Right. So you may have certain people on your team that are perfect for you starting out, but you may outgrow them and you might go to the next level and then you need to upgrade to the team that you're working with, the people that can take you to where you're going, not just give you the advice at where you are right now.

James Trotto: Young people feel discouraged about buying their first home

And I was meeting with a couple of clients this the other day. Um, Ben and kli, their names are ah. And they have had a broker for many years now, mortgage broker. They've just started working with this couple and they've had a mortgage broker for many years now. And this mortgage broker has now become a close personal friend. And so they already know that this person is not the person that's going to take them to where they go. Like as soon as they came to listen to some of my events and some my how you structure your finances, they picked up about three to four different gaps that this broker was kind of telling along the way. Oh, I, uh, keep everything in the same bank and do P and I and you should never pay LMI and a whole lot of different conversations which I had very different philosophies around and they were staying with this person because they had a relationship. Now all for relationships. I'm a big believer in building long term relationships and you know, with long term people, you know, but like sometimes you have to know that in order to go to my next level I need to raise the quality of people that I'm around. I need to raise the level of advice that I'm receiving in my life um, so I can tap into this next level because otherwise they're't going to be able to give you advice at their own level. So always be willing to kind of upgrade along the way and know that you're going to have to.

Phil: I think there's a malaise these days. I mean I see my daughter and the friends and the people she hangs out with and they're lovely people but some of them are incredibly cynical and they also feel, you know, that there's that thing at the moment where younger people don't feel like they're ever going to be able to get into property because it's become so exp.

Todd: Interesting.

Phil: What sort of. Yeah, what sort of. What would you say to them, uh.

Todd: I would say that there's always a way, right? And I would say that people need to protect their minds because when we go into the media, how old your daughter, Phil?

Phil: Um, she won't want me to say.

Todd: Oay, no nories, that's fine.

Phil: Oay got early 30s there.

Todd: Oay no worries, no worries. And so what we're hearing in the media is that the media is like blasting everyone by saying, oh, it's so unaffordable. And you can't do this and you can't do that and young people can't buy their own home. And first home buyyers are suffering and this is happening. So we've got to protect our mind. We've got to protect our mind against the MIN viruses that media spread. And as we know, media sells bad news, pure and simple. Right? And we need to start protecting our mind. And we have to know that there is always a way. Sure, things are challenging. Sure, real estate is expensive, sure, getting lending is tougher, and there are some challenges in the marketplace. But I would also say that now compared to 20 years ago, there are. Although the value of real estate has gone up and's harder to buy your first home, it's easier to make more money than ever before. There's so many options out there. There's so much education out there. There's so many things just like what you do feel like with your poldcast here where you can tap into experience at the drop of a hat. So while you're sitting there going, yeah, real estate is more expensive, so is the opportunity to make more of money is easier. And so which belief are you going to sit on? Uh, are you just going to sit on? Because I was literally thinking about this yesterday and reading some stuff about this there, uh, young people have just decided, well, you know, I should just give up. I should never buy my own home. I'm just never going to get there. And they've defeated before they even begin. And they haven't even tried, they haven't even gotten started there. One of my young clients, James, and his partner, Madison, so they bought their first home at 21 years old. And that home has now gone up by $200,000. It's out earned

00:30:00

Todd: them in terms of their equity growth. I had a meeting with them literally just two weeks ago and we are planning on doing their second deal and we've got their third deal laid out in the next two years alone. Now, uh, these guys aren't earning millions. They weren't gifted a lot of money. They didn't get big inheritance, they didn't win lotto, none of these things. James is a Trady. Madison works in corporate. They earn average incomes. There's nothing special about them apart from the fact that they got themselves educated, they got a plan, and they took action on the plan. And so everyone has to make a choice. Am I going to choose to believe the media? Am I going to choose to believe that I can't buy my own home and I should just go and leave for today and go traveling and go spend all my money and go do the avocados and do all the things? Or am I going to build something that matters? Am I going to set myself up for the future? Because I'm genuinely geninely concerned for people who are, uh, finding themselves in the middle right now, who are not getting themselves educated for what I see coming. I see that a lot of people are going to find themselves. Steamrolled is a pretty intense word. But you know, with some of the things that's coming in the future, you know, things that I'm seeing has happen in the marketplace, they're going to find themselves with not much choice. And I think there's an urgency now to really kind of take control of this area of your life.

The thing that stops people from getting started with micro investing is fear

Phil: You're a fan of micro investing, aren't you?

Todd: Love it. Yeah, it's great.

Phil: Yeah. You find that a good way to, to get started, just even to take that first, first step.

Todd: It's so easy and you can make it effortless. And the thing that stops people from getting started is fear. That's the thing that stops most people and the thing that takes away fear is knowledge and experience. And so. But a lot of people, because they're scared about it. Well, I'm too scared to get started, so I don't get educated and, um, I'm too scared to take the first step. So don't get the experience. And they stay in this, this place called fear, which keeps people stuck. Right? Micro investing, the beautiful thing about it is that you can start with a dollar, you can start with dollar. It really doesn't matter. And I love to play games when it comes to investing because I just find it amusing. It keeps me interested. And it's such a good way to gamify your wealth creation, right? Because wealth building should be fun. Like why the hell shouldn't it be fun, right? Make it fun. I want to normalize wealth creation in people's lives. And this is why I wrote this book. I want to normalize wealth creation. Normal has Work to pay the bills. Let's normalize wealth creation and financial freedom and having these type of conversations and talk about dreams and things, that's what we want to do. I love to make wealth building fun. So I love to set up games in my own wealth building. And one of the games that I set up is with some of these micro investing apps like Ray is and in the US it's Acorns and there's Bamboo is a crypto and micro investing app. Uh, I used in the share trading world. I used Brain Explosion, Spaceship and a couple others. I've used different ones. And so here's what I would always do. I love coconut water. I can never get enough of it. I drink a lot of it. I uh, stockpileot. I think it's great. Love it. So every time I go to the grocery shop, if I find my favorite brand of coconut water, 50% off. I don't just get one or two cartons. I do what people do with toilet paper nowadays when there's, you know, Covid or when there's a cyclone or something we just experienced. And I fill up my trolley. Now my daughter finds it the most embarrassing thing but uh, like I will get 40, 50 bottles of coconut water because why the hell not? It's 50% off. Why not? I love getting a deal. And so I'm skipping around happily in the supermarket because I know I'm going to get a good deal. I get to the checkout, I pay for my coconut water and if anyone's gone to Coles or woolw worse and you got your docket and in the docket there's uh, it says your savings. And so I might have saved $50 from that shop. I'mnna buy it anyway. I just got a better deal and I made some smart decisions. So I automatically go and take out my phone and a minute later I've invested $50 into my financial future. And you could do things like roundups in it and so it get rounds up. Like if you spend a dollar 59 cent and you might set a standard that anything over 50 cents rounds up and invest the difference. And so 41 cents automatically gets taken out of my account. I don't feel it. And it goes towards m my building my investment portfolio. Same with dollar cost averaging. People say that I don't have enough money to invest. You know, the common dogma for a lot of uh, that we hear is that you should save 10% of your income. And some people go, well Todd, like cost of living, you know, fuel is expensive. Energy is expensive. The rent is expensive, expensive. I can't afford 10%. I go, great, start with 1%, right? And then M month number two go to 2%. M month number three go to 3% and I call it the 1% rule. And the more that you can take those small amounts and invest them in the marketplace. Invest towards your financial future. You're training your brain, your training, your mindset psychology that wealth building is important to you.

00:35:00

Todd: As you start to do that, you start to take notice of your investing in wealth, building into financial habits. You gain more awareness, you have more experience and all of a sudden fear starts to dissipate. But you've done it in this small baby steps type of way, right? This one just a big component of um, micro investing, dollar cost averaging and just getting started.

Financial freedom is not about retiring, but designing a life you don't need

Phil: So you say that financial freedom'not about retiring, but designing a life you don't need to retire from. Tell us about that.

Todd: I personally think retirements are low standard. And here's what I mean by that. I've retired twice before in my life. Retired. And my version of retirement as I lasted two weeks and I got boredt out of my mind. Do we really think that life is about just sitting under a palm tree our entire life and that's it? Or do we feel that there's some more meaning to it? Uh, do we feel that there's something that we're here to do on the planet? Do we feel that we're supposed to contribute in some way? Do we feel that we should be experiencing life in a big way? Or do we feel that we should sacrifice good portion of our life just working to pay the bills until we one day reach this magical place called retirement? And the problem with this magical place called retirement is that the government keep changing the rules, the superannuation system gets tougher, the retirement age keeps growing. You know, we're going to be 105 before we can retire soon. Most people are retiring on the pension. 77% of the population rely upon some form of the pension and retirement. Why would you sacrifice some of the best years of your life? Just exchanging time for money for the purpose of working to pay the bills to ultimately get to this place called retirement. What if instead you go, well, what is the experience of life that I want to have right now and get clear on that. What if we start to understand, well, how much is that experience going to cost us? I call this your financial freedom figure, right? Something I talk about in the book again. And then how do we start systematically working towards that. It's not about retiring. Retiring means that you've got to something you have to retire from because you don't want to do it anymore. What if instead that we just focus on building and designing a life around us that, that we love? That work isn't hard. It's just fun. Like have. I don't think I've worked a day in my life since at the age of 19 or 20. It's just been fun ever since then. What if you could design a life where you had the choices and the experiences? What if you got to spend it with the people you love? What if you could help people and support people at the way you want to be able to do it and spend the time with your family? Right. I don't believe in sacrificing life for this one day when thing. I believe that we should be looking at all the areas of our life and how can we start systematically changing our strategy and how we approach our work? And do we need to reed educate? Do we need to go and learn trading? Do we need to go and learn how to invest? Do we need to go and set up the system? Do we need to double down, triple down our streings? Do we need to invest in this? And how can we start moving towards an outcome where you have choice? It's not going to happen overnight, but uh, it's better than spending 20, 30, 40 years of your life just doing something you don't enjoy just to pay the bills.

Phil: I'm depressed thinking about it. Sorry about that, Phil, but o. No, I'm just, I'm just uh, depressed for the people who might be, uh, taking that path. But you know, it's like, like you say you want wealth with purpose. It's like your conservation efforts for oceans and wildlife. It's. You want to incorporate these things into your life as well as into your wealth as well, don't you?

Todd: Absolutely. It's just meaning, like what if you could build a life with so much meaning around it where you could go and spend all the time with your family. Right. That you want to be able to spend it? And you know, I'm in an interesting stage of my life now, right. So I'm some 42 now. I've remarried. So for my first marriage, when I got married at a very young age, I had a daughter who's now 14 and she' thinks she's going on 20 years old at this point in time. So I'm enjoying the teenage, the start of the teenage years. Y yearah. And then I've just remarried very recently in the last couple of years and I have an 18 month old son. And so I'm reflecting on my life now with at 42 being a dad versus 27, 28 being a dad and reflecting on the experience of the different. Some of the things I missed out on because of the stage of life that I was in and what I was focusing without that level of understanding that I have now versus how present I am as a father now and how much more time and opportunity I have. And so I'm just enjoying it so much like it's such a different level. And so uh, I just think that people should design a life where they can spend their life with their family, the people they love with the people, the meaningful relationships really make a difference. Fully experience this beautiful gift called life and this beautiful world. Like give back to things that you believe in. Find your mission and your purpose and find the meaning in that, uh, and have an impact on other people and then find something bigger than yourself to give back to. And you know, as you said like for me one of the things is conservation,

00:40:00

Todd: right? I'm a nature junkie. One of my earliest memories is seeing my parents walk. I was born to Solomon island which a little bit different and weird. Look at me and you go yes, you're not Solomon island. And Todd like but I was born to Solomon.

Phil: Arland, you're never going to play rugbyh?

Todd: Well no, I played rugby on but yeah, not with the Solomon love the Solomons. But one of my earliest memories was watching my parents walk off the beach going scuba diving and the wrecks in there. And so as soon as I was old enough I got my ticket and I spent a lot of time under water is one of my favorite place in the world. And um, but I've also seen how humans have destroyed it as well. And I've seen how humans have post animals and in Africa and things like that and it breaks m my heart, it really does. And so I think that when we have the opportunity to be able to give back and do something good for the planet and leave a bit of a legacy, I think it's uh, I feel as an obligation and, and a lot of people I speak to want to be able to give back to the world in a bigger way than they're doing right now.

Todd Pollky's new book Escape the Middle is designed for anyone

Phil: Okay, so tell us about the book. Tell us where people can buy it and what it's called again.

Todd: Yeah, the book is called Escape the Middle. And uh, this has been two years that I've been in the process of writing this book and it is, is a labor of love. It really is a legacy book to me and I have put everything into it. But what you rightly said early on is it's a roadmap. It's designed for anyone. No matter what phase of the journey that you're in right now, are you just starting out or you do have tens of millions in a portfolio, you already, you're going to be able to pick up this book and you're going to get something incredible out of it because it's going to lay out a roadmap for you that you can then follow step by step. Now this isn't just one of those o let's read it and it's all fluffy and things like that. Like it's full of real practical advice and real.

Phil: I notice that there's a lot of practical practicalities and a lot of charts and flow charts and things to do. It's very, very practical.

Todd: And I've also created an online resource that people can get as well as uh, I tell in the book that when you buy the book you tap into that and I go through some other training and some videos and some worksheets you can download and go and do because I don't want you to just read something, I want you to actually do it. I want by the end of the book that you've taken positive action steps and you've gotten results already. If you take the apute steps and you go and apply it and it's designed to lead people to a pathway, give you a step by step plan to escape that place called theiddle. So if anyone's found themselves in this place where they're going, I'm um, doing what I was taught. I've uh, gotten my education, I've uh, got into the workforce. I'm changing time for money. I put money away a super. Maybe you bought a home, maybe you've done this may and you found yourself and you're ask me this question. I thought there was more to life. This book was written for you, right? This was written to give you a pathway out of that into a life of freedom, of choice, of meaning, of opportunity. And it's uh, I've written in a very easy read. I've written in a way it'very practical and very tangible and it's in all the major bookstores. You've got a qbd, got a dimmix, it's in all the airports, it's in a lot of independent bookstores, office works just picked it up as well. So it's in, you know, it's gone mass market and office works. But also you're going to find it on Booktopia, you're going to find it on Amazon, and there's some of the easiest ways you can go and do it, or just go to www. Do do escapethemidle.com and you're going to be able to find how to do it there. And how do you can access some of those trainings as well?

Phil: Todd Pollky I've really enjoyed our time to thanks very much.

Todd: Great mate. Thanks so much, buddy. Thanks for listening to Shares for Beginners. You can find more@sharesforbeginners.com if you enjoy listening, please take a moment to rate or review in your podcast player or tell a friend who might want to learn more about investing for their future.

00:43:35

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