The Scars of Scarcity and Your Spending Problem: Fun With Annuities

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Welcome to Fun with Annuities. I'm your

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host, Stan the Annuity Man, America's

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annuity agent, licensed in all 50 states

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and Puerto Rico. The founder of CGO

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contractual guarantees only. With

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annuities, you own them for what they

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will do, not what they might do. No

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hypotheticals or theoreticals, back

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tested, all that nonsense crap. You

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don't buy them for growth. You buy them

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for the guarantees. You don't buy the

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dreams because you're going to own the

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contractual realities. Today's topic of

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the day is an interesting one. It's

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called the scars of scarcity and your

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spending problem.

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Hang in there with me. Let me explain

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the scars of scarcity, which is a great

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story. My wife of 38 years, the lovely

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Christine, she she came up with the

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phrase scars of scarcity. What that

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means is every single one of us as

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adults in our adulthood, most of us that

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that weren't in the inheritance

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business, there was a time that we had

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no money and we were scared and we

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didn't know what to do. We ran up our

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credit card bills and we all know that,

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you know, I was talking to a couple

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today and they were saying I I mentioned

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scars of scarcity. Yeah, there was a

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time that we couldn't afford a bed when

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we were first married. We slept on the

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floor. First of all, that's love. That's

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what I'm talking about. But been there.

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I'll tell you my scars of scarcity to

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story. You might have heard it in a

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previous um video that I've done. My

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first daughter, I think she was one and

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a half, maybe two. And um

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you know, we're struggling. Didn't have

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any help from the families. Just you

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know, we're just making it, man. And um

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we just didn't have a lot of money. You

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know, I've been on you know, commission

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my whole life. And you know that's good

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and bad, right? And some months are

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good, some months are bad. But this was

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one of those months where it just it

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just wasn't working. And I came home and

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my and I might I might get emotional

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here because it still hurts cuz it's a

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scar. And um

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and and we didn't have any baby food.

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So So I go to the grocery store and

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I had a credit card. I think I had some

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I was hoping I had some some room on it

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[snorts]

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and I I I bought so much baby food that

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I came home and my wife goes, "We're

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never going to it's going to spoil. I I

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think I bought like a hundred things of

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those Gerber things, but my child was

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not going to go without

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[snorts]

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That hurts.

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I mean,

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that was that was 28 years ago.

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Okay. [snorts]

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You've been there.

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You have a story like that.

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And the reason I wanted to lay it out

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like that

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[snorts] is because we got through that

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and now we have money and we haven't

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needed money for 15 years. I've worked.

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I love what I do,

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but we're financially sound. But you

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know what?

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We still have a spending problem.

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And I think you might too.

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What does that mean? That means that

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we have enough money to do whatever we

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want.

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And you probably do too. And you

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probably are or you have enough money to

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live well, but you're still saving it

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for some reason. You're still trying to

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thread the needle. You're still trying

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to do without.

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people in chapter two of their lives,

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a lot a lot of us have spending problems

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that we still because of the scars.

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What I'm what I'm trying to get you to

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think about [snorts]

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is trying

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to live your life. I joke around a lot

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and I say, you know, um, fly first class

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or your kids will or there's no U-Hauls

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behind herses or, you know, three fa

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three phases of retirement, go- go,

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slow, go, and no go, or um, you know, at

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the end of the day, we're all going to

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be crapping in our pants and and and and

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drooling on ourselves. And I have fun

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with that, but I do that because I want

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to get your attention.

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We got to live life now. And I'm talking

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to myself as well and my wife and we're

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doing better. You [snorts] I told my

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wife that our kids are going to be fine.

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They've lived under the umbrella of

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capitalism and my work ethic

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and they're going to be fine. But we

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need to we need to do things. And my

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wife and I catch ourselves, well, we

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can't well, we shouldn't do that. We

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shouldn't because no, we can do

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anything. I'll give you another story.

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It's kind of fun. My mom, 87 years old,

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lives in St. Augustine, Florida, walks

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six miles a day. She's she's in better

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health than all of us. [snorts]

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My dad passed seven years ago. And I had

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to set her up, you know, with

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everything, you know, with the banking.

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A lot of you have done that, so, you

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know, everything's automatic. And I ran

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the numbers and I said, "Mom, um,

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you got to spend 250 a day to run out of

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money every day. So if you don't spend

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250 today, then that means you got to

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spend 500 tomorrow. Took her about a

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year and a half for her to realize that

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I was right mathematically.

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But she still scrims and saved because

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she's had the scars. She grew up in

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North Carolina. Her, you know, poor farm

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farm people worked in the mill, didn't

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have any money. So those scars are there

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as well.

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And I said, "Mom, you got to spend the

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money." I'll give you a story. We used

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to go to dinner with my mom and dad and

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they would order water

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and ask for extra lemons, squeeze the

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lemons in the water and then put sweet

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and low in the water to make what they

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call table lemonade. And I'm like,

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buy [snorts] the drink.

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Buy the drink. To this day, my mom, I

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always tell her like she texts me every

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morning. I'm like, hey, have a great

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day. Buy the drink. For us in our world,

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that's carpedium.

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That's that's sees the day for me. It's

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buy the drink. I want my mom to go and

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and when she eats out, I want her to buy

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the drink and she'll come back. She

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goes, "Did you know?" Because this she's

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southern. You know how much they charge

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for that Coca-Cola? That's what they

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call Coke. That Coca-Cola was like $3.

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Mom, you can afford it. It's okay. Buy

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the drink. And she's now buying the

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drink. Hell, she bought a mimosa the

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other day. I was like, whoa, that's

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great. You bought a drink. [snorts] But

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she has those scars of scarcity, too.

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depression era,

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but you have that story.

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One of my jobs

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ongoing, I mean, I'm I'm proud to be the

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top agent in the country. I think we do

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good work. We tell the truth. We only do

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contractual guarantees. But one of my

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job, one I mean, and this is important,

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is to remind you that life is fleeting.

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to remind you you have enough money to

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travel. To remind you you can get the

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buy the drink. To remind you you can eat

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out at that restaurant that you keep

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driving by that's expensive.

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To remind you that you can afford it

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and you can overcome those scars of

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scarcity from the past. I have.

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But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

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All right.

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I know guys behind the cameras going I

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think they just whispered to each other.

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Is he crying? Yeah, I'm crying. I mean,

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but you understand

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if I had a wish

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for you

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and all of my clients and potential

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clients. And if you're not a client, I

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want you as one. I mean, this is this is

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it. I'm raw. This is it.

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I want you to enjoy life.

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I want you to not have a spending

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problem.

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I want you to overcome

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the scars of scarcity.

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It's important

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whether you become a client or not. I

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hope you do. But if even if you don't,

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if you overcome that and this hits you

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and and you understand and you think

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about it, if you go out and have a a

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nice meal, if you go out and

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take your wife to, you know, on a trip

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that you probably would never go, if you

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stay in the Ritz Carlton instead of the

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Holiday Inn, boy, that'll make me happy.

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Can't take it with you, man.

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Can't take it with you.

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It's been a wild video. Don't think I've

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ever cried on a video.

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But

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that's the scar is a scarcity, right?

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That's the scar.

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We have to overcome that scar. Okay.

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My name is Stan the annuity man. Best

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fun with the nies.