Stop Following Your Parents' Money Rules with Haley Sacks

The taste of the chicken is the best, the only one that has tasted it.

The taste of the chicken is the cheese.

“Yet the taste of the chicken is the best.”

The taste of the chicken is the best. The taste of the chicken is the best. But it's not only the taste of the chicken, but the taste of the chicken and the cheese. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning. Helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable.

I'm Rudy Rush and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. Today's guest is the acclaim. Miss Dow Jones, a financial educator helping millions understand and build real wealth. And an author of the book that is just released today, future rich person.

I call it the blueprint that every entrepreneur, every leader, everyone this thinking about leveling up needs to read this book. So please join me in welcoming the insightful, the trailblazing Miss Hayley Sachs. Hayley, how you doing today dear? I'm so excited to be here.

Like I told you, I'm a huge fan of Mick unplugged. This was like the podcast on my schedule that I was so looking forward to. I am honored to have you on. You mean the world to me, this book means the world to me. But before we get into the book, that's out today.

I want to ask you, Hayley, you know, I ask every guest this about their be cause. That thing that's deeper than your why I call it like your true purpose, your true passion.

“So if I were to say, Hayley, in 2026, what's your be cause?”

Why do you keep doing the things you do? I do the things that I do because I genuinely believe that financial health is as important as physical or mental health. And it's something that's not prioritized or taught. And so people are walking through the world with all of the shame and not knowing and overwhelmed. And it is degrading the quality of life when they could be living these big rich lives.

And so I do it because I want to show people that it's not that hard. You just need these steps and then it will infinitely improve your quality of life and get you access to, you know, your dreams. Yeah, I love it. And that is truly who you are, right? Like the energy that you have.

I call it the swag that you also have. It's an everything that you do, right? Your social media, one of the best IG follows you'll ever have this Hayley missed out Jones. So make sure you go check that out. There's links right here for that.

But Hayley, I got to talk about this book. Usually I wait towards the middle or the end of the show to talk about a book.

This book is so powerful that we're just going to go out of the gate with this book.

Like I want care about segments like this this whole segment today is future rich person. So this book. For those ever listening for those that are watching. When go get the book is out today, future rich person. I want care for Zamazon, books a million Barnes and Noble.

Your local independent bookstore go get it because here is why. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter what you're doing today. This book is giving you a blueprint.

Want to understand money. To understand circumstances around money. I mean, we talk about we hear all the time that you don't want debt. You don't want debt.

“Well, Hayley has a chapter in understanding debt and some debt is actually good debt, right?”

So Hayley, I want to talk first about why the book and why now.

Like what made you say this book needs to come out in the music? You know, it's so funny because the book is called, like you said, future rich person. But then the subtitles are the new rules for building wealth. Even if you're stuck broke and that billionaire will text through back. Because we have to have a little bit of humor.

But what I want to focus on are the new rules for building wealth. Because to me, why I wrote this book is because the world and the economy and our circumstances have changed so dramatically and so fast. But the financial education that we've been using and like looking to and the books that are still like in the canon are built for a world that doesn't really exist anymore. And so it was so important to write something that was modernized that had information about AI. Information about how to start your own business.

Like who have no one teaches you about escorts and LLCs and all of the great retirement accounts that you get access to if you have your own business. And like, you know, that's something that so many people are doing right now teaches you about negotiating about good debt about all these things that you know for our parents generations were not in those finance books. And so it was important to me to modernize financial advice with this. No, I agree and and I want to go with I'll call it an unplug truth, right?

I need everybody that's watching this listening to calm down and focus for me really quick.

It's okay to want to be rich, right? There's this huge stigma of, you know, wealth and the ego maybe that some people have.

“I think you're looking at bad people because I say most wealthy people that I know are actually good humans and do good things with the wealth and the rich that they have.”

Anyway, why is rich good? Yeah, so I think that we, you know, the first part of the book, Mc is so much about mindset because, but I always say it's like, you can't actually change your financial life until you figure out why you have been relating to money the way that you have been.

Like, I could teach you everything about emergency funds and debt and invest day, but you're never going to actually make any changes.

Unless you actually understand like your why and so part of your why is breaking down your money identity. And for a lot of us, we have these money identities and money stories that like you said are related to like wanting money is bad. Like, you know, I'm greedy if I want wealth, rich people are all evil and all these things that sort of keep you small and stock.

“But the truth is that money only magnifies who you are.”

It only makes you more of who you already are.

If you are a weird person who's like, you know, nefarious and wants to do like things that are messed up and you've got a lot of money, then guess what it's going to be really easy for you to do that. But if you're someone who wants to, you know, hey, be able to take care of yourself really well. So you can have great health care and leave jobs and relationships that don't serve you and live in a place that you feel really good about like just like these great parts of life that we like overlook. But also if you want to help your community, you want to be able to give back.

You want to help your parents, your family, like money is a tool to do all of that. And so I don't think it's evil at all. I just think that, you know, there are rich people who are evil, but there's probably there's broke people who are evil too.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, money didn't make them who they were. You're like, it just it just accentuated it more, right?”

That's all that it was. As all that it was, you told earlier in your intro about different things on understanding what's an LLC C and an S and a, you know, when is it right to be a corp and all that and you go through a lot of scenarios or there's a there's a segment of the book that goes through that. I'd love for those that are watching or listening and I want to talk specifically to. That person who's just above solopreneur, right? You're building that team there they're starting to really grow revenue and maybe they didn't do anything with the legal structure of their business.

Talk through the importance of that for that person in particular. That's such an interesting point, right, make because it sounds like for this person, which I mean, it happened for me too when I started Mrs Dow Jones that, you know, you sort of play with a business idea and then you're like, oh wait, it's sort of working and then you realize, okay, there's a lot that comes with this that I have to put together to do it successfully. And so when I started Mrs Dow Jones and started making real money, I didn't really understand quarterly estimated taxes like I was just depositing checks feeling really great about life and then, you know,

taxis and hit and I got slammed with a giant bill that I was unprepared for and had to scramble and convert it and, you know, that tax awakening is something that most solopreneurs have. And it is completely avoidable if someone just tells you ahead of time and you start taking like 30 to 40% of each of your pay jacks and just putting them in an ideal savings account so that when tax time comes around, you don't have any surprises. Have you ever had a tax thing like that happen? Oh, absolutely absolutely, multiple businesses you would have learned the first time, but the first time I thought, okay, it was an anomaly and then the second time it was like, oh crap, I kind of need to focus on this and do the right thing, right?

And it changes to you know, the same set up for person one and you go through this in the book isn't the same set up for person two even if they kind of look identical on paper, right? Like you've got to talk about the vision that you have for your company, you know, what's going on in your personal life as well, too. Like there's a lot of things that go into these structures and I don't think most people get it, but you break it down beautifully. I really appreciate that. I also want to shout out something that I've talked about in the book, too, is like the separation of your business and personal finances.

Because obviously like I say this so much in the book, like you are your best asset, like invest in yourself, like build your skills so much of the book, it's it's this is not a shameful finance book, but it's about like cutting back.

start a business, I think a lot of people are like, okay, I got to go all in on the business, but you know, it's so important to make sure that you are also putting money away for yourself, just like in those retirement accounts, because you never know what's going to happen.

“Even though you want to bet on yourself so big, never go all in.”

Yeah, yeah, I love it. And you know, that's one of the subjects in the book, right, is like how to save money, but you also talk about how to use money, right, and one of my favorite chapters in your book is chapter seven, and for those that are that are watching or that are listening, the way the book is set up is you're going to get a topic, you're going to get a scenario, you're going to get the real inspiration.

So I was like, haily having a conversation with the business owner or person and you're walking through something that everyone can relate to.

But chapter seven, we talk about money, not one one, and I saw the title, and I said, I'm reading this one, and it was so good that I had my two sons also read it who were in their mid 20s, early 20s, because it's really important for them to understand.

“But they hear dad talk about money, right, they have friends, they see things, they understand wealth, and I'm not saying I'm wealthy, but they understand like, they understand money.”

I want them to be future rich people, my sons, just because dad might have two dollars doesn't mean that it's their two dollars, right, so I wanted them to understand that as well too.

But let's talk about money, nine, one, one, and let's talk about chapter seven, walk this through high level, that story, you know, going through the freelance web designer, which I think is so relevant here with everyone being able to vibe code and to create their own websites and to create services that are making money for them.

“I thought this was so relevant, which is why I had my son start with this chapter actually, because everyone can go do their own thing now with vibe coding and creating apps and AI, this chapter resonates, so sorry, I didn't mean to still.”

Oh, I'm like, it's so cool to talk to someone who's like really read the book and who it's sat with, like this is like my dream conversation, I appreciate it. Okay, so what make it's talking about is yes chapter seven money, nine, one, one, which is really about the importance of an emergency fund, which is, you know, that sort of the first step in your financial journey after mindset is putting away.

Three to six months in a high yield savings account because anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and if you don't have that, it just puts you in these really precarious situations, and so.

The story that Mick was talking about was and throughout the whole book, if you're watching, there's I have these interviews with real people and then, which I think was like a really fun way to sort of get the story across, but also was just like so fun to talk to people because sort of makes you feel less alone in your money journey to because you're like, oh, everyone is figuring this out. But anyways, this woman, Kai was freelancing as you said, she was working for this homemade baby food company, and they paid her half of the amount before and then they went under before they paid her the other half, and she couldn't afford her rent, and she didn't have an emergency fund.

And so she was scrambling and was like, okay, this is really smart, even though it's not allowed in my building, I'm going to Airbnb out my apartment, stay with my parents, and then I'm going to be able to make rent. And what she didn't account for, and this is true, where the people who Airbnb her apartment had bed buds, and so she came back to the apartment, and it was like a total mass she needed to call the terminator, she needed to let her landlord know. And it just like came out that she had Airbnb, and she got kicked out of that apartment, she got to pay actually more money to get all of the, you know, bed bugs and everything out of there, and had to move in with her parents, and so it was like, just by not having that safety net put herself, everything became so much worse than if she had just had that.

And like 49% of Americans can't cover an $1,000 emergency, so you can imagine how much high story is happening. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a beautiful story, and I will tell you, if you are a parent of a teenager or older, I would definitely one by the book, but two, I would start with this chapter for them, because this was the conversation that I had with my two sons.

I needed them to understand, because at some point, you have to, I'm going to say financially mature.

And by financially maturity, I mean, it's not, hey, dad, it's towards the end of the month, and rents going to be due in a couple of days, and I need some help, and I'm not saying that my boys do this or have done that. But I need everybody to understand, like, how do you prepare for that maturity? And so I'm going to give a hot take that I'd love for for a haily to chime in on, because this is going to be her hot take because it's her message.

“You famously have said that the rules of money have changed, right? And I think now is that time, like I'd love to get your.”

Continuation of that quote, like, why isn't following your parents advice going to make you wealthy anymore? You know, because the old American dream is dead, you know, our parents generation, they would be at the same job for 40 years. They had a pension at that job. They had equity in a home that they could actually afford the home, which is crazy for our generation. And then, you know, I.

We're going to resell it for a profit because the job, the housing market was really different.

The student loans were really different, access to credit was different. There were just so it was such a different time where you could.

“And so, you know, we're going to try to cross the system more than you can now now. It's like that's why reading future returns are so important is because, you know, the system was always created by the people that it serves.”

So that's like why rich people saved so much on taxes because the tax code was written by the people that it's protecting, you know. And so, but that doesn't mean that you have to be a billionaire to benefit. And understand the rules of the game so that you can win at it.

And if you don't, then you're never going to get ahead because the system is out to get you.

It is a predatory financial system. And every turn they want you to get into debt, they want you to set up accounts that have high fees. They want you like there's just so much coming at you every day that isn't a fairies and trying to take your money. And so you need to wise up and really commit to your financial literacy so that you can win. Regardless of that. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I love it. So much.

You said something that I've said a thousand times. So I'm glad that you were able to say that so that the listeners and watchers don't have to say makes just going to say that again. Haley said what I've been telling you forever and ever and ever. You know, Haley, I like to talk about the room, right? Like, I think for everyone, your life changed when you got into a room or a dinner or a meeting.

With someone that could mentor you or show you something and it changed the trajectory of your life for your career. Ironically, you have a chapter, chapter 12, where you talk about money etiquette. If I were to say the room that changed me the most was and I'm going to say John didn't use the term money etiquette. But it's the same principle. The moment that Damon John taught me how to appreciate money, how to see money and how to understand how money works for you.

Right. Again, it's that appreciation of money, not the love of money, but the appreciation.

“And that's what chapter 12 reminded me of. It reminded me of a room.”

So I'd love for you to one, tie in chapter 12 the money etiquette. But was there a room? Was there a moment in your life where money etiquette meant something to you? I mean, I've learned so much from David too. I love his work around money. And I think for me, the room where things really changed around me with money was as I became more successful rooms where I was with people who were not as successful and learning how to. You know, when you were chasing financial success, that's something that you can be really focused on, but I firmly believe that like, you know, the best relationships are not with people that you don't have the same paycheck as you.

It's just like people that you actually like connect with and vibe with and have the same values and that might not like mean that you have the same amount of money, but like money can be something that really like alienates people and makes them feel weird. But you are, if you move with it in a way that feels like you're holding on to tight or you're nickel and diming people or you're tacky or you're not respectful of where someone else is at financially, it can really degrade your relationships.

and even like having conversations with your friends or spouses about money, like it's so important to do this and to be upfront, but the way in which you do it has to be handled with grace and elegance and also sort of just like I always think a little bit of humor goes so far.

“Like I love to like you know smile and like be funny about things that are super serious because it just cuts the the takes the air out of the room a little bit like it makes people relax a little bit, but you know this chapter.”

I get so many questions about money etiquette like we're all trying to fix our money mindsets and then of course we want to grow well.

The idea is when you have the money, what do you actually, how do you move with it and money is energy you have to remember so like if you hold on to it to tight or you know you're acting these ways that they're on savory it's not going to come to us freely like you have to be in relationship with it in a way where it will come back to you and so that's why I also think that money etiquette is so important. I I told you agree and I love how you wrote that chapter one again I'm going to bring up this book everybody go get it it's right here we're going to have links everywhere there's description show notes and everything.

But you know you start off with the Beyonce little quote and then it goes in to it's almost like the 10 Commandments right of money etiquette which I love how that's written and so again my kids I have them start with chapter 7 and then I go to chapter 12 just because I like that flow for them. And and this is why this book is amazing this book when when you read it again go get it today you can take this journey wherever you want like yeah I'm sure I really wrote it to go from page one to the end loving that we're moving around.

Yeah like I that's how I like to read books like this because there's going to be days where it's like let me go back and reach after five again let me go talk let me go read into part two on making money and why that's important right I think it's it's a book.

“It's so cool and then you know we talk that we also have a full chapter on rich kids too so like if you're someone who's trying to build generational wealth for your child.”

That's the same way that you know no one teaches you about business structures no one teaches you how to do that either but it's actually pretty simple so I break that down as well like there's just it's everything that you are never taught about how to win the game of money. Written in a way that's like so palatable and easy like I love that you were able to read it just like.

Like my goal with writing the book was like you know so many people buy finance books and they never crack them because it feels like this like it feels like punishing.

To read it like as though like you're going to read it and you're going to feel like you got in trouble and I wanted it to feel like a book that's actually like fine and that you want it to enjoy and finish and pass on to your friends and your kids but that's going to teach you. Definitely that book so again everybody you can see it go get the book today. Future rich person Haley sex Haley I got to get you out of here on my rapid fire. Make it up you ready I love it yes. Number one who is the wealthiest person that you've been around in the moment you met them you were like how the heck did they do you know I'm saying I'm joking don't say that out don't say.

Don't do that now what's your go to mill on a cheat day comfort meal spaghetti. Pomodoro and chicken meal in these.

So like spaghetti or tomato sauce and like fresh basically fried chicken so good.

“Okay, I got it from this Italian restaurant so that's why I said the Italian names.”

There it is there it is if you had to do a master class tomorrow on one chapter of your book which chapter would it be. Investate love it. You know I love to get that money in the market. Absolutely what's your favorite vacation city. Um.

You know I liked the Caribbean so I'm not really like it's oh I guess if I was to say city then Paris but like I'm. Okay. I like just to go on the ocean for about a week and then I feel much better. All right then number four what's your favorite Caribbean country then. Simply shop nice nice.

I'm going to get you out of here on this one. And one or two words if you had to define haily sex well with those one or two words be. Fine and smart. Various I love it I love it ladies and gentlemen this has been my good friend haily sex. You're so busy you're so gracious I appreciate you just taking some moment here with us today.

Again I can't I won't be remiss without saying go get this book zoom in camera man zoom in.

Um the book is so great I'm going to do this.

Well we'll go Instagram.

“The first 20 people that message mail Instagram future rich person.”

I'm going to go ahead and order you a copy of the book so I'm going to order 20 copies of the book.

I'm going to give them when people. I message me future rich person on Instagram and then after you've read the book do me a favor.

“Tag haily and I picture of the book and the thing that you got out of the book the most.”

Because not to help both of us that will help both of us. We're so lucky to give mixed present what a nice kind just sure. Thank you. You don't be overwhelmed don't cry don't do any of that but I appreciate you so much. You mean the world to me.

I mean everybody to go follow haily on social check out her websites will have links all that in the show notes in the description. This is so awesome thank you Mac.

“You got it for all the viewers and listeners remember you're because is your super power.”

Go one we should.

That's another powerful conversation on Mac unplugged.

If this episode moved you and I'm sure it did follow to show whatever you listen share it with someone who needs that spark and leave it review. So more people can find there because I'm really rush and until next time stay driven. Stay focused and stay unplugged.