Welcome back to the smart dad podcast. This is our sixth installment of our eight dimensional living model. We've covered faith. We've covered family. We've covered finances and fitness. We've talked about food and this week we're talking about freedom. Now this isn't about a bumper sticker or a slogan. This is about living free.

as a man, as a father, and as a leader. I think out of all the dimensions, freedom is so essential to have on the forefront of your mind. As a dad, your relationship with freedom becomes the blueprint that your kids will inherit. They will see it. They will follow your example. You are modeling it for them.

You know, freedom isn't granted. It's not given to you by governments. It's a natural God given right. Even our constitution in the United States doesn't create freedoms. It protects them. And just like scripture from Genesis through revelation reveals more and more of God's nature over time. America at its best.

has become this ideal political revelation that has been progressively improved upon by our country, both at its inception and even today. We borrowed from nations, from city states, from all those who came before us. Our founding fathers did something bold. We said it is a God given right that we recognize.

freedom belongs to the individual, not the institution, not the monarch, not the government bureaucrats, not those who want to fear over you. So today we're going to talk about five types of freedom and I really want you to find out which of these you're locked in on and which you may need to do some improving on, some work on, some self-discovery on.


So we'll talk about political freedom. We'll touch on financial freedom. We'll talk about freedom with your time in your relationships and then moral freedom. What that really looks like.

And then we'll close with how to raise kids who aren't tethered to comfort. They're not tethered to fear. They're not tethered to your wallet. They're not walking around scared of the world, but they're able to stand. They're able to lead and they can really lean in to their own freedom. So politically speaking, freedom is contagious. If you look at the history of American revolution, we began

a break free from colonial empires. We began kind of a contagious wildfire with our declaration of independence in 1776 and our subsequent constitution. Again, your constitution in the United States isn't giving you freedoms. It's recognizing that these rights are yours.

both by nature and by God. In fact, that is what made our American experiment, which we're still working through today, so revolutionary. We are built on philosophy, natural law, covenant government, and it's all integrated into our system of operating our federalism, our states, our local

Governments all the way down to our properties. I don't know if you know the name Alexis de Tocqueville, but he visited the United States early in the 1800s I believe and he said in America a man may rise from pauper to prosperity in but a single generation He found this to be unbelievable because it's never been seen before


anywhere else in the world. that's our foundation. That's where we started. But freedom is fragile and we must protect it. We must practice it. We must exercise it. You've probably seen all kinds of videos of people exercising their freedoms. Well, freedom must be exercised, demonstrated and passed on to your children.

It's that important. So how do we do that? In my home, when my kids have turned 10, we've had so many conversations about political freedom, political topics, our three branches of government, and these kids, my children, they know this stuff. I had my oldest four memorize in alternating form.

the declaration of independence. Okay, that's not hard. Well, we think of the preamble, but the entire declaration of independence, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people dot dot dot. They went through and memorized it from the ages of four to eight in alternating form. And it was powerful. They didn't know what every word meant, but it was sharpened them. So I don't,

say, do things my way. I'm just telling you, I find that if you talk about topics, again, your values are caught, not taught. And also freedom of speech. You can say what you want. That doesn't mean you're free from consequences. Sometimes my children say things to each other or to another authority or to their parents and those

Words carry consequences. So as they grow up, you graduate from high school and go on, I don't just want them to be consumers of freedom who just suck freedom down and don't understand it. I want them to know the power and the price that has been paid for our political governmental related freedom. Another thing is financial freedom. Now we had an entire episode on finances. I talked about


my financial collapses, plural. I've talked about what it looks like to come back, but something to think about is what if you have a job that just sucks your soul? It's security quote unquote, if you can really say that, but you're just going through the motions for the insurance, for the schedule, for the money.

Are you really financially free? Are you really a slave that you're giving yourself to someone else? It might not be in your mindset to say, I have to be self-employed. I'm not saying that, but make sure wherever you are, you're both appreciated and compensated because in reality, right? Your time, your energy, money, those are yours. You need to prepare every day.

week every month every quarter every year to manage those so some financial Freedom that I want all the smart dads to know a couple things smart dads know that everyone who succeeds financially Has a budget I found out that even billionaires and a hundred millionaires have budgets. They know where every dollar is going like Dave Ramsey says

Give every dollar a name and tell it where to go in advance. Second thing, smart dads work feverish feverishly, intensely if they're not there to find a way to begin to save enough for emergencies. Couple of things guys having six months as an emergency fund saved up for all your expenses is a pretty big deal. Having a paid off house.

makes the wife so relaxed. Her nesting instinct is fed. Her fear of quote unquote losing the house, ever not making a mortgage goes away. So those are two big things. Third, smart dads invest wisely. There's a lot of new stuff happening in markets. This is always the case. But smart dads only put money

Kelly Moore (09:31.948)
into exactly what they understand. If you don't understand it, don't invest in it. my brother-in-law, my cousin, my uncle. No. Also, if you don't believe in it, don't invest in it. If you like Apple products, you believe in them, you understand Apple. You can buy Apple if you prefer Google products or Android products and you're

I want open source. Okay. If you believe in that, invest in it. If you're ambivalent, if you don't really care, kind of agnostic to it, I think it's okay to invest in it, but I would research some more before I invest in it. Okay. Third, invest wisely. Fourth, smart dads keep learning. Okay. I want to challenge you find something every year. Once a year is as easy goal.

to add to your toolkit of your financial IQ. Do you know about IRAs? Do you know about Roth IRAs? Do you know about self-directed Roth IRAs? Do you know about a 401k, a 403b? That's retirement, right? All these things just add something every year to your financial toolkit. Smart dads, of course, are going to teach their kids, number five, what they know about money.

Now listen, if you're embarrassed, don't be. Hey kids, here's what I know about money. Let's learn more together. If you know a lot, then you need to dumb it down, simplify it, go to foundational principles. If you feel like you don't know anything, tell your kids what you do know and learn together. Sixth, smart dads use planning tools to automate savings. Make that money move itself.

Right? Make the decision once and get paid forever. Every week, every two weeks, whatever your payroll is, move that money over, put it on autopilot. So.


letting your kids know what you're doing, being a smart dad, these six tips, I like to work them into my life. I've seen them work. I suggest you do that. By the way, letting your kids work with money on their own. It's a really important part of this whole deal. If you've ever seen how creative they can be, what they get excited about, it's the weight of their piggy bank because of all the coins, or maybe it's the

bank balance they have, maybe it's what they can give to somebody. Maybe it's knowing that they can buy something on their own. Whatever motivates them, let them touch money, invest money, play with money, do everything you're supposed to do with money. In fact, if you do that, you'll be surprised. I had a friend whose kid bought some DJ equipment. It was pretty essential, basic, but it was good quality.

And you know what? He saved up his own money and he bought DJ equipment. He started getting invited in middle school to all of his friends birthday parties. They would pay him to play music there. So he got to go to every party. He made money, did that on the side, middle school, high school, found out about an ROI, returned on investment. That little bit he spent, the time he put in every weekend, keeping up with music, that was his passion. But guess what?

He was able to sell that business to another middle schooler who repeated the process. And this guy went off to college with all the money he needed to take care of himself. Final point on money. When you're financially free, you can rise above life's petty problems and you can focus on the things that really matter to you. Whether it's your faith, whether it's your family, whether it's your body.

whether it's your mind, whether it's having fun, your purpose in life, that's why you want financial freedom. But we're not talking just about money. This is not money, money, money. This is about true freedom. True freedom to me also includes being able to run your own life, run your own schedule, or at least manage what you've been given. There are 168 hours in a week.

Kelly Moore (14:07.664)
24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's 168 of them. If you need to, you can break your week into hour by hour by hour. Give every hour a name. Tell every hour how you plan to spend it. Take your time and account for it. Now I'm not saying be stressed out. If you need to have fun, have fun. If you need to work, work. If you need to sleep, sleep. You can think back.

to my three, two, one, zero podcast. If you need to listen to that, that's how you get your fitness up. You have a balanced life. But even more so, tell every hour or even every minute, I would say five minute intervals. And so if you have 12 five minute intervals per hour, sometimes in your day you need to do that. pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. You need to go boom, boom, boom and get to where you need to go. Get in and get out.

Sometimes hey Friday night two or three or four hour movie or date Okay, you don't need to have five-minute intervals, but have them be appropriate if you don't architect your days intentionally Someone's gonna come in and just take your time from you. You'll be distracted. You'll be pressured You'll want to please somebody a kid your spouse your boss your neighbor and okay

I'll do it. Sure. Sure. That can lead to resentment. That can lead to being frustrated. That can lead to being overwhelmed. I'm telling you, you can prepare your week, tell your time where it's going to be spent and then you can have spontaneous time and fun time if you want it. But you're going to be free to design your schedule in a way that you actually want to be spending your time.

Let's be real. You don't find time for things that matter. You make time. So that's a reality. Be a smart dad who makes time for the things that matter. That will give you freedom.


Another focus is relationships. Do you feel, do you think, do you observe that you have relational freedom? I can tell you that something I've learned long ago is every adult relationship is voluntary. Think about this thought experiment with me. Every relationship begins as a mutual agreement entered into between

two people of their own free will. And any relationship can be ended unilaterally, right? That's by one person without cause and at any time. So someone can just say, I'm not going to be your friend anymore. He or she doesn't have to tell you, doesn't have to give you notice. That's just a fact. And the sooner you realize that I think

I find I see the more you will value friendships and some of my lowest financial seasons man I had poured into people I had invested in to people I thought I'd bonded with them when I got broke they disappeared one of my ministers who had been my biggest cheerleader spiritually ghosted me many family members even some close ones

Radio silent and it was just shocking because I hadn't seen that before but guess what? Now I realize they voluntarily stay in a relationship now I think it's healthier to have relationships with people who want to have relationships with you They've you're always free to go. You're always free to leave a relationship so just remember relational freedom is

really every relationship with an adult. They can always walk away. You know, I've heard, maybe you've read hard times build character. I would say maybe that's true, but hard times to me, they reveal character. You find out what's already in there when times are hard. That's not really when you're putting things into your character. And when people walk away,


They show you who they were. Now, maybe you did something. Maybe they don't want to deal with it. That's okay. That's their choice. And if you have relationships that do stay, freedom gives you authenticity. Be yourself. Don't try to dance around or step around. I don't want to hurt her feelings. Ooh, she's the boss. he's going to be mad. Communicate, be authentic. And then when you're in a relationship,

You're not there out of obligation. You're there because you want to be. Healthy relationships do require freedom, but they also require commitment. Let's face it. When you have a friend, when you have a family member, when you have a relationship, you're either growing together or you're growing apart. You're really not staying the same. So when we think about

Freedom let's talk about a child's perspective. So I just returned from a five-year-old birthday cruise So I took my five-year-old daughter on her daddy daughter birthday cruise for five days And one of the things we do is we have freedom to eat and try everything on a cruise There are no consequences because the fruit the food is all included so about day two She asked if she could have a doughnut

with breakfast at breakfast. Of course she asked for ice cream before lunch between lunch and breakfast at the pool. Absolutely. After lunch, can I have a dessert? Yes. Banana split at the pool in the afternoon. Can I have ice cream? Absolutely. At dinner, can I, can I try dessert? A cake? birthday cake. Great. So that went on for two days and the second day she had been

eating meats and eating fruits and eating vegetables, having some burgers and fries. But she also had had lots of sugar. And I was tucking her in, kissing her at night. And she said, daddy, my head hurts. And my tummy hurts too. I think I had too much sugar. I said, okay, sweetie. She said, should I skip all my sugar and ice cream tomorrow?


You know, had a chance to wag my finger to say, Hey, I've been watching you. You overdid it. I didn't do that. All I said was, well, let's see if you go all day without sugar, see how you feel after dinner. And then maybe you just can have one scoop of ice cream. She said, strawberry. That's what I'm going to do tomorrow. One scoop of strawberry after dinner.

That's how freedom works. Proverbs 25, 16 says, if you find honey, eat just enough. Too much and you will vomit. So it's right there in the Proverbs. It's such a simple truth. So I let her experience the effect of her choices. Now, is she going to do that again? She might, but if she can immediately feel the

consequences of her actions, then she can develop that personal responsibility. And you know what? She really didn't pursue sugar nearly as much for the whole rest of the cruise because she felt so good on that day where she didn't have much sugar. Freedom without feedback. That creates chaos. Freedom with feedback creates wisdom. And like I say, wisdom is experience.

at a discount. Remember, think your life through because design determines destiny. If you design freedom into your life, into your choices, you will have a better destiny. Also, we talk about moral freedom. Now moral freedom is kind of tricky. I'm not going to come exclusively from a Christian worldview.

But what I want you to know is that let's not confuse freedom with license. Like, man, I can just do whatever I want. Freedom means choosing wisely. License means I do whatever I want. I follow every impulse. Every impulse at every moment. That's gonna lead to bondage. You might be in shackles, you might be incarcerated, but if not there,


given into every impulse and whim, it's childish. It's, it's, it's not an adult life. A free man doesn't just indulge every urge. He says, I'm going to restrict my freedoms today so that I can have more choices and better consequences tomorrow. Again, that's simply the definition of delayed gratification. And I don't know where you are guys, but you might need to say no to a late night.

work or a late night out with the guys and you're just like man I just I just have to keep working you might need to say no to that to show up at home you might need to get off the couch and go to work it goes both ways right any self-serving activity that threatens your long-term health your family's long-term freedom right those are things you're probably gonna want to say no to because you're free to choose

but you're not free from those consequences. Now that may be silly, but your children need to hear that. Not bragging about yourself, but say, Hey guys, I'm not doing this because I really value this with you. Today's decisions are going to not just affect, but they're going to shape tomorrow's realities. So make your decisions, own your decisions, and then just live with the results. You don't have to make excuses. You can say, Hey, I'm free.

to live how I believe I'm called to live. Then take the time to analyze it and see what got you where you are. That's not just moral freedom. That's wisdom. And that's what you want to pass on to your kids. All right. What about generational freedom? How do you prepare your children not to seek out bondage, not to

Seek out so much security that they're giving up freedom. I think I've told you I do 12 year old trips and 17 year old trips with the kids. My 12 year old daddy daughter or father son trip. I call it my preemptive strike on the teenage years. It's just two of us. We take a two week trip anywhere in the country. It's domestic. We talk. We travel. We you know, we'll fly Southwest Airlines. We'll go to a not a Spartan hotel, but we'll live.


Okay, we'll have a good time. We talk about maturity. We talk about growth. We talk about how bodies are changing. We talk about finances. We really just have a good time. We're having a blast. We're trying to create memories. But as we're there, I take the opportunity to talk about what's coming down the pike and I tell them, listen, in five years, you're going to have your 17 year old trip.

Now that's when we go international. I like domestic, but international is interesting because they get to choose where we go. We fly business class, which is not first class, but it's really nice. We stay at a really fine hotel where we go. We have really nice food. If we go on a cruise, we go on a really nice cruise. And I tell them, I want you to enjoy it.

I want to get them the taste of caviar, if you will. I want them to know what the finest steak tastes like in the most beautiful hotel and the most incredible service looks like, because I want them to long to provide that for themselves and their children. But they know this is the last luxury trip I'll ever pay for for you. Do you like the way this tastes? Do you like the way this looks? Do you like the way this feels?

This is your motivation to go to college, to go get a career, and to achieve it on your own. So when they go to college, they pay for it themselves. I tell them when they're 12, and I roll it out when they're 17. And so far, eight of my kids are out of the house, all paying for college themselves. Those who are still in are still paying. Those who are out, they've already taken care of it. think I've got three in and five who are out.

Now, they were forced to figure out on their own. You may say, my wife would never let me do that. I would never do that to my kids. Listen, every family is different. I had kids going to college, right, well their mom was still pregnant with another baby. I know it's crazy, that's how my life is, right? So I've got 15 kids, I've told you before, 10 daughters, five sons. I've got seven more to raise, one boy and six girls.


What matters is not that you do things my way. What matters is I was preparing them at 12 for the conversation and then at 17 I was enacting it and by 22 they're done with college and they're going on and they're living their lives earning income. They're off my payroll and they're successful in life. Start small, figure it out and begin to transfer responsibility.

for their own freedom to them. That's what it's about. Own their own outcomes. Live with their own consequences. That is freedom. So here's your challenge for the week. I want you to see if you can do a five part freedom audit. If you're writing it down, great. If you need to look at the time date stamp, come back to this. We're at the very end here. So what it is your political freedom, financial freedom,

time freedom, relational freedom, and moral freedom self score look like? Politically, are you just teaching your kids how to get through life? Or are you teaching them the rights they actually have where you live? Do they know their rights? Now you don't always have to exercise your rights, but politically you need to know your rights. How do you protect them? How do you talk about them? Okay, ask yourself that.

Secondly, couple of simple questions on your financial freedom. Do you have a six month emergency fund? Okay. All your expenses for six months. If you do phenomenal, is your house paid for? I'm telling you the emotional freedom your wife will have for a paid for house. It's not truly something Americans do. Yes, you can probably squeeze some more points out of a interest rate, but the mental peace.

of being financially free. Six months savings, I paid for house. I your life is at another level. What about time freedom? Do you own your schedule? Do you even have a schedule? Are you just constantly being told what to do by everybody else? Your boss, your wife, your kids, the clock. Take control of your life and your time where you can.

If you can find one hour a week or five hours a week or 10 hours a week, I have 168 hours a week that I'm in control of in my life. I like it that way. I love it that way. In fact, I say that I'm not self employed or unemployed. say I'm unemployable because I want my own time in my own hands. What about relationship freedom? Do an audit. Do you have any relationships built on trust built on growth?

Are all your relationships built on trust and honesty? Or are they built on guilt and control and manipulation, either by you or to you? Just ask yourself that question. And finally, your moral freedom.

Today are your choices aligned with what you believe? I have a friend in his 60s and he realized in a really big area I don't really believe this but I've been living my life this way for decades now and he has just Realigned his life. Maybe morally you need to realign your life and stop doing things or Start doing things. I don't know what those are

But in all of these, the point of this audit is ask yourself how you are and then say, am I modeling freedom for my kids in a way that they can one day walk and be as free or more free than I am? Freedom's not a gift given by governments. Freedom is God given, it's natural, and as a dad, you can pass that on.

Generate generationally to your kids. So I encourage you Live your life for freedoms sake. I'm Derek Moore. This is the smart dad podcast live free lead well and Raise some freedom loving people where you live