In this episode, Nate Scott sits down with Corey Carpenter, an anesthesiologist and long-time client of Living Wealth, to discuss Corey’s financial transformation. Corey shares his journey from being overworked and burned out to adopting the empire over retire mindset and building a life that he doesn’t have to retire from.
They discuss the importance of relinquishing control and trusting in God’s plan, the true fulfillment that comes from living in the present moment and focusing on quality of life, and using infinite banking to build capital and create opportunities for himself and others.
Ready to break free from the traditional financial system and become financially independent through infinite banking? Schedule your FREE private consultation now!
Key Takeaways
- Adopting the empire over retire mindset can lead to a total financial transformation.
- Reading books like Antifragile can change your outlook on life and money.
- Experiencing boom and bust cycles can shape your mindset and financial decisions.
- The scarcity mindset can be both beneficial and detrimental, and it’s important to reassess its impact on your life.
- Transitioning from a conventional wealth-building formula to the infinite banking concept can provide a new perspective on financial freedom.
- Seeking an abundant life involves reevaluating priorities, creating margin, and finding balance between work and personal life.
- True fulfillment comes from living in the present moment and focusing on quality of life.
- Building capital allows for the creation of opportunities for oneself and others.
- Investing in non-traditional assets like cryptocurrency can be a part of an Antifragile financial strategy.
Episode Resources:
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LIVING WEALTH PODCAST
DOLLARS AND NONSENSE: EPISODE 236 TRANSCRIPTION
Nate Scott [00:00]:
In this episode, I sit down with Corey Carpenter, an anesthesiologist by trade and longtime client of Living Wealth who has gone through a total transformation financially over the past five years from being overworked and burnt out to adopting the empire over retire mindset and building a life that he doesn’t have to retire from. I’m Nate. I make sense out of money. This is Dollars and Nonsense. If you follow the herd, you will be slaughtered. Hey Corey, it’s so awesome to have you on the show. How are you doing man?
Corey Carpenter [00:33]:
Great, Nate, thanks for having me. I’ve spent many hours with you on your podcast listening to you, so it’s great to be with you in person today.
Nate Scott [00:40]:
Yeah, it’s gonna be a great time. And you know, you’re the one for the listeners who actually was the first one to introduce me to the book Antifragile, by the way. You’re the one who says, Nate, I read this book, Antifragile by Mister Taleb. And you’re like, it’s really changed my outlook on life and money. And I was like, okay, I gotta get this book. And so I read it and that’s what spawned a lot of the barbell investing strategy and all of this came from that book and it really connected with me. But I also give that with a disclaimer. I think you would too, Corey, that hey, the Antifragile book, maybe if there was a clip note version, most people should read it that way.
Nate Scott [01:20]:
If there was an Antifragile for dummies or something like that, maybe they should go for that.
Corey Carpenter [01:25]:
I’m totally shocked that you actually read it. I thought you might glance at it and be like, no, it’s too long. But I’m a captive audience when I’m at the hospital for hours on end at night. I have plenty of time to read between cases. So I tried to use that time for something positive. So that was a great book.
Nate Scott [01:41]:
It is a great book if you’re not faint of heart because it can be a slog to get through sometimes. I would essentially read maybe two or three pages and I have to stop and really process. This was really good. I have to sit here and take a break and process what I’m actually learning here because I can’t. There’s too much. It’s just a nonstop flow of insight and wisdom, but it’s not for the faint of heart. So anyway, that was really cool. I think we’ll talk about that in a little while too Corey, as we kind of go through your story.
Nate Scott [02:08]:
And you’ve been a client, I think, since 2018, 2019, I want to say. So five, six years now, and we’ve had a great time together. And from the outside looking in, I’ve seen you from when you showed up to start working with me, mostly a conventional anesthesiologist style of wealth building formula.
You could say just everything was the way, was polished nicely and the way it should be to marinating in this, learning about some new things, going through some life experiences, some burnout experiences that essentially introduce you to a whole new way of living in a whole new way of investing in a whole new way of, you know, a change, a total transformation, financially, at least, perspective-wise, focus-wise, life-wise, that I think everyone’s going to really resonate with.
So, I mean, that’s what I think we dive into. But if we could start by just kind of hearing your story, take us back to young Corey and what got you into the medical field, the anesthesiology world, and kind of what you’re, what you’re, what you thought you were doing it for, why you were doing it, you know, and just kind of take us through where you were and how you’ve got to where you’re at.
Corey Carpenter [03:34]:
Sure. Just to give me some, some background of kind of where I came from, my childhood and all that and what shaped me. My mom was a second grade teacher, very stable income, very dependable, and just great, great teacher. And she was long term. That was her mindset. She was going to teach and she was great at it. My dad had a construction company and had his own business.
Corey Carpenter [03:58]:
He ran the business. Not well at times. We lived through the book that through the boom and bust of the construction phases of when the economy was great, things were great in our house, but when the economy was tight, then we’ve kind of felt that at home as well. So it was kind of a fragile lifestyle growing up that I didn’t have that framework to deal with at that time, but I definitely lived through this period of seeing boom and bust and not really understanding it in the time, but seeing how my peers honestly were faithful in tithing through that, they’re faithful in giving it. That really shaped me, seeing that just despite the ups and downs, they were faithful in that.
Corey Carpenter [04:43]:
And so that was really influential to me. So I came out of that really going to college, seeking to have a dependable income. Honestly, I didn’t want to go through the boom and bust of, like, my parents. And so I started college thinking I wanted to be a high school football coach and a science teacher. And I got halfway through, and I had a friend just talk to me about, hey, I want to be an orthopedic surgeon. Just take the same classes I’m taking. And I was like, and thought about it for a couple of days, and it’s funny how some people can have an outsized impact on your life. From that conversation, I was like, well, why not? Why don’t I try it? I’m going to take the same classes you take for a couple of years.
Corey Carpenter [05:23]:
And if I do well, then I’ll continue down that path. And so that led me to medical school eventually to the anesthesia world. And honestly, all that time, some of those decisions were fear based. I just wanted a stable income. I wanted to have this stability in my life where I wouldn’t have to live through this boom and bust cycle. And which is honestly, that segment of my life that has done well, that hard work has paid off.
Corey Carpenter [05:51]:
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always pay off, but that has paid off. And I think that I grew up with a scarcity mindset where we didn’t have a lot, but, and we made do. And my parents were faithful with it. But I kind of developed that scarcity mindset going through med school, residency, and kind of dove right into the day. I kind of drank out of the fire hydrant from Dave Ramsey in residency, and my wife and I had envelopes where we stored our cash, and we were steadily paying off debt and feeling decent about things at that point.
Nate Scott [06:26]:
In time, I don’t know if I’ve ever met. It’s very rare. Just, by the way, if I jump in to meet someone who’s gone through medical school and is in residency who does not live with a scarcity mindset, you know, you’re not making any money, and you’re way overworked, and you’re just trying to keep the ship tied down. Like, you’re just bolting things down, trying to stay afloat for this. You know, what can be a difficult season, but essentially, the scarcity mindset and that when you’re going through things, it’s almost like a bootcamp for life.
When you’re going through medical school, residency, and all of that, it’s like it’s trying to break you and you’re gonna have to not be broken. It’s almost like a bootcampy style experience, so that whenever you’re actually in the real world saving people’s lives and everyone in this life or death that you’re–
Nate Scott [07:19]:
They make it difficult to keep people from dying. So the same thing. It’s kind of like a bootcampy experience, but I guess the scarcity mentality and bolting things down, that actually can float you through that period of time. And it probably is wise, the issue can be, and I think you would attest to this, and I will tell my own story on this front, that the scarcity mindset that one time kind of protected you, betrays you, actually, whenever it doesn’t.
Whenever you’re past that point of boot camp and you’re in more of a successful position, you still have all of these same fears, anxieties, stresses like those, like your body built up this trauma response to, hey, things are difficult now. We need to be safe. We’re gonna be safe by essentially adopting the scarcity mindset and pretending like nothing is, or we’re never gonna have anything.
Nate Scott [08:17]:
To then, whenever you actually have some things, you actually live like you don’t have anything. And this is why I’ve pushed back against the Dave Ramsey live like no one else today, so you can live like no one else and live and give like no one else tomorrow. It’s kind of this idea, like, well, no, if you adopt a scarcity mindset right now, it’s actually really hard to get out of it, even if you don’t need it anymore. It turns into this thing that betrays you as opposed to benefits you.
Nate Scott [08:42]:
So it’s just funny. I just wanted to jump in and say you’re like, yeah, I had the scarcity mindset from childhood into I wanted a safe, secure job. I chose the medical field. We’re in residency. I adopted it. Essentially, it served you well, and then essentially, you’re about to end up telling me, I think, in the story, when did it stop serving you well? And I think that’s where you’re gonna end up getting to. It’s like, when did the scarcity mentality betray you? And go ahead, by the way, just, you can jump back in and wherever you want to, by the way, Cory.
Corey Carpenter [09:11]:
Sure. Yeah. I think that it’s interesting when your residency, the scarcity mindset fits because you don’t have any time to spend any money, so it’s fine. It’s pretty easy to have that mindset. But for me, what happened pretty quickly out of residency, I took a job in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Four years into my practice, a private equity group came and bought my anesthesia practice.
I had just been a partner for a year, and this private equity company came and just paid every partner to take over their practice. And so I benefited from that, although I didn’t want it to happen and wanted to vote against it, but it was financially beneficial, but long term, it made it more difficult in my practice.
Corey Carpenter [09:53]:
But what I think this journey has taught me is that my financial journey has also been a spiritual journey also, it’s been a philosophical journey to deal with whenever it comes. And you filter that through the lens that you’ve had through your life and, and that scarcity mindset. When I got this lump sum, this windfall, all I wanted to do was hold on to it and not lose it. And I kept thinking like, I’m gonna, like, I don’t want to be the fool that loses this that I was given and that that scarcity mindset continued.
And so from initially, as I tried to figure out what to do with this windfall, I kind of read and studied and talked to partners, and there were various opinions about dollar cost averaging into the stock market, and there was, hey, just put in their real estate or do these different ideas. And I have a friend who’s a financial advisor here in Chattanooga, and his philosophy was one that I adopted and a dollar cost average in the stock market for some of the money. But the other, instead of having a bond allocation, I ended up just buying my first policy in whole life. And I didn’t fully understand the infinite banking concept.
Corey Carpenter [11:04]:
But really it appealed to me. The thought of not going backwards. This portion of my funds is not going to go backwards, and it’s going to slowly gain. It’s not a risky play. And so that was my initial foray or attempt into whole life. Since then, my thinking has dramatically changed and my philosophy has changed. And just the thought of when you frame your financial, the picture that you’re looking at for your family. I very much had a siloed framework of, I have money here, I have money here, but I had no concept of a system of it all, how it works together, and even the liquidity or the fluidity of the whole, I can pull from it.
Corey Carpenter [11:48]:
Initially, I just, I’m going to put it there and I’m not touching it. I remember when I first talked to you, my biggest question was, Nate, when I get this policy, how much of a dividend can I get by 20 years from now? That’s how I was. My concern was just this basic dividend that I can get. Like, what can I hold on to? Or what can I look forward to years from now?
Nate Scott [12:09]:
Yeah. And I think that was the conventional anesthesiologist, polished box of many people that I’ve met, was just like, hey, what? You know, we’re in retirement planning. So, yeah, if I put all this money in, you know, what can I get out? And by the way, that stuff matters, Corey, like, it’s. It’s perfectly fine to look into that. It matters. There’s no question.
Nate Scott [12:30]:
I do believe that policies produce, you know, one of the– If you like, a risk adjusted passive income better than anything, if that. If that makes sense for people, like, if you actually talk about the risk adjusted passive income and you’re trying to actually solve for what produces the highest amount of passive income for the risk that it’s in, I really do think whole life will take the cake, or at least it can fight with anybody. But that’s not really the goal of necessarily this conversation, per se, to dive into that. But that was correct.
Nate Scott [13:01]:
And so you started, and you, you’ve probably seen, by the way, our four stages of IBC presentation, Cory, or at least you’ve heard me talk about it on the podcast a few times, the idea that you were a really high level saver before you showed up, and this was just a new place to start saving money.
At some point, you transitioned into what we more call, like, the entrepreneur phase of infinite banking, the entrepreneur phase of life in general. But if we could go back 1 second into your story, you had mentioned you got into residency, you left, and within a few years or within a year or two, you had become a partner with an anesthesia group that got bought by private equity. You had this lump sum of money.
Nate Scott [13:47]:
You’re trying to secure it, but you’re still working now. You’re not a partner anymore, but you’re still working as an anesthesiologist for this new private equity group, correct? So that you transition from an owner to an employee of the group, essentially. And so, as an employee of the firm, how long were you just slaving away as an anesthesiologist? And essentially, you know, we’ve talked about getting burnt out at some point here, Corey.
When did the scarcity mindset, the high income, the slaving away for it, the saving, the storing, like, essentially, I like to think of it as you became a slave to the love of saving money. I feel like if that resonates with you, that’s, that’s what resonated with me, too. I actually stopped liking the work as much. I just became a slave to the love of saving money, which is fueled by the scarcity mentality.
Nate Scott [14:43]:
Fueled by it. It’s like, hey, but at some point that causes burnout. So take us through that trajectory. You got bought out, you had this money, and you started working really hard, saving as much money as you possibly could. Tell us about that, how that pans out.
Corey Carpenter [14:57]:
Well, it’s interesting how that scarcity mindset financially also played itself out. That fear based mentality was evident in so many aspects of my life. In my anesthesia group, I constantly wanted to see it at the table because I thought, hey, if I don’t take this role on, then I may get cut out or they may not need me if I don’t take on this role. So I ended up being in charge of 100, 104 employees or CRNAs in our group and recruiting and retaining all these people and working full time and being a department chair at a hospital and just taking on way too many roles.
But all that was kind of, again, scarcity mindset, fear based. I better do it because down the road it’s going to be important. And so I was, I was building up doing all the hard work now, thinking that down the road it’s going to really pay off, not really in the moment, not really realizing the toll that it was taking mentally and just physically, just feeling tired all the time, not being as present of a dad or husband as I want it to be. So I think that it was one of those things where it doesn’t happen.
Corey Carpenter [16:01]:
All of a sudden, it was slowly, fully, and all of a sudden 2019 hits. And I’m like, man, I’ve got to change. Like, the pain of taking so much call, the pain of all these time commitments really, really hit home. And I started thinking, financially I’m doing well as far as saving, but my life right now kind of objectively is not fun. So it was kind of heavy, hard that I’ve got to make some changes.
And part of those changes were spiritual with, there’s a book that I read called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, and it’s by a guy named Peter Scazzero, and a friend of mine recommended that book. And it talked about the rhythms of life and about how when you overwork or you commit to too many things, God made us to follow a natural rhythm, kind of observing the Sabbath, taking the day of rest, taking time. So I honestly had to be forced to do that.
Corey Carpenter [17:00]:
Like, my wife and I had to make recommitments to, hey, on Sundays, I’m not going to work. I’m going to hang with the family. It’s just a dramatic change in my life from a work standpoint. And it kind of, as I was reading and kind of understanding this whole life infinite banking concept, all this stuff kind of came to a head in 2019. I read Nelson Nash’s book, I think in 2018, and I was coming to a greater understanding of how best to use this policy that I’ve stored up, but at that point, I hadn’t deployed any of it.
Corey Carpenter [17:35]:
I was still in a saver mode. And so as all this inertia was developing towards change, I honestly, I said there what? My son had a baseball lesson, and we were in this business that had just opened up in Chattanooga, and it’s called D-Bat. It’s an indoor baseball and softball hitting facility. And I was looking around at the concept of thinking about it, looking on my phone like, this is such a cool idea. I wonder where else they have location. And I went to medical school in Augusta, and they didn’t have a location for that franchise there, but they had multiple locations in Atlanta, one location in Chattanooga.
Corey Carpenter [18:15]:
And so that sparked a light bulb to go off where I’m like, this may be a way out of the rat race and anesthesia where I’m constantly having– I’m getting paid, like hourly pay for working, and I’m going to be stuck in that, in that hamster wheel for the rest of my life if I don’t take action.
And so that led me to kind of go down this road of how can I implement infinite baking, this concept, to actually utilize it, to make my life better now, rather than this finite game of saving up for anesthetic to have a 4% withdrawal rate when I’m 65 years old. All that stuff kind of hit me like that’s not the game I want to play anymore.
Corey Carpenter [18:57]:
I want to play an infinite game, not a finite game of saving up. I think honestly, spiritually I think God wants me to be more active now rather than storing up all this. If you look at a parable in the bible about the rich man who built bigger silos to store as well, I think in my head, I started thinking, is that kind of who I’m becoming, or should I–
Nate Scott [19:24]:
That same parable hit me the same way. Corey, by the way. The same exact one of the rich man who’s become successful and is saying, I’m going to build bigger barns, bigger silos to fit all this grain, and then I won’t have to work again. We won’t have to do anything. We can relax. Finally, we have all this grain stored up for years and years and years to come. And then Jesus says, you fool, your life will be taken from you this evening. And what was all this for? And I was like, that’s me. Yeah.
Nate Scott [20:01]:
I was like, Lord, I know. I’ve been doing that. There’s no question. I’ve been building up. I’ve been, I think, actively in my own mind about my barn and how much money’s in it and how much security I feel about the grain in my barn. And I think he is trying to, I don’t think he minds us having barns with grain in it. I think what he minds is like, where is your heart completely gripped by that? Is your entire reason for waking up every day to fill the barn up with more grain? Is this your life goal, or is there something deeper at play? I think that’s what you’re getting to. So tell me, by the way, with all that to be said, you’re going into description.
Nate Scott [20:46]:
Tell me some, like, practice. You already mentioned one practical thing like, hey, I’m going to readjust my work schedule. I’m not going to work on Sundays anymore. That’s going to be more of a Sabbath feel to it, a day of rest with family. Was there anything else like, practically speaking, that you made a change as you kind of hit your midlife existential burnout crisis?
Corey Carpenter [21:15]:
It feels pretty cliché. It definitely was a midlife awareness of, this is who I am right now, is this who I want to remain? This is who I want to be? Or is there this abundant life out there that God allows me to seek and be a part of? Which option am I going to take? And I definitely wasn’t happy in the current 2019 role that I was playing.
Corey Carpenter [21:40]:
I think one thing that I did, I cut back on some of the some of the hats I was wearing. After a year, I dropped the role of being the CRNA leader and eventually, a year later, dropped being the department chair of anesthesia in a hospital and really wanted to recommit to being husband, dad and still a good anesthesiologist and giving 100% to my work because I definitely go back to culling.
But I really had to pull back and recommit to reprioritize how I was living. So one of those, I guess a practical theme wise, is just taking time each day to kind of have a quiet time, just rest. I changed so many things. I changed the way I eat. I focused on actually going to bed at a decent hour, saying that, trying to cram more work in at night and getting one more thing done.
Corey Carpenter [22:38]:
I kind of, almost, in my mind, created an alarm clock for number one. First alarm clocks for when you’re going to go to bed, the next one where you’re going to wake up and we’re not going to alter those. We’re going to try to save that as close as possible. So practically, that was kind of what I did to create some margin in my life in order that I could be a better version of myself in that point.
Nate Scott [23:05]:
Yeah, I think you nailed it. You know, it’s hard to live an abundant life with no margin. That’s the truth. Like, God created the Sabbath with the idea of margin. But then you see that all throughout scripture. But I would say this, too. So, practically speaking, Corey, you nailed a lot of things that you did, and I’m going to ask about, like, the outcome of those things. So you had said, first off, I’m not working on Sundays.
Nate Scott [23:32]:
Second off, I’m going to go to bed on time, and I’m going to wake up at the same time. I’m going to get to sleep, I’m going to start eating better, all these kinds of things. But on the work side, you said, I’m going to take off some hats. That was a big deal. I’m gonna take off some as I’m gonna step out of roles. How did you act? Did you have, like, financially speaking, was there a benefit to being in those roles that you were going to forego, or was there more like, I’m for, like, there wasn’t really even a financial benefit to being in those roles. I just felt like it gave me more control. And when I had more control and I felt like I was more, more I could control my own outcome by being in those seats.
Nate Scott [24:10]:
Tell me which angle. Maybe it could have been all of them. But like, whenever you phased out, what was the impact of phasing out? You know, the good side is the margin, the bad side may have been, oh yeah, I gave up the salary, I gave up this, I gave up that. Now I’m not in control of my own outcome, someone else is my boss. Tell us what, how that went.
Corey Carpenter [24:29]:
It’s funny, there is very little benefit financially to wearing those hats. And none of those, only one of those hands provided extra income. And it was very paltry compared to anything else that I was doing. So financially it didn’t hit hard at all. And so the upside was much more time, much fewer times of having to be done with my workday and then drive back into work at night for another meeting. So I was able to drop all that extra, extraneous stuff that was unnecessary. And I kind of didn’t have– My heart wasn’t in it anymore.
Corey Carpenter [25:08]:
And financially, I didn’t have to take a hit, which was interesting. I started looking at it like, why was I doing that? This fear based mentality led me down all these roads that were really not making me happy at that point.
Nate Scott [25:55]:
Yeah, so I would say what you gave up was this kind of delusion or deception that says if I don’t– You already kind of mentioned, by the way, when you said if I don’t take on that role, my outcome is not in my control anymore. I could be kicked out, I could be fired.
Nate Scott [26:15]:
Even though they’re not even offering you any money, real money, to be with all of this excess work, you were saying it still made sense at the time when I did it, based on some sort of mentality that you would have had, which I think may have been how to protect yourself. And I think deep down I resonate with that significantly, too, that I’ve been talking lately about. Our strong desire to control outcomes in our lives produces most of the things that we hate about ourselves and the things that we are against, super stressed and anxious about.
So, like, when we, instead of just waking up and doing what is right each day, whether it’s as an anesthesiologist, as a dad, as a husband, we get into this trap of saying, I have to control the outcome. So you’ll have people who, you know, you got into these positions in your anesthesia group that you would look objectively at from somebody else’s point of view. And even in your own point of view, you’re like, there’s nothing benefiting me to be here. But originally you told yourself the benefit was going to be that I get to be in control of this outcome, and so you adopt this world of, oh, I get to control the outcome. So that’s going to be good for me.
Nate Scott [27:28]:
The idea is actually, no, it’s not like God is the one in control of the outcome. Where’s our true faith? Like, if you ended up leaving that position, never took it, and got fired from the anesthesia group, the idea would be like, well, were you providing for yourself or was God your provider all along? Like, is there, are we going to trust God, or are we going to trust our own ability to conjure up outcomes? The same thing would go as like a parent.
Everyone who tries to control their kids to get some sort of desired outcome out of them finds that it actually ruins the relationship in a lot of ways and produces tons of stress for both parties. So, like, as a parent, you have to have some control. Like, you have to. Like, you can’t let an adolescent or a child do whatever they want without being controlled. So we understand that, but it’s like essentially saying we have this vision for who our kids are going to be at one point in time. And if they’re not going to live up to that, and this is unsaid, by the way, no one would say this, but it’s just deeply true in our subconscious.
Nate Scott [28:27]:
We’d say if they’re– If we see them going off of what we thought would be a proper outcome for them, then what we’re going to have to try to do is control them to achieve that one outcome. And if you’ve ever– I don’t have any teens yet. I just know this to be true. As a youth pastor for eight years, by the way, just the more you try to control a teen to achieve some sort of outcome, the less likely you’re actually going to be able to achieve that outcome and you’re just going to be super stressed the whole time. And so are they. So anyway, all I would say is the benefit that you gave up was saying, hey, I’m releasing the weight and responsibility of being able to control this outcome in my anesthesia world.
Nate Scott [29:05]:
And the honest truth is, even financially, as you had mentioned feeling, when you got this lump sum of money from being a partner and a buyout and you received this lump sum of money, essentially you were like, I have to control the outcome of what happens to this money. There’s this new weight and essentially this money that could have been a freeing thing to you became actually a life. Taking it didn’t add any value to life. In fact, it probably removed value from your life. Like, it removed happiness if you had never even received the money. Anyway, tell us, am I on the right page here, do you think? Am I, is this like, hitting it all?
Corey Carpenter [29:47]:
No, you nailed it. Like, it’s funny how when you’re, when you have this objective, this goal to just obtain money and you think that’s going to be the big source of happiness in life. And I don’t think at some level I thought it was my source of happiness, but I was like, this would be some level of control. When I had it, getting to that point made me realize all that money did was magnify whatever insecurities or whatever fears or things that you have, you already have. So it really magnifies that rather than mastering them or recovering them. So I think in this life, one thing we learn is that, that level of control that we seek, we’re not ever able to obtain.
Corey Carpenter [30:30]:
And I think about a verse in Psalms where it, like, says God’s words, a lamp into our feet and the light to our path. Like, I don’t think we get to see the end of the path. I think we see it. We see at the foot level and, like, just a little area around us. We don’t get to see the long term view.
And I think that that has been difficult for me to swallow because I kind of, in my head, want to play that role of God and, like, control the outcome. But at some level, it’s a day to day struggle of just trusting and just like, like, kind of day to day following the Lord honestly. And it’s a spiritual and psychological journey and just trusting and you don’t know the outcome but you’re just called to trust and obey and act. And so that’s where I’m trying to. Trying to be.
Nate Scott [31:16]:
Yeah, me too. I mean, the Lord really showed this to me, too, that if you are wanting to, if you feel this big weight of having to control all the outcomes in your life, which I think is very common, like Corey, you brought it up. I brought up in my own life, you know, the more you try to control outcomes, instead of just doing what is right, your focus gets skewed. You start seeing the position of God.
And one of the things that I’ve always said needs to happen to be free of it. So, as you said, create margin, you know, move into this abundant life. Almost anytime you want to give control of an outcome to the Lord, there will always involve some form of sacrifice. And you see this biblically, and I think you see this in your own life where essentially you had to say, okay, I’m done trying to wear all these hats so that I can be in control of the outcome.
Nate Scott [32:04]:
I’m going to essentially give. I’m going to sacrifice my right to be in control. Like, I’m going to be like, okay, I’m going to give up these hats, maybe. And possibly it could come back to bite me. Like, that was the reality. Like, possibly it could. You don’t know that you could become less valued to the organization.
Nate Scott [32:23]:
And then they, you know, we get into some sort of crisis, you know, which being in the medical field is super safe right now. Of all the things in the world. Like, you know, more and more people are getting older and older and older and needing more and more care in America.
But you can essentially say if they ever needed to slim down, now I’m not as important anymore, now they can let me go. I could just be one of the grunts, you know, there’s not as much. And I might be getting older, too. And they’d be like, well, we’d rather– He doesn’t even have that much time left with us.
Nate Scott [32:52]:
We’d rather let him go and keep the spots. I mean, all of these fears could have come in to try to convince you to stay in control, and you just had to let them go and sacrifice them and say, okay, yeah, I don’t have to be in control. In fact, it’s ruining my life, which I think is super awesome.
Corey Carpenter [33:11]:
And I think that’s where that, honestly, from a spiritual standpoint, just trusting in the Lord, but obviously setting up systems based on Antifragile systems. And even this book that I read, Morgan Hassell, the Psychology of Money. I don’t know if you–
Nate Scott [33:27]:
I’m familiar with it.
Corey Carpenter [33:30]:
It’s such a good book as well. And I think those books kind of shaped my mindset and helped me realize, hey, how about instead of having this fragile system where I have to work day to day to have any income, how about I build up these other systems around me where I’m not a daily cog in the wheel, but I can help build them and get.
Get it started and benefit from it and also bless others through it and not be as dependent on me being there all the time. And I think that mindset shift allowed me to go from thinking of this money as a weight, and it’s something I have to protect. And it became like a source of, almost like I pushed this ball at this heel. It’s a source of potential energy that now I can deploy rather than trying to guard. God’s been good to me.
Corey Carpenter [34:19]:
How can I be good to others? How can I be active in being a blessing to others and use this, if I see opportunity, use it for that and create a system there for the new business or a new real estate venture? I can do that rather than just hoarding and building new silos. So it took a big mindset shift, yeah.
Nate Scott [34:43]:
I remember having the same exact thing, Corey, where I felt like I’d been storing up in saver mode. Storing, storing, storing. And I was saying, this doesn’t bring any fulfillment, Lord, what should I be doing with money? And he really did tell me to start to connect and partner with other people and help use your money to help build something that would benefit those other people as well. So it’d be like, hey, go get somebody that, you know, in your circle who could. Could, you know, provide labor and, like, a vision and become, like, a business operator. I don’t want to be the business operator, but I can fund those.
Nate Scott [35:20]:
And so essentially, we can join forces. I can bring some money. They can bring some labor and some sweat equity, and we could build something together that they would benefit and I would benefit. But now the money, I’m not just storing up to save myself. Like, it could not go well, but at the end of the day, it adds fulfillment. So that’s why I said, how do you overcome the love of money and building an idol of money and finding your security and money? One of the things I’ve found is to use the money to partner with other people to achieve something that they would benefit from as well. You suddenly start to see yourself as your money and the world of business as being a service as opposed to everything just all about what rate of return can I get on my grain silo? You know, how much bigger can we make the return.
Nate Scott [36:06]:
No, my actual thought is, hey, I think we could get together. I could bring money, you could bring this. We could do something together. And that was your story of entering the entrepreneur world, too, was you were at the baseball training facility, essentially an indoor facility, and you’re like, the world could use more of these. Is that, is that kind of how the story went?
Corey Carpenter [36:25]:
Yeah. So it seemed like a really cool concept. And I kind of spoke with the owner who is actually the dentist. He’s a dentist in Chattanooga that I became friends with, and he helped guide my thought process for creating my own franchise in Augusta. And it is funny, as you go down the path, you learn, you learn other options or other routes to go that you wouldn’t have thought of previously. His biggest regret was not owning the real estate. So as I kind of absorbed that thought, I thought, well, I have this infinite banking policy that I’ve stored up. I haven’t used it right now, so how can I deploy it? So I have one of my best friends that I went to church with in Augusta while I was in training.
Corey Carpenter [37:10]:
There is a high school baseball coach. I called him and it said, hey, this seems like a good opportunity. Would you be interested? He’s like, dude, I would quit tomorrow if you would do that, if you bring it here. So he and his wife now run that facility and are there day to day. And we split the ownership of that business. And then myself and a few friends went and bought a 21,000 square foot unused warehouse in Augusta that was just sitting there that has been for sale for a year and really had no takers. And it was in a great location. And so we ended up buying this facility, renovating it.
Corey Carpenter [37:47]:
And I used whole life for the business, and then I used some saved up capital for the warehouse, for the real estate. And now I have this system set up where I have this business that’s doing this. Been a lot of fun to work with others, and it’s been a blessing to see how God’s works and use their relationships to kind of be fuel for this business. And so business is doing well and then it funds or it pays the rent for the warehouse and it’s just more and more I’m seeing this infinite banking concept is not just being, utilizing whole life, but utilizing real estate as my bank. And this whole life is my bank. And you’re really setting up systems of people and money that are constantly active. And they’re not passively waiting.
Corey Carpenter [38:39]:
They’re not just, they’re not just stocks or bonds that you’re putting up and you’re waiting till you’re 65 to use. You allow God to use you now and be more active and be creative. I think for me, coming in, being in the anesthesia world all day long, I’m putting people to sleep and waking them up, and it’s great. And people are super anxious during that time. And I love being able to kind of be with them and help people relax through that, that time period. But having something tangible and having this real estate and this business come alive and being a part of it has been eye opening and kind of life giving to me. And to see all these people that depend, that descend on this business and utilize it and benefit from it’s been a blessing for me.
Corey Carpenter [39:27]:
And so it’s kind of become full circle where it’s not all about building wealth, it is about utilizing it, growing it, and blessing others in that process.
Nate Scott [39:38]:
I think it’s awesome. I think what I heard in that, too, is that I’ve always felt that there’s a bit of a difference between saving money and building capital. And most of us, especially with scarcity mindsets, think in terms of saving money as our security blanket. Whereas the people who are actually achieving things and living abundant lives, they see their ability to save money as more building capital to go do something with.
And that was a shift that you kind of mentioned is like, there’s a bit of a difference between, oh, I’m just saving money, storing it up in retirement programs. All of this, it’s all for me. I’m saving all this up for me, for my own security, for my retirement, for my family into, like, I’m going to build capital so that we can do something with this. And what I would assume you found out is that having this, you know, you said this baseball coach, be your partner, it makes the entire business and the profitability of the business feel meaningful because you were able to partner together with somebody else and create a win-win scenario for two people that you’re now saying, like, we’re winning together, where a part of a team, they’re able to be blessed.
Nate Scott [40:55]:
And of course, the business is profitable, so I’m able to make money, too. But the idea is that it created a fulfillment for you that I feel like most people are robbed of. If all they ever do is have an individual retirement account, that’s they never get to have their money produce fulfillment. They may be able to have their money produce security or something like that, but they don’t know what it’s like to be able to produce fulfillment. Like, I’ve got a business partner with our land flipping business and that we’re just now really starting to see some kind of success with. But that was my whole outset, by the way, was that, hey, if it makes money for me, great, but if it makes money for them, even better. Like, that was the idea. Like, I don’t need the money per se.
Nate Scott [41:35]:
It would be fun to have the business work. But like, hey, if I can use my money and they can maybe work, have more financial freedom if this business works out and have a lot of, you know, a total life transformation for them, like, that is a big win. That’s you becoming a leader, that’s you helping somebody else, lifting them up. And that is a fulfilling thing to do. And you can use your money to do that, but you do have to break free of some of the old chains.
So whenever people talk about infinite banking and they hear our story, we all come into it with the individual retirement account mentality like this, okay, what’s the rate of return? How is it going to help me and all this? And what we actually try to help them see is it’s not, we’re not doing the same thing here. Our hope is to transition out of saving money mentality for your own security, into building capital that can be used to accomplish something. And that’s why infinite banking fits so well at the outset.
Nate Scott [42:37]:
For people who are already doing that, the people who are not doing that, for them to really be happy with it, they have to transition to that world, I feel like. And that’s essentially what you’ve done, Corey, which is amazing to see.
Corey Carpenter [42:49]:
Yeah. I think that it’s interesting how having this, this idea of infinite banking allows you to go from saver mode to opportunity seeking and just kind of be more aware day to day. Like, what’s going on in this life? How can I contribute? Like you said, contribute now versus being passive for the rest of my life and waiting, waiting to retire someday.
Because I can obviously say now I’m viewing life differently. Like, I’m working less, but I’m enjoying it a whole lot more. And I don’t know that I ever want to retire and I want to keep growing and building new businesses and new opportunities for friends and just kind of be more involved day to day. And I think that’s if it’s banking mat that whole concept has evolved over time and really been a great blessing to my family and my friends as I learned more about it.
Nate Scott [43:43]:
Yeah. Amen. Tell me this, as we kind of wind down to what do you think the future holds for you, Corey? Where are you shooting for now? What are you looking forward to as you move forward in life? Just kind of tell me, what do you see as the next steps for your own self in your wealth building, you know, personal life journey?
Corey Carpenter [44:07]:
Funny you said you asked that question. My wife accuses me of just being this idea factory and just having millions of ideas all day long. And so I constantly have to use her and some of my business partners as filters as I come up with ideas like, hey, this may not work, but what do you think about it? And I love bouncing out ideas off people and being, I love that creative role. And I kind of view my future as continuing to build a capital in my policies, but not sitting on those policies, but looking for active opportunities to deploy them.
I’m going to scale my business to other locations and potentially that I’m in talks right now with a group. We may put another, a second tenant in our building right now. So that may happen pretty soon, but I plan on just kind of seeing where the Lord leads and being involved in more real estate deals, scaling up my business, and quite honestly, I kind of, in some ways, into the crypto world now, believe it or not, I kind of, I’m viewing what’s going on with our fed and our government and kind of want to save some capital and non fiat in bitcoin and things like that. So I have a little bit of that as well.
Nate Scott [45:26]:
Yeah. Did you buy in before the price spiked or did you, have you bought most of it since then?
Corey Carpenter [45:32]:
So, it’s fine. I bought in 2020. I bought some, but I’ve kind of been steadily buying over time. And I think I’ll try to, at least the way I framed it in my head is I’ll continue to buy and just not sell. I don’t want to, I think it’s one of the few things that I have trouble being patient with. So I want to be intentionally patient and just keep buying small amounts and we’ll see where it leads.
Nate Scott [45:56]:
Yeah, it’s good. I actually need to get back into it. I bought bitcoin when it was like, 50,000 years ago. The last time, it jumped way up, and I was like, okay, it’s going to be good. And then it plummeted all the way down to, whatever, 15,000. I watched my $50,000. I didn’t put 50 grand in at the time, but I watched it get more than cut in half. I was like, if it ever gets back above 50, I’m selling this.
Nate Scott [46:24]:
That’s what I felt. And you realize that’s the scarcity mentality showing back up. So when it got up to 65 grand recently, I did sell it. I was like, oh, I’m going to make some money and maybe I’ll jump back in. But I was like, it just feels like a nice little, hey, I got my money back. I thought I would never see that day. But that’s because once again, and I didn’t tell, well, it wasn’t a ton of money, by the way. It wasn’t very much money.
Nate Scott [46:50]:
It was an insignificant amount of money. But that’s the reason I put it in. I didn’t know much about bitcoin, I didn’t know much about crypto. I didn’t become a believer in it at the time. I just felt like other people were saying, you should put some money in. So I said, okay, I’ll put some money in. And that’s what, that’s the idea of, that I try to avoid, which is just throwing money in, because someone says to throw money in. It wasn’t really a part of who I was.
Nate Scott [47:14]:
So now where I’m really, I’m starting to see the debt load really become ridiculous. I’m worried about the future of fiat currency to begin with, more so than I did when I first bought it, and even more so in the last few months, really. And now I’m sitting here thinking, I should probably buy back in, and then I’m just going to hold onto it.
Corey Carpenter [47:34]:
Well, don’t you think? I think most of us who learn about whole life and infinite banking kind of have this Austrian school of economic mindset, where from when I’ve read a bunch about it, and it makes a lot of sense that our FED, their involvement in central planning typically is very poorly done. And they just create a system of boom and busts and.
And I’m continually trying to create a system in a fragile system in my life where I can store up and just when an asymmetric opportunity arises, whether it’s crypto or real estate, I want to go in pretty heavily when I have some specific knowledge about a certain area, I want to seek out that opportunity now. And so I think that Austrian economic mindset, I think in infinite banking, it kind of lends itself to the time that we’re in now.
Nate Scott [48:26]:
I think that the founding of America was built on a very Antifragile system. As much as you can with human systems, very antifragile. And as you get more into a larger federal government, more and more central planning, more and more control of different factors to try to avoid, you know, volatility per se. As you read Antifragile, you know, anytime we try to avoid it, instead of welcoming it, you end up getting major crashes, like the end of America, per se, or whatever it is.
So you start you, whereas if you. All that to say, I agree, like, we are entering a very, we’re becoming more and more fragile. Who knows when something is going to break or not? But fragile things break at some point much more, at a much higher likelihood. And if you’re antifragile, then, then you have much more ability to withstand almost anything.
Nate Scott [49:21]:
So within reason. Right. So anyway, all that to say, I need to get back into the bitcoin game. I’ll probably use my policies to buy in. Corey, you know what I mean? You know, we’ll probably be using the policies to fund it.
Corey Carpenter [49:35]:
But I also think just, just in a non financial realm or domain is like, I think one thing I would, I’m trying to do is from a health standpoint, trying to focus on sleeping better. I’m into cold plunging and sauna and all. It’s all these other things. Just trying to try to maintain my health now where I can be healthy, have a longer healthspan and be a better dad for our, hopefully granddad someday as well.
So I’m trying to kind of store up in that arena as well and just be active, taking care of my mind and body now. And so I would say those are things I’m also really interested in investing in right now, just learning, learning to rest, learning to eat better than I was and, and all his aspects kind of really try to grow.
Nate Scott [50:24]:
Yeah, I’m not to the breaking point of the eating, but I’m almost there, Corey. At one point, I will also change how I eat. It is not this day. Just kidding. But it is true. The reality is if I can hear to kind of sum up the story, instead of working so hard to be in control for security, for saving for money’s sake, whatever it is, whatever money meant to you subconsciously that required you to sacrifice, sacrifice things you actually wanted out of life for security, safety, money, this whole poverty mentality, what you’re saying is, hey, don’t seek after that.
Nate Scott [51:02]:
Instead of controlling everything, live abundantly here and now and your life will be changed. I had a different term for it, by the way, and I just forgot what I was going to say in the middle of that sentence. So it was going to be more meaningful for about 2 seconds, then whenever it slipped out. But yeah, instead of living for the morning, living for quality of life essentially is more important than how much grain is in your silo that you know. And that’s a lesson that we all need to learn at some point. Sometimes it takes people a whole lifetime to learn it. Sometimes you can learn it along the way.
Nate Scott [51:38]:
The sooner you learn that quality of life. In fact, I heard somebody else say it recently in a business podcast and I actually forgot where I heard it. But either way, someone maybe comment, they know who said it. But there’s this phrase going around called “peace is the new profit in the world of entrepreneurship”.
So you have this whole group of entrepreneurship that seems to focus on growing, scaling, growing, scaling. And that’s good for some people really like, you know, who really want that. But the idea is if your business is robbing you of peace, then what’s the point? And is money worth losing peace? And so peace is the new profit is kind of how I’m trying to rearrange my own life from being, hey, I want to go make X amount of money to, no, I actually am fine. My world may be a little bit different than yours, too, Corey, that I think there’s changes I would like to make that are going to cause a reduction of my income, but that would provide more peace.
Nate Scott [52:34]:
And that’s what I’m going to actively choose in the coming years to kind of transition some things that I’m doing that I, you know, I want to be in control, I want to make money, I want to do all of this, and I’m wearing certain hats that I don’t really want to be in all of these different places within the organization to finally realizing, oh, I’m actually okay taking less money for more peace.
And, you know, possibly at some point. Here’s the idea though, is that God is in charge of the outcome. Like, I could start making these changes and make more money. The idea is I just assume I’m gonna make less by doing it. And, you know, that’s actually okay. Because of quality of life, you only get to live this life one time, and you only get to impact your kids, you only get to impact your spouse, your friends and family one time.
Nate Scott [53:24]:
And so where, you know, having proper balance, you look at scripture, you’re like, if we would just do what it says, things would be better. We just don’t do what it says.
Corey Carpenter [53:35]:
Yeah. Oh, we have to learn. We had to learn the hard. We had to learn the hard way. Over and over again. We mess up and have to relearn the same lessons that we read about it. I think even from what you said, when we live in that piece, I think we make better decisions, which will help. Even if they don’t help financially, which I think they will, you’ll be a better person or better dad or better husband because you’re making decisions from that piece rather than that.
Corey Carpenter [53:59]:
Rather than the chaos that your life can be. I think that mental space is really important. Just my two cents.
Nate Scott [54:07]:
That’s right. Well, I loved it. And thanks so much for being on the show, Corey. I guess we’re about out of time. So any last words? Anything you would want to leave with the audience as we close down?
Corey Carpenter [54:18]:
Gosh, I don’t know. I just, I hope this was beneficial to the people that listen to it. But I think for me, I would just encourage people, if you’re just learning to take this, take action and get started. Starting is the hardest part. And when you first start making your premium payments. At first I thought this really stinks, having to make payments. And over time, your thinking changes. Like, I’m just giving from my right hand to my left hand and I’ll be able to get it back and then deploy it when I need it or deploy it at a more opportune time.
Corey Carpenter [54:52]:
So I think my encouragement to people would be just start acting, start building premiums. And with that, with the mindset that you’re going to use it later, that at a good, at the appointed time, the right time, you’re going to be able to use it effectively. And it’s not, you really just give it from the right hand to the left and think of it that way.
Nate Scott [55:10]:
Amen. That’s good. Yep. And think long range. Don’t be afraid to capitalize. All these tenants of infinite banking, they’re true. Like, think long range, don’t be afraid to capitalize, put money in and use it to go achieve things. I’ve never met someone who’s 7, 8, 9, 10 years into infinite banking, who’s like, man, I really wish I didn’t have so much liquid money available for me to use tax free whenever I want to to go achieve anything I want.
Nate Scott [55:31]:
Never ran into that person who regrets being in that position at what, at the time, whenever the money could be used. And so just keep that in the forefront. All right, Corey, thanks so much for being on. It was a pleasure.
Corey Carpenter [55:45]:
Thanks, Nate. Thanks for having me. Great talking with you.
Nate Scott [55:47]:
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you guys all for being on the show. If you want to get access to our free infinite banking course, by the way, you’re welcome to do so. You can go to livingwealth.com/escapethebank to sign up for our free infinite banking course and kind of see, just like what Corey’s done, see what infinite banking can do for you.
