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Think about it as an investment into your future. I quit playing video games and video games were expensive. I spent thousands of dollars on video games.

Once I stopped doing that, I had I had so much more money that I didn't realize I had, right? So money management's a huge deal when it comes to your cyber security career because the more money you have, the more money you can invest into your career. Hi, I'm Kyser Clark and welcome to The Hacker's Cash, the show that decrypts the secrets of offensive security one bite at a time. Every week, I invite you into the world of ethical hacking by interviewing leading offensive security practitioners.

If you are a penetration tester, bug bounty hunter, red teamer, or blue teamer who wants to better understand the modern hacker mindset, whether you are new or experienced, this show is for you. Hello, hello. Welcome to The Hacker's Cash.

My name is Kyser Clark. I have over six years of experience in the cybersecurity field. I currently work as a full-time penetration tester, also known as an ethical hacker, and I'm here to help you grow your hacking and cybersecurity knowledge.

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Today in this episode, it's a very special episode. We're doing the first ever Q&A episode where you guys ask questions and I answer them on the show. And the way you can submit questions, you can do it in a few different ways.

You can do it through the Discord channel. So I have a Discord server. If you don't know, you can find the link to the Discord server in the description slash show notes and join the Discord.

Anybody can join and you can drop a question in The Hacker's Cash questions section. There's a dedicated section specifically for asking questions for this show. You can also ask questions in the comments on the YouTube channel.

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So any comment that's put in the YouTube channel will be considered for a question that is answered on the Q&A episodes of The Hacker's Cash. And then lastly, you can also email me at Kyser.Kyserclerk.com if you want to ask a question that way. So with that being said, this is going to be a little bit different of a format and I'm also going to get rid of a lot of the editing.

So I usually edit out all my ums and all the stuff I actually just said and I'm going to leave it in there because I'm trying to be better as a speaker. And because of that, I want to just leave in the raw audio and I'm not going to edit these podcasts. And all of this is for these Q&A episodes are going to be unscripted for the most part.

The only thing that's kind of scripted is the questions themselves. I can't rememberize every single word of the question and I don't want to misrepresent the question that's being asked. So I will be reading off my phone.

If you're watching the video version, you'll see me look at my phone while I read the question to the audience so the audience knows what the question is being asked and then I'll put the phone down and answer the question. And while I have thought about these questions in advance because I don't have anybody, you know, giving me these questions to me, I have to kind of handpick the best one. So I have thought about these a little bit, but I haven't written anything down and I'm really just going to answer the question in the rawest, purest form possible.

So with that being said, hopefully you enjoy the new format and hopefully you enjoy these unedited versions of the Hacker's Cache because personally, I want to be a better speaker in the real world and if I leave editing as a crutch, then it's just going to make me a worse speaker over time. So I'm trying to eliminate that crutch and be a better speaker in person because it's honestly something that's super important to me. So that's why we are not going to edit these episodes anymore.

With that being said, let's go ahead and dive into the first question. And this first question is actually a question that is very unrelated to any other question that I've ever seen, and I think it's a very good one. So I'm excited for this first one.

The question. Why so many people turn to the dark side of cyber over legitimate cybersecurity and IT roles? Personal thoughts. Many of us are desperate.

The world is an increasingly crazy place and humanity is struggling to keep up with itself. Ease of access and the willingness to establish a channel creates a light at the end of the tunnel for most people, which the baddies exploit more than the good guys. Add that to the perceived anonymity provided by operating through networks.

I believe people miscalculate risk versus reward and overestimate their liabilities. The most interesting thing about this to me is that the younger generations are showing exceptional prowess with tech, but sadly, care much less about the consequences. I would love to see a professional's take on this topic.

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As I said, aside from the offhanded comment here and there about what a shame it is, I haven't seen much conversation on the subject. First of all, thank you so much for asking this question is a really good question to ask. And you're right.

Not a lot of people do talk about this topic much at all. And I'm going to take my best stab at it. I am no by no means an expert in cybercrime or crime in general, and I don't know what it's like to be a cybercriminal.

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There are professionals in the field who used to be cybercriminals who went to prison for cybercrime and now they actually do good. I'm not one of those people. I have never done cybercrime and it's never interested me.

But what I can say is this, why do people resort to cybercrime? And I think a lot, a lot of it has to do with like, why do people do regular crime? You know, cybercrime, regular crimes, almost the same thing, right? Why, why does a shoplifter take from the store instead of buying the goods from the store? Well, there's multiple reasons. Number one is they don't have the money and they can't afford it and they're desperate. That's, that's a, that's a reason there.

It's not a good reason, but it is a reason nonetheless. Another reason is the thrill of it. You know, crime is thrilling to people who do crime, doing things you're not supposed to do is thrilling.

And as someone who likes to break rules, I don't break laws, but I do like to break rules. And I'm not, I don't like to follow guidelines if, if, if I don't have to. And I find it thrilling to go outside the bounds of guidelines because it is thrilling and it allows me to be unique, honestly.

So I can kind of see like when it comes to breaking walls, like why someone would want to do that because it's thrilling. Another reason is because they don't know any better. Maybe, I don't know.

You know, sometimes when you're, there's teenagers out there and there's kids that would just take from the store and they just don't know any better. Right. So maybe that's the same with, with cybercrime, but I think it's a little bit less of that.

There are, there have been people who have been arrested for cybercrime. They didn't know it was a crime. Right.

And hacking into things illegally, they just didn't know any better. And they suffered the consequences and they found out, you know, later on that, yeah, that's not allowed. So you can also, another analogy I like to think is like, why, why do drug dealers exist? Why do, why do people resort to dealing drugs? Like you can, you can go through school and go through college and whatever certifications.

I'm not really versed in the medical field. So I don't really know what you have to do in order to become a pharmacist, but a pharmacist honestly, is just a legal drug dealer. Right.

So why, why does someone deal drugs on the streets instead of being a pharmacist? They're really doing the same thing. They're selling drugs to people. Now the drugs are different and the means of them doing it is completely different, but in essence, it's, it's very similar, right? A pharmacist and a legal drug dealer, but why do they do it? Well, another reason is it's, it's harder to become a pharmacist, right? It's easy to become a drug dealer.

You can just buy some drugs on a, on a dark night and then resell it on the streets. And to be a pharmacist, a legal drug dealer, it takes years and years of work effort into a career in a school. And then you have to go through like lengthy interview processes.

So I think that's part of the reason too. Honestly, I think it's hard to break into the field. This is honestly one of the reasons why this whole, this podcast exists to help people break in the field because it's so difficult.

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And the reason why it's difficult is because it takes a lot of certifications, college degrees. You don't need college degrees. We're going to, there's actually a question.

We're going to talk about that a little bit further in this episode, but a lot of, a lot of people do value certifications and degrees and experience. And a lot of people struggle with that. And another thing you have to consider is like your social networking and your ability to do interviews well, and working with a team.

And there's some people that are really good with tech. They just can't do all that. And you need all of that, by the way.

And some people will be missing one piece and some people will be missing all the pieces. Whereas a cyber criminal, you know, they can kind of operate on their own and they don't really need to work as a team. They don't need to have this super cool resume.

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They don't need to have certifications. They don't need to have degrees. They don't need to know how to interview for a job.

Right. And that is, might be part of the reason I'm not saying it is part of the reason why people resort to cyber crime. That's just me thinking of like, it is hard to break in this field.

And, and cyber crime is there's no barrier to entry. Anybody, literally anybody right now can open up their laptop and get on a web browser and just start hacking things. Like there's no barrier to entry.

Right. And then, like you said, in a question, the anonymity of it, like the internet is anonymous for the most part. There are ways to catch and find out who people are online.

But another thing they consider is like, there's no consequences for like threat actors, for example, in Russia and China and North Korea to hacking in the United States. There's no consequences for them. So they can just do it.

And they're state sponsored, most likely. And there's not a lot of cyber law being enforced internationally. So that's where I think the majority of threat actors are foreign countries to your country.

And I'm in the United States. So I use that as an example. But like, for example, if you're in Australia, like, the chances of you getting hacked by an Australian are probably lower because, you know, there's consequences if that Australian gets caught hacking into an Australian company.

But for example, someone in, I don't know, Saudi Arabia, they hack an Australian company, there's going to be little, if not any consequences to that. So the nations, there's no consequences or as high of consequences when cybercrime goes between nations like that. So I think that's a lot of it, too.

And another reason is there's a lot of money involved with cybercrime, right? If you listen, I forget the episode, but it was with Nathan Rice, I think it was episode nine, don't comment on the episode, but it was with Nathan Rice. And I started out that episode, I put it in the beginning of the episode, one of the highlights was, I would be a millionaire right now. That's what he said.

He was like, if this was a real crime, I would be a millionaire right now. And he basically phished a user and got internal access into his client's network as a red team or a legitimate ethical, legal hacking, pen tester, red teamer hacker. And he straight up said like, yeah, this is a real engagement.

Like if I was a cyber criminal, I would be a millionaire right now. And I don't know what his financial situation is. But the fact that he said I would be a millionaire right now implies that he's not currently a millionaire.

And he works in the legal and ethical realm. So that just kind of proves like there is more money in cybercrime. So it could be financially motivated as well.

So you add all that up. And you just get a recipe for what we see now, which is a influx of cybercrime. Hey, I wanted to tell you about my new cyber security insider list, where you get raw, unfiltered cyber security advice, tips and hot takes, plus exclusive first looks at my content delivered directly to your inbox every single week.

No flow for spam, just valuable content. Head over to Kyserclark.com slash newsletter and level up your cyber security knowledge today. Once again, that's Kyserclark.com slash newsletter.

There's also a link in the description. Alright, now back to the show. So what do you think about net plus or CCNA for cybersecurity? So this is actually, in my opinion, kind of an easy question.

But I can understand why you would be confused between the two. So net plus and CCNA, they're both networking certifications. Obviously, like the Cisco Certified Network Associate and CompTIA Network Plus.

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Those two certifications are both networking certifications. However, CCNA is a lot more difficult than the network plus. And honestly, with the CCNA, you don't really need to CCNA unless you are trying to be a cybersecurity engineer.

So if you want to be a cybersecurity engineer, I think CCNA is something that you should be pursuing. And then you should even level up to like a CCNP Security Certified Network Professional, Cisco Certified Network Professional Security. And with the network plus, it's a lot easier.

And it's very important to know networking in this field. It's been said a bunch of times, and I would say that you definitely want to know how to use network, how networks work. Because if you don't know how a network works, then you can't secure a network.

And if you don't have at least network plus knowledge, then you're doing yourself in your company and your clients a disservice. So this is a little bit of a hot take. But if you don't know network plus knowledge, like if you're not at that level, which honestly is a basic level of networking, then you're not really securing networks.

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The best way you're not really qualified, in my opinion, to work on a network. So it's a hot take. It's a hot take.

And I'm not saying you have to have network plus, I'm just saying you have to have network plus knowledge, which is two different things. And we're going to talk about certifications later on. And we're going to dive a little bit more into that about like having certifications and having the knowledge and all that.

But if you don't have the knowledge, then you're really doing everybody around you a disservice. And you should definitely at least have network plus knowledge, you don't need a certification. So if you're trying to choose between the two, I would, I would definitely get CCNA even if you want, sorry, I would definitely get the network plus even if you want to get CCNA, get the network plus first, because CCNA is actually very difficult.

And the network plus is going to help you out in the long run. And if you want to be a cybersecurity engineer, get your CCNA. Now for the record, for those who don't know, I have the CCNA and I had the network plus I have both of them.

And the CCNA hasn't really played too much of a factor into my career, honestly, because what made the CCNA hard was the Cisco specific stuff, like configuring routers, configuring Cisco switches. And there's a lot of nuances with with Cisco technology that you don't find in other technologies that you have to know for the CCNA. And that's what makes the CCNA hard.

And the reason why the Cisco CCNA hasn't been too beneficial for me is because I haven't touched a Cisco device in my career, since I've gotten this is CCNA. So you see what I'm saying? So unless you're specifically working with Cisco stuff, then you don't, then you probably shouldn't get a CCNA. Now, if you want to be a network engineer, definitely your CCNA, but we're talking about cybersecurity and cybersecurity careers.

Network engineering is not in the cybersecurity umbrella. It is a very valid IT role and definitely needed within the industry. So if you're interested in network engineering, definitely get the CCNA.

I couldn't recommend it enough. But if you're just doing pretty much anything in cybersecurity, the network plus is definitely enough to get your feet wet networking is it is enough. And then if you want to be a cybersecurity engineer, get the CCNA and then maybe even level up to the CCNP security.

Next question. How many years does one need to collect a wall of certs like you? So I do have wall of certs and I'm proud of them. It's one of the reasons why I put them on the camera because I'm some of my proudest achievements, honestly, and to kind of just give myself credibility, I guess.

But I mean, how long does it take? It takes as long as it takes. Right. And it's different for everybody.

For me, I'm just over six years into my career. I'm going on seven years now. I'm at like six and a half right now.

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So that's how long it took me. All right. But it could take you different amounts of time because you could have a different base starting knowledge.

You will have you could have a different personal life. You can have different relationships. You can have different family life.

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Like for me, I don't have a family, guys. I don't have I'm not married. I don't have any kids.

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So I can dedicate a lot of time to study. And that's what I did for six plus years. I've just studied.

I spent so much time studying and I could have got more certifications if I didn't get my college degree. Right. I spent a lot of time on my college degree stuff.

I didn't go to college and I would have more certifications. Another thing is I've traveled a lot, too. So if I didn't do all that traveling and enjoying life a little bit, then I would have more certifications right now.

So it really just depends on how much you're willing to sacrifice. Right. I had to sacrifice.

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Personally, I quit playing video games for years. A matter of fact, I just got I just bought my first TV since I've. Since 2014, so I went 10 years without buying a TV, just bought my first TV literally yesterday so I can play video games again, because I went so many years without playing video games that I I'm starting to miss a little bit for one.

But for two is like I realize that like just because I work 24 seven doesn't mean I'm getting better results. And I've kind of included like, hey, I need to put in some break time. Because I think rest is kind of important now.

And early in my career, I didn't really I didn't play any video games at all. And that's what it took. It was a sacrifice I wasn't willing to make.

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And then another thing is I stopped playing fantasy football and I stopped watching NFL football games. And I started going to partying parties. And there was a lot of sacrifice.

There's a lot of sacrifice. And I didn't sacrifice everything. Like I said, I did travel and I did.

I mean, I just got out of a two and a half year relationship. So I was in a relationship for two and a half years. And that obviously took up time.

But one of the reasons why the relationship failed was because I spent so much time studying. Right. So you got to you got to figure out what you're willing to sacrifice.

And the more you sacrifice, the more certifications you get. But just because you have a lot of certifications, it isn't everything. Right.

Because once you get, you know, two, three, four or five, like extra ones on top of that, really, they don't do a whole lot for you. So there's there's if you're if you're not familiar with terms called Law of Diminishing Return. So the more you do, the less return you get right now.

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Obviously, every certification is going to give you something. But each certification you get, it moves the needle less every single time. Right.

And I would say every certification is going to move the needle and help you get better every time you get a new certification. But every time you get a new one, it's going to move the needle less and less over time. So you said that fact as well.

So overall. Yeah, I mean, it takes a lot of work, takes a lot of sacrifice. And if you're not willing to sacrifice things that you really enjoy and things you really like, then you'll never have all certifications like like me.

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So that's that's kind of where where. What happens and. And like I said, certifications are everything.

So to you, your family might be the most important thing. I don't like I said earlier, I don't have a family, so I can't put time into something I don't have. So, you know, I mean, so I would not be jealous of me having 13 certifications when when you have zero or one or whatever you have, because you're you could have a family, you could have other priorities that are that are more important to you.

But for me, my my career is my top priority. I have nothing else. My career is my top priority in life.

Straight up. There's nothing else more important to me. And that sounds a little selfish.

But like I said, I don't have family. I don't mean I don't have I'm not married and I have kids, so I'm allowed to be a little selfish. But if you have a family to take care of, then putting your career ahead of your family might not be the best idea.

And there's a lot of people that have successful careers who have families that will say, yeah, I'll never put my career in front of my family. And they still do good in their career. So you just got to find the balance that works for you.

You know, there's just there's things that talk about work life balance. And for me, there really isn't a work life balance. It's just work.

It's just working a little bit of life, like a small amount of life. Like they say, what's what's the saying? Work hard, play hard. Mine's like work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard and then play a little.

That's that's So that's that's kind of my life in a nutshell. And hopefully you got some value out of that. And yeah, let's go ahead and move on to the next question.

That's I don't have much more to say on that one. Well, they helped you out and good luck with your career endeavors. Next question.

Hi, Kyser. I kind of have the impression that if you want to work in this field of cybersecurity, you need to be able to afford those certs. I assume that maybe you can learn those concepts somewhere for free.

But to actually land a job, I'm not sure how to showcase my knowledge to the person that's going to hire me. That's why my idea is to try to get hired as a web developer, because at least I have some projects to showcase to my potential employer, raise some money, get the certs and then attempt to transition careers. What do you think? Thank you.

It's a very valid point. You know, you see someone like me who has a bunch of certs. And you're like, wow, how does how does how do you afford that? And certs are expensive.

Certs are expensive. And what I will say is you don't need to have certifications. There's people in this field that have zero certifications.

There's people who work in this field, don't have a college degree. There's people who don't have a college degree or certifications that are working in the field. The thing that matters most is the skill set.

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Right. And a certification just proves that you have a skill set. Now, why you don't need certifications and you don't need a degree, they definitely help because an employer can look at my resume and they know my skill sets just by looking at the resume.

And it is easier to prove competency if you have a certification in that area, which is why I have so much, because I personally don't know how to showcase and to an employer what my skills are. And that's one of the reasons why I have so many certifications, because I feel like, well, it's undeniable, right? My OCP, it's like, well, it's undeniable that I hacked into, you know, four computers because I think, yeah, that's what you have to have. You have to have four out of six computers broken into to pass OCP.

It's undeniable that I did that. And then I wrote a report on it, too. And because I had the certification that you can't question that.

It's a fact. Right now, if I didn't have a certification, it's like, well, how many computers do you have? And it's like, well, I have a million like what's what's there to prove to prove that. Right.

That's why I like certifications. And that I think certifications do move the needle for your career significantly. And that's why I always talk about them and advocate for them.

And when it comes to affording certifications, I get it. They're they're very expensive. I've been I was lucky to be healthy enough to join the military.

Right, because that's kind of the only prerequisite to joining the military, just be a healthy person. And I was born in good health. And I also had I was I was I don't want to say I was born into a good work ethic, but I learned work ethic from adults when I was a child.

So I had this work ethic built in into my system. And I was lucky to have that. But I didn't I didn't have any money either.

I mean, I literally joined the Air Force active duty. I had a thousand dollars in my bank account, guys. And then when I got out of basic training, there was none because my bills was I had credit card debt and I had carpet.

It's like I got done with basic training and I had zero dollars. Like I'm not kidding. Like I had nothing.

And the reason why I have so many certifications because the Air Force, they give you they give you. Education funding, which is how I got my degree. That's how I got my security plus they paid for that in full.

And that's how I got a lot of my certifications. And as I promoted within the ranks in the Air Force, I started to build up a savings account and then I could go purchase training such as the OSCP and the EJPT, the OSWP and the certifications that weren't covered. So there were while all my certifications.

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So let me rephrase that. Not all my certifications were paid for by the Air Force, I would say maybe. Sixty percent of them were paid for by the Air Force.

That's just a rough estimate. And then some of them I paid for myself. And the way I did that was I save up money.

I made sacrifices. Again, that word sacrifice. I made sacrifices.

I didn't buy video games anymore. I didn't buy a big screen TV. Like I said, I just bought my first TV for the first time in 10 years yesterday.

And I don't drive a fancy car. I drive a 2012 Nissan Versa, guys, with a bumper that's basically falling off. Like I don't drive a fancy car and I don't buy a new phone every year.

I buy a phone, a smartphone every four years. And the reason why I do that is because the security updates or if I drop it in the ocean, which I have done, I dropped my phone in the ocean, completely destroyed my phone. So, yeah, I don't buy a lot of a lot of these things you see other people buy.

I don't have a Netflix subscription. I don't have a Hulu subscription. I don't buy coffee all the time, every day like that.

This kind of stuff. There's small amounts of money, but they kill you in the long run. I make my own coffee at home.

No, no, no. Don't get me wrong when I'm traveling or if I'm in a hurry, like I'll go buy a coffee at Starbucks or whatever. But when it comes to like the day to day grind, I make my coffee at home, man.

I try not to eat out that much. And I really do everything I can to save money because, you know, when I when I bought my off second limit subscription, which was like fifty two hundred dollars, which is the first time I purchased it, I've done it twice now. That was a huge stretch for me that that offsets description is worth more than my car.

So and I just came from just sacrificing, just just saving the money. Right. And that's a huge word is sacrifice.

And, you know, you might not be able to accumulate that money. But I will I will say this, like if you have a smartphone and you have a Netflix subscription and you have you're eating out all the time, it's like you have enough money to buy the search. You just are choosing to spend your money on things that don't matter.

Like if you're on Amazon, you're buying new stuff all the time. Like for me, like I only buy stuff if I need it. Right.

Like I mean, absolutely need it. Like for for stuff around the house, like like let's say you like to cook and it's like, oh, this knife set would be cool, but it's two hundred dollar knife set. It's like, well, why can't you use your old knife set? You know, it doesn't work as good.

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Right. But you get the job done with with the old knife set. That's just an example I can think of.

(29:09 - 29:55)

And I make those kind of sacrifices all the time. Right. My house doesn't have the latest and greatest technology.

It never has. And I spend a lot of money on my education. And that's been the best investment I've ever made.

Don't think about spending money. Think about it as an investment into your future. And, you know, like I said, I quit playing video games and video games are expensive.

I spent thousands of dollars on video games, you know, game consoles, graphics cards for your computer. Video games are $60 a pop. I'd buy several a month.

And overall, it's like, dude, once I stopped doing that, I had I had so much more money that I didn't realize I had. Right. So now some people might not be in a position to to even make those sacrifices.

(29:55 - 30:39)

And that's where you got to focus on upping your income. So focus on your income and trying to make more money. And for me, I was getting out of my dead end job and going into military and then promoting within the military because even when I joined the military, I was still making not that much money.

And then I focus on promoting in the military and really understanding like how to manage my money. And I got out of credit card debt. I paid off my car and I haven't gotten a loan since.

So money management is a huge deal when it comes to your cybersecurity career, because the more money you have, the more money you can invest into your career. So and like that's that sounds like a little bit privileged. But like I said, guys, when I got a big screen, I had zero dollars, literally zero dollars in my bank account.

(30:40 - 33:33)

So it's not like I had all this money is good to me. I just learned how to manage my money more properly. Right.

And I used it wisely. Now, that's kind of a long winded answer. But let me let me just put it this way.

If you're in a position where you just can't afford things. I understand that, especially if you're in another country, you're not in United States. That's another thing that was lucky.

I was lucky to be born in the United States, the land of opportunity. And if I was in a different country, I'd be in probably a completely different situation right now. But because I had because I was born in United States and I was healthy, I could join the military.

It really set me up for success. But I still had to put in the work and I still had to learn discipline and work and in my finances. But you don't have to have certifications.

You can you can prove competency in other ways. It's just harder. Right.

I'm not going to sit here and say you don't need I'm not going to say money is everything. Money does make things a lot easier for sure. But like I said, if you have a thousand dollar smartphone and you buy a new smartphone every year and you have a Netflix subscription, a Hulu subscription, you have a car payment for a super like let's say you have a super nice car.

So you don't need that nice car like, you know, a brand new car costs thirty thousand dollars. Right. You can buy so many services with that.

You know what I mean? And me, I'm driving a forty five hundred dollar car that I paid cash for. Right. And that's the reason that's the reason why I can afford to train that I have, because I chose to not drive a fancy car.

Right. So that's that's that has a lot to do with it. So I know that's probably the best answer, because not everybody can just accumulate the money.

Right. Because you have to have an income. So if you're in that situation, you figure out a way to increase your income.

Right. There's all kinds of opportunity, even if you're not in the United States, there's still opportunity for you to work and make money. So I would say if you're in a situation where you're just not pulling in the money and then just increase your work as they increase your your salary the best way possible.

But you don't need to have certifications. It just makes it easier. Right.

And if you feel like you're a little discouraged for not having so many certifications, then I understand that. But at some point, you're just going to you have to just figure out how to break in the field. And there are ways to do it with and without certifications.

Either way, it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. No one said this is easy.

It's one of the reasons why I started this podcast is because I want to show people like it's not easy. It's not right. I thought it was.

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I thought it was going to be easy. I'm like, oh, there's millions and millions of unfilled jobs and unemployment rate zero percent. And all you need is a certification or two and you're going to land a six figure job.

And that is not the case. That is not the case. And a lot of people tell you that.

And that's one of the reasons why I made the content that I do is to tell you like that's a lie. That's a lie to get you to buy training and don't get me wrong. The training is helps you get a job and training is is worth it as someone who has a lot of certifications and education, a degree.

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely hard. Right. But I mean, it's like that for other fields, too.

It's you know what I mean? Like if you want to be a doctor, like you got to go to school. So. Right.

And sometimes life isn't fair. Sometimes you don't have the money to afford an education. And that's just that's just the way it is.

But. Coming from someone who had zero dollars in our bank account a few years ago, like you can do it, you can do it, you just got to find a way, work hard and save every penny that you get and use it wisely and focus on increasing your income. Right.

Like I mean, the United States, like you can drive Uber and make money and you can use that as a side hustle. And there's tons of jobs out there. Right.

There's there's actually a job shortage. Right. And some of the jobs are, you know, fun jobs.

For example, like I see a lot of fast food places hiring. They can't find people to work and they're they're giving these people $15 an hour. And I'm like, why can't they find people to work for $15 an hour? My first job, I made seven dollars and thirty cents an hour washing dishes.

And I did that for three years, did three years. I watched this is for seven dollars and 30 cents an hour. And.

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That that was minimum wage in Ohio at the time. I don't even know what the minimum wage is now, but that's what it was at the time back in twenty thirty twenty. Ten, twenty ten.

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When I got my first job at 16 years old and I just learned how to I waste a lot of my money back then and as I increased my salary, I sort of realized, oh, I can make my money work for me. Right. And that's that was like a huge turning point in my life is when I realized, oh, I can take money and use that to make more money by investing it in, you know, in stocks and bonds.

And I invested in a crypto to where this is a finance channel. But the most important investment I ever made was in myself, in my training. Hundred percent.

And if you feel like you're too good to go work an extra fast food job, then you got the wrong mentality. Right. No one.

You know, everyone's got to start somewhere. Right. And even if you are older in age and you have nothing right now, like.

Go get that fast food restaurant and work, and there's so many opportunities to make money nowadays and and it's harder today because the economy is rough. The economy is in a rough spot. I will.

I will say that everything's so expensive. Right. And it's hard to have excess money at the end of the month for sure.

But if you are spending time playing video games, if you're spending time watching Netflix, then then you have no one to blame but yourself. Right. And like I said, I made those sacrifices.

I like I said, I bought my first TV yesterday and I'm at the point now it's like, oh, man, I'm I'm doing pretty good life right now. You know, I can maybe take a take a step back and kind of relax a little bit and enjoy life a little bit. But it took me six years to get there over six years to get there.

And I grinded for six years and I'm sacrificed for six years and it took a long time, dude. So you can make it. You just got to you just got to make the sacrifices.

You got to put in the hard work and you have to learn how to manage your money. I cannot stress that enough because you'll be surprised how much money you're wasting if you do a budget. So if you want more advice on finances, I would recommend Dave Ramsey.

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If you haven't checked out Dave Ramsey's content and you're messing up and you if you want to learn how to get out of debt and actually save money and feel like you are getting ahead in life, check out Dave Ramsey's content. My only regret, my one of my biggest regrets is I wish I would have found Dave Ramsey sooner. Once I start applying his principle, it's like, wow, I have so much extra money because I'm not foolishly spending it on video games and coffees and and eating out all the time.

And and that sounds like a horrible life. And it does suck for a little bit. Right.

But in the end, it's going to work out in your favor. So the sacrifices are worth it. As a long explanation, and this wasn't supposed to be about money, this is supposed to be about cybersecurity, but your training is part of your career and money is part of the training.

So that was a long winded answer. And I was probably rambling a little bit, but hopefully that helps people out. The moral of the story is save your money and work hard.

Go get that. Go get a second job. Go get a third job, whatever you have to do, whatever it takes.

Right. I've worked a full time job and with side jobs pretty much my entire life. There hasn't been a time where I haven't been employed.

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So just work. And I haven't. And between the dishwashing and the military career, I was working on oil refinery, sandblasting and painting and removing asbestos.

So I didn't enjoy that job at all, but I did it and it got me to where I am today. So hopefully that helps you out there. And yeah, if you have any questions and you want to see on the next Q&A episodes, we're going to do a Q&A episode once a month.

And yeah, send a questions on Discord and on the YouTube comments. And you can email me at Kyser at Kyserclerk.com. Thank you so much for watching. Thanks for listening.

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If you haven't shared the podcast yet with your friends, please do so. That would help out the podcast tremendously. And I will see you on the next episode until then.

Peace out. Take care. Have a good one.

Kyser out.