How To Plan For The Future With Finance Expert Paul Nelson

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from the land of mystery with dreams become reality Always listening to stories from the past, the present and the future. This is back. All right, all right. All right. Has everyone doing thanks for tuning in. So before we get started, I'd like to talk about my stress, my stress levels.

spk_0:   0:44
Yeah, they're turned up. They always are, Especially after a long day's work. I'm like, What the fuck am I gonna do?

spk_1:   0:50
No, I, um, part of my

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and you get that bad boy for 19 bucks. So

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give it a try. And for everyone else, Let's get to it. I have a really special

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guest on tonight. His name is Paul Nelson. He's a near dear great friend of mine. He is just really brilliant. He focuses on helping people out with their finances. He is a fiduciary, and he is really and honest. And the things that we talked about, I believe will really help you guys out and inspire you to look at your money in a new way.

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Um, he's not giving us. Ah, you should buy this. You should buy that. But more tips and tricks and and his

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story of how he became the man who he is today. And he's someone I really look up to. Um, I'm

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really excited for you guys to listen to his story and hear all about him, so Yeah, let's get Judas. Well, until then, until we get to it. Um, don't forget to, like, subscribe. Follow Shared the frickin podcast with your friends, Family everyone d m me If you have any questions, I'm always here. Just reach out. I got it. So now, without further ado, let's get to a Mr Paul Nelson way talking to today, man. All Nelson, Paul Nelson, buddy. Ha ha! One brands Comey, Polly, Polly yo Palios in the house. The one and only You know, for the listeners Why don't you share with them? Ah, little bit about what you do. What do I do for money or for fun? Um,

spk_0:   3:05
for work for work. I'm a financial planner. I run a boutique, independent financial firm, Viewpoint financial advisers in the San Fernando Valley. We work with people like you, you know, just individuals, families, small businesses. And what we do is just try to help make good financial decisions accumulate their wealth. Yes. At some point you accumulate enough wealth to where you need it managed. A lot of people could do it on their own. There's a lot of research is out there. Some people just don't want to do it on a A lot of people just want to know that they're okay. So the hire, somebody like me and, um, you know, come into the office or I'll go meet with him somewhere, and we just kind of look at their financial picture and see what what's important to them. Because everybody has something that makes him tick, right? Yes, because money, to me, is just a tool. It's not the end. It can help you get some things in life that you really want a sense of enjoyment, accomplishments, maybe sense a legacy for some people. Absolutely. And so every goal is going to be unique. Yes, the financial tenants are all gonna be the same. But, like, how do you get there? What kind of decisions you have to make? I come in and I coach them. Was the album out? Will there be helping him set up the right investment accounts, making the right allocation decisions? And for some people, it's like, Man, we'll just figure out howto budget your money properly is that you can

spk_1:   4:21
surely win those things. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, do all of those things that you just said Her key, Um and yeah, people can go out and look for themselves, but the amount of work and effort that it takes, it's it's it's not that easy, you know, it's not cut and paste and especially, you know, living in the United States of America. Our education system, you know, from, you know, primary school. The high school is not set up in a way to really make you know, kids understand what the fuck is going on and how to save for the future And how thio, you know, create, you know, financial freedom. And how to, um, uh, you know, just even pay your fucking bills. At the end of the day, it's it's very, very hard. It's very challenging. And it took me many years, and I still have a lot of time to go. And that's why it was really important for me to have you on. Um uh, you know, not just because you're my friend, not just because I fucking love you, but because the wealth of knowledge that you have inside that brain, I want, you know, the people listening to this podcast to really get an understanding and just little nuggets and, you know, try to be able to save for the future and really start to kind of I think about it, Really, you know, kind of rewire the brain because that's not how it's set out.

spk_0:   5:34
I think the lack of financial literacy in this country is a travesty. Yeah, that's that's one of the biggest problems. That's one of our biggest problems is that they don't teach kids about money when they're younger. I mean, school's great, there's a limited amount of resource is for everything, and there's a lot of good causes to throw your money at. But people don't know how to track their expenses, and that's so important. It is balance a checkbook. You know how to use credit, what goes into a credit score. I mean, those things are so important. And so we build up this generation of kids to get A's because they want to live the good life, right? Yeah, that's what's all about. It's what you want to get good grades to get into a good college? Absolutely. You want to go to a good college and get a good job. You want to get jobs that you can have a nice house and live the life right now, the good life, but without knowing how to manage those those assets and yourself into a lot of trouble, I find yourself in debt for your whole life, for living beyond your means. Yes. And people get divorced over it. It's huge. It's it's terrible things. Yeah, money.

spk_1:   6:33
You know, um, you know, finances this huge man, and it does cause a lot of riffs. I'm gonna move this mike just a little bit closer to you. Um, it does cause, like, a lot of riffs in relationships and to be able to really think about these things. And I wish that we did, you know, train the youth on, uh, these key aspects of life And, you know, high school should really be about that setting up our are, you know, that the future for a proper future. So, um, you know, for for you at everyone has a story. Every single person has a story. But you you fascinate me, man. I mean, just every single time I've caught your every single time we've hung out, uh, the wealth of knowledge that you drop inside my own brain. It just like bush. And so just to get the listeners a little bit of understanding of who you are and what you're all about, where did Paulie originate from? Well, I'm gonna get that might just in front of me. I'm sorry. Show under

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them in terms of how I got started in my career.

spk_1:   7:33
No. For Let's let's go a little bit farther back. Were you born or reborn?

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San Fernando Valley Salmon? Carlita. Okay, not too far. Not the greatest neighborhood, but for me, it was absolutely perfect. In fact, a good friend of mine proposed to question to a bunch of us the other day. You know, we're in a new decade. Yes, right on twenties again. The roaring 20 question was, what was the best decade of your life? And I kind of felt like a jerk because I didn't say the last 10 years because even lasting years. I got married in 2010. Yes, about our first house in 2011. Had my daughter Apple of my eye in 2012. My little boy, Vincent who? You've got his shot up. Vincent found Vincenzo? Yes, he was born 2016. I mean, some amazing things happen in the last 10 years. And so a lot of accomplishments, A lot of joy. But, you know, as an adult, there's a lot of problems too, right? Yeah. Deal with death and sickness and arguments and marriage. And so you've got to make important decisions. So my answer. And I felt like I was cheating out my family a little bit. So I threw a shout out in that question. Ever got me was the 19 eighties. I was born in 19. Omar, I don't know if that makes me a millennial or Gen Xer identify. I might be a gen Xer, but I identify as a

spk_1:   8:43
millennium. Yeah, there we go. A little entitled. And I'm just an old man Millennials are gonna save the data, and I stand by that. Me too.

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But in 19 8 was great, you know, growing up on a lead him a bunch of kids on the block riding bikes, You know, you know that your curfew is up on the street lights.

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Yes, yes, yes. You

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can just be gone all day long and not have to worry about it. I can't I wouldn't think about letting my kid.

spk_1:   9:09
No, no, you're too much knowledge. So much. Too much, Too much.

spk_0:   9:13
So we're scared. But my degree childhood, you know, growing up in our lead up. And I saw my parents struggle a bit with money that they made money. But you know, you can hear them argue in the background Once in a while, there was never enough. I couldn't just go target and get everything I wanted. Unfortunately, But, you know, going out to dinner was a nice treat. It's not something we ever took for granted. And, um, when we got a little bit older, my parents were doing better. Financially, they would make a little bit more money. I was the first kid on my whole family that went to a private school, and I went to private school in its only in high school. It was a good experience for me. I think it kept me out of a lot of trouble because after high school started to experiment, you know, made some decisions. But I had a good foundation and kind of came back around in my senses. But we moved to Northridge. Okay, when I was about 16 years old and that's where I spent the next couple of years, OK? And went off to college. UCSB go!

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Gotcha! That's where I started getting in my trouble. Isla Vista, man,

spk_0:   10:14
I love it. I lived in Isla Vista for a while. Have you been out

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there right now? And my brother one's called parties and whatnot. Insanity?

spk_0:   10:20
Yes. Oh, my first year I lived on Abrego Road, And, um, after my first year, I got I became friends with a girl that played on the water polo team or something like that. And she lived in a house on DP on Del Playa, right on the ocean. Beautiful. And all the girls that she shared a house with went home for four model Christmas break or something. There are summer break. She invited me to stay with her, so I did. And I lived out there, lived the life. The parties were insane. Fuck the knots right in saying I got that feeling, You know, you're walking down the street and you could just walk into any

spk_1:   10:56
Yes, Yeah, yeah. I

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got a keg of beer. As long as I got a cup upside down. It's all good, right? Right, right. I got to experience the other side of that walking on our way. Missed

spk_1:   11:08
a lot of mugs and things go missing. There, of course, is fantastic. That's so funny. I remember a CZ a 14 year old kid. My brother's in college. He's going to Santa Barbara. Uh, you know, lives on Lou's dp that whole experience in, like, once a month. I was so fortunate looking back now, but probably my parents were a little crazy for allowing me to go. But I would go there. And I remember the times when he left I didn't know what was going on. No, no, no, no. But eventually they did, and they still let me go anyways, because I'll get to this, uh, my dad, like all of us would take trips down there. And my dad would stay at the house and fucking party, like, all night long with my brother and all his friends, and then I would stay. And I remember times when we were, like, fucked up. We got these ideas. There was, like, a two story house, or like Well, let's try to build a beer bond from the top to the bottom. And so we like, get this tube and we, like, wrap it all the way around like the banister and shit like that. It was just It was It was a lot of fun in Ah, great experience, but I'm definitely positive. You experienced a lot of fun Shit. When our house was known for the ice, luge is already there was a

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nice company. I can't remember the name of them out in Santa Barbara. We would just order these huge blocks of ice. We get some chisels and just spend all

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Saturday away on

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these like, intricate designs. And we'd get these little plastic, you know, a little poison has a 99 cent store and just, like, litter them. But Christmas lights all over them. We we built support to the company and pale somebody's face on it. But that would that's what we were known.

spk_1:   12:37
Yes, we had epic ice luge. Frickin love that man paid brings the party. It does in that whole experience, man, if you can go through it and, uh, you know, and then and then get out of it. You look back. And it was Ah, it was a great part of your life is a pivotal time where you finally, um, you get to experience. You know what full freedom feels like. Um, that's important. It is.

spk_0:   13:01
That's really important, because as an adult, you know, married settled down. Wonderful wife, Two awesome kids. I looked back and I don't feel like I missed out on anything. There we go. Now. I know some other people that kind of kept it straight. I you know, I applaud them because these people have goals when they were kids and they lived him out. But, you know, I think we have these conversations and some warmer like

spk_1:   13:23
man, I wish. Of course I wish. I wish I experienced life. Yes, that more. I feel

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like I've lived it to the fullest, and I wouldn't take it back.

spk_1:   13:30
There we go. Maybe certain I start it was important. It's part of

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who you are. Everything you go through good or bad. You know, you get through it and it makes it makes you who you are. Oh, at what makes you unique.

spk_1:   13:43
Absolutely. And, you know, it's It's a pivotal time in your life, you know, and going through those experiences and looking back at your life trying to have no regrets, you know, for some that's very, very hard. And and I I and I understand that, but, um, you know, if you can live your life on your own terms of a CZ, long as it's, you know, good. You're not doing some stupid crazy shit. I think it's important. So looking back at that time in your life and, um, yeah, sure, you would change their in things, but it was a good part. And it was that part where, um Polly Polly D really started. Define who he was as, ah, individual. Because when you're young going through high school in all of that shit and then getting to that college point, it's it's huge. And I never experienced that myself. I got to experience it vicariously through my brother's eyes. But I never went to college. And, um, what are your thoughts about? You know, college as as a whole in today's standards. 2020 you know, a 17 18 year old kid, uh, you know, wants to go to school for let's throw doctors and scientists out the window, because, of course, you got to go to college for that. But you know, they want to become an entrepreneur. Um, you don't need a degree for for this. What are your thoughts about that?

spk_0:   14:57
Well, I think that it's very important. Okay, I don't. I don't think you should just throw it out. And I say that because I hear a lot of people, a lot of young people saying, I don't need to go to college. You know, it's an institution. It's, you know, you could get yourself into debt and you can make it without college. Is that fact true? Absolutely. Yes. There's a lot of people who have done it. It's it's it's happened, Yeah, but for the most part, I think you need to go to college. You develop a certain set of skills in college. There's a certain type of experience. There's a certain amount of responsibility that comes with having to study for exams and making do on these things that you're working towards. I think college is absolutely important, you know, to write a letter properly or to research things properly, work as a group. You get a lot of experience with that white. Once you're out in the real world, you don't have a lot of chance to mess up these opportunities. And if you don't do it right, if you don't execute, you blow it. That might be one of your big shots and you probably get more shots. I don't believe you have, like one big shot in your life. I think there's a few, if you if you're looking for it. But college is an opportunity to, like, mess up yes habit, and it just kind of hone your skills. So I think it's absolutely important. And I think there's I didn't come with any sort of research, but people who go to college on average, they're gonna end up getting paid a little bit more for sure. And going through those avenues, I think employers, big companies, they still want to see that you have a degree, absolutely. And to them, that's important. And if you can get the entrepreneurship is great, yes, but you're not getting company benefits. You need to create those yourself if you have to be a you know, make that for yourself and for your employees are so blessed. But you can get some great benefits

spk_1:   16:40
for sure. And you know what? My view is really starting to change because I was one of those people. I'm still kind of on the fence, you know, like you don't need high our college for everything and sure you don't need it for everything you know. But what I always do go back to him. What still brings me back is that experience, the experience of finally being out on your own. You know everything that you literally just said Hit it to A T and then to check it off is you still have the opportunity to fuck up. You know where once you hit the real world, you know, it's it's different, man. It really is different. And so and then and then to kind of bring it back. It's like the amount of money that college cost today is insanity, so it's, it's, it's It's really hard into each individual. It's, you know, it's it's a different story, right? But it is those experiences, and if you can get through it with not stacking up $200,000 worth of debt, um, you know it That then does start to make sense. You know, if you can do

spk_0:   17:43
it in a reasonably affordable fashion, you know, this might sound a little cliche, but for me, looking back on my college days, I think one of the biggest things I took out of it was I overcame a lot of fears. Every go growing up very much. Mama's boy to this to this day of my mom got out. But I was the 1st 1 in my family, too, actually graduate from college and to actually go away to college and living with my family. The whole you know, my whole family lived close by. So, you know, every single holiday there was like, 30 or 40 of us. And, you know, we're are our families from Mexico. So, you know, first of all, we're not a party, and yes, also, there's a lot of us.

spk_1:   18:21
Yeah, it was Guys like to make them babies.

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And I was really close to my to my family. And for some reason, I thought if I wasn't there, something bad was gonna happen. But I had to make this decision when I went through my first heartbreak, and I even tried to, like, find a college close by because I didn't want to leave. But I knew at a certain point, like I had to I mean, Santa Barbara was only college. It took me some going away. Um, it just maybe I was 20 years old and the thought of ripping off that band Aid being away from my family even though they weren't that far away. An hour and 1/2 drive. It was kind of a little scary for me. Course. You know, knowing I was gonna be out on my own. Didn't know. I knew one person out there a friend of mine from from high school. Okay? And I moved out there, gotten an apartment, was there for about three months by myself with no roommate yet how to get a job. School hadn't started yet, so I mean, there were a lot of lonely times for sure. And loneliness is important, man, as I know you can be lonely and be around a lot of people. But this I literally was, like by myself, and I learned a lot about who I waas, and that's where all the time I was starting to, like, smoke a lot of pot. Yeah, instruments. So I had a lot of time to self reflect for sure, and, you know, things going on at home and not being there and having to, like, deal with those emotions from afar. Yeah, that was stuff, you know, Course. also going through heartbreak out there, you know, going through that first break up on it when I was away. I mean, there were a lot of changes, but once I got through that first hurdle knowing like, Yeah, I can do this. I can absolutely do this. I start like the fear started to to just fall right off like this is gonna be, um, even even fears like of heights. Okay, I was I was

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afraid of heights. Frickin what? A friend

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of mine called huge church Church. He got in the sky diving, and he talked me into it. And that was one of things I was never ever,

spk_1:   20:12
ever wanted. I was in that boat, too. But you're right. I wasn't. It wasn't amazing. Most incredible. One of the most incredible experience. And I'm nothing like in nothing.

spk_0:   20:22
And and I went

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and I did it. Yeah, I ended

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up doing it three more times after that, but, I mean, it's it's those types of things. Yeah, when you use self doubt, when you have a little time to be lonely and think about who you are, and you kind of dig in and kind of tap into some kind of power that you didn't know that you had. And for me, just college was the environment that allowed me to do a college itself didn't allow me to overcome fears, but it put me in a position toe where I had to figure out who I'm gonna be. Absolutely. No. Am I gonna be? Absolutely. I developed a great community out there. Never did. It was never frat boy. Okay, didn't I Didn't, like, hang out with a lot of the classmates. I ended up hanging out with a lot of locals. Driver? Yeah, grocery. That lazy acres market, which is fantastic. And and those turning to be some of my best friends. And it really showed me what community was

spk_1:   21:14
all about. Absolutely, man. And you really hit a key is loneliness, man. Um, it can be very challenging. And I remember as, um, you know, my teens in my twenties I fucking hated being alone. It took me many, many years to get past that. I always had to have someone around me, all the friggin time of friends, whoever whoever itwas, you know, at all at any given time, um, it was for me. Really? When I started to introduce psilocybin into my life where those fears started to melt away But it took me until I was, you know, almost 30 years old. I was.

spk_0:   21:50
I've been really helps you tap into yourself.

spk_1:   21:53
Absolutely, absolutely. Alliance Forces U S. A. Look inside it forces everything that is in the deepest parts of your brain to the front and makes you really go deep inside your brain and look at them and face them head on. Um, and if you use it, I talk about this all the time. If you use these things as a tool, not something to go out and get fucked up and trip out and party ensure that's that's fun. But the main point of it is as a tool is as something that can help you get across whatever hurdle it is in your life and time and time again, silly Simon has helped me go deep inside and work this shit out in ways that I could never imagine. So for you going through that at such a young age, I fucked me and I don't even know what I've gone through because of

spk_0:   22:40
you. have ever had any really trippy

spk_1:   22:42
experience. Yeah, more, more so on. Like, LSD and gmt. And I've shared those experiences. But like, LSD, there was this one time. So I the reason I was going through this experience, it was like a year and 1/2 ago. And I did a boy's trip. Um, and we went up toe Alabama hills. We rented an RV. It was four of us, and we just fucking went out. And I went on this trip obviously to have a good time with my friends. But also, I was smoking a lot of cigarettes again, and I could not stop. I could not fucking quit it. And I was like, All right, I'm gonna do Ah, hero dose of LSD. I did, um, five hits, which is fucking insanity. And if you've never done it before, do not do this. And even if you have, I do not recommend it to anyone unless you are one in the right mental space to know exactly what you're about to go through. But I was set for it. Um, and I knew that I wanted to quit smoking cigarettes. So going through this experience, um, my friend, and I, uh, we were the ones on LSD, the other people on mushrooms. We got to a point where our brains were so linked up that it felt it felt as if our thoughts what are our speech? Our movements were interconnected, and we got this point where we felt the mushrooms from the end. They're individuals. We had to leave them. And I remember the sun starting to rise. And we were so fucking and sinking. The visuals were so strong that I would go, Do you see that Eagle? And all of a sudden and eagle would emerge and he would see the eagle. And then he goes, Do you see? Do you see those 10 dudes running? And all of a sudden, 10 dudes would start to emerge anything that we could think of anything that we could say. We both saw it. We can complete our our sentences together. It was the most surreal experience, and I shit you not. That was the last day of had a cigarette. And no, that was two and 1/2 years ago. Mind you, right? I haven't had a cigarette since. I don't even think about it would not even be, um it doesn't come to mind and and I tape right now and I'm hitting my Vape right now. And there's a big event coming up at the end of the month and I'm gonna do a hero dose a week later, I'm gonna go on a little trip by myself. Um, do a big producer dose of psilocybin. And what a hero does eso traditional dose. Like I I don't think that anyone should be eating eighth of mushrooms off bat. No fucking way, right? The first time I tried

spk_0:   25:20
mushrooms, I didn't eighth

spk_1:   25:21
and that's insanity. And that's how was back in the day. And as a kid, and kids should not be doing these types of drugs your brain doesn't fully developed. The frontal cortex does not fully developed until you're about 25 years old. Like these are not things that you should be messed around, especially if you are, you know, pre schizophrenia, pre disposed thio. You know, certain mental disorders it can bring an on set to these, and so you really have to be careful. And that's why, as an adult, it's so it's smart if you're going to use it as a tool. But I do suggest anyone starting out to start out with, like, 1/2 a gram. Ah, start out small, build up once that starts. So you know, if you're okay, then take another half a gram. Another half a gram. Get to a point where you totally feel in control, not out of control. And back in the day, it was an eighth if you don't need a nature of fuckinpussy. Well, dude, I had the worst times of my entire life. I out, sure, one more sauce show. But it's one story about about about LSD, but a hero dose is seven grams of mushrooms or more, and that's fucking intense. But you can work out a lot of shit, but you have to be in the right frame of mind to even go through it. So, yeah, I don't suggest it, but I want to get back to your story. But I Sure one story about LSD, because he asked me about it. Um, so with LSD as a kid, I took two hits of acid. I was with my my girlfriend at the time, which is now my wife, Elissa I was 17. 16 17 memory. Just friends at that time, actually, Um and I started having a really bad trip, and it was so bad that for some reason I thought the cops were after me. I thought that they were constantly they were gonna fucking barge down the door. It was freaking me the fuck out. And this was before my dad passed away and I turned Elissa and I go, uh, you got to take me to my dad. You gotta take me to my dad. She said no fucking way. You joking? You're frying balls like no me. No party with you and Barbara. Yeah, but this is so different. This is, like, so different. And I he was the only person that could save me. This is what I thought so eventually convinced them to take me. And I remember running into my house because I knocked on. There was, like, 2 a.m. I run in and I, like, crawl up in fetal position on my fucking crying and elicit talk to my dad for a minute. And then my dad comes. And this is where a lot of parents if they're listening to it. And your kid does this. Do not freak out. Do not get angry. Do not get mad. Sit there. My dad sat down. He called me Zoya Corn and put his hand on my head. And he started massaging mad and down because what's wrong? I was like, Dad, It took a lot of acid. I'm fucking tripping out. He was right. Just calm down. Everything's okay. He goes Mom sleeping in the bed. I'm gonna go wake her up, and she's going to go sleep in her. Mike. Dad, don't leave me, Dad Only amigos. Brock, I'm just going right upstairs. So he goes upstairs, gets my mom, puts her in my room. So we go up to the room and all of a sudden the bad trip starts to turn into What a good trip. And so I remember sitting in bed all night, my dad stayed up with me and I saw, like this, like, fucking like these fireworks in the room and all that shit. My dad was like asking about what was going on, and so has explained him. He's, like, laughing and and I've got to check on Mom. I gotta check on mom. So I go run into my room and I look at my mom and her face was, like, melting off and I'd run back and, um And so I had an amazing time that night. The next morning. Oh, my God. I got in so much fucking trouble. I was grounded for, like, three months. I think it was terrible. Right? But at that moment, he knew getting mad at me was not going to help the situation. Everything time and a place for everything I'm really like. Yeah, I was fortunate, man. But But but But now, getting back to your story, you know, going through Santa Barbara. Um, you know, you're you're now at this point in your life what was after Santa Barbara. You know, you you guys fusion, confusion, confusion, confusion at a college convention that's common.

spk_0:   29:03
I hit some loneliness again. Okay, So after after Santa Barbara, I graduated and I was worried I was driving a truck for ups. Okay? I don't even know what happened. I think my cousin Robert he he was a manager at the one glina. Okay. And, um, typically, you have to work there for years before you get accepted as a driver because drivers get paid good money and there's benefits. And this particular center, it just wasn't running a CZ. Well, they didn't have as many willing drivers, and I had worked for four months before this opportunity jumped up. Me and my buddy Dan jumped on it and we went toe. I remember going to downtown L A. For for training, and they were asking how long everybody had been there and they were kind of going down. Who's been here for 10 years or more, has been here for five years or more. And when it came down to less than a year and we rose her hand and we said four months, we got a lot of dirty, These guys were like, Man, I've put in my

spk_1:   29:54
years Yes, yeah, You guys

spk_0:   29:56
walked in, and so I drove a truck that was fantastic on the Browns. That was a cool experience, one of the most difficult job I ever had to do. Okay, But I also realized that to stay in Santa Barbara was gonna cost a lot. I felt like I had responsibilities at home with my family, and I just felt like calling to go back home, You know? You know me, Brock on the family man 100%. And And I was being pulled back like a like a rubber band, Just kind of about ready to snap. And I had to know it was gonna let this thing snapper. I was gonna let me pull back home, and I realized I needed to go back home. I was also starting to make some bad decisions, you know, dabbling with a little bit more party drugs. Yes. Didn't have any good relationship. I started getting very shell. Oh, okay. As well. And I knew had come. So I went back home, and I lived with my parents for maybe about two months. Okay? I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I had freedom for such a long time. Yes, I won. They rented a room, and I lived there. But what made it so hard was I didn't know what I want to do. I went to school, uh, business economics, major. Okay. Graduated. Not with anything worth bragging about, but I finished. And, uh, I think what was so hard was I mentioned earlier that I developed this community. Some of my best friends out there? Yes. And this was a group of friends that we just built each other up. I mean, we we would rat each other all the time. You know how boys boys rights, But at the same time, we would build each other up. Yeah, great wingman for each other. You know, if we were playing sports, we would just talk each other up. Like, really, it was it was an amazing group of friends and leaving that to go back home. I had to make that decision, but I didn't have that back home anymore. So every weekend for, like, the next six months, I was going out there and just down in Santa Barbara. Yeah, going back up, we're just hanging out with my friends and and seeing them because I love him. You know, I love those guys. They're so important to me. And they got me through so many tough times and just all the great times, but I didn't have them on a daily basis anymore. And that was a big change. After three years of happiness, you'd write and started hanging out with some of my old friends who happen to be mostly my cousins, who I hang out to this day. You know, the tightest people in my life. But they were a little different. It was mostly put down way. Yes. Talk shit to each other. Yeah, we do that now, but I really missed that. I really miss the positive reinforcement that our group of friends have. And I didn't have that anymore. And in terms of career, I don't know what I want to D'oh! All I knew was what I wanted it to look like. There was no substance in my dream. It was I wanted to dress in a nice suit. Wanted to have Ah, nice tie with a matching pocket. Square reality shoes. A good haircut. Fortunately, I met you 10 years later and go into a nice office building somewhere in, you know, in sunset, Santa Monica Boulevard and live that life.

spk_1:   32:55
This is your dream.

spk_0:   32:56
That was my dream. But if you think about if you boil it down The dream was mostly about image is what I wanted to look like. Yes, because what kind of work that I want to do? I didn't know I didn't really care. I just wanted the life I wanted that good life we were talking about. Yes. And, um so I just started working in a job and thought, Hey, you know, one step will lead to the next. Just you can't just do nothing. You got to do something, had bills to pay. So I did that when Ashley angry and so that to me that that's what that was. My plan is just to take the next step and see what materializes. But when you think about that's not really a planet Oh, no, that's not a kind of stumbling through life with a lot of us do that, you know, And it's okay if you want to buy some time, But maybe don't do that for 10 or 20 years.

spk_1:   33:39
Oh, no, no, no. It's too late,

spk_0:   33:40
because then you're gonna turn a guy like me and say, Hey, you know, I want to start thinking about retirement.

spk_1:   33:43
Yeah. Ah, I spent a lot.

spk_0:   33:46
It's not that it can't happen. You can You can make anything happen, I think, within within reason. But, um, I just I got a really good opportunity for my mom there. We got the financial advisor and she said, Well, Paula and I know that you work in And she needed help her office because she was losing one of her adviser. She's a financial advisor as well. And, um, she needed somebody that she could trust, somebody that would just pretty much support her and hopefully learn the business. And she came to me one day inches at a pro. Um, I really need somebody that could help. I know that you're you're smart, you're capable. And most importantly, I trust you. Yes, you've got access to a lot of private information, you know from clients. And I need you to come in and work with me for one year, and there's not a lot of expectation. I just need you to do what I tell you to do. I need to learn the business and I'll teach you. And if it's something that you like, if this is a career financial planning is something that you like to dio. Then you will have a position here, and as long as you don't mess it up and the sky's the limit, but if you don't like it, like I said, I'm only asking for one year. I mean, that commitment. And if you don't like it, you walk away, and there's no hard feelings. And I believed her, so I said, Sure. Well, how could I say no to my mom?

spk_1:   35:01
No, no, no. Mama's boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I couldn't say no, No, no, no, no. To mama's mama. Dude, that's wow. Wow. That's, uh that's that's really incredible. You know, one thing that I'm starting to realize after doing all these podcasts, the people that tend to be, um, you know, successful and happy. And this doesn't happen. This isn't for every case, because it wasn't for me. Um, they, ah, had a strong foundation. Their mom, their dad very supportive, um, understanding, you know, and obviously growing up, you know, kids will be kids, but as as a whole and just hearing your story Your mom coming to you? You were confused. You were. You were lost. You know what the fuck you're gonna do? Um, you had you had a you know, a dream of the image and the look right. But you didn't know, And that is that is common for people getting out of college. right. But your mom coming to you was a true pivotal moment in your life in your career and everything that you do now. So at this point, you weren't married, Correct?

spk_0:   36:05
I was not married or not. Married wasn't dating,

spk_1:   36:07
but none of that. Right? Um, what did that year look like? Because you said yes,

spk_0:   36:11
right that year. Looked like Think of an intern that goes into a company. Very green. Doesn't know a lot, but very eager. Yeah, and just trying to figure it out. So going in there, I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder because I didn't like the idea of nepotism. I didn't want anybody to come in and think that I was given this because of my mom. Okay. What? In fact, that was the case. Yes, it was. Given the opportunity I as of my mom and you get opportunities in life, you get, you get a few. I think you you are a big advocate of you have three. You meet every people. Yeah, I think of it. You get three big opportunities. Yes. And And that for me, was my first Erica. I was. And so number two and 3 may have yet to come. Yes, I did, but that was like you said it was. It was pivotal it was. But when I went in there, I was learning things. And that's the first time I actually worked with a company that had some kind of philosophy that had a certain level of values that was related to clients into employees. And I just did anything that was asked of me, and I did the most menial job possible. So at first it was me picking up the phone and trying to make appointments, which was so scary for me just calling up in doing a service, doing something good for a client. Yeah, was I had fear of rejection I always had. That's probably why I didn't date when I was even younger than you know. I didn't have girlfriends in high school, really, Maybe one. But, um, the fear of rejection was horrible, and I hadn't learned how to get over that. I had to file paperwork, but sometimes it also meant cleaning out the refrigerator, throwing away old food, anything filing documents in the back, or I did everything that I had to do pretty quickly and efficiently. So I'd find myself with a lot of free time and I'd figure out, Hey, I'd look around the office and think, What can we do here to make the office more efficient? Well, can we make it to look a little friendlier, a little nicer when you walk in? And so I'd find myself doing those kind of jobs or walking into my mom's office and saying, Hey, I'm done with X, Y and Z What do you need me to work on? Or I'd have questions. Hey, what's what is this? What's a new? It's a mutual fund. What? Some brokerage account? What? What's a retirement? What's the difference between this type of account in that type of account? And why does Why did you give this advice? And I think I annoyed her a little bit questions, but she was good with me. She was sometimes I'd get shoot off, and sometimes I get the opportunity to sit down and learn somebody with these things to me. But I was really inquisitive, and I think a lot of that carries over into now the leader of the office and yeah, I manage the office and we're going through a buyout right now. Right now. Right now, we're going through a buyout. So there's an official transition that's happening. And I've been kind of bleed person for them. May be the last five years or so. Okay, managing and hiring and what I learned what I did in my first couple of years being sort of servant employees, I tend to put that on people that work for me. Oh, I I read about that. I don't believe that there's any job that's beneath you, you know, even to this respect. I will make coffee. A client walks in if the trash is full or the shredding Bennis full, all empty it. If paper needs to get filled in the in the copy machine. I'll do that because again that my philosophy that there is no job that's beneath you, you see something that needs to get done. Then it's your job to do it. I love that, and I preach that to the people at the office. And so when I see that they're not being serving employees, that kind of rubs me the wrong way.

spk_1:   39:41
I get it, man, No, I I trust me. I get it. And I love that. You know, you're at this point now where you're at the helm of the ship. Um, if no job is beneath you than no job is beneath anyone else, right? And having that that that philosophy on life, I want more people tohave, right. Just fucking do it. Get that job done. Put in the hard work for you. You did that year. Did you know? A month through? Ah, halfway through that. All right, this is what I want to do. Was it at the end? Did you have doubts?

spk_0:   40:16
You know, that's a great question. I haven't thought about, like when I fell in love with it. Um, probably when I got my first big sale or my first. My first big account is probably when it really got a taste for it, but I don't know that there was, like, this moment where I said, Hey, this is what I'm going to do. But I just like I said, I kind of had the philosophy of just keep taking steps. Yes. You never know. When you stop, you die. Yeah, exactly. When you stop, you're done. Okay, so I never want to be in a position. Maybe you'll hold me accountable for, uh, definitely. Well, the motivation ever falls out of my voice. One day, you just you tell me you give me a nudge, but, um, I would learn, and to this very day, I It's all about learning all about teaching. But I went and quickly got my serious seven, which is a license. Explain that. What? It's Ah, it's a license that allows somebody to sell products correctly. If you want to sell stocks or bonds or mutual funds, you need that license. If you want to do life insurance annuities, you need a California life insurance license If you reside in California. Yes, every state has their own kind of jurisdiction, but that serious seven is more across the country. And so I got those license. Apparently, the test was supposed to be hard. I didn't

spk_1:   41:27
find her here like, No,

spk_0:   41:28
no, I'm pretty good test taker, but I didn't find that I find that difficult. I think if you work hard and you study, you could go and do it absolute like that only gives you the ability to do it it gives you the license to do it. I wanted to do it. Well, I wanted to do it better than anybody else back in the Valley. And so I continued to move on, and I got a really good piece of advice from somebody in the business that I really respected. And they said, Hey, you know, you should go and get your C F P on just certified financial planner designation. Okay, it's issued by the by aboard, and it's Ah, it's a tough test. You've gotta have some college experience, Okay, you've got to take college courses about 8 to 10 classes, All right. For me, it took about three years because I was only taking one class at a time over at UCL Extension, which is a great program from very artistic educators there. And I got to meet other people in different companies, large and small, and saw how they were doing business. So, you know, learning from your peers. Yes, important, but also learning from book learning from teachers. And then you take a test. It's a test that is a two day long test. It's a total of 8 to 10 hours or so that was tricky. That was That was a very tough test. I think at the time there was maybe a 50% past ratio. But I got that and just kind of continuing to add designations to my name, not because I think it gets me business. I don't think the c F P designation got me any business. A couple years ago, I got my MBA and financial planning. Or specifically, I don't think that gets me clients. But what it does, is it? It makes me better at what I do. There we go and that, you know, I think you owe that to people. Your stylist in your educator, that's what you do. Imagination, fantastic career, doing what you're doing. But to you wanna learn acts, and I see that personally and everybody in my life that does what they do. But there can't be another reading books. They're going to seminars. They're learning or even teaching that's teaching is a great way of learning. Also, 100% I think that they are the best people at what they do. So you got to keep you got to have you got to keep learning definite so along that too Sorry to get

spk_1:   43:34
better and go back to your

spk_0:   43:35
question is throughout that process just learning more and seeing what I was able to D'oh! It's something that I was naturally good at and I really, really started fall in love with it. Very good. I was starting to make a little bit of money as well. And my financial position was getting better because it was terrible. I got a college. We can talk about that if you want to, but, um, I started I had some insecurities, remember? I told you I'm afraid of rejection. Yes, And at the end of the day, as a financial advisor, you've gotta sell a certain capacity. You've got to get people to work with you and let you manage their money. Managed to financial life. That was the hard part, cause I never liked the idea of selling things into this very day. I hate that idea. Aren't you out a good salesperson? But somewhere along that process of getting my cfb something clicked inside of me. Maybe was working with some clients and giving them great advice. At least I thought it was I I realize that man. I'm providing this service to people. And when we're done, they say I would've relief. Ah, that that just that I had a burden. I was wondering, I just feel so much better. I realize that a point. I was providing value to somebody. And it wasn't about selling. It was about providing the trust, certain type of service that was very important to their lives. Yes, And once I embraced that idea that I was doing more than just making money or doing it up. That's when I knew that I was a financial planner at heart. That was your Colin, man. It was then that I've been in the business for about 16 years. Wow. I would say that happened. Probably somewhere along your three or four. Ok, up to that point, I was just still learning. Yeah, you're just You agree it out

spk_1:   45:09
for sure. You know, that's really incredible. You know, you gotta stick

spk_0:   45:12
with it to d'oh. You know, like people jump into something and it just it doesn't feel good or they hit a couple hurdles, are a wall and move on to the next thing. Yes. You know, maybe you got to stick with something a little bit longer.

spk_1:   45:23
You Do you do anything that you do in your life? It's not going to happen overnight. You have to put in, you know, 345 years of hard work to really start to see that light at the end of the tunnel. And then there's gonna be another tunnel in another town, another tunnel. But you know, whenever you're going through something, whoever it is, right now you get a new job and it seems fucking hard. Well, of course it's hard, right? Anything new is going to be a challenge. But you want to be, um, vulnerable at times in your life, you know, and really recognize that and focus on that. And, you know, the education part that you were talking about. It's so key. Do not stop education at any point in your life. If you want to progress forward, you have to be able to start learning getting back to those basics, and we live in a day and age where we have the Internet. There's so much information out there, and it's hard, you know, for people to decipher what's what's good and bad. But There's plenty of channels out there for whatever career, whatever industry you want to get into. And so for you being a financial planner, you know, heading your three hitting your four Up until that point, especially at that first year, what did the people think of you? Because you were the kid brought on by your mom. So it almost did look like a handout,

spk_0:   46:43
right? It certainly did. And like I said, that's a chip. But I think I wear on my shoulder to this very day. Yes, I always wanted to feel like I earned it. And maybe that's why I went above and beyond in did extra things around the office because I always felt like I had to prove myself to this very day. And, um, did other people view me that way? I think so. And it's not like anybody came out and said it. They're a little comments, you know, if I showed up to the office a little bit late, that's how I roll in for sure. A couple of comments and if I was working on a project that I knew was really important, but maybe it looked like I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do, and truthfully, I would kind of. But other work side that I didn't feel was important. And I work on these different projects because in my mind it was gonna make us more efficient. It was going to save this time of setting up systems. I was trying to leverage technology into our business toe, help us move forward and grow past what we were. But I couldn't move. I can see some. Some looks come my way. And when I wanted implement certain ideas, most of the ideas I had cost money and it costs people time never go. And all of the ideas that implemented meant something had to change. People don't like to change.

spk_1:   47:54
They don't.

spk_0:   47:54
I mean, when you're comfortable doing what you're doing. Um, you know, especially if you're an employee here, you're receiving a paycheck. It's You don't always want to change what you're comfortable doing. Of course, it's not good. And I loved what you said earlier about. You have to sometimes be vulnerable. You d'oh! I totally believe that you have to be vulnerable to people in relationships and friendships set at work because another way of saying is you have to be humble, humble enough to realize that you can learn from other people. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be a mentor or somebody that you view as above you. It could be anybody and everybody that you could interact with. Um, you know, your employees, your clients. Really? I mean, anyone, anyone so much to learn. But yeah, I think that early on there was a judgment because I was coming in. And, um, swivel knew how my mom felt about me. She was kind of like a little golden boy. Yeah, I didn't necessarily feel that way, but I felt like I had something to prove. And sometimes that meant I had to wear that image for awhile. Course that the only way that I was going to change people's opinion was to show that the ideas had merit. Absolutely. And that I could execute on them and all of it involved hard work

spk_1:   49:08
on indefinitely. Ah is a testament to your character, you know, coming on your mom, just giving you that chance. Right? Um, wanting to show you the industry. And then 16 years later, you're you're you're the captain of this ship, man, you know that? That and it did not happen by a handout. You know, you know, it was more of a hostile takeover. Get the heck out, Mama know alot of it always loved that. So funny. So that after head so that after these 44 years, you started to kind of get into your groove and really start to enjoy it. Um, at this point in your career, um, had you started to begin a family. Where were you out? Because that what what age were, you know?

spk_0:   49:55
So I was 23. I I was a young and I I finished college, came back in 2000 for okay, started in 2005 early 2005 and just kind of hit the ground running with that. But I was really lucky that I didn't have to go out and start selling things, start getting clients. I had a really great environment and that I was allowed to go go on appointments with the advisers in the office and here, the way conversations were had, See, the way that advice was delivered at service was delivered. I didn't have a pressure because I hear from guys that you know, those big like banks and wire houses that they passed her. Siri seven. They had, you know, certain amount of months to study and pass. Pass it. They were sitting sitting next to 100 other people in cubicles, given a yellow page and had a cold call. I couldn't do that. There's no way I can do it. So I was really blessed to be in a different type of environment where it was really like, Let's learn first. Yes. And then as you start to develop, then there's gonna be an expectations free to go out and be a real advisor in front of that selling. You getting clients?

spk_1:   50:58
Absolutely. Absolutely. Um and then so So going through the changes that you were talking about, um what What were you trying to implement into a company that, you know, had been around and they had their stuff. Your mom, you know, build a nice business. And, you know, he had employees all that stuff. What were you trying to change at the time?

spk_0:   51:19
Okay, so a lot of that goes back to my views on selling things, okay? And you know, way back in the day. Our company was started in 1974. You know, you sell a product, you get a commission. Yes. That's how it worked. You know, you go into an adviser's office, you want to make an investment in you. Ask the adviser. Hey, I want to make an investment and they ask you some questions and they give you some advice and say, I think you should buy this. And if you take the advice than they earn a commission, Okay, Certain percentage in back in the day, it was, you know, 5678% on every dollar that was put in. A couple years later, the adviser calls you back in and says, Hey, we did pretty good. But, you know, I want to sell this and I want to buy this. I want you to buy this and wow, you know, if it's good advice, you take it or if you think perceive it is good advice, take it and they get paid a commission again.

spk_1:   52:05
What the heck and that's the way it works. I'm not saying there's anything terrible. It's a lot of that's a lot of individuals you know, hard earned savings going out on a

spk_0:   52:18
little. Investors made money as well, for sure, because I would think that a lot of the advisers were good given good advice, but yeah, there could be a problem with that. Um, there's a conflict of interest if you think about it again. Even if the adviser is good and given you proper advice, because if they get paid by you saying yes to their advice, huh? Um, because in the back of your mind, you might be thinking, Is this advice good for me, or is it good

spk_1:   52:44
for you, my advisor? Even somehow they have a

spk_0:   52:46
mortgage payment to make or what

spk_1:   52:48
it has so many dynamic?

spk_0:   52:49
Yes. On the back of your mind, you're wondering if there's a certain type of conflict of interest, but one of the good things about financial planning and investing things have moved on. And I think a lot of it is because people are starting to become more knowledgeable. People are getting more savvy. There's a lot more information out there. Thank you. Internet. Thank you. Internet. Exactly. End. People now have kind of pushed to get away from that model on the industry is has done a good job. The insurance industry isn't quite there yet, but But, you know the investment world. Most advisers now, they don't charge commissions to give advice. They've changed the model a little bit, okay? And this is sort of how we charges well, is we will charge a certain percentage of the assets that were managing for you. So if you've got, you know, a few 100,000 bucks with us and we're charging you 1% then we'll charge you that annually, and our fees come out of come out of the account and there's a little line item on your statement. That's it. Says how much we're getting paid. So it's become much more transparent. Definitely. Tell you the account, right, value goes up and your advisers gonna get paid. More respite goes down or if they're not happy and they move their account to somebody else. Yeah, the revenue is leaving with it. So it kind of puts the adviser and the client on the same side of the table. Absolutely. Of course it's it's not a perfect solution.

spk_1:   54:10
It's a lot better than it was before. At least that my ears More

spk_0:   54:13
transparency. It's easier to understand the advisers gonna get paid regardless of what they buy and sell in your account. That's it starts to move away a conflict of interest. But I think I'm really proud of the industry Is that they're moving in further away from that, and so is our office were in that process, but you can charge based on the scope of service. So if you come to me and say, Hey, all listen, I want a plan for retirement where we're managing our own accounts. We've got, you know, robo adviser. We've got on my ass like better men or something that charges very little. Or we're doing our own trades on Robin.

spk_1:   54:45
Really so Well, right. You do that because,

spk_0:   54:48
you know, if you feel confident in doing that, you could absolutely that. But you can hire an adviser to say, Well, can you just look at the investments I've chosen and tell me if you think they're suitable for me? Get me to my goals. Kind of educate me about them a little bit and help me figure out exactly how much I should be saving. How is this gonna affect my taxes. What other things will have to consider what happens if I get injured or if I die earlier? I've got a mortgage. I got certain debts. I've got all these different goals. How do What's the best way to allocate my resources to accomplish them in order of priority. Actually, you can hire an adviser that will do that. And you could, you know, negotiate a fee for that. Very well, go to be hourly or just a flat amount for the plan. You can do that. So

spk_1:   55:29
that's not sources are absolutely available. Yeah, definitely. The resource is available for, you know, for the individuals is sounds a lot better than the old school method of the way it was. And so,

spk_0:   55:42
you know, you're you're you're at this point in your career now, I'm just kind of taking a

spk_1:   55:46
step back. Let's get to the point, um, where You know, you're, like, 10 years in, uh, and you're about to take over the company, right? Um, what was that feeling? Like? I mean, you've put all of this hardworking. Yes. Your mom brought you won't be put all this hard work in now. It's your turn now. Now it's your turn. This is not something you even went to college for, right? Mind you, right. This is, um you're you're at what, like, 30 years old or however old You were at that point, actually. How

spk_0:   56:18
old were you at that point 10 years ago? No, no, no. I about five years ago, I was 34. So 34 4 34 You're about to take a huge step. What was that like? By this time, there's already some sort of unspoken understanding that I am my mom succession plan. Okay. What? You ultimately rides into a retirement sunset. I would be the one to carry the torch. And I started to take ownership of certain decisions when we needed thio higher when we need to move offices because we were outgrowing it where we need to implement certain technologies. I would I would start that conversation and it come up with proposals, and I would even be corny. And I do power plant presentation, really get people to buy in visual learners. So they're starting to be this understanding that Paul's gonna take. Take us in that direction. I think he's capable. I don't think that at the time, um, I felt completely ready for that. But as ideas start to flourish and it starts to make everybody's lives a little bit better at the end of the day of business, you have to generate profits. Of course, that's the point of a business, and, you know, and so the idea is that I was implementing it was saving us money. It was helping us to grow profits and revenues. But it's also helping us deliver Ah, much more individualized, customized experience for clients. Yeah, because now we were moving past selling things and we were devil delivering an experience, life experience to clients. And so we had a lot of conversations, you know, while driving two appointments are just kind of sitting in each other's offices and talking about what the future look like. And, um, it wasn't offered to me. It wasn't offered, and I don't know if it ever was gonna be offered. I think the understanding from my mom's side was that, Ah, one day, um, this is all gonna be Paul's. I'll be gone, and this will be his and we got. And when I once I realized that that was the plan. I thought, you know, remember, I have a chip on my shoulder. Yeah, I earn it. I came back and I said, No, that's not really gonna work for me. And it's not any kind of ultimatum. I'm not gonna leave, but we need to have a conversation about how the transition's gonna happen because I started to learn a lot over the years, and I no longer can just take steps in doing it. Being a financial planner, I've really learned had a plan in a lot of areas. And so with the business, I knew I had a plan for it. And I knew that if I was gonna take over and start to implement all my own ideas and have a sense of ownership, Yeah, I needed to make it more formal. So that conversation took about four or five years to finally coming to fruition. And now we're doing an unofficial sale. This is kind of this. This is kind of interesting. Is when I talked to my mom about it. I said, You know, I want to buy the business from you, and she said, Why would you want to do that like this is your business. When I'm gone, it's it's yours. I have a brother and sister and they said, But, you know, you're the only one that involved in the business. You've helped it grow. You've helped it start to survive. And she said a lot of complimentary things towards me, Like saying, Hey, listen, I'm like I'm getting older. I don't have I don't have the desire to kind of keep it growing, But you here it is gonna is gonna do that. So this is your business. And when we're gone, it's yours. You don't have to pay for it. That that did not sit well with me. I mean, it was great shit. Yeah, but if I took that, you know, how is that gonna look? Of course, But also have to own it. I have to have to earn it. So I got some attorneys. I got some people to value the business, figure out a good price for the business, a good terms, and we executed it because at the end of the day, like I just couldn't take it. I love that. You gotta have pride. Yes, it's got to be a

spk_1:   1:0:06
sample of pride. I love that. Maybe No, no, it's it's It's so important. You know, um, you know, so many people will just take the hand out and to say, No, it's just not me. It's not who I am. It just shows it shows it once again, I keep unless it shows, chose to your character. Right? Um, because you could have easily just said Yeah, sure, why not? But, you know, one of your one of the biggest things that you have had that is, in my opinion, just hearing this story. Um, that has benefited you. Is your chip on your shoulder? You know, that chip on your shoulder has put some really perspective into the decisions that you have made over the past 16 years. Um, and and and now you're you're at this point where you have implemented all of these awesome things. Um, what are some of, you know, the new technologies coming in 2020? Ah, that you're about to implement into your company.

spk_0:   1:1:12
So I think that's one of the things that sets us apart from a lot of advisors is that we have invested the money into technology into technology invested the time into learning it. There's a lot of great stuff out there, but some of things that we use well, one is, um, my broker dealer that people quite you know, do the investments through, and they give us all the compliant support and service support that we need. They've built their CR M system from the ground up, and that allows us to keep all of our client data organized. Look at what they've got in their accounts and follow up on them on a regular basis. Because, you know, most people that fire their advisors over time, it's usually not because they're a counter. I'm performing well, but it's and and there's research that supports this absolutely. Most of it comes down to communication that they're not. They're not contacting their clients in a timely manner. They're not responding to emails or phone calls, or they're not reaching out for things that are non investment related. Yeah, that's the number one reason lack of communication. That's number one reason why somebody will find a different advisor. I pride myself on just not losing clients to that. And a big part of it is, um, is the software that we use

spk_1:   1:2:20
and so a c r M just so you can explain to the people listening and then and then obviously go on. Um, go ahead customer relationship manager.

spk_0:   1:2:29
Right? So we know you know, birthdays, anniversaries when they have when a baby's born, you know, we like to get personal, personal and send personalized gifts to combat the I just let him know that we care about those things. We care about their lives, and that's just one tiny way of showing it. But it allows us to follow certain processes. I read this book called The Checklist Manifesto. Okay, a few years ago, that really changed my business. Life, if you will, is it's. We do a lot of complicated things in life. I mean, you can build skyscrapers and airliners, and they have very low failure rates. Absolutely. Don't you don't hear on the news about skyscrapers falling all the time or airplanes coming out of the sky? That happens but has many flights. Is there are There are no reliable, absolutely. And one way of doing that is to take these very complex procedures that we d'oh and simplify them into certain steps and and so often is when there's a failure. It's because a procedure there was a flaw in the procedure, and we tend to think that we could remember all those things. But, you know, we're wired in such a way that we can do these high level jobs. But the easy things that the simple steps like sending a birthday, they added, or calling somebody for an annual review. Those are things that can fall through the cracks very easily because they're so simple. So we've set up these checklists and we call them work flows that remind us what to do. So if if we have a meeting with the new prospect, I go to my c R M, I enter the workflow, and immediately about five or six tasks are automatically introduce her system, and they're assigned to different people and different dates, so that allows us to not let those things slip through the cracks. And we have got work flows for everything from establishing new accounts of doing transfers when client dies. When we start a new relationship with somebody, when we're gonna have an annual review that we know which reports to run we know when to call them for reminders. We know how to send out e mails to confirm the appointments,

spk_1:   1:4:25
and it's all automated.

spk_0:   1:4:26
It's It's all I mean, we we click the button to enter it. At that point

spk_1:   1:4:30
on the back of

spk_0:   1:4:31
it, it's all done. One of the things that I felt was such a waste of time, Not a waste of time. But it just it was an area that really need to be improved. Was scheduling meetings with people. Okay. I mean, imagine this were sitting here, and and your client is a Hey, Brock, you know, we we should get together for annual review. There's a lot I'd like to go over with you, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions. So, you know, let's meet your busy guy, your work 9 to 5. And afterwards you've got other things going on. Well, I don't want to work at night cause I got a young family at home. Yeah, so I'm trying not to work in the evenings and try not to work on the weekend. So you come back and say, Hey, we apple, I could meet, uh, I could meet on next Tuesday at six o'clock. Oh, sorry, Brock. My daughter's got my daughter's got soccer practice. How about Thursday? Ah, you know I can't do Thursday. I've got some in the back and forth of having to schedule those meetings, but not took a long time. And sometimes it just ended up pushing things back. I'm all about making people's lives easier. That's why they hire me. That's why they pay me. Yes, I don't want to add just another thing that they have to D'oh! Oh gosh, I gotta meet with Paul. You know, I'm like their dentist

spk_1:   1:5:35
that not only with Paul Dr Paul.

spk_0:   1:5:38
Yeah, but if if it's stressful just to make an appointment that I'm doing something wrong, absolutely. So I started looking into scheduling okay thing, and there's a lot of great applications out there, but I chose a software called Callum Lee. This and it is fantastic. It's cheap. It's like 12 bucks a year. It's so easy to use and set up. It's attractive looking, and basically what it is is I go in and I customized it. Have appointments. I want 50 minute phone calls, 30 minutes only meeting meeting 60 minute or 90 minutes, and I define you know, what are those types of meetings good for? And it's it's It's a personalized Web page, essentially, and it integrates with my calendar. Okay, so let's say we're let's go back to you and me trying to meet you, shoot you out. And I say, Hey, Brock, you know, I think we should talk. I know you're busy, guy. I think we could do a 30 minute online up conference, maybe during lunch break or so I'll just let you view my screen and kind of walk you through it and your questions. And to make things to make it is easy is awful. Meet with the click of my link and, you know, scheduled a meeting. So you do that we schedule a meeting. It automatically updates my calendar. If you say that you wanted a phone call, you putting your phone number and I'll call you at the time. If you want to meet outside of the office at Starbucks or if you want to meet in my office, if you want to do online meeting, integrates with my go to meeting and zoom and all that, all that Yeah, yeah. So if you say an online meeting, you're gonna get the meeting. I d You'll get reminders is when it starts, you can save your calendar so

spk_1:   1:7:02
you don't forget about it either.

spk_0:   1:7:04
But I would say that there's always a group of clients that are so difficult to schedule with. And typically they're younger people like you have these busy business hours, they're starting to schedule. And the feedback has been phenomenal. Absolutely. So that's something I'm really excited about. What? I'm doing it now. And I didn't realize the results were gonna be so good so early. I would have to say that's one of the biggest returns on investment with some of the best like 140 bucks for a very long time. Yeah, because I'm meeting with more people that zo oss. And when you're meeting with people, it's a pretty darn good use of your time.

spk_1:   1:7:37
Absolutely. And, you know, we talked about this a couple weeks ago when I was cutting your hair. Um, and, um, I looked into it, talk with Robert. We're gonna talk on Monday, and we're gonna implement it. Ergo, right? And then I started thinking also with my podcast as well. Um, you know, sometimes there can be a back and forth And because the cost is so low, Um, you know what, What? $12 a year old books? A month? A month? I mean, $12 a model. Pretty. It's very, very, very cheap allowing, you know, uh, my guest to pick time and date right on there because they can go right to the calendar. Um, you know, these simple tools that we can use for our businesses? Um, it could be life changing. I mean, just imagine the $144 a year that you're spending, uh, that need that back and forth that business is constantly are going through to set up meetings, phone calls, whatever it is can be solved. And, yes, of course, you're gonna have, you know, a small amount of your clients that you know wanna book at the old fashioned way. Sure. Um, but most clients, most people, they love it, absolutely find her life easier. And you

spk_0:   1:8:45
can customize it to like if you don't want people to abuse that you can send him a one time link. You consent to have access to your calendar indefinitely, or you can say no. No, just this one time leak. Once they schedule, the link is essentially dead, and you'd have to send him a new one. So those are things that you can do. I think you can use that in just about any business, any business, some of the other. Some of the most important technology that we use Besides, C R M is our financial planning software. Okay, there's a lot of really great ones out there, and I've used about four of them over my lifetime. But there's one in particular called Money Guide Pro that I absolutely love. And one of my stories is I want to meet you where you are. Okay? I want to make this easy for use. I wanted to be dynamic and engaging, like I want us to collaborate. I don't want to just, you know, print out this. You know, this book of plans for you, so that it could

spk_1:   1:9:34
just collect dust on the shelf. Yeah. Yeah. I

spk_0:   1:9:36
want this to be something you can log in from your phone from your computer, but what it is is it allows us to gather all your financial details. It allows us to really clearly define your goals. Get really clear about how you're gonna spend money in the future, whether it be for retirement, for health care, for getting kids through college or just having giving yourself an allowance above and beyond. The basic living stuff like this is your I always call it fun money. Clients love when I enter that goal in there for

spk_1:   1:10:04
you to say, All right, I love that file money. What do you want to spend every month for?

spk_0:   1:10:08
You don't have to ask each other for permission that you don't have to feel bad about it because we're planning for their withdrawal at the fund. Money going Everybody's plan while this software allows us to do that, accounts for it. I mean, it does a lot of stuff behind the scenes, like it looks at things like inflation, assumed rates of return on your investments and how things might happen if, like what if we go through a financial crisis crisis again, or what happens if interest rates rise? We can kind of test stress test the plan for that, but it's essentially financial planning software and it's a very dynamic where you gotta see it. We give you the tools as well. You know, we have an online portal for it. Clients come along in and they've got these little sliders where they can play around with it. They say, Well, hey, what if I retired two years earlier, or what If I wanted to spend an extra $4000 to travel every year in retirement? My clients have the tools to do that and they can see it. And rather than sending all those questions to me and me taking two weeks to do the math and get back to them, we can paint that picture in two minutes with the technology. It's insane. It's fantastic. And another 2020 was my year for technology. I like it. I ended up doing everything a couple of weeks early that sometime at the end of the year and started implementing things. Another thing is another. Software amusing is called risk allies. Okay, risk ally risk allies to really, really cool. It helps people to understand how much risk they're taking in their investments, and it and then it also allows you to take a really cool questionnaire that helps you to identify exactly what your appetite for risk is. Very nice. And it all comes out. The results come out a speed limits. You know, it looks like love that. Hey, you're a risk score. 76 sign because, you know, people might be driving down the highway down a winding road. Yeah, 80 miles an hour. Good. But if you've got a risk score 55 you're going 80 that's that's really uncomfortable. Absolute. So sometimes I noticed with with clients, new clients come in and have me do evaluations of their investments, their portfolios. Sometimes they're taking way too much risk, but they don't know it, you know, because it can be quite confusing. That's a lot of information. But where do you look for? Sometimes that creates a problem. So this software helps me thio. I've always been good, I think at kind of picking up on what their wrist tolerances. But this does a good job of showing them okay and letting them understand how it works. And if I were to make this change, how does it affect my overall picture here? So those air just most of the software is really helping me to deliver a certain experience. The clients. I want them to be able to do it on their own time because when I'm researching something, if you know thinking about going to Big bear for, you know in February, just hanging out with family for days in the snow in the Winter Wonderland it's usually gonna be a 11 or 12 o'clock at night when everybody's asleep and I'm lying in my bed and I go on Airbnb. Absolutely. I love that. When I was looking for homes a few years ago, Just jump on Zillow are Redfin Tool. I could do it on my own time, Absolutely. And if I couldn't do it on my own time, then um who knows if I would have gone through with those? Of course. So you know, toe push that over to the financial planning side is like, let me give my clients the ability to have access to this, like cutting edge technology and and let them do it on their own time. That's awesome! And schedule an appointment with me on the Roman times. So that's really what I've been trying to gear my technology for

spk_1:   1:13:35
I Love that I love that. It's really crazy with the Internet, has brought and, um, all these new software and technology and it's, oh different that it was, you know, just 10 20 years ago, and every single year it's getting bigger and bigger and better and better. And all of these things were changing, making our lives so much easier for people just starting out. I mean, this is really hard and in just America and just across the globe, right, we are not given the tools at an early age by any means, right? Junior high school, high school. This is not something that is top. What are some of the very first things people should start doing? They they they're just get out of college there. 20. That's a 25 years old, just starting to really work and figure things out. What should people do to start to prepare for the future?

spk_0:   1:14:29
Well, they've got to get very aware they're very clear about where they are, okay? And I don't mean to be vague there, but let's say you're working at a job and you're not making much more than minimum wage. But you probably know how much income you're taking home there. Is that a fair statement? Absolutely. Most people know how Porsche is coming in for sir, but most people that I mean it sometimes even people who already retired. Most people don't know exactly where it's going, Okay, they don't know how much they're spending, so that's that's huge. It is. And that's one of things I think we need to teach in is far starting an elementary school. Yes, it's something I'm teaching my kids is You got to know how you're spending your money that's so important to track your expenses. Absolutely. There's so much technology out there that allows you to track it for almost for free. You can go to mint dot com. Huge sign up on account you use meant yes. How great is It's fantastic. It's you truly fantastic. Any money for it?

spk_1:   1:15:24
Uh, no, no. It's do have to swipe her thing on there where I can do taxes and all that shit. I mean, you could No, no, But you could do for completely free. I call free means. No. No. For I started out with the free. And then I evolved to the version, but yes, gives

spk_0:   1:15:37
them the ability to look at what you know to track your ass is attached to the cell. You product. If you want more service of it out of it, you can buy it for sure. You plug in all your information, but if you want, you can use their free tools with Fantastic. Absolutely. You link it to a bank, accounts to your credit cards and all the Senate pulls in all these transactions for you and a lot of them. It's pretty smart about categorizing for you. But, you know, what you do is you go in and you start to categorize them yourself like, Oh, yeah, I'm spending this on restaurants. I'm spending this on groceries. I always say, when you're looking at your expenses, separate those two things, please. You're spending on finding out and eating at home. Yes. How much money you're spitting on gases or insurance as and rent and bills. Most people don't know exactly how that's done, and so it's really, really important to know how your money is being spent because we're such a visual. People are just a visual learner. So went I know that was the case for me. You know, you asked earlier when I got back from from college? Yeah, I came back, I think with, like, a 450. I don't even know if it goes that low. But it was it couldn't be more than a 500 credit score, which that's terrible. Firing us credit scores. Just terrible. Yes. Goes all the way up to 8 50 500. You probably not gonna get a good car loan. You're definitely not gonna get a mortgage. Know that because you're viewed as a very risky borrowers. Somebody who doesn't pay their bills on time. Yes. Maybe Let's their balances go to have. So, um, I didn't know this stuff yet. You even know if my mom is a financial advisor. Has really taught in the home there. So we gotta teach our kids at home. We got teaching at school, but you gotta track those expenses cause so, so important. I know. When I started to do that, I realized how much I was eating out every guy. I mean, I just made my stomach turn. I thought, Gosh, no wonder why I'm in debt. No wonder why I don't have any savings. It's the way that I'm spending my money of the way too much discretionary spending thing. I have a choice as to what I'm going to do with and just seeing how much I was spending on that. It made me start to change my spending habits, starting to become aware I started to go and I thought, Well, why am I eating out so much? Because I come home tired. Maybe there's not food in the refrigerator. I don't have to clean up afterwards. So I thought, Well, here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna make sure that there's always food in the refrigerator, Very golf. If I make dinner, make a little extra so you can take it toe work. Yeah, I can't eat leftovers every day, but I was able to cut restaurants in almost in half. There we go and started to get out of debt and I started to save a little bit of money and all those things started to reflect on my credit score. So that's one thing you've got to track your spine. That's if you're if you take anything out of what I say today is pleased track years expenses. And just look at how you're spending money and then make your choices from there. But once you see it, you're probably gonna make at least one or two good changes. For sure. It's gonna positively, positively affect your financial life. That makes sense. But the other thing is also understand your credit score. Yeah, credit is so important in this country it is. It's also a great benefit. The ability to borrow money to buy things is huge. I don't know a lot of people who could just go by their first house with their savings. Yeah, takes a lifetime to do the absolutely give you 30 year mortgages. Yeah, I still don't know a ton of people. Most people probably can't go out and buy a car. Yeah, most people probably don't have 20 or 30,000 line around to do that. Definitely not. So the ability to borrow it was really, really important future. And if you don't know what your credit score is, it's gonna be difficult. So check your credit score and try to get it up, and it's not that difficult to get your score

spk_1:   1:19:11
now. Definitely not and and So once you get past that, once you start figuring how much you know you're spending and allocating for these certain things how much should you know? Ah, young adult be saving for the future. I mean, I know numbers are different, but just on average, um, what should we be doing? You know, to prepare us for a savings as much as you know, if you don't have a 401 K, if you don't have those things from work, right? Ah, what should someone D'oh?

spk_0:   1:19:36
Well, generally speaking, I think it's pretty. I think we could give, like, general advice on that. Which is, um, have you heard of the 50 30 20 rule? I have not. All right, so it's pretty simple. You get your take home pay after taxes or withheld or, um, you know, make sure you set some money aside for taxes If you're not a as you know, Like if you're an entrepreneur, of course, 50% of your money should go towards your basic living expenses. Things like rant, things like groceries and bills and insurance is the things that you just kind of need you to carry on. 30% of it is that that fund money we talked about that's your discretionary spending. Okay, um, it's going out to the movies going to dinner, which is why I say, you know, separate the going out versus the groceries. It's, um, just having fun. It's going on vacations. Absolutely. And 20% you should be saving. Okay, that sounds like a lot of money. That's because it is for him. I don't think most people are are starting with 20%. So don't feel like if you can't do 20% right now. Don't use that as an excuse not to start. Absolutely. Because if you can save $25 per paycheck, then do it. Even if that represents much less than 20% of your net income. At least do something because something's better than nothing, and sooner is better than later. But generally speaking, I think that if you're saving 20% of what you take home, you're probably going to reach your your your savings gold. You're probably gonna reach your financial goals. Yes, generally speaking,

spk_1:   1:21:06
absolutely. Especially once you hit a retirement. You know, 50 30 20. I like that 50 30 20. Actually, you know, I've heard of the 80 20 rule, which is, you know, completely different than what we're even talking about. Has to do with, like, 20% of people the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or even just like the type of work. If you have, like, the hair stylist or people in your career, 80% of people will be at this level in 20% will be at the store today. Um, it actually should be, like 80 19 1 But whatever that being said, though, the 50 30 20 rule that is that makes a lot of sense. And if you can't hit that, 20% start saving towards that 20%. Now, if individuals are starting to look not not not not not stocks and things like that to buy. But what are some application people can start to use if they're not ready to use a financial planner? But they want to start investing, right, Um, like different applications. Things like that. What's out there right now?

spk_0:   1:22:02
Well, that's the competition, Brock. So I don't know if I know I have heard of Robin Hood. I haven't personally used it too well, but there's a lot of really good established companies that have a lot of resource is there for you. And it doesn't cost a lot to get into. I'm not sure if I could mention, like, specific company needs.

spk_1:   1:22:19
No, that's and that's totally fine.

spk_0:   1:22:21
But there. I mean, you know, if you go in and you just kind of type in, like, you know, low priced brokerage accounts and those air like robo advisers, robo advisers, they've got some minimum investment amounts. Okay. And some of them, like I've heard of some net. I think you have to have a 25,000 to start with the rubber adviser because robo adviser is getting a little bit more service. You're getting people who are actually making the investment decisions for you. But if you know, just happen like low, low cost investments, for sure. And you're gonna find a bunch things like casual funds and E. T s, and you'll find firms that allow you to open with a small amount of money. Yeah, he couldn't make it right up to your bank account and start automated savings, which that's another piece of advice that I think is really important to just about everybody, okay? Automate your life where you know you got to make your life is easy as possible and one of the things you can do with automate your savings alright is whether, even if it's going from a checking to a savings account, do that when you start to invest Money. Whether being a retirement account or non retirement account is you just stick the money right into your account. Choose the day of the week, how often you want to do it, how much you want to do it, said it and just and let it run. Absolutely, you know, review it. I always say, you know, make a monthly money date for yourself, Okay? Where you're going into men and your categorizing all your transactions where you're looking at your investments. You're looking at your credit card debt, making sure that somebody didn't use your credit. If you're not looking at how you ever gonna find out? Not until you know, saying that Got Rell. Absolutely. So you want to You want to set that that money date with yourself every week? Or if your partner that could be really that was really good for Sandra. and I My wife is sitting down and looking at finances together because, I mean, even to the state, we bicker about finance. Of course, even though I don't think we have a personal need, we're wired a little differently. So her sense of security is a little different. I see things and I sell. We're gonna be found. I like her. She thinks, Oh, my gosh. Like I don't I don't feel safe. I think you know what happens if this if this happens there that had the money, we don't so sitting down and being on the same page about things, absolutely. Just about knowing where you are, for sure. And we have to spend time doing that.

spk_1:   1:24:24
It's important, right? Take a little bit of time, especially if you're if you're a couple and even if you're not, if you're an individual, I think it's important to start, you know, look into these things. Um, you know, we have all these other technologies out there, but at the end of the day, the service that you offer um to into an individual or couple just sounds a lot better. You know, it's like you can either throw someone into the fire. You can, you know, walk them. You know what? Hold their hand and walk them into wind, if you will. And and for you, is there? Do you guys have minimums?

spk_0:   1:24:59
Well, not necessarily. I personally don't have minimums. Because when I started in the business, we never really talked about minimums. Yes. Um, And when I look at my source of new business now, almost all of it comes from referrals of his existing clients. I don't have people walking into our office. I don't, um, have people. We're gonna have some people that found us on the on a website, of course. And I've come in to kind of interview us and liked what we had to say and offer. And so they signed up. But 95% of our client's new clients come from referrals of existing clients, which has been great. That's also bad. And if you're a dear client of mine, and I just love working with you and you refer your child or a friend of yours, Yeah, and maybe they just don't have the type of money that most of our clients D'oh! I'm not gonna close the door because I think that's almost insulting to you. I love that. And if some, if there's advisers out there that do have minimums, I'm not saying anything. No. How about that? Because at the end of the day they're running businesses. Everyone looks for me. I have to be true to who I am and FM today. I love helping people gain financial literacy. Yeah, I love seeing them grasp their financial goals and really take it to the next level and shepherding through that. I love it and and that's okay with me because I don't want to be. I don't care from a $1,000,000,000 financial advisory firm. I don't care for necessarily in the news for being one of the top firms around. That's not what makes me go. What makes me go is I'm providing a service to somebody find invaluable. They have, ah, you know, they they celebrate their success and they attribute some of that to us. That's really what makes me tick.

spk_1:   1:26:41
I love it so of it.

spk_0:   1:26:42
I'm not closing my door to people who don't have a lot of money.

spk_1:   1:26:45
Great. I like that, but it's awesome, but I want to

spk_0:   1:26:47
say this. Um, you know, we're running a business, so we're I do some pro bono work for her showing people who need to work with that can't necessarily afford it. But I've got to be I've got to use some discretion in that because I've got to run a business. I've got employees that rely on us to give them their check every week. Yeah, and, um so that's not that's not a huge part of what we do, you know, like the starters. So I've got a price it right, because there's a need, especially amongst millennials or younger people who are starting out in their career. And they've got student debt. Yeah, they've got a job and they've got expensive rent and they've got some credit card bills so hard, they've also got goals. So how do you manage all that stuff? I want to be able to work with those people, but I couldn't work with 100 of them because it would take up so much of my time for and there's not really any investments toe to make money off course as an advisor. So that model that we talked about earlier about charging percentage. Yep, that's not gonna work. So one of the things that I started to implement because I want to provide the service, but at a certain level, we've got to be compensated. You're after I started a subscription model.

spk_1:   1:27:59
I love that. Let me hear about

spk_0:   1:28:00
it. So somebody is able to hire an adviser, and we charge him a monthly subscription fee, kind of like Netflix for free, where they're able to set up a credit card or checking account, and they pay us on a monthly basis. Okay. And we have a very specific service model like these air the number of meetings that we have throughout the year. These are the types of issues that we're gonna tackle, and I feed them content throughout the year, things that can kind of help them be educated about some of the decisions you're making, what to expect. Going forward had identify certain opportunities. And, um, you know, we get all these things that we're talking about I'll actually hold their hand and do that with them. Uh, and it's something that if they feel that it's affordable and a good use of their money than they could hire me to help them do that. It's different than what I was doing when I started, which was making investment suggestions. I would make recommendations, implement them and do our reviews. Now, this is a little little different. Absolutely. We're addressing people that haven't accumulated the wealth yet. Yeah, but they want Thio. Of course. They're dealing with other financial issues that, you know, traditionally, financial advisors didn't want to touch with a 10 foot ball because it wasn't making the money. So what I'm trying to do is fill the gap. I'm trying to give them a service. People are used to paint subscriptions an hour for you. If the subscription works, they keep it going. And if it doesn't cancel it and move on to the next. Yeah, this is a little bit new, but so far the feedback has been phenomenal. I love that. I got a christmas card from one of my younger clients. Okay, we're doing this with I'm so proud of her. She she started making a little bit more money than she was in the past, and she resumed her savings. She's got a retirement account. She's got a non retirement account because she wants to save and buy a house in the next 10 years, and she you can tap into retirement accounts too early. Otherwise, there's penalties in taxes. So we've got something else going on for her. She's opened up some new credit cards because she didn't really have much to begin with. And so our credit scores increasing were like looking at that every month together, get stoked. I mean, she's getting so But you know what was so cool? And she sent us Ah ah, holiday card. And it was her on vacation, and on the back of it, she personalized it and she wrote a letter. And so she must have sent this dollar for family and friends. But she was talking about her accomplishments throughout the year and and all the big changes in her life and very specifically. The first thing that she said was that she hired a financial advisor this year and she started to build out.

spk_1:   1:30:26
I love it.

spk_0:   1:30:27
I was like, Oh, that's a definitely a card I

spk_1:   1:30:29
saved for sure, man, that's so cool. So cool, really, really neat. And she's on the subscription models so cool. Yea, I remember is talking about that before, and I just I find that so amazing that, you know, this isn't, um This isn't like a big thing out there at this point, because we all need help. I mean, all of us, we we don't, uh, you know, coming out of school, coming out of college, you know, 25 30 years old. Um, it's not taught to us and and so having a service that really helps us out on so many different aspects of, you know, finances, it just makes sense. And no wonder, you know, her hiring a financial adviser. You know, the of course. It's like a huge fucking check. And so kudos to you and kudos to the work that you're doing. Um, I I want to ask you a couple questions. You said, um, you brought up stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and I just want quick little definitions on them. Is that okay? Sure. Okay, we can cover that without having any sort of Yeah, Yeah. Okay. I'm not trying to get you in Children, brother. Just if people don't know what the heck a bond is a mutual fund and e t f right So, uh, let's just do fire and shoot. So what is a mutual fund

spk_0:   1:31:47
s o mutual fund? I would like to go backwards. Okay, Before we get to that girl, I want to build a foundation. And I actually have this with, like, every new prospect or every new client is I have this conversation with them and I'll let them know like, Hey, we're gonna talk about some really basic investment ideas here s And sometimes, you know, like, the husband would be loyal and then a lot of times the wiser morning

spk_1:   1:32:10
age at that. But But I

spk_0:   1:32:12
do this because I always wanted a certain foundation. Good. And one of things that start out with is, you know, what can you do with my? We have conversations about money. What is it? What does it mean to you? I'll skip all that. You know, your first memories of money. I'll skip all that already. But I do talk about those things because I think they're important. But what are the things that you can do with money? And I'll ask you that question? Brock? What? What can you do with money?

spk_1:   1:32:34
Um, you can spend it you can spend it absolutely. And save you could build businesses. Um, you can, which I would value investing, investing, right, investing. Um, you can donate it. Um, you can gift it. Uh, you can set it on fire. Oh, you've

spk_0:   1:32:57
pretty much hit everything that you could do with money. Okay, that that's like an a plus. Sorry. Spend it. You can give it away. You can invest it buried in the backyard. I will do whatever you want to exist. Right. Well, let's talk about the investment part of it on the saving investment part of it, if you want to own a business here, and you can start a business, right? Yeah, but what if you want to own a nest ablest business like Microsoft? Okay, you know, how can you do that? Can you own Microsoft? Uh uh. Through stocks, right. That's how you do it. If you want to own the company, Microsoft, tomorrow morning, you wake up and you can buy it. And, um and and when you own no shares, you own that company. You own that many shares of that company. You have voting rights on it. If if the stock price goes at 10% over the year, while your spear shares went up 10%. And if it goes down, then you go. It goes down right there with it. But that's owning a business. And that's how you do it.

spk_1:   1:33:59
Wow, you buy a stock? Most people don't know that, right? Yeah, We think of

spk_0:   1:34:03
it as like, you know, the stock market. You know, I'm gonna buy the stock market. It's just this this, like, unicorn out there. That's exactly it. Just kind of it. It just does its own thing. It's got a mind of its own. But at the end of the day, stock is just a business. Yes, it is. You own a business when your stock and and that's the beauty of it. I like to think of it that way because when the stocks stock market's going crazy at the end of the day, I just remind myself I own businesses. I own a lot of different businesses. Businesses were very smart and they know how to navigate changes. How you because they've always done that, Then the innovate and they hire people well, so if stock means that you own a business what a bond is. A bond is simply alone. Okay, so let's say that let's say that a friend on acquaintance of yours comes up and says, Hey, Brock, I need to borrow $10,000. You're gonna have a few questions, right? Of course you're gonna ask yourself. Well, what are you gonna ask them? What? What do you need the money for? When you gonna pay me back? And how much interest are you gonna give me? I'm assuming it's not a very close friend. Words that s o. So you loaned the money and you set a term. You know what they're using it for? You know, kind of their creditworthiness. Yes. Are they the kind of people that will pay you back? Or are you never gonna hear from them again? True. So if you're gonna evaluate that, you wanna use the credit worthy people? Yep. Which is why your credit score is so important. Yes is credit card companies and mortgages. They all do that something we're looking at how your ability and history of paying people back So a bond is is nothing more than that. When a company needs to raise capital, you know they could issue stock, but often the issue bonds and they're looking for loans. So if you want, but and the U. S. Treasury, does it say that California does it? City of Los Angeles, They do it for a bunch of different reasons. But if you want to raise capital, one way of doing it is to just issue a bond. And if you go by that bond, you're loaning money, and it's very clear that after certain money years, you're gonna get all that money back. In the meantime, you're gonna earn a coupon. You're gonna learn certain rate of interest. Absolutely. And so that's what it is with a bond is you've got a couple of guarantees. So it's not gonna be quite as risky as a stock because you know that you're going to get something back in return. Well, of course, unless the default and that is good, that's a risk of that. But generally, bonds have lower risk than stocks. Okay, Okay. But also because they have lower risk. There's gonna be less reward over the long over longer periods of time. So if stock means you own a business on a bond means you loaned money to somebody and you know there's cash. Of course, a mutual fund is think of. It's think of a barrel. Okay, I think. Think of this this big barrel. We'll call that mutual fund and you've got a bunch different investors and all of them. They have a certain objective, you know they want. They want to get growth of their money and they want to buy stocks located in the United States in technology. Okay, they would buy a mutual fund that's a U. S. Technology stock, our fund. And they put their money into the mutual fund and they buy shares of the fund. And each mutual fund has a manager. You know, all these different management companies out there. That manager takes the money. They invested according to the objective, because that's ultimately what differentiates one fund from another is what's the objective? What's the purpose of it? So if you're looking for technology stocks, the manager's probably not gonna go put a bunch of money in cash because that's not aligned with with what the mutual fund supposed to do. So they go out, they make the investments, they don't do it for free. Look at you. Wanna look at the fund expenses okay of the mutual fund and and they take, they take whatever they're charging from the returns and they turn around and they give it back to each shareholder proportionately. So if the fund is that by 9% and the fund expenses air 1% Which that's high for mutual fund, by the way. Okay, I'm just trying to make things easy, of course, but 9% return 1% of the management fee. 8% is the Net return Everybody owned the shares of the mutual fund gets that 8% return. Okay, amount of time. And that's really what it is. It's a pool of investor dollars like minded investors, and you have a professional manager. One of things I like about mutual funds is it makes it easy. You don't have to go and evaluate which bonds to buy, which stocks to buy. I want to sell. Um, okay, um because the mutual fund is doing that for you, and of course I like I said, they're not doing it for free. They're charging you, but it's really easy. You stick your money in there there's there's ease of investment. You have professional managers doing it for you, and you're diversified because they can go in and buy 200 stocks where it might be a little difficult for you to go out and buy 200 stocks on your own. And get that type of a diversification. Absolutely. If stock means you own a business, I don't necessarily want to put all my eggs in one basket own one or two businesses. Of course, I want to have businesses here in the U. S. I wanna have businesses globally. I want businesses in technology and health care and financials and real estate. And, you know, I want to own companies that do, like groceries

spk_1:   1:39:08
and utilities. The whole nine. Yeah,

spk_0:   1:39:10
because these things act differently in different market cycles when our economies air is doing good, certain types of companies react better to that. When markets are going down. Other companies might be a little bit more insulated like utilities, for example, you're still gonna turn your lights, of course, work for in a recession. You go bag groceries and hopefully you're still gonna be brushing your teeth. Absolutely, like more defensive. So you you kind of wanna have your foot in all those different areas

spk_1:   1:39:35
and dive. Diversification reduces your risk. Absolutely. Helps you reduce 100%. And, you know, a lot of times people throw around the word compound in compounding. Compounding interest, right? What did Einstein says? That was the most powerful force in the universe. Well, there we go. That wow, I did not know. He said that. But now I do. And I might have ensured that the quote. Hey, you know, you're paraphrasing, right for anyone that doesn't know what is calm, pounding interest. What the heck does that even mean?

spk_0:   1:40:05
It's interest that earns interest on itself. Okay, so let's say you've got 1000 bucks and you stick it in the bank and you earn Ah, 5% interest. So you put that 1000 bucks in there next year, you're gonna have $1050. Yes. And if you earn 5% again, then the next year that $1050 is gonna earn 5%. So you're gonna earn a little bit more than that First year, That 1st $50 union and $50 plus 5% on that $50 s so it starts to accumulate. And in the later years of compound interest, I mean, it's huge. Okay, huge differentiator. That simple interest is, if you put 1000 bucks in, you get 5%. You're gonna earn 50 bucks every single year forever. But calm pounding means that the new balance is going to start earning that interest rate. Absolutely. So that's that's basically what it

spk_1:   1:40:57
as that pocket bigger and bigger and bigger. And you get closer to the later years that that that interest is getting just It'll be huge, right? Hopefully, hopefully, right. That's the idea. That's the idea behind it. Right? Um, so we talked about, you know, when you're younger, what you should do? Yeah, um, and and all of these things, and I just I don't know, I I just really appreciate you coming on here sharing a little bit about your story. You know, the things that you went through, the ups, the downs, all of that. I love you, brother. Thank you so much for being on. This is fun. Add my first part. That dad will be many more, baby. All right, all right. All right. Thank you so much. Everyone for listening to back to your story Have a good night. Peace out