Fired at 63, Millionaire by 69: It’s Not Too Late to Build Wealth | David Nassief on Alison Answers

David Nassief went from being fired at 63 and nearly broke to becoming a millionaire by 69 using a one-page wealth plan and two simple index funds. You’ll see how to stop wasting decades “walking in financial circles,” avoid hidden fees that quietly cost you millions, and finally understand where your money should go—step by step, without jargon.

Watch this if:
👉 You feel behind with money or retirement
👉 You make decent income but don’t see real wealth
👉 You’re confused by investing and don’t trust complex products
👉 You want a simple, repeatable system you can follow at any age

You’ll walk away with:
✅ Clear idea of where to start (debt, savings, investing)
✅ Simple way to invest using low-cost index funds
✅ How to spot and avoid toxic fees and conflicted advice
✅ Practical way to pre-plan big expenses so money feels calm, not chaotic

Connect with the Guest – David Nassief
Website: https://www.onepagewealthcompass.com
Book: One-Page Wealth Compass: Fired at 63, Nearly Broke—Safely a Millionaire by 69 👉 https://a.co/d/0aXp00lo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dnassief/

Connect with Alison:

• Instagram: @alisonanswers | @lagercounseling
• Website: LagerCounseling.com
• YouTube: Alison Answers
• Facebook: Alison Lager Lcsw Casac
• Purchase Alison’s book: “The Wake Up Call”
• Alison Answers Facebook Group: Join HERE
• Women of Excellence FB group: Join HERE

⚠️ Crisis Resources:
Lager Counseling Services
Call: 516-221-2123
Text: (914) 363-0381
Wantagh: 3408 Park Ave. Wantagh, NY 11793

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (24/7, free, confidential)
Call or text 988 | Visit 988lifeline.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When I did the math, I realized that if we drained all of our savings and all of our retirement, we would be broke by 65. And at this point, I'm thinking who is gonna hire me at my age. That's not the worst part. After 18 years in the same company, I got fucked up.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

I have a guest today. His name is David Nasi. David is the author of the number one Amazon hot new release, a one-page wealth accompass. His story is a powerful testament to the fact that it is never too late to achieve financial freedom.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

It is never too late to rewrite your story. Because if I can pull that off starting as late as 63, anybody can with the right direction. And I truly believe that. If you don't have a plan, you're part of somebody else. I looked at my wealth building as a sacred obligation to my family. It wasn't to show off people or to impress anybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Hello there today, people. My name is Allison from Allison Answers and Lager Counseling Services. Welcome back to the show. I have a guest today. His name is David Nassif. If I have mispronounced the name, I am putting a disclaimer in right now. I'm sorry. And David is the author of the number one Amazon Hot New Release, One Page Wealth Compass. His story is a powerful testament to the fact that it is never too late to achieve financial freedom. This is such good news for everyone listening. After being fired from an 18-year corporate career at the age of 63 and left nearly broke, David refused to let his story end there. By age 69, he had safely become a millionaire and secured complete financial independence. Today, David is on a mission to simplify the path to prosperity. He teaches others how to replace complex, overwhelming financial plans with his signature one-page survival compass. His approach emphasizes clarity and peace of mind and his set it and forget it philosophy that allows for a life of freedom without the constant stress of market volatility. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, David is a methodical planner, a dedicated community volunteer, and an avid skier who proves that any decade can be the one of massive growth rather than a slow decline. I love the what we're about to see with this new guest. And the reason that I love it so much is that I think that so many people get to a certain point in life, or it doesn't even matter the age, where they don't see, they cannot forecast or see ahead that financial independence or security or wealth is a possibility for them. And I think we've lost our value in really, really looking at, really truly looking at that we people who succeed in life, we need to be cheering them on as opposed to thinking that they're robbing from the poor. And I think we have lost our way in encouraging success. So I'm super looking forward to David and hearing what he has to say. And please consider that what you're going to know at the end of this podcast is how to simplify looking at finances, not feeling frightened of them, having a methodical, step-by-step way to actually get yourself where you want to go. So I'm excited for my own uh reasons and I'm looking forward to hearing him. Hey, hey, hey guys, how are you today? It is Allison from Allison Answers and love your counseling services. And as I mentioned, I have David, and I didn't exactly know how to pronounce his name, but I said Nassif. Close enough. How do you say your name?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

It's Nasif.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

I didn't want to miss it. Okay, so David is here to share his expertise regarding simplifying wealth management and building wealth and overcoming wealth like storms and difficulties. And I just want to thank you so much for being here, David, and sharing your wisdom because we all could really use our understanding of money simplified. And I would love for you to share with the listeners what your life story is, how you ended up coming up with the this um one-page wealth compass that is going to help us all so much. So I'd love to hear about you.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Thank you, Alison. I'm thrilled to be on your program. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you. Um well it started when I was 63, when most people are ready to kind of take it easy and retire. I uh I was I unfortunately, I after 18 years for the same company, I got fired. And it was a day I wouldn't wish on anybody. When I did the math, I realized that if we drained all of our savings and all of our retirement, we would be broke by 65. And at this point, I'm thinking, who is gonna hire me at my age? But I also, that's not the worst part. The most difficult part was driving home, thinking, how am I gonna tell my wife Mary? We've been married for 30 years, and she did not deserve the mess I just threw our life into. I felt like a total loser. So after several months of dead-end job searching, and I mean, everybody else confirming, nope, it's too late, buddy. You're of no value to anybody in the corporate world. I said to myself, you know, I need to do something different. And I decided to make it take a huge risk. And I went to work as an independent sales agent on straight commission, no salary, no safety net, no benefits. The first months were brutal. Cold calls, constant rejection, rookie mistakes. I remember getting so many no's. I didn't think it was possible to get that many, but then I realized looking back on the whole thing, Allison, that all that rejection, all that resistance I was getting was helping me build the mental muscles I needed to be able to get through this miserable experience. And it built it helped me get strengthened. And literally, 10 months of grinding, 10 months of grinding, what happened then was something that I didn't expect. I was now suddenly making more money than my good paying corporate job. And for a brief moment, I felt like we made it. But then I realized we didn't make nothing. I've been making good money my whole life, and I just didn't know how to invest. That's why that's how I'm in the mess I am now. I don't know how to build wealth, and I didn't have time to waste with a bunch of investment theories with people who are working on commission trying to get you to do what they want because they want to make the money. They really don't care if you make the money or not. So I says, okay, I so I'm gonna do it myself. I read 21 books, I listened to 13 financial podcasts consistently, blogs, newsletters. I dove into it deep. I put it all on one piece of paper. I says, if I can't fit it on one piece of paper, I don't want to do it because I'm trying to build my company here. I don't have time to watch Wall Street and do all that. So it was a set it and forget it approach. Six years later, at 69, I hit what I thought was impossible. I now had a seven-figure portfolio and was financially free. I now know, Allison, it is never too late to rewrite your story. Because if I can pull that off starting as late as 63, anybody can with the right direction. And I truly believe that.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

That's awesome. I'm so grateful that you're here because one of the things I have seen, which I'm sure you will agree with, is that remember uh Tony Robbins wrote the book Money Master the Game. And one of the things he right, I'm sure you did, and one of the things he talks about is how all of these different that we are we're duped to believe that we're not smart enough to understand the financial we're not financially literate and that and we're not taught it in school, and that it is complicated intentionally so that these large, large fees can come out of 401ks and all of that, so that people retire basically poor after they work their whole life.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

So I am all advisors, but their advisors got rich, by the way, Allison.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

So that's the point. Yes, exactly. So people are getting rich by keeping other people small and illiterate. And we're all capable of understanding this stuff. So I just love that you're here. And uh I would love to hear any of the principles that you feel would be of value to let's just say, let's say someone who doesn't have a lot of time, and then we'll go back because I know there's people who are 20 and they don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yep. Right? Yeah, I I think it would help your audience if I could just briefly tell them what inspired this whole one-page couple thing, too. Yes. Okay. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute did an experiment. And what they did is they placed people in the center of a dense German forest and they told them, walk in a straight line to the edge. Now, these were all confident and capable people, but when the clouds covered the sun, the GPS tracking showed they were gradually starting to walk in circular motion. Some of them were ending up right back where they began, but every one of them was absolutely convinced. No, no, no, we're walking in a perfectly straight line, like you said. Alison, that was me for 40 years, working hard, doing what I thought was the right stuff, but ultimately ending up back right where I started, or actually sometimes even worse. Yeah. And I tell you, when I start first built this compass, before it was even finished, it saved me a quarter of a million dollars that I did not have to lose. And I think if you're, I'd like to share that with you because it makes a very important point. I was um, I was 64 now at this point. I was so desperate to catch up. I was making good money now, but I didn't know where to put it. I didn't know how to do it. I was like almost paralyzed, you know. And so I went to a fiduciary advisor who I was referred to, and she recommended something she said was amazing: a LERP, a life insurance retirement plan, long-term interest, long-term care, life insurance, and excellent investing and all that kind of thing they say. And so she told me that some members of Congress invested in it. When she said that, Alison, I thought, okay, well, then that must be a pretty good thing. Maybe it's an insider thing I didn't know about. Yeah. And so then she said something that was so interesting. She goes, David, if you invest in this with me, I'll waive my quarterly advisor fees. So I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute. If she's willing to waive her quarterly advisor fees, how much money is she making off this? See, what was in my compass, even though it wasn't finished yet, is something called follow the money. And it tells me to understand how people are getting paid that are giving me financial advice. So when I went home, I did some research, I found out these products pay salesmen and advisors tremendous commissions. They have sky-high fees for the client and they have very poor returns. All of some, this was the exact opposite of what I told this quote fiduciary advisor I needed. And what it did is it exposed to me that she was about to make a fortune and I was about to be back walking in financial circles. And so I said to myself, this is not gonna work. And so I kept working on my compass. I said, I have to do this on my own because no one's gonna help David Nassive. And now 64, they don't even care about him. All they care about is their own pocketbooks. And that's that money, what I was able to do is protect my money so it could work for me and not work for somebody else. Here's what I figured out, Alison, and after all this. If you don't have a plan, you're part of somebody else's plan. Yes. For 40 years, I was part of somebody else's plan. And where did it leave me? On the cliff, on the edge of financial ruin. That's where it left me. We have to, unfortunately, we have to a good thing. We have to wake up. We have to say, no one cares more about your future and your finances than you do. Nobody. I mean, nobody. That's right. I really believe that too. I love that. Yes. Now, can I let me tell you because I think you want some more specifics.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

I want to hear everything.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

I don't even want to ask a question. Okay. No, no, you can ask questions. I'm I'm all ears. Okay. But let me tell you, a lot of people say, I tell people in the book, I doubled my portfolio three times in a six-year period, which is extremely unusual. I mean, that is not normal. How you know that that's very aggressively successful. But let me tell you, I wasn't day trading, I wasn't chasing crypto, I wasn't trying to time the market. I was doing something so boring, Allison, it would put you to sleep. I came up with, after research, finding an investment approach that was the crazy part of it is, Allison, when the market was down, I was thrilled. When other people were panicking and selling, I was buying more shares of discount prices. My only regret was the market wasn't down more during that six-year period. But but here's what really surprised me was the math. There's a thing called the rule of 72. And what it says is if you have getting a 10% return on your money, your money will double every 7.2 years, or roughly every 86 months. Allison, after I built my compass, my first double occurred in just 30 months. My second one, only 13 months, my third one, 29 months for an average of 24 months per double, which is way less than half the 86 months time frame. The secret was not returns, though. I was doing three simple things. One, I was investing a good portion of my um income. You know, I said I I have to catch up here. Okay. Number two, I was getting in the right kind of investments. And what they are, Allison, is they're low-cost index funds. They're they're totally I own it, I only own two funds. I want to keep it really simple for everybody and for me. That's why I do it. I only have two funds. One is I own every publicly traded stock in the United States in one simple fund. And then I have another fund, I own every publicly traded stock outside the United States. So I literally own every publicly traded stock on the planet. For me to go broke, Allison, the entire economic world system would have to collapse. And the probability of that is basically, I am so diversified, so safe. Because it sounds like, oh, you doubled your portfolio three times extra. You must have gotten some really risky stuff. No, I did the opposite of that. I got in the most stable, consistent things that you could. And the last thing is I made the market volatility work for me instead of against me. So many people buy high and sell low, which is the opposite of what you want to do. I I got out of that thing and I was able to build my wealth twice as fast with half the risk compared to how so many people are doing it, compared to how I was doing it for 40 years. And that is really the key. It's not taking on more risk, it's doing it more strategically and actually safer, not more risk. Okay. I'm listening. You mentioned uh I I think Tony Robbins, you said something like that. You know, a lot of people are being taken advantage of and they don't even realize they're being taken advantage of, and that's one thing he's in the books. Let me tell you what I have found is the biggest fun or one of the biggest financial mistakes people make, whether you're 25 or 65 or any other age, you pick the deal. What it is is people are paying tiny termite-sized fees that are quietly inflicting termite-like destruction on their portfolios. And let me explain what I'm talking about. You got two people, A and B, both 25, say, both got out of school or whatever they went to, and they both are going to start their careers and they're gonna work until they're age 65. They both decide to put $1,000 a month in investments or in their savings, things like that. Person A gets a low-cost index fund with a 0.03% annual management fee. Person B goes the more traditional route and gets an advisor who charges a full 1%, which is standard, and they put him in an active fund with a 5.75 upfront load and a .66% ongoing management fee, which is not uncommon at all. Now, fast forward 40 years, assuming normal historical market returns, the exact same contributions, person A has a $8.5 million portfolio. Person B has a $4.2 million portfolio. Same market returns, same contributions. The only difference is the fees. Quietly eating away at the portfolio little by little. And this is assuming, Allison, they never got a raise. If we assume they got normal raises, that 4.3 difference would be even bigger than that. But here's the tragedy that poor people don't realize. Person B probably feels like he got excellent service. I mean, he likes his advisor. They went golfing one day. He's just a nice guy. We all talk about baseball, whatever it is. Okay, little did he realize he did the equivalent of funding someone else's retirement with half of his own money. I am I am not saying I'm against advisors, but what I am against are products that enrich Wall Street at the expense of their clients' portfolios. And I'm gonna say something embarrassing right now to you, Allison. For 40 years, I never questioned fees. I thought those are just the rules of the game. That's just how it works. Okay. I now understand the rules we don't question can cost us the most. In person B's case, it was a $4.3 million mistake. And that's something. And he probably never realized it happened. Never realized that. But his advisor put his kids through Ivy League schools, they got a summer place, you know, vacation home, and all these things. And this guy's just scraping by now, you know, do what's right. That's his money. That's his money. That's what's really tough. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

So what would someone like what is someone like you? So, like when you're you were 63 and you did this for six years, right? You were saying that you contributed a large amount of people. Yeah, I did. Right. So, what is, I mean, do you mind like what does that look like for somebody?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I was I was putting, well, let me just say one thing. Yeah, sure. My my compass, which we'll talk about later, my wealth compass, it works in other areas of your life. And one of the the same principle that will build your wealth can also generate more income for you. I used the same compass principle to build my sales agency. And I started, Allison, after I told you after 10 months, I was making as much money as my good paying corporate job, which was a six-figure income. Well, a year later, I was making double. A year later, I was making triple. And because I was using the compass, not now for wealth building, but for income generation. And it works the same in both places. And when you triple your income, Allison, now suddenly you can contribute 50% of your income into investments and still live a very comfortable. I mean, I wasn't living like a monk, I promise you. We were living a very comfortable life, actually, better than we had before. Because because we had the additional income. Now, I'm not saying you have to for extra money. This can be done, this wealth building, on what on below average income. And I will show you examples in our conversation today of people who make less money than average and are doing this very successfully. But I'm just saying if you're making more, you can accelerate that. And that's why I was able to do it in six years. It may take some people 10 years, but hey, hey, 10 years isn't that bad, or 12 years. So but I'm saying it's a lot better than 40 years and then ending up on the edge of a financial cliff. That's a lot better than 100%.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah. Did that answer your question? Yeah. So, like your um wealth compass, it sounds like it's a simplified, just methodical way of doing things. It is, it really is.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, if I if I'll just I'll just show you real quick right now, you're free listeners. Okay, this is this, this is it, it's one piece of paper, and on one side it's the nine trail markers to financial freedom. And on the other side, it's the five North Star principles. Here's why I do it this way: a lot of people give you certain steps, you know, but a lot of times you can't just like a shiny object or or a hot tip comes along and you get all excited, and all of a sudden you jump off the steps because you feel well, no, the North Star principles, they keep you focused, they keep you grounded, they keep you on the right track and on these steps, okay? And what happens is when you take this and then you say to yourself, okay, when you look at this, you know immediately where you're at. Say, say, Allison, one of your listeners decided, okay, I want to do this. Where do I start, David? Well, just look at the nine trail markers and you say, Well, I'm okay on my income right now, I'm okay on my insurance and protection, but my debt, I am in consumer debt. Well, then they would start with stumber three. They don't have to do number one and two, they go right to number three. And what if they go, well, David, I want some details now. This is nice. It gives me the 30,000-foot view, but how do I actually get out of debt? Well, it says right here, see chapter four. And what you would do is you just simply go to the book, you know, and you go right to chapter four, and you go, it gives it the answers you need, the the the step, the turn right here, turn left here. It's not the 30,000-foot view anymore, it's the more detailed view right here. And so now that gives them the absolute hands-on help they need, hand holding help they need to make it in the right way. And what it is is I wrote the book, Allison, you know, in a way that it's full of stories about me and other people who've either succeeded or made mistakes. And it's how we made mistakes and how we did succeed. What the stories do is they take the boring, dry financial principles and they bring in black people, say, Oh, that's what you mean. Now I get it. I now that you explained it in the story. Some people told me, David, you could have just taken out all the financial stuff and made all stories because it was so interesting, the stories. But when you combine the two, it makes it a real powerful tool. It's not a dry financial book at all. It's it's a book like almost like a novel. You want to keep reading it, but it but it but you're learning as you go in a fun way, in a in a in a way that makes sense to people who aren't super financial nerds, because most people aren't, unfortunately, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

So you know what I love about that is that um a good friend of mine who's a a uh neuropsychologist, he explained to me that he um, you know, all our friends, entrepreneurs, we all read nonfiction, right? And we're kind of nonfiction snobs.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

And he explained to me, he said, Allison. I read fiction. I'm like, really? And he's a genius and he's successful. And he's like, and what I do is I look for this story that is going to describe is going to take it's going to be a hero ending, and it's going to, and he describes it neurologically, what that does. It's the same thing as when you visualize an experience and then it becomes your own. It's imprinted on you. Yep. Yeah. And I didn't know it. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

I didn't know. I didn't know your friend, but that's exactly what this book is like. I mean, it gives you stories. So the principles that drive financial person make sense. And you go, that's what they meant. I've I've heard that so much, but I didn't really know what they well. Now I get it. And I show you both pain, I show you people who did it wrong because you gotta see that piece too, and people who did it right. So so it because people need to see both, because if you just hear what right, you then you you go to do it wrong, you go, well, this probably isn't wrong. Well, no, it was wrong because he explained it right in the book. Let me ask you a question about debt.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Okay. So when you describe that, like what I think of, because then there's there's uh like I own properties, right? Yeah, that's properties, yeah. A few and I'm buying another one. But the property, like, you know, there's debt on the property, but there's also equity. Yeah. So when you say being out of debt, are you is step three that you get out of even the those, that type of debt. Or you're just talking about like the debt like credit card or any of that other stuff. Is that what you mean?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

I'm talking about consumer debt. Okay, things that aren't that aren't generating a return for you, that aren't generating any equity buildup for you. I'm talking about, like you say, credit cards, student loan debt, um, car debt, um, personal loan debt, all that kind of thing, where you have no asset that you're building that's not generating you any income. You're actually, yeah, you're making other people rich instead of yourself. With real estate, you're making yourself rich. Okay, there's a logic to that. But when you're doing consumers that all you're doing is making other people rich. And if you get out of that debt, you suddenly can turn all that money you are paying to make other people rich and start making yourself rich. And that's a really key thing to start out fairly early in the steps. That's why it's step to number three.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Can we address something? I want to hear you because I feel like you have such good energy. And I belong to this thing with Andy Frasilla. A lot of people know who he is, but he's like, he's close to a billionaire. Oh, Uber, crazy successful, but so down to earth. But he is in the movement, and I'm involved in this movement, where he believes that people who are succeeding need to show that they are succeeding, but not like a baller on social media, like, here, here's my car, and I really am in debt and dying. But he's he feels like there's no role models currently, right now, in our society that's that applauds when someone does well in life, that there's more naysayers who are like criticizing people who are doing well in life as opposed to valuing it. Like a long time ago, it used to be like, wow, this is great. Like, you know, the TV show Dallas, it was like people creating wealth, right? And now it's like, well, you know, they're probably a bad person. You know, this whole, and it's really like a societal ill, like a poverty mindset. Like the only reason, like you're not doing well, you should be go feeding the homeless, but the people who are doing well are generating wealth to be able to help, you know, do massive feeding of people who were struggling. So it's like, I was just curious, like I feel like part of this conversation here is also to model that it's really, really good to seek to create money and wealth because money is as good as a good it does, and it's as bad as a bad it does, right? So yeah, yeah. Like, why not like instead of being like turned off to it, like being valuing the idea of creating a fortune?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, so I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. I'm gonna be really transparent here and I'll probably embarrass myself here, but do it. I I I Alison, there was a reason I believe the Lord had different plans for me. I waited until I was 63. When I was 43 or 33, or maybe even 53, I was a lot into that looking the part, looking the corporate success thing, caring what other people think about. And when I hit the wall at 63 and lost it all, I said, I don't have the luxury of caring what other people think about me. I don't have the luxury of caring what I look like when I what car I drive or how how expensive our home is. I don't have that. I have to get going now. And this, and I tell you, I looked at my wealth building as a sacred obligation to my family. It wasn't to show off people or to impress anybody. I I could I was beyond that at this point. And maybe if I had got that earlier, Allison, it would have gone to my head like a lot of the athletes and stuff like that. And maybe I would have been worse off than I am now. Yeah. So I think, you know, I heard somebody say something once. They said they were having a prayer and they because they were going through a hard time, and the answer they got in their mind was, I love you too much to deny you of this experience. I love that. I know. And when I was 63, I was praying to be relieved of the experience, and that's really the feeling I got. I mean, it wasn't that it was kind of words, but I'm just saying, I needed to go through this, and I really did need to go through this. So I'm I think when you read a certain level of maturity or whatever, I don't mean age maturity, it has nothing to do with age, okay? I know 20-some-year-olds who are humbler than I was when I was 50-something year old. So, but I'm just saying, when you read that, then you're ready to build wealth. Then you're ready to keep the wealth that you build, and then you're willing to share the we are giving more now. And I'm not saying this to Bright, please, we're just giving more now to causes that we believe in than we ever gave in our lives. Yes. We're not squandering this money. We're we're we're sharing the money in a thoughtful, intelligent way, not just throwing it around everybody, you know, that kind of thing. And and I think the the and we're getting more blessings. I am now making where I might have ever made in my entire life. It's I can't tell you how many times my income has increased for my six-figure corporate salary. My doubles are now seven-figure doubles. I mean, and and it's happening like in a two-year period, 24 months. But but I'm not, and I'm not saying this to impress anybody, I'm just saying this that with the right plan, it's you can do this. And if you have your emotions in check, that's why I have the five North Star principles here. If you have your emotions in check, you can keep doing it and keep building it, not get derailed like so many other people. Let me give you an example because I think this is important to understand. Uh, professional athletes, okay, NBA players, they make on average over $10 million per year. I didn't say $10 million in their career, I'm saying per year. And yet, 60% of them after five years of retirement are broke, according to the Netflix documentary Broke. And the NFL is even worse. NFL, after two years of retirement, 78% of them are either bankrupt or in serious financial stress. That's according to Sports Illustrated. Now, compare that to Dale Schroeder, a basketball-loving carpenter who earned a modest, below average income his entire life, but he chose to live below his means, and if that's the difference, he ended up with a $3 million portfolio. That's more than most NBA and NFL players have at their retirement, after their retirement, and they made the $10 million a year. That's what I'm saying. There's a different skill set. Building wealth and earning income, making money is two different things. The basketball players, they are great at making money and they flashed it around and they were and they were living the life, okay? Dale Schroeder, he wasn't that great at making money, be honest with you, but he was very good at building wealth. And that's and that's what the wealth compass is. You know, I talk about I have a higher income, but that doesn't mean anything. This applies to people with below average income, average income, and above average income. It's just it's a it's a principles are principles, and you just plug your numbers in, and that's what and it works.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

So how does somebody build wealth? Well, the first thing I love what you're saying because you know, the more people who learn this, like I feel like this can turn so much around.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Yep. Well, the first thing, Allison, is to have a plan. And that's why I did the one page uh compass because you gotta have a plan. And then you gotta say, okay, where am I at now? And different listeners of yours and different people in life are gonna be at different places. That's why I have nine steps here. Because some people are gonna be on step one, which is making money. They may be not like me. They were unemployed and they didn't have a job or whatever. Other people are gonna know my money's okay, I'm making decent money, and you don't have to make huge money, just make decent money. But I need to have look at the three percent. You've heard of this. I'm sure you've heard of maybe people say before you start getting out of debt, the first thing you want to do is get like a baby emergency fund or a small emergency fund. These little things happen, okay? And a lot of people have a fixed number. They have like um $1,000 or $1,200 or $500, whatever. I say that doesn't make sense to me because somebody who makes $50,000 a year and somebody who makes $500,000 a year, they have different levels of emergencies, you know, even the small ones. Okay, they're very different. And so I say, yes, it should be a modest, but I say make it 3% of your total annual income. This way, it adjusts to your uh area of life. If you're living in a 7,000 square foot home or a 1,000 foot square home with a air conditioning unit on the window, that's a different kind of emergency level that you're gonna need. And so that's the first thing is I I questioned everything that the guru's been saying for years. I did the math, and that's what you got to do. So let's just say the person is okay, so maybe they're out there, or maybe they're on the debt situation, or they're maybe they're ready to start wealth communication. Let me tell you this. This is another thing they tell you. And I this is wrong. I'm gonna tell you, it's gonna cost a half million dollars to people listen to this. Here's what the gurus say. So many of them, not 100%, but 99% of them. They say, first, once you get out of debt, first get a full emergency fund, three to six months of your income, okay? Then start building your wealth, then put 15% or 10% or 12% away for investments. Okay. I did the math on that, and here's the problem with that advice. If you how long do you think it's going to take somebody to put three to six months of their income aside for emergency funds? Probably at least a year, at least a year. I mean, maybe a year and a half, but let's just say a year to make an easy number. Okay. So that means they're out of the market when they're early in life, like say 25 or whatever, for a whole year. Yeah. Now, then they get their emergency fund in place and then they start building wealth. Well, if you look do at the math and say, okay, take that one year of money they would have invested, and you fast forward now to 65 with normal market returns, historical averages, that came to a half million dollar loss and opportunity because they waited a year to get on the market. Here's what I found, and here's what my compass says, okay? Do them at the same time. You just got out of debt. You just got out of debt. You have now cash flow for the first time. Before you start spending it all and everything, do two things. One, build your emergency fund. It may take a little bit longer, but not much longer. And then start putting your money away, the 10 to 15% or whatever is in investments. Now you're not waiting a year. And when you get to be 65, that extra half million dollars, I don't care how wealthy or poor you are, that's gonna be a good thing. I mean, that's not gonna hurt anybody. Whereas if you follow traditional advice, you're gonna be a half million dollars out. And these are just things, Cal, so I could in the book I talk about several of these things that are costing people, in some cases, millions of dollars. Yeah. And they're so simple and they're so innocent. And they sound, doesn't it sound good to you, Alison? Oh no, no, first get your mercy fund before we start investing. Get that safety built up. Well, that sounds so good, but it's wrong. Do it at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

You know, how do you get it? Let me ask you this. So I I agree, I love it. So now when it gets to the debt part, do they wait until the debt's cleared, or do they do, are they doing it all at once?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

No, no, no. That's why I have steps here. You do you really want to get the debt part? Because here's why you want to get the debt out of the way. You are literally draining money out of your resources to make other people rich. We need to get on an intensity program to say, I need to get out of debt, and I need to get out as fast as I can. And we need a cutback, whatever we have to do. Once we're out of debt, we'll be able to breathe easy. And you know what, Allison, if you do that and you make those sacrifices, you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna say, I'm never going back there again. Exactly. But if you do, but if you do it little pieces at a time, it doesn't really affect anything. You're gonna go back there again because it would never hurt again. You want it to actually kind of give you a little bit of discomfort when you're getting out of the debt. So you say, I I don't, I don't ever want to do it again. Plus, you want to now, now all your money is freed up for you and your family's wealth building. Now it's that other guy with a credit card company or or the the whatever, whatever the things you were involved in. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And you know, like um, so then as people as you were saying like 10 to 15 percent of their uh of their income that they're investing, right? In these um index funds, right? Yes, they love cost index funds. How does somebody how does somebody learn or if they're just doing it, like this is a this is they're they're they're independent investors, right? They're not doing it through someone else because that's how I invest, just myself. Me too. And I have my daughter the same thing, but you know, like putting, you know, she's 20, like start now, right? Yep, and to speak to any of the people who which I said to you off camera, that I was not taught anything about investing, about money. I think about where I would be right now in my life if I did this. That's what I tell my kids. Like, I know to do the this now. Yeah, I mean, I can't believe you say 500,000. I I must have lost like I don't know. Yeah, crazy amount of money, right? So it's like, well, how would you speak to the person with regret? Because I imagine you had that too.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah. Well, you know, I had regret, um, Allison, until I started seeing the wealth build up and and the system I was using to build the wealth up. And I said to myself, you know, if I would have been fired and had three million dollars in my account, here's what would have happened to me, Allison. I would have said, okay, I got $3 million. I can live off that comfortably. I would have gone and we have a beautiful golf course in the back of our house. I said, I'll start golfing or whatever and do all these things. And that's fine. And Allison, that would have been a terrible life. I mean, I can't tell you how much fun I'm having with my company. My son's joining me in my agency. I love sharing the wealth compass with people. I love doing volunteer work. I mean, I've never had such a full life at 72 years old, and I feel like I'm 42 years old. I mean, I have the energy I feel like I'm not, you know. And the thing is, if I had all that money, I would, I don't think I would be where I'm at today. And so I'm just here to tell you, don't have regret. Just say, I'm gonna start from today going forward, and I'm gonna make right choices. And before you know it, you're looking back and saying, Man, have I come a long way in not that long a time, it seems like, you know, it's just amazing. So I have zero regret. Matter of fact, I have nothing but gratitude. Yeah, the Lord knew I needed to do it this way, He knew I needed to be pushed out. I I wish I could have told you, Allison. I said to my comp company, hey, you guys, you take your job and you know what? I'm gonna get out of here. I'm just I didn't have the guts to do that. I didn't have the courage. They needed to fire me. I should be sending my gift back of thank you letter for firing me because it was the best thing they ever did to me. And I'm so grateful for that. But I couldn't do it on my own. And I think I would the Lord knew I needed that nudge and I got it. And I think everything happens in life for a purpose, and you can either regret it or you can take advantage of it and have gratitude, and I have so much gratitude. I don't regret maybe I'd have another $10 million in the bank if I if I had done it when I was in my four, but who cares? I've got all I need, and I got more than I need, and we're sharing as much as we can. So why worry about that? That's my thinking. I don't know. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

You know what I love about your thinking too? And I really feel I feel like just any of the things that I build or whatever, it's the incremental small little steps that you just see them compound, right? And like what was built in you as a man that God allowed to know for you to struggle through, right? Refining fire, like for you to become like the the the self-esteem, probably the confidence, it's different than the other thing we're talking about, ego. It's so much depth to it, what you've developed inside yourself just as a person. Yeah, and then the outcome, the outcome shows, right? Yeah, but yeah, so I love that, and I'm all I'm into it. Like I want to do your system, like I'm going. Yeah, I'm doing I love steps.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

I love like and here's what's nice about the system, too, is yeah, you know how sometimes after you read a book and you say, Well, there's a couple good things in there that I'm gonna really do. And then two years later, you come across this idea go, wait a minute, what happened? I was gonna do that stuff. And I well, I knew that. I knew that about myself, Alison, because I've read tons of books over my life. I love to read books, I'm a book reader, okay. But the point is, is I have the things I never did. So I says, I can't afford to do that with my my wealth building. I'm so late. So here's what I did, Alison, to stop that from happening to me, to you, to anybody else who tries this. One thing about this wall page, one wealth page, well, wealth, one page wealth compass is every week for just two minutes, and it's on my calendar, Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., you can put it whatever day's good for you. I take two minutes of my busy life and I stop and I review this compass. And if I made an impulse purchase last week, I realized when I come to that point, oh geez, I did that impulse purchase. I didn't wait the 24 hours I was supposed to wait an unpulse purchase to see if it was real for real or not, that kind of thing. But what it does, it keeps pulling you in, keeping you focused, and you're not saying three years from now, oh yeah, I meant to do that investment stuff and I never got around to it. Well, when you look at this for two minutes every week, you're not gonna say that because it's in you. And after a couple of weeks, you're really doing this, and you're just and you're getting on the step you're on, and you see this next step that's gonna happen, and you're focused, you've got direction, you've got a path, and that's much better than reading some book, and then boy, there's a lot of good ideas in there, but they're all kind of fuzzy and they're all sort of just going around your mind, and then three months later you're not doing nothing, but you can't not do nothing with this program because in two in two minutes, who doesn't have two minutes, Allison? Every one of us can find two minutes to build our wealth. That's that's that's what I say.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

And also, like the you know, it's very methodical. Is that correct? Like very about you, like very methodical, like step by step. And you know, if anyone hasn't done that, like I I used to fly by the seat of my pants, like, oh, if whatever. But now I've seen so much value in following steps, having a plan. It is such a confident life when you do that. And so, like when you do go through your your wealth building, like you so you do it at the same time. Third, you you take three percent of your total income and you make sure you have that right and say and savings, yes, and savings, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

That's like a uh like uh no touch, and it's like a bank savings or a money market where it's super simple.

SPEAKER_02 41:20

Yeah, that you can that you it can be liquid, so maybe like the high yield savings or something. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly and then the next, then you're doing the 10 to 15 percent. No, no, not yet.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

No, then you're getting out of debt. The number three is getting out of debt. Oh, okay. So let's say you're out of debt. Yeah, now consumer debt's gone. Then what you're doing is you're immediately putting 10 to 15 percent in savings at the exact same time, you're putting some percent you decide for your larger emergency fund. I call them actually your protection fund because to me, emergency fund sounds kind of like I don't know, negative protection fund, protection fund is protection of me and my family. And so I put it in my protection fund, and then you're gonna build it up to three to six months, whatever you're comfortable with, you know, your lifestyle, your needs, that kind of thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Oh, so wait, so that's the but but then what are you investing?

SPEAKER_00 42:07

So that's no the investing part, like the the investment part is the like I told you about I use the just the two funds, that's all index funds. The the the emergency fund, the larger emergency fund, um you can make choices on that. Um I I don't want to get super controversial because wait, so you you have that that emergency fund, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Yeah, but then you say like you get out of debt, then you are also building emergency fund and investing.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Investing both, yeah, yeah. Because now you have all that payments you were making to debt, they're all gone all of a sudden. So you got okay, let's uh let's not waste that free cash flow right now, right? Let's get the investments going and let's get the bigger than three percent now. We want to get going from three percent to maybe three to six months of emergency funds. That that's what then we're gonna do the pre-funds. Let me tell you about this because I think some of your listeners will like this. After I started making good money, uh, things were going well for us. But I remember one October, all of a sudden, my property tax came due, my car insurance came due, a dental bill that we knew about was gonna come due for a while, but it came due. And all these things came due at once, and they were not small things, okay? And I had to maneuver money and move money around all kinds of things. We had the money, but it was just wasn't it was when they all had together, it's kind of like, oh, big shock to your system. And so it took some time for me, but I maneuvered the money. It was kind of a pain. But then Christmas comes two months later, and it's the same dang thing. All of a sudden we're buying things, and we we adopted two families to do kind of a secret Santa thing for them. And all this money, and it's the same thing I had in October. And so I says, no more. I'm gonna do what I call a prefund. And so in January, I said, How much money are we gonna need for Christmas? And so we figured out the amount. How much money am I gonna need for my property tax? How much money I'm gonna need for my car insurance, how much money do I need for home insurance? And we figured out all these are all non monthly bills because the monthly bills are easy. You just pay your electric bill every month, the same thing. These are different. And I what I did is I divided it by 12, and every month I got paid, I put the that X dollar amount into what I call a prefund. Okay. And it goes in the bank, a safe you know thing. Right. And then guess what happened the next year when my property tax came due in my car? I just I just transferred the funds. It's almost fun. I mean, who has fun paying bills? I love that. But I feel like I got and then when the Christmas came, I wasn't stressed and my time, do we have to spend that much? No, no, we just spend like we, you know, we want to spend. Because, and all of a sudden, just that little tweak, psychologically, Allison, it just made me feel so much more comfortable and more stable. And you know, because even people make good money, you know, you can have a cash flow thing that just happens all. Yes. I I don't have it anymore. If that happens to me all at once, I know about it and I just so it's a little thing, but it means a lot. And when you want to go on that European vacation or you want to do some kind of buy a new car, whatever, I have prefunds for those things too. And we just put it away. Now, that may not happen every year, but maybe it's gonna happen in three years or two years or one year. But but it's there now. When we go on vacation, we don't have to worry about credit card debt. When you get back from vacation, we got all this debt now. No, we just paid for everything in cash over the debit card. And we can enjoy the month right after the vacation too. Look at the pictures and have a good memory. It's not, oh, look at all these bills we got to do. And that that is a just a gives you peace, it just brings you peace. It may not sound like a big thing, but when you do it, it's really a big thing, especially when you're writing those that money out.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

So I do have to say that um I agree with you because it's one thing, like, you know, I I usually have a very big tax bill, like uh, you know, IRS bill. And this last year, basically all year long, I put money away from my tax bill.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

And basically, when the accountant said, Oh, we have to send the IRS, and it's like people are like, What? Like that amount of money, I'm like, okay, and I send it off. Exactly. No stress. People be like, You're not upset about that money. No, I'm thrilled. Uncle Sam, thank you that I live in America. Yeah, exactly. But if you don't do it step by step, then that's why like planning is amazing. It is so amazing. Like, and I never learned that until like just I don't know, very late in life.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

So I do the same thing with my taxes, and tax time for me, it's not uh matter of fact, I always put a little bit more than I need in my taxes, a little bit more made. So I kind of give myself my own tax return, refund. Oh, like a report, but but but but the government didn't get to keep my money for 12 months, I got to keep it for 12 months, and I was making interest off that money, not the government.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

So that's a much better way to whether it is.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Yeah, so the fund is making money, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Love it. So, like, what what do you say to the person, like, okay, that is like, well, I have no idea how to invest. Like, what do I do? You know, and I know you just described the two funds.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

I mean, well, let me let me go a little more depth to that because um one thing is it's key to keep it simple, Alison. Yeah, that's why I only have one or two funds. When you're when you're before pre-retirement, you know, before you retire, you don't need seven funds or five funds or buy Apple Computer or buy Nvidia or buy the crypto and all you just need one or two funds. When you do that, how complicated is that? Say you have one fund, which is really all you really need. One fund, once a month, I just go to my computer and I transfer it out of my checking when I got paid and put it into my investment account and it goes into this, those two funds. That's all it takes. Some people can automate it. I can't automate it because my income is different every month, okay? But if you have the same income every month, you can automate that and then it just comes out of your account before you have a chance to spend it. And it's no, that's what I do with all my bills too. I never write a check for a single bill. Matter of fact, I burnt my I burnt my checkbook, I really did, because I I've heard so much things about kiting checks or whatever, not but whatever. I don't have any checks. Everything is paid online, on computer, super safe. And I I have no bill paying month, I have no nothing, no investment. Oh, what am I gonna do with investments? And I don't need to spend $20,000, $30,000 on an advisor who's charging me 1% and gets fees off the stuff that I can do for free. I'm doing it for free. And it's taking me, who doesn't have three minutes a month to make that transfer? And if you can set it up automatically, you don't use it one time and it's set and forget it. Right. I used to play with my investments, I used to switch them around. There's tax consequences that are negative when you do that, Allison. There's fee consequences that are negative when you do it. I set it and forget it. I put it in there and I don't touch it until I retire, which I don't think I'm gonna retire because I'm having too much fun working, but but if I ever did retire, I would just then I would take it out. So that's it. And then so it's so much easier doing it that way. You don't need to pay somebody 1%. I know 1% sounds a little bit, but that example I gave it shows you how much that works.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Let me ask this. So there are definitely people on here who do not know what it means when you say invest in one to two funds, right? So, like, can you explain that? Because it's yep.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

I mean, it's I didn't know that either. Until I started my compass, I didn't know any of this. So please don't feel embarrassed or anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about. So let me explain right there. There are things called index funds, and what they do is they buy the entire market, okay? Instead of buying like a couple stock, you are so diversified. I believe in buying either the SP 500, which is the 500 most successful companies in the country and probably on the planet, and I also believe in buying the entire market completely, okay, which is not only the SP 500, but it's everything. Okay. My fund is called VTI, and basically it's it's a Vanguard gifted. It's Vanguard. Okay, but don't listen to me. Let me hear you. Sorry. Okay. VTI, go ahead. That is every publicly traded stock in the United States. It doesn't have to be that one. Uh Schwab has their own, other people have their own. They're low cost, like 3%. Like I think I'm not promoting Vanguard, but it's a very good fund. I like it a lot. Okay. And then that's all you really need. You don't need a second one. I have a second one because I just like thinking I own every stock on the planet, and the whole planet would have to collapse for me to go out of, you know, be broken.

SPEAKER_02 50:23

So how do you, how would you tell them to um have an index fund that's worldwide?

SPEAKER_00 50:29

Okay, basically, then you would then go to I have VXUS. I'll give you these exact ones I'm using. That means every company outside of the US, that's why it's the XUS. Okay, VXUS, every company outside of the US I own. When you combine those two, it's every company on the planet. I'm not saying you have to do that, Allison. I'm comfortable completely if someone says, David, I just want the SB 500, or I just want every CISAC in the United States. I'm because you know why? A lot of the US companies, they own a lot of international operations. So, really, when you own all the US or the Fortune 500, you really own international too. So I'm saying for somebody just says, I want the super simple version, David, I want that like dummy-down version. Yeah, just get the one, get the one, that's fine. You'll be fine with that. How hard is it to transfer it from your checking account or set up an automatic transfer every month to your investment account and go sit in there and just forget the whole thing? That's what I would do. That is simple. You don't need three or four. That's when it starts getting complicated, especially if you have a life to live. You have kids, you have a spouse, you have a job. Who needs to sit on their computer for hours, study and thought? I don't need to do that stuff, you know? And that's why I thought a set it and forget it approach is better.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Suppose, like, someone like me that never knew anything, and now I'm listening to this podcast. I know I sat down with my daughter, we opened a fund, like that she's gonna, like, she's young, $20 a week, whatever it is. Oh, that's okay. That's perfect. That's perfect. But this is the thing, like someone listening who's like, I where do I go? How do I open a fund? Like what you know, like you're saying SP 500 and Vanguard, I love Vanguard, Schwab, but like, do they like how would you explain that to them? Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Let me tell you, so yeah. First of all, you want to go with one of the major companies, like Vanguard, um, Schwab, Fidelity, e-Trade. You can do a Google search. What are the top 10 brokerage companies in the world? Here's why I'm telling you to do that, okay? Because you want to have safety and security. Let me just give you a little deal here with Bernie Madoff. Okay, we all heard of Bernie Madoff, okay? He ripped off billions from people, okay? And he did it in a way that I'm shocked that he got away with it. And he he told us later that why he how he did it. What the P he didn't have his money put in a third-party fiduciary like a Schwab, or he just made up little receipts for people and made up statements for people, and he had all the money to do whatever he wants. That is the the I'm shocked that large corporations and and and trusts uh didn't realize what they were doing. You never, you want to know who the fiduciary is. When you're with a Schwab or Fidelity or Vanguard, you don't have to worry. They have a huge fiduciary. If Schwab went under, Vanguard went under, your money would still be safe because it's with a third-party government-regulated security company that you're not going to have to worry about your money being taken off. So that's why I say go with one of the big boys, okay, the big guys, okay, out there, girls. And then you can just call them yourself and say, I want what are the low-cost US index funds that cover the whole market or the Fort 200? And that will the the guy without a fee, though they have customer service people, they'll just tell you, you know, on my book I have a number of examples of the different ones you can go to, but you can do a Google search too. You can, you know, it's not that complicated. And then pick one. It's not look at their fee. I like 0.03%. That's what mine costs. 0.03%, which is like less than one-tenth of one percent. It's like really tiny because I'm hardly paying anything for that. Okay. And as long as the fee is low and the fund is the kind that doesn't turn over investments, which these funds don't, index funds don't, you're going to be paying very low taxes, very low taxes, and you're going to be paying very low fees, which means all the money you're putting in is going to work for you, not Uncle Sam, and not some investment advisor who's getting all the money. That's the secret right there. And that's what I didn't know for 40 years. So anybody on the call thinks, oh, I feel so stupid. Well, you're not as stupid as me.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

And let me ask you this, because um I never knew, I know now, but what a could you explain what a fiduciary is?

SPEAKER_00 54:32

Yeah, so that is a third party that you know how the brokerage, those people, they uh they buy and sell the investments for you, okay? But when you have investments, they aren't actually holding the money. A third party, regulated by the federal government institution, is holding the money for you, the stocks. Like say I owned a hundred shares of VTI, just to make up numbers here, okay? Then actually, Vanguard isn't holding it for me. This third party fiduciary is holding it for me. So if Vanguard goes under or they do some shady thing, which they're not, they're all good people, but I'm just saying, whatever happens, my money is separate in a government-secured, I mean regulated, I should say, company, and I'm protected. You go to a little Joe investment guy. Hey, I got a hot tip. My friend has this investment. Well, who's the fiduciary? Uh, we don't have a fiduciary. It's over. I'm not talking to you anymore. You know, that kind of thing. It's just like it's just simple. That's so one of the things I talk about in the book is how not to get ripped off. There are so many ways people don't even know they're getting ripped off that if they just were aware of it, they could increase their income significantly just by not getting ripped off. And it's happening, and you're not even aware it's happening because it's done so well. I mean, they're so pros at how to siphon money out of your out of your wallet.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

No, it's I I just um opened a 401k for my company from my employees because it's like the angry mob wants it. Yeah, they want it, and so I want to give it to people, but I feel like there's better ways to do it themselves. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, so um, I grilled the man about the the fees and everything, and I love Vanguard, just happen to feel like they're I mean, I'm not giving investment advice. Uh, can you imagine if I don't even know I'm there, I'm not, I'm not in the field, I don't know if we're getting in trouble, but you know, so basically, like, so but I didn't I didn't know anything about that kind of a thing and how to protect my employees. Yeah, and I still feel like I'm not a hundred percent sure about the all those little details because I'm paying fees, they're paying fees, so but they want it.

SPEAKER_00 56:40

Yeah, and they see that's a good thing too. You're you're a very good employer by offering that to them because it's it's a very good thing, really.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Thank you. And I would love if I could, like, I would love to share this with them. Like, hey, listen, I don't like you know, yeah, I'm matching what they're putting in, but are they also losing all that money too? Like, yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Exactly, exactly. And uh yeah, just because you're matching it doesn't mean they're making money. If they're not doing it the right way, uh my company matched too. When I worked for that company for 18 years, and and and so look where it got me. Uh it's the matches are good. Please, I'm not saying matches it, but they're wonderful. But if you don't know what to do with the money after it's masked, you're gonna be in some trouble, I think.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

Exactly. So, do you think people with a 401k like then like because then it's supposed to be being invested, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, you gotta invest it. No, you don't want to just sit in cash. That's what Taylor is. Like the company is investing it, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

And so, and usually they give you a selection of funds or selection of options to do it, and what they want, it's the same principle a low-cost index fund. And if you're with Vanguard, I'm sure they have VTI and there and VXUSS and there and other things that are really good. And so, and just pick one of those and you'll be totally fine. You'll be totally fine. Yeah, but but don't stop there for your employees. One thing I recommend everyone do is once you've maxed out of your comp of your employer's match on the 401k, I recommend opening up a Roth account. Yeah. The beautiful part of the Roth account is no, you're not getting the tax auction up front, but when you withdraw the money, it's all withdraw tax-free. So you could have 40 years of appreciation. 40 years of appreciation, tax-free. Oh my gosh, what a deal. When you're retired, you're gonna thank yourself so much for doing that because you got all this money now and you're not giving Uncle Sam a penny of it. It's all your money. Yes. And so that's something I would definitely take look into once you've maxed out of your employer's match. And there's usually, if you're putting 10 to 15% away, there's probably still money left over. And I would definitely get into your Roth. And that's anybody can do that. You don't have to be with a company, you can be an independent person, you could be uh, you know, anybody can do that.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

This particular 401k um allows for the Roth IRA.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

That's even better. Okay, then that not everyone offers that. So then then just put it all in there. Then you don't have to open your upper and just we should tell them to put it in that. Yeah, exactly. No, if they now if they max out, if you have some higher paid people, if they max out, then they should still go ahead and open up their own Roth. Yeah, but if but if they have a max out, just keep it in your if it's a Roth Row okay, that's even better. I have a Roth Row and K in my company too. But but that's the best. I didn't know you had that list. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 59:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

So, like, okay, what would what what have I not asked you that's important for people to know? Because like I like on that on that list that you have, so we got up to um the third or the fourth.

SPEAKER_00 59:26

Like I let me give you one that's really important that I want people to leave with or make sure they know it before we yeah, it's called the three C's, okay? And what it is, it's the three C's of conflict. Whether you people realize or not, it's going on, there's all kinds of noise out there, all kinds of people trying to pull you in every direction, and it's not always for your best interest, it's for theirs. And here's the three C's. One is what I call, it's pretty obvious, is conflict of interest. This is when someone's paycheck significantly influences the advice they give you. For example, a realtor tries to what wants to close the sale, creates fear of missing out, so they can get their $15,000 commission check, even if it may not be the right house for you. Or the student loan advisor who gets paid by getting people into student loan debt. That's how he gets paid. That's his job to do. Okay, then you're 10 years later. I can tell in the book I show people who are in their 60s and 70s, Allison, still paying their student loan debt. I'm talking about people who are cool. No, I it's it's I promise you, read the book and say 80-year-olds still doing it. And you know what's a sad thing when they get that old? The government starts taking it out of your social security, which now it's it's haunted them. And some of them never graduated. They never even graduated from so they got nothing for that, and they're paying for it the rest of their life. It's sad. Ridiculous. 18-year-olds should never be haunting them for the rest of their life. I would say, if you know an 18-year-old, please just take the section of the chapter on that of my book and give it to any 18-year-old, you know, that's good and think about going to college. Because that alone, they will be so grateful that they didn't do what everyone else is doing, and everyone seems to keep doing it. The second conflict is conflict-I take any loans. Oh, good. So that's good. Good. You're smart. Very smart. The second conflict is conflict of information gap. Let me give you a non-financial example, just so you understand these principles are not just money, they're just in general. When I was 55, I went to the doctors and he'd get a blood test for me. He says, Oh my gosh, David, your cholesterol is 235. Anything over 200 is bad, okay? 235 is really bad. He goes, You could have a stroke. We need to get you on statins right away. And so I said, Well, Doc, let me just look and do some research first. He goes, Oh, no, no. He says, Then he told me a story about his father who had high cholesterol, died of a stroke. He says, If I only had that, it would have lived, and he almost had tears in his eyes. And I said, Well, that's a very touching story, Doctor, but I just need to do some research. Well, he wasn't happy, but I did. I went home, did some serious research, found out that lifestyle, diet, and exercise has a big impact on that, which I never really gave it too much time. I did I did a hundred and eighty-degree turnaround in how I ate and how I worked out. I went back 90 days later, Allison, he did another blood test on me. My cholesterol went from 235 to 175. Anything under 200 is very good. Okay. Very good. I was so excited. I want to tell him all about it. He didn't want to hear it, Allison. He didn't want to, he, he's a usually the one at statins. He goes, that's just a fad thing. I'm now 72. My cholesterol is now 165, which is 10 points lower than it was. So what kind of fad is that? But I'm saying, I'm not saying he was a ripoff artist. I'm saying he had an information gap. What he was taught in medical school was drugs and the scalpel are the are the only solutions. But out there, there's a lot of information, but it's actually healthier and better. Is there any side effects to my working out? Any side effects to me eating healthy? No. But is there any side effects of statins? There's a lot. I'm not against statins. I really am not against statins. But I'm saying if you don't need them, that shouldn't be your first line of defense. It should be the last line of defense. Exactly. That's what I'm talking about. And the third conflict is conflict of responsibility. But this is where everyone assumes somebody else did the research. I know a guy, a decent person, who was in investments, and he got he was so excited about this investment. He got some people in his church involved, and he he felt we believed it was really good. They then they got involved in it. They assumed he did the research, he assumed the guy that offered her to do the research, nobody did the research. Everybody lost big money, everybody lost friendships. And it was a tragedy. Alison, here's the deal: a person's paycheck is a powerful manipulator of truth. When you are motivated by a commission to give advice, sometimes you tend to manipulate the truth to your advantage to make that money. You have to be your own. No one cares more about your wealth building than you do. You have to be your own security guard when it comes to your money. And you can't rely on other people and you can't trust other people. I'm not saying be untrusting, verify, research and verify. And if you don't want to do that, then just stay out of it. Don't do it. That's my I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:52

You know what this reminds me of? Is because you know, the arena that you're in is this um platform, like the wealth-building platform that our society has built, right? And then there's the medical community, and then I feel that, and we're also touching on the educational system. Yeah, that's right. And so many of these things are antiquated and people are still operating from those old beliefs and just following like this mediocrity, just kind of like we're all you know how, like in the story in the Bible, that all the pigs are going off the cliff and I'm going in that direction. I am not following the boars or whatever the mass legion of pigs. And it's like that's what if we just follow, we if we follow the masses, the masses aren't look at how the masses are doing. Like, think about it. Everybody's on meds. Like, where do they go? They have all this debt, they retire unhappy, they live with people they don't want to live with. Like, there's so many things that you just don't want to follow. I want to follow the 1%. I want to follow what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:00

I want to follow what actually works. Well, you know, what woke up my what woke me up is when I started digging into the research, yeah, and a lot of these gurus that are very famous that you have household names, some of their advice is costing people a lot of money. I mean, a lot of money. And I thought, boy, these are trusting people that we all love and heard of for all that kind of thing. You just can't uh give that responsibility to somebody else. I did all the math, I did all the research. I says they're they're stuck in the 70s, some of these people, they're stuck in the 80s, some of these people. They're they're not, you know, you gotta today is different than it was back then, and you gotta change with the times. But, anyways, that's yeah, that's why I did what I did.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Yeah, well, you you took control of your own life. Yeah. Like you're the master of your fate, right? Yep. So it's like the which I love. So tell me, like, how um, first of all, how people can find you, what what they should do, like to to uh get your book, um, to follow your Plan all of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:02

First of all, um, the best way to do it is to go to my uh website, which is onepagewealthcompass.com, and I'll give you the information to put it in your footnotes. I mean, show notes, I mean, um, and then just go to onepagewealthcompass.com. The first thing you're gonna see is a free one page download of the PDF of this actual wealth compass that I use, the secret sauce given to you for free, no cost or obligation. But then you're also gonna get a free newsletter, so you'll get ongoing tips and encouragement and kind of a virtual coach type thing to help you along the way. If you like the compass and you and you want to go a little deeper in the thing and really make some difference, then get the book. It's just it's it's on Amazon, it's not expensive at all. There's a link on my site, or you can go directly to Amazon and get one page wealth compass. Um, and then um, and then just read it. I promise you, a number of people say, once you start reading that first, second, or third chapter, it's gonna be hard to put the book down because there are stories that are so interesting. They're about human life, and they're just about, uh, and the mistakes and and and successes, and and it's just it's it's it's almost almost like a storybook, but it but it's a financial book too. It really is. And then just start reading it and just reading it. And then when you use that companion with this one-page compass, I mean, you've got laser focus. I dare then the financial planners or financial people who are who have uh who aren't ethical to try to rip you off. Because I mean, if you're following the system, it's pretty straightforward and it'll open your eyes to things you thought. I never knew that's I never knew I could lose that kind of money with that simple thing. And it's just really simple. So just go to onepagewealth compass.com. I'm not here to make money. I I'm making more than I've ever made my life. I'm just comfortable, but I I just can't. I was in a storm, Allison, and someone handed me a lifeline, and it was the inspiration to make this compass. And I the ultimate selfishness for me to do is just to keep it to myself. I want to share it with people to help them out too. I don't want anyone 63 or 53 or 43 standing on a financial cliff saying, my gosh, what my whole life is you know come coming apart here. No, there's no need for that. And there's just too much noise out there with conflicting information trying to pull you in different directions for their interests, not your interest. And I'm not here to badmouth other advisors. There's a lot of ethical and moral advisors out there, but I'm just saying there's also a lot of them that aren't. Yeah. And you know what?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

It's like the I mean, most people are on the fast track to working their whole lives to then not being paycheck to paycheck when later, like most people, right? Oh, yeah. So, yeah, and I love this. So, um, what is so just for everyone to know, in our show notes, we have all of this information that David is sharing, like the um where to go, the how to how to get the PDF, we'll have that all. And uh what is is there anything that you wish I would have asked you that I did not?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:46

Yeah, this is one little thing I just like to share with you. Um you've heard of a moral compass. Everyone's heard of a moral compass, okay? Well, uh I I I kind of took that the next step and made it more of a spiritual compass for myself. And yeah, and and I also have a health compass for my health, like we talked about that briefly. I also have a wealth compass and I have an income generating compass. And they're all based on the same format as this. And when you get the template to this, you can make compasses in other areas of your life because you want to protect your health, you want to protect your income, you want to protect your spirit, I would think. You know, most people do. And why not? I mean, when I saw how well this worked in building wealth, I said, wow, why don't I use them other? And as I started using other, this is working great. And so when you're looking at the book, when you look at the compass, do it for wealth building, but then don't stop there and say, wait a minute, this is the next area of my life, other than money, that's caused me the most pain. And consider doing modeling the compass I'm sharing with you in a different area of your life. And I said, there's no reason we can't all live amazing lives and happy lives. Because I know a lot of people make a ton of money and they have a miserable life. They've on their fourth marriage and their kids won't speak to them and they're all like we don't want that. We want to have a great life in all areas, not just money, but money is really important too. It's critical, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

That's awesome. Thank you. It is such a pleasure to have you. I'm going to just everyone who's listening, I'm gonna actively, you know, I'm gonna get my compass and everything, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna apply it to my life. I'm really grateful that you came on the show. I'm so happy to get to know you. And um, yeah, and everybody who's listening, please like, share, comment, and and if anything, or I'm sure most things that David is sharing, I'm sure you know someone who could really use it. So please share it with you, your younger people that you know, but also anybody who's like later and just about to retire and is kind of like could need could use this, like anybody across the ages, if you would share this, I'd really appreciate it. Because I don't monetize my podcast either. We are really here to crush mediocrity and to stop like what you're saying, all the noise that the influence on people's lives that keep them running off the cliff, like the rest of the pigs. We don't I hate saying that because I don't mean like pigs, like in a bad way. I love pigs. I know, I know, but anyhow, we just don't want to go off the cliff. That's all. And uh, and that's the only this is why I do it. So bless you all. Thank you so much, David. It's such a pleasure to know you. Thank you, Also.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:26

It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:27

Thank you.