RPF0378-Jason_Vitug_Interview
00:00:00.000 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with knowledge,
00:00:05.400 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while
00:00:10.680 | building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:00:14.240 | My guest today is Jason Vita.
00:00:16.040 | Jason, I'm holding in my hands your book called You Only Live Once, The Roadmap to Financial
00:00:24.800 | Wellness and a Purposeful Life.
00:00:27.240 | So if your subtitle and the slogan of my show are that similar, we're going to have a good
00:00:32.560 | interview today.
00:00:33.560 | Welcome.
00:00:34.560 | Hi, Josh.
00:00:35.560 | Thank you so much for having me on instead of beer.
00:00:37.560 | So we're going to talk about your book, but I'd first like to kick it off.
00:00:41.200 | Tell us a little bit about your story, especially as it relates to money.
00:00:43.600 | Where did you start and what's been your path up to now in some of your ventures currently?
00:00:48.560 | Yeah, I think the most interesting part for many people is that I started my relationship
00:00:55.880 | with money, with working, cleaning toilets, serving drinks, and found myself four years
00:01:03.240 | later in the boardroom making a six-figure salary, moving from New Jersey where I was
00:01:09.280 | raised to living out in Palo Alto, California.
00:01:12.320 | Okay, so I'm going to stop you there because that sounds interesting.
00:01:16.040 | That's good marketing speak, but I want to know more specifics.
00:01:19.120 | What type of work were you doing when you started?
00:01:21.360 | Yeah, so I started as a bartender.
00:01:25.440 | I started as a bartender in Newark International Airport.
00:01:27.840 | Okay.
00:01:28.840 | I mean, it all really started because of the fact that I never had the conversation about
00:01:34.480 | money with my parents.
00:01:37.080 | I think for most people, it's so much easier for my parents to talk about the birds and
00:01:43.520 | the bees, talk about politics and religion than it was to talk about money.
00:01:48.880 | But they were forced to talk about money when I was 17.
00:01:52.960 | When they sat me down and said, "Jason, we can't afford to send you to school," that
00:01:57.840 | to me was really devastating because I did all the right things.
00:02:02.080 | I worked really hard.
00:02:03.280 | I played sports.
00:02:04.360 | I was class president, honor society, what have you.
00:02:09.840 | But my parents, like many others that I've met, they made enough to disqualify me for
00:02:16.240 | financial aid but didn't have the resources or the means to send me to school.
00:02:21.760 | And by school, you mean college?
00:02:24.080 | To college, correct.
00:02:25.800 | And so when all my friends were going to their freshman year, I had to start working.
00:02:32.800 | And so at 18, that's how I found myself bartending, to raise enough money, to save enough money
00:02:39.000 | to attend the first year's college.
00:02:40.800 | Is it legal for a bartender to be 18 years old while serving alcohol?
00:02:45.220 | In New Jersey, yes, as long as there's no money exchanged.
00:02:48.680 | So I was working at first class lounges in Newark International Airport.
00:02:53.840 | So you can imagine, I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which is the fourth largest city.
00:03:00.740 | It's an inner city.
00:03:02.920 | And so you can imagine, here I am in the first class lounge serving people like business
00:03:10.560 | people, those who can afford to spend $5,000, $10,000 on a seat to fly anywhere around the
00:03:18.840 | world.
00:03:21.400 | But then, like, no, we're struggling to find $5,000 to send me to college.
00:03:27.920 | So that was one of the eye-opening experiences of how little I really had and how much others
00:03:34.800 | did.
00:03:36.080 | And so that reinforced kind of this mentality of not having the means and wanting to make
00:03:46.880 | money.
00:03:47.880 | But that pretty much led to me spending everything I earned just to tell others, hey, I'm not
00:03:58.880 | that poor.
00:03:59.880 | I'm not that struggling with money.
00:04:04.360 | And so every chance I got to spend cash, I did.
00:04:09.120 | So you didn't go to school then.
00:04:12.680 | You continued working and then you got another job in California.
00:04:15.060 | What actually happened that took you across the country?
00:04:17.800 | Yeah.
00:04:18.800 | So eventually when I did get to school, I went to Rutgers University.
00:04:26.040 | I was going for finance.
00:04:27.580 | So I thought that everyone I was seeing was in business.
00:04:31.560 | And the way for me to become successful and to make money, I needed to be in business.
00:04:37.120 | And so I found myself in the business school studying finance.
00:04:42.880 | And there's no way that I could go from serving drinks as a bartender to making the money
00:04:52.040 | that I saw people were making that were entering the first and business class lounges.
00:04:57.720 | And so I said, well, I need to get into banking.
00:05:01.480 | And I started my banking career as a teller.
00:05:06.840 | And I worked really hard and tried to learn as much as I could.
00:05:13.040 | And that got me the opportunity to grow.
00:05:15.480 | So in a very short period of time, I was being promoted very quickly.
00:05:22.120 | And so my income was rising.
00:05:24.080 | So I was making at the time minimum wage, and in Jersey, it was around $7.
00:05:29.840 | And then I had the opportunity to, from going as a teller, I became a customer service rep
00:05:34.960 | and a customer service reps and assistant branch manager, all within a very short time
00:05:39.520 | frame.
00:05:40.920 | And I've always had this philosophy, which started in going to the public school system,
00:05:46.600 | that I wanted to learn as much as I could.
00:05:48.440 | And I wanted to pick the brains of some of the-- and I look back now, it's like some
00:05:53.440 | of the smartest people, which ended up having to be either my work colleague or my supervisor,
00:06:00.680 | manager, and things like that.
00:06:02.880 | And they would just ingrain certain skills that enabled me to be able to perform a job
00:06:10.240 | level that was higher than what I was being paid for.
00:06:14.040 | And that also exposed me to a network that enabled me to get promoted.
00:06:20.480 | And I mean, my story goes all around the place.
00:06:23.920 | But eventually, I found the credit union world.
00:06:27.640 | I went in as-- in the branches in the credit union.
00:06:33.480 | And I wanted to get into marketing.
00:06:36.160 | I always had this creative streak about me.
00:06:41.040 | And eventually, four years from starting in the banking industry as a teller, I found
00:06:47.520 | myself in the boardroom for a credit union out in Silicon Valley.
00:06:51.280 | - How much were you earning in that job in Silicon Valley?
00:06:55.280 | - I was earning $100,000 when I started in 2009.
00:07:01.200 | - So to go from $7 an hour to $100,000, I mean, that goes from, what, $15,000 a year
00:07:09.520 | to $100,000, pretty fantastic, man.
00:07:13.160 | That's quite a story and an achievement in and of itself to do that in four years.
00:07:17.120 | - Yeah, thank you.
00:07:18.680 | So when I go and I sit back and I can spend hours and days talking about the processes
00:07:25.440 | and the nuances of going from being a teller to sitting in the boardroom in four years,
00:07:31.440 | it did take a lot of work.
00:07:33.880 | And then as I mentioned, it had a lot to do with just increasing my value for the time
00:07:38.740 | that I was spending at work and also the network of people that I was meeting.
00:07:45.000 | And interesting enough, early on in life, I learned the power of the people who you
00:07:52.280 | surround yourself with.
00:07:54.120 | And so I wasn't one of those worker bees that was saying, "It's not my job.
00:08:00.560 | I'm not getting paid for it."
00:08:02.080 | It's like, "Well, maybe it's something that I can learn and will make me more valuable."
00:08:08.440 | And so that in a sense, when I think about growing up with not having the luxuries of
00:08:15.920 | life, that that was really a really good thing for me to have.
00:08:21.440 | - I always love the aphorism, "If you do more than what you're paid to do, the day is gonna
00:08:25.500 | come eventually when you're paid more for what you do."
00:08:28.320 | But you've gotta always start that process.
00:08:31.240 | You can't expect to be paid more because compensation always comes after work is done.
00:08:36.960 | You gotta sow the seeds first.
00:08:38.260 | So you're at this credit union in California.
00:08:41.680 | What next?
00:08:42.680 | - Yeah, so I was in the credit union in California and I was there as VP of Marketing and Business
00:08:50.680 | Development.
00:08:51.920 | So I was in charge of growing the credit union.
00:08:56.000 | And the credit union had this field of membership all across the United States and they're pretty
00:09:00.720 | stagnant for some time.
00:09:03.360 | And it just says a really interesting side note, when I was up for the job for this VP
00:09:11.180 | position, I was up against two other individuals who had more experience, who had fancier degrees.
00:09:19.380 | And I remember going and presenting and talking about my idea to help grow awareness for the
00:09:27.180 | credit union and help grow its membership.
00:09:30.740 | It was all focused on education.
00:09:33.860 | It was all focused on helping people like me when I saw myself in the mirror knowing
00:09:39.220 | that I had the resources and the means and that this financial institution can help those
00:09:47.420 | like me who weren't educated and/or had access to other types of products.
00:09:53.880 | And so I was hired and I remember my CEO telling me, eventually we became friends, that they
00:10:00.700 | chose passion over experience.
00:10:05.240 | And when I was in front of the board of directors and the other executives, they saw this unpolished
00:10:15.580 | but very passionate kid, and they put that in air quotes, that had this big, bold idea
00:10:22.920 | to revolutionize how they were marketing and growing the credit union.
00:10:28.280 | And so that's how I was selected to be part of the executive team.
00:10:34.200 | And I had the go-ahead to really do something really radical, which was to talk about basic
00:10:40.280 | personal finance.
00:10:41.640 | And when you think about this, at the height of the Great Recession, that's in 2009, 2010,
00:10:48.760 | when I joined that credit union out in Menlo Park, California, everyone was still talking
00:10:54.160 | about retirement.
00:10:55.960 | Everyone was still talking about investing and the future.
00:11:01.360 | And I knew from my personal experiences and the experiences of those that I became friends
00:11:06.880 | with and the jobs that I had, that we were struggling day to day.
00:11:11.840 | And we were struggling with basic personal finance, with basic fundamentals about banking,
00:11:18.480 | budgeting, credit reports, credit scores.
00:11:22.240 | And I really wanted to go back to that, to the basics.
00:11:26.360 | And with that, we were extremely successful in getting our sponsor.
00:11:33.160 | The credit union wasn't open to everyone.
00:11:35.320 | You had to work for a specific company, this particular credit union I worked for.
00:11:40.080 | And at the time, it was Tyco, ADT, TE.
00:11:44.920 | And so they realized that there was a benefit to this financial information that we were
00:11:52.040 | sharing, the seminar that I created, all around financial motivation, all around really basic
00:11:59.160 | information.
00:12:00.720 | And it became the most widely requested seminar series of this Fortune 500 company all across
00:12:08.280 | the country.
00:12:10.360 | And everyone was downfounded.
00:12:13.240 | They hire and they pay so much money to get the big guys to come in and talk about the
00:12:18.800 | 401(k)s and et cetera.
00:12:20.400 | And those things were important.
00:12:21.960 | But I knew that if you were struggling to pay your rent or that car payment or that
00:12:27.480 | credit card or debt collectors are calling you, chances are there's no way that you can
00:12:35.160 | pay towards your retirement into that 401(k) plan.
00:12:39.560 | There's no way that you are performing at 100% at the workplace because you're thinking
00:12:44.640 | about your finances.
00:12:46.440 | And so we grew very quickly in the three and a half years that I was at the credit union.
00:12:54.160 | So you're looking at when I joined, it was a $65 million asset credit union.
00:12:58.920 | I left.
00:12:59.920 | It was at $110 million in assets.
00:13:03.400 | And because of the successes that we've had in a very short period of time, the board
00:13:10.520 | of directors and my CEO sat me down and said, Jason, we'd like to select you as the successor
00:13:18.320 | CEO of the credit union.
00:13:21.360 | And we'd like to put you into the path of replacing my CEO when she would retire in
00:13:29.000 | a few years.
00:13:30.720 | And that gave me pause.
00:13:32.800 | How old were you for that conversation?
00:13:35.360 | I was 28.
00:13:38.120 | Had you ever finished your college degree?
00:13:39.720 | Yes.
00:13:40.720 | I finished my college degree before I got out to California.
00:13:45.880 | So at that point, I was like, this is it.
00:13:49.440 | I made it.
00:13:51.880 | I got the American dream of making six figures and living in a really beautiful place and
00:13:59.480 | getting this fancy title.
00:14:02.880 | But then I just kind of looked around the stuff that I was surrounded with.
00:14:08.720 | And at that point, living out in California, I was away from my family.
00:14:12.680 | I was away from my friends.
00:14:14.600 | They're all back in Jersey.
00:14:16.840 | And so I just looked around and I said, wow, is this what I worked for?
00:14:24.200 | All this stuff that filled my apartment in Palo Alto, California.
00:14:30.820 | And so you're looking and thinking about that I came from Elizabeth.
00:14:38.220 | Now I'm living in Palo Alto, California.
00:14:42.120 | Before I graduated high school, I lived in seven different houses.
00:14:46.880 | My parents, my family, we moved around a lot.
00:14:49.960 | We were a big family.
00:14:52.160 | They had five kids and they're hardworking.
00:14:55.120 | They made sure that everything was paid for.
00:14:57.680 | So we never had to worry about money and they never had to talk to us about money.
00:15:03.440 | And but I didn't have all the luxury stuff.
00:15:05.920 | I instead of getting Nike's, we got the I think it was like I don't even know if they
00:15:13.200 | make it like the Spalding's.
00:15:14.760 | There is these shoes that they could get for like fifteen dollars, these sneakers.
00:15:19.800 | And I'll get the hand-me-downs from my brother.
00:15:23.280 | And now I'm in Palo Alto.
00:15:26.160 | I'm in this apartment that's too expensive.
00:15:30.240 | I think it was 16, a little over sixteen hundred dollars for a 700 square foot apartment in
00:15:38.520 | San Francisco, the San Francisco Silicon Valley Bay Area.
00:15:42.200 | So quite expensive and at a walk in closet with with tags with their clothes, I mean,
00:15:49.840 | clothes with their tags still on them, gadgets and things that I didn't use.
00:15:53.840 | And I had two cars, a motorcycle, a pedal bike.
00:15:58.400 | So what have you?
00:15:59.400 | And and I would travel.
00:16:00.400 | I would travel and have those experiences.
00:16:03.280 | And at the end, I just said, OK, well, if I had to reassess the direction of my life
00:16:11.080 | and my content and not being and being away from family for three and a half years and
00:16:15.720 | my friends and Jersey and now being this having this offer laid out to me, I wasn't quite
00:16:22.600 | sure if that was the you know, the path that I wanted to continue on.
00:16:28.200 | And that's when I did the complete opposite.
00:16:30.200 | I resigned instead.
00:16:32.800 | So that was dumb.
00:16:35.800 | Tell us more.
00:16:37.080 | So it's interesting.
00:16:39.240 | So it was I just remember the look on the faces of these of the executives and as well
00:16:49.560 | as the board of directors saying, you know, you're in this upward career trajectory.
00:16:54.960 | This is it.
00:16:55.960 | And and then I knew just something was missing and I wasn't quite sure what that what that
00:17:00.440 | missing part was.
00:17:02.400 | And I was equating success with all the things that I was purchasing and the fancy title.
00:17:08.600 | And and so so eventually, when I had that moment where I had this opportunity that I've
00:17:18.120 | wanted for a very long time and I looked at my bank account, I looked at the things around
00:17:24.200 | me and I was like, wow, this is a reflective of success.
00:17:28.120 | I thought that.
00:17:29.520 | Right.
00:17:30.520 | And so I was saving.
00:17:32.680 | I was saving my 401k plan.
00:17:34.480 | I was saving I was buying, you know, the stock options for our parent company, T connectivity.
00:17:41.440 | So I was doing all these really good things for my future.
00:17:45.400 | But when you looked at my bank account, you'd see every payday, the funds that were there
00:17:51.400 | went went to bills.
00:17:53.880 | And and I spent everything else on things just to keep me satisfied.
00:17:58.280 | And in the book, I I would say that I was I continue to mindlessly consume and obsessively
00:18:05.400 | complain about my situation.
00:18:08.480 | And and I remember having this conversation with my VP of finance and saying, I think
00:18:12.760 | I just need to make more money.
00:18:15.880 | And and so I was one of those individuals, whether through luck or whether through circumstance,
00:18:21.840 | I was every time I asked for a raise, I would get it and then some.
00:18:29.160 | And so even before I decided to to quit officially or resign my position, my my the executive
00:18:41.680 | team, the CEO and the board of directors offered to provide me down payment assistance to buy
00:18:47.240 | a home.
00:18:48.920 | And and I looked at this then.
00:18:50.640 | Right.
00:18:51.640 | It's like these are the golden handcuffs that people are talking about and they want to
00:18:55.680 | keep me here.
00:18:56.800 | And I wasn't necessarily sure if this is what I want to continue on.
00:18:59.200 | And I thought I was at that moment.
00:19:00.900 | And I think for many of us, right, when we're in our mid to late 20s, we're still trying
00:19:06.680 | to discover who we are.
00:19:08.120 | Many people are successful and they're in that career.
00:19:12.540 | They're in that financial situation that they are extremely happy with.
00:19:18.280 | And others and many others that I've met is that we're still trying to define our life.
00:19:23.240 | We're still trying to define our purpose, the meaning.
00:19:26.960 | And I thought that purpose and meaning all equated to the size of the income that I was
00:19:32.960 | making or that I was hitting these just financial milestones in terms of contributing to my
00:19:40.560 | 401k, contributing to different different things to set my life and be able to live
00:19:48.680 | my life the way I wanted to live it when I was 70 years old.
00:19:52.720 | And all those thoughts all culminated to to the moment where I said I quit and quitting
00:20:02.520 | landed me the opportunity to free myself from any work obligations.
00:20:08.880 | And in 2012, I found myself backpacking around the world.
00:20:12.760 | I went to 20 countries in 12 months, Southeast Asia, Central America, Western Europe.
00:20:18.480 | And then I started having these conversations with people who were telling me I was lucky
00:20:22.840 | that I was American and individuals.
00:20:28.080 | And it didn't matter what part of the country, what part of the world I was going to, whether
00:20:32.520 | it was Southeast Asia or in Belize or in Portugal, they were saying, you're so lucky it's the
00:20:40.680 | land of opportunity.
00:20:41.680 | I remember I was having this conversation with this guy in a village in Dala, Myanmar.
00:20:50.640 | And he said to me, you know, are the streets paved with gold?
00:20:56.960 | And and I thought he was joking.
00:20:59.760 | And the look in his eyes and and at that time in 2012, Myanmar, which is this country sandwiched
00:21:06.440 | by I think it's Bangladesh and Thailand, just opened up.
00:21:11.320 | They had a military junta that had been in control and they closed the country to the
00:21:17.240 | world.
00:21:18.240 | And in 2012, they just started allowing Americans and those who are holding American passports
00:21:23.420 | to enter more freely.
00:21:25.440 | And so I was one of the very few to get there.
00:21:28.660 | And when people would look at you and and they know you're different and they know that
00:21:33.000 | you're coming from the United States, they're just bombarding me with questions about opportunity,
00:21:39.960 | about the American dream.
00:21:42.200 | I mean, not in those contexts, but all around those subject matter.
00:21:47.280 | And here I was thinking to myself, these people believe that we have tremendous opportunity
00:21:57.560 | in the United States, that people are are able to just quit their jobs and backpack
00:22:03.080 | around the world that I did.
00:22:05.320 | And there is a point where all these conversations culminated to to me going to another part
00:22:13.760 | of the country in Myanmar called Bagan.
00:22:17.400 | And I and it's a picture that has become really synonymous with my brand and my image.
00:22:24.280 | I'm sitting on this eighth century temple staring out of five thousand temples, pagodas,
00:22:30.720 | stupas on the horizon.
00:22:33.360 | And it was that moment where I said to myself, I'm living my dreams.
00:22:37.760 | And where was everyone else?
00:22:40.600 | And through that, that aha moment, I I took that through all the other countries I went
00:22:47.840 | through for that year and the other conversations that impacted me.
00:22:54.720 | And I said, how did this guy who grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that everything stacked
00:23:01.000 | up against him, that had this horrible relationship with money that was doing some of the right
00:23:05.960 | things, but not all the right things?
00:23:07.320 | How did I get from that point to to saying no to the traditional path, to being able
00:23:14.080 | to say no to a higher paying position, fancier title and just go backpacking around the world
00:23:21.320 | without any plans of what's next when I came back?
00:23:26.600 | And I realized that was just it was financial knowledge.
00:23:30.240 | It was.
00:23:32.040 | And I like to say that knowledge is power, but financial knowledge is life changing.
00:23:38.600 | And being exposed in the banking industry, being exposed to experts, certified financial
00:23:45.360 | planners, financial advisors and having conversations with people when that opening up their accounts
00:23:51.720 | or on taking their deposits or or what have you in the branch.
00:23:56.080 | I was having these conversations with people who are handling their money very well and
00:24:01.920 | those who are struggling.
00:24:04.200 | And I could see people driving in with their fancy Mercedes Benz or or Range Rovers.
00:24:10.840 | And I would look in their bank account when they're making their deposit or opening up
00:24:15.720 | their checking account.
00:24:17.040 | And I'll notice that there were no savings whatsoever or that they paid multiple numbers
00:24:21.560 | of of non-sufficient fund fees.
00:24:25.160 | And and so it was that.
00:24:28.320 | And so through that process, when I got back in 2013, I wanted to understand what got me
00:24:33.760 | from where I was to where I am today.
00:24:38.120 | And and again, it had a lot to do with just beginning to understand money, beginning to
00:24:43.120 | understand my relationship with money and addressing these money beliefs that stemmed
00:24:50.440 | from my relationship with money.
00:24:52.520 | You feel a little guilty while traveling, because obviously when you travel extensively,
00:24:59.440 | you see people who, as you say, they say that the roads are paved with gold in America.
00:25:04.600 | And here you are walking away from from all that to come and to to depending on how I
00:25:12.480 | frame the question, to gawk at them or to experience their lifestyle.
00:25:17.560 | Did you feel a little guilty about walking away?
00:25:20.440 | You know, I did.
00:25:22.760 | And so something that that that I don't share as as often and I probably should.
00:25:28.320 | So when I left in in January, I think it's it was the 11th of 2012 to my first country,
00:25:37.760 | I went to the Philippines.
00:25:39.120 | I went to I flew into Manila and the Philippines.
00:25:44.520 | It's a third world country.
00:25:46.080 | It's a country that is growing, but it's a third world country.
00:25:49.400 | And I remember walking around and I'm part Filipino.
00:25:52.720 | And and I saw people struggling and they were having, you know, when there is poverty in
00:26:01.680 | the US, but you haven't seen poverty until you've seen third world poverty and people
00:26:08.440 | living in slums or living on top of each other.
00:26:11.320 | They're living by the riverbanks in these shanty like homes.
00:26:17.800 | And it was really jarring for me.
00:26:20.880 | And and so I remember I was flying from Manila in the Philippines to another island, Cebu,
00:26:29.680 | and I went and I bought I purchased my ticket and I'm in the plane and I'm sitting down
00:26:36.560 | just staring out through the window.
00:26:41.120 | And all these thoughts, these emotions are rushing into my body.
00:26:45.320 | And I've just been away.
00:26:46.320 | I've been out of the US for two weeks.
00:26:48.720 | I was holding the handrails right there.
00:26:53.280 | So I'm holding them really tightly and I have my eyes closed and I'm thinking about, you
00:26:58.680 | know, all the all the images, the conversations that I was just having in that short two week
00:27:04.560 | time frame in the Philippines.
00:27:07.000 | And I remember closing my eyes and I was having a nervous breakdown and I go, God, did I make
00:27:15.080 | the right decision?
00:27:17.600 | And and so at that point, I realized I was like, you know, did I make that right decision?
00:27:22.840 | And I decided when I landed and I went backpacking in Cebu, I was doing all the normal taking
00:27:30.760 | photos and going around being a tourist.
00:27:36.400 | And as I was in Cebu, all of a sudden I see hordes of people running and screaming and
00:27:43.680 | I didn't know what was happening.
00:27:46.080 | And and I took a step back going, oh, my God, this is a riot.
00:27:50.960 | And, you know, coming from Jersey, coming from the things that I've seen, I'm like,
00:27:54.160 | OK, this must be a riot.
00:27:55.940 | And so I stand back and I let these people pass.
00:27:58.720 | And all of a sudden, motorcycles and cars are zipping, rushing by.
00:28:02.100 | And I'm there with my camera going, I don't know what's going on until someone stopped
00:28:07.340 | and said to me and looked at me and said, run tidal wave.
00:28:12.840 | And at that point I go, I start running and I'm looking behind me thinking like, you know,
00:28:20.360 | all these people that are running behind me, you know, where's the wave coming from?
00:28:24.420 | And then I'm in an island, you know.
00:28:27.260 | So where is this wave and where am I supposed to go to?
00:28:30.120 | It was complete mayhem and chaos.
00:28:33.140 | And at that point, like I switched the camera on and I and I covered kind of the last moments
00:28:38.600 | of it where I said, maybe this is it.
00:28:42.080 | And and then I mean, obviously, I'm safe.
00:28:44.120 | I'm here talking to you.
00:28:45.160 | But I was in my hotel room and I would still feel the aftershock.
00:28:48.760 | So there was an earthquake that happened in a neighboring island.
00:28:52.080 | And because of what happened in Thailand and Indonesia with the tsunami, the swelling of
00:28:57.800 | the ocean for a bit caused a panic throughout kind of like the islands in the middle part
00:29:04.360 | of the Philippines.
00:29:05.720 | And so people started text messaging and and saying that there was a tidal wave that was
00:29:09.880 | coming.
00:29:10.880 | And then all of a sudden I had all these images of what that could look like.
00:29:15.320 | And I thought, OK, well, I left this comfy job.
00:29:18.280 | I'm having this nervous breakdown because I left a six figure salary and people are
00:29:22.240 | struggling.
00:29:23.240 | And here I am, like exploring without a care in the world.
00:29:28.840 | And then now I'm going to die in a tsunami here in Cebu.
00:29:34.680 | And everything with everything ended up being being fine.
00:29:40.360 | And I got some some fame because I went and I posted this video on YouTube and the National
00:29:47.120 | News saw the video.
00:29:49.840 | And then all of a sudden they plastered my face on TV.
00:29:54.440 | And so on the news, people they had American caught in tsunami.
00:29:58.900 | And so I had my little bout of my five minutes or 15 minutes of fame in the Philippines.
00:30:03.680 | But it was that moment when I closed my eyes.
00:30:06.640 | And this was probably after midnight in the hotel room.
00:30:10.320 | And I remember going, OK, God, I I said I wanted an adventure.
00:30:16.480 | I didn't want the traditional path.
00:30:18.760 | And that was quite an answer to to that question.
00:30:24.240 | And from that point on, I said, I'm going to, you know, throw my plans across.
00:30:29.860 | And that's how I ended up, you know, backpacking through through 20 countries in that 12 month
00:30:34.440 | time frame.
00:30:35.440 | And allow myself to open up and come to terms with the mindset that I had and the steps
00:30:42.880 | that I took to get me from again, from where I was, where I am today.
00:30:46.680 | So I want to get to the content of your book and what you actually teach.
00:30:49.000 | So just to summarize, you went on that trip, came back to the US, I guess, took a little
00:30:54.400 | bit of time to figure some things out, started working on some of your personal finance projects.
00:31:00.200 | And then recently you've finished a 50 state tour this past summer of teaching seminars
00:31:05.320 | on financial wellness.
00:31:06.320 | And then you've just recently published the book, You Only Live Once.
00:31:09.240 | Is that a reasonably correct, concise summary of the last few years since your trip?
00:31:14.280 | That's absolutely it.
00:31:15.280 | That's what has transpired in the last three years.
00:31:17.400 | OK, so you based upon your experience, which you charted out, which in many ways, don't
00:31:24.360 | be offended.
00:31:25.360 | I think it's the perfect stereotypical millennial experience.
00:31:29.000 | And I want to explore it because we are compatriots in terms of being of similar age.
00:31:34.920 | How old are you currently, Jason?
00:31:35.920 | 33.
00:31:36.920 | OK, so you're two years older than I am.
00:31:39.640 | But this is kind of the experience that many of our generation faces.
00:31:43.920 | And this is something that the reason I ask you about if you're guilty and the reason
00:31:47.640 | I'm asking you some of these probing questions is you and I might understand this, and perhaps
00:31:54.280 | many of our younger listeners will.
00:31:56.220 | But there are many people who hear this angst that you described, living in California,
00:32:01.680 | working, being in line with a CEO, who hear this kind of personal turmoil, angst, and
00:32:06.520 | just say, what's wrong with you?
00:32:10.400 | Why do you not take advantage of this?
00:32:13.040 | You can go visit your family, and you can set up a nice life.
00:32:16.840 | So I want to explore the emotions of this a little bit and also explore your advice
00:32:23.080 | for others.
00:32:24.080 | So you've spoken with a lot of people all around the world, and you put a lot of research
00:32:28.280 | into your book.
00:32:30.800 | What is different about you and our generation that makes you approach money this way as
00:32:39.120 | compared to perhaps your parents or grandparents who would have been content to say, I've got
00:32:46.520 | a great opportunity here at this credit union, I'm going to keep on working and doing good
00:32:49.700 | work here?
00:32:51.960 | I think we are a generation that was raised to believe that anything and everything was
00:32:58.360 | possible.
00:32:59.360 | That if we wanted something, we had to work really hard, and we can achieve it.
00:33:05.160 | We can achieve our dreams.
00:33:06.160 | We are the first generation to say, if you have a dream, you can live it.
00:33:12.400 | You can have it.
00:33:14.000 | And our parents, the baby boomers, worked really, really hard to enable us to be able
00:33:21.780 | to live our dreams.
00:33:23.980 | And maybe they had to, and I have these conversations with baby boomers, who say, yes, I sacrificed
00:33:28.520 | really hard.
00:33:29.520 | I worked tons of hours.
00:33:31.160 | I stayed at one or two jobs in my lifetime so I could provide food on the table.
00:33:36.880 | I could make sure that my kids went to college so they can live their dream life.
00:33:43.440 | And what's really interesting, when you talk about that point of contention, is that, yeah,
00:33:47.600 | I'll hear some baby boomers saying, yes, you're an entitled generation.
00:33:50.920 | You're a generation that, like you, here you are, Jason.
00:33:59.400 | You graduated and you went to, you had this fancy job, and you're making money, more money
00:34:05.040 | than what others would make.
00:34:08.400 | And you turned it all around and said, forget this.
00:34:12.480 | I'm going to go backpacking around the world.
00:34:15.680 | And that really boils down to the values that our parents, my parents, instilled in me.
00:34:20.880 | My parents worked really hard, and they wanted to make sure that I had the opportunity to
00:34:28.120 | be able to enjoy life.
00:34:29.840 | So they spent their time working to give their kids a better life.
00:34:34.360 | And so that value system, all relating to time.
00:34:38.520 | And my parents worked all the time.
00:34:41.840 | And so, and like my brothers and sisters and I, we had to take care of ourselves.
00:34:45.880 | But it really had to do with this value of time, this belief that we can achieve and
00:34:54.840 | we can live the life of our dreams sooner rather than later.
00:34:59.720 | These are things that we were taught by our parents, the baby boomers.
00:35:04.060 | And so when I hear this point of contention between baby boomers and millennials, Gen
00:35:08.200 | Y, I like to say that we are the product of our parents' hopes and dreams.
00:35:15.300 | So our parents had these hopes, they had these dreams, and they instilled them into us.
00:35:21.320 | And they created us.
00:35:23.200 | And so we are an entitled generation in the sense that we were told that if we go to college,
00:35:30.640 | we'll get a great job and we'll be able to afford a house and start a family.
00:35:35.600 | And then for many of us, we were raised in what, two, like the internet bust in the early
00:35:42.320 | 2000s, and then the housing crisis in our formative years after college.
00:35:48.440 | And so all of a sudden we start saying, wait a minute, like this traditional path that
00:35:52.720 | they went on doesn't really align with the values that they taught us.
00:35:59.720 | And so for many of us, that's how we were stressing and using our hard-earned dollars
00:36:05.000 | on experiences than things.
00:36:10.040 | How does this approach financial planning?
00:36:13.160 | How does this change financial planning?
00:36:15.040 | And let me give a little bit more background to the question.
00:36:17.720 | You, in your work in the credit union, you had some exposure to traditional financial
00:36:21.540 | planning.
00:36:22.760 | And now in your work of You Only Live Once and the work that you've done of laying out
00:36:28.640 | how to approach financial planning, you've talked more, you're incorporating some of
00:36:33.320 | the more non-traditional aspects.
00:36:36.120 | And even in your own story, you were putting money into a 401k, but then you quit your
00:36:39.760 | job to travel the world.
00:36:40.800 | So obviously you need money for that.
00:36:42.040 | Now you're trying to put together this career that's different.
00:36:45.880 | Now you've put together this career that is different than what it was previously.
00:36:51.040 | So I find that in the world of financial planning, there's a real disconnect in the ability for,
00:36:56.840 | say millennials with the life attitude that you just described, and financial advisors
00:37:02.760 | who are trained to serve a baby boomer generation.
00:37:05.440 | I find there's a real disconnect of their ability to communicate with one another.
00:37:08.980 | So how does this type of approach, this You Only Live Once approach affect financial planning?
00:37:17.960 | How do you incorporate this desire to live now, do it now, while also recognizing the
00:37:23.320 | value of saving and investing over a lifetime?
00:37:26.720 | Yeah.
00:37:27.720 | So I first, I'm sure as people are listening, and I get this a lot too, it's like, why did
00:37:32.400 | I title it You Only Live Once?
00:37:35.120 | That comes from our generation's use of YOLO, right?
00:37:39.260 | We shortened it up, used the acronym YOLO, and that was associated with mindless spending
00:37:43.980 | sprees that was associated with just kind of living for the moment without a care to
00:37:48.380 | the future.
00:37:50.060 | And as we get older, so we're no longer 21 and careless, and many of us can still be
00:37:59.020 | careless in our 30s, we're really understanding the term YOLO as it relates to what it stood
00:38:09.900 | for, You Only Live Once, and that yes, we can make unwise financial decisions for the
00:38:15.320 | moment that can curtail our ability to enjoy future moments.
00:38:20.640 | So You Only Live Once is an understanding, it's awareness that through sound financial
00:38:27.220 | decision making, you can have a lifetime of moments that are positive.
00:38:32.940 | So it's not about saying, okay, well, I need to buy that expensive luxury car that I can't
00:38:39.700 | afford, but YOLO, and then all of a sudden we find ourselves six months later struggling
00:38:44.840 | to make the car payment or the insurance payment, because to me, that's not living this one
00:38:51.400 | lifetime and things like that.
00:38:53.780 | So I really wanted to stress that it wasn't about this consumption and this spur of the
00:39:02.100 | moment decision making, that it's true awareness that you have this one lifetime here on this
00:39:09.940 | planet, and you have the opportunity to make sound financial decisions that can enable
00:39:16.340 | you to enjoy a lifetime.
00:39:19.480 | And so that has truly resonated.
00:39:21.620 | It has resonated across generations.
00:39:24.060 | I mean, I have traditionalists that attend the sessions as well as baby boomers who said,
00:39:28.700 | I wish I knew this 30, 40 years ago, because this aligns with my values today, that there's
00:39:35.420 | a balance.
00:39:36.420 | There's a balance of saving for the future and also enjoying some of the things that
00:39:42.740 | you enjoy, whether it is luxury goods or it is experiences.
00:39:47.920 | And I found that speaking with financial advisors and experts who serve the baby boomer generation,
00:39:56.760 | they're still looking at this tried and true method, right?
00:39:59.660 | This method of, okay, you're buying a home, you need to send these kids to school, you
00:40:07.340 | will be retiring at the age of 70.
00:40:09.300 | So there are all these benchmarks.
00:40:13.500 | And then I see speaking with those who are retired and follow this traditional financial
00:40:19.820 | planning, they get sick because one, there is no purpose to their life for one, so they
00:40:28.660 | become ill and they end up passing a few years after retirement.
00:40:32.560 | I had one individual share that with me that happened to their spouse.
00:40:37.960 | And so what I've noticed, and there's a growing shift of advisors and CFPs that are catering
00:40:45.720 | to our generation and generation Z and even generation X, that we can do sound financial
00:40:52.900 | planning, we can contribute to our retirement at the same time, be able to enjoy the things
00:40:59.640 | that, you know, in our lives that make our life worth living, that we can look back and
00:41:07.640 | say, yes, that was a great lifetime of moments.
00:41:12.640 | And it really starts with the vision for life.
00:41:17.380 | And when I've sat down with traditional financial advisors, they'll talk to me specifically
00:41:22.120 | about my financial goals.
00:41:24.440 | And we rarely had a conversation about how those financial goals relate to the vision
00:41:29.760 | of the life that I wanted to live.
00:41:32.240 | And I've noticed that I was always pushed to, okay, what's the vision for your retirement?
00:41:38.280 | So here I am in my 20s being told, how do you envision your retirement?
00:41:44.940 | What do you hope to be doing when you're 70, when you're unable to walk or you're having
00:41:48.520 | pains and things like that?
00:41:50.920 | And I said, this just doesn't resonate.
00:41:52.620 | It's like, how am I supposed to think about something 40, 50 years into the future?
00:42:01.180 | But that's what all the conversations were being steered at was something down at 70.
00:42:07.840 | And now I was following this traditional path.
00:42:11.040 | And when I shared my story, things weren't working out the way that I'd envisioned in
00:42:15.440 | some aspects.
00:42:17.120 | And I realized that's like, okay, there has to be some type of middle ground.
00:42:20.920 | There has to be a way for us to allocate our time and resources on the things that matter,
00:42:27.640 | on the things that I value today.
00:42:33.560 | But also to the point where I'm saving for the future.
00:42:37.680 | And I think of retirement quite differently, and I've noticed, than the majority of people
00:42:43.120 | that I do meet out on the road, that retirement is the state in which you are physically unable
00:42:50.800 | to exchange your time for a paycheck or for money.
00:42:55.240 | So I meet people who are 70, 80, they're still working, they're still chugging along, and
00:43:00.120 | they want to work because, yeah, they get some additional cash and they don't necessarily
00:43:03.920 | need to because they have a great nest egg, but they do it for social reasons.
00:43:08.360 | They do it because they want to use their time as opposed to just sitting around.
00:43:15.000 | And then so I knew that there's that middle ground.
00:43:18.260 | And looking back again, in my experience, looking back on the things that I purchased
00:43:23.400 | and how do they represent my values in terms of the time spent here in this world, I realized
00:43:29.040 | that I was like, oh, wait, wait a minute.
00:43:32.040 | I can spend on the things that matter and I can plan for the future to the point where
00:43:37.680 | if I'm physically unable to exchange my time for a paycheck, that I have enough to pay
00:43:46.360 | for my living expenses.
00:43:47.640 | I have enough to continue to enjoy life.
00:43:51.520 | And that was again, was like one of that aha moment.
00:43:54.000 | And I thought I was alone in this.
00:43:55.200 | And the more that I speak, the more I got into personal finance blogging.
00:43:59.000 | And that's what I started doing in 2013, just kind of sharing this.
00:44:02.520 | And the community started growing and I started meeting you and others like you that had this
00:44:08.920 | different idea that we can spend our money on things that we enjoy.
00:44:14.880 | But we have to be really clear.
00:44:16.400 | We have to understand the value in which they contribute to our life.
00:44:23.800 | And so that moment, that's how I've been living my life in some degree and just more so in
00:44:30.880 | the past few years.
00:44:31.880 | I want to ask you one more question on this mindset.
00:44:35.280 | I want to transition to actually some of the specifics, things that you've done and the
00:44:39.640 | strategies you've employed to make this work for yourself.
00:44:41.880 | As a listener of my show who is very financially knowledgeable, has a young family and has
00:44:48.760 | money in a retirement account, but in considering the age of their children, they're considering
00:44:56.400 | pulling out of the workforce for a year and traveling with their family and their children
00:45:00.320 | around the country on an RV trip.
00:45:01.960 | It was a long held dream, long held goal.
00:45:04.480 | But in order to finance it, they'd need to choose to withdraw money from their 401k early.
00:45:10.240 | I don't care about the financial cost.
00:45:12.560 | This listener is very aware of the costs of penalties and taxes, et cetera.
00:45:19.320 | What I care about is, so I'm not asking you to comment on the advisability of such an
00:45:24.480 | action.
00:45:25.480 | What I care about is the challenge of prioritizing now versus later.
00:45:30.480 | If you were given a scenario like I've just described, how would you advise somebody to
00:45:37.120 | consider the advisability of pursuing a short term goal versus a long term goal, given that
00:45:44.560 | there are costs and benefits to both?
00:45:47.520 | Absolutely.
00:45:49.520 | I mean, we can go and do an analysis and I tend to state to people when they're deciding
00:45:57.800 | whether or not to leave a job, and then for this instance, leave for a year and go cross
00:46:03.360 | country to outweigh the financial cost, the pros and the cons, to outweigh the experiences
00:46:10.320 | and what you hope to.
00:46:12.400 | And I think at this point, there are ways for you to plan the finances for this year,
00:46:19.840 | as opposed to just kind of going blindly.
00:46:23.800 | And so for me to kind of give you my strategy and how I left my senior executive job and
00:46:30.880 | was able to travel for a year without thoughts to finances, and I still had expenses very
00:46:37.640 | minimally.
00:46:39.000 | That was one.
00:46:41.960 | If you have this idea, this thought you want to go away for a year is to start saving to
00:46:49.960 | cover the basic living expenses.
00:46:53.600 | So that is definitely a strategy that does work.
00:46:56.440 | And so it's not about saving tons of money, it's saving the amount that you need just
00:47:02.480 | to cover the basics.
00:47:04.380 | And that could be maybe you still have some student loan debt that you need to pay.
00:47:12.040 | Maybe there are some credit card debt that needs to be paid, etc.
00:47:17.880 | You have your cell phone bill.
00:47:19.840 | So you need to know and calculate how much those things are and be able to project, okay,
00:47:25.420 | this is the amount that I need in order for me to cover whatever those basic living expenses
00:47:30.540 | are.
00:47:31.700 | So housing, food, etc.
00:47:34.120 | And the wonderful thing about that, it's not about, you're not looking at income, you're
00:47:40.040 | looking at expenses.
00:47:41.840 | And so you have the ability to start cutting things that are eating at your income or your
00:47:48.420 | ability to put money into an account that you can use for the entire year.
00:47:54.360 | And so for me, I looked at, I was saving for a down payment in a home.
00:47:58.600 | And then when I realized I wanted to go backpacking around the world instead, I used the money
00:48:04.880 | that I was saving for this down payment on a home and I paid off the rest of my debt.
00:48:10.040 | I mean, I was still carrying student loan debt.
00:48:11.800 | I had a bit of credit card debt.
00:48:14.600 | And so I used that down payment to pay off the rest of that debt.
00:48:20.040 | And I looked at my expenses.
00:48:21.360 | At that point, I let go of, you know, I didn't have my apartment.
00:48:23.960 | I sold a majority of my things, I think 99% of my things, the cars.
00:48:30.280 | And so I had the most minimal expenses that you could have on a monthly basis.
00:48:37.000 | And that allowed me to backpack around the world for an entire year at $10,000.
00:48:43.440 | And so I look at this as you don't want to stress yourself with leaving the workforce,
00:48:50.800 | going on this cross country adventure, and then coming back and going, "What the heck
00:48:57.080 | did I just do?"
00:48:59.320 | Now I'm stressed because you're not going to look back.
00:49:02.980 | And I think of success as the ability to look back in time through whatever you've gone
00:49:09.640 | through and say, "Today, I am happy.
00:49:12.640 | I am content.
00:49:13.720 | I'm in a good place today," regardless of the things that happened.
00:49:17.160 | And now if you're coming back from this cross country trip and you've placed yourself in
00:49:22.760 | a financial situation, all this uncertainty, this debt, you're not going to be able to
00:49:28.280 | look at the experience fondly.
00:49:31.240 | You're not going to be able to have the experiences that you want.
00:49:37.000 | And so I really encourage people to think about the various options that they have before
00:49:43.100 | leaving a job and then going out traveling the world if the company offers a sabbatical.
00:49:48.960 | If not and you do decide to leave, you do some planning.
00:49:53.880 | And that kind of goes back to financial wellness.
00:49:56.520 | It's the vision, getting clarity of your values, and financial planning.
00:50:01.000 | That's a really key component, making sure that those expenses are paid up.
00:50:05.940 | But that's one way.
00:50:06.940 | So there are some traditional aspects to kind of doing the non-traditional path.
00:50:11.680 | And again, all aimed at being able to enjoy your short-term goals at the same time, not
00:50:20.160 | fearing what the future has in store.
00:50:22.600 | Jason, you left the job that had a lot of career promise.
00:50:27.440 | How do you support yourself financially now since coming back from your trip?
00:50:31.440 | So as I mentioned, I did some wise financial decision making.
00:50:36.880 | I'd always contributed.
00:50:39.340 | And so let me take a step back.
00:50:42.240 | When I was younger, when I was 21 and I joined the workforce, someone sat me down.
00:50:47.680 | She was a financial advisor.
00:50:49.380 | And she said, Jason, whatever you do, just keep contributing 10% into your 401(k) because
00:50:54.800 | I don't care.
00:50:55.800 | And she says, I don't care what you do with your money.
00:50:59.260 | Just do that.
00:51:00.260 | And then for some reason, it was the first financial advice that I ever got from at that
00:51:05.300 | point someone that I knew was an expert and had all these certifications and licenses.
00:51:11.020 | And so I followed that and I contributed 10% of my 401(k) and then I dabbled in the stock
00:51:18.820 | market and just kind of playing around saying, OK, well, that's interesting.
00:51:23.660 | And so I do have investments that I've held on to through the years that are paying off.
00:51:33.580 | And in addition, I am a freelance writer.
00:51:36.900 | So there are moments where I get an opportunity to write.
00:51:39.260 | I've also become a consultant and I address millennial issues in the workplace and also
00:51:50.060 | how to speak our language, specifically with fintech companies or financial technology
00:51:56.620 | companies, financial services such as credit unions and community banks.
00:51:59.980 | Like how do you talk to us in a way that you know you understand our value system, you
00:52:06.660 | understand how we do prioritize experience over things and how we want to live for the
00:52:13.380 | moment but also plan for the future and how we don't want to be sold products and we want
00:52:17.820 | to be aligned with brands that understand, again, our values.
00:52:24.020 | And so that's how I'm able to support myself through some blogging, through some consultations
00:52:29.020 | and speaking gigs across the country.
00:52:31.780 | Have you ever wondered if you made the right decision?
00:52:36.580 | I can tell you right now, as I mentioned, success is looking back and saying, wow, through
00:52:40.020 | all that stuff, I'm content.
00:52:42.660 | And there hasn't been a moment in the past three years that I've questioned my decision
00:52:49.540 | in leaving.
00:52:51.180 | And that's because it has been a roller coaster ride.
00:52:55.500 | And I've realized at this point when we when we incorporate sound financial decision making
00:53:03.260 | with a very clear focus and purpose, I don't have time to go, wow, maybe I should be back
00:53:12.700 | in corporate.
00:53:13.700 | But I do want to say I went back to during my road trip across the country where we drove
00:53:19.060 | 18000 miles and had 54 events.
00:53:23.420 | I was back in the Bay Area in San Francisco and I had three events all across the Bay.
00:53:28.460 | And I remember I was in San Jose, California, and I wanted to check the the condo that I
00:53:34.180 | wanted to purchase back then in 2011.
00:53:36.460 | It was a two bedroom condo at these towers at the new building in downtown San Jose.
00:53:42.740 | And it was going for four hundred thousand dollars back in 2011.
00:53:46.100 | Right.
00:53:47.100 | And so I went and I look at what the two bedroom condos going for close to one point
00:53:53.340 | to five million dollars.
00:53:56.380 | So when you're talking about thinking, thinking about, well, maybe did I make the right decision
00:54:03.660 | at that point?
00:54:04.660 | I just laugh because in a very short period of time, you're looking at that the value
00:54:08.380 | of that condo.
00:54:09.380 | If I had purchased it back in 2011 would be three times as much then.
00:54:15.940 | But again, at that point, I wouldn't have had this clarity of thought.
00:54:20.140 | I wouldn't have been clear in terms of money mindset and I wouldn't have been able to truly
00:54:25.820 | understand my relationship with money, to craft a life of financial well-being and a
00:54:31.140 | purposeful one.
00:54:33.740 | Final question is always would you even have sold at that point in time because or would
00:54:39.660 | you have would you have jumped ship?
00:54:41.580 | It is definitely a matter of intelligent timing, but sometimes it's easier to jump a little
00:54:46.180 | early than a little bit late because you're less you're less committed.
00:54:51.060 | I know when I left when I left my and closed my financial planning business to pursue radical
00:54:56.980 | personal finance, there were many factors involved.
00:54:59.920 | But one that I did seriously consider was the fact that although it was a very expensive
00:55:04.660 | decision for me to leave, I walked away from a lot of of future income that I had already
00:55:09.340 | earned in various deferred compensation arrangements.
00:55:13.340 | But I looked at it and said, "If it's this hard now, in five years when the numbers are
00:55:19.420 | triple, it's going to be a lot harder.
00:55:21.940 | And will I really walk away at that point in the future?"
00:55:24.780 | Now I think anybody, if you count the cost and you decide that you want to make a change,
00:55:29.300 | you'll make a change no matter what.
00:55:31.120 | But golden handcuffs are very real and you get used to certain things.
00:55:35.980 | And so I think it's worth factoring that in to your decision criteria.
00:55:41.540 | Last question I want to bring to you Jason here is you just finished this trip that you
00:55:45.180 | briefly said, 18,000 miles, 54 stops doing financial wellness seminars.
00:55:50.700 | How long were you on the road for that trip?
00:55:52.740 | A hundred and seven days.
00:55:54.920 | So what's interesting to me about this is it's a good way of showing how when you have
00:55:59.740 | an area of interest and an area of focus, you can incorporate work and fun.
00:56:06.260 | So you had a 107 day road trip.
00:56:08.260 | I'm sure a lot of parts of it were difficult and were work, but it was also fun, wasn't
00:56:12.740 | it?
00:56:13.740 | Absolutely.
00:56:14.740 | I got to hike, I got to explore, and I got to eat at really fancy places that you'd see
00:56:23.020 | on TV.
00:56:24.620 | And so it was a lot of fun.
00:56:25.740 | And exactly what you said, I'm at the stage in my life where I'm very fortunate through
00:56:32.060 | a lot of hard work and timing and new networks and connections that I'm able to incorporate
00:56:37.180 | the things that I enjoy.
00:56:38.940 | So I'm passionate about personal finance.
00:56:42.020 | I'm passionate about helping others.
00:56:43.820 | I'm passionate and love traveling and having new experiences.
00:56:48.220 | That's what I wanted to do when I decided to leave corporate and start backpacking around
00:56:51.740 | the world.
00:56:52.740 | And here I am.
00:56:54.780 | And I look at myself and I'm in the mirror and I say, "Jason, is this real life?"
00:56:59.620 | Because I now have this opportunity to incorporate all these things that I enjoy into something
00:57:06.540 | that generates income and serves my purpose.
00:57:11.180 | So how did you, what were the financial arrangements for a trip like this?
00:57:15.060 | I assume you had a couple sponsors and you were doing some work with a client and then
00:57:18.500 | also, I think it tied in with your book.
00:57:21.700 | But my impression is that you made money on this road trip.
00:57:25.700 | Is that right?
00:57:27.020 | Correct.
00:57:28.340 | So I had sponsors who purchased copies of the books and also sponsors who paid me to
00:57:35.020 | go speak in front of an audience to share the exact parts of the story that I just shared
00:57:41.220 | with your listeners.
00:57:44.900 | And so the majority of my sponsors throughout the country were credit unions.
00:57:52.020 | And I also work with USAA.
00:57:54.540 | They sponsored three of my stops.
00:57:56.700 | But you're looking at 30 stops across the country were sponsored by local credit unions.
00:58:02.820 | And also work with some FinTech folks and nonprofit organizations and city organizations,
00:58:07.060 | all excited about trying to figure out what makes us tick?
00:58:10.020 | Why are we so focused on experiences and not just things?
00:58:13.260 | And what is this YOLO mentality all about?
00:58:16.900 | So yeah, the generosity of sponsors that align with my vision as well as the mission of the
00:58:24.260 | road trip helped make this possible.
00:58:27.060 | And part of that too was to ensure that the cost was covered.
00:58:31.260 | It's a really expensive endeavor to spend 107 days on the road as well as host events.
00:58:37.280 | So not only did we just show up in a couple of places, we hosted events, we found the
00:58:41.380 | venue.
00:58:42.380 | We did the food and things like that.
00:58:46.180 | But also at the point to knowing that what was the value with the time that we spent
00:58:53.220 | on the road as well as the potential for profit to continue the conversation going forward.
00:58:59.940 | It is just a cool example though of how many things can be done where when you get free
00:59:05.700 | of some constraints, you can substitute ways to earn income and do something that you care
00:59:11.940 | about and there are plenty of ways in today's world to integrate this with sponsors, etc.
00:59:17.940 | and really make it happen.
00:59:18.940 | Jason, thanks for coming on and sharing your story.
00:59:20.780 | Tell us about your website.
00:59:21.780 | Tell us about the book and any actions that you'd like my audience to take as a result
00:59:26.580 | of this interview, please.
00:59:27.580 | Awesome.
00:59:28.580 | Thank you so much, Josh, for having me on.
00:59:30.060 | I truly enjoy this.
00:59:31.780 | For those of you who want to learn more, you can visit jasonvita.com.
00:59:37.060 | Just some personal thoughts that I share on my personal website.
00:59:40.020 | I also do have a Q&A platform about 65,000 millennials sharing financial information,
00:59:46.380 | asking questions and that's frugal.com.
00:59:49.060 | That's with a P-H-R-O-O-G-A-L.com.
00:59:52.180 | Play on the word frugal.
00:59:53.820 | And you want to learn more about the Road to Financial Wellness, that's roadtofinancialwellness.com
00:59:59.740 | to learn more about the road as well as about the book and the possibility and they'll make
01:00:05.100 | that announcement here for Road Trip 3.0.
01:00:08.020 | I was just going to say, what's next?
01:00:10.500 | Possibility, it sounds like.
01:00:12.220 | Well, awesome, man.
01:00:13.780 | Thanks again.
01:00:14.780 | Thank you.
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