RPF0704-Friday_QA-Upgrading_Lifestyle_Public_Speaking_Course_MPT_Antibiotics_401ks_Multiple_Citizenships_LTC_Insurance_Asset_Protection_for_Real_Estate

00:00:00.000 | Today on Radical Personal Finance, we again do live Q&A.

00:00:20.960 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, a show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,

00:00:23.720 | skills, insight and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while

00:00:27.160 | building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

00:00:30.560 | Today we do live Q&A.

00:00:31.920 | This is basically part two of the live Q&A show.

00:00:35.840 | Created generally I restrict these shows to patrons of the show, but today I open it up

00:00:39.520 | to listeners who are on the email list and so we've got a couple dozen callers on the

00:00:43.200 | line and we continue in just a moment.

00:00:53.040 | Remember that if you ever want basically guaranteed access to a live Q&A show, you can do that

00:00:56.860 | by becoming a patron of the show.

00:00:58.240 | Go to patreon.com/radicalpersonalfinance and you'll get basically guaranteed access to

00:01:01.880 | the show there.

00:01:02.880 | I had about 50 callers.

00:01:04.160 | The reason I do that is because it helps me to meter out the number of callers.

00:01:07.660 | On today's show I had about 50 callers that came in with a general advice, about 20 or

00:01:12.960 | so of them, 25 of them, 20, about 20, made it in in time and then I locked the conference

00:01:18.920 | and we've just had lots of people turned away.

00:01:21.440 | And that's one of the reasons why I use the Patreon program because it helps me with those

00:01:24.040 | people who are willing to send a few dollars a month.

00:01:26.040 | It helps me to be able to serve them effectively without being overwhelmed with callers.

00:01:29.380 | But today is your lucky day.

00:01:30.380 | We've got open phone lines.

00:01:32.000 | So Brandon in Michigan, welcome to the show.

00:01:33.920 | You're up next.

00:01:34.920 | How can I serve you today?

00:01:35.920 | Hi Joshua.

00:01:36.920 | I really appreciate you taking my call.

00:01:37.920 | How are you today?

00:01:39.680 | Very well sir and you?

00:01:40.680 | I'm doing well.

00:01:41.680 | I'm hoping you can help me walk through a few things.

00:01:46.400 | So by way of background, I just turned 25.

00:01:48.960 | I make around $75,000 a year and I have $10,000 remaining in student loans.

00:01:53.920 | I purchased a single family house two years ago with the intent to house hack for a few

00:01:58.240 | years, buy another house, rent the first property and then repeat that strategy into financial

00:02:02.440 | independence.

00:02:03.440 | So in my four bedroom house, I had three roommates, actually college buddies for the first year.

00:02:09.120 | Now I'm down to one roommate who's covering half of my mortgage payments, but is moving

00:02:12.320 | out in the next 12 months.

00:02:14.200 | I didn't really know what I was getting into when I bought the house, when it came to repairs,

00:02:17.840 | maintenance, that kind of thing.

00:02:19.800 | But I knew the math made sense and I feel I learned a lot about my local rental market

00:02:24.720 | and what work is required in general, but I'm not positive I'm ready to continue growing

00:02:28.980 | or buy another place yet.

00:02:30.680 | So I'm conflicted because the math makes sense for me to continue my initial plan.

00:02:34.520 | So buy another place, rent it out, rent out the first place and continue.

00:02:37.880 | But I'm also at a point in my career where I'd like to spend more time developing my

00:02:41.920 | profession while also spending meaningful time with family and friends, taking vacations,

00:02:46.760 | etc. while I'm relatively young.

00:02:50.120 | So I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

00:02:51.120 | If you have, I guess your thoughts, if you were in my shoes or what things you think

00:02:56.120 | I should be considering going forward.

00:02:58.120 | Yeah, I appreciate it.

00:03:01.320 | How much is your monthly mortgage payment?

00:03:05.240 | Say $1,000, make it simple math.

00:03:09.200 | How much did you pay for the house?

00:03:11.520 | $155.

00:03:13.760 | How much could you sell it for today if you put it on the market?

00:03:16.840 | Based on the most recent, like, in the range of, I'd say $170, I think.

00:03:24.160 | And how long have you lived there?

00:03:26.480 | Just about two years.

00:03:31.800 | Why have you not rented out the other two bedrooms thus far after the other roommates

00:03:36.880 | left?

00:03:38.800 | So the idea of house hacking, you know, sounds great and it was financially.

00:03:43.520 | But after, you know, graduating out of college, I was kind of done with the college lifestyle.

00:03:48.440 | So you know, just little things like that with roommates that, you know, can drive you

00:03:54.000 | up a wall.

00:03:55.000 | So that was the primary reason I was content with having each one drop and then, you know,

00:03:59.760 | I was, you know, more peace in the house.

00:04:02.280 | So I figure I'd be paying rent anyway, like most people.

00:04:07.480 | So the fact that I have half of it covered now is okay.

00:04:10.960 | But with my roommate moving out, you know, in about a year, I figured it would be a good

00:04:14.880 | time to, if I were to make the move, it would be now, rent out the house entirely and then,

00:04:20.520 | you know, continue.

00:04:21.520 | So the problem that you're facing is you're not trying to make a financial analysis.

00:04:27.120 | What you're trying to do is justify to yourself a fancier lifestyle.

00:04:32.720 | Which if you want to, of course you can.

00:04:36.060 | But it's not a financial question.

00:04:38.120 | But you're just simply trying to find a way to live a fancier lifestyle.

00:04:41.480 | You want a fancier lifestyle with fewer roommates.

00:04:44.020 | You don't want as many people in your house.

00:04:45.620 | You want more personal space.

00:04:47.440 | You're tired of living like a college student being crammed forward to a little house and

00:04:50.700 | you want a little bit of space.

00:04:52.380 | You probably want your house just how you want it.

00:04:53.940 | You want the decorations just how you want them.

00:04:56.480 | These are all lifestyle decisions though.

00:04:58.480 | Basically they're all a matter of you saying, "Hey, this is how I want to live."

00:05:03.160 | When you talk about wanting more time, you're not trying to get more time so that you can

00:05:06.840 | make more money.

00:05:07.840 | You did say focus on your career.

00:05:08.840 | We'll come back to that in a minute.

00:05:10.360 | But you're just saying, "I just want to work less.

00:05:12.760 | I want to have less time with work.

00:05:14.040 | I don't want to always be managing my rental house.

00:05:16.160 | I don't always be working in my career.

00:05:17.760 | I want more time."

00:05:19.080 | This is a lifestyle decision and not something that is financial.

00:05:23.200 | The only thing that you mentioned that is financial would be your career.

00:05:27.800 | You have the ability to focus on your career and could you increase your income significantly

00:05:32.800 | by focusing on your career.

00:05:34.760 | But you're going to have to decide how much do I want to be rich, how much do I want to

00:05:39.280 | be rich fast versus how much sacrifice do I want to make in terms of lifestyle.

00:05:45.360 | People who become rich quickly are generally those who sacrifice in terms of lifestyle

00:05:50.960 | by going ahead and getting two more roommates or figuring out another solution that helps

00:05:56.120 | them to satisfy the problem, to make it sufficient where they're willing to do with it.

00:06:00.400 | Or they're people who generate such a massive income that they can satisfy their lifestyle

00:06:05.000 | needs and goals while still getting rich quick.

00:06:08.420 | Those are really the only two paths I see.

00:06:10.840 | So the income one is certainly the way that you can increase lifestyle and increase your

00:06:16.040 | wealth building ability.

00:06:17.040 | I teach a whole course on career and income planning and the thing that I always point

00:06:20.680 | out is if you want to double your lifestyle and you want to double your savings, the only

00:06:26.400 | way to do that is by increasing your income.

00:06:29.660 | And so if you sit down with your career and you say, "You know what?

00:06:32.880 | I really want to have," you look yourself in the mirror and you say, "Brandon, I'm sick

00:06:38.560 | and tired of living like a college student.

00:06:39.800 | I want to have a nice house.

00:06:41.640 | Not only do I want a four-bedroom house, but I want a fancier four-bedroom house.

00:06:45.840 | Not only do I not want only one roommate, I want no roommates.

00:06:49.480 | I want the entire house for myself.

00:06:50.880 | I want to turn one of my bedrooms into a movie theater.

00:06:53.640 | I want to turn one of my bedrooms into a guest room.

00:06:56.360 | I want to turn one of my bedrooms into my computer room and I want to have my other

00:07:00.160 | bedroom just my sanctuary."

00:07:02.140 | Well, you could do that, but you're not going to get rich unless you massively increase

00:07:06.400 | your income.

00:07:07.640 | And so if you can go from $75,000 a year to $275,000 a year, then you can increase your

00:07:13.360 | lifestyle and you can increase your savings, both.

00:07:17.080 | But if you're just going to keep it $75,000 a year and say, "Well, I'm making $75,000

00:07:21.400 | a year and I'll get little 3% raises, etc."

00:07:24.400 | Then you're not going to get rich that way.

00:07:26.020 | And so you have three choices as I see it.

00:07:29.140 | Choice number one is you can say, "My income is probably going to stay about like it is

00:07:35.100 | and I'm going to keep just little increases, etc.

00:07:38.560 | And I want to get rich quick.

00:07:40.160 | And so in order for me to get rich quick, I'm going to give up lifestyle.

00:07:43.400 | And so no, I don't love living with three roommates, but I'm going to go ahead and do

00:07:47.920 | it and I'm going to stay on the original plan."

00:07:50.660 | Because that plan will help you to get rich fairly quickly even with a $75,000 income.

00:07:57.320 | It'll work.

00:07:58.480 | Number two is you could say, "I want a nicer lifestyle, but I also want to get rich quick,

00:08:03.360 | in which case I've got to figure out how to make more money.

00:08:05.720 | So I've got to move from a career where I'm making $75,000 a year to making $275,000 a

00:08:10.640 | year.

00:08:11.640 | And so how can I do that?

00:08:12.920 | I'm 25 years old.

00:08:14.260 | How can I by the age of 30 with what I have, how can I set a target to be making $275,000

00:08:18.920 | by the age of 30?"

00:08:21.120 | But if you do that, if you increase your income, then you can also then justify the increases

00:08:25.960 | in your lifestyle and you can become rich quick.

00:08:29.120 | Or choice number three is you can say, "I don't want to do the hard work necessary to

00:08:32.920 | increase my income.

00:08:33.920 | I don't want to change.

00:08:34.920 | I don't want to do those kinds of jobs.

00:08:36.040 | I'm comfortable where I'm at.

00:08:37.960 | I want to have a nicer lifestyle and what I'll give up is I'm just going to give up

00:08:41.280 | getting rich or at least getting rich quick.

00:08:43.480 | I'm going to live in a nice house.

00:08:44.480 | I'm going to pay my mortgage off for a long time.

00:08:47.280 | I'm not going to have any roommates or I'm going to sell this house and just move into

00:08:50.600 | a studio or whatever other living arrangement you have and I'm going to be content with

00:08:55.320 | getting rich over 40 years instead of over 10."

00:08:58.640 | But those are the three choices that I see that you have.

00:09:01.840 | Yeah, absolutely.

00:09:03.880 | I think I kind of need to hear that too.

00:09:07.640 | So yeah, I appreciate it.

00:09:09.960 | It makes a lot of sense.

00:09:12.960 | What I would do if I were in your shoes would be I would suck it up on the roommate situation.

00:09:19.400 | I see no reason why – are you married, Brandon?

00:09:22.000 | Are you single?

00:09:23.000 | Are you married?

00:09:24.000 | I had a single girlfriend for a year and a half.

00:09:27.040 | So that's something that's on the horizon.

00:09:30.160 | Well if you get married then of course things change and you got to do that but I would

00:09:33.960 | recommend that you make that decision separately and if I were in your shoes I would say number

00:09:39.480 | one, I'm 25 years old.

00:09:42.000 | It's ridiculous for you to be complaining about lifestyle at 25 years old if you care

00:09:47.000 | about wealth.

00:09:48.000 | Now, you complain all you want but if you care about wealth it's ridiculous for you

00:09:50.560 | to be complaining about lifestyle.

00:09:52.320 | I wish that I had been far more hardcore at 25 and I was pretty hardcore but I wish I

00:09:57.760 | had been far more hardcore.

00:09:59.120 | I wish I had worked a lot more than I worked.

00:10:01.440 | I wish I had invested a lot more than I invested.

00:10:04.920 | I wish I had lived a lower lifestyle than I lived.

00:10:08.120 | You can do a whole lot of things when you're 25 years old and single that are a lot harder

00:10:12.000 | to do when you're 35 married with children.

00:10:15.000 | And so I wish I had worked harder and I worked harder than most people.

00:10:18.780 | But at this point in time if I were going back, if I were 25 years old I would be working

00:10:23.080 | 70 to 80 hours a week.

00:10:24.400 | I would be living in one bedroom of the four bedroom house or I would probably have an

00:10:27.880 | RV parked out and I would rent out the fourth bedroom because once you see how quickly you

00:10:32.200 | can achieve that breakout trajectory when you work hard and you develop your own businesses

00:10:36.920 | and you develop your income and you keep your expenses and you do a whole lot of investing

00:10:40.160 | fast you're five years away from financial freedom with the right moves.

00:10:44.040 | And if you go to any 30 year old or 35 year old and you ask them and you say, "Listen,

00:10:49.320 | if you had the choice to be financially independent at 30 with five years of hard work, if you

00:10:55.760 | were to go back and do that over again would you do that or would you take more time off

00:10:59.680 | on the weekends and go fishing or whatever your fun thing is?"

00:11:03.520 | Now you can do both but you don't need to do both that much.

00:11:07.000 | You can still put in 70 hours a week and take Sundays off and Friday nights off.

00:11:11.060 | You can still do that easily and not be overwhelmed and not hurt your health and not hurt your

00:11:14.040 | social life, etc.

00:11:15.560 | There's so much time that you are wasting day after day after day that you're not paying

00:11:20.160 | attention to.

00:11:22.420 | And that's the key.

00:11:23.420 | If you learn how to harvest that time and stop wasting that time you can have a very

00:11:27.480 | satisfying very rich social life.

00:11:29.800 | You can have plenty of time to rest and rejuvenate but you can also be extremely productive.

00:11:34.280 | But it will never in your life be easier for you to be financially productive and physically

00:11:38.160 | productive and personally productive than it is right now.

00:11:41.820 | When you start adding on the responsibilities of a wife, of children, all of a sudden it

00:11:46.780 | becomes much much different.

00:11:48.920 | Every single night I put my children to bed at 7 o'clock.

00:11:51.840 | Then I have the choice.

00:11:53.000 | Do I go to the computer and do I work more or do I go and spend time with my wife?

00:11:58.140 | Every single night.

00:11:59.280 | Now 98% of the time I look at it and say, "Well, Joshua, you didn't get it done.

00:12:04.120 | Go and spend time with your wife."

00:12:06.280 | That's more important than work.

00:12:07.760 | But when I go back, when you go back in 25 there's no reason to do that.

00:12:10.620 | You can do easily work 12 hours a day, 8 hours a day for someone else and 4 hours a day for

00:12:15.280 | yourself and still have plenty of time.

00:12:16.900 | You still have 4 hours.

00:12:17.900 | If you work 12 hours a day and you sleep for 8 hours that still leaves you with 4 other

00:12:23.080 | hours that you can have for socializing, etc.

00:12:26.260 | And so there's no reason in the world why you shouldn't at this point in your time be

00:12:29.140 | working 12 hours a day if you are prioritizing wealth, if you're prioritizing building something

00:12:35.220 | large.

00:12:36.220 | But as the people in your life start to grow and you start to have more responsibilities

00:12:40.000 | to them then it becomes different.

00:12:42.980 | Same thing happens in the morning.

00:12:43.980 | I get up early but my children also get up early because I put them to bed at 7 o'clock.

00:12:47.940 | So that gives me and my wife time in the evening but now in the morning then my children get

00:12:51.840 | up.

00:12:52.840 | So let's say I get up at 5 a.m.

00:12:53.980 | I have no more than an hour before my children are up.

00:12:56.700 | Well now when my children are up do I ignore them and do I say, "No, I'm not going to spend

00:13:00.940 | time with you.

00:13:01.940 | No, I'm not going to be with you and I'm just going to go and work."

00:13:03.500 | Well sometimes I do.

00:13:05.660 | But for the most part you look at them and say, "No, I can never get these years back."

00:13:10.360 | And so I guess what I want to impress upon you is you live your life however you want

00:13:15.500 | but I wish that I had worked a whole lot more when I was 25, a whole lot more when I was

00:13:21.500 | 20.

00:13:22.500 | I wish that I had taken some of those sacrifices because when you can sacrifice for five years

00:13:28.060 | and it fundamentally transforms the course of your life for the next 50, that's worth

00:13:33.060 | doing.

00:13:34.060 | And you can do it without becoming a workaholic.

00:13:36.020 | You can do it without sacrificing important relationships.

00:13:39.860 | But I would emphasize that if you don't want to live the way you're living, the answer

00:13:43.760 | is make more money.

00:13:45.220 | There is no reason in the world that you should not be making $275,000 a year right now.

00:13:50.420 | There are plenty of 25-year-olds who've done it.

00:13:52.500 | But what I would guess is you probably never set that as a goal and you probably never

00:13:56.220 | sat down and said, "How can I do it?"

00:13:58.340 | And so if you don't like how you're living, fine, go make more money.

00:14:02.180 | And if you go make more money, a lot of your problems will be solved.

00:14:05.740 | You'll have new problems but a lot of your problems of lifestyle versus getting rich

00:14:09.100 | will be solved.

00:14:10.100 | Yeah, I think that's spot on.

00:14:14.940 | I really appreciate it.

00:14:16.420 | That's awesome answer.

00:14:17.660 | Thank you.

00:14:18.660 | We'll keep up the good work of where you're even at right now and then check back in the

00:14:23.260 | future and let me know.

00:14:24.260 | All right, we go to Kansas City, Missouri.

00:14:25.260 | Welcome to the show.

00:14:26.260 | How can I serve you today, please?

00:14:27.260 | Hey, Gordon Josh, working here.

00:14:28.260 | Okay.

00:14:29.260 | Sounds great.

00:14:30.260 | Go ahead.

00:14:31.260 | Awesome.

00:14:32.260 | After a couple of months of engaging in Toastmasters Weekly, I observed really just that week my

00:14:36.700 | personal communication skill set is.

00:14:40.940 | This is regarding questions for a Deb Cawdee training course.

00:14:44.300 | It's a 12-week course, three hours a week.

00:14:48.180 | I've heard mixed reviews about it.

00:14:50.100 | However, as recommended by a trusted mentor, throughout your years of working with people,

00:14:55.820 | what are your thoughts on the course and possibly might get the employer education reimbursement

00:15:01.140 | for the course?

00:15:02.180 | How much money do you earn every year?

00:15:04.620 | $80,000.

00:15:06.580 | How many hours per week do you work every week on average, ballpark?

00:15:10.260 | 55.

00:15:11.260 | 55, you said?

00:15:13.780 | Yes.

00:15:14.780 | Okay.

00:15:15.780 | How much will the Dale Carnegie course cost you in terms of the tuition?

00:15:20.380 | $1,800.

00:15:22.380 | Okay.

00:15:23.580 | How many hours is the commitment per week and for how many weeks?

00:15:27.180 | 12 weeks, three hours, 36-hour total commitment.

00:15:32.980 | So it's three hours for 12 weeks.

00:15:37.500 | So we do the math on this.

00:15:41.100 | 2% of your income is 2% of your income.

00:15:48.860 | So the first way that I would answer that question is if there's something in my life

00:15:55.940 | that I think could solve a problem that I've identified that I have.

00:16:00.680 | You identified a problem.

00:16:02.060 | I've realized how weak my personal communication skills are.

00:16:06.420 | And if it's a problem that is that foundational and if you could possibly buy a solution to

00:16:12.660 | that problem for a mere 2% of your annual income, to me that sounds like pretty much

00:16:18.580 | a no-brainer to just do no matter what.

00:16:22.180 | The thing that annoys me deeply is when people have potential solutions to their problem

00:16:28.060 | that can be solved with relatively low amounts of income and then they don't just simply

00:16:32.180 | take action.

00:16:33.180 | I'm not griping at you.

00:16:34.180 | I'm just trying to point this out.

00:16:35.180 | The thing that has always been the most effective and helpful for me has been to invest into

00:16:39.060 | myself.

00:16:40.220 | And so you'll have – I've for years consulted with people who will spend $50,000 on a college

00:16:46.060 | degree, but then they get out of college and they have the opportunity to take an $1,800

00:16:50.700 | course and they'll hem and they'll haw and they'll stumble and they'll wonder,

00:16:55.580 | "Should I do this?"

00:16:56.580 | They have the opportunity to go to a $2,000 conference or a $1,000 conference and they'll

00:17:00.180 | just think and, "Well, I'm not so sure."

00:17:02.700 | And all of a sudden it's like, "Don't you realize that this is what's powerful?"

00:17:07.140 | And the information, the skills that you could develop from an $1,800 course are probably

00:17:11.140 | far more valuable than a $50,000 college degree for many people.

00:17:15.140 | So it's a relatively low amount of money.

00:17:18.820 | It's a relatively low investment of time.

00:17:21.200 | So if you're convinced that there's a decent chance that it might help you with a problem

00:17:24.860 | that you've identified, then you should do it because your best investment is going

00:17:28.860 | to be into yourself.

00:17:30.520 | Now that's my first answer is based upon the money of it.

00:17:34.440 | My second answer is I don't know.

00:17:35.780 | I've never taken the Dale Carnegie course.

00:17:37.700 | I've read not all but several of Dale Carnegie's books.

00:17:41.860 | I respect and admire the Dale Carnegie organization.

00:17:45.380 | I would bet that it's probably pretty good and I would bet that the ratio of how good

00:17:51.020 | it is is based upon how much a student puts into it.

00:17:55.700 | When I was in college, if you had asked me after my first two years of college how much

00:18:01.980 | I was getting out of my college degree, I would have given you a terrible scathing review

00:18:07.460 | of my college.

00:18:08.580 | I would have told you that the school stinks.

00:18:10.500 | I would have told you that the professors don't know what they're talking about.

00:18:13.420 | I would have told you that the education was mediocre and I was deeply unimpressed.

00:18:17.940 | Then for me, I went away in my junior year.

00:18:19.620 | I studied abroad and that study abroad process was a catalyst in my life.

00:18:26.300 | First I met professors that impacted me deeply, that challenged me, that overcame my arrogance

00:18:31.580 | and showed me that I should shut up and listen, that also started a spiritual journey that

00:18:35.820 | I had previously not engaged in.

00:18:37.380 | Then the following summer I came back to school but at that time I was working hard and I

00:18:42.060 | had decided that I wanted to work hard in class.

00:18:45.580 | Like what I did in the first two years for my summer, fall and then spring semester,

00:18:49.260 | I actually invested.

00:18:51.140 | I actually did my readings.

00:18:52.700 | I actually came to class prepared.

00:18:54.460 | I studied in advance.

00:18:55.820 | I studied for the test, etc.

00:18:57.980 | When I left my senior year, the amazing thing was that my school was totally different.

00:19:03.060 | The professors that I'd known previously, but all of a sudden the professors went up

00:19:06.300 | and they became a lot smarter.

00:19:08.180 | They became a lot more useful to me.

00:19:10.380 | The books were a lot better chosen for those senior level courses and my entire college

00:19:14.860 | experience changed.

00:19:16.140 | It should be obvious to you that nothing about the college experience changed.

00:19:20.340 | I changed and I became a dedicated, motivated student.

00:19:24.060 | My bet, although I've never looked up reviews on Dale Carnegie's courses, etc., my bet is

00:19:28.120 | if you actually went and talked to those people, you would go and find that 50% of the students

00:19:32.940 | really invested in the course.

00:19:34.220 | They took it seriously.

00:19:35.220 | They did their work, etc. and they got great benefits out of it.

00:19:37.980 | 50% of them didn't.

00:19:39.340 | I've observed that at all kinds of events, all kinds of classes, that it's you who makes

00:19:42.940 | the difference, not necessarily the course itself.

00:19:47.220 | That's my second answer.

00:19:48.220 | The first answer was it's a small amount of money compared to if you could solve a problem

00:19:53.820 | that you've recognized in your own personal skill level and you recognize that that could

00:19:57.660 | have a deep impact on your life and your career going forward, that's a small amount of money

00:20:01.780 | to pay for a solution.

00:20:03.380 | Number two, the Dale Carnegie course is probably fine and chances are if you apply yourself,

00:20:10.180 | you would probably get a great experience out of it.

00:20:12.180 | Then my third answer for you to consider, if you're already in Toastmasters, I don't

00:20:16.500 | know why you would need to go and duplicate that with Dale Carnegie because Toastmasters

00:20:20.820 | will help you to develop communication skills and if you're already there, it's certainly

00:20:24.580 | cheaper and there are plenty of opportunities.

00:20:27.380 | And so if you like Toastmasters, I don't know why you would need to go and do Dale Carnegie

00:20:31.580 | right now.

00:20:32.580 | What I would encourage you is dedicate yourself to Toastmasters and really get everything

00:20:36.420 | you can out of Toastmasters.

00:20:37.780 | Do the speaking track and also do the leadership track and work your way through that.

00:20:41.740 | It'll cost you less and if you've got a decent club or a decent region, etc., there should

00:20:46.740 | be opportunities for you to improve that.

00:20:48.700 | And then before you go and buy a course, then at least make sure you've tried a little bit

00:20:52.220 | with books.

00:20:53.340 | Before you buy an expensive course, you should probably start with books, podcasts, etc.

00:20:58.640 | You're not going to get the same experience that you would get in a course but in terms

00:21:02.820 | of trying to be prudent with your money, I generally think that before you start buying

00:21:06.260 | courses, you should start with books, you should start with self-study and then after

00:21:10.020 | you've applied those things, then you move to courses because they're probably a better

00:21:15.340 | use of the money especially for a beginner.

00:21:17.940 | Where I think courses and coaches really help is after you've mastered the basics of the

00:21:22.020 | field and you're convinced that you really need more help but most of self-improvement

00:21:26.980 | comes down to practice.

00:21:28.620 | And so if you buy a book on communication skills or five of them and you start practicing

00:21:33.420 | and especially if you have a context like Toastmasters to practice, do that for six

00:21:37.340 | months and then after six months, reevaluate and then see if you think you've really gained

00:21:42.260 | value from the Dale Carnegie course.

00:21:43.740 | So if you do it, I'm fine with it but I wouldn't necessarily start with it since you already

00:21:47.620 | have Toastmasters and you've recognized the need to start with books and opportunities

00:21:53.460 | to practice in your personal life.

00:21:54.900 | That's my answer.

00:21:55.900 | My pleasure.

00:21:56.900 | All right, we move on back to Florida, Tampa, Florida.

00:22:02.900 | Welcome to the show.

00:22:03.900 | How can I serve you today, please?

00:22:04.900 | Hey, how's it going?

00:22:05.900 | Doing well, sir.

00:22:06.900 | Go ahead.

00:22:07.900 | All right.

00:22:08.900 | So I'll say my question and I'll give a little context.

00:22:17.900 | Is it possible to be a financial advisor when you don't really like modern portfolio theory?

00:22:26.300 | I've worked in the industry for about a decade now.

00:22:28.780 | I've done some basic financial planning, trading, now I'm in compliance.

00:22:34.500 | I love having these conversations and talking about products and all that and I've always

00:22:40.540 | thought about one day I'd become an advisor but as you've talked about a lot, the way

00:22:45.940 | they get paid and issues with modern portfolio theory, I don't know if there's a way to do

00:22:53.940 | it and I'd be curious to get your thoughts on it.

00:22:57.420 | Do you have a specific style of investing that you believe in or that you have practiced

00:23:04.260 | yourself, that you really like?

00:23:08.900 | I'm pretty compelled by Nassim Taleb's barbell strategy which also sounds familiar to your

00:23:15.780 | advice on don't just throw it all in the stock market but go find your passion and get good

00:23:22.140 | at something like that.

00:23:25.180 | And then also learning more about different insurance products, they seem to, they get

00:23:31.900 | so specific and can fit a lot of situations better than some stock asset allocation.

00:23:40.260 | When you say insurance products, do you mean investing insurance, options, etc. or do you

00:23:46.060 | mean actual like life insurance products?

00:23:49.460 | Both.

00:23:51.580 | So short answer is yes, I do think it's possible and I think that it's more possible today

00:23:56.580 | than it's ever been.

00:23:58.220 | The pathway in is a little bit more difficult.

00:24:01.240 | So if you believe in modern portfolio theory, there are any number of investment firms that

00:24:08.060 | you can join and that you can learn.

00:24:10.940 | And the challenges you should see as is obvious based upon your experience in the marketplace,

00:24:19.340 | the challenge of the modern world of financial advice is it's an interesting mix of investment

00:24:25.700 | management, financial planning and sales.

00:24:31.620 | And used to be when I would mentor young financial advisors, I would talk to them about kind

00:24:36.060 | of three different positions in the marketplace.

00:24:38.740 | And I would say position number one is investment management.

00:24:41.600 | If you're really into investment management, portfolio management, you're going to have

00:24:45.140 | to look hard for a job that involves you just simply managing investments and there's going

00:24:50.340 | to be very little client facing time in that.

00:24:53.580 | Right now as I'm recording the show, I'm providing basically a version of financial advice, but

00:24:58.860 | I don't know what's happening with the market.

00:25:01.080 | But this is something where right now as I record this on Friday, February 28, 2020,

00:25:06.080 | the market is in shambles and every single this entire week has been a major down week.

00:25:12.580 | And so I can't effectively monitor an investment portfolio if I'm with a client.

00:25:18.860 | And so you ideally want your investment managers in many cases just to be working on the portfolio,

00:25:23.020 | and not to be worrying about a client.

00:25:25.180 | Number two area is client facing financial planning.

00:25:29.340 | And so this is a very different function than investment management.

00:25:35.420 | Financial planning involves talking to the client about their goals, reviewing their

00:25:39.460 | portfolio, doing things like tax analysis, looking at their investments, etc.

00:25:44.140 | But that's different than managing a portfolio.

00:25:46.340 | And then what I used to say to people in the marketplace was the third thing is simply

00:25:50.660 | kind of a support function that you can go if you don't want to sell, if you don't want

00:25:54.540 | to manage portfolios, or if you don't want to sell, which is what client financial planning

00:26:00.740 | is, it's a form of selling, then you can find a support role and kind of like what you're

00:26:05.220 | doing, you're working in compliance.

00:26:06.220 | And so you have a nice salary for managing the financial advisors and making sure that

00:26:10.460 | they're compliant with everything that is out there in the marketplace.

00:26:14.260 | So the point is that these are different functions, and you're going to wind up in a different

00:26:18.540 | firm in a different job based upon these functions.

00:26:21.100 | Now you can do at bigger firms, the roles are relatively clear cut.

00:26:27.460 | In smaller firms, you have the opportunity to be hired into a certain role.

00:26:31.480 | So you can be hired as a producer, as a financial planner and a producer into a firm that doesn't

00:26:38.060 | hold the modern portfolio theory if you can find out where that firm is and how they market

00:26:42.780 | themselves.

00:26:44.020 | You could also be hired as an investment manager at one of those firms if you can demonstrate

00:26:48.340 | your experience.

00:26:50.780 | And so I would say yes, it is possible.

00:26:53.340 | And the first thing I would do is if you want to dip your feet into it, find a position

00:26:57.180 | that gets you closer to the actual management of investments than your current position

00:27:01.740 | does.

00:27:02.820 | So whether you're a junior analyst at some large firm, whether you – that's a supporting

00:27:08.140 | role but it starts to pave the way for you to actually establish your investment bona

00:27:13.940 | fides, it provides you with the ability to start to move your career in that direction.

00:27:18.700 | Or if you want to become a financial planner, then look for a firm that already has that

00:27:22.820 | philosophy and it's going to be a lot easier for you to just simply join a firm that has

00:27:26.540 | a philosophy that's built upon Taleb's barbell strategy or built upon something that

00:27:31.460 | you believe and just join them as a producer and I think that would be workable.

00:27:37.300 | In today's world, it is very possible for smaller boutique firms to survive and I think

00:27:42.500 | that as modern portfolio theory has become the mainstream juggernaut, there are a lot

00:27:48.020 | of people who just simply don't trust the mainstream advice and who are looking for

00:27:51.780 | another voice.

00:27:53.500 | And so in today's world, you don't need that many clients and it's easier than ever

00:27:57.360 | to break through with a specific message.

00:28:00.220 | So you ask me do I think it's possible?

00:28:02.980 | My answer is yes and I would just start moving more in that direction with whatever opportunity

00:28:07.640 | you can find.

00:28:08.640 | You'll find it a lot easier to figure out the right solution if you're working as

00:28:13.200 | a junior portfolio manager at a firm that has a philosophy that you like than you will

00:28:18.880 | if you're doing compliance for a firm that practices modern portfolio theory and mainstream

00:28:24.840 | advice that you don't believe in.

00:28:26.320 | Yeah, that's really good.

00:28:30.960 | I've actually passed the first level of the CFA accreditation or credential.

00:28:37.920 | So I've kind of got one foot in that realm, but there's not many of those jobs in Tampa,

00:28:44.800 | whereas if I wanted to sell financial services, you can do that anywhere.

00:28:49.880 | Of course.

00:28:50.880 | There's people really.

00:28:51.880 | Of course.

00:28:52.880 | So one last question there, what advice do you have on figuring out a firm's philosophy

00:28:59.640 | or whether it's a small or a big one?

00:29:01.800 | I think start by reading their, what's it called?

00:29:05.200 | I'm blanking on the disclosure form.

00:29:09.000 | ADV.

00:29:10.000 | ADV, yeah.

00:29:11.000 | Start by reading their ADV.

00:29:13.400 | That's always my first goal is pull a firm's ADV and read it and a well-written ADV will

00:29:17.280 | tell you what you need to know.

00:29:19.300 | You can read about their investment philosophy, etc.

00:29:21.040 | So that'd be thing number one.

00:29:22.760 | Thing number two would just be do interviews.

00:29:25.120 | If I were in your situation, I would be doing at least a weekly lunch interview with somebody

00:29:29.040 | in the investment management business.

00:29:31.360 | You know as well as I do that it's very easy to get those people to lunch because everybody's

00:29:36.480 | recruiting.

00:29:37.600 | And so you can start building the connections and the contacts.

00:29:42.240 | And what I would do is I would start with whatever your current network is and I would

00:29:45.760 | start by trying to figure out how to get referred to the firms in town who already have the

00:29:50.560 | philosophy.

00:29:51.800 | So if you explain, I'm trying to figure out if there are any firms who are practicing

00:29:57.320 | this style of investing.

00:29:59.160 | Have you ever heard anybody doing that around?

00:30:01.680 | And in time you probably will be able to find the firms that are in your area that are doing

00:30:05.320 | that.

00:30:06.320 | And then what I would do is as you get closer to that, then go to those firms and ask them

00:30:10.800 | for their advice of how to get into the business.

00:30:13.600 | What can you do?

00:30:14.600 | What I would point out to you if you're already studying for the CFA, I think that what you

00:30:19.400 | should be doing is probably publishing.

00:30:21.960 | Because if you want to build even your own firm, one of the first things that you should

00:30:25.760 | probably do is practice your own skills and with your own portfolio, prove your concepts,

00:30:33.640 | research the academics of it, and then publish your way to a firm.

00:30:42.000 | I've long admired Joshua Kennan who is a very skilled investor and a very skilled writer.

00:30:49.960 | And Joshua Kennan for years wrote on his personal blog.

00:30:54.040 | And then recently he started an investment management firm.

00:30:57.160 | Well his investment management firm was basically fully subscribed from the beginning because

00:31:04.000 | of his, I don't know, 10 years, 15 years of publishing.

00:31:07.360 | So he wrote for about.com for many years.

00:31:10.400 | Years ago he wrote the Complete Idiot's Guide to Investing.

00:31:14.080 | He's written just various investment articles on his own page.

00:31:17.160 | But that allowed many hundreds of thousands of people around the world to connect with

00:31:22.080 | him.

00:31:23.080 | And the minute he was establishing a firm, then immediately anybody who had long come

00:31:27.120 | to be confident in his analytical skills, in his abilities, etc., immediately said,

00:31:33.000 | "I want him managing my money."

00:31:34.880 | And he's had a very successful launch of his firm.

00:31:38.120 | And so I think that even in today's world that kind of path is very doable.

00:31:43.520 | It's not fast, but it is very doable.

00:31:46.240 | And if you're really into the investment side, that's what I would do is possibly try to

00:31:51.520 | just write your way into your own firm.

00:31:53.240 | But you've got to have a platform already set up.

00:31:58.440 | Good enough?

00:32:00.120 | Yeah, yeah.

00:32:01.760 | I appreciate that.

00:32:04.080 | Thanks.

00:32:05.080 | All right.

00:32:06.080 | My pleasure.

00:32:07.080 | We move on.

00:32:08.080 | Stay in Florida.

00:32:09.080 | We go to Ryan in Jacksonville.

00:32:10.080 | Ryan, welcome to the show.

00:32:11.080 | How can I serve you today?

00:32:12.080 | Ryan in Jacksonville.

00:32:13.080 | Hey, Joshua.

00:32:14.080 | Can you hear me?

00:32:15.080 | Sounds good.

00:32:16.080 | Go ahead.

00:32:17.080 | Can you hear me okay?

00:32:18.080 | Go ahead.

00:32:19.080 | Okay.

00:32:20.080 | So I wasn't sure if this was going to the prepping group or the finance group.

00:32:24.360 | I actually have a question for both.

00:32:25.760 | So which one would you rather field?

00:32:27.760 | We've done a lot of finance.

00:32:28.760 | Let's start with prepping and then we'll go to finance.

00:32:30.760 | Okay.

00:32:31.760 | So I've listened to probably half of both your food and your water course.

00:32:38.360 | They've both been very thorough and interesting.

00:32:40.880 | So thank you for that.

00:32:41.880 | One of the things that a few people in the community have recommended is backing off

00:32:51.240 | on drugs like heroin, cocaine, marijuana, coffee.

00:32:59.240 | Yeah.

00:33:00.240 | For barters, right?

00:33:02.240 | No, but like penicillin and antibiotics and whatnot.

00:33:06.640 | Those people have pointed to the animal versions of it as just like an emergency store of antibiotics

00:33:17.160 | like fish mox or whatever.

00:33:19.600 | And I just wanted to get your opinion on that, especially given that a lot of that stuff's

00:33:23.560 | manufactured on prices of the moment, of course, in China.

00:33:28.240 | But I mean, overall, and I don't think that you touched on that in the course yet.

00:33:32.960 | And if you have, I apologize.

00:33:34.640 | I haven't gotten there.

00:33:35.640 | Yeah, I did not want to get your thoughts on that.

00:33:38.080 | So first I have to give a disclaimer.

00:33:39.320 | I'm not a medical expert, not a doctor.

00:33:41.240 | I'm untrained in how to use or administer antibiotics to actually give antibiotics or

00:33:47.720 | prescribe them to myself or a family member would be incredibly difficult for me to do

00:33:52.880 | because I'm acutely aware of my lack of knowledge.

00:33:56.240 | And so you're getting advice from somebody who has no medical qualifications whatsoever.

00:34:03.520 | Having been a researcher, I have found plenty of corroborating voices that say that things

00:34:09.600 | like fish antibiotics are the exact same antibiotics that are prescribed to humans.

00:34:15.000 | They're just simply relabeled.

00:34:16.640 | And I have found many doctors who have confirmed, who have at least been their opinion and their

00:34:22.560 | educated opinion, who have said that, yes, this is a worthwhile and a good way to get

00:34:29.120 | amounts of these antibiotics.

00:34:32.200 | And so in the United States where antibiotics are very hidden behind prescriptions, it's

00:34:37.400 | one of the very few ways to get amounts of those antibiotics.

00:34:42.040 | And I would have no, I think it's a good idea to have a stockpile of those antibiotics.

00:34:47.480 | The fish antibiotics are usually the proper thing, or sorry, the first thing that people

00:34:53.040 | go to.

00:34:54.040 | And so I would see it as definitely a good thing to have a stockpile of those antibiotics,

00:34:57.760 | but more importantly, to have some literature written as to what to look for if you're going

00:35:03.360 | to prescribe antibiotics.

00:35:05.000 | Some of the books, the medical prepping books and things like that have some of that.

00:35:08.900 | Some articles on how to figure out dosages, et cetera, would be important.

00:35:12.940 | Because if you're a layman who doesn't have the medical background to just off the top

00:35:16.440 | of your head make a proper prescription, I think you should be very, very careful with

00:35:19.880 | that.

00:35:20.880 | But at the end of the day, if I had the choice, you know, my child, you know, was chopping

00:35:25.140 | wood and cut their leg and all of a sudden they've got a vicious infection, and my choice

00:35:29.320 | is between watching their leg get worse and worse versus giving them fish antibiotics,

00:35:34.400 | I would much rather have the fish antibiotics ready to go.

00:35:37.680 | And then hopefully have somebody who would be an expert.

00:35:41.040 | You know, the best thing would be to have somebody who I know, a friend or someone who

00:35:45.520 | would have the medical qualifications to do a better job of supervising them and prescribing

00:35:50.520 | them.

00:35:51.520 | And if you can possibly have the chance of saving somebody's life by having access to

00:35:55.820 | a supply of antibiotics inexpensively, I think it's a good move.

00:35:59.380 | It is funny though, because in the United States is one of the few areas, few countries

00:36:02.660 | where this is as difficult.

00:36:04.420 | Certainly there are prescriptions around the world that are difficult, but there are many

00:36:08.220 | cultures in which you can just simply go and buy antibiotics over the counter.

00:36:12.460 | And so the other source, if you want to get more generic antibiotics, is often if you'll

00:36:16.420 | go to an ethnic store, sometimes if you'll go to an ethnic food store where you have

00:36:21.820 | a culture where they're more accustomed to being able to buy antibiotics, it's not technically

00:36:25.940 | legal, but you can often get your hands on just generic antibiotics at the, you know,

00:36:29.700 | the Mexican food store, the Vietnamese, something like that.

00:36:32.340 | I've not personally done that, but I've heard enough people who've done it that I would

00:36:36.380 | investigate that if for some reason you don't think that fish antibiotics are your first

00:36:40.740 | starting place.

00:36:41.820 | But in addition to the antibiotics, make sure that you also have some of the supporting

00:36:45.740 | literature printed out and stored with them so that you can potentially have the ability

00:36:50.500 | to, because it's not just having the drug, having the drug is good.

00:36:53.380 | And then if you have somebody who would have an idea of how to administer the drug or in

00:36:56.620 | the right circumstances, who would be able to screen the patient and do a better job

00:36:59.980 | than you would, that's also good.

00:37:01.340 | But at the end of the day, if you're going to do it by yourself, and this is the worst

00:37:04.220 | case scenario you're thinking of, make sure you have the supporting literature that you

00:37:06.740 | need in the reference manuals.

00:37:08.220 | Got it.

00:37:09.860 | Okay.

00:37:10.860 | Thank you.

00:37:12.860 | Go with your finance question.

00:37:14.620 | Oh, sure.

00:37:16.340 | So the finance question is, I currently invest fully in a 401k plan.

00:37:24.020 | I think the max is like, I don't know, 19,000 for this year or something like that.

00:37:28.220 | Either way it's the max.

00:37:31.420 | And I've been seriously considering discontinuing the funding that and taking only up to what

00:37:41.380 | my company will match, because I'm starting to look down the road and look at where our

00:37:49.220 | politicians are taking us in terms of overspending and future taxation and whatnot.

00:37:54.500 | And I'm starting to think that maybe my tax bracket in retirement will not in fact be

00:37:59.020 | lower than it is today.

00:38:00.020 | And so maybe it would be more beneficial to just take the tax hit now and keep all of

00:38:05.700 | my money in a savings account or a brokerage account or some other combination of that

00:38:10.340 | rather than crossing the fingers and hope that in 30 years tax rates are lower.

00:38:17.380 | Based on the commitments that we have, the liabilities we have outstanding that we've

00:38:22.460 | promised to future generations, I just don't see how we can possibly afford to fund them

00:38:29.220 | unless we massively increase taxation.

00:38:31.660 | So just wondered your thoughts on taking the tax hit now versus later.

00:38:36.340 | How much is your annual income?

00:38:41.100 | Mine personally is around $100.

00:38:42.820 | And your household?

00:38:43.820 | Probably $250, $250.

00:38:50.940 | And is your wife additionally investing into her 401k?

00:38:57.300 | She was last year, she did not this year.

00:39:00.540 | But our plan would be that she would.

00:39:05.140 | So at $38,000 per year on a $250,000 income, that's about 15% of your income that would

00:39:13.500 | be going into 401k accounts.

00:39:16.260 | Now depending on your expenses, if your expenses are lower, I'd like to have you with a higher

00:39:21.340 | savings rate than 15%.

00:39:23.460 | And so let's say that your savings rate is something like 30% which is a more meaningful

00:39:27.020 | savings rate than just the basic 15%.

00:39:30.580 | If in that situation, I don't see why you have to choose between one or the other.

00:39:35.260 | I think you would have enough money if you're saving something like 30% of your income,

00:39:39.460 | you would have enough money to live a perfectly fine lifestyle while still taking advantage

00:39:44.240 | of the benefits of the 401k while also having some diversification, not having all of your

00:39:49.940 | money in 401ks.

00:39:52.100 | So practically speaking, that's probably in my opinion the best idea and the best plan.

00:39:58.020 | The second thing you have to think about is what do you want to invest the money in.

00:40:01.100 | If you're just going to invest the money into taxable brokerage accounts, it's really hard

00:40:04.900 | to say that you shouldn't start with the 401k because it's just really hard.

00:40:11.060 | Now I understand the concern that you have.

00:40:13.220 | I share your concern and your guess is as good as mine.

00:40:18.980 | We have the same concern and we're basically just guessing.

00:40:21.900 | But when I look forward decades into the future, my crystal ball doesn't work that far and

00:40:29.460 | I can't predict reliably exactly where things are going to be.

00:40:33.660 | I do think that the American population is less likely to be willing to have those major

00:40:41.740 | tax increases on something like a 401k plan than many others.

00:40:46.540 | I think that Americans like their 401ks and I think that the people who are loudest in

00:40:51.360 | politics are those who are wealthy and who are 401ks.

00:40:55.820 | And so if you believe that wealthy people exert an undue influence on government, which

00:41:02.820 | I personally do believe that, then I think it's less likely that 401k legislation and

00:41:08.360 | such would pass that would start imposing that taxation on 401ks.

00:41:14.260 | But I don't know.

00:41:15.720 | Maybe there's some kind of populist uprising and all of a sudden now the wealthy people

00:41:19.860 | can't exert influence on government and on tax policy, etc.

00:41:24.020 | Maybe not.

00:41:25.020 | I do just think that as an employee, it's hard for me to see the circumstance that you're

00:41:30.500 | going to be in a higher tax bracket in retirement.

00:41:34.020 | It's hard to see.

00:41:35.620 | And I think that if we look at the past, it's much more likely that Americans are going

00:41:40.820 | to try to borrow, keep borrowing, borrowing, borrowing, and then try to default through

00:41:48.700 | something like mass inflation, then that they would change, make significant changes to

00:41:53.300 | tax policy.

00:41:54.440 | No matter who's been president, no matter what tax proposal has been enforced over the

00:41:59.740 | last 75, 80 years, taxation has basically been limited to about 20 to 25% of GDP.

00:42:06.140 | And that seems to be a pretty hard ceiling.

00:42:09.040 | And so it's my guess that it's more likely that politicians would move in the direction

00:42:13.660 | of mass inflation rather than trying to all of a sudden tax 401ks.

00:42:19.340 | Now I don't know.

00:42:20.340 | It could be wrong.

00:42:21.340 | It's always a possibility.

00:42:22.340 | And so if you're really worried about it, I would respect you for not...

00:42:28.140 | I would respect that.

00:42:29.140 | I wouldn't say that you're wrong.

00:42:30.860 | I would just say that I don't see it quite the same way as you do at the moment.

00:42:34.620 | Based upon the information that we have, that kind of move to me seems pretty far away.

00:42:39.620 | And although I get it, it just doesn't seem quite the best path.

00:42:46.240 | And so I think you could probably hedge your bets and use your 401k accounts while still

00:42:51.860 | saving into other investments that would hedge your bets in some way.

00:42:56.380 | That'd probably be what I would do.

00:42:58.080 | If you were that serious about the future of US problems, I think you should start by

00:43:07.380 | making a plan to be free of the United States.

00:43:09.540 | That's what I've done.

00:43:10.540 | Now, this may be difficult for you based upon where you are in terms of your jobs, etc.

00:43:18.900 | But what I have done when analyzing the problem is I've looked at it and said, "I think that

00:43:23.020 | there is a very severe future for the United States."

00:43:27.420 | And so what I need in order to be able to fully escape is I need to have a plan that

00:43:32.820 | allows me to move to another region of the world.

00:43:35.700 | I need to have multiple citizenships so that I can renounce my US citizenship and so I

00:43:40.420 | could cut myself free from a sinking ship.

00:43:43.340 | Now I don't think the ship is sinking right now.

00:43:48.060 | I don't think the ship is going to sink in the next decade.

00:43:50.900 | But I figure if I can arrive at the year 2030 and have multiple other ships that I can just

00:43:56.740 | simply step onto, then I can cut myself free from the sinking ship or cut my children free

00:44:02.120 | from the sinking ship and then have other options.

00:44:06.180 | And so what I'm trying to do is to establish what I would need to fully extricate myself

00:44:11.460 | from the USS USA in case the ship goes down and then simultaneously financially to have

00:44:23.700 | investments that are not only in retirement accounts to hedge my bets.

00:44:29.940 | Now I do still participate in retirement accounts.

00:44:32.020 | To me it just seems it doesn't seem the evidence doesn't seem strong enough to convince me

00:44:37.340 | that I should not participate in retirement accounts right now.

00:44:40.940 | But I'm hedging my bets.

00:44:43.420 | So that's my answer.

00:44:44.420 | Does that help at all or just muddy the waters?

00:44:47.020 | Yeah, it helps.

00:44:49.780 | So one of the things I've also been thinking of is taking some of that money and buying

00:44:58.140 | investment real estate in my region of the country.

00:45:02.460 | Real estate is way overpriced right now.

00:45:04.380 | So I'm really I don't see that happening unless we have some type of recession or something

00:45:09.980 | where I can buy it on the cheap.

00:45:12.220 | So it's just kind of what do I do right now that I'm trying to work through.

00:45:17.020 | Well, so that would be notice that would be a good move.

00:45:20.700 | Okay.

00:45:21.700 | And the reason notice what I said, I said, if you're just going to invest in stocks,

00:45:25.740 | then I think that you should prioritize your 401k.

00:45:27.940 | But if you say, I think I'd like to move in the direction of being a real estate investor.

00:45:31.820 | Now everything changes, where you're no longer just trying to make an unknowable prediction

00:45:37.000 | of what's going to happen with tax policy 30 years in the future.

00:45:39.860 | I cannot, I don't believe that's knowable.

00:45:42.900 | I don't see how anybody, we can make arguments with one another.

00:45:47.340 | I've made some arguments here.

00:45:49.260 | But that's too far to be able to predict accurately.

00:45:52.840 | But if you can solve your concerns while simultaneously getting a result that is better in the short

00:46:00.500 | term where you can prove it, then I think you've got a really good solution.

00:46:03.700 | So if you say, I'm going to minimize the amount of money that I put in my 401k, and I'm going

00:46:09.580 | to become a real estate investor, and I'm doing that so that I can develop this other

00:46:15.100 | plan, potentially get a higher return based on leveraged investment real estate, diversify

00:46:19.100 | my investments out of stocks, and a side benefit is I'm no longer fully committed to the taxation

00:46:25.540 | scheme of 401k accounts, now I think you've got a much stronger argument.

00:46:29.780 | And so I can easily listen to that argument and say, yeah, go for it.

00:46:34.020 | And that's been an argument that I have, that's also been something that's been influential

00:46:37.940 | on me.

00:46:38.940 | I do still participate in some 401k accounts.

00:46:42.640 | But at the moment, it's, at the moment, all my funds are sitting in cash.

00:46:47.180 | And that's due to some of my frustrations with general stock market investing.

00:46:51.340 | Now in the future, I'll do more self-directed investing, but I've been waiting on a recession.

00:46:54.940 | Now it's been a tough week.

00:46:57.620 | As I record the show, the market is down again, another 2%, over 10% for the week.

00:47:02.860 | There's a very good reasons to believe that these kinds of events that are happening right

00:47:06.820 | now could be catalysts of ushering in a recession.

00:47:10.380 | And I've been waiting on a recession for years so that property prices come down so that

00:47:15.220 | I can start to make some significant investments.

00:47:17.780 | And so your recession might be coming sooner than you think.

00:47:21.060 | My only point is I want to make predictions and decisions that are going to benefit me

00:47:25.380 | on multiple levels and only having the level of possibly avoiding this future higher tax

00:47:32.620 | by guaranteeing that I've got to pay tax every single year, to me that doesn't seem compelling.

00:47:38.160 | So if you can add some benefits, then you can persuade me.

00:47:41.860 | Okay.

00:47:42.860 | Can I just really quickly pull on a string that you left out there?

00:47:48.580 | You've mentioned it twice in this episode and that is buying rental property with leverage.

00:47:54.660 | Is that something that you always recommend or is it situation specific?

00:47:58.420 | I mean, if you have the cash, should you buy it outright or do you always recommend that

00:48:03.260 | someone have a mortgage on a rental property?

00:48:05.100 | I think it depends on the phase that someone is at in terms of their real estate investment.

00:48:10.500 | If somebody has a lot of cash, I talk to my wife about this and I say, we talk about it,

00:48:18.980 | I say, okay, listen, if I die, here's what I would recommend that you do.

00:48:22.180 | I give her the list of people, you call these people and you get advice from them and I

00:48:26.460 | say, you have this amount of money and here are the things that I think you should do

00:48:30.860 | with it.

00:48:31.860 | Right?

00:48:32.860 | So when I give her advice on that and I say, here's how much money you would have if I'm

00:48:36.420 | dead and here's what I think you should do with it.

00:48:39.020 | One of the things that I recommend to her is that she just simply pay cash for some

00:48:42.980 | rental houses and that she do that in the town where she is and she just pay cash for

00:48:46.460 | it.

00:48:47.460 | But that's because if I die, she's going to have a lot of money.

00:48:50.060 | I have a lot of life insurance in addition to our other assets and so she would have

00:48:53.380 | a lot of money and there's no reason to take on the risk of leverage for her in that situation.

00:48:59.820 | She doesn't need the money.

00:49:00.920 | She wouldn't spend it if she had extra money because she could just optimize it.

00:49:04.940 | But what she will really value is the simplicity and the safety of having a debt free portfolio.

00:49:10.980 | That fits with her personality and it would work really well.

00:49:14.100 | Now that's different if I come to you and let's say that you say, Joshua, I've saved

00:49:17.660 | $50,000 and I really want to be financially independent quickly and I want to do it with

00:49:23.660 | real estate.

00:49:24.660 | Well, you can't get there with real estate if you're paying cash for it unless you're

00:49:29.580 | unique.

00:49:30.580 | I know I have one friend who's done it.

00:49:32.860 | He became financially independent in about seven years paying cash for real estate.

00:49:36.820 | But he's also very handy and he didn't make a lot of money but he's very handle, extremely

00:49:40.740 | frugal, and he built his portfolio debt free and he became financially independent in about

00:49:44.660 | seven years on real estate.

00:49:46.580 | But that's not the skills that are different than most people.

00:49:49.660 | So in that situation, in the United States where you have very easy access to money at

00:49:54.820 | very low rates, artificially propped up by the Federal Reserve, keeping interest rates

00:50:00.540 | low, etc., it's hard to argue against the benefits of leverage in the United States.

00:50:06.940 | Notice I led with an example where I said with someone who has a lot of money, they

00:50:09.940 | don't need the risk, they don't have any benefit of having the more money, then there's no

00:50:13.700 | reason to take the risk.

00:50:15.240 | But for the guy with $50,000, it's hard to argue against leverage.

00:50:19.920 | The other thing that I've thought of is it's hard for me to see because the US market is

00:50:24.140 | so heavily dependent on leverage, it has dramatically suppressed many returns.

00:50:31.060 | And so basically the conclusion that I've come to is that it doesn't make sense really,

00:50:37.820 | with the exception of what I said, somebody has lots of money that is looking for a stable

00:50:40.880 | income portfolio to diversify their other investments, fine.

00:50:43.900 | But it doesn't really make sense to invest in the United States without leverage.

00:50:47.100 | And if you're going to invest without leverage, I'm increasingly convinced that it just makes

00:50:50.260 | sense to go to another place.

00:50:52.420 | You can take the same amount of money in the United States that you're going to invest

00:50:56.420 | in real estate.

00:50:57.420 | And if you go to a market where credit is not nearly so available, go to Central America,

00:51:02.220 | South America, go to Asia, go to Eastern Europe, now you can move into a market where the credit

00:51:08.460 | is just simply not as available, the money doesn't flow as freely in the United States,

00:51:12.900 | and you can really use your cash more effectively, where you can control more property because

00:51:18.660 | of lower prices, you can get higher yields, and potentially make a lot more money, because

00:51:24.660 | you're going where your investment strategy is going to be more effective.

00:51:29.140 | Now I understand that most people don't want to leave their home market, but I'm increasingly

00:51:32.780 | convinced that that's the solution.

00:51:34.640 | So if I have $50,000 saved, and if I want to invest that money without leverage, it's

00:51:42.260 | very hard to see how to do that effectively in the United States and get any meaningful

00:51:45.860 | return on the money.

00:51:47.060 | But it's a lot easier for me to see how to do that in other markets, where I can buy

00:51:50.340 | in at lower dollars, I can get higher yields, and that money goes a lot farther because

00:51:54.940 | those markets are simply not awash in mortgage money like the United States is.

00:51:59.220 | Okay, thanks for taking the time.

00:52:05.220 | Good questions, Ryan, I appreciate the call.

00:52:10.180 | We move on now to New Jersey.

00:52:12.820 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, how can I serve you today?

00:52:16.060 | New Jersey, I hear you're on the road, go ahead, yes, there you are.

00:52:21.340 | Sorry about that, how are you doing, Josh?

00:52:24.060 | Very well, sir, how are you?

00:52:25.060 | I'm good, I'm good.

00:52:26.060 | I just heard your podcast yesterday on donating for Venezuela, and I would like to know what

00:52:36.300 | do I have to do for that?

00:52:37.980 | Send me an email to joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com, and I'll share those details with you privately.

00:52:43.720 | Because of the sensitivity of the work that we're doing, I'm not interested in publicizing

00:52:50.600 | that kind of information publicly, and so email me, joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com,

00:52:55.680 | and I will give you those details privately.

00:52:57.480 | All right, thank you very much.

00:53:00.400 | My pleasure.

00:53:01.400 | All right, we move on to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

00:53:04.120 | Welcome to the show, how can I serve you today?

00:53:05.600 | Hi, Joshua, can you hear me?

00:53:08.600 | Yes, sounds good, go ahead.

00:53:10.160 | Hi, this is John.

00:53:11.840 | I had a question about mindset between two pretty good options of how I should handle

00:53:24.160 | the next few years.

00:53:25.160 | Just as a little bit of background, the last, I guess, about two years ago and the four

00:53:31.600 | years before that, I was very focused on saving up some money and quitting, and just had a

00:53:38.000 | high-stress job that I didn't really like very much.

00:53:41.920 | The things were good enough, and I didn't quit.

00:53:44.240 | What I ended up doing instead was really knuckling down and focusing on a dream job that I wanted.

00:53:52.640 | It wasn't easy, but I did actually go through the right moves and got that dream job.

00:53:58.720 | It's tough when you get your dreams, because sometimes they don't work out to be the way

00:54:04.320 | you thought they would be.

00:54:06.400 | It's a very good job.

00:54:08.000 | I enjoyed it immensely.

00:54:10.120 | Once the shine wore off after six months or so, I felt some of those old feelings coming

00:54:15.600 | back in.

00:54:16.600 | I struggle whether or not it's just me and the corporate world not aligning, different

00:54:24.200 | things, values, and just how it works gets done.

00:54:26.520 | But then again, I don't feel super confident jumping to entrepreneurship.

00:54:31.360 | I've had dabbles in it, or mildly, not unsuccessful, but by no means self-sustaining.

00:54:39.400 | My question is, I'm back to this point of deciding whether I should stay or leave.

00:54:46.480 | The very good thing that I have going on here is that I do get paid a good salary.

00:54:52.640 | There's a lot of stress and a lot of things that were wrong with the old job, but I do

00:54:56.480 | get compensated very well, and I work very hard for that.

00:54:59.880 | But the kicker is that for the next two and a half years, part of my compensation, it

00:55:09.760 | is variable, not a sure thing, but there's a very good chance that this extra compensation

00:55:14.800 | I get for the next two and a half years will not quite double my salary, but it's a significant

00:55:19.640 | amount more, let's say one and a half to 1.75 times my salary for the next two and a half

00:55:24.560 | years.

00:55:25.560 | So that's nothing to sneeze at, to just dismiss right away.

00:55:31.000 | It seems like a prudent thing to stick around for those next two and a half years, but I

00:55:34.680 | balance that with having a four and a six-year-old, which I'd like to obviously be at home with

00:55:39.800 | more.

00:55:40.800 | My wife's already at home.

00:55:42.640 | So I consider having a four and six-year-old at home, but obviously they want me home.

00:55:47.480 | It feels like it would be the right thing to do to do that.

00:55:52.520 | But then again, six and a half and an eight and a half-year-old in two and a half years,

00:55:57.000 | they probably will still also be very excited to have me home.

00:56:02.080 | It feels like it's definitely a question of selling out for the time of my kids for this

00:56:07.440 | very...

00:56:09.800 | Not everybody gets a chance to earn four years worth of salary in two and a half years.

00:56:15.720 | So there's a balance.

00:56:16.720 | I'm trying to figure out how to sort that out.

00:56:19.720 | Not that we're so necessary to have that extra money, but it does feel prudent to not let

00:56:27.240 | that go.

00:56:28.240 | I did work very hard to try to land this position.

00:56:31.440 | How close are you to financial independence on your current rate of savings, investments,

00:56:36.680 | et cetera?

00:56:37.680 | How far away is your financial independence date?

00:56:40.600 | Well, this week notwithstanding.

00:56:45.240 | It's been one of those things for the last two to three years.

00:56:50.120 | I've probably been right at the edge of it anyways with some conservative thinking, but

00:56:55.920 | not to the point where I would quit and then never pursue work again.

00:57:00.080 | I feel like it is good and there's always things I'm interested in.

00:57:03.520 | I just never feel confident in my ability to provide with just that.

00:57:09.160 | But certainly a little bit of extra income that we would need would be something I could

00:57:14.960 | scrub up.

00:57:15.960 | It's just maybe I wouldn't be doing the things on the side that I would love to do, but I

00:57:19.440 | would definitely go to try out new things.

00:57:22.200 | And then there's lots of good things I get from this job.

00:57:24.680 | It's just the stresses and stuff have all come back, but I definitely like a lot of

00:57:28.560 | parts of it.

00:57:31.360 | If we move forward for two years and you were able to generate that extra income and maintain

00:57:39.080 | your current lifestyle, your current plan, are you confident that two years from now

00:57:43.560 | you'd be financially independent?

00:57:45.800 | Yeah.

00:57:46.800 | I mean, we do have high exposure to the markets, which I could adjust.

00:57:55.800 | But I can also just adjust that with making supplemental income that's not in a very stressful

00:58:00.960 | career.

00:58:01.960 | But yeah, I think it would put me in a more comfortable position where I wouldn't feel

00:58:07.160 | like I really needed to make something work like a side hustle or it wouldn't be a side

00:58:13.120 | hustle, it would be a new venture.

00:58:16.200 | I would feel less pressure on that and maybe that would give me some relief.

00:58:22.320 | Do you and your wife have any ideas?

00:58:25.880 | Because I'm kind of jumping right into it because we've got a long history of your calling

00:58:28.960 | in Q&A shows.

00:58:29.960 | Listeners will know John in Pittsburgh, he does a good job of calling in.

00:58:33.800 | John, you're a hero.

00:58:39.760 | Do you and your wife have any kind of proposed lifestyles that are unusual, that are outside

00:58:45.520 | of just living in your current house, I don't know, traveling around Southeast Asia or buying

00:58:51.320 | an RV and taking your children across the United States?

00:58:53.520 | Do you have any of those things that have ever been attractive to you?

00:58:57.080 | You know, all of those things at different stages have been things I've thought a lot

00:59:02.000 | about and probably my wife has had different aspects of.

00:59:05.840 | But I wouldn't say any of them have been something she's been voicing.

00:59:11.360 | All in all, we've made so many adjustments, mostly from listening to you and making these

00:59:18.240 | micro adjustments and changes and being confident in this or that, that we're very happy where

00:59:22.880 | we are.

00:59:23.880 | A lot of it comes down to the fact that we aren't in a big need of any drastic lifestyle

00:59:30.040 | changes.

00:59:31.040 | We have a very modest house in a nice area.

00:59:34.120 | It's the smallest house in the block, but it gets by.

00:59:36.800 | I mean, other than making little things in our house, creature comfort a little bit better

00:59:41.440 | and upgrading things and adjusting my frugality, and I'm doing a good job of that, is spending

00:59:47.200 | on things that make value for us, whether it's exercise classes or something for my

00:59:54.040 | wife and trying to build more time for myself to exercise rather than be stressed all the

00:59:58.880 | time.

00:59:59.880 | We don't have a lot of big dreams like that.

01:00:01.040 | Yeah, of course, it'd be nice to take more vacations and think less of the money, but

01:00:07.360 | everything's, again, everything's so just good enough that...

01:00:12.400 | Again, the kids also make our lives happier at home, and just being fulfilled with that,

01:00:21.040 | at least at this phase of life, is very fulfilling.

01:00:25.360 | I do get fulfilled from my work as stressful as it is also, so it's something I don't want

01:00:29.840 | to quit and then regret quitting to be with them.

01:00:34.240 | Maybe I enjoy being with them so much on the weekends now because it's a treat for me.

01:00:40.040 | I've made a lot of other lifestyle improvements where I never really go out, I don't drink.

01:00:45.080 | There's so many things I've changed in the last five to six years that just makes home

01:00:50.080 | life so fulfilling.

01:00:51.080 | But yeah, everything's just so good enough, but it's hard to decide what to trade off.

01:00:59.400 | Here's my instinct.

01:01:01.800 | I think my instinct is I think you should stay at this job for another two years.

01:01:08.200 | That should be your plan.

01:01:09.680 | And I could see a few things happening.

01:01:11.640 | So first, this job is something that you thought a couple years ago was going to be your dream

01:01:19.280 | job.

01:01:20.280 | Now, everything that glitters is not always gold.

01:01:23.160 | Sometimes you move in and you try something and you realize, you know, this comes with

01:01:26.960 | its downsides.

01:01:28.320 | I don't believe there's a job in the world or a business in the world that doesn't come

01:01:32.160 | with downsides.

01:01:33.720 | Radical personal finance is my dream job.

01:01:36.300 | There are things that I just flat out don't like doing.

01:01:39.360 | And that's one of the reasons why I continue to pursue financial independence because I

01:01:42.720 | often wonder, well, if I were really financially independent, am I sure?

01:01:46.880 | I say I would still do it.

01:01:48.200 | I really think I would still do it, but would I really?

01:01:51.940 | Maybe I wouldn't.

01:01:52.940 | Maybe I just don't know myself.

01:01:54.080 | Maybe I would sit around and hang out on the beach 168 hours a week.

01:01:58.520 | I don't know.

01:01:59.520 | Like, I don't think I would.

01:02:00.600 | I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.

01:02:02.240 | Every bit of it, self-analysis and introspection, every bit of logical thinking has convinced

01:02:06.880 | me that I would keep on working, that I would keep on doing this or variations of this.

01:02:12.360 | But maybe I'm wrong.

01:02:13.760 | Maybe I don't actually know it.

01:02:14.960 | And so the point is that even the – and I feel like what I do is a better fit for

01:02:19.600 | me than anybody I've ever met in my life and there are jobs for them.

01:02:23.160 | But it still has its downsides.

01:02:25.160 | And so I think that you should focus on the fact that you thought this was a dream job

01:02:30.680 | and you do find it very fulfilling and meaningful and recognize that everything in life is going

01:02:35.320 | to have some things that are frustrating.

01:02:37.840 | Now when you get to things like stress, I would say that if your concern is stress,

01:02:42.840 | you probably could gain by just simply identifying that and learning ways to eliminate the feelings

01:02:49.340 | of stress, learning ways to insulate yourself and using your strength as a person to minimize

01:02:56.640 | that.

01:02:57.640 | Now how do you do it?

01:02:58.640 | I don't know.

01:02:59.640 | It could just be recognizing that the end doesn't really matter and I'm just going

01:03:02.840 | to ignore the stress.

01:03:03.840 | I've gotten better at minimizing some stress that I face just by recognizing this is all

01:03:08.480 | a game.

01:03:09.480 | This is all in my head.

01:03:10.480 | And this thing that I used to let stress me out, it doesn't actually matter.

01:03:14.600 | I'm just going to let it go.

01:03:16.880 | And I've gotten better at managing stress.

01:03:18.520 | And I think that especially if you look at most people's career growth, if you're going

01:03:23.480 | to grow in your career and move up in jobs, move up in responsibility, one of the key

01:03:27.480 | skills that you have to master is recognizing that this is simply stress and this is fake.

01:03:33.680 | It's not that it doesn't matter, but it's that I can't let this affect me.

01:03:37.320 | Think about how much stress on a daily basis the president of a country faces.

01:03:43.520 | President Trump, just think about the stress that he's under every single day.

01:03:48.480 | That would break me.

01:03:49.560 | That would break any of us who hadn't proceeded through it.

01:03:52.820 | Think about what the president of a company or the leader of an organization faces when

01:03:57.680 | all of a sudden your organization is going into bankruptcy.

01:04:00.600 | One of the key skills to advance is to recognize that I have to learn how to deal with this

01:04:06.440 | stress and how to let it not affect me emotionally.

01:04:09.960 | And so it could be that you could engage in learning, study, and personal growth in order

01:04:16.400 | to minimize some of the things that you don't like.

01:04:19.160 | This could also be helped by your simply seeing yourself as stronger than you've previously

01:04:24.580 | thought yourself to be.

01:04:26.240 | For example, if you have lots of money and you know that you're thinking about leaving

01:04:29.320 | this job, just stop doing some of the stuff that you don't like or go tell your boss and

01:04:33.840 | say, "Boss, I don't want to do these things anymore.

01:04:36.160 | They're not a good fit for me.

01:04:37.160 | I want to do these other things," and figure out how to renegotiate it.

01:04:40.520 | And if they tell you, "Well, you could do that, but you got to take a $20,000 cut in

01:04:43.960 | salary."

01:04:44.960 | Okay, fine.

01:04:45.960 | I've got my salary, $20,000.

01:04:47.120 | I don't want to do those things.

01:04:48.120 | I want to do these things.

01:04:49.120 | Now, I'm clearly being flippant in that tone, but something like that might be able to be

01:04:54.040 | possible.

01:04:55.040 | You can renegotiate almost anything in life.

01:04:57.160 | And if you've got the comfort of knowing that you're wealthy, that you are practically financially

01:05:01.000 | independent, knowing that you have other options if you lost this job, it should give you the

01:05:04.800 | strength to be able to renegotiate the constraints of your job in some way.

01:05:09.000 | You might also just simply do something like use your money to hire more help, whether

01:05:14.080 | you do that informally or formally, outsourcing some of the things of your job you don't like,

01:05:19.480 | hire your own personal assistant out of your own salary, and split your job with somebody.

01:05:26.480 | Renegotiate the constraints of your job would be one thing.

01:05:28.760 | Now, when you're this close to financial independence and this close to being comfortably financially

01:05:34.440 | independent, and given the fact that you've never really wanted to pursue entrepreneurship,

01:05:40.240 | it's more like, "I could see how I would do it," but it's not been something that's been

01:05:43.160 | burning for you.

01:05:44.440 | I think you stick it out for two years.

01:05:46.840 | I really do.

01:05:47.840 | And here are some other things that I think would be meaningful.

01:05:50.880 | So with a four-year-old and a six-year-old, you are definitely on the cusp of where your

01:05:55.600 | presence as a father will be increasingly valued.

01:06:00.320 | But you already have your wife there with your children all the time, and so they're

01:06:04.000 | already being well cared for.

01:06:05.640 | Now, if your wife were working a job and they were being raised by other people, then that

01:06:09.520 | would be more pressing.

01:06:10.920 | But they're already getting substantial attention from mom.

01:06:14.080 | And your presence two years from now is going to be more important than it is today.

01:06:18.320 | Should you be there today?

01:06:19.320 | Sure, of course.

01:06:20.320 | But it's going to be different working with an eight-year-old and a six-year-old in terms

01:06:23.600 | of the types of things that you can be involved in and the type of help that they need.

01:06:28.160 | Children need their mother much more in the early years, and they need their father much

01:06:31.640 | more in the transition years to adulthood.

01:06:34.040 | And so if you are financially independent two years from now and you're with them 24

01:06:39.640 | hours a day two years from now, it's going to be more important then than it is now.

01:06:48.240 | And if you're this close to being fully financially independent and you have an opportunity to

01:06:52.320 | make quite a bit of money, to me it makes sense to just see it through.

01:06:56.400 | Now the other flip side that I would say is look at where we are economically.

01:07:02.440 | Now especially this week has been an interesting week, and obviously that's affected your investments,

01:07:06.840 | which affects your confidence in your financial independence numbers.

01:07:10.280 | Well, time will take care of that.

01:07:13.080 | But I think there's a very decent chance that we're heading into a significant recession.

01:07:18.280 | I don't prove that.

01:07:19.280 | I don't have any numerical scenario, but we're overdue for a recession.

01:07:22.720 | And when I think about the potential economic effects of the coronavirus, et cetera, I think

01:07:29.160 | there's a very decent chance that this could go ahead and be a triggering event for a serious

01:07:33.480 | recession.

01:07:34.600 | Now maybe it's not.

01:07:36.480 | Maybe next week a vaccine is perfected, coronavirus is cured, and everything changes.

01:07:41.120 | Even so, still, the last three months have been so disruptive to the Chinese economy

01:07:45.600 | and to many other, and are currently so disruptive to many economies, I still think it would

01:07:49.780 | be a significant recession.

01:07:52.080 | But maybe it all goes over, in which case things are different.

01:07:55.080 | But if we're going into a period of recession, this is a time where you want to try to keep

01:07:59.920 | the job that you have.

01:08:01.960 | It's a time where if you can keep your earning ability, you should have more opportunities

01:08:06.980 | to invest at good deals.

01:08:09.300 | So whether that's to buy more stocks at depressed prices, or whether to buy some real estate

01:08:13.260 | or other investments at depressed prices, if you can keep your high income and you can

01:08:17.580 | stay on track for that extra 1.5 to 1.7x of compensation, then you have opportunities

01:08:23.540 | to buy investments.

01:08:25.080 | On the flip side, let's say that your company starts to face problems and the recession

01:08:28.480 | starts to affect you personally, you may be able to get yourself laid off.

01:08:33.780 | If you get laid off, maybe you get a nice layoff package, a nice severance package.

01:08:38.180 | Maybe you can use that as an excuse to do something different than you would have otherwise

01:08:44.340 | done.

01:08:45.340 | Maybe you go ahead and say, "Well, I got laid off, and I was thinking about leaving anyway,

01:08:48.940 | but I got laid off in a time where just about everybody else got laid off, and what we've

01:08:52.300 | long wanted to do is we've wanted to go and spend some time in Mexico and study Spanish.

01:08:57.540 | So let's take our children to Mexico, and we'll go and hide out there for six months,

01:09:01.820 | wait for the recession to pass, and lower our expenses so that we can really enjoy something

01:09:05.980 | like this, rent our house out, something like that."

01:09:08.340 | And so I think given the uncertainty of the moment and how close you are to being really

01:09:13.420 | comfortably financially independent, so that even if you did start a business, you knew

01:09:17.860 | you didn't have to run that business, I would stick it out.

01:09:21.100 | I would focus on the good, try to renegotiate what I don't like about the job.

01:09:24.860 | I would stick it out and wait to see, because I think this next couple of years is going

01:09:29.220 | to be a very interesting time.

01:09:31.860 | If you get laid off, you know, let's sit down, do some financial planning, take a look at

01:09:35.700 | everything, decide what do you want to do.

01:09:37.020 | Do you want to try to get another job?

01:09:38.020 | Do you just want to stay home with the children?

01:09:39.980 | Do you want to – what do you want to do?

01:09:42.420 | If you can keep your high earnings right now, and you can buy some investments at discounted

01:09:47.340 | prices, I think that'll help you.

01:09:49.460 | And so I don't see any reason why I think you should quit today.

01:09:52.100 | I would stick it out for another year and assess, and then stick it out for another

01:09:54.940 | year and assess, and then around that time, depending on what happens over the next year

01:09:58.620 | or two, go ahead and make those longer term decisions.

01:10:00.740 | Thank you very much.

01:10:03.140 | I really appreciate that.

01:10:04.780 | That gives me confidence in the things I was unsure of and doubles down on the things,

01:10:09.340 | a lot of what you said I was already thinking, so that gives me a lot of encouragement there.

01:10:15.660 | And on the leveraging my ability to have confidence here in my job, I've already given the benefit

01:10:26.140 | of that to my manager.

01:10:28.340 | The new one I have is a first-time manager, and I feel like I've been able to be a very

01:10:32.260 | easy employee to him because of my position, not being especially needy for career growth,

01:10:39.940 | et cetera, and all these other things that are demanded of managers to do for their employees.

01:10:45.580 | And I haven't turned that lens on myself to say, "How can I make a little easier on myself

01:10:49.100 | and maybe just take things a little less stressfully?"

01:10:53.980 | So yeah, that's all great stuff.

01:10:55.700 | I've really enjoyed your recent Seven Rings of Freedom series.

01:10:59.980 | We've established a lot of those, and it's great to have a goal for something other than

01:11:05.260 | one, so I appreciate it.

01:11:06.260 | And I've also been...

01:11:07.260 | In the ones that you've established, do you agree with my assessment of them increasing

01:11:13.060 | your freedom and the quality of your life?

01:11:15.620 | Yes, absolutely.

01:11:18.380 | We never really had a lot of debt, but having cash positions and especially about two years

01:11:26.140 | ago, two or three years ago, my wife decided to take the leap, and we gave up a substantial

01:11:33.260 | salary for her to stay at home.

01:11:35.740 | And it's not been all wonderful in every dimension.

01:11:41.100 | She's struggled just like anybody that has to deal with small kids all the time.

01:11:47.100 | We try to be very mindful of giving her her own time and space, but that's been a huge

01:11:53.540 | benefit to both of us, I think, and especially to the children.

01:11:57.460 | So that one especially rang true with me, and I don't think we would have...

01:12:02.820 | We very much saw the value of each of us through our salaries before a couple years ago, and

01:12:09.980 | I think you're a big part of turning that around, so I appreciate that.

01:12:13.660 | And by the way, if anybody's wondering the back catalog, if you've already listened to

01:12:17.060 | everyone, you should go back and listen to everyone again.

01:12:19.420 | I've been through them about two and a half times, so you're a different person when you

01:12:22.660 | listen to them each time.

01:12:23.660 | So we'll check it out.

01:12:24.660 | I so appreciate that, John.

01:12:25.660 | Thank you.

01:12:26.660 | And I'm so glad you've been here, a long-time listener, and it's such a blessing, and I'm

01:12:31.780 | glad that my work has been helpful to you.

01:12:34.580 | So all right, we move on now to the Beehive State, Brigham City, Utah.

01:12:38.500 | Welcome to the show.

01:12:39.500 | Welcome to the show today.

01:12:40.500 | Hello, Joshua.

01:12:41.500 | Yes, sir, go ahead.

01:12:44.500 | Hi, my name's Kevin.

01:12:46.820 | I'd like to thank you for your show.

01:12:49.140 | I have purchased two of your courses, and I highly recommend them.

01:12:52.900 | I'm calling today for your thoughts on citizenship for... and flag-planting theory for my children.

01:13:02.420 | You prepared to answer that?

01:13:03.740 | I'm ready.

01:13:04.740 | I love the topic.

01:13:05.740 | Let's go.

01:13:06.740 | Okay.

01:13:07.740 | So I'm looking to provide either second or third citizenships for my children, primarily

01:13:16.940 | for their career and job opportunities when they come of age.

01:13:22.020 | I currently have two children aged two and three, or two and almost four.

01:13:28.300 | We are big fans of self-education and homeschooling, which I believe would limit general work visa

01:13:35.020 | applications to other countries.

01:13:38.660 | Birth tourism may also be an option here because we may be adding to our family, so that may

01:13:43.220 | provide a citizenship or an option for them.

01:13:47.580 | And with our existing citizenships, I'm actually Canadian, and I'm in Costa Rica right now,

01:13:54.100 | but that's just a vacation.

01:13:55.900 | My wife and I are our Canadian citizens, and her parents are Portuguese citizens, which

01:14:03.180 | through their family citizenship program, we are going to obtain.

01:14:09.820 | We are frugally financially independent, which gives us time to fulfill residency requirements

01:14:15.180 | as another option if we don't pursue birth tourism.

01:14:18.700 | I'm just looking for your thoughts here.

01:14:20.580 | So to confirm, both you... so your entire family, all of you are Canadian citizens.

01:14:27.980 | Your wife's parents are Portuguese, and you're in the process of establishing her Portuguese

01:14:33.260 | citizenship, and then by extension, possibly you and your children's Portuguese citizenship.

01:14:39.660 | And so you're working through that process, but that's just simply a matter of time, and

01:14:43.820 | then you'll have Portuguese citizenship for the whole family.

01:14:46.340 | Is that right?

01:14:47.340 | That's correct.

01:14:48.700 | Okay.

01:14:49.700 | In addition to Canadian and Portuguese citizenships, do you have any other options in your family

01:14:55.020 | tree for citizenship by descent?

01:14:58.060 | No.

01:14:59.900 | Okay.

01:15:02.260 | And you are financially independent, you're able to live on your investments, so you're

01:15:06.740 | willing and able to relocate to another country, live there, especially if it would lead to

01:15:15.380 | a citizenship, and you don't have to have a job in that country in order to support

01:15:19.940 | yourself.

01:15:20.940 | Did I understand that correctly?

01:15:21.940 | Yes, that is correct.

01:15:23.820 | Okay.

01:15:24.820 | So the major idea, the major reason why you would like your children to have a citizenship

01:15:32.060 | option that is in addition to Canadian and Portuguese citizenship is for their economic

01:15:40.060 | opportunities, their ability to work in other regions of the world.

01:15:43.460 | Is that right?

01:15:45.420 | I believe that, yes.

01:15:47.380 | Yes, that and possibly asset protection, but would also be for their benefit.

01:15:52.900 | Okay.

01:15:53.900 | So is there a region of the world that you think has strong growth prospects in the future?

01:16:02.940 | That's where I'm looking for your thoughts.

01:16:06.460 | From what I take, Asia and East seem to have a population that is quickly becoming a good

01:16:18.060 | opportunity for us in our position right now.

01:16:23.580 | I have not been there.

01:16:25.180 | I've been to Europe briefly, and I'm currently in Central America, and we're working on our

01:16:31.700 | Spanish, but it's kind of a blank slate at this point.

01:16:36.900 | Got it.

01:16:38.380 | So it's an interesting thing.

01:16:40.700 | So first, with regard to flag theory and with regard to your position as it now stands,

01:16:47.020 | you already have an extremely strong foundation that many people would be envious of.

01:16:54.340 | As a Canadian, you have the ability to access the country of Canada.

01:17:00.980 | Canada has major benefits from the perspective of long-term security.

01:17:06.220 | Canada has the benefit of tremendous supplies of water, massive natural resources, a fairly

01:17:12.560 | stable culture and economy, and so in many ways, Canada is an extremely safe place to

01:17:20.060 | be.

01:17:21.300 | And so the ability to access the Canadian job market is great.

01:17:24.940 | There's a very strong economy.

01:17:26.260 | It's obviously centered along the southern coast, but when you go through the cities

01:17:30.560 | in Canada, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, I mean, all across Canada, you have major

01:17:37.580 | opportunities.

01:17:39.160 | So you're already in good shape with regard to being a Canadian citizen.

01:17:43.020 | In addition, in many ways, you have a superior benefit that if you wanted to leave Canada

01:17:47.780 | fully and completely expatriate from Canada, the Canadian government will largely leave

01:17:53.220 | you alone.

01:17:54.220 | They'll largely allow you to just go and do something else.

01:17:58.620 | And you can become a Canadian non-tax resident and move elsewhere and thus completely eliminate

01:18:08.220 | your obligations, financial obligations to the Canadian government if you go through

01:18:11.260 | the process of becoming a Canadian non-resident.

01:18:14.460 | Then you could still visit Canada, visit family and friends.

01:18:17.660 | All of that is possible.

01:18:19.480 | So Canada has a lot of benefits.

01:18:22.940 | In addition, the Portuguese citizenship is going to be extremely valuable.

01:18:28.180 | The Portuguese citizenship gives you access to the European Union, which certainly is

01:18:32.900 | a vibrant economy and has a lot of growth going to it.

01:18:37.300 | There's a lot of potential.

01:18:38.700 | The ability for your children to be EU citizens, to study, to live, to work anywhere in the

01:18:43.660 | EU, in my opinion, is extremely valuable.

01:18:47.340 | Now if you think about diversification there, you don't really need access to another modern

01:18:52.140 | Western economy.

01:18:53.940 | Even if your children wanted to enter the United States in the future for job prospects,

01:18:59.260 | it's simpler for a Canadian to enter the United States than for many other people.

01:19:04.180 | And because of the closer relationship between the United States and Canada, they would have

01:19:08.260 | the option to enter the United States probably fairly easily if they wanted to do that.

01:19:12.740 | And of course the United States is an economic powerhouse.

01:19:16.580 | There are good options with the different tax treaties and alliances with Canadians

01:19:21.820 | for some of the other countries, Australia, New Zealand.

01:19:24.860 | Basically throughout the Queen's realm there are really good options that you gain access

01:19:29.260 | to with a Canadian passport.

01:19:31.180 | And the Portuguese passport has some interesting connections.

01:19:35.580 | I'm not fully up to date on all of them, but interesting connections to Brazil and

01:19:40.220 | some options there.

01:19:41.700 | And so I think that if we consider your passport portfolio and your citizenship portfolio,

01:19:47.140 | your big good high quality travel documents, check, check.

01:19:50.820 | Portuguese passport, very strong.

01:19:52.980 | Canadian passport, very strong.

01:19:55.140 | So you can travel fairly freely.

01:19:57.300 | You have the ability to expatriate from both of those places.

01:20:00.700 | So that's good.

01:20:01.900 | So where the weakness is I think in your passport portfolio and your options is regional.

01:20:08.820 | What region of the world would your children be able to access?

01:20:13.980 | And the second weakness would be that the countries that you're involved in are fairly

01:20:18.380 | large countries.

01:20:20.060 | So if you're interested in freedom, as I understand that you at least have some interest given

01:20:24.660 | that you're even interested in flag theory, one of the disadvantages of large country

01:20:30.260 | passports is that large countries can pursue you around the world.

01:20:33.460 | So is Canada better than the United States with regard to pursuing you around the world?

01:20:37.420 | Yes.

01:20:38.420 | With regard to taxation?

01:20:39.420 | Yes.

01:20:40.420 | With regards to spying on you?

01:20:41.420 | It's a little bit better, but unfortunately Canada is part of the five eyes.

01:20:44.100 | And so they're going to follow you around the world.

01:20:48.420 | And so could there come a day in which Canada does what the United States does and they

01:20:52.460 | say we're going to impose citizenship based taxation or we're going to impose all of

01:20:55.780 | these onerous rules on you because you are a Canadian citizen?

01:20:59.380 | Yes, there is.

01:21:01.940 | Canada and Portugal are participating in the CRS system and so they're going to track your

01:21:06.700 | tax residency all around the world.

01:21:08.300 | They're going to want to investigate your bank accounts.

01:21:10.580 | Where you start to get some diversification in your plan is if you can bring in some other

01:21:14.120 | smaller countries.

01:21:15.620 | So you're in Costa Rica.

01:21:17.660 | Costa Rica may not have as strong of a travel document as a Canadian passport.

01:21:23.900 | Costa Rican passport is less powerful.

01:21:26.180 | But there is one thing that's for sure.

01:21:27.500 | If you're a Costa Rican citizen, Costa Rica does not have the money or the resources to

01:21:31.700 | follow you all around the world like Canada does.

01:21:34.020 | Now Portugal of course has less money than Canada, but they don't have the resources.

01:21:38.900 | And so you could get some diversification there by bringing in a citizenship from a

01:21:44.740 | smaller country versus a larger country.

01:21:49.500 | That would be one benefit.

01:21:50.620 | The other thing to think about is if you're primarily thinking about economic opportunities

01:21:53.580 | for your children, I think that you want to think about regions of the world where there

01:21:58.860 | is likely to be growth.

01:22:00.620 | I don't see a lot of long-term opportunities for growth in the United States and/or Canada

01:22:06.980 | or Europe.

01:22:08.740 | Now I'm not saying they're not going to grow, but what I'm saying is I don't see how they're

01:22:13.100 | going to grow.

01:22:14.900 | When I look –

01:22:15.900 | I agree.

01:22:16.900 | And I think there are two big things.

01:22:18.340 | First, there's already a very high standard of living in these countries.

01:22:22.060 | And so given – by the way, apologies for the sniffing.

01:22:25.260 | The only thing I don't have in my recording set up is a mute button, and I would, but

01:22:30.740 | maybe I've got coronavirus already.

01:22:32.020 | Who knows?

01:22:33.020 | I hope not.

01:22:35.260 | The only thing that – the only place – so I think that if you look at the difference

01:22:40.500 | between the standard of living in Canada or the United States or Portugal, and you compare

01:22:46.340 | that to the standard of living in – well, where do we go?

01:22:52.620 | I guess in Cambodia or in Costa Rica or in Brazil or in Argentina.

01:23:02.420 | Many of these places are very sophisticated, right?

01:23:04.420 | There's very sophisticated cultures, but there's a much higher room to grow in some of those

01:23:08.860 | countries, to come up to global standards, which means, I think, more economic opportunity.

01:23:14.860 | The second big thing that I think is going to be an extremely compelling thing in the

01:23:20.740 | future is going to be where is population growth happening.

01:23:24.180 | Population growth in the United States is below replacement.

01:23:26.860 | I think it's – off the top of my head, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think current

01:23:30.940 | population figures are 1.74 children per woman, which is below replacement rates in the United

01:23:36.780 | States.

01:23:37.780 | I don't know what it is in Canada, but I think it's probably below replacement rates

01:23:41.020 | as well all throughout Western Europe.

01:23:43.820 | Go ahead if you know it.

01:23:45.340 | >> Steven: It's just over 2.

01:23:47.980 | It's a very slowly growing population.

01:23:50.580 | >> Adam: Interesting.

01:23:51.940 | And that could be due to significant immigration into Canada.

01:23:55.580 | Obviously there's been over the last decade or two just massive levels of immigration

01:23:58.420 | into Canada, and new immigrants are more likely to be fecund than native-born people, but

01:24:06.060 | that's changing as well.

01:24:07.400 | So same thing in Western Europe.

01:24:11.600 | Population growth rates are – they're not growing.

01:24:13.980 | They're in decline.

01:24:15.420 | And globally there's a very good chance it will be in a significant population decline

01:24:20.180 | in the long-term future.

01:24:21.780 | So I think the places where there is population growth are really interesting, and those areas

01:24:26.020 | are somewhat in South America, somewhat in Asia, Southeast Asia possibly, although I

01:24:33.260 | would even need to look at each country by country, and then different parts of Africa

01:24:38.180 | where there would be massive levels of increased population.

01:24:41.600 | And so if we're thinking about long-term, I would think about some of those markets.

01:24:46.360 | So now let's go back to analyzing kind of the problem.

01:24:51.160 | So you've got Western Europe taken care of.

01:24:52.920 | You've got Canada, and I'll just say North America, taken care of.

01:24:56.540 | So you're trying to figure out where are opportunities.

01:24:58.720 | Do you think culturally would you be – you haven't traveled in Asia.

01:25:02.160 | You're traveling in the Americas right now.

01:25:03.440 | Are you fairly culturally comfortable in the Americas right now?

01:25:08.040 | Yes, it's a slight culture change.

01:25:12.520 | Everyone's happy.

01:25:13.520 | I mean, you can still get all the amenities.

01:25:15.920 | They're nowhere near what we've experienced in Canada, and we've frequented the United

01:25:21.360 | States for long periods of time, and everything's just at your fingertips there.

01:25:26.400 | So we're a little spoiled with that, but I understand – yeah, the culture seems fine,

01:25:32.980 | and I think we're looking to – anyway, where the next checkout is, where to see – I think

01:25:39.600 | we're – yeah, we're comfortable with the culture in Costa Rica right now.

01:25:45.840 | Are you engaging in long-term perpetual travel, or do you live in Canada and you just travel

01:25:50.160 | for short periods of time?

01:25:53.160 | I guess we're in Canada.

01:25:55.200 | I'm trying to kind of maximize it.

01:25:57.920 | We're in Canada for 183 days.

01:26:01.400 | Whatever it is I need to maintain my Canadian citizenship.

01:26:07.560 | We've been spending a lot of time in the United States, and we're looking at spending at least

01:26:12.000 | whatever the countries will let us into.

01:26:13.600 | I think most of the countries will let us in for 90 days in a spot, sometimes as low

01:26:19.680 | as 60 or 30 days.

01:26:22.320 | So we're not perpetually traveling, but we are slow traveling for extended periods.

01:26:27.800 | Are you continuing to be a Canadian tax resident?

01:26:31.080 | Yes.

01:26:32.840 | But you want to do that in the future, or do you want to become a Canadian non-tax resident?

01:26:39.240 | Because we're living off our investments, and we're quite frugal with our expenses,

01:26:46.160 | I'm kind of below the radar on any high taxation from Canada.

01:26:50.080 | Understood.

01:26:51.080 | That's what I thought as far as you're being financially independent.

01:26:55.200 | Why do you feel like you need to be physically in Canada 183 days?

01:27:01.000 | There are benefits.

01:27:04.160 | So I've paid a lot of taxes in getting into financial independence, and Canada has some

01:27:10.160 | very good child benefit laws, child benefits.

01:27:16.440 | I'm kind of taking advantage of those to kind of get some of my money back out.

01:27:22.960 | And yeah, that's why.

01:27:24.440 | Okay, that makes more sense.

01:27:25.760 | It'd be interesting, maybe we should schedule a standalone episode and talk to you about

01:27:29.960 | how you've achieved financial independence in a Canadian context and how to maximize

01:27:33.800 | the options there.

01:27:34.800 | It'd be an interesting discussion.

01:27:36.360 | But so back to kind of citizenship.

01:27:42.680 | To me, I would spend this time traveling, and I would travel, do some traveling and

01:27:48.920 | try to think about where you thought there were more options in the world, where you

01:27:53.880 | think growth is going to be, where in your travels do you look and say, "You know what?

01:27:57.880 | There's a lot here."

01:27:59.800 | I think there are some compelling development opportunities and just things happening in

01:28:04.360 | South America.

01:28:07.280 | And there are some interesting citizenship options in South America, depending on how

01:28:11.900 | much time you're willing to spend on the ground.

01:28:15.400 | Nothing is fast, but in South America, I think one of the big benefits is Mercosur.

01:28:20.080 | If you're able to establish a citizenship for your children in a Mercosur country, that

01:28:25.760 | opens up basically all of South America to them.

01:28:29.180 | And there are a number of different countries that would serve very effectively in that

01:28:34.760 | context.

01:28:38.240 | You have Argentina, you have Paraguay, you have Uruguay, Brazil, obviously the powerhouse

01:28:43.240 | of South America.

01:28:44.920 | If you are going to do birth tourism, Brazil is very high on the list of countries to consider

01:28:49.320 | for birth tourism.

01:28:51.400 | Brazil offers currently a fast track to citizenship for family members of a Brazilian citizen.

01:28:57.400 | So if you have another child, and if you have that child in Brazil, that child would be

01:29:02.480 | Brazilian by birth, a Brazilian citizen.

01:29:05.360 | And then you and your children would qualify for Brazilian permanent residency, which you

01:29:10.760 | could just maintain residency.

01:29:13.000 | That allows them at any point in time to live and work in Brazil at any point in the future.

01:29:18.520 | The key thing I would point out to you is you don't have to have citizenship to have

01:29:21.640 | economic opportunities for your children.

01:29:23.360 | You need residency.

01:29:24.720 | And so even with just with permanent residency, you could open up those doors to your children.

01:29:33.760 | Now in Brazil, the law is that after you acquire residency, which is relatively immediate after

01:29:39.040 | the birth of a child, the law is that if you're a resident, a permanent resident for one year,

01:29:44.320 | then you can file for citizenship.

01:29:46.600 | I don't know how long they're going to have that law, but that is currently the law.

01:29:51.360 | The practice, however, Brazil being very bureaucratic, is it's more of basically a four-year process

01:29:56.040 | than a one-year process.

01:29:57.640 | There's a major difference between the efficiency of the Canadian government and immigration

01:30:00.960 | processes versus Latin American governments and immigration processes.

01:30:04.400 | But Brazil, I think, would be a really interesting and exciting opportunity.

01:30:07.840 | Brazil also has benefits because it's a very diverse society.

01:30:11.520 | So if you're white, you can fit in well in Brazil.

01:30:14.320 | If you're black, you can fit in well in Brazil.

01:30:15.880 | If you're brown, you can fit in well in Brazil.

01:30:18.200 | There are tremendous opportunities and there's a very strong Brazilian, European communities

01:30:25.260 | in Brazil.

01:30:26.480 | Now one thought is there's a special relationship, obviously, between Portugal and Brazil.

01:30:31.880 | So what I would do before I would do Brazil is I would investigate the future opportunities

01:30:37.320 | of somebody with a Portuguese passport and how easy it is for them to immigrate to Brazil.

01:30:42.080 | It's probably easier on a Portuguese passport than anything else in the world.

01:30:45.200 | I don't know the details of that.

01:30:47.340 | There are some other interesting countries in South America.

01:30:52.560 | Colombia is one of my favorite countries in South America.

01:30:56.160 | Colombia is just an incredible place and has a very really powerful economy.

01:31:04.520 | I really love Colombia.

01:31:05.840 | So you can set up, if you're willing to take some money, you can get Colombian residency

01:31:10.640 | just simply through purchasing real estate in the country.

01:31:13.920 | I think that can lead to a passport in time through naturalization.

01:31:19.680 | Now you need to be thoughtful about your tax obligations here.

01:31:23.220 | But since you're living on investments, those tax obligations should be fairly minimal.

01:31:26.480 | And since you continue to be a Canadian tax resident, they should also be minimal just

01:31:30.840 | regard to what you have with Canadian residency.

01:31:34.020 | But I think Colombia is a really interesting option.

01:31:36.320 | There are other countries in South America that are also interesting.

01:31:39.560 | Chile has a wonderful economy.

01:31:43.480 | It's a really incredible country, a really diverse country.

01:31:46.620 | You could use, because Chile is in South America, if you wanted to set up a lifestyle where

01:31:51.800 | you spent half the year in South America and half the year in North America, you could

01:31:55.560 | either choose to live in perpetual winter or perpetual summer, whichever you prefer

01:32:00.240 | based upon the difference in seasons.

01:32:02.960 | You can live very inexpensively in Argentina, especially southern Argentina.

01:32:08.000 | And so if you wanted a place that had a high quality of life and low cost of living, that

01:32:13.080 | would be a country to consider and you can become an Argentinian citizen in time.

01:32:18.940 | Almost all of the countries in the Americas offer citizenship by birth, birthright citizenship.

01:32:26.720 | So all of those could be options for another child, but not all of them offer a fast track

01:32:36.960 | to citizenship.

01:32:37.960 | But you have the years and so you could become in time naturalized for your entire family

01:32:43.200 | in South America.

01:32:44.600 | And there's some very high quality of lifestyle places.

01:32:48.880 | Uruguay is a very modern European culture.

01:32:52.600 | You would probably feel very comfortably in Uruguay, a lot of benefits.

01:32:56.760 | Don't ignore Mexico.

01:32:58.320 | Mexico has tremendous benefits, extremely powerful passport, fairly simple immigration

01:33:03.280 | procedures.

01:33:04.280 | You can naturalize in time.

01:33:06.000 | If you have a child in Mexico, the child will be by birth Mexican and then you and your

01:33:10.080 | entire family can qualify for permanent residency in Mexico.

01:33:13.520 | And so again, you could naturalize as a citizen, but you don't need to.

01:33:17.840 | You could just simply have a permanent resident visa and gain access to the Mexican marketplace

01:33:23.300 | in the future, which I think will be very powerful.

01:33:27.080 | Now let's move out of the Americas.

01:33:29.720 | You have obviously the Caribbean.

01:33:31.600 | There's certain benefits of the CARICOM alliance there, but that's less interesting to most

01:33:35.120 | people and you can always buy yourself a Caribbean citizenship if you think it's worth the money.

01:33:40.800 | Europe, I think has some interesting options and here's where we get to diversity.

01:33:44.720 | One of the things that where your passport lacks or your passport portfolio lacks diversity

01:33:49.440 | is on big countries versus small countries.

01:33:52.520 | That's not too bad with Portugal, but still EU, big country, big government, etc.

01:33:57.320 | It'd be nice if you could develop a passport citizenship from a place that had a smaller

01:34:06.920 | government influence and it also would be nice if you could develop a citizenship from

01:34:11.040 | a country that was friendly with a different set of countries.

01:34:14.160 | So if you look at the world's countries, there are often groups of them that are friendly

01:34:17.620 | with one another.

01:34:18.620 | So the United States and Canada, very friendly with one another.

01:34:21.440 | If you, you know, you commit a crime or something, US and Canada extradite people all the time.

01:34:27.300 | Now that's different than the relationship between the United States and China or the

01:34:31.120 | United States and Russia.

01:34:32.680 | And so different regions of the world control and exert influence on other areas.

01:34:38.240 | The US influence is almost impossible to escape throughout all of the Americas, especially

01:34:42.640 | Central America.

01:34:43.920 | You just can't believe that the United States is going to let something happen in, you know,

01:34:48.440 | I don't know, Costa Rica, right?

01:34:49.840 | Costa Rica famously doesn't have a military, which is great, right?

01:34:53.400 | But one of the reasons why they can get by without a military is because the United States

01:34:57.400 | has proven time and again that they're just not going to let anything happen that they

01:35:00.080 | don't want to happen in Central America.

01:35:02.600 | And so in some ways the Central American governments, yes, they are independent and they do their

01:35:07.640 | best to be strong and sometimes bristlingly strong a la Nicaragua.

01:35:12.680 | But at the end of the day, they're pretty much subject to what the United States allows

01:35:16.560 | to happen.

01:35:19.680 | There's long proof of that.

01:35:21.540 | And so one of the things that I would consider would be to go and establish myself under

01:35:27.280 | another government that would be interesting in a different part of the world.

01:35:30.580 | So for example, Russia would be a really interesting thing for you to do to emigrate to Russia.

01:35:37.960 | The Russian economy and the Russian state is a really fascinating place.

01:35:44.040 | Moscow, one of the world's great cities, really.

01:35:47.820 | Very advanced culture, very just high culture.

01:35:51.760 | You can do—Russia is such a huge country, you get tremendous opportunities.

01:35:56.720 | Depending on what you're willing to do, you could emigrate to Russia.

01:36:01.320 | Russia has some economic immigration options that can lead to citizenship in fairly short

01:36:05.640 | order, potentially as short as three years.

01:36:09.560 | And so if you were willing to make some investments in Russia and move some money into the Russian

01:36:14.040 | economy, that would be an interesting thing for you to consider.

01:36:18.240 | And there are a lot of nice things about Russia.

01:36:19.840 | You can live very inexpensively in Russia and it would be pretty neat if your children

01:36:25.640 | had the ability to access some of the Western nations, but they also have the ability to

01:36:30.720 | access a nation like Russia.

01:36:33.040 | Russia has a very low tax rate.

01:36:34.200 | It can be a major tax savings for some people.

01:36:36.880 | Again, that's not such a big concern for you, but that is a real option.

01:36:41.080 | You could also think about some of the countries that have access to Russia very easily.

01:36:48.280 | So for example, Serbia is a really interesting solution.

01:36:51.160 | The Serbian passport is one of the very few passports in the world that gives you visa-free

01:36:56.540 | access to both Russia and to China, which is something that you don't have with either

01:37:02.400 | of the passports that you currently have options to.

01:37:05.480 | You don't have visa-free access to either of those powerhouse nations.

01:37:08.720 | And so a Serbian, you could establish residency in Serbia, leading to citizenship in about

01:37:13.560 | five years within Serbia.

01:37:16.040 | Serbia also has Belgrade as a really neat city, very cultured.

01:37:19.640 | If you wanted to live less expensively, there are many suburbs and whatnot outside of Belgrade

01:37:25.480 | that could be just really nice places to be.

01:37:27.920 | And so you could think about a place like Serbia.

01:37:31.680 | Then we move towards kind of the Middle East and to Africa.

01:37:35.200 | So in the Middle East, there are really minimal options for citizenship.

01:37:40.400 | The Middle East and Asia are much more race-focused than Western nations.

01:37:45.720 | And so it's much harder, if you're not born Saudi, you're not going to become Saudi.

01:37:50.400 | Like Dubai, right?

01:37:52.080 | Incredible city, could be a very tax-efficient place for an expat to live, but you're not

01:37:56.840 | going to become a citizen of Dubai.

01:37:58.220 | The best you can get is establish permanent residency and keep it.

01:38:01.920 | And that's fairly open, but you've got to stay there and you've got to keep it.

01:38:05.020 | But you could investigate that because there are economic opportunities in the Middle East.

01:38:09.440 | I think the most interesting place to consider going in the Middle East, it's not technically

01:38:14.680 | Middle East, kind of on the border between Europe and the Middle East, but Turkey has

01:38:18.360 | a citizenship by investment program that requires you simply to buy real estate.

01:38:23.120 | So if you're willing to invest in $250,000 of real estate inside Turkey, you and your

01:38:27.840 | entire family can become Turkish citizens.

01:38:30.560 | And that's the kind of opportunity that would start to diversify your passport portfolio,

01:38:34.480 | because although it may not be super helpful with regard to travel privileges, you've already

01:38:38.660 | got travel privileges, where your passport portfolio could benefit, would be working

01:38:43.300 | with a smaller country and also potentially working with a country that's not quite in

01:38:47.920 | the same kind of Anglo-Western United States, Great Britain sphere, like you are with Canada

01:38:53.640 | and with your Canadian citizenship.

01:38:56.840 | So Turkey is kind of on the border of the EU, wants to be part of the EU, but it's still

01:39:01.040 | different.

01:39:02.040 | It has more of a connection to some of the Arab cultures.

01:39:04.800 | And that potentially could be something that could even make you money.

01:39:07.120 | So you go to Turkey, you purchase $250,000 of real estate in Istanbul or elsewhere.

01:39:14.680 | You can rent that real estate out.

01:39:15.680 | You don't have to live in it, or you could live in it and just enjoy living in Istanbul,

01:39:20.240 | traveling around that region from a home base, doing slow travel.

01:39:23.600 | And the citizenship process is very quick.

01:39:26.180 | The requirement is that you purchase the real estate, $250,000 of real estate or $500,000

01:39:30.320 | deposit in a local bank.

01:39:32.080 | And then three years of, you maintain it for three years, then after three years you can

01:39:36.200 | sell.

01:39:37.200 | And so if you can buy inexpensively and then sell at a profit, you could possibly make

01:39:41.520 | a profit by adding another citizenship to your passport portfolio.

01:39:45.560 | Then we move to, from there let's move into Africa.

01:39:48.440 | Now Africa is interesting because I think there are, there's potentially a lot of opportunity.

01:39:54.440 | If you look at the areas where population growth is likely to come in the next few decades,

01:39:58.720 | most of it is from Africa where you have a very high birth rate.

01:40:01.420 | And I think it's going to be really exciting to what happens in many different African

01:40:04.800 | countries and cultures.

01:40:07.240 | There are some challenges.

01:40:08.440 | Now in most countries, many countries in Africa you can immigrate and you can naturalize to

01:40:14.080 | be an African citizen of that country.

01:40:17.640 | So you would have South Africa would be one to seriously consider, a South African citizenship.

01:40:24.720 | There's obviously a stronger connection between, are you and your family white?

01:40:28.880 | Yes.

01:40:29.880 | Okay, so there's an easier connection of being a white South African than necessarily

01:40:35.560 | being a white citizen of Namibia.

01:40:39.200 | There are far more white South Africans than there are white citizens of Namibia.

01:40:42.600 | So South Africa would be something to consider.

01:40:44.600 | But there are other interesting countries in Africa as well that have a lot of longer

01:40:48.280 | term potential.

01:40:50.120 | What I think would be one of the very interesting ones to consider would be off of the African

01:40:54.120 | continent itself, but a country like Mauritius.

01:40:56.960 | There are lots and lots of South Africans that are moving to Mauritius, given the economic

01:41:03.080 | troubles especially for white people in South Africa.

01:41:05.800 | Many white people are leaving South Africa and looking to go to other places.

01:41:09.380 | The reason I say Mauritius is because Mauritius is also an interesting option for a passport.

01:41:14.600 | It's one of the other very few nations in the world that has visa-free access to Russia

01:41:20.240 | and to China.

01:41:21.720 | And it would be a real diversity of a passport for you and for your children that is an African

01:41:31.640 | passport.

01:41:33.240 | Now Africa is not particularly difficult to get to for the passports that you already

01:41:38.120 | hold, but it would be interesting to have an African passport and especially that African

01:41:42.360 | passport could open up more interesting opportunities for your children.

01:41:45.920 | What are the economic prospects of Mauritius?

01:41:48.400 | I don't know.

01:41:49.520 | Not nearly as exciting to me as something like the economic prospects of Nigeria, but

01:41:54.840 | there's a big difference between an island tropical paradise in an African island versus

01:42:00.800 | a place like Nigeria.

01:42:02.280 | Nigeria certainly has much more powerful economic prospects, I think, in the coming decades,

01:42:07.520 | but it would have a very different lifestyle.

01:42:09.000 | So do you actually want to live in Nigeria?

01:42:10.940 | Do you actually want to pursue that or do you actually want to pursue naturalization

01:42:14.600 | in Kenya or an African country?

01:42:16.480 | Those things are much more difficult.

01:42:19.080 | Now to wrap up, I missed whole swaths of Asia.

01:42:24.320 | Malaysia is, I think, a really neat option for your children if you want to expose them

01:42:29.160 | to some Asian influence.

01:42:33.160 | Thailand is obviously a place that lots of people like to be.

01:42:37.080 | In many ways the world is open to you, but those are just some thoughts that occur to

01:42:39.920 | me and so you're going to have to consider what you and your family actually like.

01:42:45.000 | If you don't actually like a certain culture, let's say you just don't like Russian culture,

01:42:49.280 | you don't want to learn Russian, well then Russia doesn't seem like a great place to

01:42:52.760 | pursue, but maybe you would love living on a tropical island of Mauritius.

01:42:59.240 | On the other hand, those places are far from Canada and so if you're going back and forth

01:43:02.880 | between Canada and there, you got a lot of money in plane tickets, it's quite a ways

01:43:07.840 | and so it's a lot easier for you to set up shop in Costa Rica or Panama or Mexico than

01:43:13.600 | it is for you to go back and forth between Mauritius and Canada.

01:43:18.200 | But those are just some ideas talking through some different regions.

01:43:20.600 | What I would emphasize is you don't necessarily need citizenship for your children in order

01:43:24.560 | to open up economic opportunities for them.

01:43:26.700 | You can do that with residency and so you can establish residency with birth tourism

01:43:33.400 | and that can be a part of the overall package.

01:43:35.780 | So if you're going to pursue citizenship, I think it makes sense for you to think about

01:43:40.200 | the diversity and to focus on a region of the world that you think has genuine economic

01:43:44.160 | prospects and then move in that direction.

01:43:47.800 | Thank you very much Joshua.

01:43:50.680 | That was very thorough and I believe you can consult on this.

01:43:54.640 | Well good, I do enjoy the topic.

01:43:57.120 | It's interesting because it's so fascinating when you start to sit down and think about

01:44:01.080 | where do I think the world is going, what opportunities do I want for my children to

01:44:04.360 | have and then how do I balance that with all of the practicalities.

01:44:11.280 | But I do think I love the topic and whether it's through financial independence or through

01:44:17.320 | remote lifestyle, through homeschooling, it is pretty cool in the modern world to be able

01:44:21.420 | to establish multiple options all around the world.

01:44:24.880 | All right, we've got two callers left on the line.

01:44:27.000 | Let's go to Abilene, Texas.

01:44:28.480 | You've been extremely patient.

01:44:30.000 | Welcome to the show.

01:44:31.000 | How can I serve you today?

01:44:32.000 | Sorry man.

01:44:33.000 | Hey Joshua.

01:44:34.000 | My name is Corey.

01:44:35.000 | Can you hear me?

01:44:36.000 | Yes Corey, sounds good.

01:44:37.000 | Go ahead please.

01:44:38.000 | Hey, so I had a question about long-term care insurance.

01:44:42.000 | I recently, I've been a long time listener but this is my first time to call and based

01:44:46.080 | on some of the stuff that I've learned from you over the years, recently I actually quit

01:44:51.520 | my job as a principal because I read John Taylor Gatto.

01:44:54.480 | Thanks for that.

01:44:55.480 | Great.

01:44:56.480 | And we thought about homeschooling for a long time and after I was actually in the public

01:45:02.680 | school system, I decided that the position I was in, it wasn't going to be socially acceptable

01:45:08.280 | for me to stay and to homeschool.

01:45:10.680 | So we decided we're going to try something different.

01:45:13.280 | So I got out of the public school system and right now I'm trying to flip houses and we've

01:45:17.800 | got plenty of savings to tide us over but we're trying to keep our expenses low because

01:45:22.680 | I'm trying to get this business to actually make money.

01:45:26.280 | But basically my question, my wife asked me to call you.

01:45:28.320 | I'm 34.

01:45:29.320 | I'm in good health.

01:45:30.320 | I'm married with three kids and should I buy long term care insurance?

01:45:33.520 | Like is that something I need to be thinking about and looking at and if so, what do you

01:45:37.880 | recommend?

01:45:38.880 | About how much is your current net worth?

01:45:43.160 | I'm in about a half million dollar range.

01:45:49.400 | And other than just simply being a prudent forward thinking planner, you're not, there's

01:45:54.600 | no current reason to think that you would need long term care insurance at an early

01:45:58.800 | age.

01:45:59.800 | Correct.

01:46:00.800 | So nothing that I can think of.

01:46:04.440 | It's just thinking of risk planning.

01:46:06.320 | Yeah.

01:46:07.320 | Right.

01:46:08.320 | I don't think it makes sense.

01:46:09.640 | Now ironically I'm 34 and I own some long term care insurance but that was more to do

01:46:17.160 | to the fact that I sold it and when I sold long term care insurance there was a change

01:46:21.480 | happening in the marketplace.

01:46:23.200 | When long term care insurance was first designed you could purchase very generous policies

01:46:27.520 | with unlimited lifetime benefits.

01:46:31.080 | So you could say I want $5,000 a month and then if you got early onset Alzheimer's at

01:46:39.120 | 40 years old and let's say you needed 30 years of care, you could potentially get millions

01:46:46.320 | and millions of dollars out of the benefit.

01:46:48.560 | Now when I was actually an insurance agent what I found is that again and again, what

01:46:55.000 | I found was that the marketplace was changing and so one by one all of the companies that

01:46:59.760 | sold long term care insurance systematically dropped their lifetime benefits and then the

01:47:05.120 | change that happened before that is you could actually purchase something that was called

01:47:08.680 | a cash, blanking on the name, a cash purchase or a cash balance payout.

01:47:15.040 | So let me explain.

01:47:16.960 | Generally the way the long term care insurance policy works is that the policies, cash indemnity

01:47:20.680 | that's the word, the policies are reimbursement policies.

01:47:23.680 | Let's say you buy a policy and it has $5,000 a monthly benefit.

01:47:27.360 | The way those policies work is if you have $3,000 of expense they'll reimburse you $3,000

01:47:33.880 | but they won't reimburse you the other $2,000 if you qualify based upon the activities of

01:47:38.720 | daily living which is the triggering language in the policy.

01:47:42.480 | If the policies also, if you have $5,000 they'll reimburse you $5,000 of expenses.

01:47:48.720 | If you have $7,000 of expenses they'll reimburse you $5,000 of expenses.

01:47:53.060 | But they're reimbursement policies that reimburse you for actual expenses incurred.

01:47:57.280 | Now those policies have the ability to, you can sometimes use them in some interesting

01:48:02.880 | ways.

01:48:03.880 | So for example it is possible that if I got, let's say I get early onset Alzheimer's disease,

01:48:10.380 | it is possible that my wife could go and get a license to be a nursing aide and she could

01:48:16.120 | go and get a job with a home health organization and her job she could be paid by that company

01:48:21.140 | to live in my house and to provide my care.

01:48:25.140 | There's nothing illegal about that as long as the money funnels through a nursing home

01:48:28.680 | agency.

01:48:29.680 | It would have to be paid to a company.

01:48:32.060 | And so obviously it wouldn't be a huge amount that she would be getting but there are some

01:48:36.200 | ways that you could use it for that.

01:48:38.080 | Now that's a reimbursement policy.

01:48:40.320 | There were, especially in the early years of long term care insurance, there were cash

01:48:43.880 | indemnity policies that were available.

01:48:46.120 | And so the way the language in those works was if you qualify for long term care based

01:48:50.520 | upon needing help with two of the six activities of daily living, which is the contract language

01:48:54.480 | in a long term care policy, if you actually needed help and care, then the policy would

01:48:59.960 | just simply pay you out a stated sum of cash regardless of how the cash was used.

01:49:04.080 | So if your policy benefit in that situation were $5,000, then no matter what you would

01:49:08.640 | get $5,000, whether you spent $3,000, $5,000 or $7,000.

01:49:12.960 | So the first wave was those policies didn't work out.

01:49:16.200 | They didn't underwrite them properly and so what happened is they phased, they pulled

01:49:19.960 | most of those policies from the market.

01:49:22.560 | When I was an insurance agent, there was one company on the market that still had one of

01:49:26.160 | those that I sold I think twice to, and I sold those policies to wealthy young business

01:49:33.040 | owners who couldn't get disability insurance and basically it was kind of a stopgap disability

01:49:38.000 | insurance policy where if they got disabled, then they would possibly qualify for long

01:49:44.760 | term care benefit.

01:49:45.760 | It wasn't as sure as a disability policy but since they couldn't get disability, this was

01:49:49.600 | kind of a stopgap thing for them.

01:49:52.120 | And so that used to be available but since I haven't been involved in the marketplace

01:49:55.960 | a number of years, I don't know if those are still available.

01:49:58.360 | But what I told those clients when I sold those policies, I said, "Listen, these policies

01:50:04.580 | are generally not underwritten well and so you need to view this company and this policy

01:50:08.640 | with suspicion and every single year, you need to just say how's this company doing

01:50:14.360 | because it was an abused section of the marketplace."

01:50:17.840 | So even when I sold it to them, I said, "This is probably only a temporary deal for you."

01:50:26.240 | Now back to reimbursement policies.

01:50:28.120 | The change that happened was the company started to experience such severe adverse selection

01:50:33.200 | that they started to pull those lifetime benefits from the marketplace.

01:50:40.800 | And I was actually an agent at the time and we got advanced warning that they were pulling

01:50:44.880 | them and I sold, I don't know how many.

01:50:47.960 | I bought one but I sold, I mean, dozens of them.

01:50:52.400 | Maybe if I won, in one month I sold, I don't want to exaggerate but something like 50 or

01:50:58.960 | 60 long-term care insurance policies.

01:51:00.760 | I just called everybody that had ever been interested and I said, "Listen, this is being

01:51:04.640 | pulled from the market.

01:51:05.640 | You can still buy it for another few weeks but that's it."

01:51:08.440 | And I sold dozens of them.

01:51:11.360 | To my knowledge, I'm not aware of any company that's still offering them.

01:51:14.840 | If anybody listening is an insurance agent and you know of a company that's still offering

01:51:18.080 | this kind of policy, then reach out to me and let me know please.

01:51:22.300 | But to my knowledge, all of those have disappeared.

01:51:24.840 | Now that was an extensive background to say that the circumstances have changed.

01:51:29.160 | So now the way that long-term care insurance works is it's basically a certain amount of

01:51:33.240 | money that you want to insure against this specific need.

01:51:37.160 | And so the way it works is let's say you're going to protect $3,000 per month of expenses

01:51:42.560 | times 12 months for a total of 36 months.

01:51:45.300 | So the total benefit of the policy is 3,000 times 36 or $108,000 or it could be $6,000

01:51:55.720 | for 60 months.

01:51:56.720 | Now your total benefit of the policy is $360,000.

01:51:59.820 | And so what the policies do now is they largely hedge your savings against that amount of

01:52:05.240 | drawdown.

01:52:06.240 | So if you buy a policy that has a maximum benefit of $360,000, what that means is you

01:52:11.120 | don't have to spend $360,000 of your assets first.

01:52:15.020 | You first go to the insurance policy, you take the money out of the insurance policy

01:52:18.700 | and then you go to your savings.

01:52:25.900 | So it's just hard for me to see that that's necessary for you being this young.

01:52:31.040 | I every year I look at my policies and I think – I have one for me and one for my wife

01:52:34.960 | and I look at them and I think, "Do I really need this?"

01:52:38.000 | The problem is that I know it doesn't cost me all that much.

01:52:40.720 | It's deductible through my business.

01:52:42.560 | Long-term care insurance is the best double deductible business benefit.

01:52:47.400 | It's deductible as a business expense and the benefit is totally tax-free.

01:52:50.400 | That's the only insurance payment that works that way in the marketplace, in the tax world.

01:52:55.680 | It doesn't cost me all that much.

01:52:57.440 | I started with a very modest benefit.

01:52:59.760 | Mine continues to grow with inflation.

01:53:01.360 | The premiums grow little by little.

01:53:03.280 | I look at it every year and I think, "Well, I probably don't need this but I do like

01:53:08.280 | to have it and it just makes me feel good."

01:53:11.960 | I can't get disability insurance because of the nature of my business and my travels

01:53:15.180 | and whatnot.

01:53:16.180 | So if I had disability insurance, would I still have it?

01:53:20.400 | Probably, but because I don't have disability insurance and I can't get it, even though

01:53:24.800 | I'm the world's biggest fan of disability insurance, I just look at it and say, "Well,

01:53:28.320 | I'll keep this."

01:53:29.880 | But would I tell you to do it?

01:53:31.480 | Probably not.

01:53:32.480 | Now, that was so I don't think you need it.

01:53:34.960 | What I would say is focus on getting wealthier.

01:53:37.080 | If you are going to, if you are still interested in long-term care insurance, what you should

01:53:41.560 | do is you should investigate a hybrid product.

01:53:45.400 | So what has happened in the marketplace, the long-term care insurance has gone through

01:53:49.680 | a couple of iterations and one of the things that's happened is there's been a development

01:53:53.360 | of a lot more hybrid products that mix a life insurance policy with a long-term care insurance

01:53:58.440 | policy and I think those are interesting.

01:54:02.240 | I don't love them because I like insurance to be a little bit purer, but for someone

01:54:06.400 | in your situation, if you are genuinely interested, I think you should investigate something like

01:54:11.200 | a hybrid policy because there's far less of a chance of you just paying out, paying out,

01:54:16.040 | paying out and then never being able to get the money because it'll go out in some form,

01:54:20.080 | either in the form of a long-term care benefit or a life insurance benefit.

01:54:24.160 | But long-winded way of saying, "No, I don't think you need it.

01:54:27.240 | I would just focus on getting wealthier."

01:54:28.800 | >>Toby: Awesome.

01:54:29.800 | Thanks so much.

01:54:30.800 | That's very helpful.

01:54:31.800 | Yeah, that's exactly what I needed to know.

01:54:32.800 | You've been talking for three hours and I have a second question.

01:54:33.800 | >>Toby: Go ahead.

01:54:34.800 | >>Jeffrey: If you wanted me to ask it, I will.

01:54:35.800 | Are you sure?

01:54:36.800 | >>Toby: Go ahead.

01:54:37.800 | Go for it.

01:54:38.800 | Yep.

01:54:39.800 | >>Jeffrey: All right, man.

01:54:40.800 | Okay.

01:54:41.800 | So I'm investing in real estate now since I'm doing the house flipping thing and we've already

01:54:42.800 | got a couple of rental houses and I was thinking about, I listened to your asset protection

01:54:43.800 | series.

01:54:44.800 | They're currently both in my name because they wouldn't give me a loan unless they were

01:54:45.800 | in my name.

01:54:46.800 | So I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:54:47.800 | >>Toby: Okay.

01:54:48.800 | >>Jeffrey: I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:54:49.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:55:13.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:55:41.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:55:48.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:55:57.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:56:05.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:56:15.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:56:26.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:56:46.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:57:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:57:24.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:57:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:57:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:58:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:58:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:58:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:59:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:59:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

01:59:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:00:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:00:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:00:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:01:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:01:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:01:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:02:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:02:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:02:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:03:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:03:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:03:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:04:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:04:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:04:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:05:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:05:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:05:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:06:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:06:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:06:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:07:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:07:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:07:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:08:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:08:34.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:08:54.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

02:09:14.800 | I'm going to go ahead and ask you a question.

RPF0704-Friday_QA-Upgrading_Lifestyle_Public_Speaking_Course_MPT_Antibiotics_401ks_Multiple_Citizenships_LTC_Insurance_Asset_Protection_for_Real_Estate_ISOs