Latest / No Más Yes Girls / She Retired at 38 as a Multimillionaire… But Money Wasn’t the Hardest Part | Dr. Jacqueline Jarl

Transcript

She Retired at 38 as a Multimillionaire… But Money Wasn’t the Hardest Part | Dr. Jacqueline Jarl · No Más Yes Girls

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of Noma's Yes Girls where we, your hosts, Vivian MBNA, talk about our healing journey.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: And today is, I mean, every episode is special.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but today I get to have a very special friend.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: She's actually become became like one of my close friends within the last couple of years, and also my neighbor.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but today's conversation is a really special one because uh Dr.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Jacqueline, um, hence the doctor, she just got her doctorate's degree not that long ago, so congratulations once again.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: And sighting.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, when you hear her story on paper on paper, you're probably going to think, how did she do all of this?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, she's first gen, she comes from Taiwanese parents, she went to West Point, she was in the army, she built a successful corporate career, and eventually she became financially free and was able to retire at only 38 years old.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I need to clap for that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: I need to clap for that, and um, but that's not actually part of the story I'm more curious about because behind all of all of those accomplishments, there's a woman who had to grow, who had to change, who had to heal, and probably unlearn a lot along the way.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes we see successful people, and and um I think sometimes we see successful people after they've made it, but we don't really see the fear, the family expectations, the pressure to succeed, the mistakes, or the version of themselves they had to let go to become who they really are today.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um so today we're not just gonna talk about money, we're gonna talk about being first gen, family, success, identity healing, and what happens when you spent your whole life working hard and finally realize wait, does freedom actually what does freedom actually mean to me?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Oh and I forgot to say she even wrote a memoir about it too, which I'll also link down in the description box because it is oh my gosh, I remember I read it and I can relate to so much about it as well, which will also touch space about it on here as well.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: So welcome, JJ.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Or doctor.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I I go by JJ.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I always I always tell people, you know, I only make people call me doctor if they're being inconsiderate or if they're rude.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um so JJ's just fine.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but thank you for that introduction.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I I resonate so much because whenever I tell people, oh yeah, you know, I retired when I was 38, um, which was just a year and a half ago, so it wasn't that long.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And people always ask me, like, oh, really?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: What did you invest in?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, it's it's not the investments that enabled me to do that, it's the healing that enabled me to do that.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, overcoming all of the money stories that I lived when I was little, um, and relearning new money stories and new money beliefs that's that really put me in a good place with my relationship with money that enabled me to be able to treat money like like the tool that it is, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And not as the survival skill that we that we need.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I'm really excited to to dig into it.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, that's what my memoir really is about, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's about finding my identity, it's about healing, and then of course, wealth building, but the identity and the healing come before the wealth building.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I just had a quick question because it uh what is can you share with those one of your money stories that you grew up with and that you changed?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and this is I did not write about my childhood in the book um because I don't think I've healed enough from it to write about that.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I there's a lot more healing that needs to happen, right?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: In order for me to go and write that.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So my the healing journey in my book is mainly about my military trauma and the identity uh that I didn't know, you know, who I who I was and and all of that.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that stems from childhood.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but one of um, and again, being first gen, you know, Asian immigrant, um you guys know being first gen, like you see a lot of things happen around money uh when you're an immigrant, right?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things um that and I think I wrote about this uh for my paid subscribers on Substack because again, it's more of a personal story.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I I didn't want to just like blast it out, you know, to the whole world.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in fifth grade, um, this was first semester, fifth grade, and I had just moved from Taiwan back to America.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So my story is I was born in California.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but my parents decided that they wanted to move back to Taiwan when I was like eight months old.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So my my, you know, obviously my entire family moved over, and um, I went to a local Taiwanese school, um, you know, private, like way back when you were like allowed to hit kids, you know, in in Taiwan.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of how I grew up, right?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like the tiger mom, the all of that, like all of that stuff that you see on TV is true.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um my first semester here in the United States as as a fifth grader, um, there was a like, I guess there was like a drive, like a charity drive.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know how sometimes schools will do like a charity donation.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really speak English at the time.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this was my first semester, right, in the United States.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And my teacher gave me an envelope, and I was like, oh, what is this?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, just ask your parents to put$10 in it and bring it back tomorrow.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was like, okay, so I went home, told my parents, my teacher said to put$10 in this envelope and for me to bring it back tomorrow.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then all I remember was my dad read the envelope and found out that it was a donation.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't know that it was, again, I didn't know what it was for.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh found out it was a donation.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And for the rest of the night, I was scolded about asking for$10.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how could you do this?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't like if I didn't speak English, you would have just pulled this over my eyes.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was like, you know, and I was like, no, I don't speak English.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know, I don't know what, like, I did not, I was just, I'm just, I'm the messenger.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm literally telling you what my teacher told me.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: But like, you know, that, and that was one of my money stories um that taught me that it's bad to ask for money.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that you're gonna get in trouble if you ask for money.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like as a part of the scolding, right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was like, How dare you! Like, how selfish of you to ask for money.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like we came here with nothing but whatever, you know, the clothes on our backs, and um, we don't have money to just give away to people, right?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's this whole like thing.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So asking for money is selfish, asking for money gets me in trouble, right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's that whole narrative.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what did that turn into as an adult?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's my inability to ask and advocate for the proper salary, right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, pretty much for my entire time in uh corporate war.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the military, like, you know, there are no races.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: You just get what they get, you just get what they pay you.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I came out of the military um and I was working in California in San Jose, and I was um underpaid, like I did not make as much money as I made in the military.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I got the offer, I did not negotiate.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: I did not get a sign-on bonus, which um back then in 2014, everybody was getting sign-on bonuses left and right.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't know that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I didn't ask for anything, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I literally got the offer and I was like, yes, thank you.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like somebody, somebody wants me to work at a you know a job that I have no experience doing.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, great, I will do it.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and pretty much throughout my entire Clipper career, even though I knew I was underpaid, um, I would be afraid.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I that is the right word.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I literally would get afraid to ask for my worth.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like when I say afraid, I mean like the night before I was about to go into a review and I was like, I know I did really well, like I'm probably gonna get top marks, so I'm gonna ask more money because I know I'm underpaid, you know, all of that.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like the night before I literally couldn't sleep.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would sweat like through my armpit.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the whole day, like the whole day, I would not be able to focus.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then sometimes when after I got into the review, I would just decide to not do it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's too stressful, I can't do it.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would just not ask.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that and that's the money story, and that's the impact, right, that your money stories and your money believes have on you and throughout your adult life.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's true.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't even understand I don't think we even go back to that route when we're as an adult.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you go back and think about wait, this comes from way back when, but it's not from now.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I think it's not just money, right?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's pretty much everything that we do in our lives.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um everything has a cause.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: We think the way we think because of the way that we were raised.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'll share another story.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, um, I went back to Taiwan.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I after my father passed away, pretty much every year I spent Christmas with my mom's extent, like with my cousins.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So my mom's brothers' kids.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they have kids.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: None of my siblings have kids, but all of my cousins have kids, like young kids.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and one time one of the kids, first grade, uh, came home and was like, Auntie, auntie, I got first in like whatever track meet that they were having in school that day.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was like, Oh, that's really great.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then immediately his mom, so my cousin's wife, um, was like, oh, don't brag.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not good for you to brag.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you have to be humble.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, like, it literally was like, for me, that was like the light bulb moment that I was like, holy crap.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is why I am the way I am.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because ever since I was little, I was told to not brag about myself, right?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was even if I did something great, I got first in my class that you were not allowed to tell people about that because it's not humble.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it just like so many things clicked for me.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, like this is why.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I behave and I think the way that I do.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a learned behavior, right?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you can change that.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have to actively give yourself new experiences and tell yourself new stories um so that you can learn a new behavior.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: But but that's what it is, like and it yeah, so it's not just about money, it's literally everything we do goes back to how you were raised.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and recognizing it too, because I don't think a lot of us recognize it.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think we just say, Oh, well, that's just how I am.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and that's the excuse.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and you don't recognize it yourself and say, Oh shoot, no, maybe if I want to change, I need to change.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't, if you don't change, like if you give in to the oh, that's just how I am, um, and your life maybe isn't going the way that you like it to, maybe um, for obviously for you know, on my end end of the of the um of life is maybe you're in credit card debt, um or maybe you're always living paycheck to paycheck.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh you know, if you don't like the way your life is going, you have the power to change that, right?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot always blame your roots, you cannot always kind of blame the way that you were raised because once you get to a certain point, like after 18 years old, you you have you have the power over your own life, right, to make decisions that can take it to a better place.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, versus obviously when you were children, your life was mainly controlled by your guardians and your parents and and the adults that are around you, right?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there really is like a certain point in time when you you can no longer use the oh, that's just how I am as an excuse if your life is not going the way that you like it to go.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you love your life, go ahead.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and be like, yeah, that's just the way I am, you know, and and I've built a life that I love, so I'm not gonna change for anyone.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like I'm at that point, right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know there are a lot of things that I probably could do better, but guess what?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to, so I'm not gonna.
• 15:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: J Day, tell me or tell us what made you decide to go to West Point.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So honestly, um, I decided to go to West Point because I wanted to be financially independent for my parents.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's the honest truth.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think I've actually like told anybody that um until recent years, when again, as a part of my healing process, right, you have to acknowledge, you have to acknowledge your experiences and be honest with yourself.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you keep lying to yourself, you're never going to heal properly.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So as a part of my healing journey, um, like I went back and I was like, why did I want to go to go to West Point?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't actually want to go to West Point until it was like, I think it was like 11th grade.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was at a college uh fair, and West Point, I was trying to go to the Harvard booth, but it was busy.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, let me just, you know, come back.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just go to another booth and come back.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally turned around, and West Point was Caddy Corner from Harvard.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I know of West Point, but it was never like in my top selection of colleges that I wanted to go to.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there was nobody there.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was nobody at the booth.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, well, let me just go and see, you know, what's going on.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I dropped my resume with, you know, the representative, and he was like, Oh, you should definitely start a packet, you know, all of that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I started looking into it, and like the more I looked into it, the more excited I got about the independence that it would give me from my parents, right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: You literally, your parents literally could no longer tell you what to do because now you are at the control of the United States government.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: So they they pretty much trump everybody.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um you would earn money while you were going to college.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: You would have a job, a guaranteed job when you graduated from college.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then obviously, you know, the the military would send you to wherever it is that that they're gonna send you.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So all of that, at the time, you know, again, as as an an immigrant that's kind of lived under very, very strict like Asian parent, you know, rule, um, I was like, all of that sounds great.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like it in my mind, is it could not be worse than what I am currently experiencing, right?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it would give me the independence that I wanted.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that was ultimately why I decided to go to West Point.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because even like my parents wanted, you know, super immigrant, Asian parent, they were like doctor, engineer, right?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: That those are kind of like the things.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually was gonna go um to Johns Hopkins.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was initially waitlisted at Johns Hopkins, um, but then like in April of that year, they called me and they were like, hey, like you got in, do you want to come?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and my parents were like, you should not go to West Point anymore.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: You should go to Johns Hopkins, uh Johns Hopkins, right?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, no, I want to go to West Point.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I really want to serve my again, the whole, I wouldn't want to serve my country, you know, all that, all of that stuff.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, but but I think if I were to like honestly ask myself the real reason why I wanted to go to West Point, it wasn't for any of the you know, defend your country, like all the all that, you know, propaganda um talk.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: It it was it was legit because I knew that it would give me the independence that I wanted from my parents.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Most definitely.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: No, like definitely, and I mean so for anybody who doesn't know what West Point is, West Point is a military academy, and it's actually a pretty I did not know this until I got with my partner.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: He also is a is a West Point graduate.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently, there is a small percentage of an acceptance rate to get into the military academy through the um US Army.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you serve your four years as if you're going into a regular university, and then from there you become an officer and um just work your way into a different ranks.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Just a little back, just a little backstory on um what West Point is.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um leading to my next question, uh you were in the army, obviously, for I'm assuming our I was in for five and five and a half years as a year.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was also four years, yeah, as an officer, yeah.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: So um what would you would you say was it harder for you to learn how to work hard or harder to learn that you didn't always have to, I think as your experiences, yeah, now yeah, it definitely the latter, right?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like I did not need to learn how to work hard because that's what I do.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like it again, this is all the way from childhood, right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was always told, um, and when we when we came over, came back to the United States, we did not live in like an Asian community.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we lived in a a very Caucasian community.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so my parents were always saying, like, you have to be as good or better, right, than than the Caucasians.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, why would people pick you?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was kind of like always in my mind.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if I'm just normal, if I'm average, no one's ever gonna pick me for anything.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I always have to be not just win as stuff, but I have to win by like a mile, right?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: For people to notice me, for people to choose me for scholarships and and different things.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so so working hard was like my default.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I did not need to learn how to do that.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so so it was definitely like learning, and and I and I will say I probably did not know how to not work hard until very recently, like maybe the last two ish years of my corporate career.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I would always, even now, right?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm I'm quote unquote retired um and I don't really do anything um like during the day, right?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like I watch sports news, like I don't wake up till 11 a.m.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I watch sports news.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: As as I'm eating lunch, I'll play with my dog for a little bit.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I go to physical therapy, you know, if I if I have the sessions, if I need to.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I'll maybe do a like a short workout of some sort in my garage.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then like and then it's dinner time.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So like I really just don't really do anything during the day.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a part of me still to this day that's like, why are you just sitting on the couch?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Shouldn't you be doing something?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, even till this day.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I mean it's it's a tough thing to learn that like you you don't have to do anything, you can just sit on the couch and do nothing.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's nothing wrong with that, right?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you're like, because my money's in order, right?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I was able to retire.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, like all of my passive income supplements my lifestyle.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't need to work for income, but in the back of my mind, right, there's like that devil on the shoulder, the devil and the angel, right?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is like, why are you just sitting here?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: You should be doing something, make yourself useful, right?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's always there.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's probably like another thing that I need to heal from, right?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like another healing, like you don't always need, like, even though you grew up like that for you know the last 40 years, like you don't you don't need to do that.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can rest, it's okay.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: And healing doesn't end, it keeps going and going.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: We always find something, yeah, yeah, something always comes up.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: What um if you don't mind sharing how you ended up retiring at 38, what motivated you?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: What motivated you to um to pretty much saying, hey, at this age or roughly at this time frame, this is what I'm trying to, this is my goal of retirement.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: How how can you give us a backstory on how that started and what made you retire?
• 24:44
  unknown: Yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: So after I got out of the army, um, I was unemployed for I don't know, six, seven months probably.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had PTSD, I had a shoulder injury, like I was actually a medical discharge.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I wasn't planning on getting out of the army that early.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I always knew that I wasn't gonna do a career, um, 20 years, right?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a career.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I wanted to get out probably around like eight years.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, it, and then it just so happened that I got the shoulder injury, they couldn't figure it out, um, couldn't fix it.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time they were downsizing a bit, and this is at the like end of 2013.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they were downsizing a bit from the surge in in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So they were like, okay, well, you know, your shoulder is the way that it is, um, and and you know, we we can medically discharge you, essentially was what happened.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I was not prepared.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I did not um look for a job.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was an intelligence officer, so there were no like comparable jobs in the civilian world, and I did not want to go back into the government.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like I had an active top secret clearance, and people were like, Oh, you should go, you know, do some alphabet, like letter alphabet agency.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was like, that would be the worst, like that would be the worst um thing to me, right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was already like I had the trauma and all that stuff.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I legit just left the military, like without even looking for a job.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that was probably more on me than anyone else, but I just I didn't know what to do, right?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I ended up uh between like my mom's friend in San Francisco and my parents' house in Taiwan, um, I was unemployed for six to seven months, and that was really when I was like, it re-inforced the independence um piece of you know of me that I had when I was a teenager.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't ever, ever want to be at the mercy of somebody else.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like zero, zero desire, right, to do that.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was like, all right, it's time for me to go like find a job and and get on with my life.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I so I ended up um coming back to the United States after um six, seven months.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think this was like in May of 2014, and um started looking for a job and my master's is in teaching, so I was like, okay, I'm gonna go like into teaching, like private school, teaching English, you know, something like that.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, you can only make$40,000 in California doing things like that.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Those were the offers that I got.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, all right, time to pivot because you cannot live off of$40,000 in California.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up signing up with a recruiting agency, uh, like a military headhunter who helps people transition out of the military.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And they were able to get me a job at the civilian company within like two weeks, uh, which I was like, great! Like again, I did not know anything about the civilian world.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was like, didn't do any research on it, went on site one time for an interview, um, and then got the offer, and I was like, let's go.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I could have ended up at the bottom of some dungeon, you know, doing who knows what.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that I was like, they said they're gonna pay me$80,000.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, let's go.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make this work, right?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so after being at that company for about like a year and a half, I think, a year a year or so, um, they had a like a restructure.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So when I started making my own money, again, right, like after the military, it was like, I was like, I've made it.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I can actually make money on my own, not being in the military.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I have my own apartment now, you know, I'm going out wasting all this money every single weekend at bars, and you know, just two, three hundred dollars every Saturday, right?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's like like young and dumb stuff.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then and then the restructure happened, and like I wasn't impacted, but there were two engineers, um, mechanical engineers, who were laid off because the company said that uh they needed more electrical engineers instead of mechanical engineers.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: And here I am.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was like a supply chain project manager at the time.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, hold on, hold on.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: If an engineer can get laid off, that means I can get laid off.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't I didn't have any money at the time because I was wasting it on bar tabs, right?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, every weekend.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really my like starting point.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was like the trigger um for me to be like, all right, like you better get your life together because have making your own money doesn't mean that you're safe.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you were the one to get those notices, right, of of late being laid off, like you would literally be right back, like in your parents' house, or like I because I I didn't have any money, I didn't have my own house, right?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was really the trigger for me to like figure out this was like the end of 20, 20, 2015.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was 20, I was going to turn 28 that year, and I was like, all right, arbitrarily, let's just give it 10 years.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's say 40, right?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I did not like actually come up with a plan.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was just the number I picked out of the hat.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: I said, let's just say 40.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: By the time that I am 40, I want to have the opportunity to not work, but still make money, right?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was like my thing.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I said I want essentially like in everyday terms, I want to lay on the couch and still have money flying into my bank account.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That that was kind of what I told myself.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that was what started my journey to financial freedom.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: At at the end of um, this, I would say this was like mid-2025.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of 2025, I had gotten a job to move to Texas.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and then in March of 2026, you know, I was in Texas or March of 2016, sorry.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I moved to Texas and the rest is history.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But but that was really, it was again, it was around the independence, right?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was like it was really the fear, and I know this probably sounds really bad, but it was the fear of having to move back in with my parents that drove me to to my journey of financial freedom.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And what um yeah, and uh how I know some of our audience is gonna ask, like, what tips, what tricks did you do to uh make your money work for you, or how are you getting this passively now that you're not in corporate anymore?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um there's there's a couple things, right?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like number one is I knew that I needed to max out my retirement.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because for the when I was in the military, I I did not con like I didn't contribute to my retirement, like zero dollars.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, I think there were like some dollars here and there into a Roth IRA because I did have um when I was in high school, like my neighbor three doors down, um, is a financial advisor, still is, he still has a portion of my Roth IRA.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he was the one that told me when I started college and I started making my own money to like start putting money in the Roth IRA.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it wasn't planned.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like one day he would call me and I'd be like, okay,$500.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, uh, whatever money I had from like my cadet bank account, I would just be like,$100, dude, you know, like it wasn't planned at all.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it wasn't until I started working for corporate that I had an employer sponsored um with a match, uh, retirement account with a match.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that to me was like mind blown, right?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, wait, someone's gonna give me free money for my retirement.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was like I because the military was like, no one's gonna give you free money.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: You work for 20 years and then you get retirement.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only way that you can get money.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're trading, you know, your labor for your retirement money.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the fact that somebody was willing to give me free money every year was like unheard of to me.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, oh, I'm definitely gonna take advantage of that.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I maxed out my 401k every year.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was like one of my things was every year um I would max that out, get the max for my get the max um matching from my employer, which you know, I lucked out.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is not because I did research or anything like that.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is simply just because I lucked out and it was the right place, right time.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this employer actually matched, like if you put in 8% of your own um contribution, they actually put in 11% um like every year that for the 11 years that I was there.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it was like it was a lot.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I that's one of the main reasons why I was able to retire so early, because I like I hit Coast Fire, which is, you know, you no longer need to put money in your retirement um because of that.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like I hit Coast Fire so early because of the employer match.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so to everyone out there, right, who when you're looking for a job, like yes, the salary matters, but benefits also matter.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: So like you have to make sure that you're looking at the entire package and not just what they're paying you, you know, every week or every other week or every month.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was the one thing, right?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is is 100% max out your um employer match.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: So like if if they only match, you know, for for us, I think it was like 8% um 50 50 cents on a dollar for the first 8%.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: So so make sure you at least get that match.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then for us, every year they put in a discretionary 7%.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how the 11% ended up happening.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Roth IRA, right?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Roth IRA is it's a much smaller contribution.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think this year is only like$7,500 versus the 401k is like 2400, uh 24,000, right?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's very, very small compared to the 401k.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it makes it much more doable, right?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's a smaller number and it grows tax-free.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, a lot of people are like, well, should I do the 401k or should I do the Roth IRA?
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the answer is both.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is you you should really should be doing both.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how you maximize your retirement um benefits so that you can retire early.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you're like, well, I only have money to do one, I would say get the free money from your employer, right?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because no one else is gonna give you free money.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so make sure that you do, you know, the maximum that your employer is going to match and then put the rest in your Roth IRA because again, that's tax-free growth.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is like you have to pay taxes on everything.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever I don't have to pay taxes, I'm always maxing out on that.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so that's one thing, right?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is to just make sure that you're um taking advantage of free money and tax free money, which is essentially also tax, uh, you know, free money.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's kind of what I always say is um you have to plan for retirement early if you do want to retire in your 30s, 40s, or even 50s.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so free money, uh take care of your retirement.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then really the next thing for me is just like lifestyle creep, right?
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and get you can ask my siblings, like, I have shirts from high school.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if my mom didn't make me throw my stuff away because they're old or whatever, like I literally still wear shirts from when I was in the military.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's because I just don't buy new things.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for me, I'm just like, well, can I still wear it?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Does it have holes in it?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't have holes in it or does it hasn't like discolored or something like that from being washed, then I don't need a new shirt, right?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how I am.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is this is that Asian immigrant raising again, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is like that shirt still works.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a new shirt, just put it on and go to school, right?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a little bit of that.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also like I will say um another one of my money stories, which did impact my financials a bit on the negative side, um, and this is another tip, right, for for everybody again, uh, around the lifestyle tip is I grew up around the belief that your car showed your status.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: So when I graduated from West Point, um my parents gave me a car as a graduation present.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they asked me what I wanted.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: So when I went to West Point, they were like, if if you graduate, because they didn't think that I was gonna be able to, they're like, if you graduate, we'll buy you any car you want.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, so when I graduated, I was like, Porsche-in.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and and they they got it, right?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: They got it for me.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I drove that car for a very long time.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I didn't have to pay for it.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: The maintenance was outrageous um for a you know 21, 22-year-old who just graduated college and was making nothing, like no money in the military.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anyways, but but the good news is I did keep that car for nine years, uh, which is great.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't have uh any loans on it.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: So so that was great.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then right, that got that kind of like got me into a bad cycle of owning luxury cars.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I did not need luxury cars.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: I barely even like drive my cars, right?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so when it was when it came time to trade that first Porsche in, of course, I was like, well, I can't go down from here, like I have to get another Porsche.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that was again my belief, my my money belief that if I wanted people to know that I was doing well in life, I have to drive a really nice car.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let me just bust that myth right here.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am retired at 38, right?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: I drive a Subaru now.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's not like let's not get into our heads that you need a luxury car, right?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: That if if you want to be wealthy, you have to drive a luxury car.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: You do not, okay?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um so so again, I spent, but again, my saving grace, I would say, on the car is I did pay for a cash.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I did not take out a loan, which is my only saving grace um in in this car situation.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: So traded that car in.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think I paid like another, oh my gosh, like 40 something thousand dollars out of pocket um in 2017 to to buy um my next Porsche, which is a Makan, the Porsche Makan.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, drove that for seven years.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and then at the end of 2024, like literally I had this like transformation, right?
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I ended up, I understood that the car wasn't the status symbol and and all that.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that was a part of the healing that I that I had to do.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't you don't have to show people your wealth, right?
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: No one, no one really cares, to be honest.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um so every time I walked into my garage, it wasn't like, oh, look what a great car I have.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was, oh my gosh, this is a really expensive paperweight sitting in my garage.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had a transformation in my own belief regarding the car situation.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's when I traded the Makan Inn for for the Subaru Cross track that I that I have now in my garage.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um but but lifestyle creep, right?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the other thing is you don't you don't need to spend more money to prove anything to anyone.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't need to be keeping up with the Joneses, right?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or anything like that.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like keep the money to yourself.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the only way.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: That right, that's the only way because you're like, I want to show people I'm wealthy.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: After you show people, you're no longer wealthy because you spent the money.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: So so like right, so that's kind of like the way.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell people, like, when you're building wealth, it's like uh it's like building a house, right?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like the strongest part is the foundation, but who sees the foundation?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, it's covered by flooring, right?
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you put in really, really expensive flooring, people are gonna think you have an expensive house.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: But if but if you don't have a strong foundation, any little like wind or shake or whatever, and your house is gonna collapse, right?
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the the most important things are the are the parts that people cannot see, right?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your support beams in your house, your foundation, right?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Things like that.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: And same thing with your finances, like it's not the car, it's how much money you have in your bank account, in your retirement account, right?
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and all of that.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: So things that other people cannot see.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know it's there, right?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because you built it.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, and for me, it was a lot of it in the very beginning was like, well, I know I'm doing well in life, even though I I really wasn't like again, it was this whole like I'm making my own money, I've made it in the world, uh, and I had like zero retirement, right?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, like it to me, it was more about proving that I'm doing well to hide like all the to hide the reality, right?
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so but then once I actually started doing well and had money and net worth over seven figures, you know, and things like that, then I was like, I don't care what people think about me.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why do I need to go and show off on all these things?
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like now I do things for my convenience, right?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: I do things because like when I travel, for example, like I always fly the lay-flat business class because I want to be comfortable when I travel.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be stuck in the back, right?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like I'm relatively tall, I'm 5'11, um, and I have back and all these joint problems from the army.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, but like I'm not flying, you know, just to show off or or to do whatever.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally because like I need to lay flat so that my back doesn't hurt halfway through the flight.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like for domestic flights.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't mind sitting in economy.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't even do like economy plus because I don't need it, right?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, just give me the cheapest ticket.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, seriously.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't like because you have to pay for things that are worth it.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're and you don't don't buy things just because you think someone's gonna say something or you want other people to see something, right?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it just isn't.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, like no one's gonna remember.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no one's gonna care, right?
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's all about you and what the life that you're trying to build.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: JJ, tell me more now that you are in that your retirement era.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: Which I absolutely love for you.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: You are now doing what is called JJ's coaching services.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me more about that and what that entails.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I mean, I think um people think there's a lot more to it than it actually is.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so JJ's coaching service is really something I started while I was still in corporate.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I started this in 2023.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I retired in 2025, and um it was it's really a place where I can help other people with their finances, right?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to share the knowledge that I haven't learned.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, part of the reason why I wrote the memoir as well is to make it, you know, available for anyone who is interested um in my story or maybe just an example of a normal, everyday person um who made 80K, you know, starting and was able to build wealth and retire at the age of 38.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so through JJ's coaching services, um, I I coach, um, I call myself a financial freedom coach.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I coach individuals who want to start or advance their journey to financial freedom.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now, before everybody gets super excited, um, I am first and foremost retired.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I only spend like less than five hours a week on this business.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that includes all the social media posts, all the LinkedIn stuff.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that includes all the networking, all the client meetings, all the prepping for client meetings, right?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: So like I really only keep like one or two active clients.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I call it, it's more, you know, like seasonal work because I literally just give myself like four months off in the year.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't, I really like, you know, I've like last year, I don't think I had any client meetings from November through the end of February.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was like, you know, I'm like, yeah, I'm just I don't want to meet with anyone.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: So like if you have like an emergency or something like that, um, and you're one of my active clients, I will always make time for you 100%, you know.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: But from like a regular cadence perspective, I'm like, yeah, you're good.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, and and the way that I do it is I think is somewhat different than other financial coaches.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you always need me, I have failed as a coach.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: My my whole thing is to make it so that you learn how to make these great financial decisions on your own so that you no longer need anybody else, myself included, right?
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's it's about financial independence, and that includes independence from a financial coach.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, when you enroll in my programs, like the whole thing is to make you financially independent so that you can learn how to make these financial decisions on your own.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now, of course, in the very beginning, you need a little bit more coaching, right?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna have a little bit of self-doubt, like I did in the very beginning.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're gonna be like, I don't know, is this right?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is this not right?
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I won't ever tell you like what to do.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: I won't ever tell you this is the right decision or that's that that's not the right decision because everyone's life is different.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: What is a right decision for me and my life might not be the right decision for you and your life, which again is why it's so important to be able to independently do the analysis and make decisions for yourself.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's what JJ's coaching services is all about.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think I just updated like on my LinkedIn, I put it as like seasonal, um, because I don't know, like people just think that I like coach people all day, every day.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, like I'm I'm really just sitting on my couch watching like CBS sports headquarters.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, but but that's what that's what, and then of course the book you know is is published through JJ's coaching services as well.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, which I will also um link in the description box.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: So all of JJ's information, including her social media, LinkedIn, like all of her stuff is going to be linked in the description box in case you guys are interested or in case you want to um know more about JJ.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I also want to tap in a little bit about your health journey.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yes, I I'm absolutely I'm uh I love anything health and wellness, as you guys know.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: So um, and recently I remember JJ, you were telling me a lot actually, I think a couple years ago, I remember how you had mentioned you were allergic to watermelon.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until recently I saw you eating watermelon, and I'm like, wait a minute, I thought you were allergic to that.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: So ever since I've been a kid, I've been allergic to uh most fruits, I will say.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like with any melons.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: A watermelon, honeydew, you know, any any melon, I was allergic to bananas, um, the hairy, I call them the hairy fruits, like the kiwis, the peaches, you know, all of those.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's not like a peanut allergy where like your airway would close.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: And like I don't have that.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's I I would get um really itchy in my like nasal cavity and my uh throat.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I would feel like my lips are swollen, um, but they're not actually swollen.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I look in the mirror, it's normal, but I just feel like they're on fire and solen.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had that for as long as I can remember.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's funny story, so I'm gonna go on a tangent.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was when I was a kid, I would tell my parents this.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in Asia, it was like allergies didn't really exist in the parents' minds, right?
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I would be like, oh no, like I don't want to eat that because I feel bad after I eat it.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really know how to communicate it.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would just tell them, like, I don't feel good after I eat these things.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um being the Asian parents that they are, they're like, no, you just don't like it.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's why.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, continue eating it.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I would just eat it, you know, and um that's again not advocating for yourself, right?
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's another reason why I was like, all right, I'm just gonna like swallow whatever.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if I don't feel good, don't say anything about it.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's right, that's kind of the thing.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: So recently, um, I had a friend, um, she actually grows, like, she has a farm in her backyard, um, and she grows watermelons.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: So she brought a whole bunch over different colors, the red, the yellow, you know, a whole bunch.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, I feel bad.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like she brought literally, it was like two like one-gallon Ziploc bags full of watermelon.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, I guess I can like have one because it's not deathly allergic.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is my right, like it's okay, I'll just, I'll just suppress it, like, you know.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up eating some, um, and I didn't have a reaction.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, huh, interesting.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if it's just like because I hadn't eaten fruit in a long time, and my body like didn't really know, or like, you know, and so I'm like, oh, that's fine.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I just kept eating it every day, you know, that that it was there and um didn't have a reaction.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: So now like I eat watermelon pretty much every day.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just bought another one yesterday.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because like it's like the allergy just went away.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I eat kiwis now, also.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, and like I like and I know like people say, Oh, your allergies change and this and that, but like I'm like, does it really though?
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think I I do think it's something because I have been on this health journey um, you know, for the last I would say few years.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I like like I was mentioning earlier, and I and I write about this in detail, you know, in in the book about me healing from the PTSC that I had from the military.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I, you know, was super stressed out um at work and ended up with these migraines.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and uh I didn't know this when I left work, uh, when I finally retired, but six months after I retired, I also found out that I had an ulcer, which I have had for about two years, um, because I I would, you know, get really, really bad stomach aches um in in the middle of the night, especially when I was on a work trip.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that should have told you something, right?
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was like every single work trip it would it would come up.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was like, oh, I probably just ate something bad.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was the guacamole.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would literally try to like blame it on something that I ate.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um no, it wasn't ulcer.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I have been on this um, I would say cleaner food.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not clean by any means, but cleaner than what I was eating before.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, with the migraines, I had um, you know, been trying to stay off screens and you know, just kind of regulate like my sunlight intake.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was also low on vitamin D.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was like low on vitamin B12, like anything that could be essentially like depleted, you know.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I I had I had the depletion.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so I had been on, you know, and I was like, well, I wonder if it's because like I'm treating my body better now, right, than I was for many, many, many years.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously in the military, that was just, you know, you didn't really have an option, right?
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like you went out to training, you ate MREs and all the stuff that was in there, you know, and and and all that stuff.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then when I got out of the military, I really like because I was under like the severe, I don't want to say severe because I want to like take away from other people who have more serious PTSD, but I was under the influence of PTSD to where like I I didn't have the ability to care for myself properly after work because I used all of my energy at work.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I would literally come back, and this is like again, I was like 27, 28.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: I would come back from work and I would eat like pizza pockets for dinner, right?
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like a 12-year-old.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I just it was it was that or some other form of microwave dinner because I just did not have the mental capacity to make dinner or even to meal plan, right?
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because my weekends were spent sleeping, like recovering, and or going out being social, you know, hoping people would like me.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was in again, like for more detail, like I wrote I write about it in the book and why I acted the way that I that I did.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, so so I think in the over the last few years, um, you know, when I when I finally started learning, and this is to circle back to the kind of the first question that you asked me, right?
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: One of the first questions is I learned that I did not have to work so hard and give all of my time to corporate America, that it was okay for me to spend time on myself.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I started researching into um like nutrition and um obviously with the ulcer and the migraines, I did a lot of research on that.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I have high cholesterol.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've had high cholesterol since 2018.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, as like, you know, like crazy, right?
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like for somebody who is that young to have high cholesterol, um, and so I was researching into that, be like, okay, like how do I clearly my body is is dysregulated, um, and and my bodily functions uh cannot like work normally because of all the stress that I'm putting it through.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up doing a lot of research, spending more time on myself, um, not working so hard, right?
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and all of that.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and 100%, like I think the body is finally recovering.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I wouldn't say I'm recovered because I don't, and I don't know if I ever will be just because of like for the first 30 years of my life, you know, I put it through crap, a lot of it, right?
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but I do think my body is is recovering enough, you know, to a point where it it can somewhat function normally now.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't have to, you know, take medication to force it to function properly.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's focus.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_02: Reverse a lot of these um these issues, these health issues.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like a lot of people don't really understand that you can reverse high cholesterol, you can reverse um ulcers, you can reverse the migraines, you can reverse the PCOS, the endometriosis.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm actually currently on a health journey myself on reversing my PCOS and regulating my dysregulated hormones because the again that explains a lot of a lot of the inflammation I've had again.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I I don't want to say blame it, but I contribute it to my previous jobs, my previous nursing jobs.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's a very high stress environment.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: It was a lot, it took a toll on my body, um, inside and outside.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: And um now that I'm also not in the workforce anymore, I'm completely turning my time into something that I truly intentionally love and desire to do and grow.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like you see a lot of the changes going into your body.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm it's it's crazy because your body, you can again, I'm also doing a whole whole food um cleaner health.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not when I say diet, but lifestyle, like a more like cleaner lifestyle, and yeah, I've been losing weight unintentionally.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even think that would be possible.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of my like the weight loss.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when I left corporate, this was uh June 30th, was my lot June 30th of 2025 was my last day in corporate.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was like 165 pounds.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: At a certain point, I got all the way up to almost 170.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which was like, I've never been 170, other than I think it was like the two to three weeks where um at West Point I was diagnosed with Graves disease, and then I took a radioactive iodyne treatment, um, like iodine 131 that completely obliterated my thyroid.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_00: So for two to three weeks before I had the synthroid um medication, I think I I got up to 170, right?
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I literally had zero thyroid hormone.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, just imagine uh your body being so dysregulated that it's behaving like it has no metabolic hormone.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: So like so, and that was when like I was like, okay, whatever.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I need to, I need to do something.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I didn't even like after I left corporate, I didn't have any major changes in diet.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I still ate chips.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_00: I actually eat more sweets now than I did back then.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I was, you know, heavier, I was always like, I can't eat dessert.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just I can't I don't not that I don't deserve it, but I just can't eat dessert because it'll make me fat, right?
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: But now, every almost every day after lunch and dinner, like I'll have a little something.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have a little dessert, right?
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's ice cream or you know, or whatever.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um six months after I left in December of last year, um, I was already down to like 155 with no change in diet or workout or exercise or anything like that.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I only exercise maybe, maybe 10 minutes a day, maybe.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not not every day.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, because I don't like I just I don't like to, you know, like to work out, but like it's just your body responding to the decrease in stress level and the hormones, you know, and all that.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I had, oh, I also had high A1C.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so do I it's like because everything's related, right?
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like when your stress, when your cortisol is through the roof, like it's gonna impact cholesterol, it's gonna impact insulin, it's gonna impact a whole bunch of other things.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, hormone, uh reproductive hormones, right?
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and all of that.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, 100%.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just take the time for yourself.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it is okay to rest.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your body needs to rest.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell all of my clients, like, if you don't have your health, you don't have nothing.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you literally do not have anything if you are not healthy.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's the point of having money when you're not healthy enough to spend the money?
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, the point is for us to enjoy retirement, is to retire and be able to travel and be able to do whatever, not to retire and be locked up in some medical facility getting chemotherapy, you know, or or dialysis, you know, or or whatever.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not how we want to spend our money.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, most defin, most definitely.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I think like for me, it circles back to putting everybody first, yeah, except you.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then so later on in life, then we're facing all these, you know, um things with our body, all these um health issues, and it's like, man, I should, you know, put that first.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, at least for me, being a stay-at-home mom, it's like everybody else comes first, make sure you're sick, okay.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'll take care of you.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_01: But then when I'm sick, who takes care of me?
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: When you're sick, you're still making dinner for everyone else.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's yeah.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_01: So then now that you're that, well, at least for me, now that I'm older, I'm like, okay, now I have all these issues, and I should have done that at the beginning.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_01: But again, it's like that's not something, you know, it was hard to heal that part and say, okay, wait, I come first because if I'm not okay, how am I gonna, you know, help everybody else out?
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it starts coming out when you're older.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: And these, I mean, these diseases, like it's not overnight, right?
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like they don't they don't happen overnight and they don't heal overnight.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it might take you three to five years because you literally it literally builds over, like people say the cancer that you have at 50 started when you were 20, right?
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, and same thing with all these other things, like the your body is actually amazing at recovery, but the 20, 30 years of you constantly throwing so much at it, right?
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like at one point in time it's going to break down.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the breakdown doesn't happen for 20 to 30 years.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why, like, when I talk about burnout with people, like like the migraines, for example, right?
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like that's what it was.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was burnout, like for 20 to 30 years of working ridiculous hours and thinking that it was normal, and then not getting sleep and you know, eating like junk and and and different things, and your body doesn't have the energy and the fuel to recover.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, it I know like in the military, we used to always say, uh, like if you were if you have some injury and you were put on profile, is is what they call it, it takes twice as long to cover to recover um than the time that you were on profile.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you broke your arm and it was broken for three months, it's gonna take you six months to recover from that three months of broken arm, right?
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: So and and and then the same thing here is like if you spent 20 years feeding your body all this cortisol from various different things, um it's it might take 40 years for you to actually recover, right?
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, and that's the thing, is like we don't ever want to get to a point where our bodies break down on us, right?
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because at a certain point in time, it will not come back, right?
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it it it's it's like we really need to recognize that like we we really do need to put our health first, right?
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and ourselves.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: First, and being first gen immigrants, like I understand that sometimes that's not it goes against the grain, right?
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_00: It goes against everything in our fiber in our being because we want to be there for other people, um, and we want to be useful and we want to help other people, but you can't pour from an antipod.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it's trying to get over the guilt as well.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_02: And all of this, like um, again, I've mentioned before, I'm also reversing a lot of my PCOS and insulin resistance and disregisulated hormones.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's it's taken me almost a year, and I'm still not even halfway to um to reverse it, but I know it's gonna take a little bit of time.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_02: But what I noticed that has been helping me and it's been changing in my recovery is the feeling of being safe while doing so.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like a lot of people don't really talk about this a lot.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when your body is in that survival mode, and it could be when within all areas of your life, when your body is in survival mode and trying to just live another day, you don't feel safe.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's when your cortisol, like all everything tends to happen: high cholesterol, high cortisol levels, dysregulated hormones.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_02: But when you take your time and actually talk to your body and be like, you know what, we're safe, we're in a safe environment, we're in a safe place.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_02: We can eat this intentionally, and it's going to feel good intentionally, and you crave a lot of um healthier choices because it makes your body feel so much better.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_02: It can be something simple like a soup or a tea or even coffee.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um not on an empty stomach, of course, but but it's when you start switching your mindset to you are safe in this environment, it's okay to eat this, it's okay to ingest this, it's okay to relax, it's okay to feel good about yourself.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's when everything changes because it's and you don't even realize it.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_02: You you start feeling less bloated, you start feeling less inflamed, you start feeling or you start getting more energy or feeling more energy come to you because you're subconsciously, consciously talking to your body that it's okay to be out of survival mode.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's where a lot of us, especially first gen, especially coming from um immigrant immigrant parents, where we're just so used to being on the go, so used to just what's next.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I already did this, what's next?
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_02: What am I what I have to do?
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_02: What do I have to do?
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_02: All right, let's get the dice rolling, let's get the ball rolling.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, let's on to the next thing, instead of actually taking your time and being grateful to see where you're at right now and um really enjoying the time and resting.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not talking about resting, laying on the bed or on the couch all day, every day.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm talking about resting, and it's okay to sit down and actually enjoy your meal.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay to sit down and enjoy your cup of coffee or tea on the porch or outside or looking at your dogs or looking at animals and just or even looking outside the window and just taking that time to reflect and be thankful and grateful about where you where you are right now and in your health journey, healing journey, whatever journey you're going through, um, changes you're going through.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't stress this enough because the moment you start switching that mindset to safety, everything changes for the better.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm talking about healing and reversing your diagnosis, healing and reversing your financial um, your fear over money because a lot of the time, a lot of first genders we're scared, we're scared to have so much money, and I know a lot of people are not ready for this conversation, but there's a big fear around money.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's why it's easier for us to go get it and to have our safety of just receiving a paycheck because I also lived in that fear for a long time, too.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and it wasn't until like, you know what, it's not all about money.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm gonna receive this amount, it's to help other people, not just me.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Boom.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_02: I changed my whole mindset.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now, abundance in money and health and wealth, everything starts coming your way.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I again, I feel like a lot of people are not ready to hear that conversation, but we are so ready to talk about it because it changes, it changes your whole life for the better in all areas of your life.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I went on a whole tangent right now.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, I love that, I love that, I love that, and you and you know, like healing is I want to say like healing is done, like you have to be the one to make that decision, yeah, because there will be so much noise around you when you're trying to change because people don't want you to change, right?
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because how you are now benefits them.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're trying to change, like you know, Vivian, for example, you're like, well, if I'm sick, I won't be able to make dinner for my kids.
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, who's gonna make dinner?
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I don't know, you figure it out, right?
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They don't like that.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, what do you mean, mom?
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I figure it out, right?
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, so a lot of people might like try to be like, well, but but I love the way you are.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're they'll try to keep you the same, right?
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love everything that you do for us.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, um, this is I love, and this happens a lot in corporate too, just with different words, obviously, right?
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you are the glue for this family.
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, great, but you know, this glue is is about to fall apart here.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So somebody else needs to step in um and maybe bring some duct tape or something, because you know, this this is not working out.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so just know that like you have to set your own boundaries and you have to advocate for yourself and for um because otherwise, like people will take advantage of you, um, not in a bad way, right?
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's just because the status quo.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_00: So people are like, oh, well, I don't understand why you're trying to do that when everything was so great before.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, it was great for you, but it wasn't great for me.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But they don't know that because they don't see it from your point of view.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um so a lot of times you do have to put yourself in a situation or maybe explain it to people, right?
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: When this happens, this is what happens to me.
• 1:13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and then explain to them like these why why you're doing these things, right?
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and if they like, and this is like one of my tough love, you know, series, I would say, tough love soapbox, here we go.
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if they don't like what you are doing for yourself, then they don't belong in your life.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're trying to heal and they're trying to pull you back into that bad environment, the old environment, then it's maybe time to consider cutting them off.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_00: So um like you are the only person that will advocate for you.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, because nobody else can see it from your point of view.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to be the one to make those tough decisions, to to put yourself first, essentially.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and and it's so important, at least like for me that I'm a mom, to to break that cycle so my kids don't do that.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right now that you you were talking about, you know, um, I broke that cycle with my kids, so my kids don't expect me to do things.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm completely busy, and you know, before I'm like, shoot, I didn't feed them, but my son already fed himself, he's gonna be 10.
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I don't have to worry about that.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my daughter said, Mom, you didn't eat.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a bowl of fruit.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_01: You don't believe me.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_01: I have it right here.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's fruit and yogurt.
• 1:15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, because see now it's like they see that, you know, I do do a lot, and then um they're grateful, but they also say, Hey, we're a team, because that's what I instilled in them.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we're a team and we all take care of each other.
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I I did have to break that cycle because I did live it a few years back.
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you know, half of that.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it but it is it's very important, you know, um, for us to recognize it and set those boundaries and you know, at least in in for us to have kids, understand that it's gonna, it's a cycle.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't break it, it's gonna continue on.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_02: I can talk about this all day, every day.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:16:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_02: JJ, it's an honor as always to have you, and I appreciate you joining us and being one of our guest speakers on the podcast.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_02: I really, really appreciate you.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Again, JJ is also a very close friend of mine, so I'm I'm so glad she accepted and said yes.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'll link everything once again down in the description box for anybody who's interested in um following JJ.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or JJ, where can we find you and what's your website?
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm still gonna have everything linked, but it's always good too.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, so I am um on Instagram, JJ's Coaching Services.
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_00: My Instagram page is more like a fun silly page.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's not as much um literacy education.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you are looking for uh financial literacy and like actually changing your financial life, um, I'm on JJ's Coaching Services on LinkedIn for that.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you just want to see kind of like my early, I literally call it early retirement shenanigans, like all the all the things, all the silly things that I'm doing, all the new foods that I'm learning to cook, because I I didn't learn how to cook growing up.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I'm inspired by by V, by VA with all of her cooking.
• 1:17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um the other day I just posted a video that I successfully flipped an egg over with no breaking the yoke.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's more like you know, those things that are on Instagram, but for the for like the legit financial um literacy that's on LinkedIn.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Again, same thing, JJ's coaching services.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then uh website is JJ'scoaching services.com.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can send me a message through there as well if you like want to chat privately or anything like that.
• 1:17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then yeah, I don't have a lot of socials because I'm just I'm like not great at it.
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I just I don't spend that much time on on screen um for my migrating purposes.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so um yeah, most but you can send me like if you're on LinkedIn, you can send me a message through there, or obviously you can DM me on Insta as well.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or if you want to go directly to my email, then go through my website, um, JJ'scoaching services.com.
• 1:18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really, really uh so grateful that um both BA and Vivian invited me on this podcast.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, I'm not a gatekeeper.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to know anything about how I did anything, right?
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like I write it in the memoir, or if it's not in the memoir, you can just come ask me about it.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my whole thing is about helping people.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm financially secure.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not looking to make a lot of money from here on out.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, I have all my passive income.
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm willing to share whatever I need to share.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have, you know, free um web uh webinars and things like that um for groups of people.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you want to get a group of people together and you just want to like get on a call with me for 30 minutes, um, it's free.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm more than happy to do that.
• 1:19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, especially my my first gen, you know.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I have a soft smart in my a soft smart in my heart for my first gen folks.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so I'm I'm you know, it it my whole thing is like if I can help one person, I'm gonna do it.
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I do a lot of pro bono work as well with local libraries and uh school districts and things like that.
• 1:19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, reach out to me if you just have questions and obviously you can talk to me about anything.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_00: I like you know, I'm I'm not just about the financials.
• 1:19:47
  SPEAKER_00: I will tell you about my health, I will tell you about my childhood, um everything.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm pretty open.
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's I I don't get heat.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_02: So well, thank you once again, JJ.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_02: And um until then, we will see you guys on our next episode.
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.