Latest / Life. Money. You.® Podcast / S3|E29: Life, Legacy and Loved Ones

Transcript

S3|E29: Life, Legacy and Loved Ones · Life. Money. You.® Podcast

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you're here for our event provided by legacy new life legacy and loved ones, you're in the right spot.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Danny Bushik.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm program manager here and a certified financial coach.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I am so excited for this specific event.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to let folks trickle in the room here for about a minute.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a very important question to kick off this session.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: What is everyone gonna be for Halloween?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Drop it in the chat.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not dressing up, I want to know what your kiddos are going to be.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: If the kiddos aren't dressing up, grandbabies, whoever, I want to know the hot costumes this year.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Louise Adolfo, what's everyone gonna be in your household?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh I have Sunny becoming, we're big readers.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so we're reading the uh Hungry Caterpillar.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: So she's gonna be a Hungry Caterpillar.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: See, so it turk actually works out.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: She loves snacks, so that's what she's gonna be eating a lot.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very fitting, very fitting.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the Prado household, we uh we theme it every year.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're big movie people, not as much readers, we're more movie.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one of our best like favorite movies of all time is Shrek.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you're looking at the 2026 Shrek.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: My wife will be Fiona, our our little guy, my grandbaby.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to convince her to have him dress up as either Lord Farquad or as you know the uh the muffin man, something, but uh unfortunately he went a different direction, so he'll be a ninja turtle, uh, which is kind of cool.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: But oh cute.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna go.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm picturing a little baby.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it it's amazing.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I saw so many, so many little Farquad uh costumes, Danny, that we were so excited.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, no, he's he's grown enough to independently say, no, I'm gonna be a ninja turtle.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So there's always next year.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, someone's Emily's nine-month-old is gonna be Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: That is so cute.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Classic SpongeBob, love it.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Doctor, also very classic.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, these are all great.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Halloween falls on a Saturday, so we all get to relax on Sunday, which is exciting.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so again, thank you all for being here.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: This session is going to be specifically about um just life and and your children, right?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And generational wealth and how you go about prioritizing your financial well-being, not just for yourself, but for those who love you and for those that you love.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so with that, I'm going to go ahead and pass it off to some of our guest speakers here.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: We have not only a wealth advisor, but another certified financial coach to share not just their expertise, but we really want to share stories here.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're experts, but we have our own personal stories and experiences that shape the way that we guide and give advice.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, with that, Luis, do you want to kick us off with an intro?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: So good morning, everyone.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, thank you so much for being here.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Luis Christian Strada.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the wealth advisor here for BCU.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so what I always say that I do a little bit different is I do that extra complex uh financial theory and strategy.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I help people, yes, retire, but I also help them to think outside the box of trying to figure out their life events and basically have a have an answer to the questions that they have.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I am an accredited wealth advisor.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: I also hold an MBA.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: I've been doing this for over 14 years.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a lot of expertise and a lot of education.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what I always tell my members is think of me as a uh a professional on their team, just like they have a medical staff, an eye doctor, a dentist.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: I am one of those professionals that they can rely on and always ask the questions before they do anything.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really what I like to uh to be one of my members is make sure that they have somewhere to stop by and actually talk to someone uh willingly and give them all the options.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Adolfo, you're up.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, man.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you again.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I echo uh Luis's Luisa's sentiment.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today, guys.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Adolfo Prado.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've been with BCU now going on 24 years.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, various different areas that I've worked through through the credit union space, but um I'm really happy to be able to be here today as part of our corporate relations team.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Part of what I do now is I work with, you know, our our company partners, your employers, to be able to actually bring awareness about all the great financial well-being tools that we have and really kind of help all of our members empower themselves to to discover whatever their financial freedom looks like for them.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I love what I do.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love being here with you guys a little bit about myself.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I am a grandfather of one, and I I always lead with that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And my wife kind of picks on me a little bit.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: She says you wouldn't get there unless you talk about I'm also a husband, and as well, I have two beautiful kids.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: But but again, I have a grandson, which is really kind of like my my core.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, we we do a lot of great things together.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're huge soccer fans.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we're we're diehard fans of Arsenal.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you guys that watch the Premier League, we are the English champions, yes.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are diehard, and I'm raising him the same way.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, in a nutshell, that's that's me and my family.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: But very excited to be here with you guys today.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And as a friendly reminder, these events are intended to be highly collaborative.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So while we're talking through stuff, you got a question?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Drop it in the chat.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: If we don't get it during our conversation, the final 15 minutes of this hour-long podcast is going to be answering those questions.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: So getting to any of those thoughts or concerns that you have in the chat.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So please leverage it, utilize it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're keeping an eye on it throughout the course of um our content.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And a little bit about me, I'm Danny Bushik.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I host these.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: I am so passionate about financial well-being and especially building communities of people that can relate to one another, connect with one another, and feel empowered with one another.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to hand it off to Adolfo to start with the content.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you again, Danny.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I love uh as soon as I see the title slide, right?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: The word generational wealth, I love seeing that because um I'm in a place now where we can talk about that even amongst my family.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I gotta tell you, you know, growing up, we had no concept of generational wealth in our household.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was really all generational debt and not really generational wealth.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my my parents, my father and my mother, you know, lovely people you see there on the screen.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they they actually immigrated here from Mexico back in like the late 70s, early eighties, and you know, they worked in warehouse in a warehouse their whole lives.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: They barely made ends meet, but somehow they were able to to provide a home for my siblings and I.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: They really kind of helped push us to to continuous education and you know, really helped to to get us where we are today.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: But financial education was really never stressed.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that mind you, I I've been at the credit union now for so long.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I started working here when I was 19, but I didn't have my first bank account until I was 21.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that was again after I was already working at BCU for for two years.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, I would get my check, I'd cash it at a local target store every pay period because cash was keen.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's how how we came up, right?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so wealth building, it wasn't a concept to us.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: If I didn't have the cash in my pocket, I couldn't spend it.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's really what it was, right?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: It it was whatever I had, we would spend.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: There was no savings, there was no education behind how to build that generational wealth.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, really for for my siblings and I, we were we were more kind of like a support system for for our our family, right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: For my my parents, and we played various different roles.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: We played the roles of like the doctor of the family, our our lawyer, their banker, the accountant, all because of that English barrier.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that too, right?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I couldn't even I couldn't even say cavity in English, but I'm like, yeah, it's something with your teeth, Mom.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, seeing seeing that uh their struggles and and really understanding the language and understanding the concepts that I see now of creating generational wealth, you know, it it really kind of helps steer me in a different direction.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um it really helped me kind of steer my kids hopefully in a different direction.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh everything kind of changed, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm a first generation business professional.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my parents, their whole lives, they they worked in a warehouse.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, kind of steering it a different direction and going the direction of of pioneering for my kids and you know, for our future generations, kind of getting into the the business professional side of things, it's creating more opportunities for my kids, hopefully creating more opportunities for my grandkids and future grandbabies, because they're awesome.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want a lot more, even though my kids say no, I'm still pressing, I want more.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but it it's all those all those different factors that they they really instill a responsibility for me to be able to do better and and to to really kind of pay back all of my parents' hard work.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's great to be able to see how even now there's still a lot of talk in our household about generational wealth and that that conversation has changed from again generational debt in the past to you know changing things now and changing things for my kids in the future.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Even things like owning a home.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: That was for me, that was something that I thought would be a way to show my parents that their efforts were paying off.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: But they didn't stress that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't stress homeownership, partly because I think they didn't know how to get there themselves.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't really see it as something to to kind of help shape my my future or my siblings' futures.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: For them, they just wanted a piece of that American dream and you know, maybe let us be a part of their American dream, but it was more just kind of staying afloat, making ends meet, right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they did eventually figure it out on their own.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Marketing conditions definitely were different back then, but they purchased their home.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think in I want to say they were in their late thirties when they purchased their home.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, like I jumped on it as soon as I could.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I bought my house at the age of twenty.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I love the independence.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I loved being able to to come and go as I pleased.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh for all of us as we were younger, we know as soon as that independence is available, we kind of chomp onto it and move.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, I stress that to my kids from an air very early age.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I still do.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I stress that to them that that independence, owning your own home, not only does it give you that level of independence, but it's also building that future wealth for you for their kids.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: For my grandkids, it's it's gonna give them that opportunity to have something to really build upon and kind of setting the example for them, the way that you know my parents set the example for us.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I know nowadays, based on market conditions, it's a little bit tougher for kids to buy homes.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there's still things that one can do to kind of put themselves in a position to make it happen.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And both of my kids are in their twenties now, they still live with me.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't mind it at all, because again, I get my little guy around me all the time, which is awesome.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but part of why they're still with me too is again that current market.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so despite me teaching them from a young age and stressing the importance of owning real estate, um, having a great credit score, building their savings, all those things that they've kind of been able to check off.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: The market right now just has different plans.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I know that with some of those things that we've done and some of the changes we've implemented for them, as soon as that market shifts, they'll be ready.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be ready and probably not soon enough for them.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know our a lot of our kids always, it's not too soon, right?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's it's taking too long.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's I want it to happen today.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe even teaching some of that patience, I think, is is really gonna be pivotal for them to be able to build their future as well.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'll echo the same sentiment.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh coming from an immigrant household, I kind of live the dream of that sandwich.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm also a sandwich generational.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, again, I if you hear my baby, uh, have a baby.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in my and my mother right now, she's close to retirement.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: But uh uh our journey was uh kind of uh complex, just kind of like Adolf's families.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it wasn't a straight thing, it was literally all around.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: My mom's is an immigrant from Guatemala.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she immigrated here 30, 40 years ago.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: She has been a housekeeper here in the Los Angeles area for all that time.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and in that time, a lot of things happened.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we had a house, we lost it in 08, and we never recovered from that in that generational loss of wealth.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's still not recoverable.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, yes, I'm a financial advisor with an MBA and a lot of accreditations.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: And also, my older sister is a pediatric dentist with an office in Los Angeles, but we both don't have homes.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, yes, like Adolfo said, the market condition in Los Angeles is very crazy.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, not even with the rates, the prices, the insurance, the utility cost.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of things around that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: But really what had hindered was the barrier of the immigrant barrier, what I call, whether that be uh uh whether that be in the language, whether that be in just the customs, whether that be in the culture, there was a barrier with that.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of what stuck with me this whole time, and that's the reason I'm sitting in this desk.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, just because that trauma kind of stuck with me and laid with me for this whole time.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been always trying to ask myself why and like kind of like what happened type of deal after the fact.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: I was very young at that point, so I really just did, I just understood that there was a change.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't understand the whys, the hows, and the W's, basically, why, what's, and everything else.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's what I've been trying to answer myself this whole time.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I came back to the answer of education and communication is the key.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's really what I tried to drill into my daughter as well.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Even though she's only 11 months, I try to instill some all little tips and tricks of here of what you can do and what does it mean.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Down the line, it there will be context to the story.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, it's just the story itself, but I am building it on top of it so that way she has something to build off of.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: But that really stuck with me, this whole time of just having that Santo generation, my mom losing our house, us not being able to recoup that family wealth.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: We're still trying to recoup it now in other terms.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: What my mom always has, what I always told, what my mom always has instilled with us is never, never stop.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you feel that that uh that journey or that dream or that uh plan that you have is what you want, still get it done.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's just more of how you do it may be something different.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that's exactly what kind of happened with my mom.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, my mom basically lost real estate here in Los Angeles in the US.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: And for her, she just said, you know what, I don't want to deal with it anymore here in the US.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: One, and two, I can't afford it anymore.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: So how about we flip the script and we do the exact same thing we're doing here, but we do it in a different location, which is in Guatemala.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what she's been doing for these past 30 years.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: She's been building a small real estate empire in Guatemala, and that comes with passive income, and that's what I've been trying to instill with her.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of why I have that entrepreneurship uh head of mine and have that MBA that I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: I actually enjoy uh helping people enjoy that part of it.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, what she always instilled with is just basically never stop.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you feel that plan is correct, still do it, just figure out, maybe change a little bit of it.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And her changing of location and also the timing, it all worked for her.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: And now she's sitting really good for retirement.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: She doesn't want to retire just because she's the old Hispanic person that if they don't, if they can't keep moving, uh, they can't sit still either.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: So she's not going to retire any other way, but it's more of a part-time work, and now it's more of an optional thing of I am going to work because I want to go to work.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's different than I need to do it because I need survival mechanisms.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: A whole other story.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Here it's more of I want to do it.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: But at least for my story, it is kind of like Adolf's that immigrant, that immigrant story, that immigrant uh factor was involved with me, and that really stuck with me.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of the reason I'm sitting here with you today.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, that's the reason why I became a financial advisor, just because I kept seeing that same thing in the investment space where there's a lot of options for our members.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: And my number one job is to outweigh all the options, give you the bad, the good, the ugly, and then from there we make a plan and we adjust the plan accordingly.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that sounds great, Luis.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at our chat, and man, we got a lot of Florida residents who are complaining about how expensive stuff is.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: So similar to LA, it sounds like don't get me started here in California.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: I filled up my gas tank yesterday.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: It was 630.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: And don't I I am unleaded.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the the lowest of the octane you can think of.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was 630 a gallon.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I have a hybrid.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like I let go of my sports car a long time ago.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I have a hybrid, but yeah, that's a whole other can of words.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's you know, you talked about your mom's freedom, right?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: To just make decisions and live life the way she wants to live life with the confidence that financially she'll be okay.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if any of you here are in the market to purchase a home, our coaches are here to help build that savings plan for you.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: There is a way, it might feel impossible right now, but once you talk through your options, you're gonna feel a lot better.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if that is something you're interested in, meet with a coach, talk through your plan.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: If purchasing a home is in your plan, let's make it happen.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna move on to uh our next kind of piece of content.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And Adolfo, you mentioned it earlier, but generational wealth, right?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's core to today's episode.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we want to talk through it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: But on the other side of things, there's also generational debt.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk to us a little bit about that?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I I probably have at this point in my life, Danny.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I have more experience with the dead side than the wealth side to work on it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're working on it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I say I have more experience there because, you know, I made a lot of bad choices when I was younger.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it was it was crazy that I I'm able to look back now and realize a lot of those mistakes kind of set us up to where where we are today, much more, much more financially sound.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're much better well, you know, rounded at this point with our with our finances, but a lot of a lot of road bumps along the way, right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh for us, one of the biggest ones was keeping up with the Joneses.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was it was a big problem for me.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and my vice at the time, I still love it, but my vice at that time were new cars, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I loved having like the feeling of a brand, the smell of a new car, like it was just it it was intoxicating, and so it was always constantly new car every year.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: We were trading in, getting something new, trading in the next year, getting something new, and you know, it was uh the depreciation that I kept forgetting about, right?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: That that depreciation of a new car that I talked about all day long with my members.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was a loan officer for many years here at this at this company, and you know, I I unfortunately would would really kind of give great advice to people about stay away from new cars, the depreciation, try to find something a couple years old, right?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and let the previous owner worry about the depreciation and then I'd hang up the phone and say, all right, time for me to go buy a new car.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like that conversation really I want a new car now.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so while I was trying to educate people, I really wasn't listening to my own advice.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it got to the point where it just wasn't sustainable anymore.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we ended up having to, at that point, we owned our home.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: We were we ended up having to kind of pivot, use the equity from our home to consolidate a lot of debt, including a lot of depreciation on a vehicle.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, that that kind of really led us to to be more proactive about managing our debt and budgeting, uh, automating savings.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: That was a a a big thing for us that a lot of like what I credit where we are today, I I really am looking more towards that automation, right?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: My savings, I started treating it like it was a bill.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if you don't pay your car payment on time, you start getting those phone calls, right?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you gotta pay your car, or it's gonna potentially get repossessed.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't pay your mortgage on time, get those calls like you gotta get caught up, or potentially there's gonna be bad things happening with the home itself.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I treat the savings like that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bill that's due every two weeks when I get paid.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so that has really changed a lot of what we've been able to do for ourselves, but also what we're able to show our kids.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: My kids now they it's it's ingrained in them that they also have to do the same thing.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been doing it, right?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's funny because I remember the very first paycheck that my son got, we had all these grand schemes on what he was going to do with the money, and and then he looked at it and he said, What the heck are taxes?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's a federal tax, dad?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and so it was uh it was a a very interesting conversation that it took a while to for him to get it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, it it's it's one of those things where again, regardless of what that paycheck looks like afterwards, you're automating your savings.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: My kids are doing that, they're in great shape right now.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Again, they're much better positioned than my wife and I were at their age.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so it it really kind of helps build that that generational uh that generational wealth as well as the generational health, right?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: That financial health that is is so important that I want them, you know, our our our lives are not infinite, right?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: We run out every at a certain point in time, but what shouldn't run out is those those life lessons that we lead.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Those should continue to live on forever through future generations.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel really, really good with my kids, knowing that some of the things they've seen us do, my wife and I, and you know, leading by example, it's it's really it's kind of setting in with them.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: We talk so much about finance now in our home.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about financial freedom.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we share openly some of those some of those roadblocks that we had in the past and try to get them to learn from them.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and it's funny too, is is nowadays, and I know Louise, you were talking about the gas earlier, but that to me is is one of the biggest measures in my household.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest measures of financial freedom.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the days where we had to kind of juggle do we buy diapers or do we put gas in the car?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was one of those situations where that paycheck to paycheck, it really kind of had a stranglehold.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, I I love that for me, my financial freedom, I can just put my debit card in and take it out and not have to worry about I gotta stop it right at seventeen dollars and ten cents or you know, prepay in advance.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's such a financial freedom for me to be able to just fill the tank regardless of what it runs to.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's huge and that's something we share with our kids and They do push back to your point, guess it's it's a little bit a little bit harder now, please, but you know, we we work through it.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: We work through it, and uh if you ever want to share your card with me, I'm okay with it.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk offline, we'll talk offline.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think about this a lot, but debt has such a negative connotation, and folks think about it in you know, a poor light.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to talk through why that's not always the case.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Why is debt not always a bad thing?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so again, I've been doing have been fighting financial advising for a while.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Before here, I was actually working at Merrill Lynch in the global wealth management sector.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: So think of everyone not in the US, uh, one percenters of every other country.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: That that was my clientele.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: So again, I'm a Spanish speaker, so I would actually help out basically everyone south of the border.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, uh uh Colombia, Brazil, Chile, you name it.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: I had clients there.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: But what really opened my eyes was the difference between debt being called debt and debt being called leverage.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: It really was a shocker to me.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and again, to me, I grew I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, immigrant household, single mother.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, I was in debt the whole time.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: There was really not much that there was any wealth other than the house that we had that we lost.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: That was all the wealth that I saw.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: But that was one thing that shocked me with Merrill Lynch that no one ever called it debt, no one ever called it a bad, like a bad, uh negative tone to it.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was always positive.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, your your clients leverage this much, like a positive way.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Now he's taken a step back, and I'm like, wait, why are this?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Why is this positive?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: But yet when I have debt in my credit card, it's called debt, right?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: And one big thing that I always tell people is debt isn't bad depending on how you get it and what plan do you have to pay it back.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's the big thing that I always say everyone.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: So, at least here on the investment side, can you get a loan or leverage out any investment account?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you can, right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: There is some there is some ways you can do that, and there is some strategies of it being fruitful for you, whether it be just loaning to buy some more or loaning to actually get less so you can pay off your taxes, whatever it may be, you have leverage there, right?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: And also, and this is more of taking taking it at a 5,000-foot level.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: The one percentage of our of our United States of America, uh, think of Amazon guy, Bezos, Elon Musk, they don't get paid a W-2.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: What do they get paid?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: They get paid stocks.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: What do they do with those stocks?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: They leverage them, right?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: That is why I always say there's a difference between debt and leverage, even though, in my in my eyes, debt is debt just because I grew up that way, right?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's not.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Debt is not always debt, debt can be leverage, and you leverage it just like you leverage it in a debate, just like you leverage it in a in a contract negotiation.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: You're leveraging your side to the equation, right?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one thing that I always say.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: But the bigger key that I always tell everyone is you have to have a plan to pay it back.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care if you're loaning it from a stock that you love, there has to be a plan to pay back or just to basically make it whole again.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: And the biggest thing that I always tell everyone is you have to have a next date.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: There is no if, ands, or buts.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's a black and white here with me.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: If you tell me it's December 20th, that's what I'm expecting.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: There is no if, ands, or buts.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: That is the December 20th.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Now, can our plan shift because of market changes?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Things happen, right?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's where communication comes in with me and my client.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: We make sure that our plan is set.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: And again, for me, I always have plan B, plan C, plan D, just because at the end of the day, you never know what's gonna happen tomorrow, right?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: So there is always some way of a plan to get that alternative there.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: But that's one thing that I always wanted to bring up to everyone, and all I bring this up to a lot of my members as well is don't ever think debt is debt.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Debt can breed leverage, and you can leverage it to basically be a springboard onto the next thing that you want to do.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: But again, at the end of the day, you do have to have a plan of execution, a plan of X.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the bigger thing.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: But then also one thing that I always do, at least for myself as a new dad, to help out like kind of new clients, and it's good for everyone on the session, just to again think outside the box.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: My baby is 11, so she really doesn't know much about the outside world.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: But one thing that I am in uh implementing is a dad tax.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and hear me out on this.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Adolfo knows because he was on the he was in those shoes trying to explain taxes.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: No one explained taxes to me.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: My mom kind of just told me in theory, oh yeah, the federal government takes this, the state's government takes that, right?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: But it was theory, theoretical.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: When I got my check and I did the calculation of, oh, they pay me this times how many hours that I worked, oh, I should be getting this.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing with that is you as yourself, you budget that you're gonna be getting that X that you just you just did math equations for.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-uh.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: And on top of that, there's other fees that people don't even bring into this social security, disability.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's a lot of internal fees that you bring in, and I'm not even bringing your benefits into this, right?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: You add benefits, medical, dental, vision, whatever else you may add.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's taking it away, right?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: So, one way that I am kind of telling the story to my daughter, and I'm gonna build on top of it is I have a dad tax.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: She loves she loves McDonald's chicken nuggets.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, what I do is when I get her a four-piece, I always take a little bite.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, here's the rest for you.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's a dad, right?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: But what I am building onto her is instilling her saying, hey, the check you think you're getting, no, no, no, that's not what you're getting in your account by any means.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: You're getting less than that, and you have to live with the less of the less of what you're getting.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: So if I if I bite that chicken nugget in half, you have to live with 25% of that chicken nugget because you need to leave a cushion for your emergency, right?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I'm building on top right now.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just kind of just telling her, hey, there's a tax.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: This is what you get.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that way you know, like, hey, the check is not coming the way it is.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually gonna be a little less.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: But then on top of that, it's building on top.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually took that uh that pointer from actually one of my other clients.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: He actually told me to do that and start doing a dad tax and then build off of that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And you can actually build off of the checking, the budgeting, everything else with a dad tax.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, you know what?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: That is the smartest idea I've ever heard.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I'm into implementing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: So if anyone's on the session and actually wants to do that dad tax, trust me, it actually does work.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: So now she she already knows there is gonna be a dad tax.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it's more of more of how much is a dead dad tax today.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, I had a good breakfast.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it's gonna be a big dad tax.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: I I want to emphasize too one thing you talked about, and that's the debt-free date.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, right, it's how you feel about your debt that determines whether or not it's good or bad.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And having a debt-free date makes you feel confident and empowered and just that much more likely, right, to meet that goal and make it happen for yourself.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: So if you need help calculating your debt-free date, we have a podcast episode for you.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'll link it in the show notes here.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: But we actually had Erica Young, Money Personality, on one of our episodes to talk through calculating your debt-free date.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it really helps put in perspective the progress you're making and the small wins you're making toward that bigger debt-free goal.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, again, highly recommend calculating it so you can have a good handle on your debt.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Danny, I think another another great point uh to really throw out there as well.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned, you know, the different types of debt, good versus bad debt.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, a good piece of debt that you can think of as well is you're right, not every debt is bad.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Leverage can can work in your favor, but it also helps create that generational wealth that we've been talking about, right?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: A mortgage, that's a huge generational, yeah, generational wealth piece that you're building.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's debt, but it's not bad debt, right?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: It it might put a little bit of chokehold on your finances every month when you have to write that check, but it's building that that future generational wealth as well.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um student loans.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Student loans are another great example of good debt, right?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're building uh a future career, you're you're leveraging what you have now into a career.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Those types of things can definitely be a positive debt as opposed to you know maxing out your credit cards for different things or you know, a lot of uh unsecured debt potentially there's a difference between the good and bad.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh the credit union and and our our uh coaches do a really, really good job of kind of lining that out for you guys as well to better understand.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's funny is Latina actually asked, um, if you could give your mothers one piece of advice about building generational wealth while working, what would that advice be?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's a great question.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh for for me, well, my my mother now is uh is no longer working.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: She is now officially retired, so I would have to flash back to the you know, when she was in her early ages working, um, I think the biggest thing that I would do is really share the example of automating your savings.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I know Luis does a great job, and I'm sure he has tips on how to manage, you know, the the long-term investments and how to make sure that you're setting yourself up in a long term with that, with that arm of your finances, but even from your day-to-day finances.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Again, treating your savings like a bill has been such a life changer for my wife and I and and for my kids that that would be something if I could go back and share and and kind of help her implement, I think that would be the one thing I would absolutely want to want to have her jump on early.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: At least for me, what I would say it's kind of what she already instilled now is just don't give up.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: If you feel that this is the plan that you want to get accomplished, don't give up, just figure out that there may be something different, right?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Different location, different timing, different everything.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be different.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now, as in what I would tell at least my members or my clients, this is what I tell everyone is take advantage of what you have in front of you.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: The biggest thing that I could say.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: And what I'm meaning by that is your benefits, your 401k match.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's free money that you're not getting anywhere else, right?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Minimum should be your match.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Now, anything extra, that's on you.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what I tell everyone when they like, hey, how much should I be putting in your percentage?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: My next question is I answer the question with the question, what's your match?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Simple.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: You should be matching it, right?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: As well as using what's in front of you, like other benefits that you have, making sure you have your health care, making sure your health, and this is what I always tell everyone health is wealth.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: For everyone on this call, it does not matter how many millions of dollars you have in your bank account if you do not have great health.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: If you do not have health care and you are not in a healthy state, the money does not matter, mostly in America.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I see this sitting with a lot of my clients now.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and mostly nowadays, right now, with all the healthcare expenditures that it's going on, it there's get there's a squeeze now.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: There's a squeeze for cash flow for medical costs, and something has to be done.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know who that something is or what that something is, but I am seeing that in America, and it's sad to say this, but it is just the honest truth.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: The number one reason people go into bankruptcies is healthcare cost.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: So if I were to tell anyone a piece of advice, use what's in front of you.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you have benefits, use them to the max, use them to the absolute max, whatever those benefits are.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: For my mom, what I would tell her specifically, just because she was an entrepreneur, so there was no benefits whatsoever.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was literally her by herself doing everything.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, what I would tell her is kind of what she already did for herself is don't quit, don't stop.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you feel that this plan is for you, which is passive income, that was the plan, do it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Just figure out how else to do it.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of what she did.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: She was like, you know what?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: Here in America, I can't do it, but in Watemala I can.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: I can buy land, I can build houses, I can build apartment complexes, which they don't have at all.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Now that I know that there's strip malls here in America, now I can build the same concepts of building in Guatemala while still using the space.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you're more efficient using the square footage while building on top in a can being safe as well with all the all the uh earthquakes that they do have over there, being safe about it.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what I that's what she instilled in me.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the number one thing is don't stop, don't quit.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you feel that that plan is correct for you and you've already figured it out, then do it.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Just figure out if the timing, the location, and everything is correct.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Even though you fall flat on your face, it does not matter how hard you fall flat on your face, it matters how quick you pick yourself back up.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: Biggest thing I can tell you.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so true, Luis.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we have some great crash questions in the chat, but you guys are on deck once we get to the 15-minute point because we have a little bit more to run through here before we can get to you.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: But Crystal, I see your question.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: I already have an answer in my head.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: I will get to it.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then Maria as well, we'll get to you.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: But we're gonna have Luis run through another part of this episode, which is estate planning.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's not always the most luxurious, the most positively, you know, experienced part of generational wealth, but I cannot emphasize the importance enough.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so, Luis, can you talk through some of the more technical terms of estate planning with us?
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: I will, and I will also give you guys stories of real life examples that I'm actually going through with some clients right now, like literally in the day, the life of just me financial advising and helping my clients out.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: This is literally what's going on right now.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll give you guys great stories right now.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I what I want to start off is just go from left to right just because it builds on top of each other.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, biggest thing what I'm gonna do is just kind of explain to you guys the terms, just because they are hard terms.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, they are big terms that we do have to understand, but I am gonna try to make it as simple as possible.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the bigger thing that I'm gonna try to get accomplished here.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so first and foremost, beneficiaries.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: What is a beneficiary?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: A beneficiary is a person that will receive your money, any type of assets, after you live.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: The best part of the beneficiary is it goes straight to the beneficiary, it avoids probate, right?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll get into that.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: Probate.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: What is probate?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh probate is a court supervised process of validating a person's estate and distributing the assets while still appointing an estate uh person to that.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: But again, let's take it back.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: What did I just say?
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: A process, right?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: So lengthy process, it costs money to do the lengthy process.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: And oh, by the way, the process is in the is in the legal space as well.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: So think about this in law, just just in regular law.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: I did one year of law school, so I do knew do know a little bit about law a little bit.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: It takes a lot to do anything, it's not an overnight process, it's not like you can call Daffel, say, Hey, I need a loan, or Dolphel gives you a loan, be done within a week, willy-nilly.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: It takes time.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: So, what did I just say with the probate?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: Takes time, lengthy process, and money, right?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, what are you trying to do not to go into those probate sides?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the beneficiary, what it is, is you are gonna that's the minimal thing that you can do with all your accounts.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: You can put a beneficiary onto almost any account that you could think of checking account, savings account, life insurance, uh retirement accounts, 401ks, brokerage accounts, even some type of even depending on some type of cryptocurrencies, depending on where you have your cryptocurrencies, you can even put beneficiaries on those assets, right?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: What are you really doing?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: You are telling that person, well, not specifically, but you're telling the the system or the platform saying, Hey, I know I have X account or X stock with you.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: If I am no longer here on this earth to be accountable to these assets, I want these assets to go directly to my daughter, right?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right in there.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: There is no probate, there is no taxes, there is nothing to be waited.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there may be some time to do the paperwork, but the paperwork in that aspect is kind of like a doleful.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: You're calling and they're done within a couple of days and you're done.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's pretty easy, right?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: Probably, no, it can be months, it could be years, it could be decades, depending on how long is the complex strategy of the investment side and estate, and as well as if there is infighting within the family, and this brings me to trust.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: And this is one thing that I before I even explain a trust, this is one thing that I will tell everyone on this session is if you do not take anything from this and you own real estate, you do not have a trust.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: The first thing you should be doing is finding that trust for yourself.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot put this any any other way.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's this black and white.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: If you own real estate, I don't care what state in America you live in, you have to have a trust.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: And hear me out here.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let me explain to you why.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: A trust is a legal arrangement that holds and manages your assets directly, and it could be distributed to your loved ones for as long as you need it.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: Trust can be alive for generations.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: Two, at least here in California, every state's different, but most states kind of do think the state is the same.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Here in California, there is no there is no beneficiaries for your real estate assets.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: If I myself, Luis Garcia Estrada, hold this house, and I myself, Luis Garcia Estrada, is no longer here on this earth, they will have to go into the probate process to actually find that to get that house under their names, right?
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: But now to get that house under their names, now it's time.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: And question for everyone on this call who's paying the who's paying the mortgage in that time, right?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Money because now you paid mortgage, now you're paying all this, plus you're paying a legal fee, plus you're paying the legal fees of the state.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: Here in the state of California, you pay the legal fees for the state of California.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: Other states may be different, but in the state of California, you pay the legal fees for the state as well.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: So now you're paying legal fees for everyone.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: And on top of that, again, in the state of California, you pay taxes off of real estate over a certain amount.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: Usually any amount here of real estate is over, oh, always over that certain amount.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's like two 250 or 500,000.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's always over that.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no houses here in the in the California that's under a million anymore.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_02: So like it's always gonna be over that.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I'm saying.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone on this on this session, have a trust if you have a real estate.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: And last but not least, in fighting within families.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot stress this.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: There is fighting in families.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen it wholeheartedly, I've seen it in my office.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: It it does happen.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: What you say on that trust goes.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: If Odolfo says the sky is pink, and me and Danny are is Odolfo's kids.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, guess what, Danny?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: The sky is pink, and we both can cry together and hug each other because that's all we got.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Sky is pink.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, it's it, right?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the bigger thing that I can tell everyone on this call, mostly for real estate.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, beneficiaries, you can add the percentages, all that stuff, and there won't be any fighting, pretty easy.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: But real estate, there is nothing like that.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: You have to do that as well, and on top of that, with other trusts, you can do you can do other things like having a charitable uh giving, making sure your pet is taken care of when you're no longer here.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: Say you have a puppy and you're in your 90s, you're not gonna live to see the puppy's life as well.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, now what about the puppy, right?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: What about your grandkids?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: What about your great grandkids that you want to set up providing for 529 clowns or educational accounts?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's really what I'm saying.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I already saw one of the one of the questions on the call, and I was gonna actually answer that for you guys.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Going back to what I said of taking taking advantage of your beneficiary of your of your benefits, Adolf watching brought this up and I used it myself.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: I just totally forgot that I did.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: There is some benefit, uh, some companies do give benefits where you can actually have a legal representative uh cheap, cheap, cheap cost for you.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: If you have that benefit in your benefit package, it is a round-to-be benefit uh package signing time, or where you're gonna be doing in your benefits for us is in November.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so literally it's around the corner for us.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: If you are gonna be signing up for benefits this year and you're thinking in your head, hey, Luis is right, I do need a trust.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: Let me figure out how I can get to talk to a legal representative to do that.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Look at your benefits first.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's the first place I would go.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: If you have that legal representation, it's like five or seven dollars.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding a month, but it would take you directly to a legal, a legal representative, a lawyer, that would be very, very cheap cost to you, but yeah, two, there's other legal uh websites online that you can do that's very cheap cost.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: What I'm telling everyone is think about it like HR block versus turbo tax.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can go to an HR block and there's a person there for you, but that's gonna cost you extra, right?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh turbo tax will be less cost, but there's no person there for you, but you get your taxes done regardless, right?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: So there is legal websites that you can go into.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like a turbo tax type of deal where you can kind of just print out your own trust.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's really, really cheap.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's usually what I always recommend my tech savvy, uh, my tech savvy clients.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not tech savvy and you don't have a benefit, the only other way for you to do is to actually go talk to legal representatives in your area, just shop around.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's the only way I can tell you.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: Look on Yes.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Help look on Chat GBT now that we have AI helping us.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, look, take advantage of it.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, why not?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: But that's the bigger thing.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's it's a very uh complex topic to talk about, but it is a topic that is real.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: What I what I joke with everyone is at least for us in America, there's two things that I can confirm that are coming to everyone on this call.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: Sad to say, but it's the truth.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: Taxes and death.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: I can tell everyone on this call that we're all gonna have a tax bill due next year.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: Whether you pay out in April or you get the extension, that's on you.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I can tell you right now, there is a tax bill due.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_02: One.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: Second, we have an expiration date.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: When that is, I hope for everyone on this call, it's a long time from now.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I can tell you there's an expiration date.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I can tell you.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: Whether I eat good lunch today, Danny, I don't know.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: Whether I can fill up my tank fully at Costco when I go to Costco tonight, I don't know.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what I can tell you is I'm getting taxed next year, and there's an expiration date that I hopefully hopefully see in a hundred years from now, right?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: But at least I can tell you now, if there is that coming to you, we'll plan for that.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Have a benefit, have a trust, think about these things.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to us, Louise.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: Just a couple questions here, just to clarify some questions around a trust.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: One of which is does a trust have to be a financial entity, or can it be a person you trust to handle your assets and affairs?
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: Financial entity.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: That person would perfect that person would be appointed as your trustee once you are no longer here on this earth.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: Another one financial entity.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's a bigger thing.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that that actually one thing.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: So sorry to cut you off, Dan.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're good.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a trust, you have to open a trust account, a checking account with the trust under your name.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: Just do it.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen different cases where when the person's no longer here, they have a harder time to open it because now it went from living, they went from revocable to irrevocable.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: And because of that change, they open up a whole can of worms, and the person that's helping them out doesn't know what they're doing, and it's just a whole complex thing there.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: The bigger thing that I always tell everyone is if you have a trust, first thing you do is you go to you go to your state's website and you figure out how you can change the title to your trust and just see what the logistics is behind that, right?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: Here in the state, I know there's a form you gotta fill out.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's like 25 bucks or 50 bucks a change, and there's like it's pretty, it's pretty easy.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: You do it at the county, done, willy-nilly, done.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: Every state's different, so you just have to look at the logistics of it.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's the bigger thing for me.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, it's more of being the financial tool is you name your trust as beneficiary for everything, and you also have it housed in a checking account entitled under the trust's name.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: So Luis Garcia, Estrada, Living Trust.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: Luis Garcia's the trustee if you want it to be, or I can have Adolfo, or I can have Danny.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: At the end of the day, it's just it's just an asset, it's just a it's living mechanism.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: Think about it as a business, and you can have a any manager you want.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, I am the business manager because I'm the owner, but the second I am no longer here on this earth, my daughter's gonna be hiring a manager, and that manager is gonna be managing our assets, aka our business, aka everything else that we have under the under our assets names.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of what I'm saying.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, Louise, does that cost anything?
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, does a trust have any cost?
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it does.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, does it vary or is it standard?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: Varies, and that's why I gave everyone different options of where it can actually where you can actually get the cheapest option, where you can get somewhat cheap option, and where you would have to shop around because it's pretty expensive to do it in the legal representative.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: So at least for the benefits, I'll tell you, at least for me, just because I've I mean I've been living in the shoes, I can tell you at least for me because I've done it for myself, and then I hear from my own clients, I can tell you how much rough average in California, Southern California, it is, and then you can kind of extrapolate it into Miami or wherever you may be on this call on this on this session.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so at least for me, when I did the uh legal representative, I pay like five or seven dollars.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: Adolfo, don't quote me on this because you probably know more than I do with the how much we pay a month on that one, but it's like five or seven bucks.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's like one of the two.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's very it's very cost effective, guys.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: I can't stress that enough.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what to Luisa's point, if you have that option as part of your annual enrollment, absolutely take advantage of it.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, my wife and I have been doing it for the last couple of years.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's five bucks a paycheck, uh, something like that.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's super, super economical.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: And for what it does and what you're able to actually use it for, highly, highly recommend it.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's well, well worth the investment.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: It it refers you basically to legal representatives that will charge you bare bones cost of doing anything that you're dealing with them.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: So at least for my trust, I think it was like 300 bucks or something like that.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: I can't I can't put it to you guys any other way.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: It was cheap.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: Do it that way.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's the first way.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: The second way that I've done that I've actually done with some of the clients, and I had the tech savvy clients, you have to be a little tech savvy just because it gives you like a hundred questions, and you just have to click yes, no, or maybe so type of deal.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, just click through all the way, and then it just formulates a form for you.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty easy.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: It it's pretty straightforward.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's like turbo tax.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: You can't you can't mess this up.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: And if you do, there's a person you call and they kind of walk you through it too.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: That one, I think last time they charged the client, it was like a thousand hundred or a thousand two hundred.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't a lot, it was like a thousand something, right?
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_02: One of my clients did a complex, actually, like a complex trust here at a law office here in Irvine in the Irvine location.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: They charged him almost$5,000.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: But he had complex situations.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: He has three houses, he has a dog, he has a daughter that he does not speak well to anymore, and that's the only one he has.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he has grandkids, so he wants to not give the money to the daughter and give it to the it's it's a whole nother can of worms.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you guys see what I'm talking about that you can put that in there, it's very complex, and then he wanted to give some money off to his church and give some money off to the dog, and then give the money off to the grandkids.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: But then if the grandkids did XYZ, then no, but if the grandkids did this, that, and the third, then yes.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: It was very complex.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_02: But that's where they charge you five thousand dollars.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: They're not they're not playing anywhere, they're not playing around.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to make it complex, trust me, they can make it as complex as you want, but they will charge you money for that.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it really depends.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_02: I know with uh the the firm that I was using because I always refer to this one firm just because they're very they're very good in communication, their basic, like basic, basic trust is three thousand dollars.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: But again, my trust was three or four hundred dollars.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: The middle one where you do turbo tax is like a thousand thousand two hundred.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_02: Their beginning trust is three thousand dollars.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's I'm telling everyone.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's different price options, but then as well, there's very different price options because of the help that you're getting, right?
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: And also how you're getting that help, right?
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: The first one's through your work.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_02: So do you even have that ability or not?
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have to take advantage of it?
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, take advantage of the resources that are in front of you.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's the biggest thing I can tell you guys.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: Take advantage of them.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't, then look at the other two.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, love that.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I I'm gonna breeze through the next couple of uh topics here because I want to get to Crystal and Maria's questions.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so now's your cue.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone else here still listening with us?
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_01: Pop those questions in the chat.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do a lightning sort of round the last five minutes and get to as many as possible.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what I want to clarify here for Alejandra, she said, so if there is a beneficiary listed on a bank account, 401k, et cetera, then it does not go to probate and instead goes directly to the beneficiary, correct?
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: However, there's also there's also a caveat with that.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes giving money to people can be a burden or a blessing.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um my mother leaves me$2 million and I am in the middle of college asking for FAFSA, uh, guess what I'm not gonna get be getting next year?
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Any money for FAFSA.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because you got two million dollars.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna say, hey, guess what?
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_02: Not only am I not giving you any money today, but on top of that, every money that I gave you back retroactively, give it up, cough it up, plus interest, right?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I'm saying.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: It really depends on the context, it really depends on where you're at.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why for me, trust is the best way to do it because if I were to give the same amount of money to that person, and that person's in the as a student, technically they don't own it.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_02: Going back to yes, you can put a person and it goes directly to that person 100%, no questions asked.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, what I always tell everyone is does that person even want the money?
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: Did that per did that person even know what to do with the money?
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's another thing.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: Comp competency of the person.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_02: If you were to give me money at 18, even though I'm a financial advisor, 18-year-old Luis was not the same thing as 32, 33-year-old Luis.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I'm saying.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it really depends on the competency of the person.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: It really depends on as well as do they want it?
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: Is it a burden for them?
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: Is it a blessing for them, right?
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: And there's no there's no yes or a no.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a very gray area question.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a black and white there.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then just to confirm, a trust is needed for anything else that we can't list beneficiaries on, such as property.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: Correct, correct.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_02: But then also going back to the first thing is yes, but then also if you list that beneficiary as a beneficiary and they don't want the money because they're getting FAFA or they're getting Medicare or they're getting Social Security or they're getting something from the government, it's a burden.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a blessing, actually.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, understood.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_01: You've already touched on this a bit, um, Louise.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: So retirement isn't just about how much money you have, it's about that financial freedom, right?
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like Adolfo said, not having to look at the numbers while you're pumping gas, um, being able to live your life the way you want to, regardless of what your, you know, wallet might look like.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: So um that's saving and investing consistently.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: You've already heard it.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's managing your debt strategically, right?
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: Having a plan, calculating that debt-free date, um, planning for healthcare costs, right?
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, preventative care is worth it.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure you're taking full advantage of the benefits available to you so you can avoid any of the healthcare crises we're experiencing today when it comes to debt and what people are having to pay back because of their health.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: So go on those walks, eat healthy diets, right?
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: Medicine is food, but your food might become, right?
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: Food is medicine, but your medicine might become food.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's a saying they say, but take care of yourself, it's worth it.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and diversify your income sources.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: All of our goals here are to make money while we sleep, right?
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_01: We sleep a little bit better that way.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so that should be a goal for all of us here listening now.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: And life changes, right?
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I got a little fortune cookie the other day, and it wasn't really a fortune.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: My colleague who's like, it's a proverb, but um, you know, expect the unexpected.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: I can't stress it enough.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's why we always talk about emergency funds, but we can have the best plans, the best plans.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: And likely it's not gonna follow exactly what you want your best plan to follow.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why the plan B, the plan C's, the pivots, they're just as important as having that original plan ready uh to roll.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so as I move on here to the last one, that's the little chicken nugget tax you heard about earlier.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_01: So both Adolfo and Luis practice it.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: All you dads and mamas there too, feel free to use this trick with your little ones who can't fully comprehend what a tax is, but maybe sneaking little bites of their food to let them know that's what a tax is.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and with that, I want to hop into these questions.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I already have a great answer for Crystal, but I'm gonna hand it off to Adolfo because I know he can speak better about it.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: Crystal asks, not sure if this was already discussed, what is your financial recommendation on upgrading your house?
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: My home needs a lot of work.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: I do not have a mortgage, I have a car and school loans.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'm fairly good with money, but I'm scared to take out loans and invest.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: I have three kids and I'm the only bread winner.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: What should Crystal do, Adolfo?
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question, Crystal.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of it is, you know, for for everyone on this session, um, you know, it's gonna be very situational, right?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: So for you, Crystal, your answer might differ from from, you know, Amanda's or someone else.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: But based on your situation, if especially if you already own your home outright, I like to look at my home as another savings asset, right?
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's already been paid off, it's built up some great, great uh wealth within your your overall assets.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_00: Use that to your advantage.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: A home equity loan is one of the greatest options that are out there.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: My wife and I took advantage of it when we needed to you know consolidate our debt.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: We took advantage of it when we needed to upgrade our our kitchen and when we did a bathroom remodel.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're letting our house kind of you know continue to upgrade itself.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: We we have to pay it back, obviously, but it's also you're you're utilizing that asset that you've already put money into to just kind of continue to enhance it and make it even better.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that'd be the first recommendation.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's also you know, potential tax uh implications.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's potential tax savings that that you could be getting on the interest that you're paying on your mortgage and and all those different pieces that kind of tie everything together.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that would be one of the first steps I would look at.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be the most cost effective, and it's gonna be one of one of the easier routes to go.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, depending on the term, you could you could potentially stretch that out over a longer period of time to help make it a little bit, a little bit more feasible for your monthly budget as well.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe the first thing that I would look at.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: Great question, Risult.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, Adolpha.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_01: That was perfect.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we are at time, but I want to reassure everyone here.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you can stick around for five minutes, we're gonna answer a few more questions.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_01: If not, this episode will be published on our podcast.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if you go to Apple Podcasts, Life MoneyU or go to our website, you can listen to this at the end of the day or first thing tomorrow morning on your way to work.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, next question here we had was from Maria.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maria, where are you at in my chat?
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, what if you own the house with a spouse?
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: How does a trust implicate any of this, Luis?
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what you're gonna do is you're gonna be putting both of you guys that own the assets under the trust.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: There is family trust, so don't think that you can't just you, it's only one person.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's a family.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the best uh example that I can give everyone is the Rockefeller family, is the multi-million dollar family.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: I know everyone heard of Rockefeller itself, but it's actually a family behind there.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_02: The trust in that family has been established for almost eight or nine generations, and they literally just move from generation to generation.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: So these trusts can go on for uh literally forever, so long as you have a competent lawyer, which is the other part.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_02: So long as you have a competent lawyer, these trusts can go on forever.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, to answer the question, you you're as a couple, you both can be on the on the trust, establish a trust, and have every all asset under the trust.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: There is another can of worms, and again, it's sad to say, but it is what it is.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, divorce proceedings that maybe hold another can of worms because you're putting everything all into one.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, it was already one if you really think about it, because you're already married, so technically it'll not be there anyways.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, like I always tell people you're already there anyways, you might as well share it all up just in case something happens.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but for me, is I would say just go ahead and do it.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you can do it with the trust, it's just more figuring out what do you and your spouse feel comfortable with in the help aspect.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, do you guys actually want someone there face to face and guide you there?
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: Are you okay kind of with like a turbo tax?
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_02: Which way?
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then, as well as the last thing is do you have the possibility of having that benefit uh from your employer of legal representative?
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes or no?
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: If yes, take advantage and look for one, and then that way you guys can get all your questions answered.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, can you just Perfect?
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Luis.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_01: Adolfo, when tackling student loan debt, should we try making biggest payments or lowest and write off the interest?
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, that is a great question.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: Again, very situational.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's something that you can work with one of our financial coaches to really kind of get a better perspective overall on what your individual situation looks like.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a different answer for everybody.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, uh, you know, I I hate debt, uh, especially knowing that I had so much of it in the past, I don't want to get to that point again.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if I owe money, I want to pay it off right away.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I would answer that question for me personally.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pay it off as quickly as possible.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not for me, it's not helping my tax situation, having that debt out there.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I would want to get rid of it.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the flip side, if it's one of the first or second years of of your child's uh if it's for your child, right?
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for for their college education, I know stretching it, you get uh the opportunity to to continue to clean that as a deduction on your taxes, that's a huge benefit.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: We've been doing that with my daughter for years.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um that was great.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for yourself, same thing.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think there is a finite time frame on how long you can claim that.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's it's gonna be situational.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, I it's not a clear-cut answer, but again, one of those things where as you analyze your financial position as a whole, that's gonna kind of point you in a better direction of which one of those two options to take.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I I would say for sure, schedule an appointment with one of the financial coaches just because Adolfo's answer, mine's is the opposite way.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have a lot of student loans, so I keep it there.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because I just needed a tax write-off.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: Before I had my daughter last year, I had no write-offs.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_02: So the government was taking everything from me and not giving me a penny back.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: So what I was thinking is like, okay, well, I know that again debt is bad in some terms, but debt can be bad good in some other terms.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh for me, I was like, you know what, this$15,000 student loan, can I pay it off?
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I can.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: But one, the tax, the tax credit that I get back is actually worth it for me because at the end of the day, now I get something back.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: One.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: Then two, the the risk of me paying back that$15,000.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_02: If I would have just left that$15,000 sitting in whatever stock I like that day, would I be making more than what they're charging me?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're charging me like 3%.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was way back in the day that I got it.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: Can I get more than 3% in a stock?
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes or no?
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of where I always do the risk tolerance area.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, my stock, my stock account right now is hitting 20 something percent.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: They're charging me three, and I'm still making 10, 19, 17, 18.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'll take it.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_02: So there is no, there is no like black and white here.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a that's a gray area.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_02: So please, please, please make an appointment with a financial coach because that one is a good question to ask.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's a perfect kind of close here, Luis.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tout just our financial coaches as much as possible.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, uh, they help with everything from building credit, crushing debt, unleashing savings, and they can help talk through everything that we talked through today in partnership with a wealth advisor like Luis.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_01: So if not, if you haven't already, um, they're free.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, Kiva, um Amanda, we had some really good questions come through.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_01: Please schedule time with a coach to talk through your questions.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_01: They were really great.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry we couldn't get to them today.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we had a really packed session.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate everyone else's questions.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_01: And as a reminder, we are Life Money You, the financial uh well-being program of BCU, a credit union that you are eligible to be a member of, or you might already be a member of, so you can take advantage of all these services.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.