Interviews with Dads - Joey Perez

What do you do as a profession now?

As a profession now, I'm a BI analyst for an energy company down here in Houston, Texas.

What the hell does that mean?

Yeah, a lot of people, uh, whenever I say BI analyst, uh, they kind of get confused. The best way I can describe my, my job is just, um, I create reports for senior, senior management in regards to how the company's health is, the financial health. And I essentially play with a lot of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI. It's just different applications to run, uh, essentially just reports on the company.

Okay, interesting. Um, do you still do investing at all, or just for yourself?

Yeah, well, I do it for myself, but I, I canceled out the Instagram account page that just taught people how to do it. It was called Space City Money, uh, but I just closed it out. Like I said, it was, it was taking too much of my free time, and I want to focus that on my kids, my family, and just personal goals.

Where's your, uh, where is Space City?

Space City is Houston, so that's where I'm from. Okay, called Space City because of the—

I'm sorry, that's where they land, that's where NASA lands, right?

Yeah, NASA.

Yeah, I'm on the other side. We're, we're from St. Augustine, uh, okay, which is north of, uh, Cape Canaveral, which is where it takes off from, right? Which I had never heard that called Space City before. It's called the Space Coast. But not Space City. So just curious. Cool. Yeah, how many kids you got?

Uh, I have 2 kids, 2 boys. Um, they're 3 and 5 respectively, and I'm learning as I go, man, honestly.

All right, 2 boys, 3 and 5. You plan on having any more? Yeah.

Um, when we were talking about during, uh, about setting up the podcast, we talked about that I was setting up for a new house we just bought. Um, this is actually our first home. We were living in an apartment And a goal for 2020 was to buy our first home to move into. And now that we're settling in, we have extra room and me and my wife are talking about the next baby, hoping for a girl because we have two boys and that's something in the works and we're talking about it and it's exciting.

You know, it's up to the dad, right?

Yeah. I hear a lot of things, a lot of rumors.

Left, left, right, left, circle, left.

And backflip.

So you guys, uh, how long ago did you buy the house?

We bought the house, uh, about 2 weeks ago, so we're still settling in. Oh, so in the middle of COVID Yeah, it's, it's in the middle of COVID Our plan was to buy it, um, actually around April, so it did delay our plans of buying it by a few months, but we were, we were already planning this for 2 years and we just we pulled the trigger. I mean, COVID and everything, it's just so much that's going on, controversy. Just people are going crazy over it, and some people saying that it's not real. And I, I just tend to not give my opinion, just, you know, just do my— do me.

And, you know, a lot of people that are just withholding opinions.

Yeah.

Uh, shoot, I was gonna go somewhere with that. Um, so buying a house during COVID did you have like Was it any more difficult or any easier? I've been so far out of the real estate game for a few months now since we've been gone. I don't know if the market's— if more people are selling or more people are buying.

What's the— Well, one benefit for us, it was that the interest rates were actually a lot lower. Just because I follow— Yeah, yeah.

They're like 2.4 or something, aren't they?

Yeah, well, we definitely got a deal on this one under 3%. I won't go into the details, but yeah, definitely under 3%. So it was a good deal.

That is super cheap money. That's good. Yeah, that's really good.

Yeah. In regards to finding a home, we got a really good realtor and we're pretty savvy when it comes to technology. My wife and I, we're millennials, so we check out all the houses on Zillow or just localrealtor.com and we already know what we want to buy before we even look at it and go through the process. Getting pre-approved, looking at the house in person, getting inspections. But it was a smooth process for us. I mean, I can't say the same for other people that might be buying around this time, but we were fortunate enough to have a smooth process.

Cool. So you got basically the house you wanted, it sounds like.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's good. Were you looking for anything special?

Just something with a big backyard. We were in a 2-bedroom apartment and with 2 boys. Especially with one of them having to do school from home, he just had so much energy and just, you know, they were running around the apartment. We were on the second floor and I'm pretty sure that the people downstairs hate us because they just hear little feet running around all the time. And we're just like, you know, let's just find something with a big backyard. And we found one that was perfect for us. And I mean, every day since—

Are you in the neighborhood or are you really remote?

No, it's in, it's in, in the established neighborhood already. So yeah, a few of the neighbors came to introduce themselves, and it's a good neighborhood, quiet neighborhood, and the kids like it.

That's always nice. So, uh, you said you're in Houston?

Yeah, Houston.

That's funny, the last guy I talked to a couple days ago, he's from Houston.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, there's two podcasts back to back in Houston. Um, I know you did like the Microsoft stuff, you run all the reports for what company was that again?

It's for an energy company here in Houston. Um, so Houston is known as the energy capital of the world just because there's so many energy companies here.

I was about to say, does that mean gas and fuel or does that mean like gas and electric?

Yeah, gas and electric. So natural gas and electric utilities. Um, so we, we actually serve quite a few states. We're, we're expanding and, uh, it's just, it's a, it's a starting— well, it's not a small company, it's been growing. And it's really nice. I mean, it's not one of those bigger companies or S&P 500 companies or anything like that, but it's small enough to feel like a family within the company itself. And, you know, a lot of good culture goes into that company. And I mean, I like it. I've worked for bigger companies and this is something that it's a different— it's a change of pace.

Yeah, so you prefer that smaller environment to that bigger corporate environment?

Yeah, yeah, just because, um, it's just— it moves a little bit slower in the sense of where, like, people are getting to know each other more personal, in a more personal level, and you're not— you're more than just a number in the company, and they make you feel like at home, you know?

Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, I had a few of the small— super small companies, um, And it was definitely more of a family feel. I didn't know if that parlayed in the different industries of obviously gas and electric. That's good to hear. Yeah. What'd you do before that? Was the investing thing a career or is that just always a hobby and you had some other?

So if I can backtrack maybe to a year and a half, I started investing back in 2017 for my personal goals. I didn't know how to invest at all. I didn't even know how to buy a stock of Apple. I didn't know how to buy any shares. I didn't know anything about investing. So I went in Facebook and I typed in the question, like in the post, saying, hey, does anybody know how to buy stocks? And a couple people reached out to me and it just seemed like they were— it was more of a pyramid scheme. And, uh, I decided to take— yeah, no problem.

What were you doing as a career at that point?

As a career at that point, I was with another energy company. I was a training specialist, so my job there was to train new coming, uh, sales agents. So a lot of sales.

How old are you at this point?

3 years ago, 3 years ago I was 23. I'm 26 now.

Okay, perfect. Okay.

Yeah.

And so you would have had one kid, 2-year-old?

Yep. All right, I'm trying to round up. Yeah, so a 3-year-old, and around this time my wife and I— I believe at this time she was pregnant, or yeah, she was pregnant already. And that's whenever my mentality shifted, saying, hey, you know, like, you're making this money, you have this career, what can you do to just, you know, get a little bit more freedom or financial freedom?

How'd you go about doing that?

And so, um, I decided to start doing my own research. Um, it was a little bit of a learning curve for me just because I didn't know much about investing. And as I was learning, I got an idea of, hey, you know, like, this is something that a lot of kids my age, or a lot of people my age, they don't understand how to invest or how to get started. So an idea popped in my head. It was just along the lines where, like, hey, let me start an Instagram account where I can show via similar to how you have your account, similar, um, just infographics about, hey, this is how you buy stock, this is how you profit from a stock, this is how you get money. And, uh, I just threw the idea out there to my wife, and, uh, my wife and I, we started playing around with names. And, uh, Space City Money, she actually came up with that name because I was just thinking about, um, it was something related to money in Houston. Um, I think I called it, um, Clutch City Money or something like that, because Clutch City is another nickname for Houston. Something so— it was just funny like that. And she came up with Space City.

I don't know any of these Houston nicknames. I've never heard any of these in my life.

Yeah, if you type in Houston, you'll probably get a list of like a good 6 through 10 of them. There's just a lot of nicknames people call Houston. Well, maybe if you're from Houston you would know, but a lot of people that are not from Houston, they might not be familiar with Sure. And, uh, yeah, she came up with the name and she was super supportive. I mean, that's, that's one of the things that I love about my wife. Uh, just one thing that I put out there, she, she's supportive 100% on it. And she was like, yeah, it's, it's a great idea that you're doing this. Uh, and at first I started just to show my family and my friends, um, just because they— I wanted them to get started investing and seeing, hey, this is what you can do, and, um, this is how you can get started if you want to invest for your future retirement or anything like that.

And so how did you learn this? Just trial and error, Googling, YouTube?

Yeah, absolutely. Trial and error, YouTube, um, a lot of research. Um, Investing.com was one of the websites that I would go to, go to, and then just look at the videos that they have on there. And yeah, it's like nobody taught me this. Um, I grew up without a father, and I feel like your parents are somebody that are people— well, they're the role models. They teach you everything, you know. And having to grow up without a father and my mom working all the time, you know, I was just by myself all the time. And this is something that I didn't have anybody to teach me about money, how to be responsible with money. I just earned it, spend it, earn it, spend it. I just knew that there was another way to get more financial peace or financial freedom without just having to trade your time for money.

Uh, was anything specifically triggering that or just a general nagging feeling of, um, I'm tired of earning and spending and having nothing?

Well, my wife being pregnant triggered that, um, because I started— yeah, I started thinking, um, you know, like this, this— at that time, that income, I felt like it wasn't gonna be enough. And, uh, I guess it was just, uh, me thinking that just because I was nervous of having another kid and just thinking about all the expenses But, uh, that kind of kickstarted, and after a while I just, I just realized, hey, you know, like, uh, I, I didn't have a will, I didn't have a, a health insurance, I didn't have like a life insurance, I didn't have anything. And then as I started learning about investing, I started learning about these other things to, to kind of have my family like stable whether or not if I'm here or not, if something were to happen.

No, shoot, that's a lot of my premises on this. Dude, if Dad dies, you know, what position did you leave him at?

Exactly.

It's good that you're thinking about that. Um, all right, so you started learning investing, then you started kind of posting on it. How do you do investing? Um, I mean, you didn't have anything to start with, so it's not like you got an inheritance or something, you started to play with it. You just started, what, buying $5 shares or $10 shares or Yeah, at first I opened up an account and I threw in $20.

It was a Robinhood account and I threw in $20 on there. By the way, Robinhood is just an app to invest. I opened it up with $20. I didn't buy anything just because I was still learning at the moment. So every week I just made it a thing to where, hey, throw $20 at the account, throw $20. It wasn't doing anything. It was just the money was just sitting there. And as I was learning, I came across something called stock options, which is a really risky way to invest. And, um, but you also get a risky— oh yeah, if you're familiar with stock options, you know. Um, it came to the point where like my, my returns, I almost quadrupled. I think $200, I could quadruple that to like $800 in like 2 days. But then since it's also really risky, I took like a very big risk trade and I almost lost like, I would say $700 of that.

Yeah.

And it was just a learning experience. I mean, that helped me. I said, you know what, what I can take from this is $100 lost and a lesson well learned. To this point, I still haven't messed around with stock options, but I learned a lot to like, I just like to learn about it. But I decided to take more safer investing choices such as index funds, ETFs, just something a little bit more passive where I could just set it and forget it.

Options are super fun, but yeah, like you said, man, they'll wreck you in a second. You really got to be on top of your game.

Absolutely.

Like, I don't do them. We fund them, but we don't, we don't actually play them. It's Yeah, I just— because I can't sit there and, and do that much research into them and really be on point. Yeah, man, that would, that would mess with me.

Yeah, definitely. It's something that you have to be active in. And, um, just like I mentioned with my full-time career and having to open up this side, uh, thing as an Instagram account, like, I couldn't be actively learning, you know, your charts.

You, you shouldn't be teaching people options on Instagram anyway. I have one of the— that'd be a good way to have a whole bunch of people lose a lot of money and hate you for it.

Yeah, and that's, that's actually one of the first things that I, I told people, you know, be careful with. And I wish I still had the account. I kind of regret, um, deleting it because it deleted all my posts. And, uh, yeah, I mean, the highest thing that I would put on there is for people to consider index funds, ETFs, just something more passive, because for the, the average investor, that's that's the safest option, you know.

Yeah, well, it's well diversified and usually you can see the track record really easily. It's pretty tangible and measurable. Yeah, I totally agree. Um, you're still investing on your own, right?

Yeah, I'm still investing.

So you're just buying and holding? You're just getting mutual funds and, and, uh, things like that and just holding it?

Yeah, so last year, um, I, I was Well, so I have 2 accounts now. I have one is going to be my Roth IRA, which I'm using for retirement. All of that is going to index funds and just, you know, things that are tracking the S&P 500. I have my— I'm sorry, I have 3 accounts. I also have my 401 for my job, and that's also in index funds tracking the S&P 500. I also had a brokerage account. Well, I still have it, but I haven't used it lately. That account, my brokerage account, I was investing in just individual stocks, and I got lucky with Tesla and I also had Verizon on there. And you still have them? No, no. So, so fun fact is I actually used some of those proceeds from the, from the gains to, to, yeah, to buy the house. And, uh, that's what I told myself, you know, like, uh, in my retirement accounts, I'm just putting it in safer investments. And, uh, once I get back on my feet or once I get back on track, uh, after, you know, all the home repairs that we've been doing or just home improvements after moving in, I'm gonna go back in into my brokerage, brokerage account and, uh, just, you know, buy individual stocks. That's gonna be something a little bit more aggressive but not too aggressive.

Yeah, I mean, house is an investment just as stocks are, so it's not like you're putting your money in a bad place, right? You keeping, uh, you seem to be financially aware. Are you keeping a good emergency fund on you?

Oh, for sure. Yeah, that's, that's one of the first things that I want to make sure, you know, 3, 3 to 6 months, just depending of of how, how scared you are because of this COVID, uh, we're leaning more towards the 6 months of expenses because, you know, it's— you have to be sure that you're always going to have something to— like a little cushion to have on.

But I know the guy, the guy we talked to last week, uh, earlier this week in Houston, he worked in the oil business as well. Um, so I think he was more on like the maybe the drilling heads or something like that for the fracking sites or I can't remember, but I know they were saying they're like, like, he's piling up cash big time because, I mean, that oil industry is just going nuts and they've already had tons and tons of layoffs. And, uh, you know, they basically already said, you know, 2020 is lost. So, you know, 2021 is, you know, where we're focusing all efforts right now. And they're bare bones, you know, everyone's doing 37 jobs, that kind of stuff. Is that the same in your field right now? Are you guys still pretty steady because you're more on the energy side of it? Versus the drilling of oil?

Yeah, so for, for energy field, uh, it hasn't been too much of an impact, um, just because energy is something that, you know, it's, it's— people need it. I feel like oil took a big hit just because, you know, oil— I guess refined oil is used to create gasoline, and we all were driving. Yeah, yeah, people stopped driving, and, you know, there's no, there's no demand for oil at all. There wasn't as much demand as there was But energy is just something, you know, people stay home, turn on their AC, turn on their heater. It's being— natural gas is used. So we haven't taken— to my understanding, we haven't taken that big of an impact to this COVID. So we've been fortunate enough to keep our jobs.

I would think you guys would be busier because there's so many more people at home all day long now versus going to the offices. Of course, then the offices aren't using that energy, so there's— those peaks are off. But yeah, I would say, yeah, one thing to keep in mind, people's electric bills are a lot higher than they used to be.

Oh, for sure. I mean, mine definitely was. And, uh, one thing to keep in mind is that— I guess, yeah, that makes sense. Uh, energy, I guess, uh, a lot of the marketing that it comes to energy is just the door-to-door interaction. Action, and most of that was halted because of COVID and a lot of people are not doing door-to-door right now just because of what's going on. Marketing? Yeah, marketing for the company.

Yeah, they have a monopoly. It's a utility. We don't get to choose what electric company supplies us.

So interesting, uh, most states are actually deregulated. So here in Texas, we're deregulated, meaning that, um, we can choose our utility that we go to. Um, so that's why I said the energy capital of the world is Houston, because there's a lot of suppliers here in Houston, because we can pick— I can go with different companies. I can go online and just search different providers that can supply the electricity. And, um, so the electricity is coming to you by the utility itself, but the pricing comes from a third-party company.

That's fascinating. I had no clue. I've never heard of that. I've always been on the East Coast where you, you have what you have. I mean, you don't get to pick because that's the only company that provides it. Uh, now they're regulated by the state, I guess. Florida.

Florida. Okay, yeah, Florida is definitely regulated.

FPL, that's all we have. That's not true. So Jack— there's like a subsection of Florida Power and Light. Yeah, they do, they do like 80% of the state. And then like Miami's got this small little company that does some stuff, I think. Um, Jacksonville's got JEA. So there's like a few city municipalities, things like that. But FPL pretty much runs that state's power. Uh, but they can't do a price hike or anything without, I think, uh, you know, state congressional approval or whatever jazz they have to do. Are you frozen? You look frozen. Find a way to get unfrozen.

All right, cool. Yeah, I was on Wi-Fi and I don't know if like the internet just got cut off, and— but I'm on, I'm on, um, 4G now.

So yeah, I just switched mine over too, just in case. Cool. Um, cool. So Houston's got endless energy options and Florida is just stuck with whoever you have.

Yeah, and there's a lot of things— there's a lot of states that are like that.

I had no clue that existed, like literally no clue. That's awesome.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why we can't supply Florida. There's, there's a lot of states that we can't supply. Well, technically we don't supply, but yeah, it's just we're only in some markets. That's why I mentioned about marketing, because just how we have our energy company Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm like, that's what I was thinking, market. Why would you market? You don't have a choice. But that makes, that makes so much more sense. I'm fascinated by that. You know how much I, I want to learn so much about that business right now just because I'm fascinated by how it works. That is awesome. I want to do that with, um, I want to do that with internet. Like, I want to get on Comcast Backbone and then create a company that does the service aspect of it. So we have basically like the old telephone lines where it's like, uh, common carrier walls.

Yeah.

And then, um, because, you know, all the internet— AT&T, Comcast— they all suck. They're all just awful, horrendous companies. Um, and to be able to open up those lines and tag them what they have, like the cell phone companies do, like you guys are doing with energy, like, um, the phone companies back in the day used to do, um, where you use those services because they're common carrier And then be able to provide a service, a better service, and let the customer choose. I just think that would be huge. But so far they've all successfully fought and been able to keep their utility lines private. And so no one can ride their backbone without their permission, I guess.

Yeah, it's definitely something that you might want to look into. Whenever I first started getting into the energy field, it was— I was baffled too. I, I knew that there was different companies I could choose from, but I didn't know how far I can get. Um, well, as far as our natural gas, it is regulated, so we do have to go with CenterPoint Energy, which is our utility company here. So that's monopolized, in lack of better terms, so we have to choose that. But as far as electricity, we can choose our electric provider.

So we don't even have natural gas in Florida. Most places don't have natural gas. There's certain neighborhoods that have it, um, but basically if you want it, you have to put in a tank by your house and, and, uh, have it delivered because for whatever reason they just never really ran those utilities in Florida. I had no idea. You know, probably why is because we don't need heat, and heat's such a big— for all you other people, um Yeah, and we just don't need it. We have electric for the ACs and that's all we really care about. As long as we have an AC and, you know, some water— and water's not even a big deal because if we dig a hole 2 feet in the ground, it's going to fill up with fresh water. So we have it.

Yeah, absolutely. So what do you do for a profession?

I'm retired.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we sold our businesses, uh, in late 2019. Right before everything crashed, thank goodness. So we're kind of— we're traveling the country now and promoting 100% Dad and, you know, enjoying an insane amount of family time together. It might be too much. At the end of 2 years, we might hate each other. We're either gonna be the tightest bonded family ever or we're never gonna want to see each other again. Not sure where that's gonna work out yet. Hopefully tightest bonded ever. We'll see.

That's beautiful though, getting to travel the country with the family. That's, that's absolutely something nice.

Yeah, so, so far so good. Uh, we're down in Glacier National— or, uh, down— we're up in Glacier National Park, uh, currently. And it's, it's pretty up here. These are all— I didn't know anything about Texas and their utilities. I know nothing about the entire country, uh, because all I know is Florida. And like the I-95 corridor up to Maryland. That's the only exposure I really have of the country. Um, like, I'm getting to see all this stuff for the first time too, like all the different geographies, all the different, you know, cultures and styles. And, uh, it's fascinating. Like, for example, did you know in Idaho they have— like, you go to a burger place anywhere else in the country, I think, and they give you like ketchup, mustard, um, you know, with your fries or whatever, like they just put that on the counter. They have a bottle of pink stuff. It's like in every restaurant they have like a pink bottle and it's like ketchup mixed with mayonnaise, like pre-made. Oh, every, every restaurant I know.

That's, that's crazy.

Yeah, who knew? Wow.

It's, I guess it's like serving barbecue down here in Texas, barbecue sauce.

I guess. I don't know. I didn't ask anybody why. It just, it was just always there and I couldn't figure it out. I didn't hate it. Like I used it, but yeah, I had no idea why, why it was there, why it's not in other states. It's just things like that, uh, they interest me. But, um, so before we sold, I was in the, um, we were in coffee distribution, we were in vending machines, and then we contracted out those services on a bigger scale. Um, that was my, uh, my— the industries I worked in.

Oh, okay.

Which all took— I've just taken massive hits right now just because people aren't going to the offices, uh, near as often. Factories are still up and going, hospitals are still going, but like call centers and places where they had lots of people downtown, you know, all those things are remote work right now. Those have been It's been a hard-hit industry.

So pulled out at a good time?

Oh yeah, I mean like everything ended within 3 days of the state, um, doing mandatory closures. So it was, it was, it was like the most amazing timing ever.

Um, that's crazy.

And luckily the company that bought us has very deep coffers, so they were able to, they're, you know, they're going to make it through it, no problem. Um, I would have felt a little tougher if it was like some, you know, little old lady that just came and bought it. That would have been— that would have been a sadder story.

Yeah, for sure.

Um, so yeah, so those, those are the industries I was in. Um, how long have you been married?

I've been married for 7 years.

7 years with a 5-year-old?

Uh, yeah, with a 5-year-old. So, um, actually our anniversary was at the beginning of the month, and, uh, we, we kind of couldn't go out to celebrate like we've done every year, so we just, you know, decided to do something, you know, a little bit more intimate at home.

Yeah, we had our anniversary last week. Was it 9 days ago? 8 days ago? Something like that. Yeah, and I think— I don't even know what we did. Did we go somewhere? Oh, we went to— yeah, we were, we were walking.

We were in—

we were still in— shoot, where were we? Idaho Falls. So we went down to Idaho Falls, we went to a zoo, took the kids. We've got no babysitters on the road. And, uh, so, you know, I think we just went to like a brew house and got some burgers and some beers, and that was it. That was our 13th anniversary.

Yeah, definitely took they don't all have to be magical. Yeah, I agree. I actually, uh, well, spending time here at home was a little bit, you know, like I mentioned, a little bit more intimate. We, we got, we got to just, you know, talk a little bit more than we normally do if we go to like the movies or to a restaurant where there's just so much noise. And like you mentioned, it doesn't always have to be magical.

Uh, did you guys have a like big family in town that watches your kids or anything now, or you guys fully isolated?

No. Well, I mean, we have— we're both Hispanic, so we both— I mean, stereotypically, we have big families. Um, but Houston is huge.

I'm sorry, it's a stereotype for a reason.

Yeah, I agree. And, um, Houston is just big. I mean, our, our— like, my in-laws there, they live in Houston as well, but it literally takes us about maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get to their house just because of how big Houston is. And especially with traffic. I mean, traffic, if there's, if we go to our in-laws in rush hour, it could literally take us up to 2.5 to 3 hours to get there to their house.

So stop going during rush hour.

Yeah. I mean, if we need to, but if we need a babysitter during like, you know, like during job times, or I mean, this is pre-COVID, you know, like if you needed a babysitter around that time, then yeah.

So I forget if it was kid number 2 or kid number 3, but one of those, I, I was very firm and I put my foot down and said, we no longer travel to grandparents. If you want to see kids, you travel to us. We have more people. It is harder for us to move. You guys have no kids. You can hop in a car, get over here. We have to pack diapers and snacks and food, and someone lost their shoes and you can't get them in because they're kicking and screaming because, yeah, for whatever reason. You come to us for now. That was my, my big thing. Like, we're done going to people, you guys come to us.

Hey, that would work perfectly.

And grandparents will do that because it's true, this is them two sitting there. Unless they still have kids, you're— maybe it's a gigantic Hispanic family, they still have kids at home, but they'll come to you.

No, no, I agree. And they would, they would call asking if they would want— and they would want them to come over. But hey, like I mentioned, too bedroom apartment, and just like if they come over and, uh, they still have, uh, so my in-laws still have, um, well, 3 kids that live with them, so they all usually travel together. And if they all come to the apartment, you know, it was a tight little spot. But now that we have our house situated, you know, we, we're definitely gonna see a lot of them coming over.

That's good.

Yeah.

Did you move any closer? Did you move further?

Uh, same, same area that I'm in. I'm a little bit more on the north side. Uh, I'm a little bit more on the north side. They're in the south side, so we stayed in the same area.

How far are you from, uh, Joel Osteen's place?

Um, fun fact, I actually— my, my— well, my office is actually in the same, maybe 5 minutes away from his place and the church, the V.O.

Arena.

Um, the, the, uh, what's it called? Lakewood. Lakewood Church. Uh, my, my office is like 5 minutes away from there.

Oh, it's awesome.

Yeah. Uh, it's—

have you ever been there?

Uh, no, I've never been there. Never been there. But, uh, I actually, I know where his house is and, uh, it's, it's in that area. It's, it's a really like prestigious area here in Houston. It's like super— it's called the River Oaks.

Cool. Um, so when I got satellite, I barely knew who he was. I got satellite radio every once in a while and flip it on if I just needed some Jesus talk. And, um, uh, I just know they would always say Houston, you know, that's how he signed off like every episode or whatever he's doing, sermon. Um, they would always say, come visit us in Houston if you're ever in the area. It was the only thing, the only thing I know about Houston, that and the space shuttle lands there.

Yeah, he actually has a lot of controversy. Yeah, JJ Watt too.

Um, he does.

Oh yeah, Joel Osteen. Yeah, he has some controversy here in Houston just because, uh, we got hit with Hurricane Harvey. I don't know if you, you guys heard of that in Florida. Well, yeah, you guys were in Florida, so, uh, Hurricane Harvey. Yeah, so there was some controversy because, um, there was a lot of people needing shelter in the aftermath and, um, for a moment they were looking for Lakewood Church to open its doors to shelter some people and they wouldn't take anybody in and they blasted him on social media saying, "Hey, how are you going to be talking about God and closing your doors to the people that need shelter?" And there was just so much controversy for like a whole year just because of that. And eventually, yeah, he opened Lakewood Church to shelter people and But people were just saying that it was just because he was pressured into doing it versus just wanting to do it out of, you know, faith or goodwill.

Yeah, that might be true. Yeah. Did they ever— did he ever clarify?

Uh, I'm not too sure just because like I mentioned, I try to stay away from politics or anything. Like when it comes to politics, religion, any, any controversial topic, I just try to stay away from it just because if somebody is very adamant about their beliefs and whether it's political or religious, you know, you just don't want to get in any type of— well, I personally don't want to get in that type of conversation with anybody.

My grandmother used to say that. She would always say that's because that was the old school way of thinking, was you never talk about politics, religion, or sex because, you know, you just end up fighting with somebody. And I will say those are probably the three areas, um, of our society now that probably need the most talking and are so divided and so controversial because they weren't talked about for so long.

That makes sense, and it's possible. It's definitely something to consider.

Um, where do I go with that? How did you find out about us?

Um, I'm not gonna lie, it was an advertisement on Instagram.

Awesome. Which one?

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what caught my attention, like I mentioned, I used to do infographics for, um, the Space City Money, and I was like, hey, this, this reminds me a lot of what I used to do, but in a father, you know, section of that. And, uh, it really caught my attention. I mean, I saw the ad and I clicked, you know, visit page. I started going through them and A lot of those quick, you know, advice, I guess infographics kind of like, you know, hit you and you just like, you just need a quick reminder. It was funny because I was talking to my wife about the account and I saw when we were driving, we were coming from, I think our in-laws, and there was a big billboard sign of like, it was a big monster holding a little monster's hand. I guess it was like a little kid. And the sign said, hey, take a moment to be a dad today. And it was as we were talking about the account, and I was like, that's, that's, you know, that's, that's interesting. And, uh, you know, like, it's just something that I personally never think about, just like, you know, reminders of, of how to becoming a dad, because I grew up without a father figure. So it's something that is, it's just a learning experience. I don't, I don't know how to do it. I still don't know how to do it. It's just, you know, you learn.

Yes, you do. You're, you're still doing it. You know exactly how to do it. So you grew up with that one, or like, did he leave?

Did he die?

What's the story there?

So he passed away whenever I was 3 years old. Uh, it was an elevator accident back in Mexico. Um, around that time, my mother came to the United States, uh, because my grandpa came to the United States, and a lot of, a lot of my mom's siblings, they also came over here to look, you know, for, I guess, better jobs or something. And, um, yeah, for a while I just didn't have a father figure. I just kind of closest thing to a father was my older brother. He's maybe 7 years older than me, but same thing, you know, he does— he's also being a teenager while I'm growing up and he doesn't know things. And, um, well, my mom got together with her, with her boyfriend at that time, but it's just, you know, it's not, it's not something that he was comfortable talking to me about anything, you know, like puberty, growing up, sex, or anything like that. So anything, whenever it gets to anything, any type of talks like that, my mom will feel awkward, so she would actually take me to like a shrink or somebody just to talk to, just to learn about it. And, and, uh, yeah, it's just— I mean, I've been told that I'm very, very closed off, very reserved. I'm not— I don't show much emotion, and it could be because that I just— I was— closest thing of a relationship I had at home, it was just probably to my TV because my mom was working.

So yeah, you— so I'm assuming your mom worked a lot then? She was Single mom, right?

Yeah, she was the breadwinner. Yeah, single mom and, you know, up to 3 jobs working at one time. At one point she was working. I have my older sister, she wasn't living with us whenever we came to Houston. My brother, it was always just my brother and I. My brother was a teenager, so he was working at that time, but he was into like race cars and he would just go out, you know, going to car meets and stuff like that. And, uh, we lived in a— we lived in a part of Houston where, um, it's a small little apartment complex, and, um, a lot— lots of our family lived there. And, uh, my aunt and her cousin and my cousins lived there. And, you know, whenever my mom was working, she would just say, you know, like, after school, just go to your— to your aunt's house, play with your cousins.

And sure, you know, whenever you guys all came over, you guys all came over together?

No, actually, uh, my— so I don't know the exact, uh, like the exact way that they came, but for sure I know my grandparents came. My sister definitely came before we did because she was already living in Houston. Whoever, uh, she had called my mom to— for us to go there because we— I, I was born here in Houston. So I was born in Houston. Uh, my father was a chef. Uh, he's— to my understanding, he was actually like a really good chef here and in Mexico. He went to Paris to actually learn culinary. And, uh, what's funny is that I don't even know how to cook. I could burn instant noodles if you ask me. Um, so he— we, we moved to Mexico from here. Whenever I was here in Houston— I was born here in Houston— we moved to Mexico for, for him to take a job at a, at a 5-star restaurant, some, some prestigious restaurant.

It's not very often you hear the story of, we were in America, we went to Mexico to get a better job. Usually it's the other way around.

Yeah, I would agree. And, uh, I mean, I, I don't, I don't know the details of it, but to my— that's what my mom tells me, like, you know, like that's why we went to Mexico. And it must have been a really good job, uh, at his, uh, job place. That's where he actually passed away because, um, there's like a— I guess it's like a dumbwaiter, one of those old school elevators that just, you know, pushes food and up and down the stairs. I don't know if you heard of the dumbwaiters.

Um, yep.

Uh, so he actually needed to go up, but that restaurant— because it was like a restaurant and then upstairs it was like the hotel— so he actually got in one of those elevators, so it was just really small, and I guess just the, the weight didn't, didn't hold up, and it's just, it snapped the line and fell a couple floors. And, uh, yeah, he was working. No, it's not, uh, to this day I still have a phobia of elevators. It's just Uh, if it's— if I go into a building that's over like 15 floors, I get a phobia. If I start feeling like I'm really high up and it's just something you gotta live with. Yeah, to where?

Don't go to New York City.

Oh, it's funny because, uh, we talked about going to New York City and I told my wife, if we ever go to the Empire State Building, I'll reach you through the stairs.

You can't, they don't even let you take the stairs. Oh wow, that's crazy because I, I mean, that's something I might have done because I don't like elevators either. But yeah, they— I'll tell you, those things are blazingly fast. Like, we went up 80 stories in like 30 seconds. I mean, it's like a— and you barely feel it. Yeah, it's— it was crazy fast. It blew my mind. But I did not like it. I did not like being 80 feet in the air, or not 80 feet, 80 stories in the air, however— 100, however tall it is. Um, yeah, because it's— that thought is just terrifying. Scary. Yeah, that's why I've skydived before, and that's a long way down to consider.

Yeah, yeah. And, uh, as I, as I was getting older, I just— yeah, I even started searching things of like, you know, what's, what's the new safety precautions that elevators take, what safety features or safety mechanisms do they have nowadays.

Yeah, they're amazing.

And that's what I even put, like, just, just whenever as a kid I started getting anxiety of that, uh, I just thought to myself, you know, like, it's, it wasn't an ordinary elevator, it was a, it was a dumbwaiter. So, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so for something like that to happen, it's just, it's crazy.

Yeah. Um, all right, better, better topic. Um, you moved back, all your family's there, so you were really kind of like almost communal raised. Did you have like a grandfather or anybody that um, kind of like took over that father figure?

Um, so my grandpa, I would say in some sort, um, just because my, my mom has a total of 8 siblings, so my grandpa was, you know, he was all over the place. And so when we came to, to Houston, when we moved back, um, he was—

he—

we, we were living in a place that same, same situation that we have. We weren't living close to my grandparents We lived close to my aunt and my cousins, but my grandpa, he lived a little bit further. But there's a few things that I did learn from my grandfather. He was a mechanic, so like every weekend me and my cousins would go to his shop and he would show us, hey, you know, like this is how you change an oil, this is how you change the filter. Like there's definitely a few things that I will take from him and that I've learned. Um, same thing for my brother. It's just, I, I would say there's, there's certain people that I took as teaching me things and somewhat of a father figure, but I didn't get that full father figure.

And so how much of that is, I guess, on your mind nowadays of, uh, you know, you're now in that role of a dad. So how much of that is you reflecting on what you did have or didn't have versus just trying to pave your own path?

It's huge, man. It's, it's honestly like every time that I just do something, like what I tell my wife, at the end of the day, I kind of, as I'm laying down, you know, just reflecting over the day, I kind of give myself a scorecard. Like, hey, you know, like, this is what you did, this is what you didn't do, what you could have improved on. And, um, not having that father figure kind of gave me that just, I guess, that thought of, you know, like, do better for your kids, you know. I mean, I know it wasn't my dad's option to not be there, or, you know, it wasn't his choice to not be there. But, uh, I want to do better for them. I want to, I want to make sure that they experience, you know, having a father. I mean, just, just to the point where it's, it's just something that I want to do better, you know. Um, I think about that all the time. I just think about— I guess it also comes to where, like, that's, that's a, a place that also gives me anxiety. Like, hey, you know what, what if something were to happen to me? And that's where the whole— we talked about life insurance and everything came into play. Um, and it's just, you know, I guess it's just I take a lot of precautions just because of that. Like, knowing that I have kids now, I fear a lot of things that I didn't used to fear before, such as roller coasters. As a teenager, I mean, I loved roller coasters. Now I think about it twice. I'm like, you know, like, what if something happens? And I still get on roller coasters, but I do get that little scare, like, hey, you know, if something were to happen, you know, just just be careful.

But it's concerned about you, it's not concerned about your kids.

Yeah, it's just a concern of something happening to me where I can't be there for them.

Yeah, it's funny, so I never thought about it as a scorecard, but when you said that, first thing that went through my mind was pretty much any guy you talk to, if you talk about like if you drove a long distance, like how long it took you to get to your in-law's house, or you know those like 8-hour, 12-hour, 15-hour trips, you know every guy has inside his head like that mental clock of beating his personal record. You know, how long can you hold off between fuel stops and between bathroom stops so you can, you can get that personal record of time, uh, to get there. And so I, so I'm kind of in that, that same boat as you. I never really thought about it as a scorecard, but like I'm always trying to be like the best freaking dad, like So I'm rated number 1. So like all those mugs and, and, you know, frames and t-shirts that everyone gives their dads, like they're all a lie because really that should all go to me.

You got some competition, man.

Like, I just thought that was like a competitive thing in me, um, and I haven't heard anybody else say that before. So, um, but they— everyone does it with driving cars, which is, uh, or like trying, you know, there's long road trips, like everyone wants that personal record and Um, I'm gonna start asking that if everyone's kind of like keeping that mental checklist of like how competitive are they as a dad. Are they trying like to be the best? Like you said, giving yourself a scorecard. Um, that's a new take on it for me.

It might be, uh, just because I'm very analytical. I'm very numbers person, very, you know, very technical. So at the end of the day, it's just— I mean, I'm closing my hand and like visualizing, you know, like just going up the checklist. Hey, you know, did you kiss him good night? Did she make sure to do a prayer with them? And just, or if, if, if I, you know, like if I told them that they did something wrong, did I, did I show him, should, did I show either one of them how to do something right? Or, you know, just, just a scorecard, you know, that's the best way I can say it.

And like, you just elaborated on a good point of like the whys behind everything. Um, you know, there's a lot of parenting like a TV show where you just like say something and then walk away. And like, end scene, and like, you're not given the explanation behind it. And so it leaves people confused or wondering. Um, and I feel like that's, that's happening a lot in, in the dad life of where a lot of do as I say and don't question it, um, and don't do what I do. And I think the ability to explain why you think that way or why this is a wrong action or why we stopped you from doing this, or why we think you should take this, uh, this path instead of this path, or why you shouldn't hang out with that— the whys behind everything, like the way you think and how you came up with that decision. I think that is a, a huge, an immensely huge part of parenting that a lot of people miss, where they just say what they think and they don't explain why they think that way.

Yeah, we don't give kids enough credit to where, where they have that critical thinking where, like you mentioned this, I saw a guy on, I think it was on YouTube, where he explained, hey, you know, like, if you want your kids to stop hitting their sibling, don't tell them, hey, stop hitting them, because, okay, so what do you want me to do then if you want me to stop hitting them? Instead saying, you know, keep your hands to yourself, because you're showing them, like, a follow-up to what you don't want them to do, because it's just something Like you mentioned, it's just they— we, we expect them to know better when, when we have to explain a little bit better on what they're allowed to do and not allowed to do. And like you said, they can't question our judgment just because we're a parent. We just have to give them an option to, or another alternative to what they're doing, you know, like, oh hey, you know, like But, and that's age appropriate.

I mean, a 2-year-old's not going to comprehend what you're saying. You just tell them no. A 7-year-old can fully understand, uh, and comprehend the full dynamics of the situation.

Yeah, I agree. My 5-year-old is like that. He questions things. He says, you know, like, if we tell him, hey, stop doing that, he's like, is it something wrong that I'm doing? Should I be doing something else? You know, like, should I not be saying this? And it's just, like you mentioned, it is age appropriate because we, if I try to do that with my 3-year-old, he'll just be like, you know, like, what? What are you talking about?

Yeah. Over his head.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it engages critical thinking skills so the kids can freaking think for themselves and become good decision makers later on down the road. You know, in the end, that's what we want. If you give them all the answers, it just doesn't work out as well. And some kids naturally think about it, talented. But yeah, the explaining of the process and why you think that way is— that's a big one to me. So I'm glad to hear you're doing it.

Yeah, and I'm learning. I'm learning. I'm glad that there's a lot of resources now. Like I mentioned, I'm a millennial, so just going on YouTube, you know, searching up a video. Because if, if there weren't these resources, I don't know how I would learn some of the things that I do. Um, like, it's, it's, it's trial and error, just like how it is with investing. Yeah, just like how it is with investing, is trial and error, you know. If something doesn't work, try something different. But, uh, we're— I mean, for, for people out there that, that they, that they just say, you know, I don't know how to do something, there's resources out there. There's There's Instagram, there's YouTube, there's Google, you know. There's— if you want to learn something, you'll learn it, whether it's going to be how to parent better, how to invest, how to, how to do anything. You're, you're gonna at least get some advice online.

Sure, it's not all good advice.

Agreed.

How do you guys function in your marriage? Like, do you guys— like, is everything to get done together as a team? You guys kind of like split lives, just living side by side with each other with this common these common children that you're, you know, I guess, how do you, you know, when it comes to discipline and how you run the household, things like that, um, I guess what's life like for you guys?

Um, it's a little bit— sometimes it's just a little bit of, um, I guess we— I do what I think is best, she would do what she thinks is best, and then whenever, you know, whenever there's any conflict, we'll step to the side, you know, just talk about it, like, hey, you know, like, I, I honestly think give each other like, you know, why we think our way is better or something like that. But it's just, I guess now it's a little bit more different, me being at home, because I work from home. Usually, you know, I would go to work and my commute to work would be like an hour, so I would be away for like almost 12 hours. And whenever I come home, you know, it's just dinner time, you know, spend some time with the kids. But now that I'm at home, actually seeing their interaction every single day and like what they get upset about, what the kids fuss about, if they have any, you know, like anything that they get upset about. It's just at the moment after COVID, it's just been a learning curve for me just because, you know, like if I see her telling them, oh, you know, like, like make sure you pick up your plate. To me, I'll just be like, you know, like, like, I don't know, like I'll just pick it up and then put it in the sink. But she's like, no, you know, you got to teach to be a little bit more responsible, be a little bit more independent because they're growing. You know, just, just, you know, back me up on that. Okay, so now I understand. And it's just these past months after COVID, it's just been more of a learning experience for me as, as just disciplining them while we're all at home.

But it sounds like you guys are— you make— you're making sure you're kind of getting on the same page with everything.

Yeah, we try. And, um, I mean, I'm not gonna say it's perfect. There's conflicts and, um You know, you just, you just work through them as best as you can.

You know, I just, I've met some people who they run their lives much differently than I like, because we kind of do that same here. Like, we're, you know, mom and dad are a team, you know, a united force. Don't try and divide us, um, and they will anyway. You know, they get in more trouble for trying to go behind each other's back. Like, that's an even greater sin in our household, um. But there's some people like, they run all their finances different, they kind of like run their parenting different. And it's almost counterproductive in a sense. And I'd really like to question someone in that situation. So I was kind of hoping you were in that boat, but you're not. I'm curious how that works. It seems like a lot of friction.

If I see something that I don't agree with, you know, I'll speak with her about it. You know, because it's just instead of just like going against it, it's like you mentioned, it's I mean, we've had situations like you mentioned where the oldest kid will ask her, hey, you know, can I have a piece of chocolate? She says no. He comes to me, hey, can I have a piece of chocolate? And then she'll hear him saying, hey, you know, like, didn't I just tell you no? And then he, like, he'll look at me like, oh, you know, I just, I screwed up. And then I'll look at him, you know, why, why are you going behind her back to just ask me the same question?

Yeah, so we, we come down really harsh on that. It doesn't happen a lot anymore because we kind of squashed it after the first few times. Um, and you're probably at those ages right now to where they really start to figure out if they can or cannot do that. Um, but yeah, we made sure that we don't get played against each other because you won't always be within earshot of it. Um, but yeah, we make sure you're not going to divide the team. So we come down— that's like I said, that's a greater sin to us than whatever. Yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't want to play those games in our house. What mom said, yeah, and if you don't like it, dad's gonna agree with it.

Yeah, and like you mentioned, yeah, they're in that age where, where they see how much they can get away with.

Yeah, and that's natural, that's normal, totally normal. What else we got? Do you have life insurance? That's good. You got enough to take care of them a good long time after you're, you're gone?

I got term life insurance because I feel like that was gonna work for me at the moment. Um, we got 10 times my, 10 times my annual income. That's how much we did. We went for—

does your wife know what to do with that life insurance money, um, if you die?

Uh, so I am the person that runs all of our finances, and I mean, because just I'm an Excel nerd, I mean, I have everything in my computer and everything like that. But I did came up with like a small little cheat sheet, like, hey, if anything were to happen to me, you know, here are our accounts, here's what to do. You know, here's what's the best, what not to invest in. And yeah, so it's just, I just prepared a small little document and, um, so whenever I first established it, uh, we went over it and then periodically I decided to add more things or just like as things change, like COVID and like the stock market, how it's shifting. I'm like, hey, you know, like if there's anything to go like a recession or anything, don't fear it, you know, it's just you ride the waves, it's your thinking long term or anything like that. It's just, we just go visit it over and over and it's just It's just something that I like doing. It's not that she's not responsible, it's just that like I, I geek out about these things. I have spreadsheets for days about everything.

Well, and someone's got to do it. That's a hard thing to split 50/50, but as long as the other person knows what's going on, that's the important part. Like you give them the summary and they know how to access things, um, you know, where the documents are, where your bank accounts are, how to figure out the numbers and how to access it. How much is there, what you guys spend, you know, the budget and all. Um, but yeah, someone's got to actually physically write the checks and mail them out and, uh, you know, reconcile and things like that. And that's usually not a two-person job. So no, it sounds to me like you guys are on point. Um, and she knows to invest that money and to make it her new husband in a sense. Like, that life insurance money then gets invested, so whatever it produces is now her income.

Yeah, residual income. That's what I teach her. It's just something that, like I mentioned, she's more of a sense of just like, you know, learning, or just not learning, but it's just, I guess to her it's just, you know, job, make money, spend money. And but once we got together and I actually explained to her, you know, like see every dollar you make or invest as it recruiting future dollars or just money for you in the future. And, you know, $1 now can be worth $7 in the future just because of compound interest.

That's a good way to look at it. Um, oh, do you have a will?

Yeah, and that's something that I, I started with last year, uh, once I established my, my my life insurance. That's, that's something that, um, one of my close friends actually talked to me about. He's like, hey, I know you're young and everything, but get a will. Just how you're getting life insurance, I mean, get a will. And I just put it off for a while just because I didn't know how to do it, and it was just, you know, procrastination. But we found a good resource online that, uh, you know, kind of helps you through the paperwork and setting it up.

It's a tremendous kindness to have that done. It makes life on the surviving spouse so much easier. So I'm glad you have that in place.

Yeah, and a fun thing that I, that I learned about wills is that a lot of people tend to keep wills a secret, but it's best to talk to them, for the recipients to talk to them about, like, you know, this is how much they're receiving while you're alive, because you don't want there to be any conflict after, you know, like Hey, I—

so I fully agree with that. In fact, if you scroll through my feed, you'll find some of that there. Um, so I don't necessarily think you need to tell them exactly how much they're getting or something like that, um, because especially the higher net worth you get, that could, you know, maybe start to paint a target on your back a little bit. But to let them know, like, if they're not going to be involved at all, then that should be told. Hey, You know, Henry, you're doing cocaine and blowing all your money at strip clubs every night, so we're not going to give you any money because we don't want to finance that. That's insane. Um, you turn your life around and, you know, things will be different. Um, you know, or, you know, the future guardians of your kids, things like that need to be talked— again, I don't think you need to get specific in the numbers. I just need to know someone's not going to be in not, not going to be involved, um, then they should be told. Um, especially if you're in one of those families where it's like the grandparents and there's some wealth there and everyone's expecting to have this windfall, you know, in a few years when they pass. And, um, you know, the grandparents are a little vindictive and going to have some fun after death, things like that, by cutting people out and things like that. That kind of drama, I think that kind of drama just tears up so many families, especially where businesses are involved, like where there's, um, uh, like an entity in place of who's going to get it, who's going to run it, how shares are going to be split, things like that, uh, land ownership, farms. Everyone's got this expectation in their head, and if it doesn't go their way because it wasn't talked about, then the lawsuits are going to fly and just insults are going to fly. Just it You're 100% right, it tears things up. But, um, so like, we've talked to everybody that's involved in ours, and mostly it's about kids, you know, where we want them to live, you know, the kind of lifestyle, things like that. Um, you know, there'll be, uh, there's some like conditions in there for the kids like that where they can receive their, um, uh, you know, their trust at that point if we both die. Um, but like, at no point do we tell them like how much it is. Because they just don't need to know, and plus it's always changing. Um, you know, just we've told them like there's enough to cover everything. Like you'll get a basically, um, um, an allowance is the wrong word, but like an annual amount will be kicked out for the, for the care of the child. That's more than enough. It covers our lifestyle right now. Um, you know, there's money for college, there's money for cars, there's, you know, the trust that they'll get Um, you know, that gets kicked out at certain ages, um, and there's criteria on those— that they are living a good life and we're not going to fund a stupid life.

Yeah.

All right, any questions or thoughts or topics?

Uh, one I did have a question for you. Is your actual first name Townsend Russell Russell?

You think I'll make that up?

I wasn't sure. I never heard the name before. It's pretty unique to me.

Yeah, um, Townsend Russell. Um, yeah, that is my actual first name. It's not a nickname. We did not shorten it from anything else. That is the real deal. So I have two first names and two last names because I'm Townsend Russell, and both of those are first names and both of those are last names. So anytime I go into any government facility, they tell me I've done my name backwards, like I don't know what my name is.

Yeah, yeah, we hop onto the, onto the podcast. I was getting ready to call you Russell, but I'm like, hey, let me, let me at least wait until he gives me the opportunity to ask him if his first name is Townsend.

So I would answer to it because I have my whole life. So like always in school, I would always get called Russell. I think because it was easier to pronounce, or people thought it was my first name and the school got it backwards. So, um, Yeah, I answer to all of it. Townsend Russell, Russ T, Town Toe, Sam. Everyone's been trying to give me a nickname my whole life. Eventually I just get them to call me Townsend, but yeah, I've heard it all.

That's crazy. Well, it's good to know. Now I know. Townsend. Townsend.

I appreciate it. Well, if you got nothing else, we'll go ahead and end it.

Okay, yeah, no, I, I look forward to maybe doing a follow-up sometime in the future and seeing how, how things change from here, you know. Um, I look forward to seeing more, more content from your, from your page. And now knowing that there's a YouTube and a Facebook page— not, I'm not much active in, in Facebook, but I am active in YouTube. So I do look forward to it.

Obviously the face— the Instagram feed feeds the Facebook feed, so it's the same stuff. Um, okay, we might, we might split it up one day, uh, but it's just more than one person can do.

So definitely gonna check out that YouTube. Is, is that where you post your, um, your podcast on YouTube videos?

So, uh, podcasts will go on video on YouTube, and then there's also the audio version through a website, and that you can listen to basically on any audio platform. I mean, you can reach that through the website, uh, so if you don't want to sit there and have— like, I don't like to do podcasts on YouTube because then, like, if my phone goes out or something like that, or I can't get off the page because it'll shut down the feed, um, so I like to listen to them on audio only. That way it can play and I can have other programs up, if that makes sense. Um, so yeah, that'll be awesome. Then we also post kind of like our— they're basically our home movies for our travels. Um, so we kind of film what we're doing and, you know, the fun we're having. It's really not dad-related, it's more family-related. Uh, we post those things as well.

Okay, I'll look forward to it and I'll go ahead and check that out.

Awesome, I appreciate it. It's good talking to you.

No problem, likewise.

Have a good night.