234. Investment Banker Becomes Infinite Banker

You are listening to the Wealth Without Bay Street Podcast, a Canadian guide to building dependable wealth. Join your host, Richard Canfield and Jason Lowe as they unlock the secrets to creating financial peace of mind in an uncertain world. Discover the strategies and mindsets to a financial future that you can bank on.

So you're a recent immigrant to Canada. You've just joined us, you are starting your life over to some degree. You've got adult children, they're going into college and you're trying to figure your way through life. Well, we're going to learn all about that story, that journey. We are joined with Satish Mehra who's here and I've got my co host Verma Cardi with me today and we're going to have an epic conversation about what discovering the infinite banking concept has been like from someone's vantage point who just joined us fairly recently in Canada. So Satish, thanks for being with us today. I'm excited to unpack your journey a little bit and you thank add some value to our listeners. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, Richard. Hey Vern. It's good to be with you guys and I'm happy and grateful to be here.

Well, we're excited to have you and I, I'm, you know, we've had a number of wonderful one on one conversations, you and I and I'm, I'm so curious for you to help everyone understand a little bit because you've been in Canada now for, you know, let us know how long you've been in Canada for and, and, and walk us through a little bit of the journey on, you know, you've, you haven't just come from one location, you've bounced around a little bit in your, your journey of life. You're a bit of a globe trotting individual. So I think it's important to help other people know a little bit of the context as to where you're from and then what finds you being in Canada. Joining us here now?

Sure, I can do that. You know, just yesterday, you know, we were kind of helping my daughter with her dental college application forms and you know, she had to do her personal statement and she listed the number of countries we as a family lived and worked in was five countries starting from India, uk, Qatar in the Middle East, UAE and finally Canada. And in terms of having traveled like she was listening to country, she's traveled 16 countries where we've all been as a family for holidays and vacations and stuff. So I've been, we've been super blessed to have had this journey, you know, for the last 25 odd years. And I've been here in Canada for the last two years now. Just over two years. But it's been an amazing journey, you know, starting from my home back in India, you know, where I was a part of my family business. Spent about nine years, was seeking for some fulfillment, you know, with my career and what I wanted to do with my, you know, professional journey. So made a move to the, to the uk. Studied for my MBA degree at London Business School, joined an investment bank, Merrill Lynch. Spent two good years with them till the financial crisis hit us in 2008. So that's when I made my move to the Middle East. Had a fun time there, earning tax free petrodollars. You know, I had fun with my family out there, travel the world and finally, I mean a lot happened during those times. But now here I am in Canada.

Amazing, amazing. And I think, you know, what that's really important for our listeners to understand is that being that you went to London Business School, you got the MBA and you actually you, you took the, the kind of the natural tract of MBA to investment banker. And people hear this idea, this word of investment banker and it, it sounds like it means something to people who don't know what it is. And the world that you were in, in the time frame right before the global financial crisis, not only did that lead to probably a really interesting experience, but also there's the experience of while you were there and there's the experience that caused you to leave at the same point in time. So maybe you could expand on that a little bit for our listeners. Sure.

So investment banking is nothing but wholesale banking. I mean we're all familiar with retail banking. You know, the way we bank on a daily basis, you know, savings account and a checking accounts. And then a step further up is what is corporate banking? Right, corporations. And then eventually we have home wholesale banking where I mean, the three or four transactions that I worked with at my time in Merrill lynch, the minimum deal size was a half a billion euro euros. Right. So that's the kind of scale we're looking at. And investment banks don't have the regular deposit, you know, accounts with them. They work with money markets, they work, you know, within, with each other, raising funds, you know, on a short term basis, deploying those funds and then restructuring or structuring, you know, them into products that eventually financial institutions can buy into like pension funds, insurance companies. Right. So, so it's, it's a different world out there altogether. And yeah, so the two years that I spent with Merrill lynch was a great experience, a great learning, rubbing my shoulders with the smartest brains in the financial world. Structuring, you know, and engineering financial products, which were quite complex, you know, in their nature. And it needed sophisticated investors to kind of assess their utility and then invest into them. But my second year out there, you know, when I started to see, you know, some signs of trouble brewing, right, hedge funds and pension funds were kind of backing off from the products we were offering and nobody knew what we were heading into. But finally, I think in April 2008, the signs were clear. We were in deep trouble. And because as I said, investment banks have short term financing, you know, to do their kind of lending, but then they need to restructure those packages and shift them off the balance sheet. And because they weren't able to shift it off the balance sheets, that's what got into the trial. It got them into trouble because their assets were long term, the liabilities were short term. So complete mismatch in their assets and liabilities. So they were caught, you know, with this timing was not right for them. So they had to sell their assets. The last eye was there, 65 cents to a dollar. They had to offload. And then eventually Merrills, you know, we all got bailed out by bank of America. I had my friends working at Lehman Brothers who, you know, didn't went enough, fortunate enough, you know, to have the kind of bailout for them. It was a mess, it was a wreck, right? And I saw it up close and it wasn't a pleasant experience at all. It wasn't.

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Absolutely. You know, I distinctly remember when I was going to this phase, you know, where people were being laid off, you know, a lot of uncertainty, and then we're looking at the markets, the way they were moving. And then I was watching, you know, the Fed officials, you know, Ben Bernanke was the Fed, you know, chief back then, and just looking at them kind of, you know, trying to prevent the unavoidable. Right. Too big to fail. Banks, you know, they couldn't let them fail. They had to do something. And we, I was looking at him, you know, at the Fed and with all at the officials in the U. S as kind of saviors, you know, how can they save this, you know, save us from this situation? And so for me back then, Ben, Ben was like God sent, you know, when he launched those quantitative easing packages, you know, trying to bail out these banks and, and little known that we were kind of kicking the can down the road because we were sowing seeds for a future catastrophe, you know, which we face, you know, at present day today. Right, with all that money coming in, the markets and taxpayers bearing the brunt, you know, of the, I would say the experiments and adventures, you know, that the innocent bankers, you know, were kind of playing with back then. So, so now what I know about the Austrian, you know, school of economics, the way they think and they analyze the economic cycles. So what was happening was completely kind of counterintuitive to, you know, what I, you know, would like to believe today. But it was not the, the right path. Right. I mean, just printing money or, you know, depending on the taxpayers kind of offers to bail out financial institutions wasn't the right thing to do. So yeah, so that's the big lesson that I learned and now I'm re educating myself, you know, with the way money works, wealth works, financial markets should work. And it has been an eye openening experience. Thanks to the great AR Nelson Nash for having encouraged and you know, prodded us all to rethink our thinking. No, his simple book has a pressure trove of recommended readings. So my thinking has shifted completely, you know, from what I thought the way the market should work and we should be bailed out and you know, we deserve a second chance but it, it just, you know, kind of creates problems down the road, which is exactly where we find ourselves Today, globally, now, and.

And in this process. So you, you, you, you went back to, I think you said it was Qatar, you were in the uae, you, your, your journey took you to a few different areas. You were earning some of that tax free oil money, you said, for a while, which was some of the good years. And then, you know, transitioning now to Canada and being a new immigrant to a new country at a different stage of life. Your children are now at an age where they're looking to go to, to Colle.

And so you're at, not only at a different stage of life, you're at a different, maybe stage mentally in what you're looking for. You're looking for something different. And you mentioned Austrian economics and it seems to me that somehow that came up for you. And I don't know where the Austrian mindset arrived, but it sounds like based on what you're sharing, what you learned in your MBA in business school, there wasn't any real connection between this idea of the Austrian economic school of thought. So what would you say is the reason why it's not taught in business school? And then what would you also say is what prompted you to begin learning about this, this different economic mindset?

I think the reason why it isn't probably taught again, you know, I'm just speaking, what comes to my mind here is because Austrian way of thinking is not to do with charts and tables and statistics, you know, and looking at a whole bunch of numbers and trying to make sense. The Austrian, I think the thought is.

Based on what is.

Called praxiology, which is based on human action, right. Given the similar, given the same circumstances, a human being will not act in the same way, you know, at different points in time, right? Because our priorities change, our needs change. So the entire premise of the Austrian school of economics is based on human action and it is a priority, right? It is, it doesn't need any kind of.

Justification or approving of, you know, things of sort. It is intuitive, right? It is intuitive of how humans would act given a specific situation. So I think that prime difference is what I believe, you know, that these, this isn't taught in mainstream, you know, business schools. I wish it was taught, I wish it was taught at even primary or secondary school level, right? Just to get the young minds exposed to this different way of looking at things in a very practical and very kind of realistic way of looking at things.

So you've got us up to speed on what caused you to get into the Austrian economic way of thinking and now you find yourself you're, you're in Canada, you're trying to start a new life. For some reason you decided to move to an area where the weather isn't pleasant all year round. And, and so where's the point in time where Sudd Nelson's book got to your, you know, how did you get to Nelson's book? How did you learn about the infinite banking concept? Where did it intersect with your journey at this point when you arrived in Canada?

Yeah. Just to give a context, which I don't know, to where I was when I moved. My son already was here. He is a graduate from University of British Columbia, so headed his mining engineering. So he's been here about six to seven years now. And I was the last one to arrive, you know, as a family. My wife has been here for about four years, my daughter has been here. So when I wound up, you know, my work in Doha and my assets in India, so when I arrived here, I came with a smallish windfall and I was looking into a place to warehouse my wealth, literally. And at the same time I was planning to shift my career into becoming a life coach, right? So I'm a certified hypnotherapist, I'm a certified demartini, you know, values facilitator and have a few clients who have been blessed to serve, right. So as I was making the switch to Canada financially, I was looking a place to warehouse my wealth and I was seeking a personal kind of financial.

Wealth or money management system for myself and for my family, right. And I threw that out to the cosmos. I said, I'm looking and seeking for, you know, the right guidance. And funnily enough, one of my friends, he'd signed up for the family banking summit, you know, that ascendant was running in Edmonton in October 2022. And he said, satish, you've been a banker all your life. Why did you come along, have a look at what this is all about, give me your honest opinion, right? I think there's something going on here. Said, okay, I'll give you a investment banker style big report, you know, after the day's event. So here I was sitting in the room, a skeptic, you know, trying to see, you know, what was going on. And then I see Jason, I see you, Richard, I meet Vernon, trying to educate us. And then I thought, probably this is just another way of, you know, you guys selling life insurance, right? So that's what kind of initially hit my, hit my mind. I said, why am I here? Why are these guys talking about Insurance. I thought it was all about banking. And this is nothing to do with banking the way I know banking. And then during one of the breaks, I got hold of Nelson's book, read that I read a few pages, something really clicked. I said, that is something more than just life insurance out here, right? So I read the book, a few pages, started to make sense, spoke with you, spoke with Vern and just kind of shifted my thinking to. I said, okay, let me just be, have an open mind, let me just, you know, see what is, you know, being shared out here. And then when I came back home that evening with my friend, I said, you know what, forget your report. I have a lot of reading to do because I saw the reading list, you know, the back of Nelson's book. So that's when I got exposed to the Austrian school of thought. I got exposed to, you know, various things, you know, that Nelson talks about in his book. And it's a complete shift and it made me realize finally I am finding a system to warehouse my wealth, right? It might be something that I need to explore and learn more about. So it took me about six months of binge watching your videos, Richard Vern's videos, videos from back, you know, from the in the US Just educating myself. I became a part of the Calgary Libertarian group, meeting with some smart and you know, like minded people, learning from them, you know, what this is all about and how they have probably the right.

Diagnosis of know what issues that we were facing in Canada. And I took up a mortgage, we bought a new home variable lo behold interest rate starts to just, you know, have a kind of a uphill climb over a mountain. Not a very pleasant experience. So that was a pain that, you know, again motivated me to learn more of why this is happening, you know, and why isn't, why is the market so irrational? You know, why are these cycles, you know, there, I mean they're not natural cycles, the boom and bust cycles, the unnatural now what if, you know, there's something more to it? So that's what, you know, Austrian School of Economics kind of taught me there is a reason why, you know, we see what we see. So again, finding or seeking for something to a place or a system of warehouse. My wealth was the primary driver for me to look and explore and study the infinite banking concept. And at the same time I was talking to my accountants, looking at RRSPs and TFSAs, you know, where do I park my windfall, right? Where do I, you know, find its rightful home? And I'm so glad I did not venture on that path and I'm glad. I was blessed to have found the infant banking concept. I was coached amazingly by Vern, educating me, guiding me, giving me the right resources, leading, you know, me through the journey. And finally I was ready. I took the call, made an application for myself, for my wife, my son and now my daughter also has a policy. We have four policies in the the family portfolio and I wouldn't have had, I wouldn't have parked my money anywhere else other than know these whole life specially designed participating insurance policies.

You know. This is so awesome, Satish, thanks for sharing all that. If I butcher this name, maybe you guys can help me. When, when, what was that? It might have been 2022 actually if I think about it. I was at an event in Toronto, the Wealth Hacker event. Rich, you're probably familiar with that. And there was a. I think I got the date right. Anyway, it doesn't matter but are you familiar with a guy by the name of Jesse Itzler? I want to say I don't know if I got the last name right.

The name's kind of familiar. I don't know, but it's vaguely familiar. Yeah.

Anyhow, he's a, he's a, he's a very unsuspecting guy. You would have no idea that this guy's a billionaire when you see that he's a 50 year old guy and like a skateboard hat, the T shirt and like some jeans and like he just looks like a regular, he looks like a dad who you could tell was like a skater and a rapper in the 80s type of deal. Right. So he, and then that's, that's exactly how he presents himself. But anyway, he's, he's been on like Joe Rogan's podcast. He's been all over the place, written books and whatnot. And so one of the, the reason why I brought all that up is because one of the things that he shared from stage is he was talking about how to create wealth and how to know build a big business and all that. And one of the things that he put at the beginning in his agenda is he says you have to be lucky. So everyone's like, oh, you know the. Obviously I could tell what he was doing there. He was setting everybody up because he's like, oh, well, part of it is you got to get lucky. Well, how do I, I can't control my luck. But he basically debunked that and, and said look, you have to put yourself in positions to be lucky. So he Told a whole big story about how he ended up meeting this, like, guy who's worth hundreds of millions of dollars outside of a conference that he couldn't afford to be at. So if you get a chance to listen to this story, I won't wreck it for you. But it was incredible because he put. He put all of his money on the line and he put himself in a position to get lucky because he ended up meeting these people who later ended up becoming investors in his business. And he had no business being in front of these people, but he set himself up to get in front of them. It's a really interesting and fun story if you get a chance to listen to it. But the reason why I brought all that up is because this whole journey started with Satish just being open enough and to. To put himself in a position to, if you want to call it getting lucky. But he trusted his friend and he just showed up at the event and he had no clue actually what the event was all about. So I thought that was. That's a pretty fascinating part of your story, Satish. So what was it about? Was it just the fact that you trusted that friend or what was it that did something maybe like, was there some intuition there or what was it that ultimately had you make that decision to say, yeah, I'll trek three hours up the road with you to Edmonton to.

For.

I don't know. Why?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, ver, to be honest, like, I had just moved to Canada, right? I was looking at options, exploring options, trying to set up, you know, my coaching business. So I was literally having a time, some time on my hand, and he is a good friend and he just wanted company. I said, you know what? My wife is at work, my kids are in college. Nothing much to do, so why don't, you know, come along? And then. Because he had kind of appeal to my ego of sorts. Right, so you're a banker, so I, you know, would value your opinion. And your advice said, okay, why not? Right? And we'll have some fun along the way. And. But till date, every time I meet him, I cannot thank him enough. He's a client as well, Vern. He's, you know, you know him, so he's a client as well. And I cannot thank him enough, not only for exposing me to IBC again, Richard, you know, you were discussing about. You were asking me about my vantage point, you know, and, you know, as a coach now, you know, we are. We kind of motivate our clients to look at IBC and See things which are not on the illustration. Right. We always bring that point up. What do you, what you not see on the illustration? Right. That's the true essence of becoming a banker. I take that a step further and as a life coach, you know, I inspire people to integrate all seven areas of their lives. So I look at IBC and the role it has played in my life, you know, across all the seven parameters. It's just not finances, just not wealth. Right. It's, it has impacted every area of my life and I like to, I'd like to share that, you know, with you, with you both out here. So the seven areas, you know, that, that I look at is the mind, the mental, the physical, vocational, you know, where we work for money, wealth, where money works for us, family and relationships, society and spiritual. Right. So IBC has transcended and it has impacted all of the seven areas in my life. And that's very evidently clear. Mental, again, it has. Nelson has special, you know, specifically taught me to rethink my thinking challenge, you know, all the knowledge and the arrival syndrome. Mba, investment banker. I know it all, right. No, I had to start from scratch, the unlearn and then relearn and you know, it's been a great mental exercise, right. Just to unlock just the unlearning part has been, you know, a fun as well. So mind intellectual, challenging. Mental health has been, you know, what has come about by IBC.

Health, physical. I have, or I had some challenges physically as far as health was concerned. And now that I have taken up IBC as a vocation, you know, I'm inspired to serve others. So it has fast tracked my healing process. I am getting ready physically, you know, to be able to serve and meet and, you know, have a conversation with as many people as I can. Right. So it's really kind of fast, fast track my healing process. And my issue was to do with my lingual tonsil, right. Which is at the base of her tongue. And I had some speech speaking challenges, you know, before I came to Canada. So IBC and the whole, you know, my adventure of, you know, becoming a coach has fast tracked that healing process. So it has impacted my physicality vocation. Of course, you know, here I am as an advisor, I work with people, I serve people and I'm making, you know, money for myself and my family. So that definitely is the case. Wealth, of course, as I said, wealth warehousing is what I was looking for and it has given me the right platform, the perfect platform, so to say relationships. Now I feel More good about myself as a father, as a parent, as a partner that I'm putting in place a system that can carry on, you know, for, you know, generations to come, right? So I've been able to kind of educate my kids and help them see, you know, what this is all about. And creating a system, right, which can, as I said, transcend generations, relationships and then societal. A newcomer to the country with intention to serve people as a life coach. So that was the premise where I was starting off, you know, my journey with. And then getting this opportunity to meet and, you know, have amazing talks with amazing and loving Canadians, integrating, you know, with the society, you know, from. Right, from, you know, get go and having a chance to work with a firm like Ascendant Financial. Man, I have, as I said, I've lived and worked in over five countries. I have worked with multiple employers, had my own businesses. But Ascendant Financial is a completely, it's, it's, it's, it's out there, it's up there. A league of its own, right? So blessed to have had the opportunity to serve people, integrate with the Canadian society so beautifully in serving and making their lives meaningful. And finally, spirituality, right? My, I have had a big shift in terms of earlier on my readings, my search was more to do with self actualization, self realization, right? Just to understanding the working of human mind. And that was my version of spirituality. But now having had the chance to understand money, understand wealth, right? And kind of transcending the love hate relationship that I had with money all these years, money is good. Money is bad. I need money, but money is bad, right? So overcoming that dichotomy of, you know, that kind of love hate relationship, appreciating money and wealth creation, you know, and all that comes along, you know, with ibc. So that's been a shift that's happened. And for me, spirituality is nothing but being inspired. You know, even the word inspiration has the root, word of the spirit, right? So what inspires me is getting up in the morning, you know, looking forward to speaking with people, opportunity to serve them, to create financial empowerment, you know, which was what, you know, my goal to begin with. When I came to the country, I wanted to empower people in their lives. So empowering through their finances, which helps me bring back all my financial experience, you know, to the, to the, you know, to the play learning, you know, as I move along with my coaches, amazing teachers and guides and mentors at Ascendant. And I couldn't have been more spiritual ever. So IBC has actually Touched all seven areas of my life. And I'm ever grateful to everyone that you know, being a part of along this journey.

Holy smokes. Hey Rich, is there any chance you could run me an illustration and show me all of that on, on policy design? Could you, could you do that for me?

I, I, you know, last time, last time I turned on the Illustrator tool, I, I looked, there was a button that was there faded out, it wouldn't let me click it that said show me the seven areas of interconnection with this insurance product with every area of my life. I don't know why it wouldn't turn on. It's very strange, you know, so, so amazingly outlaid. Basically satish. What, what encompasses your journey and, and the feelings that come up for you around it. And I don't, you know, we certainly haven't had anyone on the podcast explain to a degree how interconnected the faucets of all aspects of the process of becoming your own banker have been for you. And the, the necessity and the learning journey, the education component, surrounding yourself with new and different and people, people that are raising you up, inspiring you, these types of things and just how well that integrates with so many areas of your life. I think it's, it's truly phenomenal and I really hope it resonates with people because so often we have folks that are, whether they're listening into our podcast or they attend one of our live webinar events or maybe an in person event and they might be a person to see just like you were one day or your friend was and they have a, a preconceived idea about they're going to be sold a financial product or this all has to do with some kind of an investment scenario or this is the, this is the, the, the bright red pill that's you're going to take the pill and financially and it's going to solve all of your problems. It's none of those things, but it's all of the things you just identified if you want it to be, if you allow it to be that.

Absolutely rich.

And you know, I'm just, I'm not just saying this, you know, for like painting a kind of a, a conceptual picture, but actually, you know, coming down to the practicalities of it. Right. Again, I would like to share know what I've actually implemented with the system. Right. Why do I feel it has been the best thing to happen to our family over the last few years? Again, going back to what am I doing with my family banking system So I would like to take a couple of minutes to share that as well so that people can actually relate to what I'm trying to share out here. So banking is nothing but mobilization between savers and consumers or investors or people who need those funds, right? So just a mobilization. So that's what banks do. And then if I look at an individual, right? So there is a phase in one's life where one is saving, accumulating, and then there comes a point in time where they need to utilize those funds, right, to finance the things that they need to finance. So that's one aspect which is going, you know, across time, the time horizon. And then we have a family, right? And each member can be a different point in time, his journey, Right. Right now I'm in a saving mode where my kids are, you know, in college and, you know, we have an empty nest. But my daughter, she's preparing for her dental career, so she's going to be needing a lot of finance, right? So myself, my wife and my son are saving up, right, and preparing ourselves to finance her education. And why do we want to do that? Because she's a great client. She's going to have an amazing career now. She's going to be very good in repayment of money that she borrows from the family banking system. So this is a captive customer within the family, and it's a huge customer. She's a big client.

So we are looking at, you know, from that perspective. So I was able to warehouse my wealth in a system, you know, that's growing with a lot of contractual guarantees. So I have peace of mind out there. And now I'm looking at, of course, we refinanced a couple of cars in the family. We are using the policy system to pay for our home insurances and car insurances. All that's happening. But medium to long term, we are gearing ourselves up to finance her education, right? And then eventually, when she starts to earn money and repay back, you know, what she's borrowed from the banking system, then my son may have a need, he may need to buy a home, right? He's going to get married, have kids. So it's all kind of not coming together now. It all is making so much sense very simplistically, you know, without overly complicating things. So a personal banking system that actually works is working. And we have plans, you know, for the next five to ten years already lined up for the family banking system.

I think that's fascinating. And so with your daughter, she's going down the track of becoming a dentist it sounds like. And I don't know if anyone listening knows and maybe we have some dentists paying attention but from what I understand they seem to make a pretty good amount of money, at least in Canada. I know a couple are phenomenal individuals and, and often they, whether they're working at someone else's dental practice and they begin in that stage, there's probably, she probably has the entrepreneurial bug from her father and the family dynamic. There's probably a possibility where she might want to start her own practice one day. So this your banking system that you're working communally as a family with the resources that are available to be able to now say great, when it's time to go and open that business, that business is going to need X ray machines and dental chairs and it's going to need a bay, it's going to be needed built out. We're going to need to hire some initial staff, get a, you know, get a point of sale machine. All of these associated things is going to require capital. And if your daughter doesn't have the capital because she's still newer in that career environment, well now she would have, she would have had to go and get it from some third party. In this case she is getting it from a third party. It's just that the third party is a closed loop aquarium of money. So when the money and the payments come back to the family, it benefits you guys and then eventually when you and your wife are no longer with us, it's going to come back and benefit her. So every dollar that goes into the financing of her future dental practice is a dollar she'll actually be able to reuse in the future.

Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, going back, hadn't, had I not found ibc, had I not, you know, found you guys, I would have, you know, very happily invested that small pool of cash now into some other assets, right. Markets or whatever. I wouldn't be able to then use that to finance her education. It would have been so many restrictions, so many complications and tax involved and it would have been a completely, a difficult, you know, situation that we would have found ourselves in. But now as I said, it's simple, it's peace of mind and you know, we have a clear cut plan. And as I said, I couldn't have, you know, I wouldn't have want to do it any other way.

Yeah, and you can think about too with that Satish, like not only do you present and create opportunities for your family, you just create more Ease and more freedom of how you guys go about financing all those things. But as we're building our family banking system and we're financing these opportunities for our family, whether it's education or car purchases or what have you, the money's flown back to the system. You guys have kind of a game plan. Let's say the next 10 years, you've sort of envisioned how that's going to go, but along the way, there's all kinds of opportunities that are going to show up that you actually can't see. And now that you've got that aquarium building in that cat, but it'll flow back to the family system. You're going to be able to take advantage of more opportunities and create even more wealth and more cash flow coming back to just keep that system stronger. There's a bunch of things out there that will show up that you can take advantage of now because you're just changing the way that you're doing things.

Absolutely. And when you're so right. So till such time that we need the funds actually for her, she starts probably next year. Right. Once she gets her admissions through. So till such time, the capital has been at work. I have been deploying that, creating cash flows with that money. But it's slow, flexible, that the moment I decide to channelize those funds to her education, I just need to unwind those investments and then just route those funds to her financing needs as she moves along.

Flexibility that the system offers.

Now, when you first got connected to Vern. Vern, I'm curious to get your perspective, because I know Satish is a very inquisitive guy. He likes to know things, he likes to learn a lot. What was, what was your take on some of the first initial meetings that you had with him? And walk us through a little bit about the journey of being able to be a participant in his learning aspect as he takes on this process.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Hey, Satish, permission to speak freely.

I'm kidding. So in case, you know, you haven't noticed, you know, Satish is a very intelligent guy. Satish has a lot of experience and he's highly educated. He's seen the world. He's, you know, he's been trained as a coach. He's spiritual. So how do I put this? One of the biggest challenges Satish had with this whole concept is, hey, I'm a brilliant guy. I know stuff. I've had experience. I'm educated. This can't be this simple. Like, it just can't be this simple. So one of the things that would happen a lot of times on our meetings and our calls is Satish would just, you know, pepper me with all kinds of questions and what about this? And how does this work and what about this? And, and I just, you know, I just did what I do. Which, you know, Satish and I are very much the same in a lot of ways, but we're very much the opposite. You know, I don't have plaques and charts and degrees and a bunch of letters behind my name like I'm, I'm, you know, I'm a certified knuckle dragger. A guy who, you know, picked things up, put things down for most of his life and was a construction guy and all that kind of stuff. And I've been doing this stuff now for 12 years. And so that, that's been, my education is going through this whole development process. But you know, sometimes teammates joke with me because I'm a pretty simple guy and Vern has a unique ability of keeping it simple. And sometimes it kind of sounds like they're taking a shot at me, but that's, it's actually compliment. And so that's what, you know, I was able to support Satish with, was to say, hey, yeah, I get all the high level stuff, but let's bring it down to the ridiculously simple fact that we all have a problem called banking. And money's gotta flow and it's got to be stored somewhere and you need to the banking function to finance the other things that you need in life. Nothing actually has changed here. It's ridiculously simple. We just have to build our aquarium. And so that was kind of citician. I am a statistician. Am I fairly accurate in terms of that journey where.

Absolutely. And I distinctly remember that you worked really hard to move me away from the product to the process and the problem. And so that was for me, a game changer. I being a numbers guy, I've done corporate finance, I've done investments all my life, private equity. So I was more about the numbers and the charts and the illustrations. But then slowly and steadily, you brought me back. I remember when I asked you, you know, for the Excel file, and you said, no, there's an Excel file out here. Right. So again, just for you to keep me grounded on the process and the problem, but me being me, I converted the PDF into an Excel file and crunched my numbers and IRRs, and I really, you know, needed a lot of, I would say, right. Guidance to bring my attention back to the process and the problem, which is being so helpful and instrumental in my journey as a coach now, you know, I see people, you know, similar to what I was back then, and I could, I can, I mean, easily able to relate to them and then bring them back to the problem and the process. Right. Because once the problem is understood, then the solution matters. Right. Otherwise, how does the solution matter?

Yeah, that's, that's so good.

Right.

Like you're, you're exactly right. Because, because really, it's, it's, it's tough sometimes to get people in that mindset of. Again, we're kind of talking about this. What do you not see? Because the policy system itself, the product, if you will, it's like if I take my truck key and I put it into the truck and I fire up the engine, the engine's now running. I don't have to do anything. The engine's running. That's what it does. Right. It's like the policy. That's what the policy does. Guess what? It just grows every day. Yeah. It accumulates cash value. It pays out a death benefit. It does all those things already. It doesn't matter. It's like, now that I've started the truck, what can I do with this truck? What opportunities are going to present themselves? Where am I going? Am I taking a trip across the country with my family? Am I starting a landscaping business? Am I doing a dump run? There's all kinds of opportunities and problems that trucks solve that you don't see when you see it sitting on the lot. Trucks just do what trucks do. Whole life policies just do what they do. Now, how can we use that whole life policy to create all those other opportunities? That's what this process is all about and make life easier. So I can tell you, I was a contractor with a four cylinder hatchback.

Toyota Matrix, and I was a contractor with a, with a, with a truck. And I can tell you the truck worked a heck of a lot better than the Toyota Matrix. So when you're implementing this process, you just have to have the right tool and then you go to work with the tool.

What's interesting, I love that analogy. And it reminds me of, you know, again, you, you isolated, looking for a warehouse. This journey began for you and you needed to warehouse your money someplace and you were trying to weigh all your options, your pros and your cons. And you know, now that you've been in Canada for a while, you've been through some winter in Canada and you probably noticed living here now, of course, a lot of wide open spaces, and there's also a lot of people have garages and there's this whole thing where in the journey of life, from my perspective, being like a small town Alberta kid, it's like you, you try to move up the chain where you, you get a property and then that property doesn't have a garage. And then, okay, so then your goal is to get the property that has the garage and it's detached but it's not heated. Then you want to move up to the one that, that has the attached garage and then eventually want to move to the ones that's a heated attached garage. So I kind of went through these phases in my life because, you know, you want to be able to have that heated vehicle in the garage so you don't have to scrape windows and all those kind of things. But the garage is just a warehouse. It's designed as a warehouse for your car. You bow and you park your car in there and then you get in it and you go drive to the office, you drive to the grocery store, you go drive to take your kid to university to get them moved into their dorm. You're, you're gonna go and leave your house and do something, but when you come back, you're always going to come back home. Where do you park the car? You park it back in the warehouse. Our money is just like that. It has to stay somewhere and then we're going to go deploy it to do some things, but we have to make sure it returns back home to some form of a location where we're going to contain it. And that container can be any number of things. It could go be a savings account at a regular bank, but it may not be the most efficient place for you if you know that there's other options available. And I really think fundamentally the simplicity of deployment of a vehicle in your life isn't much different than the deployment of money in your life if you recognize that it's happening on a regular, consistent basis. Well, I think we've done a good job of covering your journey. The last thing I want to kind of connect with you on Static is just talk a little bit about this. Somewhere along the line you went from I'm learning about this, I'm a new immigrant to Canada. I want to implement this in my life to. I think this is really connected to me, similar to the way that the life coaching is connected to me. Is there a way I can do this as some form of a career? Where was the pivot point where you, you started to see that as a possibility and you were being called to do that. That's what I'm curious about.

Yeah, that's a great question, Rich. So, you know, as I was looking to set up my life coaching business or practice in Canada, here I was hitting some challenges new to the country. You know, I didn't know too many people out here. And just to get in place, the systems and the marketing and all that, you know, comes along with setting up a practice. And then I think during our conversations, it was either Vern or Jason or. And I heard him speak. He spoke about who not how, and he spoke about the book, who not how, right? So I said, here I am trying to do all of this by myself. Be the coach and be the marketeer and be the accountant, you know, and be all that, you know, it entails to run a business. And then I said, no, I need to find my right ho's, right? And at Ascendant, that is what I found. Great people working together, systems in place, reach into the Canadian, you know, families and businesses. So I said, so that's there. So that's the right tool I found. And here is a tool that has empowered me and my family like, like this, right? And my intention to come to this country was to start to serving people. So serving people, finding the right. Who's finding the right message in terms of ibc. And then it all clicked. I said, man, probably this is what I was looking for, coaching people and bringing all my experience, you know, with me rather than, you know, just kind of discounting that and starting afresh. So financial empowerment coach is what I mean. Empowerment coach is what I was trying to become. And through financial empowerment, I now believe that all seven areas can be empowered. Right? So, so that was the kind of underlying principle. So finding the right tools, the right message, the right conviction, right from my own life and experience, this thing works. I need, I need to share this with others, with my families, with my friends. And as I said, it just all came together. I said, it's a no brainer. I reached out to one again, not as a client. Said Vern, I want to do what you're doing. How does it all work? No. So who do I get in touch with? And then the rest is history, as they say. I'm going to be, it's going to be one year next year. Since I started my journey with Ascendant.

I can't. I have no words to express my gratitude and my happiness and just my kind of peace that I found, you know, working with this group and again, sharing this message with as many families in Canada as I can, and bringing that sense of empowerment and, you know, being the life coach that I want to be, but a different kind of a life coach focused on financial empowerment. So I think this is how it all came together.

Amazing. I appreciate you sharing that all this. I think it's important for people to understand how we all make decisions in life. We're all faced with these choices, and sometimes there's moments, these pivotal moments where, like, you say things just come together, it clicks. You have this connection where it's like, oh, this is. This was literally placed here for me, this has been here, and it's. There's an opportunity. This thing that exists has been here, and I just can see it for what it is now. And I think that. I know I've. I've gone through that experience. I'm sure Vern has a time or two in his life, and so I appreciate you sharing that with our audience. And so, Satish, you know, last thing I kind of want to know, I mean, I don't know when in all your travels in five countries, what the different superheroes are that you happen to see as you go about in all those locations. Some of them, I'm sure, do wear capes. In our scenario, you didn't show up with a cape today, but you are actively trying to be an incredible member of the Canadian community. And you're doing in such a way where you're showing up, adding value to people in a way that's not only important to you, but also in your integrity. It's something that you get to show up and be your best self. Who is it that you would most.

Want to be a hero to to begin with? Vern? Richard, I am. I'm a family man through and through. My family means a life to me. My wife, my two children, my extended family back in India. Like, I grew up in a household, you know, where we had, like, 30 members rubbing shoulders and fighting, you know, and wobbling. Right? So I haven't. I've had. I've been blessed, you know, I've had a great family around me all the time. So to begin with, I would love to be, and I inspired to be a great hero to my kids, you know, to give them the right tools, the right foundation to be who they want to be. I'm not prescriptive. I don't prescribe, but I just kind of, you know, lay the foundation, give them the right tools, and then let them flourish, you know, in whatever form and shape they want to flourish. So to begin with, I would like to continue to be a hero to them and to anybody who's in a similar kind of.

Frame of mind, so to say, who's wanting to do the best for his or her family. And I believe that IBC can, you know, be that catalyst, that empowerment missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle that can led people focus on what they are actually truly inspired to be and to do and not having to worry about, you know, putting food on the table or managing, you know. So I'd like to be a hero to everyone who aspires to kind of liberate themselves and move on, you know, to kind of actualize themselves and be a true expression of who they want to be and find full fulfillment in doing that. We'd like to be hero to them.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for sharing your journey. I'm sure it will inspire others who have a chance to listen. Very much appreciate both of you gentlemen. And here's to helping more families as we go about the rest of our week and the rest of our year. And for those of you tuning in, especially on YouTube, you will see a magical video that just popped up. It's probably calling out saying, you should watch me. I have amazing content and information. So you should heed that call and go ahead, click through there and continue that incredible journey of learning. Thanks for being us today and for you gentlemen. Appreciate you both have an amazing rest of your day.

Thank you, Richard. Thank you, Vern.

My pleasure. Thanks guys.

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