246: Escape Debt’s Grip with Infinite Banking Power

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Welcome to wealth on Main street where conversations about growing your wealth are fun and entertaining. Wealth isn't just about money. It's the skills and the knowledge that we develop to pass on to future generations. Tune in each week to to grow your mindset and your net worth at the same time.

Well, we are joined today by a grandfather of four, 61 years young gentleman, has been a truck driver for the last 20 years and he first heard about this dividend paying whole life insurance a few years ago and has been amazingly connected to one of our incredible coaches that's being Henry Wong. And a sudden financial emergency came up that caused him to look at utilizing this tool and thankfully with good guidance he's been able to implement this strategy over the last number of years. Now Henry, you first met Lou, you've been working with him for a while. Very excited to have of course Lou Cardozo with us. So walk us through a little bit about how your relationship started and then we'll hear from Lou himself about this incredible concept that he's been implementing in his life.

Yeah, I'm really excited today to be able to join in and have Lou here to chat and share his story. I think his story is really, really inspiring for Canadians and even Americans who are listening to this podcast because of the challenges that the economy is bringing them into. And Lou, your story is really inspiring because of how you've overcome the challenges that started with two years ago and even just coming off of something like the lockdowns that happened back four years ago from now until where you are today. And I think it's a really powerful the story and what you've overcome the challenges, not just financially but other components that I really wanted everyone to get a chance to listen to and share.

Well, hi everybody, name's Louis Card also and yeah, I've been a truck driver, I'm a regular guy, live out of central Ontario and for the last, I've been driving truck in the waste management business for the last 20 years.

And along the way like after Covet hit, you know that was a big one.

Gathered up a, a bunch of debt and I was getting a lot of stuff.

A little overwhelming and anyhow so we had more time on, on YouTube and so forth and I happened to find you guys ascended financial on something about being your own banker and so I did a little bit of due diligence on it and wow, the more and more I listened to it, more and more it made sense. It was kind of out of the box thinking I just, I asked Questions I got a hold of you happen to be you Henry there and.

I asked a bunch of questions and told him my financial situation which wasn't really all that hot because basically I had about a hundred thousand dollar in debt with credit cards, line of credit and so forth and.

You know, the month to month struggles of making payments, payments and so forth. And anyway I was able to, I had an existing policy.

It was a universal life policy that happened to be with the same insurance company. It was just the wrong product and luckily I was able to with Henry's help. By the way, I, I what part of my due diligence was knowing that this particular product of being your own banker had to do with, you really have to deal with people who are Nelson Nash practitioners, that they're graduates of the Nelson Nash Institute because they're the ones who know how the product can be used to the best of your ability of whatever, you know, situation that you're in and they can fine tune things. Yeah, I was able to basically, I kid you not man. I say about three years ago I had about a hundred thousand dollars and right now due to the policies and some things I had to do with this particular product of whole life insurance. I have problems with my, my credit, I had credit problems. So no bank was going to give me no policy, no, no money.

At the time because my credit score was fairly poor because I had this life insurance policy I was able to borrow some money man, with a, with a signature. I didn't, they didn't ask me, you know, how much money I made, how much money I have in the bank and so forth. So within three days I had that money that I needed for an emergency that came up as.

Anyway, it just, it saved my ass. It really did. The only regret I have is I didn't find you guys earlier. I am 61 years old, I'm a grandfather of four. You know, I have a couple of adult kids.

One is 30, actually turned 30 yesterday. And he, he's really open to this subject because I told him, you know, so he's going to get his policy started shortly anyhow, I'm really proud about that and I really want to thank Richard and especially Henry for putting me in the right direction because I had no clue. I just had an inkling. I did a little bit of due diligence to see if this is BS or not. And, and sure enough, it's no BS people. This is for real.

When you're putting money into a policy.

It'S money while you can use While you're alive. When we talk about life insurance, the first thing I thought about. Life insurance is about.

Your loved ones collecting money after you're dead. But, no, this particular product is about using money while you're alive. Always need money. We always need loans. There's car loans, mortgages, and so forth. So I, I just love the concept. And, yeah, I mean, I recommend it to anyone. This is for real, man. This is, you know, and I'm not a complete, you know, a highly educated guy, but, you know, I got actually a great 10 dropout. But at least I was able to have the sense of, have an open mind and go with it.

You'd be amazed what you can do with an open mind, Lou. And, you know, you. You talked about the situation that you were in, and the, you know, I really. I. I suspect. And, you know, Henry, you might flush this out a little bit more, but Covid in general was probably a big cause of some of that stress and that, you know, financial impact that you were under at the time, perhaps not being able to work when you were supposed to be able to, like, those kind of things, that really, for many people in Canada and in the United States, they saw the increase in credit card bills, increasing credit lines because they weren't able to go and actively get paid for their regular job and those kind of dynamics. And many people had to transition job job styles because of, you know, what happened during COVID and they're still recovering. Many people are in that position today. So looking back on that to now after, you know, being able to sit with Henry, have great discussions, being able to put a plan in place, and you mentioned that not only has it been able to help you in emergency situations when you needed some cash, that it was pretty simple to do it, you know, one signature, you know, money in your bank account in a very short time frame. But what's been the impact, I guess, and, you know, maybe, Henry, I'll get you to fill the gap here a little bit on, you know, kind of the situation before you met Henry to today. What are some of the milestones that you would feel that you've gone through? And Henry, maybe you've got a couple of pieces that you'd like to chime in on.

Yeah, I mean, Lou, you've transformed quite a bit, actually, in the short duration I got the pleasure to work with you and maybe just help everyone understand. What was the mentality like for you at that time? What was your health like at that time? What was just the overall kind of aura or energy you felt during that time, how did it, how did you feel during all of that? Those challenges, prior to us even getting.

Started, it was completely stressful. I was a pretty, actually, quite frankly, was a heavy drinker and smoker, and I quit both. It's, you know, good things happen when you're in recovery, sobriety and so forth. So I just want to say it's. It's possible even for a schmo like me.

Right.

I had a friend of mine who I basically was a co worker once upon a time who became a broker, but he had no idea of.

The BYOB being your own banker concept. So.

This is why it's so important to have a Nelton Nash practitioning.

Insurance agent. Because these guys know what they're talking about. They are products of the product. I mean, they use the product themselves. They're not in it just to make sure they make money. We all have to make money. But it's a win, win situation. They have you as their best interest, not just, you know, putting money in their pocket every, every, every month. And I truly believe that. And I've. I've created a real good friendship with Henry.

And of course, with you just now, Richard, we haven't met before, but I have good communication with Henry and he's put me. I'm so grateful to you guys for putting me in the right track. And really, my ultimate goal is to really keep it in the family.

Really educate my kids so that they. Because, you know, so they can, you know, open up policies on their kids, you know, but you know how family is sometimes there are challenges. So I'm running against a few challenges. But you know what? I'm trying to be a product of my own positive way of doing things.

And I just wanted to walk through just to share for listeners what the journey with Lou was like. So when we first met, I mean, Lou, you are such a great guy, you would text me and we would have really good conversations. Kind of off meeting points, but on the meeting times, felt like you and I really connected and bonded with a lot of, you know, relatable experiences. And I definitely could feel the tough challenges that you were going through. Now when we were exploring this concept and trying to implement it in your life for the golden objectives that you were sharing with, we did run into some challenges because of the circumstances that you were in, that there was risk that we couldn't even implement this concept because we couldn't really implement it on other family members who may not have been ready for the concept. Yet or in your situation, we just had to be in a specific place. Now, fortunately, you had a little bit of a silver bullet that allowed us to place.

The policy and allow us to have it designed in a way so that you can implement it. Now specifically, I just wanted to share that the financial challenges you were going through, maybe so you were sharing earlier you were in about $100,000 in debt and now once we got it installed and you started to use it for other things and you are maintaining it. And just from our conversations, I just wanted to share. So now it's September 30th or October 1st, and over this period of time from that two year period, how much debt do you have right now?

That's excellent question. It's actually gone down to about 9,000. That's pretty amazing actually, when you come to think of it now you put it that way. Yeah, it's down about $9,000.

I would imagine it's not easy for you to earn to pay that amount down because you were initially living paycheck to paycheck and now we've found the way to help you bring that balance down. It has a workable range.

A little more control over my finances.

It really catapults control over your finances once you get that going.

And I, I think I accumulated, I think it's because of the, my age that I was able to borrow like that amount of money. I was surprised at how much money had accumulated over just a couple of years and I was like, wow, you know, it was close to ten grand. But anyhow, it was. Yeah. And now I'm paying it back because I'm not, you know, but.

Life is good, man. Life is good and you guys made things a lot brighter. And I just hope I can help someone if they just listen to, to you guys, do your due diligence. But you know, because there's a lot of crap outside on the Internet, right, that talk about byob, but they don't have the whole concept of how it truly works. You may have an inkling or you know, there's this, it's called. Yeah, here it is. Becoming your own banker. I've actually read that three times and I. It's still not enough times. I gotta do it. You know, every time I read it, I get more and more out of it, right? And I, and I miss things, believe me, because you got somebody like me in a room temperature IQ, you know, you gotta read it 10, 12 times, 15 times, right, before you get to really understand it. So anyhow, yeah, I truly recommend that book and this one, there's another one that you guys. I actually was given this by you guys and I read over that. That's pretty cool stuff. I recommend that for anyone who's out there just to get a good understanding of how you can get hooked up with the right, the proper.

Insurance brokers.

How did you find Cash Fall as a leader as a book as a supporting tool to Nelson's book of becoming your own banker because it's certainly not meant to replace it. So I, I appreciate you showing that. That book, Lou, was what, Was there anything that really stuck out for you in the cash Fall as a leader book that helped you in your learning journey?

It was really understanding that there's a lot of BS out there. Just give it a chance.

What I just will share is the main thing I do want to maybe just talk about in that journey of yours, the last two years of that journey while we were tackling the snakes and dragons of the $100,000 debt that you had, let's talk about the other component that you took initiative and response, responsibility and accountability for. I didn't really play a part in it, but I'll just say looking at you now versus two years ago, you look like a totally different person. What happened during that time?

Honestly, I, I, I, I did a lot of, I'm eating the right foods. I got, I stopped eating junk food for one better sleep. I stopped smoking, stopped drinking. That definitely helped. So clear up the fog a little bit and did more reading and then you guys popped up. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? Like it's only been a couple of years and, and believe me, I don't know a whole lot. But I do know that there's, there's a whole lot of value in having control over your money between you and a life insurance company. Right? Yeah, it's the concept. I just love the concept and it just gives me, it gives me a lot of hope and knowing that I can create something pretty valuable even after I, I, you know, it's my expiration date arrives, right. And leave behind for my family. To me that's, that's probably the most important thing.

Well, you've been taking care of your health quite a bit. Like tell, tell everyone what, how, how much did you go to the gym before versus now and what kind of things?

Oh, I, I didn't, I couldn't even do 10 push ups. So let alone bumming out just being on YouTube and on the Internet, you know, just being, you know, just.

Doing non productive things, nothing healthy, very unhealthy things I was doing, to be honest. And life really sucked back then and I blamed everyone and everything. So today I believe in really looking after myself and, and, and, and knowing, recognizing that when I'm pointing my finger at someone or something that, that thumbs, you know, pointing right back at me. So really got to take a look. I took a look at myself and see what I had to do. I had to do some changes and, and just go with my gut as well. And believe me, I wasn't a whole lot more I was 100 confident about doing by being your own banker type concept thing, opening up.

Whole life dividend paying whole life insurance policy with you guys. But you know, it was just that inkling I had and I was in a better space and a better place for myself like personally, spiritually. It just, it just seemed like the right thing and I'm so glad I did.

One of the key elements I'm hearing Lou, is that although people look at becoming your own banker, the process of infinite banking concept as a financial strategy, which is, it is. And that's what, that's what the goal of it is, is to help people with that. We talk about this thing that is the scene versus the unseen. So as an example, Nelson's book, you can see the book, you can flip through it, you can read the pages. But reading the pages and taking the time to think about what you're learning to make changes in your life, those are the unseen components that doesn't show up in the book. Does that kind of make sense?

Yes.

Practice and practicing what I'm hearing from you and you correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you were at a pivotal point where you were going to make change in your life regardless. And one of the areas you needed to make changes in your financial life, one of the other areas was in your health area, which is, you know, multiple things. It's not just one thing, it's many areas. And the combination of these two things kind of working together and being around a good environment. So Henry, being a person who can help maybe facilitate that to some degree. Although it doesn't have a direct result or it's not directly related to implementing the infinite banking concept, it's adjacent and connected because they're all components that are associated with how you run your life on a daily basis. And the result of those changes in those behaviors, both financially and in the health category, are almost merging together to make lose life a better life. Is that a fair Assessment.

That's a great assessment, Richard. Very great. Yeah, thank you for that. That's pretty much in a nutshell. Yes.

It's amazing how things are able to happen in our lives when we don't necessarily see the connections that are there. And we don't want to make people think or realize that, hey, if you get started with Infinite Banking Concept, you're going to have a health makeover. But for some people, you're not the first individual to come on our platform sharing a similar story where by the virtue of getting started with this, there's also been an impact in other areas of your life. And I think to some degree, that's because we promote and talk about a longevity mindset. What are the things that we can do we can change so that not only can you have more wealth available, but you can have your health available to enjoy the wealth it's created. Because if we don't have the health, what good is the other stuff anyway? And I think that at least that's been, to some degree, a focus of ours. And it kind of gets sprinkled in. Like, you know, you get a cake and they put all the sprinkles on the cake. The sprinkles aren't the main part of the cake, but they look nice.

Yeah.

We're trying to sprinkle things in to our conversations and our podcasts and our YouTube videos and the coaching sessions that we provide to help people start to position themselves in such a way where they can see the benefits of their life outside of just their financial category. And what I'm hearing from your story and what Henry's kind of sharing about your journey together is that you're exemplifying that in. In the real world, in the here now, as I'm looking at you right.

Now, I'm so grateful for you guys. And. And we need to make it a little more ubiquitous because it's very new. It's a very new concept. Although it's been around quite some time, I just hope that I can get to somebody and really someone can pursue this and really look into it and become a product of the product, you know, make life easier for them, become more. A little more control over. Over finances and so forth. It's. It's a big thing. Right? Because no matter what we are, no matter where we are in life, we're gonna need some money. You're gonna need, you know, people need cars, people need houses, people need businesses and. And renovations, and that's an ongoing thing, you know, so it's really nice to. It takes some time.

Concept but when things. When you actually put them all together man they, they. They really truly do work for your benefit. It's a win win situation. I mean sure the insurance companies are making money.

But you are making money. I mean I. I sleep at night. I don't have to worry about the stock market going up or down. Right. And I really love that aspect of it as well.

I'm just going to share and Lou, I hope you're all right with this. We met another time just roughly about within six months ago. And you shared a pretty.

Your back was against the wall. It was a pretty big challenge. Do you want to share what that challenge is?

Well, where I lived. I mean this basically I live in a home where it owned by my mother in law and she finally passed away and my wife did not have.

She was the power of attorney.

And.

She didn't have a whole lot of. Unfortunately we didn't have a whole lot of knowledge of you know of how the estate and what it goes to the estate. And then we find out that there was a debt in the estate and you know she had a line of credit so the banks were after she's so put my wife, my wife is the only. The loan survivor.

And yeah she had to.

Realize that there was a debt line of credit that was owed and the bank wanted their money. By this time I back being against the wall in more ways than one because my wife's credit wasn't the greatest after the COVID and my credit wasn't as good. I mean it was like pretty. It was pretty poor in the low 600s. So no bank was going to borrow any money. And that's when I was able to.

You know I was able to go to my life insurance policy and sure enough I found the funds are there and really wow. And I can take money out and so much interest which I have no problem with. And with a signature within 72 hours I had that the funds in my bank account. And the. The beauty of that was that they never asked me what my credit score was, how much money I was making, you know, color my underwear and so forth. Right. So it was like wow, this is a beautiful thing right With a frickin signature. And I was able to pay off the estate because I also had to negotiate mind you it was a little higher. What they initially asked for what was owing. But you know banks, they're okay, you can, you can talk to them there. There's never an ultimatum with. That's what I found through experience because, you know, banks, they create money out of what $1 of that we invest, they can lend out 10. So I knew that concept anyhow. I was able to negotiate a lower amount of what the estate owed. And she said, as long as you can bring it up within 30 days. I go, man, woman, I can bring her up in how about three days with a freaking signature. And I didn't tall, taller in that way, but I said, yeah, she gave us, you know, she gave us 30 days anyhow. And I was able to have those funds ready and notes and man, can we sleep at night? And it was, I think my wife was much more stressful than I was. And I'm sure she appreciates the idea.

You would have had the position of almost, you know, not impacting your guys's living accommodation because, you know, had the bank not been able to receive that funds, they could have move forward with some procedures, maybe even looked at selling, forcing the sale of the home in order.

That's correct.

So it, it could have left you guys in a, you know, really ultimately in a homeless situation if it wasn't resolved. That's how much your back was against the wall. Would that be a fair assessment?

That's exactly what it was. That's a, you know, that's what it was. And you know, I just see an emergency, right, and it came out of nowhere.

So.

I'm so glad, again, even more grateful, come to think of it, of how, you know, I was able to make that decision to go ahead and try the whole life insurance business and see, does it really work? Damn right it works, man, because that saved my ass and it saved my wife's ass and we were able to stay where we are, you know, we.

We were able to keep, keep the home. And you know, I've gotta applaud because you do the work and you reached out to contact me to even share vulnerably. I mean, first you're sharing for everyone else, listening vulnerable comes out of luck, man.

I didn't know where to go, like, what could I do, right? And sure enough.

So thanks for letting me be in your corner to help you in this kind of a situation. Because one thing I just really want to share for a lot of people who really don't appreciate this enough when they're going through this concept and what they hear and the opinions that they get. I mean, Lou, you're a very kind hearted guy and I wanted to share this component to you because as the servicing advisor on your policy, one of the Things we talk about is setting up beneficiaries and making sure your family's set up as part of what the kind of legacy you want to leave behind. Now, in the state that you were in before implementing this concept, would you. Would you know of the kind of legacy you're going to leave behind compared to the kind of legacy that you're going to leave behind now?

No.

And, you know, there's. You get to decide who's on that legacy that you're going to leave behind. And I won't go into too much detail because to respect your privacy, but there's one that it's not often that you get to see and just to share how. How great of a heart you are, you actually have a beneficiary as a charity.

Yeah, it's. It's the animals, the ospca. Actually, my wife, once a while, she volunteers. So you can't find me in there because I'll end up with a whole bunch of pets coming home. And it'd be a disservice to them because I'm not home very often. But I will be, and I plan to do a lot more soon enough in a few years when I retire. Retire from my daytime job. But I'll never. Ultimately, I won't retire. I'll be doing some. Some work in. In the community, helping out with animals and so forth, because there's so much in need, you know, like the Bob Barker. Don't forget to neuter your bet.

Well, the reason why I wanted you to share that story is because, Lou, we've got the privilege to hear about your story and the challenges that you've gone through. And it's not like you're someone who's swimming in old money, inheritance or have plenty of money.

The art that you have, my friend, is such a. Such a great heart. Just to even show you that no matter what circumstances that you're in, you still have a place to make sure you can give. And that's very, very powerful now.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, I really, I am. And my mom's the same way. I think I took that from my mom and she would give her shirt off her back. Right. And actually, she did come from a real rough upbringing.

And she used to tell me some stories. So I'm very grateful that I've never gone through hunger or anything like that. But. And you know, I don't want to brag, but don't forget about the food bank. Right. And this is a time of year to give. I don't like to brag. But even when I, you know, Even if it's 5, 6, $7 of canned food, you know, put some, you know, put a little bit of money in, because there, There's a lot of people who are in a lot of need. And I do that on a. I like to say a couple of times, at least a couple of times a month where I take out some of my groceries. I don't include some of my groceries and. And donate to the food bank. Put in that cart. No frills, right? So, yeah. Yeah, I'm just a lot more grateful. I think that's.

That's amazing, Lou. I mean, you're. You're. You're showing up in a way, not just, you know, for yourself, for the things that you like to serve, but also as a role model for your kids and your grandkids by doing those kind of things. And, you know, I'm curious, you know, thinking a little bit about your story in the time frame. You know, often one things that we hear, or we'll even get a comment on a YouTube or something like that about people saying, you know, I too old to do this. And that's a common theme. And sometimes I'll hear that from people that are in their 40s, in their 50s, and of course, in their. In their 60s. And now you. You share with us that you just turned 61. So you came into this at a point where you were right, entering that period of time of your life. Was that, was that a thought that you had? Was that something that you were concerned with as well? And, and what helped you get over that, that idea of, you know, where you're at in your journey of life, to begin implementing a process like this.

Even at, you know, 59. I was 59 at the time. Average lifespan, it's about 85, 86. So, hey, I still got 25, 26 years. I. I can make the best of them. And therefore, I think that's why I went ahead and just really thought about, you know, where I'm at in life. And I didn't have a whole lot of money. Plus, I'm on my third marriage, right? So I wasn't very good at relationships. But you know what?

I've gotten a little more wisdom from it and really decided to look after myself so that I can be able to look after my family. And what better product than this product comes to me in front of me? Because good things happen when, when you're in a. In a good spot. And. And it was no fluke. I don't believe it was a fluke. I think it was just meant to be. I just figured, yeah, it was just the right thing to do. No matter how old you are, it's the right thing. I mean, there's always. There's never. Sure. I. I wish I had found it earlier, but better do it now than never, right? So. And look, if I haven't done it two years ago, there's no. I'd be probably not living where I'm at now. Don't know where I would be right now today if it wasn't for this. So. I hope that answers your question, Richard.

That's powerful. Yeah. Thank you.

For people to appreciate is, Lou, you are still learning about the concept. You talk about reading the books regularly. You still tune into our content. It's not was, is it? Is it. It's not a set it and done type of thing, is it?

No, no. You're always learning. And Nelson Nash, bless his soul, always said he never stopped learning. And when you think you got it, man, feel sorry for you. Never stop learning. Will never stop learning. There's always something new. And as even before, prior to this recording, Richard was telling me, yeah, there's a lot of stuff that you guys are still learning and it's always something new. We never stop learning, man. And I truly believe that you always learn something new every day. So I also think, yeah, reading is also, you know, my. I'm doing a lot more of which is like we like to you physically, you, you, you exercise your body and your muscles to keep in shape. At the same time, the reading is, is an exercise for the brain. So you're exercising your brain to keep sharp. So that's really important because you know what, dementia is a big thing in my family.

So I'm always have that in the back of my head. So while I have some of my marbles together here, I'm hoping that this is one of the reasons why it's important for me to stay on a pretty good diet and a healthy diet and to exercise, including the reading and, you know, just your cognitive. My cognitive abilities are. Have they've diminished, but I think they've got. Actually they've diminished up to about a couple of years ago, but they've really enhanced since I started reading again. Doing more reading and so forth.

Yeah, well, that's amazing. I mean, you definitely show up as someone who's engaged in the things that we're doing. And I think one of the points of awareness that I have around that, that I'd love To just share for our listening audience is the more engagement you have, the more active you are in, whether it's watching the content, attending our know quarterly group coaching sessions, regularly attending some of the webinars that we do. We usually do a webinar about once a month or so. That's an opportunity to engage live with other people. And sometimes we might be repeating certain pieces of information, but you might be hearing it from a different person. You might get Henry's perspective, Richard's perspective, Jason, Roman, Tron, all the many amazing members of our team. And they might say it just a slightly different way. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, wow, hey, I've heard that before. But something about the way that you said it really connected with me in this moment in my life. That's part of our growth journey that I think we all go through. And we're here just helping to facilitate that for.

For purpose.

The purpose of gobbling up and implementing this concept in our life. And so, Lou, you've done an amazing job in the two years you've been doing this. I can't wait to see how much more success you have. One thing I'd love to just know from you, and I think I already have a bit of an idea, but if you can imagine that you are driving your truck and you were wearing a cape as you were doing it and you were showing up as a superhero, who would you most want to be a hero to?

Jesus Christ. And I'm not all that religious, but yeah, Jesus Christ.

Amazing. That's fantastic. Lou. Thanks again for committing the time to be with us here today, for being vulnerable, sharing your story, and, you know, going the extra mile to help someone out there, just like you, recognize that they can, they can take ownership of their health and their wealth and get started as well. And for those of you watching on YouTube, you'll see a magical list of videos that just appeared that says, watch me because I'm great content. So go ahead and click that next video and continue your incredible journey of learning. Thank you so much.