79. Winnipeg Infinite Banking Coach Discovers Growth and Liquidity

You are listening to the Wealth Without Bay Street Podcast, a Canadian guide to building dependable wealth. Join your hosts, 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. Well, we're excited about another great episode of. Joining today on our Advisor series, we have the incredible Roman Pushkar, who's here with us today, today to talk all about his incredible journey. Now, a couple interesting things. This man lives in Steinbeck, Manitoba, not far from Winnipeg, and he's been in Canada, living in Canada for the last eight years. He came over from Moscow, yet he was born in the Ukraine. He's had an incredible, very interesting life journey. He has an entire hockey team in his family available, so that's pretty cool. And he's got a picture on the back of the wall, of course. We're also joined by the incredible coach, Jason Lowe, my good friend, my colleague, my podcast co host. And we're excited to have you here, Roman, because, man, you are one of the most avid learners I have ever met in my life. You have such an incredible natural curiosity and you gobble through reading material in such an incredible way. And we're just blessed to have you here with us to speak about your journey in embracing and learning about the infinite banking concept. Welcome.

Thank you so much, Richard. And thank you so much, Jason, for having me here. And.

It'S a privilege for me. It's a blessing for me to be with you and to be a part of your podcast. And I'm excited to share.

How I got here, and I'm really blessed and this is a big, big privilege for me. Thank you so much for having me.

Good to have you. And let's dive in. So take us to the beginning of your journey with this process of becoming your own banker. But if you think of, I guess, where life was for you and what was keeping you busy prior to being introduced to this process, so how did you come upon it? Like, where did you first hear about becoming your own banker?

Yeah, let's start with.

How I got introduced to banking in general. Not becoming my own banker, but banking in general. So I've lived in Moscow for seven. I lived in Moscow for 17 years. And at some point I actually worked in a Bank for 11 years and at some point actually worked with cash. I was a cash courier. And I saw, you know, I also worked at.

Safe deposit box department. You know, I saw that many people would save cash, would save even gold bullions and whatever, like jewelry or whatever have you. And they will just.

They have safety, they will just lock it up and then do nothing with it. And actually, and I also have a degree in economics and specifically in banking from Russia. But I was always fascinating with money and especially with personal finance. And I was always learning about.

How.

Better manage, how budget, how get rid of debt. Because when we came to Canada, we actually acquired some debt. We got a mortgage, we have a big family like Richard mentioned, and now we have seven children. We came with five children, but now we have seven children. Two were born here in Canada and we got some debt, we got some stuff going on, we got car loans and stuff like that. And I always was looking to get better at my personal finance and get better at what I do with money. I did everything that I was taught up to that point. And I knew that I should invest, I should set aside 10% of my income. I knew that I should think about my pension, RRSPs, everything. Even I knew what cash value was.

Actually.

I've been also with insurance business for last four years before prior to discovering infinite banking. But still my money was sitting in a cash value account, but still locked up, I couldn't use it.

I always was wondering why is it that you have either safety or liquidity or growth, growth or liquidity? Why is it that you cannot have cash or gold bullions and then at the same time grow it? Why is that? I was wondering is it even possible?

And you know, coming back in my, you know, in my memory, coming back to those days, I always was fascinating with, you know, having access to liquid cash. And when I was actually the pandemic actually helped me to find this process. Last year I was, you know, searching Internet and YouTube about.

Like how be better at money. Even though I was in insurance business, I was doing well, but still I was not, I was still in debt, I was not getting ahead financially. I was kind of like crawling backwards. And I came across the idea of using velocity banking, velocity banking where you can use HELOC to use someone else's money to pay simple debt versus amortized debt. And then.

How you can quickly pay off your mortgage with the same amount of cash that you have. And at some point I hear that people will talk infinite banking and velocity banking. And I was thinking it's pretty much the same or maybe just a different term. But then I realized it's a totally different concept. And I started looking into, deeper into that and I found this amazing book that I have from web on the right side of me. The Infinite Banking concept. Becoming your own Banker by Arnold San Nash. And when I read it, I was just blown away. I couldn't believe my eyes really. You know, because I was an insurance agent, I had access to Illustrator software. So I was reading this book along with an Illustrator software. I was checking the numbers. I couldn't believe it was true. And this is, this is how I found this concept. And then I decided, you know what, this is brilliant. If this, if this is not a scam, if this really exists, then it should be like everyone should do it. And I decided, you know what, I want to do it full time with my full time job. Actually had a full time job also. I was selling industrial equipment. But I decided, you know what, I'm not doing it anymore. I want to do only infinite banking and I want all my family to do this. And you know, having a big family is a great place to store my money within my family. And you know, actually we had conversation back in our family that how, how great it would be if we had like a family bank or something, like a system where we would, you know, help each other, even live together and help each other, you know, support each other even financially. But we never developed that system. But, but in this book I found a great way to implement what I was always wanting to do. So this is how I found this amazing concept.

Wow, what an awesome, awesome story. And now that you've embarked on this journey and you know, you've become part of our, part of our team and part of our family and having.

Go ahead.

No, I just wanted to say that it's a great privilege for me to be accepted with Ascendant Financial as an advisor. And actually.

I wasn't even sure that it is even possible to be an advisor and to do it because I was thinking that it's not something that even available in Canada in the first place.

Well, it was interesting when, you know, David Stearns through the Nelson Nash Institute had said, hey, I spoke to this fellow and he sounds really eager and very ambitious and would you mind just connecting with him and kind of putting the feelers out there. And we had an amazing preliminary conversation and it's now blossomed into being teammates and just awesome that you're part of our group. And when you think about your implementation personally of this process.

What would you.

Be sharing with other prospective advisors who are, they're going through this same feeling that, hey, I know something's fundamentally wrong with the financial world out there. I just can't quite put my Finger on it. I'm in the industry. Surely there has to be something different, something that I wonder if it's possible, much like you said, in having growth and liquidity, and is that even possible? So what would you say to other advisors who are on their journey of just wanting to rethink their thinking and looking for something different? What would your words of encouragement be?

Yeah, I would say that even though advisors know a lot of stuff, they're professionals, they sometimes they feel like they know everything. And I was there, too. I felt like I knew everything. And I knew everything about, you know, Segregated funds, stocks, TFSAs, RSPs. I knew everything. But I didn't know something that was right, right in front of me. And I was actually in my insurance career. I had been talking about compound interest every single day, but I now realize that I was never implementing it. So how is that? That you put your money into a TFSA and call it compounding, but then you access it and it's gone, where's my compounding? I was always wondering, where's my compounding? What happened to it? And I was always open to something new. And, yeah, this, I think, helped me to find something that's much better. And now, of course, I'm doing this. I have implemented it for my family. I have policy on myself and on all of my children because I want them to be bankers. And I had a newborn, actually, last November, and I opened the policy right away, right away on him. And he was even. Yeah, he was one month old when he became his own banker. I'm the owner. But still, it's eventually his plan, right? So, yeah, this is what I wanted always to do. And I've implemented it. And now my children actually ask me questions when I talk to someone, when actually, you know what, it's funny. Someone just recently stopped by my door and knock on my door. You know, there's a company that knocks on doors and sells the mutual funds and stuff like that. And he's like, hey, would you like to learn more about investments? And, you know what it turned to? It turned to be. I'm talking to him about infinite banking for 30 minutes. And my children, actually. And my. My oldest son was actually standing and listening. He was. You know, he's like. He was listening to it and learning from what I was saying. And he would come to me and say, hey, dad, what did you mean by that? How is that. How is that working? Like, you know, and he's learning from. He wants to do it, and he wants to learn it. And he wants to be him, his banker. And he actually talks with his team, you know, with his friends and at church. And it's cool he's talking about it. And he actually is, you know.

Talking about being infinite banking versus investing in stock or bitcoin, whatever could be. But he already spreads the word about what I do about infinite banking. He's an advocate for that. And I'm grateful for that, that even my children already, they grow in this environment, that they understand it.

So what you would say to prospective advisors researching this is to knock on your door and ask you if you want to discover more about investments and then you'll have a conversation with them about this process.

We're going to put Roman's address in the show notes.

Yeah, I mean, it was awesome conversation. And actually the guy was really interested. I didn't share the details, of course, but I gave him the name of the book. I gave him our YouTube channel. I gave him, you know, to listen to podcasts. But he had, yeah, I do it every single day. But I've never heard of this concept. How come? I mean, everyone should be doing it in the financial world, especially if you're a specialist. You have to do it. You have to know about it at.

Least what's really cool. Roman, a couple of things you said, I think that will be very important for all of our listeners is that, number one, you had your newborn back in November and you had that policy hot off the presses, basically in your hands within. Within 30 days. And so it's important for people to understand that, you know, the earliest you can submit an application on a child is about 16 days of age. There's a ton of reasons to do that. We encourage many of our clients will automatically reach out to us the moment that that child is born to say, yeah, we need to get the process going. And as a father, just the pure joy that I saw in you expressing that, the feeling of knowing that you had been able to put that in place so early for your youngest and that you've done it for all your other children. And your conversation about how your oldest, you know, know, son is actually engaging and becoming an advocate, well, I think something to really take away. And for anyone watching us on YouTube, you'll find, well, Roman has some. A level of infectious enthusiasm that is almost unmatched. And when you show up that way, when you show up that way in life, doesn't matter what you're doing, if you're infectiously enthusiastic about it, well, your children are going to pick up on that. And they want to be involved in the energy that you're creating by showing up that way and something you're passionate about in life. And so not only are you passionate about infinite banking, but the passion that you're showing for it is, I think, creating a ripple effect in your own life with your family dynamic, with your children. And you're teaching them not just about infinite banking, but you're teaching them how to live a life about being passionate and also being, being profitable, being able to earn a living doing something you truly love.

Absolutely. And you know what, actually there is story behind why I decided not to even wait till, till I become, you know, an advisor with Ascending financial and then implement it for my children, you know, because the second youngest son, the one who was born first here in Canada, he actually had a condition after he already got a UL policy. So he had a condition, he had like seizures and stuff like that. But you know.

As a professional, as an insurance professional, I understand that you cannot wait. You don't want to wait. If this happens later, then you can become uninsurable at all, right? So I decided, you know what, I'm not going to wait. I'm going to make sure that all my children are protected. And actually with infinite Banking and with the help of my amazing coach, Sara Blobil.

We set up a new policy, a whole life policy, on my second oldest boy, David, who had no policy at all. I thought he was not insurable.

So we came to insurance company and they asked questions, they requested physician statement and they each issued a policy on him, which I'm grateful. This is something we had not achieved for five or four last four or five years of my insurance career. I was not able to. I didn't know where to go. For some reason no one told me that this is even possible. But yeah, now it gives me a peace of mind and you know, to know that my children are protected and no matter what happens with them, they already have a policy and especially banking policy, which they can enjoy cash value. And I'm telling them, hey, if you ever want to buy a car, if you want to, you know, buy something.

Come to me first and then see if we have cash value available and then be a banker. Don't steal from your own family business. I love it. Don't steal the piece, it's so good.

Oh, I think you're muted, rich.

I think it's interesting, Roman, when you're looking at what you talked about, being in Russia, working for a bank and working in the safe deposit Box area. And you really identified. Like, you would watch people come in and put their stuff in these boxes, throw them behind that locked door, and then like, never show up again. And all that stuff, the bullion, whatever it was, the cash they had, it just sat there on a shelf collecting dust, doing nothing. And here you are in this position now and having that reference point of like, wow, we can put money to work in a safe and incredible environment, have protection, and be able to put the money to work in some other place at the same time, a multitasking effect for your capital. And I think that you bring a unique perspective to people because of your experience in living abroad. And maybe not abroad to you, because that's where you grew up, that's where you lived being Moscow and in Russia. But to be able to take those experiences and share your perception to people who've been living in Canada all their life, to give them a whole new way of looking at things that you otherwise can't see because, you know, you just bring something new to the equation because you didn't grow up here. And I, for one, you know, I love to learn new things and hearing about how other people are doing things in other parts of the world is part of how we have context. And so I appreciate you bringing that to our listeners today.

Yeah, no worries. And you know, it's actually a really common thing in Russia to, you know, to have all those deposit boxes and they do everything with cash up until now. I mean, it's totally different than here. And you know, it really.

Gives me.

Gets me thinking about why is that people have all this, I mean, you know, all these amazing products in place and whole life product. We don't actually have them in Russia. You know, I had a conversation with my family about a month ago and they asked me, what is that you do and.

How we can set it up for ourselves. And unfortunately, there's no way. This product doesn't even exist. But people who live in Canada, United States, they have a luxury of, you know, being your own bankers. But they, for some reason, they don't do it. They don't even know about it. And banks don't teach it. The financial advisors don't talk about it, the schools don't, don't give this knowledge to students. And no one knows that. Everyone says, hey, go to college, get your degree. And the first thing they get is a credit card and a loan and just save your money in a bank and then.

Put your stuff on a credit card, swipe your card. This is the way People live. But I mean.

For us, for the immigrants that come to this beautiful country, this is all new and we have to learn it. And I'm grateful that I actually found this concept and I have a privilege to implement it and also to be an advisor to teach people in our community in Russian, Ukrainian speaking community. I talked to many people already. Everyone likes it, but few people actually do it. Actually, I already met people who implemented it even before I discovered it in Russian community. But most of the people, they talk about rates of return, they talk about, you know, investments, bitcoin, whatever it can be, but nothing that's safe, liquid and guaranteed.

You're going to be a big catalyst for change, positive change in your community. And it, like Nelson told us so often, this message must be caught. It cannot be taught. So you can impart the knowledge and you can share his book and you can share the wisdom and really, truly define the process and talk about that, but a person needs to catch it. And the one thing that you'll experience over the years in your journey with this is that you will have people who connect with you and say, roman, I don't know if you remember me, but you spoke to me two and a half years ago at a community function and I may have come across at that time that I was really not interested or I was talking about all these other things as being more important. I'm ready to go now. I've read the book, I've been on the YouTubes, I've been on the Facebooks and the Instagrammies and the tweeters, and I've seen all I need to see. I'm ready to put this into action. And I promise you it will happen with an increasing frequency over time because you'll become even more proficient in your own experience with the process and be able to communicate it to others in a way where it really, truly is the ultimate in simplicity and rich. You can attest to this. Through our professional journey, we went through those very predictable phases of let's do a real big deep dive on the numbers and let's go really in depth on the mechanics. And then there was this big aha moment. As Nelson would continually say, it's unnecessary because if the person doesn't understand the problem, the solution just won't matter to them. And then we shifted our focus and we shifted our, our method of sharing and it just got easier and easier and easier and easier and easier. And so you're going to go through that very same process as you continue to educate more people in your community. But what an interesting story. And.

Go ahead, Rich.

Further to that, as Jason identified, Roman, when you are in a position that three years from now and maybe you're going back and you're looking at this great interview, there'll probably be many more of you at that point in time, but you're going to start recognizing, oh yeah, I remember there was some people I did talk to you and I'm presently, as of the time, this recording, there's at least two individuals that I'm working with who they reached out proactively. It had been about three years and we'd had some good conversations at that time. They weren't ready. I didn't pursue because I want people to discover on their own. And when you're ready, you'll reach out. Nelson would say, if you know what's going on, you'll know what to do. Well, it took them a while to get acclimatized to that. A couple of life changes and they realized, you know what, yeah, I took it on the chin in the stock market over the last couple of years or during the pandemic meltdown and all these kinds of things. And then they circle back and they say, hey, I'm ready to go. Because I've been thinking about this. It's always been there, but I just wasn't ready at the time. Now I'm ready. We need to do this. And that's part of the gravity that's created by Nelson's book and his message. And it's great to have you available and aboard to share your unique perspective. So many people will get a ton of value out of it. And so Roman, I'd love to know as you're, as you think about embracing this concept, getting started on your own kids life and thinking about the impact you can make within your community. People who are maybe came from Canada, from another country, they're immigrants in some way or even if they're from, you know, your, your stomping grounds back in Russia or from where you were born in Ukraine. What comes up for you when you think about being able to add this value into their lives?

Yeah, thanks Richard, for this question. It's a great question. And as I see, I am one of the maybe of the pioneers in my community who does that as an advisor. I haven't met anyone in, you know, speaking Russian or Ukrainian who does infinite banking as an advisor yet. Maybe there are some people, but.

I don't want to be the only one. I want an army of people who share this message among the immigrants. So the people are not taking it.

Are not being taken advantage of. So I want people to own their lives, not to give it up to banks. And, you know, it's interesting.

When I talk to people and they can tell I'm glowing. This. I'm glowing about all about, you know, being the banker. And even when I talked about it, like earlier, when I couldn't really explain, but now I'm actually.

I have a lot of knowledge about that. Much better than at the beginning a year ago. But even back then, a year ago, I was talking to my friends in Russian community and they would not believe what I was telling. And it's interesting, even today, I was talking to a lady on Facebook. It didn't even start with Infinite Banking. It was just some conversation, hey, how's it going? Just some comment on some mutual parts and stuff. And she would say, hey, what is that you do? I'm like, yeah, I do Infinite Banking. And she's like. And she comes. It was yesterday. Today she comes back and says, hey, Roman, I watched Nelson Nash's film. I'm like, what? No one in Russian community has gone so far. I mean, it's awesome. I mean, how's the movie? She's like, oh, it's amazing. You know, she was blown away with the individuality of Nelson. Not with the concept, but with this amazing person. You know, she was, oh, I want to read this book as soon as possible. And, you know, people start awakening, people start thinking and talking about it, and it's more and more. And especially with all the amazing, you know, marketing we have at Senate Financial, you know, people see and notice it, and I'm really glad and I'm looking forward to, you know, to. To have more and more people do that in Canada, in our communities.

Smiling ear to ear, my friend.

That was awesome. And you definitely have, you know, you have a genuine heart and it just comes across in such an authentic way. And it's just a pleasure having you as a teammate. And you're going to be. You're going to be a catalyst for some big changes in your community. Undoubtedly.

Yeah. Thank you, Jason. I'm looking forward to working with you, hopefully many, many years and.

Be someone who brings value and brings something new, something fresh, maybe, and maybe some ideas how to spread the word, how to be more effective and more efficient. And what we do here, amazing job, amazing work, amazing profession, and I love what I do. And I feel like I'm at home finally. This is. Finally, I found what I was looking for for so Many, many years.

Wow.

It's a blessing.

I think that's wonderful. And you know, one additional question I'd like to ask for him before we look at closing our call is your. You think about your journey and getting involved with the organization and becoming a part of the team and what it means to be apart. From your perspective, being a team organization, when you think about who you would like to see, join and be a part of the organization, what are some of the mindsets that come up for you and you think, okay, we want to grow and increase the amount of ways to go and spread the message. As you've identified. What are the kind of people that I'd like to see that can reach out to ascended financial to see if there's a place for them here? What would you be looking for in someone to be a part of that team that you'd like to have as a teammate? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

Yeah, it will be anyone who, who wants to learn and be good learner, good listener, be humble and be ready to serve people. And you know, this is actually what Nelson was doing all his life, right? And he actually shared in his book that.

He found it through, you know, through Bible actually and through his faith. And this is, this actually perfectly aligns with what I'm up to. I'm up to, you know, I'm a man of faith, I love Bible, I like Jesus. And.

This perfectly aligns with what I.

Do because.

Bible says so that the debtor is a slave to the creditor. Right? So Bible teaches about, you know, not being in debt, not being slave, not being a borrower, but rather, you know.

Owning what you have and be in control and be, be a servant. Be someone who, you know, can see the need and who can, you know, who has big heart and ready to serve people. So I would love to see people who want to be advisors, people who are open to learn and ready to serve.

Love it. That's great. And with that being said, I would like to just find out because I think inquiring minds would want to know being that you've got such tremendous passion and a real celebration for being a servant driven leader. When you think about, you know, who you would want to be a hero to. Roman, what comes up for you when we ask that question?

It's my family. My family, my beautiful daughters, my awesome sons. I have four sons and three daughters. And yeah, my family is my number one.

People who I want to be hero to. Not just in terms of, you know, earning bread and putting some bread on the table, but also to be a great father. I just wanted to spend more time with them and teach them the better way to live life. And I would love to, you know, have more like minded people around me like that. That's why I'm spreading the word and talking to anyone I possibly can about that. Wow.

What an amazing time spent together with the three of us. And undoubtedly our viewers and listeners will get a deeper glimpse into you, Roman, and why you're so special and why we love to and are privileged to say that you're a teammate of ours. And for anyone who's watching on the YouTubes, if you just take a look right over there, you're going to see a playlist of recommended videos to continue your journey of learning.

What an amazing time, guys. That really touched me. I am, I'm just, I'm feeling, feeling really good and so let's make the rest of our day great. Roman, thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy day to join us. And to all of our listeners and viewers, we appreciate you all so much and you are the reason why we do what we do. So make the rest of your day great. Gentlemen, it was a pleasure.

As always, it's been a pleasure to be here. Jason and Richard, thank you so much for having me.

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