(Ep. 39) AI and the Age of Abundance: A Futurist Perspective from Dr. Axel Meierhoefer

Axel, I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today that is, uh, that is much needed on a couple topics, right? We're gonna talk about the research you're doing on the age of abundance and AI and how that impacts people. But we're also gonna talk about your journey to become an expat. And I think it's, uh, I think it's a journey that many people are considering going on now. And I think hearing from you and what your family's going through and why you're doing that is going to be very important. Welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast, where your one-of-a-kind life meets a one-of-a-kind financial plan. Every episode, we provide insights into financial markets, discuss strategies for navigating Wall Street, and explore how to make informed decisions in a constantly evolving financial landscape, all with the goal of helping you. So sit back, relax. This is not your typical money show. We're going to be all in on helping you live a one-of-a-kind life. Axel, Axel, welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast.

Yeah, thank you, Mike, for having me.

So you, you, you, you wrote a book called The Ideal Wealth Grower. I want to start there, uh, because the, the book takes on real estate and how it can impact your financial future. And as a financial services company, we have to talk a little bit about money first. So talk about like your journey with real estate and why you see that as a key component of somebody's portfolio and lifestyle.

Yeah, well, it started out basically realizing that one way to hopefully get to financial freedom when you start really late, like I did, I started basically in my mid-40s, early 50s. So it felt like I don't have like the full 40 years ahead of me anymore, is to make the money work for you and not just assume that you can basically make enough money and through your own like time exchange for money kind of approach. Then I looked at, okay, how can I make the money work for me? And what have other successful people done. And my research at least showed that the vast majority of them do at least some of it in real estate and residential real estate. And I wanted to do something that I can learn, that I can really deep dive, become an expert and see where is the performance of the money, the investment that you make in the context of real estate the best. And when you look at the United States, the nicest areas to live at are not necessarily from an investment perspective, the best performing areas for regular people like me. Right? If you are like, I was initially kind of fascinated by Arnold and the Terminator movies and the big money that he made and the amazing real estate portfolio that he created in California. But the enabling, you know, the enabling thing was that he made millions, and he could invest millions, and I made thousands, and I could only invest thousands. So, I needed to go places where with being able to invest thousands, you can still build something.

So, when you did that, right? I mean, you obviously weren't living where you invested. It doesn't sound like that. Where did you go to find investment opportunities when you decided that real estate was going to be a key component of your journey financially?

Well, the first place I went was into research the old-fashioned way when we didn't have AI and Google too much and so forth. And the research basically showed me that to be able to do investing in real estate, when you're not anywhere close, when you're not within like an hour's driving distance from where your assets are, either means you have to give up a lot of control. So you can go into syndications, or you can get into REITs, like real estate investment funds or stuff like that. But those assets are controlled by other people. So if you want the combination of I want to be in control, I want it to be mine, I want to hold the title. And you want it in locations that are high performing, you need to have a different system. And what I discovered through the research was the fundamental idea of turnkey investing, where you find a company that finds a property or builds the property, puts the property on the market for a fair price that actually appraises, and then also manages it for you all under the same roof. That was the first step. And then after I identified a bunch of companies with good reputation, then I started to invest with them.

I want to, I want to go back just a little bit in your timeline, right? Because you're, you're speaking like a true pro right now, when you talk about You know, an hour away from where your assets are, having a turnkey approach to building wealth, investing thousands when others are investing millions. Those are like, it's gold from a concept standpoint. Your background is not in real estate though, is it?

No, I had my first life career, so to speak, was in military aviation, flying fighter jets through the air and protecting the country.

Right.

So you—

so I mean, like, you, you flew over— your, your experience in real estate is you flew over a lot of it, and most of the time very fast.

Very fast.

Yeah. But then, but, but then, like, in a, in like a second or third act in your life, right, you're— you, you realize that, like, real estate is something that for you was sound and secure and something that you wanted to not only research but secure your family's future with. Is that correct?

That's correct. And you can go a little cheeky and say, okay, I looked at the bottom of Maslow's pyramid of needs, and it has 3 things. It literally says shelter, security, and food. And so I've always liked gardening. So I always do a little bit of food for the family. I did security for 22 years in probably the most amazing way you can. And then shelter was the other fundamental thing that will most likely always be needed. So it's in that sense, a little bit of a So, what's the first year you got involved in—

do you remember the first deal you ever did to get started?

Right. Yeah. So, I was at the last assignment base, basically Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico where we were stationed. And I was responsible for bringing 800 soldiers and their families from Germany to that base to build a co-located flying training center between the German Air Force and the US Air Force on that same base. And the decision was made to say, okay, we don't want to build like some little thing where everybody is in a ghetto. We want the people to be integrated in the community, which meant— Mm-hmm. A whole bunch of real estate needed to be built because that was the city next to— or the town next to the base is called Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was at the time a 25,000-people town. And so we needed to find a way to, with government funding, to get all these houses built. And the interesting thing was that the government guaranteed these houses to be basically paid rent to the people that occupy the houses for 19 years, because that was the contract that I had negotiated on behalf of the German government with the US Air Force. And still, even with that guarantee, very few people were willing to basically buy one of those houses and then rent it out to the people from the base. And I thought, well, I need to be a good example. So we, my wife and I, literally, in this case, bought one like 3 rows down the street. And that was our first investment property that taught me a lot of things. But yeah, I very much remember that one. And it actually worked in a sense that a lot of my friends and fellow officers, both US and German, ultimately said, well, if he's doing it, then we can do it too.

Oh, wow. That's a great story about how you saw a need. You know, how, you know, it was at the bottom of the pyramid. And you saw opportunity coming, you know, and I wouldn't even say that that's like insider information. I mean, it was strategic from a standpoint of the partnership that was being created, the military folks who were coming to the town. And at the end, do you still happen to own that property by chance?

No, we actually ultimately realized this is a little bit of a bridge reverse, so to speak. When we then— I got recruited right after retirement from the military to a software company in Santa Barbara, California, which is like, what, about 2,000 miles away from, from New Mexico, or at least 1,000 miles. And what I realized very quickly in that town of Alamogordo, there was no turnkey provider. And what that means is basically, yes, you find property management companies if you hold assets. But the issue is always when the property management company was not involved in either renovating or building the property, Anything that comes up that is not covered by warranty, you don't really find anybody to assign blame to if you want to. Right? Okay, if you buy from a turnkey provider, you can say, okay, you guys renovated or build it, you sold it to me, I can have a contract with you that says anything that you touched during either the building process or the renovation process, you are responsible for. And anybody who listens to us knows, When you renovate or build something new, and then you, you start using it, whether you're a tenant or the owner, most of the stuff that you start using, if it's not done properly, is going to break in the first 6 to 12 months.

Right?

But if you have a property that you just say, okay, I don't live here anymore, you have to keep in mind, I was responsible for this, for this project, but I knew my retirement is like imminent, right? So I've really only owned that property for 1 year. And then we tried to keep it under property management for a few years. But it basically taught me the lesson besides a few other lessons, you need to have, or the people that manage it for you need to have some skin in the game or some history with it or some contractual relationship with it. Because otherwise, if they're only property management, then basically, it's never their fault. They're really like, by the literal meaning of the word, all they do is manage it. They don't take responsibility for the asset itself because they were not related to it or ever owned it themselves.

Right. So, like, if people want— I mean, obviously, The IDEAL Wealth Grower, the book you wrote, has more tips and strategies about, like, your real estate investment philosophy in there. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. And it has, you know, IDEA and Grower are also abbreviations. I don't necessarily want to go into too much detail unless you'd like to. The whole idea of Wealth Grower approach is basically how can you build a residential real estate portfolio away from where you live and pay for— focus your attention on the performance of the assets rather than the location. And it was triggered, as I'm sure you're very familiar, Mike, whenever somebody speaks about real estate, they speak in my experience about 2 things. Location, location, location is the one thing that they somehow got drilled into their brain. And the other thing they're basically being told is that investing in assets means value appreciation. Right? So they think about, okay, I buy real estate because I want to have it. And then after a certain amount of time, it has increased in value, and I make a profit. Same thing, basically, like as if you were to invest in stocks in a company, and you hope that it's the right company, And in a certain amount of time, the value of the shares is going to increase. And when you sell them, you make a profit. Well, that is one tiny component, not insignificant, but it's a tiny component of the overall idea in real estate investing. And so the book is describing what are all the components, and why there is things like good debt versus consumer debt, and all these kinds of things to really get an understanding why is this an asset class That is potentially a good one to build retirement income for you.

And I, and I could tell you, uh, and tell our listeners from having, uh, spent some time with you, uh, not just on this podcast but before this podcast, it's going to be a— it's a detailed, uh, study, uh, that, uh, and I, and I'm sure you leave some actionable steps in the book, uh, correct, Axel?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, you know, I'm a big hater of analysis paralysis. So yes, read the book, but then take action. And if you If you feel that you're insecure in taking it on your own, then find somebody like myself or you, Mike, or other people who help you.

Absolutely. I want to shift our conversation because, listen, congratulations, by the way, on building something that is so— just a 7-minute conversation. I feel like people already have learned some key terms like a turnkey approach and the distance away. Those are just amazing concepts for people looking to be in real estate. And there's going to be more that they'll see, you know, by getting your book. But I do want to turn to something that you're doing a lot of, a lot of reflection on, even study. You know, you're having some, you know, maybe some breakthroughs in it. And I want to talk about AI and I want to talk about the age of abundance because we don't often, you know, on our, on our show, we talk to, you know, a lot of folks who are entering retirement or people that are accumulating assets to eventually get to retirement. But like, um, the, the, this whole concept of like AI and Age of Abundance is almost like a futurist conversation, but the future is now, correct? Right.

Yes, yes, exactly.

So, so, so, so give us 2 or 3 things that how you see where AI, you know, and we, I even know that you group AI into the AI and the robot era, right? That how, how you think that's going to impact, you know, the next 5 to 10 years to maybe a couple decades out?

Yeah, I first have to say I'm not smart enough for a couple of decades out. 5 to 10 years, I'm willing to kind of venture into. For one, I think a really, really important concept that very few people intuitively grasp is the difference between linear growth and exponential growth, or what Tony Seba calls the S-curve. S-curves— and you may have heard similar terms, like one other one that goes in the same direction is called the hockey stick, right?

Right.

Linear growth would be, you know, like you have 1 plus 1 is 2, plus 1 is 3, plus 1 is 4, and so forth. That's linear growth. The S-curve or the hockey stick is basically exponential. This, I don't know if your audience or you are familiar with, there is this old story from, from the ancient times in the East where I think it was Marco Polo or some Genghis Khan or somebody basically conquered or was about to conquer a place in the East. And the person in charge, I don't know if they call them a king or whatever, but the person in charge was basically saying, how can I avoid that my community and all my assets get destroyed. And so the conqueror said, well, we can do it this way, we take a chessboard. And we, we basically double the amount of rice each field. And so you give me the rice that is equivalent to doubling the amount in every field 64 times. And you can all go and put this into either your favorite AI or into Google and say, okay, how much rice would that be at the 64th doubling? And it's more rice than has ever grown in the history of humanity.

Wow.

So we— but conceptually, when we see the chessboard, and we say doubling it 64 times, that can't be that hard. Because we're really bad at exponential growth. So now, why is this relevant? ChatGPT came out in 2022, I think in September. And in this really short period of time, it has 150 million people every day going in and writing a prompt. That growth in 3 days— in 3 years is multiples, as if we doubled on the chessboard, more than any other technology ever has in human history. So that exponential speed And if we are accepting that these tools, these AI tools get smarter and smarter every iteration, right? GPT-1 and then 2 and 3, and now we are at 5, I think. So what these things can do gets exponentially better. Now, you said when you asked me, okay, the distinction between AI and robotics, it's one thing to imagine, and we are struggling with this already, to say, Can something like ChatGPT or Grok or Claude or whatever the names of these things are know everything all humans ever created as far as knowledge goes? And very soon within these 5 years, the answer will be yes. We're already— for people, just so you understand, we're already at the point where all the content of the internet that was ever created on the internet has been fed in AI data centers and AI has consumed it. And now the question is, okay, what's next? And one of the obvious next things is books, all the books that exist to feed it in, all the research papers that have and so forth. But sooner or later, in the not very distant future, we will run out of new stuff we can actually feed it just by pure data or information. Now, the, the thing that oftentimes people say that I see for, for our audience to, to really start becoming aware of is one of the distinctions is data just sitting somewhere and you can access it by Googling or by ChatGPTing or whatever you call it. But now what happens when you start applying it? When you say I make something that looks like a human, has the dexterity like a human in its hands, it can walk like a human, has the same height, maybe equal strength, maybe a little slower than a human. So now I can take all this knowledge that AI has and keeps accumulating and start activating it in action. I can tell it to, you know, go to Mike's house, do the lawn, do the harvesting, do the dishes, wash the windows, teach something to the kids. And let's say in my household, at some point, there's at least conceivable that my mother would decide, okay, I want to live close to you. Right, especially since we have a location in Spain right by the water. So we're kind of attractive. I guess yours is probably like that too. Right? So if she were to come, well, I want to make sure that that robot that I'm probably going to own is at least one of them is going to constantly pay attention to her and be at her back and ask for anything and everything, but also go as far as say, okay, I, the robot, don't mind to go to the toilet and take a urine sample and a stool sample and a blood sample and stuff like that on a daily basis. Because I want to know that my mom is healthy as can be, or if there's even the slightest indication that something is going in the wrong direction, we detect it early. I want that for myself. I want that for my kids. I want that for my, for my grandson, and on and on and on. So when you start imagining what happens when AI becomes embodied, that's, I think, the trajectory that we're going to be on.

And in 5 years, we will probably see these guys, whatever names we're going to give them, all So the interesting thing is that you just ended that with saying 5 years, and you said you're not willing to go out like 20 years. Do you see like, I mean, AI has already consumed, you're right. But do you see like our, like, how do you think our life will be like daily impacted? You said like from a medical standpoint and given this, but do you see Do you see like, and maybe you don't have an answer to this and you just, you could say that. But do you see like population slowing? Do you see, do you see disconnectivity among humans? Do you see, what are some of the, what are some of the side effects of this that we need to watch out for, for our, you know, as we continue as humans to kind of grow?

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of different ones. But the ones that I see most immediately impacting your life, or my life, or any of our listeners' life, or viewers' lives. Number one is, how will those who have the ability to impact AI and the robots that are connected as embodied AI, this evolution in such a way that the result is friendly to humans, that the AI is not at some point going to say, you know, we know everything, we understand how the coding goes that makes us, we can build ourselves, right? We, we have learned how to make 100,000 more of ourselves, whatever name. Like, let's use the example for Tesla. They call their robot Optimus. That Optimus thing in probably 2 or 3 years will fully understand how it's being made, to the extent that it could make more of itself. And it obviously knows what each one of the computer chips that is running the AI internally, what's on there, because they have it in, in themselves. They can talk to each other, obviously, because they're connected to the internet. So just to illustrate this a little bit, the important— one of the important aspects is, will those who impact and influence the development of these creatures, so to speak, find a way to make it so that these creatures say, yes, humans are useful, I want to keep the humans around? That's one important thing. Now, as far as our daily lives, and I, you know, I'm aware that for me, at least, there is a finite, and for everybody else, there's a finite, it's just like how long do I still have? Even though I don't want to venture into what's in 20 or 30 years or 35 years, that's kind of the time horizon that I see for myself, even though there could be medical developments that make that significantly longer. But assuming we find a way to keep these embodied AIs friendly to us, there is an exciting future that I see, and that is for all the different things. And I encourage anybody listening or watching, um, To ask yourself, what are things that you would love to do and haven't done, either because you say I don't have time for that, or I can't afford to use time for it, because it doesn't make any money, it doesn't pay me anything. So I would have to wait until I have enough money, enough income, or so forth to afford it. Right? So if you look at those kind of things, you want to hang out for hours and hours and do the chi thing. Right, and really, really go deep with a group of people, maybe in a particular nice location, where it doesn't matter how long it takes. You just hang there with, with that group of people until the last person says, okay, I want to go home now. Right? That, and completely irrelevant for the cost, because cost is not a factor anymore. That would be one thing, you know, so we— one thing that I want to encourage anybody to ask yourself, what would I love to master if money were not to play any issue? And I, for example, said for the last 60 years, I would love to be able to learn how to play the keyboard.

Hmm.

That is something, right? Like, and if money plays no issue, I can spend almost as much time as I want to and it wouldn't cost much. Maybe that robot can actually teach me how to play the keyboard. Right? Because he or she or it won't cost me anything. I mean, we have to realize these things work 23 hours a day, 365 days a year, and they cost, by the time that you and I can buy them, maybe $30,000 or $40,000.

Right?

Right. So if you turn that around compared to an employee, it's just ridiculous. It's basically free labor, and it's the laborer who who knows, and I'm using the personal form, who you could say it knows pretty much everything anybody ever knew. And I want to maybe make a little bridge to what you told me about your grandma's amazing sandwich. When one of them ever observes how that is made, all of them will know how to make it, right? So if I'm sitting somewhere, yeah, if I'm sitting in Spain and I say, hey, Mike, did you get one of those robots? What kind do you have? I can ask my robot to check in with Mike's robot. I wanna have one of those colored sandwiches that his grandma used to make.

Wow.

Right.

That just, so that just means that I can make her legacy even bigger now. Yeah.

You, you can make the, you can make it global, you know? Yeah. Not now, but in, in a few, in maybe 5 or 7, 8 years. Right. My point about it is, so, So there are many, many things when you start really spending a little bit of time in a quiet place and ask yourself, what would I love to do when any time or money constraints were out of the picture? And so the positive, optimistic vision that I have in this whole embodied AI is I think there are so many things humans, especially in the Western world, have denied themselves exploring for either not enough time or not enough money, that will become possible. And that's part of the reason why I say I have no idea how creative, innovative, or cool things we can come up with that only humans can do. So that's why I said the first question is, what makes us humans? What is something special that only humans can do? And how does that resonate with yourself, with what you always wanted to do? I know that many humans, other humans can do beautiful music on a keyboard. But I want to be experiencing how that is when I make it myself. And no robot can— the robot can tell me any story in the world ever told to any human on how that supposedly feels. But if I want to experience it myself, I need to learn how to do it. And then I want to play the tunes I want to play. Maybe I come even up with something new that only this little community, Axel, Mike, and the 2 wives like, and everybody else hates it. Who cares, right? So, that kind of vision, I think, is really exciting and optimistic, always assuming that the robots don't come to the conclusion they don't need us anymore.

Right. You know, this conversation is so fascinating. I mean, we have so many guests that come on our podcast and they're teaching something that is practical to go, but like, I hear 6, 7, 8 opportunities in what you're saying. I see, like, I hear, like, man, there's, you know, there's still so much for AI to consume with books and other things. That means data centers are a potential investment opportunity. But I also hear that there's an investment in human connections, right?

Yes.

And, like, you know, if you want to really get past, you know, in, in the next 5 to 10 years when AI has consumed everything and the robot phase comes into play, if you want to be able to partake in that, you're gonna have the opportunity to do that. I mean, like, this, this is gonna strike so much conversation. in our comments section, and really just comments and, I mean, just, just conversations in general with people who listen and consume this. Typically, we end the Ideas by ModCat podcast about this time. But Axel, if you're OK, I'd like to go into overtime a little bit and talk about one other fascinating piece about how you're living life right now. You are, you are in transition mode. Uh, becoming an expat, right? You, you know, uh, back, back early in your life, you, you transitioned to America. Now you're gonna, uh, you know, transition to Spain. And, uh, and a lot of people are thinking about this as a retirement strategy, as a family life strategy, but few people— I mean, first of all, they don't know where to get started. And then second of all, they don't know what to expect on the other side. I know you're in the transition phase and you've been doing it for some time, but I'd love to talk about like how you got started in the process, like the technical side of it, first of all, and like, and how you see it working for you and your family in the next 5 to 10 years.

Yeah, absolutely. So, the first thing, and it might sound like a kind of a little bit of a broken record because it's so similar for anybody considering something like this, I would highly recommend to first ask yourself, if I had the opportunity to have the ideal place, what are the things that I would like to have in my ideal place? And it's not so much— how should I say— consumerism type of things. But one thing I can tell you is Since our main hub, so to speak, is still in San Diego County, we, when we first got there many, many years ago, we realized, well, we really love this Mediterranean climate, all these flowers, it's always green. There is no— there's basically spring and summer. Those are the 2 seasons, right? The other, the others are rarely happening. Now, not everybody is necessarily cool with that. But for my wife and I, we, we really love that. We like to be close to the water. I mean, it's kind of funny, we rarely ever go into the ocean, but we like to be close to it. We like to walk along it. We like how it smells and stuff like that, right? We also realized that when there's a lot of sunshine, like San Diego, like 300 days a year, something like that, people have a different glow, a different attitude, a certain level of friendliness.

Right.

At least when you meet them at the beach, let's put it that way. So then you might also have preferences to food, right? Like my wife and I had practiced Mediterranean paleo kind of diet, even though we were in the US for 15 years. So it kind of made sense to say, well, how about why don't we go into the Mediterranean area where that stuff is normal?

Right?

So that was fundamentally asking ourselves, okay, what do we really want when we had to define an ideal place? So it ended up Pretty clearly, okay, we want to be somewhere in this climate, not too far away from the beach, on and on and on. Then, and this is maybe quite interesting for your audience, we ask ourselves, what are things that kind of rub us the wrong way? And I give you a practical example. So we said Mediterranean, so we started watching YouTube videos, kind of incessantly, almost at night, no TV, just YouTube videos about Greece. Cyprus, southern France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, we even looked into Morocco. Totally, you know, disregarding is it easy to go there? What is the visa? What is the passport, all that kind of thing? We just wanted to find out where would be the right location. And one of those things that we both, my wife and I, surprised both of us, what rubbed us the wrong way is when we saw videos where people were describing, you know, living in I don't know the coast of of Italy or something like that, and they showed the videos walking through the area, walking along the beaches and stuff, and there was graffiti and trash all over the place. Okay. I honestly have to say before we did this, I don't know that I consciously ever really realized that that rubs me the wrong way. So we started looking with at least a little more attention to that, and we found out the cleanest of all the places that we could find in all the videos was Spain. Now, to tell you that that was a correct observation, we love to go to the farmers market every week, at least to one of them. If you go here where we have the house, if you go to the farmers market on Friday, and it's open between 8 AM and 1:30 PM, and you go and you shop, and obviously farmers market is kind of like a messy thing when they, you know, have all this stuff going on. And in Spain, the farmers market is also a little bit of a flea market in combination. But the point is, so you went there, let's say at 1 PM, and you got all your stuff for the coming week. If you go to that same spot at 4 PM, you would not know that there was ever a farmers market that day. That's, that's how, you know, they have it. They can be messy. 3 hours later, you wouldn't even know it happened. Now, that might be a little bit over the top for some people. But for us, we just appreciate that they keep this place clean. And if they make a mess, they clean it up again. That's not the case. If you want to do the same exercise that we did for all the different countries around the Mediterranean, most of them don't. Some of it may be culture and mentality, or maybe they don't care. For whatever reason, I can't give you the answer why it is. But I can say I've lived it now, seen it for a while. The Spanish do. So that was something that we totally didn't have on our radar when we first started looking. But it became something that that we looked into, and so that was one thing. So find out what you're really into. Try to find where you can find this in the world, and start studying the location. Start narrowing it down. We narrowed it down to about two hundred. Mile stretch along the coast. And then, you know, started inquiring, then you can go on to the typical real estate, like the European Zillow in our case, but they have the same thing, start looking at properties. And then an important thing is, you also in parallel want to start looking at what are the rules. Now for my wife and I, it was a huge benefit to have a European passport. So we didn't really have to worry about can we live there? And do we need a visa or stuff like that? But if any regular American or Canadian viewer or listener hears us talking, you would have to figure out exactly how do you want to organize it if you wanted to go anyplace in Europe that is part of the European Union. But there are places and people, and I'm even happy to help anybody who wants to know, can I get a lawyer or who, what YouTube channel is giving me all the rules for Americans if they wanted to do it. So that's, you know, the preparation. And then when you have narrowed it down, my, my suggestion is, if you're not already in retirement, try to spend at least 2 weeks. If you are already in retirement, try to spend some time— if it's, if it's Europe or European Mediterranean area, spend some time in the spring or fall and some time maybe you know, like 6 months offset. We found out, for example, that the location we are in, 9 months of the year is perfect, and 3 months of the year is really warm.

Right.

Some people might call it hot. It's not Las Vegas hot, it's more like Miami hot. But we also came to understand one thing that's really cool that they have here is in every room, you can have your individual little air conditioning system. And, I was totally blown away because I know you can have that in the US as well. But here, these things cost $350 per room.

Right.

And so, at $350 per room, it is a no-brainer to put them in every room and then you can adjust the temperature for every room. And, anybody who has ever had modern air conditioning, it also means you have relatively low humidity. So, it's nice to be in the rooms. So, our house is basically all kinds of different settings. to do. I checked into this, what would it cost if I do the same thing in my house in San Diego? It was $15,700 per room to put all these different little units, self-contained units. And here it was like $5,500, right? And so—

Yeah, I found that, I found that same thing in Puerto Rico when we moved to Puerto Rico is every room has its own little air conditioner and like you could literally go to Costco And get like an air conditioner for $297, right? And they, and they're out of the way. They're at the, they're at the ceiling, right? They're not like on the ground. They're, they're, they're, they're just part of the, the artwork in your room almost. But they do pick up.

Yeah. And what's really cool that we found is nowadays the modern systems are so quiet that you don't even really realize anymore that they're running. It's not like the old things that you had a noisy thing. But so Going back, so you want to identify what are you really into. Step 2, find the place in the world where you can get what you're really into— climate, culture, cleanliness, or whatever other variables you're into. Then find out what are the rules to be able to go there full-time, half the year, or whatever. Like, by the way, in Europe, you can have an extended tourist visa. So you can come up to 179 days and don't have to be like a visa person or any of that kind of stuff. Yeah. And then basically, you know, go and visit for a few times, different times of the year, and just experience the location. Right. And don't— what I mean by that is not just go to the beach and hang on the beach all day long. But, you know, engage, go to the restaurants, go to some events, go and do some shopping, you know, check out what's going on, participate in a fiesta. Every time somebody from the US comes visiting us here, and we take them to any of those things, they're always blown away because all the culture, the cultural references, and I'm sure you see this in Puerto Rico, all go way beyond when the US was founded. So like, for example, there is a fantastic little fiesta in the town next to where we live, where they celebrate that the Moors and the Christians, after the war between the Moors and the Christians ended, were capable of reconciling, not ripping everybody's building, religious building down. And so this fiesta, they have about 800 people in a little town of 10,000 people, 800 people in full costumes are doing this procession fiesta in Moors and Christian— attire and music and stuff like that. And when somebody— we had a friend coming last year, and she said, so what, what's the thing? Well, this whole thing happened, I think, in 1530-something. Like 200 years before the US was even founded, they did that, right?

Right.

They were here in this whole area that we are in, the Romans had it, and then the Moors had it for hundreds and hundreds of years. So culture, artifacts, buildings, traditions, and so forth. There's so much stuff. Now, I'm not telling you all this because I say everybody should, should come to Europe. I'm just saying, you want to ask yourself, what are the things that are important to you? Some people love food, some people love culture, whatever landscape, you know, that's the important thing that I want to get across. Yes, the rules and the money is relevant. But it's really what makes you feel the best, and that's where you want to go. Yeah, I—

the, the conversation about what you just talked about, about, you know, moving to Spain, I didn't hear one time you talked about, I'm going for tax savings, or I'm going to— because the cost of living is lower. You— it was all lifestyle. And, uh, and I'm sure there'll be some benefits, Right. Because of— oh yeah.

And by the way, yeah, if anybody wants to know, cost of living is 40% lower.

Right. There it is. Right. And so like there's a, there's a, there's, there's an intrigue to this relationship, right? Because more people are, are, are considering this. And I know that you, your hope is that by 2027 you're totally transitioned over. Is that, that's about your timeframe, correct?

Well, yes, the timing is correct. But what I, what I meant by that date is, I have my own definition of financial freedom.

Right.

Which means that my residences are paid for, not my investments. I make a clear distinction between that, but my residences are paid for. And my passive income is basically at a level that means I can do and go whatever and wherever I want.

Oh, so 2027 is a financial freedom date?

Yes.

No, that's amazing. What I'd like to do, Axel, if it's okay with you, is I'd like to— we're on the cusp of 2026 now, but maybe about a year from now, bring you back on the podcast and check in and see how— maybe get an update on your AI thoughts, but also come back and get how the transition is going a year later, because I think people Want to, you know, people are brave sometimes to explore, but they need somebody's story to grasp on before they would actually execute an expat. And I would love to, to, to let's follow up together a year from now and come back and, and see how it's going for you.

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to do that. And one little thing I want to say, if somebody is really at the cusp of trying, if you go somewhere like we did, please just rent. Right? Even if you say, okay, I'm already retired, I want to check this out for 3 months or so, or I might want to find out, don't buy anything, rent for a while. Because that's different than being in an Airbnb or in a hotel. So if you rent and you have your own place, and you can cook your own stuff, and so forth, I highly recommend that. But I have seen people who came and said, oh, this is so cheap, I'm just spending $150,000 for an apartment. Just to find out 6 months later that for some reason, one of the things that they really wanted isn't there.

Correct. That is exceptional advice, Axel. Axel, if our listeners wanted to connect with you, how would they best do that?

Yeah, the easiest is just go to idealwealthgrower.com. And if you get to the homepage at the top right-hand corner, there is a little button that says discovery call. And I always love to engage with people, talk to people. You probably can tell from our conversation and get to know people, and then we can see, can I help you or can I refer you to somebody who can?

And for our listeners, what we'll do is we'll put that in the comment section of the podcast, whether or not you're listening on YouTube or Apple, Spotify, we'll make sure that you have access to contact him. And for those that are looking to continue to follow the path of One Oak Financial and just what we're doing in the world to be one of a kind, You know, I hope you enjoy the conversation. But if you want to connect with us, go to oneoakfinancial.com. That's the number one oakfinancial.com. And until that, until the next time, Axel, I appreciate you being on the show today. For our listeners, we always end the same way. I want to know, I want you to know that you're unique, that you're special, and that your gift to the world is your time here. Don't be like anybody else. Be one of a kind. Thank you for joining us today on the Ideas by Mike podcast. This has been Mike Milligan, your host, where I look to bring real-world conversations with you of people changing the game in the financial planning, investment, and retirement income space. If you want to reach out to our firm to learn more, you can go to oneoakfinancial.com. That's the number 1, Oak, financial.com. One Oak Financial is a nationwide firm here to help you build a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. CFP Board owns the marks CFP, Certified Financial Planner, and CFP in the United States. As a reminder, Mike Milligan, Certified Financial Planner, is an investment advisor representative of Advisory Alpha LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm. All opinions expressed by me Or our guests are solely our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Advisory Alpha. This recording is for informational purposes only. It should not be relied on for investment, tax, or legal decisions, and it's in no way intended to communicate or guarantee specific performance or suitability of any security instrument or product as we may have discussed. Investment advisory and financial planning services offered through Advisory Alpha LLC, a registered investment advisor. Insurance is offered through Ideas by Mike, a Virginia-based LLC here to serve you in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Ideas by Mike is a separate and unaffiliated entity of Advisory Alpha LLC. While tax and legal issues may be discussed in the general course of financial and investment planning, Advisory Alpha does not provide tax or legal services. Please consult with your tax or legal professional prior to making a decision relative to those decisions. Any and all statements of purported or observed general practices of non-affiliated firms and advisors or conditions of the broad financial services industry are solely the opinions of Mike and are not intended to be offered as factual. The validity of these statements has not been verified, and as such, no representation of their validity are made. An annuity is a long-term financial product designed largely for asset accumulation and retirement needs. All guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Mike Milligan LLC. Thank you again for joining us today. We'll see you on the next podcast.

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