Private Lending With Infinite Banking: How Al Ahh Achieved Financial Success

When I am able to speak to you guys or to my family or anybody who wants to become financially free, I am doing what I'm recommending. Meaning, like, this is the steps I've taken. Not only do I deal with mortgages one on one, but I also put it into a mic just so I can speak about it. And I know what I'm talking about. If it's something you read is different than something that you know because you're living it. And I wanted to make sure I was living it so I could talk about it.

Private lending with the infinite banking concept all the way from Ecuador. Well, not quite. But joining us today from Ecuador is Al Ah, who is here to share his journey with the infinite banking concept. And since he's been implementing this strategy in his life, what's transpired, what's happened, and also why is he joining us from Ecuador? So we'll have a little bit of that conversation and we're going to dig into his journey on learning all about financial independence that began at the point that he read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That was the start for you. So welcome to the show, Al. We're happy to have you here. We're going to have a lot of fun today.

I've been waiting eight years to talk to you guys. I had it all. I had it all in my head and it was just, I had to just formulate it in reality so I can have something to show you guys. Like, no, what I was thinking has come to fruition. So, yes, I am so I'm so honored to be on this call, on this video chat with you guys and hopefully touch some lives that can transform what people are up to and empowering their family. So, yeah, let's do it.

Amazing. What's interesting is, you know, our relationship started Al because of a mutual contact. It was actually another, another contributor to our podcast, Curtis Arnold, mortgage broker based out of Calgary, amazing guy, friend of mine I've known for years and years. And shout out to Curtis for getting us.

Shout out to Curtis. I, I got to tell you. Shout out to Curtis. Yeah, you can I just quickly say about that. I was talking to Curtis, telling him my plan about how I had checked into Infinite Banking years before I met him or you. And I was reading about it in the States and I thought, I wish this would come to Canada. So I'm telling him this story and he goes, I know who to connect you with. You can actually do this in Canada. I was like, what? How come I've never heard of this in Canada. I was like, please immediately. So, yeah, so I, I shout out to you, Curtis, thank you so much for connecting me to you.

Yeah, amazing. Now that, that whole journey and it's, it's funny because you know Vern and you and Vern know each other through different circles and Curtis and Vern and being Vern, so we're all, we're all connected almost through like some, some measure of fate where the world of infinite banking and personal development and the city of Calgary all coalesce somehow and we, we have this, this great, amazing contribution of energy that comes into the conversations now.

I, I thought that it's a small world after war, after all was just a song, but now I realize it's a prophecy, you know, six degrees of separation, you know, so. Or three degrees of separation. So absolutely it was. And, and the other thing is like birds of a feather that do flock together, like minded people are finding each other. Absolutely. So it was. I also have another saying that, you know, whatever you're looking for is also looking for you. So it was, it was. I feel like it's no accident. It's like the universe or whatever you believe in is saying, hey, if you ask, you shall receive. Not to get all biblical on everybody, but yeah, it was magical. It was really magical.

So walk us through getting the copy of Rich Dad, Poor dad and what, what changed for you in that moment? And then how did that progress, what, how did the journey of Al move from that point in time?

Okay, yeah, so I was working at a company called Telus. You guys know who, what, what, what? Telus is a cell cellular company based out of Calgary, I believe it was, and then moved and then they amalgamated with other phone companies in Vancouver, et cetera, et cetera. And I was talking to a gentleman that I was working with there, just telling about my dreams about phone, how we're not meant to work a 9 to 5. At least I'm not. And I believe there's some people that are, that are not meant to do that. And there's this, there's this entrepreneurial life that we have to find a way to tap into. So I was telling him these ideas and he goes, you know what? You kind of remind me of this guy that I saw on Oprah Winfrey named Robert Kiyosaki. And he wrote this book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And I was like, what? Really? And he goes, he's talking exactly about what you're talking about. Using, finding ways of having money work for itself and building a life for you instead of using your life force energy to go make a living. Because I said there's more than just like making money in life. You know, there's taking care of a family, maybe pursuit of, as they say, happiness and things that you want to explore in this world. Because life can be short. I mean, life is long, but it also can be short. And so he told me about this book and I, at the time, I was working in the evening at Telus and. And I phoned up a bookstore. I phoned up like five different bookstores and see which one was. Was open because each bookstore was going to close. And I drove. I kind of got out of work real quick and I drove to the closest bookstore that had the book and bought it immediately. And listen, I was at the time, this is like, this is like over. Oh, boy. This is 2020, actually 1999 around there. And I was not a big book reader. You know, it would take me months to just read 200 pages. But, you know, I took that book and it took me about two weeks to read it. It's the fastest book I've ever read. And I immediately started putting those concepts into action. So there was a lot of, like, ups and downs with putting those principles into my life because I strongly believe if you're, if you're going to be like a hockey player or a lawyer, any type of profession, it usually Requires years, the 10,000 hours to get proficient at what's being taught. And that was one of my biggest lessons, is that just because you get money doesn't mean you understand it. And it was this process of just understanding how does money work? How do I have money work for me and me getting out of the way. So long story shorter. Yeah.

So I know, Vern, Vern, you've read that book. And what I find is interesting about your story owls actually was 1999 when I first read that book.

Really?

Okay, excellent. Okay. And it was also a big. A big impetus to my journey. I felt I was already on a path going that direction, but I didn't know. It was kind of rudderless. I didn't know what I was up to. I just knew I was up to something else, something other than what everyone else was going to be doing. But I didn't know what to label that as. And then I read that book. It was gifted to me by. By someone. And I had a very similar experience. It wasn't long after, a few months later, I got to play the cash flow game.

Yeah.

And it's so interesting that you Bring that up, because I'm actually. Right now. I bought that book for my kids for Christmas, and I told them that I'd pay them $100 if they read the book each. And so, coincidentally, now I'm actually reading to my son at night and he's asking to read the book. So we're not getting very far. And of course, you read for a few minutes at night, you don't get very far into the book. But just. It's just so interesting that we're talking about that, how it was so powerful in your.

Your.

Your direction, change in life. It had an impact on me and Vern. I'm pretty sure that that was one of the books that really got your mojo going in one direction. Can you speak to that for a second?

Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Similar to Al, I think for me, it was more like 2009. Going to say 2008, 2009, when I discovered that book. And for me, it was, I think, you know, when you have kids, it kind of starts to change your thinking. So my first son was born in 2007, and that's when the. The gear started turning about, like, kind of to Al's point, I wouldn't have been able to articulate it at the time, but it's like, man, I'm. I'm doing pipe fitting. I'm in my 20s. Everything's fine now. But I was seeing these older guys around me, and I'm going like, you know, their backs are getting broken down, the knees are sore. They're not too. Let's say they're a little cranky from time to time. Like, these guys are not really fulfilled. And God bless the guys out there that are keeping the country together. We need trades guys. But most the guys I was surrounded with, let's just say they weren't living their best life. And I was thinking, there's got to be more to it. But I. I didn't know what that was. And I was in a bookstore buying a magazine for my wife's Christmas stocking. And that's when I looked down and I was holding my son. He's like 18 months old. I'm holding his hand. I looked down and I saw this book. You know, they have books right by the cash register. Rich dad, Poor Dad. I picked it up and I could actually comprehend what the guy was saying. I was like, I'm going to read this book. And it was probably the first book, to your point, Al, cover to cover. It's the first book I ever read as, like, you know, in my life, really, that I was willing read. And I read the book and same thing. It was a long journey, lots of mistakes, but that's what got me even thinking about how to get money to work. But even the fact that I could change myself, I could grow, I could learn, I could change. And that's kind of what got me on the whole journey of, well, entrepreneurship and getting into infinite banking, even.

Amazing. Yeah. I would like to also tell you how it got me to meet you, Richard. So my first stage was I'm a big believer, proponent of just whatever you read, it's not real until you actually make it happen in your life. Then it becomes visceral. You're just, you can't take it away. It's like as the saying goes, you give a man a fish or you teach a man how to fish. So it was really important that I take those concepts from the board game and from the book. And I was able to point for myself to it and say, I can do this. So the first thing I was, was going to do is I called it leaky boat syndrome. Is that to stop money from leaking out of my pockets, leaking out of my boat. So the first thing I did was I took, I did everything that I could to have the property I was living in. Actually, I went to my brother and rented his, his property. And when I rented it, what I did was I found a way to live there for free. So instead of paying over 1200amonth at that time, I was able to reduce it down to zero and making about $46 a month off of that after all bills was paid. So now I'm starting to collect money instead of having money go out. Right. I was finding all these ways of just stopping the leaks from my boat. That's when I started researching and saying instead of me making continuous mistakes, I was a big trader, like in stocks and commodities and all those things. And I realized that when I had lost, it was over a hundred thousand dollars that I had lost in the markets. At one point in time I said, I'm going to redo this again. And I got to find a way to make sure that I never lose my funds again. And I remembered the research that I was doing for Infinite bank. And I said, I got to find where. How do I. How do I find this in Canada? I was making calls down to the US trying to find is this happening in Canada with no luck. And that's what I was explaining to Curtis at the time, my journey after reading the book. And I said, If I had the opportunity of taking, I hate to say risks at the time, because that's what I was doing is taking risks, having some success, having some, some failures. If I'd had a mechanism to hold the, the funds that I was gathering, that way, if I do make a mistake, I could still pay off my infinite banking proceeds from, but I don't, I don't really lose anything. Does that make sense? A little bit, yeah.

You, you, you have some kind of containment. You're, you're, you take the power of, the power of leverage, your original capital is still working, and you're using opm, other people's money, in this case the insurance company.

Right.

To go about considering the risks and taking the risks from that vantage point.

Exactly. So failing at the time when they say the, the saying in our family now is just like, correct and continue, which is, when you fail, what did you learn from it? What are you going to do differently? So I knew I was going to create that container and, and look for an investment with what I consider a lot more security. So when I got your name, I called you immediately. I remember the restaurant that we were sitting in. Not the name, but I remember the location, like in Chinook Mall. And I remember sitting down with you. And in my mind I was just like, let me know what I got to do, because I'm going to take the funds that I'm going to deposit into my, my policy loan, creating, creating the foundation, and apply that loan to another idea that I had run into. And the other idea was this. So the third thing I ran into was, and we'll get into this a little bit more, was learning to invest my money in a secured investment. And that was when I had discovered private lending. My brother at the time, he went and worked with somebody that had done very well with private lending. And when my brother left, he didn't seem to get the concept of what this guy was up to. But I was listening to a guy named Dan Pena, and I don't remember everything that he said, but the one thing that stuck out to me that I realized was a success is Dan Pena said, find a person that you can mentor off, not just from a book, not just from a mastermind club, but somebody was actually making it happen. You were making it happen with the infinite banking. So I was just like, I'm going to latch onto you and going, what are you doing? Let me follow what you're doing to the T as much as possible. Right. And then the other thing was finding a, another vehicle that could bring a lot of returns. So I found that individual that was doing private lending and I, I knocked on his door and said, hey, listen, if I got to work for you for free to understand what you're doing and how you're doing it, I'm. I'm at your service. I don't have to worry about money as much because I took care of the first part of creating a foundation of, of living almost for free, almost had to still pay for my food. I got, I sold my car. I got rid of that. I did a walking and it was just to, so I could collect those funds to put into my infinite banking. And then I said, hey, I'm saving up that money. If you come up with the deal. My, my other mentor in private lending. Private lending, if, if you come up with a deal, I want to take the loan that I get from my infinite banking and apply it to that new deal. And that's what ended up happening. So you're you. After reading the book Rich Dad, Poor dad and I realized, okay, what was, what was I doing incorrectly? I found a mentor. You were my first mentor, Richard. And then I started applying the funds that I'd saved because I wasn't spending it on, on debt anymore. Got rid of my debt. I got, I got sold my car. I was able to rent out my brother's property where I was living there for free, making a little bit of passive income. So that made it real for the rich dad, poor dad. Now I was able to level up into a vehicle that could get even higher returns after I did my infinite banking.

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This is awesome by the way. But one thing that I'm curious about Al, there's a gap for me in terms of like the rich dad, poor dad, and then you met with Richard. But how did you actually get turned onto infinite banking? How did you first ever hear about becoming your own banker when you were making those calls to the U.S. can you do this in Canada? Like, how did you actually hear about this?

Okay, so I, at the time, in the late 90s when Internet was just beginning, I forgot how I ran across it. Oh, I know I ran across it. I actually had another insurance plan. It was a universal plan with another company. And I gotta tell you, there was something that was just bugging me about it. I didn't fully understand it. And I knew in my mind is how am I able to use the money that I'm putting away into this insurance? At the time I forget the name of the company and I don't, I don't deal with them any, any longer. But at the time I thought insurance was a good way to go. I didn't fully understand it. I did my best to do some research. I knew there was things as term, universal and, and term. And so one of the things that I wanted to do was just to, if you will, experiment. So I got a small policy loan and I did a lot of questions with them in the far, in the sense of, you know, what, what's the best thing to go? And at the time they said, hey, universal would be, would be a fit for you because you like to invest. So as I started to research a little bit more, I realized there was more things being said in the States and different ideas and concepts. And then I ran into somebody talking about infinite banking online and I started reading about it and go, this is what I want to do where I'm able to put in funds and take it out and invest it in a vehicle. And then I, So that was in the States. And I was like, well, who does this in Canada? And at the time I knew nobody. So years later, when I was telling this story to our mutual friend that he said, no, yeah, you can do this in Canada. In fact, I can hook you up with a person that can do that for you. And I was like, really?

That's awesome.

I said, get me his number immediately. I, as soon as I got your number, I called you immediately and said, hey, I'd like to meet with you and talk with you. Is this, is this real? Like, can we actually do this in Canada? And we can.

Yeah, I think I, I happen to be, you know, coming up to Calgary partly to visit family and I think Curtis actually put a little, he had, he had a little gathering together at his office where I.

That's right, that's right.

Kind of do the Richard dog and pony show a little bit and, and share a few things about the concept and it was after that that we went for, for dinner. So, you know, it's, it's, it's been a lot of fun in there. And I think that was around 20, it was 2015 maybe that we did that. And I think you got up and running kind of right at the beginning, early 2016, something like that. So it's been, it's been a number of years. And you have a few policies and you've done a number of, of, I will call it churn, like a, like the churn of, of energy, financial energy, where you've had policy loans and then you've used them for this purpose that you've described in private lending. Now, because of the relationship with the other mentor that you'd created, that, that created a very interesting. We talk about every once in our podcast, which had to do with deal flow. So it's one thing to know that you can do private lending. It's another thing to know what are the, what are the risks of that and how do you mitigate those risks? So everything has risk folks from that perspective, but you need to understand and mitigate them and then you can, you can manage those risks effectively. And so you are learning that really almost, you know, knee to knee with another mentor and because they were involved with a mortgage brokerage that specialized in those things that created this other thing, which is another important necessity is you need deal flow. You don't want to take every single deal that comes across the table. You want to be able to choose the cream of the crop. And because you knew what to look for, you started to recognize what was cream. Am I on the. I'm on the right track?

Oh, it was like you were right beside me. I thought I was alone when I was being mentored. But you know exactly what went down. Absolutely. Absolutely. I was knee to knee with him. And the reason why I did that is so I was able to determine, as you just pointed out, what was the cream of the crop, what fit my investment criteria, My, my temperament as well. Right. And I, you know, I, I realized there was different levels of temperament. There is things. And I know I've seen you do a, a podcast with other, with another organization that also does private lending. And he also mentioned, like, there's things like mix where people don't have to worry about dealing on private lending one to one with a borrower, but diversifying almost like a mutual fund where if you were busy as a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher and you're not focused on investing, you are associated And I'm pointing at you guys with people who have your best interest in mind that can point you to areas where you can focus on your career and still have your money working for you. So what I did is I also found other companies that do mix just so I could test it out. So when I am able to speak to you guys or to my family or anybody who wants to become financially free, I am doing what I'm recommending. Meaning like this is the steps that I, I've taken. Not only do I deal with mortgages one on one, but I also put it into a mic and just so I can speak about it. And I know what I'm talking about, you know, as saying earlier that if, if it's, if it's something you read is different than something that you know because you're living it. And I wanted to make sure I was living it so I could talk about it.

Yeah. And so for anyone who's listening that doesn't know what, what I was referring to is a make of the mortgage investment corporation. It's a specialized type of corporation that has a focus that it must be lending its capital. Has a, creates a pool. The pool comes from someplace often investors, you know, like, like Al and then that pool gets managed by a team and it gets placed on mortgages. And they could be first mortgages, second mortgages. And, and every mic there's lots of them and they're all over the country.

They're all in the country.

And there, and there's, and, and there's, there's. I want to just say good and bad but they're different in that they all have a specific business model.

That's right.

So, so it's not about going in and putting your money in a make. It's about understanding that a. They exist that you, you could use them if you wanted to but you would still need to do your research to understand okay, what is the business model of this organization? How do they look at lending? How do they manage the risk of lending? Are they geographically focused? Are they focused on land versus you know, three bedroom, two bath houses in the city of Edmonton? So, so understanding their business model and then the management team, because there's still a team of people has to manage that work is, is where you begin your research process. So you had that. I mean the key thing I want, really want people to understand Al is that you had that not only the desire to be tactile, in other words, get involved directly to have the experience. You want to get as much Experience as you could in the shortest amount of time so that you could have the highest amount of knowledge in a, in a compressed period to be able to now really understand, okay, is this a good deal for me or is this a good deal for me? And the key thing there isn't if it's a good deal, it's that it's a good deal for me, you being Al. And so how does it fit into your criteria? Here's, here's the company's criteria. That's right, here's Al's criteria. And because you had the time, the knowledge and the mentorship, you were able to dial that in so you could become more systematic in your approach to looking at things.

Well said. Absolutamente. That's right. Absolutely. That's right. And then, you know, the second thing was also that I also knew I had family members that were not going to put the time and effort into this. So I was able to communicate to them and say, hey, listen, if you're looking to do what I'm doing, have money work for you instead of you working for money, this is the research that I've done. This is what I've inputted to become, or to becoming a master at learning how to do this specific investment. That's right. Amazing.

Now, those mortgages, the individual ones, mix, those kind of things, they, they were producing this beautiful thing called cash flow. And the, the, you know, one of the things in our conversations that you are very, very strategic on and I think is really important to understand, you know, infinite banking is a process. It's not an investment. It's a thing that we do. It's a lifestyle.

That's right.

You've, you've embraced that lifestyle very well. And while, and you were very focused. Hey, my goal with using capital isn't to do things with my personal expenses and this and that. It's that I really want to focus on asset accumulation. The asset accumulation isn't happening, although there's some advantage there. It's not, it's not the infinite banking world. It's what I'm using the infinite banking world's model to help me go and create externally. So there's like, we talk about this thing called what's on the page versus what's off the page, you know, the scene versus the unseen.

Right.

And the unseen is what did you do when you took a policy loan and how did you put the money to work? In your case, you're putting it to work in something that generates a positive or, you know, Minus any, you know, losses that they do occur but, but generates cash flow and then you are taking that cash flow and actually replenishing the pool of money.

That's right.

So that as the policies are growing and the loans going down, you create this thing we call the jelly in the sandwich. So you could access some more and then you could go and repeat.

That's right, yes. Rinse and repeat. And the other way that I also looked at it is that I'm taking my, taking care of my future and my present at the same time. You know, like I, it's like RSPs to me. It's like protection in case anything happens to me, my family's taken care of and once I reach a 100, I'm probably going to live to 120 because that's the goal. You know, that's that nest egg is being taken care of and it's producing at the same time in this present moment. I just like this, this is mind boggling. This is amazing. You know, it's, it's not like, I know we can't guarantee this but the dividends is making money there and outside of the policy is making money on if I'm choosing the investments correctly, it's making money now at a higher interest rate generally. And I was just like this is crazy. I'm just overjoyed. And it allowed me to really take care not only myself, but I'm married and take care of me and my family. So I was able to leave my 9 to 5 for over 10 years now focusing on this and having the cash flow take care of me and my family.

That's amazing.

It feels amazing. And by the way, I'm not saying that to, to, to brag. I'm hopefully this resonates with people that are looking because there are people out there that are looking for a way. How do I take care of my future and my present? How do I take care of my, my family and myself? How do I do that? And I wanted this to be an example for people who are looking for freedom. This is not going to be for everybody, even though it is for everybody. This is for the people that have this kind of mindset and if they're looking for a way, we are hopefully all three of us right now in this, on this call or a light, a guiding light for those that are looking for the way. Because like what I said in the beginning, whatever you're looking for is looking for you and we're looking for you. We're looking for you and here's the thing, because somebody goes like, well, why would you want to do that? And here's what I realized, especially after. If you don't mind me going into this a little bit, I'm going a little political a little bit, is with this. With this Covid adventure that we all. All experience. There's two of us. There's me, who's financially free, and I had another friend who was reliant upon his job, and now he was. Whether. Whether you agree with this or not, there's some people that were. Were going to go and say, hey, you know what? I'll go and take what they called, like, the jab. This particular friend refused to do it. His job was on the line. And what was interesting is that he spent six months, and this is his words, not mine, crying in his bed because he didn't know how he was going to pay his bill. He had a son. He had pressure from his family, saying, why don't you just take this jab and get back to work? And for whatever reason, he was like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that. And I'm going to put my. My family, myself on the line for this. Now here I am. I didn't have to worry about that. You know, I was like. I had. I felt like I had real choice. Whereas it's like, hey, if I want to take this or not, this is up to me. And I didn't feel that pressure. I got to tell you, there was just a burden off my back. And this is what hit me right away. I've always believed this, but when I was experiencing the two, three years that we were going through this, this is what I realized. If I was able. And I've been telling my friend for years, follow my footsteps, he didn't do it. That's okay. But I said, the reason why I want you to do this, because you will have real choice in your life. If there's an emergency that comes up, like Covid was, you will get to decide powerfully. And so this is, for me, a beacon to say to people, start now. Start to create your freedom now so you have real choice for you and your family, whatever that is, you know? And I don't. I'm not saying that to be, like, just to be a person that has, like, I'm just going to be rebellious. I'm not talking about being rebellious. I'm talking about empowering families. This is one reason why I wanted to join up with you guys. When I First heard about you guys because you guys are about empowering families financially. So you have real choice family banking. How can you go wrong with that? I know I didn't.

The power of choice is, is critical. And I think, you know, the key takeaway of your story. And again, I also, I know people, I have clients, you know, faced with similar challenges and, you know, wherever people's proclivities lie, what you're. The core of what you're sharing with Al is about that power of choice. And yeah, everyone has it, but you have it with a degree of, almost like a level of oppression from, from responsibilities. You have responsibilities, bills to pay, balance to fee. These are things that are necessities. And so you're, you might, you still have the same choice that everyone has, but your choices are either much harder or they're, they're more like now you're making multiple choices at once that you otherwise might not have to make. Right. It's a choice, oh, do I do this thing that either maybe I do or don't want to do, but I'm being forced to do? Like, there's all these dynamics that go on there. And I think the key that you're identifying is what is the, what is the feeling like to know that you, you have an out? And I want to circle back to something you mentioned at the beginning.

Sure.

In the journey from the rich dad, poor dad world to where you are today and creating an environment where you have freedom to be able to do these things, there was very specific steps that you took to initiate that freedom. And those choices, you kind of glazed over them a little bit as though they weren't difficult. But the fact that you are going to, okay, I'm gonna have this property. I'm gonna reduce my expenses. Well, one of the ways you probably would have done that is you would have had other people maybe living in the house. You would have, you know, and so for some people, they, they wouldn't like that. But you made choices about creating that because the thing that was most important to you was creating the environment that would allow you to go do the other things. So, so you may, you know, you sold your car. Well, some people don't have the ability to sell a car because maybe they live in a rural there and they're not going to be able to walk to get their groceries, you know, 40 miles down the road. Right. So, so, but you, you were conscious of those things and you said, look, I'm going to sacrifice A, so I can get B, I'm Going to sacrifice A again here so that I can get B, I'm going to sacrifice again here so I can get it here. And if I do that in all these areas and I do it in a compressed time frame, then I might, I might have a different lifestyle than other people, but I have more freedom. And because of that I can rapidly accelerate through some of these layers that I'm trying to get to. And I think that's a key thing. So I want to understand it is a key thing. There's difficulty in doing that. And I, and I think that you, you know, people should understand that. It's not like, you know, Al didn't make difficult choices, you certainly did, but you made them for the right reasons which were right for you.

Right. Listen, this is what I realized and this is the gift about being in a first world country. They appear difficult. Why? Because I personally believe when I looked at my life, I was living an easy life. And when life becomes easy, what happens? What happens generally to people, life becomes hard. If you're living the easy life, me out, I'm living the easy life. Life was. Life appeared hard. But one like going into the gym is hard at first. Hey, oh, ten pounds to lift up. Oh my gosh. But now I'm lifting 50. Now I'm going to be lifting 100. Right? I was, I was consciously aware I'm going to build that muscle. Muscle. You know, it was interesting how I came up, how I came up with that. I remember I was driving somewhere and I was complaining about getting some. I was going to be late and I get all this light and just, just totally ungrateful. And you know, there was a cop behind me and I saw this cop and I just, I was so wrapped up in my emotions that I just made an illegal turn and the cops pulled me over and now I got a ticket. Now I'm paying 200, $250 for that ticket. And what I had a real serious talk with myself. I said listen, if you're going to keep complaining, if you're going to keep just being in this negative emotion, then take it away, huh? You're in a first world country. What are you complaining about? This is me talking to myself. You start to walk, get off your little rusty dusty and work for it. And that's what I did. I said, yeah, I was complaining about insurances, I was complaining about everything. And I said I get the choice to get rid of all these things and then I get to redirect it. And I had a completely mind change. Everything started to alter and I started to work for it. And then things started to become easy. So if you do what's easy, easy, life becomes hard. If you do what's hard, the perception of hard, I find life becomes easier. Look, like when, when I, when I go for walks and whatnot, I'm getting exercise, right? I get to, I get to do. I read more. You know, when I was catching the bus and people like, why are you doing this? Because I said, I'm educating myself. I'm putting myself through this. I'm choosing to do this. I'm not forced to do this. And that became really freeing to me. And I get to empower. Like you said, I give up A, to get B. And I don't. I don't know. You guys don't see me crying right now. I'm happy outside, how sunny it is. I'm eating healthier even. You know, I get to understand and learn another culture, and I still get the privileges of a first world country because my home and, and my love is Canada.

Well, that's, that's actually. Dude, that's awesome. I don't know if Rich had a point to make there, but, you know, just circling back to, you know, all those sacrifices that you made and the things that you consciously did, could I.

Say it was, it was not a sacrifice. I know it appears a sacrifice, you know, but it wasn't a sacrifice. And I would like, at one point in time, we'll use the word sacrifice for now, but I'd like to find another word, you know, like, that would, I think, better get a better perception of what I was actually doing. Because I think sacrifice is like people in a third world country when they're like, we have to sacrifice and eat beans and rice, you know, so, you know, we can afford to pay rent and whatnot. So we'll use sacrifice for now, But I'd like to find another word. So if you guys got another word that would be, I don't know, we.

Could come up with a word. But all I would say is that just comes down to my freedom. It comes down to mindset, right?

Yeah.

Like, if you're, if you're saying, like, you know, let's just use the 8020 rule. At least 80% of people are going to go, wow, you know, Al sacrificed his transportation and changed his transportation method. 80 of people, because like you said, they're living the easy life. They're thinking, I'm not giving up my car. So from that perspective, it's. It's a sacrifice. But from a mindset perspective, it wasn't a sacrifice for you. There was actually a benefit behind it.

Right.

There was education and the freedom that you got. Not getting tickets, not having to pay insurance, not all do the rest of that stuff.

But it was empowering to see. It was empowering to see my car parked there and going like, yeah, I could drive that at any time I want. You know, like, I could just. I could start it off all over again. There's something that was really empowering about that. Right.

Well, it's sort of like. It's sort of like by giving up the car, you're not actually giving up anything. It didn't take away any of your choices.

Yeah, right.

So sort of like implementing the process of becoming your own banker, it doesn't take away any of your choices. It actually gives you more options. So what I wanted to get back to with that, though, is the fact the elephant in the room is, is that you're actually in Ecuador. And so all of those things, the mindset that you had, the things that you, you know, empowered yourself to do, to educate yourself and to make those changes, start implementing this process, you know, putting money to work instead of spending it first, all those kinds of things has afforded you the ability. You know, you started by talking about your friend and how he was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, and you had that freedom. It's sort of the same thing for geography for you, Right. You're not stuck to a nine to five. You're not trapped to a border. You're like, hey, you know what? Money's working for me. My lifestyle's looked after. Technically, if you wanted to, you could make plant plans and uproot and go to a different part of the world at this point if you wanted to.

Right? That's right. And just to make sure something's clear if somebody's listening, I did have three vehicles. I sold two, and I had one that I had parked away. And then eventually I. When I was coming here, I sold the last one. But, yeah, it was. It was a nice little reminder. It was a nice reminder, yes.

So talk to us about that journey, though. What's that like now? Because I know you have a son and your wife's there, and you're in. You're in Ecuador.

Yes.

And, like, what's that journey been like for you?

It's been amazing. Like, I. Every day feels like a new beginning. Like. Like, I'm like, I'm really living life, you know? So when I was free, I Also started working. When I say financially free, financially free was I'm able to make different choices. So I actually met my wife three hours away. We're from the same city, Calgary. And I met her three hours away at a silent meditation called Vipassana. And when after the silent retreat was over, we got to talking because we had noticed each other from across the room. If anybody's taken Vipassana, they know they separate the men and the women. We're in the same room but with 200 people, 50% men, 50% women. And for some reason I just noticed her energy from across the room. So I just like, I'm going to talk to that person. So at the end we ended up talking. We discovered that we had on our dream board to come and check out a place called Vilca Bamba, Ecuador, a small little town. It was on her dream board for like six to eight years and it was on mine for 15 years. It was a goal of mine. It was a like when I say when we use the word 80% might say, you know, you're sacrificing to make this happen. It was a dream of mine to go and check this place out because they talked about at the time was considered a blue zone where people were living over 100. And I thought if I was going to live for a long period in my life, where do I want to go? And I'm really big on, you know, what you eat, what you eat is what you become. So I say let's go check this out. Talking to myself. So when I met her and we were talking after I discovered she wanted to go to the same place and I was like, what really said you, you trying to pick me up?

It worked.

Yeah, it worked. It definitely worked. So yeah, it was a dream of hers, a dream of mine. So when, when at the time Covid hit and we were lockdown, we had the opportunity to go and explore it. So we went down and checked it out and we thought, okay, this is a good place to call second home for now because you know, we have other places that we want to go and investigate and just explore life. And it was, yeah, it's, it's an awakening to life for me because I found I was, I was too comfortable in my first world, country and learning a new language, learning a new culture, learning how things are done here. It was like I said, it's an awakening. And it's like every day you're working at something. So it's been magical, you know, it's been really, it's been really a cool journey especially to do it with your life partner.

Well, I think what's interesting is that you know, people should know that Al, you're a very committed guy. We can tell from your story the things you've done. You're very, you're very committed to doing things and you're so committed that you, you even committed to driving 45 minutes last minute to another house so that you could be, you could be with us today because the power went out and you, so you, you were able to correct and continue very quickly. And so I just really want to shout out and respect you for that.

Yeah.

Now what's interesting is you, you've also are in the process. You said you've, you've purchased a property down there that you and your wife. You're flipping actually.

Yeah.

And so you know you're, you're going to be second home at literally second home. But now you're, you're, you're doing it as a real estate investment and then you're going to transition maybe potentially back to Canada but then you're looking for the next place that you guys are probably going to go. Maybe it'll take you back to Ecuador. It could be somewhere else.

Yeah.

That's kind of where you're at in the journey now are my own track.

Yeah. Yeah, there's, there's a couple of things. So. Yeah. So I also use my policy to purchase a property down here and investment and it's got two houses, a house and a casita. And when I do real estate I look at can it create. There's, there's three exit strategies. One, can I live in it? Yes. Can I rent it out? Cool too. Yes. And number three, can I flip it? And so when we bought it, we bought it with that in mind knowing that those opportunities, those choices are open to us. And then I'm always looking to enhance what I'm doing when it comes to private lending. So when I was here last year we had an opportunity to really look at what's the next steps for our journey in our lives. Like how do we, how do we want to teach our, our kids in and to be stand up citizens in, in this world. Also teaching them about our family banking. And so the other thing that I also realized is that I can also level up with my private lending game. And I found a new, new mentor that I had also met about eight years ago. He was actually my second mortgage deal and I had joined his company to learn more things because I realized what I was doing was really good and there's always other players out there that have leveled up their game. So I'm always looking to improve that. So I joined him as well. So I'm busy doing that, busy being a dad, a husband, busy taking care of our property here and then making plans to come back because we just left Canada to come back down here for a few months and then we'll be coming back up again eventually.

Yeah, well, I, I don't know if you have Amazon prime down there or not, but you're going to want to get a copy of Don't Spread the Wealth, which is now available. We're going to be doing our official launch in September, global launch for the new book Don't Spread the Wealth. How to leverage the Family banking system to own all the gold, make the rules and enjoy generational riches that you're already on. But the focus of this is really about having those conversations at the family level and, and how do we begin those, what are some of the stories of how, where people have had success with that and, and how can we extrapolate that and be able to really contain money in that, that financial aquarium that passes over generations. So I think you're going to love that quite a bit. Al.

So it's on my list. It's on my list.

You can go to don't spread wealth.com to, to go get it, get it, get it up. And you know, I, I'm, I'm so enamored with the success you're having and the journey and the, the feeling of joy that you've expressed for our listeners today around the changes that you've been able to make in your life and how not just the infinite banking concept has supported that, but the, the, the knowledge base and I think to a degree the connection of people that you've been surrounding yourself with has been a big part of that journey. And the community that, not only the communities of people that you've involved yourself with through personal development, through, through different kinds of mentorship, but the community of people that you become to know and you've actually supported, growing that community very well of people looking to practice and implement the infinite banking concept in their life. So, so with that in mind, you know, what would you share with somebody who is, maybe they're seeing this for the first time. They, they've just heard of infinite banking concept. They've just heard of Nelson's book. What are, what are something that you would suggest that they should do or you would encourage them if they're considering this, and they haven't even started yet.

Well, the thing that really worked for me is attaching myself to a mentor and following everything that they say. Literally everything that they say. It's like an artist. The great artists that I've researched and studied, they've all had somebody that they mentored. Excuse me, that they were mentee and they. They were being mentored from a master. Find that master. Hold on to them, because what's going to start to happen is not only will you learn their ways, but you'll start to find in how to do it, in the way that works for you. You know, watching. Watching my son learn how to walk and learning how to talk. Well, where does he get all of that? Where does he learn that from? Well, from his master, from his dad, from his mom, learning how to see life in a certain way. That's the environment that we create from him, and that comes from the person that's already doing it. So if you're looking to get into infinite banking, attach on to the person that is guiding you. I'm going to say, if you don't mind from Ascendant, because you guys are well trained. Holy geez, are you guys well trained. And if they're not masters, they're becoming masters, so hold on to their coattails, really. Your life will be altered. It will transform, just like mine has. So, you know, when. When you told me, Richard, to take out a loan, as soon as I made a depart, I did exactly as you instructed. You know, in fact, it was one of my first deals that I got into with my. With my new new mentor, Constantine. You know, he was one of my first deals that I got into. It was a small little loan, but it made. It made magic for me. It just opened my. My eyes just opened up and going like, wait a minute. This is real. This is not just in a book anymore. Richard, I. I'm touching him. He's real. You know, I know your story, what you did for your family and the journey that you went through to get here and how your life transformed because of it, because you were following a person that was before you, that had mastered the craft or was becoming a master of the craft. You know, you're young padawan. Study the Jedi. You know, follow them. You know, they'll lead you to. They'll lead you to the light, to the study.

Study the Jedi and use the Force. I think that's going to be the name of this episode when it comes to the Jedi.

Seriously? Seriously. So, yeah, so that's where I would start. I would definitely start that like, you know, and read that book. I still read. I still read. I still look at the videos. Not only that you guys have put up. Like, I go through it. I still take notes from the book that. Nelson Lash, Nelson Nash's book. Like I'm. And I've seen you guys say this several times when you, when you read the book. You're always getting something new that is a true statement. I'm always getting something new out of it. Something that I can apply. Something that not only to myself, but for my family. Me and my wife talk about it on a, on a regular basis. We meet every week talking about the family banking business. You know, what we're doing and how we're doing it.

Awesome.

Is it working? Is it not working? What do we need to adjust? Who do we need to go talk to and see if we don't have the answers? Because it's all. And you guys are family to me. It's all in our family.

Amazing. Amazing. Well, with that in mind, Al, I would love to get a final thought from you here. And of course I don't know what they would call a superhero in Ecuador. And I'm not quite sure what the denomination would be there and I don't know if what color the capes would look like. And you didn't show up, of course, with a cape on today, but you did show up in a superhero fashion because you made your way to the session despite the challenge that was placed in front of you. And for that we're very grateful. So the question we have for you, Al, is who would you most like to be a hero to?

Oh, wow. You know, honestly, besides my family, it's definitely a hero to my, to my son. I gotta, I'm gonna get off that because that will make me all teary eyed, but definitely a hero to my son and those who are seeking financial freedom. Really. And you let them know if they need to contact me, we can have a conversation. And I would, I would love to let you know again the details of my story. If it helps you in any way, that that's my gift to you and hopefully it's an example that you can follow. So I don't know how you guys will do that, but if, if they, if they want to reach out, let them know that they can, they can connect with me. I can provide that, that information. And only the, only the serious, the serious folks, not the tire kickers that are just like, I'm just, you know, they're not really interested. They're just kind of like for fun. I'm looking for people who are really looking to be financially free. So I can help you because I've shown a few people how to do this and I will continue to do so.

So, yeah, making, making sure that they're you. They're going to demonstrate the same commitments that Al has demonstrated over.

Well, maybe not.

Car selling. Long, long walking journey.

Totally. I've walked all the way here. Could you imagine? No, they don't have to be. They don't have to be that, that serious. You know, there's some people that have taken this journey without those sacrifices, but. But yeah, you know, start with where you're at. And I'd love to show others that are looking to be free how to get there in their, in their way and their places that they choose to do that. So. Absolutely amazing.

Well, thanks again for being with us. Thanks again, Vern, for co hosting with me here today. And for all of our listeners watching on the YouTubes, of course you'll see that poof, there's a magical little video that just popped up that says, I am great content. You should watch me. So go ahead, click that and continue that incredible journey. There's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. Thank you so much.

Amen. Thank you guys. It was honor.