From Nothing to Millionaire — One Immigrant's Journey to Financial Independence

So quick note, folks, we're going to do a slightly different version of the podcast today. We're going to be doing, we're going to be talking with one of our users about his journey to financial independence, but to protect his identity, we're going to be using a pseudonym. So we're going to be talking to Raul today. So with that, here we go. So welcome to the new retirement podcast. Today we're going to be talking with Raul, a financially independent personal finance enthusiast. We're going to discuss what he's learned on his journey to FI and also his view on the current state of planning tools since he's used many of them. Raoul is currently an engineer who was born in Delhi, India and now lives in the United States. Note, we are using a pen name, as we said before, to protect his identity. And with that, Rahul, welcome to our show. It's great to have you join us.

Thank you, Steve. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story. I think it's clearly inspirational given the reaction you've gotten in some of the FI communities out there. So I just wonder if you could kind of give us a kind of high level view, you know, of the last, call it 20 years, like how you came to the States and you know, how you got on track for financial independence and you know, what you, what you learned along the way.

Yeah, absolutely, Steve. Happy to. So, you know, I'm from Delhi, India and I always wanted to come to America. I wanted to pursue an American dream. I wanted to be successful in life. I still look at that Statue of Liberty today. And then I came here 20 years back for my graduate education. I went to one of the top engineering schools of United States as masters. And then I graduated in.com bus and I had really had a challenging time finding out a job as a fresh graduate. And I had, you know, immigration challenges because I was going from student visa to work visa. So luckily given my education from the top tier US Institution, I got a job in the Phoenix, Arizona area and started my career in this dot com crash. And then I worked hard and I got a successful career as an engineer with multiple top 50 Fortune 500 companies. And now I am a people leader here locally, here in, locally here in California. Right. So my journey was lot of struggle on my early days as an immigrant and pursuing that dream. And from a financial standpoint, I just came with $300 in this country. So my first month I used up my $300 and I didn't know the college research assistant paycheck will be delayed by a month. So I had to leave $100 in a month. So I was having hard time to put food on the table. I was literally having one burger a day because I didn't know who to reach out. So that day I decided I am going to be financially independent in the next 15 to 20 years. And that time there was no financial independence movement, no fi movement, no fire term. But I decided I am going to get beyond these two challenges. Having food, being and being in America.

So.

And then I started saving money, I contributed, I disciplined. And then, you know, fast forward 20 years. I am financially independent at this point.

Yeah. No, I mean, it's a. It's an incredible story to go from kind of where you started to, you know, how far you've come and to be. To know that you have kind of full financial control of your future. Did you. I mean, how did you kind of learn about these, you know, these concepts when you were first getting started? I mean, you didn't know the word financial independence. I think back at the time back when you started.

Right, right. So this financial independence, you know, it goes back to Michael and it even goes back to even 100 years back. You know, it's not just 20, 20 term or 19, 19 term. Somebody who wants to be independent and not depend on somebody else for a paycheck, for their food, for their livelihood. That's what I struggled. Right. I had to be in one burger a day and I wanted to break away from that. So what even I need to do so I do not have to worry about my food and shelter and go to the next level?

Yeah. Did you. Do you feel like now that. Now that you've been here for 20 years and you've kind of gone through this whole journey, has your experience coming to America lived up to your expectations?

Absolutely, yes, I am. It's beyond. It's beyond. I'm living the American dream. Right. And I'm a kind of private person. But I agreed to get onto this anonymously because I wanted to tell this story. This is not just me. Any dreamers can dream this coming to America and making this happen. So I'm really enjoying my American life. I am successful as my career, I'm a people leader right now, and I am financially independent.

Yeah. I would say it's really impressive what you've accomplished considering that you came here with nothing and now you're in the top, call it 3% of wealth of this country. So, you know, it's quite the journey. Is there, I mean, is there a big, you know, personal finance community in India today? And was there one when you came here as an immigrant?

Yeah, before I address that, Steve, I do wanted to say, although I am in the top 3 to 5%, whatever that statistics is right now, even I'm wealthy, but I am helping out my family back home. My dad just lost his 60 years of business impacted by Covid back in India. Delhi, India got impacted. And then I'm sending a lot of my wealth to my family back home. So I may need to be financially independent again. But, you know, I do wanted to help out my family. Right. That's big. That's on my core. So, yeah, I mean India, when I came here, there was no financial independent community. Right. But now there, there are multiple, there are multiple financial independent community back in India and have the same dreams to coming to America or coming to other nations and pursuing that carrier, that dream. Right. And you know, there are a lot of folks who are getting successful back there. So. Yes, Steve, that's right.

So Raoul, when you came here, was there much of a personal finance community in India? It feels like it's grown a lot since. And there's, there's definitely a big community today, but our growing community today. But I'd love your take on kind of how you got educated financially.

Yeah. So when I came here in back in 2000, a little bit prior to 2000, there was no financial independent community back at home, not even here. So I started reading books. Started with a classic book, Random Walk to the Wall Street. And that gave me some education around how the Wall street works, how the brokerages work, how the index investing works, how the passive investing works. And then I started to the next level of using planning tools. So I got education through books. There are no blogs, no Facebook community. Right. Back then, because there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter. Right. There were only no blogs. So Money Mustache was not there. Our forefather of financial independence and retire Ali. So there was no mmmn. So there were only books. So I got the real deal, which you have the books. Just read one book, which changed my life and then I joined Boggleheads. Right. So I was in the Morningstar user forum, which became Boggle Heads. And this is all before New Retirement, Money Mustache, the other platforms, right. I got into a real user community with Boggle Heads and that's where I learned. And I am a big Bogglehead right now. I am a big contributor there. And once I retire early, I'm Going to contribute to Boggleheads community because that's a nonprofit community, which I believe in.

Yep, it's a great community. I mean, there's so much knowledge built up in the, you know, bogleheads.org forums. It's just, I think the challenge is it's not discovered by every, you know, it's not widely disseminated. For whatever reason, people discover it. Enthusiasts like yourself or me or White Coat Investor, they discover it and they engage heavily. But unlocking the knowledge that's in there would be a great benefit to society. And I think something else that's worth discussing is that, you know, personal finance is not provided in US high schools as a mandatory requirement. I think it's available. It's available in roughly half the schools and it's required in maybe 20% of US schools. But, you know, we'll teach everything else. You know, we teach, you know, reading and writing, arithmetic and everything else. But we're not teaching personal finance to every kid and it could change their world. Is it taught in India?

No, absolutely not. No. So it's. No, it is not taught. I was at least not taught. And I'm an American now. I'm not in touch with Indian education at this point, but I would say it was not taught when I was growing up. And that's a real gap, you know, here in the U.S. my country. Right. So we need to address that gap. Somebody needs to address that gap. Right. Congress and our education Department. Department of Education needs to address that gap because it's going to impact people's lives. Right? Right. So that's a gap. And the second thing I'd like to address. Well, Bobbleheads is not a marketing machine. It's a nonprofit organization. So for example, let's talk about Jeep. Right. Jim Daly, who is the doctor by profession. Right. And also run White Coat Investor as a for profit organization is known much more than Bogleheads, Although he himself a Boglehead. Why is that? The reason is Boglehead is a nonprofit organization and does not want to make a single dollar of profit. White Coat Investor does many other organization and not name does, including money Mustache. Right. So Vicky Robbins, Money Masters, you know, everybody, right. They wants to make money. So as many other A5 community, you know, I can name 15 of those. They are focused on money and making profits. Although Boggleheads and I am focus on changing people's lives.

Yep.

But that's the difference.

Yeah. Although I have a theory on this which is I do think, I don't think, you know, the Profit motive isn't bad. It does make, it drives growth, it gets people incented and aligned to create growth. And like, you know, for our business, we're trying to do the right thing. I mean, we're a for profit entity. I've thought about making nonprofit, but we're a for profit entity and I believe that we need to be for profit. We need to create incentives for our team and our partners in order for this to get bigger. So I think it, it can be fine to be for profit. It's, you know, you just have to be.

I agree. And the point I was trying to make was why bobbleheads? Why people don't know about bobbleheads. Right. Versus many other like for profit organization. And the reason is the investment there. I do like for profit because it gives the capital and a platform to reach masses. Right. I don't wanted to put you on spot, Steve, but I think what you are doing with new retirement is amazing. And here is why and I'll tell you why. Right from your user. I use the platform because it helps me. I recommend to my friends and family because it helps them and they'll be happy to pay whatever they need to pay to use your platform and your tools and your education. It's not just a tool. It's the platform and the education piece and the coaching piece to help their life journey. And money is just a tool. Planning tool is just a tool. Money is not the. Money is not life, but it's a big part of life. Right? So yeah, absolutely. I'm all about for profit business. I was just making my point about why bogleheads did not reach my assets.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I think it's a big opportunity to do more with bogleheads and you know, make it more accessible. And I think that probably will happen. I mean one, one huge lesson that we take from Bogleheads is, you know, the community has a huge amount of value. It's full of people like you that know what they're talking about. How do you leverage what, you know, make a platform for folks like you to kind of like, you know, educate other people that are less financially literate and just make it more accessible and approachable. And it is, by the way, just as an aside, I think it's great to hear your story as an immigrant, you know, a person of color. It's like, hey, I did this. It's doable. You know, I'm not like, you know, I mean, I think a lot of people, when you look at traditional wealth management, you'll see these same pictures of like wealthy white males that are 50 to 60 years old in yachts and stuff like that. And that's not really, you know, what it's all about. There's a. There's a million ways that people are trying to take control of their lives and their money and they need to feel like, you know, people like them have accomplished this before. So let's, let's move on a little bit. I want to talk a little bit more about kind of some of the things you learned on the way. What, did you run into any. You know, we talked about your education. Like, hey, it was hard to find. You had to go look for the books to kind of get financially educated. Any other big challenges you ran into or big mistakes that you felt like you made along the way?

Yeah, there were significant challenges in my early career days. I thought I let go 401k match in my early career days because I thought because I did not have the right education or financial literacy that if I go back home to India I will lose my 401k money. That's not true. So I let go 401k match. That's a big mistake. I did not invest early in my career lost lot of time value and compounding because I thought I'm going back home and I did not know my money is my money whether I live in India or America or China. Right. So I made significant mistakes. And then when I read the random walk, when I read through Bonglehead's wiki, I engaged with the community and then the next level of struggle came in complexity, tooling. There were no tooling to do planning. And when I call Mary lynch, when I call Fidelity, even Vanguard, they said they need more money from me with an AUM before they expose these tools. I said no, I am then just going to be an engineer doing spreadsheets. I'm not going to pay for those planning tools. Well, I think I should have and would have, but now I am wise. I think I should have paid for those planning tools a little bit. Get education, get a real financial advisor to help me through that. That is my thoughts at this point. But yeah, I had significant challenges with the bigger brokerages, AUM model financial advisors. There were no plan, only advisors that time. There were only CFPs, very few. And they were with the brokerage firm trying to sell me whole life insurances. Right. I'm not going to do that, you know. So yeah, there was significant challenge and it's all come back to financial education. Right. Even People today are getting, I'll say this ripped off by big brokerages, financial advisors. They say they are fiduciary. They are not.

Yeah, I think it's one of you're, you're highlighting one of the issues that we call out actually in our investor materials, which is that, you know, you can get good advice and good tools if you're already wealthy. I mean, that's what's ridiculous. It's like if you look in this country, you know, 15, you know, 15% of the population or 10% of the population controls 85% of the wealth, and 90% of the population controls 15% of the wealth. So those. The top 10%. Yeah. You know, like you're saying Merrill lynch, they'll take good care of you. Right. But, you know, it does need to be education, tooling, you know, the, the stuff people need to kind of get ahead needs to be available to everybody. And, and so the alignment needs to be there. And also the people that have less money, they're. They have to run the gamut of making sure they're talking to someone who's a fiduciary versus someone who's a salesperson. And there's many salespeople out there that will be like, okay, I will help you think about your money, but I am going to be trying to sell you a financial product which makes me a lot of a high commission in the meantime. So you have to be wary of that stuff. So. But thanks for calling that out. So how about some of the best moves?

Any one thing, though, very critical thing, very quickly, Steve, if I may, that good financial advice does cost money. Just like a Toyota is $20,000 and a Mercedes is $50,000. Right. So the reason Mercedes is 50,000 and Toyota is 20 or Honda, whatever that is, because Mercedes or BMW gives that value. So good advice does cost money. So when people think in all this, a 5 community, they will just read a book and get deeper. Good advice. That's not going to happen. So even boggleheads today, they think, well, they think they can do all this planning and tax strategy with complex estate transferred with $0. That's not going to happen. No. So real good advice, do cost money.

Yeah.

So I just wanted to call that out.

No, that's fair. I don't want to say that advisors don't have value. They have a lot of value. People need advisors. Many people need advisors just for behavioral coaching. And yes, there's a ton of insight. I'm just saying that I think there's a challenge in Making that available to many people and especially the people that are earlier. Right. Because you have to make the challenges like, like your experience. You have to make good decisions across your whole life cycle. You have to save money in the beginning. You've got to invest it effectively. You've got to avoid making dumb mistakes like pulling it out when the market tanks and things like that. And you know, keep capture that power of compounding. And if you don't get going early enough and make the good decisions up front, then it's just much. It's very hard to catch up later.

Yeah. And to that point, that's a significant point. And the advisors bring value to real people that they protect that behavioral mistakes. Right. I see like in one Facebook community I am on right now, not mention it, people are posting net worth every day. And if market tanks tomorrow, 50% I'd like to see what those people do. I know what they will do though. They will panic and sell. Right. Although they say, well they are not going to sell, it's long term. Well, let's see how you guys do. Because you guys were not in that block from 2007 and 2009. You guys are not in that block from 99 and 2000. Right. So that's where advisors brings value and also that's where people need education and it's a pain in the process. Right. If you are not in that downturn, you don't know people talk about, oh, it's a paper money. It's not. It's not. When you see you contributed 20,000 this year in your 401k and now it's 5,000.

Yeah. Right.

Then let's. And it's year over year, let's talk about that. So you know that's where advisors bring value and experience comes in.

Yep. For sure. Yep. Okay, so how about any good moves, any things that you want to call out that weren't that you felt like were good decisions and really helped you on your journey.

Yeah, absolutely. So my good decisions were starting early. This compounding effect. Right. Really living below my means. Right. I make $5, I spend $3, I save $2. I'm not one of those fi communities. Spend or save 50%. I do not like that.

Right.

If I die tomorrow, all my kids and family will enjoy that money and I'm not going to enjoy today. I don't do that. That's some fi broken process. But that's not me. What I'd like to call out. I started early, I compounded and these bogle heads really helped me out. And these going from complex portfolios to simple index fund portfolio portfolios with three fund portfolio, total stock market, US Stock market, total international stock market bond. Right. This really helped me out. What really helped me out is not having this 100% VTSAX, whatever that means. Some people think 100% VTSAX means a lot. They have no idea because they don't have the education. Some blogs say something like they don't know if America becomes like Japan, like for the next 20 to 30 years because of our macroeconomic challenges and printing money and they are in 100% VTX, they could be in trouble.

Yeah, these are my lessons learned, right? Oh, those are good lessons. And just maybe we'll have to have a separate session with you and J.L. collins where you can debate VTS X only 100%. But to his, to his defense, he notes that U.S. companies, when you're buying, you know, the U.S. vTSX, which is the, you know, the US stock market in its entirety, many of those companies do work internationally, so they do have international exposure. So that's his, that's his argument. And I think there's also the case for making it keeping things super simple for people does help. I mean, you have a very, you have a pretty like what, a five. A five fund portfolio. It sounds like three to five.

I have three fund portfolio.

Three fun portfolio.

Okay. Yeah.

So keeping it simple, index, you know, regularly rebalance as necessary. Save early. You know, save early and often. And also it sounds like the community has been great for you. That all sounds good. You also mentioned one thing. When we were getting ready, you said your family, it was important that you, I guess, had alignment with your family. Was that a big deal for you?

You mean here or back home?

Well, I mean here. Like your wife, for instance, that she was a good partner for you in terms of your saving.

About that, that's. That's a big deal though. So I could have saved the money. And if my wife does not agree and if my wife also does not have the same philosophy and process, My wife and I are a team. Right. So this whole portfolio is mostly my wife's than me. I managed her money, so she actually had more money than I had. And I was working and she was a graduate student. So when I got married, she had whatever, $10,000 and I have $1,000. So even today, this whole portfolio, my wife's money is 70% and my money is 30%. But it's not my money and my wife's money. It's the team's money. And two is, two is again those financial literacy. I did not, you know, sell anything for 2007-2009, although many bobbleheads did. Right. So all those things helped and I'd like to say I did engage financial advisor and got some real help get a second opinion help. I use different tools to find out Monte Carlo. I don't want it to be technical here. I can be technical very well, but I do not want to. And I really talk about. I'm a Rick Ferris poster child, right?

Yep.

So, you know, I'm proud of saying that because now I'm really simple. Right?

Yeah.

I have only three funds. My financial plan is a one page. I try to help people.

That's awesome.

I do not want it to get into complexity of 100 page of E Money or MoneyGuide Pro or whatever tools report. That's not important to me. You know, I have a very simple, beautiful. And that's what Rick talks about that going from this complex to simple. Let's make, let's make everything simple and beautiful. Steve.

Yep, I agreed. Well, these folks, Mr. Money Mustache, you know, Rick Ferry, white coat investor, they're bogleheads. We'll, we'll give, we'll give links for all these things in, in the show notes so people can find them. These are pretty, pretty, pretty useful and valuable resources. All right, so I want to move on to user questions. So Cody Garrett has a question. You know, what sources of retirement income before ages 59 and a half are you planning on tapping, if any and how are you thinking about controlling taxable income?

Sure. So I will use my taxable brokerage to use before 15 and a half because of IRS regulations. And I will also return at 55 from my job, which will let me to tap into my 401k per IRS rules.

Okay.

And the way I will manage my tax, my portfolio, my 401k, my taxable, my Roth, these are all tax coordinated one single portfolio. Right. So I have advanced strategies to minimize taxes for my lifetime. And I'm looking for tools to do that. And you know, I'm very close. You know, maybe I'll write because I have friends in Google, Apple, I'm an engineer too, to write those softwares, you know, and New Retirement and many other Fidelity tools and E Money tools and stuff like that can do that, the same thing.

Got it. So you're thinking hard about how you position your assets, kind of where you, where you locate them to be tax efficient and then how to move them between you know, different vehicles, like get them into Roths and then how you draw them down. So you're kind of coordinating. You have a plan for coordinating your assets. Yeah. That's great.

Yeah, my plan is very defined in my investment politics statement. Those were all done five years back before even Money Mustache wrote something in a blog or Matt Fine Tee wrote a tax blog. Those are already done before even J.L. collins wrote that book. Those are all done.

Good. Awesome. Let's see. Here's another question. Can you at a high level, kind of describe kind of your earning and saving trajectory? This, this is a question from Cody again. But if it's, if it's too personal, we can, we can also skip.

It's not. Yeah, I'll answer that question. So, you know, my wife and I, we are both, you know, engineer and scientists, luckily. Right. And we always live below our means. So we always saved 20 to 30% of our income. And I continuously invested it in a clear glide path. Right. So I was aggressive in the, you know, before, and then I glide it down. Right. My, my portfolio is, you know, 65, you know, 35 or something like that. Yeah. So I invested in our 401k and taxable brokerage, me and my wife automatically through using softwares. Right. And those are all coordinated with my brokerage Roth Mega backdoor Roth conversions. All done.

Nice. Awesome. Okay, last question from Cody. And then we have some other ones. But which financial risks are you exposed to and how do you mitigate those risks?

Yeah. The biggest financial risk or the. It's called tail risks. Right. I don't want it to be very technical here. It's called tail risks are protected by my insurance. So something happens to me tomorrow and I get run by a bus. I have two kids. I'm going to send them to Stanford or Barclay or mit. Right.

So.

And that's decided. Right. And at least I can pay for it whether they go or not. That's a different, you know, ball game. But at least I can pay for it and fund for it. That's, that's done. And so having said that, I have term life insurances, I have health insurances, I have water compensation insurances. If I were to get disabled, so I have disability insurances, so I'm protected against those risks. My portfolio is, is also protected with market downturn because I have bonds. I'm not J.L. collins. 100% VTX, man. And then I go 50%, then I have to jump 100% more. People don't even understand that. People think if you are down 25%. You have to get back to 25%. Well, they don't understand that. Right. So having said that, my portfolio is protected, my tailorings is protected and I'm really focusing on my health, my job, my learning. So my human capital. Right. These are next level stuff, man. So I'm always, I'm not in a side gig business.

Yeah.

I'm trying to double down on my job and look, I just got, I don't know, I'm not going to disclose this. I got in this Covid market. I am blessed because of my hard work and my talent, my dedication, my contribution. I got a promotion at work and I got a $25,000 increase. That's not peanuts. I'm not going to make 25,000 in any blog in first month. Tell me that. Right?

Yeah. That's awesome. Well, I think that's something that a lot of people, the FI community talks about, but many people don't. It's like one of the steps to getting wealthy is you do have to focus on your human capital and increasing your income potential and your earnings and don't be shy about pushing to increase your earnings. So therefore you can, you know, in, in conjunction with lowering your expenses so that you can maximize your savings. And one, I would say the biggest thing that I hear from financial experts is that the biggest trait they see for people that succeed is having a high savings rate. So I remember when Doug Nordman first from the Military Guide first said that and I've heard it echoed from Jonathan Clements and other folks. It's like high savings rate is the key to success.

Yes and no. So I think, I don't know. I mean, Jonathan Clements, I've been following Jonathan Clements for 10 years now. So, you know, I not disclose few things though. But I agree and disagree. If I have a high savings rate and if I die tomorrow, we already talked about it. I did not enjoy my life.

Right.

So that one. And second is I need to increase my income versus my savings. So I need to do both.

Yep.

I am more focusing on making more income versus saving. I want to enjoy life because I am now, whatever, 43. And if I have, you know, high savings right now, I do not take that trip into Alaska or Antarctica. Right. That $15,000 trip. I'm missing out on life experiences. Am I going to enjoy the same trip when I'm 65, 75, 85, 95? Absolutely not. Why would I save right now? I'm going to, I'm going to spend a lot because I Wanted to get return of all my hard work. So I don't know what Jonathan Clement starts talking about.

Well, I don't think he. I don't think he. I'm just saying that that is a theme. But yeah, there's definitely a balance. Right. And I agree with you that, hey, you shouldn't live a life where you're eating rice and beans, you know, till you're 70 so that you can retire with $20 million. Like, you got to enjoy your life and kind of have some balance because there, there's no guarantees. All right, so we got a question from Jolene Baumgartner and she, she's reached financial independence in her 40s as well, and she had some questions about, you know, is your family supportive and has your life materially changed kind of since you've reached this point in this fi point in your life?

Yeah, so absolutely, we talked about that. My wife is extremely supportive. I'm trying to tell her to spend more money because we have the money or whatever. But now we are reversed though because I wanted to send Mark support my family back home. We got impacted by Covid. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, now I am not a fine anymore, you know, now I have to work because so life is changing. Right. So I'm not a fi anymore because now I have to work because otherwise my plan Monte Carlo statistical P value I don't want you to get technical will be reducing from 90 to 75. Right. So I have to say I have to still work, but my family, my wife is very supportive. The best friend I got in this journey and life journey and I'm supporting back home. So I'm not afraid anymore. And two is I do wanted to say to that user, I'm sorry, I cannot remember her name is. Yeah, life is a dynamic process. You don't know what you are getting tomorrow. We didn't know in 19, you know, couple years back or one and a half years back will be impacted by Covid. So Covid changed a lot of stuff, right?

Yep.

So life is dynamic and I just wanted to enjoy life for sure.

No, that's a great answer. All right, a couple more questions. So David Walter, you know, what are you going to do for health care until Medicare? It sounds like you're going to continue to work right now, so.

Well, I will work. I am still on my plan to. I am 40 something and I still wanted to retire at 55. So that's another 10, 12 years. Right. And I don't want you to get into details of Lin Fat Phi Lin Phi and all those whatever the people call it, right? But you know, but I'm in my path to financial independence given I have this commitment back home, which I did not plan for prior to Covid because it's an impact by Covid to my mom and dad, right? So I have to work more and then my wife might be working a little bit more. So I have to come up with that. Seven years of health care funding, but that's already planned for in my financial planning tools and my Monte Carlo simulations. And those are clearly funded by my brokerage dollars, right. And I also got very actionable quotes from my insurance broker. So I exactly know how much I'm going to spend and I know the inflation rate. All those planning tools took care of this, right? So I know precisely I'm going to pay for from 55 to 65 from my taxable portfolio, how much I'm going to pay for me and my wife. And then I will have less income. So unless the law changes, Right. Unless the law changes, I will be covered. California. I also put some question into that. If law changes, I'm still protected. So I do deep planning, right. So, you know, so these are all taken care of through my plan.

Awesome. Okay, last question. And this might be from someone with a pseudonym. Popeye Larue asks, do you have any thoughts on whether you want to pass on quote unquote generational wealth or just, you know, have use your money when you're, when you're alive for your family and yourself?

No, I wanted to do both. So I am going to enjoy life, which I am. I just spent more money than I earned last year. So say I earned me and my wife. Let's just assume we earned $10 last year. We spent $12 last year because we want to enjoy life. This year I'm going to buy whatever, you know, you know, I wanted to buy, right? But now I'm going to give it to my dad. So I want to enjoy life. And yet I am thinking about generational wealth. So good planners, they think about three generations of planning, right? It's you, your kids and your grandkids, right? Three generation of planning is a best practice. I don't know. You know, Gail Collins books teach that or not. I have not read that book. So I don't know. But, but yes, I am thinking about legacy. Think about that. I have. I'm already funded for my kids college education for Stanford, Berkeley, mit. And I think I can pay for my grandkids too.

Yep. Awesome.

So that's generational wealth. That's done.

That's good. And I'm glad you're focused on education. You know, it's definitely part of the, it's part of the American dream. But you know, it's part of now, it's part of the world dream.

Right.

I mean it's incredible what's happening around the world too with people, you know, and societies making quick progress. Okay, so let's move on. I want to cover just a, you know, the second section of our discussion, which is really, you've used, you know, a lot of tools from places like BlackRock, right. Capital, MoneyGuide Pro. So I just wanted to see if you could give us kind of a quick overview of, you know, what you've learned from those tools and what you like and dislike and maybe why you went to the trouble to get your hands on them. Because a lot of these are kind of advisor only tools that you were, you were using.

Yeah. So, you know, I have a license, so I get into some of these tools. Right. I have a license. I don't want to disclose right now because I'm an engineer and I'm a people leader right now. But you know, in an engineering firm, but I do have financial licenses. So I get into those, some of those tools and I use 10 tools. I use e Money, MoneyGuide Pro, BlackRock tools, advice only. I use Rick Salis, which I like a lot. It's an expensive tool. I use holistic plan, some tax strategy tools. I like a tool called New Retirement. You know, apparently I like that too. It's helping me and couple of my friends right now. I like that too. And I like right Capital a lot as well because it's a simple tool. But you know, tool is a tool, Steve. It's your IPS investment policy statement and it's your life plan. So that's where I keep on saying Rick Ferry because I think I'm Rick Ferry's poster child. He does not know that, but I really follow him. So I'm beyond tools right now. My financial plan. I can, it's so simple and beautiful. I can do it in my head. But I did run my plan with those 10 tools.

That's awesome. Yeah, well, you've definitely gone above and beyond what most people have done. Where do you think this is going? I mean, so for you it's like tools and plans should get simpler over time. It sounds like. Any other thoughts about where you think technology and advice and business models will go in the future?

Yeah. And I think, Steve, that is where I like new retirement mission. I have no relationship with new retirement with full disclosure. Right. I'm very transparent. I have no relationship with Steve or new retirement whatsoever. But I will say this. Education comes first, financial illiteracy comes first. Then the software, which is like a new retirement or E Money guide or. Right. Capital or BlackRock Tools. Right. Rick's allies, all those next generation tools by the advisors. Right. And then how do you take action from those tools? If you don't take an action, the tools have zero meaning. If you tell the tool says, well, you not sell, but you do sell. When the stocks are 80% down, the tool is not going to lock into that. Right. That's where the advisors come and help you out. You think you know, but you don't, you know. So that's that. So it's the marriage between financial education, using the power of software and you know, which is a technology and then how you act on it From a behavioral standpoint, it's always happening in your head whether you are going to sell or not, what actions you are going to take or not. You know, it's all about that.

Okay, that's awesome. All right, so last question. You know, any, any final lessons you want to share? Any big changes you foresee over the next few years in your life?

Yeah, in my life I just wanted to, you know, be around my wife, really spend time with my two kids and really help them grow. I will be measured in life how my kids are successful. So that's where those comments of Stanford, mit, Berkeley came about. Well, if they don't go, they don't go, man. That's fine. But I wanted to give them that opportunity. Right? That's what I'm working on. And I wanted to just hang out with friends, have a good life. I think there are serious issues with financial independence, retail. Ali, from a mental perspective, people don't know what they are retired to, right. They just go to the caravan for five years, get bored, that job is not there, market tanked, they're trying to write blogs, make five bucks. They are not funded for their nursing homes, they don't understand tail risk. You know, all this stuff, right? So I'm thinking at the next level, how I am happy in life, how I can charitably contribute to this society, how I can invest more on Boggle Heads, something I care deeply because it's a nonprofit platform. How do I tell my friends and family, hey, if you don't want to invest time and be a CFO of your own house, do get an advisor get a one time plan. Use tools like new retirement user only tools. You don't have to pay an advisor AUM 1% fee or get sold by a whole life insurance. But do focus on your life plan. Not fi, not wicher, not some software, not some advisor, not some blogs, not some fi community, not some Facebook, not some Twitter. But focus on your life goals what your purpose of life. That's what I'm focusing on.

That's awesome. Okay, so with that I'm going to wrap it up. So Raul, thanks for being on our show. Dada Robison, thanks for being our sound engineer for folks out there. Thank you for listening and hopefully you found this useful and if you've made it this far, definitely we will post up a lot of the resources that Raoul listed and we are active in our Facebook group. You can find us at Facebook, new retirement or Twitterment or come to our site and try out these tools. They're free and then there's a premium version as well and we're obviously looking to win subscribers. But appreciate your time and have a great day. Thank you.