Getting Fired Changed My Life

Fired And Identity Falls Apart

All this was my identity dating, and they stripped it away from me. And I'm saying, what? I wanted to scream, but where was I gonna go? What was where was I gonna scream to? I remember that night I went home and I faced reality. I said, you know, the corporate world told me loud and clear, I am of no value anymore. So get over it, David. We need to get this guy out of here that's scared and announcing. And he needs to go. We need to fight this thing because I am not gonna. I felt like I was back from the corner, Nadine, and people either surrender or they fight. And I was not gonna do this to my family. I was not gonna go down without a fight, and I was gonna not lose this battle. I didn't, even though the odds were absolutely impossible against me, I says, I can't do this to my family. I'm not gonna do this. And it was that night, that moment, I says, okay, no more victim. I'm here to win this, and I don't know how I'm gonna do it yet, but I'm gonna figure this thing out. And that's when I took the journey.

I wonder if you could kick us off by uh telling us what midlife rebel means to you when you hear that term. Wow.

To me, it kind of reminds me of what I went through at 63. I just I didn't accept it. It was it, I just I wasn't rebel. I I I mean, I they wanted me to they wanted me to go and go away and just you know, retire or whatever. And I says, no, this is not gonna happen to me. And and so I think for me personally, that's how I see it, not accepting what other people say you're supposed to do and do what in it in your heart says you're supposed to do, and in your mind, it's not what other people define as so and I guess people think that is a rebel, you know, because you're not going along with the the the crowd or whatever.

Yeah, before that, so you got fired, didn't you, at the age of 63? So you were probably like that would be considered close to retirement age. Is that kind of how they got how they pushed you out? Sort of said you're not.

It was different. What happened to me is um one day when I was 63, I just got fired. It wasn't a downsizing, it wasn't a time to retire. We don't want you anymore, David. You're of no value to us anymore. Goodbye, thank you very much. And that's kind of, I mean, I don't mean that's kind of they were nice about it. I mean, they weren't that like, but they weren't I mean, there were no like which there was no like making it nice and all that kind of thing and saying, Oh, it's time for you to you know move on.

Well, there's so much going on, like, yes, there's that um, you know, that worry of losing your job when you're 63. By the way, I don't think they'd be allowed to do that in Australia. You've got to be given warnings and and you know, there's a whole process that goes on. Someone can't just come along and fire you um here. But it doesn't sound like that was your experience.

But but but can I add one thing to that, Nadine? Because I I I have to say this to be honest. It was the greatest gift they ever gave me.

Turning Rejection Into A Gift

I should send them a gift basket and a thank you letter because my life has changed so dramatically. I am more free, I am more focused, I am more fulfilled. I I feel like I have never been happier in my life. And if I had stayed with them, if they had kept me on till I was 65, I'd have still had a financial collapse 65, no different. But I've had two years less, you know, and and so I am so grateful that they did that. It's as bizarre as that might sound to you. I it's it's truly a blessing in my mind, anyways.

Oh, yeah, I totally get that. And it's it's often through the experience, the hard experiences, um, in hindsight as well. Like when you're going through it, it's like I do not want to be here. This is uncomfortable. But the growth that comes with that personally, as well as you know, obviously in your in your position financially, the growth from that experience, yeah, we we kind of we can look back and go, this was exactly what I needed. Um I'm actually uh an astrologer, and although I'm you know a fledgling astrologer, there are certain things that happen in you know the timeline of our life with planetary positions that that can trigger these things. Um if we're off course, and interestingly, you use the compass. Um if we're off course, things happen like getting fired. This was like a sign from the universe. David, you are on the wrong path. And although this is gonna teach you a few harsh lessons, we're gonna we're gonna navigate you in a different direction.

Well, you know, I gotta mention two quick things because it goes so well to what you're saying. I remember reading something once or listening to something once, and the person was going through a tremendous hardship. I mean, it was almost unbearable. And and they were a religious person, and they and they prayed. And they says, Please, Lord, relieve me of this burden. It's more than I can handle. And the answer they got back in their mind was, I love you too much to deny you of this experience. And Nadine, that exactly what happened to me. I did not want that experience. I was fighting and screaming and kicking the whole time. But I'm so grateful the Lord loved me enough to not deny me that experience because I needed that. I as much as I didn't want it and I didn't realize I needed it, I truly needed it. And one more thing I'd tell you, because it goes along with what you said about the compass.

The Compass Story And Staying On Course

I um the time I was going through this dark period, I heard of uh a story that's true that I'd like to share briefly because it really puts things in perspective for me. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute did an experiment. What they did is they took people and they put them in the center of a dense German forest and they told them to walk in a straight line to the edge. Now, these were confident and capable people, but when the clouds covered the sun and they lost their point of reference, the GPS tracking they were wearing showed they were gradually starting to walk in circular motions. Some of them were actually ending up right back where they began. But each and every one of them, the whole time, was absolutely convinced they were walking in a perfectly straight line. Adine, that is my life story. Worked hard all my life, felt like I was doing the right thing, making some investments, but literally I was walking in financial circles. That's when I said I need a compass, but not a metal compass like travelers have. I need a one-page compass because they give me that 30,000-foot view so I don't go off on tangents. I don't know about you, but I love going off on tangents and shiny objects and hot tips. I couldn't afford to do that anymore. My runway was too short. It was more like a helicopter pattern than a runway. I couldn't afford to make those same mistakes again. And that's what I felt I was gifted, that compass through inspiration to that guided me through that that period to give me where I was in six years.

I find it really interesting. I know that this is your your path, obviously, and you know, um building wealth is your hot topic. But I find it really interesting because I feel like when you come to this point, you're 63, you get fired, and you think, oh shit, I've got about two years worth of you know savings, you know, that's gonna get us covered. What the hell do we do after that? And that's such a big part of people coming into retirement, but it's not the only part, is it? Because there's so much more going on, you know. You mentioned your wife. How's that gonna affect your relationship? Like, what else would it have meant to you? Would it have meant leak, you know, potentially losing your home, um, your lifestyle? What were the other important things aside from money that you felt um I'll tell you

Status Loss And True Identity

one thing?

It was I'll tell you the lowest point of the whole thing, because that believe it or not, that wasn't the lowest point. Lowest point came a few weeks later when my wife one day said, Honey, I'm trying to save money and there's a big sale going on at the store. And would you mind coming and helping me? Well, I had nothing else to do. I was sending out resumes, getting nowhere, that kind of thing. So I said, sure, I'll come. We get to the store natine, and I walk in and I look around, and all I saw was women and babies and baby cards crying. Now I'm sure there were men in the store, but I didn't see. Okay, all I saw. And I thought to myself, what am I doing here? I felt like I had a sign on my chest, biggest loser. I felt like I should be out there providing for my family, not in the middle of a grocery store, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day. This is the last place I should have been. I just, and I remember she was checking out. I was standing at the checkout at the end, waiting for her, and I just wanted to scream at that point. I felt like I was in this mental corporate straitjacket that said, David, you are this kind of person. I mean, I had a beautiful company car, fine clothes, we lived in a beautiful place. I got to fly in the company jet quite frequently. All this was my identity dating, and they stripped it away from me. And I'm saying, what? I wanted to scream, but where was I gonna go? What was where's I gonna scream to? I remember that night I went home and I faced reality. I said, you know, the corporate world told me loud and clear, I am of no value anymore. So get over it, David. We need to get this guy out of here that's scared and annoying. And he needs to go. We need to fight this thing because I am not gonna. I felt like I was back from the corner needing, and people either surrender or they fight. And I was not gonna do this to my family. I was not gonna go down without a fight, and I was gonna not lose this battle. I didn't, I even though the odds were absolutely impossible against me. I says, I can't do this to my family, I'm not gonna do this. And it was that night, that moment, and I says, Okay, no more victim. I'm here to win this, and I don't know how I'm gonna do it yet, but I'm gonna figure this thing out. And that's when I took the journey.

So really big shift in identity.

Oh, yeah.

And that happens, uh I mean, throughout our midlife. You if we go back to to like the mid-40s, did you feel did you feel very clear, like when you were in your role in the corporate world, did you feel that was very much who you were? This is me, this is David, I am yeah. Oh, yeah.

I mean, and the whole all the trappings that come with it and and everything, it just felt like, okay, I made it, this is me. But the one piece I hadn't figured out the whole time, Nadine, was the building wealth part, you know, which was a whole other thing. But also I didn't figure out who I really am. I just took this identity that was kind of given to me and accepted it. And I am so glad to be free of that. I have a couple identities right now, Nadine. One is I'm a husband to my wife, I'm a father to my son, and I'm a child of God. Nobody's going to take any of those three away from me. Okay. So I don't care what happens to me. I got those three. And that's really all I care about. I don't really care about I'm an entrepreneur, I'm an author, I'm a millionaire, that kind of thing. That is all nice. I'm not saying it's not, but I that's not who I am.

When did you come to that realization? Uh in that moment when you know everything had been skipped away.

Because I says that's not my identity anymore. And so I just thought about it and says, what's really important to me? And my wife was Nadine, I do not deserve her. She is so supportive. She, even in the darkest period, she doesn't give up. She has more faith in me than I have in myself. I'm being rather honest with you there. I definitely married way above my uh whatever. But I'm grateful for that. And I'm so grateful for and my son, I just love my son. He works with me, my company. I'm training him now, he's doing great. I mean, he's like, I those are two are priceless. And and my religion is important to me too. I I really believe I'm a child of God, and I think you are everyone is. And and and I just, and those are things that okay, that night, I don't know if I clearly thought all that through that night, but I but that was the road I started taking. And it wasn't shortly after that where I realized who I really was. And so that's why maybe I could handle that rejection better, too, because you know, I wasn't just a salesman or whatever business starter. I I was I was something more important than that to me, anyways.

How much of your experience in the corporate world over those what 20 so years, 18 years? How much of that were you able to use in your future self?

Oh, yeah, there was quite a bit. I mean, I that that that wasn't a wasted 18 years by any means. I learned a lot, I grew a lot in that. I grew in a different way, but I was able to take a lot of lessons that I learned, especially that with interactive with people, you know, human relationship type things, um, in into my entrepreneurial life. And that was not a, and even my two failures in the in the um when I was in my 40s when I tried to be an entrepreneur and I failed miserably, I learned from those failures, Nadine. And then that was a valuable lesson. When I was 63 competing against people, I was competing against people half my age with twice the energy I had. But I did something they didn't have. I had experience, I knew what went wrong with my failures, and I wasn't gonna

Building A New Business With Experience

do them again. And I had 18 years after those failures in the corporate world where I learned a lot of important lessons. And I, so although I didn't, I didn't have the youth on my side, I didn't maybe have as much energy on my side as they did. I had direction and vision and clarity and mistakes that I made. And I actually made a one-page business compass. This is not my wealth compass for my my own entrepreneurial business because I needed to stay focused in that area too. I didn't what worked, what didn't work, I need to learn that quickly. I didn't have time to make lots of mistakes that I couldn't figure out.

You talked about energy and not having as much energy as people half your age, but I don't know. You seem like you've got a fair bit of energy.

I was I was on a podcast recently, and there's a 20-something-year-old guy who interviewing me. He goes, David, you have more energy than some of the 20-year-olds are like, No, no, no, right. I just I'm just having a good time.

And no doubt that really paid off. Like I can imagine that you know, you've you've sort of described that you would have gone through a fairly dark period where you're kind of you know hitting your head against a brick wall, you've been fired, you're looking for another job, you don't know exactly what direction you're going in. Um and yeah, that energy, no doubt, would have well, it may have kind of not felt like it at the time, but um, that's really paid off having that kind of like problem solving and like yeah, asking the hard questions, what next? What next? How am I gonna do this?

No, you're you're absolutely right. And I got I can't let this go without saying this, but another piece of that was and I and I I don't want to downplay this, was the support of my wife. I mean, in my darkest times, she was there saying, David, you can do this. I believe in you, I know you can. And then she dug right in there and helped me. She did some administrative things in the company that I didn't have time for. I mean, I'm I had to sell and produce, and so she did the backup part of it. She was like the behind-the-scenes person, which was extremely valuable. She did some things that really took it off my plate so I could focus on trying to build this company that we were like in an impossibility situation. And so I mean, having a supportive partner, I can't emphasize that enough, too. I I got very blessed and lucky there.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Behind every great man.

Or behind every great woman.

Yes, you can go over uh the other way with that. What was your life like before this? And what is it like now? How do you compare the two?

Well, you know, I realized about I was with a company 18 years. By the way, a good company treated me well. I mean, I I I the last thing I do is complain about them. They were great. But the thing is, after about 10 years, the last eight years, Nadine, I knew I was supposed to leave. You ever get that feeling you you just know something? But let me explain, let me paint the picture. I was now in my late 50s, making a good six-finger income with all kinds of amazing benefits and vacation time and corporate travel and nice cars, company cars. You don't just leave that. You know, you just especially when there's not a lot of opportunity for someone your age, maybe in your what you do. But I knew I should have. I didn't have the guts, and I'm embarrassed to admit this on your show to how many listeners you have, but I didn't have the guts to say, you can take this job and I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna conquer the world. That wasn't me, Nadine. I had to be pushed out because I didn't have the guts, and I'm so grateful I did. I I I I've gained so much strength since that experience. But um, I I wish I could say it was a I just was a rocky kind of person. I just got there and fought, but I I didn't, I was retreat. I did not, I just accepted it for eight years. Shame on me for doing that. It really was not good.

Well, I don't know that it's necessarily that uncommon. Like it it kind of makes sense, right? It's security. Um, it it's you're you're kind of guaranteed each week that you're gonna get your pay or each month or however it works. You got your car, you got your you've got your lifestyle, you've got your routine. Like, why would you go blow all of that up? But maybe the lesson is that sometimes we do need to go and blow blow things up. But you know, you need to perhaps have a plan sometimes, rather than just yeah, blow things up. And what and so now that you're on the other side of that, and um what what's your lifestyle? How is it different now? And like even your day-to-day life, how does that look compared to then?

One of the most things I'm most grateful for is I now own my own time. Nobody tells me what to do, no one tells me when I have to do it, if I want to travel, if I want to go with my wife somewhere, we just do it. I couldn't do that in the corporate world. I mean, I had an eight to five job. I had, you know, sometimes evenings, depending on the situation. And I did not own my time. I was there under contract to be there to be paid. And now, I mean, I some weeks I'll I'll I'll work as little as four or five hours, you know, other weeks a little bit more. But I've got that down now. In the beginning, it was a lot of hours, but they were my hours, Nadine. Even though when I was working, when it when I the first couple of months, Nadine, let me tell you something. I was working 50, 60 hours a week and making $300,

Owning Your Time And Finding Purpose

$400 for the entire month. Who does that? What kind of idiot does that? But it was my company, it was my opportunity. And for me, I felt in some ways better than when I was making, you know, a six-figure income working for a corporation where I felt like I, in some ways, chained to the desk type of thing. And when when I got to the point where now we were making some serious money, more than even my corporate job, I felt like wow, but we were still putting a lot of hours in it. Because in the beginning, it took that to, but now this is like fast forward nine, nine and a half years later. I got this thing fine-tuned. My like I say, my son's with me. The hours are much less, and the income is actually even more. It keeps getting better. But the freedom of time to answer your question is one of the greatest gifts I uh gave me. And I'm so grateful for that because I am more free at 72 than I was at 63 or 62 by a mile, by mile. Yes. And what do you do with all of that time that you've got? Well, you know, it's I think in my book, I have a thing called Figna: Financial Independence, graduate to next adventure. And I feel like I never want to just say I've arrived or I've made it or I'm retired. I keep looking for the new adventure. When I was 63, I was forced into a new adventure. When I was 72, I chose a new adventure of publishing this book and sharing it with other people so they don't have to go through what I do. I don't want anyone to have the situation I had at 63 or even at 53, or Nadine, even at 43. I don't want them to have to go through that. And so I'm I'm I'm doing that just to help people. Now that's that's 72. So what am I gonna do at 82, Nadine? I'll have to come back on your show. Oh, we have an interview at 18, I'll play my new adventure. Okay. But I just feel like that's life's about adventures. And I don't want to ever sit back. And so I fill my time up with things I really enjoy. Uh talking to you on this podcast, this is not work for me. It's total play and pleasure. I really enjoy this and and that kind of thing. So my freedom of time, I guess, goes back to that. I get to pick what I want to do. Yeah, yeah. We have a beautiful home on a golf course. I look back at those golfers and I think to myself, I hope you're having a good time, but I just couldn't do that. I gotta be more, I just gotta be more productive than that. I mean, I'm not against golfers. I think I'm happy for them. They should go out and golf as much as they want, but that's not who I am. I I just I gotta do something that's more productive. It's it's either contributing somewhere to my family or contributing to other people who are neat or whatever. And it just, otherwise, I just feel kind of and I I was interviewing a guy who was interviewing me a couple weeks ago on a podcast. He says his father had a was a very successful businessman, owned his own business. He sold his business when he was like 65 or whatever he was. Three years later, he was dead. And when he sold business, he was healthy. But he said, David, he lost his purpose. He lost his reason for getting up in the morning. He was watching TV, he was just doing nothing. And he and he just and it basically three years later he was dead. If he had never sold that business, he'd probably still be alive today. I'm not saying people shouldn't sell their business. I'm not against that, but I'm just saying you've got to graduate to a new adventure. That's the point I'm trying to make. Yeah.

Yeah. And I have that as part of uh one of the things I was gonna ask you actually about meaning and purpose, because it's a it's something that comes up. In midlife, you know, we start questioning what's this all about? You know, we've got the job, we've got the family, we've got the home, but then we kind of like now or the kids leave home, you know, what whatever is going on. But there there are these times where we kind of go, what is my purpose? And you're you're saying that this is not it's got you in a great position financially, but it's it's more than that, isn't it? It's driving you to share it with others.

It is. I'll tell you the secret about and I don't mean to keep bringing about my book, but I'm just gonna because I put the important stuff in there. The secret of my book is it looks like a financial book, and it is. I mean, and it will help you tremendously financially, but this hidden behind it is it also is a book on purpose and how no matter what stage of life you're in, especially if it's midlife, how you can get that next adventure, that next purpose. So you look forward to getting up in the morning. You have a reason for doing it, and it may not have anything to do with money, maybe nothing with money. So, I mean, so there's two kinds of people that need this is one, the people who are struggling financially, but two, people who are struggling for meaning or purpose or a reason or whatever, or just want to have more fulfillment, even if they're okay now, they just want even more, you know, that kind of thing.

And the reality is often, well, the reality is we need we need some kind of financial support, right? Just to live. If that's if it's as simple as that, you know, we don't necessarily someone might not necessarily want to make that their main focus, but if they want to fulfill their purpose and they, you know, you have the freedom to do it because you've got more time, you do need financial support, usually. It doesn't, you know, happen out of thin air.

So you're right. No, my my wife and I were we're going on about six trips this just the second half of this year. Um, and and and and we couldn't do that. I mean, let's be honest with you. We you have to have the money too. I mean, I'm not saying it's all about money, because it really isn't all about money. But boy, when you have the money, you can even take things to another level that you couldn't before. One thing we enjoy doing, and just we do this privately, no one knows about uh locally, but we adopt a couple families at Christmas time that are really in need. And I'm gonna tell you, Nadine, there is nothing more fun than shopping for little kids. It's all I feel like my son's a little kid again. And oh, he's gonna love this, and then we get their wish list. We don't ever meet them, they never see who we are. We don't get any credit for this, and we're not looking for credit, but just the thrill of wrapping them and getting them ready, then having someone come pick it up and deliver it to them because we don't want them to know who we are. That makes Christmas so much fun. You know, they say it's better to give than receive. I mean, it is truly, I mean, uh, we just love that kind of a thing. And and let's face it, we couldn't do a lot of things that we're doing if we didn't have the financials too. Again, I don't want to make this all about money, but but that's a very that's a very liberating thing when you have it too.

Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a really lovely thing to do. Yeah. Well, let's talk about money. I mean I so I actually downloaded your um one page. And I very I have to be honest, I only looked at it very briefly because I'm my husband's my husband's more about the he loves all of that kind of numbers thing, and I don't mind the numbers, but I'm I'm about the people, as you can probably tell. Like I'll um you're you've you've you've spent some time coming up with uh a process to um teach people, and it's a process you use yourself, teach people what what would we call to build

The Wealth Compass And The Right Order

wealth, financial independence. Is that another phrase you might use?

Yeah, financial freedom, financial independence, absolutely.

Okay, and and it's kind of mostly to do with shares. Is that right?

Would you stock shares? Um that's part of it. Yeah, yeah, but but it's not the whole the book is really a 360-degree view of your personal finances. Okay, yeah, it's not it is investing, that's a very key part of it, but it's a lot more than investing too. It's about debt management, it's about home ownership and how to do it the right way, so it's not a burden, it's a blessing, that kind of thing. And there's so many aspects of it that when I was looking at other books and reading them, I found some mistakes that let me just give you a brief one, just so people get an idea. A lot of people say, okay, first you get out of debt, which I agree with. Then you do an emergency fund of three to six months, okay, so you can get your safety in place. Then after that, you start investing 15% or whatever. Well, I analyzed that and I realized there's some big mistake in that, okay? Here's what they say again, first get your emergency fund, then invest. Well, if you're 25 years old and you do that, say you're getting out of student loan debt or credit card debt, and you get out, you get out of debt, then you wait up three to six months to an emergency fund. That's going to take you about a year for most people to save up three to six months of their expenses. So that means they're out of the market for a year. So I did that. I said, okay, what if somebody was on the market for a year? Fast forward that for till they're age 65. That's about a half million dollars in US dollars, they would be out of. Now, if they did it, the way I've tweaked it on my on my thing is I say, yeah, when you get out of debt, now, yes, you want to get an emergency fund, but you also want to start investing at the same exact time. Don't wait a year because why you just freed up all your cash flow from all these debts. So now you've got some money freed up. Do them at the both at the same time. Once you get your emergency fund, then you can stop that but then keep the investing. But don't put off investing for a year. That, especially if you're young, that could cost you a half million dollars or even more, depending on the people. So it's little tweaks like that I found that were, I felt are a mistake, the way other people are teaching it, maybe interest teaching it. And I I made several corrections like that, and that that could make as much as a million dollars or more over a lifetime difference in your income without doing any more work, without saving any more money, just doing it in the right order, if that makes sense.

Yeah, definitely. What do you consider debt? Because obviously, you know, most people, if they have owner own a home, they've got a mortgage. Would you consider that debt as well?

That's debt, but that's not bad debt. Okay. Here's why it's not bad debt. Because you not only, you yes, you're paying a mortgage and you're paying interest, but your property is appreciating in value. Okay. So, and so you're actually, and and when you pay it off eventually one day, okay, now you have a rent-free home. Oh, yeah, you have to pay the taxes, you got to pay the maintenance, but you have to pay the monthly rent, you know? And so, and so that's a really that's the only kind of personal debt I feel is is really healthy to do. I mean, in the right way. That's why I have a whole section of my book on how to do it, because so many people get house

Debt Traps And The Rebel Choice

pour and they get changed their house, and it's more of a curse than it is a blessing, and they end up losing their house because they did it the wrong way. So that's a really important thing. And student loans is another thing, Nadine. I am not a big fan of them. I I know sometimes it's hard. You gotta, but you know, do whatever you can not to, and I show waves in my book to not do that because I want to tell you what, I have stats on this, Nadine. People in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and yes, even 80s are still paying off student loan. And the balance isn't going down, Nadine. It's going up because they're not paying enough to cover all the interest. And some people, it's chasing them to their graves, the debt is, and it's taking out of their social security because the government says, Well, you're never gonna pay this off, so we're gonna force you to pay it off by taking. And so now they're like deciding between food and medicine because of this decision they made when they were 18 years old, A.D. I mean, that's almost criminal, letting an 18-year-old, they feel it's a rite of passage, getting student debt and student loans. No, it's not a rite of passage. It's it's a it's it's some people it's a curse and it's a lifetime curse. And it's shocking how how how many people it's a lifetime curse. That is a difficult thing, isn't it?

Because we're we're encouraged. Like that's yeah, there's student debt, but there's like, you know, having the better car. So you borrow money to, or you know, get get a car on repayments, or um, you know, you have banks kind of encouraging you to get a credit card and apply for more, you know, you've got a $2,000 limit, apply for a bit more, go to $5,000, go to $10,000, whatever it may be. All around us, we're told that it's uh you need more, you need more, you need more, you need more. But the way that you're doing it, if if people can, you know, in their 20s, we're not necessarily thinking a whole lot about our financial position at that age. But if if they follow some of the the um lessons that you teach, they can have the money without the credit card. So they can essentially have the same thing, but it's theirs instead of borrowed.

And they and they can have the college without the debt, they can have the things without the without the credit card. And and man, when you don't have all the interest you're paying, you now have money freed up to build wealth. And it doesn't take 40 years, like most people tell you. This is where I say, Nadine, and you like this, you need to be a rebel. You need to be a rebel against the credit card companies, you need about the mortgage card, you need to be a rebel, and you just say, no, maybe everyone's doing that, but I'm gonna be a rebel. I'm not gonna do it that way because look how everyone's ending up. It's let me give me a let me give you a stat. This is shocking. I mean, 80, this is according to the National Council on Aging. 80%, 80% of older adults face financial insecurity. I didn't say 20% needing, I didn't say 50% needing, I said 80%. That's ridiculous. That means eight out of 10 people are finding. This is another shocking one. 50% of people, 60 plus, do not have sufficient income to cover their basic needs. We're talking housing, food, and health care. Half of the adult senior citizens are deciding how I don't have enough to for food, for shelter, and for medicine. This is this is this is people who weren't rebels, Nadine. They followed the pack, and this is where it comes up.

Yeah, that's pretty good.

I don't want to sound like an evangelist here, but this is reality. And I've seen too many people in senior centers that I've visited that are absolutely miserable, and this is how they're ending though in a government senior center that is pure misery, pure misery. It's like being in prison almost. It's not much different almost for some people. That is not the way to end life, you know, or or have your senior years, but it's happening at too, too, too many people, unfortunately. And that's not just the United States, all of the, I'm sure it's in your country too.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I wonder whether part of, I mean, we have, you know, as we spoke right at the beginning of our conversation, you don't want to retire. You you've got passion and purpose, you're following it, you know, following that path. But for many people, that idea of retirement is just not an option because they can't afford to retire. They have to keep working. And also, I think that uh in a few countries, um and potentially here, I don't pay that much attention to be honest. Um, the retirement age has been pushed up.

So um, yeah, I don't know how that's I I just read a study, I just read a study recently. You'll like this, Nadine. People who retire at 55 versus people who retire at 65, the ones who retire at 55 have double the mortality rate that the people who retire at 65. So I'm telling you, this is not all what it's cracked up to be. Oh, just retire. And after you go on so many vacations and play me so many games of golf, it's like this is empty. Well, this is I can't tell you that people I know who've told me, David, I retired and I just couldn't do it much longer. I I had to go back and be you know productive in something. Maybe they're not earning money, maybe they're volunteering. You know, it's not that it doesn't all have to be a lot of money, but but it depends on their situation financially, I guess.

Yeah, yeah. So retirement's what we might call in Australia a big have. We've been we've been told that it's good for us, but in fact, yeah, it's not. Um have you do you coach people? I know you've written your book, but do you do any sort of coaching? Because I'm curious about different age groups and people that you might have connected with, with the system that you've created and some of the success stories that you might have seen.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to coach them. I just don't, but I do I do virtual coaching in virtual ways because if they sign up for my newsletter, they do get a regular weekly uh um of tips and and things that supplement the compass and the book that that really help them, but people at different ages, like I think. And I do get emails back from people saying how much uh I matter of fact, can I just share an email with you? Because this is something interesting. This is from the reason I want to share this one because he's not a financial person. This is a uh a review I got from a clinical psychologist with 25 years' experience, not a financial background at all, Nadine. He was facing his own career crisis. He said the one-page wealth compass gave him the exact financial hope and practical steps he needed. But here's my favorite part of the quote. He says, I couldn't put the book down. Let me tell you why that's important to me, Nadine. Have you ever heard? I'm sure you've financial books. Does anything sound more boring than a financial book? I mean, with their charts and graphs and all that. I and I said to myself when I wrote this book, I am not going to do it that way. I'm not gonna make it a boring, dry book. It's filled with true life stories of people who succeeded, people who failed, myself included, and how we overcame or how we uh you did what we did. And so people can see it both ways. And then when I show them how to do it, they're thinking, well, now that makes sense. I've heard that before, David, but I never really understood it. I was embarrassed to ask, but you say make it so simple. My sister, not a financial person. She's just she's not at all a financial person. She's read the book and she's David, I live. I couldn't put it down because it's so interesting to the stories. That was my goal. It's not for the Wall Street people or like people like your husband, maybe who's really into finances. It's for people like you, Nadine, and my sister and other people who say they need financial help, but they don't want the book that puts them to sleep every night, you know, because they're so boring. And so that that was really important to me to make it not a dry book at all. It's it's very interesting books.

Yeah, cool. That's good. Good to hear. Um what was I gonna ask? There was a I've had another guest on quite a while ago. Um and she talks about um the same sorts of things, financial freedom. She hasn't written a book, but she talks about, and I don't know if you're into this or not, but I'm curious to hear like the masculine and the feminine approach to financial freedom or for financial success. And that like we've got the masculine side, which is the you know, the spreadsheets and the numbers and like keeping a track of everything, and then the feminine side where you need to uh believe in abundance and flow and receptivity and that sort of thing. Does that resonate for you? Or any, I mean, even if you don't bring that into your

Simple Investing In A Volatile World

actual work, do you have any personal kind of feeling where you, you know, you've gotta you've gotta believe, you've gotta be grateful, you've gotta um, you know, understand that flow of money, the ups and downs, the yeah.

The only thing I would challenge her on is um, I don't think it's a gender thing because I know women who are very analytical and oh she loves the spreadsheet, don't get me wrong. And I and I know men who aren't spreadsheet oriented, and they just it's about belief and it's hope and all the kind of things. And I think I'm kind of a split personality, like a Jekyll and Hyper or whatever, because half of me, I am that way. Um belief, but I'm also a numbers person. My degree's in accounting, okay. I I never really liked accounting, but I'm grateful for the degree because it it it taught me how to read financial statements and I I could talk to my bookkeeper and my CPA and all that kind of thing wisely. So I don't know if it's so much a gender thing, although probably she's right. Maybe more women are one subway and more men are one way, but I think it goes both ways. Yeah. Yes, I and that attitude, that faith, that belief, that optimism, I think is critical in for both people, actually. I really don't know.

Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, rather than it being a sort of a male-woman gender thing, it was more of an energetic, more of an energetic, you know, men are uh or the the masculine principle and the feminine principle. The feminine principle is about flow, uh, whereas the the masculine principle is more about structure, and like that you need both of those things.

But my wife is not a financial person at all. And I have in our estate plan, I have one note to her in addition to everything else. I says, please reread my book. Just so you just because everything is in there, just reread it. Because and she's not into it, and as long as I'm alive, um, she didn't have to really worry about it, and she doesn't want it, and I don't want to burden her with it because she, you know, she has other things that she has a passion for and all that, and we're not all gonna be the same. I'm glad, I'm glad we actually accomplish each other. I'm glad we're not the same because that'd be pretty boring, I think. Yeah.

How have you seen this change over the last nine years since you've kind of cracked what cracked the code um for for this experience of yours with wealth generation? And you and the the fact that you do um you know, play with the stock market or however you want to talk. Um, I don't play with it, but I don't play, I know that that was the wrong phrase. But like, do you have you seen any change? I'm just curious because like there's a lot of volatility in the world right now.

There is.

Does that play out on the stock market? And do you feel confident that what you're doing now will continue to be the way to do it?

There is no question in my mind. Let me tell you briefly. Um, I I love, and uh just for entertainment purposes, and AD, not for any uh investment advice, I love to watch the financial news channel in the morning at breakfast time because I just I find it entertaining. I really do. And sometimes they they remember one day they were gloom and doom and the markets crash, and everybody better get out of the market. And I'm laughing. I am laughing at breakfast. My wife says, Honey, why are you laughing? These people, these are knowledgeable people, they're saying we're in trouble. I go, honey, they don't know. They're just guessing. And Warren Buffett, he has a quote I just love. He goes, forecasts tell you a lot about the forecaster, but nothing about the market. And that is so true, Nadine. That is so true. I mean, they get it wrong as much as they get it right. If you have a plan, if you have a system that is sound mathematically after in a after with great research and it's gone, I don't worry about that stuff. I have it's on an autopilot, it's on one piece of paper. This is the paper. It takes me literally about 10 minutes a month to do this. I mean, that's all I that's all I invest in. I mean, uh, I probably and and I don't need to worry about all these doom and groups. When the market's down, Nadine, I do well. When the market's up, I do well. When the market's stagnant, I do well. Because when you have a system that works, and it's not like anything magical, it's just sound mathematical principles that work, that have been working for decades, since over centuries. And so that's why I don't worry about all that uh in terms of the market, in terms of the market, anyway.

What do you think about uh cryptocurrency?

I am not a fan of it, but let me explain. I'm not against it either. I I look at that as highly speculative, highly speculative, because you can look at it. And so I say this if you're an investor, and we all should be, um I have no problem if you take maybe 5% of your portfolio and and play things that find you find interesting, you know, that kind of thing. And so if you lose everything, well, 5% isn't gonna put you in the poorhouse. You know, it's not gonna, but if you make it big, it could that 5% be worth more than your 95%, you know? And so I'm not against that. I don't personally do that in ADN. I just I'm happy just doing it the way I'm doing it. But uh my son, he he invests in some crypto, and but it's not a big part of it's not a big part of his portfolio. And so to slice out a sliver like 10%, I mean 5% or 10% the most, um, I don't have a problem with that, as long as you know it's something you enjoy doing, it's something that's fulfilling to you. But it's not something I I I would enjoy personally, you know.

Yeah, fair enough. I I mean I don't know a whole whole deal about it, but yeah, I was just curious to to hear what you said about it.

It used to be a hundred and some thousand dollars per share, now it's sixty-some thousand dollars per share. So, I mean, that's the volatility. You would lost half your money, that kind of thing. So it's it's you know, it's it's for the certain kind of person.

Yes, yes, for sure. Can you describe what a portfolio is? Because I don't have a clue what that means.

That's right. That is where all of your liquid investments are. By liquid investments, I mean things that you could liquidate like within a couple of days or a week or whatever. That's usually like stocks, which I only invest in low cost index funds. Let me tell you, I I only own two, I only own two um uh different investments, Nadine. One of them is I own the entire United States stock market. Every publicly traded stock I own is a little tiny, tiny slice of, okay, and this portfolio and this and uh index fund. The other one is I enjoy, I, I. Own every public trade stock outside the United States, Australia, China, everywhere. Okay. And so literally, Nadine, I own every public trade stock on the planet. For me to go broke to nothing, the entire world economic system has to collapse. That happens, we got bigger problems of money. So, and you don't have to be rich to do this. I mean, one share is a few hundred bucks. It's not like, or one of the shares is like 80 some bucks. So it's not like, oh, I don't have that money. Like you, no, no, it doesn't take much money. You know, you're just buying a little tiny sliver of them. So, but but you're you're so diversified, Nadine, that you don't have to panic if you hear, oh, some company went out of business or or this this whatever tragedy, you know, because you're you got the whole world market. And so that's so that's what a portfolio is. It's all your shares you have, it's cash too. It could be you might own treasury bills, you know, you might own bonds, but it's all that. And usually a brokerage puts it on one piece of paper for you online. You can look at it and you can see your balance and check it. Like every, I'm sure your husband has that, you know, that kind of thing for you guys.

What about um this just popped into my head, like gold? Do you or like precious metals? Do you invest in precious metals?

I I don't do that because I keep mine simple. I own I own companies who own that. So technically I do, but I don't want to get it complicated again because literally, here's how how involved my investment is there with once I pay myself once a month. Once when my money hits my account, my personal account, before it even has a chance to say hi, I open my brokerage account, I transfer the portion I'm gonna invest every month, it's a certain percentage, and I put some of it in the US, some of it in the international, I close my account and I don't touch it for another month. That's how complicated my system is, Nadine. I mean, anybody could do this. It's not complicated at all. And I like keeping it simple. Now, if I got into gold and got into crypto and got into this, and then there was a big headline about gold or crypto and all this other stuff, oil, I'd be like going nuts. I I I don't want to do that, Nadine. I think there's more to life than money and fall on the markets. And five to ten minutes a month is what I'm willing to allocate to that at this point in my life, and that's all I want to do.

Is that where you um use you, you know, you you your story is that you went from um being fired at 63 and then by 69 um having grown your wealth to become a millionaire?

Yes, exactly.

Um is that how you did it? By by having is that the one thing that you would say is important? Okay, when you get your your money every month, this is because that's what the ones that's a piece of it.

That's a piece of it. But if you're not doing all of this here, and it's not complicated, this is simple. I mean, this is but if you're not following the steps in order, like I was telling you earlier, then you start getting into problems, then you got to turn off your investing because something went wrong over here because you did that wrong, and you got to stop that, and you gotta take actually money out of your investing because you got to cover this. And so that's why it's not just about investing, but if you do everything else in the order that you're supposed to go, then your investing gets uninterrupted, and you can grow that thing a lot faster than people who get in and out and selling this and doing that, and and and the compound growth just really accelerates. I mean, my the first, my first double, uh there's a thing called the rule of 72, and it tells you that if you're getting a 10% return, your money say, I mean, it's any percent, but this is 10%, your money will double every 7.2 years or roughly every 86 months. My first double occurred in 28 months, not 84 months. My second was 13 months, and the other one was like, I don't know, it's 20 some months. So an average of 24 months, my doubles were happened, my markable double. And my now I had another double since then, which was a seven-figure double. And it just keeps doubling every 20-some months because I'm not messing with it, I'm not doing it, I'm not pulling stuff out because I did it in the right order, in the right way. And that's what's really critical. You can really accelerate your wealth building a lot better if you got the whole 360 view instead of just all about investing. It's more than that.

How much does patience play a role in this person?

Well, see, you know, I love Benjamin Franklin's statement. He says this the knowledge is the best investment you can make. When you understand what how the market works, when you understand how the finances work, and it's not complicated. See, Wall Street loves complexity. The truth is, simplicity is for winners, complexity is for victims, Nadine. And Wall Street wants you to be a victim because if it's complicated, then you need them to help you. And then they're gonna get their cut. I'm not against advisors, I'm really not against advisors, but what I am against is products that are sold that are in the advisor's best interest for their commission check and not the customer's best interest. And when you understand this, you don't have to, you can be patient because you can see the progress. And when the market goes down, I have a little happy dance when the market goes down because I'm now buying shares cheaper. I'm getting more for my dollar. And then when it goes up, it's like say you went to the department store, A Dean, and they said 50% off sale. Would you ever tell a clerk, hey, I don't want to know 50% off? I only pay full retail for stuff. You would never do that. But they do it with the stock market all the time. The market drops in half. Oh my gosh, I got to get out of the market. No, that's like everything's on sale for over 200 years, my dean. For 200 years, every time the market has decreased, but it's not only came back to its full uh amount as prior, it's gone on to new heights. 200 years of data is good enough for me. I sleep very well at night, whether the market's down or the market's up. It's it's not complicated, it really isn't.

Hey there, Rebel. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Midlife Rebel Podcast. If you'd like to support the show, you can buy me a coffee by going to Buy MeACoffee forward slash Midlife Rebel Podcast. Thanks for listening.