Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the what's yous Investment Podcast presented by Ignite Funding with Ron Arceo with featured guests. Weekly podcasts that explore your time, talent and treasure like share and follow. For more what's your investment? Let's get to the show.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Hey, how's it going? Ronald Arceo here. I'm here with Aitai Chen. She's been very awesome. I've had a chance to talk to her over the last couple weeks. She runs this platform called Savvy Money Wisdom. And know we talk about a lot of finances here. We talk a lot about, of how principles and how we have to be smart around our, our financial decision decisions.
Having wisdom is a part of it. I know a couple times we're going to be talking about how to do that. And especially from a different perspective.
Aidai comes in from a corporate finance world.
She's been in various, various different, different, different companies to consult and to, to kind of help them move along in that direction.
She's been focused though on the true calling of really balancing purpose, their finances and you know, just having that inner peace. And her journey here as an immigrant coming in and learning everything new, different complex financial systems and then truly moving up in the, in the, in the understanding of finance in general has really given her an opportunity to help others reach different levels of life, life experiences even. And so today we're going to be talking with Aidai and talking about what got her into this, why she started doing this, from corporate finance to helping others and then finally talk about maybe some of the steps along the way that she went through. But again, this is the what's your Investment podcast and we talk about time, talent and treasure and how that really on a personal, maybe even professional level really affects our psychology and the way we view money. And so I want to welcome Idai. Thank you for coming along.
How's everything going?
[00:02:04] Speaker C: It's great and it's such a pleasure being as a guest in your podcast. Thank you for having me.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: You're very, very welcome. Well, first of all, tell us who you are and what you do currently.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: So again, I'm Aide Chen. I am a founder of Saving Money Wisdom. I'm a financial wellness consultant. So I help women, couples, immigrants, first generation Americans to build that relationship with money and then build that sustainable financial wealth.
So I usually work one on one and I mentor people on different aspects of money.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Why was that such a big important thing for you to, to start? What was. Let me go back a little bit. Let's talk about your corporate finance career. Well, Let me go back further than that.
You, you're an immigrant, right? So like when you got here, what was the first. Well, maybe what's the first differences? What were the differences that you've seen?
[00:03:07] Speaker C: So I would say I didn't have that strong financial literacy knowledge coming to United States. I didn't receive it in my home or in my family. And then coming to United States, I went for my MBA in finance. So that was actually which opened the door for me, like understanding this complex financial system.
And I worked at a corporate for 18 plus years, mainly in corporate finance.
And during that time I was volunteering as a mentor, financial coach or project manager, project money manager in a different nonprofit organizations where I taught people about financial literacy. But then at the same time I was learning myself. And during that time I realized that, that financial situations can bring like different financial impact on different financial well being of different people. Right.
So coaching people, teaching them about the financial literacy, I found it gave me like the greatest joy. Because that impact I've seen on people's lives, once they change their trajectory of their financial situation and how it impacted their life, their families, their attitude, and how it improved their life overall, that was like the moment where I would see how meaningful my job is and how purposeful it is.
So that I decided to leave my corporate world and make this my primary focus. Helping people, educating them on financial literacy and helping them to find this financial reach their financial goals.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Wow. Has it been a struggle or has it been a discipline? What are some things that maybe some people would be going through?
[00:04:55] Speaker C: I love that, I love that question. So let me tell you a little story about it. How did I get here?
So first, you probably know the fire that financial independence retire early.
I came across of that term sometimes in 2014 when I actually was moving from Houston to Connecticut for a job. And the woman who was leaving and I was coming to her position, she was about to retire.
And for me, I've never seen people retiring at their 45 or like in their early 40s. And that was something new to me. Honestly, I thought something wrong before. So I did ask like why you're retiring so early? Like are you in disability? Or something happened.
I know it is like very inappropriate, but I was like, how people can retire unless there's something wrong with them. So that one, she told me that she has a boat, she and her husband are going to sail around the world. And they said, how is it possible?
And she said, it's a fire. So she literally just planted the seed and she left. And that when I started researching like what is a fire? So fire. It's financial independence. Retire early. And apparently there is a path how to get there.
And fortunately I was making enough money where I was actually investing 60 to 70% of my income and the market was so good. So that last year when I decided to leave the corporate world, I didn't did all my financial analysis and I actually was in a position of retire comfortably.
And yes, it was again, it was discipline. Yes. It was consistency.
And of course it's a knowledge like educating myself throughout this whole journey and now I'm here to share, yes. My experience and help others to reach their financial goals.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: So you reached this moment in the middle of a job change or a location change and you found someone out of nowhere that you were, you were, you were taking over the position and she was retiring at 45.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Yes. She was 45, yes.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: And so that confused you, right?
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Because it confused me. Yes. And I should say that I knew all about available tools. Right. How to reach your financial independence.
I went for mba, so I learned in my financial classes all these different tools, but I didn't apply them to my life until I was like 34.
So I kind of was a little late. Not necessarily late, but I could have started early, right?
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:39] Speaker C: So I started in 34, but then I was like very diligent. Yes. On reaching my goals.
So I would say even like with all this knowledge, if you do not apply it to your life, your everyday like life, so that knowledge can stay there. Right. You may never achieve that financial goal. So it is so important know it, but then also use it for your.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: To act on it. Right. They always say you can have the knowledge, but if you don't act on it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just a waste of time probably.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: Yes, yes, absolutely.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: So you took MBA skills really used for business and corporate and moving up in that structure, you put that into place in your personal life and putting these, let's just call them reports and analysis in place for your, for your own personal life. So when someone's going through this and let's say you're talking to an immigrant, maybe first generation, maybe second generation. Maybe second generation is taking care of first generation, whatever it is. Right.
And you're, you're, you're teaching them, what are some of the first things that you, you look at?
[00:08:52] Speaker C: So first of all, I look at their whole financial situation.
So it's, it's analysis. So we look at their net worth and we look at their income and expenses. But before that I have to understand what are the people's goals, what are their values, what is, motivates them, right. What is important for them in their life. And then looking at their financials, we create like, I help them to create like together their financial plan for their financial goals. So it depends, like everyone is in different situation, they come with different, different goals. But then understanding their lifestyle and what is important to them, then we craft that financial plan for them. So that is the first thing we look at.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Great. So you're looking at goals, values, maybe different challenges that they're going through, maybe things that their, their motivations behind things.
When you get that holistic view of let's say their, their financial ecosystem.
Because as a coach, right, because it's different than people who are advisors and people who offer investment advice and things you don't really get, you don't get paid off of any investment advice or any product or anything like that.
So really it's a heart of coaching. And they're, they're, you're, you're walking them through this process.
What are some drawbacks or what are some things that they have? They, some people could be hesitant to, in investing? You just say, for example, they're putting money into 401k, they have some money left over and they're maybe looking at investing, let's just say real estate or anything really doesn't really matter.
And you, you define that. Okay, their values, they like to invest, but they're pretty risk averse and they're reaching 50s.
What would be your thought process? I guess is what I'm trying to get. What would be your thought process when somebody comes in like that and you're.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: Saying when they're 50s.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, when they're 50s or maybe even earlier, maybe they're transitioning to a career and maybe they're just learning like, oh, I'm 40 something years old, I should have started. I'm really looking into my retirement. I have about 20 to 30 years left and I work at a, at a normal, let's just say corporate $60,000 a year job.
What do I do?
[00:11:15] Speaker C: Okay, so I think it is first of all to understanding where they are standing financially. Right. So we look at their income and then on their expenses.
So where the money goes and does their spending align with their values?
And then understanding their like I call it financial psychology, like the way they spend money or earn money, we usually adopt it from someone or from somewhere and usually we mirror our parents or we model their behaviors or in our society, especially with social media, there's so many influences, right? And people may spend money based on influencers or to impress someone. But is it really like your values, is it really what you care about? So we have to understand that the core their values first.
And also like for example, if they're adapting it from their parents to creating that awareness is so important, right? So that money mentality and once they have that awareness that it is not theirs, it's from their parents, it's from influences, it's from society, then what is really, really you care about, right? What is that core? And then based on that, we look at their finances and we look. Usually when you look at their spendings, you can actually tell, right what their values are. And most of the time like for example, if you look very specific, take example of subscriptions, those subscriptions can take away a lot of money from your budget you may not even aware about. So we do the deep cleaning to understand where their money going, how much they are earning, how much they are spending and then what left over. And then with that, based on what they are trying to achieve, we create that plan.
So for example, for some people it could be paying off their debt. For some people maybe buying house. For some people maybe retiring early, right? So like putting their kids through college. And based on that I look for each situation separately because everyone is different in personal. Personal finance is very personal, right?
So based on that we built together that roadmap.
So like for example, if someone is coming in their 40s or 50s and they want to retire, so what are tools are available for them? What are those tax advantage accounts they've been taking, taking advantage of, right?
What, what kind of lifestyle they're envisioning in when they retire? How much money do they need to spend? And then I educate like I don. Provide any advices, but I usually educate like for example there's different rules. Like for example you probably know 4%, 4% rules and educate on those like small things like how does it look like how much do they need and what their life will look like.
Again if they have debt, that's probably the first of all thing of depth before they start like heavily investing. Because debt will just eat your money out.
But if they're, if their goal to buy house, then yes, credit score is important, right?
Building that 20% of down payment, that's important. So we should concentrate on that and build on that. If it is retiring, then how you are envisioning your Retirement. How much will you need at retirement? So, and we are building the goal based on that.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. Because imagine if you're, let's say you have just as an arbitrary number from 60 to 80, you want to have a certain amount of income that comes in and let's just say I don't know what the average is, but let's just pretend you can make up the number, right? Let's just pretend we can make up the number and we decide that my financial independence number is.
My fire number is. I don't know, let's just say $2 million in retirement. Let's just make it easy. $10 million in retirement, a lot of money to, to spend in 20 years.
That's a lot. But that's, that's a part of it, right? Like how do you, how are you able to build it to that point? If, if that is a goal, let's say it is 5 million, let's say it's a million. Most people unknowingly could probably retire with a million dollars if they, if they set it up properly.
I'm not going to be able to do that because I did not set it up properly early enough.
But let's just say someone does from 18, $10,000 all the way till 60, something, right? And at that point, without touching it, more than likely they will probably end up with a million dollars in retirement.
[00:15:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Easy, easy. And that's what, that's, that's the, I think that's the part, the psycho psychological part, the financial part. Maybe people. Did you find this to be true? Maybe that people just don't understand it. And then when they do, it's so complicated that they don't even do the work. They have the knowledge, but they don't even do the work to really put it into place.
Do you find that to be true or no?
[00:16:18] Speaker C: It was me until I started investing in, when I was 34.
So there is a magic word which, called compounding.
Actually two words, compounding interest.
So compounding interest is your best friend if you start early because it's all about time and how compounding interests work. It's compounding on your interest.
So if you think about in average, like market growth, 7, 8%, like your investment doubles every seven to eight years.
If you had $10,000, it will be 20,000, then 20,000 will be 40, 40 will be 80, 80. And before, you know, before you're 30 or 40 years old, you already having a million dollars. Yes, and again, it was me.
But the More you invest, the earlier you start. Yeah. The way ahead you will be. Time is your best friend.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: You're almost essentially buying time in the market. If you start early, you're almost putting more time in the market as you start in early. So, okay, 34 started.
And from that point you were in the corporate finance career from before that for decades, right? For pretty long time.
[00:17:36] Speaker C: So I was probably. For probably six years or so, I was in a corporate finance already. Yeah, perfect.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: And then so from there you kind of transitioned to coaching and around what year was that?
[00:17:49] Speaker C: So I started coaching in 2016.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Okay, cool. So overall, so about 10 years and then six years prior to that, corporate finance. So you've been in this industry or in this. At least in the, in the, in the face of a career as opposed to learning in the MBA. So you've been over 20 years. Almost 20 years. 16. 20 years within this space. What were some of the successes that you've seen with maybe some clients? You don't have to be specific, but what were some of the. Maybe big ones that you remembered?
[00:18:18] Speaker C: Okay, so I've seen, I have. Especially with immigrants. Since I work a lot with immigrants, I've seen different. Different sides. Right. So usually I would say I will start with that immigrants, when they come here, there's so many barriers, right.
To assimilate to this culture. First, to learn language, to understand the culture and financial system is very complex. Like, before they get to that point, usually they feel like they're already late or they're like way behind.
So when I come, I actually educate them. So that is kind of my mission, to make it very simple, very accessible for all newcomers and educate them about financial literacy and successes. I've seen there is so many people who actually, as an immigrant come here, they become successful, but because they don't know how to use their money, they usually keep them in cash. Like, in general, not like cash, cash. Oh, some of them do, but usually they just keep them in their saving accounts and they feel it's safe. And I've seen so many people who will come with like no understanding and they have a lot of money and they don't know what to do with them and just helping them to understand that financial system, how to, how to allocate those money, how to diversify their investments. I'm just teaching them. Right. But then the decision is theirs because they do. They have to do their own research.
I provide them tools, I provide them resources. But they have to make, at the end of the day, made their decision and I still have people's money actually doubled and tripled in last, I would say like 10 years or so because I do have like checkups with them like once in a while and even like in one year. What a difference it can make if they put those money in the right tools.
So I would say back to your question. Yes, there is so many different tools are available, but not everybody knows about them. And many people who are like, especially immigrants, yes, they have, they're hesitant because they come with a different cultures with different mindset of money and just working on those mindset, uncovering them what is important for them and why they're doing the way that they are doing, and then showing them that their different tools are available to them. That is kind of mind blowing for me. It's like I open to like, why didn't I meet you before? Or why I haven't heard about this before. Or maybe they've heard about it, but they never implement it because they need someone to actually hold their hand.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: And stay there and watch them when they are doing that. Yeah.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: And it's a financial, it's a financial decision that they have to make. And you know, I've noticed, I have a lot of immigrant friends and families and I've noticed that they do have a lot of money on hand for some reason, but it never goes anywhere. Yeah. Which is so interesting to me because I was born here. So the system for me, I'm understanding, oh, you know, let's allocate this.
And I have friends that have, you know, this is some of them. Well, I would say friends, but people that we know put it under their mattress almost. It's almost like they just kind of do that and they don't know what else to do with it, which is, which is interesting. So if that is the case, and let's say people aren't putting their money to work, they're just saving it. Inflation goes up, inflation beating out, you know, the rate and then economy going up and down.
Understandably, they'd be scared.
[00:22:00] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Right.
So when they see you and they meet you and this can go into the whole time talent treasure thing, when they see you and they meet you, how do you invest your time with them? And because you've invested your time so much in your own growth and in your own profession, um, what does it look like when you invest time with them or what, what do you invest time?
How do you invest your time with them?
[00:22:23] Speaker C: Well, so how I. In general, how I invest my time. So for me, it's so important spend time with my family.
So I have a five year old and I have a husband.
So my. My family is my. My treasure.
And that is so important for me. So that is my pillar number one. The second pillar is it's my. What I love to do, it's my hobby, it's what I'm passionate about. And that is my coaching program. So and for coaching program there is always. You have to learn, you have to always know what is going on. What. What changes, what laws are, what are the contribution limitation limits. Right. So they just release actually. So the all these different things. You have to know what is going on in the market.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:09] Speaker C: What is going on in economy. Because it's very much impacts how I coach my people. When there is different cycles of economy, we have to prepare our clients. Like for example, if we are going to recession or our economy goes down, I usually suggest save money for emergency funds to save money for three or six months of expenses if you have a big family. Because no one is immune to these different changes in life. People can get laid off, lose their jobs, their loved ones. Anything can happen. The car can go get broke. So we have to have those emergency funds in place. But then at the same time I say do not save so much money because you will lose it to your inflation. And inflation been always also like between 3 to 5 and it goes up and down. But it's inflation will eat your money. So you absolutely have to invest that money.
So yes, when it comes to my again treasure time. So I spend a lot with my family and I want to say that money is so important in our life. But also there is other things that's so important. Like our time, right? It is so important our time. Like for example, why people use fire or in that movement of fire because they want to get their money time back. Right? Not only money, but time back. And what the time is time. Where do you spend your money on something that you love and being like healthy, not only physically, but mentally, it's also very important. And if you have time to invest into your health and into your mental health for your own growth. But then at the same time, it's so important for me personally to build those treasure moments with my family.
And I will just share a little bit about my family. So my husband went through cancer. We are actually still in the process of fighting cancer. And that was actually like probably one of the main goals. When I actually look at my life and I reevaluate and I change my priorities.
Right. And I Said like you can earn any money, much money, as long as you're healthy, you can build your wealth, but if you are not healthy, you can't appreciate that.
So you are absolutely have to have both. You have to have mental health, physical health, build your wealth and have the time to appreciate that.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: That is amazing. It's, it's usually at the last moment where we're in a situation where we think, shoot, I should have worked on that. I should have focused on my health or I should have or something happens. There was a, I don't know if it was recent, but I do remember, maybe it was a podcast, maybe it was something that I listened to that we're just literally one moment away from anything bad happening.
Anything could be car, could be anything and unfortunately could be unfortunate situations.
And it really puts a highlight of what's really important. Right. And I like that, I like the fact that you're highlighting time as being the main thing and then at the same time the talent that you develop in this coaching practice, this coaching hobby, you even call it a hobby. It's not even a, it's not even a practice at this point, but it is a practice and it is, it is a money maker. I would assume it is something that you have a, a chance to impact the community.
That's hard to do. Right. And to do it for 10 years, for this long and to be able to coach people through that process and handhold them and then multiple clients throughout the years and growing and then helping.
There's a heart there that I think is very important for people to see that it's not easy. Helping people understand or helping people learn about finances could potentially put people off. It could be hard for them to understand and they could just give up and hands up and just be done.
And you're, you're able to handhold them that, handhold them through that process and really help decrease the amount of mental stress, probably even physical stress because they have somebody around when it comes to coaching. Because money coaches don't last that long.
Many people that are in the industry don't last that long.
Many businesses don't last past five years.
How were you able to become so successful and keep, keep this going, especially with things happening personally in your life? How are you able to do that?
[00:27:38] Speaker C: I would say I didn't chase the money first when I started doing this. So I started working with non profit organizations as a volunteer. So I volunteered for nine plus years now.
And mainly like as a volunteer, you never seek something in return. You just Give right. You just. But at the same time I'm learning too by coaching other people.
And then when I step down from my corporate world, people who I coached in the past, they start reaching out to me and they start asking me if I can coach help someone like their family members or their neighbors or their co workers.
And that's how it's actually organically start coming to me.
And I honestly didn't know that people pay for it.
And so one of them actually offered me money and I said, well it's okay, I can, I do it for free anyways and I can do it for free. And that person said like no, but I would love you to take my money because that way I will feel comfortable that when I created llc.
[00:28:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: And that when I was like, oh, so there is, it's a profession. So I started doing my research and looking and I'm like, so there is academies, there is a, like a great financial counseling. So that I actually part of it, a member of it right now too.
So. And I'm like, that is the whole industry there. So that when I start meeting other coaches, start learning more about it. But I do still volunteer a lot. I do free workshops. I work for like Savvy Money Wisdom. It's my company. I work for women's Money matters Savvy Ladies. And like many different other organizations where I help women to learn about finance. Not only women, but more women and couple. But then I also, yes, I make money now because I do have clients. I do coach one on one for three months program. I have three months, six months program and two months program. So it depends on people's goals. So I provide this coaching again like look at their own financials and work throughout their psychological part of money and then build the plan that they need. And once the program is over, some of them would like to extend and we just do the check ins once every month, sometimes in the quarter, sometimes once a year. But yes, it is like ongoing. And yes, that's been, I would say it's been successful. But first of all, I was not chasing money. Money actually chased me.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well that's the best part. When you have your clients coming after you, that's even better.
You don't have to really sell anything at that point. And yeah, and you know, coaching the industry, the coaching is everyone's a coach these days and it's hard to find who's who and, and, and everyone that can, can have an opinion and a framework and a style. But it's really the People that are in it for the long run, that are utilizing their knowledge and their expertise in ways that are creative.
And even people that are, you know, women or immigrants or whatever, like, relatable to them, that is super important. What gave you the drive? What gives you the drive now? So we talked about time and talent, and then now you said treasure is also family. So I'm assuming that's the drive to really move this thing.
Is that the case?
[00:31:00] Speaker C: Yes. Again, it's like, I have time now, so I'm my own boss. I decide how I spend it. Right.
So we are especially, I'll say my husband, he's a big foodie. So we do travel a lot. I know you're a big fan of food.
Yeah.
Yes. We travel around the world. Like, we travel for food.
We. Yeah, we.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: My wife's watching.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: Just probably, I would say last. Just last. No, just this year. We've been to six countries now.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Wow. Awesome.
[00:31:35] Speaker C: And. Yeah. And we mainly, again, travel for food, for culture, for history, and of course, seeing my family still in my country in Kyrgyzstan, my husband's family is here in Bay Area. So we travel back and forth.
But then also we cook a lot. We cook a lot. And I don't know if you're able to see, I have like whole bookshelves, like, around my whole house. It's all about food.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Speaking my language.
[00:32:03] Speaker C: Yes. And I would say I would give credit to my husband because my husband is a big foodie and he is a very good cook.
So we have usually big parties in our house. So we host, like, big dinners. Yeah. In summertime we have a garden. So I garden.
Then we go to the local markets. Everywhere we go, we go to local markets, we bring food and we go cook at home and. Yeah. And we do this here as well in Chicago. Like, we have a big community and my husband actually known for good cook, foodie, all the recommendations, restaurants.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:32:41] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: I'm gonna talk to you after we get out of here. Yes.
[00:32:45] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: It's gonna be fun.
That's so really what I'm seeing is after. After I've been interviewing a bunch of these guests, you know, and really just getting a chance to talk to everyone.
What I found is a sense of joy that is different than I've seen with just normal, everyday, you know, work people and just doing their thing. And I'm sure you guys have those moments too. But what I've seen is just a certain. And who knows, maybe because we're on camera or whatever, but I'VE sent a certain sense of joy and contribution to give back.
Primarily because almost, I think many of the people that I've talked to so far have either reached a fire number of their own of some sort.
And maybe, maybe they don't call it fire at all. Right. But maybe they've reached it.
And I found that their, their, their love to give back is the most. It's, it's the most, like, authentic, I guess, if that makes sense.
Maybe because they now don't have to work in essentially anymore. Right.
But that's something that attracts, I think, a lot of people.
And, you know, it. I think it attracts people like, I just want to do the work that I love to do, and I want to do the things that I really, really treasure. Cooking, traveling, you know, sharing these experiences with my husband or my wife and all that.
That is what really this podcast is about. It's what do you invest your time, talent and treasure in? And to know that many of the people that we've spoken to are, particularly in the financial space, really love the fact that they do want to have those experiences, that their real goal is to really experience life in a different way and using the financial tools at their disposal. Whether it's investing, whether it's active, you know, real estate, flipping, fix and flipping, whether it's a passive situation, whether it's, it's maybe getting a plan, a simple retirement plan in place or a simple financial plan for your. For their own life in place.
Those are the things that, while the tools are there, we need people who are going to be able to handhold people through that process.
So I commend you a lot for being able to do this for the last 10, 20 years and how you've been able to really show others how to create a life that maybe they weren't, they didn't even have a vision for at some time in their life. And, you know, being immigrants as well, if you're working with them as well, and they not knowing how to assimilate into the culture, into the country, and then being able to do that and as well as having them make responsible or teaching them to be responsible financial, making financial decisions, responsible financial decisions that impacts a community that we probably don't even, we can't even understand. Right. It impacts, yes. Very, very wide. And I heard a saying once that you never know how far your impact goes.
So it's awesome. And I'm excited to see how far you take your, your, your practice and how far people are gonna take what you have taught Them and move. Move exponentially great things in their life. Create great things in their life.
So I have one question, final question, and I. I want to be sure that I make it clear. If you were.
If you were looking back on your future back then and you would say something, the one thing that you would say to yourself when you started, and it could be the 10 years, it could be the 20 years ever since.
What would. What time frame? 20 years or 10 years? And what would you say to yourself? What would you tell yourself?
[00:36:31] Speaker C: I would say everything will be okay.
And I will just say why. I would say that.
I'll just tell you a little bit that I grew up in the Soviet Union, and then I lived in Turkey before I came to United States. And when Soviet Union fell apart, the whole system fell apart. So people lost money, they lost jobs, they would. And it was just 10, 11 years old when I first time. My memory of money, when I was like, what's going on? And I didn't understand what happened. But that time frame actually just so impacted me as an adult that not knowing what is coming next, where the food will come from, will. My parents will have jobs. So. And it is the whole Soviet Union, like 15 countries went through this. It was like, kind of trauma, I would say, as a child.
And now looking back, like, you know, everything will be okay as long as you trust yourself. As long it comes from.
From your heart, as long as you are very intentional, what you're doing, again, with a good mind, good seeds, with good thoughts, you will be okay. You'll be okay. Life has a tendency.
It has a tendency to put those puzzles together at the end. Maybe now you're not seeing the big picture, but then life actually puts you, the right people in front of you, right situations, right thing in front, and just trust yourself, you'll be okay.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: I love that. That's. That's a great. I get. I got a. I got. I got chills hearing that. And it's. It's amazing to hear people's stories that have come from very difficult backgrounds in different places.
Especially when hardships like that really impact, you know, at that age, 8, 9, 10 years old. And then. And then really taking that as a way to not experience that ever again within your own life and then within, you know, helping others that are. That could potentially experience it, not experience it.
Um, so I commend you for that. That's a very heartfelt, very, you know, driven mission. Very intentional.
And, you know, I like that you put having good thoughts in there, because I Think people. When people think like, you know, you're not like, people have a tendency to think like you. It's almost normal to just have good thoughts in that space. But when you're in a, when you're in a funk and you're like, not, the thoughts that you have to almost fight and battle for better thoughts, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, whatever it is, you have to battle it. And I do think that's there, There's. There's a light at the end of that tunnel where the pieces do fit together.
[00:39:08] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: And that's a cool story. I'm, I'm excited to hear a little bit more about your story in the future. Maybe we come on a different podcast and we could talk about different situations like that and really delve into, you know, some of the things that, that really affects some, some, some of the people.
We have so many different people coming in, watching our videos, getting into our email lists and of that nature. And it. For me, I really would want the people on, in our community to really know that, hey, wherever you're at, wherever this place is, there's some kind of information that we're, we're providing to you to help build whatever financial generational, wealthy lifestyle that you want.
But there are people out there that have great stories and have an understanding of maybe where you've been.
And I'm excited to share that with people and I'm excited to have had this conversation with you and to share this conversation with others.
If there's anything you like to sell, like to say, to tell the people that are watching this or listening to this, here's your chance.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: Yes. I just want to say it's never too late, never too late to start building your wealth. Just start today. Even if it is like $10 or $20, just start it. And it's not only $10, but it's actually builds your confidence, it builds your habits, it builds the discipline. Just start today. Yes, that would be my advice.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: That process, the simple starting of things, can shake the cobwebs, can shake it around in here. And as long as you've find the discipline, find accountability somewhere.
And there's people like, like, like Aydai, that's here, that's, that's given us an opportunity to see what is possible for people that have really, that could have had nothing and really make a mental shift and decision to change their life around. So. Okay. Awesome. I love it. This was a great interview. I appreciate the time that you spend with us. I'm hoping that everyone that's listened to this or watching this on the podcast is going to get a lot out of it. You can find IDI and many different places. LinkedIn, savvy money wisdom website. She's also I you have a, you have a Lakeview Trade llc. You give us a run on what that is. I didn't even talk about that.
[00:41:25] Speaker C: So Lakeview Trail LLC is a, is a corporate finance consulting.
So I Do you want me to tell a little bit about that? Yes. Okay. So I have, I'm helping corporations as a interim cfo.
I have companies who come to me when they grow too fast or they don't know where their money going. So I come and bring that my financial experience from corporate. So I analyze all their financial reports, analysis KPIs, slice and dice and then I show them exactly where their money going, where the return on investment, if they want to merge acquisitions, if they would like to partner with us or they want to just grow organically how it's going to look like and make the projections for next five to 10 years.
And another part of the corporate finance is I help in like brand new companies, right? Startups who maybe have these great ideas, they're launching the company but they don't have money to hire CFO or marketing or HR or so they usually outsource them. And I am coming with like interim CFO where I help them to build that financial stability and, and then to the point when they're ready to hire someone for full time, I step back. So that's great.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: That's awesome.
Talking to you later.
This is also part of my understanding of getting into relationships that could definitely work out for the benefit of the companies that we are bringing to the table here.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: Absolutely would love to work with you.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: This is a place where I think there's very many different ideas that we could talk about when it comes to future episodes. If we ever have a chance to get on future episodes. It'd be great to have you on again.
I love learning about you. I love learning about what you've been doing, the giving back for the last nine or so 10 years, the training that you went through for the first six, 10 years and then the last 10 years of just being able to coach people through the process and helping people through that is awesome and I commend you. I think there's a lot there that people can, can really take in and if, if anything you guys can reach out to Idy Chen on SavvyMoney Wisdom.com you can reach out to her Lakeview Trade.com and then on her LinkedIn and on Ignite Ignite sorry on Instagram as savvy money wisdom. So take a look, have some fun. Y' all take care. See you guys soon.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: Thank you very much.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: Yeah hey, thanks for watching the what's your Investment Podcast. Please like follow and comment. And don't forget, check out our other videos. We got the Deeds in the Desert and the Day in the Life episodes. See you there.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of what's yous Investment, brought to you by Ignite Funding. Don't forget to like, comment and follow. For more, check out our other podcast, Deeds in the Desert, and let us know who you would like to come onto the show. We'll see you next week.
The views and opinions expressed by guests on this program are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Ignite Funding. Ignite Funding does not endorse or promote any individual brand or investment featured in this podcast. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principle.
