How To Build Wealth as an NRI (CFP Reveals Secrets) - w/ Vrishin

everybody in India getss an engineering degree and then they figure out what they want to do I don't just know it I'm living that if that students can start doing right from day one kind of when Co started I said let me start a business how hard would it be now we're in day one of full-time job now you're a salaried employee now that same question there's a reason why it's called personal finance what made you kind of look at just the nris younger folks anybody who's Millennial ji if your debt is bad don't take loans we say house is the best investment so like go buy a house immediately I will but do you have $8,000 sitting in your Robin Hood

$8,000 sitting in your Robin Hood account ask this is actually a friend of mine that prompted me to ask this very specific oddly specific question how you went about you know establishing your practice because it was Uncharted Territory for you start sending money back in terms of remittances to India give knowledge away on LinkedIn and kind of use that vehicle to attract CLI what does that really change if anything uh getting that H1B and hopefully somewhere down the line i' I'd love to kind of create a course called grad school Welcome to The Ready Set do podcast where we learn from journeys of not experts who are just two steps ahead of us I'm Naman Pand and in this episode my guest is vishan subaman brishan is a certified financial planner specializing

certified financial planner specializing with the non-resident Indian cohort also known as nris having multiple years of experience in an episode that I believe will be helpful to any international student in the US whether you a student a full-time employee on an opt with stem extension or not or on your H1B we discuss the best practices to Building Wealth at each of these major Frontiers and discuss things that you can start doing from day one of your arrival in the US that will set you up for long-term success we focus not only on the specific blueprint that you can follow to your path to a million dollar but also nuanced events such as what do you do if you have have to go back to India and what happens to all of your

and what happens to all of your investments in that case what is the best way to deal with such a situation we demystify 401ks and the best practices around how you can leverage those to build wealth and also go over the very important topic of when becoming a homeowner might be the best solution for you richan also shares a couple really interesting anecdotal stories of people that he has help that will serve as really interesting case studies for us so stay tuned until the end for that section in keeping with our theme of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of an expert I'd like to emphasize that the discussion merely centers on vision's beliefs on the best ways to build wealth for legal and other purposes this is not Financial advice it is merely supposed

Financial advice it is merely supposed to be a handy blueprint that you can refer to irrespective of where you are in your immigrant Journey this is the ready said do podcast and to support it please subscribe to my Channel or considered leaving a fstar review on Spotify and now without any further ado my discussion with Rich welcome hey no thanks for having me I'm so excited to be speaking with the person that makes nris millionaires do you mind walking me through a little bit around really your experience with becoming um a financial planner and like your journey that kind of LED you to this point you kind of pivoted in a big way to get to this point so just really curious to learn your motivations for that pivot and what brought you to this day essentially you

brought you to this day essentially you know the joke right that everybody in India gets an engineering degree and then they figure out what they want to do so I've lived that joke actually I don't just know it I'm living that joke yeah fortunately or unfortunately I fell into one of those camps uh so I I came to the US to study my undergrad and electrical engineering I did I did like it I did enjoy it um and I think the finance careers really something that I found a second wind for um but basically electrical engineering by qualification moved out to the Bay Area when where I got my first job was not getting paid a whole lot and if you know anything about

whole lot and if you know anything about the barrier you know it's not really affordable so I had to get smart about my money very quickly and then saw other people that were earning you know two or three times what I was earning making the same money mistakes and then added on to that is the layer of as an immigrant like what do I do are these the Right Moves things like that so really got curious got reading and then kind of when Co started I said let me start a business how hard will it be right uh and essentially looked at getting the CF P certification now the cfp certification is considered the gold standard in financial planning uh and so you're really looking at doing one exam and having obviously a degree and then doing about $6,000 6,000 hours of

doing about $6,000 6,000 hours of experience uh and so I had to do all of that in order to uh get the like letters out of my I see so and then is it so you have to first actually finish the 6,000 hours before you even get IFI is that right so to to get the certification yes but you can like you can do the exam and then work on the uh work on the hours while you're serving clients so uh there are again there are three levels of Regulation right so one is the state level regulation one is what the finra has and the cfp is really a private certification but a lot of people view it as a credibility thing because you're

it as a credibility thing because you're actually saying hey I have spent 6,000 hours and getting uh experience work with clients and doing things helping uh serving them that actually tracks um i' I've been reading this book it's called Mastery it's by Robert Green and that he says for any to get really Mastery at anything you need to devote 10,000 hours is his like you know um limit so to speak so I feel like 6,000 is a pretty good ballpark figure at least like it's easy for me to stand here and be like oh that's a decent amount but I can I cannot actually even imagine what that must have been like to actually grind through that so any key takeaways or learnings from those first 6,000 hours

learnings from those first 6,000 hours where you were you know just beginning to flex those muscles in terms of helping people plan finances yeah 6,000 hours at anything as you said will will make you good enough to become dangerous uh and so I have found that you know the mindset that I started and obviously the mindset that I have now are completely different both in terms of how we solve problems and kind of how how much empathy you bring to a situation because a lot of personal finance I found it's less the finance it's more than personal and kind of talking people through the length through which they make decisions I think makes a lot of sense like it's it's very easy to say hey you you have

it's very easy to say hey you you have to do this XYZ and then just do that and then like obviously we know people don't follow through right which is why even though we have you know if everybody followed all the advice they got there would be six packs with millionaires so we have an execution problem and really it's it's drill drilling down into why do you think the way you do you why do you think the way you think and how can we kind of either help you change that over time or uh or kind of adapt your strategy within that frame that's such an interesting call out I feel like most of the questions I had ready for you were very white or black based so I'm having to right now basically do a live Double Take and you

basically do a live Double Take and you know in my head do the whole calculus thing to come up with new questions but actually jokes aside to your point there is no just you know do this and you'll be fine because you're right it is the there's the reason why why it's called personal finance and not just you know Finance period so um I guess so my next question is what made you kind of look at just the nris like or that straa or that demographic really of society so to speak to kind of want to work with was it that was it just because you were you felt like you could empathize as you were saying to your point or was it just

were saying to your point or was it just um basically or were there any other factors that led to that I think it's easy to connect the easy to I think it's easy to connect the dots in hindsight but like when I was going in I like I didn't know who I wanted to serve I know I wanted to serve younger folks you know really because between 20 and 30 the power of being able to each additional dollar that you invest actually produces an outsized return due to compounding effects of money uh and so initially I I did want to work with uh younger folks anybody who's Millennial jenzy if you will uh in hindsight I have found that you know the lens of an immigrant and the psychology of an immigrant is very different from

of an immigrant is very different from uh somebody who was like born and brought up here for example right so there are three or four things like right off the bat which are different right so we say debt is bad don't take loans we say house is the best investment so like go buy a house immediately stocks are risky we all know somebody who's like lost money in stocks and then like uh you know get education it like is important but then like after we start working which like I I'll learn on the job that's good so those are three or four things that I think are very like specific to the Immigrant mindset and then combined to the fact that starting my my generation of people that came in 2000 late like late 2000s uh you are most likely not going to get

uh you are most likely not going to get a pathway to like settle in the US so how do you even plan when you don't have any kind of visibility 2013 so so those were two or three things that really stood out to me and I said let like I know there is an opportunity here uh and then I can help kind of guide people either to help them think through a a different lens bring more objectivity and or just kind of empathize with them a little more because I have lived the experience and I understand how much what coping mechanisms we develop in order to you know uh stay in the country for as long as we be I love those call outs Vision because I feel like personally you've You'

I feel like personally you've You' you've just highlighted all of the exact factors that would go into my mind when I would consider something like that and 6,000 hours of talking to them that's the 6,000 hours of talking to the same people right there you go you start seeing seeing patterns absolutely and and we'll be drilling down on that ambiguity that you mentioned because you're right that's literally the core aspect of you know the Immigrant experience quote unquote but before we get to that I guess I'm kind of curious to just from a more marketing perspective kind of understand how you went about you know establishing your practice because all of that must have sounded and not even just sounded it was Uncharted Territory for you so how did you go about you know crafting

how did you go about you know crafting your brand um making your presence attracting clients I'm just really curious to learn kind of how you went about it from like the logistics point of of view I think first first was kind of getting clear on how many people I could realistically serve right so uh there there is obviously a total addressable Market I think Indians make up at least one% of the US population or if not more uh and so we're really we're really looking at at least 3 million households if you uh and so there's no dir of people that like need help uh then you have to then talk about how many people are ready for help right because that's the next big thing and as you kind and

the next big thing and as you kind and then how many people I can realistically work with if I'm doing one-on-one services and I'm talking to people and that that number comes out really quick if you're just doing a personto person approach uh and so essentially that's kind of where I decided to make a conscious choice to give knowledge away on LinkedIn and kind of use that both as a as a an education tool and or um and vehicle to attract clients so I know I realistically I cannot work one-on-one with everybody and I know a lot of people are not looking to pay somebody for help e but you know through putting out stuff if we can educate people or if something sticks with them and then they

something sticks with them and then they go and educate their friends about it then you know we've really kind of you know if one if one thought helps one person make one better decision I think I've made a change I've made a I think I've made a change so I have just been writing on LinkedIn and that has kind of been the main both marketing machine and the education machine and hopefully somewhere down the line I'd love to kind of create a course for for you know new College grads people that come here for grad school and just need to set up from scratch you know I can almost relate to what you laid out there about um having one person be helped organically because this podcast is this is 11 episodes old at the at the time of recording and what

at the at the time of recording and what I said to myself was if each of my episodes helps one person organically so one person who I did not explicitly ask to watch goes and watches the episode and gets help from it that's it that's literally my metric of success people will reach out to the guests and be like hey I just heard your podcast with with namon and you know it was such and such I was helped it was so helpful whatever blah blah and often times my guests will be kind enough to share that with me but I just wish they would tell me directly but but it really you know that's really besides the point um it's no it's very interesting you rais an interesting

interesting you rais an interesting point right because the like most people on social media are just consuming they're not engaging they're not doing anything so I had instances where I don't and I was going to ask you whether you've had this where uh people have been following you like you don't know who has been reading but like occasionally you'll bump into somebody that you've not spoken to in many months who'll suddenly message or like C shout out being like hey I like I see what you're doing and it's like very impressive very helpful like keep keep it going which is like thank you I like completely have not spoken to you in like years but I'm glad like it is resonating to drill down a little bit on

resonating to drill down a little bit on what you said about um you know starting out as a student I guess my question to you rich is um what are some things that students let's let's just say master students because I believe they are the vast majority of the students in the US so what are some things from a financial perspective that students can start doing right from day one these are really easy wins but this doesn't happen because again there is no maybe not no literacy but very little literacy around this subject and I'm sure I'm going to feel really called L because just an anecdotal example it took me more than 1 and a half years to even apply for my first credit card um when I was a

first credit card um when I was a student which now I know was you know a classic rookie mistake it takes nothing to get like a Discover credit card they give it to everybody as long as you have a head on your shoulders you're eligible it's not complicated so really curious to hear your you know expert quote unquote take on what are some things like a bullet list of things that really go a long way in terms of being done from day one yeah I I think there are just two or three very simple things but hard to give kind of broad Frameworks because everybody's situation slightly different you know there are a lot of people that have taken on crushing student loans to come here right uh and

student loans to come here right uh and and their mindset really is oh I need to get a like part-time job on campus so that I'm able to pay it off if you're able to balance that with um with your academics and studies and job search well and good but I think a vast majority of people are actually better off uh focusing on maybe uh just Landing a job because that is really your next key step in terms of staying in the US and you saying that as opposed to a part-time job on campus just to clarify okay gotcha like yeah you can like you can absolutely do it but I think you're you're better off kind of spending that extra time uh searching for jobs doing networking and like really applying

networking and like really applying aggressively and again there are there are trade here where like I can say if you're earning more money you can then use that money to pay for somebody who will help spruce up your resume and things like that so there's a time like really understand the time versus money tradeoff then get a social get a credit card obviously are easy and then live live like a college student which is like keep your expenses low right but at the same time don't ignore your health I know a lot of people find the uh the health insurance complex uh in the US very very difficult to navigate so a lot of people will be like oh I just you know having debilitating back pain I'm not going to go because it's going to

not going to go because it's going to cost money that can potentially lead to like lifelong repercussions and so I say simple three or four things for for students um is opening a savings account at all on that list or is that just one of those gimmicky things that you don't really have to you can you can I think it was different three or four years ago when like the interest rate was 0% right versus now when it's 5% again macroeconomic environment will keep changing so absolutely you can open a savings account but as a student how much money are you really going to be having to put in there and how much like like how much return will that give you right so even if you put $1,000 that's

right so even if you put $1,000 that's probably going to give you like $50 in a year which is it's not nothing but it's like sandwich makes sense I actually didn't even know that they didn't have a 5% savings interest rate five years ago that that's actually just something that I learned just now um so I guess continuing down that path and we can continue so like that can be our framework for you know examination so let's see um or let's pretend that you're done being a student let's assume that you got a job we we followed your tips across student life so we were super not stringent but you know careful with our money not blowing off on food and drinks every weekend trying to keep a low profile um did all those things maybe worked parttime but like four 5

maybe worked parttime but like four 5 hours enough for us to be able to really put in time where it matters which is to get a full-time job so now we're in day one of full-time job now you're a salaried employee we'll pretend we earned let's just throw a ballpark figure of 100K you know let's just say just to avoid the whole state and tax and all of those things we'll just pretend it's 100K that's your CTC so to speak before tax essentially now that same question so what are some things that this professional Now can do day one to optimize their wealth building and and you can please uh feel free to add any notes around different motivations that people can have because

motivations that people can have because I don't want to generalize that because obviously everybody's motivations are different but I hope that question is isn't too broad for you to even attempt to answer because I do suspect it might be and I can I can I mean I I can try to be and I can I can I mean I I can try to answer it but again this is where we get into that like cloud of uncertainty right because now between now and when you get your H1B there are so many other things that can happen right right right now I know our kids are facing layoffs that's a great out so I guess um just for context my next framework point would have been the point where you get an H1B so right now we'll just pretend

an H1B so right now we'll just pretend that this person's like Future Vision is limited to three years we'll pretend they had a stem so they have three years in the US and we'll treat that as you know the end of the runway at this point for this particular question if that helps at all yeah so again I would say continue living like a student right because the tendency of people is you know you come from India you you've got 100K salary first first thing it's tempting to like go buy a right because you can get it on a payment plan very cheap uh and it's like it's cheaper than India you can get it on a payment plan

India you can get it on a payment plan and then like it's your first car out of college and I'm not saying it's wrong but I'm saying like your money is probably going to go much further if you invested right off the bat I would think about a broad saving spending framework where you know 50% or 40% goes towards essential essential expenses 30 or 40% goes towards investing and then the last 20 20% or 10% goes towards uh discretionary expenses or wants as opposed to needs uh that's a good kind of budgeting framework to start with understand your company benefits really well typically there are 401ks things like that I think you can contribute to I think you should contribute to a 401k mostly because they do they do offer some kind of match where for a certain dollar amount or

where for a certain dollar amount or certain percentage amount your employer is going to put in the same and then I would say open up something like an IRA or which is a reti individual retirement account things like that and I would really say start putting aside some amount of money either like if buying a house is important for you start putting aside a small chunk of money each month as opposed to like trying to tackle a big down payment 8 years from now all at once start just putting small chunks of money into a savings account or something that's a little more shortterm medium-term and then start setting aside some money to like develop your skills I know we interesting we we learn on the job right but but there are definitely

job right but but there are definitely soft skills that will help elevate your profession quite a bit now whether that's public speaking whether that's being a more effective leader there are things that are not kind of professional courses or it's not like hard skills but it is definitely needed in the workplace which will kind of elevate your uh status or makes you make you more noticeable um I really like how well-rounded that framework was if you hit on not just the tangible stuff but really also the intangible stuff in on the 40 to 50% that you recommended one spends on investing um to drill down on that uh what what would be some I guess easily accessible or relatively easily accessible ways to start that journey is is like just um S&P 500 a decent start

is like just um S&P 500 a decent start or would you um have any other recommendations yeah I um investing is one of those things I I like to explain to people again coming from India people think investing is stock picking it's not uh you can invest in a whole of things but really if we're talking about just kind of a stock market investment it's it's easy it's simple and the whole point of like stock market investing is to not try be not try to be better than average you want to be average but you want to be average and consistent for a really long time right think of think of it as like a batsman who is always going to be scoring 50 runs as opposed to

to be scoring 50 runs as opposed to somebody who's just going to try and hit sixes every ball and he has inconsistent performance across the so try and be a consistent Dependable investor put money in broadly there are kind of Robo if it's just talking about Investments try to do something like a robo advisor a wealth front or a betterment you can attempt to do it yourself there are Frameworks like a Vanguard or bogul heads three fund portfolio that you can learn all good enough it's a set and forget don't worry about it and then once you have that allocation just kind of continue contributing to it on a weekly monthly bi-weekly basis and I believe there are ways to automate this now right like you can just directly have that done without even pressing a button or clicking your you know a mouse button do you have any

you know a mouse button do you have any recommendations for any tools that you found are you know particularly like easy to use especially for somebody getting into this type of thing I mean I think the robo advisors do a good enough job so whether that's vanguards personal advisory Services wealth fronts personally personal advisory Services wealth front betterment who are the robo advisors or yeah or just read it and and do it yourself right ultimately the other the other part of the equation is to not kind of pay somebody too much money if you have the time to do it yourself so I I caveat that with uh you know when your when your cus is low and

know when your when your cus is low and you have like you're you're starting your career you have a lot of time to do it so if that's the case like there's no point kind of paying somebody money to do it but as in when your complexity increases and then things like that you might want to consider working with professional who's able to give you personalized advice absolutely and let's pretend this person had taken loans for their masters would you would you recommend that the way to deal with that is to just pay it off as soon as possible or or do you have a different take on that yeah so so the kind of mental model that I help people think through it is what is the average kind

through it is what is the average kind of Return of Investments that we are looking right so historically the S&P 500 for example has returned 10% we should stick to that number even though S&P has returned you know 15% in the last decade so historically if we're talking about 10% or let's just say even 7% after inflation um you want you need to evaluate whether your your loan is kind of so firstly you you want to evaluate whether your loan has a lower interest rate gotcha so you know if if you're able to pay down something that's worth 5% you're able to earn 5% on the money that that you have it kind of Nets itself out a little bit right uh and so it really comes down to like what is

it really comes down to like what is what is your personal priority do you feel better sleeping well at night knowing you your loans have paid off or do you understand like the Arbitrage of the money the second big thing that I would think about here is that India has currency depreciation so each year that you hold your loan versus earning in dollars your loan actually becomes a smaller amount as long as you're paying the so versus like on a dollar adjusted basis your loan is worth less each year that you hold it in so I I honestly think it's great so 7% and then account for currency depreciation which is probably another three to 5% right your your loan rate is really coming some somewhere like even if you take a 14% loan rate your loan rate is coming somewhere close to about

somewhere close to about uh like 10% or so yeah that sounds right yeah yeah and and so then you have to evaluate you know is the 3% spread really something you want to or you're okay spending an interesting so I I'll let you I let the listeners make the decision based on that no that's very helpful and yeah I mean I feel like that's such an interesting take because it's like all the facts are in front of you just depends on where you kind of said it's mostly psychological right I know a lot of people who want to pay off everything because they can't sleep well at night knowing that they absolutely and then I guess last topic on this particular point of our

topic on this particular point of our framework uh would be um at any point would you recommend students or these professionals now I suppose start sending money back in terms of remittances to India and we'll pretend that they don't have a strong need to do so but really it's a question of either investing in the stock market in the US versus maybe investing in let's say an sip for instance in India which I hear is right now the in think so yeah any takes on that or any thoughts I think as students there I mean there are so again there are so many other considerations that we have over there right so I really think about it from from model of what is your return on hassle it's not

what is your return on hassle it's not just your return on investment but it's also kind of you have to file taxes in India you have to maintain those accounts in India you have to monitor the investments in India if you will yeah uh and then like on a currency if you plan to live in the US on a on over a long per period of time that money is again getting eroded on a currency adjusted basis so your real return is is less when you take it on a dollar to Rupee kind of conversion ratio so I I know people were like oh the market did so well and they brought their money back it was the same dollar

their money back it was the same dollar amount as was when they had sent it away so many years ago so figure out if you know if it makes sense for you I I don't think uh I don't think I'm the right person to kind of ask without without you like without knowing the details of your situation I know a lot of people like to send home money to like support their parents and things like that right if that's what you're doing well and good uh Investments consider you know what how how much of a pain it is to to manage all the paperwork both in two countries and then I think yeah I think it's just keep keep things simple as much as possible if it was my advice

much as possible if it was my advice that's what I would this might be a stupid question but if I don't make any income in India do I still have to file taxes in or can I just pretend that I'm dead as far as the Indian government is concerned well it depends right if you have Investments that are that are still throwing out some kind of returns dividends things like that up to a certain threshold it is it is exempt that makes sense yeah okay gotcha so like if I'm not actively investing I will probably be fine as long as I don't have like a few laak rupees lying around in some savings Savings bank account which I believe most people do not have so that brings us to the next I guess

so that brings us to the next I guess fork in the road where this is where things get really interesting so let's pretend that you you're at your three-year Mark you did not get picked on in the lottery that's that you know that's just how it goes and just for the sake of Simplicity will will will not bat around all of the day one CPT stuff doing all of those things to extend your stay like we'll pretend this person is done they really they really don't have any interest in prolonging their stay in the US they're ready to go back so for this person let's say they have we'll just say $88,000 invested in like Robin Hood across various Holdings what's the how like how does that work like if I go

how like how does that work like if I go back do I just lose all that do I need to transfer all that can you speak to the like I guess protocol here I will but Nam do you have $8,000 sitting in your Robin Hood account this is actually a friend of fine that prompted me to ask this very specific oddly specific question yeah yeah um I think at $8,000 it's it's simpler for you to like sell everything take it out and take it back to if we're talking about larger sums of money then it it does get like you do have to make a more I think you will have to create a more complicated framework on how you want to navigate that okay but if it's just sitting in Robin Hood which is a taxable you've already paid taxes on the

taxable you've already paid taxes on the money that you invested and as you sell it you will you will have to pay some more taxes but just sell it be done with it and and take it all back now with regard to other retirement type accounts then that it gets a little more kind of compx okay are you willing to speak at all on how that whole thing work yeah um I think I think I hope a lot of people don't skip this but really I think uh you need to have goals when you invest right so each dollar that you have needs to be given a specific job and the way I look

given a specific job and the way I look at 401K money is that is money you have set aside for retirement which means if you're 25 30 there's no need for you to take that money out you're not going to retire right now you still have to retire if you go back to India and so there's no need for you to touch that money you can just leave it there till you retire and then you can figure out what the taxation is and the reason I I frame it this way is because people want to know oh if I take out the money like what what are the taxes I have to pay in 30 years tax legislation will change as

30 years tax legislation will change as well so there's no point in me trying to answer that question for you and then like five years from now the government changes all the rules so uh if it's not money you don't need right now unless you have Desperate kind of need for cash or liquidity uh which if you've planned your finances well you should uh just leave that money where it is and then consider taking that off on your awesome and I guess potentially another stupid question is say for that same $8,000 amount that we referenced earlier um is the goal potentially to just leave it there for maybe 15 20 years that's 15 20 years of that 10% return that you referen on average do I lose that like

referen on average do I lose that like is there any way for me to or my friend I suppose to um you know still get the benefits from that because of like the time function which is really the compounding value or factor of that or is there no hope for me at all I I mean I I think there is I think really if we're talking about just a small sum of money I would refer you back to you know what is the return on hassle worth with it because leaving the money in the US then you you actually become like a non-resident and so then there are different there like you you have a flat 30% tax on it for cor for example so

30% tax on it for cor for example so like if you consider even even that like a third of your growth is just going to get taxed right out the thing but there is a currency adjustment so if you plan to come back to the US doesn't make sense for you to leave it probably versus like if you're just going to go back for you're probably better off kind of investing in the US from India so that you're not kind of tied up in all these currency things and then uh also if something happens to you like what happens to that account that's just going to be floating around in space and potentially know about it other like just broader considerations there very interesting I yeah I mean I should have really that should have been the first

really that should have been the first thing to come to mind but yeah something you said prompted this but what if I lose access to like you know my phone number that's linked to that stuff stuff like that like then it's just gone you know then instead of getting X money I get zero so and like that that's my price for playing this rather stupid team um yeah and and again like like the money is still yours but you know there is all this kind of overhead of time that you're spending trying to do administrative tasks so which is why I go back to like what is the return on hassle for you like how much hassle are you willing to go to be able to get additional you know two to three to 5% returns awesome yeah I really like that

returns awesome yeah I really like that concept actually it's not something I'm familiar with but I really like how generalizable it is because I know for a fact that different people have very different definitions of that return on hustle like I have friends that will you know literally scrap for that last 1% on rakuen before they buy something versus other friends for whom they're like why like why why are you doing that like just just buy it so really I yeah really appreciate that um aspect of that it's one of those things that I I think especially as Indians we're not taught the value because we are told like money is important but we're not taught the value of our own time right so if it's like if I want to be miserable and spend

like if I want to be miserable and spend 20 hours filing taxes versus paying a CPA will get me the exact same result but I get my time back people are like oh I'll just do it myself I as a business owner I think I've learned a lot I've learned to value my time a lot so I think it's a great framework for people to think so now we'll move to the aspect where this person's H1B was PA so we will say that now they have Let's Pretend um insight into the next 10 years I feel like that's a pretty safe bet would you say around visibility as far as h-1bs go or not really I don't know yeah yeah we can we can say that

know yeah yeah we can we can say that would you say would you pick a bigger number no I think I think 10 years is is typically where people realize whether like they've been in it long enough that they know whether they're definitely tyly going to continue staying there or take some kind of like action or move to like change their status or go back to their home country I see okay I see what are some things that this person should or now is eligible to look at B put it that way that they would not have been when they were a student or when they had first started working like what does that really change if anything uh getting that H1B I think I mean I

uh getting that H1B I think I mean I think you're well enough into your career to know what kind of trajectory you have right so the now now it's a question of you know have like how have you been doing in the past and the the tenure mark is really a good point to kind of reassess and say am I ahead of where I wanted to be am I behind where I thought I was going to be or am I like right on par and then kind of you can adjust your savings quite a bit so I see I know people who you know if you maxed out if you just maxed out your 401K in

out if you just maxed out your 401K in your 20s if you came here let's just say you started working at 22 and you potentially put away about and you maxed out your 401K year you're probably looking at about a quarter million dollar or $250,000 in your for own C and at 30 that $250,000 is potentially going to become north of million and a half by the time you so sorry really sorry to interrupt can you explain what you mean by maxed out your 401K I'm not familiar with that sorry no you're good so the the 401K is basically a tax advantage account that you have that's offered by your employer which basically allows you to put pre- tax money that means the money that

tax money that means the money that you've not paid ta accon goes directly into that account and then you can put that in an investment okay awesome okay but you're allowed to typically invest about $23,000 into it each year we're not accounting for the fact that an employer has a match or we're not accounting for the growth and anything like that okay so it's the total amount yeah okay so yeah $23,000 is how much only you can contribute so got over and above that your employer does some match there is like you invest that money so it grows a little more each year things like that but assuming you didn't have any of that if just put $23,000 or whatever into uh and the limit goes up slightly each year but if you put just the 20 $23,000 each year in for about 9 to 10 years you're looking at north of

to 10 years you're looking at north of 200,000 potentially closer to $250,000 with growth by the time you're 13 that this money tends to double every 10 years because compounding returns yeah uh at 7% means that your money doubles every 10 years so then it doubles about three times so it becomes eight times by the time you're 60 and so you're looking at yeah north of a million and a half at that point just in your 401k account that's not accounting for stocks that you've received outside Robin Hood Investments whatever else you've done and so knowing that you can then take that and apply that idea to like hey my retirement is secure now I can actually red divert some of that money into other priorities I have whether that's saving

priorities I have whether that's saving for college whether that's saving for a second house whether that's saving for a first house whether that's saving for other kind of things and and I think I think evaluating where you want to be both in terms of uh what is your priority in terms of energy and intention that you have and then reallocating your dollars there is is a is a great way to firstly frame then as we talking about tangible things that you can do you know start putting money away for your house payment if you do want it start putting money away for your kids' education and then start putting some money away in case you have parents that are in India that will potentially need uh taken care of right whether it's as they grow older uh they

whether it's as they grow older uh they need uh more you know they need more support so yeah if yeah yeah so think about those priorities as you kind of allocate your doors very interesting and is is so like I guess where do you stand personally and I know this is subjective and Depends just on a person but we'll pretend that say a person is is like exactly on the fence they're 50/50 about whether or not they should invest in a new like buying a house um do where do you fall like which side of the camp would you say you fall on for again this very made up and I know this is not real life but I'm sure and I'm only asking because I know you must deal with this a

because I know you must deal with this a lot right yeah I I think I shared it with you but uh I am pretty I'm pretty anti house uh and and mostly that has been a function of you know on on the H1B especially if you come here uh work for kind of consulting company to start I know a lot of people who come to the US get their start that way you're moving around every couple of years and the if you look at just the math on on buying houses Break Even is typically around year five or year seven so if you're buying a house unless like you immediately are in like you're immediately in the red or in losses because you've paid closing costs

because you've paid closing costs commissions fees other kind of like mortgage origination and all the other kind of stuff so the way I look at it is ultimately you have all these fees that that happen as part of the house origination process right so your break even really when you recoup those costes instead of paying rent is is around year five or year seven and typically I have not lived in a place longer than you know three to five years DCA is the longest place I've stayed and it's been four years and we're actually moving out right like as we speak so for me like I don't think investing in a house like made sense um and primary house I view it very much as a as an emotional decision as opposed to a uh as

emotional decision as opposed to a uh as opposed to a financial but that being said I think you know if if you're somebody who doesn't do well at like saving because like saving money and investing it in the in the in the stock market for example needs tremendous amounts of discipline it's very easy to kind of turn off the Sip and just say ah something happened this month like let me turn it off I'll turn it back on next month then you don't so if you don't have that kind of discipline the house is a great way to force you into having some asset which is in which you are forced to pay money and lock yourself in things of that sort I see it almost

things of that sort I see it almost sounds like a tradeoff between um like really how much you can make from that investment like from an investment perspective based on how much you know like your rate goes up Etc versus what you could have by doing other things really as I mean it it Al it sounds like these are all just different roads to that same end destination and which one you pick kind of depends on what you're wearing literally you know like what what your preferences are yeah um I've been wrong too like been wrong too I've been wrong too like there are people in the Bay Area that you know you buy a house at any point in time it's just kind of gone up 10% and people definitely look at me weird when

people definitely look at me weird when I say like a house is not an investment but no I appreciate you still sticking to your guns I mean it it clearly it shows that you have conviction in why you have that take to begin with and again it's like not like you're just some random person you obviously have the uh training and background expertise on that um yeah I feel like I've learned so much today Rich May last question to before you know I let you go here um I guess I'm just curious having been doing this for you know a while now can you or are you able to share any notable stories these don't have to be success

stories these don't have to be success stories but really any notable stories of clients that you've helped obviously you don't have to name any names but I'm just curious to you know really I'm just asking you for gossip essentially but but gossip in a in a way that might you know leave an impact really because again it when it's from a real life situation it's like horror stories when they say based on true stories they're automatically like 30X more scarier so probably a grim analogy there but yeah any stories I guess you can share in your experiences that have stood out or have been cool for one reason or another yeah I think I shared before but I think the the the most powerful thing to me about this business is is not

to me about this business is is not about making people money but it's about helping them align the life that they want to live more closely with that it sounds like BS But ultimately behind the numbers behind everything you know people don't want to become billionair the underlying thing is they just want to live the life they want to live and make sure the kids are provided and I think helping them understand that the bar that you have set for yourself the the versus the bar that you actually need in order to do those things are are like very different the you actually need a lot less money to live the life that you want to live and kind of helping people bring more intention is is what is very powerful so to me like

is what is very powerful so to me like there's this one couple right that uh I went through the exercise of talking them through what their Vision what their goals are things like that and uh you know they they basically feel so confident about uh their money and where they are financially that you know I know one of them quit to like pursue their own like business which is something that they've been wanting wow um and and that that just means you're like you're doing something that you like a lot more as opposed to kind of just slaving away because we need to put food on the table right yeah um and then there's there's second kind of couple that I spoke to that are like oh I think I think we have enough right and

I think I think we have enough right and so enough to them is is to be able to say I want I want enough to like never have to worry like worry about money again and what that would mean is like having the kid grow up around uh their grandparents so that they spend more time being able to go back and forth between India so that they are uh the saying being able to fly their grandparents the parents here anytime they they they want so they can spend more time or even just having the ability to uh you know take a break and and and be okay and uh and I think that you know they were like once we had that realization we we were a lot more confident about the moves that we to me that was the

the moves that we to me that was the most powerful and that's kind of the highest compliment that I can get when i w wow that that is in fact so powerful and honestly when you were talking about it I could sense it was palpable how much pride you take in um you know what what you've been able to accomplish here so really really appreciate you taking the time today R it's been such a delight you know I don't want to say talking to CU it literally felt like a really immerse immersive lecture almost but I say that with the nicest intention possible no absolutely not I yeah I feel like literally I've learned more in this these past 50 minutes than possibly ever really about and and then know that like talking to my friends and other

talking to my friends and other professionals that are in the US like there's a I'll just say a decent amount of ambiguity around all of this like literally all of this like how much health insurance um you know payout should I choose every month and it just helps to know that if you just examine it from that broad framework type of view like what do you want what is important for you like what are your goals it becomes that much easier but I just learned that I did not know that until you know just now so again really appreciate you taking the time and I'm really you know looking forward to the amazing work that you're doing the you know your business and brand that you've been building and you know he has to continue making more nris millionaires whether or not they want yeah thank you no thank thanks for

yeah thank you no thank thanks for having me so much I'm I'm glad to be able to get this opportunity to share uh Frameworks with folks I think I think it's really helpful regardless of uh regardless of what Walk of Life you come from and as as you and I had agreed if we're able to have one person make one better decision or tell one friend about it I think uh we're better off that brings us to the end of episode 14 of The Ready Set do podcast thank you all so much for continuing to share these conversations with those that continue to benefit from them if you benefited from this conversation the best way to support me is by subscribing to my YouTube channel or by leaving me

to my YouTube channel or by leaving me up to a festar rating on Spotify catch you all in the next one new episodes every Wednesday