112. The Wealth Freedom Formula and Domino Effect with Eunicia Peret

Join Mike Cavaggioni with Eunicia Peret on the 112th episode of the Average Joe Finances Podcast to share how she works with individuals that want to optimize their wealth and are looking to take control of their money, minimize tax exposure and are motivated to seek the answers that the financial services industry is holding back.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What does being an empowered financial planner mean
• What does a wealth strategist do
• Client wants versus offered products in building wealth
• The wealth freedom formula
• And much more!

About Eunicia Peret:
Eunicia is an accomplished Financial expert and business owner with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry.  

She believes that every person should have a holistic and customized financial roadmap that fits their specific goals, needs and desires for short-term gains and long-term wealth.  

Eunicia is a strong believer that those that seek more for their money and wealth creation efforts deserve to know the unfair advantages that many financial advisors hold back from their clients. Her Wealth Freedom Formula is a personalized financial consulting program offering insights into secrets that financial institutions (like the bank) do not want you to know. The clients that understand those financial secrets, are positioned to experience significant gains to their financial outlook because they become empowered with the tips, tricks and know-how to grow and protect their money… in a way that feels right to them. 

Find Eunicia Peret on:
Empowered Financial Planner: https://www.empoweredfinancialplanner.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empoweredfinancialplanner 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/empowered-financial-planner/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/euniciaperet/ 
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzSkmxARMNMrjnz6FwlbMXA

Average Joe Finances®
Our social media links can be found here: https://averagejoefinances.com/links
Need help Buying or Selling a House? https://averagejoefinances.com/realtor
Interested in getting your real estate license? https://averagejoefinances.com/prepagent
Use the same Audio/Video Editing Team that I use: https://editpods.com
Host your own Podcast here: https://averagejoefinances.com/buzzsprout

Pay Off Your Mortgage in 5-7 Years:
www.theshredmethod.com/averagejoefinances

Make Real Estate Investing Easier with DealMachine:
https://averagejoefinances.com/dealmachine

Free Stocks:
● Robinhood: https://averagejoefinances.com/robinhood
● Webull: https://averagejoefinances.com/webull

Get Life Insurance: https://averagejoefinances.com/ladder
Average Joe Finances Swag: averagejoefinances.com/resources/shop

*DISCLAIMER* https://averagejoefinances.com/disclaimer If you are interested in writing for Average Joe Finances or joining us for an interview on the podcast, please visit https://averagejoefinances.com/contact

See our episode transcripts here: https://www.averagejoefinancespod.com/episodes/

--------------

Tropical Sensation by Mike Leite soundcloud.com/mikeleite Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/-tropical-sensation

Transcript

Average Joe Finances: 0:00

Hey, welcome back to the Average Joe Finances Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni and today's guest is Eunicia Peret as she's the founder of the empowered financial planner. I'm super excited to have you on the show. Thanks so much for joining me today.

Eunicia Peret: 0:13

Thanks so much for having me, Mike, it's a pleasure to be here.

Average Joe Finances: 0:16

Right on. So, right off the bat, the first question, this is the same question I ask everybody that comes on the show is we wanna know a little bit about you. So if you could, share something about yourself, share your story, how did this all get started for you? How did you find the empowered financial planner?

Eunicia Peret: 0:30

That's a great question. I didn't find it, it found me. It found me really through the personal journey that my husband and I had really with our finances, our old financial advisors and really our overall journey to finding this thing called financial empowerment, right? Financial independence, whatever people find designed to or desire to call it. And the journey really started if we were to go back through my career, it started back in the day when I was an executive in Corporate America had done everything I needed to climb up the corporate ladder exceptionally fast. And what I realized as that was happening was that the more money I was making, the more money we were making as a family, the more money we were spending. And because of that, yes, our wealth was growing, but it was not growing quite the same way that perhaps we were hoping, or perhaps we were even witnessing other people around us growing their wealth. And so one of the things that happened for us a few years back is we need to needed to make some financial decisions. And when we took a pause to ask some questions regarding and surrounding those financial decisions, what we found out was that our financial advisors, at that point in time, all they really were interested in doing putting us in the types of vehicles, financial vehicles that they were quote unquote selling because in my heart and, what I did as a career for many years, as a strategy consultant, I ask a lot of questions and I was asking all of these questions that frankly, I was not getting very many answers to, or if I was getting answers to the answers were always wishy washy to the best of my ability. They were never clean and they never made me feel comfortable. And so what I did is I started really geeking out and asking more and more questions, but not just asking questions, figuring out not only the answers, but more importantly, how and why the questions and even more importantly, the industry is so disparate across the board, right? Because if everybody sells something, it means that everybody's got their own unique niche and ultimately, unless we have all of the products under the sandwich, that's very unlikely. We end up missing out potentially on strategies that could be helpful for us. So in that journey, one of the things that I discovered was that there are individuals in general have a lot of blind spots. There are a lot of black holes, potholes, whatever you wanna call them that unless we know how to avoid them, we go right through them and we may not necessarily feel, the impact at the onset. What ends up happening is because of those blind spots, potholes, whatever we wanna call them, we end up leaving a ton of money on the table. And so that's a little bit about my journey and how I ended up really focusing in on how do we help other individuals, specifically those that are earning a lot of money. We work with a lot of multi six and seven figure earners that are leaving money, a lot of money to on the table to taxes, to bad investments, to poor investments, and really to the lack of knowledge when it comes to not just risk, but also protecting fr themselves from a legal standpoint.

Average Joe Finances: 3:30

Right on. Yeah, that is an extensive background and also really awesome to see how you got into where you're at right now, just asking the questions that you were asking, not really getting any type of answers. Which is funny when cause I've interviewed a few people that have gone the standard route and the standard way with financial planners and it's funny that, what's considered the standard, right? The products that get sold to consumers today, or investors or people that are trying to save up for retirement today. It's so funny, if you start looking at alternative investments and other ways to do it, there's other avenues to get you there, that your money's not locked in until you're 65 years old or whatever, and opportunities for it to grow even more with less fees and, things like that. As you were talking about that, I wrote down this question that I wanted to ask you because, why is it that the financial industry is so focused on the standard products?

Eunicia Peret: 4:26

A big part of it is the way that the industry itself incentivizes people, right? Because financial products do come with a commission, oftentimes what individuals and end consumers really ultimately the clients don't understand is that, just think of real estate that's something that everybody kind of understands, right? When you work with a real estate agent, let's say that you might get qualified for we'll use easy numbers,$500,000 or a million dollars. But let's say that you're qualified for a million dollars, easy round numbers, and you go out there with your real estate team and you look at a ton of houses, but you're really starting in that 500, $600,000 level because who knows, maybe you find that gem, right? And you find a house that fits your needs perfectly, but maybe it's 650,000, maybe it's $700,000, unless your real estate agent helps you make the decision that's focused on what you truly are most interested in, not the price of the house, but really how well does the house fit your needs? What you as an end consumer might end up being exposed to, you're probably gonna end up maxing out on what you were qualified for. You were probably gonna end up with a million dollar home, even though that house of $750,000 or$700,000, could've been yours. Maybe you needed to put a little bit of lipstick on it and it could've cost you in all in 700,000, but you still would've had $300,000 more to play with. It's the same thing with financial services when individuals are out there in financial advisors regardless of whether they're traditional, non-traditional financial advisors, they focus on helping their clients through those specific products. And because they're commission driven, It ends up being that everybody is going to be doing something a little bit different, everybody's going to specialize into something a little bit different. And oftentimes even the companies that they work with are going to offer certain products based on either a menu of services that's redefined because that's what they do as a company or a menu of services that's redefined based on investible assets that an individual has. And so just there alone, we looked at a couple of major things, right? How the industry's incentivized and what types of financial or vehicles a lot of the financial advisors have access to. And so, your question was more along the lines of really when we're looking at how financial advisors are incentivized specifically, I think you, your question was why is it that financial advisors will be proponents of specific things, right? It's because if let's say that a client had talked about real estate comes in and says, Hey, Eunicia, I really want to understand more about real estate. I like, I want to have a portfolio of assets. Most financial advisors would start talking the game of the risk and the different things that are associated. Real estate is great, but, and you have this long, laundry list of buts. What I found in working with our clients as a world strategist is that I don't want to tell a client that real estate is great but, and then the laundry list, right? Rather the client, if the client sees and believes that real estate is the best and that's where their heart and mind is, the question is that and becomes, how do we address the needs for that specific client to make sure that their money still grows, the risk is managed, but at the end of the day, they get to rest in peace, knowing that they're building wealth in a way that's meaningful to them. And so that was a pretty complex answer to a very simple question, but the reality is a lot of people don't understand the complexities and because of that, they fall trapped to the typical of what they see out there every single day.

Average Joe Finances: 7:56

No I definitely appreciate that. The too long didn't read version that I'm getting out of that is, Hey, the standard practices ,they're commission based when they're selling these products, it's gonna put more in their pocket by sticking with what they know and what they sell, versus trying to have, you like look at alternatives as well now? One of the things that I really appreciate also about that answer is just how, in depth you went into that though, right? Cause it's, not just that simple, there's a lot more that goes into it. So when you gave that description too, with looking at real estate, you're qualified for a million dollar home, but you might find something that's 750 and that maybe you just need to fix up and you might get talked out of it because it might not be as advantageous to whoever's helping you right? Now at the same time I, would hope that other realtors at that I'm also a realtor myself, but I would hope that other realtors out there upholding their fiduciary responsibility to their buyers because that's ultimately what they should be doing.

Eunicia Peret: 8:52

You and I both know that's less the case than we would like for it to be.

Average Joe Finances: 8:57

Unfortunately, that's why they need to find a good one. Like me. No, shameless self plug, but but anyway, yeah you say that, what makes you different is you're a wealth strategist, right? So your focus more is on what is it that your clients want to invest in to build their wealth versus any products that you're just offering yourself?

Eunicia Peret: 9:15

Correct.

Average Joe Finances: 9:16

Okay, great. So Eunicia when I'm looking at like your background and everything, you have something that's called the wealth freedom formula. So I was curious to what that is. So can you share that with us? What is your wealth freedom formula?

Eunicia Peret: 9:28

Absolutely. So the wealth freedom formula is actually a hands on super, super personalized consulting program and engagement that we put all of our clients through. The reason we do that Mike is because for years and years, I helped clients and the best of my ability walk them through what are their options, helping 'em understand their own logic with money, right? Cuz we were raised and had issues as a kid and because of that, we have financial problems, not nothing like that, although that does have its own meaning and benefit. But, when we're thinking about the relationship that people have with money, oftentimes they don't understand what they don't understand. And so having spent hours and endless conversations with clients, what I identify was that, we needed a methodology, we needed an approach through which the clients are empowered to understand not only what their options are, but more than that even understand what is it that they need the money to do. And what is the meaning of that and what does that look like? And so the world freedom formula is that methodology that helps the client and helps us in our communication with our clients to make sure that we follow a blueprint that helps us stay on track but then at every single point as part of that engagement, the process is customized to the individual. Because the question could very well be the same for two or three or multiple individuals, but the responses are going to be very different and those responses and those discussions are going to lead to what I call the domino effect, that's going to be vastly different from one person to another. And so that's what we do and, all of that was born as part of those big questions and that seeking to find why is the industry so disparate and why don't things come together in such a way where we're looking at the end to end picture for the client and that's exactly what the WFF or the world freedom formula does.

Average Joe Finances: 11:17

I love that. It puts control back in the in the client's hands. It lets guide the or, not guide like you help them, you help guide them right to where they want to go, but you help them build this roadmap of a journey that they're embarking on. And along the way, they can figure out the different pieces that work for them, that makes them more comfortable. And that's something that I think is really respectable and commendable because you don't see a lot of people out there in this industry that are like, Hey, we wanna help you do what you wanna do, something that makes you feel more comfortable as you're building your wealth. So that's really awesome, and I appreciate that. Now, as you've been doing this throughout so it was what, 15, 15 years? That you've been doing this? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, fantastic. So as you've been doing this, what about like your own personal financial journey? So, when you started down this road, so I know you said you were in Corporate America for a little while, you climbed the ladder and then you got out and you started this program, the empowered financial planner, and with doing that, you became your own entrepreneur, right? You started off on this own journey. Now, did you have to build a team? What else went into this as you started building up? Cause I know like it's gotta be very uncomfortable leaving the comfort zone of having that corporate job, with that guaranteed paycheck coming in to starting from nothing. So what was that like for you?

Eunicia Peret: 12:38

Actually that's a very deep question, Mike. It was not easy, particularly because at the time I left Corporate America, I was actually in a very unique position. I was having discussions regarding partnership, joining the partnership in a major consulting firm, worldwide consulting firm. And it was actually my husband that kind of brought the awareness to me and said, Darling, I need you to look at a list of questions, right? Having seen, he was always my biggest proponent when it came to my role in Corporate America and, climbing through the leadership ranks. And when he came with this list of question, it was very much based in his observations of what not necessarily I went through, but observations that he had seen me experience. And so it was along the lines of what are you gonna do When? And then there was a question. And I had, there are a few nos and, a lot of them were really based on my moral compass and what I felt was right or was wrong. And he looked at me and he said, sweetheart, 10 years is a very long timeframe. How many career limiting moves or career limiting, respectful nos do you think you're gonna be able to have? And and so at that point in time that it was actually my husband that gave me the grace of taking a break. He said, you need a break, you've worked really hard, and you just need to make sure that whatever your decision is that you're gonna be comfortable with for the long haul, not just comfortable, but happy because you've put all of this time, you've built your career. You were very successful. You were very happy, but is, the happiness that has carried you until now going to keep you going forward. And so it was at that point in time, coincidentally, we had those major financial questions for us. And so I was already a multi six figure earner. We were doing very well as a family. And you can imagine when I sat down and I looked at even from a taxes perspective, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars we had just paid in taxes because we didn't know that we had alternatives. It was painful and it was hurtful, and when I started looking at what could be done, obviously at first I looked at our situation, but then it very quickly converted into how can I give back and to answer your question about my journey as a, as an entrepreneur, I started out as an entrepreneur. I didn't know at first, if I knew how to pay myself, because that was never a thought in my mind. I had never been in that realm of earning my own pay. Of course. Yes, I did earn the pay because I got the salary, but how do you truly pay yourself? Through your own hard work. You get to be the person that invoices and everything else. And so it started out by me working on my own. Then I got a group of very close mentors that I collaborated with and what I realized was that in order for me to really be able to give back we needed an actual team. And so I just, we just started bolting on different team members in different parts of the organization, and we continued to grow and we continue to hire and continue to bring on amazing folks that can help us deliver the mission that were set out to deliver in terms of helping people grow through their wealth optimization effort.

Average Joe Finances: 15:38

I love it. And I love your mission too, especially with just how genuine it is and, how you're trying to help people invest in ways that, that work for them. Now, there was something you had mentioned and I wrote this down because of the amount of taxes that you said that you were paying. And when you start looking at some of these alternative investments, such as real estate, I think people don't realize, besides the cash flow or appreciation that you might be getting from investing in these assets, there's something else that you get too. And it's huge tax advantages. By being able to look at that and look at it from a different scope of view, right? Like you started to do, what made you realize that there were other options out there that can actually help you in that avenue?

Eunicia Peret: 16:20

You are completely right when it comes to how real estate can be so helpful on the tax optimization. But what I realized when I started really geeking out and, really hanging out more from a financial strategic discussion, right? Financial strategic discussions rather, with individuals that were either in similar situations to mine or other professionals such as doctors, pilots, individuals that make a lot of money don't have time to geek out on their own stuff, nor should they write. They have their unique areas of specialty. What I realized was that, oftentimes, even with real estate, even with the real estate portfolio, people still end up leaving more on the table than they need to. The reason for that Mike is because they don't have a true financial team that works for not against them. And this is not to say that our financial teams or anybody's financial team truly works against them. But if that financial team, if you've got the wrong people on the bus, that don't truly understand how the tax code applies to you specifically, you're gonna end up leaving more and paying more than you should. A good example for it when it comes to real estate, we have several clients that when we started working with them they had a real estate portfolio. And when we found out was that the CAs that they were using were not that don't necessarily understand the intricacies of their overall business, the intricacies of and the delineation between the real estate portfolio and their day to day jobs. And because of that, they weren't optimizing the tax code. And so part of what we do, especially with high net worth individuals, as well as high income earners is to make sure that the client's financial team either comes together because we have the right people on the bus, or the client will get to decide when they realize maybe that they don't have the right individuals, they'll literally come to us and say, okay, I think I need to speak to somebody else who might you be able to introduce? And that's where our team of experts comes to bear. Those are not individuals that are on our team necessarily directly and the reason for that is very strategic. We want our clients to get unbiased, firsthand and first help. And that's where we act more as the conduit, more of as the quarterback for our clients, so that nobody ever feels that, Hey, I'm in a family office and these guys are just kind of everything that they do, they can just executed internally. I see that as potentially being very dangerous, because then again, it takes us right back into what is the menu of services and are we somehow limited to either the knowledge or the menu of services that we're getting so I know it was a long, pretty detailed answers and answer are very multifaceted, but unfortunately this problem of truly optimizing wealth is not as simple as to your point. Just cut down the cost and you'll be fine, or just buy real estate because it'll help you minimize your taxes and you'll be fine. I wish it was that easy.

Average Joe Finances: 19:06

No nothing's ever that easy. Nothing's ever that simple. I really appreciate that. And one of the things I wrote down, like the key word that you said there, by being able to refer these people out to other outside entities, that third parties is how they can get that unbiased opinion or recommendation that's separate from, you and your team. So that's, really awesome. Another thing I wrote down too, cuz I, one of the things I'm really enjoying about this conversation is you keep saying that you're geeking out on this stuff and I love it cuz I geek out on this stuff too. It's just, it's really fun to just learn more and learn these different ways to build wealth. To save on taxes and different things like that. So I really love that you use that term geeking out. I wanna rewind back to something else that you said, maybe two or three questions ago. And I, wrote this down and I forgot to bring this up. And that was, you had mentioned something about having a relationship with money, and this is something that I brought up on this show a couple times, I've had a couple other guests on the show that bring this up. And, I would, I just wanna point out the significance of that because a lot of people, they don't have a relationship with money. They just think of it as a tool. Sure. It is a tool, right? It is a tool that you can use to help build wealth., but what is your relationship with money? So it's, just like having a relationship with a person. If it's toxic, it's not gonna work out that well, you're probably just gonna see your money walking out the door, but if you have a good relationship with money, you can, Hey money, come on board, let's work together. Let's get you employed to make more of you. So I, think I just wanna point that out because that's something. Key words that you say that make me really smile on the inside, but also okay. She's genuine, she's a genuine person. So I just wanna say, I really appreciate that. Now, speaking of being genuine and enjoying what we're talking about, you've been doing this for over 15 years. You've been helping multiple people with building their wealth and just building different wealth strategies, helping them build their blueprints and work on that relationship with money, what would you say is the thing that you enjoy the most about what you do?

Eunicia Peret: 21:04

At the end of the day it's seeing the value that we deliver to our clients. And going back to the 15 years that you were mentioning, it's actually even part of that 15 years for our listeners to understand was rooted in helping large fortune 500 organizations. Just listen to this, do more with less, right? How can we do more with fewer people with better processes with increasing our bottom? And one of the biggest, ahas and the biggest rewards that I ever got personally was to see that we can deliver the value to the clients oftentimes. Yeah, doing more with less but not focusing on how do we fire people, but rather how do we reengineer what the client already has and focus on bettering that organization. It's the same thing when it comes to money. Just like I said earlier, it doesn't mean that if you have a financial team, which said, they just say most people don't truly have a financial team. If it even exists, it doesn't mean that we have to scrap it. But it does mean that we can bring those people up to speed on what else are we missing out by infusing the situation with thought leadership with, new leading practices, with leading practices that may be using your favorite word, they didn't geek out on, right? Because they're, doing what they're supposed to be doing every single day. It's our job to geek out because that's what we do and that's what I love doing, but it's that it's seeing the results and it's seeing the, fact that we do have an impact and that what we deliver to clients is hardcore results. Hardcore increases to their bottom line by minimizing taxes, by optimizing the way that they invest money and by many cases, minimizing risk, even from a legal standpoint.

Average Joe Finances: 22:40

I love that. Absolutely love that. So as again, there was another, key word that you said too is how you're adding. And being able to add value to these different companies and the different people that you work with, that's huge because being able to do more with less and actually with me being in the military for over 20 years, that's that's one of the things that was always a big thing, is do more with less. And we always had to figure out how to make that work. But having somebody be able to guide you as you do, that's huge. And, you don't really see that too often. It's just pretty much a, Hey, suck it up and figure it out. So the fact that you can help guide people and guide these companies through that pathway, is very awesome. Now I wanna go back to you, personally a little bit with what it is that you're doing for yourself and, your family in your own financial freedom journey. So I just wanna ask you what, kind of asset classes do you currently invest in.

Eunicia Peret: 23:32

It just really varies across the board. There's everything from the traditional financial vehicles to the non-traditional financial products to non-financial anything. Think of real estate, think of non-traditional investments in terms of different projects and different things where we see that there's an opportunity to not just make money, but be the voice of reason behind some amazing initiatives. And we do all of that just like we do with our clients in a matter in which it feels comfortable. If it doesn't feel comfortable, I'll tell just like I tell my clients, there are certain things for example, the market, there are specific things that I just can't stand about the market not because it's what it is, but because it is what it is, it's because I cannot deal with the losses. And so some of our products in that arena are really more there for us to sense what's happening with the market, because I need that. And, because of what I do. But outside of that, I cannot stomach losses, I don't like seeing major losses just to see major gains because at the end of the day what I know is that they even out and so I don't need a roller coaster to live on for every single day of my life. If I needed a roller coaster, six flags is a pretty good place to to scratch that edge during the summertime.

Average Joe Finances: 24:45

Yeah, for sure. No I appreciate that answer because it's the same thing for me. I focus mostly on real estate. I do invest in a whole bunch of other different products, but real estate for me has always been the bread and butter because it's always been very steady. Whereas as you said the market can be a roller coaster. These, ups and downs. And so I do have some small positions in the market when I look at that every now and then, so that's one thing I refuse to do. I will not look at my investment portfolio, like every day, like some people do, because I would just lose my mind, but maybe about once or twice a week, I'll just pull it up, see what's going on and say, Eh, not looking at that until next week. So yeah, definitely appreciate that. Now, I wanna kind of transition this into something that we started doing called the final round and it's four kind of hard hitting questions that I think will really pull out some good information from what it is that you're doing. And just some of the trials and tribulations that you've faced in your own journey and building up your company as well. So if you're ready to go, we'll get that party started.

Eunicia Peret: 25:45

Let's get the party started.

Average Joe Finances: 25:46

All right Eunicia, I appreciate that. So the first question is what's the biggest mistake you've ever made.

Eunicia Peret: 25:53

The biggest mistake I've ever made was not listening to my gut instinct. Time and this is the guiding point that I give my clients and anybody that I talk to anytime when your gut tells you or guides you into a specific direction, listen to it. Obviously ask questions but follow your instincts. Your instincts are generally rooted like the relationship with money, right? The rooted in past experiences, the rooted in things that you can't necessarily understand or articulate. And for me, the biggest mistakes have always been associated with not listening to my instincts.

Average Joe Finances: 26:24

Yeah. That's very fair. That's very fair. I've even experienced that myself too, even in a real estate deal that I purchased one time where I didn't listen to my gut and I got punched in my gut for not listening to it, so that's for sure. People are a lot more intuitive than they think they are. And if you can really focus on your instincts, like you said it can make a big difference. We don't know what we don't know, but we do know what we do know. In the back of your head, if something's telling you this doesn't smell this doesn't feel right, it's probably because there's some knowledge that you have back there that you're tapping into that you're maybe just not seeing it right now, but your body is telling you, Hey, This is not the right move. So definitely appreciate that perspective. Now the next couple questions all tie into this as well. So the next question is what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started

Eunicia Peret: 27:12

invest in yourself? I wish that, especially for if we have any individuals that are leaders in the corporate world or you work for somebody else, or even if you're a business owner and you found success by doing the hard work, investing in yourself and the knowledge in the strategic guidance and support from experts is huge. Give an example of how far I've come. When I first left Corporate America, I didn't even know that there's the notion. Of course I knew about consultants for crying out loud. I had been in that role for many years, but I never knew that hiring a consult at a personal level, not for a fortune 500 company, but for myself, for my small company at that time that it was critical. And so when I first discovered that it was a huge eye opener and it was such a big eye opener to where even just this past year, I had three business coaches That I had hired and every single one of them had a different strategy. Now, of course there was the kind of key business coach and everything else that I was hearing was a validation of, is it leading practices or is it not leading practices, but then in itself gives you the idea of there's so much stuff out there. We can Google anything that we want. The reality is that without having the true leading practices from individuals that have an unbiased way of helping us and helping us think through, helping us see what we need to see and helping us think through what we need to think through, we're gonna be our own worst enemies. And so, that was the one thing that I've learned that investing in ourselves in our business is absolutely huge.

Average Joe Finances: 28:41

Absolutely agree with that. You have to invest in yourself and that kind of takes me back to a really good book called profits first by Mike Michalowicz and I've had actually two different people on my show that actually talked about that a little bit. So it's like the same thing, pay yourself first, right? So as you're investing and you're especially if you're building a business. You wanna pay yourself first as well. So investing in yourself is huge. And that could be anything of going out to a nice dinner, it could be different things that you might need for let's say you wanna start a podcast and you need to buy some equipment. Investing in that, just different things that will help you raise the happiness bar. And, sometimes I think a lot of people forget, especially in this industry for people that are maybe trying to be a little bit more frugal as they're beating debt and trying to figure out ways to build their wealth. Sometimes they forget to give them, give themselves something, and a lot of times those are the people that will get burned out and say, you know what, I'm not doing this anymore. And they wind up living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of their life, or having to wait until they're in their late sixties to be able to retire. And even then sometimes they can't even retire then. So I think investing in yourself and, keeping yourself happy as you go along in your journey is huge. So I definitely appreciate that. Okay, so this, again, this kind of ties into the next question. And that is, do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started today?

Eunicia Peret: 30:05

So tips and tricks. That's a great one. Going back to what you said earlier about you have to invest in your help and yourself, you have to invest in your happiness, 100%. One of the big tips and tricks that I share with and even if I didn't share it with them, our clients always see it on the other side, is this knowledge that free, isn't always free. There's nothing in life that comes for free. And often times what we see with individuals so many times, whether they work with a real estate agent or they work even with the financial advisor, they just want the free, how can I get it for free? How can I negotiate myself a better. And what I feel they always fail to see is that negotiating a little bit here or a little bit there ends up actually costing them a whole lot more in the long run. So while it's not a tangible tip and trick when you're thinking, let's say for example, the free guidance that you've gotten thus far with how you invest your money, think of the following question. What are you leaving on the table? What is it truly costing you? Because it's not just about how you invest your money, it's so much more than that. So what are the different pots of money that you are truly flushing down the toilet every single day, every month, every year that you'll never get to see because you got it for free. You had access to that very super limited menu of services and you were fine with that because it was free and you didn't know any different. So my tip and my trick there is surround yourself with good people be comfortable to potentially shift people, on and off your bus like I said earlier. The same individuals, the same companies, the same strategic partners that helped you get to where you're at, may or may not be able to take you to the next level. And so don't be afraid, that's the other thing, don't be afraid to make changes. Again, when your instinct tells you that, Hey, maybe it's time. It probably is time. And we see that so often with so many clients, we've got several clients that we're working on, with them on this specifically with them and we're not about displacing, but we are about optimizing. And so it's the idea of you understanding what it is that you need to do to help take your own game to the next.

Average Joe Finances: 32:10

That, is fantastic. That is a great answer. Really appreciate that. You always bring it back to these analogies that make sense. And don't miss the bus people, don't miss the bus and guess what, the value of the bus ticket that you have, it's worth it. So pay for it. Don't try to negotiate the your fair price

Eunicia Peret: 32:27

And don't try to get on that list.

Average Joe Finances: 32:29

You'll wind up missing off, you're gonna wind up having to get off two stops too early, and then you're gonna walk two blocks. No I definitely appreciate that. That is awesome. Okay, Eunicia. And now the next question is, do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast, or both?

Eunicia Peret: 32:44

As a matter of fact, I do Mike, one of my most favorite books for folks to reference is Tony Robbins' book called Money Mastered The Game. It's not a super hard read. It is a long book to get through, but the reason I specifically appreciate the book is because number one, it provides a third party, some third party insights into this idea that you need to be thinking about things differently. The other reason is when I first read that book, I thought, oh my gosh, we need to do something about the limited options that people *have when it comes to how they see money, to how they invest money, to how they perceive going back to their relationship that we talked about money. And so it's a book that I definitely recommend. It's fun and it'll be a huge eye opener for many.

Average Joe Finances: 33:28

That is fantastic. That's a great book for people to read. And, Tony Robbins is a great coach and author, and does some really amazing things. So I appreciate that. So if you haven't already go check out Money Master The Game. All right. This has been a fantastic conversation. I've really enjoyed it. But now I have one more question for you, and I think this is the most important, question of all, because for the people that have been listening and, following along with this interview and following along with your journey and what you've done, and then also what you've done with the wealth freedom formula, people are gonna wanna know more about you and about the formula. So Eunicia, if you could share where we could find that, do you have a website, any social media profiles we can follow? That would be fantastic.

Eunicia Peret: 34:11

Absolutely. Folks can certainly follow us on our website. They can even interact and chat with us there, it is www.empoweredfinancialplanner.com. And for those listeners that are interested to learn more about kind of the philosophies behind even what made the wealth freedom formula, what it is, you're more than welcome to grab your free quick read. It's a checklist to the five financial pitfalls that really we should all be focused on in order to avoid. And you can find that on our website, same thing, www.empoweredfinancialplanner.com, pitfalls. I encourage you to get that. Let us know that you heard about it here on the podcast that you heard it from Mike and from me, and it'll be our pleasure to connect with you. If you have any questions and go from there, you can also find us on social media. We're just about everywhere, linkedIn, Facebook, Instagram we look forward to hearing from you.

Average Joe Finances: 35:02

Fantastic. And I'll make sure I have links to all of that in the show notes, the website, the social media profiles, just to make it easier for all of you. So you can either copy and paste or click away and go give them a follow, go check out the website, see what Eunicia and her team is doing with the empowered financial planner. So this is just really awesome and go check out the wealth freedom formula that they have and get the free information that you can, and it's gonna be awesome guys. Hey Eunicia again, this has been an absolute pleasure. I really appreciate you taking the time to have this chat with me today. It's been really fun.

Eunicia Peret: 35:35

Likewise, Mike, it was a pleasure to be here with you today. All righty. Aloha from Hawaii.