That time we talked about life insurance

This is episode number 27 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you could join us today for the show. We are back in the Homeowner Show Studios, still unfinished.

Yeah, well, you know, it's— Craig, remember last week whenever it was like 13 degrees outside?

Yes.

It didn't get a whole lot better, and so things have not changed very much.

We're back from— with our traveling band of merry duo.

Well, yeah, just as— yeah, so we're back in the studio.

Yes.

Which is normal for us. We're back to normal.

Yes, and it is, it is jam-packed in the house tonight.

Yeah, we got a lot of people with us.

Yeah, so, but if you have not yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button there in iTunes, Stitcher, whatever platform. Kevin's, Kevin's on some organic non-GMO podcast listening app. Um, I don't know.

It's Pocket Cast, y'all. If you haven't figured that out yet, it's Pocket Cast. But also—

I'm telling you guys, he is These guys are in his pockets.

I wish, but I will tell you this, um, Google Play I hear works also.

Yes.

I mean, I don't— I wouldn't know, but I, I hear that it works.

Not that you would—

Not, not that I would—

Deign to use such a platform.

Well, no, but people do.

You can also hit subscribe on YouTube, notification bell there. And, uh, we haven't, we haven't gone over this before, but it's, it's good reminding the people Um, that you, you may watch on YouTube, but do so with caution.

Yeah, because, um, we ugly.

We ugly.

Yeah, there's no good filters.

No, there's only so much you can do with this.

That's exactly right. But, but we have a really good show for you guys today. We have Cindy, Renee, and Delilah in the studio from PHP Agency, uh, to talk to you guys about a very important subject today. Kevin, are you ready for this one?

Man, I'm I'm ready to get into it. Are you ready?

I'm always ready, dude.

Okay.

Yeah, well, let's do it. Let's, uh, let's bring them on in. Um, we're just gonna go around the table real quick, and, uh, Renee, we can start here with you.

Well, before Renee gets started, I, I would be remiss if I, if I did not remind everyone out there in the podcast world that Schnuzen Bowser is, is still coming. Oh my goodness, it's gonna be a reality. Here we go. The, the manufacturers have confirm that I can, I can order these, that they are real, um, that you—

Me?

Absolutely you, because I've, I've, I've seen your floors. Um, true.

What's Schnauzen Bowser?

Well, Schnauzen Bowser is actually something totally different.

Um, that's, that's a different breed.

Yeah, it's a different breed. It's, it's when you, when you cross Schnauzen Bowser with a Schnauzer, which is not recommended because they're not genetically compatible, but The, the Schnoozen Bowser— I am so glad that you asked. This is such a good launching pad for me. Uh, the Schnoozen Bowser is the tool that you use to install flooring in your house.

Oh.

And I just happened— I, you know, not intentionally coined the phrase for this tool. It had a really lame name. I don't even know what it was. It was like floor wrench or something. I don't know. But the Schnoozen Bowser— so look for that. You can also, you know, you can go on the website, you can buy the t-shirts, but right next to that, in some weeks coming, you can buy the Schnoozen Bowser. Eventually order it, you know, everybody needs one.

No more than one?

Well, like I said before, if you have a flooring business, we recommend 20. Yeah, well, even if you don't have 20 guys on your crew, I mean, you should be ambitious enough to be thinking, my business is gonna grow to where I'm gonna need 20.

There you go.

And then if you're a dog person, Snooze and Bowser.

Snooze and Bowser.

Snooze and Bowser. Yeah, hashtag Snooze and Bowser.

It spells exactly like it sounds.

So I'm sorry I interrupted Renee.

No, no worries.

Please.

So how you guys doing tonight?

We're doing good. We're doing good. Tell us, uh, tell us a little about, about you.

About— I'm a little toasty because Cindy turned the air off.

Yeah, please turn it back on.

She doesn't know how to read Spanish. Next So, so yeah, so listen, my name is Rene Reyes. Uh, listen, it's a pleasure being here with you, Craig and Kevin. Uh, so Rene Reyes here, born and raised here, yeah, you know, in the Conroe area. And, uh, me and my wife currently own a financial services marketing company called PHP Agency here in The Woodlands off of Robinson Road.

Okay, great.

How long ago did you guys, did you guys start that?

We started about 2 years ago.

2 years ago. Okay, awesome.

About started 2 years ago. We opened up the office about 7 months ago.

Okay.

Um, and, and we're very excited as to where, you know, where it's heading, how we're, you know, impacting the community. We're meeting a lot of new people. Um, but it's kind of cool now that it, it comes to our side of the town. Like when we first got started, um, with the firm, there was only one office in Houston. So we would have to travel and train, um, close to Beltway and I-10, you know, far from here. Um, but to have the opportunity to finally bring it to our hometown, That's what's really exciting. Yeah, we're very excited about that. But, um, but yeah, I mean, we're, we're thankful that, you know, to have you— that you guys have us

on, um, on the air tonight. And, you know, we're here to have some fun. We're here to, you know, um, get to the night, get going.

And of course, I only speak for myself and not Kevin.

Not Kevin. Correct.

That's not what you said the other day. You were speaking for me all over the place.

Well, you weren't there.

It was easy. I remember that even though I wasn't there. Yeah, what do you got? You got one other person here with you.

So my name is Cindy Salmeron and I am a life insurance agent.

Okay, all right, great. So, so tell us a little bit about PHP Agency, um, what you do and why is it that, um, I would want to know more about you.

You know, for PHP You know, what we do is we're trying to educate a lot of families on finances. I think that's one of the biggest things that made me and my wife want to transition into this type of field and this type of industry was that we were starting to noticing all around us, a lot of us don't know a lot about finances. You know, coming into high school, you know, nobody teaches about finances, right? So for us, that's what we do. We teach people how to plan for retirement, protect their families, you know, and keep dignity, you know, as far as what they, you know, going into retirement. I don't know if you want to add more to that, sweetheart.

Yeah, no, I mean, we, we got into an industry that, you know, we weren't fully aware of. And, and I think we got into it just more so because we wanted to learn about it ourselves, not ever realizing it was going to be a calling for us. And, you know, that God was going to lead us into, into this path, um, because we come from the oil and gas industry. So, you know, the Texan thing here to do, you want to make some good money? Yeah, let's, let's go to oil and gas.

So that's what you guys were doing before?

Yeah, that was our former profession. And, uh, we did that for many years. You know, he worked in the fields, he worked in the corporate office, and You know, we made that transition once we started seeing the impact that was happening. But it was more so, okay, what, what can we do to, for ourselves, you know, to be financially set? Because unfortunately, a lot of people in our country struggling financially.

Yeah.

You know, we don't, we don't know where to put our money that's going to best work for us. And when we started learning the rules of money, I remembered, you know, and my husband, you know, tells this story so well. You know, our CEO, Patrick Bet-David, Um, he, he had a conversation with us and it was a pretty blunt conversation that we were like, oh God, it kind of hurts your gut a little bit. So, but I, I can— Renee is like really good at that story because every time he says it, like, we relive it and it's just like, oh, um, that it makes you really start thinking about, um, our priorities and at the same time start

analyzing, dang, where am I putting my money? Where, where do the wealthiest of people put their money?

Yeah.

And, and why aren't we, you know, doing The same, you know who who's going to be teaching us about it?

Okay. So was that was that a private conversation or can we can we can we listen in for that for for the Patrick conversation?

Yeah.

I'm always interested in gut punches. Yeah.

So he put it very sorry. Let me just kind of describe Patrick. Patrick is a big old guy. Right. He's super tall. He's from Iran. Six like tall big. So he's telling us this and we're like okay okay okay got it. Whatever you say. What did he say, Pat?

So we just had this conversation and he says, you know, um, very bluntly, he says, you know why you're struggling financially? I said, why is that? You know, I said, okay. Uh, he says, uh, you first have no idea how to handle money. And 2, you have no clue how the money game works. And I said, what do you mean by that, Pat? And he says, look, let me put it in a simple way you can understand it. I said, okay, you know, let's, let's hear it. And he says, listen, um, what would you say are the richest sports in America? So if I was to ask you, Craig and Kevin, what would you guys say are the richest sports in America?

Richest sports.

I would like just a regular sport. Yeah, I would say probably soccer is way up there. Football.

Yeah.

Okay, football.

Yeah, that's probably up there. And poker.

That's what I'm poker. Yeah, poker's a good one.

I don't know about that one yet.

No.

What would you say?

You can't take those.

If I can't take those, I'm gonna go with golf and horses.

Golf and horses.

Horses.

100%. Yeah, you know what, and it's funny because I never thought about poker or golf, right? And I, you know, I'm Hispanic, right? I said basketball, football, you know, baseball. And he says, you know, let me— okay, great. And he says, what kind of commercials do you see during football, basketball, and baseball? What kind of companies pass commercials there?

So we started naming them, right?

I meant like soft drink, Coke.

Yeah.

Beer.

100%. I don't know, Toyota, right? Yeah, chips.

Okay, cars.

Yeah, cars, you know. And, you know, he put it very bluntly, so prepare yourself, okay? I got offended when he told me this, you know, because— sure. But he says, uh, listen— and I told him that— Toyota Corollas, you know, Ford, Doritos, whatever, beer, right? And he says, uh, well, listen, you know why they play those commercials during those— during those games? I said, why is that? See, they know that the people watching those games Buy those things. He said that's a poor man's sport. Is literally what he told me. He says because the people that watch it buy the Doritos, buy the and and I said Pat, I'm offended.

He's like you know.

We're like we watch this.

I was like yeah yeah. He says and he says literally he told me this. He's like I know you're the type of guy that buys the McDonald's, the Doritos. I said oh wow thanks a lot.

Yeah yeah.

I like McDonald's.

Hey I know listen ice cream cones all the way right?

He said he said insulting your money.

And you're getting weak.

Yeah, right.

So he's like, yeah, you're poor. I was like, well, okay.

So, you know, but once he finished it, it made sense. So then he tells me, no, you know, the richest sports are golf and tennis. And I said, why golf and tennis? Right. He's like, you ever watch golf? I said, Pat, I'm Hispanic. I don't know anybody. Anybody who watches golf and tennis, you got to go watch the Golf Channel. I said, okay. So I want to go watch it. And then I came back and I told him. So he asked me again, so what kind of companies pass commercials there? And I said, listen, I saw a lot of Rolex and stuff like that. Higher end stuff, but I also saw a lot of financial services companies there. He says, "There you go." See, he says, "Right, Renee? Why are financial service companies passing

commercials during golf and tennis?" I said, "Because they know what kind of money, what kind of people watch those shows." I said, "People with money." He says, "Exactly." So what you need to go do is go work with those companies are passing commercials there for those people because people that have money, all they're thinking about is how can we protect our money and how can we make more money?

Yeah.

He says, why don't you go work with those companies that are teaching those people that? And from there I made a switch and said, wow, you know what?

To learn the money rules.

Yeah, it made sense. I said, you know what? I need to go work with those companies so I can learn more about money for myself. Yeah.

That's interesting.

That's good advice for sure.

Right?

Yeah, and it is interesting because there is a movement in our country to try to figure this out. And what's interesting is the movement, I feel like, is very segmented. There's just a few number of people that are actually doing this. But there's, uh, Craig and I actually listened to a couple of other podcasts that are directly related to what you should be doing in order to, to make money. You know, how do you invest money? Because most people, I think they think that, oh well, I have to put my money in a bank.

Yeah.

And, and I'm frustrated because all I get is like 0.2%.

0.01%. Okay, I was even, I was even You're never gonna see your dollar turn into $2, mind you.

3%.

Yeah, exactly.

So you're actually negative.

Yeah, so, but, but we're frustrated because it's like, well, that's all I know to do.

Absolutely.

So, um, I guess one of the reasons that, uh, that we wanted to have you guys on the show is to help us understand what— because, because we're a show about homeowners, right? And our goal is to help homeowners understand how to own their home better.

I love that.

And, and so there's, there's a lot of things that go into that, and I think finance is a huge part of it. And there's a lot of people out there that don't understand, why don't I qualify to get a home? Or on the flip side, they wonder, why am I qualifying for way more house than I can possibly afford? And there's no way for them to really put ends together and figure any of this out. So Um, maybe y'all could speak into some of those things about what should we be doing as homeowners to help ourselves out financially.

Yeah, I think, you know, for the biggest— for the most part, you know, it's, it's funny that you said that, buying homes and stuff like that, because I get a lot of people that come to my office and they said, Renee, well, why are you so passionate about what you do? I said, look, I think— and this is my personal opinion, you know— I said, you know, it seems kind of suspicious to me when we're going to school And everybody knows what photosynthesis is, you know, like everybody knows that. But the one thing that we're going to have for the rest of our lives is, you know, we're going to pay taxes. And it kind of seems suspicious that we know

photosynthesis, they teach us capitals of every state, but they don't teach us on taxes. They don't teach us on how to buy a home. They don't teach us on those things. You know, like for us, I love that you brought that up because we bought a home in Magnolia, Texas. And what happened was we bought it, 6 months later, Tiger Woods decided— I don't know if you guys know, they designed a golf course out there, right? Yeah. And you know what happened to our house? You know, it bumped up.

Yeah.

And immediately our payment went from like $1,600 to $2,200. And I said, you know, no one told us these things could happen. Like, no one, no one knows that. I said, how come they're not teaching things like this in school that we're going to need? You know, so for us, we're really passionate about this, about what we do. And, you know, for us, I think for a lot of homeowners, it's one, I think, understanding what you can budget for and actually shoot for that. You know, understand what's in— what, what can happen around your neighborhood. You know, if, if, if something like that's about to happen, Yeah. You know, see how fast, you know, the city's growing to, and if it's going to affect your, your,

your payment on your house or your taxes on your house. And I think the second thing is just start learning how to budget. You know, budget is a big, big one. And that's, I think that's one of the main things that we try to teach in our office is just how to save money, how to protect your money and how to start planning for retirement. So for that, we're really, we're really, uh, Give advice to. I don't know if you want to add to that, Suter.

Um, yeah, what, what, um, to Kevin's point, um, that many people, 95% of people put their money in a bank not knowing. And what's the good thing? What would you say is like the good thing about putting your money in the bank? What would you guys say?

You feel like it's safe.

You feel like it's safe, right? The majority of people, that's what they feel like. Yeah. And then, but, but like you mentioned too, the, the downfall on it, there's no growth.

Right.

So you're, you're, you're stuck in a place where your money's just going to be growing linear. What you have is what you get, right? You're not even keeping up with inflation. So for example, at the end of the year, let's say best-case scenario, a CD, let's just say, you know, at a bank, it offers you 3%. But how much is the cost of living going up? You know, it's going up 3 to 4% every single year. So by the end of it, you're negative. in your account, even though you made a, you know, $300, let's say, capital gains. But who's waiting for you at the end?

Yeah.

Uncle Sam, you know. Um, and then, okay, so a more sophisticated person will say, well, you know what, I'm gonna put my money, uh, I want my money to work for me. I want my money to grow. I don't mind taking a little bit more risk, you know, as long as it grows for me. So we— those are our what? Those are our variable accounts, like our 401s, our 403s, Our IRAs, stocks, mutual funds, all those type of accounts. And what are they tied to? Every single one of those accounts to the stock market, right?

Right.

Yeah.

So what's the good thing about having my money in the stock market there? What would you say?

Well, you can't get me to say that there's anything good about that.

But a lot of people, yeah, they would say, you know what, hey, I have a lot of potential growth, right? That's their thing. But what is the downfall on it? Yeah, potential to lose. Exactly the way it goes up, you know, it, it also goes down. So would it be prudent of us to put 100% of our money where it's 100% at risk?

No.

But yet, and, and if it were between the bank or the 401k, let's just say to the side, to the stock market or stocks, which one would we prefer at the end of it? So let's say, you know, I build up my 401k from here to 30 years. On average, market goes up you know, up and down, but on average you're going to be making around 8%, you know. So let's say I have half a million during my retirement age, you know, it's time for me to retire. But, you know, when you're in— when your money's in the bank, you're paying taxes already, paying taxes now. Uh, a 401, 403, all those types of accounts, they're a tax-later

account, tax-deferred.

Yeah.

So that money grew throughout all those years, which—

I mean, just, just real quick, yeah, not a lot of people even know what that word means. Deferred. I love that.

You're absolutely— you're so right. We were that person. I was like, deferred? Oh, okay. Oh, later. Oh, later. Okay, got it.

No, really, because I think a lot of people just mean, oh, I'm not getting taxed. No.

Yes.

No, that's not what that— so if you could like just tell people real quick, I mean, what does that mean?

I mean, yeah, so tax deferred means that you're— you, you want to be taxed not today, you want to be taxed later, once you are at the retirement age, they say, okay, cool, we won't tax you for X amount of years. So you're 59 and a half years old. So let's say I accumulate half a million for my retirement age in my 401. But what a lot of people are starting to realize now is, okay, you didn't pay taxes then, you got to pay taxes now because now it's later. So it's retirement age. So that half a million, let's say that you are at a, you know, By that age, you'll be able to— smaller tax bracket, so around 20%. That's 20% of your half a million. How much is that? What is

20% of half a million? Where are we at? What does that put us at? Like $100,000?

It's $100,000.

It's $100,000 that goes to who? To Uncle Sam of your hard-earned money. Yeah, of your hard-earned money. And a lot of us fall into that category. So at the end of it, you're left with what? Let's say $400K. So between negative $90 and the TaxNow in a bank, or $400K, which one would you prefer?

The $400,000.

So, okay, so what is another place that— okay, they're like, I don't want to do that anymore. So where's a place that it would be? So if I gave you guys the choice where you can put your money in a TaxNow account, a TaxLater account, or a TaxNever account, which would you prefer?

I like the tax never.

I like it, right?

I'm gonna go with that one. Yeah, is that the right answer?

Yeah.

Hey, whatever it is, whatever I gotta do. Hey, show show me that, right?

I was wrong about football.

Yeah, right.

Or the football.

Football.

Yeah, right.

We have patterns to break.

That's right.

That's it.

And and somebody said that to me, and I'm like, that doesn't exist. What are you talking about? Tax never. Everybody has to pay taxes, you know. Um. And so many of us, including us, we were that person who worked for so many years, helped our money accumulate, lost money in the stock market. We've all experienced it because it's tied to the stock. But many people don't know that there is a place where it's taxed never. A lot of people don't realize that that's part of life insurance.

Mm-hmm.

They don't know how the money grows, that your money can still grow, guaranteed safe, by the way. Guaranteed income for life. So like a pension plan, right? So if our 401 depletes, is the government going to give us more money? That'd be nice.

They haven't yet.

Shoot. Give me their number. I like their number.

They're just trying to take more money, right?

Yeah.

There's a lot of promises on the front end, but—

Right.

And coming back to Kevin's first initial point with, you know, being a homeowner and everything like that and qualifying for extravagant loans that you know, in your gut you can't afford.

Yeah.

Um, I think the wave of people that are now interested in educating themselves on finances are the people that possibly lost their homes in 2008 or lost their retirement funds in 2008 because everything crashed. Uh, and by everything, I'm, you know, people lost homes or retirement funds, uh, people lost businesses, you know, smaller businesses were affected severely. And that actually happened to us. We were even contemplating selling our business just to be able to, you know, survive. So I think a lot of people were traumatized, if you will, by that. And, you know, they're trying to educate themselves and they don't know where to go. They don't know who to ask. And they go to these big fancy corporations. I'm not going to name any names, but like Edward Jones. One of those financial firms.

I'm not going to name names, but here we go.

Except you're one of them.

And they go to these financial analysis, you know, um, and financial experts, uh, but then again, they are still not in control of their money. They're giving that control to someone else. And I think that's the first part of educating people is teaching them that they are in control of their money, that they don't have to pay another person just because they have a expert next to their name. The only expert that comes, you know, that should be with your money, should be handling your money, is you. You are the expert. So you know where the money comes from, you know how hard you work for it, you know who deserves it— your children, your family, your spouse. You need to be in control, and you need to be your own expert.

Yeah, you know, that's awesome because no one says that.

Yep.

No, no one says that. I mean, I, I think, you know, it goes back to Whenever someone says, hey, you need to think about retirement, there's a couple of things I think pop into people's head. Number one is, I don't think I'm ever gonna be able to retire.

Seriously.

And number two is, that is so far away for whomever. I mean, even if you're 50, you may think, again, I may never be able to retire. And so it seems like a long way off, right? And so it's kind of like, there's another part of that which says, but I'm spending all of my money.

Yeah.

How can I save any of my money because I'm spending all of my money? It's not even because I want to. It's maybe there's these external factors and, um, and I don't really know what to do with it. So, uh, you know, first and foremost, I appreciate you giving someone permission to take control of their money. And I guess the next question is, How?

How?

You're telling me that, but now what? I mean, I understand that your agency is, is helping with this, and I heard you say life insurance. So, um, I'm ready to get to the good stuff. So what's the good stuff?

Yeah, yeah. I think, uh, you know, I don't know if you want to take that.

Yeah, so with, with the life insurance is the tax never plays. It's okay. So let's just say that you're putting aside $500. Typically people put around $500 you know, towards their 401.

Mm-hmm.

So what ends up happening is instead of placing it into your 401, it's redirected into a life insurance policy that will insure you for the rest of your life. Meaning it's, it's because it's going to last you forever. It's a permanent policy, right? It's called an indexed universal life. And what it does, it's, it provides you not only a death benefit, okay? So if you pass away, your family's okay, you know, they're going to be protected. If you get Sick now. So a lot of people don't realize, I mean, we don't plan to get sick. And the majority of the time, if we do, do we typically have the money?

Um, I can tell you no.

Yeah, no.

And I know because, well, I've been hop-along for a lot, for a while. So I'm getting better. I'm getting, I'm getting better.

Okay, so when, when it comes to if you're critically ill, chronically ill, or terminally ill, you have access to your life insurance policy while you're still alive. So what it provides to you, if you pass away prematurely, you're insured. You get sick, you're insured. But if you live a long life, what it ends up doing, if you redirect whatever amount that you want to put towards your life insurance policy, let's just say that you grow in those 30 years. For example, National Life Group is one of the biggest in the world. They're currently paying 6.9% on your money. So that means it'll grow around— let's say you make $300,000 into your cash value that's built up in there, right?

By the way, that money is built up tax-free and penalty-free, and you can utilize it whenever you need to. So it doesn't matter your age or whatnot. Why? Because you own that policy. So wait, you don't have to wait till you're 59 and a half? You do not have to wait until you're 59 and a half. Whatever money is accumulated at, at, at, as long as you have money in your policy you have access to it. It's your money. So, for example, what a lot of people will do, and a lot of people don't realize, is if, if you pass away, let's just say, um, you accumulate $300,000 and you have a death benefit of $250,000. So, that's a total of what?

$550,000. It's retirement age, or you decide to just take out all the money. Craig?

I like that you're pointing at me. Can we point at Kevin?

Kevin, you take out all your $300,000 that you've built up throughout the years, okay? You pay for your wedding, you want to go Vacation, whatever, you want to retire. So you take out the $300,000, so you're still insured for $250,000. Now let's just say you never took the money out, you passed away, something happened or whatnot. That money is still in your policy, right? So how much money would be paid out to your family if you pass away if you didn't take that money out?

$550,000.

$550,000. Yeah, but $550,000, that's tax-free and penalty-free. Does that make sense?

Well, it does. I— it's, it's hard to believe, but it does. Yes, it does make sense.

So there's no like capital gains?

There's no—

what, any of this? Okay. And then you don't draw on it, or is it just like a one lump sum, or—

You can draw it as many times as you'd like. It's your, it's, it's your funds.

So is this— are we talking—

is this—

and I, I don't know all the life insurance jargon, but I know that there's a difference between like a whole and a term policy.

Yeah.

Right. So what are we, what are we describing Here?

Since I don't know the difference. Well, a whole life is a— is one of the types of permanent policies, right? So there's a variety of them. So whole life's how it used to work, um, and there's— they're still, you know, available. But there's a difference between a whole life and an indexed universal life. Okay, so what happens with the whole life is, um, you will— you will accumulate cash value into it throughout the years. So typically you'll get like a small amount, like $25,000 coverage, and it'll accumulate cash value, but whatever is accumulated doesn't pay out to the family. So for example, it— when, just like, you know, technology gets better, things evolve throughout the years, you know, so does financial services products. So what a whole life is,

is, um, the difference, mainly the main difference, is whatever cash value is built into it, you can access it, but if you pass away, any money that's there, the insurance company keeps it.

Mm-hmm.

So, the families were like, I mean, that doesn't work. I mean, I don't want that to happen. If I accumulate money, I want my family to receive it. So, as evolution happened, as things evolved or whatnot, they made it better for the consumer.

Yeah.

Okay, what is it now? Okay, so now there is no— how can I put it? They're still available. And by the way, any life insurance company provides it, the biggest in the world, because there's only 3 types. There's only 3 types of life insurance policies, and it's, it's a term policy. So if you pass away, your family, you know, is insured for the time being. But if you don't pass away, whatever you invested or whatnot is lost.

And most Americans are insured with that through their jobs.

Yeah, through their jobs. And, and, you know, it insures them while, while they're present in their job. So what a lot of people, they say, okay, well, you know what, I can buy a term, and throughout the years, um, That's, that's because right now it's cost efficient, not realizing that years later— let's say you get a 30-year term. Let's say I'm 34 years old, I'm 64 by the time my policy ends. How much do you think a 64-year-old, like, female— how much would it cost me for that same exact life insurance policy 30 years later? What would you guys say?

Oh, it's, it's going to be exponentially more expensive.

Yes.

Absolutely.

So the problem is, is we go into it saying, you know what, it's cost efficient today. But in the long run, you know, because are we living longer? We're living shorter? Longer. So the thing for it to actually pay out or for our family— by the way, there's a proper way to insure yourself. So not saying that terms are bad because they're not. Okay. There's a proper way to differentiate how much insurance or which type of insurance policy that you need. So when it comes to term policies, a lot of people, the majority of people that's all they know. But the second type of policy is called the ROP. So that means that at the end of your term, you get all your premiums back. So it's called a return of premium.

Okay.

Okay. A lot of people don't realize that that's an option for them. So you know what, okay, if you pass away, your family's insured. If you don't, you get all your money back. Shoot, that would be nice if they did that in car insurance. Like, thinking about it, like, you know what, if they offered that in car insurance, that would be really nice.

No kidding.

Absolutely.

But yeah, um, that's mainly the, the main differentiator between a term, an ROP, and a permanent life insurance policy. There's a variety of them too.

Which, by the way, the reason why we, we advocate a lot for the, the IUL is because the main thing I talk about, you know, is, you know, you just brought it up, Kevin, nobody's prepared for retirement, right? Right. And that's an issue. Look, I tell people that come into my office, they're like, Randy, what do you, what do you do here at PHP Agency? Because your culture is kind of crazy.

You got music going on.

Like, I don't what you guys do here, right? And I said, look, let me just give you a piece. Let me just give you a quick, quick rundown of what we do. I said, listen, would you say most Americans are financially, like financially set or financially struggling? And they said financially struggling. They said 100%. And I think that's because of lack of education.

Mm-hmm.

And I said, let me give you an example of that. I said, number one thing I run into with my clients is that, you know, they don't have enough money to retire. Let me give you an example of that. If I was to ask everybody in here, would you say Kevin and Craig, are you guys ready for retirement?

Not currently.

Yes. Yes. Great. So typically when I ask this question, majority of people say no, I'm not ready for retirement. And let me give you an example of that. I had 100 agents in my office, and this is, by the way, this is way, way worse within the Hispanic community and African American community, by far.

A lot worse.

By far. And, uh, I asked this, and I was at a grand opening for Spanish, and I asked everybody, I said, look guys, just so you guys understand that I'm not lying to you guys, there's a 100 people here in Spanish, right? Hispanics, you know. And I said, listen, how many of you guys have a retirement plan? You know how many people raised their hand?

I would— maybe not very many.

No, 5. Literally 5 out of 100. I said, look around. I'm just telling you, it is what it is.

I was one of the 5.

Congratulations.

Yeah, Cindy over here, right? Cindy over here was one of the 5. And, and I told them, okay, look around, there's only 5 of you guys. I said, but then the second question for the people that actually have a retirement plan Is it enough? And you know what the answer is? No.

No.

And I said, why? I said, look guys, I think a lot of us don't really understand because they're not teaching us in school about these things. And I think that's a huge, huge thing that we need to fix in the school system. I said, look, one, you know, for most of us, I said, okay, if you have a retirement plan, what is it? Most people say 401. And I asked most people, did you know 401 wasn't even intended to be a retirement plan?

Yeah.

Right. Most people, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I said, you know, it was created by Congress. for people, for high executives to, you know, shield some of their income from taxes. I said, and the result of that is they started realizing, well, if we're putting our money in here, why don't we make these guys put their money in here and let them worry about their own what? Retirement. Because pensions are costing us a lot, a lot of money. Sure. Right. And so we're noticing, I said, look, how many older citizens do we see working at Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, H-E-B, Kroger? I said, why? It's not that because, you know, we're financially illiterate. I mean, I mean,

we're not, you know, how can I say it? The term is we're not— yeah, I said it's not because they're dumb. I said it's because no one's teaching us about finances. And I think the number one cause of that that we're running into and the reason why we're trying to recruit more agents, I said, is because there's not enough agents talking about this.

Absolutely.

And the approach that we're doing, that we're taking here at PHP Agency is like she said, take, you know, we're trying to take control and educate our clients so they could have the best piece of advice and they can have the control over their finances and they can make the best decisions for them, you know, for their families.

Yeah.

And I mean, just to piggyback on that, I mean, like you're talking about the older people that we're seeing working like Walmart and Home Depot and like, were they prepared for retirement? And I don't know that they were necessarily like ill-prepared for retirement, but like what they needed to retire when they started those programs when they were 25, what their needs are now are completely different from when they started those things. And so like, they just, they don't have enough money because didn't grow the same way that their expenses did. And so, like, but, but again, that's not something that we talk about because we talk about like trigonometry. And then it's not like— it's not that trigonometry is bad. We need like trigonometrists.

That's exactly what they're called, right? No one just got offended.

Good.

That's right.

Or maybe not. I was trying to offend math people. We need, we need math people.

All right, actuaries.

Yeah, that's a thing. Really? That's a thing.

Oh wow, not mathematician? No. Okay, thanks. I just poked him again. All right, that's right, mission accomplished. That's right. Uh, but, but yeah, so I mean, like, it's not that we don't need those things, but like, what everybody needs is to understand how their money works.

Well, and, and on top of that, I think this is You know, this is really valuable because I think you've hit on this multiple times. Most people don't understand this.

Yeah.

Right. And so, you know, one of the things that I think is so detrimental to people is just money in general. I mean, I can't tell you how many people, they fight in their homes Oh my God, yes. And they spend time, you know, stressing out about not having enough money. And so, um, I think one of the things that, that would be so valuable is if people could de-stress by not having to worry about money. And so, you know, it, it winds up not necessarily becoming a question about how much you make or how much you save or how much You know, do I have enough money to go, you know, you know, buy groceries or pay the car note or anything like that? If we can find a way

to, to manage our money and budget, that's a huge part of it.

Absolutely.

Budget our money in a healthy way, then all of a sudden, my ability, my, the power to be able to buy a house Yeah. Changes.

Absolutely.

And the power to be able to go buy some new furniture or to not worry day in and day out about your money changes.

And I think a lot of that just has to do with lack of knowledge and lack of control. Okay. And what PHP is offering is it actually is offering both options because not only are we educating ourselves in financial services, retirement plans, and life insurance so that we can go to these people's homes and educate them in the comfort of their own home. There are so many barriers there. You know, we're also offering an opportunity for people to become entrepreneurs and to be in control of not only their business but their money overall.

Yeah.

And so, what PHP is doing is changing the industry completely in a very radical way. As it's not just offering that power and control and permission, like you said, to be in control of your own money, but it's also offering the opportunity to become an entrepreneur and be more financially independent.

Yeah.

Where you don't have to rely on corporate America to take care of you when you're older and ready for retirement age.

But the thing that—

I don't know why we're pointing at me.

She said older.

That's all it was.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That's what it was. Man.

But, you know, also what PHP is doing is it's breaking down those barriers. And there are so many barriers. There are social status barriers. You know, people feel like, oh, investments is for the wealthy. I could never do that. I don't have the money. I didn't go to college. I don't have the education for that. It's really not. So, we're trying to break that barrier and we're also trying to break cultural barriers. Unfortunately, there are a lot of different cultures, you know, like the Hispanic culture. We're just not taught about that. Not at all. We're taught to just live day by day and do the best you can.

Go work hard.

Right. Go work hard.

And let's be clear.

Yeah.

There's a lot of Hispanic people that are some of the hardest working people in the world.

100%.

Absolutely. And I love that about that culture. And so, but again, it doesn't really matter how hard you work, and we're not dogging on any single race here.

No, 100%.

It doesn't matter how hard you work if you don't know what to do with what you earn.

There you go.

100%.

Yes.

So now we're trying to break those cultural barriers with, you know, not just the Hispanic community, but the African American community as well. There's just a lack of financial knowledge. And I feel like people are captive in that because they feel like they are helpless. And so, they don't have the money to go invest with big financial corporations, so I must be destined to be poor my whole life. Yeah.

Wow.

So, I'm just gonna stay in this depressed state. But that is not what we were created to be. That is not how we were created, uh, to live our lives. We were created to be in an abundant life, and that doesn't mean wealthy. That means in control of ourselves. Yeah, you know, in control of ourselves, which then in turn allows you to have control over situations, which then allows for you to be stress and anxiety free.

Yeah, I love that.

Well, as, as you guys interact with, with folks that you meet, I mean, what, what are some of the biggest financial misconceptions that you guys run across? And it— I mean, I mean, it could be even the Hispanic community, it could just be people in general, but like in general What are some of the biggest misconceptions? Like, you're like, this is something that clearly has just been like across the board miscommunicated, misunderstood, not learned, whatever those— what might be some of those biggest ones?

You know, I think when we talk about the tax never, I think that's one thing that everybody run into. You know what they say? That's too good to be true. Literally, that's what they say. Like, always, that's the number one thing that we talk about. And then when we talk about annuities, we We offer fixed index annuities and we talk about income for life. And then I asked, did you know that insurance companies offer you a pension plan? I had no clue. Like, literally no one has any idea about these things. I think those are the 2 misconceptions that, that we get the most. I don't know if you get anything else from that.

Well, on the tax one too, I mean, I, I would, I would say they probably, if you say no tax, they would probably assume crook.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, 100%. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

That's The media spins that a lot of times.

Yeah, you're 100% right. And it goes to show, you know, that, that we're just not educated on it, you know, going back to that, because I had no clue. I mean, my wife went to Sam Houston State. We had no idea. She didn't hear anything. I had a guy that came from U of H to my office and he says, Renee, I'm studying financial services. And I said, how well do you know it? You know, because he was trying to work with us. And I said, he's like, I know it pretty well. And I started asking him questions about fixed index annuities and stuff like that. And he says, I had no clue. I said, brother, how much are you paying to, you know, for U of H to teach you these things?

And he says, a lot of money. And I said, you know, you can learn that in my company for free. And we bring these companies like the Delaney Guarantee, AIG, National Life Group, Mutual of Omaha to come teach you that here in my office for free. And he's like, what? I said, yeah. So those are the main ones. I don't know if you got another one that you can think of, sweetheart.

Yeah, no, that with, um, Hispanics— y'all are gonna laugh with this one— but Hispanics, they correct Me up. I know where she's going with it.

Yeah, guys.

Oh, you know, um, you know, we have a lot of machismo and, and Hispanic culture or whatnot, the men. And you know why, why in the world? And, and they say it like very, you know, why in the world would I, would I ever, you know, want to buy life insurance if, if it's not even, it's not even for me, it's gonna go for the Sancho?

And I'm like, are you talking about Everybody knows what Sancho is, right? Yes, translation is AKA side piece.

Okay, yes, the lover, the milkman, the milkman, lechero. Um, and, and a lot of people don't realize that, that now life insurance is not just if you pass away, it's if you, if, if you're still alive. Yeah, you know, and, and that's one of the biggest misconceptions too, but especially in the Hispanic culture. Um, that— go ahead.

No, and I love that she brought that up because I know Kevin was talking about that earlier, and the reason that she did— I love that if you're living is because I don't know if people know the stats, but 60% of Americans that file for bankruptcy every year is because of medical bills.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

And I said, this policy protects you for that. I mean, it protects you in case you get sick, because one thing we all know is that bills will— I mean, our checks will stop as soon as we're not working, right?

Yeah.

And the one thing that never stops is our bills. So this is the type of policy that protects you against that, right, from that. But yeah, that's a great one, Tudor.

Yeah.

Let me ask you one question.

Is there—

I mean, I know with a lot of 401s, you hear about maxing those out. Is there a certain number of dollars that you can put into a life insurance policy like you're talking about? Just with the, with the, with this tax never, with this tax never thing. I mean, it sounds pretty good. So that means I can probably only put a little bit of money in there, right?

That's a phenomenal question. Yeah.

What's a catch or a cap?

That's such a great question, by the way.

Yeah, fantastic question. They actually put a limit based on how much you're asking to be covered, right? Your face amount. And based on your age, based on those 2 things, there is a limit. Why? Because what they're starting to notice, obviously the government knows you're not going to pay what? Taxes on that money.

Sure. They want their money.

Yeah, 100%. So what they did is they said, okay, hey, we're going to put a limit where you can overfund it. And don't get me wrong though, overfund you— some people think you can overfund it by $100, $200. No, it's actually a couple thousand a year you can overfund your policy. Yeah, so yeah, and it's just based on 2 things and based on illustrations, we can show you exactly what they're going to say based on what you're getting. What's, what's your max that you can overfund it?

I mean, and you may not know the numbers right off the top of your head, but I know like the average American household income is like $75K.

Yeah.

And so like, let's say a 35-year-old making $75K for the household, I mean, what, what could they put into a policy like that?

So something like that, you know, I would just say, what are you already putting away for your 401? And that way you don't feel like you gotta pay extra.

Right.

We'll just redirect it.

Exactly.

Something you're already using. So if he's putting away $200, $400, then use that. Because I think what most people don't understand, you know, 401, you know, going back to what we were talking about, most people didn't even know it wasn't intended to be a retirement plan. And we're starting to notice, I don't know if you guys seen the video on YouTube where it's called The Retirement Crisis. Retirement Crisis talks about all these baby boomers gonna retire with not enough money. And it's showing how it's gonna affect the economy. Right. And then MSNBC, And Times Magazine, they made a— they were talking live and they talked about this recently. And why should we— Times Magazine was talking about why should we retire the 401? Because it is tied to the stock

market. People are losing a lot of money. 2008 is a great example of that, negative 37%.

Yeah.

You know, so imagine the people that had to retire then. But anyways, going back to this. So what we're trying to do is teach them to go into this to keep their money safe. Right. And then I have to worry about those things. But yeah, the tax limit is just based on those 2 things.

Okay, and so let's just say someone has an existing policy. Yeah, like either a term or a whole life or something like that. Is, is what you guys do, is that something that is convertible?

Yes.

So you can take those policies and convert it into a policy like what you guys do?

That's a great question. So if, if let's say it's a permanent policy that you guys have, um, like someone has a whole life, that can be converted. So whatever it is that you've already built up into it, that can be transferred to your new policy. So it doesn't start at zero.

Okay.

Okay. So instead of probably earning like a typical whole life will earn anywhere between 2% to 3% max, index universal lives range anywhere from 5% to 7%, 5% to 7.3%, like towards that range in interest. With term policies, it just depends on the carrier, you know. So for example, if like National Life Group, American National, their term policies, they can be converted into a permanent policy later on throughout the years as well. So you don't lose whatever it is that you have already put in.

Okay.

Does that make sense? So it's— a lot of families have a lot of options. Um, the thing is that they don't know their options, and we don't know our resources, um, that we have available to us. Um, and, and, and that's one of the most important things that, that our approach is, is more so educate them in that field. Hey, these are— this is all that's available to you so you can make a well-informed decision.

Yeah.

You know, these are all the— by the way, because every single— doesn't matter which company you go with, all of them can only offer you up to 3 types of policies. So it's mainly on the goals of the family. What is it? What are your main goals? Okay, I want to be able to build a legacy for my family. I want to be able to pay off my debt. Okay, and the proper financial analysis is done and they're able to see real numbers as opposed to just a ballpark number. Okay, but those are phenomenal places.

You can definitely transfer them over.

Absolutely.

Excuses just for a second. My biggest one that I run into is it's too expensive. That's— it's a luxury for the wealthy, not for people that are working to make it day by day.

Mm-hmm.

And so having to retrain people's trains of thoughts and allow them to see that they're already spending $100 to $300 on cable, Netflix, things that shouldn't necessarily be a priority, and helping them just reprioritize, retrain them in their, in their thought process on these things, and then helping them make those educated decisions on where their money should go. And this is tied perfectly into the budgeting.

Yeah.

You know, um, I just did this 2 weeks ago with a single mom of 2 little girls, and she said, well, Well, after I pay for their cable and their internet and their Netflix and their Hulu, I'm out almost $300. I'm sorry, I just can't do it. I looked at her blatantly in the face like, did you just hear you? And then just helping them retrain their thought process and reprioritize and helping them see that.

Yeah.

She brought up such a great point, um, because you, you know, if you think about it, when you think about the different types of policies, there's the term, ROP, and the permanent. The term is if— if let's think that they're, you know, housing terms. So it's a term, it's kind of like leasing an apartment. You know, you're going to be throwing your money away. You're never going to get that money back.

Right.

On ROP, it's, it's okay. You know, you're putting a security deposit, you're renting a home. Okay, at the end of it, you get your security deposit back. But why isn't there any reason as to why anybody would want to own a home? Your permanent policy is you wanting to own your own home. Why is that? What do you— what are the benefits that you get by you owning a home? What would you guys say?

Well, there is a return on your investment.

That's it. Yes, building up equity.

So you, you build up equity. So what a lot of— what the misconception is, is, oh, I'm putting, I'm putting too much into my policy. But, um, so they think it's too expensive, thinking it's a it's an expense, it's a cost. But in reality, what you're doing is you're paying your future self, right? You know, that money doesn't go to anyone or anywhere but you, right? So, and, and one thing that Renee always brings up too is it's the majority of the times we're living day to day, so we're working so hard for our money and it just goes straight to bills. And Renee asked such a great question to one of these guys. He's like, but

when was the last time you paid yourself first?

Right.

You know, when, when was actually last time that, that you said, okay, because typically we say, okay, cool, I get $5,000 in the household, it goes to my rent, it goes to my car, it goes to this. Once I'm done paying all that and, and my bills, then I can see what's left over for me. But you're the, you're the one the most valuable.

Yeah.

And, uh, and yeah, so, but yeah, I think that's one thing. And I love the fact that you brought that up because I think people just need to know there's options. You know, even for the term policy, you know, most people, when I give the example in my office, how much would you think a lady that's paid— that's 34 years old would pay for a half a million dollar policy for 30 years? You know, you'd be surprised. You know, people tell me $300, $500, $1,000. I said, it's actually $30 a month.

Right. It's not much.

That's it. You know, so we're trying to educate them, hey, there's options for you. You just need to be educated. Because I think the number one thing we see for a lot of people nowadays is if someone passes away, GoFundMes are everywhere on Facebook.

Right.

A lot of Hispanics, you know, we're selling plates at church, you know, and then it's just about educating. We just want to, you know, reach people so they know they have options. Doesn't matter where they're at.

Yeah, that's, that's really good. And I think that's a, that's a good segue for me to ask a question. And then I think, uh, we're bumping up on our time here, coming up real close.

Um, I really thought you were going to ask about those plates.

Barbacoa.

That's right. Yeah. All right, so, um, do you, do you have any budgeting app that you recommend or any type of budgeting tool that you recommend? Um, just resource. I mean, like, yeah, just any resources just in general, because, um, I know they can come to you. We're gonna get to that and get your information. We're gonna link all that stuff up in the show notes so people know how to get a hold of you because there's a There's a lot of stuff that we talked around, but you can't talk specifics in something like this, right? So we're gonna get to all of that, but do you have just any resources specifically that you might point someone toward that they might say, hey, I can download that on my computer or my

phone, you know, something like that to just kind of get people started?

Absolutely. So one of the things that I highly recommend, one thing that really opened up my eyes because I was the skeptical one with the tax never. I'm like, there's just nothing. That doesn't exist. But I started reading upon it, and this has nothing to do with PHP or whatnot. This is just me doing my own personal development. The Retirement Miracle, and that's a book by Patrick Kelly, and Tax-Free Retirement. Those are great reads. You can put it on Audible or whatnot. Great reads to understand how it works. And at the same time, do you guys know Tony Robbins?

Yes.

Okay, so Tony Robbins, The Money Master of the Game, he speaks about it. He speaks on the types of products or whatnot. So those are great resources outside of PHP. But when it comes to—

He's actually fixing to be in Houston.

Yeah, he just came.

He is?

Yeah, he just came. Oh, he just came. Okay.

He was just here.

It's a phenomenal read. And for us, it's any resource that you can get. So for example, the carriers, National Life Group, American National, really reading upon their products and services. And the difference when it comes to fixed indexed annuities on— there's a couple videos that show the difference between real scenarios of someone who had their money in the bank, someone who had their money in a 401, and someone who had their money in a fixed indexed annuity.

Yeah.

And it shows real-life scenarios of these people from 2004 to 2016. And you see how their money grows. And, and what the good and bad of each, right? Um, but I would say, you know, those, we can post them or whatnot and, um, you know, provide, but those, those are phenomenal reads if it comes to being able to understand that aspect.

Yeah.

And I think Tony Robbins has a lot of great stuff as well. A lot of great content that he talks about things like that. Uh, he's got one video called Money Master the Game where he gives 2 different, um, he gives examples of people putting money away.

Indexed accounts.

And indexed accounts and why they should be in indexed accounts. Um, and it's, it's pretty— when you see the content that he's putting on there and you see the examples he's giving, you're like, whoa, there's no way. So that's a great, great video.

He also has one for in case people have questions about their 401s. He has a couple of links where you can open up one of the websites and you can plug in your own numbers.

Your own 401.

From your own 401 and it'll decipher it. it for you, as in, you know, this fee is going to that, that fee is going to this.

How many fees your 401 has?

Typically anywhere like 17 to 22 fees.

Right. Um, and it also helps you understand how you're taxed. Um, it helps you understand how you're going to lose half your retirement.

There you go.

All right, listen, uh, let's, um, let's just, uh, move forward here just a minute and Get to the next segment of our of our show, and that is the final four.

What is this? What is the final four?

All right, here we go.

Fear and trepidation that fell over the room.

Yeah, exactly.

Should I be nervous?

No, don't be nervous. This is the easiest part.

Okay.

I love it. So holding you to it.

Kevin can write the questions; you can answer them.

It's exactly. Yeah, I ask the questions because Craig can't remember them. So. So here they are. They're just 4 questions that we ask all of our guests, uh, and, uh, they're, they're pretty simple, I think. Um, so we'll just let— we'll just ask the question, let everybody just punch out an answer.

Okay.

Yeah. All right, so the first question is this: what's the must-have tool you won't leave your house without? So this is, you know, if you're, if you're on a, on a job, or, you know, maybe you're going over to help a friend, you know, fix something, uh, if you can grab one thing, what's the one thing that you think I can't leave without?

Easy, because I have it in my office and I do insurance. You ready? My Leatherman knife.

That's a good one.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I had that. I've been having that since I was a young guy, so I don't leave anywhere with it.

Um, I will die, straight up die, without my chapstick. Oh, I, I cannot live without chapstick. Everybody knows. They give me gifts or whatnot, they just give me a whole box of ChapSticks.

Okay, like, so was this an exclusive actual tool to her?

No, no, no questions.

That's my tool.

Like, if you— I mean, maybe you can't function without it.

Yeah, I really can't. It's true.

You really can't?

I really can't.

All right, cool.

Cindy? I'd have to say my phone.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, that's it.

That's a real common one.

Yeah, just being practical because I can I can offer somebody protection for their family and offer them a business opportunity.

Sure.

All on my phone. I can teach them, I can educate them and insure them while I'm helping a friend move stuff.

That's right.

Entertain kids.

Yeah, awesome. Very, very good. Okay, cool. Second question, what's a job you walked away from? Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be a career. It could be. But specifically, um, you know, what's something that you've said, you know what, I don't want to tackle that, I want to let someone else take care of that for me? So what's a job you've walked away from?

You know, I think like most men, when you buy a house, you want to make it nice with flowers and bushes and trees. You know, it's funny, I ended up trying to do that and my tree was kind of crooked, right? So I said, you know what, I need to call professionals to come do this. So I walked away from doing all that.

Okay. Yeah, call up our buddies over at Greenscape.

That's right. Yeah, that's right.

100%. Samir's the best.

Absolutely.

Um, gosh, this, this one's a tough one. Um, probably that I walked away from, um, music career. I walked away from a music career. And not, not like funny or as exciting as my husband, you know, putting— planting a tree or whatnot.

Honey, we have to talk.

Yeah, like what, on a podcast now?

Yeah, right. Good as any, I guess.

Right.

What about you, Cindy?

Oh, this one's kind of— it wasn't a job because I don't consider it a job. But, um, so I walked away from comfort, uh, comfort of being a stable at-home wife slash mom. Starting a new adventure, a new career, being my own boss. And that's when I found out what true fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of setbacks— because I am very proficient and I try to be the best that I can be. Yeah, but you can't be your best until you fall a couple times.

Okay, I love that.

Oh man, we're getting awfully deep.

Yeah.

All right, well, warn us for that answer next time. That's good stuff.

All right, first, if the other two have better answers, right?

Yeah, that's right, that's right.

You gotta step it up here.

I know, man, I know.

I get taught high standard.

There you go.

All right, there you go.

All right, third question: how do you wind down at the end of a long day?

And let me, let me just throw this out there because a lot of our guests have trepidation in mentioning alcohol Oh, there we go. So if you go back and listen to episode 1, that's, that's not an issue.

Covered it.

Let it fly.

I love it.

You know what, me and my dad did this today. We want to go smoke a nice cigar. That was, that was awesome. Yeah, I like to wind down with this nice cigar.

A particular brand, or—

No particular brand. And I just, you know, I like him, you know, something a little strong. You know, my dad likes a little something a little bit more mild. And, uh, you know, I think it just relaxes me and gives a good time to have great conversations. know, with a nice beer. I think it's fantastic.

Yeah.

For me, I would say, dude, I love to eat. Like, I am such a foodie. So you— like, I have something to eat, I have a good meal, I have— I'm always snacking on something. So my type of wind-down, it's so crazy, I just, I just love to eat. So my mother-in-law is like the best. She's the sweetest. She's like, you know, she sees us after a long day and she's like, You know what, I got some, uh, uh, you know, I'm gonna cook you some quesadillas, or you want some enchiladas? Oh my gosh, she's like the best. Um, so that's, that's my perfect—

yeah, I don't know what I would do without my mom and my mother-in-law.

They're the best.

Yeah, food, 100%.

Food.

Um, so mine's— yeah, I'm sorry about that.

I know where this is going.

It is, it's going there for sure.

It's how do you wind Now, right? Is that where we're going? Do we wind down?

No. Okay.

I love a good Cabernet. However, um, my wind down is going to the gym.

Oh.

And just hitting some weights, getting on the treadmill, and just thinking through, you know, whatever happened through the day, issues with, you know, work, home, children, whatever. I feel like I can just let it all out on that, and then I can think clearly and be a better mom.

See, I wish— she's making all of us look better right now.

I know, I was gonna say that.

She's just thinking about her aunt.

Packing up food.

We gave her too much time.

Yeah.

No, I'm glad she's there because I feel better that she is. That way my excuse feels better because someone's taking that space there for me.

That's right. That's right.

You can occupy those same weights.

Yeah, right.

There's a reason why she looks like a model.

That's right. It's the discipline. We let the weights be there for us.

All right, last question. What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've ever received?

Oh man, who wants to go first? I gotta think about this one.

Okay, I'll go first.

Yes, please.

Okay.

You've been making us look bad.

So back to the, you know, fear of failure and all that stuff. So I've been reading a lot. Lately, not my normal Stephen King books, but actual good books to help you improve. So far, the best piece of advice is that I've learned that there are 2 types of people. There are victims and there are owners. And victims always end up blaming others for their fears and their failures, and they usually live life reacting to every— everything that comes their way.

Mm-hmm.

Owners are in line with reality. They own their failures and they create solutions.

I love that.

So I'm on the path to create solutions.

Yeah.

Cool.

So how am I going to beat that, y'all?

Okay. It's okay. Just say something. Anything.

That's all you need.

So piggyback on what Cindy said. No, I'm just kidding. Um, you know, going into business, I had never worked— we have never worked together, you know, as spouses. And so now running an organization, um, and, and not coming into the field, like when you're going into something new, everything is scary. Everything is emotional. So you're trying to balance your spouse and your business partner. And for us, initially it was like, oh my God, we're always clashing and you have such a strong personality and I do too. But when I learned to come together with my spouse, and one piece of advice that my mentor told me, they have such a great marriage and they run

one of the largest organizations in PHP. And she said, you know what, Dali? it's you start speaking to the king in your husband. Start speaking to the king in your husband, and everything else will follow. Whatever you need him— like, if you, you know, typically we'll say, um, you know, when his first time ever being a business owner too, and, and, um, as soon as you start, um, praising the, the, the wonderful works that your spouse does, it's— you start getting ultimately what you're seeking out in, in your spouse too. So I started seeing our relationship evolve and our marriage just flourish, and our business just went boom after that. Um, so speak into the king in your husband, speak to the queen in your, in your, in your

wife. That was probably one of the biggest advices that I received. You know, it, it really kind of solidified kind of what we have growing here at PHP too.

Very cool.

Renee, I'm not one to tell somebody what to But like, you don't call her a queen, right?

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She's—

no, she's my queen, 100%.

I'm not like the queen bee. Yeah, no, no, like, okay. Yes, good luck, Renee.

Yeah, I know, you know. So now, honey, I can't give my piece of advice, right? No, no, listen, I think, uh, listen, I think the best piece of wisdom I got was, um Someone telling me, why don't you go into business for yourself? And for me, I was starting to realize why I should do this, and everything I'm starting to realize why I'm doing this is coming true. I think one of the biggest ones that I tell most people why you should consider opening your own business, now that I got this piece of, you know, someone told me the same thing, I give the, I give this story of, you know, if we had a jersey, right, Tom Brady's, JJ Watt's, and then my last name,

at the store, you know, at Dick's Sporting Goods store or Academy, which one would my son pick? And chances are he's not gonna pick mine. He's gonna be like, who's that guy? He has our last name, right?

Yeah.

So for me, I decided to open a business and I'm glad they told me this because they're like, look, one of the biggest things you can do by being a business owner is inspire your kids so they can really become anything they want. And I think that's the most beautiful thing that I've gotten out of not only helping people in what we're doing and helping the community, Seeing my son and my kids really now start to dream that they can do anything they want because they saw their parents improve. They saw their parents, you know, you know, have late nights and become who they're becoming. You know, I see my son asking me these questions that I've never heard him speak

before. Um, I think that's been the biggest blessing of my life. Someone told me, hey man, I know you might be scared to open your own business and it might be scary. But do it because I think the rewards besides the income and besides all those things outweigh all the fears you could ever have, honestly.

That's awesome.

Yeah, very cool. Well guys, um, real quick, tell us how, uh, someone could get a hold of you. What's a— what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Yeah, so, um, if, if you reach out to— well, we're on Instagram, we're on social media. So Cynthia Salmeron, uh, Renee Reyes, R-E-N-E, and Delilah, D-A-L-I-L-A Reyes. You can pull us up, or PHP The Woodlands as well. We're off of Robinson Road, so we're local. We're growing, we're expanding. We're opening up Conroe, we're opening up in Spring, in Katy, so various offices in the next, you know, in the next year. But if Cindy, you want to share the phone numbers as to where to reach?

Absolutely. Anyone can give us a call at any time. Of course, if we don't answer, leave a message and we'll return your call as promptly as we can. But the number is Okay, great.

You guys, you guys are on Instagram and Facebook?

Yes, we're on Instagram, Facebook. If you guys want to email us, it's admin@phpthewoodlands.com.

Okay, is that the website as well?

The website is www.phpagency.com.

Awesome. I'll link all that up in the show notes. And by we, I mean Kevin.

Yes, that responsibility falls to me.

All right guys, well hey, listen, thank Thank you so much.

And, you know, we, we probably ran a little bit long today, but I think there was a lot to cover. And I think one of the reasons there's a lot to cover is there's just, there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of information that people just don't know. And so those things are important for us to get out there for sure.

And I also wanted to state that should you give us a call and schedule an appointment, it is It's complimentary to receive a financial analysis, so you don't have to, you know, feel like you're obligated to anything.

Yeah, there's no commitment.

Absolutely no commitment. We come to you in the comfort of your own home, and we, you know, talk about very personal things, you know, your finances. But we always leave you with a great plan, and it's up to you what you want to do with that.

Okay, very cool. Well, thank you so much. Thank you guys.

Absolutely. Thank y'all.

You know, as always, we appreciate you, the listeners out there, taking the time to download our episodes. And, you know, we're here every Tuesday. And if you have any questions for us, we will redirect them as necessary. And we'll answer what we can. And, you know, you can find us at info@homeownersshow.com or go to our website, which is homeownershow.com. So we'll be here every Tuesday. So thanks for downloading us, and we'll see you later.

See you guys.

Thank you so much.