Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #315: Lopamudra Pattanayek with Next Gen Prosperity
What if managing your finances wasn't just about surviving but thriving? Lopamudra Pattanayek, Managing Director at NextGen Prosperity, joins us to challenge conventional thinking about wealth building and family financial security.
Having immigrated from India in 2005 with a strong background in commerce and education, Lopa brings a unique cross-cultural perspective to financial planning. "We are not selling products," she explains, "we are offering dreams." This philosophy guides her approach to helping clients navigate complex financial decisions with minimal investment but maximum impact.
Through NextGen Prosperity's partnership with Integrity Financial, Lopa's team accesses over 500 financial companies to craft truly customized solutions. Whether you're planning for retirement, funding education, or protecting your family through insurance and estate planning, their comprehensive approach ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
Our conversation takes a fascinating turn when Lopa compares financial attitudes across generations and cultures. She notes how her grandparents would save half of every dollar earned, while today's instant-gratification society often neglects saving entirely. This cultural observation leads to a deeper discussion about teaching financial literacy to children from an early age – something woefully missing from most educational systems.
Perhaps most valuable is Lopa's emphasis on protection planning through proper insurance coverage and estate documents. "Life is unpredictable," she reminds us, advocating for regular "wealth check-ups" just as we prioritize health check-ups. Modern insurance products offer living benefits beyond traditional death benefits, making them versatile tools for comprehensive financial planning.
Ready to transform your financial future? Connect with Lopa for a free, no-obligation consultation that could change your family's financial trajectory for generations to come.
For more information, call 1-435-219-0295 or visit nextgenprosperities.com.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, friends, family, wonderful community. We're back for another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. So if you're out there and you're listening to this and you have issues with money, like many of us do, we have a good one for you today. Our guest sitting here with and and forgive me if I butcher the pronunciation. This is a tough one, but I'm going to try my best. I'm here with lopa mudra patanayak yes, close.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes close enough for comfort. Okay, we'll go with that. Uh, should I just call you lopa mudra, or is there a short, shorter name that I call you? You can call me just lopa the whole world, thank you, thank you, that makes it a lot easier. All right, we're here with lopa. Lopa joins us from next gen prosperity, and so welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:So nice to have you yes, thank you, mr Jeremy Wolf, if I'm right with your pronunciation.
Speaker 2:Wolf, how about the moon? Okay, so let's get into this. Why don't we start off by having you tell me a little bit about the business? What specifically do you guys do over at NextGen Prosperity?
Speaker 3:Okay, so here I am. My name is Lopamudra Patanayak. I am from Fort Lauderdale, I live in this area. First, I just want to give you the little bit introduction for me. So I live in Florida from last 15 to 17 years. I came here 2008. So I'm here from long time. I am from basically from India. I came to USA 2005 with my husband. So basically my company is giving not any services, not any business offer. We are selling the dreams, just like you. So we are offering to everyone with their dreams. Does it make sense to you?
Speaker 2:Selling. You said dreams.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are not selling, we are offering the dreams. Yeah we are offering the dreams.
Speaker 2:Make your dreams come true.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:We like that. We like that. Yes, okay, continue, continue, please.
Speaker 3:Okay. So here how we are giving the dreams. We all are stuck with our eight to 10 hours job or business every time, right, because we need to pay the bills when we start our life. Definitely, we are stuck with as an employee most of the time if we want to go to the business. So what we need to do, we need to invest a lots of money for our business, right, or lots of time. There is two options, right. So here we are managing the both here with the very, very minimum, you know, like investment or without investment. Also, we are offering to fulfill your dreams because here we are offering with a platform. I don't know if you heard about the integrity, the financial company, one of the biggest company in the world, integrity. Did you hear about that? The company name, integrity, anytime, integrity.
Speaker 2:I don't think I have, so please tell me a little bit more.
Speaker 3:Okay, this is the one of the biggest company in the world and it's came with the AGI now. So AGI and Integrity March and both they are offering to us a platform from where we can give all the financial services to everyone. How, that's the thing we need to know when you will come to this platform. It's a system and we are just running the system and the system is running our business. We are not running our business directly, we are just following a system. So this is basically a financial services platform from where we can give to everyone, to the financial services, like every type of investment, every type of insurance, college planning for kids, retirement planning for anyone you know, and the most important is will and trust. We can talk about that briefly if you have some time, about the will and trust and, most important, few things.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I want to. I want to get into all that, but I'd like you to paint a little bit of a picture for our listeners. Right, I'm out. I'm out there listening. I need some help with investing financial advice. I pick up the phone and I call NextGen Prosperity. What does that look like from the point I call? How do you go about working with clients? Can you walk us through a little bit about your process?
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely we have a process, we have a system. We need to follow that. But definitely all the process and system is in individual for with our clients requirements. We are here, we are just the step from the state license, financial planner, you know whenever, uh, someone is calling us. So we are going with the requirements and we are customized the requirements with the product. How? Because we can. We have the access all over 514 companies, you know all the insurance and investment clients and we are customized that. We are doing our research. Which product is best fit for my customer, for my client? So we are providing that product to them. If they like it, they will take it. If they don't like it, we can research a little more. Definitely we can find out something good product for them so you guys have access?
Speaker 2:if I'm understanding correctly, you have access to a plethora of financial products, ranging from you can put people in asset allocations, bonds, treasuries, you can do all these different types of vehicles, insurance products you run the whole gamut, right. You do all of these different types of products. So you have access to all these different channels. Basically, depending on the individual client, their situation, their goals, you basically sit down with them, assess where they're at, where they're looking to go, and then make recommendations for various investment vehicles that you feel would be beneficial for that particular client. Does that sound?
Speaker 3:about right, exactly, you are completely perfect. Not only that also, we are providing your dreams to fulfill. As I mentioned in the beginning, if you are looking for some extra income, some additional income, whatever we are you are doing without disturbing that. If you are really looking forward to expand your, your, uh, financial goals, you know so we are offering from this platform to you. You can be also a business owner in the financial domain.
Speaker 2:I actually just oh go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we are not offering the product only, we are offering another carrier also. So which has the limit? Is the sky high to make your wealth.
Speaker 2:I just did a podcast recently with a client of mine who's a wealth management insurance specialist, and we were talking about the power of compounding interest and the power of saving early. And I have two kids, 11 and 13. And this is a topic that I'm really trying to hammer home in their minds about the power of starting early. Even if it's just a small amount, it doesn't matter. It's all about building the habits from an early age of starting Because it might be small. Now, if you're listening to this and you don't have many assets to deal with, you might be thinking, well, I don't have anything to invest. But that's not true, right? You can take a small fraction of what you make, even if it's just pennies on the dollar, and just start diverting it into some kind of interest bearing account, and then, over time, you'll start doing a little bit more and it'll start growing and you'll start becoming a little bit more mindful of this. And then, if you start that early enough, and you're talking about 30, 40 years later, you had a huge nest egg.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, it will be huge. For that you need to know about the difference of simple interest and the compound interest. This is the two hand like simple interest and the compound interest which can make your wealth for future a huge difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So what do you typically run into? Obviously, when it comes to finances and money, people can be very confused, and people are often known to be very bad with money. What are some of the biggest misconceptions or biggest problems that you see your clients facing when they come to you, when you start really digging into their situation? Is it just what I was talking about? People just don't save, or people aren't really mindful enough about that. Like, what types of things are you running into that people are just confused about?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, people are very confused about the insurance. I just want to give you some examples, some stories.
Speaker 2:Insurance.
Speaker 3:You said yeah, insurance especially. You know, like we all are giving the car insurance when we are buying the car, right? Without insurance, nobody is going to sell you a car. Why? Why? Because they are taking their risk. They are transferring their risk to a company, right, it's like risk transfer, but it's very unfortunate. When we are talking about the life insurance, we all are thinking we don't need it because who knows, after my die, what is going to happen. But if you are the bread and butter winner for your family, right? And you told you have the 11 years, and what is the next one? The younger one or the elder one? You have two kids, right.
Speaker 2:Yep 11 and 13.
Speaker 3:11 and 13. So definitely, you need to make their future secure, right? So if I am here, if I am not here, my family should not suffer for any bad things, right? Without me also, my family should run like today. So that's why we need the insurance and we, the people, don't want to talk about it more because, uh, and another one thing about the will and trust also, people are thinking when we are getting old, that time we are, we need our will. That time we need our trust. But do you know that life is the most unpredictable thing in the world? This is the most truth you know and we are not accepting that, but that's the the biggest truth in the universe. So will and trust is not like for the aged person. Will and trust for everyone. If you have kids, if you don't have kids for any of the reason, you need your will and trust. There is so many reasons when someone is going to interest it. I'm going to give the one-to-one session. Why that is need for you. I can. And the first of all, our session, my session is completely free, with no obligation.
Speaker 3:I just it's not a business from my side, it's a education purpose. I am also a teacher. I want to mention that I teach in the Broad County from long time, you know, and I did full-time teaching for some times. I did substitute because I have also two kids. So I'm trying to manage my family, you know as a mom, as a wife, you know as a lady. So we have to. As a woman, you know, you always are jumping from inside and outside of your life. So after that, when I saw in this business I have the opportunity to teach or give the education, not teach, give the source of education about their own financial growth, about their own security, that time I got so much interested in this business.
Speaker 2:So that's something that I've been. I mentioned I talked to my kids about this kind of stuff. I think that these concepts about financial health and literacy should be taught to kids as early as grade school, even. I know that sounds like ooh, that's a shocking thing, right? How can you expose a child to finances before they're older? But you can make this so accessible by creating interactive games with kids to teach the concepts of compounding interest, of being smart with money, without making it sound like boring or whatever it is, and I don't know why it's such an important aspect in life. It's something that should be taught from an early age and I think I guess they leave it up to families to teach this, and unfortunately, there's not a lot of people out there that are teaching kids this at such an early age.
Speaker 3:Even not in the school or college. Also, you will not get that much clear idea about your wealth management in your future for your whole life. You know wealth management is not a time being thing. It's a long process, right? If you will get the lottery, definitely that is a different story. But unfortunately, or fortunately, we are not. Everyone is not the lottery winner in the society, right?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:So if you are the lottery winner, definitely you can be millionaire, billionaire in one day.
Speaker 2:But the funny thing about that is you notice you hear stories all the time about people that win the lottery, that don't have financial knowledge or literacy and they often will spend the money very quickly. They don't know how to manage.
Speaker 2:They don't understand that if you come across a very large sum of money, like if you had 10 million dollars- and you just put that money into a very conservative portfolio with no risk, earning like five percent, right, you going to have half a million dollars a year in passive income coming in and you haven't even touched the investment, the principle, and people don't even realize that. And they get a bunch of money and they go buy a big house and they buy a car. Before they know it they have no more money working for them, they have no more income and the money's gone like that, so it's crazy how misguided people can be when it comes to this type of stuff.
Speaker 3:Exactly that's why money management, wealth management, it's not a business, it's education, it's knowledge, how early we can give to our kids, to our society, to everyone. That will be more work for everyone. It's not only a business. That's why this platform is not offering the business. That's why I told you this is the platform from where we are offering the dreams, where you can fulfill your dreams with your wealth right Without money. We are saying money is not everything in our life, but without money, nothing is possible too.
Speaker 2:So when you say it's not a business and you're just helping people fulfill their dreams, that's not. I mean, it still is a business, right? You're still. This still is a business for you, right? You're not doing this. Is this a complete, like charitable thing that you're doing, or is this something that you? Is this like a nonprofit or for profit? What is how is the business structured? Because it is, it is a. It is a business, right? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so just I'm repeating my sentence it's not only a business.
Speaker 2:Not only a business, okay.
Speaker 3:Okay, so this is a business.
Speaker 2:It's not a business okay.
Speaker 3:Time equal to money, right, when you are doing the charity, that is charity, okay, but this is a business, but not only a business, because this is a kind of education which you are transferring to your family, to your friends, to your clients, to your society in the larger way, right, and this is a wealth management system which you are providing to your family, friends, clients and society. So this has so many hands. It's not only one thing. Yes, business is the part of my services, but there is so many other services too.
Speaker 2:Got it Okay. You mentioned earlier that you came over from India around 2008. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Not from 2000. I came in 2005.
Speaker 2:2005. Okay, in 2008, I came to Florida and you also mentioned you've been in education. Have you always, going back to the start of your professional career, been involved with wealth management and finance, or how did that progression happen for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the thing is that you know, yes, I have little background because I did my graduation, my education, everything from in commerce background, you know, in finance background. Okay, in that way, definitely I was a little bit interested from the beginning round. Okay, in that way, definitely I was little bit interested from the beginning. But I can say, in my journey from uh 2003 I got married and like from 2003 to 2015 you can say I was completely a homemaker, as a mom, as a wife. You know, because, uh, you know, in the beginning of the life, when you are starting with your, with your uh, like, with your married life, it's something else for the ladies, it's not like the gents, right, and I got the kids by god blessing. So, yeah, in that time, you know, my husband always inspired me because I have the solid background in finance or education. You know, and I'm completely from a education educator family, my parents were the teacher. Now they are retired, so he has always inspired me. You need to know what is going on in the market or how I am running this family. Minimum, that we need to be on the same boat, you know, and whatever you are doing like, do it, but without that, also please focus with your education. Maybe you can do more education or think about something which you will make your future more stronger. So he is the biggest inspired inspiration for me.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, from 2015 or 17, I started again to do something else than raise my kids, and that time they are also a little bit bigger. So I started looking for a job and very fortunately, I got the offer from one of the schools as a teacher. So after that, you know, I was just jumping from as a teacher and as a mom. So I was looking for the time freedom. You know, after five, six, six years, I was really started struggling to maintain everything because you know, as a teaching job also have the big responsibility to you. So even as a substitute teacher, also, you have a, you have the. You have to give the long time to the school.
Speaker 3:So, anyways, after that I, I one of my friend came to our house. His name is Mr Surinder Reddy, so he is actually basically his background is the scientist. He was working with my husband, but he was so much getting interest in this platform, in the finance, and he inspired me. He told me, lopa, try it. So he took me in this platform day by day. Definitely, he gave me so much help in this platform and I was so much interested to do this business more and more and after that I decided, no, I am going to pursue on this field only. Yes, in the beginning I got so many distractions, so many communications which made me, which was making me down. But you know like when some strong pillar with you and your insight, your vision, is bigger than before, that time you know like you can do whatever you want to do. You know if the path is right for you and if you are thinking, yes, you can do it, you can do it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I wanted to ask, I'm interested to get your perspective. Obviously, there's a vast cultural difference between India and the United States. What are some of the or one of the biggest differences in terms of, um, how, in terms of like, finance and money, between indian culture and us culture? Is there something that comes to mind in terms of likea stark difference that pops out with how people view money in india, say, against how we view it here?
Speaker 3:yes, yes, I I don't know like I should tell it or not, but very frankly speaking, it's my own realization. You know, it's not only India or USA, it's like generation also. You know, like before generation and now generation. You know, I saw to my grandparents or my dad also. You know, if they are earning ten dollar, they will save minimum five dollar, and five dollar they are going to spend for their family most of the 99 percent of the rest of the five dollars. They are going to spend for their only the family, you know like, not their themselves also. You know, but USA, I feel that that part is kind of missing. You know, whatever they are getting there, they want to spend it, uh, for themselves or their family, for sure, but the savings part is really missing.
Speaker 3:And yes, uh, that that's the problem with the this generation too. Even my own daughter also, you know like. When I saw he, she got the first salary when she got a part-time job or interim, you know like. So she went immediately to the mall, she bought some cosmetic, this, this, this, you know like, and spent three to $400 very easily. And we are going to think about that, not one time, I think. Still now I'm going to think about them three times to spend that money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we do live in an interesting time, right. We live in a land of instant gratification, especially in Western society, right, everything is more and more and more and more abundance, and human beings by nature are selfish creatures. So when you mix this whole fast paced society with being successful status, right, it could be a recipe for disaster. And you can get out of hand when, when you really got to look back to, like you just said, the older generations had more of a different mindset when it came to this kind of stuff which is something that's totally missed right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sorry to interrupt you. Main difference you know the requirements in the before two generation, if you'll see they are in our grandparents time you know their requirement was very, very less. I don't know about this country because I was not there in that time, right, but I can say my own experience. My grandparents was like where, with the very many minimum in their life you know, they don't need a big car or AC car for going somewhere. They're very much used to with their, you know, any type of vehicle you know. And after that, in my dad's time, it's increased, no doubt it increased a little bit right. Generation to generation. It's increased, no doubt it's increased a little bit right. Generation to generation. Now, for our time also, it's again. Now we need a Honda, after that maybe it will go to the Mercedes, then BMW, then again and again, something, something right. So and our next generation, definitely they are something else. So it's generation to generation are uh, bringing up and up our requirements yeah, that's the main issue, I think, for now nowadays society.
Speaker 3:If you remember I don't know in our, your, uh, in this country or like your family how in our time we were getting the new clothes maybe two or three times in the whole year. Right, and we are super happy with that, yeah, nowadays even for the toys also, but nowadays we are buying almost every weekend it's crazy yeah, my daughter has the subscription to sheen and they send.
Speaker 2:It's like you can go buy things for so inexpensive. And they send you new boxes of clothes and then, like the wardrobe is out the next season, a new one comes in. It's like I, I go buy things for so inexpensive and they send you new boxes of clothes and then, like the wardrobe is out the next season, a new one comes in. It's like I, I, my myself, my closet. I have shirts from 15, 20 years ago. I don't do a lot of shopping. I think the older I get, the more. I'm just okay with being okay. I don't need all the fancies. I think that comes with age also, too. Yes, yes, very interesting, cool. So before we wrap up here, what would be one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with? It could be about the business, or it could be just a piece of life, wisdom, a little nugget that you want to leave with our listeners.
Speaker 3:Okay, so both is together. First, you know you need to protect your family. Whoever you are, whatever you are, you need to protect yourself and your family. For that, whatever you are doing with your wealth management maybe you are perfect, but just like your as your health checkup please sit down with me or someone else as a financial planner to see how your wealth management is doing, like your health checkup. Do your wealth checkup Sitting with me or other financial planner. It's not that means you need to buy something or you need to do something With no obligation. You can sit with us. It's not that means you need to buy something or you need to do something With no obligation. You can sit with us. It's completely free and it will be one to one or it will be with your family, with your team.
Speaker 3:We can go with your financial checkup, your wealth checkup, and with that, first of all, you need to check about your protection plan, which is will and trust and which is term insurance. I just want to mention that to again and again, trust me with that two services as a financial planner or as a financial agent. We are not getting commission a huge amount when it is very, very small amount, but still, I'm talking about that again and again. As I told you, it's not a business only, it's a financial services too, to protect your family. And one more thing term insurance is not only giving the death benefit, it's giving the living benefit. That means you can use your money. Don't make that misconception with you. After me, who is going to take my money as a death benefit? I really don't care. I heard about that. So about so many people you know and that for that you know from last five years time, insurance is not offering only the death benefit, it's offering the living benefit. We'll talk about that more when I can see you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So, lastly, how can our listeners learn more? What's the best way to reach you guys? Maybe share your website and your contact information.
Speaker 3:Okay, my website is nextgenprosperitycom is 435-219-0295 or 954-210-8614. Please feel free to call me anytime.
Speaker 2:Perfect. We will, of course, drop a link in the description below to all your contact information so those who are interested can reach out. Lopa, it's a pleasure having you on the show. It's always nice to meet another local business owner in the community doing good work and helping to educate the public, so we appreciate you having me on. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. One thing I just want to add. This is my I am just a MD from the AGI platform marketing director, so it's completely, you know, like honor to get it and I'm super happy how I'm growing and I'm running for as a RMD regional marketing director. So within two months one to two months I'll be there.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's awesome, very exciting, thank you. Thank you so much, all right, well, everyone thanks for tuning in and we will catch you all next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care, stay well, have a great day, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for your time Bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.