The Wall Street Refugee: "I Turned $70K Into $1M!" | Jaden Sterling

Jaden Sterling walked away from 10 years on Wall Street at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch after discovering clients with multi-million dollar individual stock portfolios were losing 50%+ returns when forced into mutual funds. He turned $70,000 into nearly $1 million by buying one stock monthly during the 90s, then built a $12.5 million investment business in seven years using individual stocks only—never mutual funds.

Introduction:

Most people think Wall Street exists to help them build wealth. Jaden Sterling discovered the uncomfortable truth: it's designed to keep people dependent. After working at two major brokerage firms—Citigroup and Merrill Lynch—for a decade, he watched clients with simple portfolios of 6-7 individual stocks like John Deere and IBM get "diversified" into mutual funds, unit investment trusts, and packaged products that made money for the firm but devastated client returns. When he compared performance, the numbers were astonishing: within three years, clients who'd been forced to sell their individual stocks and buy mutual funds had 50% lower returns than if they'd just held onto those amazing companies.

This conversation destroys the myth that investing is complicated (it's only made complicated because confusion is profitable), reveals why mutual funds are designed for average returns at best (and average isn't good enough when Rule of 72 means you're looking at 9 years to double your money at 8%), and exposes the exact strategy Jaden used to turn $70,000 into just under $1 million by simply buying shares of his parent company every single month while it tripled during the 90s. You'll discover why he's never bought a mutual fund and never will, how he built a $12.5 million investment business in seven years after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad on a Hawaiian beach, the moment at a country club that shaped his entire abundance mindset when a member threw down thousands in cash and said "sure, take it, I don't need it," and why there's enough money circulating daily to make everyone a millionaire—the problem is lack of understanding, not lack of money.

Who is Jaden Sterling:

Jaden Sterling is the founder of Sterling Stock Picker, a global investment platform with over 5,000 members that analyzes and evaluates 60,000 companies worldwide. After receiving his life purpose at age 14 through an epiphany, he studied economics at American University and spent 10 years working on Wall Street for Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. His eyes opened when he compared client portfolios before and after being "diversified"—clients with simple individual stock portfolios were getting 50%+ lower returns after being moved into mutual funds and packaged products that made money for brokerage firms but not for clients.

Jaden's personal investment story proves the power of focus: he bought one company (Travelers Insurance, his parent company) every single month during the 90s out of his paycheck, and when the stock tripled, he turned $70,000 into just under $1 million. He's never bought a mutual fund and never will—he only invests in individual stocks, real estate, and precious metals. After retiring from corporate at 31, he read Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cash Flow Quadrant on a Hawaiian beach and built a $12.5 million real estate investment business in seven years, focusing on affordable housing and apartment buildings. Today, through Sterling Stock Picker, he teaches everyday people how to invest in individual stocks aligned with their personal values (32 values correlated with 60,000 stocks), offering a platform for as little as $100 to start, charging just $29/month with no additional fees, and averaging 67% returns above major indexes.

YouTube Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:11 - The Epiphany at Age 14 That Downloaded My Life Purpose 03:31 - 10 Years on Wall Street Opened My Eyes to the System 06:14 - How I Turned $70K Into $1M With One Stock 08:27 - Why Investing Isn't Taught in School (By Design) 12:16 - Credit Card Debt Trap & How to Escape (Freeze Them!) 17:37 - Built $12.5M Investment Business in 7 Years 21:42 - Real Estate Leverage & The 2008 Crisis Lessons 24:36 - Sterling Stock Picker: 60,000 Companies Analyzed 28:04 - Personal Values + Stock Investing = Alignment 31:03 - Reframing Your Relationship With Risk 33:01 - AI, Nvidia, Data Centers & Market Valuations 36:56 - Energy, Natural Resources & Precious Metals 40:20 - $100 Minimum Investment, $29/Month Platform 43:35 - Money as Energy & Spiritual Prosperity 46:51 - The Country Club Moment That Changed Everything 52:13 - Shifting From Scarcity to Abundance Mindset 57:31 - Started Painting at 77, Selling by 93: Never Too Late 58:10 - Free Beer Tomorrow Never Comes—Act Now

5 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Individual Stocks Build Real Wealth, Mutual Funds Keep You Average - Jaden's Wall Street clients with 6-7 individual stocks like John Deere and IBM saw 50%+ lower returns within three years after being "diversified" into mutual funds and packaged products. 

2. Wall Street Complexity Is Designed to Keep People Dependent - "It's specifically complicated in order to keep people beholden to the system." Jaden discovered brokerage firms were taught to sell clients' individual stocks and buy packaged products like mutual funds that made money for the firm, not the clients. 

3. Sterling Stock Picker: Values-Based Investing Averaging 67% Above Indexes - Jaden created a platform analyzing 60,000 companies worldwide, correlating them with 32 personal values so members invest aligned with what matters to them.

4. The Abundance Mindset Shift: Member Throwing Cash Down Changed Everything - At 18, teaching tennis at a country club, Jaden watched a wealthy member throw down thousands in cash and when his 60-year-old boss asked "can I have that?", the member said "sure, take it, I don't need it."

5. Escape Credit Card Debt: Freeze Cards, Negotiate Rates, Transfer Balances - Step one: take credit cards, put them in water in a Tupperware bowl, freeze them. This energetically and physically freezes the debt—you can't use them without standing there with a blow dryer melting ice, and it forces you to stop increasing balances. 

Partner Offers:

Manage Your Money Like a Pro
 Manage your finances like a pro while chasing your entrepreneurial dreams! Many successful entrepreneurs use Wise for seamless international transactions. With low fees and real exchange rates, Wise helps you keep more of your hard-earned money. Ready to level up? Check out my Wise link 👉 https://wise.prf.hn/l/QLyNwLz and start saving today!

Music Credit: XMPLA https://youtu.be/p9re3wWvCLo?si=zni260AfeO5rOZvS

#JadenSterling #SterlingStockPicker #IndividualStocks #WallStreetTruth #InvestingSimplified #MutualFundsExposed #FinancialFreedom #StockInvesting #AbundanceMindset #MoneyEnergy #ValuesBasedInvesting #EscapeWallStreet #RealWealth #InvestmentStrategy #EntrepreneurInvesting #LindaVo #InspiredBySuccess

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

To this day, I've never bought a mutual fund. I've only bought individual stocks. The stock tripled during the decade of the 90s, and I turned 70,000 into just under a million. That is real growth, real wealth. The money that circulates through our economy on a daily basis is just mind-blowing. It's not that there's a lack of money, there's a lack of understanding of what it takes for money.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Here's something most people don't realize. Investing isn't actually complicated. It's just been made to feel that way because confusion is profitable. Today's guests chase the dream most people think they want. Wall Street, big firms, big money. But what happens when you get there and realize it's not built to help people? It's built to keep them dependent. This is a conversation about walking away from status, trusting your original calling, and helping everyday people take back control of their money. I'm Linda Vaux, and this is Inspired by Success. And today we're joined by Jaden Sterling. Welcome to the show, Jaden.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Thank you, Linda. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Tell us a bit about your journey because you walked away from Wall Street. You probably had it all from what it looks like on the outside. So what made you walk away from it all even after you made it?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Well, I'd have to go back to when I was 14. I had an epiphany. And have you ever had an epiphany, Linda?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Many times, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Okay. So you know, and your listeners would know that during that time, like everything, time stood still, and I just knew things deeply on the inside. And I knew three things. I knew that I would be speaking on stages around the world, which has happened. And second thing I knew was that I'd be speaking about money, most specifically, how to empower people with money, not be enslaved by it. And the third thing I knew was that I would be teaching from personal experience, not from a book I read or course that I took. So can you imagine at age 14, your whole life purpose is downloaded to you? And you know what? I just followed it. I went to school at America University, I studied economics, and after that I worked on Wall Street for 10 years, worked for two major brokerage firms, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. And then it was that time during the 90s that my eyes opened to how the system is set up. In fact, you said it great in our interview. You said that it's complicated for people, and it is, and it's specifically complicated in order to keep people beholden to the system. So my clients, let me back up. My clients, when they came to Merrill Lynch, they had multi-millions in stocks, individual stocks. And it wasn't a lot, Linda. It was like, you know, six, seven, eight stocks that they had, like John Deere, IBM, these big companies back then. And they showed me the power of investing in stocks because they would just simply buy shares every single month, and they built this portfolio, but we were told that we had to diversify their assets because of risk, right? That's what every person's told. It's like, yeah, oh no, you can't just have individual stocks, way too risky. You have to sell these stocks and buy these packaged products like mutual funds, unit investment trusts, managed money, bonds, treasuries, all these things that made money for the brokerage firm, but not for the clients ultimately. What I learned was there's a lot of power in focus. And when you focus your finances in a direction, then you can really start to gain traction and you can start to grow wealth. But that doesn't happen in mutual funds and other packaged products. If anything, those are way overdiversified, and your returns are at best average.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

What's average to you?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Exactly. 8, 10%. Lucky if you hit that 10% mark, more like 8%. So there's this little thing called Rule 72, and you divide that by the rate of return you're earning, and that will tell you how many years it takes to double your money. So if you're earning 8%, you're looking at about nine years to double your money. And the reality is it doesn't have to be that way. The reality is you can get a much greater rate of return when you invest in individual stocks. So that's what my entire corporate experience taught me because one day I looked at my clients' portfolios and I compared them based on what they were in, mutual funds and package products, to if they had just kept those amazing companies. How well would they have performed? And it was astonishing, you know, within a three-year period for some it was over 50% a greater return in a three-year period if they had just held on to those stocks and never sold them. So it opened my eyes that wow, like to this day, I've never bought a mutual fund. I will never buy a mutual fund. I've only bought individual stocks. And my personal story is that when I worked for a corporate, I bought one company, it happened to be our parent company, and I put money into it every single month out of my paycheck. Well, the stock tripled during the decade of the 90s, and I turned 70,000 into just under a million. And that is real growth, real wealth, where people can actually do something, you know, with their money instead of just slowly plodding along. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

When you mentioned mutual funds, right, is that like what about ETFs? Is that different?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Uh different, yes. ETFs are typically way less stocks, you know, they'll just be a handful of stocks based on either some type of sector in the markets, that type of thing. Usually the management fees are much less than mutual funds. Mutual funds have literally hundreds, can have hundreds of different stocks in them, and they become over-diversified.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Okay, so let's take it back as well, because a lot of people that I know they feel like investing is complicated and they don't want to do it because we weren't taught about investing in school and nobody teaches unless you are a seeker and you want to learn economics or you know finance or business. I don't know, but some most people don't get taught about money in schools, and so they don't know about investing and making their money work for them, and they don't talk about inflation and whatnot. So why do you think that is that why do you feel that people are scared to invest? Is it a mindset thing that they're afraid to lose money because they don't know much about it? Sometimes it is complicated, you know. If you look at a trading platform, it is it can be very, very complicated for me. I just had to read one book and then from there I was just curious. That book was Richard Poor Dad. I just learned online, I just self-taught YouTube just to learn there's different languages that they use in investing in the stock market. I'm always open to learning about crypto, about stocks, and different asset classes like medals and golds, but that's there's so much out there, you know. There's even real estate, but I don't want to bother with real estate. There's just too many different asset classes, and it does get a little bit complicated. So what's your advice on that? And how do we know which one's right for us as depending on our age and what we're trying to achieve? Like some people are more risk-adverse, some people aren't. Can you give us some advice on that?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. It's not taught in school, which is a shame because the big three aren't taught, which are relationships, communication, and money. So can you imagine like the three major topics in life that make the world go round are not even discussed in high school? And I know this because many of my students are high school teachers, and they've said to me, you know, I want to teach what I'm learning from you, but my hands are tied. I can't. So, and then we have to ask, well, why is that? Why is this system so dysfunctional? And I think it's just to keep people dependent on you know on banks and brokers and listening to their advice.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

And I mean, we could go way back to the Rockefeller days as to why they created curriculums so that they can entrap that's my belief anyway.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

You and I absolutely believe the same thing. And when you do enough research and go down that rabbit hole, that is absolutely the case. The curriculum that was created, I think it was him who said he doesn't want independent thinkers, he wants worker bees, and that's why they ended up building housing next to factories because they didn't want their workers missing work. So, you know, for a long, long time it was all designed and still is to this day to keep people stuck and broke and dependent on the system and that J O B, which to me just stands for just overbroke. So when you start to peel back the layers of the financial system and you finally open your eyes to say, wow, I don't want to be a part of this, I can do way better on my own, and you try to get yourself out of the system, then you start to do things very differently. You start to live within your means, you start to look at buying assets that are going to financially help you grow as opposed to keeping you stuck. You know, I remember at 18 years old when I went to American University, you signed up for all my classes, and the very last table was a credit card company. And they said, okay, here's your $500 credit card. I said, credit card? Like I didn't even know what it was. I had never had one, I didn't have a job, I didn't have to have a co-signer. And you know, I'm quite competitive, so I ran that card up as fast as I could. And then I learned about the huge interest payment and then compounded interest. And back in those days, the payments weren't even enough to cover the interest. So the interest would compound on top of the balances. It was a financial disaster that I when I realized I'm gonna pay this thing off. To this day, I have zero credit cards, I only use debit cards and American Express. So that helps getting out of the system, waking up to how the system is constructed and what you can do. Like you even mentioned precious metals, be your own banker. Like I'm even at the point now, I'm at the age where I'm thinking, you know, banks are so corrupt that they're certainly not your friends. And you got to do everything that you can to pay cash for things, even if that means disciplining yourself to forego immediate gratification. So important right now. It's like just sock some money away every single month. If you're looking to buy a house or a car, you can pay cash. It's possible. There's plenty of opportunities out there in order to buy assets at reduced prices that can really benefit you in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Okay, like let's talk about you mentioned people getting stuck. And I know people that get stuck, especially with credit card debt, when you mentioned that I've been there too. It's just the interest that compounds and they feel like they're on uh the wheel that just never ends, the cycle that never ends, you know, because you feel like you're drowning basically in credit card debt. So, how do we get out of that situation if somebody is in that situation? Where do they start? Especially if they feel like they're drowning. And I've been there with business before. And my solution that I did was stop this credit.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

I've got a plan for you, Linda. I've got a plan. So if you're watching this or listening to this and you're like, yeah, that's me. I gotta get off this vicious cycle of this credit cards. This is what you do. Listen carefully. You take your credit cards and you get a bowl, like a Tupperware bowl, and you put water in it, and you put your credit cards in it, and you freeze them. You put them right in the freezer.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Okay, that's a fit.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

This does a couple things. It energetically freezes that debt, it physically freezes that debt because I mean, in order for you to use that card, you're gonna have to stand there with a blow dryer and melt all the ice around this to go take it and use the card, right? So, first of all, get them out of your wallet and somewhere where you can't touch them, first thing. And some people, they're so fed up with it, they just cut them up right up. So do something dramatic so that you stop increasing the balances. That's step one. Step two is create a little spreadsheet, put the name of the credit card company, the interest rate you're paying, the balance you're paying, their phone number. And as long as you are up to date on your payments, you can negotiate the interest rate. You can call up every single credit card company and ask them to lower the interest rate. Now you might get someone who says, I can't do that. That's okay. Hang up, call back the next day and get some talk to someone else. Because I guarantee you, if you as long as you're up to date on your payments, they will work with you, they will lower the interest rate. So you but you have to ask. This will never happen out of the blue.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Even though the interest rate is set, you're saying that they can't.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Never tried that. I might try that one.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

So that's step two. Step three, look at your balances, and oftentimes a lot of cards offer a zero interest on transferred balances for a period of time. So you can transfer a balance to a zero interest rate card and close the card, close that account. You actually have to call the credit card company and say, once the balance is zero, I want to close the account. Don't leave it open. Some people say it dings your credit score. That doesn't really matter because eventually you're going to be your own bank and you don't have to rely on credit card or credit. So actually, when you close the account, it doesn't really ding your credit score. It's just fine. It just means that that money is not available for you to use. And I think over the long run, it might even increase your credit score. And then be mindful of the balance that you've just transferred to that zero balance card because you'll want to chip away at that in order to not be paying that high interest rate once that time period comes on.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah, because um we're nothing is for free. So you just really got to do the the numbers and how much you can put aside to make sure that you're paying off because eventually you'll have interest afterwards anyway. So I think uh exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

I mean there are things that people can do. Like I'm amazed how often Uber Eats is used by people. Like, I'm like, really, folks, like you talk about having difficulty with credit cards and things like that, but yet you can't go to pick up your own food or cook at home, or it's really uh you're paying all these high fees to Uber Eats and to eating out, and it's like that's one thing that can be done. I'm sure that if a family is really diligent about eating at home, eliminating expenses like Uber Eats, I think they could save quite a bit of money, improve their health, and put that toward credit card. But this requires a whole new level of thinking. It requires someone to be really disciplined, to start being disciplined with their life, like determined. The magic word you said you were interested in learning. That started your path to Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad book, which is fantastic. That actually started my journey many, many years ago as well. The one that I really liked was Cash Flow Quadrant. That was a very powerful book, and it showed me the different investment quadrants to invest money. And I just followed those things, and within seven years, I built a $12.5 million investment business from that model. So how long did you say?

SPEAKER_01 16:25

12 and a half years.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Seven years. Seven years to twelve and a half years.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Wow. How did you do that? Is it just through stocks and staying focused? Or did you diversify into some? Like take us exactly how you did that.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, what happened was as I mentioned, I grew that money in one stock during the nineties.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Which stock was that?

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Because that was a company called Travelers. Travelers Insurance.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

During the 90s, I know how simple and basic, right? It wasn't a big tech stock. It was an insurance company that tripled in value. And every month I kept contributing to it, and I was able to get out of the, I was able to actually retire out of the business when I turned 31. So at that level, I decided based on these books, I flew to Hawaii, sat on the beach for a week. After I got to the airport in Maui, the first books I saw were Cash Flow Quadrant and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I was on the beach in Hawaii, I read those two books, and it just changed my life. I said, okay, there's something to this format of investing in real estate. And I looked at the entire landscape of real estate. I looked at raw land, I looked at apartment buildings, commercial property, single-family homes, mobile home parks. Like I looked at everything, condos, apartments, and I was like, what would really interest me? Like what's really speaking to me? And at that point, I felt like it was apartment buildings. I felt like I got a little leverage there because you got one roof with multiple units. As you're repairing units and fixing them up, you can still earn rents on the units that are currently rented. And I just felt like it was a really good formula. So I started down the path of affordable housing. I found a city in Florida that did not have any quality affordable housing. The old saying, find a need and fill it. And that's what I did. Like all the affordable housing was relegated kind of to the south side, and they would bust workers into this downtown community that was waterfront. And I thought, you know, this city can do better. I want to make a difference and I want to create quality affordable housing. I built a sign that said we buy ugly apartment buildings. And I got phone calls, and I started buying these apartment buildings and fixing them up, providing a really great product affordably to people. It's like that book, Do Well by Doing Good. That book also changed my life. I read it many years ago, and it was a formula that I thought that makes sense to me. If you help other people get what they want, you'll get what you want. And my most successful properties were the affordable housing properties.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Did you use leverage to buy those? Yep. Because I really believe in leverage. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

I did. But then it was at a time in 07, 08, 09 when the leverage unwound because of the crisis. All the banks were made whole, but investors were not. Investors, you know, I was told you have to come to the table, you know, you have a two million dollar loan. The value of that building is now cut in half. You need to come and give us a million bucks. I said, can I just give you the keys? Would that be all right? Can I drop the keys off instead? You take the building back.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

So did they let you do that? Did they let you do that though?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah, many did for sure. They just wanted the properties back so that they could resell them or do whatever they wanted to do. So yeah, it was an interesting time, but I could not have achieved that if I didn't have stocks. Stocks have always been the cornerstone of my wealth. And like I remember doing deals at times where I would put my IRA up as collateral with the bank. I found an eight-unit apartment building. And the building was like at that time 50,000 a unit. So I had to come up with roughly 150,000 down payment. And I said to the bank, I'm gonna make improvements, capital improvements to the building, and here's the list of what I'm gonna do. And would you mind just hold my Roth IRA and I'll get the building reappraised after we make the improvements and up the rents because the rents were next to nothing and many units were vacant because they needed work. So I'll get you the new rent rolls, and when we meet the number that you want, can I get my IRA back? And they said, sure, no problem. So I ended up rolling in a construction loan at that closing. So the bank actually wrote me a check at closing. We did all the capital improvements and had it reappraised in six months. I got my IRA back in a building that I had zero money down on, and it worked out fantastic. So, but if it wasn't for my stock investments, I couldn't do deals like that with real estate. You know what I mean? So it's really important to learn to work with the assets that you have, and the quickest to grow money is in fact in stocks, and that's why we created the stock picker, sterling stock picker, because we knew based on when I worked in the business in the 90s, that people created real wealth through individual stocks, not through packaged products. So we analyze and evaluate 60,000 companies worldwide. We're a global platform with over 5,000 members, and we teach people how to invest in stocks, individual companies, and to grow their wealth.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Wow, that's pretty powerful. Let me just take it back because uh that was fascinating how you just said that IRA. So you didn't put any money down, you just used leverage basically of your stocks to invest in something bigger, basically. That's quite inspiring. So talking about ROA, like because we're based in Australia. I mean, a lot of the listeners are US as well. So what are your thoughts on managing your own in Australia? We have our super, which is I think it's like your in America, it's like the company puts money in. What do you guys call it over in America? Is that IRA as well?

SPEAKER_00 22:17

That's called a a 401k.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yeah, that's it. What's an IRA compared to a 401?

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah, so 401k is when some companies actually match contributions up to a certain limit for the employees, but those are all invested in mutual funds. And they can never be self-directed. What we do is we teach people how to invest their self-directed registered accounts, which is either an IRA or a Roth IRA, or a CEP, a simplified employee pension plan. And then we teach people how to invest that money in order to grow it in individual stocks. We do not track or trace or follow any mutual funds for that matter.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Nice. Okay, so what if a listener has a million in their 401k or saved up? What is your first piece of advice on what they should do?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

They quit your job so that you can roll it into an IRA and do something with it.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Is IRA tax efficient? Is that the benefit?

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yes, it's a tax, it's called a registered account, so it's a tax-deferred account. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Oh, okay. Yeah, because I was going to get into the tax part. It's like so much like there is a lot to learn with investing and whatnot too. But yeah, go on. What would you do with it if somebody had a million to invest? Or even not a million? Not not everyone has that much. So to say 100K saved up from their 401k or their super fund, what would you recommend?

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Individual stocks. That's what we recommend. Our software tracks someone's risk level, their risk tolerance level. And that's the first step in the platform you take a questionnaire and we track in on the level of risk that you can handle. And then we also ask about your personal values because our system is aligned with, I've correlated 60,000 stocks with personal values. I think there's 32 personal values in there. So if you were to tell us, you know, we really I value health and wellness, well, fantastic. We'll never show you companies like McDonald's or Coca-Cola. You know, we're going to show you companies that are, you've heard the saying, put your money where your mouth is. Well, we believe put your money where your values are. Because as long as your value investing based on you know what's important to you, energetically you can get behind it, spiritually, you can be behind it, like you can start to really love the stocks and the money that you're putting to work, if that makes sense to you.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Okay, that's a lot of values. Tell us a little bit more about, let's go deeper into those values. I didn't even think about that. Because, like when you assume that people are investing, that they're just investing for growth and returns. I guess, yeah, that's something that I never factored in because if you're against drugs, you wouldn't invest in a marijuana company, for example. I don't know. So tell us a little bit more. Can you go deeper in the values as well? And do you do a quiz? Is that what you do to go through that?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Yeah, the values are self-selected. So you out of a list of 32 personal values, you select your top personal values, and the software will remember what you've selected and it will curate the responses for you and the stocks we're showing you that are in alignment with those values. I think we're the only, I'm sure of it, we're the only stock investing platform in the world that's set up like this, where we actually take personal values into consideration. And yeah, a very simple process, you tell us. Most people, I think, end up saying that financial freedom is one of their top priorities, and which is fantastic because that's my top value in life. And so I can totally relate to people who say that that's very important to them. And they're off to the races. Like they can, we have a portfolio builder section that will help people start building a portfolio from the what we call the base, which is the found financial foundation of a portfolio. And that's three to four different companies. Some dividend stocks are considered part of the base. And then it just goes up from there. It's like mid-level growth and then accelerate, which is for anyone doing business internationally, WISE is a must-have tool.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

It's transformed how I handle payments to my team in Asia and purchases from Japan. With substantial savings, speedy transfers, and easy-to-use interface, WISE has revolutionized my approach to global finance. Click on my link to get started with Wise today and make payments easier and faster for your international team.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

You're really aggressive stocks. Not everyone sees that part of the equation, especially if they're lower risk oriented. We don't even show the aggressive stocks to them. We just show them what the level of risk that they can handle. And that's one thing I think is really important. Like if we were to take someone who says, you know, yeah, I want to start investing, but I don't know where to start. I think a really good place is to reframe your relationship with risk. Because we are so misled into not understanding risk and thinking that risk is a bad thing when the reality is risk is everywhere all the time. You know, like asking someone out on a date is taking a risk. Crossing the street is taking a risk. Putting your money to work is, in fact, yes, taking a risk. But there is no reward without risk.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Having that risk though, it is sometimes people can't handle. Like for me, I have a bit of a risk appetite because I've been investing for years. But seeing my portfolio from a certain amount a few years ago, like this is my crypto assets for, but that's you know, high risk, up like a certain level, and then a quarter of that, you know. But that's the reason why I have a business. But a lot of people don't like it and give up. And I know we've had family investing in Bitcoin, for example, but they all gave up once they saw how much has dropped. And they I was dollar cost averaging and just putting in every week and now because I'm focusing on business. But a lot of people don't like losing that much money. So, what are your thoughts on that risk part?

SPEAKER_00 28:22

We're a pure stock investment platform because we can understand that we have financials that back stock performance, we've got fundamentals that back stock performance, we've got a lot that comes into a company's valuation, whereas Bitcoin that's not the case. It's very different with cryptocurrencies, it's very different. In fact, I keep hearing 95% of all cryptos are just garbage. So that would concern me. You certainly can't say 95% of all companies that trade on stock exchanges are garbage because that's not the case. Whole different animal, nothing like apples to oranges kind of comparison. I am not a crypto investor. If the only thing I do outside of stocks is real estate and precious metals because that's real money, tangible, hard assets. Personally, that's just what I do.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

So what industry do you feel like has the strongest growth? Because I know that AI is everywhere now. I've been listening to podcasts about the data centers and the growth behind the AI sector and the chips as well. So, what are your thoughts on that? And do you believe in investing on the big players like NVIDIA, or do you find with your company like the smaller, high potential, low volume, high, you know, high growth? What's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

There you go. We really look for the outliers, companies that are participating in the framework of the growth. I don't know. You mentioned NVIDIA. I mean, isn't it approaching a $5 trillion market cap? In any industry or market, that just seems just way too far-fetched for me to wrap my mind around. The GDP of a lot of different countries, like is less than $5 trillion, and you get one company with that market cap. I don't know. I think the valuation's way too high. But yeah, we're in a whole time period where many companies are at that trillion dollar valuation. But with the recent pullback that has shifted a bit, I like to find the outliers that are benefiting from that space and then invest in them. But but right now, really, frankly, I'm really into precious metals, silver and gold. Very much last year as well, buying some of the mining stocks that are undervalued. I think we're gonna continue to see precious metals move higher across the board. Uh, copper is really undervalued, in my opinion, at 550 a pound. And it's in all applications of electrical, which are going to be powering these alleged AI data centers. And we don't really know how much is going to come from, you know. I know the numbers are out there, hundreds, if not thousands, of data centers throughout the United States, but I don't know how many have really broken ground. As I drive around the Northeast in the US, I have not seen one data center. I'm sure they're there, but the way it's the narrative is you would think they're on every street corner, and they're definitely not. So we don't fully know how this is gonna play out, right? We know there's been a lot of hype, a lot of promises behind it. So I don't know, I don't think it's time to, you know, move all the chips into AI stocks. I think the space is here to stay. I think it's going, it seems to be improving and getting better and better and better. It's borderline scary, and Facebook, I can't tell a real video from an AI-generated video at this point. Kind of alarming. And there's so much content out there that is AI generated, and the people looked so real, and what they're saying is totally scripted, and it's not a real person. So anyway, that being said, I like the energy space right now. I like natural gas, and I like a diversified business model. I like companies that are in multiple applications globally. So companies that are doing a lot of different things in the natural resource space, in the resource space, in the energy space. And I just think that's a really good play right now to feel comfortable putting your money to work.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Do you guys with your platform have allocations based on certain industry or how does that work per individual? Is it based on what your criteria is and the values you said? Does it just allocate percentage to this industry, like a certain 20%, for example, to start 10% to metals, pressures, and yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Absolutely, it does because what we do is we show our members the allocations for the big indexes like the Nasdaq, the Dow, the S P 500, and we show the highest percentage. So if there's an allocation that's 10% or greater, we show where that is allocated and we have them have an opportunity to match a certain allocation. So if someone wants consistent results or better with the NASDAQ, they can choose what percent is in tech versus other industries, but it's clearly spelled out so they can see the makeup of the NASDAQ and what sectors and industries that they're invested in.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Nice. And when it comes to AI, because AI is everywhere, especially in finance, and big companies are probably using it to create bots to trade and whatnot. So, how do you guys see you know, leverage AI into your platform and works well with data and you've got previous data as well. So, does that help with the decision making? And do you guys use bots to create to trade or what?

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Well, not at all. We do not use bots to trade. We created the software nine years ago, and AI really wasn't a thing back then. It's certainly nothing like it is today. So for us, we look at it as kind of cherry on the top. So we created the platform based on companies' fundamentals, financials, financial health, and technical indicators. So we put together what we call the North Star Ranking, and it ranks stocks from one to five stars, five stars as an extreme buy in our system, and then we track the performance we've been tracking since the very beginning, and we average over 67% above the indexes. So our returns have been fantastic, they've been amazing, and that's just the previous 30 days. So we're doing a really good job in identifying stocks. So where we use AI is in, we call them Finlay, and it's a financial coach on demand within our system, because we believe in financially empowering people. We believe in giving people solid advice when it comes to all aspects of finances. I mean, you can ask Finley, hey Finlay, my mortgage is coming due. What do you recommend I do? Do I go with a variable? Do I do a fixed? What should I be doing here? So on all aspects financial, Finley is there as a coach, and that's where we use AI for sure. And it's been hugely successful and helpful within our system. We don't do anything that we don't promise that we do in our platform.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

And do you have to be accredited to use your platform?

SPEAKER_00 35:36

You can have as little as $100 to invest.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Oh, interesting. Okay. What are your thoughts on when people short the market? You can't lose in a way if you know what you're doing, but if you don't know what you're doing, you're using leverage in other people's money to you're borrowing money that's not yours and shorting the market, just betting against it to go down. So what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 35:57

I've got a lot of thoughts on that, Linda. I think very difficult to time the market short term. Next to impossible, unless you're, you know, the president's son and you get you're in his ear and you know when he's gonna do a ceasefire and everything else, then you can certainly time your bets, and I think that's what he's doing. But for the rest of us who don't uh have the president's ear or know what he's gonna be tweeting the next day, financially how do I say this? Suicide, financial suicide to try to time the markets like that and shorting. When you short a market, like you said, a short a stock, your loss is literally unlimited. You can literally lose a fortune shorting because stocks can go higher. So I don't recommend any type of short position, and it's not just because I'm an optimist and think the market's gonna always go up. I use options and put contracts to hedge portfolios. So that's a whole different thing other than shorting. And I think it's important to really understand what all of these different tools offer an investor. You can totally hedge your portfolio with contracts, you can do stop limit orders, there's all kinds of things that can be done to protect a portfolio from the downside rather than like you mentioned, shorting is really gambling, yeah, in my opinion. We are not into gambling, no.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

That's good safety and 67% growth. That's quite interesting. I mean, do you guys charge like enormous fees or anything though? Because I always get weary because there's so many different platforms out there, and yeah, like you said, the brokerage firms, they all make money off the fees as well.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

So how do you guys-nine dollars a month is our platform, and then if you choose the annual subscription, it's 30% off of that, so you even get a better deal. I think you end up clients end up paying $21 a month for the choose the annual.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

And do they have to pay extra for the fees or anything like every time?

SPEAKER_00 38:05

No, no other costs, they just have a subscription fee that they pay for.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Yep. Interesting. You mentioned energetically and spiritually. Tell me a little bit about that. What are your thoughts on that? Because I think money is definitely energy, and a lot of people don't see that sometimes, and I feel like some people hoard and hold on to money and they don't want to share it. Because I love learning about spirituality as well. But the ones that share it and want to do good with the world and with their money. So for me personally, I have big dreams and I want to build big, not just for profit for myself, but to make an impact others, and I want to build something to raise the world's consciousness, like just on a higher level to be able to help. That's why money is a tool to help that. And you know, we've been a lot of like religions also they do belief systems like money is the root of all evil, for example. Some people have grown up to think that, but what are your thoughts on money in an energetic and spiritual sense? Because you did mention that before when you said the credit cards, yeah. And I'm like, I wonder if you are into that on a deeper level. What how do you see money yourself?

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Well, I see your crystal behind you, and you can see my citrine behind me.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

The rose quartz, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Rose quartz. So let's look at the word prosper or prosper. The Latin derivative of the word prosperous prosper, which means for spirit. So when you start to understand that when you're prosperous, it does benefit you spiritually, and it benefits everyone spiritually, and there is enough money that transfers hands every single day to make everyone a millionaire. Like, literally, the the money that circulates through our economy on a daily basis is just mind-blowing. So it's not that there's a lack of money, there's a lack of understanding of what it takes for money. Now, you hit the nail on the head when you said, you know, creating a business to be of service, to help people. And I look at money as a tool. And that's exactly right. Money is a tool, but there's a little more to it. Well, I'll tell you a story. This is what shaped my whole view of money. I was teaching tennis summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college, and I was at a country club teaching tennis. And it was early morning, and I was around, we called it the scheduling desk. So we had a big map of all the tennis courts. And the members would come up and they would say, you know, I want to play with so-and-so at 10 a.m. Will you put me on the map? So I'd schedule people. And so this morning it was early in the morning, and a member came up, and I'll never forget because they always drove a really nice car, and he always had a really nice watch, and he was just a nice guy. And my boss was standing with me, and he was in his 60s, and the member took out his big wad of money, big money clip. It was more money than I've ever seen in one place in my life at that point, and he puts it, throws it down on the desk. And my eyes got real big, and my boss's eyes got real big. And my boss says, Can I have that? And the member said, Sure, take it. I don't need it. And right then, Linda, I said, I want to be like the member, not like my boss. I want to be so successful and so wealthy that I can put you know thousands of dollars down in a money clip and say, sure, take it, I don't need it. Wow. So that taught me right there. Like it literally shaped my whole financial viewpoint of never be attached to money, always be in the flow of money, always be generous with money. And when you start to align yourself spiritually with those principles with money, literally, money will be a path to your door, and it'll bring all its friends, and that's more money because money's friends with money.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

I love that. That's so powerful because some people have that scarcity mindset. For example, there's a business that because I sell cards and collectibles in vending machines, and I was there in the first shopping center down the road, and then there was a business that came in and sold candies, and he saw I don't know if he saw my machine, but he got inspired and created a shop that sells collectibles, but then he put on his contract that he has to be exclusive, and that kind of stopped me as well. Like I got frustrated because I wanted to move my machine to a better location in the same building, but because of that exclusivity cause, it's kind of like there's not enough to go around, basically. It's a scarcity, this is mine kind of thing. I want to hold it instead of that free. I believe that type my partner even said that that type of thinking actually it will block you from more success. And then we've noticed it because he's so selling candies, but now he's selling less cards and his collectible shop shut down because I think he was trying so hard to hold on to that, and I'm the exclusive one that can be in this shopping centre, you know, even though I was there first. But it's like if you have that mindset, it's not gonna flow. But if you have that different mindset of there's plenty to go around for everybody, like what you just said, I mean, sometimes I have to train my brain for that too, because in my industry it's quite competitive as well. Like once you get a locate a great location, once my competitor is in there, sometimes it's really hard for me to get in there, and it's like it's so competitive, but that scarcity mindset is just it's so common, you know what I mean? Not many people know about the spiritually energetic money, and they hold on to it really tightly. And when your eyes are opened to that, what you just said, which was very powerful, you know, to be able to just let it go. And I've noticed that when just going to a restaurant where we Get looked after all the time because we always tip, even if it's a little but bit, just being generous, you will see it come back to you no matter what. So, what I truly believe is whenever you give out to the world, it comes back to you. And we love to look after our family, and I don't know, we always get blessings coming and opportunities and doors coming our way. But when we have that lack mindset, then that's when everything gets blocked. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 44:23

So thoughts and fears it's the death of business. It's what killed the VHS tape. VHS tape came out and by a company, I can't remember the name of the company because they're out of business now, but other companies wanted to offer the VHS tape, and they said, Nope, nope, we're exclusive, no competitors, no, and then of course, and then it just phased out, right? So very powerful to have an abundant mindset. There's nothing abundant about scarcity and lack. And what I've learned is it doesn't matter how much money someone has, it's still you can have a millionaire who's deeply set in scarcity and lack. And it's awful. It's just, I think that is a very sad situation. But I happen to grow up in a family that was that way with a particular parent, and to this day he's still that way, and it's just like mind-boggling. I'll never understand it, but I don't have to. I just have to continue to be focused on what's worked for me all my life, and that is I believe the universe has my back. I believe money is a tool that everything works out in our favor, and as long as we're doing right by people and helping people, we'll continuously be blessed and prosperous.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

I love that. And it's interesting because I grew up when you said about growing up, I grew up in a very, very poor like single mum, and we barely had any food in the cupboards. Like it was so poor. So it was easy for me to have that scarcity mindset. And I had that scarcity mindset for a long, long time until I started reading books and talking to people. But sometimes that belief system can still be there, you know, but you have to change the way you think. So I'm curious to know what if somebody has that scarcity mindset, because I know a lot of people that do have that scarcity mindset. What advice do you give for that someone to be able to change and to open their minds to having an abundant mindset?

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Yeah, it's a great question. So that scarcity mindset, that is someone who is deeply rooted in their own issues. And the first thing they can do is do a random act of kindness. First thing, because when you start to do do things for others, then you start to feel, you know how good it feels to help someone else out to be of service. If it's snowing, you know, shovel your neighbor's driveway if they're elderly or have a difficult. So it can be random or it can just do something kind for someone else, is the very first thing I would say. And that starts to change someone's, gets them out of their own little world and into the world of help being of service and helping others. That's the first thing I'd recommend. And then from there, just do things that make you feel good. And for the most part, I think we feel good when we help other people. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 47:09

To be honest, when I was started dating my partner, he was so generous with tips, and I used to think, why are you tipping so much? And I used to be really stingy about it. And then over time, because I was so used to seeing him do it, and the smile and the joy, and then the then I noticed over time how well we got looked after because we were looking after the people at like the the restaurants and waitresses, and they always they they light up, especially even if you don't have much to give, which you still give, even if it's a small amount, they still are happy and and they smile, and that smile just makes you happy and want to give more. So, but at the start, my scarcity mindset was like, Oh my gosh, you're giving so much, you know, like why are you giving so much? But now I understand why because I see the results too. So that's my thought on it.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

And it makes you feel good, and it makes them feel good, and you know you've done something to help someone. And I've been on road trips where I've seen families come out of cars, and I can tell they really need help, so I would just slip cash under their windshield wiper. You can do things like that again, and a lot of times you can do things that don't cost any money. A smile, a kind word to someone, lift someone's day, you know, it doesn't cost you a thing, that can be of service too.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Nice. Who is your biggest inspiration? Like, do you have any books besides ones that you've mentioned, do well by doing good? Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Do you have any books that have really helped you grow and inspired you, or any mentors that have really helped you on your journey?

SPEAKER_00 48:38

I think in terms of mentors, I'd have to say my in-laws have been tremendous in my journey. Very wonderful people, totally inspiring, generous, so wonderful to the core. And they embody generosity to me. And they've and then my wife, of course, like I've just learned so much from relationship and being in relationship for so long, and that's been inspiring to me. The others, you know, I don't know. It's a very tricky world right now. And maybe some people who've inspired me in the past, then you've hear certain things about them, and frankly, I'm afraid to say mention anyone. I just don't know who these people are at their core. And so I have to go with in my circle in life, and everyone has a circle of friends and family, hopefully, friends and family community that they can be inspired by and learn from. I'd say go in that direction rather than some famous person or a popular book or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 49:43

Nice. And how would you personally define success? What does success mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 49:48

Success means to me exactly living the life that I live. I live a life of freedom, a life on my terms. And I do my best to not be part of a system that is, in my opinion, dysfunctional in terms of the collective consciousness. I think we are, there's so much being thrown at us, we don't know what's true and what's not, and yet it's designed to distract us. So success to me is me being able to show up every day, living my purpose, which is assisting people to have financial freedom, being on shows like this, getting the word out. So thank you for the opportunity. And that's success to me, you know, where I define my life on my terms. I don't work for a business, I create businesses, I'm a creator. I think that's part of success too, is creating something that's powerful and important to you, meaningful. And as long as at the end of the day, if you're doing meaningful work, then you've lived an amazing life, I think.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Nice. I like that. Any final words that you want to share? And where can people find you and connect and hear more about your platform about it?

SPEAKER_00 50:56

I want to say I watched my wife's grandmother start painting at age 77. And by the time she was 93 in her 90s, she was selling a painting a week. And so you're never too old or too young to get your life in order and to get things that are important to you financially, you know, get your ducks in a row there. So whatever's important to you, just go for it. Like, but you got to do it now because there's a sign in an English pub that says free beer tomorrow. Does anyone ever get free beer?

SPEAKER_01 51:28

I've heard about that. We are today.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

And where can people find you on socials or connect with you as well?

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Sure. You can connect with me through my platform. That's where I am all the time. It's called Sterling Stock Picker. So Sterling, like SterlingSilver, stockpicker.com. Sterlingstockpicker.com is where you can find me. Reach out to me there. I'm happy to I answer all my emails personally. It's not an assistant or some AI bot that does that. I answer them personally. For anyone who reaches out, happy to answer any questions.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

Thank you, Jaden. Thank you so much for your time. Guys, if you found value, please do me a favor if you're watching on YouTube and you've come this far, which I appreciate, hit that like, hit that subscribe button, and comment. And what was your key takeaway? And if you're listening on the podcast, please do me a favor and hit that follow button. Thank you so much, Jaden. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

My pleasure. Thank you, Linda.