Chapter Blue
Tyra Valeriano, host of Chapter Blue, comes with 11 years of law enforcement experience and talks about mental health, self-care, work-life balance and more. Through honest conversations and personal experience, Chapter Blue allows for officers worldwide to share their stories, struggles, and successes both on and off duty and to give the public an insight to what the media has made into such a controversial profession. The podcast will establish the connection to the important topics and struggles in law enforcement and open up to all first responder roles in the new year to address how interchangeable the roles relate to the struggle. Join the conversation, because it’s long overdue!
Chapter Blue
Willie Bermudez: Financial Literacy and Balancing Life in Law Enforcement
Law enforcement officers face unique challenges that impact their financial and mental well-being. Willie Bermudez, a seasoned officer, shares his journey from personal debt to advocating financial literacy for first responders, emphasizing the importance of overall wellness in policing.
• Willie's early life and entry into law enforcement
• The struggles of financial literacy among officers
• Transitioning from debt to financial stability
• The importance of work-life balance in law enforcement
• Mental health support in the police community
• Preparing for retirement and planning for the future
• The role of identity and self-worth outside of policing
• Opportunities for financial and personal growth for officers
• Resources for seeking help inside and outside the department
• The value of mentorship and peer support in law enforcement
Programs Mentioned:
- Free Financial Wellness Services for First Responders
Contact:
LinkedIn: Guillermo Bermudez
Email: WillieNicoleB@gmail.com
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Welcome to Chapter Blue, the podcast where we discuss the world of law enforcement through an honest conversation on tough or controversial topics, real stories, perspectives and experience from officers all around the world. Whether you're here for insights on mental health, self-care, work-life balance, getting into law enforcement, getting out of law enforcement, or just trying to learn about personal and professional challenges officers face every day, you've come to the right place. I'm your host, tyra Valeriano, and whether I'm going solo or speaking with a guest, each episode will discuss different aspects of life behind the badge. Let's turn the page and step into Chapter Blue. Welcome back to another episode of Chapter Blue. Today I'm speaking with Willie Bermudez out of California. He has 21 years of law enforcement experience and he comes with some valuable information to help first responders now and in the future. Thank you for joining me today, willie. Will you give the listeners a little more about your background in law enforcement and what you'd like to discuss today?
Willie Bermudez:Good morning, tyra, of course, thank you. First of all, thank you for having me, and I've heard some of your podcast episodes and it's really amazing what you're doing. It's one of those areas where, as cops, we tend to trust other cops and that's it. But so I think it's really cool what you're doing, because a lot of times we think of other people as having ulterior motives for why they do, they want to do, they want to get get paid, or so when we see another officer who's gone through the same struggles maybe that we're going through or maybe that we've gone through it's huge and it tends to at least is a lot of credibility. So thank you for what you're doing.
Willie Bermudez:I think it's pretty awesome but yeah so, like you said, I have, uh, 20 21 years of experience as an actual officer. Uh, total experience is 25 years now. So a little bit about my background. So when I was born, I'm 42 years old and when I was born both of my parents were actually in jail. So mom was serving a prison sentence and dad was in jail getting ready to go back to do a parole violation when I was born. So they actually had to give my mom a ride in the ambulance to the closest hospital to the jail to give birth and then she had to go back and finish off her sentence. So I was taken home from the hospital by my grandparents who pretty much raised me. They actually got custody of me later in life and raised me, and then I have a younger brother as well and what was pretty awesome about that is they taught me how to be a good man.
Willie Bermudez:On the one side, my parents would teach me to hate cops. My grandparents made sure that they took me around cops to show me that cops were good, that cops were friends, that cops were there to help us. You know, on my parents' side, if we were with them, because once they got out of jail we'd go with them from time to time. If we saw a cop on the street, they, if we saw a cop on the street, they would point at the cop and they say cop kill, cop kill. And we'd take that home to grandparents' house and grandparents were like no, no, no. So they would take us around cops just to get comfortable and to teach us hey, cops really help us. So that was pretty awesome.
Willie Bermudez:My grandpa was a church minister, so he raised me and my brother in the church, got really involved in church at a young age, musician and stuff. But as I got older I had a love for law enforcement. I did a ride along. So I have an aunt my dad's sister was a police dispatcher and so she would take me to the station with her from time to time and I would meet some of the cops and they actually let me go on a ride along when I was 16. So I went on this ride along when I was 16. So I went on this ride along when I was 16 and I was hooked. That was it. I knew for a fact this is what I wanted to do. So I got into the police explorers at 17. I got hired as a police cadet Once. I graduated from high school at 18 and work at the station for a couple of years, which is actually awesome because that's where I met my wife. We were both police cadets together working at the same department, but yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Tyra Valeriano:And then I went how long have you been married?
Willie Bermudez:How long have you been married since you met your wife in the academy. So actually next month is going to be 20 years for us.
Tyra Valeriano:Wow, congratulations.
Willie Bermudez:Thank you. Thank you, yeah, it's been a pretty awesome. So I met her and we have a daughter who's in nursing school right now. So you know super proud papa for sure. But yeah, so, yeah, I got started, went to the academy at 20 and a half. Six month academy, graduated right before I turned 21. Then hit the streets on field training at 21 and never looked back. Field training at 21 and never looked back. Had a great career, worked the gang unit, worked narcotics, auto theft. Currently I was field training officer for about 10 years TFO, working in our air support unit as a tactical flight officer. So it's been pretty awesome, and one of the so.
Willie Bermudez:One of the other things that we do as well, though, is my grandparents awesome people, but immigrants from Mexico.
Willie Bermudez:Not that that's a bad thing, but what happened was they because they don't have a lot of experience here in on the finance side right, financially, they taught me hey, mijo, make sure you pay your bills on time and save money, which is great advice, but they didn't really have much to teach me financial wise, and as a young cop 21, I got into some pretty bad debt.
Willie Bermudez:Instead of saving for a house, I bought a $50,000 SUV Um, you know, and so I had to learn this stuff later in life. You know, I didn't plan for my daughter's college. I didn't pay for, you know, put money aside for her for college. So now we're catching up on the backside, paying loans off. So, you know, several years ago my wife and I were, you know, we were in debt. It was causing a lot of stress and we took some financial classes at our church that they offer for free. And you know, we see wellness is a major topic in law enforcement right now, and now we run a financial wellness business for first responders, where we help first responders for free. So I still do the cop thing full time and still and now do financial wellness as well.
Tyra Valeriano:Wow, that is a lot. That is a lot. It seems like you have a lot of experience, and I'm actually interested to hear what was your favorite part of your career, since you worked in so many specialty units.
Willie Bermudez:Man? It's tough to say because there's different pieces from each assignment. I love working the gang unit because I love being out on the streets having a partner. My partner and I got really close and so it was pretty cool, you know, just going out and investigating gang crimes, getting to know the gangsters in the community, doing the gang enforcement, getting a lot of high-speed pursuits, um, making a lot of good case, a lot of you're writing a lot of warrants for guns and dope and stuff like that. So the gangs was awesome.
Willie Bermudez:Um, narcotics was pretty awesome for us because we worked very close with the dea task force. So it was busy, busy, busy. We were hustling, we were working six days a week, putting in long hours, chasing dope all over from the mexico border through halfway up the central california area out to the border of arizona. So it was non-stop work. A lot of fun, a lot of different experiences that you would not really experience in in law enforcement. You know, as a patrolman, yeah, I remember one day following a target that we we had some information that he was shipping dope using some flight attendants and he was shipping dope to the central U S uh, using these flight attendants that were working with them and I remember, you know, following this guy from his house to LAX and through the terminals at LAX and having to work with the airport police. So it was pretty cool. Just different experiences like that were pretty awesome in narcotics.
Willie Bermudez:And then I love flying. Flying is pretty awesome Definitely a different aspect and seeing things in a different light up there, and so the flying being the TFO is pretty awesome. Being on patrol, that's been the bread and butter. I've been on the TV show Cops quite a few times, probably four or five times. I've been on the TV show Cops quite a few times, probably four or five times. I've been on four or five different episodes on Cops. I did some consulting with iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas. I was one of their commentators on that show last season, so that's been pretty cool as well.
Tyra Valeriano:Dang, you've had a really fun career. I will have to say that you're probably one in a handful of people that I've heard have this much action in their career, because when you think about policing it's all the fun stuff, but when you get in it it's like man, it's a lot of paperwork and it's not all the fun stuff all the time. But I mean, it sounds pretty fun based on what you're saying to me.
Willie Bermudez:Yeah, you know the paperwork sucks, we all know it. But it's like man, is the juice worth the squeeze? So, you know, is that half an hour chase around town and you're arresting some criminal with a gun or a stolen car? Is it worth the paperwork you're going to do at the end? And for me I'd say, yeah, I love the adrenaline rush.
Tyra Valeriano:Yeah Well, it sounds like you had a lot of opportunities for the adrenaline rush, so that's awesome. So I know you said that your parents were in prison when you were born. What is your relationship with them now? I mean, you've been an officer for a long time and what was their opinion about you joining the police force?
Willie Bermudez:What was their opinion about you joining the police force? So, yeah, so my dad at first, obviously he probably was not thrilled. Even though he won't admit it, I'm sure he wasn't thrilled. What was pretty interesting is the agency that I worked for was Colton PD out here in California. That's where my dad and mom kind of ran amok during their days. My dad and mom kind of ran amok during their days. So when I was a new cadet and explorer there, some of the higher ups would see my name and they were like hey, are you related to so-and-so? I'm like, yeah, that's my parents. So that was definitely a little interesting for sure.
Willie Bermudez:But you know what? My dad super supportive Even now. You know he, he, we have a good relationship, have a good relationship. He doesn't he. We don't live close to each other. We live about 500 miles away from each other now, um, but he's very supportive and throughout most of my career he's been super supportive. Um, you know, I remember he. He told me he's like one day he called me. He's like hey, mij, you know my old friends probably would hate to hear me say this, but make sure, whatever happens, you shoot first.
Tyra Valeriano:That's awesome.
Willie Bermudez:And your mom. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Tyra Valeriano:No, yeah, I was going to ask about your mom.
Willie Bermudez:So mom, unfortunately mom dealt with a lot of addiction and mom passed away when I was 19. Um, so she passed away before I became a cop. Um, you know, I'm sure she would have been very supportive, uh, but she got caught up in that addiction and, you know, unfortunately didn't didn't make it this far. But yeah, I'm sure she would have been supportive though.
Tyra Valeriano:Well, I'm sorry to hear that your grandparents. They sound like they've been a gem throughout your whole life and you did touch on them not having the best financial expertise to share with you. But to be fair, I feel that that's a lot of people, even me going through school and having my parents. They didn't really go over financial aspects of anything you know. So I think there's a lot of people out there who don't have a lot of financial literacy. And with officers, I mean maybe there's a lot more officers that get paid better now, but from what I remember, a lot of officers don't get paid that much and they are always asking for a raise and they're miserable and they're not going to be happy until they get more money and they're preparing for their retirement, but most agencies are not giving them a retirement that they can live off of and they will eventually have to get another job after retiring. So tell us a little bit about the personal financing business that you guys have and how it relates to first responders.
Willie Bermudez:So yeah, so wellness, as you know, is a huge topic right now, and finance is one aspect of overall wellness, Because think about finances actually has been labeled the leading cause of stress for so many Americans, not just first responders, but for everyone, but definitely in the first responder world because, like you were mentioning how many cops have second jobs? Or, if they don't have a second job, they're trying to sign up for any overtime spot that's available. And it's because a lot of times the money that we make especially with the economy and inflation, everything that's going on, you know it's we just can't keep up. And so either cops are overspending, trying to keep up with their partner who's buying the new staccato or maybe buying the new lifted truck, but sometimes it's just trying to live. Sometimes it's not even trying to keep up, it's just trying to run your household off finance. Maybe you're a single income household because your wife stays home and raises the kids while you're working, and so cops are trying to keep up. And, like you said, you know we're relying on our pensions to get us through and to help us retire, but a lot of times it's not going to be enough. We'd have to put in like 40 years of work to even make it.
Willie Bermudez:So we teach we go to different departments for free. We do this for free for first responders because it's such an important aspect of wellness. And we teach basic financial literacy. So we teach what does a basic financial plan look like? So you have the foundation of your financial plan, which is your protections, which is all of your insurances auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, if you own a home, health insurance so you can see the doctor if you need to. And then life insurance.
Willie Bermudez:And so many cops bypass the life insurance aspect because they all there were tough. We're bulletproof, nothing's going to happen to us, but we think we don't. We forget, you know, yeah, you could get killed line of duty. Your department's not going to get take care of you if you do. It's not their responsibility to take care of your spouse and your kids. If you die in the line of duty, they're not going to. You can't rely on that. But we can die in a car accident, we can get sick and die of an illness. So it's not just getting shot and killed in the line of duty, it's other ways as well.
Willie Bermudez:So, cops, we got to make sure that we set up our families, our spouse, our kids so that they can survive financially, and a lot of times we rely on the insurance that they give us at our jobs. But when we actually go through those policies and we show them, the officers, the loopholes in those policies, that most of the time they're not going to pay you and it's not usually enough. You've got to have enough life insurance to cover your mortgage, cover your debt and cover the loss of income that your family is now going to have to deal with with your income being gone. So that's the basics, that's the foundation, the next level we help them get out of debt. We build them a plan to get out of debt as quickly as possible. And then the next thing, we teach them how to save money, put money aside for some emergencies and then put save money for your short-term goals. Like we tell guys hey, christmas is every December. Would you rather save now or save throughout the year for your Christmas gifts, or would you rather max out your Colts credit card in December and pay it back with 30% interest next year? And so we teach people how to save. And then the last is saving for retirement. That's huge because you got to have, we tell. We teach people look, if you look at a chair, a chair is stable because it has four legs. And that's what you want in retirement. You want to be stable. You want to have your pension through your job. Most departments offer like a four, five, seven or deferred comp plan. You want to put money into deferred comp, especially if your department matches you. You definitely want to take advantage of if they're matching you, because that's free money you're giving away if you don't. And then Roth IRA Start over Roth IRA because that's going to be tax-free income Once you get to your 59 and a half. That's tax-free income coming in that you'll never be taxed on again. So you wanna have multiple streams of income coming in when you retire.
Willie Bermudez:One thing we do teach never do life insurance that has savings, like IULs and things like that. A lot of those are so bad for people. They're packed with fees. I met with the sergeant yesterday and did a plan for him and he had one of those and when he didn't realize, what his agent didn't tell him was that every month, 17% of his payment goes to fees and costs to the insurance company. And he thinks he's saving. And I'm like bro, this is why you've paid 14,000 into this thing and you only have 12,000 in cash. And he's like I didn't, bro, I didn't, they didn't tell me that so in cash. And he's like I didn't, bro, I didn't, they didn't tell me that. So that's the basic basic financial plan.
Tyra Valeriano:We teach law enforcement throughout the country. I have a few questions out of all that. Number one is it only in California that you guys are doing all of the insurance for law enforcement, or first responders?
Willie Bermudez:So we do multiple States. We we have licenses in multiple states and we also we're building a team of professionals in different states as well to do the same thing that we're doing. We primarily we're based in California, so we do a lot of the departments out here. If there is a department in another state that wanted us to come out, we'd come out and do it for free. We don't charge. So we are licensed in multiple states and, like I said, we're building a team of other law enforcement professionals that want to help and help officers with financial wellness.
Tyra Valeriano:So what's crazy about all this is that I'm going to be honest with you. I'm this no bullshit type of sugarcoating and the conversation you're having with me today, back in the day, it would be a conversation of annoyance to me. I'd be like I don't want to hear about this and everybody's jumping down my throat about finances. I have finance people from LinkedIn. I have finance people coming to the agency. I have all these finance people. I just don't want to deal with it because it sometimes feels overwhelming.
Tyra Valeriano:But I think it's actually really important for number one that you guys are doing it for free for first responders, because that shows that it is important and they're on the top of the list when it comes to why it's important. Another reason is a lot of like I said before, a lot of officers don't know how to save and when they realize, hey, retirement is coming up and they recognize that they don't have a lot of money to hold them through their retirement, they start kind of panicking. Oh, I better start doing this now. So that leads me into my next question Is there ever a moment where it's too late to get into what it is that you're doing?
Willie Bermudez:Yeah, so as far as saving and planning, is that what you're asking? Yes, so obviously, the younger you are, the better off you're going to be, no doubt you know, because the more time you have to save, obviously, the more time you have to build. But the thing is this is regardless of the age you're at, you got to start. If you don't start, you're going to keep, you're going to continue down the same cycle. I'll give you two examples. One I have a client who's 21 years old 22 years old now. He was brand new cop at 21. And this guy is one of the most disciplined financial persons I've met so far. 21 years old, he's not married, doesn't have kids, but he maxes out his deferred comp every year, which is $23,500. He maxes that out every year and he called me because he wanted to start a Roth IRA. So not only does he max out his deferred comp every year, he maxes out a Roth IRA at $7,000 a year. So he's paying $583 a month to his Roth and then he's paying every month to his deferred comp and his department doesn't match. So it's all coming out of his pocket. So this guy is saving 30,500 a year on top of his pension through the department that he's also paying 9% into. So so you have that guy who is good at do phenomenal we did numbers and if he continues putting that much in he'll be able to retire. He'll be a millionaire in his early 40s. Um, so it's crazy.
Willie Bermudez:But then, on the flip side, I met with a sergeant who's 56 years old. Uh, he worked for another agency nearby and wanted to meet for finance. He's 56 years old, didn't set himself up, has no additional retirement savings, just his pension. And we did a meeting and he still has a mortgage, still has underage kids that he's providing for. And I had to have a tough conversation. He wanted me to do a retirement analysis and I had to tell him hey, sarge, I apologize, man, but you're not going to be able to retire. You can retire and start drawing from your pension, but you're going to have to get a second job.
Willie Bermudez:And that was a tough conversation to have, but we still had the conversation. Look, you can start setting yourself up now. Because you set yourself up now, you're going to minimize the amount of years you're going to have to work that second job or the amount of years you're going to have to keep on working. So, regardless of where you're at, there's always a starting point. Even if you waited, it's never too late. Obviously, I said, earlier you start the better. But even if you're in your mid fifties, even if you're in your sixties, hey, let's get a plan. Let's at least look at a plan so we know what we got to do, we have some goals, so that you can figure out what you got to do to make the rest of your life easier.
Tyra Valeriano:So if there's an agency or a police officer that's interested in having you guys go to where they're at and do a presentation or maybe give them some information, how would they be able to sign up for that?
Willie Bermudez:So you have my email. It's Willie Nicole B-W-I-L-L-I-E-N-I-C-O-L-E. I L L I E N I C O L E the letter. Be like boy at gmailcom. I'm on LinkedIn under Guillermo Bermudez. Yeah, they can send me an email. Shoot me a message on LinkedIn, you know, and then we can swap phone numbers and have a phone conversation about it. Okay, but yeah, that's that'd be the easiest way. Awesome, Okay, but yeah, that'd be the easiest way.
Tyra Valeriano:Awesome. So I know that we briefly spoke about a client that you had, where her husband was killed in the line of duty. Would you tell the listeners a little bit about that, because I think that that's actually a really good example on why it's so important to address the financial wellness aspect in order to take the weight off of a lot of other wellness issues.
Willie Bermudez:Yeah. So during doing this stuff for first responders, we met with some sheriff's deputies and I was referred to by one of the persons that we met with. They said hey man, would you mind meeting with a relative of mine? She's, her husband was killed in the line of duty and I think this financial advisor is trying to take advantage of her. So I said, of course. So I gave her a call, we met and sure enough, you know, unfortunately there was a financial, her husband was shot and killed in the line of duty and this financial advisor was trying to take advantage of the situation. And so we were able to meet with her, go through her stuff and what happened was number one we saved her from being taken advantage of from this financial advisor. But they had a couple of kids and when we, when we sat with her and took a look at her finances, what we learned and what we realized was her husband while he was still alive.
Willie Bermudez:Obviously he had no idea he was going to get shot and killed, but he knew it was a possibility and he set his family up so well financially. He had a really good life insurance policy, he started some investments for his kids, put some money away for him and his wife started for retirement and, obviously having no idea that he was ever going to or his family was ever going to have to use that, he set them out so well that, though she's grieving and mourning, obviously, the tragic loss of her husband, one area that she has zero stress in is finance, because her husband set her and the kids up so well. She'll never have to work a day in her life If she can focus on staying home and raising her kids, and she'll never have to work another day in her life. And one thing for me that was super touching when we were talking about this is he has a daughter and he's not going to be there to walk his daughter down the aisle one day. He's not going to be there to dance with her for her father daughter dance at her wedding. But the one thing that his daughter is going to know is you know what? My dad took care of us. My dad paid for my wedding, even though he's not around anymore. What he did? He set us up financially. My dad paid for my wedding.
Willie Bermudez:And so we ask officers, we ask deputies when we're doing these presentations. We say, hey, look, if you passed away? Can your family survive? Can they financially survive? Are they going to have to move out of the house? Is your wife going to have to get a second job and not spend any time with the kids now? Who's going to watch the kids? Who's going to help them through college? Who's going to buy their first car? And you can't rely on your department to do it. They're not going to do it.
Willie Bermudez:So we tell them look, that's our responsibility and especially, you know, a lot of times cops are very wary when it comes to like life insurance and stuff. But most cops can get a really good life insurance policy. We do. You know Dave Ramsey. I don't know if you're familiar with Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, but Dave Ramsey teaches look, you should have 10 times your annual salary in term life insurance. That's what we teach. We only ever tell people to get term life and it's the only life insurance that's. That's worth a thing and get term life. Most cops can get a million dollars in term life insurance for under a hundred bucks or right around a hundred dollars less. And so we say look, is a hundred dollars a month, maybe skipping Starbucks a few times or not going out to eat twice a month. Is that worth the peace of mind knowing your family is going to be well taken care of if you don't make it home one day and most cops you know?
Tyra Valeriano:yeah, it is you home one day and most cops you know yeah, it is. You know, what I think is very interesting about this is that most officers that start very young they go in with no debt. And it's when you start making the money and you realize I want to keep the money in my bank, but I can also get a really good loan with good interest because I make enough money they get into debt and before you know it, it's just, it becomes a rolling ball effect and later on down the line that's now what they are working to pay is all of the debt that they got themselves into. And I can say that from experience and seeing it firsthand a lot of new officers the first thing they do is go and buy a new car. That that's what they buy. That's straight up what they buy. So I think it's a really good message that you have.
Tyra Valeriano:Now to get off a little bit of the finance side, I'm interested to ask you about marriage and family in law enforcement. So first rule of thumb is people say don't date people. If you're a cop, don't date a cop. So obviously that was not for you.
Willie Bermudez:You married a cop and you guys are happily married 20 years later and you share a child together, so tell us a little bit about that journey for you the station doing like clerical work and stuff, um, and we were friends for a few years and I was, I was a cop for I think I'd been like a cop for like around five or six months. I was still on fto when we started dating, um, and we started dating and then within like, we started dating like end of april, early may, and we were married by february, which is you?
Willie Bermudez:know, yeah, pretty crazy, right, but you know. So she actually, she actually didn't become a cop, she became a probation officer. So she did probation for a few years out here in San Bernardino County and she's a probation officer. But then what happened was we talked and it was like man, she really wanted to stay home with our daughter and raise our daughter. And so we looked at finances and we're like, well, it's going to be a stretch, but we're willing to do it, because she felt really strongly and I did too. I thought it was a great idea. So, you know, she was actually willing to put up her career and stay home, to give up the income to stay home and raise our daughter.
Willie Bermudez:And what's crazy is back then, 20 years ago, the schools weren't even as bad as they are now. You didn't have a lot of the nonsense back then. That's going on now and I'm sure now it would have even been a faster decision. So it, you know, we lived paycheck to paycheck, saved what we could. We tried to minimize our debt and bills as much as possible.
Willie Bermudez:But yeah, it was, it was awesome, it was as a cop, it was great, going to work, having the peace of mind, knowing, yeah, okay, finances were tight, but having the peace of mind to know that no one else is going to have to raise my daughter, mom's going to be home with her. I don't have to stress out about working this shift or working that shift to be able to take her to school and pick her up and juggling that whole crazy schedule. Not everyone can do that. And if you live in a two-income home and both parents have to work or choose to work, hey you know what I people, you do what you gotta do. Um, but for us it was great financial type but we were able to make it work. It was. It was good.
Tyra Valeriano:I digress then. So would you say cops don't date cops.
Willie Bermudez:You know, man, that's it's a tough one, because you know, and I'm sure you've seen the same thing, I've seen the ones that work, I've seen the ones that don't work. You know, and this is what I would. What I would say is this is um, we teach, so we're super involved in our church. You know, without God I don't know where I would be. It wouldn't be a good place.
Willie Bermudez:Um, god's been like the, the foundation of our lives and and of everything we do. And so we actually, my wife and I, we actually teach and lead a discipleship group and we have a few cop couples in our group and you know what, if you want it to work, it's going to work. You know it takes sacrifice A lot of times. The biggest thing is humbling ourselves and not letting our pride. You know cop for A-type personalities and we always want to be in charge and sometimes we just got to sit back and put the pride aside for a second. And you know compromise and you know, and it's crazy because we go to calls, we go to domestic violence calls, right, and we tell everybody what to do and what's going to make their marriage work, and you know, but then we don't even take our own advice.
Tyra Valeriano:you know, but yeah cop or not.
Willie Bermudez:you know if we, if you want to make it work, as much effort as you're willing to put in, it's going to work. You know, a lot of times people say well, you know it's, it's 50, 50. No, it's not 50, 50. It's a hundred a hundred. I got to put it a hundred percent into my marriage and my wife has to put a hundred percent in, and if we're both putting a hundred percent in, then it's going to work.
Tyra Valeriano:Yeah, I agree. What do you think is the hardest part in your career that you've faced? So I know a lot of people. We're looking at law enforcement from a different perspective now, because law enforcement in the past five years was not the same as it was 10 years ago. It's very, very different. So you've experienced it with the good times up until these very weird and different times. So what would you say was the hardest transition from five years ago until maybe 20 years ago when you started?
Willie Bermudez:um, you know, um, body cameras was definitely a big transition for us, um, because you know, we did it so long without body cameras and not that we were doing anything shady, but now it's different. It's uh, when you have a camera with you and you're being recorded, you know you do you do things differently, um, so that was a huge adjustment for sure. Then, dealing with a lot of these laws, the laws that have changed, and trying to adapt to that is exactly what you said. I feel like it's for the new officers that are coming in now they're being trained this way from the get-go, versus us. That started back then and now we're having to get rid of our old way of doing things and transition in to a very new way of police work. It's definitely, it's definitely different, definitely tough. It's doable, of course, and cops are doing it every day, um, but it's definitely tough.
Willie Bermudez:And you know, I was very resistant to body cameras at first. I really was. I was like, nope, I'm gonna wait, I want to be the last one. Hopefully mine breaks. I don't want it, I wanted nothing to do with it.
Willie Bermudez:I was very openly vocal about how I didn't agree with body cameras, complaints, lies, that people call and say accusing me of saying racist things or cussing at them or doing X, y and Z, and my lieutenant's able to watch the body camera and my department is very supportive.
Willie Bermudez:So when people call and make frivolous complaints, our department just doesn't write the complaint out. They call the person back and say hey, by the way, we investigated this and you're a liar, so pound sand. So the body cams have saved me from frivolous complaints. And not only that, though. I feel like and we've seen videos where it doesn't work all the time but for most cops, knowing that I'm recording is going to keep me from doing something stupid that would have gotten gotten caught on some hidden camera, on some camera that I didn't see, so you know. So most cops, just knowing that you're being, you're recording yourself most of the time is going to keep you from doing something stupid that may have gotten caught on, like on a hidden camera or a camera that you didn't even see hanging on that the side of that house or whatever you know.
Tyra Valeriano:That's a good, I guess, perspective to have. You would think that most cops would be okay with that. In my experience I would say that maybe there were cops who forgot that they had body camera and when the complaint came in and I was looking at that as a supervisor and I'm like man, I can't back you up on this one. You know it's like it's there. Do you forget that you have a body camera because you can't really defend them at that point? So that makes it hard. But I agree, did you used to have those recorders that you would stick in your pocket, just like those little pocket recorders before body cam?
Willie Bermudez:Yeah, like little audio recorders Yep.
Tyra Valeriano:Yeah, I remember those.
Willie Bermudez:Yeah, that's, you know it was. We had the. It was crazy because you know there the policy was different. But yeah, you're supposed to audio record your traffic stops and audio record this and that and then go download it Very different times.
Tyra Valeriano:Yeah, it's very different. So you have had a really good career, based on what you've told me, and there's a lot of officers that are out there in the field who are miserable, and there are a lot of times that I have talked about the ugly truths of law enforcement. So, being that you've had a very good experience, what would you say to the officers that are not having such a great experience? How or what experience have you had that you could give to another officer as advice on how to change their mindset, maybe on their career and what they're going through at their agency and personally?
Willie Bermudez:So I would say this number one you got to take an internal, you got to do an internal review. Review yourself. Am I miserable because I'm making myself? Am I making choices that are making myself miserable? Am I turning my stuff in late? Am I walking around with a bad attitude? Am I cussing people out and getting written up? Am I doing anything that's contributing to the problem? So that's the first step you got to do. Be be honest with yourself and figure out do I just have a bad mindset or a bad attitude? Do that part first. Sometimes that's what it is. Sometimes it's a combination.
Willie Bermudez:Sometimes we work in a department that has an admin that's not very supportive or a city that's not very supportive, and you kind of feel trapped, that you can't do your job because you feel your department won't back you up or your city won't back you up. So if you're in that place, well, you got options, you know go work somewhere else, go left. And sometimes you can't. Maybe you've gotten written up, maybe you have a jacket already and it's going to be tough to lateral somewhere else, you know. But I would say look, if your department is causing you this kind of stress, you'll. Stress is bad. It's not healthy for us. It's bad. It's not healthy for us. It's bad, makes us miserable at work at home.
Willie Bermudez:So, first off, figure out if there's anything you're doing to contribute to the problem. Is there anything I need to change? Be honest with yourself. Get some help. You know most police have, whether it's peer support or counseling or mental health counseling. Take advantage of those things If that's what you need. If you have a church or maybe you know, through your medical plan you can go talk to someone. Do that If it's your department and department's causing you stress.
Willie Bermudez:Well, look at your options. Can I go work somewhere else? Do I? Maybe? Maybe it's your assignment, maybe you've been on patrol for a long time and you got to work a different assignment. You know, do something different within law enforcement, do something new to maybe freshen up the water a little bit. But look at different options. Should I lateral? Should I stay? Should I try a different assignment?
Willie Bermudez:And you know what? And if you don't find the answer there? Well, as cops, we have so much valuable experience in our jobs. We're trainers, we're counselors, we are supervisors and we have so many talents that can be used outside of law enforcement. Maybe it's time to start looking outside of law enforcement to find another career outside of law enforcement. Your mental health is key. You don't ever want to be stressed out. You want your family to love you. You don't want your family to hate when you come in the door at the end of your shift. So maybe, maybe you just got to find a different career path. So I would say those are. Those are some of the tips that I would say. You know, if an officer is going through some struggles, Well, that's some good advice.
Tyra Valeriano:Speaking of transitioning, you are going to be retiring soon, right? So how is that transition for you and how did you prepare yourself for that?
Willie Bermudez:So you know, this is the what I tell people, because you know, doing the finance stuff started off as as a side hustle you know, quote unquote to help our daughter with her college Cause. We didn't plan for it and when we started doing it and we realized how many officers need our help, it made us get into it more deeper than what we originally started to do. And so obviously we do a lot for first responders, but we help anyone. We have a lot of nursing clients, a lot of clients all over the place, and what was awesome was starting it while I had a full-time job. So I had a full-time job as a cop.
Willie Bermudez:My wife and I started doing this on the side so that we can really learn how to do this business and start building the business without the stress, because if you're stressed out about income, it's going to be so hard to build a business because you're always going to be stressed. So I recommend you know so yeah, we're going to be replacing the police income with the financial wellness income. But for anyone any officer who maybe they're looking at transitioning out, they know law enforcement isn't for them anymore. They want to get out. My recommendation is, unless you're that mentally stressed that you have to quit if you can do it. Figure out what it is that you want to do, what other career you want to do and, if you're able to get into it, start getting into it, maybe on a part-time basis, while you're learning it, while you're figuring out that business and you're able to replace your income.
Tyra Valeriano:With you. That's something you've already done, so are you prepared for that transition? I mean most of us, I can speak for myself. When I got out of law enforcement it, and even till this day I still kind of struggle with that identity. You know like I loved being a cop and that's who I was and unfortunately it just becomes a part of who you are. So are you ready to go through that? Have you prepared yourself for that?
Willie Bermudez:You know what's what's. What's pretty unique is I'm not leaving because I hate the cop job. You know, times have changed. Um, I owe it to my family to be safer and be home with them. But I'm not leaving cause I hate my job. Um, I'm leaving just cause I want to do this, I want freedom and to own my own business and and be my own boss. Um, but I would. But I would say it's going to be tough because I've been a pretty active cop. I think the more active you are in law enforcement, the harder it is to leave behind.
Willie Bermudez:I'm planning if my current chief I have a great relationship with my department I'm planning on, when that time comes, asking him to stick around as a reserve so I can still come in and maybe work a shift here and there, take a flight in the helicopter here and there and still be a part of it. I love helping other officers. I love being a mentor to younger officers that are coming up and just being an encouragement to them, not just in finance, just overall in law enforcement, and just helping them out. They're going through their struggles of being a young cop and so I love being a mentor. I still want to be part of the department, just not full time.
Tyra Valeriano:Understandable, and I think that it's. It's pretty awesome that you took this route. You have a very good vibe and you seem very happy with your career and all of the things that you've experienced. So just hearing you talk about that, I think that there's probably listeners out there who are law enforcement officers that might be able to get some good energy from you and maybe change the way they think about their career, because not everybody leaves for that reason. Like you said, not everybody's miserable with their, with their career. So now that you are getting close to I guess you can call it your retirement because you you're technically going to be retiring Do you have any plans with maybe law enforcement being something you might lean back towards in the future? Or with your business the finance business Do you want to maybe get into the wellness side and play a bigger part in the mental health side for law enforcement, considering that finance is a big part of that?
Willie Bermudez:Yeah, so, especially because of our church like we're, we're big in in helping you do counseling and helping people through church and stuff.
Willie Bermudez:Um, I feel like I've been a big help to a lot of officers where I work now and we definitely want to continue helping law enforcement in the financial wellness area. Um, but, to be honest, the main reason that I would stick around as a reserve would be to also be there just to be an encouragement, uh, to be able to help them still and and and, even even beyond that, you know, and if, if, if there's a law, for example, if, if a law enforcement officer reached out to me after this podcast and said hey man, can you give me some tips to to having a long, successful, happy career, then by all means I love helping people. So it doesn't just have to be finance, it doesn't have to be cop advice, any kind of advice we can give, marriage advice We've been married 20 years, have a daughter and any advice we can give. I'm more than happy to help out and give and I'm not going to tell them at the end of the day hey, all right, you owe me 50 bucks, no, we love helping.
Tyra Valeriano:That's awesome to hear. Okay, well, we are running out of time, but I know you gave your email and LinkedIn on how listeners can contact you if they want to talk about the finances aspect of things, and also you mentioned any topic really that's law enforcement related, so that kind of opens up the floor so that anybody can contact you. That is maybe going through something that they want to discuss. I do ask all. I'm sure you already know the question. I'm hoping that you don't so that you're a little unprepared. But I normally ask all of my guests what they would tell their rookie self advice wise, based on all of the experience that they have. I don't know if you already knew that, but I would like to know what you would tell your rookie self.
Willie Bermudez:There are a few things. Number one, most important thing I would say, is this never make being a police officer your identity. Most of the time, and we've heard it many times, you ask a cop hey man, tell me who you are. I'm a cop. No, you're not. You are you. You know you are tired, I'm Willie. Being a cop is one of the things that I do, um, so never make your identity, never make police your identity. Um, be who you are and let your being a cop be something that you do. That's one of the biggest things, because that's where so many cops get caught up. Another thing don't sweat the small stuff. And a lot of times they say keep your mouth shut. I don't mean keep your mouth shut and don't talk to people, but when it comes to things, pick and choose your battles.
Willie Bermudez:So many cops shoot themselves in the foot and ruin their careers because they run their mouth. Um, they run their mouth about admin. They tell their best friend, um, about how they don't like their Sergeant and they don't know that their best friend is trying to get promoted and goes and tells the Sergeant everything they just told them. So keep your mouth shut, don't go, god, don't be part of the gossip. Um, you know, don't. Uh, if you have to open your mouth because there's something immoral, illegal, unethical, of course open your mouth, but don't be part of the the drama at the department. Don't shoot yourself in the foot, because those are the people that don't get the special assignments, they don't get promoted and then they can't figure out why. Well, keep your mouth shut, don't be gossiping. Um, it's sad to say.
Willie Bermudez:The other thing in cop with cops is hey, yo, keep pleasure away from your job. Don't, don't, don't hook up with your cis. Yo, I know some. There's some stories of cops finding love on a call and stuff. But I've seen so many cops in my career guys hooking up with domestic violence victims and they lose their career and their family over it. Guys hooking up with CIs that's just nasty. I mean, most CIs are tweakers themselves. Keep it in your pants, keep your pants on. Whatever you're going to do, do it off duty, but don't do it with CIs or victims.
Willie Bermudez:You know, yeah, you know, and then, and make sure that you know where to go to get help. If you have a church and that offers free counseling, you know, if you have a counselor, you'll never be afraid to ask for help. Don't let your stress get so crazy high that you don't know what to do with it. You get to a point where you're suicidal or to a point where you actually do kill yourself. I mean, it's so tragic and it's one of those horrible things and it's like I just anytime I hear about it, I just wish, like man, I wish I could have shaken this person. I wish we would have known. I wish we would have known. I wish we would have known. And that's the other thing.
Willie Bermudez:Take care of your partners. We know when our partner's not acting right and don't be afraid to ask them. Hey, man, I noticed you're acting different tonight. Hey, sis, what's going on? I know you're acting different. What's going on? And hopefully you have that relationship and hopefully they're willing to open up. And you know what? I know like a lot of times we're afraid to tell our bosses about stuff, but there've been several times where I had to go to my boss and say hey, sarge, I know it's so-and-so, ain't acting right, man, and um, I tried talking to him, but I know there's something going on and we got to take care of ourselves. We're not snitching. We're not snitching, we're not ratting. You know I would feel horrible if I didn't say anything and found out that my partner ended up killing themselves and I could have done something to help him out. You know the horrible feeling, so you know.
Tyra Valeriano:I really appreciate you saying all of those things and, for those that are listening, I know that all of my guests give their advice to their younger self. But these are tips to take if you are an officer now or you're planning to be an officer or you're just starting in your career. All of these are the ugly truths, what I call the ugly truths of law enforcement, because there is an ugly side and that is part of the ugly side the identity. I can relate to that personally, just because I struggled a lot with that and I talked about that in my story. But we do, we tend to lean on our job and it just becomes who we are because instead of dealing with our personal issues, we'd rather go deal with everybody else's instead of our own, and it just becomes who we are. But those are all really, really good tips and I appreciate you saying that if you need help, reach out, especially if you have someone that you trust a church, that's a really great one.
Tyra Valeriano:Your partner I had a partner that I worked very close with and it was like clockwork. If he was off, I knew it was like, hey, what's going on? You just you know your people and you got to communicate that. So thank you for that and also thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate all of the information that you gave today. Even for me, I think that there's a lot of useful tips that even I can use, even out of law enforcement now, and I think it's a really important discussion to have. Is there anything else that you want to add to let the listeners know before we end the podcast today?
Willie Bermudez:Yeah, you know, even I know you this. Hey, if you'd like me to come down to your department and help us you know you want us to come down and teach a class or whatever We'd definitely be more than happy to do that. But if there's an individual officer that's listening to this and they want to meet on zoom and have me build them a strong financial plan for free no hidden, no obligation, there's nothing hidden about it I'd be more than happy to meet with him on Zoom to do it for free. Just send me an email, I'll take care of it.
Tyra Valeriano:Awesome. Well, thank you so much, willie. I appreciate your time today For the listeners that tuned in today. Thank you for joining me and we will see you on the next one.
Willie Bermudez:That's great. Take care, Tyra. Thank you for having me. Thank you.
Tyra Valeriano:Thank you for joining me. Thank you. Thank you for joining me on Chapter Blue. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow and tag me on social media and share with your friends and fellow officers. If you're interested in joining an episode, I'd love for you to be a part of the conversation. Until next time, stay safe, take care of yourself and remember you're never alone in this journey.