Fired at 63, Millionaire by 69: David Nassief’s Wealth Turnaround

What happens when you get fired at 63 and realize the math says you could be broke by 65?

In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with David Nassief to talk about the financial wake-up call that changed his life. After a 40-year career, David found himself facing job loss, fear, and the painful truth that making money is not the same as building wealth. Six years later, he had turned that crisis into a seven-figure portfolio and a simple framework he calls the One-Page Wealth Compass.

This conversation goes beyond motivation. David breaks down practical ideas around getting out of debt, simplifying investing, avoiding shiny financial distractions, and why “set it and forget it” may be more powerful than most people think. He also weighs in on Odell Beckham Jr.’s viral comments about why $100 million is not necessarily “forever money,” and what that reveals about financial literacy, lifestyle inflation, and the difference between income and actual wealth.

If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to turn your finances around, this episode will challenge that belief.

What we cover:

• The emotional toll of getting fired later in life
• Why high income does not automatically create wealth
• How debt quietly steals freedom
• David’s One-Page Wealth Compass
• Why simple investing beat complexity
• What Odell Beckham Jr.’s money comments reveal about wealth

Transcript

jelani gonzalez: Let's go back to that moment at 63 when you got fired. What were you thinking?

David Nassief: Well, I tell you, was 18 years with the same company, 63 as you said, just got fired. I wouldn't wish that day on anybody. I did the math, it was brutal. If we drained all of our savings and all of our retirement, we would be a broke by 65. And at this point, I'm thinking, who's going to hire me at my age? But know, the hardest part wasn't that. The hardest part was driving home thinking, what am I going to tell my wife, Mary? We'd been married for 30 years and she did not deserve the mess I just threw our life into. So anyways, after a couple months of dead end job searching, because my heart wasn't even in it, I didn't want to go back to the corporate world. just couldn't think of it. But I had to support my family and I was in a pretty bad financial situation, so I didn't have much options. But after about a couple months, I said, know, I'm going to take a huge risk. And I went to work as an independent sales agent on straight commission. No salary, no safety net, no benefits. So anyways, the first couple months were just brutal. I cold calls, constant rejection, rookie mistakes. I continually heard a no more than I think I ever had in my life in a couple month period. But you know, looking back, now I can say looking back on it, all that rejection, I believe that was the resistance I needed to build the mental muscles I needed to grind through that tough period. 10 months of real grinding, I an incredible milestone. I was suddenly making more money than my good paying corporate salary. And for a second, Jelani, I thought, okay, we made it. But then reality hit. We hadn't made anything. I had been making good money for 40 years almost. says, and I look at where it got me. I had to learn how to invest. I had to learn how to build wealth. Making money wasn't enough. I did not have time to waste with a bunch of investment theories and people with all these conflicts of interest trying to get your money. So I dug down deep. I read 21 books. Listen to 13 financial podcasts consistently. Listen, read blogs and newsletters. Finally, I distilled everything down onto one piece of paper because I didn't have a lot of time because I had to run my starting company. And so I made a set it and forget it approach. Six years later at 69, I achieved what I thought was impossible at one time. I suddenly had a seven figure portfolio and real financial freedom. I now know it is never too late to rewrite your story because if I can pull that off starting as late as 63, anybody can with the right direction.

jelani gonzalez: When you go back to that time and you looked at your finances honestly, did the numbers and the situation tell you that scared you the most?

David Nassief: Well, I'll give you the breakdown. I had about nine months of what we call emergency fund. We know we did it. We were smart enough to at least have that. we nine months. And then we had about 15 months of retirement of account. Now, wasn't going touch that retirement no matter what because it was so underfunded. It was like not funny. And now to rate it would be like insanity. ⁓ So I only had nine months. ⁓ My runway more like a helicopter path ⁓ than a It was very short. So that was really how it was. It was actually worse than two years in reality.

jelani gonzalez: talked about dealing not ⁓ to just hit the market back and start looking for a job immediately. What you going through from a mental perspective, the psychological impact of the embarrassment of being 63 and not having had things sorted properly at that age? How did you handle that part of it?

David Nassief: Well, let me tell you, is a good example of what happened. A of weeks after I was fired and I was really doing nothing, just trying to get a job, sending out resumes, whatever, ⁓ my said, honey, there's a big sale going on at this one store. Can you come with me? Because I want to try to conserve money so we can, you I said, sure, I'll go. I have nothing else to do. So we get to the store, this is discount grocery store. And I felt like, I'm sure it's not the case. I felt like it was the only man in the entire store, all these women's with babies crying in their carts, you know. And I just felt like the biggest loser. said, I should be working, providing for my family on a Wednesday late morning, not here in a grocery store with all these mothers and their babies shopping. I I guess I'm exaggerating. I'm sure there was men in their stores, too. But I just I felt like I had a sign on me. The biggest loser. I just I I wanted I was waiting at the end of the counter for my wife to check out. I want to scream. I want to break loose. I wanted to get out of there. and start working and being productive again, but I couldn't, I had no place to go. ⁓ only did my company tell me I was of no value anymore to them, but there were a lot of third party companies I interviewed with confirmed the fact that I was of no value to the corporate world. ⁓ so it's like, what are you supposed to do in that kind of situation? I felt so helpless and so frustrated and so trapped. It was a very difficult time.

jelani gonzalez: When you think about that 10 months of grind to where you got to where you got to that first year and you started making money again, there any beliefs or presumptions you had about money and wealth and retirement that you had to actually unlearn?

David Nassief: Well, really, everything I knew about money apparently was really off base. Cause when you make, for most of my 40 years working, mean, I had some rough years, everyone does, but for most of my 40 years, I was in a good paying jobs, making substantially above the average income people make. And look where it got me. mean, 40 later, I'm standing on the edge of a financial cliff ready to ⁓ fall ⁓ So what I knew about money, was wrong. I would chase shiny objects. Hot tip here that, you know, buy high, sell low was my philosophy apparently. I mean, at the end of every year, it seemed like I was not, was either no, didn't get any progress or I was behind actually from where I started. So my concept of money was just messed up really bad.

jelani gonzalez: David, obviously in listening to you, seem to be a fairly intelligent person. seem practical as well. You don't seem like somebody that's just operate willy nilly about things. But still you arrived at a point in your life where you didn't have the financial security like you said. Why you think most people, not most people, well, why do you think some smart, intelligent people like you end up at that place in their 60s, but those things not sorted out properly?

David Nassief: I think there's a couple of reasons. One is people mix up. think making money is the same as building wealth. I had a pretty good skill at making money. I really did. I had a lousy skill or knowledge of building wealth. But I think sometimes we get a little arrogant when we make good money. We figure, I got the money thing figured out. No one needs to teach me anything because look how much I make. that kind of thing. And so I think that was part of it. And the other part of it was procrastination. I just kept feeling like, I will get to that. Yeah, I know. But we got some short term stuff we got to deal with right now and we want to do this or why I wanted that. I wouldn't say I'm not the kind of person that lives overly extravagantly. mean, I'm I let me just say this. You know how people say live below your means? Well, we live to our full means. OK, we didn't go into debt, especially in the last decade or two. So we didn't go above our means, but we certainly didn't live below our lives. We lived at our means, you know, and that, unfortunately, is just disaster when it comes to building wealth. You've got to have a gap there between ⁓ you're earning and how you're living. If there's no gap there, you're really ⁓ going to have a good situation when it comes to wealth building.

jelani gonzalez: So let's talk about the 63 to 69 turnaround. mentioned not living above means or below your means, living at your means. What did your financial life actually look like in practical terms in regards to spending, investing, ⁓ that of thing? What did it look like?

David Nassief: Well, okay, now from from 63 to 69, if you're asking me that things changed dramatically. Okay. When I what I did is I basically let me tell you, can I just tell you a very brief story about what inspired this whole one page compass? Because I think it'll put things in perspective for everybody. There is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute did an experiment. They placed people in the center of a dense German forest and they told them to walk in a straight line to the edge. Now, these were confident and capable people, but When the clouds covered the sun, the GPS tracking showed they were gradually starting to walk in circular motions. Some of them were actually ending up right back where they began. And yet each and every one of them was absolutely convinced they were walking in a perfectly straight line. Julian, that was me for 40 years, working hard, thinking I was making the right decisions, but actually ultimately just ending up in the same spot I started at. And I was making no real progress. And that was, it was, I had the impression that I was doing well, even though I wasn't. And I just told myself, ⁓ I must be doing well. this is something that when I built my compass, from this information I gathered and put it on one piece of paper, I actually doubled my portfolio value three times in a six year period, which is unheard of. Matter of fact, a lot of people say that doesn't, that's not even possible, David. The market didn't increase that much, but let me explain how I did it. because I think your may be interested. First of all, I wasn't day trading. I wasn't tracing crypto or I wasn't trying to time the dollar market. I was doing the exact opposite of all that. I was doing something so boring it would put you to sleep. I didn't develop it. I learned an investment approach. And the crazy thing about it is when the market was down, I was thrilled. When other people were panicking and selling, I was buying more shares at discount prices. My only regret was the market wasn't down more during that six-year period because I didn't even done better. But here's what surprised me about the whole thing. It wasn't the returns as much as it was the math. There's a thing called the rule of 72. And what that means is, say you're getting a 10 % return on your money, which is realistic to get it in the market a conservative way, your money will double every 7.2 years ⁓ every 86 months. ⁓ first double after I started my compass occurred in just 30 months. The second one, only 13 months, and the third one 29 months for an average of 24 months, way less than half the 86-month return time. Now, there was three things I was doing to make this happen. ⁓ I was saving a good portion of my income. Now, I'll admit, I was making really good money at this point, so I could be pretty aggressive on the portion of my income I was saving. Number two, I was getting in the right kind of investments, ⁓ for me, after my research, it was low-cost index funds. with low turnover, low taxes and low fees, okay? That capture the entire return of the market. That was a real game changer for me too, because before I was just getting at anything I thought was good or whatever, heard a hot tip or whatever. And the last thing is I was using market volatility to work for me instead of against me. I got out of the trap of buying high and selling low that so many people are caught into and was able to see now clearly how to make this thing happen for me. I was able to build my portfolio twice as fast, and here's the important part, with half the risk compared to how so many people are doing it. And let me tell you why I say half the risk. I own only two funds. That's all I own. Two simple funds. One is I own an index fund that covers the entire US market. I own every publicly traded stock in the United States. A little tiny sliver. Okay. also, my second fund is everything outside the United States. So every publicly traded company, that is not part of the United States. In other words, I literally own every publicly traded stock on the planet. For me to go broke, for me to go under, the entire economic system of the world would have to collapse. I'm pretty comfortable with that risk level. I think I'm going to be okay.

jelani gonzalez: Yeah, you're not a conspiracy theorist, obviously, because we hear all the claims that everything is going to go tits up pretty soon. ⁓ let me talk about the One Page Wealth Compass. Let's dive deep into that. What is it? Talk about it.

David Nassief: Well. OK, OK, it's real simple and I'll just show it to your people. This is what it's literally one piece of paper. The one side is the nine trail markers to financial freedom. Why I have that it's an organized step by step system to figure out where you're at and where you need to go to reach your financial freedom number. And so people, when they look at it, they can automatically say, ⁓ I'm right here because I got these to handle. My income is pretty good. I'm fine with that. And my protection fine is fine. But my debt, I'm in debt and I'm in consumer debt or whatever. So then they go right there and they start from that point going forward and they see the clear path. They see the clear direction where to go. But the other side is the five North Star principles. This is the principles that keep you from getting pulled away at the shiny objects and the hot tips and the brother-in-law advice about investing and all that kind of thing. And so all of a sudden now you not only have a path, but you've got protection. with the right principles. And the third thing is, which is the last thing is, one of these steps, every one of these principles has a princess around it with a chapter number by it. So say you're trying to get a debt or you're trying to build wealth or whatever it is, it says chapter number six, okay? And so you will just go to the book, ⁓ is the one page wealth compass book. that's of like, this is the 30,000 foot view. ⁓ This like the ⁓ roadmap the ground. Okay, turn right here, turn left here. And so when you bring these together, They give you a powerful executive level view and a boots on the ground view and an ability to quickly, if you have a problem or an issue, go exactly to the place you need to go to to get the answers you really needed to go. I have never seen a financial book or system like this before. I want to make it simple and I want to make it so you don't have to hire a bunch of expensive advisors. You can have a virtual advisor free. You know where you're at. You know where you want to go and follow the steps and make it easy. Did that answer your question?

jelani gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, and I've got a few more questions ⁓ about it. you think about the journey, right, and all the moves that you made, do you remember the first thing that the first move you made that started to create real momentum?

David Nassief: On the wealth building or on the ⁓ okay on the wealth, but I think real thing that I discovered was We had been out of debt. Our ⁓ wife and I were smart enough to get out of debt, you know We know in our 40s or 50s or whatever So we didn't have the debt situation, but I didn't know how to invest and when I started reading books about How to invest and ⁓ to diversify so you can keep your risk

jelani gonzalez: on the wealth building,

David Nassief: your taxes low, which is a really big thing, and your fees low. I thought to myself, I understood now, hey, the more money I can keep out of the government's hands and out of these quote, advisors hands, the more money is working for me to build my wealth. And that's like a light bulb went off over to my head. I says, this isn't that complicated. They make it complicated because they want you to feel like you need them, these advisors or whatever. need, you have to have them, but you don't really, and I'm not against advisors, please don't. Some people need them. They need emotionally, they need somebody to, but they're not cheap. 1%, I can give you an example later on if you like, how expensive that really is. sounds like, 1 % is nothing. ⁓ no, it's huge. It's especially over a four year period, it's huge.

jelani gonzalez: Yeah. When you think about what you just said about people not needing a lot of expensive advisors if they can follow some practical tips, what does the page compass in the book, like how does it help people to understand and simplify money in investing?

David Nassief: Good, thank you for that question. So many financial books, the 21 I read, plus I've read many more since that six year period, but many of them are deep in the, and it's important to be this way, deep in the math and the technology and the nerdiness of the whole thing, because that's kind of how they are. They're nerdy people, I financially nerdy. And that's not a criticism of anybody, ⁓ good. But problem is when the average person reads a of those kind of books, after a couple chapters, they just sort of get lost in the details and all of a sudden they just put the book down. I says, no, no, no, no, no. This is not how to do this. What I have in my book is full of stories. mean, real stories, true stories of both success and failures, not only of my own success and failures, but of other people. I try to make a point on every key issue of here's Joe Jones, know, a real person. I don't always use his real name, but it's a real person. Here's what he did to mess it up royally. And here's what Bill Johnson did to make it work. Then when you show them the principle, it's like, ⁓ I get it now. It makes total sense. I've had people tell me, David, if you took all the financial stuff out of your book, it would be a great book to read just because the stories are so interesting. But when you combine them together, people who without a financial background get it. And they get it a lot better than if you just throw a bunch of numbers and facts and statistics and graphs and charts on them. I have some charts in there. I have some graphs in there. But it's heavy with real life examples so people can relate to them as people, not as financial nerds.

jelani gonzalez: David, you talk about right now what you invested in is two funds, but I'm assuming that's not how it started when you started that journey. did you arrive at the two funds? Get me there.

David Nassief: Okay, well, first of all, when I started making money, I was a little bit frozen. didn't know. I knew I kept making mistakes in the past. I didn't want to do it again. So I cautiously got into some expensive actively managed funds. I didn't know yet. I hadn't got that. But soon as I read my first book by John Bogle, who started Vanguard, realized, okay, this is different than all the other investment approaches. They're talking about expenses where the active people they don't want to break up the topic of expenses They talk about low turnover for low taxes the active people they bring that up because they want to turn it over a lot because they want you to they want to always be Tinkering with your stuff so you feel like oh, they're really doing something for you. You couldn't do it by yourself Okay, but when he gave when I understood this set it and forget it approach Well, you put your money in there and you leave it alone and you don't tinker with it You don't touch it taxes get really low And and and fees get really low and you are just keeping in that All that money you're keeping, not giving out to other people, it starts compounding and it compounds. And that really, that momentum. And if you're smarter than me and don't wait to 63 and maybe you start at 53 or even 43 or even 33, man, can you imagine the compound that goes on there when you're not sharing it with all the other people and you're just keeping it for yourself? It's amazing what happened. And that was like a light bulb moment on the investing piece. Okay. In the investing piece, there's more in this compass than investing. I don't want you to the impression it's the entire package because there's some subtle things in there that people are giving you advice on that are very expensive and they sound so good and they sound so, but when I did the math and questioned everything, I found out some really expensive common advice you're given by credible gurus out there, Finnish gurus, that I show my math, it's just wrong and maybe it was good in the 70s, but it's not good today.

jelani gonzalez: Right. What are some of the, what did your monthly system look like in the early parts of when you started implementing your system? What did your monthly system look like? How did you assess what was safe? What was too risky? What did that look like in practical terms?

David Nassief: Well, it quickly, it didn't take me long to catch on to the index fund. my, ⁓ monthly system is so simple, it's gonna be embarrassing. ⁓ now, and even then, once found out about the index funds, well, I say, didn't take me that long to find out about them. Here's what happens. ⁓ Once month I pay myself for my company, okay? I ⁓ put in my ⁓ checking and I immediately take a percentage out of that, pretty good chunk of that. and I transferred over to my investment account. And most of it goes into my total US market account. And then some of it goes into my international account. That takes me literally about five minutes to do the transferring and putting it in. And a lot of people can automate that. The reason I can't automate it is because my pay differs every month. So I don't have a standard amount. OK, but people who have like a salary, you can automate this. You're not doing nothing every month. OK, but so I'm literally talking about a five minute investment of my time. I mean, you don't need a twenty thousand dollar advisor. And that's what 1 % will do on a $2 million portfolio. You don't need that kind of advisor to do that. You can do that yourself and save yourself 20 grand a year. And then that 20 grand a year goes back into your investments and start compounding that kind of thing for you.

jelani gonzalez: If somebody's listening and they're thinking, wow, this sounds great, I possibly want to try this, ⁓ the first, I suppose I call it the one page exercise they start doing this week?

David Nassief: Well, what they should do, and this is going to self self-serving, but I'm making no money off of it. So I don't think a self-serving is free. Okay. They should download the one page wealth compass and find out really where they're at. Cause they may want to start investing. They may get excited, but if they're still in consumer debt, I recommend you do not do that. You do not start investing yet. Your best investment when you're in debt is to get out of debt because right now you're paying interest to make other people rich. And the idea is let's cut that out right now as quickly as we can. So then you have all that cash flow to make you rich and that will When you do that, you'll start seeing your investments grow a lot faster than if you're doing, okay, I'm going to get out of debt, but I still want to invest. I want to do a little of both. No, no, that's not the way to do it. You want to get completely out of debt. I don't mean mortgage debt. I'm talking about credit card type debt. If you get out of that, all that cash flow now is working for you. Why slow that process down? Get out of debt as quick as you can, then move into the investment part. And that's why I say, if you look at the compass, you can find out where your other people may say, oh, I'm out of debt. I got this. I got that. I'm ready to start building wealth or whatever. And then they can just go on to the stuff that they're on. But that would be a simple thing. Why reinvent the wheel here? Just go ahead and like I say, it's free. don't charge anything for it. And just get it and just start doing it from wherever you're at. That's what I recommend.

jelani gonzalez: think people overlook the importance of getting out of debt. It was one of the most powerful feelings in my entire life when I eliminated everything except the mortgage. was so mentally gratifying to log into the and look at my balances all at zero. ⁓ I even tell you how...

David Nassief: Yes.

jelani gonzalez: Powerful that felt like I didn't owe anybody anything and then all the monthly payments that I was actually sending out Now I had that to do whatever I wanted to do with and then I started to do things more strategic So I think people really underestimate how much power getting rid of Monthly debt is and then how much freer you actually feel because again if you God forbid something happens and you lost your job then you have one thing to worry about your mortgage, not how am going to pay all this credit card debt? How am I going to pay all of this? Because it's gone. And then those nine month reserves you talked about, now probably 16 months because you've got less debt. Speaking about paying off debt and that sort of thing, what are the most common mistakes that think that people make when they finally decide to get serious about money?

David Nassief: Yeah, exactly. Well, one of the mistakes is the noise out there giving you so much bad information. There's so much. Let me give you one because it relates to what you're talking about. Getting out of debt. You know, the freedom you felt. I think getting out of debt is both a financial brilliant move and an emotional and peace of mind and secure feeling move. I think it's both. And I think I'm not sure one's more important than the other. Be honest with you. They're both really good. But here's the noise out there that will tell you not to do this. OK. They'll talk about interest arbitrage and they'll say, well, if you can make more money in the stock market, like say you can make 12 % in the stock market and you're only paying 6 % on this loan, you're forced to pay off the loan. Just keep it the loan and keep your money in the stock market. Well, that's really backwards thinking because what they don't measure in their analysis of the arbitrage is the risk factor. Okay, say the market tanks, okay, and you're in debt. and it's maybe a car debt. And now you lose your job because the market tanked. OK, so now you lost your job and the market is tanked. So all your money is pretty much, you know, wait, wait. And now you suddenly lose your car. So try to get another job. See what debt does, it takes a that's bad and turns it into a catastrophe. mean, it magnifies the problem of it all. But people don't take that into account when they're just analyzing numbers and they're just being a financial nerd about the whole thing. No, no, there's another piece to that and your financial nerdness isn't taken into account. And that's the risk factor of debt. Debt is risky. And it's never risky when everything's going right. But all of a sudden, when things get ugly in life and get bad, that debt is going to come back to haunt you and haunt you and maybe do more destruction on you than you'd ever thought was possible. That's what people are getting wrong when they're hearing that arbitrage garbage advice.

jelani gonzalez: One caveat, and I want to get your opinion on it, I did have a business mentor that said this to me, personal debt, business debt, two different things, and you have to view them differently. So when I talk about ⁓ off those debts, I'm talking personally. But I've got business debts where ⁓ using money, leveraging the money from like ⁓ lines of credit to invest in certain things that have a greater return than what the money is costing me from the business perspective.

David Nassief: Yeah, yeah, ⁓

jelani gonzalez: What are your thoughts on using debt to leverage investments?

David Nassief: Well, I didn't mention this to you, but I'm gonna, now that you bring it up, when I was in my mid-40s, I tried to start two businesses, okay? Both failed miserably. One plunged me into a six-figure debt that took me years to get out of, years to get out of. And I had to sign personally for it. I mean, it wasn't like, I mean, it was business debt. was exclusively business debt, but I was on the hook for it too, you know what I mean, myself. And so anyways, that got me, that really burnt me bad. And when I started my, company at 63. I learned some lessons from that, not just the debt part of it, but other things too. And one of the things was I personally wasn't going into debt again. I just at 63, now you and I are at a different age brackets here. So, but at 63, I wasn't going to, I couldn't take that risk again. So I says no debt and I didn't go into debt for business or personal. I am not against people, especially like real estate or stuff, especially things that are appreciating and making you revenue, that kind thing. That's a different topic. And I understand, and I wouldn't argue with business people who debt in different ways, but personally, when it comes to business people's personal life and non-business people's personal life, ⁓ say debt other than mortgage. Mortgage, will say that's because that builds wealth that appreciates. That's a different whole animal.

jelani gonzalez: Absolutely, absolutely. I completely agree. talked about a little bit earlier about set it and forget it. Provide more details about that for somebody that doesn't understand what that actually means.

David Nassief: Sure, that's a very important one. It's a principle I didn't understand for 40 years. I really felt like if I analyzed stuff 40 years ago and tinkered with things and made adjustments, I was smart. I was a financial savvy person. I was really on top of things. then when I read the books about funds you just... buy and you hold and you don't touch them and you let the market do its job and let the market go to work for you instead of you were always working for money. That was eye-opening. And I said to myself, all this tinkering, all this adjusting, all that did was put me backwards or got me nowhere. And when I left it alone, said, my first double, most of it was because of my contribution, not the market. The market contributed nicely, not the second one, the market contributed a lot more. My third double, My cart contributed six figures and my fourth double, I had a while, a couple of years ago, double was a seven figure double and the market contributed ⁓ of the money. ⁓ me, not my addition. ⁓ what I'm talking about. I just set it and forget it and let the market do its job. And when it went down, ⁓ was jumping for joy. I was doing a little jig because I kept buying every month by and I was buying it when it was down. was buying ⁓ it went up. I reap the benefits of it going up too. So that's what I mean by set it up and get it.

jelani gonzalez: And along those lines of set is and forget it. What should the what should I, for example, be be tracking? am I tracking monthly? ⁓ what metrics am I looking at?

David Nassief: Well, you that's a good question. And you're going to think my answer is probably stupid, but it's not. wouldn't track a dang thing. I'd put that money in those accounts and I'd forget them. I forget. Yeah, I just forget. That's the forget it part. Yeah. But here's the thing. ⁓ do look at them once a month, not for investment purposes or to track it. ⁓ just the kind of guy who I want to make sure it's still there. In other words, ⁓ didn't get scammed or people didn't hack a thing. ⁓ the only reason I look at it.

jelani gonzalez: Really forget it. Yeah.

David Nassief: If it wasn't for that, I would never check. Maybe I check it once a year just to see where I'm at. But I mean, that's where you get into trouble. Because when you check it it's really down, you start worrying, or it's really up and you're getting overly excited and you just don't want to do things. So I just prefer not to check it. But if you're like me, I wouldn't argue with you if want to check it once a month or occasionally just to make sure that for security reasons, you're fine. That's the only reason.

jelani gonzalez: How should people listening think about emergency funds versus investing versus paying off debt?

David Nassief: Okay, well, this is the way order I do it in. the first thing I do, and here's what lot of gurus say, they give you a fixed number. They says, okay, before you get out of debt, you should have a little cushion of an emergency fund. And I agree with that, okay? But the problem with they do is they give you a dollar amount, like they go $1,000 or 1,500 or 800 or whatever. And some of them been used that number since the 70s. Okay, it's like, hey, we've had a little inflation over time. But my point is this, if you have a $50,000 a year person who's making that, and you have a $500,000 a year person, do you think their emergencies might be a little bit different in terms of dollar amounts? So I say a percentage. And I still want to keep it low. We don't want to have a huge, because we're trying to get a debt here. That's the first party. But we want have a little cushion so every little hiccup doesn't stop us from investing. I say 3%. This way, if you're making 50 grand a year, it's a much lower number. It's more closer to that $1,000 number that a lot of people say. But if you're making $500,000 a year, it's more because when your air conditioning go out in your 7,000 foot house, It's a lot different when their air conditioning unit goes out in the window. It's a much more different. So that's the first thing I would do is I'd start. I switched to a percentage than a fixed dollar amount. It just makes logical sense. I don't know why some people still do that. Then the next step is to get out of debt. That's when you want to aggressively go there. Then once you're here is the thing. This is going to be another thing that surprises a lot of people. All the gurus out there, not all of them, but a lot of them, it's very popular to say this. OK, once you get out of debt. The next thing you do is you get your full emergency fund, not the 1000 or 2500, whatever. You get the full like, which is three to six months of living expenses. And I agree with that. That's, that's not a bad thing to have three, six months of living expenses. Okay. But they say once you get three to six months, then now you're safe. you start investing. I did the math that cost you a fortune. Here's why you first of all, you just got out of debt. So guess what happens now? You've got cashflow, free cashflow that you haven't started eating up yet on luxuries and all that kind thing. So I say, do your emergency fund and your investing at the exact same time. Here's why. If you wait to get your three to six months emergency fund built first, which is going to take most people at least a year to get half, you know, half there, probably more than a year, but it's the same here. That means they're out of the market. for a year when they're early in their stage, like maybe they're in their 20s, they're just starting this out, okay? If you follow that money that they didn't put in the market, because they want to get their one to three to six months emergency fund before they did the market, that will cost them about a half million dollars by the time they retire and that untapping. If you do them at the same time, you're now getting the security of an emergency fund and you're getting the security of starting early on your investing. That little tweak is a half million dollar suggestions and I have several of my book. that these guys who've been doing this for decades who should know better, but they just get dogmatic about how they're supposed to do things. And it's like, come on, this is math, guys. We don't have to get dogmatic. And there's things that have happened over the last 10, 20 years that weren't the same way when the 1980s here. And that, it would cost a lot of people money. And that's something that... So I'm saying the order of these is just as important as the items on the list.

jelani gonzalez: Let me say this and then I want you to comment on it based on what you've got in a one-page compass because did it a little not opposite but I did it a little differently I I Sorted mentally that I needed to have a certain amount of living expenses that set aside I saw it I thought I needed to I needed to have debts paid off obviously and then I wanted to have money to invest and I did I Realized what you said I said well ⁓ my goal for how much? funds I wanted, it's gonna take me so long. By the time I get there, I would have missed so much. And the I want to invest, if I wait to pay off my debt, it's gonna be so long. So why don't I do all three? So what I did was every time I got paid, I put a certain percentage in my savings for emergency funds, I paid debt, and I put a certain percentage aside for investment. I didn't start investing yet because the amount was too low. right? And I did it simultaneously. The reason why is because for me, what I sorted out in my head, because I'm all about the mental is I wanted a minimum of one year of living expenses in the bank. wanted my goal, my ultimate goal was two years. I'm not there yet, but I wanted one year minimum because the way I thought of it was if I got laid off, if I got fired, I have a year to turn things around. That will help me not to make a rash decision. right after getting fired, take a job just to take a job. I've got a year to sort it out. But if I have two years, then in my mind, I thought mentally, now I really have freedom because I have two years if something happens to sort things out, I can regroup, I can get some mental help if I need it. I have two years to sort it out. what I'm saying is I did it simultaneously because I think it depends obviously how much debt you have. If you have so much debt that's going to take you three years to pay off, like you said, you can't wait three years to start investing, depending on where you are. you're 20, 30, you probably could. You you've got more time. But if you're in your 40s, 50s, that three years, like you said, cost you about half a million dollars. So what you think about doing it that way, just simultaneously as you build it up?

David Nassief: It does, it really Yeah, have no problem with that. Math wise, I have no problem with that. But here's why I say aggressively go after the debt first. ⁓ I'm not saying what you did was wrong because it's not. It's probably going to be just fine. I you to say to yourself every day or not. However, I'm losing. I'm not in the market. This is crazy. I'm missing out. ⁓ I to get out of debt like Now, like yesterday, and maybe it requires a second job or maybe it requires overtime or whatever it requires. But you're like obsessed now, I got to get out of so I can get in that market. And I actually want people to use that in a positive way to motivate them to get out of debt as quick as they can. But to do all three at the same time, I'm not opposed to that. I just think psychologically and motivationally, because you did all that pain now, you really sacrificed to get out debt, you're not going to say, I'm never going back there. That was too painful. I mean, I got out of it fast, but I'm never doing that again. Where when it's gradual sometimes you don't really recognize how much of a sacrifice it was. But like I say, that three at once is fine. On my chart, I have it first get out of debt obsessively, then do the other two simultaneously. So either way, there's no right or wrong

jelani gonzalez: Yeah, I will tell you though, mentally it was really great getting rid of the debt, but every month seeing the savings increase had a positive impact too that I wouldn't change. Because eliminating the debt, getting rid of pain has more of an effect on us, on the human psyche than anything. People don't realize that. But adding the pleasure into it did help as well. Let me ask you this. I'm gonna ask you about two different groups of people. So let's start up with the person.

David Nassief: Yeah. Yeah. It does.

jelani gonzalez: that's listening that they're starting late like you, like you started late. Where should they focus first?

David Nassief: Okay. Well, first I'd ask myself, I hate to keep going back, but it's really on this. I'd ask myself, where is my income situation at? Because if you're like hardly earning anything or worse like me where you were unemployed and everyone says, we don't want you, you're not a value anymore, you just curl up and go in the corner there because you you're done, buddy. it. You got to correct that. Like, and you got to correct that ⁓ quickly as you can. I'm not saying you have to make huge money. I'm not, but if you're like underemployed, you know, don't let that be a drag on you. And for some people, being fully employed is 50,000. Other people, it's 150,000. And wherever that is for you, that's fine. I'm not saying a dollar amount. I'm just saying make sure you're fully employed and you feel like, I'm my earning potential. That's the that's gonna drive ⁓ all other steps and all that other wealth. So that's the first thing to look at. And if that's out of whack, that needs to be addressed. I don't care what your age is, because ⁓ hopefully one's waiting in as stupid as I was on way to 63. But if you're 53 or 43, my gosh, you can make adjustments. You can get more training or whatever to increase your skills. That's where I'd start, because you need an engine that is running on all cylinders, not something that's half going. Then when you do the other steps, they will proceed a lot faster than if that first step is messed up.

jelani gonzalez: And the younger person, just out of university, just getting into their career, where should they start? What should their focus be on?

David Nassief: Well, first of all, stay out of debt. And if you're in student loan debt, aggressively get out of that. have a whole I just want to touch on this real quick. I have a whole section of my book, a chapter on student debt loan. That is the biggest ripoff. There are people I have examples of people in their 60s, 70s, and you're not going to believe this ⁓ paying off student loan debt. And they never graduated from college to begin when they dropped out. ⁓ ⁓ government is now pulling money out of their Social Security check for part of that student loan thing. I'm telling you, it's a lot more dangerous. It's almost like putting a gun in the hand of an 18 year old. doesn't know how to shoot or anything like that. And he just starts, know, it's dangerous what they're doing. And so that's the first thing. If you're a young guy or young lady and you're in student loan debt, get obsessed about getting out of that deal. But then I would immediately start investing because you have got the power of compound interest. Oh my gosh. And you don't even have to be making a ton of money. Just take a percentage of your income on your debt, 10, 15, whatever percent you can do. and start doing it now, you will be so far ahead of so many people That alone for young people is the number one thing I would recommend doing.

jelani gonzalez: I'm glad you said that and that makes me feel good because I've got a 13 year old son and every time he has a birthday he gets money and I always tell him I need 20 % of that, we're going to buy some stock and he's like, dad, what's that? Why do I need to do that? He said, trust me, we keep doing this. By the time you're 18, you'll probably have so much choices of what you want to do with your life. So I'm glad you said that because I've got him already buying stocks and looking at certain things in the market. So I'm glad you said that. I want to ask you about one of the stories.

David Nassief: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's Very smart.

jelani gonzalez: that you alluded to in the information I researched before connected here. You talked about the janitor versus the doctor. ⁓ does that example reveal? What is that about?

David Nassief: Yeah, this is Yeah, that shows people that saying you're not making enough money is an absolute lie. Let me, I actually give you two different examples in the book. I think the other one is even more dramatic. I like to share with you, I can also address the other one. The average NBA player today makes over $10 million a year. I didn't say $10 million in his life. I said in a single year, he makes over $10 million. Yet after five years of retirement, 60 % of them are broke according to the Netflix documentary broke. NFL is worse. NFL after only two years of retirement, 78 % of them are either bankrupt or in serious financial stress. That's according to Sports Illustrated. Now compare that to Dale Schroeder, a basketball loving carpenter who earned a below average income most of his life. Yet he chose to live below his means and invest the difference. He at the end of his career, had a $3 million portfolio. That is more money than most NBA and NFL players have after five years retirement. And they're making the $10 million a year. There's a difference between building wealth and making money. And the basketball players and the football players, they know how to make money like nobody. I mean, they're making amazing money, okay? But when it comes to building wealth, a lot of them really don't get it, okay? Dale Schroeder, he wasn't that successful at making money. He really wasn't. He was making below average. But yet he was a master at building wealth. And that is a critical point that a lot of people don't understand. Some people say, I'm at disadvantage because I don't make enough. Or they say, I don't need any help. I'm making a fortune. Both are wrong. Both are wrong.

jelani gonzalez: So recently on the talk shows and whatnot, I don't know if you're familiar with Odell Beckham Jr., American football player. He went viral for saying that, you know, a hundred million dollar contract is not really forever money. And when I heard that with my limited understanding of how money works, I was so disappointed because I thought, one, he doesn't really understand how money works and two, at his level, how does he not have the proper advisors around him that can easily show him how $100 million, even with the taxes and whatnot, is forever money. When you hear somebody like that, and especially since you just mentioned about the basketball players going broke after five years, are your thoughts when you hear that?

David Nassief: My thoughts are this, he's probably surrounded by quote, Warren Buffett calls them helpers. People wanting to help him with his money and they want to get their slice of the pie. And if you get enough helpers, he's right. That $100 million will be gone because you know, first of he's going to want to live the life of a celebrity, he should be able to. That's not, but on that kind of money, he should definitely be able to do that. But when you get all these helpers hands involved, all of a sudden, It's shocking how 1%, 1.5%, 2 % here, there. All of sudden, he's right. mean, even with a contract like that, he could be broken five years after. I mean, I'm not wishing that on anybody. would never, but I'm just saying, that's the reality. They're getting help from people who have hidden agendas and it's a serious conflict of interest. And he doesn't know, he's a pro sports athlete. He didn't study this stuff. He studied how to be the best on the world. in his field. He didn't study finances. That's the sad thing. That's another reason I wrote the book on how to come because you don't need to get a PhD. You don't need to get all these initials after your name. Simple principles can make you wealthy and you don't need all those helpers getting their hands in your pot when it's just not necessary.

jelani gonzalez: David, what's one, ⁓ guess it's too big of a thing to be one, but what's the top three things that somebody should take away from reading your book?

David Nassief: One is keep it simple. This is not a complicated system. People are motivated to make it complicated for other reasons. is not if you know, I think ⁓ Benjamin Franklin said this that the best investment you can ever make is knowledge. And when I got the knowledge of how to build wealth, I had a peace come over me. I had a calm come over me. I no longer listen to all the BS that people are giving me about this and that and all that kind of thing. This is what you should be doing. I could see right through so many of their deals. so I think that keep it simple, continually build knowledge. I mean, and that's why I say a two minute once a week, you sit down for two minutes and review this world's compass. It's kind of, have you ever read a really good book and it had a life changing thing in it? And then two years later, you go, oh yeah, I forgot I meant to do that. That happens to me more than I like to admit, okay? But when you're doing a... Two-minute that's all I'm saying two minute review of the compass You don't do that because you see it's right in your face. You go wait a minute I haven't started getting out of debt and that's the spit-out step I'm on I haven't done one thing that and after week after week all of a sudden you'll get focused you got a laser like focused and and that's amazing when you keep it simple and you and and you and you do a quick review and I'm sorry I already forgot your question. I hope I got most of an answer Oh, okay

jelani gonzalez: No, you did. I was asking you for the top three takeaways from the book. And we'll follow along there. How can people get the book, get the one page compass? Please, give them some parting words.

David Nassief: OK. All right, I think that's about it. Absolutely, basically all you have to do is go to my website which is onepagewealthcompass.com The first thing you're gonna see is get your free one-page PDF of the wealth compass This is the exact one I use from 63 to 69 and I still use it today I can say my doubles are now are seven-figure doubles It works on small amounts of money and big amounts of money and I just ten two minutes two minutes a week This is literally what I do two minutes a week and you can get that for free. It's the secret sauce. I'm not asking you for money. I'm not asking for another. And with that, you'll get a free newsletter. We'll give you some extra tips on how to make sure you're tweaking it right. And if you like this, if you think this makes sense, and I would like some more information on some of these points on how to do them, then get the book. It's a very inexpensive book on Amazon. I have a link on my site, or you can go directly to Amazon. One Page Wealth Compass is the name of the book. And you get the book, and it's a perfect companion to this. And it'll keep you on the straight path to, it'll get you the most time efficient way, I believe, to get wealthy in a simplest way that anybody can understand.

jelani gonzalez: any other services you offer besides the book and the OnePage Wealth Compass.

David Nassief: You know, I am doing this as a passion project. When I was really desperate in the middle of my darkest storm financially, I was handed a lifeline and it's a form of inspiration on this wealth compass. When I got out, said to myself, you know, the ultimate selfishness is just to keep that to myself. And I'm just sharing this to help other people so they don't end up in the same boat I'm in at 69 or even 59 or whatever the deal, mean, 63 or whatever. And so I'm not looking to make money off anybody. I'd have no courses to sell you. just need the compass and the book. And I tell you, you'll be light years ahead of most people, light years.

jelani gonzalez: Any final words, David?

David Nassief: I just would say this, Clear direction beats misdirected speed time. And I would suggest this will help you get that clear direction you need. Because I was going really fast for 40 years, but I was spinning my wheels. When I got the clear direction, all of a sudden, ⁓ more spinning of the wheels, and I got there a lot faster than I thought was even possible.

jelani gonzalez: David, we'll leave it there. Thanks for being with me and thanks for coming on behind the story.

David Nassief: Thank you, it's a pleasure, I really enjoyed it.