Name: Azul Wells
Age: 58 times around the sun. Feel 23.
Location: Nomadic. Rented out my house in Park City, Utah for the past 2.5 years and am traveling the world. 30 countries visited so far.
What I do:
Financial Adviser. People come to me hoping I am the next Warren Buffett. The truth is no one is; not even Warren himself (he has plenty of 5 year periods where he underperformed the stock market). Financial advisers do not add value by outperforming the market. They add value by helping clients plan their financial lives
Good financial advisers bring clarity to your financial life. How much money do you need to retire? What should your asset allocation be? What should be your split between tax deferred accounts (IRAs, 401Ks, etc) and taxable accounts (normal accounts at your local bank or at places like Schwab and Fidelity), how to save for your kid's college expenses?
Great financial advisers help clients make great decisions over their lifetimes. For instance, if you are 60 years old, you likely have less than 1,000 weeks left of healthy, active and mentally acute time. You want to use this time wisely. Yes, you might be able to increase your net worth from $3 million to $5 million if you work 5 more years, but at what cost? Is it worth sacrificing 25% (or more) of your remaining healthy active years? These are the kind of life changing, life enhancing questions that great financial advisers help their clients answer. There are no generic "right" answers. Just the ones that help you live your fullest and most rewarding life.
My advice for someone turning 23:
Wow, this is a tough question. All I can do is share some insights from my journey that might resonate with you. Below are three principles that have guided my life and proved useful to me. Plus, at the end, one that I wished I had known about and followed in my 20s. If thoughts like these resonate with you, consider following me on YouTube here.
1) Optimize on life, not your bank account
American society tends to stress financial success over personal enjoyment. I see this as a false choice. If you are a reader of Leo's Lemonade, you are likely the type of person that is going to be financially independent well before your 60s - with or without the marque high paying, high stress jobs that might be tempting you.
For example, after business school, I worked in private equity. The job required 80 hour work weeks and 45+ weeks a year of travel. It also paid a ton of money. But the job extracted a lot from me.
When my first child was born, I knew I had to choose. Be a great dad or live the life that looked exciting and successful to others. I chose to be a great dad.
I quit my job in private equity, took a year off of work and was the primary caregiver to my then 18 month old daughter. Later I joined a small wealth management firm that I helped grow into one of the largest in the state of Utah. A job that required no travel and I could succeed at working about 40 hours a week.
The result? At 50 years old I was financially independent and my wife and I had fully funded our kid's college savings accounts (including Stanford tuition for that 18 month old who had grown up way too quickly). At 58 years old, I could afford to set up small trust accounts for my kids to allow them to easily choose to pursue their passions rather than a paycheck.
When my first child was born, I knew I had to choose. Be a great dad or live the life that looked exciting and successful to others. I chose to be a great dad.
I quit my job in private equity, took a year off of work and was the primary caregiver to my then 18 month old daughter. Later I joined a small wealth management firm that I helped grow into one of the largest in the state of Utah. A job that required no travel and I could succeed at working about 40 hours a week.
The result? At 50 years old I was financially independent and my wife and I had fully funded our kid's college savings accounts (including Stanford tuition for that 18 month old who had grown up way too quickly). At 58 years old, I could afford to set up small trust accounts for my kids to allow them to easily choose to pursue their passions rather than a paycheck.
In short, I have more than enough money. And I suspect you will as well. Choose a career based on your interests, your passions and your skill sets. It is hard to regret optimizing on life. You retire on your memories, not your bank account.
2) Do not fear failure
If you do not fail or get fired from at least one job in your life, you likely are not stretching yourself enough.
Readers of Lemonade are smart, hard working and likely self manage well. You are constantly working on becoming the best version of yourself. These are hard qualities to find and they make you incredibly valuable to employers, to start up companies and to investors looking to back entrepreneurs.
What do you have to lose by pursuing your biggest and boldest dreams? Likely very little. And you almost certainly have less to fear than you think.
3) Build your audience. Attention is the most valuable currency in the world
Sharing your insights with the world is the best way to increase your surface area of luck.
Writing, podcasting and YouTubing sends your "beacon" of interests and passions out into the world and attracts like minded people. As your audience grows, your ability to learn from your audience increases. This allows you to fine tune your message and increase the value of your message.
As a financial advisor, I can attest that there are few guaranteed returns in the world. But, building in public and sharing your unique and valuable insights is an exception to the rule. Do this for two years and I guarantee new doors will open and your life will be richer for the effort.
4) Borrow from your future self - The piece of advice I wish I knew and followed in my 20s
Society tells us to save as much as we can and to start as early as you can. And financial advisers are the loudest voices promoting this message. But, having the vantage point of a late 50 year old (and a financial adviser), I disagree.
There are chapters in your life where you can easily pursue certain passions. Want to backpack around the world and live in hostels (epitomized by Leo)? Or learn to hang glide? Or go to raves every weekend? The best time to do these types of activities is in your 20s. Yes, you can do these things in your 40s and 50s (I have enjoyed all three in my 50s). But these activities are best enjoyed by the young.
The dichotomy is that 20 year olds have adventurous hearts but not voluminous bank accounts. The solution? Borrow from your future self.
The dichotomy is that 20 year olds have adventurous hearts but not voluminous bank accounts. The solution? Borrow from your future self.
Do not feel the need to save tens of thousands of dollars a year in your 20s. The best return for that money is on rich, life enhancing experiences. And, if you still do not have enough money to fund potentially life changing experiences. Borrow it.
Yep, I said it. Borrow it.
Do it smartly and do not overdo it, but borrow it from friends and family if that is what it takes to pursue your biggest and boldest dreams and adventures. Yes, you might be able to self fund these adventures in your 30s and 40s. But the bigger risk is that you change or your situation changes (kids, mortgage, etc) and you end up never living these experiences.
The biggest regrets in life are not that you did not get a 10% return on $10k that you otherwise might have saved. The biggest regrets are that you did not pursue your boldest dreams.