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This video provides a comprehensive update on a dividend-focused investment portfolio, detailing recent additions, performance, and future financial and lifestyle goals, particularly the aspiration to live abroad on passive income.
The video begins with a portfolio update, showing a current value of approximately $63,000 and an annual dividend income of around $2,200 (about $190 per month). The host explains that this is a work in progress, with recent additions funded partly by a slightly reduced emergency fund due to stable employment. Several new stocks are introduced, including Accenture, which proved to be a learning experience due to a poor earnings report, and Broadcom, added for its growth potential.
The core of the update focuses on the dividend strategy, which aims to balance lower yields for growth with higher yields for immediate cash flow, preventing net asset value erosion while building towards a sustainable income stream. Stocks like General Mills, Honeywell, L3 Harris, McCormick, and Vici are discussed, highlighting their individual merits and how they fit into the overall portfolio. The host also touches upon existing holdings like Chevron and Caterpillar, noting their significant growth.
Beyond the portfolio itself, the discussion expands to broader financial and lifestyle goals. The host shares aspirations of living abroad, specifically in Asia, on dividend income, emphasizing the need for a substantial passive income stream. This includes considerations for healthcare systems abroad, the trade-offs between state pensions and private sector salaries, and the importance of a Spartan lifestyle to facilitate saving and investing. The impact of AI on the job market and societal structures is also briefly explored, with a cautious optimism about future adaptations.
The video concludes with reflections on personal finance management, including the use of brokerage accounts, tracking investments via Google Sheets, and the long-term strategy for retirement savings through 401ks and Roth IRAs. The host reiterates the importance of continuous learning, adaptability in career choices, and the value of social connections, particularly contrasting the social culture in Asia with that of America.
The dividend portfolio is currently valued at approximately $63,000. It generates around $2,200 per year in dividend income, or roughly $190 per month. This income is a key component of the goal to support living abroad.
Recent additions to the portfolio include Accenture, Broadcom, General Mills, Honeywell, L3 Harris, McCormick, and Vici. These were chosen to balance growth potential with dividend yield.
Living abroad on dividends requires building a substantial passive income stream from your investments. A mix of dividend growth and higher-yield stocks can help create sustainable cash flow. Careful financial planning and a potentially Spartan lifestyle are also crucial.
The investment strategy focuses on a blend of dividend growth and higher-yield stocks to ensure sustainable cash flow. This approach aims to grow the portfolio's net asset value while generating reliable income, preventing erosion.
Living abroad can offer a lower cost of living, particularly in parts of Asia, which can make passive income stretch further. Many expats also appreciate the optimistic social culture found in these regions.
Concerns about AI's impact on jobs are acknowledged, with potential societal shifts like Universal Basic Income being discussed. Adaptability in careers and focusing on skills that complement AI are important for navigating these changes.
The portfolio is currently valued at approximately $63,000 and generates around $2,200 per year in dividend income (about $190 per month). This is a work in progress with ongoing additions and adjustments.
Recent additions include Accenture, Broadcom, General Mills, Honeywell, L3 Harris, McCormick, and Vici. These were chosen to balance growth potential with dividend yield.
The strategy involves a mix of lower-yield growth stocks and higher-yield stocks for immediate cash flow. This approach aims to prevent net asset value erosion while building a sustainable income stream.
0:17 We are live. Please let me know if you can hear me. I'm trying out my new AirPod. Yeah, AirPods for the audio on this. We'll just see how many people join up. Feel free to chime in down in the comments. Let me know if you can hear me. If you can't hear me, I'll need to restart the live stream.
0:59 Hey, good to see you, Mega. I just wanted to do a portfolio update and I didn't really have time to go out and film something and edit it. So, I thought that this would be a better format for this portfolio update.
1:24 I'll go ahead and share the portfolio. I believe that. So, there we go. Okay, cool. So, this is a portfolio update. We are up to a value of roughly $63,000, $674. It's very close to accurate. I didn't get a chance to update every single stock, but this is just a work in progress right now.
1:51 Thank you, Mega. I'm glad to hear it sounds good. I just want to make sure the audio quality is on point. So, yeah, this is where we're at as far as values go. It's up to 63,000, putting out roughly 2,200 a year in dividends. That is about $190 a month roughly speaking.
2:15 These are kind of rough estimates because I'm still pretty early on, but I think the message is still the same there. I've added quite a few stocks to the portfolio this month. I pulled some money out of my emergency fund because my emergency fund was a bit big for what it needed to be.
2:34 And it's still a bit big, but I just felt like, you know, I'll pull 5,000 from it because I'm gainfully employed. You know, I'm here in California and on my way in my new career, which I won't discuss right now. It's not really part of the discussion, but I've also managed to put some money for my current job, which I'll be leaving very soon.
3:03 I'm about to give my two weeks notice probably on Tuesday to start my next job. And the next job should be a better fit for me. So what have I added this month? Well, I'll start off with a loser.
3:18 I bought ACN, Accenture stock, and I paid about 173 a share here, and it came down immediately. So they had a terrible earnings report for various reasons. Consulting as an industry is just going through a difficult time right now.
3:40 I thought it was on at a discount because it came down from like when I started watching it, it was over 200 a share, and it dropped even more down to like 125 a share. It's recovered a little bit back up to about 144 per share.
4:02 But that was a miss. I'll own that. I thought this looks cheap. It had really already dropped quite a bit. But as we know, stocks do not respond to gravity. Just because they go down does not mean that they're going to bounce back up.
4:18 And in the case of Accenture, I missed the mark on that. And that was probably my biggest mistake of the last month or so. Next, I bought some Broadcom. So that's AVGO.
4:33 If you take a look here, it's I bought three shares about 370. It popped up a bit to 400, then it came back down. I think it's just a very volatile stock. That's why it's, you know, if I bought in early, it'd be a different story.
4:50 I'm not super late, but I'm definitely not early with Broadcom, but I feel like, hey, this could be a nice little portion of growth. I like to mix lower yields and higher yields to kind of offset each other.
5:03 And I try to buy undervalued as well, but I don't want to go all in on high yield and then have net asset value erosion, NAV erosion, where the underlying value drops a lot. Oh yeah, I collected a bunch of dividends and then vice versa.
5:18 I don't necessarily want only low yields because I want to be able to live off this sooner rather than later. So I have kind of a medium-term horizon with this profile or with this portfolio, I should say.
5:34 Uh, next addition would be so Chevron here, CVX. I bought quite a bit of that at 170 because, you know, I've been part of what is helping me pick. And this is none of this is financial advice. This is just entertainment and speculation and sharing what I've been up to.
5:49 I'm not telling anyone here to buy anything or sell anything or hold anything. But Chevron, I just basically, I talked to AI, several AI platforms about it, and I was like, 'Hey, I got a few grand. What should I buy? What dividend stock is going to be effective for me at current market values?'
6:10 And it told me, 'Hey, buy Chevron.' I thought, 'You know what? I don't have any oil stocks.' So I bought, I need to update this. So I actually have 15. I'll do that in real time. 15 shares of Chevron.
6:25 At the current. Yeah, as of today, July 19th. And I think Chevron will continue. Oh, how long it take me to build that portfolio? I started building it five years ago.
6:38 And I basically when I got, I lost my job, I got a severance package, my tech job, and I bought some more my base portfolio. And I could go back and look, but I'll talk about that now.
6:52 I had Amgen, Bank of America, some Caterpillar, Johnson and Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Altria Tobacco Company, O'Reilly, Proctor and Gamble, Tyson Chicken, and Unilever, and WPC Carry, and Verizon. So I had like 10 picks roughly that I just kind of let I just sat, you know, in the portfolio while I was in Asia.
7:21 And then when I came back and I started working again, I wanted to continue to build it. And first off, I maxed out my Roth IRA. I don't have that on here. That's a growth portfolio. Most of it is Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
7:41 And Clover. Clover Health is my small cap or smaller, or I don't know, small cap because it's under five billion in revenue or under five billion market cap pick. But yeah, as far as so this is technically five years in the making, but probably roughly half of the value has come the last year as I have just, you know, added to it.
8:03 Also, there's been a lot of growth in the last year. Like Caterpillar, I bought at about 200 a share, and it's up to roughly $900 a share, like 880 or 8.90 as of Friday close. So Caterpillar has grown a lot for me in the last year.
8:23 I would say Bank of America is another one. I bought around 30 a share. It's up to 62 per share. So it's grown a whole lot.
8:38 But yeah, okay. So other, what else did I add? I'll get through these real quick and happy to answer questions if people have questions. GIS, so that's General Mills. That is one that I really was on the fence about.
8:53 And a lot of analysts had been reviewing it as a sell, and I just thought, ah, you can't trust a lot of analysts anyway. But also, it's just one of those quintessential American companies. They've raised a dividend for 127 years now, or they paid a dividend, I should say, for 127 years now.
9:10 So even though you're not going to get crazy growth with General Mills, it's not going to turn into an AI company. The yield at 7%, I just thought, you know what, it's worth a shot. Jason Febra, who I followed for a while, he had paid, I want to say he paid like 40 or 50 for it all like 10 years ago.
9:31 And I just thought, you know what, it's worth a small position. Is it going to ever be my largest position? Probably not, you know.
9:38 General Mills is to me, there's risk factors with the GLPs, the things like Ozempic and people changing their diet habits. I need to change my diet habits. So yeah, that's one that, but you know, I was like, okay, I could put roughly a thousand, get 30 shares, and that has actually performed well since I bought it.
10:01 I bought an average of $34 a share for my 30 shares. It's up to 38, 39. So that was a good investment. Hamilton Lane has not done as well. That was a JP Morgan pick.
10:16 So I use a JP Morgan stock screener, and they recommended it as overweight and something to buy. They're a private equity firm, and they got their start helping governments to build out pension funds.
10:38 Honeywell is another one I bought. This is another one that was an AI pick. And Honeywell is one I owned in the past. It's a pretty boring company. They make like thermostats. That's a popular Honeywell product for home use.
10:53 They recently spun off their aerospace division, and it just came up on the radar. The dividend's not much, you know, but I think the dividend will grow a lot.
11:04 One of the things that I talked to AI about was I asked it like, what's a good dividend growth pick? Something that doesn't necessarily pay a big dividend today, but let's say I wanted to retire in 10 years. Do you have a pick for me that's going to pay a better or more substantial dividend?
11:20 And so it suggested Honeywell. I thought, you know, these are starter positions. These aren't, you know, $1,000 here, $1,000 there. Not massive positions by any means, but it's kind of a way for me to follow.
11:33 Hey, you know what? If some of these picks pull back and I have the spare capital, I wouldn't mind increasing. I don't want to overpay, but if I can grow a position that I feel good about, then, you know.
11:50 Because because to have enough to live off of, I can't live off $190 a month, unfortunately. And even overseas, I can't live off $190 a month. That's just not a practical budget. But eventually, getting up to say, $1,900 a month, I'm going to have to add a lot more stocks.
12:06 I'm going to have to buy a lot more stocks. I'm going to have to research a lot more. I'm going to have to make wise decisions and exercise good judgment to build out that sustainable portfolio paying me several thousand dollars a month to where I can, you know, to where I can live abroad because that's a big goal of mine.
12:28 Let's see here. I added L3 Harris. They're a defense play similar to Lockheed, and that has not performed as well. That's come down some.
12:45 I think it's one of those long-term plays. It's probably not going to be a mega grower, but it's a safety thing. And I think they can grow the dividend as well. The dividend's like one and a half percent. It's probably closer to 2% with the pullback.
12:56 It's pulled back about 10% since I purchased it. But yeah, McCormick. McCormick is one that
13:04 McCormick is one that I've been keeping an eye on for a minute. I just thought, man, this looks very undervalued. I think with an economy that seems to be going bad, people will cook more at home and not want to eat out at restaurants as much. If you are purchasing cheaper meats, cheaper cuts of meat, or lower-cost vegetables, you're going to want to spruce those up with spices.
13:35 I also thought about it from the perspective of GLPs and the impact of Ozempic and Wegovy. People still have to eat. Even if you're on a GLP, you still have to eat. And if you're eating healthier, like chicken and broccoli, you can make those taste a lot better with spices. So that's my theory with McCormick. I wish I had loaded up more before it took off.
13:56 I bought around $47. It's up to $51 per share, but I'd like to add more McCormick just because I think it's a solid brand. They're well over 100 years old, a quintessential American company, and they make something that whether you're a healthy eater or an unhealthy eater, you're going to enjoy some McCormick products. I also wouldn't be shocked if it's one that gets picked up by a Warren Buffett type.
14:28 What else have I added? Vici. So this will be the last one I really talk about. Vici is a real estate owner, a REIT. They own quite a few Caesars buildings in Las Vegas and a fair amount of Vegas real estate. They own a few different casino buildings throughout the country, but their big hallmark is Las Vegas real estate.
14:48 They pay a high dividend around 7%. We don't really expect them to grow rapidly. Vegas has finite growth, but I think these are long-term leases. I think Vegas is a city that can keep reinventing itself. I don't think that even though it's a slowdown, that to me was a signal for me, not necessarily to recommend it for you, but for me to buy.
15:19 I'm like, oh, you know, Vegas is in a slowdown period. Well, Vegas is notoriously boom and bust. It last busted in '08, then COVID, and now this economic downturn. But I think they have a sports thing going on, building out their sports industries and concerts. They're diversifying away from just gambling, and I think they'll continue to be a thing.
15:50 That's one that I'd like to add more to in the coming months depending on the pricing. If we get more bad news for Vegas, the price action continues to be kind of weak, then that would be a sign for me to add. But yeah, this portfolio is panning out.
16:04 I'm looking forward to getting that up to $4,400 a year and then $8,800 a year, eventually getting up to say $20 to $25,000 a year long-term goal. These are the building blocks. It's a fairly boring set of stocks. It's not going to make you rich overnight, but I think a lot of these companies can consistently grow and continue to improve their offerings and services.
16:41 Let me know what you think about this. Are these stocks that you own? Have you purchased any of these stocks recently? I think it's going to be great to see the portfolio grow over time. As my income grows, I'll be able to add more to it.
17:02 Right now, I can add, I would say, $700 a month at my current income, roughly, to this portfolio. My hope is in the coming year, I can bump that up to $1,000, $1,500. Maybe a few years from now, I could be adding several thousand a month to this portfolio.
17:25 What's your annual percentage goal for your portfolio? I think a healthy yield is about 4%. You can go above that, you can go below that. But if you go below that, you really have to have a ton of capital to create a meaningful amount of cash flow. And if you go way above that, then it's a major risk factor as far as trying to not have the net asset value go down.
17:55 I don't want my dividends to be a thousand and then the portfolio drop a thousand because I'm in the same spot, except worse, because now I've got a tax bill. So that's what I'm trying to figure out right now is how to continue to grow the cash flow without having the actual value drop substantially.
18:15 Let's say I get a 20% yield, insane, but just for sake of discussion. If that 20% yield then causes my portfolio to drop 30%, I lost taxes and I lost 10%. So I'd rather have a lower yield and more stability.
18:33 I traded Tesla, Nvidia, and Palantir. I'm just in Tesla now since 2019. I own some Palantir. I bought some Palantir in 2021. I bought a small allotment, relatively speaking, that's grown into actually a decent little chunk of my overall holdings. I also hold some Nvidia in my growth portfolio.
18:59 I wouldn't mind, now that Nvidia is paying a 25-cent a share dividend, adding some Nvidia to this dividend portfolio. I don't think it would be a major chunk, but I think it has a place. Any company that pays a dividend that is reliable, stable, growing, and covered by free cash flow has a place in a dividend portfolio.
19:26 Now, some people are more strict. Some people would say, I don't do technology. Maybe they just don't understand technology and don't want to add it. Other people would say, well, if this company one day increases its dividend, like I only add a dividend of 2% or greater. Well, Nvidia's dividend is around 0.75%.
19:52 It's pretty tiny. Schwab US Dividend ETF, SCHD, gained 22% last year. Its dividend is about 3% now. That's fantastic. Cars, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I've had friends ask me, 'How do I get into dividend investing?' My thought is always research. I can't tell you what to buy; I'm not a CFA, but research SCHD. Look at their big holdings, look at their performance. They do a lot of work for you for their management fee.
20:20 Schwab is a really well-known broker. I use them for my growth portfolio. I use Chase for my dividend portfolio, which is in my Chase account. I have a SoFi account that's for growth as well, and an E*TRADE account that I'm going to be closing up soon. I had a Webull account and closed that one as well. I wanted to try different brokerages just to see which ones offered what kind of benefits.
20:57 But yeah, if you're not sure, you know, SCHD. I prefer to try to target individual ones to determine what's undervalued. With SCHD, you're getting a basket, so some part of that basket may be overvalued, some part may be undervalued. But it does a lot of work for you, right? They make the picks; you're not having to actively manage and decide what you want.
21:27 Some people would suggest I would underperform here. I'm not doubting that, but I enjoy it as well. I enjoy learning about it. Some people may not be a nerd like I am to where they don't get anything from researching it. But I like to learn about these industries, and I also like to control the weighting of the portfolio where certain picks that are higher yield, I would rather have less of those to offset lower-yielding stocks that, you know, it just kind of balances out in a certain way.
22:15 A big chunk of my portfolio is pre-tax money. That's awesome. Yeah, I have a 401k as well from a couple of employers that I worked for in the past, and I've held on to those funds. I kind of see those as separate. One day, ideally, I would use that money to cover health insurance costs. Let's say I get to 60 years old and I'm living in Southeast Asia and I want to pay for health insurance, then I can access that 401k and use that money to pay for insurance.
22:57 I think by then, by the time I'm 60, it'll probably be worth $80K, and it'll be a nice pot of money to pay for health insurance with, assuming my other investments haven't grown enough to where I can afford those or afford that.
23:31 And who knows? If we get a lot of growth in the next couple years, which I think the economy is going to keep growing, I could potentially liquidate some of my growth stocks and juice this dividend portfolio even more. We'll see how things go. I feel like at my age, 33, I have a lot of years of growth ahead and should still have the majority of my investments in growth.
24:01 My portfolio overall holdings, I'm not going to name the number, but they've grown probably 30 or 40% over the last year, which has been really wonderful. A lot of that has been Google. Google is, I think, my biggest holding at this point. I started buying about five years ago, and I added another like 30% around last summer, right when Google was starting to pick up.
24:40 Now Google is just a rock star. They, I can't thank them enough for this YouTube platform to connect with all of you, but also their advancements in AI. I'm a big fan of Google. I have a good friend that works at Google actually, and they take really good care of him. So that's another thing.
25:01 Then, as you can tell, I'm a Google fanboy as well because I use Sheets to track this portfolio. Technically, this information is in my brokerage account, but I don't want to share my brokerage account like that. So, I just copy and paste over this, and it has me more in the details and more focused than I would be otherwise.
25:47 What's everybody getting into this summer, though? I just wanted to cover this, and we can talk about some fun stuff before I wrap up.
26:03 I'm a big fan of Seltzer.
26:31 Congratulations, Cars. Wonderful. I'm looking forward to getting happy news for your upcoming new baby and that you'll be able to let everyone know that it's been a successful and happy delivery and that you and your wife are enjoying quality time together with your baby.
26:56 It's a wonderful thing and you know, it's inspiring to me. I don't have children, but it's something that may be on my radar in the future. And it's good to know, hey, in the Philippines, it's a culture that's very family-oriented, and it's not an age kind of thing. I think that's really cool.
27:18 U Mega says, "I like how you aren't overly diversified. I only have one position." You know, I thought about that. I like if I could only pick one stock to buy, it probably would be Google because to me, Google's kind of a tech ETF. Google does pay a dividend.
27:34 But they have YouTube, they have Google Cloud, they have the search engine, they have AI. What else does Google have? Gmail. Gmail is a standalone great product. Gmail could probably be its own company.
27:52 Technically, Google has their own Google Video Meet, that could be its own company if you think about Zoom. So, that's like half a dozen off the top of my head, YouTube, that are fantastic products.
28:03 But, you know, I like the idea of splitting things up and having it a little bit more diversified. And it's nice to have some of the bigger yielders on, you know, for cash flow.
28:21 I know when Jason and I, I've followed kind of following his blueprint to some extent, Jason Fever. I'll throw his name down in the chat if you guys want to ever look him up.
28:34 He moved to Chiang Mai on a thousand a month in dividend income. Well, technically less than that, four or 500, but he was getting writing income. But roughly his budget in Chiang Mai is a thousand a month. And that was almost 10 years ago.
28:49 So I think you'd need to bump that budget up to probably 12 to 1,500 today for a comparable quality of life. But his rent was 450. His food was about 400 and his ancillary stuff was about $200. So like shampoo, soap, you know, occasionally replacing.
29:19 Oh, I don't know why it added that for some reason it's translating it in an odd way.
29:35 So yeah, how about Amazon? So I do have Amazon as well. Amazon is one of my largest holdings, but it's in a growth portfolio. So Amazon as of today, it doesn't pay a dividend, so I don't include it in this portfolio, but it's also a large position for me.
29:53 And I have suspicion they'll eventually pay a dividend. It may be 10 years from now, 20 years from now, but I think that their business will eventually mature and they're going to pivot to not necessarily being quite so growth-oriented.
30:11 Right now, they're building out a lot of data centers. They're spending tons of money to build out data centers. So, they need that money to build data centers as opposed to pay it back to shareholders.
30:25 I even suspect Google only pays a dividend because they get included in dividend ETFs that way. There's ETFs that require their holdings to actually pay a dividend. And so even a minuscule payment like Nvidia or Google will technically boost the ETFs that hold them.
30:41 Cars says the first 100K is harder. You're doing great there. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm very fortunate. I've learned a lot and it's taken a long time for me to learn what I've learned and to grow my knowledge.
30:59 And I've had some hard lessons, made some dumb decisions in investing. But this part of the portfolio, I feel confident about being public with it because it's cash flow focused.
31:15 It's what I would call medium-term money. Like my 401k, it really doesn't matter because my 401k, I can't access that money without penalty until 59 and a half, so 26 years from now.
31:30 And it's also like in an index fund, it's all in VFX, so it's like a Vanguard similar to S&P. My health savings account, similar deal. I have a health savings account and it's all in, like 75% S&P, 25% bonds or something like that.
31:55 I could go, I should go all equity, but I just felt like, you know, something came up and it made me want to limit the risk on that one.
32:06 But yeah, the first 100k is the hardest. I have some stock from my last employer. It's around 5,000. And if I sell that, that'll bump me up to about 68K.
32:37 And hopefully by next fall, I'd like to pass the 100K mark with this portfolio. But we could grow it even more than that. I mean, I'm interviewing right now.
32:50 And, you know, I could get a really solid offer and manage to cut down my costs even more. You know, I thought about, what if I move to a bigger city where I could sell my car and just take the bus or bike to work? And now I don't have any money going into my car. So that's even more money flowing into my portfolio.
33:19 I think that's the next step, and then also for me, losing weight would help me save money, just eat less fast food.
33:31 401k match by the employees, a good benefit. Yeah, I so I always did the match at past ones. I didn't with this one for various reasons. My current employer, I just didn't want to do it with them. But my next one, I'll go back to doing it because you reduce your taxable income substantially.
33:50 It is deferred gratification because with that, I don't have access to those funds immediately to put into my dividend portfolio. But you reduce your taxable income. If you get a nice tax refund, you can funnel it.
34:05 For me, I don't want to go take a big vacation. I'd funnel that tax refund, which I did this past year, right into my dividend portfolio. Or actually, next year, I may max out my Roth IRA with it, but that would speed up to when I transition to adding to the dividend portfolio.
34:28 Yeah. So, that's definitely on my radar. And the 401k match is fantastic, especially when you hit retirement age and you've got this big old pile of money. There's plenty of Americans that are 401k millionaires because they deferred gratification and they packed away money in that 401k plan and it grew and grew and grew.
34:49 And then when they get ready to retire, they've got this huge pile of money.
35:12 So yeah, I have mixed feelings about the 401k overall. It's a good idea. You know, it may delay me retiring. Like if I originally thought I'd be done in 10 years from now, let's say at 44, maybe I push it back to 46, 47 because I'm like, hey, you know what? Having this 401k in case of health issues is fantastic.
35:33 It wouldn't be the core holdings that pay my living expenses, but you know, my health is probably, well, it's possible I'll have health issues when I get a lot older and I'd rather be prepared for those than just, whatever happens happens.
35:51 Because I definitely have seen some expats that don't take their health seriously. And up until I came back to America, I was actually doing pretty good with my health. It's frankly been very stressful here overall, not any one thing. It's just the American grind is just stressful.
36:13 But they don't, you know, some don't care about their health, but then they also don't plan the financial side of things and then they end up in a real bind overseas because hospital care is not free.
36:27 It's especially quality care is not free. And while I do feel that they can do a great job for you, just like I want to be paid for my work, they want to be paid for their work, they want to be paid for their medicines and attention and all that.
36:47 So that's yeah, that's another thing along those lines is I want to be able to have enough money to live in a large enough city with a solid healthcare system. I think it could be extremely risky to live a provincial lifestyle at a certain age.
37:06 I just think it's super risky. You're gambling if you do that. Where if you're in a Chiang Mai, like a Subic, Clark, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, you're probably much more likely to be in proximity to a hospital.
37:24 When I lived in Bangkok, I lived near a major hospital and it was just a very strong sense of relief, you know, it was a strong sense of relief.
37:37 Dividend income is the best. It's like having an annuity on your account. Yes.
37:47 Oh, excuse me, guys. Sorry about that. Yes, annuities are underrated. I'll have to research that. That's something I don't know much about. I've heard that term used a few times.
37:55 If I so, I'm at a kind of a crossroads and I'm looking at jobs with the state and specifically the state of California. And then I'm also looking at jobs in the private sector doing similar work. And with a state, the compensation is less, but you qualify for a pension.
38:10 So a pension is a fantastic option where I would get like 2% per year starting at five years. So if I only worked five years for the state, it'd be 10% at 52 or 53. 15 years would be 30%.
38:34 So on and so forth. And so that's an option, but of course, your income is less. Where if I went private, I would be making a lot more, but I would still want to live far below my means because I would want to invest a lot of that extra income.
38:52 I would want to act as if I had a state-level income versus say private industry income and I would take advantage of all the different retirement options.
39:01 I could just live a Spartan lifestyle here. It's
39:06 I just live a Spartan lifestyle here. America's a fantastic country to make money, but I miss a lot of the lifestyle options I had overseas. You know, there were so many fun things to do, but none of that stuff is free, right? If you want to live a cool life abroad, you got to be prepared financially.
39:26 And I think that's only going to increase in the coming years. I think that there's only going to be more value in being self-sufficient. And yeah, a stable and secure state is good. I agree with that. It's you're less likely to get laid off.
39:44 You have a clear career trajectory, like, hey, get this experience, pass this exam, okay, you promote. And I'm willing to move within the state of California, and that can help with promotions as well. Like, hey, if you need somebody to go down to LA County or you need somebody to go to Fresno or Bakersfield or San Diego, San, you know, wherever you need me to go, I'm willing to go for a promotion.
40:18 Just because I'm in that career stage of chasing money and wanting to improve my situation down the line. I don't need stuff right now; I just want to be prepared 15, 20 years from now.
40:39 I value an annuity by the 4% rule. So, $1 million in savings is worth about $40,000 a year. Then contribute 20% of your pay in a pre-tax account. Yeah, so that would be my ideal: either a pension, contribute like off the top after taxes, after rent and food and everything, max out my 401k, and then max out my Roth IRA.
41:09 And then after I've maxed those two out, whatever I can put left into a dividend portfolio, then do that. And some of the money I don't necessarily want to put in the 401k because I may have to replace my car. I may have, like, I'm going to have to go down to Mexico to get another wisdom tooth out, maybe possibly two in a few weeks.
41:30 So those expenses, I need cash on hand for. Ideally, you'd max out the $24,500 limit for a 401k and you'd max out the $7,500 limit for a Roth IRA, $32,000. But it might not quite be that much.
41:48 You know, California is expensive. It's not a cheap state to live in. Taxes are quite high. That's offset by the high wages. My social security is probably going to be a lot higher than it would be if I was working in Tennessee, where I'm from.
42:15 This is another one. This is like one of the rare products I could not find in the Philippines or Thailand, really. Although Thailand, they had like something kind of similar, but yeah, it Chang, I think Chang made a salter. They came in glass bottles, and glass always feels kind of dangerous.
42:47 It is. Yeah, it is definitely great to be on track. Um, something that scared me...
43:02 Yeah, some of it's reducing expenses, but some of it's also increasing income. I find some people will say, well, I make $40k a year, you know, I can save a lot. But with inflation, you really have to try to compete for promotions and be willing to increase your income.
43:27 Like, for example, in a number of the careers I've been in, the director level pays three to five times what the entry-level person makes. So if you make it up to director level, but you maintain your basic lifestyle, you're going to do really well.
43:44 Where other people will say, I don't want to promote, I don't want the responsibility. But, you know, that caps their savings potential, right?
44:05 But you also have to be prepared to handle management stress. You know, I've worked with some managers that clearly could not handle the stress and developed maladaptive coping mechanisms. Like, one guy I worked for developed what appeared to be a pretty bad drinking habit.
44:25 He was transparent about that. It wasn't something I caught him doing; he would tell us, 'Yeah, like I just went to Vegas and had a bender for three or four days.'
44:37 So, you have to also have the self-awareness to not allow the stress of managing people to go to your head or get you down. Because naturally, as a manager, you have to deliver bad news. You have to try to get people to do things they don't want to do sometimes.
44:53 Uh, you have more accountability to higher-ups, like, 'Hey, we're paying you a lot of money, you know, we expect results.' So it's not a total solution, but from a financial perspective, and I think from a fulfillment perspective as well, like if you like shaping people and coaching people and teaching people, that it could be really rewarding.
45:21 I have some management components to my current job. I've never had that before, and there are some things to like about it. You can help to improve people's professional skill set. You can help people get up to speed to do things the way they need to be done. It can be quite rewarding.
45:49 But I agree. I mean, a lot of people spend way too much money. You know, a lot of people, they live far above their means. They want to drive a brand new car; I drive a paid-off car that's about 12 years old. They want to live in a big house.
46:05 As a single guy, I choose to rent a room, but I also... what else do I do besides renting a room? If I get a job in a city, I rent a studio apartment. So, you know, I cook a lot at home. I eat out about two or three times a month.
46:26 I wish I could get it down to once a month, but most of what I do is cooking at home. I don't drink, I don't smoke. I have a pretty spartan, you know, basic lifestyle. At my age, I've had so much fun in my life and done a lot of the fun things that I've wanted to do, I don't really feel compelled to party.
46:49 I don't like traveling in America. I've traveled most of where I wanted in America. The only two or three places in America I really haven't been are Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii. I've been all up and down the west coast, Idaho, maybe go up to Montana.
47:10 But most of what I've wanted to do, I've been to New Orleans, Miami, Washington DC, spent a few summers in DC, New York, been in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, grew up in a party city, St. Louis, lived in Denver for several years, been through Salt Lake City, Vegas, Tahoe.
47:37 Lived in the San Francisco area for several years, and been to Portland and Seattle. So, I've done a lot and seen a lot of what I wanted to see here. And what's more intriguing to me is to see more of Asia.
47:49 You know, next time I go, which will frankly probably be a while, like to visit Taiwan, I'd like to make it back to Japan. I think Japan and Thailand are probably going to be next. Uh, whenever I accrue the vacation time and save up some extra money to do it, I'll probably try to do maybe like the next trip, do like a Tokyo for a week, Bangkok for a week, something like that.
48:16 But we'll see. I mean, it's not a priority for me right now. I am much more concerned about saving and investing. But yeah, after my divorce 26 years ago, I was practically broke.
48:26 After 20 years of working, I was able to retire. Congratulations. That's to come back from that. You know, I have several friends that have went through a similar situation. They got a divorce and they lost everything, and it's really impressive and inspiring to be able to come back.
48:41 You know, that's one of your lowest moments in life is to not have any money, to not have a significant other, and to be alone, right? Um, so it's, yeah, it's fantastic you're able to come back from that. You probably made a lot of sacrifices in those 20 years living below your means and planning ahead, and that's fantastic.
49:05 Uh, are you concerned about AI in your field? No, not so much. Um, and not as much also if I go with the state, because I talked about it with a friend and he said, you know, with the state, they're not trying to eke out more profit.
49:22 You know, it's... there's trade-offs to working with the state, I won't say that they're not, but it's similar to the military where they don't have an earnings report. They're more concerned about risk aversion. So with the state, their concern with implementing AI is that if we implement AI and important services break, now we have angry taxpayers wondering why we took a risk here.
49:50 Where with a company, if something breaks, people just tell their lawyers, 'Just deal with the lawsuits, let's move forward.' So it's quite a bit different, and the state does get sued, I won't say they don't get sued, but they're more concerned about avoiding lawsuits than they are about making new stuff.
50:04 So, yeah, I'm not concerned too much about AI. I think too that there's a lot of people have a lot of concerns about AI. I think that if AI like keeps or makes a bunch of people unemployed, that they'll deal with it with universal basic income. They don't want a ton of unemployed people with nothing to do and no money.
50:32 Um, that would not be good for the stability of society because you'd have a bunch of people that are like, 'I don't have any food, I don't have anywhere to live, and I don't have anything to do all day.'
50:46 Um, and people that... it was the idle hands of the devil's workshop, people that don't have a job. And I know from past experience when I was unemployed, even when I was in Asia, like if you're not at retirement age, being unemployed, like if you're young to middle age, is very disheartening, especially for a lot of Americans that are very hardworking people.
51:08 I'm skeptical that AI will... I think it'll change jobs. I think it'll consolidate industries. I think it will make certain fields more competitive. I think you'll have in a lot of fields where you used to maybe have 10 people, you might have five or three or even one.
51:25 For me, being a college grad with professional experience, I may not make as much as I'd like to make. I may not have as much career growth as I'd like. I may at some point have to work for an employer that's not my favorite, but I should be able to keep the capital flowing. After retirement, the stress is gone.
51:50 Loneliness and boredom have been a problem for some. I noticed what you mean, Cars, especially in Jim McGetti, like there's a fair amount of guys that are lonely. I never felt that way; some of that's my channel, and some of that's just being willing to talk to people. But if you don't have the social aspect of work, and if you've moved to Asia away from your home country, then you wonder, what's your purpose?
52:19 Is your purpose YouTube? That's what helped me. While I was unemployed, I decided to make videos, learn a new skill set, and connect with people. YouTube actually helped me to find my current roommate, who then helped me find a new job. So it's done a lot for me.
52:39 If you don't have the willingness to put yourself out there, if you don't go out and shake hands or ask people if you can buy them lunch or a cup of coffee, you can end up very isolated. This is definitely true here in America, but also abroad. I happen to be unique in that I like spending time alone. I don't mind being by myself; I'm very easily entertained, so that for me is a blessing actually to be alone at times. But for others, no, they don't like that.
53:15 Paulo says, "Asia is just paradise from both our point of view." I could be wrong, though. Being unemployed makes me look bad, the way I see it. Experiences in the Philippines, yeah, Asia is paradise in a lot of ways for me. The non-confrontational society, unlike in America, where people can be very confrontational, hostile, angry, and frustrated. The country is clearly in a negative trajectory in some ways, depending on your perspective. I think a lot of people feel that way.
53:51 You go to Asia and it's like people are upwardly mobile, they're having career growth, they're close with their families still, they see their country improving, they see the infrastructure improve, they see the healthcare improve. It's just a much more optimistic setting to live in as of right now. You also have more of a social culture, whereas here in America, it's harder to find social outlets, especially as a single guy. I think if you're married or have a girlfriend, you have more connection.
54:32 I noticed most of my friends are single guys, guys I grew up with, but also guys I met as an adult. It's tough to really find that outlet. Where in the Philippines, I noticed you can just go up to people and start talking to them. Like anybody you see, mostly, not everybody, but most people, you can just go up to them and start talking. You don't feel lonely because here, if you do that, people will think, 'What do you want? What are you trying to sell me? What's your angle?'
55:15 Car says, "Don't follow the crowd, always look outside the box. Society will pay for your child born in your retirement with social security dependent benefits." Yeah, I mean, it's not something that I necessarily grew up wanting. I grew up in a pretty chaotic and dysfunctional environment to the point that I was like, 'Hey, if I get out of here alive, my goal is to just survive.' If I have a roof over my head and food and shelter, I've made it in life.
55:44 Not everybody feels that way, but I've felt that way for a long time. I enjoy very basic things, like having a cup of coffee or seltzer water. Not to downplay it, everybody enjoys different things and wants different things, and there's nothing wrong with having a family. I think it's a good thing for society to be family-centered and family-focused. I don't think America is family-focused or family-centered at the current time, but it's a beautiful thing, and I'm happy that there are people carrying the torch, so to speak.
56:31 How's Cebu? I like Cebu. I was last there about a year, a year and a half ago. I enjoyed it. I noticed they consolidated Subo Marcato. I think the call center industry is getting consolidated, and it looked like, at least in IT Park, it wasn't quite as vibrant as what I noticed when I was there about 10 years ago. So that's something that's changed, but cities keep evolving and changing.
57:13 I think Cebu is fantastic for a lot of people. If I was going to live in the Philippines long-term, I would look at IT Park or Makatti BGC. I've not been up to Clark Subic. I would want a bit more of a modern kind of thing going on, not to dismiss the province, but I like to have some of those western conveniences and amenities while still having the fun Filipino culture, warm-hearted people. But be able to go to the mall and buy a new iPhone or have an interesting experience, get a coffee, that kind of thing.
58:00 If you're totally provincial, it's just not as easy to do those things. I'm not saying they're not there, but you notice a difference as far as friction in your life. I think the bigger cities manage that friction more effectively than some of the more provincial areas.
58:20 But guys, my voice is getting tired. I think I'm going to wind down here. I appreciate everybody joining for this update. Thank you so much for your support. If you haven't already, give us a thumbs up for this one. I'm going to try to do a video next weekend; we'll see how it goes. I meant to record one this morning, but I've just had a lot going on lately. It seems like in America, there's always a lot going on, but it's been pretty busy.
58:49 But yeah, thank you so much, Cars. Thank you, Christopher. I'll see everybody soon, and I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. Subscribe if you haven't already. Give us a thumbs up if you haven't already. And comment what you have going on and what you're up to. What are your plans?
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