Lisa Drennon: A one page wealth compass. So many of us are chasing money in hopes to find true wealth, financial freedom. But most of us say we want it, but we don't actually go after it. Instead, we're just making more money so we can spend more or just to pay the bills. Hey everyone, I'm Lisa Drennon the host of the iDate Money podcast. Today, we are diving into a one page wealth compass. with a gentleman who was fired at age 63, nearly broke. So any of those of you who are in retirement age, listen up. He became a millionaire by 69. See, it's never too late. Please welcome David Nassif to the iDate Money podcast. Thank you so much, David, for being here. I'm really curious. You you teach others now, despite your age, how to define financial freedom using this set it and forget it wealth building strategy. But before we dive into that, tell us what brought you on this journey? What were you doing? Like at 63, you were still working, got fired. I'm guessing you had no plan for retirement. So tell us about that journey.

David Nassief: Well, Lisa, thank you. I'm thrilled to be here with you today. ⁓ 63. You think at 63, people would be like, well, I've got my whole retirement planned out. I've been putting away money every year. ⁓ ⁓ don't know. I must have been in a fog for 40 years because ⁓ was making good money. I was having a very good corporate job, making excellent money. But we just I'm not saying like we live beyond our means. We just lived our full means. In other words, ⁓ spent everything. You know, we didn't go into big debt or anything like that. You know, ⁓ time we did. But but. We didn't get our older years, but we just spent everything. And my investment strategy was just, and I tell you, when that day happened, when I was 63, I 18 years with the same company. I wouldn't wish that day on anyone. Like I said, if we drained all of our savings and all of our retirement, we were scheduled to be broke by 65. And at that point, I'm thinking, who is gonna hire me at my age? But I tell you, Lisa, the worst part of it wasn't that. The worst part of it was driving home.

Lisa Drennon: Hmm.

David Nassief: thinking how am gonna tell my wife, Mary, we've been married for 30 years. She did not deserve the mess I just threw our lives into. after about two of dead end job searching, and I'll be honest with you, heart just wasn't in it. just couldn't think going back to the corporate world, but I needed to. I mean, I didn't have the luxury of

Lisa Drennon: Hmm.

David Nassief: just sitting back and retiring. decided 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. The first months were brutal. calls, constant rejection, rookie mistakes. I must have heard no. I don't think I've ever heard no more in my life in those couple of months at beginning. But you know, looking back on it now, I can look back and say, you know, that rejection I was constantly getting. was the resistance I needed to build mental muscles. Because after 10 months of grinding, I hit an incredible milestone. I was suddenly making as much money as my good paying corporate salary. And for a very brief moment, I thought, we made it. But then reality hit. I said, no, we didn't make anything. I says, for 40 years, we were making good money. And look where it got us, nowhere. I said, I have to learn how to invest. I have to learn how to do this right. But I didn't have time for complicated theories and principles and everyone with conflicts of interest trying to get you to do what they want you to do so they can make their commission. I didn't have any more runway. I mean, my runway was more like a helicopter pad. I mean, there was just no room. I couldn't make any more mistakes. And so I dug deep, read 21 books, listened to 13 financial podcasts consistently, read blogs, newsletters, finally. I decided to distill it all down into one single piece of paper because I says I don't have time to study Wall Street every day. I have to I have a business I'm trying to build here. And so I made it super simple, set it and forget it. I tell you, six years later at age 69, we did what I thought was impossible. We were we achieved financial independence with a seven figure portfolio. I now know, Lisa, 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.

Lisa Drennon: I love that and it is true because a lot of my clients will come to me and say, well, I'm too old. I'm past 55 and there's no hope for me. And they go to get their social security benefits and they're like, this isn't enough to live on. I'm like, well, it's not supposed to be meant to live on. It's supposed to supplement their income. But planning for retirement is so important. And one of the questions I get asked all the time is, well, ⁓ is it too late to start? And my answer is always the same.

David Nassief: Yeah. Right.

Lisa Drennon: too late to start. The earlier the better. Yesterday was always the optimal day. Ten years ago, optimal. You know, so it's always very important. So ⁓ what it about you? It said that you lived at your means. I know people who live above their means and I know people who live way below their means. We want that balance. We want to be able to live a lifestyle that we enjoy. I mean we work hard for our money and we should get to enjoy it not just be at a certain point. So when you realize that you weren't working with the money the way that was going to help you become fruitful to find that true wealth, what was that drive that said, okay, I'm not going to do, I'm making as much money 10 months into this job as I did 18 years into this corporate job. But what was that pivotal moment for you that said, I'm not going to do it the same way I did 18 years at this other job. I'm going to do it differently.

David Nassief: Because I felt like, and I know, Lisa, I was truly blessed. It wasn't just an accident that's happened. Yes, I put a lot of grinding and work into it, but a lot of 63-year-olds would like, can I say that? So I know I was being blessed and I says, I have a stewardship here. I have a family. I have a sacred responsibility to my family. I do not have the opportunity to blow it again. I blow it again, I deserve whatever I get. I deserve. I mean, I deserve the worst of the worst. says, I'm not going to let this happen. And that's where I stopped. I says, wait a minute, all the finance. I did investing in the past, but I did it all wrong. I did it all backwards, you know? And I says, I can't do that again. Not to my family, not to me, not to this gift I've been given. And so that's what made me dig in. I says, there's just so many people out there, Lisa, that have conflicts of interest and they want you to do this and do that because they get a cut of it. And they're just. And I said, had no more room to get people cuts. I had very short time. And so that's what made me say, I'm not doing this again. I'm not going to do it. I messed up for 40 years and that was wrong. It really was wrong. But I can start over again, even as late as 63. And I did.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah, what was it like sharing that with your wife, coming home and telling her that you lost your job and you don't have enough money to survive for more than three years?

David Nassief: Well, know, Lisa, my wife is the best thing in my life. She is so supportive and so encouraging, and she's my biggest cheerleader. But when I told her that I lost my job, you know. She was supportive, but I knew her for 30 years and I could see it. I could see in her eyes Lisa concern. She tried to hide it. She tried to make, ⁓ honey, you're going to do fine. But that just tore me up when I saw that concern, when I saw that glimmer of fear in her eyes, it was a glimmer was, you know. just said, I want to do this to her. I really don't want to do this to her. And I got to figure this out. And that was ⁓ very tough very tough day for me.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah. you nervous telling her, walking in and like, ⁓ sit down, honey, this is, I can tell you something. ⁓

David Nassief: I wasn't nervous that she was going to mad. I just was nervous that I was going to hurt her. I was going to give her a fear that she didn't deserve to have. She'd been a wonderful wife and mother to our son and all these years, and she didn't do anything wrong. I'm the one who messed up. I just it was just really tough, much tougher on me. That wasn't her. never forget. I'll just tell you briefly. ⁓ we to ⁓ after couple of weeks on I'm sending out resumes, whatever, you know.

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

David Nassief: Gooding nowhere. She said, honey, can you go to the store with me? There's a big sale. I want to try to conserve money and we could get a bunch of stuff. I said, OK, sure. go with her. So we went to the store and we get there. And I felt like and I'm sure this is not true, but I felt like I was the only man in the store. OK, this is a Wednesday afternoon, late morning. I should say the Wednesday morning. All mothers with their babies crying their cards. And here I am. And I felt like I had a sign on me, the biggest loser. just. I said, I should be working. should be supporting my family, not standing here in a grocery store in the middle of the workday. I should be out there working. I never felt so trapped. I never felt so... I just wanted to scream. I just wanted to break loose. But what was I to break loose to? There was nothing. I I tell you, that was probably one of the most helpless feelings I could ever remember feeling in my life. I just standing at the end of the checkout waiting for thinking, what am I doing? What am I doing?

Lisa Drennon: and feel that emotion, it's pretty devastating when you're the, especially when you're the main provider of the family. And then all of a sudden it comes crumbling down and most people don't prepare for something like that mentally or, you know, with their bank accounts. They just assume that the job's always going to be secure. I retired from the social security administration. And I remember a big company, Eastman Kodak was laying off people like months before their retirement. And then there was a time when global crossing had owned our local phone company and they, know, the stocks were doing really well and all the people, the employees were investing their 401ks. And then all of a sudden the company went bankrupt and this one woman had walked into social security three months before her 62nd birthday, lost everything. She's like, I'm not going to be able to retire now. I'm going to have to work until I die. Cause everything was in her 401k. And it's like, yeah, no one prepares for those. things that could happen. you know, when I was growing up, my grandma always told me, don't put your eggs all in one basket. And I'd be like, grandma, what do you mean by that? She had a diversified portfolio and me finances very young and got me interested in money very young age. But when you

David Nassief: You know You know your grandmother I gotta say something about your grandmother She is such a wise lady because the one of the thing I did I've talked about this in my book is I'm only in two investments I keep it super super simple one of them is I own every publicly traded stock in the United States The other one is I own every publicly traded stock outside the United States So I literally own every publicly traded stock on the globe if for me to go out of business for me to go bankrupt

Lisa Drennon: Yes. Mm-hmm.

David Nassief: the entire world economy would have to collapse. And the probability that that happen is Kodak collapsing, very probable possibly, but not the whole world. So your grandma's right, diversity brings safety. And I feel so safe in my investments because of that diversity and simplicity.

Lisa Drennon: Yes, and we're going to dive into that in a couple of minutes. just wanted to ask you one question. When you were working all those years, did you have a system set up for your money or did you just work and pay the bills?

David Nassief: I worked in the pay the bills and I was like the kind of guy who you get to give me a hot tip and oh yeah, okay. Or just, or maybe one year was a really good year. So I go ahead and did in my 401k, but most of the years I didn't, know, most of the years I didn't get the company match. I even blew the company match. I mean, how stupid can that be? And so it was just not consistent. I had no plan. That was the problem. I just had no plan. It's like whatever shiny object I saw at the moment was my plan. And that's not a plan. That's disaster.

Lisa Drennon: Well, thank you for saying that I'm all about shiny objects because my audience, my clients, and even myself included allow shiny objects to distract us from what's really important. And as entrepreneurs, it keeps us from making the money that we want to make. And I work with so many mompreneurs who are just literally hustling and doing all this affiliate marketing and creating all these innovative ways to make money. And they lose the true sense of who they are and what they're

David Nassief: I'm sorry. Yeah.

Lisa Drennon: passionate about and it doesn't bring in more money. It brings in more stress and more, more hustle for them. And it's like, just, okay, step back. Let's regulate your nervous system and let's look at what we really want to do and go after that and just focus on that one thing. Those shiny objects really deter us from hitting our goals. So I'm glad you mentioned that. So tell us what your secret was. You went back to work. You're, I'm assuming you're 65, 66 years old when you got a, or is it 63 when you got a job and then 69? Okay.

David Nassief: I was 63. Yeah, 63 when I finally got almost 64 almost.

Lisa Drennon: Okay, so 63, you lost a job, you got a new job as an independent salesperson.

David Nassief: Yeah, so which is really my own company. It wasn't really a job for anybody. It was like my own company type thing. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Lisa Drennon: Right. You're like a 1099 self-employed. Okay. And then with that income took you 10 months to hustle and grind. So anybody listening who's in sales, if you haven't been doing it and getting all those no's, I heard the no's were good for us. Um, in the beginning, I remember when I retired from the social security administration, became, I got into the IDATE money and started up that business. And I'm also an independent insurance broker. So I specialize in the health life and dental and all of that, annuities. And I remember cold calling and three months in through I was like, what did I sign up for? Like, I'm just growing the coaching business, but I had this passion to help people with Medicare and all of that. So people are paying way too much for health insurance. But anyways, when we think about that, no, that we got, it's pretty detrimental to our psych to be told no, but they're not saying no to us. They're just saying no to the fact that they don't need that product or that service. They don't understand it. They don't feel like they can afford it.

David Nassief: Yeah. Exactly.

Lisa Drennon: But then when you start getting the yeses and you start to really grasp, ⁓ this is what I'm offering, and people start to understand it, then your income automatically grows. You get into that zone of genius. So tell us about that zone of genius that helped you pivot to get those yes sales calls to make that income, and then tell us about the book that you wrote.

David Nassief: Well, basically, I don't know if I was part of, I'm not a genius for sure, but I felt like ⁓ I, after about four five months, I could start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Because ⁓ it didn't just stop happening all at once. They were gradual, obviously, and they build up. ⁓ I could see I was getting better at communicating the message, the real value of what I was talking about to the people. And I was getting quicker at it. And I was getting more aligned with my prospects. And as that started happening, I started getting yeses. But my business is the kind that once you get a yes and sign something up, then it's retaining the client. I'm an extremely competitive business, extremely. And always people trying to take your clients from you. So you got to make the clients really happy. So I had kind of a double sided thing. I had to get the client, but then I had to keep the client, keep the client happy. And those two things, when they started working in sync, business started really picking up to the point where my second year. I was making double what my corporate salary was. My third year, I was making triple. I'm a super smart person. just kept working the system. ⁓ only do I have a compass for my personal finances, I have a compass for my business, a ⁓ ⁓ just find that gives you clarity, it gives you focus, it keeps you remembering what's really important here not to get off on side tangents that don't do anything that spin your wheels. When I had both of those working for me, one on the income side and one on the investment side, It just kind of took off. It was amazing.

Lisa Drennon: Hmm. I love that. And having that compass is so important. I call that your money map. And when you, yes, you have to keep your business separate from your personal. You have to pay yourself first and invest properly. And then, you know, take that over to your personal. So many people are combing their funds. They don't even have a business plan, marketing plan, or a financial foundation in place. And they're trying to be a business owner wondering why isn't this working? And then they go after those shiny objects. So tell us about the book that you wrote. You're on

David Nassief: Yeah, he did.

Lisa Drennon: basically tour right now promoting your book. Tell us about that.

David Nassief: Yep. Yeah, well, it's wonderful. would hit first week out, hit a Amazon hot new release. I was excited about that. And the reviews have been coming in are phenomenal. But here's what really is exciting about the book is people are getting it. I've read it. You know how financial books are kind of technical and kind of dry. This is the opposite of that. I put real stories in about my life, about people I know who succeeded and failed. And so when you're reading up financial principle, it's all laid out real logical step by step. You're you're seeing it in real life first. Then when I teach the principle, it's like, oh yeah, now I get it. Whereas if sometimes you just teach the principles and people aren't really getting what it is. And this is actual, I'll just show you, this is the actual one page compass. It's on one piece of paper, nine steps to trail markers. And so if people could just say, okay, where am I at now? They can just look at, okay, this is where I need to start. Like maybe I need to get out of debt or maybe I need to start building wealth or maybe I need to whatever their step is. And then what it does, it tells you, I want more information, David. So it tells you what chapter in the book. to go to and that will give you the details. So if you go, I really don't know how to get out of debt. Can you show me the system? I'll go, so then you go to this. So this is like the 30,000 foot view. And this is like the right, a left. Together, they're extremely powerful. And what you simply do is you take that one page compass once a week for two minutes and review it. It keeps you laser focused. You know, those shiny objects that we like, ⁓ it you away from that kind of stuff. It keeps you on track. Am I on track? Am I doing what I need to do? And when you do that, it just, gets rid of all the noise. It really does, because you're not playing games and you understand it. Benjamin Franklis says one of the best investments is in knowledge and wisdom. And this is what it is. Once you understand this, you aren't as attracted by those things that kind of pull you in different directions. And it really helps accelerate your wealth building significantly in a safe way. Yeah, diversity.

Lisa Drennon: I love that. Yeah, in a safe way. And that's really important because a lot of our listeners are looking for safety, safety first, security and competence to be able to invest wisely, to use their money in a way that's congruent with their core values. So they have a lifestyle that is something that they want to get up for, that they want to use their money to spend it wisely and to enjoy it at the same time and not feel like there's this hustle and bustle and this chaos around, I got to go to work, I got more money, more money, more money. More money does never solve the problem. It's how you manage that money is the key. So thank you so much for sharing that, for sharing your story. What's the best way? I heard you say your book's available on Amazon. Is that the best way to get it? And how can people make your deal?

David Nassief: Yeah, yeah. But I'd like to offer your listeners a gift. If they want to go to my website, onepagewealthcompass.com, the first thing they're going to see on there is get the free PDF one page compass. This is the exact compass Lisa that I used when I was 63 and they got me to 69 to financial freedom. And I still use today. Once a week, I do a quick review of it just like I did back then. And I like to give the secret sauce to your people for no charge, no obligation. Just go there, put your email in, you'll get it to download instantly. You'll also get my free newsletter, which gives you extra tips. If you like it and you want the book to go with it, the companion, there's a link on for Amazon or just go on Amazon yourself and you'll get the book too. But I just, I'm here to help people out. really am. I don't want people to be in the same boat. am. I'm financially fine. I'm not looking to make money off this thing. I'm just looking to give people an opportunity so they don't have to be 63 with their back against the wall or 53 or 43 or whatever it is. The sooner you start, if you're 23, you are so lucky. Don't squander it. Use it now. Get the compass now so you can start now. The earlier you start brighter, but it's never too late.

Lisa Drennon: Yes, so true. Well, thank you so much for that. Thank you for the gift. For those of you listening, please check out the David's website. The link will be in the description. Today is the day. You want to be financially free. You want true wealth. Get your compass. Find out where you're at and then start making the moves. Like he said, it only takes a few minutes a day. And for those of you who are working with me in the wealth accelerator, you know that it only takes a few minutes a day. You know there's non-negotiable steps that we take to build true wealth, to eradicate debt, and to eliminate financial illiteracy. Because remember, it doesn't matter how much money you have, it's what you do with it.