Breaking Generational Poverty with Jasper Smith: Curiosity, Financial Education, and Building Wealth

Eric Brotman [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Don’t Retire, Graduate, the podcast that asks you what you want to be when you grow up so you can graduate into retirement with a purpose and a passion. I’m your host and valedictorian, Eric Brotman, and after nearly 200 episodes and a year long hiatus, don’t retire. Graduate is back for season six. We’ll be bringing you interviews with amazing guests every other Thursday and on alternating weeks, we’re hosting a new segment called diary of a financial advisor, which we know you’ll all enjoy. So please subscribe and check out our all new episodes every Thursday. Today, I am pleased to be joined by Jasper Smith. Jasper’s been involved in the financial services industry for over fifteen years. He’s the chief visionary behind a financial education company called the build wealth movement, and he works tirelessly to help people disrupt generational poverty for their family and community.

Eric Brotman [00:00:49]:
Jasper, welcome to don’t retire graduate.

Jasper Smith [00:00:52]:
Thank you so much for having me, Eric. It’s a pleasure to be here today.

Eric Brotman [00:00:56]:
You’re doing some really important work. And, I have, I have researched you extensively, to make sure that we knew exactly who you were. We researched you extensively. I saw that you’ve been with a couple of bigger companies, but that you’ve landed now with one where you’re, presumably pretty happy. So tell us a little bit about your journey in the financial services arena and how you got to be where you are. And then we’ll, we’ll dig into the build wealth movement in a little bit.

Jasper Smith [00:01:19]:
Yeah. Curiosity is the word. Just generally curious about how money works. I think growing up just watching TV, you see the the ticker of the Dow in the corner, and I was like, why do they show this stuff every day? Like, why why is that so important? And then kind of looking out into my broader community and realizing that people just didn’t talk about money. And I was always curious. Why don’t we talk about money more often, and why do they show us this ticker thing every weekday? Like, just those two things are what really drove me into the industry. And then prior, you know, prior to going to school, not really understanding what I wanted to do in life, I just said, you know what? Let me get a a business degree. I’ll figure it out.

Jasper Smith [00:02:03]:
And by the time I finished college, I ended up getting into the financial services industry, and that curiosity was intensified. So now I’m in the space, and I just have even more questions. I’m like, how does this work? You know? Why is this manager? What is this sales group? What is this product? What is this solution? Who’s that for? And it’s that curiosity that has just continued to drive me every day to try to understand, like, why certain people have good relationships with money and why others don’t. And there’s so much that goes into that, and I’m still trying to figure it out with with the work that I’m doing today.

Eric Brotman [00:02:40]:
Well, if you ever figure it out, would you let me in on it? Because I don’t think I don’t think any of us have figured that out yet. So so, you know, people are more are more likely to talk about politics and religion than money, which is a disaster at any family gathering, by the way. But but money is something it’s taboo. Money is something’s taboo. And I I we’ve had some interesting guests on this show over the years. One of whom, at one point said that, that she went into a cafe and was interviewing complete strangers and asking them two questions to see if they would answer them. And the first question had to do with their favorite sexual position. I can’t make this up.

Eric Brotman [00:03:16]:
And they and they answered the question. The second question was, what’s the balance in your checking account? And they wouldn’t discuss it. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I have no idea. So now that the show is no longer PG, we can dig right in. That’s my fault. I went there, but it, but it’s, that’s a true story. So people don’t talk about money and families don’t have good relationships with money. And I, I find that that as young people, and I was one of them, we learned lessons from our parents, or other adult figures in all the wrong ways to begin with.

Eric Brotman [00:03:47]:
I mean, the things you witness might be arguing or fighting. It might be disagreements. It might be it might be overspending. It might be squirreling money away and never never so much as leaving the house. How was how was your, early experience with money? How did that impact your your life and your decide decision to

Jasper Smith [00:04:05]:
go into that? The curiosity came because my parents didn’t talk to me directly about the money. So I’m the youngest of three. By the time I came into the family, like, my they were in, like, a different a different tax tax, tax bracket. So, parents struggle growing up, had a child early, took a break, had another kid, took a break, and then had me. So there was a lot that was going on in those years of trying to figure it out like most people are because we’re all a work in progress. And so by the by the time I was coming of age, I just didn’t see I didn’t see us talking about money, but I knew things were getting paid for. I knew I had clothes. I had food.

Jasper Smith [00:04:47]:
You know, we went on a few vacations here and there. Like, my my parents worked hard. I still but, again, I’m missing that piece of why don’t we talk about this. You know, nobody’s talking about investments around me. I had to bring credit to my mother when I was in college because I’ve I’d always heard. I heard credit was a bad thing. And when I got into college, you know, the the mailbox was always filled with credit card offers. Oh, yeah.

Jasper Smith [00:05:13]:
So I called my mom, and I was like, hey. What is this? She was like, let me give you the game in ten minutes. And that ten minute conversation about credit, she debunked every myth that is known about credit. Like, every myth. And within ten minutes from that day forward, I never had bad credit. But I was 19 years old, and I feel, like, blessed to have had a parent who understood the game because money’s a game. And some of us are playing the money game the right way. Some of us are playing the wrong way.

Jasper Smith [00:05:41]:
Some of us just need to learn the rules. And and, again, bringing back to that curiosity, I was like, let me learn this game. Let me learn this game. Let me learn these rules, and how do I use these rules to my advantage? Because as I got into my actual profession as an adviser planner, one of my my mentors has said, you know, you can either learn the rules of the game and use them to your advantage, or you can just get played. Okay. But you will participate in this game. And that’s the game of life, of money, of like, you you have to be a willing participant in some of these things. It’s just some of us are kinda fighting this this ability to want to learn more, to educate ourselves, to get through some of the the tough part.

Jasper Smith [00:06:22]:
Right? All the trauma, the anxiety you hear about. It’s like, okay. I got it too. How are we gonna bust through this?

Eric Brotman [00:06:30]:
So I hope your mother’s been a guest on your podcast because she sounds like well, I I think it’s time. Mom, if you’re out there, I just got you booked on a really good show. So I think you’re gonna have a great experience talking to Jasper. You can give that same ten minute lecture to his audience. I think that’d be helpful. You know, it it’s it’s funny that you mentioned the the credit card deluge at 18 and 19 years old. At 17, companies are willing to throw money at you for a student loan that you may or may not even benefit from or be able to repay. At 18, 19, it’s credit card offers.

Eric Brotman [00:07:04]:
And then you turn 23 and you wanna start a business and banks are like, no, you don’t have two years of history.

Jasper Smith [00:07:09]:
Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:07:10]:
It’s like, well, wait a minute, but I, I can demonstrate that this is gonna make me money. I can’t demonstrate that that college education’s gonna make me a plug nickel. Crazy. And, and so how much kids wind up making bad, bad decisions with money, especially credit really early. You know, I I’ve heard that the, the pair of skis you throw on that first visa card, freshman year you probably pay for for about five years. Because you just don’t, they kids don’t understand how it works and it really is a problem. So you’ve done some educating, and you’ve also done some gamifying, which I love because, you know, we’ve seen in the in the money industry, we’ve seen a lot of gamification, whether it’s

Jasper Smith [00:07:47]:
Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:07:47]:
Whether it’s the the trading apps, which

Jasper Smith [00:07:49]:
Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:07:50]:
For for better or for worse, maybe gamification is a good thing. Yeah. But we’ve, we’ve seen this and. You know, the, the whole bells and whistles and, and woo hoo, you placed your first trade may not be sending the right message necessarily, but we’ve seen money gamified. I mean, I’m a, an avid Quicken user. And every time I enter something, I hear the ring of a cash register. For real, that’s the noise that it makes every time

Jasper Smith [00:08:13]:
you enter something, whether it’s

Eric Brotman [00:08:14]:
whether it’s a deposit or a withdrawal, it still goes cha ching. And for some reason, that that gets me excited about my finances. I don’t understand it exactly. So so you’ve gamified this a little bit, and you’ve done some teaching. How how young should we start teaching kids about money in your opinion?

Jasper Smith [00:08:32]:
As soon as they can babble out some words. And I’m trying and I’m trying this real life experiment out with my two year old daughter, and we started when she was one. And she started babbling and, you know, I would say, hey. You have a savings account. Hey. You have an investment account. Hey. You have a life insurance policy.

Jasper Smith [00:08:47]:
And she just looks at me like, what are you talking about, dad? I don’t even know what these words are. But Right. I started the programming early, just mentioning that to her. And even now that she’s two and a half, she understands that mom and dad go to work. Mom and dad have meetings. And then she said, why? I said, because we have to make money to provide. She said, mommy and daddy gonna make money? She’s like, good. Go make money.

Jasper Smith [00:09:09]:
And she encourages us to go to work. We drop her off at school. She’s like, that like, you drop if you get dropped off for the train or a plane and you’re going somewhere, she’s like, daddy going to make money? I’m like, yes, ma’am. I sure am.

Eric Brotman [00:09:20]:
Oh my gosh.

Jasper Smith [00:09:21]:
She has this awareness.

Eric Brotman [00:09:23]:
So she’s become Jerry Maguire. She she yells at you every day as she’s getting dropped off at daycare. Show me the money. Like, I see it now. I can witness the whole thing.

Jasper Smith [00:09:33]:
And for and for kids that young and and for kids that young again, I have my own now, but I always didn’t you know, this is my first child, but I’ve done elementary school. And you you’d be surprised how much a a second or first grader knows about money, banking. You know, it’s it’s incredible to see what their young minds actually understand. And we know it’s not a full blown understanding, but they got a clue. These kids have a clue.

Eric Brotman [00:09:58]:
There are a lot of there are a lot of adults who don’t have, even, even a half understanding quite candidly. I, in third grade I was in the public school system in Baltimore County. And in third grade, we learned how to balance a checkbook and how to do some basic personal finance. And I don’t think they teach that anywhere anymore. And I know a checkbook is you might as well say, let me show you my Rolodex and my typewriter, but still at the time, it was a useful skill to understand and, and to understand how to balance it and debits and credits. And it’s not like we were gonna be taking our CPA exam in third grade, but we learned some basics and it helped, you know, and then you get into middle and high school and, and, you know, a lot of, high schoolers especially have a job during, during their, their years in high school. And some parents think that’s great. And some parents think, no, no, they should concentrate on their studies.

Eric Brotman [00:10:47]:
And we’re not gonna get into a parenting debate this morning. But I but I do think there’s there’s a, if your kids are working, teaching them how to manage the money that they’ve earned them they’ve earned themselves as opposed to the money that mom and dad are bringing home, I think is a really important lesson too. And I I know your two and a half year old is already a bank vice president, but, what what’s the next step? I mean, when when do you start integrating that? Is it is it 14? Is it 16? Like, what does that look like most of the time for you?

Jasper Smith [00:11:15]:
Honestly, I think it’s when they get their first job. And and and and lo and behold, there are kids, stars. My daughter’s done a movie, very little modeling, but when the child has earned income, And I swear to you, I I wish more parents would understand that when your child has a job or an income, it’s time for a Roth IRA.

Eric Brotman [00:11:35]:
Oh, yeah.

Jasper Smith [00:11:35]:
And you hear celebrity you hear celebrities talk about it all the time. Their kid was, you know, in a music video. Oh, they were one of my, you know, they’re these aren’t new things, right? It’s just they have income. It’s coming from mom or dad, but they’re a part of so you have all these creative things that you’re seeing pop up on the internet that these aren’t new things. It’s just they’re new to certain communities. And so when a child gets that first job and I I’m one of those. I had to start working. My mom made me go to work when I was 15.

Eric Brotman [00:12:03]:
Okay.

Jasper Smith [00:12:03]:
I could’ve stayed at home, hung out all summer. She was like, you gotta go to work and learn some responsibility. Whatever. Job was called a lifeguard. Great job. Right? Love Great job. Love that job.

Eric Brotman [00:12:13]:
Mhmm.

Jasper Smith [00:12:13]:
I didn’t have any bills. So aside from saving and spending, nobody talked to me about investing. And I’ve I’ve I’ve called my parents. I was like, why didn’t you tell me about the Roth IRA? It was around. Why didn’t you tell me? I Well,

Eric Brotman [00:12:28]:
when I when I was 15 when I was 15, there was no Roth IRA. I’m not gonna tell you how old I am. It wasn’t we’re not talking like horses and buggy over any but but but I’m old enough that we didn’t have that. But, but just a simple savings account, a simple checking account at the time to, to be able to have a balance. So let’s, let’s shift a little bit about we’re, we’re talking about kids and, and you do a, a lot of work with, sort of generational poverty, which at the end of the day is a cycle that is really hard to break. How how did you get passionate about that, and and and what are you doing to sort of move the needle for folks?

Jasper Smith [00:13:02]:
Yeah. It came from I was working on a project at a non profit, do a lot of consulting work, and we’re we’re going through this this research paper. And it it kept talking about generational poverty and how do we interrupt it, how do we break it. And I just kept it it was the theme of this whole presentation. I’m like, we gotta break this. And it’s not gonna be easy to break it, but to your point, it’s just these cycles that continue to happen. And, again, I’m curious about why does it keep happening. Like, why? Is there not one person in your family who just says, this ain’t right.

Jasper Smith [00:13:38]:
I don’t like this lie. Like, there’s always that one person, and then that person kinda gets shunned by the family. They’re they’re a goody two. They’re doing they’re the educated. They’re they had it better than me. Whatever. Whatever the excuse you have to give. But I was intrigued.

Jasper Smith [00:13:51]:
Like, those people, you can go to from rags to riches, and some people go back to the rags. But you have these people who go from rags to riches, and then the next generation never understands what the struggle is like. And I I’m in awe of the plan that was put in place so that could become a reality.

Eric Brotman [00:14:12]:
Okay. So so you you clearly had parents who were interested in this and who did a a hopefully a terrific job of not only providing for themselves, and I’m not gonna have you put I’m not gonna put them on the spot. You’ll be in real trouble, but but they’re doing all the right things hopefully at this stage of the game, and you learn some of those things. And you have siblings, and And I’m also not gonna ask, did your siblings get the same memo because that’s unfair. And my, my, my kid brother and I could not be more different and financially is one of those things. So I’m, we’re not going there, but, you know, if you’re in a community that values hard work and if you’re in a family that values hard work and and determination and, and puts value on building real generational wealth as opposed to having the fanciest car on the in your driveway, I I think that can be an incredibly profound thing, and there are plenty of communities where that’s not the case. Tell us a little bit about sort of where you did you grow up in North Carolina or you just went to school? I did. Born and

Jasper Smith [00:15:09]:
raised in Durham. Mhmm.

Eric Brotman [00:15:12]:
So so Durham, the research triangle happens to be home to three really major well known universities, and so it’s an academic town. So you you learned about college about the same time you picked whether it was Tar Heel Blue or or or Duke Blue. If you’re rooting for Duke, we’re we’re the conversation’s over, but that’s fine. I I can I can understand? You’re from there. I give you a pass. But you grew up in a in a in an area. Was was this talked about did you and your peers were you mowing lawns? I know you weren’t shoveling snow with Carolina, but were you mowing lawns or doing other things around the neighborhood to to make a buck or or or was that not something that that you participated in?

Jasper Smith [00:15:50]:
No. I I didn’t early on. You know? And I think that’s why my mom made me go to work because I wasn’t like, the entrepreneurial bug didn’t hit me early. So I was kinda forced into going into work and seeing, like, what it’s like to have some responsibilities. But even with my friends, like, we didn’t we didn’t talk we talked about sports and girls and candy and music, all the fun things in life, which we we need. Right? We we we are a whole person. We need all those things. But there still wasn’t this, like, side conversation about money or saving.

Jasper Smith [00:16:21]:
You know, you got your paycheck. Again, I I knew how to save. I did have a bank account. I knew to save my money, and then I would just spend it on things. And so that was kind of the extent of most of our conversations was really surface level. Hey. I make money. I pay my bills, but I didn’t have bills.

Jasper Smith [00:16:36]:
But then nobody was filling in that gap of, well, Jasmine, since you don’t have bills, you should be doing

Eric Brotman [00:16:42]:
Yeah. Well, listen. I’ve got I’ve got some bills. If you want more to pay, I’ve got a few. I’ll send them I’ll send them your way immediately. If if that’s a service you provide at work, then I’ve got some clients for you too. I I think that’s a delightful thing to do for somebody. So so you had, you you didn’t have the entrepreneurial bug, but you you got started at a at a given age, and now you’re in a position where you can help families and communities break that cycle.

Eric Brotman [00:17:12]:
And if I if I had if I was put on the spot to come up with one word that would be the trigger to to to breaking that cycle, the word for me feels like it’s opportunity. A close second choice might be education. What what what what words would you use?

Jasper Smith [00:17:30]:
I like opportunity, but I I like and this is I got this from my parents. The word is Okay. That I started to use because

Eric Brotman [00:17:37]:
that somebody did that to me in a session one time.

Jasper Smith [00:17:39]:
What’s the one thing you would say? I would say expectation. We expect. And And and this is a real conversation I have both with my mom and dad separately. Okay. Both of them said, we expect it to do better than our parents did. They didn’t say by how much or how long. They just said, we expect us to do better. Better could have been getting one of your kids to school or, you know, retiring when you wanted to.

Jasper Smith [00:18:02]:
It didn’t matter what it was. It was just we expected to do better. And when you look at wealthy families in this country or the world, each generation does a little bit more. That that’s how wealth is is by design. It doesn’t just happen.

Eric Brotman [00:18:17]:
I mean, that’s supposed to be what happens. You know, I I think No. I I think there are plenty of examples where we’ve got some Billy Madison’s running around who who are living off mom and dad in a pretty profound way. Of course.

Jasper Smith [00:18:32]:
You

Eric Brotman [00:18:32]:
know, but but this is also a generational thing, Jasper. You are are you a millennial by definition?

Jasper Smith [00:18:37]:
I am. I’m right.

Eric Brotman [00:18:38]:
So I’m

Jasper Smith [00:18:38]:
right now. In the middle.

Eric Brotman [00:18:39]:
Well, I’m very sorry to hear that. No. But but as a millennial, yours yours is not the first generation. It’s the second because I’m a proud Gen Xer, and ours was the first generation who, on a macro level, is not doing better than our parents did. And naturally, there’s a wide spectrum and some people are are blowing the doors off the barn and some people are really struggling and and there’s a bell curve in between. But this is the first generation that really didn’t do as well as our parents. And, and, and parenting has changed so much and the, the need for two incomes in a household, which, you know, I, I grew up in a, in a, in a household that, that was divorced. And so I saw both of my parents working and a lot of, a lot of folks didn’t see that a generation before me, you know, they saw father knows best and one parent goes out to work and one stays home with the kids.

Eric Brotman [00:19:29]:
And those days are, are long gone for, for most people. How do you for, for families that are really, that are really trying to do what’s best for their kids, which I know a lot of families are. Do you ever have conversations with clients or, or with, with folks who attend your programs that, that taking care of your kids is important, but you, you have to make sure you take care of yourself too, because, you know, I, I liken it to the airplane safety lecture first, put the mask on, on your, on yourself and then help your kid because the only thing you can’t borrow for in this life is retirement. Yeah. And so if, if you spend a ton of money on education, for example, for your kids, you’ve gotta decide which one of your really well educated kids you’re gonna live with because you’re not gonna be able to retire. Right. So how do you balance that how do you balance that with the folks you represent? What what is the messaging that you provide?

Jasper Smith [00:20:21]:
I ask a question at the beginning of every meeting. Mhmm. Are you willing to allow someone to help you? It’s a yes or no for me. There’s no gray area when we’re talking about legacy and wealth building and disrupting generational poverty. Are you willing to allow someone to help you? And then I pause. There there there’s a small percentage of what we’ll call them to do it yourself first who will do everything that everything they should do with a comprehensive financial plan. Mhmm. I’ve probably met them about this many of my, you know, almost twenty years.

Jasper Smith [00:21:01]:
I’ve it it’s can you see it? It’s it’s small.

Eric Brotman [00:21:04]:
I I can. Sort of.

Jasper Smith [00:21:07]:
But if they can say if they say yes to that, then the next question is, well, let’s have some more discussion to figure out how we’re going to help you because your your plan has to be unique to you. So while there are common threads and solutions that exist in the marketplace, that’s great. But what is it that you need, and what’s in your best interest, and is this the right time for said solution? But if they don’t answer that first question, then it’s usually like a that’s a quick meeting. You can go to YouTube or Google because you don’t need me. If you if you don’t want help, good luck. So it it should be

Eric Brotman [00:21:48]:
It’s funny because help help is a loaded term. It is. There are a lot of people who don’t want help, but they’ll accept assistance or or or some some some navigation or a copilot or

Jasper Smith [00:22:01]:
Oh, man.

Eric Brotman [00:22:02]:
An advocate. They’ll accept advocacy.

Jasper Smith [00:22:05]:
I’ve used all of those.

Eric Brotman [00:22:07]:
People don’t like to admit they need help, though.

Jasper Smith [00:22:09]:
Yeah. I’m too old. You know what? I I as I as a man and, again, most the majority of my clients are women, and it’s no secret. A lot of men, if there’s this pride ego and I can see it. Like, as soon as they come to the meeting, if we’re on a screen, they’re sitting like this. What are your and I’m like, here we go. Another dude that’s going to just run this car off the road, crash, get out, set himself on fire, roll around, and then say, I might I might need some help. And I’ve seen it.

Jasper Smith [00:22:37]:
You’ve probably seen it. I’ve seen it

Eric Brotman [00:22:38]:
They don’t need help. They need guidance. I’m telling you. They don’t want any help. They don’t need help. They’ve got this. Everything’s under control. That is it’s so funny that you say that because, really, in almost every household, in every household with two spouses, where where it’s a a man and a woman in that household, the woman’s in charge.

Eric Brotman [00:22:56]:
I mean, three quarters of, of the time, they’re in charge and everybody knows it. And the other quarter, they’re in charge, and he’s still trying to figure that out. So understanding who is making these decisions, you know, it, it is usually, it is usually the woman in the relationship because she’s gonna outlive him. Yeah. And she needs to be okay. And she needs to understand how this works. And so I know I’m painting, I’m painting with a very broad brush. And there there there are 15 people watching right now, writing a strongly worded letter that I am completely off for which I immediately apologize.

Eric Brotman [00:23:28]:
And I’m not trying to overgeneralize, but but it’s true. I I I think, you know, as as men, we we sort of wear that that armor. We’re the knight, and we know how to do everything, and we’ve got this. And being vulnerable enough to say, you know what? I I I know what I know. And I, but I don’t know what I don’t know. And there’s so much complexity in this. If, if I didn’t do this all day, Jasper, I’d be calling you immediately and answering that question. Yes.

Eric Brotman [00:23:54]:
Help me.

Jasper Smith [00:23:55]:
Yeah,

Eric Brotman [00:23:55]:
because it, it is complicated. And, know, you’ve been at this fifteen years. I’ve been at this over thirty and, and don’t wanna talk about it, but there’s so much that we have learned over the years to, to take really good care of people and families. And you, you know, it’s, it’s funny that you, you flinched at the word education. Because I said opportunity first. I mean, you have to have a door to open. I mean, it’s, it’s good yet. First you have to have a door, even if the door is closed, there are ways around it.

Eric Brotman [00:24:23]:
Right. But you got, there’s gotta be a door to begin with. Then you have to have it open to you in one way or another so that the opportunity exists, whether that’s an internship or an apprenticeship or a first job, or we’re just having a mentor or any of those things. And you’re in an industry that really looks a lot more like me than it looks like you. I mean, let let call it what it is when we go to industry meetings. Everybody’s over 50, over 50 white and male, and I don’t wanna disparage those folks because I’m one of them and, and that’s okay. But you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re in a in a situation where you’re sometimes the outlier in those conversations. Do you does that create opportunity for you, or does that create, an extra hurdle for

Jasper Smith [00:25:05]:
you, you think? It’s both, actually. I I’ve had it to where a prospective client would prefer you versus me. Well, he’s older. He’s more experienced. He’s whatever. Right? Or she.

Eric Brotman [00:25:18]:
Yeah. Whatever. I know what the whatever is. Okay. That’s fine. That’s fine. You don’t have to say it. I yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:25:24]:
That’s fine.

Jasper Smith [00:25:26]:
And some and then some, of course, is that is that level of comfort. Right? We we like what we like. And so you I I get both. And so I’ve had to kind of navigate both worlds of understanding. And I I I didn’t do this earlier in my career as a as a younger adviser or practitioner. It was now if I’m not a good fit, but I can refer you to somebody who who is, would you like for me to make that introduction? And and here’s here’s the the reason I have to come up with this. I I live in the Bay Area now. So I’ve been in Oakland, for the last decade.

Jasper Smith [00:25:57]:
I’ve been in the Bay Area last going on seventeen years. Mhmm. But with, homosexuality and gender and all these different things that again, growing up in the South, I didn’t have to deal with these things. But now having been living here so long, like, I even I swear to you I had got called out for saying husband and wife.

Eric Brotman [00:26:18]:
Right.

Jasper Smith [00:26:18]:
Now I start

Eric Brotman [00:26:18]:
saying I start

Jasper Smith [00:26:19]:
saying your spouse. So I had to start saying your spouse, your significant other. And then no matter what I said, I was like, you know what? Let me just make sure you’re comfortable. Because if you’re comfortable enough, I can get you or somebody else can get you to that goal. And so I had to learn how to you know, language is everything. Right? Me, miss, to your point, you calling out me saying

Eric Brotman [00:26:38]:
the word help, that was intentional. Because I should say I can assist or accountability. Like, you gotta

Jasper Smith [00:26:45]:
use all these softer words. And I was like

Eric Brotman [00:26:47]:
You do.

Jasper Smith [00:26:48]:
Just doesn’t do the trick for some of y’all. Because I I’ve tried to be nice. I’m a southern guy at heart. Always will be. But that hasn’t helped me have a bigger impact. Not and I’m generalizing, of course. But Yeah. I’ve had to be a little more direct, but also be mindful that I need to ensure that you’re comfortable throughout this entire process.

Jasper Smith [00:27:09]:
Why? Because another question that I ask people is tell me about your experience with a financial adviser, insurance agent, whomever. And it’s usually where they weren’t listening and this and that, and you started hearing all the stuff they hated. And then I would say, so they still have your money. Can’t figure this out. You hate them this much for what you’re telling me, but they have all your retirement money? I should be Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:27:32]:
Mean should

Jasper Smith [00:27:33]:
I be mean to you? Should I

Eric Brotman [00:27:35]:
not take your calls? I’m gonna introduce you to another word that you already know called inertia. Change is painful. Even when you’re unhappy, it’s the devil you know. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, have you had to change banks at any time in the last five, ten years? Incomplete. Changing credit cards? Yep. It’s just it it is it has become so difficult to change financial institutions or advisers that sometimes there is, something has to go really horribly wrong.

Eric Brotman [00:28:02]:
And even then, sometimes people stay put. So, Jasper, I could talk to you all day, and and there’s a lot of, that you you you’re doing you’re doing some important work, and I and I couldn’t appreciate that more. I gotta ask you though a seminal question here because if you’re on don’t retire graduate, it means you don’t believe in retiring in the traditional sense. So I gotta ask you what you wanna be when you grow up?

Jasper Smith [00:28:24]:
I wanna be a seven figure house husband.

Eric Brotman [00:28:27]:
Oh, a house husband, a kept man. I wanna be

Jasper Smith [00:28:32]:
I I I cook. I clean. I I I love it. I love taking a nap. Laundry smells delicious when you pull it out the dryer.

Eric Brotman [00:28:41]:
You know, I don’t think a lot of I don’t think a lot of stay home parents are napping for the record. Just be very, very careful with that.

Jasper Smith [00:28:50]:
Cat naps. Fifteen, twenty minutes. I

Eric Brotman [00:28:52]:
Yeah. What could go wrong?

Jasper Smith [00:28:55]:
Put them

Eric Brotman [00:28:55]:
in the pack and play and call it a day. That is not how it works, but I love your idea. A 7 figure house husband. Now now here’s the question. Did 7 figure modify house or husband? Because it could be a 7 figure house, and you’re just a husband. You might be there now at San Francisco. A condo is a 7 figure house. Don’t answer.

Eric Brotman [00:29:16]:
Don’t answer. I’m not putting you on the spot that way. How can how can folks who enjoyed our conversation learn more about you, about your practice, but but just as importantly about some of the the philanthropy you’re doing?

Jasper Smith [00:29:28]:
Yeah. I would say, go to the buildwealthmovement.com. That’s my website. It has, you know, all my goodies there. Just there’s a lot that I’ve done over time that I continue to do where I’m always you said the word educate, and I’m I I didn’t totally disagree. I just shake my head because I think we we need more education, but we also need some some execution. But part of this is, allowing people to see kind of how I like, we all have a an opinion about certain products and solutions that exist. I tend to kinda be the mister objective guy.

Jasper Smith [00:30:00]:
I’m just right here in the middle. Let me tell you what I know about all these products, all these strategies. I don’t even wanna hard sell you any let me just tell you what I’ve seen and know. But also is what led me to my podcast, my book, all these things that I’ve created. It was just all from my experience as a practitioner. And I just have these stories, and I also have it was funny you mentioned. I have a diary or a journal that I keep about interactions that I’ve had with people, and that became the basis of a lot of my content for my podcast, for some of my articles. I’ve already given my mom the shout out about credit.

Jasper Smith [00:30:35]:
I shared the article about it. She will not do the interview yet, but I was like, ma, if everybody had that ten minute talk. And she she was like, I don’t really remember it. My mom’s in her mid seventies. Like, ma, it was game changer. And she was like, you remember that? And I was like, yes. It’s the same story I tell when when I do a credit workshop. It is just trying to get people it’s if I can get you more comfortable with just talking about money, we’ll move mountains.

Jasper Smith [00:31:02]:
Guarantee. And I can’t guarantee a lot of things in my world. But if I can get you to get comfortable and start talking, I guarantee we’ll get some results.

Eric Brotman [00:31:11]:
Thank you. Thank you for for sharing your wisdom. We will make sure that the website for, that you referenced is in our show notes. This has been fun. And, you know, if I ever get the chance to grace your podcast, I I would not turn you down. That would be a ton of fun. So you let me know if that’s something you wanna do. We’d have a good time with it.

Jasper Smith [00:31:29]:
Absolutely.

Eric Brotman [00:31:29]:
I wanna thank everybody for listening and watching today. If you enjoy our show, please subscribe. Leave a rating on your favorite podcast platform. Share it with friends and family so they can share and join you on your journey to financial freedom. If you’d like to send us a topic or idea we may discuss in a future episode of Don’t Retire Graduate, please post it on Facebook or tweet us at Brotman planning. We’ll be back next week with another entry in our diary of a financial advisor. And in two weeks with another engaging guest for now, this is your host, Eric Brotman reminding you don’t retire, graduate.

Unnamed Voiceover [00:32:05]:
Securities offered through Kestra investment services, LLC, Kestra IS, member FINRA SIPC, investment advisory services offered through Kestra advisory services LLC. Kestra AS, an affiliate of Kestra IS. Kestra IS or Kestra AS are not affiliated with Brotman financial or any other entity discussed.