From Ramen Noodles To Riches is a fun journey about a college student discovering how money works. Radhika Paliwal, a Real Estate Investor, Computer Engineer, Speaker, and Personal Finance Enthusiast, shares her journey from financial confusion to financial success. After realizing the limitations of a “good” degree and job, she took control, eliminating debt, crafting a lifestyle budget, investing in stocks, and acquiring real estate. Radhika’s guide is a comprehensive resource born from the belief that anyone can build wealth with the right tools, offering a time-saving roadmap for independent financial success.
Connect with Radhika:https://radhikapaliwal.com/
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About the host:
Bert Martinez is a successful entrepreneur and best-selling author. Bert is fascinated by business, marketing, and entrepreneurship. One of Bert’s favorite hobbies is to transform the complicated into simple-to-understand lessons so you can apply them to your business and life. Bert is also obsessed with exploring the mindset of the high achievers so you can follow their secrets and strategies.
Bert Martinez:
Today on the show, we have Radhika Paliwal. She’s a real estate investor, computer engineer, speaker, personal finance enthusiast, and we’re here to be we’re here to talk about, her book from Ramen noodles to riches. Radhika, welcome to the show.
Radhika Paliwal:
Thank you so much, Bert. Thank you for having me.
Bert Martinez:
Alright. So first thing off the bat, I love the title from ramen noodles to riches. What inspired you to write the book? What’s the background? Give us some insights.
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. There were a few different reasons I wrote the book. Honestly, a lot of it came from my frustrations. I as you know, my background’s in computer engineering. I didn’t really study finance. It wasn’t really a topic. I wasn’t taught it. My parents didn’t really talk about it.
So the reason so one of the reasons I wrote this book is to share the knowledge that I’ve been learning over the years and help other people get that knowledge without spending the amount of time, and research and countless hours and even money for that matter that I’ve spent just for my financial education. That was a huge component for for it.
And then the other the second big reason I wrote this book is, to be honest, it’s it’s kind of sad to see, you know, a lot of people in this day and age and especially, I mean, in 2024, it’s a rough market out there. If you look at, like, the larger economic conditions, it’s it’s just a rough market, and people are having a hard time with even things like grocery prices and rent prices and your daily cost of living. And I just think if there we had better financial education, ideally in high school, maybe even earlier middle school, we would be better off. So my way of writing from ramen noodles to riches was a way to give back to, 1, a younger version of me, and 2, the masses of people who are just trying to figure it out.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. It’s it’s amazing to me, and I agree with you. First of all, I think elementary might be a good might be a good time to start thinking about, teaching your children about finances. I think that most people grow up in a environment where money is not talked about.
There’s a lot of negativity around money. I think that 1 of the reasons for that is because most parents don’t know anything about money. Right. You know, I didn’t really start getting a grasp on my money until I was probably closer to 40.
And it might have been maybe my mid thirties, maybe 35, but still, that’s a long time. And by that time, you’ve already made so many mistakes with credit cards and things of that nature. And I think the other issue for most people is that there’s so much confusion about money. There I remember when I really started getting into finances, I had signed up for a couple of programs, and and it was almost like a full time or part time job trying to figure things out, how money works, where to invest it, all these things that with my kids is I started teaching them about money.
As early as possible. I I to this day, my son, my oldest son, you know, I I thought all my kids how to be more entrepreneurial. I think he was 6 or 7. He wanted to earn some money to buy a toy. It was like a $40 toy, which I’m not gonna buy him, but I said, hey. Let’s let’s see if we can get you some, maybe you can help the neighbors and earn some money. And that’s what he did. He helped some neighbors, and, we I helped him pass out flyers.
He earned a $100. And when it came time to buy the toy, he goes, I’m not spending a $100. I’m not spending my money on a toy, dad. It took me too long it took me too long to earn the money, and he’s become very frugal, very he’s he’s much wiser with his money than I was. But but it is a weird thing that force for living in a country like America that’s so abundant. We really, as a society, are confused about money. We don’t teach about money, and and it’s really, I think, hurting us generally.
Radhika Paliwal:
Agreed. Agreed. You bring up such a good point. There’s 2 things that, are top of mind for me. 1, I actually a few months ago, I was reading an article, where it talked about the way you think about money, like, the money psychology you have, is actually starting to develop at age 4. Think about that. Like, age 4, you don’t even I mean, like, I think back to 4.
I don’t think I even have any real memories from it other than probably wanting candy all the time and understanding the word no. And so the fact that, like, these people have researched and figured out at that, like, age 4 is when we start conceptualizing what money means to us. Parents do heavily influence, like, our decisions and our relationship with money. And it’s it’s hard to change that over time.
It’s hard to figure out, like, where your thoughts about money are coming from, but also what do you do with them as an adult. Right? And then the second thing I was gonna share is 1 of my friends, you talked about, you know, the mistakes we’ve made in the past and what we learn again from parents. 1 of my friends, he grew up learning from his dad that credit cards were great, and they were the best thing. And, I mean, like, I have credit cards.
I love credit cards. Right? But he grew up in the sense that you’re not supposed to pay your credit card, like, debt back. And so this entire time he’s, you know, mid thirties right now. This entire time, him and his parents thought that that balance that you see is good. It’s fine.
And the minimum amount you have pay, what is it, like, around $40 depending on company to company, card to card. That’s all you have to pay, and that’s all that matters. And he didn’t know until he was, yeah, like, you know, late twenties, early thirties that that’s not a good thing, and it’s hurting his credit score. And he wasn’t able to get an apartment or look at even, like, car leases. And that’s when he realized, oh, crap. I can’t I can’t trust or rely on my parents, which is kind of sad to think about. But if that’s all you know, that’s all you know.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. And the way credit cards make their money is they want you to pay that minimum. Right. They don’t want you to pay it back. They don’t you know? They’re in it for the profit. Exactly. So alright.
So give me a little bit of background. What happened in your personal journey that that you decided, okay. This money thing matters. I better start figuring it out. And he got to the point to write a book.
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. Honestly, it’s because I became an adult, got a real life adult job, and I still was losing my money. I mean, like, every weekend, somehow, I was spending 100 of dollars on just eating out and drinks with friends, going to a movie theater, maybe a comedy show here and there, and boom, just like that. Like, the paychecks that I was getting as, like, a great job weren’t actually sitting in my checkings account because I had to pay my credit card bills at that point. And I was just so confused for the 1st few months. I’m like, I don’t understand. I’m I’m earning money. Where is it going? Right? So it started with confusion, then I think it quickly transformed into anger where I’m like, I’m so angry I wasn’t taught this.
I’m so angry, like, the school system or my parents or even my friends don’t speak about things like this. And then from there on, I’m like, okay. Well, that’s that’s that. Right? I can’t change the past. I can’t change what’s been done. What do I do about it now? So it took a lot of time to understand what does, like, personal finance mean to me, and I started with my job mostly because they help set you up with a 41 k. You have tools like the HSA on your hand. My company also offered an ESPP at that point.
I didn’t know what, you know, the HSA and ESPP meant, and I had a general idea of a 41k, but that’s about it. So I started learning about those through my corporate resources. And then I expanded more by picking up a few personal finance books, watching a lot of YouTube videos.
And then eventually, like, once I had my basic savings account set up as well as my basic brokerage account set up, and, like, recurring investments, then I started expanding my interest into, okay, what else can I do with money? How else can I make it work for me? And that’s when I got into real estate a bit more and, you know, really thought about what does real estate mean? How can I invest in it? Well, I don’t I have no background again. So how can I meet people who have properties? What does that process look like? And I spent countless amount of, again, like, hours months learning about it to be able to do it myself.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. I think that’s a very common story. It reminds me of of the episode of friends where Rachel gets her first paycheck, and she goes, who the heck is FICA?
Radhika Paliwal:
I do remember that. I love that episode. And why is it taking all my money?
Bert Martinez:
And it is it is amazing to me, again, that as parents, we don’t know anything about money, and we pass that ignorance to our children. You know, what I remember growing up about money, I did hear no quite a bit, and I heard, you know, we can’t afford it. We don’t have the money. Yeah. And and I think that that does stick stick with you.
And I think that, the other thing that’s amazing is how many people never challenge themselves to learn about money and and how to get the money to work for them, to work for them. Because once your money starts to make you money, it’s it’s very exciting. I remember the first time I got, like, 2 or $3 from a dividend. I was like, wow. 2 or $3, but it’s 2 or $3 that I got for nothing. It’s like Yep. It’s it was like I don’t know. It was almost like Christmas. It’s, well, this is exciting. This is perfect.
Radhika Paliwal:
I mean, you can you can get, like, a packet of gum with that. That’s that’s pretty good. So the other thing the other like, you reminded me too. Like, the other big thing for me has been I’m the oldest in my family, and I have 2 younger siblings. So, sure, like, again, I got over my confusion and my anger.
And then once I realized I’m doing this for myself, my siblings are 6 years and then 12 years younger than me, so there’s a huge age gap between us. By the time, like, I’m going through these changes, they’re not in the headspace or even care about what I’m going through. Right? So, like, I wanted to document a lot of this for them, and that’s really where I started with the idea of writing a book.
But on my sister’s 18th birthday, what I did was I said kinda what you did with, your kid as well. I said, hey. I could buy you, like, AirPods, or I will put money directly into your brokerage account, and you have the freedom and flexibility to choose your investments because you get to have that ownership of it. Like, this is your account. But, like, again, I will help advise you or, like, teach you about ETFs versus stocks versus whatever. And I remember when she got her first dividend, I think, again, it was just, like, a little bit of money. So her first dividend was 10¢. And he she called me up when that happened.
She’s like, can you believe it? Like, I just earned 10¢. What does that mean? I mean, it’s not really anything, but, you know, like, how can I grow this amount? And it just that, like, Kickstarter fluid that you have is so powerful. And I think it’s, like, helping her to continue to add more so that converts into, yeah, a few dollars, maybe 50, maybe a 100, and dividends can keep on growing from there.
Bert Martinez:
Yes. It it is just it’s a magical moment. I don’t care how big your first dividend check is. It’s a magical moment. It’s like, wow. This is how the rich people get rich. This is Right. All that stuff that Warren Buffett has been talking about, here it is.
It’s amazing. It’s Yeah. It it is one of my favorite things. And yes. I love doing that with my kids as well. I’ve gotten you know, I’ve I have 5 kids or we have 5 kids, and what’s amazing is we have sat down with them and and tried to get them to open up a a brokerage account. We’ve even bribed them. Hey. If you open up a brokerage account, we’re gonna put some money in there for you. And out of 5 kids, I think 2 have opened up a brokerage account. So we’re still hopeful, but it just goes to show you there there is a lot of resistance there.
Let let me ask you this. Could I put you on the spot a little bit? What sets your book apart from other personal finance books out there in the marketplace?
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. Great question. I asked my friends that before I wrote the book. I was like, why aren’t you taking action towards your personal finance? Like, we were all broke college kids at one point. Now we are learning to be better. But why, like, why are we not educating ourselves? What is that gap?
And to the point like, I even like, one of my favorite books, personal finance books out there is I Will Teach You TO BE Rich by Ramit Sethi. Great book. Highly recommend. I even took that book and handed it to 1 of my friends, and she read the first few pages, and she’s like, this is great, but I just don’t care enough. So I thought to myself, man, like, that really you can teach a you know, like, you can, like, give a a man a fish, but you can’t, like, always teach them how to fish, especially if they don’t want it. Right?
Like, it is up to them if they choose to make this decision for themselves. So I sat down, and I’m like, why are people not doing this? What I found out is, 1, a lot of personal finance books are very lengthy. 2, they’re they’re helpful and they’re super knowledgeable in what they’re sharing, but that makes it kind of boring because it’s very straight facts about how the financial system works and what that means. And people don’t really care about a lot of that mumbo jumbo, especially if you’re not in finance and you don’t, again, study or or do it as a part of your job. And then number 3, like, no 1 has the time to do this. Like, they just people like a light read.
So the reason my book is, I think, like, 66, maybe 70 pages. So that long, I’ve read it. I’ve had my dad, my brother, all of them read it. It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. You can read this in one go. And then on top of that, I’ve created actionable steps that you can take after every chapter. And then going back to not making it boring, I’ve made it super sarcastic. So it’s a fun ride.
You know, you’re not thinking about, crap. Like, what does this term mean? Like, should I Google it? Should I just take a picture of this boat? Like, just relax, enjoy the ride, have fun with it.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. 1 of the things that, that I did in my van but, again, finance journey or or money management journey is like I said, I I had, 2 different, newsletters, and and these are memberships. They’re like 4, $500 a piece, and they would give you tips on what stocks to invest in and things like that. And and you still had to do your own research, and and, you had to eventually pull your trigger and stuff like that.
I remember once I found Warren Buffett, he’s become a big, model for me, and so he simplified it. That’s the thing I loved about him is his basic thing is if you’re not willing to invest the hours of research that he does to decide whether he’s gonna buy a stock or not, he says, just get an EFT. It’s simple. He says, most most, professional, money managers don’t beat the s and p 500.
Put your money there. And and it’s incredibly easy. I think that, again, just like a lot of things out there, food, health, money, there’s so much overwhelm. There’s so much information, and you 1 expert tells you to do this, another expert tells you to do that. So I love the fact that you made it really simple. You threw in some fun, sarcastic wit. That appeals.
I think that 1 of the things that I remember 1 of the mistakes that I made, when you’re 20, thinking about retirement and thinking about adult things like like a house seems like so far away. I mean, retirement is incredibly far away. I’m gonna do that later. A house, maybe, but right now, an apartment’s great. I don’t have to mow a lawn. I I if something’s broken, I just call somebody. Doing you know, having a house, that’s like extra work. That’s that’s, you know, that’s that’s more adult than I wanna be, and and and not until you understand, you know, the the function of a mortgage, the the there there are some tax benefits, things of that nature.
It’s just a different world. And when you’re young and inexperienced, some of that stuff doesn’t even make sense.
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. Agreed. 100%. I mean, so many 20 year olds don’t think about retirement. It is the last thing on their mind. I’ve even had friends who don’t contribute to a 401 k because because they’re like, ah, whatever. We’ll figure it out. But the least you could do is do your 401 k match again.
Most companies out there provide some sort of matching, whether it’s share for share or percentage of your total contribution. And that, I would say, is, like, the least amount you can do today is just match it. That’s kinda like getting free money, to be honest. It doesn’t get better than that.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely free money. I tell my kids the same thing. Just, you know, get the get them to match your your your, your amount and then put it into the EFT or or whatever, but at least do the bare minimum. I and I agree with you there. Let me ask you this.
In your opinion, what are the most common financial mistakes that you see people make, and how did you address them in your book?
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. There’s a lot. I’m gonna try to talk about 2 today. Number 1, what I see all the time, and, again, especially younger people, is they look at one financial account or one way to, let’s say, save or invest their money, and they say, okay. That’s it. I did that. I’m good. I have a savings account.
I’m good. I signed up for a credit card, and I get points, and I paid on time. I’m good. I don’t think you can stop there. If you really wanna work on it, you have to have a financial system, a system that works for you. It’s different for everyone. But having a checkings account, that’s the backbone of everything that you’re doing. A savings account for anywhere from 3 to 12 months of savings.
Right? Things that are upcoming in your life. And, again, with savings, I always, always, always recommend a high yield savings account. There’s no reason not to do a high yield savings account. On top of that, credit card is what you’re using functionally for your everyday life. Then you have your brokerage account also very easy to set up. Invest in ETFs. We just talked about it. Like, ETFs index funds are so easy to get into.
And then don’t stop there. Look at ESPP. Look at 401 k. Think about real estate. If you are an expert in things like art and jewelry, I mean, these are alternate assets that you could look into. Personally, I don’t know anything about any of these assets, so that’s not where I’m spending my time. But I am spending time in my brokerage account as well as in real estate to continue to learn about it and then invest my money there. I just see a lot of people stop after a certain point, or they will stop after their companies have set them up with a few accounts, and that’s it.
I and we can’t rely on those anymore. And then number 2, kinda going hand in hand with my first point, is automating or sorry, automating your financial system. Right? A lot of people will also say, I will save or put money in my savings account or put money in my brokerage account once I have x amount, once I have I don’t let’s just for example purposes. Once I have $5, 000 in my checkings account, then I will invest my money. That mindset of, first, I need to just live off or pay for tacos and pay for a movie, and then I will invest is so I wish people I wish we could flip that in people’s mindset and say, first, I will invest, let’s say, $1, 000. Again, just making numbers up. It’s different for everyone. Then I have $400, and then I can eat tacos and go to a movie.
And so this way, you’re prioritizing and automating, like, your investment into your brokerage account and your savings. These are so easy to set up online, and now you have that limited amount of money to work with for your day to day purchases. So in the whole system, there’s another, like, business book called Profit First, that if you’ve read it, it’s really, really good. But, basically, the idea is you want to pay yourself first. You want to have the profit first. So what if you could do that in your personal life as well and make sure you’re saving and investing first and then living off your expenses?
Bert Martinez:
Yes. Profit First. Is that by Mike Michalowicz?
Radhika Paliwal:
Correct. Yeah.
Bert Martinez:
Yes. Yes. It’s a good book. It’s it’s been out a few years. Highly recommended as well. It is so weird. It’s so funny how we don’t pay ourselves first. Yeah.
And and for those individuals out there, I just wanna say, a collection of Nike shoes is not a different asset class. You know, I know that there are some people out there who collect these issues, and, yes, maybe they make some money off of it, but, it it’s not what I would consider a traditional asset class, and it’s hard to liquidate as opposed to having stocks.
Man, you can liquidate it. I mean, real estate is great if you don’t need to liquidate it.
Radhika Paliwal:
Liquidate it.
Bert Martinez:
Yep. Yeah. But, to me, you know, having stocks, that’s something that, you can liquidate in case you have an emergency, or maybe you wanna buy that house, and now you can liquidate it and and pay it that way. Yep. I would if you don’t mind taking a few more minutes and maybe elaborating on on how in you know, how important it is leveraging these different financial accounts because I think you’re right.
Most people are just fine having a checking account, but I love this idea of having different financial accounts and how can we maximize this?
Radhika Paliwal:
It’s to be honest, this is very hard to answer because it really is dependent person to person. The way and this is how I’ve laid out my book as well. Again, like, from ramen noodles to riches, I go over what are the basics, what are assets and liabilities, and then I talk about 1 account at a time. So we’re starting with checkings account. That is the backbone of your system. That is where you’re getting your w 2 income. Any other income is going into your checkings account. And then I think my second check chapter is on savings.
So now you have your checkings account. How do we go into, saving some of that portion? And then from there on, again, I talk about credit cards, and then I talk about brokerage. And then, I do go into details as far as, like, stocks versus ETFs versus mutual funds. What does that mean for me? So the way I’ve, like, written the book, if you’re a complete beginner, start at the first chapter, set that up. You have a few action items you can take. Once you’re done with that, go to chapter 2, step 2. Right? Set up that account, transfer a little bit of money, and continue to build from there. So I think to your point, like, getting to a brokerage account should be the norm at this point.
Everyone should be able to and should invest in stocks, ETFs, index funds, anything of that matter. It’s all online. I mean, banking is all online these days anyways. The newer generation, I think, trusts technology a little bit more, so that’s that’s good for us in the financial literacy field where we can continue to, drive that message and people can take that action easily literally on their phone. But then, again, like, as you want to dive deeper into it, think about, like, what asset classes you want to build and what you want to learn about. At the end of the day, you have to be a little bit curious and motivated to grow to grow your assets.
Bert Martinez:
Yes. Absolutely. I always tell, my kids and anybody else who asked me is is, you’re looking to invest, and I wanna get your opinion on this. You wanna you wanna invest in companies that you know, like, and trust. If you consume Coca Cola and you like Coca Cola, Coca Cola happens to be 1 of those companies that pays a dividend. It’s it’s, I think, routinely around the $50 mark. And and on average, I think year to year, it pays something like, I think, 13 or 14% return, which is pretty good.
Radhika Paliwal:
And again highest dividend paying companies out there and has been for a while. Yeah. It A company to invest in.
Bert Martinez:
I think so too. I think that, I also wanna ask you this. I’m sorry. Let me back up. I wanna ask you about eliminating debt. Are you a big proponent of get rid of the debt first and then start investing, or do you like to invest as well while you’re eliminating debt?
Radhika Paliwal:
Depends on what kind of debt. Credit card debt. If you have credit card debt, eliminate it as fast as possible. We spoke about this earlier too. Right? Like, credit card companies want you to have that. That is how they’re making money. You don’t want that for yourself. If it’s credit card I mean, the interest rates on some of these things are 13, 20, 26%.
They’re insane. So if it’s credit card debt, pay it as soon as possible. There are ways like, if you are looking and, again, I’m talking to the advanced, folks here. If you’re looking to, let’s say, invest in real estate or buy a business, then leveraging debt is not a bad idea. In that case, leveraging debt could actually be good. A lot of times people, and, like, I’ve done this myself, will take the loan out for an investment property. But if the math and the numbers work where the investment property is making you more money than your monthly bill, then it’s a good idea to be able to invest that. Right? So at that in times like that, I think it makes sense to have and leverage that debt even further, but you just have to be able to know that for yourself.
What else? I think, like, car loans are interesting. A lot of peers my age, right, like, in their twenties are so quick and easy to buy a new car. Probably the worst investment you could make because they lose, what, like, 50% of its value as soon as they drive off the lot. Buy a used car. Right? Like, if you have if you’re leasing a car or if you have a brand new car, you know, you do wanna be able to pay that as soon as possible because that’s just, like, money not doing anything for you. So it really is case by case.
Bert Martinez:
It is. one of the things also that, I enjoy about today because of the different technologies that are in play, if you can take a used car and and rent it out on, Turo, Now you have an asset. Now you have something that’s making you money. 1 of the biggest, breakthroughs for me, speaking of assets, was was, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki. And in his book, he explains an asset makes you money.
Just because you have a car, even though some people do call that an asset, if it’s not making you money, he says, I don’t call it an asset. And that to me was like a game changing way of looking at things. You might live in a house, and you might even have a good equity in that house. But if it’s not making you money, don’t look at it as an asset. So I just thought that was a brilliant, for me, it was a brilliant, moment thing.
Radhika Paliwal:
So I’m curious to get your thoughts on this. So I to also talk about student loans. Student loans are also you get education from it. Education is very important. Huge believer in it. Right? But it’s not making you money. It allows you to, at some day, make money. So I think student student loans, car loans, and then first, like or first, like, homeowner, if you’re living in that home.
These are all liabilities in my opinion or at least definitely not assets because you you are not making money in either one of those situations. Again, unless you’re renting it out of Matura, unless you’re Airbnb ing your home, unless there are specific caveats to your situation, then it could be considered an asset.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. So my thing on student loans and, this will take a little bit of work, but there are different programs out there that’ll help you. Most financial aid offices can help you. If not, there are companies out there online that will help you, and I would maximize your grants. Yeah. There are literally thousands of grants out there that you may qualify for. Maybe not 1, 000, but at least 100 that you may qualify for that you don’t have to pay any of that money back. The other option, is to kinda to what your point was.
If if you have a if you can afford to rent a 3 bedroom apartment and maybe rent out the other 2 bedrooms where you’re not having to pay for your apartment, that is something to consider. The House hacking. Yeah. I mean and and and 1 of the things that, again, you have to be weary about is that what if a bedroom goes empty for a month or 2? That’s why you have to have a little bit of a cushion.
But in today’s marketplace, especially if if you’re if you’re in a college town. I have a friend of mine. Now what they did is they actually bought a 3 bedroom condo for and and and they were renting out not the bedrooms, but the beds. They were getting, like, 4 or $500 per bed, and they had 2 beds per bedroom. And that’s how how they did it.
Radhika Paliwal:
One of my favorite properties that I’ve invested in right now is in a college town, and it’s fantastic. Like, you know, there will always be students living in that situation. And then also just renting out a part of your apartment is such a great way in larger cities. Again, I live in New York. Very, very expensive to live here. There’s 2 models. Like, 1, I was just talking to 1 of my friends, and she she is leasing her apartment, but she’s able to cover and I think it’s, like, a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment. It’s, like, deeper.
It it’s not in Manhattan. It’s, like, deeper in Brooklyn. So she’s able to afford the rent every month on the 3 bedroom, 2 2 bath apartment by herself, like, on her income. And so anytime she does have people, and it’s called rental arbitrage. Right? Like, when you are renting, but then you’re also renting it out, which that’s what she does for the other 2 rooms. She’s not making an income, but she’s decreasing her cost to the apartment, which does help tremendously. Right? Like, especially if she wants to travel or do anything else with her money. And so depending on kinda her flexibility and what she wants to do, she will rent 1 or 2 out of those bedrooms out, at any given time, and I think that’s such a great way to go about it.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. I think that you can be creative. The other thing that a lot of people don’t do is they don’t negotiate.
You can negotiate almost anything. You can negotiate your interest rates, on a lot of things. You can refinance in some cases if if that makes sense to do that. For example, if you are financing your car through a bank, go to a, credit union. And usually, they’re 2 to 3% lower than a bank. So if you’re at 8% at your bank, you could go to a credit union and maybe get a 5 or 6% deal. And unlike refinancing your house, there’s no, what do they call it, origination fee? There’s no fee.
Radhika Paliwal:
So much. So The other thing I’ll add to that is, yeah, negotiation is such a I mean, like, that’s a life skill that I think everyone needs to have. So, yes, we talked about negotiating for interest rates. I’ve negotiated some of my banking fees as well where I’ve, you know, $35 fee. Granted, it’s only 35 accounts late, so I had, like, a $35 fee. Granted, it’s only $35. I called in, and I was like, hey. I’ve been a customer of yours for the last 3 years.
Can you you, you know, like, erase this this 1 time, and they’ve taken it off. But the big thing I want to point out here, negotiation goes both ways. So, yes, it definitely, like, we are talking about reducing your cost, but you can also negotiate how much you’re getting paid.
And negotiating your salary and your pay is equally as important, if not more, as negotiating your costs and interest rates for a lot of these things. Because at the end of the day, like, your income limit or, how much you can earn is technically infinite. Right? Like, technically, there’s no finite limit on how much you’ll get paid, and it could be across all of these different asset classes that you’re building. But if you have $500 in your bank account, you can only save $500. But with your income, if you’re earning, I don’t know, $500, you can renegotiate that to earn $600 or whatever that might be.
And I just want people to be conscious of both aspects, and be able to talk about it.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. The other thing that I think messes people up is fear, doubt. Yeah. I don’t wanna do that because I’m young and inexperienced. You know, what I’m just getting started. So when my daughter-in-law was just graduated, she’s a graphic designer, which I think is a very, very competitive field.
So many graphic designers. She got this job. And to your point, I helped her negotiate her salary, and she got exactly the salary she wanted. Amazing. Yeah. And then just today, I’m watching YouTube, and there’s this teenager. He’s 18 years old or 19. He’s a teenager. No experience. He quits MIT to start a, a weapons company. He raises $85, 000, 000 Mhmm. Because he had the courage to ask.
I mean, but he’s an idiot. He’s 18 or 19. Yeah. He’s never produced a weapon. He’s never run a company, and somehow he raised $85, 000, 000 on an idea that it possibly maybe someday might work. So if you think you’re not young enough, you don’t have an experience, that’s in your head. If you don’t ask, you never get. The other thing is, I don’t know if you guys can see this, free money.
This is, I just got this, and it’s 1 of those books. This guy is all over the Internet. His name is Matthew Lesko, and I got this on Amazon. I think it was, like, 50 or $60 or whatever, but it’s got all the different grants for all the different things that are out there. Our government, because they have so many different programs. We hear about this all the time. We hear people complain about this all the time. During COVID, you know, there was a trillions of trillions of trillions of dollars that were given away.
One of my favorite examples of of, stupid spending during this COVID period was Kodak, the film company. Right?
Radhika Paliwal:
Oh, interesting. I thought you were gonna bring up toilet paper.
Bert Martinez:
Well, I mean so what happened for those who don’t know with Kodak, again, they’re a film company. They they don’t produce vaccines, and so I just thought, okay. I gotta find out what’s out there. That’s actually why I got that book. The the other thing, back to COVID and and these trillion of dollars that were given away, and you’ll hear politicians complain about it. That, in in this bill here, there was, like, 40 or 50 million dollar that they were donating to, like, the Kennedy Art Center, some other different art institutes that they were giving million of dollars during COVID. Like, that doesn’t make sense.
Can’t we just put more money into, treatment or whatever? And so my point be here for everybody is that there are so many things out there. There’s so many ways to get money that in in in a lot of cases, you don’t even have to pay back, but you just like money, we have to educate ourselves. We gotta take the time to do that.
Alright. So let me ask you. Here you are. You’re you’re about to write your book. Any fear, any hesitation, any self doubt about putting out this book?
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. You know, I think by the time I started writing the book, I had worked through a lot of it in my head. And, again, like, a lot of it, everything money related, it’s a very personal thing. Right? Money is such a touchy topic to people, and I totally understand that. I think, for me, what was hard was really bringing this topic up in front of others, in front of my boyfriend, in front of my friends, in front of my family, and speaking about it more openly than I ever have. But that was the journey I had before I wrote the book.
So at the time I started writing, I was like, okay. This is purely to make sure other people have this information on their hands, and I am sick and tired of there not being enough, like, resources for people. Again, we’ve talked about there are some, but I want to make it even easier, even simpler. I would want it to be 1 +1 equals 2 kinda deal, and that was the idea with with my book.
Bert Martinez:
Yes.one of the things I love about your book, as you pointed out, it’s an easy read. It’s not it’s not 2 or 300 pages. It’s not it’s not a bunch of, terms that people are have to look up. You can read it in an hour or whatever and and start implementing the the strategies in the book. And as you and I have already talked, this is stuff that the the sooner kids learn this stuff, the better off they’re gonna be. So maybe your book may not be, perfect for the elementary kids, but it sounds like it might be a good match for junior high, high school, even even the 1st year of college.
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. I mean, it’s called for Ramen Noodles to Rich for a reason. Right? Like, we’ve all I don’t know about you, but I definitely have had multiple occasions where I’m eating ramen noodles in college, but not just college, even up to, like, 2 to 3 years after graduating. And so I’ve had those moments where I’m like, crap. Like, I don’t have enough money, margin, sugar, 99¢, We’ll make it work.
So it’s really about that transition going from college into adult life. At the same time, though, I’ve had coworkers who are in their mid thirties, what is that, like, 10, 15 years out of college and still struggle with some of these concepts of, oh, I can I can put my money in other accounts besides my checkings? I’ve had coworkers that have had tens of 1, 000 of dollars sitting in their checkings account, not doing anything with it, not even putting in in, I mean, an index fund. Right? Like, that is the easiest thing, and they’re just losing money on that, especially if you’re if you’ve been in the industry for 15 years and your money’s just been sitting there.
So, yes, of course, this book is geared towards people making that transition, into getting your first job, setting up accounts, learning about it, getting a good, like, basic overall understanding. But, also, I’ve had coworkers who are thirties and forties and, parents, like dads who have read it and told me, wow. Like, this is really helpful.
It’s really where you are. No judgment. The other thing is, like, we can all start where we are. Right? Like, it really, like, financial education is at our fingertips, and we need to be able to take account. And I do believe that everyone’s capable of it.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. As you said earlier, money is very personal. We’re all at different levels, different places, and so it doesn’t matter. But to your point, start work from where you’re at. f you wait until you have x amount of dollars, don’t. I would say open up a brokerage account today. They’re usually free to open.
Some of them some of them require a minimum, but, like, Robinhood Yeah. Doesn’t require a minimum. You can open it up with 5 or $10. Just start doing it today. And 1 of the things that people don’t understand, money, or better yet investing is a habit like anything else. Just like not investing it becomes a habit. Investing is a habit. And and when you start buying companies that you know, like, and trust, and then you get those little dividends or or you buy it for $10 and then all of a sudden it’s worth $12, that’s again, it’s in one sense, it’s not a whole lot of money, but on the other sense, it is.
It’s incredible. This is this is the same thing that people like Warren Buffett and all the other, investment gurus out there are doing? The it’s they’re just doing it on a bigger scale because they got started sooner.
Radhika Paliwal:
I started by investing $50 a month. 50. That’s yeah. I mean, if I would have started sooner, maybe I would have started with 10, but I wish I did. That’s the only regret I’ve ever had is I wish I started sooner. And that, again, goes back to not knowing enough at that time.
Bert Martinez:
But yeah. Absolutely. It does again, this is the thing that holds people back. The this this doubt that, well, $50 isn’t that much. It’s not in one sense, but $50 a year later, what is that? $600? 600?
Radhika Paliwal:
Compounds over time too.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. Yeah. Not to mention it compounds, but as opposed to $50 that you throw away, you have nothing.
Radhika Paliwal:
That’s what I mean by I think that’s the biggest mistake people make is because $50 feels like nothing. They’re like, oh, I will wait until I have $500 to invest. Well, no. Can we just skip the waiting and start with 50? Because that is a start. You know? And like you said, it’s a habit. And if you continue to work on it, like, 50 per month will become 500 at some point, and at least you’ve started instead of waiting for that to happen.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. I just remembered a story that my, banker told me. He had this kid who would come to the bank and deposit into a savings account every week. And on some weeks, his deposit was less than $2. But he did it anyway because he want you know, he was building that habit. And the minute and again, this is 1 of those things that we don’t understand. Even even Einstein could not comprehend how compound interest worked.
He said it was one of those things that, logically, you understand it to some extent, but it does also start to pick up steam. And so you can look up that quote about Albert Einstein in interest, and it’s a maze or compound interest. So here’s a guy who’s coming into the bank. This is back in the day when you had to physically come into the bank. And he was making a $2 deposit, sometimes less, sometimes more. But guess what? The chances of him retiring early, the chances of him misusing his money are much lower than the person who’s waiting to have $500 before they get started.
Radhika Paliwal:
I think Actually, one of the other things I share in my book, I don’t know if I’ll be able to open it in time right now, but I have a diagram of, like, how money should flow. And that, I think, would be really helpful really helpful for people getting started because it literally shows, you know, that flow can be replicated by setting up those, like, online invest or sorry, online recurring payments to your bank account. And I think that’s very helpful, and that’s, again, how I have it set up. It’s just I could die today and my money would still be investing and still be saving. So that’s a really a great way to set up your financial system.
Bert Martinez:
But you mentioned dying. I had a client, and this is just terrible. So I had a client who got divorced, got remarried. He died. His he did not update the beneficiary in his brokerage account. Oh, wow. So the beneficiary was his ex wife.
So she ended up getting all of his money in that account. His new wife I don’t know what she ended up doing, but I think there’s a lawsuit filed. Either way, it became ugly. So for those individuals, if you if you’re if you have a spouse or you wanna leave your money to somebody, make sure you fill out that beneficiary thing. It it it hopefully won’t be used anytime soon, but you never know. And and but it’s 1 of those little details that’s important. It it’s just something else.
Ramen noodles to riches. And at least 1 of the takeaways from today’s conversation is is don’t wait. Don’t wait. There there is, there is no reason whether you can afford $5 a month or $50 a month or $500 a month. Don’t wait. Get started today. Today is the perfect day to get started. That is at least 1 of my favorite takeaways from today’s conversation.
But I could not I cannot justify, going to a place like Starbucks and spending 5 or 6 or $7 on a drink. Yeah. Or going to a juice bar. And, again, spending 5 or 6 or $7 on a drink, it doesn’t make sense to me. The, the other thing I wanna get your take on this, by the way.
But I I could not I cannot justify, going to a place like Starbucks and spending 5 or 6 or $7 on a drink. Yeah. Or going to a juice bar. And, again, spending 5 or 6 or $7 on a drink, it doesn’t make sense to me. The, the other thing I wanna get your take on this, by the way.
Because right now right now, we’ve become this this crazy tipping Whirlpool. I mean, everybody’s asking you for a tip. You know? You you gotta pick up your dry cleaning, and they they flip that little thing around, and it’s like, leave me a tip.
I don’t consider myself a cheapskate even though I do consider myself frugal. I don’t tip everybody just because you ask.
Radhika Paliwal:
No. I I’m with you on tipping culture. It’s becoming insane. And I remember back in the day where the options were, like, 10, 15, 20, and now the options are 22, 25, 28, which that’s just ridiculous at this point. And, also, I think that tipping culture is increasing to the point where it’s not just for services. I understand if, like, oh, you know, there’s a service. People are bringing food out to you. They’re cleaning up after you.
Totally makes sense. But sometimes you’re tipping, yeah, at a coffee shop without even getting your drink. What if your drink is absolutely horrible and it’s the worst service you’ve ever seen? Right? So what are you tipping for? I don’t understand that either. I’m with you. On the buying lattes or, fancy coffee or fancy juice. I might have a different take.
I think if it makes you happy, it’s okay. Obviously, if this is your everyday routine, maybe try making it at home, maybe try changing some of your habits. But in my opinion, a lot of the times, like, what I see people doing too is they’ll be like, crap. I’m not gonna pay $5 for this coffee. I’m not gonna pay $5 for this juice. Oh, but let me go spend $500 on a flight ticket to London just because I’m feel like going to London. Right? Like, I think the bigger expenses are what you could maybe think about deeper than the $5 latte.
And if this, like, $5 latte is helping you become, you know, again, like, happier towards your life, I think that ultimately is what’s important as long as it’s not a recurring thing and as long as it’s not like you’re not spending on a meal outside, breakfast, dinner, lunch, coffee, dessert, everything.
Bert Martinez:
But to your point to your point, you do have to do these things that make you happy. You cannot be such a miser that that you hate your life. For example, I I don’t spend my money on those fancy drinks. I do spend my money on a massage.
Radhika Paliwal:
Oh, very interesting. Yeah. See, I think everyone has their own thing. Right? Like, I like spending like, I only have, I don’t know, maybe 20 15 to 20 things in my closet, but they’re really nice 15 to 20 things. Whereas my sister, her closet is filled, and it’s just whatever. Like, I I, like, I like investing in the pieces of clothing I’m wearing, but I don’t spend on, I don’t know, I don’t spend on, like, ridiculous hotels. I don’t care about where I’m staying, but I will spend on, experiences or Yeah. So I think it just depends on who you are.
But as long as you recognize that you don’t have to follow your friends or your family and spend on whatever they’re spending on, then that’s okay. Like, I’ve had I’ve had friends who are really into, yeah, Nike sneaker collection. They’re all, what, like, a 100 to $300. That’s fine. But I realized that I don’t need to spend 100 to 300 on both pair of Nike shoes, but they can. That’s their thing. So it’s your thing, and what it what is it that you wanna spend on?
Bert Martinez:
Right. And again, I look at if I’m really gonna collect Nike shoes or whatever, you know, I would definitely do the research. I know there’s people out there who collect these shoes because it gives them, significance. It makes them feel cool. I can wear a different pair of shoes every day. There’s not necessarily wrong with that if you’re doing the other stuff. Right? So if you got your automatic investments going, and this is your this is your, I don’t know, your your version of a latte or a massage.
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. We actually have a high yield savings account called vacation slash fun. Yes. In, like, a $100 every month. And when it’s get gets to, you know, a certain amount, I’m like, okay. Well, I I have saved to have fun. Therefore, III can, you know, travel or buy whatever I want.
Bert Martinez:
Yes. So I’m glad you brought that up because what I use is Acorns. Are you familiar with Acorns?
Radhika Paliwal:
I’m familiar with them. Yeah. I don’t use them personally.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. So for you guys who are not familiar, Acorns, is, you could put it on credit cards and debit cards. So every time you spend money, you can set you can set the amount of money. It’ll round it up. So you can set it so it’ll round up to the next quarter. So if you bought something for, let’s say, a buck a buck 10¢, it will take 15¢ out of your account and put it in your Acorns account. Or you can say, I wanna round up to the next dollar. So, again, you bought a a dollar 10¢ item.
It’s gonna take 90¢ out of your account and put it in your Acorns account. So that is my fun money slash Christmas fund. At the end of the year, I’ll have a couple $1, 000 there that came out of nowhere. Right? It it it’s the equivalent. So when I was growing up, we’d have this thing called a change jar, and you just put all your extra change. But currency, you know, physical currency is becoming less and less, usable or used. So acorns, I think, is a great thing for people who don’t wanna feel the pinch, and maybe they have difficulty saving here and there or whatever. So I’ll just put that out there.
So, yeah, you cannot be again, you can’t be such a a miser that you’re you just hate your life because, you know, you’re not having any fun at all. I I there is a IRS agent. I remember this. Such a to me, it was such a great illustration. This is an IRS agent. She had worked for the IRS, I think, all of her career. And she made whatever she made, 60, 70, $80 a year. She passed away.
She had, like, a net worth of, like, 3 million of dollar. And she had no family. She had no children. The only places she would travel to is to shareholders meetings. And so I felt bad for her to to die with 3 million of dollar, and all that money went to her the university. I forgot what it was. Her, which is great. University got a bunch of money.
But, again, you have to have that balance because I it it would have been nice for her to say, hey. Look at all the stuff. You know, to to have a memories, like you said, a bunch of experiences where she’s traveled the world. I much rather, die, You know, it would be great to be able to plan it out so where you die with with not necessarily all your money, but at least with all of your memories and experiences. I think that’s ultimately we wanna do. The reason you and I are talking about money today, not because we necessarily wanna save all of it, but we wanna have enough money for our future so we don’t have to work until we’re 70 or 80.
Radhika Paliwal:
Yeah. You wanna have enough money for the lifestyle you want. One of the exercises that I did when I got into finance why do I want to earn money? My income and my asset classes for? Right? Like, what is the reason for it? And then I read like, literally, like, I wrote it down. I sat with myself, and I’m like, this is the kind of life I want to live. How can I make it happen for me?
And that is where the entire thing began for me. Right? It’s very, very important to be real with yourself. No one’s looking at your piece of paper and saying, you don’t want Nike shoes. You’re not cool enough. You know, like, it it is your dream. It is your life, so do what makes sense for you. And then the other thing too for me is, like, leaving that legacy behind is really, really important. So for your kids, for your grandkids, making it easier on them, whether it is if if it is money or if it is just the education’s like you were saying your with your kids, you teach them how to think in an entrepreneur’s, perspective, and I think that’s incredible.
That itself is worth $1, 000, 000 right there. You know what I mean? Because if you can teach them to think and act like that, they will be able to pick it up on their own even if they don’t have a dollar to their name.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, yes, I do want to stress, and and I agree with what you’re saying. You have to make it personal. How is this gonna work for you? What is the lifestyle that you want at the end of the day? If you want to be able to afford your latte every day, nothing wrong with that, figure out how to do it. One of my favorite things, again, that I learned from Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad is if he wants a fancy car, the first thing he does, he’ll buy an asset to fund the fancy car.
And so that’s a great way of thinking. Again, with your friend who rents out the rooms so she doesn’t pay the full cost of that rent, That extra money gives her a much better lifestyle. She’s got more flexibility anyway. So, yes, it’s very personal. You get to customize it to what fits you, and I love this thing that you said. What is the lifestyle I want, and how do I make it happen? That’s 2 great questions. .
Radhika Paliwal:
Write it down. Just write down the answers for yourself. 100%. It makes such a your I know most people will think about it and know it for themselves, but it’s not real until you write it down.
Bert Martinez:
Yes. Write it down. one of my favorite places to write things down is in the mirror. Right? The bathroom mirror.
Because you can see it every day, and you don’t forget about it. And I I wanna say this. Some people scoff at writing our goals down or they or they scoff at writing down these things that we’re talking about. As humans, we forget anniversaries. We forget birthdays. We forget court dates.
Right? We actually, I know people who have forgotten plane tickets. So if you don’t think writing it down, is important, then you don’t know what you’re talking about. Alright. I’ve had so much fun getting to know you and talking money with you. I’d love to bring you back and talk more.
Radhika Paliwal:
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Bert. This was such a great conversation.
