From Stock Options to Generational Wealth

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsement for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or common should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio. This is Beyond Confidence with your host w Park. Do you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do you want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional, and financial goals? Well? Coming up on dvparks Beyond Confidence, you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers who have stepped into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and are living the life they want. You will learn how relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals.

0:52 Moving your career business forward does not have to happen at the expense of your personal or family life or vice versa. Learn more at www dot Divpork dot com and you can connect with TV ants contact eds dvpark dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's your host, div Pork. Good morning listeners. So excited to be here with you all because I'll share with you it's Tuesday morning, and. Of course I love to be here with you. And another reason I'm really excited is because I had a breakthrough. I was stuck when I was writing my book because the book is about Aim. I've written approximately about quite a few chapters, so I've had been stock.

1:38 So I just wanted to share the good news with you because I know you're there through thick and thin with me. And today we have a very special guest who is all about kindness. So welcome Josh. Thank you appreciate it, Thanks for having me. Absolutely so, Josh. We begin with a moment in your time, whether it's you were a child or in your youth, do you recall a positive moment or a person who left a remarkable memory that you are still fresh with even today. Absolutely, the person in question would be my grandfather. Every I mean I remember as a little little kid, I'm talking three four years old, just was the first one to introduce me to the game of baseball, which I fell in love with, as well as just understanding the value of a team sporting camaraderie. So just like I remember going into kindergarten for the very first time and the very first thing they had.

2:42 Us to it was like a show and tell. Everyone remembers those during their early elementary school years. And of course I brought my back glove in baseball with me and was proud to show it off that my grandfather had got me. So yeah, he's. Had an everlasting impact in my life and from oithood drawing up to the company I now work with. Oh, that's such a beautiful legacy to leave, and so many of us we don't realize that we can leave legacies in the hearts of people. So coming back to your journey, I think on growing up, did you have the usual things you know people are thinking when they're kids about becoming You wanted to become a fireman or.

3:28 Yeah, absolutely, I mean my dream is to be a baseball player. I mean just whether it's my office now or my old office, it's just it's, like I said, it's littered with baseball stuff. So my aspiration and dreams were to one day hopefully be drafted and play major League baseball. Unfortunately I did not turn out, but that's okay too. But another passion that I had losing an inspiration for my grandfather was just being involved in finance and more importantly stocks and. Different types of investments. But uh, definitely, as a kid, my heart and my dream was to play baseball. So it is such a tough competition.

4:08 I have friends whose kids have been involved in travel baseball, and you know, people don't see the work and the process that goes behind it, hours and hours of practice, and then of course you know, you get you have surgeries as well because you're doing repetitive moments. So when your dream didn't come through, how did you work through it? Oh? Well, it wasn't the I wouldn't say it was the highlight of my life, but I mean there was a realization when I went off to college and I tried to walk on to a community college baseball team and was on the fringes of that team for the better part of two years and just unfortunately couldn't stay healthy.

4:56 As you just mentioned, I had some knee trouble, things of that need, her shoulder pain and was really just trying to be the best version of myself as a baseball player. And when I kind of was pulled aside by a coach and was like, look, you can have a path to baseball, but it's probably not going to be the path that leads you to be an on field player. So I mean, I got involved with. Coaching the analytical side. Eventually that took me more towards the passion of finance. But I really did think my love for the game would drive me to be at least involved. But it was a difficult period of time to be pulled aside by a coach and kind of told in the most politically correct but also compassionate way.

5:41 You could be told that your childhood dream is unfortunately coming to an end. Yeah, and that's the key piece. Then that coach showed that empathy and compassion because they understand. I've heard some horror stories from so many youngsters, you know, where coaches are so brutal and saying like, hey, you know you are not performing and I don't want you on my team. And it's that lendown is non gentle and that stays with you. It's great, you know, kudos to that coach. So as you moved into finance, tell us a bit more about your journey. Yeah, So, when I had that kind of realization that baseball wasn't going to be the trajectory and path that I thought it was going to be as a child, I went back to my childhood mentor and the person I spoke very highly about at the beginning of my grandfather, and I just kind of reached out for advice and was like, look, I'm not sure where I should go from here.

6:41 At this point in. Time, college wasn't necessarily I mean, it was in college by no means. What do I want to say? It was an afterthought, but it wasn't the forefront the game. It was a pathway that it was a natural next step and evolutionary step to for baseball. So when it was kind of that rug was pulled out from under me, it was kind of like where now. And it took me a little bit of time between. Community college and then eventually my journey led to the University of Central Florida to find a path of finance and accounting. It went through I thought. I would do something in building construction, and then I was like, this probably isn't the best time to get into this profession being two thousand and eight, as we have a housing crisis.

7:26 So then I was like, maybe that's not my best bet. I temporarily turned to psychology. As a potential major in college, enjoyed it, but really didn't see that being a passion was kind of a placeholder. And then eventually I took an economics class at Santa Fe Community College and one of my professors there kind of showed me game theory, the basics from everything from the basics to game theory that people go through in economics, and I kind of started to have a passion, and he's like, you should probably be a dual major in economics and finance, and I said, that's. Probably a pretty good idea. Let me give it a shot.

8:10 It eventually turned into as much as I liked the economics, it ended up. Being more practic goal for what I was looking to do. When I eventually moved to UCF and someone said, hey, you should probably be on the personal finance rather than the corporate finance side. So originally my dual major of economics and finance turned into finance and accounting, and yeah, that took me from there to my first job out of college, which was working at a clearing firm making felt like pennies on the dollar, but. It was to get my foot in the door. And just like I was trying to get my securities license so I could do personal finance, but and helping people with investments.

8:52 Absolutely, and it's life is fraught with twist untims and that is the key that you know, it sounds like you were completely open to exploring life and allowing you to take you where it went. So why don't you share with us the story about you and your uncle and how family legacy it came into being. Yeah. Sure, So that was literally the basis of something my grandfather kind of always taught me was just to be open to the next idea. Try to be open minded, don't try to be so closed off. You never know where a great idea can land, even if you think in the moment it's a terrible idea. So my journey after college took me through a few stops, but eventually I made a pivotal stop along the way at working for a local firm in Orlando on the personal finance side, and I got the opportunity to kind of there, which set the tone for the family legacy journey to be the jack of all trades. I did everything from compliance to trading to being an integral part into the planning team. And I did this all the matter of probably eighteen to twenty four months. And the reason I got so many of this unique opportunity with one firm was they were making the switch from being a captured agency in the world of finance, that's working for an insurance firm or a bigger conglomerate, to then being off on their own and working more independently.

10:21 So while they were making that switch, they. Had they moved from MetLife to an independent broker dealer, so the team took a while to facilitate that move. So the team grew over that two year span into its normal capacity back when it was at matt Life. But there was a lot in that transition where they fell short, so I got to kind of fill those gaps. So eventually I went to the team and said, Hey, would you guys be open to me opening a branch in North Carolina? And unfortunately I was shut down. I say I should say unfortunately. It was fortunately and unfortunate because that propelled me to reach out to my uncle.

11:05 So I called him up one day and I said, I've got a business proposition for you. Kind of put it together. The concept or the idea. Came to me on the fly, and I said, well, now that I've done everything in a firm, why don't I just try to start my own. I was twenty for almost twenty five at the. Time, and I said, well, I'm going to need someone who's got a little bit more experience, as I put it, a little bit more gray hair, because if I'm going to go out and manage people's assets, probably want someone that has been training for a little bit longer than three to four years, and most of that wasn't. Exactly in a professional capacity. So I reached out to my uncle, who wasn't actually in the world of finance. It was actually an engineer at IBM, but he would run the IBM and Investment council, so I knew he had experience with investment management.

11:56 And also he did a lot of personal coaching one on one. On the side to help people with how to negotiate a car and how to budget and. Things like that. So friends and family became very reliant on him, and a lot of IBM ors too, So I reached out told him, hey, I'm interested in starting a firm. But before I even told him that, I said, I got this business prop. I'm want to put some things together, and I said, can I make a presentation to you? About a week later, he said sure, So we goes by. I call him up and I've got everything, I got my PowerPoint and at this time, this is all pre COVID. So the world of. Like teams in Zoom, weren't the well established pieces of technology they are today.

12:43 So I forgot what I used. I think I used either. I think it was Google Hangouts I used so I used Google Hangouts with a PowerPoint slide. Not Google slides, but combining two technologies. So but either way, I reached out to him and he said, before you jump into anything. He's like, I got a crazy idea and I want to see if you're open to it and. Maybe we can run with it. And I said, okay, I'll hear your idea and then I'll go into my pitch. And sure enough, his idea matched my pitch to a team. He's like, I want to start a financial planning firm, and I said, well, okay, I can skip the I could skip the first like ten slides that were to try to convince him to do this. I was like, well, it seems like you're on board. But the hard part was, Okay, how do I have somebody who goes from a six figure salary and with the stay at home mom my aunt was a stay at home mom into making this switch. So that was part of the game plan that if I got him on board, that was going to be the hard part to figure out. That kind of had to be figured out on the fly because by the time we made the agreement and I would come up to the Carolinas from the Orlando area. By the time I arrived here, between the travel of me flying down to help my mom even move to who's moving up to care of her parents, that two week span, everything got flipped on its head. He got laid off and I showed up to the Carolinas and were like, well, we're knee deeping it now. It looks like we're starting to financial.

14:11 Planning for her because neither or other, neither one of us have a job. It was meant to be, and so you started and I thing so like it's been what like almost a decade, Like when it was like. I met you and. Along with the family legacy, you also started the triangle of technolue. We'll kind of get into it. There's so many people who are in the corporation. They think like, oh, you know, I've put my money in the four O one kid, They've got those views, mutual funds, ETFs some of the things. So a lot of people just kind of put that away and then they don't think about the investment. What would you tell those tech people or it doesn't matter really you all those professionals because four o one K alone is not enough.

15:06 So it really comes down to someone's personal ambitions and goals. Because I like to tell my members and as I get to know them and we call them members instead of clients to go along with the family legacy, themon brand. But the most important thing that I try to tell them is like, look, part of the reason what you just stated. Is the four oh one K contributions tend to not be enough. And there's other avenues of savings into brokerage accounts, ROTH accounts outside of work, or maybe your plan has a. ROTH component at work. But the RSU compensation stock options, they play a very integral role, especially for a bunch of engineers who are.

15:47 Looking to retire early, and sometimes. Those individuals are forced into retirement just because just the technology moves so quickly, or because companies are downsizing, or like now a lot of people are full of their job because of AI. Is it going to automate so much that there's less and less jobs out there. So there's always something going on in the world of tech where I try to encourage my members to get to financial independence quicker, but that comes with a caveat, and I don't say, like I don't I don't tell them, let's go live on Robin noodles for the next forty years so you can retire or twenty years or thirty years, whatever it is. Because unfortunately, my father, who is also a very integral part in my life and my baseball story and whatnot, passed away when I was seventeen.

16:35 So I always tell people, you've got to live in the here and the now. So retirement is one thing, but understanding how to build financial independence but also enjoy life along the way is extremely critical, and that's where it done right. And thinking about tax consequences, when to. Actually exercise those stock options or when those r issues vest and understanding what is the best situation or what can I do to mitigate taxes along the way. That's critical because that's not only going to give confidence to the individual, but it's also going to set up their financial plan for greater and greater success. So I encourage people to look at all avenues not only of how they can make money, but also how it fits into their personal situation and be mindful and open to being creative, because so many times they get.

17:27 Into a plan and they say I'm going to follow it and. They're just going to drive a linear model from now until retirement. And I tell people that's not how life works. Life. There's too many curve malls for everything to just be a straight line. Oh yeah, absolutely, life can throw surprises at you. So now based on what you should you know, people have their goals, people have figured it out. So so many times people have no. Clues where to go, what to do. So what are some of the few steps that peopleeople can take to get educated. First thing is, I know this might sound a little interesting because a lot a lot of tech professional lives.

18:10 Tech professionals I have talked to have been learing to go to their HR department. But I actually think that's one of the best places to start, is to understand what is actually available to you, or to a mentor or a colleague. I mean, I don't want to say, oh, just go to a financial advisor, because I am one, but a lot of times go seek out that family member who can put a or mentor that can put a little bit more context around what you're experiencing. Like I know people who are like, I don't even know what an RSU is, like what is a restricted stock unit? Or would these options? Do these options work just like options in the open market, And a lot of times know is the answer, and there's a lot of uniqueness and nuance to them.

18:53 So the first thing is. Seek out someone who's already experienced it, because that's the best way to learn. And one of the things that I did early on in my own career, so I went to advisors and instead of asking them what are you doing right? I asked them over their career, what did you do wrong? And what can I learn from that? And they said that was more telling. And unfortunately, as much as people were like, oh, I did this and it worked out well, more often than not people remember the stories throughout their careers of when something went wrong not necessarily right, and they'll remember the lessons they learned along the way. So for me, that's another reason. Finding somebody that's independent, that doesn't have skin in the game, that can share with you.

19:37 How it impacted them is an easy way for you to kind of learn. Okay, now I know what a stock option is, I know what a restricted stock units are. I know these things. So now the question is, now I have the base level of knowledge where to next? And that's where I would still tell people. It seems weird, but there's an awesome tool online called Investipedia if you just need definition based, bare bones facts, just to make sure you have the rudimentary understanding of things. It's a great place to go AI as well. Nowadays you can prompt it seems like chat Shept, Perplexity, Grock, Google's AI and you're gonna get a thorough breakdown of information. The nice thing is, too, you can take what you have within the documentation at work, because if you get these stock options and packages, a lot of times it comes with information that most people don't read.

20:31 To me, it reminds me. Of like the disclosures when we all just click yes, agree and move on. Those actually have vital pieces of information. I understand they're boring to read, but they are eye opening and they really explain the thoroughness of what is available to you. And also, as you mentioned about chat GPT, you can copy and paste in a document uploaded in chat GPT and like exactly whatever you're looking for, you can ask it to summarize for you. That's a great way, especially if you have a document like I actually give that advice to people like they're like I went to an attorney and they're like, I got my estate documents, I got my will, my trust and powers of attorney. And they're like, I kind of understood from what they were saying. I took notes, but I always say, throw that into chat shept and have that just give you a synopsis and layman terms. And a lot of times that's a great place to start because it.

21:27 Gives people confidence of like, Okay, now at. Least I have a basic understanding of what I'm referring to. It then gives them if they seek out. That professional, whether they go back to an attorney, a tax professional, financial advisor. Now it gives them the ability to come not only well equipped with information, but also. To ask informative questions, And to me, that's one of the best things that an individual can do. Absolutely, So that's some very sound advice that people kind of go and take it. So now they're educated, they know about the stock options, and so many times what happens is that you still don't know all the nuancewers and what should people not do given the question you shared there, they should not go with the financial advisor.

22:21 Or should not go? Should not go? So the first thing is acting emotionally. A lot of I've seen a lot of people go, well, I think I have an understanding now, so I'm going to act upon the information I have. And sometimes if that's still very baseline level of information, there's a lot of nuance to these things that the last time, the last way you want to learn is to learn through mistakes of your. Own if you can avoid them. Sometimes it's it's a necessary component of life. But if you can avoid that methodology, I would highly encourage it. Also, part of the way I would seek out to not utilizing a financial advisor is and this is somewhat interesting because it's kind of how I've structured my to be the polar opposite of this, and why I created family legacy in the mold that I have is we are a one stop shop. So we bring in house the estate, the taxes, the financial planning, the whole nine yards, because what we kept finding out is we would send somebody before when we first got going, and we didn't have the one stop shop.

23:31 It didn't start this way ten plus years ago. I wish it did, but you got some work to do in building it from the ground up. But what I would end up doing is I would send someone to a tax professional and they get a set of advice from the tax professional. Same thing with the estate attorney, and then they would get information from us and they'd be like, hey, this is somewhat contradictory, and I would be like, yeah, you're right, it very much is. And they're like, well, you sent us to an and I was like, well, did you explain to the tax professional the nuance to your situation? And a lot of times that tax professional will be like I don't need that. I just I need the hardcore facts, and kind of like an engineer would sometimes where they'll miss the bigger picture and I don't mean that to be I love.

24:18 Engineers, my business partner is one my uncle. But a lot of times that was one of the things that he said he grew on as a professional himself in our space was a lot of times he gather all the facts and just make decisions based on those facts without understanding the emotional side to finance, which seems odd, but like, you can make those decisions, but. There is a person on the other end. That's going to interpret those decisions, that's going to have to live with those consequences, and sometimes you need to blend that together. And a lot of times the tax professional didn't do that. Tax professional says, here's what's great for you here in the now, but they didn't realize that in five or six years they might have an aging parent that they needed to take care of, or that tax professional didn't take into account that they might have had a special in each child, or whatever the situation might be. What ends up happening in that situation is they know a part of the story, but they have the facts that they can make a what they believe to be a wise decision in the moment, the here and the now, and it seems right on paper but ends up being a disastrous decision as time goes on.

25:31 So finding somebody that's not only going to look at the situation from one perspective, but has the skill set to look at it from a multi perspective foundation, like we do here as a one stop shop, and it. Doesn't necessarily mean everything's just coming from me. It's like I have tax professionals on staff, I have a state attorneys, I have other advisors that look differently, that have different levels and areas of expertise, and it's just having a team approach to this is extremely batter official. Absolutely, that integrated approach allows the person like so whatever you are trying to convey, you're able to talk with the professionals rather than having three different segues.

26:12 That would be very very powerful. So tell us, like, you know what got you to start the Triangle tech Net and what is it. That actually goes back to the foundation of family legacy. The stories of these two are kind of intertwined because, like I said, my business partner is my uncle, and when I first came up here, we were trying to figure out a way of like, Okay, he's going to make this the switch, this transition to financial planning, but he was expecting to do it over a probably minimum of six months, but preferably somewhere between twelve and twenty four months was the ideal amount of time frame, depending on the growth that we were experiencing on the financial side.

26:56 So he was like, I need some runway. I want to make sure I can pay my bills. I don't have to go into debt, and then the income that I'm losing, even if I have to take a pay cut. That's fine. I just don't want to go from what I'm making now to zero. And that also sets the kind of foundation for us as family legacy because we don't operate on commission because we don't believe in it. We believe in having a fiduciary responsibility where our interests are directly tied to the people we serve. So there were times that we could. Have easily sold a few annuities or insurance products and made a boatload, if not a very decent living, but we for went all of that to do what was right.

27:37 For the people we were serving. So the time frame to get up and running took closer to that two year period before we could turn an income stream on for Todd, so it was imperative and he chose this, and knowing that was the path, he said, he looked at me, his wife, his kids, and the rest of our family and just said, there's gonna be a time where I'm probably working seventy eighty hour weeks because I've got to do two. Full time jobs. And He's like, I'm willing to do it because I want to do I want to have that long term success. So and that's why I put in a I said, well, I only have one, but I'm gonna put the eighty hours a week into family Legacy.

28:17 But it ended up. Being like fifty hours or sixty hours into Family Legacy and the rest actually ended up being into TTN, and which was a blessing in the long run because it really helped solidify me as a I guess you could say to a certain degree, a center of influence in the tech space for those who are in transition, because it all started with me going to Mo's helping Todd leverage his network, go through LinkedIn, get the LinkedIn up to par, get the resume up to par, and really help him look for a ten ninety nine role that would be a project based role anywhere from like I said, six, probably as little. As six months upwards of two years. Thankfully we found Qualcom for about twelve of those months, and then at the end of that contract, IBM came back calling, and a good few of his good colleagues, friends and mentors said, hey, we have a really short term based project at LEAD six months and it ended up turned out to be a year, and that really bridged the gap for us. But that wouldn't have happened without helping him network doing the things that I preach and teach at TTN. And from the experience of helping him with that, I met great people like yourself, John Rupel, and others that I'm very very thankful for, Eugene Barlaz.

29:36 I mean, the list goes on and on and on that have decided to pay it forward and help out. So not just helping my uncle, but now we've had the blessing of probably helping well over a couple thousand people directly and indirectly find work in the triangle. So it was really meant to help Todd, but the real blessing was now we're not just we didn't just help him find the next role we've helped many many people find work as well. Yes, and it's so important to pay forward because that's the legacy we are going to leave behind. So tell us, like, you know, anybody who's in the Triangle area, where can they find the Triangle Techno and what can they expect when they come and join or is there Just give us the information to anybody from our audience. You know they're going through the transition, they know that they've got someone to lean on.

30:27 Yeah, So we keep it pretty simple. It's a monthly based event. It happens on the third Friday of every month, and basically it's open to. Everybody and anybody, so you don't even have to be. In tech or even transition, but that is the audience in which we are geared towards. We do have a lot of recruiters, dop buy hiring managers, alumni. We had a few alumni this past event that showed up and we're actually in the midst of hiring, so it was really kind of nice that we were able to help some people almost on the spot at least get into the interview stage and maybe even potentially find work that will hopefully come out of it. So you can visit Triangle TechNet dot com, which is another great way where we advertise on there. This is a free event, so we don't have advertisers, we don't have things of that nature.

31:20 It's just it's basically hosted by myself and the team here at Family Legacy. We put it on. There's no cost to it or anything. It's just for us to give back to the community and kind of go from there. I use event right and. Meet up as well, So I use a lot of those free creative ways in order to get the word out there, but most of the way people find us as word of mouth. Part of the reason I also have just recently, I had to take a little bit of a hiatus from the group during the COVID time period just because I couldn't have more than ten people in a room in North Carolina, so it wasn't exactly the most networking friendly environment at the time. So yeah, so we've actually able to grow, and I mean we're probably averaging somewhere between fifty and sixty people per event.

32:11 And like I said, if you want to know more, you can go to the website, which is just triangle TechNet dot com. So yeah, there's information about not about me just as the host that if you want to know more about the structure of the event, that's really what my role on the website is. But the real value is the facilitators. There's seven or eight facilitators. You can learn about their background, ways they're able to pay it forward and help out. And there are these incredible breakout sessions at TTN that you can learn more from and each one of them. We have a probably a revolving door of seven or eight per per event and just great people paying it forward, giving a great insight on how you can establish yourself in the workforce, and if you're currently in transition, you can learn from some of the greats that will at one point or another.

33:04 We're in the same shoes as people are currently unemployed and what they did to get themselves out of it and how they leverage their network and the community to find the right job. Absolutely, and Josh, you know, thank you for your kindness and opening up your heart and. The space for people. So it's I've known Josh for probably gosh several years. So if you're looking, if you're in transition, especially if you're in the Triangle area, please join us. I'm there. Most of the events like I used to had started, like you know, several years back and then full circle kind of came back.

33:47 So definitely are there. Any last thoughts and how could people connect with you directly? Well, I'm an open book, so if you want to connect with me directly, just the you can go to either the triangletechnet dot com website or family LEGACYNC dot com shoot me an email. I'm probably one of the most laid back, easy to get to know. I like to say I'll have coffee with anyone, which is true. It's just like I enjoy that concept of networking. My wife would allowed I would prefer if I was a little less busy to give me at home. So I do try to make time for my beautiful wife and kids, but I still enjoy the networking. So if, like, if someone's out there, whether they're in transition or looking for finance help, and even if that's not you, and you just want to kind of connect and get to know me, let's grab coffee.

34:39 I'm all for it. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and maybe issue all the best. In your endeavors and helping people because at the end of the day, that's what life is all about, coming together helping each other. So thank you Josh for all the work you're doing well. Thank you appreciate you having. Me absolutely and thank you wonderful audience, because without you, the show would not be possible. To check out those websites, especially if you're in the Triangle area, and make sure that you take the advantage of all the resources that are there to be offered and reach out to us as to how we could support you in the life and your dreams to come true. So and also thank you Je for making the show technically possible.

35:32 Be well and take care. I'll see you next Tuesday. Thank you for being part of Beyond Confidence. With your host d v Park, we hope you have learned more about how to start living the life you want. Each week on Beyond Confidence, you hear stories of real people who've experienced growth by overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Vpark shares what happened to her when she stepped out of her comfort zone to work directly with people across the globe. She not only coaches people how to form hard connections, but also transform relationships to mutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live the life they want. If you are ready to live the life you want and leverage your strengths, learn more at www dotwpark dot com and you can connect with vat contact at dvpark dot com. We look forward to you're joining us next week