Episode 13 Transcript

Why Are Americans so Positive About Their Own Situation and so Negative About the Country’s? Feat. Realtor Rico Rodriguez

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Article Summary
• Discussion About the Article
• Introduction of Rico Rodriguez
• Rico’s Background
• Impact of the Pandemic on Rico’s Business
• Rico’s Career Insights
• Conclusion and Contact Information

Introduction

Madison: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 13th episode of Not Just Numbers Honest Conversations with a Financial Advisor and Lawyer. I am Madison Demora, and I am here with Mike Garry. Mike is a financial advisor and a CFP and the founder and the CEO of Yardley Wealth Management. He is also an estate planning lawyer, and his law firm is Yardley Estate Planning, LLC. Hey, Mike.

Mike: Hey, Maddie. How are you?

Madison: I’m good, I’m good. How are you?

Mike: I’m good.

Madison: Awesome. So today we are going to discuss an article Mike stumbled upon in the Trentonian, which will be linked in the show description. So, Mike, I just had the idea. I guess I can kind of read a summary about this article, and then we could take it from there, ask you some questions and see how you feel about it.

Mike: Yeah, that’s a great idea. Rachel alerted me to the article yesterday. She saw it and she read it halfway through, and she’s like, oh, you’re going to love this. I’m like, oh, Jeff must be making some brilliant comments there. And she said, you’re going to agree with a lot of what he says.

Article Summary

Madison: All right, so we will get right into it. So, like I said, the article is from the Trentonian, and the title is “The Economy is Fine and $29 Double Bourbons Prove It,” and it’s written by Jeff Edelstein. The article discusses the controversy surrounding a tweet by the New York Times columnist David Brooks, in which he complained about the high cost of a meal at the Newark airport, attributing it to why Americans think the economy is terrible. The tweet featuring burgers, fries, and what appeared to be a double bourbon received criticism. It was later revealed that the meal cost significantly less than Brooks claimed. The article highlights the disparity between the public perceptions of the overall economy and their individual financial wellbeing. While a Federal Reserve survey showed that only 18% of people believed the economy was good or excellent, 73% felt that they were doing at least okay financially. A similar contradiction was found regarding inflation, where people believed it was rising nationally but expected it to decrease personally. The author suggests that this phenomenon might be explained by the “everything is terrible, but I’m fine” philosophy, where people tend to have a more negative view of the world at large than their own lives. Social media is proposed as a possible contributing factor as people use it to vent their frustrations, creating a perception that things are worse than they really are. In the end, the article concludes that the availability of expensive items such as a $29 double bourbon at the airport suggests that the economy might not be as bad as some people believe and encourages readers to remember that they are doing well despite the negative perceptions.

Discussion About the Article

Mike: That’s a mouthful. So, Maddie, I thought this was really funny. And one funny part of the article is that to get to the $78 price tag that David Brooks tweeted, somebody figured out that it would be—that the food would need to be accompanied by two double bourbons, and then it would be $78. And that is pretty funny. Like, if you’re going to get two double bourbons, you’re going to expect to pay a pretty good amount, even at the Newark airport. Or maybe especially at the Newark airport.

Madison: Okay. What do you think about David Brooks’ tweet and the controversy it generated? Do you believe his tweet accurately reflects the state of the economy?

Mike: Well, those are great questions, Maddie. And so maybe it does, right? And maybe what Jeff is saying is right, so that the airport can offer up $29 double bourbons and that people are going to buy them and then complain about the price, right? If it was really too much, maybe he wouldn’t have ordered it, right? But it does speak to something that we do see a lot. We have people come in all the time, and most of our clients are better off than the average American. And people will come in, either clients or prospective clients, and we’ll ask how they’re doing, and they’ll say that, you know, they’re saving or they just bought a beach house and they did this great trip. And there’s something else going on, but the economy’s terrible. And there is that dichotomy. Like what Edelstein points to is something that’s real, that’s not imaginary. People really do generally think that they’re doing okay, but the rest of the world is not. And one point to make out is that at all times, there are some people who are doing terribly, right? Like, it’s the way that the world is. Unfortunately, there are people who are poor or going through crises. And, you know, you don’t want to ever forget that, right? Those people are an important part of the world, but most people are not going through crises, and most people are doing okay. And certainly compared to the American past and the history of the world, most middle-class and richer people in America have it really pretty good.

Madison: So the article discusses a discrepancy between how Americans view the overall economy and their personal financial situations. Do you think such a gap exists?

Mike: Oh, yes. And I think that it always exists. And we see it all the time, and we see other articles about it. When I gave you that article the other day, there was an article that I had in the Wall Street Journal that talked about the same exact thing. There’s a difference between how people perceive themselves and how everybody else is. It’s interesting.

Madison: It is interesting. The article mentions a similar disparity in perceptions regarding inflation. How can people believe national inflation is rising while thinking it’s decreasing in their own lives?

Mike: That is a great question, isn’t it? As part of that whole dichotomy, again, things are going okay for me, but everybody else has it really hard. And one of the things about inflation is it can be very personal. So your personal inflation could be different than somebody else’s. So, if you are at a point like me, right? So right now, I don’t have any kids in school, and we’ve had our house for 18 years. And so my inflation has decreased a lot, whereas for the previous 20 years, I had kids in school and school got more expensive all the time. A lot of the things that they did got more expensive. People are different in different lives. So if you compare me to my daughters, who both live in apartments, they’re going to have—their housing costs are going to go up much more significantly than mine will next year because mine will only increase a little bit if utilities go up or if my property taxes go up, whereas there’s a lot of inflation in apartment rentals and they’re more likely to pay a higher percentage next year than I will. And so it is really a very personal thing.

Madison: Yes. I think the whole article—some people can perceive it as a very personal thing. It’s just different for everyone. So the author refers to “everything is terrible, but I’m fine” philosophy. Do you agree with this perspective?

Mike: So I personally believe that or agree that it’s out there, right, that people feel that way. But a big part of my job is trying to help people with a perspective that is more realistic. I think I told you a story back in 2008 when the Phillies won the World Series. A neighbor had people over, and so it was October of 2008, or maybe it was November. Anyway, it was after the whole great financial crisis started, which was really started in September. We were having craft beers and steaks and there were dozens of people there, and the one neighbor who’s a really super nice guy said, “Mike, I hear it’s going to be worse than the Great Depression.” And I just looked at him like, “Steve, you’re eating a filet mignon with a craft beer. And our neighbor, who is not wealthy, invited us all over to share in this. Have you seen the pictures of the Depression? There’s 25% unemployment, millions of people lost their places to live. It was a real tragedy.” And things did get pretty bad in ’08 and ’09, but nowhere near as bad as they got during the Depression. And we started from a much higher standard of living than people had in 1929 when the Depression started. And the thing is, I don’t think that neighbor—maybe he was an outlier and liked being a little bit more dramatic or negative—but I think people often think that things are worse than they actually are. And I think a big part of my job as an advisor is to remind people and give them some historical perspective on how things have been and relate to difference in the recent and more distant past.

Madison: All right, so what role do you think social media plays in shaping people’s perceptions of the economy and their own well-being? Do you believe social media tends to amplify negativity?

Mike: I do. Well, that’s a good question. So we’re talking about this because this is what Edelstein said in the column. They think social media is to blame for these perceptions. And I’d say social media probably amplifies some of it, but it’s not entirely to blame because I think the condition existed long before social media did. I think social media, though, would highlight, like any kind of media, if it’s targeted, it will inflame someone’s passion. And if somebody feels a certain way and they see a drumbeat of TikToks or reels that feed into that negativity, they’re going to be more negative. And so that is true. But I think the other things are that the media is partially to blame for that. You have media trying to get people’s attention, and it’s hard. It’s not just eternal. And you have ABC, NBC, and CBS, and everybody watches the same thing at 6:00 like it may have been 30 or 50 years ago. Now people have all sorts of sources, and a lot of the sources don’t even pretend to be unbiased, right? Like, they’re trying to get their tribe of viewers or listeners to tune into them. And so they will say things to get them passionate. And you know what counts as news even is something that, you know, we discussed yesterday. It’s not news that most people go to work and pay their taxes and don’t cheat on their spouses. It’s not news if people go about their ordinary lives. So the news is filled with things that are outliers and they tend to be bad things. And this is something that actually that happens long before the media. I mean, the other thing is, like, we’re hardwired to look out for bad things because for a long time, humans have been around, and you’re walking through the forest and you see those pretty flowers, you don’t really get your attention. But if you see a bear running to you, well, that gets your attention, right? Like, you have to be focused on what can go wrong to survive as a person and as a species. And so our brains have been wired that way for a long time. And so, you know, maybe people have the objective perspective on their situation because they know how their checking and savings stack up and how their investments are. But maybe they’re wary of the outside world and think, like, well, there’s a lot of danger out there, and so everybody else must be feeling that. I feel kind of safe where I’m at and I’m okay, but I feel for those other people, or I worry about those other people, or they better watch out. I think that’s what I think. So social media is a part of it, and maybe it has made it worse recently. But social media is not all that old, right? And I saw this with clients ten years ago or 20 years ago, a long time before social media did that. I think social media hurts other things, too. But in terms of this, I think it’s just a part of it.

Madison: Absolutely. So is there anything else you wanted to talk about with this article?

Mike: No. I was so glad to see it. I think it’s important, and I think it helps with articles like this and then the Wall Street Journal one that I had included with it. I think it helps when people see that there have actually been, like, scientific studies to show that people do feel more negatively about the outside world than their own situation. Anything to help people gain perspective, I think, is a good thing. And I was real glad to see Mr. Edelstein’s column yesterday. I generally—you know, he’s a couple years younger than me. He’s funnier than me. Rachel and I generally enjoy his columns.

Madison: Is he just in the Trentonian?

Mike: I think he’s on a radio show too, but I’m not sure about that.

Madison: Okay, awesome. Well, thank you, Mike, for giving your advice and your opinion on this article. I hope it helps people put things a little more into perspective, you know?

Introduction of Rico Rodriguez

Madison: We are joined here today with Rico Rodriguez. Rico is a realtor at Berkshire Hathaway here in Yardley. Rico, would you like to explain to our listeners what Berkshire Hathaway is and a little background about yourself?

Rico’s Background

Rico: Yeah, sure. So Berkshire Hathaway is a brokerage in—I guess they’re international, actually—but we’re with it’s franchise, it’s with Fox and Roach locally. And basically we sell and buy houses, both residential and commercial. I’m focused mostly on residential. And as for myself, I was born in the Philippines, if this is where we’re going.

Madison: Yeah, absolutely.

Rico: I was born in the Philippines, and I guess I came to America when I was four years old. That was about 25 years ago, if my math is correct.

Mike: Your math is way wrong.

Rico: It is. I’ve been a Yardley resident, to your point, for over 40 years, so my math is wrong. Pennsbury graduate, Temple University. I guess I moved away for a little bit, but I came back. That’s why my roots are very strong in this area, and I love this town. I mean, where else can you—I don’t know. I just, I always describe this town as that small-town feel, family and community. And you’re situated—we’re situated right here. I think this is the realtor coming out, describing people who are buying it from out of town. I mean, we’re minutes from Philadelphia, day trip from New York. We have all the restaurants of Newtown and Langhorne and New Hope, but then we come home to Yardley, right? It’s great.

Mike: We’ve only been here 18 years, but I love getting off 95 and making that right and being the only car doing that, and like ten cars going left to Newtown. I love it. It’s great.

Rico: And not to talk too much about this, but about, I don’t know, in the nineties, when Newtown wasn’t even as developed as it is now. That right turn that you talk about, that wasn’t expanded yet. There was only one lane going to make a left and one lane going to make a right. So I was always backed up coming off that exit all the way on 95, that whole ramp. And I remember not even having cell service, that little area. And I would have to say, I’ll call you back in about five minutes. That’s what I love about this town and the fact that we lose service because they’re not letting, you know, build cell towers everywhere. I don’t mind that.

Mike: So how did you get into being a realtor?

Rico: In a nutshell, I’ve been buying and selling houses, properties for, I guess, since my mid-twenties. I inherited a house from my aunt. When she passed away, my cousins and I inherited it, and I bought them out and I started renting it out. And I learned, I learned fast why you don’t rent to college kids. This was around St. Joe’s. So then I started buying little row houses in Philly and flipping them, and then I just took it from there and I decided to cut out the middleman after a while because, which is the real estate agent, and I got my license, and it’s the best thing I ever did. I love it. I love what I do.

Mike: That’s good. That really helps.

Impact of the Pandemic on Rico’s Business

Madison: Awesome. So how’s business been going?

Rico: Business is going surprisingly well. I mean, it’s just the housing market is in a shift right now. It’s shifting. For the last four or five years, it’s been a seller’s market. So that means inventory is low. There’s a lot more buyers than sellers. So prices of houses are in demand or houses are in demand, which means prices are just going, you know, going up or remaining high with mortgage rates going up. You know, you would think that buyers are going to hold back, but, you know, it’s still, it’s still a seller’s market. I’ve been fortunate enough through networking and marketing, going back to being here for over 40 years. You know, you know a lot of people. All the people I graduated with, they’re still in the area, and it’s really helped. Business is, it’s surprisingly—like I said, I’m doing well in a market where a lot of realtors are finding it slow. I’ve been very fortunate.

Mike: Is that the—is real estate still a market where a handful of realtors do most of the business, and a lot of people do it like…

Rico: I guess, like the 80/20 rule. I don’t even know what the figure is, but there are a lot of—I mean, just business in general. What did they say? 98% of small businesses, you know, close down within the first two years. I think that’s pretty much true with realtors. It goes hand in hand, and if you don’t do it full time, you know, there’s a lot of part-timers. Just like with anything in life, you know, you got to give it all.

Mike: Yeah, it’s a hard way to make a living. I think people look at it, it’s like, oh, I could work part time, I could do these hours, and you’ll make these big commissions and don’t realize how much the commission’s—what small part of that commission that the realtor actually gets. And then how hard it is, how competitive it is. It’s a hard market.

Rico: I mean, it depends, really. I mean, you can do it part time, and it’s been done. It’s being done if you don’t rely on it as your primary income, if you have a spouse, let’s say, who contributes as well.

Madison: So how did the pandemic affect your business?

Rico: Oh, man, Mike knows this very well. The pandemic affected me—it affected me mainly because, well, my business was affected mainly because it affected me. I don’t know if we want to get so much into this, but in a nutshell, I contracted COVID pretty severely. I was in the hospital for a while, but even though it took me a long time to get back, about eight, nine months to really get back to the person I was, meaning I could go back to work and, you know, go out there, climb steps and all that. Even though it took me that, you know, it was probably, and I don’t say this often, it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me. It taught me a lot. But I mean, to answer your question, how did it affect me? I mean, I don’t know. It delayed a lot of things. I took a backseat to a lot of sales that I could have had if it wasn’t for me getting COVID. So, yeah, the pandemic—I never really thought about that because I lived through it. It was a different experience than most people. But because of that experience, I look—it helps me because I look at life differently. I get choked up. Sorry. You’re not going to let me hear the end of this. It’s just my outlook every day. It’s just—look at this. I mean, does it get any better? It took a lot to get back, but, I mean, I didn’t do anything special. I didn’t do anything that no one else would have done, that anyone else would have done. I just wanted to get back to my family. But it changes your perspective.

Madison: Absolutely.

Rico: So when I wake up, I thank God, and then, you know, for another day—I don’t even know where I’m going with this. It just—it makes work easier because those things, and I don’t even know, those things that were a big deal before, like inspections didn’t go right. You just know it’s going to—you know, you can overcome things a lot, a lot easier before, you know, when I was driving, someone cut me off. I would chase that person down and get them back. I hate to say that, but now it’s like, have a good day.

Mike: That idea of not sweating the small stuff. When you really had a struggle for your life for months, worried about losing your family, I’m sure that those things are now small things now.

Rico: That’s what it taught me. Family first. Family’s everything.

Mike: You are a lucky guy in that regard.

Rico: I am so lucky. I’m very blessed. I mean, going back to being very blessed and Yardley, I’ll tell you. Lower Makefield. My clap out—you can look it up on Facebook. There’s a video on there. My doctor who saved my life, Dr. Ben Solomon, he took a video of me coming down from my room. I didn’t know what was going on. I had just woken up a few days earlier. I was being discharged and going to rehab, but the clap out, there were over 200 people there and it was just overwhelming. But going back to the support and the community and just this, this town, that’s why I love it so much.

Madison: That’s amazing. That’s beautiful.

Rico: Thank you.

Madison: Really puts things into perspective, you know?

Rico: Yeah, it does.

Rico’s Career Insights

Madison: What do you like best about what you’re doing?

Rico: What I like best about what I’m doing—I love the look on my clients’ faces when I hand them the keys to their new home, especially if it’s their first home. They have that wide-eyed look and they’re beaming with excitement. And it’s just because their future is now determined. They have a house, and this is not being overstated. This is the feeling people get when they know that certainly they have a place to raise their kids, their families. They’re going to make long-term memories. And just knowing that I was able to help them do that, I love doing that.

Madison: Amazing. So what is a common myth about your job or field of experience?

Rico: A common myth, I guess, that we sit on the beach and eat bonbons all day. But that’s in reality, that’s what wealth management advisors do. No, a common misnomer, let’s see, about a realtor is that all you have to do is take pictures of a house and put a sign on the lawn. And that’s not really all we do. People who have gone through a process know that, but I get that all the time. I’ll be sitting somewhere and, you know, having a drink, and they’re like, “Oh, man, you have the life.” And it’s, you know, needless to say, it’s a lot more than that. To me, it’s all about relationships. There’s a difference. If you go in to make money, you’re not going to make it. I mean, I think that’s just in general with anything. You have to love what you do. In this business, relationship is everything. And if—I mean, it starts with getting the business. You have to build relationships to get business. And then you have to want to know your clients, their wants, their needs, and their goals, short-term and long-term. And you need the relationship to be able to work together. So we all just, in a nutshell, you work together to achieve the goals through the process of buying or selling that home. That’s the myth.

Mike: So it seems much more of a relationship business than some sort of transactional business that a lot of people probably think that it is.

Rico: Absolutely. It’s relationships.

Madison: What are some mistakes that you see clients making that you’re helping them to avoid?

Rico: I would have to say the biggest mistake that clients make is overvaluing their house, their home. Let’s face it, we all think our house is worth a lot more than—or more than, you know, what it really is.

Mike: But you look like you’re sitting outside a country estate somewhere, so I could see that.

Rico: No, it’s just the background that I chose to make it appear that way; it’s a facade. No, it’s—you know, you can’t blame them. You can’t blame people. I mean, sentimental value. When you’re not in the business, you know, you fix something up in your house, you repair something, you feel like it’s worth more. But then, that was ten years ago. You update a kitchen and it’s already outdated. You know, I have a house on the market right now, and I put—I describe it as updated kitchen. And then agents call me in their feedback and they say, you know, their clients didn’t like it because the kitchen wasn’t updated the way it was described. But anyway, it’s just part of that. Don’t overvalue your house.

Madison: Absolutely. So with all the success you have achieved, what’s the biggest challenge that you’re facing or have faced?

Rico: I’d have to say it’s keeping up with all the technological advances in the industry. The internet gives everyone the ability to reach the general public. So a lot of people believe that they can sell their own house. Zillow is a big competitor of ours. Not so much—they don’t have agents going around. They pay agents—or I should say agents pay Zillow for the leads. But getting too deep here. It’s really the do-it-yourself. There’s a lot more that—like we said, you know, people believe they can sell their own houses, which they can if you have the time and the knowledge and the resources. But just like anyone can fix their own car or just invest for their own retirement. I mean, you know, I actually sold insurance and mutual funds for a little bit back in my—you know, right after college. And what a lot of people would tell me—this is back in 2000, under mid-nineties—I can’t imagine more so now, Mike, with the internet, you know, the websites, do-it-yourselfers, the ability to—all the resources. But they would tell me, “I can invest on my own,” or “I can, you know, now I can sell my own house.” But you really need the knowledge, need the expertise of the people who do it every day.

Mike: Right. You know, in my industry, there are like some people we’ve done plans for, like, that aren’t ongoing clients. We don’t do that anymore, but we used to do a plan where somebody would say, like, “Hey, what should I be doing?” They’d bring in their information. I’d evaluate it, ask them a bunch of questions, get to know them. Then I’d come back, and a couple of weeks later would say, “Hey, this is what we think you should do.” And they wrote a check for that. And like, for me, that would have been a good service if I just stayed a lawyer and didn’t do this, that would be a good service because I did have a finance undergrad degree and MBA, and I do understand a lot of stuff, and it’s good to have a second opinion or validate. But I think it’s really, in my experience, it’s a small percentage of people that actually do a great job on their own and don’t really need a little bit of advice. It’s possible, but to do that, you need to have a lot of the requisite skills, but then also the time and the interest in looking at things and evaluating things and spending the time every month or a quarter that you need to, to make sure whether you need to rebalance or do tax loss harvesting or the things that we do. So, yeah. So it comes down to, is that how you want to spend time? Could it be better spent? And is it something you could, you know, outsource? Right? Like, I don’t cut my grass. I could cut my grass. Is that worth my time?

Rico: That’s a great example.

Mike: It’s not. It’s better to have like two guys get out of a truck and go through it in 20 minutes. And they do a great job.

Rico: Because you make better use of your time. You know, not that there’s anything wrong with cutting a lawn, you know.

Mike: No, no. You know, we all have different skill sets and opportunities.

Rico: Exactly.

Madison: Absolutely. And time is the most valuable thing that we have, right?

Rico: That’s well put.

Madison: Absolutely. If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?

Rico: I love this question. This question always intrigues me because don’t you think that after 50-some years, you’d want to be remembered for more than one thing? That was the first thought in my head. But I guess the biggest thing I would think is that I cared, that I cared about people. Family first and foremost, going back to that. And I don’t want to get started with that again, but my friends and people I meet every day, you know. I’ve learned that giving back is—it’s really one of the most important things because, you know, especially going back to this COVID taught me, my experience with COVID taught me that, that everyone is going through something, and that’s why, you know, you just have to understand that. Keep that in mind and just be kind.

Mike: Yeah. Well, that’s nice.

Madison: That was beautifully said.

Rico: Well, it’s true, though, and I wish I could live it more every day.

Mike: It’s hard sometimes. You get busy in life and, uh, and yeah, it’s easy to lose focus of. But thanks for bringing it to our attention. We’ll try to make sure we do more of that.

Rico: Imagine if we all did.

Mike: Well, it’d be—it would be pretty nice. I have a question about, so if someone were thinking, like, say, somebody Madison’s age was thinking about getting into your line of work, what would you say? Like, how would you counsel them? What would you recommend?

Rico: If you have the drive and you have the focus, you’re just gonna—you’re gonna do it. And if you love people, and my advice would be to focus on it and to just work. Well, you know, that’s really it.

Madison: It sounds like building connections is a really big thing.

Rico: It really is. That’s what it’s mostly about.

Mike: You have a lot of, like, repeat clients? So if you help somebody buy or sell a house, do they work with them again in the future?

Rico: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you’re buying and selling people’s houses throughout their lives—their first house, their starter home, all the way to, you know, downsizing. So I just, uh, actually, a lady just sold—I never sold her first house. That was in 1977, but, um, I just sold her house. And then now we’re—we just settled on her 55-plus house. So it was, you know, life events.

Mike: Yeah, I remember riding my bike a couple years ago, and one of the newer developments came up and, you know, it said, you know, a 55-plus opening soon, and I was 54. I was looking at them like, oh, crap, they would take my money now, right?

Madison: If you could go back to your 18-year-old self and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Rico: Don’t we live this answer, like, every day of our lives? I mean, especially when you have kids, you’re thinking what you want to tell them to advise them because of what you went through. And I say it all the time. It goes through my head. If I don’t say it’s going through my head. We’re always looking back and telling ourselves, you know, if I only knew then what I know now. The biggest example to me is I wish I bought 1,000 shares of Microsoft, something like that. But I know what you’re asking for specifically. I would tell myself, 18-year-old self, to ignore the haters, all your detractors. You know, you have to just find your path. This is going back to someone who asked me if they want to be a realtor or if they should be a realtor. I would say you focus on—you find that one thing in life and you focus on it as an 18-year-old. And you, while everyone goes out and parties, you know, work. And everyone lives for the weekends, you work. And don’t ever compare yourself to others. The only person you compare yourself to is the person you’re looking at in the mirror. And your goal in life should be to be better than that person you’re looking at in the mirror tomorrow.

Mike: I like that.

Rico: No, I mean, I follow motivational things. I went to an Anthony Robbins seminar years ago. And, you know, you learn things. And he said, and going back to that question about how you want to be remembered, and, you know, he said when he started the seminar saying, you know, you all came from different places today. You met a lot of people. The person you went on the train with, a conductor, sat next to, the person you bought coffee from all the way to the seminar, all the people you face every day. How did you—what kind of impression did you leave on that person? And, you know, you’d like to think that you made a good impression. And I like to believe that when people think of me, they smile.

Mike: No, I love that. You know, it is so easy, and unfortunately, it’s getting easier to compare yourself to other people.

Rico: Oh, right. Kids have it hard today. Much harder than we did.

Mike: You know, because we only had, like, the people that we knew close to compare ourselves to. Not like a thousand images every second on various internet sites. There’s always—there’s always going to be somebody that’s thinner or fitter or richer or…

Rico: Oh, absolutely. To your point, I don’t know about smarter, but to your point, when we were growing up, it was whoever was in front of us. Now it’s the whole world.

Mike: Right.

Madison: So we know your time is incredibly valuable and we greatly appreciate you spending time with us. For those watching and listening and want to learn more about you or get in contact with you, with buying or selling a house, what is the best way they could find you?

Rico: You can learn more about me and Berkshire Hathaway by visiting gowithrico.com or simply calling me at 215-206-1973. Look forward to meeting you and helping you make a move.

Conclusion and Contact Information

Mike: Who would think that these wealth management podcasts would get so emotional? But they do. You talk about real stuff and we talk, like, the challenges in life.

Rico: When you talk about life, that’s what happens, right?

Mike: All right, thanks so much, Rico.

Rico: Absolutely. You guys have a good day. Thank you again.

Madison: Thank you. You as well, Rico. This was awesome. For more information on Yardley Wealth Management or Yardley Estate Planning, you could visit our website at yardleywealth.net, and yardleyestate.net. You can also follow us on socials at Yardley Wealth Management. This podcast has been produced by Madison Demora and Mike Garry with the technical and artistic help from Poe Productions.