Reinventing Life: Retirement Mindset to a Growth & Purpose Mindset

Dianne Flemington introduces Stuart and Denise MacPherson, who transitioned from government careers to successful real estate investors and financial advisors.   Having retirement mindsets but realizing their was so much life left to live, they went in search of their next purpose. 

Despite starting their journey post-divorce, they built a strong family and business. They emphasize the importance of mindset, education, and risk-taking in financial planning. 

Their strategy includes leveraging registered funds for private lending, which offers higher returns than traditional investments. 

They advocate for setting ambitious goals, maintaining a positive attitude, and staying active both physically and mentally. 

Their approach has led to an eight-figure real estate portfolio and a mutual fund trust, enabling them to help others achieve better retirement outcomes.

You can find this magnificent couple in these places:
www.deniseandstuart.com
https://www.facebook.com/DENISEandSTUART/
https://www.instagram.com/deniseandstuart/
 

Thanks for listening. Feel free to follow the Leadership Longevity conversation on LinkedIn as well.
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Transcript

Dianne Flemington: 0:21

Hello, listeners and my special tribe, welcome to the leadership longevity podcast. I'm your host. Dianne Flemington, hello tribe and those listeners that are new to the leadership longevity podcast, welcome today. I want to introduce to you today, a couple that I met inside my Business Mastermind group, and I've been kind of listening to them as in the background of the meetings, and have really come to respect and appreciate their relationship. They've been individually and together. They've had some big experiences and prolific changes in their lives that i i make up that would derail people, but instead, they've found a way to collaborate in a really healthy way and and create access for people to help support our lives through investment and financial means. Stuart and Denise are both award winning real estate investors and their real estate advisors. They're experts in Canada in the retirement plans that we call the Registered Retirement Savings Plan, and they work with private mortgages and private lending. Their coaches, their financial life professionals. They're trustees of the SDMA seat, capital trust and the ground. They're very proud grandparents of nine. Welcome Denise and Stewart to the podcast today. Thank you. Lovely to have you. Dianne. I'm most intrigued by the start of this whole journey for you, which, in my world, one of the topics we talk about in the tribe is relationship health and the two of you started your journey, both having come from divorces and coming together, have created just a lovely, huge family. Do you mind just starting your journey off with us today, talking about talking about your relationship, and what's it been like?

Unknown: 2:19

Well, you want to start Sure. I mean, I grew up as the son of a Canadian Air Force officer, so my dad was military, and what that meant was that we moved around a lot. I mean, by the age of 13, I'd lived in four different Canadian provinces. I'd lived in two countries, and what that meant is that when I when I watch television or movies and they're showing the typical North American family where the kids have grown up and they've got a hometown, I don't have a hometown. As a matter of fact, with the downsizing in the military, a lot of the places I used to live don't exist anymore. So I ended up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was my dad's final posting, and I went to university there, started working there, met a nice lady, we got married, and after a number of years, we moved to Ottawa at her insistence. Actually, she used to live in Ottawa because she was the daughter of a military person, and it was a difficult move. We were actually separated for about eight months as we went through the whole difficulty of moving, and I think the marriage was a little week before then, but that eight month separation kind of started to drive a nail into the coffin, and so we stayed married for about five years after the move, at which point she had just had enough of it, and she told me that she wanted out. And I said, Fine, we had two kids at that point. They were older teenagers, and so the kids stayed with me. And the irony of the situation is that she moved back to Halifax. So I was settled here. I was working for the government, and while I was working for the government, I met this nice lady,

Dianne Flemington: 4:06

that's true. We

Unknown: 4:10

ended up working for the same department, which is where we met, and I had just gone through a very difficult divorce. As a matter of fact, when we met, I was still at the tail end. It hadn't been finalized, even at the time when we met. But, you know, I grew up in northern Ontario, a family of five kids. I'm the only daughter with four brothers, so for me, it was kind of fun, in a sense that a lot of my best friends have been guys, because that's what I had around me all the time, right? So, yeah, so growing up, I'm the only one, believe it or not, being the only girl that kind of left home. Everybody stayed around. I do have a brother now that lives a few hours away from our hometown, but I'm the one that left. I was always the one that was just like, go, go, go, like, and just, just wanting to do things right, expand my wings. And whatnot. So I ended up working for government. I had started, I lived about an hour away from Ottawa when I had started, won a competition and came to Ottawa, and I was driving back and forth and again. Like, you know, anybody that goes to divorce, you go through a period where things just are not right, and that's how it was. So I ended up working. We I moved to Ottawa. The divorce happened, and then we just continued to work. And then we actually worked in the same area for a while, and we became friends, but then he went back to headquarters, I stayed in the regional office, and somehow we reconnected. And we thought, Well, why don't we just go to the jazz festival together? You know, that's how we started. So it was slowly, and I have to admit, I wasn't ready to jump from one fry pan to our next. So this guy ordered me for four years before we could talk of getting together, right? And when we did like we each had two grown children, and now we can proudly say that we have a total of nine grandchildren, and they range from 24 years down to just newborn. She's just six weeks right now, and it's just been lovely. So my children live in the US and in Germany, whereas Stewart's kids are in the west end of Ottawa, so we've seen them a little bit more sort of growing up so but even at that, with my kids, like with FaceTime now, we see each other, we talk to each other often and whatnot. But, I mean, it hasn't happened often. We've been able to put all the families together, but when we do, it is so special, and it's just fantastic, right, to be able to do that. So we're in, you know, communicate with all of them at all the time, the ones that live far away, we get pictures all the time, you know, through text messages, you know, with faith iPhone, yeah, up. We talk to the grandkids, you know, like it's just, it's just been fun. So Christmas can be a fun time when we all get together, you know. So the nice thing is that our kids all get along. Yes, Oh, brilliant, yeah. Worry about that family dynamic that you sometimes get with a blended family, yeah? So, like I said, nine grandkids and oldest being 24 so, and we've been together now 26 years.

Dianne Flemington: 7:15

Wow, there you go. Well done. Well done. You too. Well.

Unknown: 7:22

So much better.

Dianne Flemington: 7:24

You learned. Does that mean that you learned? That's right? Yeah,

Unknown: 7:27

we did the trial run first. I once worked with somebody who would talk about her practice husband. Oh,

Dianne Flemington: 7:33

okay, that's actually an interesting that's a whole nother conversation we could have later. All right, so the other piece that the tribe knows about you is that you, the pair of you gone now that you shared that you were in government for how long were each of you working in your careers?

Unknown: 7:51

I did. I did 31 years. Yeah. Denise was 20, yeah. I was short six weeks from being 20 years.

Dianne Flemington: 8:00

Oh, wow, yeah, 20 years, let's just call it right. When

Unknown: 8:03

you went, when you've had enough, you've had enough, it doesn't how much time there is. And people were saying, Oh, but your pension will be better if you wait the full 20 years. No, it's time to go. And I did no for the amount of time that we were putting in into work, which was 60 to 80 hours a week at that point, I thought, what we could do that for something that we really, really want to do, and grow our own business, and putting the hours and we get the benefit, rather than government getting the benefit from all that work that we've been doing, because we were the, you know, the 8020 rule. We were the 20% that did 80% of the work got it all right, yeah. And it just got to a point that things had to change, makes sense. So

Dianne Flemington: 8:50

can you tell us? I'd like to Well, personally, and I know the tribe there sits in the mindset of, okay, life after work, and there's also curiosity when we have our group coaching conversations with the the leadership groups that well, what's, what's the mindset that somebody needs to have in order to move into creating a retirement when all I can seem to focus on right now is, you know, this unknown or uncertainty about what I even need for Retirement, this seems to be this elusive thing that they we respond to as leaders. Can you speak into what was it like for you? What was the pre retirement mindset like, and then how the experience after was when you actually cut the lines and were on your own and officially retired from government?

Unknown: 9:39

Well, one of the things that led to that is back when we worked with government like we've been through the financial crisis, you know, the.com bomb and all of that, and putting our lives together meant that our finances were shot from the divorce, and we had, like I said, to do something different so that we could have a better retirement. And we. Kept looking at our retirement funds that we had. Now in Canada, we have, you know, registered funds that you you know, are tax deferred, or are tax deferred or tax exempt, exempt, depending on the program. But I'm sure every country has their own sort version or funds and version of it that they have. And we looked at ours, and I go, like the government has told us, like we need to start putting this money aside for retirement. So imagine the hour at the age that we're at now, and we started when we first started working. So they tell us, you know, we're going to have a nice, big nest egg by the time we retire. We kept looking at it, and I thought, this is even negative from, like, from an eight year period, I was less than what I was eight years before. I said, There's no way we're going to have a couple by doing this. When we thought, There's got to be a better way. And we, we looked at stuff. We, you know, investigated, we attended symposiums of businesses and whatnot, and there's nothing really that I thought, when are we going to do this. We're working, you know, so much, and then it just kind of click. Is like we need to do something. And we chose real estate. And one of the big things for us is, again, having that mindset that you want more to life than what you're probably going to get right now with what you have. So you have to want to some to do something more. You have to be willing to change. And that all comes down to mindset. Basically, you have to have the mindset that there is something there, that you can achieve, that you can change, that you can strive for, that has to be there. And a lot of it boils down also to being positive about it. Because if you're complaining about where you are today because things are not right, you're overworked this and that, and if you bring that to everything that you do, that negative mindset, you have to learn to change it, and maybe I'll talk about little tips later on and stuff like that. But that has to change. So you have to be willing to change. That's the first thing that you have to do. Yeah. To mention is that as we decided to make that change, we learned a very valuable and expensive lesson. We refer to it sometimes as our MBA, is that it's important to do background research and educate yourself on what you're going to get into, and we played with the stock market. Okay, yeah, dude, I was riding the bus every morning to go to work, you know? And this person would get on the bus, and I call her the bus friend, right? So that's the only time I'd ever see her, is taking the bus in the morning, and her husband worked in high tech, and she did on the bus. And we got to talking. So every day, same route, she got off before I did. So I don't even know where she worked, but she says, Oh my gosh. You know, today the stock just went up and whatnot. She was always so excited when she got on the bus. So again, Denise taking in all these fantastic tips from a from a bus person. So we invested, at the time, was$10,000 in some of these tech stocks. Well, you know what happened? You ever heard of the dog? $1,000 turned into $18.34 so tells you what the little nose dive that it took? And I mean, the main lesson we had in that is we were investing in something we didn't understand. We got the hype and we got going, and we played in the stock market. So as Denise said, as we were looking forward to our retirement years, and we thought we wanted to do something, we discovered real estate. So the first thing we did was we educated ourselves. We learned about real estate in order to make sure that we could reduce the risk. Because if you talk to a lot of financial planners, they'll tell you that real estate is terribly risky. Well, crossing the street is terribly risky if you don't know what you're doing. Totally

Dianne Flemington: 13:55

Yeah. I have a question before we get going down that road there a bit is, was there a was there a rejuvenation or a rest period from when you left your business or left the government to where you started making these decisions to do your own thing? Was there like a rest period or recoup or rejuvenation period?

Unknown: 14:17

Well, the last year of me getting a paycheck from the government is we started educating ourselves then. And the thing is, we never did is do real estate training or learning during government time while we're getting paid by the government. So you hear sometimes of people running side businesses while they're working. That was not us. So our education was on the weekends, and we travel and did that education. I retired January 10, 2010 and we started investing the next day. So we prepared ourselves so there was no gap in there. But the one thing that we did do is that the last year that I was with government, it's true. And I thought, Okay. Right? Our finances are a bit strapped here and stuff like that, and we've, you know, rebuilding our lives. What do we do? Because education, mentorship can be very expensive. So one of the things that we did was we banked my salary, and I thought, can we live in one salary? Because if I'm retiring, can we live on one salary alone. So we had to test that. So we said, Okay, I'll bank my salary now. Back then, I was making just short of six figures. I think it was, all right, 97,000 wherever that was like in 2009 right? So I was, I was getting paid, and we just banked it. We didn't touch it. No, to be fair, that takes something. I was in an executive position, so I had a healthy salary, so it wasn't as if we were, you know, going to the food banker and everything. We were able to do it. But the point was that we changed our lifestyle. We changed our choices in order to cope with living on one salary, and it's similar to what a lot of young families will do when when you know one person decides to stay home as a caregiver, and they have to figure out how to organize themselves and live off one salary. So we did that as seniors, and we learned a very important lesson there is that most people spend because of wants, not needs, and that's something that we learned. It was such a valuable lesson as we did that, because, I mean, you have more salary, you just spend it, right? So, and many people live by what's the balance at the end of the month, right? So the the idea was, is we've got to change. And again, remember I said, mindset, be willing to change, and that's one of the things we were willing to do. So we banked that salary. So guess what that did? That allows us funds so that we can take the training. It allowed us funds so we can get into the mentorship, because we wanted to run out of the gate and be able to recoup all of those years, all of those years that our retirement funds had totally, like, squashed and like, tanked, and I thought we've got to rebuild this. And we want it. Well, we want to rebuild. So how are we going to do this? Well, that was one of the ways that we chose to do that.

Dianne Flemington: 17:11

Oh, brilliant, brilliant. So you, you were for thinkers, is what I call them. You're in the prevention. You also have this. I don't know if you call it that, but there's a prevention mindset, right? So you're already for thinking into what we're going to do for our retirement, and you are setting up yourselves up, just from your experience in there. I want to speak to some of the people who go who talk to me about all I want to do is just rest. I want to take a year like a sabbatical, not even a sabbatical, just a sabbatical from a life. I've even heard people say that to me as leaders when they are getting ready for retirement, just a year off, and then I'll decide what I want to do. Maybe you've come across people, or maybe you've got some kind of insights to speak from. But would you recommend that or not recommend that, or what are some considerations people might want to

Unknown: 18:04

I hear. I hear stories of people that are, in particular, those that are in high stress jobs, who retire and decide to do nothing and have a heart attack and they pass away and so doing a sudden change from high impact, high stress, high activity, to doing nothing. It can probably not be a good idea unless you've planned for it. Let's say, for example, your idea is, I'm going to take a sabbatical, but I'm going to travel. I've always wanted to see India. I've always wanted to see the east, great. So you stop work and you start to travel, and if you've got it planned, then it's probably something that's worthwhile. But if your intent is just stop everything and not get out of bed the next morning, I don't think that's healthy.

Dianne Flemington: 18:57

Yeah, yeah. And there's also, because you're in relationship, there's this conversation around, oh, my partner, there's this disabling mindset, like we're talking mindset here, right? Which are I'm wanting them to have a look under the lid as to what are all the things that you need to take a sneak peek at now that might be obstacles to creating a lifestyle as the two of you did, and alignment as a couple is super important, right? Unless you know one person's thinking retirement this way, one thing's thinking that way. Anything you want to suggest or offer the tribe that are having partners that how to find alignment or enable similar path,

Unknown: 19:35

you have to try to get on the same page, basically. Now Stuart and I, which is unlike many other couples, most of our time, because he's retired as well, right? So that we're spending 24 hours together, and I've heard too many couples that they can't stand each other, and he can't wait to get out of the house or do something like that. It hasn't been like that for Stuart and I. So it's kind of funny, because friends will sometimes joke. They call us and they'll say hi to Stuart, or she's. Right next to me and stero, just to chime in and say hello, because we spend all that time together, right? We are together. We're building a business together. So we spend a lot of time together. So get aligned with your spouse, and even if you're not doing the same thing, one of the key things is that if your spouse can actually support you in what it is that you want to do for the changes you want to make, because if you don't have the support, it's going to be quite an uphill battle. So you have to get aligned into what it is that you want to do.

Dianne Flemington: 20:34

Yeah, that's a great point. We do a lot in terms of executive couples coaching and around alignment. So this is a nice little thread for you to recommend as well. Brilliant. Okay, so what's been keeping you? I know you've given me some questions here, and I'm kind of dancing around them a little bit, but I want the tribe to understand there's some nuances that happen in order for you both to stay alive and be in this it's a bit of a risk taking, right? You've taken some big risks in your life and to transform it into something pretty substantial for others to learn from. What do you think is what felt like the biggest risk in all of this? For you,

Unknown: 21:16

the biggest risk? Wow. Hmm. Like I know that for us, we want the same things. Yeah, somebody usually wants it faster than the other. Okay, great point that usually what happens. And remember when I talk about alignment, so sometimes it's like, okay, whoa. Kind of step back a little bit if you want me to go with you, let me kind of catch up, right? So you have to play that dance as well. So, I mean, we like to say that we are Zoomers. It's just boomers with a lot of zip. And you probably notice is like, when I speak whatever, I have a lot of energy, I just do. And I'm a from a family that we all have a lot of energy, so So for us to move forward, that's okay, just even at the age that we're at, right. So taking that risk is you just do it it's filled with fear, and do it anyway. That's been our biggest model that we have worked with, because fear can stop you in your tracks, where you just like, you're not moving at all. And I got a quick story. We were at a real estate meeting several hours away from here. It was a monthly meeting that we attended, and this investor was there, and he came and talked to us. I can't remember if we had just spoken on stage at that time or not, but anyways, he came to speak to us, and he had been going to those regular meetings for two years now, and he had never bought a property. Okay? He's talking to me and whatnot, and I I'm just trying to figure out. And I thought, oh my, the fear in him. You could just feel it right? So what I told him to do? And I said, just, I'm going to ask you to do a little exercise. Just humor me. Just do it. He was okay. I said, close your eyes, and he closed his eyes, I said, Now pretending you're standing on the edge of a cliff, and you could just see his face kind of changing, I said, and his face kind of changed. I said, Okay, open your eyes and you open them. I said, did you notice that there wasn't a cliff? It was just a little speed bump. I said, we things worse than what they are, so we let the mind wander, but they're usually worse than what they actually are. Can you believe that gentleman came back the next month of the meeting and he had bought himself two properties? Wow? I thought, wow. And again, something super simple, but it's just getting over that fear, yeah, do it. And what a great example live. Yeah, if I didn't live by that model, I don't think we'd be where we are today.

Dianne Flemington: 23:53

Does that speak in major difference, right? Yeah, and that's still there's this holistic experience you gave that person right? Like, here's the reality, right? And you, how do we give that to ourselves, though, right? There's this you were enable. I call that. You were like in a coaching moment with them, where they were able to have that, that gift from you, to say, try this. Close your eyes. And how do we do that to ourselves? Though? Because there's a different experience there to have us be okay with taking risks. Anything show up for

Unknown: 24:30

you. I mean, the one thing is that having good mentors, a mentor that will sort of lead you is important. But doing a lot of reading, reading the appropriate books. I mean, feel the fear and do it anyways, is the title of a book.

Dianne Flemington: 24:47

Yes, it is for a reason. And I mean,

Unknown: 24:50

there's, there's a number of other books that we've read that contributes to our mindset, that takes us into the area. And I. Self talk can be so dangerous unless you direct the sort of self talk. I remember when I was still working for the government as a at the officer level. I had just worked on a project, and one of the senior managers, a director general, just came by and congratulated me on the work that I'd done, and he made some comment that sort of stuck with me for years. And I think about Mark Twain's idea that I can live for years on a good compliment, you know, you'll go as far as you want in this organization. And I thought, okay, so anytime that I started to have some self doubt, I just looked back and I said, Okay, I can go as far as I want in this organization. I just need to apply. And so it's, I think, the same thing that as you start to have some self doubt, you need to have some self talk that's positive. You know, there's that, and it's not even something I thought about till just now. As he said that one of the practices that I did over the years is sometimes you get a nice note, a personal note, that somebody's thanking you for something, or, you know, that type of stuff. And I get those notes in a folder, wow, they'll have it and but I haven't looked at it for a long time now, but I remember whenever I was feeling down, or you go like, man, like, can I really do this or whatever, I take that folder out, and I would read these little personal notes. And I thought, what a pick me upper, trust me. I mean, so whenever you get little personal notes, whether it's an email or like something on social media or a card, I mean, less cards are being sent now, probably more electronic, but save that because it can actually just boost your morale at a time where

Dianne Flemington: 26:45

you need it. Yeah, it's a great reminder. And I, I'm an advocate for, like, let's send those cards out again to people. But you know, let's, let's bust through the social media lack of connection and send those cards so and collect them. That's brilliant. Thank you. It's a good resource. Okay, I'm noticing time, and I want the tribe to hear about you know your specific expertise is in private lending, right? So what can you share with the tribe about why this is a benefit for them to be looking at that's alternative to retirement strategies that exist.

Unknown: 27:24

Well, one of the things that we did is we started into our real estate career, we had our retirement funds tied up, as Denise had mentioned earlier, in registered funds that were invested in the stock market and in mutual funds, and we're getting really poor returns, but as we started investing in real estate, we discovered that there was a potential to use those funds to do private mortgages, not your own. That's the important thing, okay, yeah. Neat thing to understand about this is that as long as you do your research, so that you understand who you are lending to, there is a possibility of getting a positive return much better than what the stock market over time returns. And if you've got any doubt about whether that is an appropriate thing, take a look at the big banks. What do they do on real estate? The money that you in the banks, they use that to loan out. And so there is an entire market available for private lenders. Now, if you get into this and you don't understand what you're doing, and you don't do your research and you don't take precautions, there's a chance that you can lose all your money. So it's important understand, I mean, Denise and I have talked to people, and we've taught them some of the things in order to go through to make sure that they're lending to someone who has a solid reputation, who is I mean, our attitude, as we've borrowed funds over the years has been we will do whatever it is to return your funds to you, because we know that it's your retirement, and if we're using it, we've got a responsibility to make sure that we're protecting your money, and we're going to make sure that you get your money back before we get any money back. Yeah, great. Find someone like that as your borrower, and there's different strategies, but basically, as Denise says, you can build your own private pension fund quite easily by building a portfolio of mortgages and private loans, and that's loaning money to real estate investors, of which you've learned about their reputation and everything else, right, not just every Tom Dick and Harry you know, on the street that you would read, but so, but by loaning money, that means these investors can actually help. We'll grow a portfolio, but in turn, and that's how we did ours, is in turn, we're helping these people get a better retirement savings for the future, and we start. The very first thing we ever did when we got into real estate, I left government, and at the time, what they did is they still give you a severance paid. You got so much for every year that you had worked with the government. So we were taking real estate classes, and I went to a group of investors, and I said, I've got this many 1000s of dollars in, you know, registered funds at the time here in Canada, was called RSPs, and I said, Does anybody want to borrow them for a second mortgage? And everybody was said, Pick me, pick me. And I go, wow, yeah, this is something, yeah. We learned how to lend it out first, and we worked with a lawyer that it was her first time doing a private mortgage like that. And we what we learned together. And then now we've done many, many, many, many over the years, but by first loaning mine out, we learned, then I said, Let's reverse the tables, because we thought, light bulb moment here, these are borrowers, and they're borrowing our funds. Why can't we borrow other people's funds? So we've been teaching the public, if you want to call it about, there's an alternative to the banks, and they can get a more predictable return without the ups and downs of the stock market. So like for us, the advantage that we have, we've been not only borrowers, but we lend our money out as well. So we have loaned ours as well, and we continue to. So we work with people, we help them on call it both sides of the fence, but by growing a portfolio, we were doing acquisitions. And when we borrow these funds, and it's done with lawyers, it's done with those trustee like, there's a whole legal framework around that right that has to be done. So we've done that, and to the point that we speak on it now, because we've gained so much experience since 2010 doing this, that we've gained expertise right across Canada. And we help people with this, and we teach about it on stage, and we teach real estate investors how they can grow a portfolio. But the biggest thing is, what else do you get out of it? Yes, you can grow a portfolio, but you're helping all those people that were like us, where their registered savings had just tanked. I talked to a woman who said, Denise, I think I made 5% on my registered funds. Now she had just put in $60,000 and actually, some of your viewers here will do the mental math really quick, 60,000 she had put in a year, says, I think I did 5% My first question is, did the fund do that? Or did you? And she goes, No, no. And this is the thing is, most people don't even know how much they're making through the banks. They like it's registered funds. They kind of say, well, here you go. And they think it's being properly managed, right? It's maybe being managed, but it's not being managed to for high returns or anything like that. So I asked the woman, I said, you have calculator? She says, yes. I said, you think you did 55% she says, yes. I said, you had put she told me 60,000 I said, What's 60,000 times 5% because it was now her first year anniversary, and as you well know, that would be 3000 and I asked her, now we're on talking on the phone, I said, and what does your statement say now, after a year total silence, and I go, Oh, he doesn't like what she's seeing at all. Well, I had to ask again. So her statement was 60,200

Dianne Flemington: 33:19

Ah, yeah, so wrong and bad

Unknown: 33:24

people are once they start looking at their statements, they go, Oh, actually, just this past week, somebody who is actually moving their funds to a trustee, so because they want to invest with us and when, and I tell people when you're going To change those funds to where they are, where the, where the the legal framework, or the, the Canada Revenue Agency says this is some place where you need to put your funds to allow them to go down in mortgages. So when I help them with that, that change, his financial planner says, Don't you want to make fit 20% and I laughed. I said, Did you ever make 20% Yeah, likely did. I said, Did you goes, never. This is why Denise says, after learning some of the things you teach, he says, I'm making pittance. And this is where people don't realize, all right,

Dianne Flemington: 34:15

we're totally we are, I'd say we are blonde. What are the what is the sheep? The Blind sheep. Kind of blind sheep leaving the sheep pack? Big time. I see this all over the place, yeah, so, oh, sorry, I was just gonna say why. It's a big reason why I have you on the on this podcast is I really want people to get smarter about what they're doing with their money. You know, they need to understand that the banks are there to make money, just like, you know, people go to casinos and think that they're going to walk away with a big win, but they're set up to win. They're not set up to lose money. So that we need to be doing this in a better way. Yes, yeah. So

Unknown: 34:53

that has allowed us to grow a portfolio like because we're lenders as well as borrowers. So we have a real estate portfolio. Portfolio, but we have the benefit also having a mortgage portfolio of our own funds that are invested in mortgages as well. So that's something that has allowed us to grow. But then again, we have a solid eight figure portfolio. And I know you and I were just talking a little bit, and I said, Yes, we lost 10,000 in, you know, in, well, actually 10,000 minus $18.34 right in the stocks. But when we got into real estate, the only thing we have seen with by lending our registered funds is this growth, because the ups and downs of the stock market is not there. Now, when one project just finished, you go to another, so we've built a solid eight figure portfolio in being able to do this. But now we are, again, at an age where we're just going through more growth, right? This is just something we've decided to do because now we're into development. So we've done a lot of strategies, and for people that are into real estate, like we've done flips, you know, where you do a lot of the renovations. We've done adding accessory dwelling units. We've done wholesaling, we've done multi family buildings. We've done small, multi family building. We've done all kinds of strategies, you know, rent and everything, all using registered funds to grow our portfolio and helping people grow their retirement savings. Brilliant. Now we're into development. So our next project is building six, six unit buildings. So now it's like a different kind of capital raising that we need to do, and we again needed the legal framework to be able to continue what we're doing. So we've built, now under a new legal framework, a mutual fund Trust, which allows us now, not only with the mortgages we did, which is strictly what we call a debt instrument. That means people get paid a percentage rate, you know, everything they have, you know, a yearly rate that they get paid. Now with the mutual fund trust, they are part of the project in the sense that they now get equity in it. So the returns are even better. The projects are a little longer, but the returns are better. So this is something like somebody says, at your age, you're just created a mutual fund trust. And I go, Yep, we did

Dianne Flemington: 37:11

absolutely, hell yeah,

Unknown: 37:13

exactly, I don't know, like

Dianne Flemington: 37:17

we got nine grand. Are you crazy? All right,

Unknown: 37:21

people say I thought we were, you were retired. We go, we retired from government, not from life. That's

Dianne Flemington: 37:27

right, brilliant. Yeah, I love that story. So great. So that's

Unknown: 37:31

why now, like, we're at a totally different phase again and again, it's been a learning curve, like we've had to work with securities lawyers, you know, accountants and you name it, to get that a whole other framework now. And it's not a cheap thing to do, but it's still, it's what is needed now for even the bigger projects that we want to get into, brilliant

Dianne Flemington: 37:52

where I'm left with right now on your story is and by the way, tribe, I'll definitely give links to connect with this couple. If you have with Stuart and Denise, if you have any questions about where to start, but just right now, what would you offer up? You know, if somebody is like, Okay, I'm curious what's the next step, Denise or Stuart, where do I? Where do I start?

Unknown: 38:16

My start in terms of what to do in retirement or what? Yeah, registered funds in retirement. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington: 38:23

I've got some. Maybe they don't even have much in the register retirement fund, because there's also lots of people I talked to that just opted out of that and decided to just move their money into more lucrative could be stocks, right? Some people are doing okay and that, and maybe they want to remove the risk and get into something like this now, so what would be that

Unknown: 38:44

about registered funds, but cash words too, right? I mean, yeah, matter what. So it's just registered fund is usually known as sleeping money is people know that they can't take it out yet because they're going to have to pay all these taxes. So it's tax deferred, right? So it's easy for them to kind of lose sight, because it's not money they have that is concrete, that they can go spend, which is why it's great to be able to offer that to people, that opportunity to grow those retirement incomes, and not the pittance, basically, that are getting through some of the financial planners and the banks and whatnot that are out there, right in the vehicles that you invest in, Which are the mutual funds and some of the stocks. So it's just a different way of, Wow, I want to plan a better retirement. That's all. I want to plan a very different retirement. And where do I start is again, where do you want to go? What do you want to do? And it could be just even a change in your life right now, on whatever it is that you're doing as a job, as a business, you're kind of fed up like you're tired of it. You don't see the growth like you just, you know, I want something different. How about if you stop and you're really think, think out you. If, let's say you're getting into closer to retirement, or you are in retirement, right? Is, how can you transform those retirement years? That's one of the things that you can do, right? So again, what's that mindset? You have to watch that mindset, because you want to have something different, rather than staying where you are, right? You need to have that change, that change so you have to look at what it is that you've got, and where is it you you have to see retirement as a beginning and not an end. Yeah, okay, that's the big thing right now, one thing I can say is most of our experience has been in Canada, okay, yeah, pretty familiar with what the rules are in Canada. We have contacts in other countries, and we also have mentors who have contacts in other countries. So although we can't give advice on what your tribe who live outside of Canada should be doing if they wanted to connect with us and say, can you point me somewhere? Yeah, should be able to find them a contact that can give them credible information. Great,

Dianne Flemington: 41:07

that's super important, too. And for those Canadian that are part of the tribe, here's your go to Absolutely. I've never come across a couple that has struck me as so integrity driven in how they show up for people in their work than Denise and Stuart. So I'm looking forward to continuing building my relationship with the two of you and doing some work together. Yeah, so I want you to share your three big ideas that the tribe can immediately do to shift how they approach life and create transformation.

Unknown: 41:39

Well, I have three big ideas. One, yeah, transforming your retirement years, basically transforming your attitude and being comfortable, being uncomfortable. Those are the three main ideas. And I'll give you little tips that are small, but man, can they have huge impact. So when you think about transforming your retirement years. When you look at where you are today, and as I mentioned, if you're not quite happy where you are, think now of something that where would you want to be in 12 months from today? You know when people plan, and when you talk to some of the groups, plan your five years out, 10 years out, Hey, you're in the moment. Now, plan 12 months, right? Just, start there. Don't, don't, don't plan out, like, 10 years, it just seems too far. You're in a situation now you want to change the situation now. So look at 12 months. You go, Yeah, but what do I want to do? What is something that maybe you did as a kid, that you absolutely loved, and you just never had time to do it, and it could be totally different than what you're doing today, right? We were doing real estate before we did real estate when we started, you know, planning for it at retirement, that's when we started real estate. That's it. So for you, if you can visualize 12 months out right of something that you'd really, really want to do, then again, it can be something totally different. And give yourself some targets as to what you want to do. So you set yourself a goal, give yourself a target of what you want to reach. What if it was, and I'm just going to use an example. What if it was a monetary target, saying, you know, with this new venture that I want to do, and I want to make $100,000 next year. Great. Set yourself that's your target. Set yourself a minimum target. Let's say your minimum target is 50k That's great. Okay, then go for a big sky breaker goal. Like, which one is? Like, oh my gosh, this is impossible for me to reach. Right? What is it? Just put it out there. So if you're doing minimum 50k your target is 100k maybe say, hey, I want to do 10 million. Well, 10 million, maybe just a little or each. But what about 1 million? That could be a really, what I call the skybreaker, but it's really a stretch goal, right? Yeah, I something with it. Tie a reward to it. So 100k what would be a great reward? It could be a weekend away, right? Go visit somebody, whatever. Just a weekend away you and your spouse in some chalet, some place, whatever. Just

Dianne Flemington: 44:11

right now we know what your weekend away is.

Unknown: 44:14

Your your minimum can be, well, maybe I'll go have a day at the spa, right? You're not going to be getting yourself a car if you make your 50k That's what I mean. You've got to have a goal that is worth reaching, right? So if you've got your million dollar goal, maybe that is a new car, maybe that's a trip around the world. Make it a big goal, but it has to be something that inspires you, not just words, because words mean nothing, and it's got to be something, a goal that inspires you, something that you want to do, because that's the only way that you're going to do everything you can to get there. Do a quick self assessment, right? Is, where are you today? This is where I want to reach. Where are you today? Maybe it's a brand new everything you. Maybe you're at a one, from one to 10, maybe you've already started. You just need more growth. Maybe at a five, six. But when you do that self assessment, it kind of tells you where you are, and then you just say, Okay, what do I need to do to move that needle to get to a 10? And it could be talking to other people, taking courses, getting a mentor. There's all kinds of things that I can sue, but do the self assessment first, and that's just transforming your retirement years, having a goal to strive for, and doing that self assessment and working towards it, transforming your attitude. You know what? One of the big things for me is being able to have an attitude of gratefulness and also of being happy. And this little trick is silly, but trust me, we've helped so many people with this. It is unbelievable. Is get a sticky note. Everybody's got a sticky note, I think, in their house, totally use a marker and draw a little happy face, right? All right, with the two dots and a smiley face, and then stick it in your bathroom mirror. When you get up in the morning and you know you have to go to work or go to the office or work the business and you're dragging and whatnot, first thing you're going to see in the morning is someone or something smiling at you. Now, when someone smiles that you can't help us start smiling. And what a way to start the day when you can put a smile on your face because it sets the tone for the rest of the day. Now it may mean that this little happy face, you put it also on, you know, all bathroom mirrors, and you put it on your door. You put it on the exit door if you need to have more in there to remind you to put on a happy face do it. But one of the big things I can tell you right now is when I remember, like, even if it's something that you have to do, that you have to get on the phone, and like, you know when you have to make these phone calls, and they feel like the phone's like, 1000 pounds and you don't want to make the call, put one of those little happy faces next to the phone, and it makes you smile. And guess what? When you have to make either a difficult, difficult call or just call somebody, your voice automatically transforms to like a smiley face, to the point that you you come across so much stronger and better and confident in everything as you're having that conversation and silly. But so many people have come back to us and I get these little notes. Denise, I didn't want to do it, but guess what? It has worked. Wonders, fantastic. And another little trip is a trick is, before you go to bed, let's say I have to remember this. I have to remember that. Take a little notepad. Just drop those things on a piece of paper so that the paper will remind you later your mind can stop thinking about it all night. Oh, yeah, I have to remember this. I didn't do that, and I should do this. Just put on a piece of paper and then write down three things that you were grateful for for that day. And again, it puts a smile on your face. It calms you down, you're more at peace, and you have a restful night, and you're ready to start the day again. And then you walk in the bathroom and that little smiley face is looking at you. There

Dianne Flemington: 48:09

you go. Nice bookends.

Unknown: 48:12

That's wrong, so and the other one basically is getting uncomfortable, or getting comfortable being uncomfortable, because guess what? You're going to be doing something different, like you probably have to look What are you doing right now? Is probably routine. It's very familiar to you. You want growth, you have to get out of the routine. You have to do something different. There's no ifs or buts. You have to do something different, right? And if it means that, and I'll give you an example, we we belong to the local real estate club here. We've been on the executive of it too for many years. And one of the things that we do for new investors that come in, we have what we call an action taker segment, and people who've done something in over the last month that they found like a little something that move their business forward. They get to go on stage. And as you know, public speaking is probably the worst thing that people could ever go through, right? They'd rather die and do public speaking. And this is a way to be able to even train, and this is something that was built into this club, is people go on stage and they have about 10 to 20 seconds. That's it. We're not talking even minutes. They go up on stage and they say, I did this this month. People clap, and they just, like, run off stage, right? Yeah. It's so frightening to do that the first time. But then over time, you see the confidence that these people build, yeah, like, up there and just sharing, I did this this month, so that may mean that you have to volunteer an organization and ask to speak in front of a little group, right? So just that type of stuff, little tips that make big impacts.

Dianne Flemington: 49:54

Love those. Appreciate those so much too. And these are all I hope that the trial. I was listening and taking note, because these are all things you can implement right away. And the action taker, though, as the example of being on stage. I mean, an action taker can be anything that has them start wanting to learn something new. Maybe they need just to What's that little that you can build in now while you're not even at retirement, but you can start practicing what it means for you to grow outside your comfort zone. Brilliant. Thank you. These are all so juicy and wonderful, and they can take them right away, which, you know, I find valuable, and the tribe will definitely find valuable. So thank you for that. I'm definitely going to have the two of you back. This has been I want to go deeper into some of the learnings, and after we have some conversation, I'd like to be able to bring to them some tangible next steps where they can specifically look at what they can do with their retirement savings. So hold me into your place, place, whatever that is, place that are for the new year and tribe, you know, we'll have in the transcript where you can find Denise and Stewart to ask questions. They've generously offered up their time and energy to even support you finding connections when, geographically, wherever you are, they are there to support and offer. And if you're in Canada, well, boy, it's your lucky day, because your life can be transformed by just meeting these two and start learning a whole new process for what you can do with your financial situation in terms of your investing or in private, private investing learning, which is fascinating to me. Okay, any last minute thing you'd like to share before I have the two of you step into your hot seat, and we have some fire seat questions too, that the tribe always wants to know from our guests, but anything that you'd like to add to complete your share with the tribe today.

Unknown: 51:52

You know, a quick tip is just plan your goals. Plan your future. You know, it should not be based on what you're doing now or even what you've done in the past, it could be totally different. Just find yourself a new future and working

Dianne Flemington: 52:06

with beautiful dirt about you, any tips or less?

Unknown: 52:12

There's, there's a number of things that run through my mind, because your inspiration from all sorts of places. But there's a an American speaker by the name of Les Brown, yes, quite famous. And one of his lines was, if you fall down, make a point of falling down on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up.

Dianne Flemington: 52:34

Ah, nice. Wow, that's really, actually, that one gave me some tinglies. Interestingly enough, I'll have to reflect on that one brilliant love it. Thank you. Okay, so what we want to know from the from the tribe point of view, is when we think about leadership longevity, and we're setting ourselves some future goals, to us, there's a marker. And a lot of times, leaders are considering what age like I'm asking them all the time, what age do you even want to live to? Right? What about the two of you to? What age are you wanting to live to? And what would that allow you, both, or individually, to be able to do, have or be well?

Unknown: 53:18

I mean, Denise and I come from good genes. Our parents, both my mom and my dad, were in their mid 90s when they passed. Wow, great. And I know that Denise's mom was 94 just short of her 95th birthday. Her dad had worked industrially, and he had, he had some health challenges because of that. So he didn't, I mean, even with emphysema, strong emphysema, and he was on oxygen for the last number of years, although it was portable oxygen, so he was able to continue to work in his wood shop and do things. I mean, he had said that he wanted to live to be 80, and he did, and he did. So he said, I figure that with the genes we've got behind us. We're gonna live into our 90s. Oh, yeah, I always say Denise's plan is living past 100 Yes, okay, that's my plan. It's past 100 like I said, are good genes mid 90s? I mean, it just, it just is, because now, with medical advancements and everything else, and like I said, we still have a lots of energy, right? I have, I had a brother who's just turning 80, actually, in two days, and he's still as active as we are today and everything else. And our parents were like that. And that's, that's what we want. There's still many people that we want to impact in this world like it. Just it like it's that drive. How many more can we help? That's, that's what drives us right? And plus, we want to be able to see our grandchildren grow and great grandchildren, that's something else too right, that we want for us. It's just having that impact, and being able to do that and having that longevity, to be able to. Do that. And right now we can. So we do,

Dianne Flemington: 55:03

yeah? So it's in the genes, but also you have some strong purpose, meaning that kind of you get up and go, Yeah, brilliant.

Unknown: 55:10

You know that when you get up in the morning, right? You have to have that purpose in the morning when you get up. One of the lines I like to use is that I'd rather burn out than rust out.

Dianne Flemington: 55:18

I remember I wrote this down when I on it. Here it is, it's right close to me. I'd rather burn out. The rest out. You said that to me last time, but I kept that one. I'm like, dang, I really like that. Where could I use that? So thank you for the reminder. Okay, honey, is there anything or something that scares you about growing older?

Unknown: 55:37

Well, maybe just the fact that, what if we get into a health challenge, right? And we're hoping that this won't happen, but, I mean, eventually, you know, things will happen. I mean, you do age, but that's the one thing that kind of holds us back. So one of the ways we do do that is we keep we keep active, we keep mentally active, not just only physically, but mentally as well, because that keeps us going and having that life purpose to want to do something as well, keeps us on the go right, to be able to do that. So that's something that is very sort of important to us as well. So we we Well, like I said, taking care of your health is super important. That's that's that's the one thing that everybody you know eating good stuff, which, again, feeds the body, for what it is, the nutrients that you need. So these are all things that people know about, but sometimes they just don't take that time to do it. So it's time to reevaluate, what about your health, you know? What about your sleeping habits? You know, that type of stuff and and just having that purpose. Remember what I said about the tip about having that goal, have that goal, have a stretch goal, because that's going to keep you going. It's going to keep you motivated. You're going to keep you wanting to learn. And we, we're lifelong learners, is what we are.

Dianne Flemington: 56:55

Yes, I think that's another thing that allows that aspect, purpose, meaning for both of you, encompass your value system. All right, what? Who is the coolest older person you know, dead or alive, and what makes them cool to you?

Unknown: 57:11

When I was warned that you might ask this question, and to be quite honest, one of my inspirations is Nelson Mandela. I mean, I've had enough experiences in my life that I could have carried a lot of regrets. I could have carried a lot of negative attitude towards and I think about Nelson Mandela, who spent almost three decades locked in prison, and when he finally got released, he didn't go for revenge. He didn't come up with a negative attitude. He came out with a positive attitude, and he helped create the nation that is South Africa today. And he made a point of not being stuck into hatred for another race, even though that was why he was put in prison. So I find him very inspiring, just the way that he came, you know, he put the past behind him and looked forward. I mean, one of the things that I've heard, and I espouse it as well as don't spend time wishing for a better yesterday.

Dianne Flemington: 58:17

Yes, what a waste of time that is.

Unknown: 58:21

And that's one, but we've got one more on the personal side too, and for that, I would say it's my mother and Stuart's dad. Stuart's dad, at the age of 94 was living in a two story house by himself. He was cutting his own grass, shoveling his own snow. He even bought himself a brand new car. He was volunteering at the Veterans it's called the lead gen field. Yeah, Veterans Association, and he took care of a horse, so he's doing that at 94 right? And my mom, because he passed away at 95 and my mom was just short of her 95th birthday. But my mom, even from the time she was in her 60s and even into her 90s, mom could never find anybody to take a walk with her because she walks too fast. Oh, wow. Remain active. I mean taking stairs and all of this stuff like is nothing for her, right? So this is why we want to remain active, not only with our minds, but also with our bodies, because that ensures some longevity there.

Dianne Flemington: 59:23

Yeah, brilliant. You too. That's a wonderful way to close out in the podcast. And the one thing that all of us will appreciate here at the tribe is that you have a holistic view across everything. It's not just a singular thing that you're working on. You really get that all of it matters, and we really appreciate that. So thank you so much for spending your time, especially for anybody who's listening, this is actually getting pretty darn close to Christmas, and people who have a big family like you, especially nine grandchildren, even spread all over I imagine I've got a lot to do. So thank you for taking the time. I really appreciate. Appreciate that, and I look forward to having you back.

Unknown: 1:00:03

Yeah, thank you so much. This has been wonderful. It's been a lot of fun. So we appreciate this. Dianne, thank you so much, of course, and we'll

Dianne Flemington: 1:00:10

see you very soon. Tribe, have a look at the transcript. You'll get access to Stuart and Denise there, and be sure to hang around the leadership longevity Institute, because you'll be seeing for sure, more of their content inside the institute. So for now, you too, we'll see you soon. Bye, bye.