Appreciation Can Change Your Life. Michael Burgos

*Warning: This transcript contains graphic details.

[00:00:00] Bob Wheeler: Welcome to another episode of Money You Should Ask, where everyone has something they can teach you. I’m your host, Bob Wheeler. In this episode, we are going to explore why we do? What we do when it comes to money as a CPA for the past 30 years, wait, let me say 25 because that makes me sound younger.

I have seen it all when it comes to money and emotions. And if you think I’m talking about my clients, I’m not. I’m talking about myself. My relationship with money has been and sometimes still is an emotional roller coaster. Maybe that’s something you’re also familiar with. Good news, you and I are not the only ones. Our next guest is going to share their money beliefs, money blocks and life challenges as well. Buckle your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

[00:01:06] Bob Wheeler: Our next guest Michael Burgos is an entrepreneur, mentor, credit repair specialist and author. With his main mission and passion been helping people understand simple finance, Michael started in retail banking with the intention of understanding all aspects of the banking business. He was quickly promoted to running seven bank branches.

Michael then decided to open up a financial services business focusing heavily on helping his clients with improving their credit, budgeting and asset protection. Michael also began to combine his knowledge of finance and his love for real estate into mortgage backed securities.

To learn even more about Michael’s personal journey from facing life threatening events and facing homelessness to building massive success rapidly, you can check out his recently published book “Undeniable”, What it Takes to Repair Your Life, Business and Legacy. Michael, it’s great to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us.

[00:01:57] Mike Burgos: Well it’s the pleasure to be here. Bob, how are you?

[00:01:59] Bob Wheeler: I’m good. I’m alive and breathing. So that’s always a good sign.

[00:02:03] Mike Burgos: To get two hands, two feet, no reasons to complain.

[00:02:06] Bob Wheeler: Exactly. Mike, you got into banking and retail banking. And I think your story’s a little different than most people. Most people run down and say I’ve got the best grades and I went to the best school, hire me right away. And I think it went a little differently for you. Can you talk about how you got into banking, because I think this is important for a lot of people out there, sometimes you got to do the hard work?

[00:02:29] Mike Burgos: Well, thanks for having me on the podcast, Happy New Year. I’m hoping everyone was listening to this convention to get some good nuggets on this podcast. But my story is not the traditional, ordinary, typical story. It started a little different. So I never had any background into banking industry prior to go into the banking industry. So I’m coming from doing every type of jobs, work [inaudible 00:02:50] led like a resume that doesn’t look that attractive at all.

[00:02:54] Mike Burgos: I remember two years prior to me getting into the banking industry, I met a gentleman, he said, I went to the bank to ask for a job. And a gentleman looked at me in a way out. He said, Man, I like your drive, you know, there’s a couple of things that you need to work on. But I think if you open for criticism, you know, I think you’re gonna make it. I don’t know what’s going on in your life. But I want to kind of give you some criticism. He said, we got to fix up your resume a little bit.

[00:03:16] Mike Burgos: So I’ll work on the wording for you. But I said keep doing, don’t give up. But since I got denied and everything like that, you helped me with the resume but I never went back to the bank. I went to the mall, and I thought the easiest job to do was to just do a retail. I hate the word sales. I always hated the word sales. But I’m like, how come I can’t get any other job? The only job that’s there’s like, sales, commission, like I need something where it’s like guarantee. And I got to a point where I’m like, okay, Mike, you don’t have a degree, you know, you lost a scholarship of college, you got to find a way to do something.

[00:03:49] Mike Burgos: So let’s just start retail. So I was working in a mall. And then at some point, something clicked and I said, let me go back to the bank. So I got into the bank, someone referred me now it’s my first orientation. But when I got to my first orientation, there’s about 28, maybe 29 individuals there plus myself. There’s only two guys and everybody were females. So it do look obviously more attractive than I do. So I said, to have a huge advantage. How am I going to beat this interview? So they’re going around.

[00:04:20] Mike Burgos: They’re asking questions. Why would you work here? Why should we hire you? What’s the benefit for us to hire you? So I sit in the back of the room and I’m asking myself, how am I going to stand out among 28 good looking women and experience? So they were 25 years in the banking industry? I said, Mike, the only thing you have is you’ve been broke all your life and you’ve been homeless. So you got to show heart right. I had no one can beat me on [inaudible 00:04:49] relationships and [inaudible 00:04:50] interpersonal connection.

[00:04:52] Mike Burgos: And the fact that I can communicate in five different languages. And I’ve been working on myself too. So I said those are the things I have. Now, the main experience banker? No, absolutely not. So when they got to be an extra question, I said to the boss, I said, Look, let me can explain something to you. I respect everyone who’s here, I’ll be willing to work for free. Just give him a try, just give me a test. For one week only, I’ll show you, I will build a better relationship than anyone at this branch in your current work.

[00:05:19] Mike Burgos: Not only that, but the fact that I could come up in five different languages. And I’ll take the lowest pay out of everybody else. And my goal is to bring more value to the bank. Say that was the closing right there for me say, well, there’s no way I can hire you for free. I said, well, I’m willing to work harder and you can give me the lowest paid. Pay everybody else, I’ll be the last one to do budget. So that was kind of like the first step for me to get into the door, it will spark.

[00:05:45] Bob Wheeler: Well, and I think what was important there is that you were willing to put yourself out there without the expectation of I want to get the top salary, I want to get everything handed to me, I’m willing to actually work for free and willing to show up. And I’m trying to bring value to the bank, not making sure I get compensated. So putting others before self, I think goes a long way.

[00:06:09] Mike Burgos: Yes, it also you don’t want to lie an interview, which guy used a common sense. In some of the stuff you know, I used to sell cars at the auctions to buy from the auction and 500 Dollars cars 700, for 900. So the fact that I had some type of computer skills to administration work from my, you know, doing all of the paperwork, stuff like that, that is equivalent to banking, that’s what I told her, I said, Look, this is even more of a job to the bank, because I had to sell the car, I had to do all the paperwork, do the title, everything like that. I’ll do the financing and stuff.

[00:06:37] Mike Burgos: So I have some type of banking experience. And what makes a difference, the fact that I had to create the sales, I had to make sure I inspect everything and had to make sure that I close the deal and making sure that the customer is fully registered all of that. So I think those things really helped. But coming literally at an interview, never worked up any bank. So I never knew that I was going to get hired.

[00:07:01] Mike Burgos: But I say you know what, Mike, you’ve been homeless, you could sleep on a 500 square feet. You don’t need that much. But I’ll tell you, I’ll beat everybody else. Because they’re gonna ask you the question, how much should we pay? How much do you want? Hey, the ball is in your court, right. Check, I’ll take anything.

[00:07:14] Bob Wheeler: Right.

[00:07:15] Mike Burgos: So that’s kind of like one of the reason why I kind of get it.

[00:07:18] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the other things, and I could be wrong, but I think you came from another country, right?

[00:07:25] Mike Burgos: Oh, yeah.

[00:07:26] Bob Wheeler: And so there’s obstacles there. But there’s also my experience has been people coming from other countries have a lot more appreciation for what the United States can offer than sometimes the people living here. Can you talk about your journey from Haiti here, and there were some challenges that happened to you that were probably life changing, like for real?

[00:07:48] Mike Burgos: Yes. For people who are living here, and I said, if you’re an American, you need to be like, yes, like you need to do a backflip. Okay, so if you guys are complaining I am like, [inaudible 00:07:58] complain about, meet the President, do it again, just leave him alone. You know, we’re not going to agree on everything. But trust me, this is paradise, guy’s this is paradise compared to what I’ve been. I’m coming from Haiti. But I’m actually a Dominican, born Dominican Haitian. So it’s kind of equivalent being a Palestine, and a Jewish at the same time, that’s the best explanation I could say.

[00:08:18] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:08:19] Mike Burgos: So you’re not comfortable, you’re not loved in either side. So you just have to really know when to claim certain nationalities, for your own protection. And at the age of 12, I was crossing the border, was getting my passport from DR, and as I’m crossing the border of Haiti, and we were stopped by rebels. So I get stopped by the rebels. And they were just pretty much checking passports. They said, if you have a Dominican Passport, we cut your head off. And I said, Okay, so as we are the checking passport to check your passport.

[00:08:49] Mike Burgos: I was accompanied by my sister was about 11 or 12 that happened in 2002. And I said to my sister, I said, I got to give you the passport. So I slid the passport. She put in her purse, when they got to me to say passport. Now I’m speaking the same language with this individual is their passport. I said, well, we are the same. So there’s no need for a passport. He said, Look, listen to me, you’re not going to try to outsmart me. I need to see this passport. Because you will just speak the same language. I mean, there’s a lot of people on the other side that speak the same language.

[00:09:18] Mike Burgos: That doesn’t make you a Haitian but I cannot give them a passport. So then what happened, he just pretty much pulled me out of the bus. It was a lot of back and forth. The people were crying, people are fighting pretty much saying, Hey, you can’t just beheaded a young adolescent and this is just not going to happen. But these are rebels, these are like grown men. Like there’s no way we could have fight them. One guy had like machetes ready to chop me up. So over, I think this back and forth is going for like the good 30 minutes, because it’s a lot of fighting going on there. So they’re ready to chop my head off.

[00:09:54] Mike Burgos: And I can’t tell you that space between from me being pulled away by someone shoving into a car in and escape that whole situation. I don’t understand why I can’t remember how I got up. I remember like, I was in the other car. And I don’t know if you ever been to a situation where you just kind of like not thinking, your mind goes into ozone.

[00:10:18] Bob Wheeler: Yeah.

[00:10:19] Mike Burgos: And you’re asking yourself, what just happened? And I’m 12 years old, and I’m saying, how am I still alive? What just happened? Like, I almost died, I almost just got my head chopped.

[00:10:30] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:10:31] Mike Burgos: Now, in my back of my mind, I’m just like, okay, he just gonna just cut my head off. So that was the situation that I was in. So that whole entire day. And I said to myself, no one should deserve this treatment. Never look down anyone. No one should be judged based on the college agenda, their religion, and their preferences in life. There’s no one should be in a situation being in that situation, just because of how I look.

[00:10:55] Mike Burgos: And there’s not much of a difference from the person that’s doing. It’s not like, we’re talking about a white person doing it. No, we talk about, we speaking the same language. So a lot of people don’t see things that way. So what I’m saying something that is not common.

[00:11:08] Bob Wheeler: Right

[00:11:09] Mike Burgos: My own people, we speak the same language. He just doesn’t approve that, I’m 100%. So that was a moment where it was like, Man, if I can survive this, there’s a reason why God put me here, there’s a reason.

[00:11:23] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. So how long did it take from you from being 12 and being in this near death situation to making it over to the United States?

[00:11:33] Mike Burgos: So immediately after I get my passport, we got to call out say there’s a 90 day period, when I came to the United States, I came to United State October 5, on a Friday 2002. But how I got there was a situation where I was not supposed to go. So my father came down, just to really work on my sister’s paperwork. And I happen to accompany my father because he’s like, okay, I kind of want to know the area. Can you take me to the embassy? I said, okay, yeah, I’ll take it to the embassy.

[00:12:08] Mike Burgos: So I was just pretty much would have to show him how to get there. So on my way out, that was never part of the plan. The plan was for me to stay there. We figured my situation later. So on my way out, the guard ironically said, is this your son? And his I guess said, then he’s under the age of 18? My father said, yes sir. What do you know, as a resident or as a citizen, your son automatically qualifies to become a resident? He never thought about it. He never thought of it. And then my father said, they’ve never heard that before.

[00:12:39] Mike Burgos: Because again, if you just go and make a U turn, go ask, and I guarantee he’s qualified. He literally went back. He said, sir, can I see as a [inaudible 00:12:47] quick question, is this true? He’s 12. And then the guy looked at stuff he’s like, yeah, so come back today, at 2pm. That’s how I just really skip my sister and make it to America. But the whole plan was working pretty much against me, per se.

[00:13:05] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:13:06] Mike Burgos: That’s why I made it to America, yeah.

[00:13:07] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, the message that I’m hearing right there is sometimes you just got to show up.

[00:13:11] Mike Burgos: You just got to be there man.

[00:13:13] Bob Wheeler: You just got to be there, and let the universe do the rest. Yes.

[00:13:17] Mike Burgos: So there’s a story that I never told anyone. So I’m going to say, this is going to be for you. And it’s going to be for those people who are struggling in you pretty much using, you don’t really know how to get out of your situation because of the trauma. And I’ll tell you guys, I’m going to take you guys back from between five or seven years old.

[00:13:34] Mike Burgos: We used to have, we used to see the United Nations trucks. I used to live next to a river in the United Nation trucks after the use stuff. They have a truck, they drive the truck and dump all of the garbage, all the waste down to the bridge, and down under a bridge or by the river side. So I was living around the river, and then we used to see the trucks. So to us, it’s good what Americans are throwing away. We’re like, it’s not bad things.

[00:14:02] Bob Wheeler: Right

[00:14:03] Mike Burgos: So we were a little kids running behind those trucks and can’t wait for them to dump the garbage. And we’ll pick up shoes, use cloth, like tabasco, we will pick up things from the garbage. And that’s how low we come from.

[00:14:16] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:14:17] Mike Burgos: I come from. So if I’m here, it’s crazy for me to be here, and I’m thankful. But I’m telling you, for those of you guys who think you really come from a slum or ghetto, and maybe that’s what’s hindering you.

[00:14:29] Mike Burgos: I’m telling you, when I go back, I said, wow, I can’t believe I was one of those kids. Like really dig and stuff. No human being should be dig anything out of the garbage. I don’t care what type of garbage is. You shouldn’t. But that’s all come from. So that’s first time sharing this.

[00:14:41] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. And you know, those people that you see down at the rivers are in different countries that are going through the trash, like, they don’t have a lot of options, and they’re human beings, just like the rest of us, and a lot of us feel really like, we earned our spot when in fact, we started just got lucky.

[00:15:02] Mike Burgos: Yes.

[00:15:03] Bob Wheeler: Because we don’t get to choose our situation when we’re born.

[00:15:06] Mike Burgos: Yes. Well, if you hear whatever the situation was your mom have no idea whatsoever. I mean, I’ve also on top of that abandoned never know my mom, find my mom door to door knocking for those of you who don’t know. So that’s a whole another story. Because when I start to explain those details people said, I don’t believe all these things. There’s no way man, the human being goes through this thing. No, I came in October 5, on a sort of six my stepmom said, Man, I’m not your mom. But I have to help you find your mom, we have an idea where she lives, those who are going to have to go and we have to knock on some doors.

[00:15:41] Mike Burgos: And that’s pretty much how I met my mom. And when she saw me, she didn’t know who I was, she saw a guy standing there. I saw a woman standing. There’s a little bit of feelings there, but towards a good.

[00:15:49] Bob Wheeler: Sure

[00:15:50] Mike Burgos: Eventually my stepmom was like, hey, this is your son. So I know I’m seeing it kind of nonchalant. But I get to a point where I get become bulletproof. But again, it’s not really a bad thing. God allows me to go through these things to prepare me for the future.

[00:16:06] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. The question I have for you, because I see this sometimes when people come from humble beginnings are from real struggle, and then they have great financial success. Some people will choose to feed their ego, or, you know, I’ll never have that again. And they maybe lose a little bit of their ground. What would you say as advice to people out there who didn’t have a lot, or they’ve come into a lot more than they’re used to?

[00:16:33] Bob Wheeler: How can people stay grounded in their integrity, instead of feeding their ego because it can be real easy, especially in the US with the media and advertising social media? It’s so easy to tap into ego instead of stopping and like you say, they’re by the grace of God go I, what advice would you offer to those people?

[00:16:53] Mike Burgos: If I were to advise people on this matter the first thing is, you got to know who you are. And before you know who you are, and there’s a key word that they don’t teach and this was called unlearn. I want you guys to unlearn everything that you learn from father, from mother, even it can be religion, it can be, you know, different upbringings, I need you to unlearn and then accept the world don’t judge, accept the world and start to think for yourself. Think for yourself, I start to think for myself, I’d say maybe a good 7 to 10 years ago, I start to think for myself.

[00:17:30] Mike Burgos: What I mean by think for myself, not just saying this is white, just because it’s white. It’s being able to say hey, maybe they’ve been telling me to do this for my life. Well, how about I study why this is why? Just because they say, well, this person, he’s a bad person. He’s a robbery. This guy’s the bad guy. No, because he’s the bad guy. There’s any event that happened before he hit her or she hit him. So before I even say anything to that conversation, I mean, just not get into the conversation until I know for sure that I went into the situation I studied.

[00:18:02] Mike Burgos: So what’s the best way to put it this way? So someone mad you go, you got a bad service, she probably having a bad day. But she’s not getting paid good enough to give you good service, your kids probably sick. So before I react, and I guess I just go and start putting reported complaints to the manager. Maybe I just kind of give her some business. She says she just don’t know, she might be overwhelmed. She don’t know how to utilize, how to be in essence duration. So before I just judge her, she’s not a bad person, she’s just in a bad day. So that’s how I would say people to look at things.

[00:18:35] Mike Burgos: So start to really unlearn what you think, you know. So what you think you know, you really don’t know what you don’t know, like you say you don’t know what you don’t know. So I would say guys, you have to become grateful for what you have. Be grateful which you have, because it’s only going to go up is for you to be grateful to appreciate so you can elevate, appreciate, so you can elevate. When we think about this guys, your money doesn’t make you, you make money. But we just notice that you know, no one’s that special. You’re not that special.

[00:19:02] Mike Burgos: If you ever go to a funeral, we look at the body, you’re like, wow, this is my friend. This is who person that I know. There’s nothing coming out. Like you’re not that special. After that, people poking you’re nothing after that. So what speaking an answer, just understand it’s a grace, you got to be grateful for what you have. And if you said to yourself right now, well, Mike, I didn’t grew up into a religious home and stuff like that.

[00:19:22] Mike Burgos: No, what I’m saying is if you could do this, and you can breathe, there’s someone out there that’s fighting to just do what we just do. It doesn’t need schooling, it doesn’t mean education. But you’ve got to remember, be grateful for what you have. I’ll say last but not least, so keep it simple, Bob. Everything that goes up must come down at some point. So treat people right in a way up because on the way down, they might not put their hands to hold you and when you fall down. It’s as simple, they might just go like this and let you just [inaudible 00:19:47].

[00:19:50] Bob Wheeler: Let you fall, that’s right.

[00:19:51] Mike Burgos: Yeah, let you fall.

[00:19:52] Bob Wheeler: That’s right. I tell people that I want my friends to not let me ever get up on a pedestal. But if I do get up on a pedestal, please don’t push me off, catch me gently and help reeducate me, so I can do it better the next time.

[00:20:08] Mike Burgos: Have they push you, make sure you have a passion.

[00:20:11] Bob Wheeler: Exactly, prepare me for the fall. So, Mike, you’ve had this life that definitely had its challenges. You’re having a lot of success. And you’ve really come from a place and maybe some people say, well, it’s easy to be grateful when you start with nothing. But you’ve cultivated that gratitude. Why is it important for you to pay it forward? Why is legacy important? Why is going out and helping other people achieve their dreams and achieve their goals? Why is that important to you personally?

[00:20:42] Mike Burgos: Well, it’s important to me, because even though I was in my situation, there are people who still had a roof over our head, there are people who are sleeping on the stairs that were in the worst situation. So one thing I’ve learned in my home said, never looked down on the poor, never looked down poor, always take care of the poor. So that’s recorded into my head. But as a young person, I used to see people like, you know, dying of hunger, like, I’ve spent two days with no food, but I’ve seen people in the worst situation.

[00:21:08] Mike Burgos: And then when you’re looking at a human being just like you, and looking at what’s happened to the physical, and when someone is dying of hunger, it’s different, that you can see that, okay, this is not normal, you know, when someone’s going through something suffering. So it’s like, as someone just like myself going through it, it’s like, this is very painful. Another thing is, you got to understand that we as human beings, they’re certainly visit happens to your life, that logic, there’s no logic into it. When I looked at this time, where my head was cut off, I asked myself, how, who did it? I can’t think, even as a grown up, I’m trying to go back. I’m trying to remember the events.

[00:21:47] Mike Burgos: I call my sister, and said are you remember this event, I’m like, I’m trying to remember like what happened there. And just like, when I lost my scholarship, I didn’t have a place to stay. A friend of mine, I made all the phone calls possible, didn’t get anyone to help me. And then the following day, I should have slipped into like, an empty apartment until the maintenance guy showed up the following day. And he was like, Man, this is trespassing. Call the cops or whatever. But I was able to escape, ran away from my clothes that I was able to kind of get out of the situation.

[00:22:16] Mike Burgos: But a friend of mine, called me said, Mike, I heard you don’t have a place to stay like, I can’t let this happen. I got 12 people, it’s a two bedroom, you’ll be number 13. But at least this is better than the street wherever you are, I gotta come grab you. So when you say to yourself, he didn’t have to do that. Get 12 people. So those are situations where it’s like, he didn’t have to do that, there was an angel in my life. Another thing is, high school principal used to kind of help me out a little bit, give me a lot of McDonalds cards.

[00:22:46] Mike Burgos: That was the person that can assist me throughout my senior year in high school because I was secretly living in a foreclosed home, couldn’t tell anyone what I was going through, I had to hide that story and act like everything was good. Because legally, you’re not supposed to be under age and living by yourself.

[00:23:02] Bob Wheeler: Right

[00:23:02] Mike Burgos: But he knew it, and he helped me. So there’s certain people that crush your life, even yourself you said, wow, are they really nice to me freely? This is weird. So to me, it’s always like, there’s people who are placed there, and God put them there for a reason. And on my way up, there’s people that didn’t let me go hungry.

[00:23:21] Mike Burgos: That got me like an extra shirt, an extra pair of shoes. Those are people that came in, not because they had a lot of money to pay for my cell phone bill, helped me get a little cell phone. So those are things where I said to myself, wow, like, I can’t just not reach out to somebody else. I just cannot do it.

[00:23:40] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, that’s amazing. And I think there is so much importance in paying it forward. Because most of us have been fortunate enough to have angels who have looked out for us even when we didn’t even know we were being looked out for. And so I definitely think that’s so important. And that’s so amazing that you had these angels and that you recognize that those angels were there. Even if they couldn’t do everything, they gave you enough to keep moving you forward.

[00:24:07] Mike Burgos: And even sometimes you just might need, it’s not even money. Sometimes you just might need a good friend to say, hey man, it’s all gonna be fine.

[00:24:14] Bob Wheeler: Yeah.

[00:24:15] Mike Burgos: Because that day, that couldn’t be the day we commit suicide. Just an extra word, keep it going, and I’ve been in a place. I was saying to myself, what’s the point of me being alive? It was 2am of the morning, and I want to jump. I said I want, let me just jump. If I jump, it’ll be easy. No bills. I’m dead. I’m done this life. But I said to myself, what if I don’t die? Then I’m crippled, then I still gotta go through the pain.

[00:24:37] Bob Wheeler: Right

[00:24:38] Mike Burgos: But I’m like, do you really got the effort? Do you really got the strength to jump? But you know, just asking question, why am I here? I didn’t hurt no one. I don’t take drugs. I don’t do anything legal. Why am I in it is vicious cycle of failure and failure? It was just getting worse and worse and worse. So that angel friend says man, don’t do this man. You are young. You could do better. Like, you’re going to regret it.

[00:24:59] Mike Burgos: So, those angels, those are people that’s important. And to me, man, there’s so many people that are going through, maybe worse than what I’m going through, just this podcast that could uplift them.

[00:25:27] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:25:11] Mike Burgos: Just me feeding a certain town or donating. I don’t know where the money is gonna go. But that’s not a form of help. So I have to do it because someone out there don’t have that extra person, and we are able and we should always do it.

[00:25:27] Bob Wheeler: That’s right. If you are able to throw a lifeline because there is somebody out there looking for it

[00:25:33] Mike Burgos: 100%.

[00:25:34] Bob Wheeler: Mike, we are at the Fast Five, which is brought to you by Qube Money. A cash envelope system made easy, real time financial awareness without the hassle of tracking expenses, and carrying cash. We’re gonna jump through these and just top of mind, let’s see what happens. Mike, when was the last time you purchase something and immediately regretted it?

[00:25:53] Mike Burgos: Like five years ago

[00:25:55] Bob Wheeler: Okay. And do you remember what you bought and regretted?

[00:25:57] Mike Burgos: I think it was a shoes. It was a red bottom shoes. I was like, it’s expensive.

[00:26:02] Bob Wheeler: With me, it’s fast food. I immediately regret. Can you think of a time when you didn’t take your own financial advice? And can you tell us what advice you didn’t follow?

[00:26:13] Mike Burgos: A financial was like, I pretty much didn’t have the opportunity to care. I put my money, I double it and in like 24 hours, oh, let me do it to and then it went to space.

[00:26:25] Bob Wheeler: Boom. I think the investments where I’ve lost money are ones that friends told me it was a sure bet. Immediately, I lose my money.

[00:26:32] Mike Burgos: Yes. I’ve proved I got my bag, and like the universe got [inaudible 00:26:36].

[00:26:37] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, apparently everybody else got my bag. If you could use only one word for the rest of your life, what word would you pick?

[00:26:47] Mike Burgos: Resiliency

[00:26:49] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, yeah. You have faced some extraordinary challenges in your life, what’s the most challenging thing about money?

[00:26:56] Mike Burgos: When it deposit to your account.

[00:27:00] Bob Wheeler: When it arrives on the…

[00:27:01] Mike Burgos: All the planes changes, you have a good plan and send a deposit.

[00:27:07] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, exactly. Is there anything in your financial journey that you wish you could go back and change?

[00:27:12] Mike Burgos: I wish I could work a lot harder, and stop buying and investing much earlier.

[00:27:19] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, that makes sense. So we’re at our sweet spot, or M&M moment, our money and motivation. Is there a practical financial tip, or a piece of wealth wisdom, you could share with our listeners to like help them slightly make an adjustment?

[00:27:34] Mike Burgos: So, don’t compare, stay in your lane, sell before you buy. What I mean by then, just kind of like had a car. Prices of cars are high, and I had a negative equity rule in in to it. I said to myself, you know what, let’s see the appraisal. If the appraiser comes higher, even if it comes to breaking even, I can still get the car and I can go get the same car at a lower price. So I would just wait, and I’ll wait until everybody think the price goes down and I can go back and buy another car. Another thing, whenever you see an opportunity, look at how you can make money instead of how you’re spending money.

[00:28:10] Bob Wheeler: Yeah.

[00:28:10] Mike Burgos: So if someone presents you an opportunity, try to sell it first to see, do you have a market for it, and then you put your money.

[00:28:14] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, it’s interesting.  I was talking with a guest who asked people what they would do with, I think it was $100 million. And most people wrote down how they would spend it instead of how they would invest it.

[00:28:26] Mike Burgos: Oh man, yeah.

[00:28:28] Bob Wheeler: And so learning to change that mindset, right?

[00:28:31] Mike Burgos: Yes

[00:28:31] Bob Wheeler: To stop saying, Oh, this is the way it goes. That was Dr. Demartini, who was on another podcast who talked about really looking at mindset of how we look at money. And I think to your point that just because you have money, you’re not so special, right?

[00:28:46] Mike Burgos: Correct.

[00:28:46] Bob Wheeler: It allows us a lot of freedom. But we’re all at the end of the day, human beings interacting with other human beings.

[00:28:53] Mike Burgos: Yes, you can always get the things that you want. But you don’t have to always get it with your money, which are earned money. So be patient, create the passive income to get things that you want. You can sometimes spread yourself. But if you create a plan, the plan would work. But if you don’t have a plan, who plan will work against you.

[00:29:08] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely.

[00:29:10] Mike Burgos: So I would say my favorite thing in life is diminished as much expenses as possible, increase your income ability, ability to earn more. So that way your DTI is very low debt to income ratio. So carry the challenge within yourself to create as much income as possible. You can get the whatever you want.

[00:29:26] Mike Burgos: The big house, the rules was maybe it might take you one year, two years, it might take you 10 years, but so what if you get it later, it’s okay. But at least you’re in a better situation. So on your way up, make sure you keep your head very low, just like the ants, store, store, store, store, invest, and you’ll be fine.

[00:29:40] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. Well, Mike, one of the things I’ve loved about this conversation, you’ve talked about some adversity, you talked about growing up in poverty and what you didn’t talk about was blame. You didn’t talk about being a victim. You didn’t talk about how it was so unfair. That you got singled out on the bus, or they you got singled out to be living by the river hoping for trash. You know, what I hear is an intensity and a resilience you talked about that, a resiliency to just say, you know what, as long as I’ve got my body, and I’m breathing, I’m going to keep moving forward.

[00:30:18] Bob Wheeler: And I’m going to keep looking for new opportunities and I’m not going to look behind me. I’m not going to forget what’s happened, and I’m going to ground in gratitude. And I’m going to keep moving forward. For me, that’s really inspiring, because there are a lot of people that can say, Oh, I didn’t get picked for this, and I don’t have the car I want, and blah, blah, and we can get into this really sad victim story. And what I hear is somebody that said, you know what, I’m going to pick myself up by the bootstraps, and I’m going to keep marching forward.

[00:30:51] Bob Wheeler: And I’m going to pay it forward as well, because I appreciate all the little angels that came in and gave me that kind word that gave me a food coupon, whatever it might have been. And I think for people out there to realize, I think you’re right, we should be doing backflips for getting to live in a country that gives us so much and for so many people, it is paradise but we get lost in that.

[00:31:16] Bob Wheeler: And that there’s so many people out in the world that struggle immensely, that never get the opportunities that even some of the poorest people in the US get to have. And so I really appreciate that you’re out there, paying it forward, sharing your message, throwing people a lifeline, even if nobody asked for it. Because you know that there’s somebody out there looking for it, and I just really appreciate what you’re doing. Mike, so where can people find your website? And where can they find your book?

[00:31:45] Mike Burgos: So my book is on Amazon. The easiest way to find a book is going to be mikeburgos.com. You’ll be able to click and it’s going to send you to the Amazon link undeniable, it’s in an English is also in Spanish, right. My Instagram is going to be I, ‘A’ as an Apple, ‘M’ as a mic, ‘M’ as a Mike, I-K-E, ‘B’ as a boy, U-R-G-O-S. So iammikebrgos, that’s how you can reach me on Instagram, Facebook, Mike Burgos.

[00:32:18] Mike Burgos: I’m very simple people, if you DM me, he asked me a question most likely I’m going to respond. I believe that we’re all on the same ground. Again, no financial reasons to feel like you’re hiding anyone else. But again, the diamonds are coming from the roof, the times are the people that are going to throw so reach out to me, feel free, I do teach on credit. I would give a special shout out to Charlotte to Ronan as well for making that introduction because I’m grateful for them to meet you, Mr. Bob Wheeler to be on this live.

[00:32:47] Mike Burgos: But again, I’m on Instagram guys, very simple. I mean, I love nice things. Okay, I can communicate in English, French, Spanish and Creole in Portuguese. So, you know, whatever they help that I can do to help. If it’s a free consultation, we can do it. And it just kind of piggyback on what you said earlier. Bob, the comment that you’d make earlier in regards of the blame and stuff like that.

[00:33:10] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:33:11] Mike Burgos: The word blame, take that word out of your vocabulary, because blame is usually like, it’s like a cousin of ego, and arrogance. So they all kind of fall into the same line in any price. So those families, you don’t want to associate them.

[00:33:23] Bob Wheeler: Yeah

[00:33:24] Mike Burgos: Things happen. So big deal, right. But like I tell people, the best way I go into life is expect for the worst. So when the worst happened, you don’t have to worry about anything. So if I teach you how to take a punch from Mike Tyson, all you got to do, if you could survive the first round, being like, okay, well, I got a few punches like Mike Tyson, then the second round, you knew what to do.

[00:33:45] Mike Burgos: But if you don’t know what Mike Tyson punch, like, then the first round you’re gonna knock you out. So I look for what can possibly go wrong here. And when it does go wrong, when there’s maybe a racial slur or a bad comment happen. So you want to set yourself, can I compose myself? And can I let it go? Because if you do, let it stay in your heart, but then what happens is you get parts of that thing. So learn to smile, guys. Doesn’t cost anything to smile.

[00:34:13] Mike Burgos: Don’t really mean, think the world is unfair. It’s okay, look, I love Lewis Hamilton, I never liked to racecars. But I started looking into it because I’m like, hey, this guy’s winning all the time, right. But unfair things happen to him sometimes. But he’s one of the best, you know, things happen. So it’s got to let it go off but everything will be just fine.

[00:34:31] Bob Wheeler: Lose the blame.

[00:34:32] Mike Burgos: There we go. Just let the pendulum swing. He’s gonna go to one side, just let it swing to the other side, we’ll will be happy.

[00:34:38] Bob Wheeler: We’ll be happy. We can all smile.

[00:34:40] Mike Burgos: That’s right.

[00:34:41] Bob Wheeler: Well, Mike, thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure. I appreciate all your words of encouragement, your inspiration and we send you lots of love. Thanks.

[00:34:49] Mike Burgos: Thank you so much, Bob. Best of luck for 2022.

[00:34:56] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely.

[00:35:03] CLOSING: We hope you enjoyed this episode. Did you learn something new about your relationship to money today? Maybe you have a friend who has some financial blocks or beliefs that are holding them back. Please share this podcast so they too can get off the roller coaster ride of financial fears and journey towards financial freedom. To learn how to have a healthy relationship with money, visit themoneynerve.com, that’s nerve not nerd. We’ll be back next week with another perspective on ‘money and the emotions that bind us’.